Unveiling a New Episode!

Join us for the latest installment in our audio series, where the storyline takes a thrilling twist!

The newest episode of "Slowly Unspooling," titled "The Messages" follows closely as we delve into Kai's captivating journey within the enigmatic confines of their workplace. Through the aid of a reliable recorder, Kai candidly opens up about their innermost thoughts and feelings. Brace yourself for even more unexpected revelations to come!

Prepare yourself for a thought-provoking encounter as our main character receives enigmatic messages and undergoes an eerie sensation of being watched.

Please be aware that this episode addresses intense themes, including emotional turmoil, work-related pressure, existential unease, sleeplessness, mental health challenges, self-doubt, isolation, work-related demands, perplexity, ear strain, and audio distortions. We kindly advise you to approach this content with sensitivity.

Featuring the exceptional talents of Aspen Rayne as the voice of Kai, this episode guarantees an unforgettable auditory escapade.

For those intrigued by the complete script, fret not! You can access the transcript for your perusal through the following link: Transcript Link

We would like to express our gratitude to zapsplat.com for providing captivating sound effects, and to pixabay.com, whose enchanting music sets the tone throughout the episode.

Don't let this electrifying episode slip through your fingers! Tune in on your preferred platform by following this amazing link: Listen Here. Your auditory journey awaits!

i'm not going to lie i hope that the jon sims and alexander j newall text-to-speech voices on the computers that read out the incident reports aren't jon and martin. not because i'm a hater but because i just... don't really want another story about those guys. their story is over. they were both central pov characters in the magnus archives who i got to spend plenty of time with already. and yeah, they'd hardly be protagonists anymore as ghosts in the machine, but considering how much tma fanwork centers around them i'm worried their presence will continue to dominate the fan community. okay maybe i'm a little bit of a hater.

shower thought: for blue mutants like beast, nightcrawler, mystique, is that blue from pigment? or is it structural? like, there are only a handful of animals that produce an actual blue pigment and iirc they're all butterflies; any blue animal "with a backbone," as NPR put it, uses structural coloration

so if their blue is structural, is it pretty stable, like a macaw or a blue jay? or does it change from different angles, like a morpho butterfly or a hummingbird's gorget?

specifically: what if kurt has been iridescent this whole time ???

[7]

Ooh I will say the expression of dark rage on Evil Wolverine is MAGNIFICENT here. They really went all out. This is gorgeous. 

Considering I hate looking at the man THIS looks fantastic! 10/10 Evil Wolverine panel, maybe only beaten by the one where he gets stabbed. 

And I suppose if you were going be mad about anything, being stabbed through the chest is a pretty reason.

Oh!

I mean yeah, I guess that is how it works. You stab a man and he wants to stab you back. 

On a side tangent I love that he has the same Pull-Sword-Out-of-Hand magic that Fai used on Kurogane before they went to Seresu. I’m a fan!

Fai and Kurogane are markedly less excited to see it come back this way but I think it’s neat!

MEANWHILE try not to think about Kurogane, who has spent his entire life haunted by the image of Evil Wolverine stabbing his mother with that sword, is now watching Evil Wolverine pull out the same sword to stab his son. 

I am interested in the hands in the final panel though let’s see what that means. 

OH. 

Oh. 

Yeah I suppose this too would also happen. 

If anyone WAS going to be stabbed by Evil Wolverine here it WOULD be Syaoran jumping in the way to save Lava Lamp. 

We get the whole reversal of Syaoran stabbing Sakura in Nihon, but now he is now defending them and being stabbed in return. 

Potentially foreshadowed in Outo with Syaoran being stabbed by Seishirou there as well. 

(As well as when Evil Wolverine kills Xing Huo, who ALSO betrays him while working for him, who ALSO got stabbed all the way through with the same sword, ALSO IN THE SERVICE OF SAVING LAVA LAMP)

And Syaoran closing the loop of, like… Lava Lamp defending Syaoran by giving him half his soul to protect him from Evil Wolverine, and now Syaoran defending Lava Lamp by protecting him physically from Evil Wolverine. The giving of a soul and the giving up of a soul to save each other from the same man.

IT ALL LINKS UP. 

Congratulations to Din Djarin on achieving his long time dream to become a background character in his own life

alright i was already intrigued by the premise of knight terrors: the joker but i'm SO fucking hyped now you're telling me rosenberg is elaborating on the divorce arc??? also dark workplace comedy is exactly where i hoped they'd go with this

well while I’m sorry to hear we’re losing Millie Gibson at the end of this season I damn hope that RTD can treat Varada Sethu’s companion character better than he ever treated Martha

Ngl I’ve spent a lot of C3 really hoping we would ever get more specific engagement with Laudna’s years alone. I’d been holding out for some explanations or character work around that in-game. And it’s…I’m gonna go with Mildly Annoying that it now feels like that got ignored/glossed over in the campaign cause they were planning to explore it in the novel. I don’t…love it, I’ll say that.

no but it's a genius move on Matt's part to let the audience in on Dusk's secret. That is literally Hitchcock's rule of suspense: let the audience in on a piece of information the characters do not have.

He didn't have to do a one-on-one with Erika, but in doing so another layer was created for the audience. (and lbr, they couldn't really have revealed an evil guest npc if they were still shooting live, bc ppl would've spoiled it instantly for the rest of the cast, sucking the fun out of it).

We now get to see Dusk's actions in a different light. I wanted to scream several times throughout the episode already that these dumb-dumbs just trust a double spy with critical information without realizing it!

And the little seeds Dusk is planting around the party... How they were "just wondering" how much FCG would sell for, for example. How they kept asking Joe about Fearne's parents. The poking around Imogen and Laudna's relationship last episode doesn't seem like a considerate 'I just wanted to check if I'm not overstepping any boundaries, bc i got some vibes~' anymore. Dusk saw a thread to pull on that could cause mayhem within the party and it's working!

Dusk probably realized by now they can't finish their objective with the entirety of the Bell's Hells poking around. But a broken and disheveled party while slowly gaining full trust from Fearne, her target? Well, that just gets you the price.

My supportive fathers have come together with their now shared ‘friend’ Anthony to announce something very important to me

feeling relatively confident that Jamie’s injury will prevent him from playing in the final match against west ham because Ted encouraged him to play on a sprained ankle to make a point because his narrative arc was pretty neatly wrapped up last episode and it would be more interesting and add more stakes if Nate comes back and has to use his beautiful strategy brain to help the coaches figure out how the team can win without Jamie, since he’s been so crucial to their current strategy, and it would highlight some of the other players who haven’t gotten as much to do this season

thanks bally for the excellent graphic for my superbowl. who will win: one feral wolfchild with crazy eyes, or one singleminded saucy bitch?

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The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

I love your videos and decided to draw the sad girls club

Have a nice day

thank you thank you thank you

🍄🐼 volume 4 thoughts

im so fucking deranged because this song like. JUST came out but collared by vane lily could probably be a gabriel song if you think hard enough about it

YEA I CAN SEE IT....i mean like. much of what i read in gabriel's story is the process of coming to terms with an oppressive system of faith and the deconstruction of beliefs. i know i've talked about it plenty so i won't ramble on in-depth, but i do like the idea that gabriel has never fully fit into this system and his dedication to it is a direct manifestation of his perceived internal failures - he is a paragon in his station as an archangel to cover for his personal doubts. he proves himself in works, but not necessarily in faith. it's why i have him vaguely approached by lucifer before the war in heaven, and how that has haunted him to the current time. he knows something in him has always doubted, but it caused him to double his efforts and be ever more zealous in his condemnation of sinners, the very people he has sympathy for. and so coming off of that, he is left with so many broken pieces of a life - so much wasted time, so much abuse he went through and perpetuated, so many times he should have questioned, should have stopped, and now to sort through an entirely broken world view and schema he cleaved to regardless of his own misgivings. sometimes he absolutely does wish he had never lost his faith, he still feels reverence for god and for his kingdom in many respects, he still prays and still struggles with viewing the world in black and white. and he can't fully embrace who he is and what he wants, because the old stain of thinking in terms of sin and virtue still paint everything he does. he wants wild bloody abandon with v1, to give it and to feel it, he wants to connect with sinners, he wants to oppose what has been done...yet for some of that it's too late, for some of that it's too little, and for some of that, he feels mired in shame. sometimes falling feels pointless, like he should have just died believing in all of this, but as he grows more into a new life, he realizes how grateful he is to be given a second chance to live as he sees fit, even if that chance is small, broken, and lately come

I absolutely loved this episode of the last of us but it really emphasised how mean spirited tlou part 2 is and that it was heralded by people as such a masterpiece makes me feel violently depressed about what that says about the bleakness of life and this planet we live on. 

Never more than in this week’s episode have we seen so intimately Joel’s mental state. This is an addition in the show; the conversation between Joel and Tommy is very different in the game. We know Joel feels like that but it never says it so explicitly. And that’s a good thing. So much of who Joel is is shaped by his devastating loss. He has severe ptsd and trauma from not only losing Sarah, but the way he lost her. He wasn’t able to save her, he failed her, and that’s why Ellie terrifies him! Because he presumes he’s going to do the same thing again. He’s going to lose her. He even lists ways he’s already let her down. It’s made patently clear in the way he is with Ellie and things he says to her that this fear is because he cares about her. He tells her he does outright. And as he begins to care for her, we see his ptsd rearing its head in more obvious/physical ways. Makes sense, right? Loving someone, caring for them— that’s Joel’s trigger. But we also see something else. We see Joel talking. Jesus he’s barely talked this series so far in the way he does in episode 6. Most of the time his conversations have revolved around logistics and plans. Now he’s talking about dream jobs and football and his old life. And he’s smiling when he does it. He’s laughing. There’s so much contentment in him in his scenes with Ellie. This is what healing looks like. There are painful, heart stopping moments. But there’s also joy. When was the last time Joel felt joy, do you think? 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Last of Us Part 1 is a love story at its very core. It’s about how love is where you find a reason to live even in dire times like an apocalypse. It’s about how things can seem so bleak but if you allow yourself to love, you CAN find pockets of joy. You can find hope. This is what Joel learns through Ellie. Love makes life worth living again. And, in fact, it saves you. There’s a reason we have a cutscene with Bill in the game in which he tells Joel that caring about someone only gets you killed. It’s not just a throwaway line as we traverse Bill’s Town with him. It’s a proper, cinematic cutscene. Bill tells Joel/us this, and then the narrative works the rest of the time to undermine it. Ellie’s love for Joel is what saves his life in winter. The things she does to keep him alive and safe are insane. It’s not just finding food and water for them both at 14 years old. She finds medicine. She uses herself as bait to keep David away from Joel. That’s nuts! And it’s because of love. Love is what helps Joel not get killed. It’s the same for Ellie later: because Joel loves her, he saves her life instead of letting her get killed. He sees her as a person of value, as a person whose life means something irrelevant of her immunity. He sees her as someone who deserves to live. Love literally saves her fucking life. And as well as all this, we see how love saves Joel and Ellie in every day ways. Ellie is no longer alone and scared. She has someone. Joel finds joy in life again. He pets giraffes and he laughs at stupid jokes and he talks and talks about a life he’s been burying for decades. Who is the only person he’ll accept Sarah’s photo back from? Ellie! ‘I’m taking a ride with my best friend.’ And they ARE best friends. This episode went to great and beautiful lengths to emphasise how broken and afraid Joel is, and how hard it is for him to show up for Ellie, but that he does because he cares for her. It goes to great lengths to show how Ellie is starting to affect a change in Joel; that she’s helping him overcome the grief that has lain stagnant in him for 20 years. It’s starting to show how they’re best friends. It was an exceptional episode. I loved every second of it. But when I think about part 2, I’m so stuck on how mean it all is and how it works against what they (bruce i see you pal) were telling us in part 1. 

In fact, it’s not just mean, it’s cruel - both to Joel and Ellie, and to the fans who love them and are attached to their journey and got something out of it. What’s interesting is considering Bill and Frank’s story and the changes that were made to it. I absolutely loved the episode but it’s difficult to completely ignore pinkwashing claims (if you care to look, there have been many complaints about the game and its overall treatment of lgbt+) when Bill is rewarded for doing the same as Joel: he protects his one person too. In doing so he hoards valuable resources that could be used to help thousands of people. In twenty years ordinary people just looking for safety will definitely have made their way to Bill’s Town  and been turned away. Bill’s refusal to turn his town into some sort of a functioning community like Jackson definitely killed people. But this is presented as a good thing. He’s protecting Frank. That’s his job. And he’s rewarded with so many happy years and a peaceful death in an apocalypse. There’s a reason that resonates with people more than Bill’s original story which is bleak and sad. He ends up alone. Frank dies hating him. To see instead that actually you can have joy and hope and love in a post apocalyptic world is meaningful to people. 

Joel and Ellie are not so lucky. Joel does the same as Bill. He picks Ellie. He does what he has to to protect her. He defends them both from hostile attackers. His refusal to let her be a lab rat prevents a cure (arguably) so people will die but he saves her life and gives her a life worth living, the same as Bill does for Frank. He isn’t rewarded for it. There’s no great love is so good message here. Unlike Bill, Joel is punished so horribly for years in the narrative through Ellie. She’s used as a pawn for the vehicle in which the narrative tells us Joel did something wrong and he deserves punishment. This hurts her too by the way: love has hurt her too. But the narrative has to punish Joel this way to really make sure we know he did something so terribly wrong, so for 2 years Ellie isn’t allowed to give Joel a proper chance to explain. He isn’t allowed to defend himself. And after these long painful years, Joel is then killed. But he’s not just killed. It’s so brutal. It’s long. It’s painful. And Ellie is there to watch, to be held down on floor level so he’s all she can see as he’s killed, and she’s begging him to get up. Bill’s stance and actions are presented as a good thing. He’s the hero who saves Frank and allows him to live a good life. He gets a hero’s story. Joel, on the other hand, is a villain for doing the same thing. He dies a villain’s death.

Ultimately, Bill is right, despite what part 1 appears to be telling you (that’s part of why I hate 2 SO much, it’s so contrary to the themes and messages of 1). Love does get you killed. If Joel didn’t love Ellie he wouldn’t have saved her and he wouldn’t be dead now. Love will make you soft and stupid. You’ll run into rooms of armed strangers without concern after 20 years of being constantly on guard, or at least that was Neil’s explanation as to why Joel would get himself into a situation that was so out of character for him. If you love someone you will be punished for it. They’ll stop speaking to you because you loved them and because of that love knew you had a life of value that was worth living and not because of immunity. They won’t even give you a chance to explain, after all the ways love drove you to keep each other safe and alive. If you love someone you’ll be brutally tortured and murdered and you’ll deserve it. You will be constantly punished and criticised and villainised for that love. Literally, love makes you a villain. You will suffer because of love, you will lose everything. What’s the message here???? What on earth were Neil and Halley trying to say (sos bruce we miss you)???? That healing from your trauma will get you killed? Will get you punished? That Joel should have stayed broken in the QZ? Because if he’d done that, he’d have been better off than his ultimate fate. He wouldn’t have lost a daughter again and he wouldn’t have been beaten to death slowly and died quite likely thinking Ellie’s going to be killed after him so he’s let another daughter die, and he’d probably still have Tess. 

Joel, through Ellie and overcoming immense fear and ptsd in order to love her, heals from his trauma, he’s finally able to deal with his grief and move on. He, after twenty years of rejecting it because it caused so much fucking pain, loves again! He truly loves! Then it first hurts him again, and then it kills him. Love is good, love is necessary they told us in part 1. But in part 2 they tell us it WILL get you killed though. And that’s so fucking miserable.

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