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#i’m like… 5 episodes in now? and so far I’ve yet to see what any of you mean. it’s great

pendragonsclotpole · 4 months

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i’ve been keeping up with dominic noble’s lost in adaptation series for pjo, and i just finished watching his review of episode 8. he made a point of saying that he didn’t consider the tv series an offense to the book, and i’m glad he did because i think a lot of show fans hear the criticism that some books fans have of the show and misunderstand why we’re so upset.

i think the tv series is a good, decent adaptation that attempts to appeal to a younger audience/an audience as young as the book series first readers when it was published. it modernizes a few things (shoutout to that completely unnecessary scene of sally listening to olivia rodrigo), expands on a bit of the central characters, updates the relationships the gods have with their children, and keeps the spirit of the original series, if not always the execution.

i think if the tv show had come out in 50+ years, long after a book accurate and beloved adaptation had come out, the show would be a fresh take on a classic children’s story a la lotr. but the issue is that the last adaptation came out close to 15 years ago and while it was good and entertaining for a blockbuster movie, it wasn’t percy jackson.

it wasn’t the story we got to see and get to know: a complex tale of parental neglect, greek gods and mythology, and most importantly—a young, misunderstood boy trying to navigate the complexities that arose from the circumstances and consequences of multiple sets of beings, far more powerful and older than him, trying to control him and take away his agency, all because of the circumstances of his birth, which were not his fault and which he didn’t ask for. sure there was magic, sure there a suspension of disbelief, but at the heart of the story there was enough darkness and realness for the story of the book to mean something.

we spent years listening to rick riordan promise us that he would find a place to create a faithful adaptation of the book. but he didn’t. and that’s okay, because at the heart of it all, he wrote pjo to appeal to a set of kids younger than i am now and closer to the age i was when i first met percy jackson. i understand the dozens of fans that love the show, even the book fans that enjoy it as an adaptation, but to me, the girl who admired the brutality of sally jackson turning the man who abused her to stone, who loved the emotional complexity of a dad who could never quite say the right thing to his own child and always left them feeling so disappointed and like a mistake and alone, who never quite fit in with the other kids and felt unwanted, who wished she had some sort of powers and the capacity to rebel against the forces older and more powerful that controlled her, i just can’t love the show as much as i love the books.

i know what i just wrote sounds weird. no, i don’t want to essentially kill and turn any men that may harm or abuse me to stone (tho people if you get the chance, godspeed). but i do love the idea that sally when given the choice, had the power to petrify a man who likely petrified her. she made her choice to get rid of him. she made a choice many women or victims of abuse in general don’t often get a chance to make, and it was presented in such an unrealistic way, in the guise of a medusa’s head, that it felt even more real. i love that a man that is meant to be from an idolized and integral part of your mother’s past, who in many ways is a god, can be a horrible father and partner, and say the wrong things and never be enough. i love the idea that we can all be tempted by the wrong things but eventually make the right choice and be the hero we needed all along.

i think i’ve rambled long enough, and i hope you all can understand what i mean. obviously some of the points i mentioned have yet to be adapted. i hope the show gets to bring to life all 5 books and potentially even beyond. i think the tv show is good, funny, entertaining, a little slow at times, and not enough action or tension. i love leah, walker, and aryan as annabeth, percy, and grover. i think the designs are beautiful. i think it is a good adaptation and i think with a rewatch it’ll grow on me, but it just isn’t the percy jackson i grew up with. maybe that’s on me. maybe i’ve grown up idolizing a book series and appreciating what it meant to me, instead of reading it and appreciating it for what it is: a children’s series. maybe the tv show and book series are mediums meant for other kids and new audiences to enjoy. in which case, enjoy them. i’ll still watch along to see some iteration of the books i love be brought to life, and to appreciate a good show but a part of my heart will always yearn for a faithful book adaptation.

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chalicedefinite · 4 months

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I have been on this tag since day one and the majority of the posts and blogs I've seen adore Louis. Pointing out canonical traits like him actively lying in Canon books and now the show as well is not being hateful or disrespectful. Saying episode 5 and the whole tale infact being revisited is Not fans of lestat being apologists. It is what Anne Rice canonically did with the Vampire Lestat and the books that followed. Louis is loved widely in this tag. Lestat is being hated on as a result of the villainous portrayal in season 1 which again Canonically is a tale (not a true one) being told both in books and in the show. A lot of people however took it too far with the lestat hate and started calling anyone who liked him names and then people starting to fight back and the rest is how we got to here. If there is no understanding to fans of both characters the two most loved characters in the show -who at the end of the series canonically end up together- then what the hell is the point of being in this Fandom in the first place? Please don't take this as a personal attack it wasn't meant as one but as another person's experience and thoughts of the fandom so far.

I’m going to be honest I find this very hard to believe that it was only just about liking Lestat.

I’ve gotten more hate and vitriol from Lestat fans ever since I’ve joined this fandom. I’ve never talked bad about his character and I make it very clear on my blog that I love him and that he’s my favorite character both in the show and in the books. And yet, because I calmly engaged with a popular blog’s theory about episode 5; everyday I wake up to hate in my inbox that I have to delete. Lestat fans have been nothing but disrespectful to me for no reason.

Im a Lestat fan myself and I talk about how much I love him all the time it seems and I haven’t been once called a racist. I’ve had anons accusing me of hating Lestat but never ones accusing me of racism. This is the second time someone has told me that Lestat fans are bullied for liking him when all I’ve seen and experienced thus far is the exact opposite which begs the question: Is it really because you like Lestat or is it something deeper that other people picked up on but not you yourself? 3. How is anyone’s rational response as a human to someone calling them racist for liking Lestat is to deny the systemic oppression of black people? This is the main thing that doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. How did we go from, “Users were attacked for liking Lestat” to “So a bunch of blogs are now starting to agree with and talk about how reverse racism is real.” I’ve gotten attacked for liking characters before and my reaction to that is blocking whoever is causing trouble and ignoring them. I got harassed to hell and back in the Voltron fandom for defending and liking Allura and never at any point was I thinking about how affirmative action is the real systematic evil plaguing society. If this kind of thinking was always in the back of certain people’s head as they were analyzing the show then it’s safe to say that people weren’t mad at them just because they liked Lestat. You can not properly analyze a show where a black man talks about how he was systematically oppressed for being black when you don’t even believe in systemic oppression yourself. How can you sit down and watch this show where Louis is constantly being put down by the white people around him, where he has to pretend to be his husband’s chauffeur, where you see white people burning a black neighborhood, where Louis and Claudia cant even sit next to Lestat and have to sit at the back of the bus and come out of it thinking that reverse racism exists in our society? Louis is the age of a lot of black people’s great grandfather, what he went through was not that long ago and the society he lives is still alive today.

4. What purpose would it serve narratively to have Louis and Claudia lie about episode 5? I’m leaving this question here because the last time I tried to have this discussion it led to anons hounding me.

#Ask #interview with the vampire #iwtv

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mrs-monaghan · 1 year

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Hey I’m new to bts and I love Jikook although I don’t believe they’re a couple yet because. My friend advised me to watch the original bts content before watching the shipper videos because they’re misleading. I’ve been watching all vlives, bang tan bombs, award shows, Bon voyage, and ITS. When I watched all those, I noticed that Jimin gives Tae more attention than any other member, I noticed that Jk gives Jin, and Tae more attention, V gives Jimin and Jhope more attention. I also noticed that the way Jikook communicate is normal and nothing suspicious about it. I then decided to watch Jikook videos because I accidentally watched one when I was searching for Jimin’s song serendipity and came across the Jikook serendipity analysis. I’m now in the rabbit hole. I came across your page and you talked about “the news article that was ready to out Jkk’s relationship back in 2018”. I just wanted to know where you heard that and if there is any proof because I’m a person who doesn’t dwell on conspiracies but rather proof. Another thing, did they really get married because most of the videos mentioned how they got married during their trip to Tokyo. Another thing, are there any pictures of them hangout and living together. Thank you.

You watched BV and noticed Jimin gives V more attention? You watched original content and noticed that JK gives V and Jin more attention?

I am so confused as to what you're talking about. I would bite if u said JK giving Jin more attention but V? What exactly are u watching? Are you sure its not that shipper content that you say you're avoiding? Specifically tkk content? Which ftr you will rarely find Jikook manipulated content. I'm not saying it doesn't exist but its rare. We don't need to manipulate. They give us everything on a silver platter.

I shared the dispatch thing not long before this scroll lower u will see it. No, Jikook are not married. They can't be married. And even if they did it wouldn't be recognised in SK. And at the time of them going to Tokyo, Japan hadn't recognised gay marriage yet. Jikook married as far as I know its something Jikookers like to say coz they act like a married couple. But they have been spotted with matching rings on more than one occasion which is a reason for suspicion.

I already don't like u from your V comment but sure let's look at a few things.

I always bring this up because no one ever talks about it but I honestly love it so much and it really tickled me.

BV season 5 episode 6. Vmin sleep on the bed

JK makes the bed the next morning. Because Jimin is one spoilt boyfriend, alright? But when Vmon slept on that same bed, JK told them

JK definitely favoured Jimin over V there anon.

Run BTS episode 71 JK makes a big pancake for Jimin because he had a penalty to do

The kicker is though, anon. That Jin too was doing the same penalty.

Why didn't JK make him a pancake too? Doesn't that seem like JK played favourites with Jimin and not Jin? 🤔

In the Soop season 1 episode 6. We found out V asked JK to speak casually with him

But JK refused because;

Meanwhile we have him going Jiminah! Jimin! Jiminssi! Everywhere all the time. So again anon, JK refused V one thing but has no issue doing it with Jimin.

Bon voyage season 3 episode 4 after Tkk did laundry they went upstairs and JK only checked on Jimin.

He did not check on Jin behind him.

At this point I'm just offended that you haven't picked up on my favourite thing about Jikook and that's satellite Jeon/Jikook. You don't even need compilations to see this. Anything you watch. Anything at all. They are always next to eo. Always.

They're literally always together. And JK always chooses Jimin. Not V and not Jin. Not anyone else. No matter what you watch.

youtube

Me thinks you need to rewatch what you already did because you missed everything.

Like Mizgator said, you're blind if you don't see it

youtube

#ask shaz #bts ask #satellite jeon #jimin and jungkook #jikook #kookmin #minkook #jimin #jungkook #bts #park jimin #jeon jungkook #if jikook isn't real then neither am i #jikook is real #jikook analysis #run jikook #bon voyage jikook

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flickerintwilights · 8 months

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let me preface this by saying that I’m sure someone will come around with a better take or a much better way of saying a similar one, because as I write this I’m mainly running on frustration and spite, and even though I’ve cooled down significantly since the initial watch (believe me lmao) there’s always a chance someone will explain it in a new way that paints the ending in a much better light. but for now I want to get out my salty take on this.

(this is, specifically, about the ending. the finale episode as a whole I’m not salting about.)

the ending is, to start, unresolved. I know people are probably countering this kind of statement by saying that Ahsoka is likely going to get a season 2, so it’s Fine actually, but that isn’t my problem. I’m not really concerned with whether it gets a season 2 or not in regards to this, because my issue is with how the ending is presented, and how in and of itself it doesn’t seem to think it needs a season 2.

we’re saying “of course it does”, because it is unresolved! we know it is! Ahsoka and Sabine are still on Peridea, any arc for Baylan and Shin fell off of a cliff and they end the series/season just being vaguely There also on Peridea, Thrawn has obviously returned but I’m not entirely certain that won’t be resolved in a movie, and Ezra came back but we haven’t seen a true resolution/aftermath for that (yet). There are loose ends. but the finale ends on a hopeful note, on what it clearly wants us to feel is a happy ending.

Ezra is back, but Ahsoka and Sabine are stuck on Peridea in the far-off galaxy, in a reversal of their places in the beginning of the show. Huyang too. Hera doesn’t mention them when Ezra gets back. there’s not even a hanging “Where are they?”. nothing. it is all presented as good, fitting; both Ahsoka and Sabine are apparently satisfied with where they are.

AHSOKA: Ezra is where he needs to be. And so are we. It’s time to move on.

and they smile and walk down to the happy village, while Anakin looks on with a smile on his face. cut to black.

but why are they happy about this? why is Anakin happy about this? just… why. it’s all so fucking inconsistent, downright backtracking on the development from previous episodes, specifically 4 and 5.

parallel to start off:

[Ahsoka takes her lightsaber hilt from her hip, and Baylan responds by doing the same.] BAYLAN: How inevitable. […] BAYLAN: It didn’t need to come to this. But you know no other way. (ep. 4) THRAWN: There’ll be no negotiating with the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker. (ep. 8)

already in ep. 8, Thrawn is making statements so similar to Baylan’s that it has to be an intentional choice, since both are fundamentally ramming the same thing in:

BAYLAN: Your legacy, like your master’s, is one of death and destruction. (ep. 4) AHSOKA: But my part of that legacy is one of death and war. ANAKIN: But you’re more than that. Because I’m more than that. (ep. 5)

death and destruction. Ahsoka’s fear and misbelief that she’s not more than that — that her past defines her, just as Anakin’s mistakes do. that Baylan is right. this fear is what’s holding her back, and the truth — that she is more — is what Anakin is trying to show her in episode 5. and if we go by “I choose to live” and Ahsoka the White etc, he succeeds.

so she’s developed! she’s realized that she isn’t just death and destruction, she’s more! Anakin agrees with this! great, wonderful. episode 8 seems to be taking this up again by having Thrawn tell her very similar things to Baylan, cool, hmm.

THRAWN: I know you because I knew your master. I concluded your strategies would be similar. One wonders just how similar you might become. Perhaps this is where a ronin such as you belongs. (ep. 8)

and then nothing changes. he says his line, meanwhile Ahsoka looks angry and tense but we aren’t actually Told anything specific about how she’s feeling or how she might potentially resolve this new conflict. it’s him trying to dig into her fears, but we never see her get to refute his statement, not to him or Sabine or even Huyang, and not to herself.

no. instead, Thrawn leaves, and Ahsoka and Sabine and Huyang are the ones left behind — but aside from a brief moment of shock, they’re fine. great, even. “perhaps this is where a ronin such as you belongs”, Thrawn says menacingly, and from what the show is telling us — yep. he’s right. hopeful music is playing, she’s smiling, this is apparently meant to be some kind of happy ending for her. therefore: she does, in fact, ‘belong’ here, and there is no need for her (and Sabine, and Huyang) to be brought back to their own galaxy.

and if Thrawn — the antagonist, in the show named for her — is right about that, is he also right that she’s “a ronin”? that she’s just like her master, so much so that he doesn’t even need to know her so long as he knows him? that all the ways she’d been shown to have learned and grown, they all meant nothing, because he’s stating the same shit that she was afraid of and no one says any different? that she will never be more than her past?

the ‘happy ending’ certainly doesn’t say no.

#ahsoka #ahsoka tano #ahsoka spoilers #it’s been several hours now i kind of just feel. tired at this point. idk.#but i did write it and i was Frustrated so. might be worth it to just post even if i end up regretting it #yeah alright #behold salt #ramblings #analysis #parallels #rant #star wars #ahsoka critical #star wars negativity

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abittersweetraisin · 11 months

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It hasn't been only Chloé...

Before season 5 goes cold, there are a couple of things I still want to say. The quality of the writing has affected more than just Chloé. The thing is that it has been way more noticeable in her. And also, people tend to blame it on the characters, as if they wrote themselves.

-Marinette’s friends.

I know I’m not alone in this one. It is annoying how they love and trust Marinette one second, but then Lila opens her mouth and they distrust her right away. It’s a kid’s show, ok. But come on, that’s forcing it too much. And Alya,… please, even after she learned that Marinette is Ladybug, she still trusted more in Lila’s words. Poor Alya, she deserved better. And she seems different. I don’t know what is it. But her personality seems different. Less interesting.

-Adrien.

I bet this section is going to be a very unpopular opinion area. I don’t like at all how all of the sudden he just forgot his feelings for Ladybug. Just from one episode to the other his mind changed to “oh yeah, I now realize I’ve actually always been in love with Marinette”. Excuse me? Just like that? Instead of having all those filler episodes with the akuma of the day, they could had written him slowly falling in love with her.

Something else I don’t like… It seems like in the beginning the writers thought it was funny all the kissing jokes that Chat Noir said to Ladybug. They didn’t read in time all the complains from a portion of the fandom. I hated how his behavior was labeled as a sexual harassment.

In real life if a person tells you to stop you have to stop. Yes, of course. And you don’t have to touch another person for it to become sexual harassment. But that’s the thing, Chat Noir never did any of that. He never tried to force a kiss (like Felix did). He never gave her an inappropriate look (Of course not, it’s a kid’s show. That would had been preposterous.). Yet, the fandom labeled, and I don’t remember having seen a scene where the writers tried to defend him. No, instead we had Gladiator 2, where while he’s shielding them from an attack she just grabs him and throws him to the trash bin. But that was supposed not to be overreacting.

-Marinette.

She and Chloé are the opposite sides of the same coin.

We’ve all seen how the writers have not wasted opportunity to make Chloé as evil as possible. The very same thing has been forced to Marinette, just in the opposite direction. She’s super good. She’s the protagonist, I get it. But, wouldn’t it make the story more interesting and relatable if she weren’t portrayed as so extremely good and perfect? You may be thinking “but she’s made many mistakes”. All her mistakes get easily forgiven, or erased, or justified, or left without consequences or simply used to portray her as a martyr for whom we need to feel sorry. To a certain degree that could work, but it’s been taken too far. And that’s become annoying for many of us. She was funny and endearing back in season 1 and 2.

But as the series progressed…

You may think I’m exaggerating in what I’m saying,… Let’s see:

Chat Blanc. If she hadn’t sneaked into Adrien’s room he wouldn’t had found out, no reveal, no Chat Blanc, no destruction of Paris (and the world?). That reality, those consequences got deleted when she went back in time to erase her message. So, all good. No harm done.

Strike back. She got tricked and got all the miraculous stolen. Ok, that’s a mistake that could had happened to anyone. Still, what happened? Su-Han got on his hands and knees and apologized to her. It was his duty to help protect the miraculous, yes, but why did she need to apologize to her? If there’s a guardian superior to him, then that’s who he should had apologized to for not having taken the miraculous box back in the beginning of season 4. It should had been his responsibility to hand the miraculous to at least young adults. Back then Adrien and Marinette still had time restrictions. Ladybug’s words to Su-Han while he was apologizing: “Fine, fine but please get up. You know, everybody makes mistakes”. One would think that an adult person would know that.

There was a a brief scene in this 5th season where Plagg refers to Marinette as the best girl in the universe. It was one of the latest episodes to be released, but I can’t remember which one it was. I’ll update if I remember or if I get into the mood to go look for it.

I came across a video in youTube that was a title “Why does everyone hate Marinette now?”. It mostly dealt with the lack of consequences for her actions. In my opinion, what I find annoying is how all the characters work to put her in a pedestal. Everything twirls around her and how good she is. There was the story of the Agrestes, but nop. That was a given way less attention than how awkward she felt around Adrien. Or the plans to tell Adrien she was in love with him, etc.

Ladybug and Chat Noir are supposed to be equals. Just alone the placement of their miraculous in Master Fu’s box highlighted that. As someone said, when the mega akumas came up they could had said that his cataclysm would be needed to break the object, but no.

In season 4, Marinette broke Luka’s heart. Then a few episodes later she’s talking to Luka about her feelings for Adrien. That was very insensitive of her. The writers didn’t have time to excuse her behavior in that same season, but of course they addressed that in this 5th season. In the Migration episode she brings out how insensitive it was of her to talk to him about Adrien when she had broken his heart. And what was the reply the writers wrote? “You didn’t break my heart, you enriched it”. Yeah, right, there was no scene in season 4 showing Luka devastated. And just to make extra sure the fandom understood that Marinette is super good the writers had her saying “So,… you’re saying I’m not cruel or pathetic?”. I could almost see Astruc’s face sneaking in “See people? All good!”. This is a good example of what I mean when I say that the characters work to make her look as good asa possible.

I have read some Adrien salt complaining how he does nothing yet he receives the reward. What reward? He’s been demoted to side kick at best. Sometimes he’s a little better than a flowerpot. How many times when Hawk Moth gave his boring little speech he said something like “I will defeat you Ladybug”, completely forgetting there’s supposed to be two of them. And all season 4 he kept being ignored and replaced. That’s a reward?

Just because a character is a main one doesn’t mean that everything needs to be focused on them all the time.

Buffy the vampire slayer. Her name is the show’s name, yet, there were episodes completely focused on other characters. There were things going on with Buffy, but the show also showed what was a going on the lives of the rest of the gang. That made it more rich and interesting.

Same for “Sabrina, the teenage witch”. The episodes were around 20 minutes long, yet they reserved time to show the lives of her aunts and of Salem.

For obvious reasons I had hesitated to make this post. People are bound to think that I’m only writing this because I support the redemption arc that had started with Chloé. But that’s not true. I would be thinking this even if Chloé hadn’t been written in the show at all.

By the way, it seems that the rules of making a wish have changed. I can’t help to wonder and cringe at the thought of how they’re going to handle things in season 6.

#mlb #mlb analysis #mlb salt #mlb writing salt

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makeitastrength · 1 year

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What did you think of the episode?

Honestly, I think it’s one of my favorite episodes so far this season. While Chenford are my fav characters, they’re not the only reason I watch the show, and I enjoyed some of the non-Chenford aspects of this episode too. So many things stand out to me:

I love that no matter how late one of them gets off work, Tim and Lucy spend the night together

The way Lucy smiles into every one of their kisses is one of my favorite things. Our girl is so in love

Supportive Tim! While I do think there’s some complications coming for them, and things definitely weren’t resolved this episode, I love how supportive he is. There is zero doubt in his mind that she’s going to score well and be a kick ass detective

And he’s going to help her study! I loved the callback to 2x02

Along the same lines, I was pleasantly surprised with the continuity in this episode. I didn’t foresee Lucy facing consequences to her 5-player trade beyond the earlier fight with Tim, so that caught me off guard. I’m interested to see how this plays out because I can see it going so many ways

I just wanted to hug Tim at the end of the episode. I always appreciate when the show doesn’t make light of officer-involved shootings and shows the officer dealing with the aftermath. And the fact that Tim was so openly emotional about it in front of Grey really shows how far he’s come

And now we see supportive Lucy as well, just wanting to be there for him and help him any way she can. I don’t know if they’ll carry this storyline into the next episode, but I think it would be great if they do because we all know Tim is not great at asking for help and Lucy is not great at not helping someone when they’re hurting. It could be a good source of conflict for them to navigate

Now for the non-Chenford aspects I enjoyed:

I’ll be honest, I didn’t like Celina at first. I think they came on too strong with her. But as they’ve calmed her down, I’ve gotten to like her. And I think it’s been good for Nolan to be exposed to her point of view and learn to be more tolerant of that, which we definitely saw in this episode

Anyway. I particularly love her backstory so I’m glad this episode explored that more and gave her some closure

And I especially like that she forgave her mom at the end. They set up that story arc for her a few eps back when we learned about the drugs and she immediately blamed her mom. It was nice to see how she’s now come to terms with the fact that addiction is a disease and it wasn’t her mom’s fault

In general, I like the episodes better when they focus on 1-2 storylines and go more in depth, and this episode did that well

There’s probably more but I haven’t rewatched the episode yet so this is what comes to mind. Thanks for dropping by, anon!

#chenford #the rookie #the rookie 5x19

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skye-huntress · 1 year

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The Witch from Mercury Season 2 Reaction

Episode 13: “Envoys from the Earth”

Looks like we’re starting off with back-to-back duels. We did hear from Shaddiq back in episode 10 that the challenges against Suletta were piling up

No. 5 is very animated compared to No. 4. I wonder how many people have wondered if there was something wrong with him

Felsi, Renee and Sabina are now all reps in the duelling committee? I can understand Lauda having other responsibilities from the shot of him in one of the trailers, but why is Shaddiq absent?

“I’d say he is a different person.” She has no idea how accurate that statement is

So Nika is still around but she seems distracted

So Suletta is obligated to accept a duelling challenge once every two weeks but since Shaddiq made extensions on those challenges while Aerial was being rebuilt they were all pushed back. By the sounds of it, the Committee made the exception so they could force Suletta into back-to-back duels hoping to wear her down. It sounds like their MO, they’ve been trying every dirty trick in the book to trip up Suletta since she bested Guel the first time.

Unfortunately for them, the rebuilt Aerial is even more of a powerhouse than she was before, although I still prefer the original look. Plus Suletta has already beaten two of the top duellers and single-handedly wiped out half of the top team in school in what was mostly a 6v1 fight. Really, they’re just helping her to rack up the wins faster

Oh, great, Suletta mentioned the b word. Can we not talk about the b word? I’m anxious enough already

Seems most of the normal people in Earth House aren’t coping too well with what happened and the subsequent gag order. I hesitate to comment on whether the gag order is for the best or not, since there is a lot about the situation we do not know yet, but I can sympathise with Earth House who for the most part live in ignorance. Just for example, how would Chuchu feel if she knew it was Earthians, not Spacians, who nearly murdered her and all her friends?

Suletta seems normal. You wouldn’t know that she’s experienced real combat for the first time, much less killed

Naturally, suspicion is falling on Jeturk Heavy Machinery for colluding with anti-Spacian terrorists. I wonder if the late Vim Jeturk had planned for this or if he really didn’t think this through. Well, he’s dead now so we’ll probably never know.

Zenelli seems to be out for blood, though I’m not sure how much the Group actually care about Delling’s wellbeing and Jeturk’s death. I think this is more about the Group’s egos. Maybe it’s more of a “how dare those Earthian insects attack us” type of deal.

“I would never lie to you, father,” says adoptive son who is constantly going behind his father’s back to pursue his own ambitions.

Shaddiq says he plans to bring his father into his own plan but I have my doubts that will happen. Both of them are pretty stubborn and I suspect they’ll never see eye-to-eye.

So Suletta does have doubts about if she did the right thing, although like I’ve said, in the moment there wasn’t exactly a lot of room for error or hesitation. Still, it’s clear she is asking the wrong person. The amount of trust she places in her mother even on a murky issue like this leaves me uneasy.

I still do not know if Sohpie wants to fight Suletta or f*** her. … It’s probably both.

She can’t even take a normal ID photo. I’m not surprised, I just find it very appropriate

I like how Sophie is so familiar with Suletta right off the bat but put no thought into any kind of cover story for it.

Suletta is just so pure she just goes along with the whole sister thing. I’m now kind of curious to see where this will go. Certainly it’d be a far more interesting love triangle than the one with No. 5

Speaking of, did Suletta actually agree to spend a day with No. 5? I seriously doubt it, considering how confused and conflicted she seemed. It seems like he just sprung it on her hoping that her in her confusion she’d default into just going with him

Whatever the case, I absolutely love that Sophie swooped in and stole his date from him

Girl who squashed a terrorist still gets jumpy around petty school bullies. Yeah, try figuring that one out.

We’re getting a battle royale? If Suletta and Aerial compete, it’s going to be a metaphorical massacre. (If Sophie competes, it will be a literal one)

Nika, did you really think threatening a couple of terrorists was a good idea? Seriously thought she was about to get offed here.

I got to say, I didn’t expect those two to be exposed so soon. You’d think if they’d take such a risk they’d be a little more careful, or at least Norea would

Girl who cowers from petty school bullies faces off against girls she just saw attempt to murder her friend with steely determination

The duelling system is really dumb and these two obviously have every reason not to play along with any dumb rules or laws. Really, they’re just humouring Suletta’s challenge which is deeply troubling.

We really haven’t gotten enough Miorine this episode.

This is the tricky thing about Prospera, just like with her recent talks with Suletta, nothing she said to Miorine is actually wrong. Miorine and her father probably would have died if Suletta had any reservations about harming or killing others. A moment’s hesitation would have made all the difference in that situation, and that would have been something Suletta may have never recovered from

Quiet Zero, Delling’s secret project that Prospera is somehow in on. And she wants to put Miorine in charge, as if she doesn’t have enough on her plate with school, a company, a hospitalised father and a groom possibly conditioned to commit violence. And any project aimed at ending all war is usually the type to result in some apocalyptic tragedy.

#the witch from mercury #g witch #g witch spoilers

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thedemisapphic · 1 month

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I’m throwing this out there really quickly. I’ve made another post asking for help, but this one will be shorter, straight to the point, and more organized. If you would like to help me develop a turtle tot fanfic I’m working on, expand this post to see what’s going on :)

So, I’ve been cooking up a turtle tot fanfic idea for a good while now. Based on the episode we never got where Raph, Donnie, and Leo turn into tots. Except I take that idea, and expand it through the rest of the season. I’m sticking closely to the serious plot of the season with Big Mama, and I’m even redoing a couple other scrapped episodes but in turtle tot form. Each chapter will act like an “episode” with a full story start to finish that whole shabang. I’ve been organizing and developing as much as I can for a month or so, but I’ve hit a dead end. I have lots of ideas, but I’m scratching my head trying to fill them in or develop them more. I haven’t even come up with a name for the fanfic yet, and any chapters without names have emojis as placeholders.

This is what I have so far. If you agree to help I’ll give you access to this doc, and you’ll be able to see the specifics of each chapter. More than one person helped plan episodes and plot for the show itself, so I’m looking for people interested in helping me! You would get credit for any and all ideas you contribute. Let’s say you do most of the work for chapter 16 for example, I would give you that credit for coming up with that mini story.

I think working on Discord or Instagram would be best. The way I want to go about this is just having a space for you to pitch ideas (Google docs), and a separate space for me to bounce ideas off of you (a group chat). I’d like to keep conversations limited to this project, for the sake of my own boundaries and organization. But I would treat you as a mutual and support your work as somewhat of a thank you! :D I don’t talk to people much and I have bad anxiety, so respecting my boundaries is super super super important. I don’t want to feel the need to maintain contact with anyone because that’s stressful, but I want someone there if I need them! 💕 and that doesn’t mean we can never goof off, just don’t set your expectations of me too high. I have no idea how this will go 🙃

If you want to try it out, leave a comment here. Unless this post gets deleted, then this offer is still available. I’m hoping to get at least one person to help me, but I don’t want more than 4 or 5. Just a small team ready to help me tackle the behind the scenes process :) ultimately I will of course be the one to write this. If you have any questions as well, comment them! Someone might have the same question as you and I’d like to answer it here for people to see 🌸

From there, we can talk privately and I’ll send you a link to the Google doc. I look forward to working with someone and getting help bringing this idea to life! :D ✨

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #fanfic #rottmnt fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #help me with this very specific thing nobody probably cares about #i need helppp #turtle tot fanfic #fanfic planning #fanfic help #help? maybe?#i don’t know what other tags to use

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shousimi · 10 months

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Good omens season 2 mini meta

alright good omens I’m not done ranting about the second season yet BECAUSE (spoilers under cut)

There’s a few things that I can’t stop thinking about:

1. Crowley was his happiest this season in heaven

Did anyone see how giggly Crowley is in heaven? He’s smiling, chuckling and jumping around and snorting with Muriel, and then again with Saraqael, and then again when going down the lift.

And I know it isn’t heaven specifically that’s making him giggle: it’s doing something mischievous (just like how he laughs when Aziraphale tells him about the halo thing) but isn’t it ironic? That this is the happiest we see him in the present time, and it’s when he’s snuck into heaven? It’s not heaven itself that makes him happy, but regardless, in this season we see him giggling and in a good mood the longest when he’s in heaven.

2. Aziraphale’s Halo

This is something my sister pointed out, and I don’t want to give more attention to it partly because I don’t want to believe it. But if we think about foreshadowing in this season, Aziraphale literally takes off his halo and throws it down. I know it’s something angels do during war, and the halo is more of a weapon than a symbol. but still, could it be foreshadowing? The immediate worry that he could have caused a war, and how pleased Crowley was by that. If it is alluding to something in the next season, it’s either Aziraphale falling (I hate that idea) OR Aziraphale declaring war, rejecting both heaven and hell as well as his status as an angel.

3. Aziraphale pulls Crowley in for the kiss

I am SICK of no one talking about this (jk). but right on minute 47:00 of episode 6, right before the camera shifts again, Aziraphales hands hover before getting closer to Crowleys back, and then their bodies shift closer together as if by force. I FULLY believe Aziraphale used his hands to pull Crowley in closer before pulling them away in the next shot after realizing what he did.

I’ve rewatched those few seconds so many times that no one can convince me thats not what happened.

4. Aziraphale has been wooing Crowley this entire season

Crowley only realized he was in love with Aziraphale in the final episodes.

I think Aziraphale has known since the start.

He’s been establishing intimacy with Crowley this entire season. For example, why ask to borrow his Bentley now? Like Crowley says, he likes taking the train. And instead of just asking to borrow it, why say that it’s “our” car? Why imply that it’s their bookshop?

He was constantly pushing Crowleys limits to see how far he can get, from the apology dance to borrowing his car and then asking them to dance together.

And Crowley lets him. He does the dance, he lets him use the car (though he’s not happy about it), and he dances with him even though he says he doesn’t dance. Aziraphale has been establishing an “us” from the beginning, and Crowley let’s him, mostly.

Crowley lets him borrow the car, but doesn’t allow Aziraphale any liberties with it. Crowley takes care of his bookshop, and doesn’t sell any of the books. but he also immediately takes his plants out of the bookshop before Aziraphale even has a chance to step inside. I’m sure he’s uncomfortable with Gabriel there, but this is also him asserting his independence, saying no to an “us” implicitly.

5. The ball

“Why were we all dancing?”

“I thought it might make you realize that [Maggie] loved you, and then you’d fall in love with her”

This might be a bit of a stretch, but HEAR ME OUT. What if, what IF, this is what Aziraphale was trying to do but with himself and Crowley?

Think: his ‘wait and see’, keeping the ball a surprise and shooing Crowley out of the shop while he sets up. His weird insistence on creating a perfect atmosphere at the expense of ignoring any and all dangers outside, which he knows can’t enter the bookshop anyways. Crowley is panicking, while Aziraphale literally manufactured a romantic setting and then dragged Crowley to dance with him, excited and giggling. If there weren’t demons outside the bookshop (which Aziraphale didn’t know about yet and was desperately trying to ignore any distractions), and Crowley wasn’t busy panicking, how would that scene have gone differently?

Aziraphale was trying to establish an ‘us’ this whole time, and in the end Crowley was too. But their timing was tragically off.

(6. More in the tags about the metatron btw.)

#good omens season 2 #gos 2 spoilers #gos2 spoilers #go2 spoilers #good omens season 2 spoilers #good omens #also re the coffee theory #I fully believe the metatron did something to influence Aziraphales decision #I also believe the metatron couldnt make Aziraphale have an opinion he didnt already have #The first time in the bookshop where Aziraphale decides to go to heaven is by the metatrons influence #that you cannot convince me out of because he was clearly ready to say no and then for no discernible reason after taking a few steps #he says yes despite looking unwilling a few minutes prior #I believe Aziraphale meant every word he said in that conversation with Crowley #I also believe he only took that deal BECAUSE he believed Crowley would be with him #and that he wouldnt go to heaven if it meant no crowley #the second time he confirms his decision to go to heaven is right before stepping into the elevator #The metatron tells him about the second coming and a miracle sound appears in the background which is NOT the elevator bc that gets its own #sound #he has a realization of sort and looks at crowley while looking unsure #he then makes the decision to step into the elevator but his reason this time is his own #the final decision is him wanting to stop the second coming from the inside #he is unable to communicate this to Crowley however #he didnt know about the plan to end the world again until this moent #Crowleys go to has always been to run away while Aziraphale's has always been to confront the problem head on #I also FULLY BELIEVE that the bentley playing the nightingale song is not just to make us and crowley cry #if Aziraphale wanted to communicate one final message to crowley in a way only they could understand why wouldnt he use the bentley/#and an intimate song only they know the meaning of #it was just so uncharacteristic of him to leave his bookshop with no preparation FOREVER and not take a single thing with him #he hates heavens stifling atmosphere and heaven doesnt like him either #that much is made clear in season 1

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rings-of-power-realm · 2 years

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10 star reviews about The Rings of Power 💚

The first season isn't even finished yet and already I have recommended this show to friends and family more than any previous media. Every episode so far (5 released) have surpassed my expectations, which were fairly high going in. As someone who has read all of Tolkien's published works (some more than I'd care to admit), anyone saying that "Tolkien is turning in his grave" has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. It was always going to be walking a thin line between creative choices and already established canon, but I can see, so far anyway, that they have absolutely aced it. If the show continues to be as great as it has thus far, I can see this being one of the all time great masterpieces of TV history, and for many years to come. It's incredibly rare that I won't have criticisms of some kind, especially for something I am passionate about, and the only criticism I have of the Rings of Power is that I can't listen to the sound track 24 hours a day, because I have to sleep at some stage. Bear McCreary has written a masterpiece worthy of being pinned up on the wall with Howard Shore's work from the Lord of the Rings.

🧝

Don't listen to the negative reviews. Some people have an idea of what something should be in their own mind. I too have read mostly all of Tolkien's books. You form a world in your mind from those words. It's yours it's personal. This show is Magnificent. It's a big bold dive into Middle Earth. Beautifully filmed and acted. The first too episodes are structured in a way to set a scene for the multiple storylines for multiple characters which as the series progresses will merge in to one common fight against the darkness. It's absolutely fantastic and if you don't watch it because of someone's snobby 1/10 then you will be missing out.

🧙‍♂️

I can't believe people who are giving this such negative reviews. Who cares if it's not the way you think it should be portrayed because of your version of what you think you read from his original works. It is fantastically entertaining, incredibly well shot and produced, and while the story lines were slow to get rolling, and I don't necessarily think that some of the characters lineup with how they were portrayed in the Lord of the Rings movies later, it really doesn't matter. These are NEW. I can't wait for each episode to come out, I look forward to watching these every week, and I would love to be able to see all of them in the theater. The first two we saw through a free preview, and I wish I could watch every single episode on a huge screen! Enjoy them for what they are.

🏹

This is the first prequel I have ever seen that was not a disappointment. I love the acting, the faithfulness to Tolkien's vision, the use of reworked ideas/themes/dialogue from the Lord of the Rings, and the compelling worldbuilding. It is important to remember that this is an interpretation, not an adaptation, as this story is based on timelines in the Appendices to LOTR and not on Tolkien stories. Therefore, the showrunners had to invent story arcs and characters to flesh out the story. If they had note done this, then the show would be boring and empty. They did a great job filling in the gaps and told a story that I have already rewatched many times.

🧝🏿‍♂️

I almost didn't watch because of other reviews but I've learned to not even pay much attention to them. This feels just like Lord of the Rings to me. It could actually be its own movie. The acting is great, the scenery and graphics are amazing. I've been hooked and entertained since the first episode! Can't wait to see more.

🗡️

I was putting off watching this for a while but one night I couldn't find anything to watch and I put this on and now I'm glad I did. It's the first thing I look forward to after a long day of work. I think the plot is fantastic. I read a review that said they didn't know where the plot was going but how can you not? It's very easy to follow. I'm in love with the series already.

I am blown away by the quality of this production. There is nothing like it. Although it is not an original story written by JRR Tolkien, it is an interesting one; an important backstory.

Although the story unfolds slowly, like in most series, it has a decent amount of action and suspense. Watch it and indulge yourself in Middle Earth. And about all the criticism... This is my take: To me, there are two Middle Earths. (1) The original one that you have imagined when reading the books. (2) The world created by John Howe, Alan Lee, Peter Jackson, make-up artists, actors, etc., etc. This series fits right into the later one and does it justice.

🍂

Don't believe those fools who are giving bad ratings and negative reviews. I don't know why so much hate for this show. I'm so obsessed with this show right now and have watched all the six episodes non-stop and wanting more soooo badly. I mean the acting, the scenes, the dialogues and above all the VFX are soooo beautiful put together that will make your mind blown by this masterpiece. I've really enjoyed and didn't look away for a second while watching. It really took me to the place where I couldn't have imagine in my dreams. Please guys stop giving the bad ratings and reviews to a show like this one. This show deserve all the love and not the hate. We all should appreciate the work and efforts put in this show.

🔮

I think this prequel was beautifully done. The visuals are stunning, and story is excellent. There is a very satisfying last episode of season 1. I'm excited to see more. I had no problem adjusting and accepting the younger version of known characters, specifically Galadriel and Elrond. I think the acting and writing felt true to Middle Earth. I'm a fan of the books (Hobbit, LotR and The Silmarillian) which I read before the movies were released. I'm thrilled to have new Tolkien inspired material even if it's from the imagination of someone else, it is brilliant and a wonderful addition to the Middle Earth lore. There seem to be too many of the instant gratification society who were too impatient to wait for the payoff. Looking at the dates of many of the reviews is frustrating seeing that people couldn't reserve judgement until 10/14 after the season could be viewed as a whole. People have become to used to being able to binge a new show in a few days and not have to wait and dwell over what might happen and the new information presented in each episode. It has been exciting to see it unfold week by week. I'm glad for the return to this method of releasing a new series.

Link to the 10 star reviews🍄

#the rings of power #positivity #and @ haters you're tel'athim #pls my elvish is rusty but there's so many good insults to choose from :D

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go-to-the-mirror · 1 year

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March, 2023

I MEANT TO DRAW SOMETHING HHHH

Istg, if the only art I make for this whole relisten is for fatigue I'm gonna cry.

Anyway, 152 time!! I love 152, I love Jon and Helen, I love the parallels, I'm excited, ohhh this is so cool we're heading to like fantastic episode WAY TOO MANY NOTES ones really quickly (too quickly, i want to draw something for 160) and yeah! Yeah! Oh god it's almost season 5.

Below is a mixture of amazing words - mostly Jonny's /j (i have some as well) - and rambling. I love this statement so. much. now.

@a-mag-a-day!!!

I'm putting a content warning for I think it's unreality, cause I talk a bit about... not being able to trust yourself, and that could be... not grand for some people.

Statement of Hezekiah Wakely, regarding his career as a gravedigger. Compiled from a series of letters to Nathaniel Beale between 1837 and 1839. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, the Archivist.

Who's Nathaniel Beale? I feel like I've seen his name before. Unless, of course, it's another Michael situation. There's... Nathaniel Thorp and Nathaniel Lukas. Hmm.

I’ve been installed here some weeks now, and I’m finding myself well-contented, my sexton duties keeping my time employed such as I scarce have a chance to allow myself those dark thoughts that so concerned you when last we visited.

What thoughts, I wonder. It probably mentions it further along, but I haven't really paid attention to this statement enough to be sure. For a while I thought it was "A Gravedigger's Entry".

The Lord gave him that voice for a purpose, no doubt – but sometimes that purpose does feel like it might be providing me a few minutes of unearned slumber

Hehe

My troubled sleep, on the other hand, has not, of yet, resolved itself in any way to my satisfaction. I work myself to exhaustion, cleaning, polishing and looking after the church proper, and I tell you, when I lie abed I can scarce rise again for the weakness I leave myself in. And yet, sleep still eludes me.

Heh, real. I too cannot sleep.

I’ve never quite known a rest like it. Perhaps it is the harder, more physical aspect of the task, or perhaps the quiet rhythm of it. There’s no echo as there is in the church, just the sound of pick and shovel hitting dirt. And when it’s deep enough, when you stand at the bottom, the noise of the world just… fades away to nothing. It is the sort of quiet that makes you feel as though the commotion and hubbub of life were but a terrible dream, and in sleeping you were waking up to peace.

BLANKETS ARE NOT ENOUGH I NEED TO BE BURIED ALIVE

That just sounds so?? Nice??? HHhnhnmhn

There is such peace in the churchyard, you see: to walk atop the soil knowing that, deep below my feet, those blessed souls wait happy and silent in the cool, damp earth, counting the days until the Resurrection. It gives me such warmth to think of that I have taken to spending much of my unoccupied time wandering the graves, and, where the mood allows me, taking my sleep there.

That is creepy, but like... I mean... I can understand it? It's nice to be outside in nights that aren't too cold, it's nice to sleep under the stars, the creepy part is the fact that it's a graveyard, but that can be brushed aside.

But I do long for that rest. I tell myself I wake each day renewed, but I am never as truly satisfied as when I’m in my slumber, and insensible to the world.

This statement is making me want to go to sleep and/or be buried in the dirt.

I do find, however, that when I dig my graves, I have been going deeper. And at times, I worry I might dig so far as I can no longer get out with my meager ladder. Now, those moments – you must not cast judgment on me for this, Nathaniel, for it is simply a passing fancy – but I will often lie myself down on that soft earth, and I will sleep. And I swear to you that the sleep I find there is more blissful than any I have ever found.

A Gravedigger's Envy? He's getting the nice grave sleep, I want the nice grave sleep, how is Jonny making grave sleep sound so appealing?

At least until a few feet down. But by the end of it… oh, I tell you there was warmth in that grave. Whether by my own body or the heat of the soil, I couldn’t say, but it was as comfortable as the fireplace of a public house, and the wind could not reach me in the hole that I had made.

I want that, I really want the grave sleep, that sounds so nice.

I had a dream, then. I dreamt a rain had come. A terrible bitter rain that chilled my bones and turned the soil around me dark and sodden. The walls grew damp and slippery, their firm shape lost as they began to slip and crumble. And then all at once they collapsed, the grave filling in a moment with a wave of mud and wet dirt. In a single terrible moment of utter terror, it was atop and around me, covering my face and filling my lungs with its awful choking sod. And the strangest thing was that it was wonderful. I had never felt such safety as within the crushing weight of earth all around me, the pressing embrace of the buried. In that instant I knew what it was to be dead, and I ached with envy for them.

Ok, hi, I saw a post, and I was thinking about the post, and I'm going to make a vague rebuttal (friendly-like, because they had good points). Hezekiah was afraid before the walls crashed around him. He was not afraid of some other terror, he was afraid of being buried - in the dead way or the forever deep below creation way... I don't know. Seems to be both, fear soup, remember.

The dreamers that have no idea what Smirke's fourteen is, or the supernatural, still affect the dream. Hezekiah associates being buried with being dead, and therefore the fears affect him as if being buried and being dead were similar things. I'm guessing quite a lot of people fear destruction and associate that with their fear of fire. Spiders and control for the aesthetic and also little bug guys fear being trapped when they're in a spider's web. People fear judgement when they're being looked at. (Speaking of, I swear at the shops today everyone was looking at me, like I saw them look at me, I felt their eyes on me, I associated this with the fear of judgement, and was appropriately spooked. What is this, episode 188 of The Magnus Archives?)

Anyway, back to this, Hezekiah's fear transformed into what Hezekiah became. Similarly, Martin - he was afraid of being alone, abandoned, and afraid of being found out. He became an "avatar" of The Lonely and The Eye. Also, would Martin's fear of being alone and being judged overlap, or feel similar? Is this why he gets both?

Mike was afraid of the part of The Twisting Deceit (The Spiral) that chased him, but he also had encounters with The Vast before Ex Altiora, he was afraid of the unfathomable power of that which chased him, he said that the form it took belonged to The Vast, the way he describes the pain of being struck by lightning - how it is so painful that to try to measure it is impossible. That's all pretty Vast-y to me.

Jane... Jane was afraid of the Hive. She didn't want it, she was afraid, she went to it... sure, she was lonely, but looking at her statement, how much of it is the Hive - if we're separating the two - and how much is Lonely? She talks of picking at her skin, of worms that emerged from the ground after rain, of an itch that called her to the attic, to the wasp's nest.

Sure, something chased them to becoming an Avatar, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's "another fear" both because fear soup and because... a lot of their stories are about being repulsed and terrified by something, but getting so caught up in it that you forget that person who was scared, and you hurt others just how you've been hurt. Cycle of violence, babyyyy!

For an example, let's grab Peter and Martin. Peter's from the family of... basically a cult? Sure, he doesn't seem too bothered by it, but humans are social animals, and he was neglected for his whole childhood, that fucks people up @ the person who said yea Peter's childhood was actually fine. Then he becomes an avatar of the Forsaken and manipulates Martin into becoming an avatar of The Lonely in turn, who then - in the Eyepocolypse - hurts people in his domain. It's not one to one, but no analogies are.

I’ve been thinking, Nathaniel, of funerals and bodies. Souls that escape leaving this common clay to become one again with a truer clay. Were we not created from mud? And it seems more fitting to me that we should return forever to that mud, not pulled from it by some would-be Redeemer, or lifted to sing hosannas in his holy court. I’ve worked so long, so hard. Do I not deserve a rest in the mud from which I came? Commit my body to the earth and let it stay there. I’d do the same for you. For worship of the Most High - though it may be earned, perhaps, by He that made the heavens and the earth - well, to my mind, all that prayer still sounds a lot like work.

The difference between this and the beginning. Speedrunning his decent, as it were. The difference between envying the dead, and their rest before they go to Heaven, to wishing that when he leaves the world he stays in the ground. Hmmmm!!

But He is the son of God and we are merely sons of the dirt. We are not as strong as He is, and we deserve rest. We deserve to sleep.

The Buried oft represents being metaphorically under pressure, as Hezekiah is. He wishes to be Buried to finally rest from his work. That's interesting to me.

Also, feels sort of Flesh-y, but in a way where it's like... yes, soup, is not the fear of being one and the same as animals, as already being dead, as being from the earth and knowing one day you shall return all part of the same thing? Is that not a similar fear? Feels like one to me. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, that's about death, that's about the earth, are they not one and the same? We all come from the same earthen roots, people, animals, plants, everything, we are the same, and we will die the same.

I’ve been trying to sleep, but that bell kept ringing, the one over Jacob the baker’s grave. That nonsense safety valve the Reverend insisted on putting there, ringing and ringing, and disturbing the sleep of everyone in the churchyard. I’ve no doubt it disturbed Jacob as well, who worked so hard all his life and never thought to complain of his lot. He deserved to rest. So I cut the cord. And now he is quiet.

Oh, lord, he buried Jacob alive.

But I can see why he did it. He fears being away from the earth, he fears not being able to die, and so he sees it as saving Jacob and I understand that, I can understand that in his position, robbed of restful sleep, the grave being the only place where he can find his rest that he would do this.

I think this statement has just achieved the rank of "one of my favourites," because... that line. "He deserved to rest. So I cut the cord. And now he is quiet."

But worry not, Nathaniel. The love I bear you will not let me leave you ignorant. As I did with the Reverend, I will come and I will show you, once and forever, the true and glorious peace of the Buried.

Wow. Just... wow.

Nathaniel Beale is buried on the grounds of St. Peter’s Church in his hometown of Dunstable. And I am only the third person to know that in almost 200 years, after Nathaniel Beale himself, and Mr. Wakeley, the person who buried him.

Hey, we're still getting post-statement spookiness, but because everyone's just stopped doing work it's with Jon's eye spookiness.

I... wow.

I cannot tell how much of the change that comes over someone when they are taken by one of the Fears is a direct product of their influence, and how much is their own mind, desperately contorting itself to accept and justify the awful things they find themselves drawn to doing.

I have a really good quote that ties in with this, but it's only in the deluxe transcript of Hive (patreon exclusive transcripts that have Jon's notes and are canon, the Hive one is the most emotionally ruining of the ones out (1 - 33 as of 22/03/2023) so far), but I will say that his attitude towards them has changed significantly as he's... become one.

He called Jane Prentiss "the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss" and now... hm...

It's interesting how his understanding or conception of avatars and the like changing over the seasons, and although season 4 doesn't have a lot of other avatar interactions... Jon's whole humanity thing, it's enough to make it my favourite season when it comes to this stuff.

I have read many statements now by those who are changing, who are becoming – something else, and few if any of them seem… entirely rational. Entirely the people that they were before.

GIDDY LEG WIGGLE LIKE HHJNNHNHEHN!!! Humanity and identity and monsterhood and trauma!!! The THEMES of this podded cast, I'm love, I'm love!

But how can I tell, I suppose. My job is to view people at their lowest, their most fearful and unstable moments. Perhaps there is less change there than I imagine. Certainly, I don’t feel different. I have no desire for pseudo-religious philosophizing, or delighting in the suffering of those I harm. Then again, I suppose I’m hardly in the best position to judge. Perhaps to anyone listening to these tapes I sound remarkably similar to Hezekiah. Or to Manuela. Or to Jane.

So, I talked about this to my (middlest) sister because sometimes when you're this excited about things you just have to talk to people, like actually talk, and I had some pretty good thoughts about rationality, about if you can know if you're a monster. If you're slipping and you can't trust your mind anymore, how can you trust your mind enough to know that you can't trust your mind? It's just, how can you know you're so far gone, if you can't trust you, then you can't trust trusting you, therefore you can never truly trust yourself, can you? Everything is your perception, and you will never know if you can trust that. You will only know that you can't.

I just think that it's very neat, the whole... everything, all of this, it's just really cool, like how would Hezekiah know he's wrong to be responsible for the death of Jacob, for the Reverend, for Nathaniel? Does he? How does Jon know if he's just like Hezekiah, how can you truly know yourself - or understand yourself? Oh boy, this is such a cool statement and post statement.

HELEN Hello, John. Been a while since you’ve been down here. ARCHIVIST (Impatient noise) I didn’t come here to see you. HELEN Oh, come now! I’m sure I’m more interesting company than the late Jane Prentiss. ARCHIVIST It’s all that’s left of her now – apart from a jar of ashes in my desk. Just a circle of rotten stone on an otherwise-unremarkable wall.

Is the circle of stone a mirror? Is the jar of ashes as much a part of you as your rib? What was she trying to achieve, you wondered so long ago and now you have the answer and you still don't know why... why she listened to the song in her dreams, why she scratched the itch, but then again, why did you?

HELEN (Cont.) Ah… But that’s not why you’re here, is it? ARCHIVIST Yeah. I’ve been thinking a lot about Jane. She was the first, you know. The first I actually encountered like… like us. She seemed so… inhuman. Like everything she used to be was stripped away. HELEN And now…? ARCHIVIST I wonder how much of her was still in there. How much did she choose to be what she was? I read her statement, she was… (inhale, exhale) she was scared. I assumed she’d been possessed completely against her will, but now I’m not even sure that’s possible. HELEN It is astounding the sort of thing you’re willing to choose – given an unpleasant enough alternative – isn’t it? ARCHIVIST How much of willpower is just – safety? “Comfort” by another name. The option to choose and be fine.

THEMES OF CHOICE AND HOW MUCH YOU'RE AFFORDED!!! God, I love this so much! I love how Jane Prentiss, our and Jon's conception of Jane Prentiss changes from season 1 to season 4. How it starts with her as an inhuman enemy, no longer the person she was, and changes to be... what was she, why did she chose this, who was she, she's humanised as Jon becomes a monster, knows her. Understands her.

She was scared.

Good lord.

And then Jon's line, "How much of willpower is just - safety. Comfort by another name. The option to choose and be fine." and that choice isn't really afforded to them, it's always these hard choices with one option that's like "at least you don't die", or live in fear, or whatever. The option to choose and be fine.

Themes. So many themes, I love this bloody podcast.

HELEN Hungry, are we? ARCHIVIST (Angrily) That’s not – – I haven’t done anything – HELEN – yet. ARCHIVIST (Roughly) I feel like if I don’t… I might die. Fade away into nothing. HELEN … Do you… Know that? ARCHIVIST No. But I… (frustrated noise) I can’t die. They need me. HELEN Come on, Jon, no excuses. (The Archivist sighs.) HELEN (Cont.) They don’t need your protection.

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO SAY, JUST PODDED CAST!!

ARCHIVIST When does it stop? HELEN (Impatient) What? ARCHIVIST The guilt. The misery. All the others I’ve met, they’ve been – cold, cruel. They’ve enjoyed what they do. When does the Eye (inhale) make me monstrous? (Helen laughs.) HELEN What – why would it ever do that? ARCHIVIST I don’t… HELEN When has your guilt, or your sadness, or your handwringing ever actually stopped you from doing what it wants? ARCHIVIST (Stammering) I-I – I have not been taking statements – HELEN You’ve sworn of other people’s trauma for now because you’re caught. Because continuing would endanger you. But other than that, when has your discomfort ever actually stopped you walking the path of the Beholding? ARCHIVIST I… I don’t know… HELEN Even if it were capable of doing so, what possible reason would the Eye have to change how you feel, when it makes no difference to your actions? Helen was like you, at first. She felt such guilt over taking people. Until one day she realized she wasn’t going to stop doing it. So she chose to stop feeling guilty.

OK FIRST OF ALL SOMETHING I CAN DEAL WITH, SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JON AND HELEN! Helen went to Jon for help with the guilt, and Jon turned her away because he was scared of what he was becoming. Jon asks Helen when the Eye makes him monstrous and she says no, it's not the Eye that'll do that, it's you. You have to decide to stop feelings guilty about the monstrous things you're doing.

Secondly, *gestures* yeah fr fr! I don't even... I just need to listen to this over and over and have it burned into my mind please :3.

Yeah, well, wow! Yeah! For real for real, this is just like 111, I'm discovering a new love for this statement, I need to make a new "holy shit tma" playlist because. Wow. Wow! Mhm hm! WOw!!! Uhh, well, uhm.

Your most humble servant,

landscaping-your-mind

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primewritessmut · 4 months

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1, 2, 5, 12, 31, and 38

I totally was going to do this during my training but the forty gallons of perfume lady but me under for several days. So instead, here it is now.

Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Seeing the Other. I think regardless of what genre I find myself in, there's always a component of that. The joy and tragedy of being seen, fully seen, for who/what you are and being loved or hated (sometimes both!) accordingly.

I don't know if I really have any other comfort zones. But that's almost definitely me having a blind spot to my own writing.

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

The You've Got Mail trope!

I think I've mentioned this before but I FUCKING LOVE that trope and I've been dying to give it an actual go. I haven't really been able to find a fandom or situation in which I can envision it going the way I want it to, yet. But someday. Maybe.

Or, you know, I'll just have to do it as an original work.

5. Share one of your strengths.

I'll be honest. I am in a place where I am not feeling my strengths at the moment. Everything feels like splinters underneath my fingernails all the time. Which I think is normal and valid for any type of artist. So for this question, I'm giving you a resounding fuck you.

I'm good at trust falling into a story. Just knowing that I'll figure it out as I go along and not feeling like I need to know everything (or really anything) before starting to write.

12. Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

An episode of what? My life? A show? A podcast?

I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're asking me about Loki since you and I scream at each other about that literally every day. And, while I am a S1:E1 enjoyer like yourself, my favorite (and most inspiring) episode is S2:E1. There's a barrier that falls down between Mobius and Loki in that episode, primarily because I think Loki starts to realize that, in all this absolutely Time Slipping bullshit, he keeps going back to Mobius. All the way up to LITERALLY colliding with him near the end. (TWICE.)

31. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

I never intend to take liberties with canon. But most of the fandoms I write for are comic fandoms first and foremost (with some movies thrown in) and there's SO MANY goddamn comics. I'm not trying to spend all my writing time lining up all the bits of canon. I'd never write.

Also, there is not way in hell that I'm letting canon get in the way of a good story.

Basically, I try not to stray too far from "accepted" canon, but it's also not tying me down.

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

Uh… all of yours? When I’m yelling “YOU GET IT” at your comments.

Other than that, I have a terrible memory so specific reviews aren’t always something I can recall. However, there are two FLAVORS of review I enjoy a lot. One is the “I think I just discovered a new kink” review which is maybe a bit odd because I typically do not want people infodumping their kinks into my comment section. BUT to hit someone where they live like that? With something I’ve written? It’s pretty cool. Second, the ones that are essentially “wow this was disgusting, but I loved it anyway, I find it all reprehensible but I read to the end.” Sort of the opposite of the first type of comment, I think. That my work repelled someone and they still had to finish it? Deep emotions in both sides. That means I did something right.

#ask game #my brain is still a little mush #so i hope this makes sense #how do you always know which questions will slide a knife into my ribs?#inbox

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raspberrydaisieschlb · 1 year

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HOO BOY FINALLY WATCHED IT

I have a lot of thoughts but I’m going to focus on our protag right now, because god was she good. (Semi-rant)

(spoilers. Read at own risk)

Like, there are a lot of things that have yet to be answered, about Sora ALONE, but it’s the first episode so of course we’ll have to wait. But so far, Sora is pretty solidly written, and already distinguishing herself from other leaders, minus the color.

Because let’s be honest: What she did was stupid. Her first idea when seeing an explosion at a castle was TO GO TOWARDS IT, she chased after a superpowered terrorist pig unarmed, went into the villain dark matter portal, and tried to fight the motw with no powers whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong, it was cool to see but it was FUCKING DUMB. But they didn’t change the gravity of the situation and girl is bruised and struggling to get up before she becomes Cure Sky. And it’s clear some part of her knows what she’s doing is stupid because it was emphasized more than once that she was scared. I believe at the beginning of the episode she said something along the lines of “What kind of hero would I be if I was scared?” and yet, at least twice, she showed fear. But girl kept fighting for Ellee (how do you spell her name?) despite everything that happened. That amount of strength and determination is not something I’ve seen in a Cure before (not this early in the season at least)

But again, it’s only the first episode, and all seasons have their flaws, so considering what has happened in past seasons, I just have a few concerns:

They won’t acknowledge failure. Like, I get it. It’s a kids show. And failure sucks. But since this show has a bit of a superhero theme this time around, there should be a moment in time where they acknowledge that even heroes aren’t perfect and can be prone to failure as much as the next person.

2. They won’t acknowledge the potential stress and overwork that is going to be Sora’s life. I’m not as worried with this one, but I’m still worried. Sora has a personal code of conduct and still wanted to fight despite the fact she was struggling to stand, so this might not happen, but it’s 40 episodes, things get forgotten, and they can (and sometimes do) pretend that any unresolved stress the character has just doesn’t exist anymore! Or at all! I don’t need her life to be struggle city, but at least recognize this ain’t easy.

3. They’ll overplay this. Again, seeing Sora do stuff no one has ever done before was pretty cool! But they could keep pointing that out. A lot. Act like she is the best thing since Black and then say the same thing the next season. I (personally) like the powerhouses, but there is a reason why people have issues with things like Parthenon Mode and Forever Lovely. And this also mixes in with Sora getting too much focus. We’re supposed to have 5 leads by the end of this season, and from what I’ve heard, Prism isn’t showing up until the fourth episode. Balance is important.

4. They’ll forget her flaws. Currently the only one I can note is that she’s an idiot (not an obvious one, but still an idiot), she just makes up for that with her determination. But, similar to point 3, I have seen characters either become that of a Mary Sue, or an oversimplified version of their character. We don’t need that.

But I’m just going to silently pray none of this happens and hold on to the Sora Harewataru that was shown to me.

#precure #pretty cure #precure spoilers #hirogaru sky precure #hirogaru sky pretty cure #hirogaru sky spoilers #sora harewataru #cure sky

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kxlinthesky · 8 months

Text

EPISODE 6 PART 2 LIGHT NOVEL Chapter 5-6 English Translation

“... I’m sorry.” Jack removed his stethoscope, his voice carefully devoid of any emotion.

Owl refused to give up hope just yet. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”

Jack shook his head. “Not with how far she’s progressed, no.”

“But she’s still breathing. Her body’s still here,” Owl pointed out, perhaps a touch desperately. “And she wasn’t completely Demonized yet, right? Since Demons usually turn to dust when they die.”

“No, she was completely Demonized. She burned through the last remaining bits of human life force she had. What you probably saw was her trying to restart her heart with whatever magic she had left. It would’ve looked like she was still breathing for a bit... though that’s only a guess. I haven’t seen many cases where the body was left in this state.”

“So all we can do is wait and watch?”

Jack blew out a sigh, mouth twisted in a pained line. “... Unfortunately, yes. I’m sorry I can’t do more.”

Seeing his own frustration mirrored on his friend’s face, Owl held his tongue. His hands balled into fists.

“There’s nothing more we can do for her,” Jack continued. “She... was probably dead before she even met you. The Black Rose Disease marks had spread over her entire body.”

Owl’s jaw fell open. His clenched fist fell limp.

They were back at Owl’s agency, and there was an unconscious woman lying stretched out in front of them. It was the harpy who’d attacked them earlier... well, she had been a harpy. She was just a regular woman now. After all that had happened, Owl and the others had swiftly transported her back to the agency and called for Jack in the hopes that he could help her. And he’d tried, to the best of his abilities... but it was just too late.

That very night, she’d used up the last dregs of her strength. There was nothing left inside her now.

“I just don’t understand.”

Owl all but fell onto the couch, his hands almost clawing at his scalp. The Demonized woman had suddenly attacked them mere seconds after he’d had that odd hallucination, and on top of that, she might in fact be the duke’s missing daughter.... He felt completely justified in being just the slightest bit frazzled at the moment.

Jack’s voice lowered a touch. “... Owl, do you remember the servant at the McCreech’s estate? The one who collapsed in the chapel?”

“The servant...? You mean the one Cain experimented on who got their soul removed...? Whatever happened to him?”

“He passed away, unfortunately. I only bring it up because there were traces of something in him that are also present in her.” Jack gestured to the unconscious woman. “Traces that her soul was pulled out of her body by unnatural means.”

“What?”

Jack held out a medical certificate. As Owl grabbed it and started scanning, his finger tracing the text, Jack went on, “She showed up as a Demon, then reverted back into a human in front of you all, right?”

“That’s right. She turned back right as she was about to attack us.”

“I see....” Jack trailed off for a moment in thought. Eventually, he haltingly continued, “This is just a hypothesis that came up when I was speaking with Sir Tristan before, but... maybe she turned into a Demon before she attacked you all, and someone pulled her soul out then?”

“Huh?”

“She would’ve died the instant her soul was removed, but maybe that’s not enough to actually kill a Demon... or maybe she was moving through some other power....” Jack shrugged, eyebrows furrowed in a pensive frown. “Either way, maybe what happened is she rampaged for a while without her soul, and when she finally surpassed her limits she turned back into a human in front of all of you. Her body ceased functioning... essentially dying a second time.”

“A second death....” The words sounded almost foreign to Owl’s ears. How miserable, how painful would it be to experience that sort of agony not just once, but twice? Hs couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“I’ve been thinking about that device in the McCreech estate this whole time,” Jack admitted.

“Device... you mean the one in the chapel.” It wasn’t phrased like a question. Owl knew what Jack meant.

“Yeah, that one. A device that switches souls around as a way to cheat death... but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that the way it returns souls to their bodies is pretty risky. So I wondered, did the old head of the family create it just to live forever? Or was it used for some other reason? Did someone order them to build it?” As he spoke, Jack raised his arms to hover around him like wings... and not just any wings, not butterfly or bird or anything like that, but the wings of a very particular being. “And so on and so forth.”

Owl dipped his head. He had several thoughts on that front as well. “Mastema... he wanted to turn Eliza and Anastasia into Demons. He said he was collecting it, farming it. Meaning he was cultivating them to try and make something.”

“Make something... Demons, you mean?”

“... No, not Demons. At least, that wasn’t the end goal. Demonization was just a side effect, or an end result, I guess, of whatever he was trying to grow.” Owl’s hand rose to cup his chin. “That apparatus is meant to harvest souls from their bodies. Cultivated souls, grown souls, are unusual – altered in some way, most likely. And once a soul from a Demonized body undergoes that alteration, that’s the optimal time to harvest.”

“... An altered soul,” Jack repeated.

“Yeah. And if the crystallized form of a soul like that is azoth....” Owl was the one saying it, but a chill ran down his spine nevertheless at the thought. He had a bad feeling about this....

“Hey Owl, Doc, why don’t you guys take a break?” called Nick’s voice from the kitchen. “There’s tea on, you want some?”

Owl and Jack traded glances, then nodded as one and moved into the kitchen, taking their seats at the table. Identical massive sighs fell from their lips. Nick handed them each a cup of tea, lips pulled in a contrite frown. “I’m sorry,” he told them.

“What are you apologizing for?”

“If I was faster... if I figured out she was the duke’s daughter earlier....” Nick wrung his hands. “If I brought her to see Owl earlier and we found out she was infected, then maybe....”

Owl cut him off with a firm shake of his head. “There’s no use worrying about what-ifs. You only had that sketch to work off of – there’s no way you could’ve figured it out. You didn’t do anything wrong, Nick.”

“... Mm.” Nick didn’t sound too convinced.

“Ellie already went to bed, right? You should get some rest, too.”

“But –”

Owl reached out and clapped Nick on the shoulder comfortingly. “Tomorrow we’ll get in contact with the duke and have him identify the body, and then we’ll go back there. We’re all worried about Ritz – we have to go get her.” He tilted his head into the agency.

“Thank you for the tea,” Jack chimed in. “Sleep well.”

Nick glanced at both of them, then nodded. “Fine, okay. Lemme just make sure the pub’s locked up tight first, then I’ll go to bed.” He turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Nick shuffled downstairs with a storm cloud hanging over his head. He quickly made his way down to the pub and opened the door. Good thing we were closed today anyway. I don’t think I could’ve handled customers like this, he thought to himself as he walked through the shop. He headed straight for the entrance, but just as he passed by the counter –

“Hey, did you make this lemonade?”

“WAAH!!”

– someone’s voice suddenly spoke up from behind it, and Nick jumped, his heart kicking into wild overdrive. He hadn’t thought anyone was here! He leaped over to the window in a single bound, squinting in the direction of the voice.

“Ahahaha, wow, you just leaped away,” chortled the voice. “Like a cat who saw a snake or something.”

“Ah...!” Nick’s eyes went wide, and one arm shot up to point an accusing finger at the young silver-haired man snickering behind the counter. “You – LOUIS!!”

“Evening,” Louis greeted him amicably. The young man had shadowed Nick on the job the other day, but he’d vanished shortly thereafter... and now he was here in the pub. He raised his hand, revealing a cup of lemonade, and took a sip. “You know, this is really good. It could give Byron’s a run for its money, probably.”

“Hey, don’t just take that! Thief!”

“Now, that’s just rude. Anything that’s left in Byron’s pub is technically mine. He even left me my own key to the place.”

“Okay, but I’m the one who made the lemonade!”

“But the recipe is Byron’s, right?”

“I bought the lemons!”

“And used Byron’s stuff to make it.”

As they continued to verbally spar, Nick drew closer to the counter and deftly swiped the glass out of Louis’ hand. “Why are you even here?!”

“‘Why’... don’t tell me you forgot. You’re the one who said to come back later if I wanted to meet Owl.” Louis leaned his head in his hand, elbow resting on the counter, relaxed as anything. His eyes flicked over to the door leading up to the agency as he added with a huff, “But it looks like there’s another client here. My timing is just awful.”

Nick blinked, then gasped. “Oh, right! Something terrible happened!” He leaned in close to Louis. “That nice lady died!”

“What nice lady?”

“The one who let us run away the other day. We went to go see her today, and... she turned into a Demon, and then she died. I feel awful for her.”

“... I see.” Louis nodded once.

... That was it? Nick squinted at him. “What kind of reaction is that? Are you not surprised at all?”

Louis shrugged a shoulder, almost like he’d been expecting this kind of news. “No, I’m not. There were a bunch of Black Rose Disease infectees coming out of that area, right? It’s not weird at all to hear that she ended up infected, too.”

“I mean, yeah, but....”

“More importantly, if you went to go see her, that means you must’ve been walking around near that hospital place, right? Was there anything off around there?”

“Such as?”

“Anything strange that you might’ve seen or heard.”

“Strange, huh...?” Was there anything stranger than a Demon? Nick opened his mouth to say just that, but then he paused. Right, there was that.... “Actually, yeah, Owl was kinda weird. He said he could see and hear carriages going by, but there was no one on that street but us.”

Louis leaned forward, eyes widening. “That, that, yes! He did see the carriages!”

“What?”

“I saw them, too! I saw carriages rattling around over there!” Louis stepped out from behind the counter, half-forced Nick into a nearby chair, and plopped down on the chair next to him.

Nick thought back to when he and Louis had visited that place together. He did recall Louis saying something about a carriage going by, now that he thought about it. “Right, you did... I remember you saying that,” Nick said.

“Yes, because there was one. I distinctly heard the wheels clattering on the cobblestones. But you didn’t see it.”

“Right, ‘cause there wasn’t one. Ellie didn’t see anything, either.”

“But I did.”

“You sure you weren’t just dreaming?”

“Would you be able to go upstairs and ask Owl the same thing?”

“....”

“Neither of us were dreaming. And neither were you, of course. But there was clearly a difference in what you could see and what we could see. Why do you think that is?” Louis met Nick’s eyes, a challenge in his gaze. “What does the great detective’s assistant think?”

Nick’s jaw snapped shut. He glared at Louis, his mouth puckered like he’d just tasted something bitter, and snapped, “I don’t know. What do you think?”

“Well, the simplest answer would be that one of us was shown an illusion, or put under some sort of suggestion... perhaps?”

“I mean, I dunno about you, but d’you really think Owl’d get ‘put under suggestion?’”

“Maybe it only works on geniuses?”

“Wooow, you really said that, huh. Toot your own horn some more, why don’t you.”

“Well, it’s the truth.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“And, just checking, did you figure out what exactly it was I gave you?”

“... ‘It’ as in... that test tube?”

“Correct.”

Under Louis’ expectant gaze, Nick averted his eyes. “Doc... uh, Ellie’s physician said he ‘felt something from it,’” he answered.

“That’s all?”

“Yeah. He said, ‘Is the gas laced with alchemy?’ and Owl said, ‘It’s not concentrated enough,’ or something. They sent it in for analysis, but I don’t think they’ve got the results back yet.”

“Hmm, I see.” Louis leaned back again. “I think there’s some sort of hallucinogen mixed in with the smog, personally.”

“Hallucinogen? Is that the ‘poison’ the cats were talking about? It’s not a drug turning people into Demons?”

“Correct. It’s a psychedelic drug making people see carriages. You remember what was under the dress at that building, don’t you? That mechanism under the skirt? I think the Demon Parade might be spraying hallucinogenic drugs around while they’re marching around the city,” Louis explained. “At first I also thought they were spreading the Black Rose Disease, but I haven’t heard of anything that can extract the source of infection... and it’s not something a normal person with no technical know-how could operate, anyway.”

“But if it is a hallucinogen, why would they be spreading it around? What good does showing everyone illusions do?”

“Hiding a tree in a forest, probably. Illusionary carriages would mask any real ones trundling around.”

“Huuuh?”

Louis leaned forward again. “You’ve been investigating in that area recently, right? You didn’t see any weird carriages around?”

“Hey, too close! Back off!” Nick shoved his palm into Louis’ face and pushed him away with a dissatisfied glare. “And hey, you’ve been asking questions nonstop this whole time! You better not be thinking you’re getting all this from an informant for free! I’m not cheap, you hear?”

“Aw, come on, don’t be so stingy.”

“Nuh-uh, this is give and take.~” Nick retracted his hand from Louis’ face just enough to drop it in his line of sight, palm up.

Louis stared for a moment at the hand so eagerly awaiting payment and considered... then, instead of money, he pulled out some of the alchemic cards from before. “What if I add these to the pot?” he asked. “And not just any kind – these are sun-aligned. They fit Owl perfectly.”

“They do?”

“Oh, yes, they fit your beloved partner like a glove.” A broad smile slowly unfurled across his face. “Though, well, they’re nowhere near as effective as him.”

“... Fiiiine.~~” Nick swiveled in his seat and pulled a notebook from his pocket.

“Then we have ourselves a deal.”

Louis traded his cards for Nick’s notebook. As the informant pocketed his new acquisition, the student opened the little book and flipped to a map of the city. Nick commented, “Weird carriages, huh... you know, now that you mention it, I do remember seeing some around with these huge machines or something strapped on top of ‘em. Feels like they’ve been cropping up more and more for the last month or so.”

“Huge machines?” Louis echoed.

“Yeah, you remember the one we saw in front of that building, right? It had that big old device on its roof, with that weird shape. I thought someone was moving house, but... it was really weird. I’ve been seeing ones like that parked all over the city. And none of ‘em had any horses attached, so maybe they were abandoned.”

“... Do you remember where they were?”

“Oh, for sure, I make it a rule to jot down anything even a little out of the ordinary. This map here has all the places marked down.” Nick produced another map from his pocket. Louis whistled and made to grab it, only for Nick to yank it out of reach and hold out his hand again. “That’ll be another card,” he said pointedly.

“... You really are a shrewd one,” Louis sighed, stuck somewhere between awe and exasperation. He did, however, pull out another card and place it in Nick’s waiting palm.

“Thank you!~” Nick pocketed the new card and spread the map open in front of them. This one had marks dotted all over its surface.

Louis peered at the map, eyebrows shooting up. “Heeh... I guess a first-rate informant doesn’t do things by halves, huh.”

“What, were you doubting me?”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Louis squinted, then pointed at one spot on the map near one of the marks. “... Hey, what does this say here? The chicken scratch is hard to read.”

“Oh, I didn’t write that, that was Owl. He writes notes like that sometimes that only he can read.”

“He writes in your notebook?”

“Just on the maps. He’s got absolutely no sense of direction, so when I’m not around he reads the maps funny.”

“Ahh....”

“He even made a note when we came back today.”

“Heeh...? A note from the detective himself, hm... hmm?” The second he heard it was from Owl himself, Louis dove into his perusal of the map with renewed fervor. His fingers traced from mark to mark, comparing the distances between each location and muttering to himself. “... They’re spaced evenly apart... is something built into the carriages themselves... or maybe there’s some kind of antenna...?”

Nick watched him examine the map for a moment. He kinda reminds me of Owl, he thought to himself. Out loud, he murmured, “I wonder if all alchemists are just like that....~”

“A nursery rhyme....”

Nick jolted out of his musings. “Hm?”

Louis raised his head from the map. “Do you know a nursery rhyme about London Bridge?” he asked.

Nick had to take a second for his brain to digest the completely out of nowhere question. “Well, yeah,” he eventually replied, “I mean, there’s the obvious one, right?” He raised his hand and began waving his finger around like a baton, humming the tune to himself. “Falling down, falling down, my fair lady~, that one. What about it?”

“What are the last lines of the story?”

“The last lines?” Nick sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Uhh... I mean, I never actually learned the song properly, so... umm, I think, the people try to build the bridge out of all sorts of materials. They start with wood and clay, but then it gets ‘washed away,’ so then they plan to build it with bricks and mortar, or something?”

“Right, but ‘brick and mortar will not stay,’ so they move onto iron and steel, but even then ‘iron and steel will bend and bow.’” As Louis explained, he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. “And last they try silver and gold, but ‘silver and gold will be stolen away,’ so they ‘set a man to watch the night.’”

“Is that how it went?”

“Yeah, and the next verse is ‘suppose the man should fall asleep.’”

“Man, this song’s nothing but naysaying.”

“You’re not wrong. But the next verse is the last – ‘give him a pipe to smoke all night.’ That’s where it ends.”

“Heeh? So a pipe solves everything?”

“Well, it’s possible... but there’s an interesting little rumor about this story.” Louis’ face suddenly shifted into a grim mask, his voice taking on a noticeable, almost theatrical tremble, the kind meant to frighten children in their beds. Nick leaned back just a touch, a little on edge despite himself, as Louis’ voice dropped lower and lower until it was a mere whisper. “It’s said that in order to complete the bridge, the man became a pillar himself... a human sacrifice....”

“... Heeh...?~ A human sacrifice?” Nick rolled his eyes doubtfully, still leaning back. “You mean they killed him to make the bridge stay up? C’mon, that has to be fake.”

Louis’ voice rose back up to its normal pitch with a disappointed frown. Guess Nick didn’t scare that easily. “Well, it’s more or less a baseless rumor,” he agreed. But his expression was as grim as before as he placed the paper he’d pulled out onto the counter and slid it over to Nick. “But she told us to ‘not become like that song.’”

“Who?”

“The woman we met.”

Nick gasped. He meant Maud. The paper on the counter in front of him had to be the note she’d passed Louis as they were leaving the other day! He grabbed it and opened the folded note to find some kind of scribbled map and the words “London Bridge” scrawled across the top. “What’s this?” he wondered.

“A map leading to a factory near London Bridge,” Louis replied.

“A factory?”

“One that makes carriages, specifically. I went there earlier today. It’s not all that big, but it’s not small, either. There was this circular symbol on it of three blooming flowers, so it was easy to spot.” Louis gesticulated with his hands as he spoke. “They were making these pitch-black carriages inside... with strange machines attached to the roofs.” He mimed the shape with his hands.

Nick’s eyes widened. “Just like the ones I saw,” he breathed.

What was going on? Why did Maud give them a map to the carriage factory? What was with their odd shapes?

“... What do you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“About what she said. ‘Don’t become like that song.’ Do you think she meant ‘don’t be a person who smokes a pipe and gets turned into a human sacrifice?’”

“Uh....”

“If the smoke from the pipe is some sort of metaphor, then....” Louis tapped the note, his face falling even more –

Ding!

Nick jumped. That was the bell over the door. He’d forgotten to lock it. “Ah, sorry, we’re closed today!” he called. But then he took a closer look at who’d just walked in and his jaw fell open. “Wait, RITZ?!”

“Good evening, Nick.” Ritz – for it was Ritz, perfectly safe and sound – held up a small bag with a quiet smile. “I apologize for the other day. I brought some tea to thank you for serving me that lovely brand before.”

Nick launched out of his chair in a flash and rushed up to her, eyes wide and wild. “Ritz, you’re okay?!” he yelped. “We saw you go in that weird building and we were so worried!” “Weird building?” Ritz repeated, befuddled.

“You really shouldn’t go there anymore!”

“Huh?” Ritz blinked, her head tilted. Why was Nick so panicked? Then her eyebrows shot up, a certain stiffness setting in her shoulders. Now that was the old Ritz, the usual Ritz, with her rigid posture and her chest puffed up with pride. “... Are you referring to the support institute?” she asked. “Don’t be so rude. That place is a perfectly safe salon that provides women in need with the most wonderful system of support they could ask for. Everyone there is fighting hard to secure rights for women. I won’t tolerate any slander against it.”

Nick breathed out a quick sigh of relief at her attitude even as she efficiently shut him down. He shook his head, though, and insisted, “It didn’t look like that to us! If you go back, you might get caught up in all the crazy stuff, too!” He jabbed a finger behind him at the counter. “Even Louis over there thought it was suspicious!”

Ritz peered around Nick, then glanced back at him with her head tilted even further. “Louis? Who is that?”

“Who – the guy sitting at the counter? Look!”

“... There’s no one there, though?”

“Huh? What?” Nick whirled around to find no one behind him, no hide or hair to even hint someone had been there in the first place.

One eyebrow arched on Ritz’s face. “Are you sure you aren’t daydreaming, Nick? Or did you perhaps have a bad dream?” She spread her arms. “As you can see, I’m perfectly fine. Does it look like I’ve been caught up in something strange to you?”

“I-I’m not daydreaming!”

“Then why are you insisting it’s so dangerous? Are you perhaps fine with a society where women don’t hold rights? I may have misjudged you!”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all! I’m just worried about you! I don’t want you going anywhere that’s not safe!”

“And I am telling you that it’s not dangerous, and it’s not suspicious! The head of the salon, Krinos, is a wonderful person!”

Their back and forth was slowly growing more heated, unable to see eye to eye with each other. Perhaps because he heard the commotion, Owl came down the stairs to investigate, his eyes widening as he noticed Ritz. “Oh, good, you’re all right,” he said, pressing a hand to his chest with a relieved sigh.

“Oooowl!~” Nick turned to his partner pleadingly, halting in his tracks. “You tell her not to go there anymore! It’s actually....”

As Owl strode up to the pair of them, Ritz eyed him with naked caution. “Are you also against the movement for women’s rights, Owl?” she queried with a tongue cold and sharp as an icicle.

“What are you talking about?” Owl replied, distinctly wrong-footed. When he noticed just how angry Ritz was, he dropped his voice to a more pacifying tone. “Ritz, we’re not against women’s rights – we’re for it, if anything. You’re on equal footing with us. That’s exactly why we’re so worried about you, as your friends.”

“,.. Friends....”

“Yes. There was a woman outside that building you’ve been visiting that Demonized – she was infected with the Black Rose Disease. We just don’t want you to end up like her.”

“A Black Rose Disease infectee? Is that true?!”

“Yeah.”

“It can’t be....” Ritz’s anger melted away, replaced by flustered confusion. “Th-There are several infectees in the facility as well, all of whom can’t find work because of their condition. Perhaps the woman you saw was one of them.”

“Probably.”

“Where is she now?”

“She passed away. She collapsed right in front of us and lost consciousness, so we brought her here and called a doctor, but by then we were too late.”

“No...!”

Ritz stumbled away in shock, her eyes flicking everywhere but Owl and Nick. But it wasn’t long before she straightened up again, clearly trying to buoy her own spirits with her posture alone. “If a death has occurred, then the police will need to investigate,” she announced, turning to Owl. “I will likely need to call in a coroner as well.”

Nick nervously tugged on Owl’s sleeve. “Owl... she was Ritz’s....”

Owl took a few seconds to collect himself. He stepped aside and gestured at Ritz toward the agency with a nod. “... Go ahead, Officer Ritz,” he murmured, head bowed. “You should see this for yourself, as an officer of the law. I believe in you.”

Ritz shot him a faintly perplexed glance, but she stepped past him without hesitation and climbed the stairs up to the agency. Nick fell in step after her, but as he passed by the counter he glanced over with a frown. “Oh, right, where’s...” he mumbled to himself.

There was no one there, though, just as there wasn’t anyone there this whole time. Even the lamp had been dimmed at some point, as if the place had been completely silent and untouched from the very start.

“... I wonder when Louis left,” Nick muttered, before turning and following Ritz up the stairs.

“Miss Maud...?”

The bag slipped from her grasp and thudded to the floor.

Ritz walked into the agency, exchanged greetings with Jack, then saw the woman’s body lying in the living room... and stumbled to a halt, her jaw dropping and her face rapidly paling. She stood there in dumbstruck silence for several seconds, too shocked to even breathe, too shocked to remember she’d come up here as a police officer intending to do her job.

“Maud? It can’t be – it can’t be Miss Maud? No! Why?!” With a shrill screech, Ritz hurled herself toward the body, her hands desperately reaching for the woman –

“Don’t, Ritz.” Owl grabbed her and pulled her back.

But Ritz struggled against his hold, her focus locked on the corpse in front of her. “It can’t be, it’s a lie – no, this can’t be real, Miss Maud!”

Owl’s eyes flicked down to the woman in his grasp. “So you did know her,” he murmured sadly.

“Know her? She was my friend! She was the kindest person at the salon, she always listened to me... ahh, no, why, how?!” Ritz wailed.

“Calm down! I know you’re upset this happened to your friend, but....”

“I can’t! Miss Maud was... no, no, she can’t, she can’t be dead! She never said she had the disease, she never said anything like that! I can’t....” Ritz slumped in Owl’s hold. Her knees thumped against the floor. She stared at her friend’s body in despair. “I can’t believe this... ahh...!” Her hands rose to claw at her scalp as she broke down sobbing.

“I didn’t think the lady we were looking for was gonna be Ritz’s friend,” said Nick at Owl’s side. He pulled a folded sheet from his pocket – the picture of the duke’s daughter.

Ritz raised her head. Her teary eyes sought out the slip in Nick’s hand. She knew that slip; it was the same picture Nick had shown her before.

“Hey, Ritz, did you – did you know? That she might be the duke’s daughter?!”

The second she laid eyes on the picture, all remaining blood drained from her face. “Ah... I... ahh...!!” Fingers rose to claw at her face again as she shook her head back and forth, the very picture of anguish. “I, I did something so terrible...!!” she screamed.

“Ritz?” It wasn’t like her to lose herself like this. Nick gently grabbed Ritz’s arm and leaned in, studying her face intently. “What’s wrong?”

In between hiccupping sobs she replied, “I... thought there was... a slim chance that, that she....” Her voice rose to a shrill pitch. “Maybe she was her, she was the duke’s daughter that... that you were looking for...!”

“Huh?”

“But I told myself that couldn’t be right, because, she was so much thinner than the woman in the picture, and, and I – even if she was the duke’s daughter, I thought... it’d be better for her if I didn’t tell anyone... because she was being mistreated at home! She said she was locked away in the estate and never allowed even an ounce of freedom, so I...!”

“Ritz....”

“But... now this happened....”

Ritz’s shoulders hunched, trembling head to toe. This time, it was Nick and Owl who couldn’t find the words to speak. How could they, when they had no idea where to even begin consoling their distraught friend?

A different voice, frigid enough to freeze even a waterfall of tears, spoke up instead. “Oh, here you are.”

“The duke?!”

“Duke Fitz?”

The pair turned toward the door to find a black-haired man standing there wearing an haute couture indigo jacket with nary a wrinkle to be seen and shoes polished to a high sheen. The faint scent of perfume clung to his frame. It was the same man who’d been by the agency the other day... their current client, Duke Fitz.

Owl stepped forward, confusion wrinkling his brow. “May I ask why you’ve come?” he inquired. He hadn’t told the duke about his daughter yet, so he was surprised to see him come calling again so soon.

“Ahh, good timing. I thought I’d come and cancel my request to find my daughter... though I certainly didn’t expect to find you here with a corpse.” He glanced the dead woman’s body up and down. He huffed a single chuckle through his nose.

And then he opened his mouth again and said, without a hint of grief or sadness, “Well, she certainly makes a pitiful sight, for a member of the Fitz family.”

“... Your Grace,” said Owl slowly, “are you positive that this woman is your daughter?”

The duke nodded. “Without a doubt,” he confirmed. “That seedy-looking face of hers is the spitting image of my dead wife’s, especially now that she’s so thin – it was harder to tell back when she was fatter. This is my daughter.”

Owl’s face clouded. “... I can’t apologize enough for our failure to locate her while she was still alive,” he murmured, head bowed. “I deeply regret that our cases piled up to the point that we were unable to start our investigation immediately.”

The duke waved him off, still cool and collected. “I don’t mind. I’d thought the woman died two years ago – finding out she only died recently makes no difference to me.” He walked up to the body, his hand hovering over her collarbone as his eyes flicked back and forth as if searching for something. A cheerful smile unfurled across his face as he glanced back at Owl. “In fact, if anything... because you were late, you managed to deliver me a product of superior quality. I really should be thanking you.”

“Huh?”

The duke sounded so calm, almost peaceful, like a disciple whose prayers had reached their god... completely and utterly fulfilled. It was most certainly not the face of a father looking at their dead child. “You see, I was quite discouraged two years ago when the merchandise disappeared right before delivery. I even admit to resenting my foolish girl, but now I realize that was an unseemly bout of pride. My prayers were answered after all. Their messenger came to me earlier and praised my efforts. He said, ‘They have obtained a jewel more magnificent than any in the history of your family.’ To think she had hidden herself right by their side....”

“Your Grace...? What are you...?”

“Well, then, I’ll take my leave now; I have a soiree to be getting to. Ah, I will pay you for your services up till now, of course.” Fitz handed Owl a blank check without waiting for a reply. “Go ahead and write whatever amount you like in there. Good evening to you all.” He turned to leave. Owl and the others stood there silently watching his retreating back, utterly flabbergasted....

Except for Jack, who called after him, “When will you be back to collect your daughter’s body?”

“I won’t.”

“What?”

“I don’t need it anymore,” the duke said, like he was talking about a broken piece of equipment instead of his own family. “Just toss it in a public cemetery somewhere, you can do whatever you want with it.”

Jack’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Wha – Whatever we want?! She’s your daughter, isn’t she?!”

“That was a disgusting, immoral woman who chose to tie herself to a filthy servant, of all things,” Fitz shot back without turning around. “I could never inter her in the family grave.”

Ritz shot to her feet, incensed. “That... that is taking it too far!” she shouted. “You kept Miss Maud confined in your estate ever since she was a child, did you not?! How selfish can you be to refuse to even bury her just because she fell in love with one of your servants?!” She rushed up and latched onto his arm, still screaming. “Miss Maud told me how her father abused her from birth! How she would be beaten if she took even a single step out of her room! I was her friend! She told me everything! I will not stand by and let you treat her like this!!”

Fitz stared down his nose at Ritz like she was a particularly disgusting cockroach. “Don’t touch me,” he said icily, shaking off her grip with a glare. “I gave her a life of luxury – I fed her, I clothed her, she wanted for nothing. How could that be called abuse?”

No one could deter Ritz that easily, though, not even a duke. “How could it be anything else?!” she screamed. “Yes, she may not have been hungry, and she may have always had lovely clothes, but how could anyone be happy living alone locked in a single room for their entire life?! All Miss Maud could do was stare out the window day by day, and the only light in her life was the chimney sweep who would come to visit and sing her nursery rhymes from the rooftop! Is it so wrong that her heart fluttered at his kindness?! Do you know what she told me?! She said, ‘It was only for a short while, but the days I spent living with my husband were the happiest days of my life. We were poor, yes, but his singing was enough for me.’”

A deep crease appeared between Fitz’s eyebrows. But Ritz’s tirade wasn’t yet done. “But her husband passed away... he was murdered...! Was it perhaps you who –”

SLAP!

“Hold your tongue, girl, lest you say something you regret,” hissed the duke. He’d lashed out without hesitation or mercy, sending Ritz stumbling back with a single strike to the face. It had all happened so suddenly she couldn’t even shout. Three, four steps back she went, until her back hit the wall and she slumped to the floor, one hand dazedly pressed against her cheek, her pupils blown wide. She didn’t even seem to fully process the pain, too stunned by the sudden blow.

Nick immediately rushed to her side with a panicked shout. “RITZ!!” As he kneeled down to grab her by the shoulders, he yelled at the duke, “What are you doing?!”

“Slapping away an annoying bug,” Fitz replied calmly. He pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket, carefully wiped his hands with it, and carelessly dropped it to the floor. “Let me tell you something, girl. That woman’s name was Matilda. Matilda Lee Fitz. Not this ‘Maud.’ Do you know what that means? It means that while you may have thought of her as a friend, she certainly did not see you as one. You didn’t even know her real name. How pitiful.”

Ritz went white as a sheet. That had struck far harder than any physical blow. She opened her mouth, perhaps to try and refute his claim, but all that came out was a trembling gasp. Her lips quivered.

“Hey! That’s enough!” Nick spat. He shifted to shield Ritz behind his back, his voice quaking with rage. “Are you even really her father?! How could you say that to your daughter’s friend?! Maybe this is exactly why she ran away from you, ever think of that?! You heartless bastard!”

Nick’s red-hot ire was a mere candle flame against the duke’s impenetrable ice, though. “That’s a rather impertinent thing to say to a client, don’t you think?” he said imperiously.

Nick’s voice rose even further. “What’s wrong with you?! You’re treating your daughter like garbage and you even assaulted my friend! You’re definitely not our client anymore! You’re nothing to us!” he declared sharply. His eyes flicked over to his partner. “Right, Owl?”

“... Hm? Did you say something?” Owl glanced up from the check he’d been systematically ripping to shreds. Scraps of white paper were already fluttering to the floor in a tiny heap at his feet.

Nick stared at his handiwork. A slow grin spread across his face. “... Awesome,” he breathed.

Owl walked up to Fitz, his expression perfectly unruffled. He stared the duke directly in the eyes as he asked apropos of nothing, “What would you say to a quick medical examination, Your Grace?”

Fitz’s eyebrows furrowed. “A medical exam? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m perfectly healthy.” He clicked his tongue, meeting those violet eyes dead on. “How rude.”

“No, I remember encountering someone like you before.” His gaze never wavered. “I saw your relatives once... like you, they also kept cool heads and didn’t grieve in the face of death. The women heading toward their tragic fates... and the cruel men who were always waiting nearby. They were the devout folk of a certain island.” Owl’s eyes flashed. “Sometimes their descendants display similar temperaments.”

“...!!”

Fitz’s eyes twitched. Nearby, Jack’s eyes widened in realization. He knew a man like that as well – the man who’d poisoned his own father and attempted the same with his brother and niece for the sake of profit and power. The duke did indeed seem rather similar to that man.

“Research into neurosis is proceeding apace, so what say you, Duke Fitz? I have a rather considerable interest in your bloodline.” Owl took another step toward the duke. “Who or what were you going to offer your daughter to, that caused her to flee from you? What kind of jewel did your daughter become? By all means... I would love to hear it.”

Those violet eyes... they were the unblinking, piercing eyes of an owl.

The eyes of a creature swooping down on its prey cowering in the dead of night.

The eyes of a hunter approaching on silent wings, talons outstretched, poised to strike the heart.

The eyes of a predator.

“Don’t come any closer!” Fitz instinctively raised his voice and shoved Owl’s shoulders away. “I won’t forgive any insults against me, boy! Go ahead, keep going, say something else! I’ll call my lawyer here!” Threats spilled from his lips as he glanced down at the shredded check lying on the ground by his feet. He sniffed out a mocking laugh. “I don’t know what sort of relationship you have with that cheeky little girl, but heed my words... you’ve all made fools of yourselves!”

He turned on his heel and strode away, fully intending to leave this time. Nick wasn’t letting him off the hook that easy, though, and chased after him, shouting, “And what’s wrong with that? Ritz is the nicest, most reliable police officer in the city! Maybe even the world!”

Fitz scoffed. “A police officer? A little girl, a police officer. Hmph. She doesn’t know her place. What could a stupid woman like her possibly accomplish? I would wager she has the easiest job in the precinct, listening to citizen complaints all day long.”

“You...!”

“And since she’s got such an easy job, she doesn’t even realize that the woman the detective was looking for is someone she knows,” he continued spitefully. “If she’s that incompetent, she could at least find someone she could eke out an agreeable life with. And if she can’t even manage that, then she has no value whatsoever, the useless thing.”

“Shut up!!” Nick’s hair was starting to stand on end, his eyes flashing. “Don’t talk to my friend like that...!”

“I’m only speaking the truth. A woman can’t possibly carry out a proper investigation!”

“What did you say?!” A scarlet hue was bleeding into Nick’s eyes... but just then, another voice spoke up.

“I....”

It was Ritz. She’d finally recovered enough to clamber to her feet again, though she was still leaning against the wall in a daze. Her voice was quickly rising from a whisper to a scream. “I... it’s always like that, I don’t notice cases under my nose, I can’t solve anything...! E-Everyone says I can’t, that it’s because I’m a woman –”

“Ritz?”

“– I couldn’t... my friend, I couldn’t even save my friend...!” Ritz sobbed wildly, one hand pressed against her swollen cheek. Her eyes were growing dark, and not just in the emotional sense – the scleras themselves were slowly turning black, spreading outward from her irises in a marble pattern at a concerningly rapid pace.

Owl noticed. “Oi, Ritz?!” he shouted. The instant he thought he saw the telltale signs, though, she dashed away toward the exit as though yanked by an invisible string.

“Ritz! Wait! Where are you going?!” Nick glanced between Ritz and the duke. “The next time I see you, I won’t let you off so easy!” he hissed at Fitz with bared teeth before he chased after his fleeing friend. “Hold on, Ritz! You don’t gotta listen to a jerk like that!”

He might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Ritz didn’t turn back.

Owl stared after the two, biting his lip, then with one last glare at the duke turned to Jack. “I’ll take the daughter’s body,” he told his friend.

“What? You will?”

“Contact Father... Tristan, please.”

Jack nodded. “Y-Yeah, okay.”

With no time left to waste, Owl dashed off after Nick and Ritz.

original written by Nagaya Kawaji here

#kotonoha project #part 2 babey!#featuring what might be owl's best moment ever!

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skoulsons · 1 year

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Alright, you know what time it is. Scrambled, incoherent episode 4 thoughts

This episode took me three hours to watch and it was 45 minutes. is that any indication how insane i am.

CANT SKIP OPENING CREDITS <3

oooh okay so she’s practicing a bit. Hopefully she doesn’t actually fire

she looks so nervous

NOT THE PEW PEWS

THE EYE SWITCHING 😭 I’ve done that at the range before

These sets always look so good

“Back in the day, we’d drive 10-12 hours on one tank” “So where’d you go?” “Pretty much nowhere” Hmmm probably taking Sarah to all those museums in Texas :(

HER SMILE WHILE HE EXPLAINS THE SIPHON

“You don’t know :)” “I know it works 😑”

NO WANDERING. what a dad move. Dad count #1

NO NOT THE PUN BOOK 😭😭

HE LOOKS SO LOST

“Feel free to wait in the truck” he’s so annoyed 😭 mmm dad count #2

“I want to see a tank” no baby you do not not in these times

THE TAPE 🥹

her squeezing up next to him 🕳👩‍🦯 READY TO CRY MY FRIENDS

“This is actually before my time” “right” dad count #3

AW HELL YEAH

I WAS SO UPSET THEY WOULD REMOVE THIS SCENE

“Oh, no no no. Put that back that’s not for kids. Ellie. Please get rid of it” dad count #4

The shoulder slap 💀

ALONE AND FORSAKEN BY FATE AND BY MAN OH LORD IF YOU HEAR ME PLEASE HOLD MY HAND

whoa there still being cattle is really surprising to me?? I feel like they’d be gone by now

oh wow look at all the military stuff

that shot with the train falling off the bridge is beautiful

oh hell yeah is it camping time

YEAHH

their tiny cookware

IS THAT CHEF BOYARDEE RAVIOLI

Him asking her to slow down. Dad count #5

“I actually agree” chef boyardee stuff was my favorite food as a kid. Their beefaroni was all I ate

“So can we start a fire? I’m freezing.” “Now why am I gonna tell you ‘no’?” Dad count #6

“Oh, they’ll have way more in mind than that (robbing)” still insinuating he was a hunter for a time

does she tell him goodnight. please.

THE ONE THAT SMELLS GOOD IS FRANKS 😭

not the pun book 😭

he looks like he will not sleep :/ (what a great parallel to end of episode them)

“…Joel?”

“Joel!” “What?” “Can I ask you a serious question?” “Yeah.” *proceeds to tell a pun*

DOES HE LAUGH. I saw a spoiler saying he laughs.

L IT TLE MAN SMILED LOOK AT HIS SMILE (how naive I was to think this was the laugh)

Dad count #7

“No one’s gonna find us?” “No one’s gonna find us.” REASSURANCES mmm dad count #8

does he ever sleep :/ hes gonna stay up to keep watch isn’t he

yup

coffee <3

“You don’t like coffee?” Joel please try to sound more offended

the falling backwards she does 😭

“Smells like burnt shit” *proceeds to slurp it just to annoy her* dad count #9 for sure

“Shi-enne” “Cheyenne” “Chey- really?”

Her questions about Tommy 😭

Every scene I get of them now just reminds me of their winter scene and my brain melts a little more

I am thirteen minutes in and it’s been?? 45 minutes of watching??

OOH WERE GETTING TO KNOW??

okay okay so Tommy convinced Joel to join a group that moved to Boston. So that’s how he got there, good to know. “Mostly to keep an eye on him. Keep him alive” we love big brothers. “That’s where we meet Tess.” yo so Tommy knows Tess that’s cool. “And that whole crew, we uh….well for what it was, it worked. Then Tommy meets Marlene. She talks him in to joining the ‘fireflies’. Same mistake he made when he was 18. Wants to save the world…Fireflies all delusional.” mmm thank you for giving me another scene to dissect and think about for the next week. Joel “let’s keep our histories to ourselves” Miller

and he looks like he’s getting emotional too :/

IM NOT FAMILY NOPE YOURE CARGO AND I MADE A PROMISE TO TESS. AND SHE WAS LIKE FAMILY!! SHUT UP. man is still holding on so strong to this. LET YOURSELF CARE

“I’m not even tired” 🫶🏻

YES AND THEY CHANGED HIS ARM POSITION TOO. i love details

Oh here we go

oh okay no not quite hunters yet

the proximity in the truck im gonna throw up

“How far back do we have to go to get around this?” *exasperated sigh* dad count #10

HUNTERS?

oh man those bodies

oh now here we go

Damn no he ain’t even hurt but that’s fine

Jay you were pretty damn close

“Are you okay? You’re not hurt? Nothing?” DAD COUNT #11

SHES SO CLOSE TO HIM WKFHEIDGE

“They’re not gonna hit you. Look at me. They’re not gonna hit you” dad count #12 :)

YEAH what a good shot

I THOUGHT TJAYVWAS JOEL OH

YUP THERES A THIRD GUY I KNEW

so then Ellie shoots this guy n saves Joel right

the hitting him in the face with the butt of his gun 🤩

NOT THE STRUGGLING LEGS?(?;?

okay okay she did it we’re good

The absolute silence from joel and yet it tells so much

“Get back behind the wall” while i stab this guy so you don’t have to see so I can try my best to preserve your innocence despite you just shooting a man and how angry I am because I am a father and you don’t deserve to live in a world like this and experience these things. Dad count #13?

her wiping her tears away quickly 💀 me a little too often

Is he about to give his tongue lashing to her

HE SLAMMED THE DOOR AND I JUST PAUSED HES GONNA BE SO PISSED?? im scared to continue I need to calm down a sec

okay. calm.

panicked for nothing he was just rushing over to move the desk back. anyway

she’s trying to keep him from talking about it 😭

“Stay close.” throwback to Tess telling Ellie that in ep1. Anyway dad count #14

The protective hand reach out™

oh shoot it’s the woman

Kathleen

okay so who is Henry then (HI IM DUMB AS FUCK TOTALLY BLANKED ON HENRY. ABSOLUTELY 100% BLANKED. post episode me is much clearer on all this so ignore how dumb I am)

So she’s got a personal vendetta that went too far or something?

“I delivered you. I held you in my hands. I never told them anything about your brother.” Hmmm interesting

So Kathleen’s brother was breaten to death for some reason. This man, who I guess knows both of them, never told ‘them’ (fireflies? Hunters?) about her brother, but a man named Henry did. So Kathleen is trying to get info from this guy about Henry I guess. Whoever Henry is. Or whoever her brother is. I don’t know I’m confused

“I’m your doctor” is this man gonna be THE doctor? Maybe not? Or does she have something wrong that she needs a doctor for so she can’t lose him?

JEFFREY PIERCE. man he didn’t change his voice at all

DAMN she just shot him

wow that is. a lot of trucks.

GUN SAFETY LESSON?

his head in his hands 😭 poor man needs a break

ARE YOU OKAY??;!;? HELLO??;!;? nothing could’ve prepped me for that

“Im alright.” Man, when was the last time he was genuinely asked that :( he looks like he hasn’t been asked that in ten years

NOT HIS VOICE BEING SHAKY “are you.. alright?” FUCK OFF. you think he’s hesitant to say it because he don’t actually want to care if she is because he’s still trying to not get attached. Anyway dad count #15

i fucking LOVE these two DAMN. Definitely gonna have this scene on repeat for the next week

Alright get the unspoken stuff out of the way please don’t sit in the awkward silence

“Thing is, is…I didn’t hear that guy comin’. You shouldn’t have had to have…y’now?” “Well, you’re glad I did, right?” “Well, you’re just a kid. You shouldn’t know what it means to…It’s not like you killed him, but, shooting a…i know what it’s like. First time that you uh, hurt someone like that. If you uh…im not good at this.” “Yeah, you really aren’t.” “I mean it was my fault! You shouldn’t have had to. AND IM SORRY” HODHS LEAVE ME ALONE JUST FUCKING STOMP MY HEAD INTO THR CURB PLEASE.

her wiping her face :(

“It wasn’t my first time” :(

GUN SAFETY SCENE GUN SAFETY SCENE. Dad count #16 for this whole sequence

her smile :)

him moving closer to her :)

a very good grip

this is so domestic. how does anyone sit and watch this and not lose their mind.

PROXIMITY IS MY BEST FRIEND <3

HANDS HANDS HANDS. we know how much I love hands. GOD I LOVE HANDS

HES SO GENTLE. I deserve to be in a mental asylum please I can’t even contain any thought to even write them out

him trying to tug it out of her hands 😭 WHY COULDNT THE CAMERA PAN TO HIM I KNOW HE WAS SMILING

“Okay?” And she’s just :D

an error occurred this is not the time

He literally did not have to keep his hands on hers for that long. but I am not one to complain

SHE LOOKS SO EXCITED WATCHING HIM 😭

“Nuh uh, you put it in your pack. You’ll shoot your damn ass off.” He knows she’s trigger happy. Dad count #17? 😭

THE GRUNT AS HES GETTING UP

“We’ll get through this.” “I know.” 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 REASSAURANCES 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

Jeffrey looks beautiful I will say

OH NO HENRY AND SAM??

oh it’s gotta be I remember that one trailer shot showing Sam around some drawings

OH? Oh they know who they are? Wow

“Henry won’t let Sam starve” oh man I’m not excited at all for next episode

BLOATER?? BLAOTERv??!, BLOATER?5?3$44

ITSLFNRLFHFKD A BOOST UP

A JEOLAND ELLIE BOST UP YOURE KIDDING

game mechanics in live action makes me happy

JOEL AND ELLIE BOOST UP!!!!

“You’re just gonna put your foot here.” “Okay.” “One, two…” “oh shit, oh shit.” “Straighten up, I gotcha.”🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 living my best life right now. What is that dad count #18

“I gotcha” being Joel’s thing. I cant wait to hear him say it more

“Where would you be without me, huh?” “By now, Wyoming.” “Oh yeah, walked into that one.”

“We’re going up 42 flights?” “45. But no, not all the way.” “How far?” “As far as I can make it.” i love how old he is

THE SCORE <3

Them slowing down 😭

OH SHIT I DIDNT THINK WED GET THE CONVO

“Hey, you know that guy who said he was hurt? How’d you know it was an ambush?” “I been on both sides.” “It was a long time ago. We did what we needed to survive.” “You and Tess?” “And the people we were with. My brother, too.” “Did you kill innocent people?” :(

That “c’mon” sounds so much like the one in tlou2 in that flashback where they find those two Jackson kids and they have that little argument

HIM SLIDING DOWN THE WALL TO SIT 😭

kicking his feet 😭 “c’mon” “gimme a minute” “get up, you lazy ass” “‘lazy ass’. I’m 56 years old you little shit” HRIFHEKD I LOVE THEM SONMUCH

“Joel? Joel? Joel?!” “What? 😡”

“Oh I get it. Crunch crunch crunch”

“Well, goodnight :)”

“Yeah, goodnight -_-“

“Hey. When we were talking about hurtin’ people…what did you mean it wasn’t your first time?” “I don’t want to talk about it.” Oh how the turn tables.

HIM TURNING OVER TO TALK TO HER

“You don’t have to. I’m just saying…it isn’t fair. Your age. Having to deal with all of this…” “So it gets easier when you get older?” “No, not really. But still.”

“The reason I asked if you’d hear the glass or not is cause I’ve noticed you don’t hear too well from your right side. Is it cause you were shot there?” “Probably more from shooting. So if you want to keep your hearing you better stick to that knife.”

“Joel?” “Hm?” This is perhaps the biggest dad thing he’s done all episode.

HES TRYINF SO HARD TO FIGHT THE SMILE. NOT HIM AXTUALLT FUCKING LAUGHING. HE FUCKING LAUGHED. HE LAUHJED.

“That is so goddamn stupid.” “You laughed, motherfucker!” “I didn’t laugh.” “Yes, you did!” “Jeez, I’m losing it.”

NOT THEM GIGGLING TOHEYEHR. I’m getting chills what the fuck. they’re giggling together.

“Go to sleep.” “You go to sleep!”

I have. the biggest grin on my face.

I know he slept soundly that night. I KNOW he had the best sleep he’s had in a while. and it’s all bc he went to her giggling with this girl he very obviously does not care about and has no fatherly affection towards whatsoever

HENRYBAND SAM <3 cant wait for next episode heartbreak

#tlou spoilers #the last of us hbo #joel miller #ellie williams

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