#and i remember being like 12 and the way folks were about ship wars and hating aang for idk being a kid made me so sad | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hanjo-love · 3 years

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Now I became selfish and I hope the shard is showing Hanji being saved by Kiyomi or something. She go the worst treatment and if Isayama was afraid of the backslash like you said why make it even worse with those parallels with eremika? Is he preparing the Fandom for another levihan moment? I'm tired of EVERYONE surviving but her, Kiyomi's kindness really??? And Onyankopon, while I don't hate him, he survived a plane crash and he doesn't add much yet he is there for being the editor's favorite, Yelena is there after all she did and she adds even less, and the people titanized will revert to human (or at the very least Isayama's favorites will).

Oh anonie, you and me both my friend, you and me both 😔 Beware, a long rant-ish meta is ahead of you lol

I have absolutely no fucking idea why Yams decided to treat Hanjo like shit. You know, after a long time of denying her death, I was starting to accept it, because she was finally free, free of the burden and pain and finally reunited with the people she missed and longed for the most. But then Yams decided to slap us all in the faces saying there's no happy & peaceful afterlife in snk and Hanjo was probs only hallucinating because of her 4 years long depression? Well then, fuck you Yams! What was that even for? Isayama never backed off of showing us the horrors of death in snk, no matter how important the characters and how brutal their deaths really were. Still, he never showed us Hanji's actual death or dead body. He kept it misterious and his vague answers only made it worse. So it's only natural for us to expect a plot twist, right? That's the reason all of us gathered various hints in the manga, anime and his interviews. And lemme tell you, these theories are far more logical, better explained and have less plot holes than the entire final arc smh (yes I'm salty, fight me lol)

I hate to admit it, my inner self is still in denial and fighting, but Hanjo ain't coming back folks. We won't get any background story and the misterious shard will never be explained to us either. Yams had more than enough time to bring Hanjo back, if he truly wanted to. But he didn't. And now with only one chapter and so many unanswered questions left, there's no time for Hange's return. Why would he even do that anyways? Hanjo isn't important to him or to the story anymore. To us she is, always was and always will be ❤️ You know, I'm so fucking desperate to see her again, I'll even take one last panel of Levi remembering her, just like in ch136. Yams just let us see Hanjo one more fucking time 🙏🏻 I need to say my proper goodbyes to my one&only comfort character, who's influenced my life like no one else ever did ❤️

Back to Levihan (I don't think I can answer an ask without my biased and trashy shipper ass butting in lmfao): the question why Yams confirmed Levihan as canon if he didn't intend to bring Hange back and reunite her with Levi to make us him happy again? Well, isn't it obvious? This man is the devil incarnate. THIS MAN HAS NO FUCKING CHILLS lmfao JK y'all before someone declares war on me and my blog haha Well anonie, I feel like Yams really wanted to confirm his initially planned ships as canon, before the manga ends. And he chose the safest way possible. Easy as that. Also he said he is going for a bittersweet ending and what's more tragic (in this literal hell) than separating lovers, ergo Eremika and Levihan.

Now to something else, that's been bothering me for a while now and I'll use your ask anonie to share my thoughts with the world even though nobody asked lmao tbh I'm a bit disappointed with Armin. I love him, I really do. He's my precious cinnamon roll and my fave 104th kiddo. But honestly, I was expecting a bit more of the alleged "hero who will safe humanity". In fact, I'm sure Hanjo only died for Armin to become the new commander. That's it. That was the reason she had to die. Yams glossed over her to make Armin shine. But in fact, Levi's the one who's giving orders ever since Hange has left them. I might me salty, but I really hope the talk with Zeke (and probs Ymir as well, we still might have a chance to see the dialog that made Ymir change her mind) and his titan nuke weren't the only things he did as "humanity's hero" in this final arc. For some people this might me enough, for me it isn't. It wasn't worth Hange's sacrifice. Also what made me really sad was Armin himself glossing over Hanjo when he remembered Erwin Danchou, but not her. Like she didn't just pass away an hour ago to save their pathetic asses. Ugh this is making me hella mad, ngl. Hanjo didn't deserve this treatment! She gave her all for this! To save the alliance, to "pay the price" for her "sins" as the SC commander and to save humanity. I can't deal with how all of them and the fandom apparently forgot about that.

Now on to "Kiyomi's kindness" lol I wasn't really mad at Gabi for saying this as most of the fandom was. I won't go into detail why she isn't really a rationally thinking character (yo guys, you do remember she's a 12 year old kid, right?), but it's a fact that she didn't care for Hange enough to mention her. I mean, why would she? She barely even knew her. Also we don't really know what's gonna happen with Yelena, Kiyomi and her delegation. I don't know if I'm reading too much into it, but I feel like Kiyomi accepted her death with saying "that's not enough atonement for what I did anyway". I mean they don't know if the alliance will win (they probably think they won't) and they're in the middle of literally nowhere. So I feel like Gabi said that because Kiyomi sacrificed herself (and the others on that ship) willingly, for Gabi, Falco and Annie getting a little chance of surviving and helping the alliance. But I get the rage of the fandom. Especially because no one, except for Levi, remembered Hange after her noble sacrifice.

As for Yelena and Onyankopon, there obviously has to be someone from outside of Paradis to survive the rumbling, otherwise it wouldn't make a lot of sense, I guess. I like Onyankopon a hecking lot ❤️ precious boi was literally crying for Hanjo 😭 Yelena on the other hand deserves what she got. Death would be too easy and kind for her tbh. She has to live with the consequences, just like Kiyomi, so I'm actually glad they survived. So my guess is, it's not really about who's Yams' favorite and what these people are contributing to the story, but it's rather about a logical ending and a good conclusion of the story.

I agree with you about the ones who have been titanized. They'll for sure revert back to humans. It's not really Yams' style to kill of an important character like Gabi, whose character development he's been forcing on us for quite a while now lol. I'm pretty positive about an ending with the titan curse being broken and bringing the titanized people back to human beings (probs also the millions of colossal titans?). It's only natural for Yams to end the story with the titan curse being lifted. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense to end his story at this point. But let's not forget what a big ass troll Yams is lmao you never really know what he's up to, so let's prepare for the unimaginable lmfao

I'll probably never forgive Isayama for what he did to Hange, his best written character, how he completely ruined her and threw her away as disposable, just to make other characters "shine". HER DEATH WAS POINTLESS AND IT DID NOT FUCKING CHANGE ANYTHING! That's the harsh truth y'all. Yams betrayed Hanjo and us AND FOR WHAT?

Thanks for the ask anonie and sorry I turned this into my personal rant lmao hope you still enjoy reading my thoughts on this ❤️

#anonymous #asks #Hange #Hanji #Hange Zoe #Hanji Zoe #Hans Zoe #Hansi Zoe #Levihan #OTP #Ship #snk #shingeki no kyojin #Hajime Isayama #Holy moly that was a long one haha sorry about that folks 😂#Meta #Snk meta

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likeabxrdinflight · 2 years

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I posted 2,376 times in 2021

576 posts created (24%)

1800 posts reblogged (76%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3.1 posts.

I added 760 tags in 2021

#fruits basket - 202 posts

#the owl house - 146 posts

#atla - 126 posts

#toh spoilers - 103 posts

#anonymous - 63 posts

#ex catholic tag - 34 posts

#star wars - 27 posts

#sailor moon - 22 posts

#she ra - 19 posts

#lol - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#....i tell myself i don't believe in astrology and it's true that i don't take it super seriously but i can't lie that the libra personality

My Top Posts in 2021

anyways not to be like, super gay all the time but can we just. talk about the soft way hanajima looks at akito

I genuinely don’t think we’ve ever seen her look that compassionately at anyone besides tohru??? I mean I know I ship akitohru, but in a kyoru endgame world I’d want akito to end up with hanajima instead of shigure. sorry not sorry lol.

316 notes • Posted 2021-06-08 02:09:30 GMT

azula really is much funnier when you remember that she’s functionally an 8th grader

like can you honestly tell me that this:

“maybe you should worry less about the tides, who’ve already made up their minds about killing you, and worry more about me, who’s still mulling it over”

isn’t something an edgy teenager trying to be intimidating would say. because it is. it 100% is.

332 notes • Posted 2021-01-10 03:08:03 GMT

seeing a lot of bad takes about disney during pride month and I really need people to read books like tinker belles and evil queens because disney has a very complex and unique history with the queer community that not many other brands do, and it's an awful lot more nuanced than "corporation bad".

I mean disney does do a lot of shit with their constant buy out of every media company in existence, but that's independent of their treatment of queer folks. they were, historically, one of the best organizations to work for if you were gay in the 20th century. people could be out and work for disney. they moved the entire production of beauty and the beast to new york so howard ashman could still work on it while he was dying of aids.

please it's just so much more complex than what you're seeing on the surface. disney is far, far from perfect, but if any corporation has the right to post performative stuff on twitter, it really is disney.

409 notes • Posted 2021-06-04 17:33:12 GMT

I also want to talk about llith’s role in this episode because I feel like the fandom kinda has this twisted right now. it’s not that she was the “least favorite” child so much as she was the healthy child. the abled child.

I saw absolutely no signs in this episode that gwendolyn actively favored eda or disliked lilith in any way. instead it came across that gwendolyn felt eda just needed her more. this happens sometimes in families with a disabled or sick child- especially if that illness is something serious and/or life-threatening- the parents become consumed with the care of the sick child and end up neglecting the healthy ones. it’s not okay, but you can see why it happens.

it isn’t intentional, it isn’t the same thing as favoritism. it’s just that the parent perceives the healthy child as being able to handle things, and the sick child needs more of their attention. gwendolyn became consumed with her quest to cure eda, she devoted all her time and effort into finding treatments and cures that she went so far down this pyramid scheme rabbit hole out of sheer desperation to do something to make it better. and lilith...lilith didn’t need any of that. lilith seemed to be doing well. she was in the emperor’s coven, she was successful and smart and capable. so her needs fell by the wayside, and she felt neglected and forgotten by her mother.

and that’s so common in these situations, so it is critical that families with sick or disabled children not fall into this trap of overprotecting one child because they assume they’re incapable and neglecting the other because they assume they’re fine. but again, it’s not like it’s this malicious thing and it’s certainly not the same thing as favoritism.

800 notes • Posted 2021-07-03 16:55:26 GMT

Somewhat ironically, I think possibly the most human story about 9/11 is the one about the tree they found in the rubble.

About thirty days or so after the attacks, as rescue workers were trying to clear the wreckage and find the bodies of the dead, they found this little tree branch sticking out, otherwise unremarkable...but it still had leaves. And do you know what they did?

They dug out this tree. They dug this burnt and blackened tree out of the pile, took it out of the city and re-planted it to give it a chance to survive. To grow back. Just because they saw these leaves. And by some miracle, it did, and ten years later they brought this now 30-foot-tall tree back to lower Manhattan to plant it in the memorial at ground zero. They brought the tree home.

And is that just not...the most human fucking thing? These guys saw this one thing in that pile that was still alive, and they said dammit, we're gonna save this little tree. We can't save anything else, but we're gonna save this tree. And they did.

Say what you want about people, but I truly believe we are good at heart.

12470 notes • Posted 2021-09-11 13:02:13 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #That fucking 9/11 post blew up man

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vaguely-concerned · 3 years

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The Mandalorian Chapter 11; the rewatch edition

I have found a bit more enthusiasm for this one on the rewatch, so here goes!

- din snapping ‘I’m trying my best here!’ in a vaguely annoyed tone as his entire ship is going up in flames around him because he mostly doesn’t get angry as much as sulky... the height of cinema

- I love frog husband’s clothes, because they’re in a very similar style and colour scheme to frog lady’s but also incorporate the knitwear we see on the people of trask, so it both underlines his belonging with her and implies that he’s been on this moon for quite a while, they may have been apart for some time

especially his scarf is a darling detail and there’s a bit of contrast in texture to it next to his wife’s, it’s nice. he’s wearing a similar kind of vest to what we see on the fishermen later, too

- I think my favourite part of this entire episode (well second after din cradling the baby against him after nearly drowning) is just the design and Vibe of the planet and especially this harbour

for one I LOVE that it’s shown that even in the middle of the day it’s dark enough that the electric lights are still on when it’s overcast (it reminds me a bit of norway during the winter, actually, when dawn just never quite breaks and then slinks off in embarrassment before it’s even noon). and there’s also the... sails? nets? hanging around looking almost like flags, which are very Aesthetic but god knows what they’re for. maybe for drying fish on in the summer?

I think the building in the distance behind frog husband’s back here is a lighthouse? or it could be one of those towers for loading you see when they scout out the empire ship too, I suppose!

and one for my strange obsession with Texture on this show: these fabric-covered crates!!! they look exactly as dingy and moldy as you’d expect them to be in this climate, I wonder what they’re for (& I vaguely want to touch them)

- from the sound of it din’s vibroknife is uh ‘on’ when he pokes the squid thing, and he also goes for the tentacle the furthest away from the baby <3

proof the calamari flan have been scratched up a bit during all that time in din’s pockets! (the attention to detail in this show sometimes istg)

- this is 100% me reading too much into things again, call the overthinking police I’ll do my time meekly lol, but the boat looks a little bit like the mudhorn signet from this angle:

again din keeps his hand on or sooo close to his blaster in this entire scene, he knows this is sketch as all hell

a) once again I want to praise the effects team for how GOOD the aliens look in this episode holy shit and b) the hell is this dude wearing on the straps of his overalls tho

- the dude mando (axe woves) uses his little... wrist launcher thing to shoot with to finish two off the fishermen, so my theory that they can be loaded with other things than the whistling birds for slightly less effective use (maybe without the level of honing we’ve seen din’s be able to do?) is looking good!

- din actually has quite good form when diving into the water, I’m guessing he can swim at least tolerably when not in full armour, being stabbed at from all directions, having just had his son eaten by a sea monster and also being trapped in with said sea monster (I’m a strong swimmer and I can tell you that there’s a reason they make you swim with clothes on from time to time to see how hard it is, it sucks. with metal plates strapped all over you as well? yeah good luck) people don’t tend to hit the water that gracefully without some kind of training in my experience lol. might be some of the training with the jet pack has carried over too, considering he throws himself off that cliff in chapter 12 with similar confidence?

it’s interesting that they’re once again showing us a threat where the armour doesn’t help and even hinders him. we’re so used to the ways it can make him near-invincible, but it can also drag him down (literally, in this case. aha ha ha. well if I’m not here for my own entertainment then what am I here for honestly)

- din’s voice sounding like he’s just on the verge of crying as he cradles the baby (and the sound he makes as he realizes the baby’s alive) is my kryptonite, turns out. fucking breaks my heart into tiny pieces every time, I would die for this man and he wouldn’t let me

- in support of din’s paranoia: so far this season we haven’t been able to go five minutes without someone talking about peeling the precious beskar off a mandalorian corpse, I can see why his mind was primed to move in one particular way there

- I think the fabric of din’s cape has been treated with something that makes it waterproof; the water seems to pearl on top of it rather than soak in! can you imagine how heavy it would get if it did absorb water tho christ

(a bit hard to see at this size but that’s what it looked like to me close up anyway! could also be that it’s wool and that’s why it looks that way but I prefer an elaborate sci-fi explanation here, because it doesn’t look particularly weighed down afterwards) might also explain why he doesn’t seem worried about it catching on fire when he uses the jetpack haha, maybe this is something the mandos do with fabric they’re going to use for a long time

I also enjoy part of the gambeson/undersuit thing poking up from under the shoulder pauldron and cape; I think this is about as disheveled as we’ve seen him since immediately post-mudhorn

- the sound mixing in this scene, where din’s breathing is layered a bit over everything else so you almost feel like you’re in the helmet with him listening to what the others are saying........ oh my GOD, it embeds you so deeply in his POV but so subtly

- not to be biased or anything... but din and the armorer’s armour design is so vastly superior to these guys it shouldn’t even be a competition lol

din looks like an honest to god knight in shining armour except also sci-fi western and the armorer looks like a fucking war goddess from a time beyond memory; the clone wars mandos look like high end cosplayers (eh maybe it’s just my dislike for the boobplates that has me so 😒 lol. also a lot of dudes were very shitty about that whole thing and I don’t say anything but the ‘vaguely-concerned will remember this’ telltale message pops up in the corner every time)

moment of saltiness over: I do like the differentiation between their individual character designs

the differences in body type and helmet design is nice! they look like a unified team, but with individuality. I suspect the ladies have those belts and their armour plates on the hips instead of the front of the thighs to emphasize the ‘female’ silhouette, which. okay fine whatever

- bo katan looks very pointedly down at the baby after saying ‘a group of religious zealots who want to return to the ancient ways’ which makes me VERY nervous for reasons I can’t quite articulate

- the mournful guitar version of the mando theme as din watches the sunset...... hmmmmngh (this might be some Symbolism happening to us folks strap in for the identity crisis he still hasn’t processed)

- I Cannot get over din being so unimpressed by and uninterested in bo katan’s ‘retake mandalore’ sales pitch from literally the first moment dfhasdkjfhsad sorry lady kryze this man just does not do main quest shit, he’s all side quests all the time and that’s why I love him

- as someone who after chapter 8 wrote a whole-ass fic that was wholly & exclusively about din telling the baby he’ll always come back for him... some of the shit he’s been saying this season does feel like it’s been written to mercilessly victimize me, personally and specifically

- guessing this structure in the background is the traffic control tower! doesn’t really matter, I just thought it was neat

- this part of the soundtrack is called ‘ship o hoj, mandalorians!’, which I found incredibly charming haha (it’s ‘ship ahoy’ except how you write it in swedish, good one herr göranson)

- bo katan is vague about who exactly the new mand’alor would be if they took back mandalore to begin with, she doesn’t specify she is planning to be the ruler until she’s already got din on the ship and in no position to refuse to help. gotta respect the grift at least lol

I do love her voice, though, it reminds me a bit of jennifer hale as shepard

- “I need to get back to my ship, with the foundling” your honor I uh love him so fucking much

- frog lady stroking the baby’s back a bit as she holds her hand behind him to make sure he doesn’t fall backwards while playing with the tadpole ;___________;

and also frog husband and frog lady reaching out to hold hands and frog smooching as din and yodito leave ;____________________________________________;

- when din says the exasperated “mon calamari. unbelievable” line, the baby makes that little blowing a raspberry sound he does as if to agree ‘uh-huh unbelu -- unbelly -- unbelievable dad smh’ and it is very very adorable

- there’s quite a bit of Stuff in the concept art that didn’t make it in this time around; I wonder if maybe they cut some stuff for pacing or whatever and that’s why this episode is so short? water leaking into the cockpit of the razor crest, something that looked a bit like whaling going on on the docks and more spaceships taking off (maybe there were originally meant to be some smaller ships defending the big empire one?), there’s quite a bit here

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian meta

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binary5tar · 3 years

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So I've been slowly rewatching all the star wars movies with my kids...

Man those prequels...

I was maybe 10 or 12 when Phantom Menace came out. And I remember being like "Why does everyone hate these movies? They aren't like the original 3 but they aren't terrible." Whooo boy, I was wrong. I'm not sure everyone else was right though. Because my biggest issue with them is the absolute assassination of Padme as a character.

I don't remember people talking about that as much though. I've seen it mentioned in recent years but I mostly remember complaints about over done special effects and dragging story and of course Jarjar. But watching attack of the clones and return of the sith... God they murdered her.

But not even literally! Because she died of a broken heart? Over some creepy aggressive, angsty dude 10 years younger than her who constantly disrespected her boundaries. But it's okay because clearly she was in love with him all along? Folks... why were we surprised by the r3yl0 kiss after that? (For the record, I actually like r3yl0 as a ship I just don't think it should have been canon, especially the way it was done.)

But back to Padme, because she was the God damn leader of a country when she was barely an adult, she was devoted to causes she believed in, and she was clearly capable of handling herself in a fight... she's /General/ Organa's mother! But she falls for Angsty McAngry face gets secretly married and knocked up by him while ignoring his constant bad takes. He goes from talking about tyranny and saying horrible angry things to making intense puppy eyes at her and Padme just... falls for it? I call BS. She was passionate about democracy and peace and his whole "someone should make them listen" thing? Im trying to remember their ages but literally no woman mid twenties or higher ever would hear his bs and go... "I love him cuz he was a sweet kid" and not "wow that sweet kid found the wrong side of reddit huh?" I know there's a whole meme about it but... watching it was almost literally painful. She had so much potential as a character and... thats what they did with her????

And I really can't leave out complaining more about what is possibly the worst part. She just gives up on life, all her convictions about freedom and justice, and her premie baby twins... because her shitty husband was even shittier than she originally thought? WTF? Leia basically refuses to move on after death until her son is redeemed but Padme just fucks off and abandons her children because she realized her husband is Space Hitler? I know she had to die to set things up for the original trilogy but... damn they couldn't figure out something else? (And did she really even need to die? Maybe after Anikin's death Leia finds out thr sweet aunt who always seemed to have tears in her and doted on her whenever she could was actually her birth mom?) God damn... tell me a movie was written by a cis-het man without telling me it was written by a cis-het man.

And for the record I am not blaming the actors. I love Natelie Portman and Hayden Christensen did the best he could with a God awful script.

Anyway... I don't know a lot of people really into star wars and this rant has been bugging me for a bit now 🤣

Tl;dr - Padme deserved better.

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wheredidhiseyebrowsgo · 4 years

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hey! thank you for everything that you do! you are awesome. im just wondering if you any fic were Stiles is fae? thank you!

We sure do. - Anastasia

till the moon has taken flight (to the waters and the wild) by WindyRein

(5/10 I 1,426 I Not Rated I Steter)

It's not fair! But he knows already that life isn't fair, doesn't he? He can feel the bitter smile curling his lips.He, if there is such a thing anymore, floats and is torn apart and doesn't exist. (but that would be kind, wouldn't it?)

Bloody Secrets by cywscross

(1/1 I 3,085 I Teen I Steter)

Stiles has silver in his veins.

Peter could’ve done without finding out this way though.

Somewhere to Start by Lissadiane

(1/1 I 3,352 I Teen I Sterek)

Stiles has always known that he isn't quite human - the plant life that tends to sprout around him whenever he gets upset or excited gives it away. He's never really fit in among the regular people in Beacon Hills and is determined to wait it out, go to college, and find somewhere to belong. He's forced to abandon those plans, however, after he desperately agrees to enter into an arranged marriage to save his father's life.

An arranged marriage with an angry, sometimes furry dude with trust issues. It's all very Beauty and the Beast, without the singing candlesticks.

Dance Under the Moonlight by Therapeutic_Steter

(2/2 I 3,440 I Mature I Steter)

Fae!Stiles saving Peter from Pack's stupidity and washing his hands of them. Please?

The Other Side by Green

(1/1 I 3,769 I Explicit I Steter)

Stiles doesn't know anything about his father, only what his mother told him, that he's human. Despite her words, Stiles has had his doubts. So when the queen sends him through the veil, he's nervous and isn't sure what to think.

Seven Years Falling by InfiniteAlexisA

(1/1 I 3,880 I Not Rated I Sterek)

“I don’t mean to!” Derek yelled throwing his hands in the air.“DON’T YELL AT ME!” Stiles screeched, his entire body going up in flames.This is what Derek gets for dating a fire elemental.

we're not so different (you and i) by colferstilinski

(1/1 I 5,621 I Explicit I Sterek)

For many of the fairies that lives here, Utopia is their sanctuary—haven, in other words—and why shouldn't it be? It never rains on this stretch of meadow, the clouds in the skies always pink with interest and it smells like the breaking of spring every dawn and dusk.

Stiles detest it, the least to say.

It’s too much and he hates swinging along with the status quo with the other fairies. Yeah, with their blooming shades of colours and the shimmering, silken tunics they don on and fuck, the limitless sparkles. There’s even a new trend going on with the younger generation where they gather allium blooms to form a flower crown, oh—with added glitter!—and it makes Stiles wants to roll his eyes.

Or the fic in which Stiles is a fairy and wants to escape the horrendous, boring world of fairyland to have an adventure. And by adventure, he means meeting Derek. The plant. Or... not-so plant.

Cold Iron by the_problem_with_stardust

(5/5 I 5,641 I Teen I Sterek)

Derek thought the disaster that ended with Kate Argent almost burning down his family home was a relationship worst-case scenario. So, when Dr. Deaton reveals that his current girlfriend is not what she seems, Derek is ready to swear off romance forever. In an attempt to escape his well-meaning (but insanely overbearing) family, Derek volunteers to take over remodeling the small cottage that was left to the Hale siblings in his grandmother’s will. Connemara is nothing like California, and Derek feels like his luck just might be looking up.

salt and a waltz by The Byger (Byacolate)

(1/1 I 7,433 I Explicit i Sterek)

"Not that lubed-up Q-tips aren’t the sexiest thing in the world, but I kinda want to know what it’s like, you know. To be impaled on your huge dick without actually being impaled.”

“It was about to get sexy there, but you shot the mood right in the face.”

In which Stiles is a faerie and Derek is sick and tired of not being able to fuck him.

Don't You Wanna Be My Sky? by WhoNatural

(1/1 I 9,420 I General I Sterek)

Stiles got ratted out by the Realm Guard for sneaking off with Scott a total of seven times before his dad buckled, promising sabbatical once Stiles reached Faehood, and enough Earth culture in the meantime to have him talking like a born-and-bred Californian teenager.

He just didn’t have the tan.

(Or, in which Stiles is a Frost Fae sent to the Earth Realm on the Fae version of Rumspringa and immediately falls head-first into a Coffee Shop AU)

No Love in Idleness by Elpie (Horribibble)

(2/2 I 11,687 I Explicit I Sterek)

Stiles is the sole grandchild of none other than Robin Goodfellow, the most mischievous faerie ever to wreak havoc among the Folk and Man alike. To the people of Beacon Court, he is at best a merry wanderer of the night.

At first, Ser Derek is inclined to agree, but the little bird on his shoulder has quite a bit to say about that.

Trees are always a relief after dealing with people (except when they aren't) by ravelqueen

(1/1 I 15,889 I Mature I Sterek)

Derek Hale decides to become a hermit before he reaches 25. Too bad he picked Beacon Hills as his retirement home.

(Or the one where Stiles is a wood nymph/pixie/human hybrid who falls in love with his new grumpy werewolf neighbour)

Broken People Get Recycled by poemwithnorhyme

(1/1 I 16,389 I General i Sterek)

Nothing is ever just calm in Beacon Hills. No, something always has to go wrong, and this time, it's Stiles' turn in the spotlight. That doesn't mean he has to like it. Post S2 AUFae!Stiles

The Magic's in the Coffee by xxxillusionxxx

(8/8 I 17,596 I Explicit I Sterek)

Ever since the tall, muscled, leather-clad werewolf had begun his daily coffee routine at the Skullery—a horrendous name in Stiles’s opinion, but his boss was a skeleton who thought he was terribly clever—an impromptu competition developed among the baristas.

When Trust is Everything by hellbells

(12/12 I 27,913 I Teen i Sterek)

For a secret to remain true then only one person can know it; if not then it will come out. Beacon Hills is the converging point of several secrets all wrapped up in the supernatural. For Stiles, the unravelling of several will let him find peace, love and safety in the arms of his true mate. The only question is can he trust a Sourwolf and his pack well enough to show his true self.

It just might be the one thing between Beacon Hills and safety!

(Or observe the really awkward distrustful courtship between a Sourwolf and a hidden Fae Mage)

A Little Bit of Sunshine by 100KlicksAway

(21/? I 29,600 I Mature I Sterek)

Stiles woke with a start, dreams of pixies flitting around his head. He’d dreamed… He’d dreamed that he was a wolf? Or…. He wasn’t sure. Something with fangs… His mouth had been dripping blood in his dream, and when he woke, he could still taste the thick copper taste coating his mouth.

Stiles has been working hard for the pack since Scott was bitten. They leave him out more and more frequently, though, until Stiles realizes that he's strictly unnecessary. Then, the pack's activities throw him into danger and he ends up in a shitty situation with no one helping him.

Stiles leaves Beacon Hills. He doesn't care anymore, he just... Needs out.

The Last Chills of Winter by LeeHan

(1/1 I 42,525 I Explicit I Sterek)

“He didn’t magically charm me,” Derek shot back in his defense.“Oh, so he just regular charmed you?” Laura said with a smirk.“What? No,” Derek growled.“Was he hot?”“No! He just—“ He just had a laugh like a sun shower. Fuck.

We Follow Darkness Like a Dream by GreenasCole

(10/10 I 51,106 I Mature I Sterek)

When a mysterious note is left on the Stilinski's door it leads Stiles and his best friend Scott out into the woods on quest for answers about Beacon Hills's most infamous tragedy. After a surprise encounter with a monstrous wolf the two boys are hurled into an ancient and terrifying world, only for Stiles to discover he was secretly a part of it all along. Will he manage to survive the insanity of Fae politics and avoid the enemies that are suddenly crawling out of the woodwork to find a place in this new world? Or will the very revelation of his existence be the catalyst that plunges both worlds into war and chaos? And why can't Scott just stop teasing him every time he catches Stiles looking at their new "friend" Derek too long?

Laughter in the Dark by Starshaker

(13/? I 56,148 I Mature I Sterek)

Stiles is a fae. A trickster spirit with too much curiosity for his own good and a knack for getting into trouble. When he's just trying to help things don't go to plan and coincidences don't seem to end up for the better.Trapped, isolated and aching to get home, though it's better than what Gerard would have had planned for him initially, Stiles learns to deal with his new set of circumstances.

The Fairy's Wolf by kuki

(57/? I 90,602 I Explicit I Sciles)

In a world where non-humans mingle with humans in public schools until they became of age, about high school age, going instead to a specialty finishing school, a young halfling fae fights to stay with his friends. His fear of losing touch with his best friend, a young Alpha werewolf, has the pair pushing their relationship to the edge; and their relationship has the world on the brink of war.

-or-where I apparently ship Skittles hard now, hate myself with this work load on top of my school work, switch up species because f-u that's why, make up mythology, and try to give Derek a nice life.

Where You Still Remember Dreaming by yodasyoyo

(15/15 I 95,612 I Explicit I Sterek)

“What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you Balto.”

“What’s yours?”

“Stiles.”

Derek raises an eyebrow. That isn’t his real name. There’s no way. But now he thinks about it, he has a vague memory of someone, probably Uncle Peter, telling him that with the fae, names have power. “I’m Miguel,” he says.

“Lie.”

“Are you trying to tell me your real name is Stiles?”

Stiles runs his tongue across his teeth and considers Derek carefully. “Fair enough,” he says, “Miguel it is.”

Grabbing his groceries and pocketing the change, Derek turns to leave; he’s nearly at the door when Stiles calls out, “By the way, Miguel, if you’re interested, it’s two for one on bags of kibble at the pet store down the street.”

Derek doesn’t look back, doesn’t hesitate, just raises a hand and flips him off on the way out.

#teen wolf #sterek #sciles #steter #stiles stilinski #peter hale #scott mccall #derek hale #fae!stiles

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medea10 · 3 years

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My Review of Tamako Market

How did I get into this anime? Let’s just say that there were several Kyoto Animation animes I’ve neglected to watch and after the horrific incident back in 2019, I wanted to at least see all of the major Kyoto Animation pieces. No matter if this looks like we’re in the same universe as K-ON!

Tamako Kitashirakawa is a normal, ditzy, moe-looking for a KyoAni anime, teenage girl! She comes from a family that owns a mochi shop inside this tight-knit shopping district. One day, Tamako was at the local flower shop and a bird flew into her face. While stuck to her face, she sneezes him off. And then, the bird spoke.

…

I think I’ll just cross off the theory that we’re in the same universe as K-ON! Give K-ON some credit as they didn’t have a talking bird.

So this bird is named Dera Mochimazzi. I will never pronounce anyone’s last name in this anime! Dera claims he’s royalty from some far-off land and says he is looking for a bride for his country’s prince. Although, it just falls to the waist-side (literally and figuratively) when Dera took up residence at Tamako’s home and gets addicted to eating mochi. I guess for the time being, Dera will be this anime’s adorable mascot. Aside from the misadventures of Dera the talking bird, we also follow this leading lady Tamako in her normal life. We get school stories, friend stories, stuff about her sister, stories surrounding the colorful folks in this shopping district, and mochi. Lots and lots of mochi!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Ah yes, another Sentai licensed anime. I actually watched the entire series dubbed and only the movie subbed. Aya Suzuki is perfection as Tamako with all of her bubbliness. As for the dub, is it just me or was Jay Hickman trying to act too much like Excalibur from Soul Eater? Was he trying to unleash his inner Troy Baker for this role? Aside from Hickman, there’s really nothing else extraordinary to say about the dub. I will give them credit for not casting Luci Christian and Monica Rial as any of these characters. Love them dearly, but give a little spotlight to some of the other voice actors they’ve got. This was fine for what it was. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Tamako is played by Aya Suzaki (known for Mako on Kill la Kill, Kaede on Assassination Classroom, Takitsubo on Railgun, and Shouko on Happy Sugar Life)

*Dera is played by Takumi Yamazaki (known for Bansai on Gintama, Kayneth on Fate/Zero, and Jillas on Slayers Try)

*Mochizou is played by Atsuhi Tamaru

ENGLISH CAST: *Tamako is played by Margaret McDonald (known for Rikka on Chunibyo, Haruka on Little Busters, Sakura on Maid-sama, Risa on To Love Ru, Sachi on Maria Holic, and Harumi on Citrus)

*Dera is played by Jay Hickman (known for Jouichiro on Food Wars, Kurama on Elfen Lied, and Ryuuya on Air)

*Mochizou is played by Clint Bickham (known for Renji on ef – a tale of memories, Akihito on Beyond the Boundary, Haru on Tsuritama, Isami on Food Wars, Finland on Hetalia, and Mochizuki on Another)

SHIPPING: We’ve got a girl-next-door type of romance happening. Mochizou lives next door to Tamako and is infatuated with her. There are however a few little problems with this. The big problem is that Tamako and Mochizou’s fathers are business enemies. They both sell mochi, they live across from each other, and they have kids that are friends. It’s almost Romeo and Juliet except Tamako seems oblivious when it comes to Mochizou’s advances. Or Romeo here has a brain-fart and forgets vital things he wants to do for Tamako. Like episode one, he forgets to give her a present for her birthday. I will let him off the hook for this because dude already buys her a present and has plans and everything. But because Tamako’s birthday is on New Years and both kids work on New Years to help their families, things like this can be forgotten. So again, I can’t hate on our by Mochizou. His heart was in the right place, but his brain couldn’t catch up.

Halfway into this series, I shook my head thinking these two will never hookup. Tamako’s baby sister had more of a chance with her crush and he moved away.

Then again, this was all from the series. The movie got really deep with the Mochizou x Tamako ship that so much in Tamako changes. The movie kinda drops a ball on us so I’ll talk about it down below due to spoilery things.

ENDING: So it seems like this series moves quite fast calendar wise and the episodes seem to be like a problem of the day kind of thing. Like there will be an episode about Valentine’s Day, an episode where Dera goes on a diet, an episode with a festival, and so on. But along the way we do get a few cute moments like when Shiroi opens up to Tamako and her friends or when Tamako’s father remembers his wife through song. And let’s not forget that halfway into the series, we’re introduced to Choi, someone who serves a prince (like Dera). She really doesn’t do much to move this plot along for a while and is only there to stay with Tamako’s family and keep Dera on a short leash. But then at the end of episode 10, Choi makes a rash decision.

By this point in the series you might be wondering if Mochizou’s mochi balls are going to drop and he asks Tamako out. Well that might not happen just yet as Choi has set sights on Tamako to be the bride for the prince she serves under. But Tamako has no interest in becoming the prince’s bride. In fact, Tamako was more excited about winning a medal than learning she might get engaged to a prince of a far-off land. Add to that, the entire shopping district is excited for Tamako to become a prince’s bride. Everyone except for Tamako’s father! He got mad, stinkin’ drunk. And as for Mochizou, he’s just a sad sack. So no mochi balls dropping for this lad! Tamako did get a chance to meet the prince through Dera’s communication for a second. But once the prince landed in Tokyo, he ends up in the shopping district and meeting Tamako up close. Everyone in the shopping district was happy for Tamako and excited that this is happening. There are just two big things!

One, Tamako is too attached to her home and the people around it to ever leave them to go marry a prince from a far-off land. And two, there was a misunderstanding on Dera’s part where the prince has said that Tamako is not going to be his bride.

Choi and the prince end up leaving to return home. Dera on the other hand decides to stick around at least until New Years. Dera, being the little hammy-bird he is tries to make a graceful exit without saying goodbye to Tamako. He leaves Tamako without a word, but in same Dera fashion, he falls asleep in a pile of flowers and ends up inside a box. Turns out that box of flowers is going straight back to Tamako. Mochizou actually remembered Tamako’s birthday this year and gave her a box of flowers for the occasion.

When she opened it, there’s Dera! Don’t worry, Dera eventually goes back home with the prince and Choi. We just don’t actually see it here.

TAMAKO LOVE STORY: Now that Tamako, Mochizou, and the rest are all in their third years of high school, the thought of what they’re going to do with their lives hits. Like is Midori going to take over her grandfather’s toy shop in the district? Is Kanna going to do something carpentry related? Is Tamako going to continue working in her father’s mochi shop? Well, the story focuses on two things. One is a competition that Kanna gets interested in that involves the girls of the baton club. And the second, Mochizou’s decision to go to college in Tokyo to work on films.

Obviously, that’s the big story in this movie. Mochizou is madly in love with Tamako and they’ve known each other since they were babies. It’s just that he’s never made his feelings to Tamako known to her until he reveals his decision to leave town. After that, the once mochi-loving ditz we’ve grown to love these past 12 episodes changes. This is the first time we see Tamako feeling this way and it’s unknown what she’ll do. Is this the moment where she bails on her family’s mochi shop and go to Tokyo with Mochizou? After being told she’s loved by Mochizou, she goes through a lot of emotions. She’s distant, spacier than normal, avoiding mochi, and avoiding Mochizou. It wasn’t until she gets a nudge from her friend Midori to go to Mochizou before he leaves for Japan.

And right there, along with her handmade cup phones, she tells Mochizou that she loves him.

We end the movie with kind of a video that I assume was made by Mochizou and that’s how Tamako Market ends. I guess these two are a couple. Not sure if Mochizou stays in the district with Tamako and his family or if Tamako ditches her family and moves to Tokyo to be with Mochizou. I guess it’s one of those leave it up to your imaginations.

So…The anime was just okay. The series I mean! Love Story was almost at peak KyoAni perfection. Seriously, look at the animation here. The backgrounds are freakin’ gorgeous. And after watching the series and the movie, it almost felt as though they were two separate animes. Dera, Choi, and the prince were only shown in pictures at the record shop, one second near the end, and that short before the motion picture. Take all of those out and you’ve got something solid. I mean let’s face it, Tamako Market was fluff on the same level as watching K-ON or Lucky Star. You’ve got a variety of random crap happening throughout the span of one year except this series has the great fortune to have an annoying, talking bird. I don’t want to dunk on the series that bad, it was cute. But the winner with me was definitely Tamako Love Story.

We see Tamako and Mochizou express a vast variety of emotions that we never saw in the series. Especially, Tamako! She was always this ditzy girl with a love for mochi. And Mochizou was seen as that dope that’ll never get his shit together and tell Tamako how he feels. He always forgets her birthday, what makes you think he was going to get his shit together? But then Mochizou grows a pair and tells Tamako he’s leaving town and that he loves her and you see Tamako change. She’s not sure what to think anymore. She even goes through a phase where she can’t be around mochi. But I suppose we needed the silly fluff with the television series. After all, it’s not just Tamako, but all of the people who live in that shopping district. And I suppose Dera was a fun mascot character. If you want that cuteness, watch Tamako Market. But if you want a more romantic-driven story, definitely check out the sequel movie Tamako Love Story.

If you would like to watch Tamako Market, Hidive has all 12 episodes and the movie available for streaming.

Now then, what’s next on my Sentai Filmworks list?

Redo of He…

Choose your next words wisely.

Well Medea, do you love anime that’s directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara?

Oh dear God. What fresh hell did I miss from that iconic enigma? And is it crazier than kappas eating people’s asses?

Okay Penguindrum…please do not contain penguins eating people’s asses.

#anime review #tamako market #tamako kitashirakawa #tamako love story #mochizou ooji #dera mochimazzi

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demigodsanswer · 4 years

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Can you do will and nyssa? If not I understand.

Anon, you just threw me back about ten years. I saw this message, and images of fanfiction.net and deviantart flashed through my mind.

Quick story time: I think I was the first one to ever write this ship. I was writing it on ff.net and deviantart way back in the day (like, I don’t even think we had Mark of Athena yet. We might not even have had Son of Neptune yet.) I’m begging you to not go looking for it, because it’s all remarkably bad.

All that being said, let’s go back to my roots, folks. Can’t believe I’m writing about Will and Nyssa in the year of our lord, 2020.

The year before The Last Olympian, they’re both pretty young (like 12/13), and they’re the only openly trans kids at camp (because there are only about 25 kids.) They do bond over this and kind of become friends, but they’re both hesitant to become good friends (let alone date) because they don’t want people to be super patronizing, like: “Oh look at the two trans kids! They found each other!” Because *voms*

And then the war ends and more campers show up, and there are suddenly way more trans and nb campers (Lou Ellen is genderfluid, Butch is a transboy [those are just some]), so they don’t have that fear as much anymore. But they do end up just hanging out in different circles. They aren’t super close, but they don’t have any problems with each other.

Will and Nico date for a while; Nyssa dates a few guys as well. But when they’re about 18, they’re both single, and they start to reconnect again.

They are two of the few demigods still at camp who remember a time before any wars at all. They talk about losing their older brothers in the battles, and that idyllic time before anything had happened, and how weird it is that they were once the babies of camp and now they’re some of the oldest ones.

And they bond over other things they have in common, like being from Jersey (you will pry Jersey Will from my cold, dead hands. That attitude? Very Jersey, I don’t care what RR says.) But she’s from North Jersey (Jersey City area), and he’s from Central Jersey (Jersey Shore area), so that leads to debates on things like: Does Central Jersey exist? What’s a better airport: Philly or Newark? Is is pork roll or Taylor ham? They were both, of course, born being able to say “20 regular, cash.”

((sorry about all the Jersey. I just get to finally go home in like 13 days and I’m so excited to eat a decent fucking bagel and pizza and not pump gas.))

So they start dating when they’re seniors in high school pretty soon after they finished their college applications. And they both agree that they 1) won’t make any decisions on where to go to college based on each other, 2) they won’t put an end date on the relationship if they’re going to different schools, but 3) they won’t put pressure on the relationship to hold it together if it’s not working anymore.

They independently both end up committing to Rutgers (because we love in-state public school tuition, [said the girl who went to Seton Hall] [Rutgers is also a super good school]), so they end up going together and having a really good time.

They do take some breaks in college when things get tense in the relationship. Essentially, they just pause the relationship and work on themselves and see other people. They do always end up coming back together, because there’s a shared experience they have of remembering camp from the long-long-ago times, and losing brothers, and fighting in the wars that just no mortal is ever going to relate to.

They move in together in grad school. Nyssa gets a PhD in engineering, and Will gets his MD.

#absolutely fucking wild what year is it #will solace #nyssa #i know you have a last name now but i don't know it #Anonymous

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standinshadowedsilence · 4 years

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The 100, Sailor Moon Style

I've had this idea kicking around for a few days now. However, I am not about to start writing another massive fanfic undertaking. So, I'm dropping the outline here for y'all to enjoy and at least temporarily washing my hands of it.

Picture this: It's the 100, but the world and dynamic is set up with Sailor Moon mythos and backstory. Scrap some of the 100 political dynamics to make them fit more with Sailor Moon. Silver Millennium "kingdoms of earth" are just the twelve clans plus the Maun-de and exiled working together as different nations under one planetary ruler, Heda. Extrapolating further, Nia is Queen of the Negaverse now, but she was the young ruler of the Ice Nation in their past lives and tried to take the throne of Earth just like Beryl did. (We are going to ignore the whole jealous romance part from Sailor Moon canon).

So what about Skaikru? Well, they can still have been the Senshi and people from other planets fleeing the Negaverse (or Galactica or whichever evil ya want). They came down to earth in Praimfaya seeking sanctuary and protection during the time frame equivalent to the Silver Millennium. The Heda of the time (previous-Lexa) agreed, and that Heda fell in love with the princess of the Skaikru (previous-Clarke), who is this version's Sailor Moon. Although I don't think we will keep to planetary naming, I'm using it now for simplicity.

Either way, the pair fall in love, their people are mostly happy, but then the Negaverse finds the weak link that is Nia. And Nia finds Titus who unwittingly betrays Heda (because hate the guy all you want, he really did think he was doing what was best). Titus' betrayal leads to the equivalent of the earth generals being captured and taken to the Negaverse as minions. For this let's make Anya, Gustus, Indra, and Roan be the four generals taken along with Titus. ALIE will be how the Negaverse controls people to be the "monsters" they spawn and attack, as well as the generals and anyone else brainwashed.

Skaikru's scouts don't have the whole romantic tragedy that the scouts/generals do in Sailor Moon canon (unless you ship Ranya) but they really don't need it to realize that the general's were once good people. Like all the ordinary people ALIE was implanted in that they have to free, the scouts learn the generals need to be freed too.

You're probably wondering who the scours are? Me too. This may be controversial, but as I'm setting "modern time" to be one where the 12 clans, Skaikru, the Maun-de, and the exiled from the dead zone all live in some type of coalition/not actively at war every other decade, I feel free to pick from them all.

Inner scouts are going to be Octavia, Raven, Murphy, and Bellamy.

Outer scouts are Lincoln, Costia, Emori, and Maya (or whatever the name of the Maun-de chick Jasper falls in love with is). Also, as much as I'm a clextia fan, this Costia is only going to go as far as Ray did with Darien. But she's still going to be a valued member of the team. No bashing people in my house.

So anyway, those are their modern iterations. They're coming from a world where all the lands get along and the Negaverse is the new secret bad they all have to fight. There's no major separation between inner and outer scouts like in canon except that the outer are living in different parts of the modern world and tracking them down is harder/different than the inners who are all at least in the same town/region.

So yeah, that's what I have for now. The scouts all get flashes of their past life and powers and such. Lexa doesn't really remember hers since tragic death and all (just like in both shows sadly). Clarke witnessing Lexa's first death is what triggers their reset thing maybe. That can be figured out later, lightning strikes once and all that. Somewhere along the line they'll find Luna and Kane as their "mentors" and no, they aren't cats for this. Jake and Abby are Clarke's modern parents. Some sort of reveal will happen to give Lexa her memories and show the generals also need to be freed. And Titus who will have some role where he can't leave the Negaverse and has to live with the knowledge of his mistakes having lead to this. Hmm. Maybe Titus frees a captured Lexa and is the one to get everyone their full memories back as repentance. Anyways.

That's all folks.

If anyone else is a major fan of these shows and wants to run with their own version you're welcome to it. Feedback and suggestions welcome.

#the 100 #sailor moon #fandom crossovers #crossover #my ideas #clexa #eventual fanfic #fanfic idea #plot bunny #i swear im not writing this #at least not for a while #my writing #my fic

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fuelcut · 4 years

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A thought experiment on Silicon Valley’s third era

[ read the tweetstorm if you’re in a rush]

June 19th marks the end of American slavery, July 4th American Independence and July 14th the storming of the Bastille. It’s also my 40th birthday, and I’m exploring what we can learn from the past to help navigate today’s struggles for racial justice and economic freedom.

1940-1980: “Atoms” and the military-industrial-labor complex

My dad arrived in the Bay Area in 1970-1971 to get his PhD at Berkeley - just as the area was being rebranded as Silicon Valley.

Free from the stifling hierarchy of the East, the Bay was America’s center for social, technical and institutional change. Black Panthers policed the police in Oakland, shiny BART trains crossed the Bay to SF where the Gay Rights movement was flourishing. My family tree waited a millennia for India to recognize intercaste marriage. My parents would see radical social change in America across every axis in a single generation. Bold leadership in the 60s expanded civil rights and embraced immigration. They (and I) benefited greatly from an economic and social foundation that had been laid over many decades.

Caterpillar Tractor - founded in the Bay Area - embodied the spirit of this era. It went from liberating France in WW2 to building a massive middle class, unionized labor force. Cat later moved its headquarters to Peoria, Illinois - because in this era, cities across the country - not just the coasts - had the ability to compete. Since WW2, America pursued an intentional strategy of geographically broad-based economic development - via highways, airline regulation and distributed national labs.

Caterpillar didn’t just give Peoria a chance, it also gave my dad a chance to put down roots in America by sponsoring his green card. There was no H1B limbo. The nexus of military, industry and labor unions brought immigrants, Women and Blacks into the workforce - with paid apprenticeships (not exorbitant higher education) and technically-focused community colleges paving the way for millions. My mom learned COBOL while her toddlers played in the back of class. Even Hunter’s Point in SF was vibrant during much of this period. (Of course, it was far from a halcyon era - the war machine had massive human cost globally and civil rights were far from evenly enforced in America.)

And while atoms reigned supreme during this era, the military and government patiently invested risk capital in advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and software/networking to prepare America for its future.

1980-2020: “Bits” and global capital, jackrocks and polarization

In 1980, Reagan was elected President - and I was born. This would also be the peak of private sector labor employment in the US and the beginning of global capital (and the multinational companies they backed) as the leading force in forging the social contract.

They promised us that countries with McDonald’s would never go to war with each other. Indeed the Berlin Wall fell, Asian laborers got jobs and Americans could buy cheap stuff at WalMart. Global capital (bits) put atoms inside shipping containers and sent them around the world - abstracting consumers from the manufacturing base.

The writing was on the wall for unions.

As a middle schooler, I saw Cat management and labor (UAW) locked into a multi-year strike over the future. The front line was not in a boardroom or on the picket line. It was neighborhoods, schools and community groups. I remember when a classmate whose dad was in the union talked about how folks in the factory were peeing on effigies of management - including my dad.

Naturally I knew which side I was on. Cat needed wage concessions and freedom to operate to be globally competitive. I’d read Akio Morita, TPS and Lee Iacocca. I worried about Japan Inc. eating our lunch (yes as a 12 year old!) UAW workers and families were much more grounded. They needed a livelihood and wanted certainty for their future.

---

War continued to wage into high school. We came home one day to find “jackrocks” outside of our driveway - a tool used in feudal Japan to thwart the advancing armies - horses, chariots - etc. of those in power. In <60 years, Caterpillar had gone from transforming America’s agrarian society to becoming the enemy of American workers. We had the GOP’s Contract with America (stored in my Trapper Keeper) and Clinton signing NAFTA within a couple years. Both parties supported global capital and global capital supported both parties. Maybe jackrocks worked better than voting?

Corporate America soon figured out that if your workers were in China, Mexico or the South, it’s harder for them to stick jack rocks in your driveway. If your kids go to private school or you live in a quasi-private suburb, they’ll be insulated from the wrath of the have-nots in heavily policed, declining urban centers. No peeing on your effigy or having your kid hear about it!

---

After college, I became an analyst at Bain & Company. Once an auto parts company hired us to do a “portfolio review”. I meticulously compared the costs of building mirrors in Eastern Michigan or Malaysia - creating a zero defect Excel model. Guess which location won? The auto parts company - like Cat - had the freedom to choose where to put jobs.

But what freedom did the workers have? Marie Antoinette once said “let them eat cake”. The elites of our era now say “let them move”. Social capital is critical for folks navigating change. The educated elite take the portability of social capital (embedded in college degrees and iMessage threads) as a given.

But place and social capital are deeply intertwined especially if you’re poor or a minority. While the deep introspection elites once had during 2016 has now been paved over by new crises, we should never forget that there’s a cost to society of losing its manufacturing base and jobs. How do you model the costs of broken families, drug addiction and a polarized electorate in Excel?

---

I grew disillusioned with management by spreadsheet. But I saw a bright spot on the horizon: tech. I remember opening my first iPod, getting 1000 songs in my pocket and believing that America had a shot at leading a new generation of consumer electronics when everyone a decade earlier had written us off in favor of the Japanese. Perhaps tech could bring jobs and prosperity back to the country? I wanted to be part of it.

So I moved to the Valley in 2004 and joined a VC fund. I saw how the VC funding model that Silicon Valley was built on incentivizes high-risk, high-leverage and massive-scale. It encourages companies to cherry-pick top-end talent (immigrants, marquee college grads) to build the differentiated bits. Pick the highest leverage point in the stack, outsource everything else - by building in China and/or pushing the last-mile to an ecosystem that you can control at arms length.

Tech companies could more than pay back the largely fixed costs of software / semiconductor design from the large and homogenous American market. This dynamic attracted massive amounts of private risk capital and enabled aggressive expansion abroad. This model didn’t work for everything (I got burned with cleantech) - but it worked amazingly well for broad swaths of enterprise software, consumer services and marketplaces. I saw how tech could be an incredible lever for wealth creation. But every visit back home to the Rust Belt made me wonder - wealth creation for whom?

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2020+ - A thought experiment on institutional innovation and putting people first

July 14, 2020 - Q2 Earnings - CEO, MEGA TECH CORP - Hi everyone. These aren’t normal times. We’re not going to talk about our 10Q on this call. We’re here to talk about the next 10 years. So if you’re here for DAUs, ARR or CPC, you can drop off now. 

We’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the race, health and economic crises our country faces. Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked our exec team to leave their homes, their Zoom calls, their DoorDash deliveries - to join protests and explore our community through new eyes.

Race & Place: On Juneteenth, we biked from Sheraton Place to Hunters Point to Tanforan. We saw the real life impact of redlining, mass incarceration of Blacks and the lack of jobs from decades ago - and how our headquarters sustain - rather than disrupt - the region’s policies of de facto segregation. We also remembered how political demagogues once imprisoned our neighbors of Japanese descent. We see today how their rhetoric affects our Black neighbors and colleagues. What might it do tomorrow to folks without legal status in ag/service industries that California depends or the H1Bs we depend on? What does diversity & inclusion mean in this context?

Jobs: The next Friday we biked from SRI to PARC to Sunnyvale and Moffett Field. Our industry once dreamed of a bicycle for the mind and embraced technical education and apprenticeship as a path in the door for Women and Blacks. Meanwhile we’ve pushed vast swaths of work to contractors or platform-mediated transactions - making it harder to use up-skilling as a talent lever like manufacturing employers did in the last era. What’s the impact on income mobility? At what point will 40 million unemployed Americans affect our share prices and the stability of society?

Climate: On Independence Day, we biked on the Bay Trail past landfills, superfund sites and the 101 - alongside poor and minority neighborhoods with terrible health outcomes. We talked about the Bay Area weather forecast for 2060 “fire with a chance of flooding”. We passed abandoned railways and dreams of regional transport - the result of which is folks commuting hours each way from the central valley to work service jobs in our campuses. We wondered about the long run political consequences of isolating our employee base inside the WiFi confines of a private bus network. Where is the voting base to drive institutional change? How many axles or tires will our commuter buses need to keep them safe from jackrocks on the 101?

Health: Last week, we rode from the old Permanente cement quarry to 101 (built by the same cement workers.) We talked about how Kaiser - a private employer of low-skilled workers - internalized their healthcare needs, pursued disruptive innovation and faced fierce clashes with the medical establishment. We thought about how COVID is exposing the brittleness of our employee’s isolation inside a private insurance bubble. No one can be healthy in a pandemic without competent public health infrastructure. Meanwhile, the growing cost of private healthcare makes it harder for tech - let alone the rest of the country - to employ American workers across the wage spectrum - exacerbating job loss and instability.

And as we spoke with others, we saw how the issues that Silicon Valley faces are not unique to one metropolitan area or one industry. It just happens to be the ultimate archetype of Global Capitalism and de facto segregated American metros.

What we now see - more clearly than ever - is that our entire company, our entire industry, our entire Valley - is built on a flawed foundation.

We can no longer just focus on the magical software bits and hope someone else figures out racial equity, employment, climate and health. This is Joel Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions on the ultimate scale. The abstractions are failing - and we’re seeing bugs and unintended consequences all around us. And the more we invest to deal with one-off bugs, the more likely we are to calcify change and imprison ourselves inside a failing stack.

It’s like we decided to build the world’s notification service on Ruby on Rails - or building an iPhone competitor on Windows CE. Fail Whale everywhere. Unfortunately, America’s democratic institutions are in poor condition. They are struggling to deal with inequality let alone looming environmental disaster. A polarized electorate - particularly at the national level - leads to populism and makes it hard for these institutions to execute meaningful, long-term plans.

We talk a lot about speech, misinformation, fairness of targeted ads etc. But it’s becoming clear that UX, linear algebra/training data and monetization in our products is just the tip of the spear to address polarization. We believe polarization is a product of the underlying conditions of civil rights, education, health and climate debt that affect Americans differentially based on race, wealth, neighborhood and region. e.g. If we care about justice, how far does focusing on the fairness of employment ads get us in a world when many people lack the skills and negotiating power to secure a living wage?

So will today’s peaceful protests for racial justice expand into tomorrow’s revolution(s) for economic freedom? If you don’t think things are bad now, think about what happens when the stimulus checks run out. Take a look at the amount of debt in the public sector, use any imagination about COVID, work out what happens to their tax base / pension returns and consider the impact on public services, public servants and their votes. MMT better be a real thing. Maybe we didn’t start these fires, but that refrain won’t save us when the flames come our way.

We’re done debating why we need to act. It’s clear America needs our help. Let’s talk about how we’re going to rise to the occasion. Our mantra will be “internalize, innovate, institutionalize”.

First, we’re going to internalize our problems. I’m here to tell you that issues of racial and economic justice are not just moral issues but they’re financial issues. Racial debt, education debt, health debt, climate debt will hit us harder and harder each year. (By the way, revolution probably won’t be great for your DCF models.) So we’re going to recognize these off-balance sheet liabilities - which amount to a few hundred billion in the US alone over the next 10 years for a company at our scale.

Second, we’re going to innovate against these systemic problems - but our only shot at making progress is if we realign the entire company’s mission to address them. This is not about optics. This is not about philanthropy. This is not another bet. We’re putting all our chips behind one bet - America. It's the country that backed us in the first place, it's where most of our people are and most of our profits. The job for our existing products, platforms and cash flows will be to advance four areas: place / race, skilling / manufacturing, health / food and climate / mobility - starting in America. The board will measure me based on job creation and diversity. It should go without saying that we’re pausing dividends and buybacks for the foreseeable future. Every dollar will serve our mission. Every senior leader will need to sign up for our new mission - and those who choose to stay will receive a new, back-end loaded, 10 year vesting schedule. We want them focused on the long-term health of society - not the whims of Robinhood day traders or strengthening the moats of existing products. We will need to invent entirely new ways to operate and ship products. As Joel Spolsky said, “when you need to hire a programmer to do mostly VB programming, it’s not good enough to hire a VB programmer, because they will get completely stuck in tar every time the VB abstraction leaks”. We need engineers, designers and product managers that will look deep into the stack, confront the racial, job access, health and climate debts that our products, our companies and our communities are built on top of. This is not about CYA process to protect cash cows or throwing things over the fence to policy. We will need to innovate across technical, cultural and organizational lines. This requires deep understanding and curiosity. This will bring more scrutiny to our company - not less. Not everyone’s going to be on board - so for the next 12 months, we’re giving folks a one-time buyout if they want to leave.

Third, we can’t do any of this by ourselves. The problems are too big. Our role will be to provide enlightened risk capital (from our balance sheet or by re-vectoring operating spend) alongside R&D, product, platform leverage to help leaders and innovators pursue solutions in these areas. Of course we will work with our peers and the public sector wherever possible - buying/R&D consortia, public-private partnerships, trusts, etc. But the new era and landscape demands that we explore institutional models beyond global capital/startups, labor unions, NGOs or government. We need models that can more flexibly align people and purpose, that innovate on individualized vs. socialized risk/reward - and that ultimately help build and sustain local, social capital. It’s difficult to say what these will look like - but increasingly figuring this out will be existential for our core business too. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you’re designing the best cameras in Cupertino or the best way to see their snaps in Santa Monica - we’re all just building layers of an attention stack for global capital. Our Beijing competitors have figured this out. ByteDance is already eating our lunch. They’re using the same tech inputs as us - UX, ML and large-scale systems - which are now a commodity - but with vastly lower consequences for the content they show - creating a superior operating / scaling model. They’re not internalizing social or political cost.   What we need in this era is the accumulation stack - where each interaction builds social capital. This is not about global likes. This is about local respect. We’ll create competitive advantage when we build products that reach across race / economic lines to harness America’s amazing melting pot and do so in ways that build livelihoods / property rights for creators and stakeholders.

With this operating model in place, we’re committing to fundamental change in four areas:

Place & Race - We’re done with de facto segregation. Over the next 10 years, 100% of our jobs will be in diverse communities that embrace inclusive schooling, policing, housing and transit policies. (Starting tomorrow, we’re putting red lines on our maps around towns with exclusionary zoning.) This is not about privatizing cities or an HQ2-style play to extract concessions. This is about investing our risk capital and our reputation to innovate alongside government. How do we bring world-class education to neighborhoods with concentrated poverty? What is the future of digital/hybrid charter schooling? Unbundled, community-driven public safety? We’ll embrace “remote-first” as a means to this end. The Bay will become one physical node alongside others (e.g. Atlanta, DC, LA) creating an Interstate Knowledge System that develops diverse talent across the country. We’re going to coordinate our investment with leading peers - since after all, this isn’t about cost savings or cherry-picking. It’s about broadening our country’s economic base.

Skilling & Manufacturing - We will 10x the tech talent pool in 10 years - by inventing new apprenticeship models that bring women, minorities and the poor into the workforce. We’ll start with our existing contractor base, convert them to new employment models with expanded benefits and paths for upward mobility. Next, we will invent new productivity tools for all types of workers - from the front office to mobile work to call center - that brings the power of AI and programming to everyone. These will be deeply tied into new platforms for work designed from the bottom-up to build social and financial capital for individual workers and teams. Last, we’re going to manufacture most of our hardware products - from silicon all the way to systems - entirely in the US within 10 years. This will require massive investment, collaboration and innovation. It may require a revolution in robotics - but we will pursue this in a way that makes the American worker competitive - not a commodity to be automated away. If we’re successful, the dividends of our investment here will have massive spillover benefits to every other sector of manufacturing in the US - autos, etc. - including ones we have yet to dream up.

Health & Food - We’re not going to tolerate a two-class system for healthcare anymore. As we convert our contract workforce to new employment models, we’re going to have to innovate on the fundamental quality/cost paradigm across our benefit stack. This may feel like a step down but it will put us (and the rest of society if we’re successful) on a fundamentally better long-term trajectory. Food is part of Health, and we’re going to innovate there too. Free food for employees is not going to come back post-COVID. Instead, we’ll use our food infrastructure to bootstrap cooperatively-owned cloud kitchens. We’ll provide capital to former contractors - mostly Black and Hispanic - to invest and own these. We’ll build platforms to help them sell food to employees (partly subsidized), participate in new “food for health” programs and eventually disrupt the extractive labor practices we see across food, grocery and delivery.

Climate & Mobility - Lastly, we’ll be imposing a carbon tax on all aspects of our own operations - which we’ll use to “fund” innovation in this space - with a primary focus on job creation. This is an area where we’re going to be looking far beyond our four walls from the beginning. As a first step, we’re teaming up with Elon and Gavin Newsom to buy PG&E out of bankruptcy and restructure it as a 21st century “decentralized” utility. It will accelerate the electrification of mobility - financing networked batteries for buses, cars and bikes along with charging infrastructure - and leading a massive job creation program focused on energy efficiency. Speaking of mobility, private buses aren’t coming back after COVID. Instead, we’re teaming up with all of our peers to create a Bay-wide network of electric buses (with bundled e-bikes) that will service folks of all walks of life - including our own employee base. Oh and one more thing - we’re bringing together the world’s most advanced privacy/identity architecture and computational video/audio to bake public health infrastructure directly into the buses. For COVID and beyond. None of this is a substitute for competent, democratically accountable regional authorities. This is us investing risk capital on behalf of society - with the goal of empowering these authorities. Yes the New York Times will have a field day with this. Maybe in time they’ll leave their bubble, enter the real world, see the sorry state of their institutions - the behavioral health and infrastructure crises on their crumbling streets - and get on board. Until then, our job is to be patient longer than they can be inflammatory.

Open technology for global progress - While we have to prioritize America given the scale of problems, the intent is not to abandon the rest of the world or hold back it’s progress. We feel the opposite - that over the coming decades each country’s technology sectors will thrive. To get there, we will continue to invest patiently - hiring, training, partnering, investing and innovating - but with a clear north star to help each country develop local leaders in new areas. Long-term, we’ll continue to contribute open technology that others can build upon.

America should be the proverbial city on a hill for everyone - not a metaverse for the rich with the poor dying in the streets. We don’t have much time so we’re getting to work now. See you next quarter.

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This call may be imaginary but none of this is sci-fi or requires MMT. What it requires is us to care. To act. Join me on bike rides to explore our past and discuss what tangible actions Silicon Valley’s leading companies can take in the coming quarters and years. Logistics here for rides on June 19, June 26, July 2 and July 10!

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chubbyooo · 4 years

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A Recipe for Disaster: A Blurred Lines Spinoff Chapter 1: An Enemy Revealed

hey folks so I know we just got back to the main fic but for a while I’ve wanted to tell a side story of how my companions ended up captured for most of Kotfe and it also links in with Blurred Lines in areas so with that in mind here’s the first part of a 6-8ish chapter long spinoff featuring a few of the ocs you know and some new ones

the emperor Vititate has disappeared into wildspace and until recently there was no sign of his location, however Darth Nox met meet Darth Marr on his flagship and soon after word of an attack on theflagship reached the republic. With this knowledge Grand Master Satele Shan has assembled a team of the most adept fighters and thinkers of both governments at least those she could get in touch with to work out what to do next. Kavaraa was quick to respond to the message sensing a great disturbance unlike anything she had felt before.

Kavaraa looked out the viewport as the flagship approached she sensed it something was wrong, something big was about to happen and she had to be ready. She frowned she couldn’t seem to discern the nature of the presence but she could sense great conflict in someone close to her. Still close by what or who it could be was unclear she really hoped it wasn’t a friend, she glanced towards the sith warships littered within the fleet. She had not been thrilled with working with the sith, she’d be the first to admit it had never quite sat right with her not since Master Syo. But the fact they were united against the emperor helped sway her, but having to work with former rivals was certainly a challenge especially those who tried to test her commitment to the jedi order. Still to combat such a foe as Vitiate it was rather necessary, she put the thoughts to the back of her mind Master Satele had summoned her here the least she could do was be punctual.

As her ship docked with the flagship she stepped out into the bustling republic flagship, she had told her crew to stay with the ship just in case. After the rumours she heard about the sith fleet she was airing on the side of caution, she rushed towards the bridge but on the way she nearly crashed into someone.

She stumbled to a stop looking up to see Theron Shan of SIS, she smiled at least there was a friend here that’d make things easier “oh um sorry Theron didn’t see you there” Kavaraa looked away feeling her cheeks go a bit turquoise.

Theron seemed equally flustered “oh um no worries sorry bit of a rush, important meeting and all” Kavaraa nodded cocking her head, if anyone new something it was gonna be Theron the compulsive spy.

She looked quite seriously at him “so what have you heard” Theron looked around gesturing for her to follow to a quieter location.

They moved to a rather cramped storage room causing them to have to squeeze next to each other “I uh I won’t lie to you it’s bad” he whispered although due to the cramped nature it was like he was speaking at full volume

Kavaraa sighed “yeah I can sense something is very wrong” Theron nodded messing with a datapad

he let out a long sigh “the sith fleet is uh devastated, casualties are high but there is little sign of what caused the attack” Kavaraa’s mouth hung open this had to have something to do with the attacks on Korriban and Tython nothing like this was ever a coincidence

Kavaraa swallowed “that is bad what of Marr? is he ok?” Kavaraa didn’t really like Marr that much but she couldn’t deny his military mind

Theron looked away “uh no report of him or Darth Nox as of yet” Kavaraa’s eyes widened they got Kyradia too? this may be more serious than she even thought, she couldn’t remember the last time Kyradia was beaten much less missing. Either they were dead or in the hands of Vitiate, Kavaraa wouldn’t have wished that on her worst enemy and well she had kind of got it anyway.

Kavaraa let out a long breath “wow it’s that bad huh?” Kavaraa didn’t even know what they could do next that was two of their best assets gone. Kavraaa may not have agreed with Kyradia’s methods but Kavaraa out of anyone couldn’t deny her skill with both the force and the saber, even if she was unbelievably cruel

Theron looked around the cramped room “that’s all the information I could slice from SIS” he put a finger to her lips “do not tell anyone I told you” Kavaraa could feel his breath they were so close, after a long pause she nodded quickly and followed Theron out of the room.

They quickly headed to the bridge where Kavaraa could see many farmiliar faces, on the republic side she could see Grand Master Satele Shan, Havoc Squad Commander Ash’shen’tor, Jace Malcom and Jonas Balkar but to her surprise she saw no sign of Jedi Knight Dzûsa she hadn’t heard from him in a while and also hadn’t been able to sense his presence. This had been concerning her greatly as he normally had such a loud bashful presence and for it to be muted meant something was very wrong, she glanced over to see Lana with a similar look on her face. She knew Lana and Dzûsa had been close but she also hadn’t seen him since before Ziost, the other Imperials around the table included Darth Acina (probably in Marrs place), Cipher Nine a big part of imperial intelligence and Moff Pyron someone Kavaraa had been on the opposite end of a blade from.

Theron spoke up “sorry we got caught up I think that’s everyone” Kavaraa looked around the room it certainly didn’t feel like everyone she knew some members of each council were busy with military missions but still. She assumed the emperors wrath was abstaining once again still believing in the emperor.

Satele nodded turning on the holopad “this is the footage of the attack on the sith fleet not 12 hours ago” Kavaraa watched as thousands of ships suddenly came into view and slowly but surely she watched as Marrs flagship was destroyed, her eyes widened were they really gone? she would’ve sensed it. She closed her eyes quickly reaching out with the force she could feel a very faint presence of Kyradia but it felt different somehow

The cold calm voice of Cipher Nine cut through the room “what of Marr and Nox is there any evidence they survived I believed them to be stronger than that” Kavaraa frowned at the chiss he seemed so calm about the idea of their death as if it was just an unlikely statistic. She had fought the man before his tactical ability was something but his separation from care of those he hurt was worrying.

Satele answered the question “although there is little evidence of survival I can still sense his pre-” Satele paused holding her chest and wincing, Kavaraa looked to her but was quickly met with a similar feeling through the force. She felt like a massive amount of force energy was just released, Satele made eye contact with Kavaraa the anguish clear in her eyes “you sense it too don’t you?” Kavaraa recognised the energy it was...

Kavaraa gasped “Marr?” Satele nodded slowly hanging her head solemnly

Theron looked frantically between them “what happened what can you sense?” Kavaraa was completely preoccupied if Marr was in trouble what of Nox? was Kyradia alive?

in the silence a new voice spoke up “I sense it too it is unfortunate but Darth Marr has passed on, how or why are unclear” Darth Acina seemed less phased than Satele and Kavaraa, Kavaraa guessed it was the sith way. Still she had to reach out she focussed trying to sense if Kyradia was out there, whatever was going on was still happening and if she could just get through. She found the presence but it was in flux, changing, she felt almost forced away as it changed and shifted. Kavaraa stumbled back whatever was happening it had to involve Vitiate and if so that did not bode well.

the rest of their makeshift council began to discus how to move forward as Kavaraa steadied herself making eye contact with Lana who had been strangely quiet, “you sense her too don’t you? I’ve been trying to get through to her but her energy... it’s like it’s being changed and moulded” Kavaraa nodded whatever Kyradia was doing she better succeed

Commander Ash’shen’tor spoke up for the first time “I assume we didn’t come here just to speculate what are we going to do about this?” Ash did bring up a good point they could stand around here all day but they needed to take action

Satele sighed “unfortunately without anymore information all we can do is defend our territory and keep searching” Kavaraa hated that but it was true, suddenly however as if to answer Satele the hologram switched to an image of a bald human male wearing a Mask

He pronounced proudly "People of Zakuul, the unthinkable has happened. Our beloved Emperor, Valkorion, is dead - murdered by an Outlander who sought to shake the foundations of our great society. The assassin will receive swift and just punishment, and this act of unprovoked aggression will be answered.” Kavaraa looked around the council as everyone looked at the holo dumbfounded, Zakuul? Valkorion? act of aggression? she had no idea what this meant but it had to be to do with the attack

the figure continued “As your new Emperor, I can promise you this: Zakuul's enemies will face the full power of the Eternal Throne. They will answer for their warmongering ways... and every last one of the Core Worlds will burn!" the was an audible silence in the room for a few seconds before Theron spoke up

everyone looked to him “so that has to be what and where we’re looking for right? that can’t be a coincidence” he was right there, an emperor, an outlander who must be Kyradia it was too similar

Ash rubbed her forehead “I think you are ignoring the more pressing fact that he just declared war on all of us and he’s gonna use ‘the power of the eternal throne’ which I’m assuming is that fleet we saw and if not it can only be worse, either way we need to be ready to defend” Kavaraa was still bewildered but they said they were going to punish the Outlander not kill her that was awfully curious.

Cipher Nine spoke up “miss Shen does bring up a very good point but one thing to note is that the individual on the holo implied the emperor was dead, now this may be a leap of logic but I’m going to assume this was the same emperor using a pseudonym. With the Emperors death taking a defensive position may be rather advantageous” Kavaraa had to admit if the emperor was indeed dead then they may have less on their plate, whoever this new guy was he certainly wasn’t as threatening. “But with that said one of our best assets lies in the heart of their empire on Zakuul we cannot ignore the importance of Darth Nox” Kavaraa hated to agree with that but she knew it was true.

Ash spoke up again clearly agitated “so what we’re supposed to fight an offensive war for one sith that hardly seems worth it” Kavaraa had never been a military strategist and seeing these two sharp minds go at it was fascinating

Cipher Nine tutted “That one sith helped taken down Revan and his cult and anyway of course not I suggest we smuggle a small team in to extract our target, you are correct there is no need to over extend ourselves” Kavaraa looked to the other around the table everyone looked like they had a billion questions

Lana spoke up taking charge of the argument “clearly we have a lot to think about but these two points are very valid, it would be moronic to throw our ships against this fleet we have to play smart not powerful and retrieving Nox could be a big gain” everyone seemed to agree with that

Cipher Nine cut in “I’d advise we make haste upon the Nox rescue mission the more we wait the more difficult it will become” the man definitely had a point there they only had so long until the first attack

Theron frowned “but for that we need to know where Zakuul is and I’ve been scouring everywhere for any information on the emperors location” Cipher Nine gave Theron a coy smile it almost seemed like pity

“that’s because traditional intelligence tends to neglect culture, folk tales and legends however I do not and have managed to pin down a few possible locations of a planet with this name, give me a week or two and I’ll have the location” Theron scowled at the chiss clearly there was some tension between agencies

Acina looked to those on the council “who would be on this mission? I’d assume only the best and most undetectable” Kavaraa considered those around the table and who would fit best for a few seconds

Theron spoke up first “I’d happily go and I think I know who else would be able to fly under the radar” Kavaraa quickly turned to Theron and shook her head

she sighed “Ok no you promised after Ziost not to run off into danger” Theron looked confused “anyway we need you to handle slicing and I’d rather you do that from a safe location

Theron still seemed unconvinced “it’s not the same though I won’t be alone will I, I was gonna suggest you come anyway” Kavaraa considered it for a second but she couldn’t stomach the idea

Kavaraa shook her head taking Theron’s hand “not this one spy boy, subtlety isn’t really your style I’ll at least let you be on comms how about that?” Theron seemed conflicted but eventually conceded

“alright fine but you update me at all times agreed” Kavaraa nodded squeezing his hand

Lana cleared her throat “anyway... who else did you have in mind Theron” Theron turned around looking a little flustered

he turned back to the others “right uh yes well I assume we want people who can’t be sensed well by the force which narrows it down to well Jedi and at least if my information is correct Chiss” Lana frowned at him seemingly disappointed she was left out, Kavaraa knew she would be able to cloak her force ability but a sith like Lana was much harder to control

Cipher Nine nodded “you’re information is partially correct we have no natural ability to cloak ourselves from the force but naturally we have much stiller minds so it can be harder to sense us” Kavaraa looked from him to Ash who seemed to not have a clue what he was talking about

Ash sighed “So you’re saying I have to work with him” Kavaraa was aware of the rivalry between Cipher Nine and Ash it wasn’t quite the level she had with Kyradia but it was certainly intense

Theron nodded “I’m afraid so but from what I know of Cipher Nine he is likely to perform professionally” Ash let out an audible sigh conceding to the plan

Cipher Nine let out a slight smile “so our base plan is to smuggle us into Zakuul and save Nox, rather underdeveloped at the moment it will require some colour and a lot more intel on her location I will do my best to provide them, I assume SIS will do the same?” Theron nodded reluctantly “That still however leaves the question of how we will be able to smuggle ourselves there” Cipher Nine looked to each of them for an answer

Ash let out a chuckle shaking her head “I’m gonna regret this but I think I know a guy” Kavaraa’s eyes widened oh no...

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riotatthemovies · 4 years

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Baywatch Nights SEASON 2 (because Season one did not count)

SO every so many years I am reminded of this bat shit crazy phenomenon of a shows existence. And now with the world in stay home crisis I guess I have some time on my hands and challenged my weak mind to a marathon.

So the infamous David Hasselhoff made Baywatch the semi action semi drama wildly popular show about good looking people running in slow motion on the California beach. Hasselhoff got a little bored that the show was not enough about him so he doubled up in a self produced spin off show Baywatch Nights were his character Mitch Buchanan got a side hussle as an investigator on the side of his lifeguard and coastguard work. The first season was a cop action romp but did badly in the ratings so in season 2 it completely rebooted its self. So you dont need to see season 1 as Season 2 exists in its own reality full of Ghosts, Demons, Aliens, Vampires, Parallel Dimensions. Yep X files was huge so Hasselhoff figured he could do it to. This 22 episode arch is so ridiculous when you keep in mind its his character from Baywatch doing this and in a Scully and Mulder way he will literally see aliens and the devil and the next episode say shit like “oh come on I don’t believe in the tooth fairy”. Everything about it watched like a passion / ego project to the level of it being brilliantly innocent and awful all at once. The rest of the cast of season one have disappeared except scientist Ryan Mcbride played by the beautiful Angie Harmon, an actress beautiful in a different way from the usual Baywatch girl so they figured you would believe this as a smarter show but she dumbs down her acting skills seen in Law and Order so she can read the cheesiest lines every typed on paper.

I have been posting comments as I marathon through this on my Facebook but let me give you a run down of most of the impactful episodes I've been watching so far tonight.

Episode 1 (again remember only important is season 2 so this is season 2 ep 1)

Terror of the Deep : Sounding like a classic Corman movie, Mitch Buchanan's first up close encounter with a paranormal creature. A ship has sank off the coast and archaeologists and secret agent enlists Mitchs scuba diving skills to check if someone is still alive on the ship and warns him there may be a mystical creature loose on it as it was being smuggled . Mitch meets basically the creature from the black lagoon on the ship but shrugs it off till the end the secret agrent questons Mitch on what he saw and he saw and makes Mitch very nervous saying “I saw it ok, I just dont know what I saw”. Dun dun dunnn.

Jump to Episode 3 THE RIG: Basically Baywatch goes fully HP lovecraft as scientists disappear on a oil freighter and Mitch goes to see if anyone is still there. But the scientists has awoken a growing ameba like crreature that is growing giant and swallows the frieghter with Mitch and Ryan in it. Oozing glowing green all over the walls and growing around it the the blob but with images of a worm like body moving all around them. But Mitch goes all Die Hard on the massive monster with no shape in the sea and blows the shit out of everything.

Jump to Episode 5 Circle of Fear:Where Ryan read a book of black magic and becomes curses by the devil himself. When the devil is defeated because of course a life guard and a CSI rep could beat the devil. The msyterious secret agent friend says You know it was the devil and it will be back. Mitch responds literally with “I kicked its butt and if it shows up Ill kick its butt again”

Jump to Episode 6 THE CABIN : Ryan and Mitch go to a haunted cabin that has them stuck in a time loop as they enter different rooms, they can hear each other but they seem different time lines from when the ghost was alive. The ghost is an old 49er miner who tries to kill em with a pick axe. In the end it was all a dream but Mitch sees his wound and knows he just jumped back in time to the begining where its safe.

Jump to Episode 9 Night Whispers: A female vampire is killing people in an old police precinct and wants to make Mitch her slave as she thinks he is really sexy , Mitch pretends he is under her spell but he tricks her because he knows he could have any woman anytime so her glam magic wont work on him and he kills the vampire. Seriously.. I wish I was making that up.

Jump to episode Space Spores: Mitch saves the whole world with his use of diving knowledge when the world is infected by the Andromeda Syndrome. Oh yeah thats episode 10.

Episode 11 Mitch is possessed by a demon giving him red eyes and making him mean after saving a possessed girl who was drowning.

Jump to episode 13 Vincent Schiavelli is a magical Dungeon and Dragons Dungeon Master who sucks his victims into a game world where he challenges them to Dungeons and DEAAAATHHHHH .. Yeah really. Vincent Schiavelli was the weirdest bit part actor of 80s television, I would love to know more of his history.

This will anger Geeks everywhere as they say some hilariously odd things about D and D and have a huge 12 sided dice to play with.

Jump to episode 15 THE MOBIUS Mitch and his paranormal team are grabbed into a time warp by a time demon that puts them in a ghost world after a scientist friend accidentally makes a portal to the ghost world of time...yeah seriously this is happening. But wait maybe it a parallel future where the Ozone layer has caused ghoul monsters to hatch from eggs and Ryan and Mitch has an awkward close moment which is ruined by them misquoting Star Wars lines. Confused.. I guess you will have to watch it. Mitch says at one point I dont believe that science mumbo jumbo.. so what now after 15 episodes he only believes in magic? As Hasselhoff says at the end of every opening credits in season 2, the only season that matter.. he says.. Nights will never be the same!

More Episodes to go Im just over half way there wish me luck folks. I wont put you through it all as I do this so you dont have to.. but hey fuck it why not its all on youtube. If you never hear from be again its because I am stuck in the mobius and David Hasselhoff chose not to save me.

Oh man these credits are so 90s a time that brought you Pamela Anderson and Mortal Kombat. Wow

#Baywatch #baywatch nights #b tv #90s #david hasselhoff #cheese #hilarious #marathon #join me #im going crazy

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cruddyborderlandstheories · 5 years

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Punk Girl/Civil War Submission by The Wild West Pyro

Heyo, good morning/afternoon/evening/night

My friend on discord (The Wild West Pyro) had an absolutely mind-blowing theory concerning who the band ‘Punk’ Girl is, why she’s important to the story, and how she will lead to the rift in the Calypso Twins relationship. I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys, so I’m just going to dive right in.

(A majority of this will be directly from our conversation, with [some edits by me] to help with context and add in pictures.)

Here we go!

So we figured Punk Girl is in some way related to the CoV, or the cult in general, as she makes an appearance on what seems to be a cult-centric shirt on the gearboxloot instagram page (more credit to @ifalnasminiatures for providing me with this link!)

“Well, there are [a few] ways this could go:

Punk is linked to the COV and is intended to spread their message even further with the typical subliminal brainwashing thing. So they can broadcast outside of the planets the Cult has a presence on.

It’s a sore subject between the Twins, but one they hide rather well. The girl is related to them, she’s just considered by one of them as “that disgrace who refused to reclaim the birthright and ran off to join a band instead, ugh.”

She’s a band that works for the Cult sometimes. But in fact, she’s the eyes and ears of the Alliance within the Cult. Best of all is that she’s directly related to the Twins. Secretly, she disapproves of what they’re doing, but she’s the Alliance’s best hope of what’s going on.”

[That last one is the one he goes over the most, and it’s super interesting.]

“The Twins never suspect that the spy was in fact the one closest to their hearts.”

[my response: It would explain why there are no other bosses on the MoM that we know of (excluding the twins bc those are guaranteed), because she’s never going to become a fight even tho she looks the part]

“Also, [regarding] the last bit of your post, it’s just asking for a sidequest where it’s revealed that all the Gen 3.0 VHs known how to play some sick bass.

Punk Girl: ‘Hey, my bass guy is sick, can you take over?’

Zane: ‘FECK YEAH’”

[We talk a bit here about a Scott Pilgrim-esque Battle of the Bands, with Mr. Torgue as the competition, so there’s a bit of a transition that’s missing.]

“Hey, you know how Athena encrypted her messages between Engorge commercials? Punk Girl cleverly hides her messages in her music or backmasking. That’s how she sends her info to the Vault Hunters.

The twins never suspect a thing, and when she finally reveals she’s been working for Lilith, they’re genuinely shocked- and then the rift develops. One sibling would want to protect the girl, the other would want to punish her. The twins seem extremely close, so I personally feel it’d be odd if one of them up and betrayed the other [without outside influence].

It would be a great twist, too. Jack always had something planned out to trip up the Vault Hunters. But Lilith has learned much within these seven years. It turns out, Lilith is far better at pulling the strings than we ever thought Tyreen was.

Also, when Punk Girl reveals that she’s a spy for the Alliance (likely mid-game), this happens:

Tyreen screaming “YOU BITCH” amongst other horrible things and ECHOing up Punk Girl to verbally abuse her for hours, which continues through the rest of the game.

Troy trying to gently persuade his youngest sister to “Please come back” and “I don’t want to kill you”, attempting to smooth-talk her back into supporting the Cult. He keeps on ECHOing her gift baskets.

The twins arguing with each other over the fate of Punk Girl. Which, if done right, could potentially lead to a civil war within the Cult…

And to think it was all over a nice girl in a cool band.

Of course, both Troy and Tyreen are trying to kill the Alliance still, they’re just now divided over the fate of the girl and who’s gonna get the power of the vaults.

Which would add a human layer to it all- in the end, it’s just two selfish children squabbling over some big, universe-shattering toys. Albeit with billions of lives ended in the crossfire.

The war predicted by the Watcher was terrible. Zarpedon said so as well.

And, honestly, nothing’s more brutal and vicious than a civil war several galaxies-wide.”

[It was at this point that I absolutely lost my shit (in a good way) bc goddamn bro]

“Ideally, Tyreen goes out of her way to harass, demean and try to ruin poor Punk Girl’s life, and the [Crimson Raider] Alliance have to help her stand emotionally as Punk Girl undergoes a truly horrible campaign of cyberbullying, physical assault, very violent death threats and actual attacks on her band members. Tyreen mobilizes all her loyal followers to just try to hurt Punk Girl on whatever way they can.

Troy is a little different. He’s supposed to represent the streamer who manipulates fans into giving him what he wants, or scams folks by pretending to be disabled or whatever. Or the handsome fellow who’s a total self-centered jackass on the inside, but charms many people’s hearts nonetheless. So he tries to subtly brainwash Punk Girl into returning over to the Cult, and sweet-talking her to try and get her back on his sides. He’s like the caring, warm big brother on the surface, but really he just wants a new loyal sibling at his side, someone he can control far more easily. Troy’s promises are extremely alluring, his followers appear to be proposing an alliance with the Raiders (which Lilith refuses at all costs) and it’s going to be difficult for Punk Girl to resist his brainwashing techniques and honeyed words.

Basically, protect Lilith’s most treasured and loyal agent, including asking out Atlas and maybe other friendly corporations for favors to protect Punk Girl and her bodyguards (the new VHs). Bonus points if Punk Girl really is a latent Siren or something, and her power has to be safeguarded.”

[So, we know the unknown Sirens (there are two atm) are, if we understand Siren powers correctly: 12 and 7 at the time of bl3.

HOWEVER. It’s been stated by Danny Homan that there are multiple ways for someone to receive Siren powers:

The most important part of this exchange is the idea that, in universe, somehow, existing people can become Sirens. Now, I am not sure if this is solely through other Siren powers (Tyreen), or Vault bullshitery, or if they just wake up one day with the tattoos, but according to Homan, it’s definitely possible. In fact, I would go so far as to say the writers are keeping things intentionally vague for this reason.

What I’m trying to reason here is that even if Punk Girl is older than 12 or 7 (odds are she is, if she’s in a band!), she could still be a Siren, just that she got her powers at a later age, like 11 or so, meaning she’d be about 23 or 18 in BL3, respectively]

“If Angel does return, and Punk Girl is going through utter hell thanks to the twins, Angel will be the finest confidant and greatest friend she’ll ever have. Angel went through similar treatment at the hands of Jack, and she’s not going to let another girl with wings get hurt again.

I mean, most of Punk Girl’s story arc would be heartbreaking, as it really seems like the Twins have fully turned their wrath on her rather than Lilith and the Alliance. Luckily, the Vault Hunters are there to act as her shield. Like, whenever you pass her in the ship, your character can give a random line of encouragement in the really tough times she’s going through, or something like that.

And if Punk Girl turns out to be the final Siren after all, Lilith, Angel, and Maya would all ensure that she’d never be hurt like they were in the past.

As the abuse Punk Girl would be receiving is from her own blood relations, [it] would be far more painful for someone to experience.

Now, for how the corporations may get involved, they’ll probably just start by trying to exploit this new galactic-wide civil war (especially as it’s hinted that the Twins do mass brainwashing or something [in the] Psycho character guide), then throwing each others’ armies at their rivals in support of one Twin or another. Although I’d imagine that Atlas and maybe Jakobs would stay out of it. [In addition], the Hyperion analyst in Moze’s ECHO from Commander Lily has dialogue that implies that all the corporations are preparing in case a Second Corporate War breaks out, since the first one essentially made the BL universe what it is now.

There we go, we have the war set up, as entire populations turn on each other, having become psychos pledging undying loyalty to one of the Twins. It’s going to be a mess.

[To end] on a comical level:

Maya: (hugging both [Ava and Punk Girl]) I love my dumpster children.

[Also:]

Tyreen, with this red background and thrash metal playing in the background and “angry war face” makeup: HEY MY WHORE OF A LITTLE SISTER, YOU ARE A [insert hate speech from evil liverstreamer gremlin here].

Troy, in a fancy suit and in a warm armchair with a fireplace roaring behind him: Hello, little sister. You remember the time we played at the beach together? Well… [insert sentimental tale of sibling love and fun here that is really a thinly veiled plea to rejoin the Cult].

That’s it, that’s both their streams from that point on.”

[I don’t have much to add, to be honest. This was great.

I love the whole thing, all the way down to his characterization of everyone involved. I can totally see Tyreen being the loud, explosive one out of the two, with Troy being quieter, but far more manipulative. I think it would contrast nicely with their designs and what people might be expecting from them, especially with how Troy is the big one with his cybernetics and always scowling, and Tyreen is shorter, always smirking and looking like she’s in control. It’d be so funny to see those two roles reversed and I really, really hope that’s the plan. Especially after the reveal that Troy is the one with the braincell lmao.

The idea that this small incident could end up causing a huge, brutal war, not just between the twins, but the corporations as well, is great. We know the Watcher claims ‘war is coming’, and this would help explain what we should expect. It would be very interesting if we needed to pick a side of aid at the start of the fight (i do imagine this will be Troy if The Wild West Pyro’s characterization of the twins is true), then turn on that side once the other is eliminated.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I do!! Massive credit to The Wild West Pyro for literally all of it. It was a really fun read.]

#borderlands #bl3 #borderlands 3 #the calypso twins #mystery punk girl #punk girl

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sports-and-fandoms · 5 years

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*SPOILERS* Star Trek Discovery (s2, ep2): New Eden*SPOILERS*

Hello folks! What did I tell ya last week? I did say I was gonna be back! And I am. Now let’s get on with why we’re all here, the review!

P.S. I actually took notes, lol Hope this will be coherent...

Disclaimer: Um, Spoilers up ahead. Read at your own risk. Some language too...

Ok let’s start from the beginning.

- The Recap: HUGH. That’s all I’m gonna say. Hugh FREAKING Culber! That recap hit me hard in the feels. I can’t be the only one. That was some tough shit. I can’t.

- Spock’s overdramatic ass and his visions. I love that. He is such a Drama Queen™. (BTW, sorry this has nothing to do with the review, but I never knew how to do the ™ symbol before. I have come a long way... So proud of myself *shoulder pats self* *wipes one lonely proud tear*) I love Spock, very much. So the fact that he has been in a PSYCH WARD for God knows how long is kinda disturbing. Like, what is going on? Also, can I just say, as much as I respect his privacy, he should have told his parents that his nightmares were back and that he wanted to admit himself in a psych ward. Now, many of you are probably like “but why? he wants to keep it to himself” Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the man was on a 5 year mission, hadn’t talked to his family in YEARS and that, ya know, a huge part of the known universe was at WAR with 12 tribes of Klingons. If that was my son (thank god he isn’t coz I can’t handle that teen angst/emo mood. Sorry, Amanda.) I would wanna know if he was ok. Sure, he was on a mission on the other side of the galaxy, but that doesn’t mean that he was safe. Does anyone else agree with me here? Just me? Cool.

- Now, before I talk about this next topic, beware, I have a new obsession. I must have a thing for captains. First it was Lorca, now it’s all Pike. I don’t even know what happened. I blame his pretty face, sexy attitude, voice, eyes, and that oh, so perfectly fitting uniform. His ass looks fiiiiiiine, don’t lie.

I love how cocky he is. He’s cocky, but he knows what he’s doing and he cares for his crew. All this makes me love him a lot more!

Anywaaaaaay...

Onto serious matters, Christopher Pike. So, I love the little tidbit about his background. You can see that, although he mentions his childhood being difficult due to his father’s completely opposite topics of teaching at work (I mean talk about a science (aka knowledge) vs religion conundrum), you can see that he’s learned a lot. It’s all very humbling. It also affects his judgement when he’s in New Eden. Not in a bad way, ok maybe, idk. I don’t know what I would have done. He was following protocol, is all I can say. It’s a very tough decision to make. To tell an entire planet (ok, 11 000 people, but still) that what they’ve believed for years is not true and that Earth is actually still around. It’s hard. I appreciate him telling Jacob, tho. Like, the relief on that poor man’s face, it was everything. A few things he said that I really liked: “highway of mushrooms” (I might’ve snorted a little) and “Be bold, be brave, be courageous” (told you I was taking notes). Also, HE QUOTED SHAKESPEARE. LOVE IT!!! Oh my, when he got shot. Damn, I screamed a little... (I though I had more notes on him, but I literally wrote “Pike’s face”, “That ass, tho” and “I love Pike” so, let’s end it here... )

- Tilly, our gorgeous Queen™ (I will never stop using it). Girl keeps saving everyone’s asses over and over again. She’s perfect. The hero I never knew I wanted, but that I desperately needed. Love her. I love how she was willing to put her safety to risk to help Paul. I love her. She is so soft™ (what did I say?). She is so smart. I’m actually kinda worried about her. This whole hallucination thing is kinda scary. She better be ok, tho.

- Paul said that he saw Hugh in the Mycelial Network (as we remember). He says, and I quote, “Nothing is truly gone. Life is eternal”. Y’all know what that means. Hugh and Lorca are probably (hopefully) gonna be back.

I really missed seeing the Discovery jump. It was great!

- Saru “You never forget your first”. Can we just- You know what, never mind. Not gonna comment. I love him. And there’s also “I put a lot of responsibility on these slender shoulders”. I love it. His lines are perfect. He’s such a great Captain.

- Michael and Chris’ interactions are GOLD. “Don’t make me laugh.” “I was raised on Vulcan, we don’t do funny.” *makes him laugh*

Next week’s episode:

- Sarek’s ship.

-Spock might be back. Maybe?? idk...

-Klingons and Ash. That’ll be fun. I missed Ash. Can’t wait to see our favourite couple’s reunion.

Final Thoughts:

Ok, I’m not dying. This sounds kinda ominous, but don’t worry, I'll be back next week lol

Anyway, It was really great. I loved the bond of the crew with each other. Love Michael. Love Tilly. LOVE Pike. I really love everyone. I’m glad that they used another crew member, Lt. Owosekun, to build on to her character. I wanna see more of that. I like Pike and Burnham’s friendship/bond. I think this was a solid episode. I wanna see more of the other characters and I wanna know more about Pike. I know that it won’t happen right away (I hope it doesn’t coz then it’ll be boring) so I can’t wait to see and learn more about him.

If any of you want to discuss this episode, send me a message! I would love to talk more about this!

Until next week, folks!

#star trek #Star Trek Disco #Star Trek Discovery #star trek disco spoilers #season 2 episode 2 #New Eden #Spoilers #Chris pike #Christopher pike #michael burnham #saru #tilly #sylvia tilly #™#queen #sarek #spock #Hugh Culber #paul stamets

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limitededitionsanderssidesblog · 6 years

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Speech Impediment - Chapter 12

Ships: logicality, prinxiety, platonic dlamp

Summary: Virgil reveals a bit of his past to Dexter, just enough for him to understand his friends pain. Afterwards Dexter confronts his family.

AO3 - Here

Chapter One Previous Next

TW: past suicide, mentioned parent abandonment, chocking.

“Why didn’t they love me?!”

The night was already quiet around them, the only sound provided being the wind howling against the windows. The freezing temperatures outside began to seep into the vehicle as the heater had been turned off when Dexter removed the keys from the ignition. Virgil shuddered in his seat, most likely from more than just the cold. Dexter had to get them out of there and to a better location.

Getting out of the car, Dexter went around and opened the door for the other, helping him out and escorting him to the dorms. Asking where he wanted to go, Virgil murmured in a hoarse voice that he wanted to go to his dorm room, so Dexter took him there. The room was empty, Roman still being at work, and shy of any warmth. So it wasn’t too much better than where they had been previously. The building didn’t have heaters, meaning that the students had to buy them themselves. Helping him to sit down on his bed, Dexter went over to the long, cylindrical heater and turned it on high.

By the time he turned around to face him again, Virgil had already gotten under his covers and curled up in a ball, hidden from sight. Dexter smiled sadly and walked over, sitting down gently beside the blanketed ball and resting a hand on what he thought, and hopped, was his shoulder.

“Virgil?” He called out quietly, “Are you feeling bad?”

He was answered by a unhappy whine.

“You know you can’t talk to me right?”

The anxious emo didn’t respond and instead just curled up more on himself, Dexter, not wanting to push his friend out of his comfort zone, made himself comfortable and pulled out his phone and opened the YouTube app, putting on a vine compilation. If there was anything he knew would cheer Virgil up, it was vines.

“Hey bro what do you want to eat?”

“The souls of the innocent.”

“A bagel.”

“No!”

“Two bagels.”

A muffled chuckle came from under the covers.

“He doesn’t deserve you. If he doesn’t treat you right by now, you’re gone.”

“I’m gone!”

“Now go chop his dick off!”

The vines continued on, and so did the soft giggles. After about ten minutes of the first vine compilation, Virgil poked his head out of the covers. Soon after, he was sitting side by side with Dexter watching the vines, his manner becoming more relaxed and his tears dried. About forty minutes of mindless entertainment had passed until he was finally calm and sure enough to talk.

“Thanks Dee.” He murmured tiredly as he rested his head on Dexter’s shoulder, exhausted from his emotional episode.

“Do mention it.” The sneky boi replied, “Feeling worse?”

“A bit.” Virgil shrugged, “Just... just remembered something is all.”

Dexter looked sideways at the older, but slightly smaller, student, noting the distant and sad look in his eyes,

“Do you not want to talk about it?”

Virgil stayed quiet for awhile more, appearing to be at a miniature war with himself over whether or not he wanted to speak. Dexter waited patiently until he decided what he wanted to do.

“Long fucked up story short: my dad left when I was ten, my mom killed herself when I was thirteen, and I lived with my homophobic grandparents until graduation.”

Well shit, what was he supposed to say to that? Whatever explanation he had cooked up in his mind was nothing compared to that, now he’s going to look like an uncaring asshole if he doesn’t speak up fast-

“Wow.”

FUCKING PERFECT!

Virgil gave a halfhearted chuckle, completely different from the one earlier.

“Yeah, it’s not your typical story... but it’s mine. Guess we can be fucked up together, right?”

“I’m not fucked up?” Dexter echoed, well, tried to anyway.

“Yeah, I mean look at you!” Dexter faltered and looked down at himself, trying to find the flaw that Virgil saw. Realizing how he sounded, Virgil quickly backtracked, stuttering an apology. “N-n-not that there’s anything wrong with you, you’re a great person. I just meant that your family is a bit fucked up.”

“Is that why you didn’t yell at my mother?” Dexter questioned, feeling relieved that it was him that Virgil saw as a mistake.

“Yeah... seeing her act like you were... some kind of monster really pissed me off. I mean you were just hugging your sister! Why the fuck did she have to act like that?!”

“I’m aloud to be around her. That wasn’t the rule ever since she was born.”

“It’s a fucking stupid ass rule! You’re family not a stranger. A family should accept one another, stick it out through the bad, encourage each other and lift them up, no matter the flaws. At least that’s what I always thought. Not really how mine turned out either.”

“I haven’t gotten used to it, it’s never been this way-”

“But it shouldn’t have to be! Just because shit happens doesn’t mean everything needs to be shit. Fuck your parents, if they don’t treat you right by now, you’re gone.”

Dexter looked over at Virgil, and saw that the other was smirking at him. It took a moment, but eventually his brain processed what he needed to say next.

“I’m not gone.” He whispered, grinning as well.

“Now go chop their dicks off.”

The next day Dexter sat through several meetings with his parents and professors. His little sister Daisy often sat to the side while they talked, watching some kid show to pass the time on her tablet as she waited. The conversations with his Anatomy and Calculus professors went fairly well. Professor Mraz noted his early struggle with calculus at the beginning of the semester, but praised his tenacity and hard work with the subject to be able to come out with a B+ on the final. His parents seemed pleased enough that he was doing well.

The tricky part came at around three in the afternoon when they pad a visit to Professor Sharps’s room. Her room was so obviously a writing class, Dexter could only hold his breath and pray to God that his parents wouldn’t take too much notice. Miss Sharp was sitting at her desk when they all walked in, working on some kind of paperwork as she waited for them to arrive. Dexter had made sure to give all his professors a few hours notice prior to each meeting.

Her long ginger hair was pulled back into a french braid and she was wearing one of her favorite green dresses with a red blazer. Seeing the family walk in, Miss Sharp rolled her wheelchair over to greet his folks, each with a handshake and a polite hello.

“Hello, I’m Professor Sharp, your son’s Classic Literature teacher.” She introduced herself, giving a small wink and a smile towards Dexter, which he returned.

“Hello Miss,” His father replied, shaking her hand, his mother doing the same next, “I’m James Woodbrooke, and this is my wife Katrina.”

“How do you do?” She greeted with a smile.

“Simply splendid I solemnly suppose.” She giggle as she spoke, “That’s an alliteration, a little exercise I like to do with my students because it helps with- their study of classic literature!” Miss Sharp quickly corrected herself from spilling the beans. Dexter could find any fault with her however, she was a writing enthusiast after all. Trying to turn her switch off is as easy as lifting ten tons of bricks. That was an oxymoron.

“Hm, well I came here to ask about Dexter’s performance in your class. Has he been... behaving well? Been a decent student?” James asked delicately, trying not to appear suspicious in his concern. Miss Sharp’s eyes furrowed ever so slightly at his question. She glance over at Dexter before she answered, making him squirm a little in embarrassment.

“I like to think of Dexter as my best student. He is always here on time, never misses a day, is well prepared, and fully attentive during lectures and interactives. His grade is the highest in the class and is work is commendable.” She answered curtly, holding herself with a firm stance, not breaking eye contact with his father. His father huffed and crossed his arms, apparently not impressed in the slightest.

“Well he did say he wanted to be an English teacher. Still, with his disability I don’t he’ll be able to make it very far in the field.” James said nonchalantly.

“With his abilities I believe Dexter will exceed in this field.” Miss Sharp wheeled herself back slightly, smoothing out the creases in her blazer, still not once breaking eye contact. “We met, we discussed, we concluded. I could do this forever, but time is money. Work will not wait. Anaphora, Hyperbole, Metaphor, and Alliteration.” She grinned widely, enjoying the offending face of her mother, and annoyed look of his father. “Don’t have a good day.”

His parents busted out of the doors shouting in anger, screaming complaints about her audacity to speak to them that way. In fact, they were so angry that they didn’t even notice that Dexter was holding hands with Daisy as they walked after them. He savored every moment of contact he had with his sister, and so did she, knowing that this would be a rarity for them.

Once they all climbed into Dexter’s buggy, directing them to take him to a decent place for dinner, their shouts became loud, angry talking.

“That woman thinks she knows our son? She must be just as insane if she thinks he could ever exceed.” His father scoffed, “Why are you even in school? I thought you were going to work at the shop with me.”

“I thought it would be a bad idea to have a backup career.” Dexter mumbled next to him, trying to not let his words sting and focused on the road.

“It is a bad idea. Maybe if you could talk correctly I’d be okay with it, but how the hell are you going to teach with your impediment?”

“James please, we’ve discussed that Dexter isn’t just cut out to be a mechanic. That’s why you’re training his cousin, remember?” His mom said from the back seat.

“Whatever.” He grumbled.

The restaurant he had taken them all to was a personal favorite of Logan and Patton called Romello’s Italian Restaurant. The two often went here on their dates and would sometimes bring back leftovers form him and the others to share. The clam linguine was to risk death for and he’d definitely be getting it tonight.

The four of them sat at a booth, Daisy and his mother on one side, and him and his father on the other. Dexter suspected it was to keep him away from his sister. Conversation would have been nonexistent if it wasn’t for Day, the little girl loved to talk the ear off of anyone who would listen to her rambled about what element Neptune’s atmosphere is comprised of and all the like. And at the moment, they had no chance but to listen, as neither he nor his parents budged.

The server came with their drinks and took their orders, leaving them to, once again, listen to Day talk about everything she knows about space. It seems that his little sister already knew what she wanted to be, and she claimed that she’d be the first human to reach beyond our solar system.

It wasn’t until their bread sticks were brought over that she had quieted down, shoving her face full with the snack. His father decided to take the opportunity to speak.

“Dexter, I think you should drop Professor Sharp’s class,”

“James,” His mother spoke in warning, but was ignored.

“She’s filling your head with delusion. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was mentally ill as well.”

“James,”

Dexter shifted uncomfortably in his seat from cheek to cheek. Daisy watched curiously as she ate, filling her mouth with an amount of bread beyond what any small child should consume at once.

“But I don’t love her class. I thought-”

“That isn’t important, this woman is filling you head with... fantasy. You’ll only raise your expectation beyond your capabilities.” James argued, focusing solely on his son. For once, his mother did too, not watching Daisy eat all of their appetizer.

“If you love the class so much, perhaps you could simply request a different professor next semester?” Katrina suggested, trying to be the mediator in the family. “Whatever Sharp is telling you isn’t true, and you know better than to lie, right?”

“Mother please, Professor Sharp is the worst in her subject. You wanted me to not have a good education.”

His mother sighed and rubbed her temple, looking exhausted. No one noticed, but Daisy suddenly stopped eating.

“It’s ‘best’, Dexter, and yes I do want you to have-”

Daisy interrupted the conversation, slamming her hands on the table. James was about to scold her for being indecent, but then noticed that something was wrong. The three of them all turned their attention to Daisy, her little, plump face was turning blue and her small hands pulled at her throat. His little sister was chocking.

“Daisy!” The three of them shouted simultaneously, hopping out of the booth and surrounding her.

“It’s the bread!” His mother said in panic, pushing the girl out from her booster seat.

“Obviously, do something!” His father demanded, looking frightened and unsure of what to do. Katrina wrapped her arms around Daisy’s stomach and started to squeeze her, having no effect. Daisy started to become worse, and looked as if she was about to black out. The staff were on their way to help, but Dexter acted first. If she passes out while chocking, it’s very likely she’ll die before an ambulance arrives.

Pulling Day from his mother’s hands he positioned the thumb of his fist slightly over her bellybutton, grasped his fist with his other hand, and thrust multiple times. It took several attempts, but after about twenty seconds of trying, a wad of soggy bread fell onto the ground. Daisy gasped for air and coughed horribly. Dexter let out the largest breath of air ever in relief.

“Daisy!” His mother said joyously, wrapping her arms around her daughter loosely to allow her room to breath. His father kneeled down and hugged the both of them. Families and groups around them cheered, all apparently having witnessed the scene and had been just as worried.

Standing from the floor, Katrina lifted Daisy up on her hip, and his father stood by his side. He placed a hand on Dexter’s shoulder and stared at him for a moment, then pulled him into a hug.

“Thank you for saving your sister.” He murmured into his son’s shoulder. “You knew what to do when I didn’t, perhaps you have more abilities than I thought.” Dexter had the largest smile on his face because he was certain that was the closest his father has ever came to complimenting him. “You can stay in your class. Although maybe you should be a doctor.”

Dexter chuckled lightly, “Yes, I’d still like to be a teacher.” He lied.

Their meal was free that night, and apparently for the next year as well. They were all still a bit shaken however, so they had their dinner to go and went back to the hotel, and this time the invitation was extended to him as well. They sat together and watched the Hallmark specials until late in the night.

His parents still hadn't fully accepted him, but Dexter was patient and decided not to say anything. After all, they had promised to pay his tuition if he graduated, and he wasn’t about to pass up on that opportunity. He’d tell them one day, and now that day felt just a little closer.

His parents allowed him to spend the night over with them, having him share the bed with his little sister, no longer visibly upset about the two of them talking to or being with each other. If this was his late Christmas gift, it was the best they had ever given him.

His family flew home the next morning.

Yep, hi.

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medea10 · 4 years

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My Review of Kaguya-sama: Love is War

How did I get into this anime? It was about time to do it as this was one of the best animes to come from the winter 2019 anime line-up (after Dororo and The Promised Neverland). Now let’s hit…

Hold it Medea! Weren’t you supposed to review Darker Than Black for your Aniplex pick?

Ah, yes…THAT anime. I watched it. I finished it. It was a mind-fuck. I bailed on the review. And while I’m at it, I’m also not reviewing Psycho Pass 3, Violet Evergarden, or A Certain Scientific Accelerator. Onto Kaguya-sama!

Shuchiin Academy, once a school for students that are well-off financially. Nowadays, it’s still that, but even commoners can attend. And one such student is a boy by the name of Miyuki Shirogane, who in just his first year managed to obtain the top spot at the school with the position of Student Council President. By his side is his vice president, Kaguya Shinomiya. This girl comes from extreme wealth and excels in many fields including art and music. The students here revere these two as being the best of the best. And also…they make a great couple!

Pump the brakes here, pal. These two are NOT a couple. As a matter of fact, both characters end up playing 3D chess in their brains to try and take the other person down with mind games if even the slightest topic involving love is brought up. Both Kaguya and Miyuki already have feelings for the other, they just won’t admit it. The first person to admit love will be considered the loser in this war. And both of these characters are stubborn to the point of…oh my god!

THESE TWO ARE TSUNDERES! I’ve seen animes where only one person is the tsundere in the couple. But what happens when they’re BOTH tsunderes? Well…it took over 20 episodes for Taiga on Toradora. It took over 4 seasons for Louise on Familiar of Zero. But those two animes had only ONE tsundere. This anime has TWO. We might be here for a while!

Well, let’s watch who wins and who loses in the game (or war) of love!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Aniplex of America has a good grip on this anime as they have managed to license the second season before it has aired. Much to my dismay, this anime has not received an English dub. Aniplex of America has released the blu-ray last month ($100+ shipping and handling), but only with Japanese audio/English subtitles. Okay.

Now IF they decide to come back in a few years and dub this series, I have a few thoughts. And don’t say it’ll never happen. FUNimation and Sentai are guilty as fuck of releasing a series with no dub and two years later dropping a dub release just so they can grab extra dough.

I HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN NICHIJOU YOU GRIFTING CRAP-WEASELS!

Anyways, if they decide to do this, I want R. Bruce Elliott to voice the narrator. I don’t give a shit about the rest of the cast, I just want that for the narrator! That’s just my take on that matter. I know this would NEVER happen unless Elliott ends up in L.A. for a few sessions (as he’s mostly stationed in Texas). It’s just that he’s the best person to play a narrator in just about anything. Don’t believe me? Watch Space Dandy and Sgt. Frog and get back to me!

Oh! And just my luck, FUNimation plans on giving this series an English dub. Though it’ll be a while before we see anything due to COVID-19 mess! No rush, take your time. Rest up. Consider R. Bruce Elliot as the narrator. And we’ll see you after we get off quarantine!

The sub version consists of a lot of newer, yet familiar voices. As for Kaguya’s seiyuu (Aoi Koga), this is my first time hearing her voice and so far I’m impressed. I’m also impressed with an anime to have several tsunderes and no sign of Rie Kugimiya, the QUEEN of tsundere anime characters. That shows great dedication, but if she ends up in season two, I’m gonna scream. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Kaguya is played by Aoi Koga

*Miyuki is played by Makoto Furukawa (known for Saitama on One Punch Man, Hatsuharu on Fruits Basket 2019, and Banri on Golden Time)

*Chika is played by Konomi Kohara (known for Miu on Domestic Girlfriend, Fizel on SAO: Alicization, and Kai on Hitoribocchi)

*Yuu is played by Ryouta Suzuki (known for Ryouhei on Tsurune)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Chika. Chika. Chika. Chika. Chika. And did I mention Chika?

Best girl!

SPEAKING OF CHIKA: I found an infectious little song in the form of an ending theme! For one episode, we got an ending theme song featuring Chika.

Chikatto Chika Chikaa♡! I just love it! This should win an award or something!

*several months later*

Thank you Crunchyroll Awards!

Seriously, this ED as well as the OP theme are just so infectious that I constantly go back to replay these two songs whenever I take a break from replaying Black Clover themes (no joke, I love Black Clover themes). The first ending is fine. It’s just that Chika’s special ED was so addicting that I had to mention it once, twice, or more!

SHIPPING: It’s pretty obvious to see that Kaguya and Miyuki are mad for each other. But there are several obstacles in their way. For one thing this is sort of their first love, so approaching this subject is very new. Secondly, both of them are dead-set on the fact that love is a war full of wins and losses. Both Kaguya and Miyuki play these mind-games when something mundane happens like a personality quiz or a weekend activity. They try to trap the other person into saying something embarrassing or admitting to something. Even though it’s so crystal clear that they both are romantically interested in each other!

However, I’m pretty sure Kaguya has lost more battles than Miyuki due to the infamous sick day episode. Sick Kaguya is pretty ballsy getting Miyuki to lay in bed with her.

FUNNIEST MOMENT: You can blame this on the fact that I’m absolutely immature and have the mind of an 8 year old. But there was a moment in mid-season where Chika learns of a specific quirk about Kaguya. Because Kaguya was suppressed when it came to matters of phrases and naughty words, she still finds the word “wiener” utterly hilarious. And so during this whole segment, you’ve got Chika continuously saying the word “wiener”. Then, she goes the extra mile to have other members of the student council like Miyuki and Yuu to say the word. And Kaguya is trying to prevent them from saying it until we just get a barrage of “wieners” and hysterical laughter. I gotta admit that it was one of the funniest moments in this series.

ENDING: A few episodes before the finale, a monumentous moment occurred. Kaguya got sick.

Just go with it!

Whenever Kaguya gets sick, her mind goes into a complete stupor. Her mind is almost that of an infant or small child and once she’s better, she will not remember a single thing that happened. And Miyuki was the poor sap to check on her during that sick day! I’ll cut to the chase and say what went down.

She opens her bed covers and drags Miyuki into bed with her. Now before your mind jumps in the trash, they remained fully clothed…although they both did fall asleep. So, they slept together. Just no intercourse! This kinda lead to a major fight involving a cake, an apology, and a cute moment where Kaguya touches his lip!

Hey, a girl who’s been sexually suppressed her whole life, this is like first base here.

I feel that was a bit of a breaking point to bring up on a count of a lot of the mind games stopped temporarily. Probably because the last two episodes of the season involved summer break! By the looks of it, Chika was having a blast eating so much and Yuu is doing his usual gaming stuff. All the while, Kaguya and Miyuki didn’t really do much during their break. But they promised to all meet up one day to see the fireworks. Unfortunately, that serves to be a daunting task for Kaguya as she’s been heavily sheltered her entire life. Her family (especially her father) never let her do things normal kids take for granted including going out with friends or even walking to school.

In fact, Kaguya’s plans of meeting up with Chika and others to go shopping were cancelled due to Kaguya’s father calling her to the main house…for literally nothing. Add to that, the family saw it in THEIR best interest to not allow Kaguya to leave the house to see the fireworks with her friends. But Kaguya decided to defy those orders! She gets her servant Hayasaka to disguise as her if any other servants come in and escaped her house. Yuu, Chika, and Miyuki were all in an agreement to save Kaguya…just not on the same wavelength. Kaguya on her own ended up missing the firework show. But once Miyuki found her, he took her and they went on a small adventure to another prefecture to see another firework show. But it could be cutting it close due to traffic and the show was reaching its end. Thankfully, they made it! Kaguya was finally able to see the fireworks with her friends.

It’s just that Kaguya didn’t pay attention to the firework show…she stared at Miyuki the whole time!

In the final segment of episode 12, Kaguya and Miyuki kinda realized how dorky they were the night of the firework show. Kaguya let her guard down so many times that night and spent the entire firework show staring at Miyuki. Meanwhile, Miyuki thought he sounded stupid when he took Kaguya to the show. We get one final mind-game between these two until it ended with Miyuki almost saying something and Kaguya chases him down while the end credits play on in the background.

Will either one of them say how they truly feel about the other? Who will win? Who will lose?

…Guess we’ll find out in a few days when season two airs!

This was an entertaining anime! It’s like if Death Note were a rom-com instead of a thriller. Both Kaguya and Miyuki have a similar mind-set to Light Yagami when it comes to the game of love. They both have the hots for each other and both refuse to admit it first. But thanks to key moments including Kaguya’s sickness and the firework saga, there’s been definite progress with these two letting their guards down. But they’ve got a long way to go! I mean, these two are major tsunderes meaning they’re going to suppress their wants and desires with the opposite sex with these ridiculous mind-games. So…we might be here for a while before any one of them admits their feelings. But I say give it a watch! It’s not that long of a series and it’s still fairly new so it’s still open for more sequels and side-projects before losing its luster.

Currently, this anime is available for streaming on Hulu, Crunchyroll, and FUNimation.

And stay tuned for the second season exclusively available on FUNima…You guys are really pissing me off with your exclusivity!

Okay, I managed to finish this baby up quite quick. What’s the next Aniplex title I’m going to watch?

Picture it, Medea. Osmosis Jones but…

Cells at Work?

That’s great. I’m also not reviewing this one. I have my own reasons for not reviewing this. So let’s hit the randomizer button again because as of this date, I finished Cells at Work.

Lord El-Melloi…I’M NOT READING ALL THAT SHIT! Sum it up quickly!

It’s Fate, but with Waver Velvet.

Jesus “Tap Dancing” Christ, it’s another Fate series! I’m not reviewing anything Fate! It’s a cluster-fuck of a series! Don’t get me wrong, I love Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works as much as the next dip-shit, but the franchise is a pile of cluster bombs and I can’t make heads or tails of any of this. Regardless, I finished that hot mess as well.

Okay you picky-ass bitch, how about the best animated anime of the 2010’s?

Demon Slayer!

Now that’s more like it! But I will still fight to the death that best animated goes to Violet Evergarden!

#anime review #kaguya-sama: love is war #kaguya-sama wa kokurasetai #kaguya shinomiya #miyuki shirogane #chika fujiwara

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