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linhnguyen232 · 1 month

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[Week 10] Digital Self-Defense: How to protect yourself from gaslightning on social media spaces?

What is gaslighting?

Gaslighting is a psychological phenomenon characterized by the manipulation of an individual's perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events. It entails inducing doubts in the targeted person's mind, leading to a profound sense of uncertainty and despair. Gaslighting often occurs through repeated incidents over an extended period, involving multiple parties who play the role of gaslighter. The primary objective of the gaslighter is to undermine the target's credibility as an interlocutor, typically by denying the accuracy of their perceptions, memories, or assessments of various situations (Abramson, 2014). In essence, gaslighting involves a deliberate attempt to erode the victim's confidence in their own reality, leaving them feeling isolated and vulnerable.

In addition, The APA Dictionary of Psychology also defines gaslighting as a manipulation tactic wherein one person manipulates another into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events. This definition encapsulates the essence of gaslighting, emphasizing its deceptive and psychologically harmful nature (APA Dictionary of Psychology).

Is it possible for gaslighting to occur in online environments?

The answer is YES!!!

Gaslighting is not confined to physical interactions but can manifest just as insidiously in online spaces, where individuals can employ similar tactics to undermine the perceptions and experiences of others (Dickson, Ireland & Birch 2023). Through denying someone's experiences, questioning their reality, or invalidating their feelings, gaslighters can effectively manipulate the online discourse to serve their own agenda (Abramson, 2014). This form of psychological manipulation can be particularly harmful in the realm of social media, where the wide audience reach amplifies the impact of gaslighting behaviors (Abramson, 2014).

The online environment, with its vast array of communication channels and platforms, provides ample opportunities for gaslighting tactics to thrive (Shane, Willaert & Tuters 2022). Whether through comments on posts, direct messages, or public forums, gaslighters can exploit the digital landscape to sow seeds of doubt and confusion in their targets (APA Dictionary of Psychology). Moreover, the anonymity afforded by online interactions can embolden gaslighters to engage in manipulative behaviors they might not otherwise attempt in face-to-face interactions (Abramson, 2014). This veil of anonymity can make it easier for gaslighters to target vulnerable individuals and manipulate their perceptions without fear of immediate consequences.

Furthermore, the online nature of gaslighting can exacerbate feelings of isolation and helplessness in victims, as they may struggle to discern the intentions of their manipulators amidst the vast sea of digital interactions (APA Dictionary of Psychology). Unlike in offline settings where social cues and body language can provide valuable context, online communication often lacks these nuances, making it easier for gaslighters to deceive and manipulate their targets (Abramson, 2014). As a result, individuals subjected to gaslighting online may find themselves increasingly disconnected from reality, further entrenching the cycle of manipulation and self-doubt.

What strategies can individuals employ to safeguard themselves from gaslighting on social media?

Individuals can employ several strategies to safeguard themselves from gaslighting on social media:

Educate yourself: Educate yourself about gaslighting tactics and manipulation techniques. Awareness of these tactics can help you recognize and respond to them effectively.

Set boundaries: Establish clear boundaries for your online interactions. Be assertive in communicating your limits and avoid engaging with individuals who disregard them or attempt to manipulate you.

Seek support: Reach out to trusted friends, family members, or mental health professionals for support and validation. Having a supportive network can provide perspective and reassurance in navigating gaslighting experiences.

Document evidence: Keep records of gaslighting incidents, including screenshots or recordings of interactions. Having evidence can validate your experiences and help you address the situation effectively if needed.

References:

Abramson, K 2014, ‘TURNING UP THE LIGHTS ON GASLIGHTING’, Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 1–30.

Dickson, P, Ireland, JL & Birch, P 2023, ‘Gaslighting and its application to interpersonal violence’, Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 31–46.

Shane, T, Willaert, T & Tuters, M 2022, ‘The rise of “gaslighting”: debates about disinformation on Twitter and 4chan, and the possibility of a “good echo chamber”’, Popular Communication, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 1–15.

#MDA20009 #Week10 #Gaslightning #DigitalCommunities

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thetoxicgamer · 10 months

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The Diablo Immortal Blood Knight isn’t like WoW’s, and that’s perfect

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing with senior narrative designer Ryan Quinn and lead UX designer Chris Liao of Diablo Immortal about the Blood Knight, a new class in the RPG game. After playing too much WoW Wrath of the Lich King Classic, I started confusing Blood Knight with Death Knight and Blood Death Knight around five minutes into our PCGN exclusive. I therefore questioned the pair about whether the demon-slaying bruiser had been affected by Arthas' corruption or if the Diablo Immortal Blood Knight is a totally distinct being. We first saw the Blood Knight in the original Diablo, where they cemented themselves as one of the toughest melee enemies you face. This is the first time they’ve appeared as a playable class, so I asked Quinn why the team chose to go in a totally new direction, versus bringing back a class like the Amazon or Witch Doctor. “There’s always this balance between what is familiar to folks, what people definitely know they want, and what adds newness and freshness to the game,” Quinn tells PCGamesN. “When we rolled out we rolled out with these six Diablo stalwarts that people who have played a lot of Diablo before have already experienced. We love them, we’ve been playing them for ages; I’ve been playing a Barbarian since high school! “But you know the opportunity to make something really, really new and really unique for Immortal’s identity, and also to do a different sort of darkness for our dark classes than we’ve done previously with the Necromancer the Demon Hunter etc. was just something we couldn’t pass up.” The Blood Knight is a mid-range melee fighter, which automatically made me think of its WoW counterpart. As someone who ran a Blood Death Knight Draenei in WoW WotLK Classic (using a build from our WoW WotLK Death Knight guide, of course), I immediately drew parallels with the focus on life leeching and skirmish combat. I ask Quinn whether or not the team drew any inspiration from Arthas’ undead legions, and he responds “that is a super good question. I think from a class identity perspective – like blood manipulation – the visual and somatic analogues are there, but from an ability design perspective we were going in a fairly different direction. “Death Knights in WoW really tend to hew to this kind of tanky, more defensive archetype, and while we wanted some of that deliberate movement and tactical thought, with the Blood Knight we were looking for something that is more about pure aggression. I think you’ll find that, when you use some of their close-in polearm attacks they’re actually quite quick. They’re not agile to get there, but once they start swinging the windup is quite fast.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VP83OlNBDY As a monk player who loves a bruiser-style character, the Blood Knight sounds absolutely awesome. I can’t wait to get hands-on and make use of one of the best Diablo Immortal Blood Knight builds when they officially release, but in the meantime I suggest checking out our list of the best Diablo Immortal builds across all classes – there’s still some time to level up your Monks and Demon Hunters, after all. Read the full article

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friendlystarfruit · 2 years

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tw grooming

Is Bojack consider a groomer since he almost had sex with a minor who is 17?

We never got to see the process of Bojack grooming her only untill the aftermath where its like a total wtf moment as he before refused her advances and saw her for what she is a teen, but yeah then he tried to bang a naive teenager because he couldn't shack up with her Mom.

He also supplied the kids with drink and one of them nearly died.

So whether he groomed her for long he exploited a confused younger person.

I dunno if he broke any laws the age of consent in New Mexico is 17 but I would have thought that was only for those in the same age group 18-19 , Bojack was like late 40s imo his age range should be 21+. It is pretty clear Penny doesn't know what she even wants and somebody like Bojack so much older than her feels like an authority figure , the power dynamics are really not good.

So yeah I would say if he didnt groom her he still still exploited her , grooming is just the manipulation tactics used to coach a kid into sex , Penny was pretty eager and confused already so Bojack took advantage of that.

It is pretty shitty what he did , I think the writers deliberately made her 17 to make a point , even if legally Bojack didnt cross aline the power dynamics and Penny's immaturity set Bojacks actions to cause a lot of harm to Penny even when they tankfuly never had sex (we meet her later and she how she is effected and freaked out)

#ask #anon ask #asks #ask anon #anon

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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I’m of the opinion that trying to rank the Batfam by intelligence is dumb as hell because they’re all conceptually the smartest person in the room whenever the plot demands it and put any single one of them in any other group of people and canon defaults to treating them as the smartest one there even when other heroes present have multiple PhDs, so like....source for:

“Tim is obviously the smartest except for Barbara and also Bruce but also Jason is smarter than Dick because he likes to read and let’s all collectively presume that Cass is so obviously the least smart of all of them she never even ranks when talking about the Batfam’s intellects even though this is a girl who became fully socialized within like two years after previously having spent the first fifteen years of her life in varying forms of complete isolation with her education deliberately stunted until she began thriving at literally the FIRST opportunity she got to actually be afforded resources for expanding her mind”.....

So yeah, my official stance is and always will be every single member of the Batfam is a LITERAL genius and when you’re talking intellects of that level its pointless trying to rank them, like, they’re all smart as fuck, who needs them numbered past that point?

So I have no interest in trying to present any of them, whether Dick or anyone else, as SMARTER than the rest, but I do still have plenty of gripes about how often he’s marked for comparison and singled out to be specified as not AS smart as Tim or the others.....when literally the only thing that people ever actually point to - other than Dick’s own self-image and self-assessments - as for why Tim’s obviously so much smarter than Dick is like....Tim figured out Batman and Robin’s identities based on the fact that he saw Robin do a move that he’d previously been situationally aware of Dick Grayson doing. That’s it. That’s like.....the essence of plot convenience. Even WITH Tim’s obvious intelligence, if not for Tim having happened to be at the circus to see Dick Grayson perform that flip....he never would have been able to connect those dots, not because he’s not smart enough to, but because he simply literally wouldn’t have had one of the dots needing connection!

And also like, there’s also the fact that in plenty of Dick’s origin stories Dick is the one who figures out Bruce is Batman himself, Bruce doesn’t actually tell him....so.....why does that never come up as proof of Dick’s intelligence, y’know? Fair is fair, right?

But anyway, Dick Grayson speaks tons of languages, has hacked freaking alien spaceships, has also been called Detective by Ra’s al Ghul’s manipulative ass for whatever that’s worth but just as significantly if not more imo, is regularly shown BEING a great detective, in his solo titles, in Titans, on the Outsiders, as Batman....he picks up new skills like trying out a new hobby and had the equivalent of multiple college degrees while he was still Robin in terms of applicable know-how and understanding of science, criminology, history, politics and multiple other fields of interest.

He’s tech savvy, creates most of his own gear and even machinery, and this really can’t be underscored enough but seems waaaaay too often glossed over - he’s considered one of the preeminent tacticians in the entire DC universe, that’s like....not a small thing. That IS intelligence! That’s like the very essence of it, not just knowing things, but applying things, figuring out the most optimal ways to piece disparate bits of knowledge and information together in actionable ways to achieve desired end results. Stop sleeping on Dick’s tactical brilliance, guys!

And again, NONE of this is intended to try and elevate him PAST any of the other Bat characters, as you’ll notice nowhere am I making any claims that he alone can be described in these ways.....I’m not saying these things are limited or unique to just him, I’m just saying....they very much describe him. So.....stop acting like they don’t, y’know? Don’t be a Tom Taylor! Be better than Tommy T! I believe in you guys!

Just.....I don’t think many people realize that they’re not actually saying what they think they’re saying when they stress how much smarter Tim is than Dick, for example, because like.....that’s not a proven quantity, and so it just comes across as like, needing to erase large aspects of Dick’s character just to prop up a personal fave and that’s the sort of thing that births the sort of negativity a lot of people remark on.

(And it also carries a loooooot of not great implications if you factor in things like their respective origins, marginalizations, classism, etc - like, I can not stress how eyebrow-raising it is in the WORST possible ways that like, people make SUCH a big deal about Dick dropping out of college, when nobody ever seems to want to comment on the fact that like....Tim dropped out of high school. If its so obvious that the latter has nothing to do with Tim’s intelligence whatsoever - and it doesn’t, for the record - then you really should take a little more care with how you raise the subject and context of Dick’s dislike for specific educational structures and not weave in implications that this has anything to whatsoever with his actual intelligence or aptitude in skill acquisition - I’m just saying).

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everything-laito · 3 years

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I think that when it comes to jealousy and mentally damaging the MC, Laito is most dangerous. This dude allows others to drink MC's blood, and then gets jealous and punishes her, which confuses the hell out of her. Like can I be with others or no?

And his route is I think the only one where you don't interract with other brothers. It's just you and Laito. It only makes the MC feel more lonely and isolated, so like...Laito is the definition of fucking up your mental health and making you feel completly helpless...

LIIIIIITERALLY!!!

Laito uses confusion a LOT for his manipulation tactics. He goes back and forth with what he’s into (allegedly) because he has no shame in stretching the truth for himself if it fits the situation. I keep coming back to the example of whether Laito’s a necrophiliac or not. Because going through this game the first time, I thought it was just the writer forgetting what they wrote a few chapters back. But now I know that it’s actually good writing, and deliberately there. I’m talking about how Laito alluded to “loving” Yui the same even if she died, but then also saying how he’s not into dead and still bodies like Kanato in the same route.

Laito’s route definitely instills a lot of helplessness. Honestly that might be an analysis idea for the future, even though I kind of did touch on helplessness and isolation in my HDB analysis briefly. Welp. Time to analyze that route, again! (but in a different lens, posssssibly). But Laito just,,, bro he knows how to fuck you up, like holy goddamn. I can’t wait to see my friend’s reaction to his ending, my god.

Honestly, if you kinda like the science of helplessness, you might like this video. Not sure if you’ve heard of Hollow Knight (play it, its one of the most beautiful games to ever exist, not to mention one of my favorites) but it knows how to root into your psyche pretty well. But don’t watch the video if you do wanna play Hollow Knight, because it does have spoilers and its great to go into that game blind.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, anon!!

#ask corn

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winterhawk-olympic-bang · 3 years

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Emotive Writing

Guest Poster: @thepartyresponsible

Emotive writing is about making people Feel Things. People use this all the time to sell you stuff, but we’re out here giving emotions away for free. Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve found to make people feel the most emotions.

Word choice:

This is the most straightforward part of emotive writing. Your word choices add an extra layer of complexity to your message. You aren’t just telling readers what happened; you’re signaling to them how they should feel. Most writers do this unconsciously, but being deliberate can make it especially effective.

Here’s a non-emotive, just-the-facts sentence: The soldier lifted his weapon and turned toward the enemy.

Here’s the same sentence reworked to make you care a bit more: The exhausted soldier raised his broken shield and faced the invading army.

The actions here are fundamentally the same, but exhausted and broken invoke sympathy while invading skews negative.

The words you choose are sign posts for the reader. They indicate how to interpret the story and help your readers orient themselves and form expectations. Subtly building expectation is important because, while surprise can be effective, shock is generally numbing and confusion tends to be irritating, so word choice helps you frame things and guide your reader along.

One of the keys here is to attempt some subtlety. If every sentence about your protagonist reads like an ad campaign (effervescent, brilliant, impervious) and every sentence about your antagonist reads like a political diatribe (cruel, spineless, malicious), you’re probably overusing your sign posts. People want to know who to root for, but too much emotive language can make them feel manipulated.

Think of word choice like adding spices to food. If you put oats in boiling water, you’re making oatmeal, and the spices you use won’t change that. But if you throw in some honey and cinnamon, I know we’re headed somewhere wholesome. If you sprinkle in little discordant notes of garlic powder and cayenne, what we’re cooking is a tragedy. And if you upend an entire bottle of cinnamon, a quarter cup of nutmeg, and toss in seventeen whole cloves, I am not staying for breakfast.

Narrative distance:

Narrative or psychic distance is the space between the reader and the character, usually navigated by the intermediary figure of the narrator. Your narrator can be an omniscient figure that knows the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of every character in the world. Or your narrator could be sitting on the shoulder of your main character, close enough to hear their thoughts and know their story but not so close that they speak with the character’s voice. Or your narrator could be your character.

If you want to ramp up emotion, you usually want a narrator who is very close to one character (or, alternatively, to separate characters in turn). But you don’t have to stay at one distance for the whole story, and, just like word choice, shifts in narrative distance can be helpful indicators to your reader about the story and the characters.

A sudden, dramatic shift in narrative distance is quite jarring, like a sudden zoom-in during a movie. It can be effective, but it’ll lose its punch if it’s overused. Generally, if you want to shift narrative distance, you should build to it slowly. Here’s an example of shifting from a distant third person to a closer third person:

They wake the Soldier because the archer is missing. He has a habit of slipping his lead, disappearing post-mission. The chase grew tedious years ago, but the Soldier runs it just the same. He’ll do as he’s told. But it bothers him, when he lets it. The why.

Why does he do this? the Soldier wonders, when he shouldn’t, when it isn’t his place. Where is he going? he thinks, when he can’t stop himself. Who is he running to? But he tries to think nothing at all.

Another trick of narrative distance is to suddenly pull back to show a character who’s been compromised, shocked, or deeply hurt by something. Imagine spending a long time in a close Bucky perspective, hearing his thoughts, and then being abruptly walloped across the face with: The machine went quiet, and the Soldier opened his eyes. Zooming out can emphasize what’s been lost. Because you aren’t just taking the soul of Bucky Barnes right out of him, you’re also taking that closeness away from the reader. You’re silencing the voice they’ve been listening to.

Whether you zoom in or out during highly emotional moments depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and also on who’s involved. Some characters have loud, messy emotions that will get louder when they’re hurt. Some characters will freeze over and push a narrator further away. You can use narrative distance to show a character slowly opening up or suddenly slamming a door. But you need the reader to have a solid understanding of the character in order to follow what the shift means, which leads to the next component.

Know your characters:

So, here’s the thing. You gotta Velveteen Rabbit this. Every character is Tinker Bell. If you stop believing, they die.

If you want people to care about these characters, you have to treat them like living, breathing, fully feeling people. They have favorite colors. They have phobias. They have Friday night plans and blisters from new shoes and sesame seeds stuck in their teeth. They have superstitions and secrets. You don’t need to know all of these facts, but you should try to give the impression that someone could know them. The more real your characters are, the more we’re going to care about them.

Since this is fanfiction, you start with a receptive audience. Your readers are fond of these characters. Figure out why. Figure out which parts of the character you can relate to and dig in until you feel like you can understand the parts of them you can’t relate to.

Try to collect things that make you feel close to that character. I always have music playing when I’m writing, so I make playlists for characters and playlists for stories. If I feel like I’m losing a character, I’ll go back to their playlist. But you could also use Pinterest boards, reread favorite fics or comics, rewatch movies or fanvids, or spend an unreasonable amount of time researching bows and tactical knives. Whatever works!

Also, remember, your characters don’t know what story they’re in. They don’t know it’s going to end well (or terribly). Maintain that tension, because that’s where the emotions are. When you watch a good horror movie, you’re not really scared of the monster. You’re scared for the characters, because they don’t know if they’re going to survive.

Emotions come from the characters. That’s why it’s still sad that Tony Stark dies, no matter how many times you watch it happen. Tony Stark was brave and flawed and usually right and often sarcastic, and it hurts to watch him die because that’s a full, unique human we’re losing. We know him well enough to know he’s choosing to sacrifice himself and why he made that choice and who will mourn him.

Know your characters, and let them be messy and weird and wrong and hopeful and cantankerous and unique. Fear is relatable, flaws are relatable, and awkward, ungainly, stubborn progress is relatable. Just remember what it is that makes their progress their progress because, if you can swap Dominic Toretto in for Ted Lasso and have the exact same story, you’ve probably lost your characters.

Plan your emotional trajectory:

Okay, time to get a bit technical. This is for people who like to plan. For those terrifying, godlike writers who just sit down and write, this might not be helpful. For my fellow planners:

There’s a theory (which you can get a general overview about here or, if you’re very into data, right here) that there are six core emotional trajectories in narratives:

1) Rags to riches (rise)

2) Riches to rags (fall)

3) Man in a hole (fall then rise)

4) Icarus (rise then fall)

5) Cinderella (rise then fall then rise)

6) Oedipus (fall then rise then fall)

Since rise and fall can mean different things, I find it helpful to combine these building blocks with emotional axes, which you can find some examples of here.

So, basically, for my winterhawk baseball au Got a Heart in Me, I Swear, I planned to follow the “man in a hole” trajectory (fall then rise) along the anxiety-confidence emotional axis with some bleedover from the humiliation-pride axis. Which basically means Clint started comfortable enough, nosedived deep into anxiety and humiliation, and then slowly built his way to confidence over the rest of the fic.

If the listed axes don’t appeal to you, you can very easily create your own. Just think of an emotion, identify what links it to its inverse, and then list the related emotions between the two opposites. Disgust and adoration are opposites, but they’re linked by attention, right? You can’t ignore something you find disgusting or adorable. So, here’s an example emotional axis you could follow: Disgust – Resentment – Obsession – Fascination – Reverence – Adoration. Enemies to lovers, anyone?

Emotional axes help provide a natural framework for your character’s emotional trajectory. They can be subtle; you don’t have to start on one end of the spectrum and go all the way to the other. A story that moves just a step or two on an emotional axis can be incredibly compelling. That small progress from discomfort to hope can hit really hard if the progress feels fought-for and earned and real.

Tips for writing emotions:

· Get physical: If you want to show an emotion instead of telling it, describe its impacts on the body. Most characters won’t think I’m embarrassed. They’ll feel a drop in their stomach like someone cut the elevator cables and a hot stinging in their face like they’ve been slapped by some disappointed version of themselves. The more visceral your descriptions, the more the reader will feel them. If you want your reader to feast on feelings, you have to set the table.

· Dramatic zoom: When something very intense happens, shift the narrative distance. In or out is fine, but a sudden, dramatic event should result in a sudden, dramatic change in focus. Characters might hyperfocus on their physical bodies (the mechanics of breathing, the ringing in their ears, the mad animal urge toward flight) or they might be kicked so far out of their own heads that they feel like they’re dreaming or watching the scene play out from overhead. This distance is useful for two reasons: it feels real, and it allows readers to absorb the situation in pieces, without being overwhelmed by it.

· Unreliable narrator: Some emotions can be so charged that people don’t want to own them, like grief, shame, jealousy, rage, lust, and guilt. Characters might unconsciously misrepresent these to themselves as something else. A grieving mother might insist she’s tired. A rehabilitated assassin who’s fallen in love with an absolute dork might tell himself he’s just tracking a target. Everyone knows what it’s like to lie to themselves, so this makes characters relatable. And, also, everyone likes being in on a secret, so, sometimes, this is just fun.

· Face the monsters: We’re often conditioned not to dwell on unpleasant things, which is part of why it can be powerful to examine them in stories. From small things like inglorious emotional states (envy, cowardice, resentment) to character flaws (recklessness, withdrawal, arrogance) to personal tragedies (loss, betrayal, abandonment), the negative parts of human emotional life pack quite a punch. Acknowledge them. Not only are they relatable experiences, but redemption and recovery arcs are some of the most compelling stories we have.

#whob #winterhawk #winterhawk olympic bang #writer workshops #writer workshop: emotions #guest post #thepartyresponsible

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mittelfrank-divas · 3 years

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Dance of the Black Heron chapter 2

The next chapter of my Dancer Hubert fic! In which the other Black Eagles have opinions on this situation.

This fic is now up on AO3 for those who prefer reading there!

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"I think it's a fine idea." Edelgard rounded one of the long tables in the Black Eagles classroom, carrying a stack of tactics textbooks. It was quickly growing dark outside, and every other student had long ago vacated the classrooms, but the pair of them were often found here at this hour by the flickering light of the candles and the dwindling embers of the fireplace.

At first, tidying the classroom had been an easy excuse for them to meet at night without suspicion. It was a perfectly appropriate activity for the head of the class and her attendant to engage in regularly outside of normal class hours, with obvious evidence of their work that they could point to the next morning if anybody asked where they had been.

Now, although better awareness of the guard rotations and lesser-used passages gave them plenty of other ways to slip out after dark, habit still found them here day after day. Hubert could not help but notice the pride that Edelgard took in maintaining the Black Eagles classroom, making sure the chairs were straightened and every student had their required materials ready in the morning. It did not matter that their classmates could easily retrieve their books and quills themselves, or that the room would be equally serviceable if the chairs were left slightly askew or that the floor could endure going unswept for a few days. Edelgard wanted the classroom to be perfect for her Eagles, and so Hubert was all too happy to assist her in that.

He automatically held out his arms for her to deposit the books into and began distributing them before each chair on one side of the room while Edelgard began passing out her own stack on the other side. He scowled down at the books in his arms as he sought out the one with the broken binding, which he always deliberately placed in front of Ferdinand's chair. "I did not expect you to share in our professor's folly."

"I see no folly in it." Edelgard was not quite so deliberate in her distribution, placing each of her own books without checking its state. Hubert doubted that any of the other Black Eagles noticed that the left side of the classroom always received the same books each day (the nicest one went to Bernadetta and their state of decay decreased down to Ferdinand's) while the right side was randomized, with each equally likely to receive the one wrinkled with water stains on one corner. Her egalitarian approach meant she always finished sooner than Hubert, and so she was first to move behind the professor's desk to retrieve the quills and ink pots. "I know you know how to dance, Hubert. I have seen you do it many times."

"Respectfully," Hubert grumbled, "our little bedroom waltzes hardly compare to a competition that will determine the composition of our class. You have seen me run before, but you would not ask me to participate in a marathon."

"Nonsense." Edelgard turned to him, a pot of ink in each hand. "That comparison would only be suitable if I had watched you outrun the entirety of our class. You are good at dancing. You have proper stance, you keep time well..."

"Lady Edelgard," Hubert set his final book down and met her eyes directly. "Did you convince the professor to choose me?"

Edelgard's pale eyebrows rose. "You are cross with me. No, I did not. I merely advised them that you would be a good choice. They were already considering you."

"I am not cross with you, I am…" Hubert sighed, and slouched down to rest his gloved hands on the table. "Alright. I am cross. I wish you'd consulted with me before agreeing to this."

Edelgard never cowered from anger -- his, or any other's. It was one of the many traits that made him admire her. Her pale lavender eyes met his fully. "I apologize. I thought it best if you heard directly from our professor first. It is not as though they can force the decision upon you, after all, can they?"

"No," Hubert admitted with a sigh, finally moving to retrieve the quills and ink alongside her. "They merely trapped me in my own logic. Forced me to admit that I can see no better option."

"Well?" She flicked her white hair back out of her eyes as she shot him a sidelong glance. "Is your logic flawed? Is there any other who we should choose instead?"

Hubert had been asking himself that very question since the moment he exited the professor's room. Dare he give up their only cavalry unit? Their only assassin? Could he ignore his own predictions that Linhardt would shirk whatever responsibility the role would demand of him? "I am beginning to question whether we require a Dancer in our ranks at all."

"Well then, I am certain that Claude von Riegan will make good use of it," Edelgard said crisply as she laid out quills.

Claude von Riegan. Claude von Riegan with somebody under his command who could effectively double the speed of any attacking unit. Hubert could already imagine a number of scenarios that Claude could manifest with such power in his hands, but worse were the ones that he could not imagine.

"Your attempts to bait me are rather transparent, I'm afraid." Even as he said it, Hubert attempted to shrug off the vision of the future Alliance leader darting out of their peripherals, bow at ready.

"A pity," Edelgard sighed, moving toward the professor's desk. She always made a point of organizing their notoriously scatterbrained teacher's class materials at the end of the day. "I had hoped I was being subtle. Transparent though I may be, however, do tell me if my plan has worked."

Hubert prided himself on his schemes, on his ability to out-think his opponents. Unfortunately, the fact that he had honed his skill by practicing with his closest friend meant that same friend knew him all too well, and easily turned those same skills back on him. "Of course it has," he conceded, and moved to stand in front of the professor's desk while Edelgard sat down in the chair across from him. "You know I cannot bear the thought of giving such a calculating opponent an edge such as this. Well spotted as ever, Lady Edelgard."

She pulled a stack of Byleth's disorganized notes to herself, a small smile creeping onto her face at her victory. Under normal circumstances, Hubert lived to see that smile soften her carefully-managed features. In this case, it was difficult to take joy in one more sign that his doom was sealed. Nevertheless, she nodded at him. "Alright, then. If our only goal is simply to keep the Dancer class out of anyone else's hands, the solution is simple. We send someone else to compete in the White Heron Cup, but we will not make use of the certification once we have it."

Hubert crossed his arms, considering her suggestion. It was an easy way out. They could send Dorothea or even Ferdinand to compete without interfering with their long-term plans. Edelgard was showing him a kindness by offering an alternative. The fact that he recognized it for a kindness made loathing for himself churn in the pit of his stomach. For her to settle on a lesser choice simply for his sake was intolerable. "An elegant solution, but a wasteful one. I doubt you would be satisfied with such a plan."

Edelgard sighed. "Of course I wouldn't be. I think a Dancer would be of great benefit to us, and I think you would be an ideal choice."

Hubert shook his head, leaning down to press both hands against the front of the desk. "I simply fail to understand why."

"It is just as you and the professor said. The Dancer must be able to anticipate the movements of the battlefield and turn it to their advantage. When I am at the front of the line, I want someone who knows my tactics and my plans, who can predict exactly what choices I will make, to be at my back setting the stage. It's true that anyone in our class could do the job adequately, but only you could use such a position to seamlessly carry out my plans." Edelgard leaned across the desk, her hand closing around Hubert's wrist, her pale eyes meeting his fiercely. "I would never order you down a path that you found intolerable, Hubert. If this is truly unbearable for you, then we will find another solution. I just wish you could see how much I think you would shine in such a role."

She truly had so much faith in him. Not just to be a Dancer, but to be her Dancer. Someone who could help her achieve her lofty goals. Maybe, if he actually could succeed in winning the certification…

Hubert's hand went to his head, pushing his black hair out of his eyes. "This is foolishness. It is not a test of skill, but of charm. You know that I could manage to hit every step perfectly and the judges will still favor whoever has the most attractive smile."

Edelgard's eyes glinted confidently. "And is that such a bad thing? You know as well as I that charm is a matter of manipulating perceptions." She leaned forward, using her grip on Hubert's arm to pull herself across the desk. At her height, Edelgard practically had to lay across the expanse of the wood surface to lean close to him, but she somehow managed it. "Hubert," she said lowly so none passing by the open door could hear, "when we constructed the Flame Emperor together, remember what you said? That we must create an image that strikes awe into the hearts of all who see him. It will not be you dancing out there. It will be the image we create for you. So let us create that image. Will you permit that?"

An image. A persona, like the Flame Emperor. Hubert could not imagine himself standing before the entire school, hoping to convince them of his appeal with a charisma he did not possess. But thinking of it as simply another mask…

His other hand closed over hers. "If you are behind me, I can try."

***

The evening was still early when he found his way to the ground-level dorms. Light glowed warmly from the open doors and windows of the cafeteria, chatter and laughter filtering down the stone staircase. It was a crisp fall evening, not yet cold enough to keep the students from lingering around the fishing pond or drifting slowly toward their dorms while carrying on their dinner conversations, trying to delay the night of studying ahead. It would not be, therefore, considered terribly untoward for Hubert to be standing outside of Dorothea's chambers at this time. He took a moment to steel himself before knocking sharply on her door.

He highly doubted that he was remotely within the sphere of people who Dorothea hoped would be standing on the other side of her door, yet her smile was dazzling anyway. The songstress knew how to perform even in the most mundane of venues. "Hubie! It's not like you to make social calls. Are you here to scold me for forgetting to use Edie's title again? Or is this about that saucy joke I made yesterday? Was that too much for her delicate royal ears to hear?"

Hubert stifled a sigh, already regretting this conversation. Dorothea's personality was entirely too much for him to face directly like this. Her irreverence around Lady Edelgard had been a point of contention in their first few weeks at the academy, but Edelgard herself enjoyed Dorothea's brash attitude and had told him to let it go. Truth be told, Hubert also took a certain amount of pleasure in watching a commoner breezily ignore social mores the way that Dorothea did, pointedly affixing his fellow nobles with all-too-personal nicknames rather than a deferential title. But it was a spectacle that he preferred to appreciate at a distance, without the full force of the songstress's energy and wit directed at him.

"Nothing so serious as that, I assure you." Hubert stiffly folded his hands behind his back, sifting through his mental notes to recall exactly how he had rehearsed this conversation. Unfortunately Dorothea's chaotic nature had already derailed his plans, leaving him to leaf frantically through his script to work out what to say next. The sound of laughter echoing across the square made him uncomfortably aware of the other students and monastery residents moving around behind him. "I thought perhaps that you should hear it first. The professor has chosen our candidate for the White Heron Cup."

He saw her smile falter a bit, and knew that she was doing the math. If Byleth had chosen her, then surely Byleth would be the one to deliver the news. Still, her voice remained as bright as ever. "Really? That's great news! Who is it?"

Hubert could not stand to look at that fading smile anymore, and his eyes found a particularly fascinating crack in the wall by her door. "You should know that this was not at all an easy choice. It was less a matter of who could succeed in the competition than of who we could afford to remove from another role. The composition of our class is..."

"Hubie," all warmth had drained from her voice now, replaced with a dangerous edge. "If you've come all this way just to soothe my feelings over Ferdie being chosen over me, you can just get it over with."

The very suggestion that Hubert would ever choose Ferdinand von Aegir shocked him into looking at her again. "We need Ferdinand on his horse, loathe as I am to admit that. Just as we need you continuing to study both Reason and Faith, a combination that we otherwise lack." He shifted awkwardly, resisting the urge to either fidget or flee. "I have been over the class roster many times, and unfortunately I see no other way around it. The professor is of the opinion that the only one who can be spared for this role is myself."

A single laugh burst out of Dorothea's mouth before she covered it with both hands. "Oh Hubie! Oh I'm sorry, it's not funny. It's just unexpected."

"I am quite aware of how unexpected it is," Hubert muttered, once again taking tremendous interest in the details of the wall beside her. "Which is precisely why I must request your assistance. There can be no doubt that you are our most gifted dancer. Moreover, you have experience with performing before an audience. I wish to ask for your help in preparing for this competition."

Dorothea stared up at him, cautious skepticism on her face. She did not trust nobles, and he shared in her loathing. Hubert himself nearly forgot sometimes that he would be considered one of them in her eyes. Dorothea may have acted cheerful around her classmates, but Hubert had seen the way she sometimes seemed to be bracing for them to turn on her. She looked like she was bracing for that now. "I'm sorry, did you say you need my help? You, Hubie, need my help."

"That is what I said, yes."

Dorothea snorted. "I'm surprised you aren't asking Ferdie, since he seems so very convinced of his superiority in every realm, including dance."

"I do not entertain that one's foolish ramblings." Hubert smirked as he said it, and was pleased that a smile crept back onto Dorothea's own face. She made clear her feelings on Ferdinand -- loudly, and as often as possible -- and it seemed that he won an ally in her on this front. "As much as it pains me to admit my own failings, I know that you are much more practiced in this arena than myself. If you are willing to assist me in this, I would be grateful."

She granted him that warm smile that she shared so freely with her classmates. "Well with a request like that, how can I refuse? Alright, Hubie. How about we meet on the training grounds tonight?"

Hubert felt his heart rate spike just at the thought of being caught practicing in such a public area. The training grounds were less crowded in the evenings, but there were many students who remained there even late into the night. There would be no hope of privacy in such a place. "Actually, I have somewhere more private in mind, if you'll allow. I'll meet you here at your room after class tomorrow and show you the way."

Her smile twisted itself into a sly grin. "Why Hubie, if you wanted to get me alone, a simple dinner invitation would have sufficed."

Now he did sigh. Truly, she was relentless. "I assure you, I have no such intentions. But if this is your way of requesting an exchange for your services, I will see what I can do about a meal."

"No fun at all," Dorothea sighed back, though he could see that she was still teasing him rather than truly disappointed. "Forget it, then. I'll see you tomorrow."

Dorothea closed the door, leaving Hubert standing awkwardly outside. He had the rest of the night ahead of him to fret over what awaited him at Dorothea's lessons.

***

Hubert had never before dreaded class. In fact, against all reason, he even sometimes enjoyed it.

That had been an unexpected development. That Hubert would accompany Edelgard to Garreg Mach, the very seat of the Church of Seiros, that he would attend classes alongside the frivolous sons and daughters of nobility, that he would sit in front of some church-approved professor and listen to their tiresome lectures… and he would not hate it. Sometimes he even learned something. Sometimes he even forgot that he was here under false pretenses, that he was only pretending to be a student in order to further Edelgard's aims.

But class had never before felt like such a trap. Never had he so cursed Edelgard's preference for sitting in the very front row, as well as his own decision to accompany her there. Hubert felt that every single pair of eyes in the room must have been on the back of his head. Surely such a thought was irrational, since only Edelgard and Dorothea yet had reason to suspect his distraction when he failed to turn his tactics textbook to the correct page.

Worse, their distractible professor left Hubert to suffer in silence through the entire lecture, carrying on as though his humiliation was not imminent. It was only when Byleth was about to dismiss them for lunch, threatening to draw out the torture even further, that Edelgard came to his rescue. "Professor, I believe you had intended to make an announcement."

Byleth paused, blinking at Edelgard in that dreamy way they always did when they forgot vital information, such as their own plans. "Oh, yes. We've chosen our candidate for the White Heron Cup."

A general murmur of excitement rippled through the classroom. Hubert pointedly closed his book and began organizing his things, trying very hard to ignore the chatter behind him.

"You were wanting to be choosing, weren't you Ferdinand?"

"I assure you, I know nothing about the professor's choice. If they have selected me, this is the first I am hearing of it."

"It's not me, right? You wouldn't pick me just to make fun of me, would you? Oh no! You have, haven't you? Aaaaaaah I don't want to do iiiiiiiiit!"

"Finally!" Caspar's voice rang out over Bernadetta's cries. "Who'd you pick, professor? We've got so many good dancers here, I bet we'll win no matter what!"

Byleth did not waste time on drawing out the suspense with theatrics. "I've chosen Hubert."

The din faded to uneasy silence. Of all the times that Edelgard had urged the Black Eagles to learn the art of being quiet, somehow this was the moment in which the lesson finally took.

"I don't think he's a bad choice at all." Dorothea jumped in to helpfully damn Hubert with faint praise.

"Indeed, if the strategy is to frighten the judges into choosing our house, you could not ask for a better candidate." Linhardt, naturally, chose to wake up from his nap exclusively for the purpose of contributing this jab.

Having run out of anything left to do with his own class materials, Hubert moved on to straightening Edelgard's notes for her. Might as well let his classmates get this out of their system so they could hopefully never speak of this again.

"Hubert's not going to assassinate the judges, is he? Noooo I can't be an accessory to murder!"

"Bernie, nobody's going to assassinate anyone."

"Is this being a contest of violence? I thought it was of dance."

"No, there's no violence. Bernie's just being dramatic."

"Imagine if it was though? Like what if we had to fistfight Alois to win? That would be awesome!"

"But I don't want to fistfight Alois!"

"Bernie, absolutely nobody is asking you to fistfight Alois."

"Well I trust in our professor's decisions." A single voice boomed above all the others. Caspar may have existed in a perpetual state of yelling, but Ferdinand von Aegir projected his voice at all times as though he was in the midst of orating to a crowd. "I am certain that they have good reason to choose Hubert to represent the Black Eagles house, and we should be proud to support him. Why, regardless of whether or not he's had training, with a few weeks, he should--"

"I have, actually." Hubert was already out of his chair and turning to face Ferdinand before his nerves had a chance to catch up with him. The ginger with his all-too-bright smile was staring at Hubert, startled at being interrupted mid-speech. "Which is something you might already know if you ever deigned to dance with those you consider beneath your status, Ferdinand."

Ferdinand's mouth hung agape, his ears turning a satisfying shade of scarlet. "What is that supposed to--"

"Alright!" Edelgard stood, inserting herself between them as she stepped into the center of the classroom. "Honestly, is this any way to behave before a competition? We are supposed to present a united front before the other houses. I expect all of you to give Hubert your full support, just as you would any one of us."

Hubert made a point of avoiding any further eye contact as he exited the classroom. With resounding support such as this from his own class, did he even need rivals to compete with? Perhaps they might send one of Bernadetta's plush toys to compete and save him the trouble.

#hubert von vestra #edelgard von hresvelg #black eagles #fanfic #dance of the black heron

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brujahinaskirt · 4 years

Text

@missn11 says:

Ask and ye shall receive, fellow neonate! <3 Bear with me, because I’m about to hammer out 2000 words very quickly...

This massive rant by its topic nature is sort of Nines-critical, so lemme start by saying that, in my own way, I love Rodriguez. (I was partially self-burning in the shitpost that ignited this rant because I SEVERELY exaggerated Nines’s canonical shadiness levels in my ancient fanfiction, and for no other reason than because I was a teenage edgelord. I am appropriately embarrassed, but only by my excess and melodrama, not by Troika’s characterization. I think the writing behind VTMB’s Nines is superb.)

When it comes to Bloodlines, I think he’s one of the most psychologically interesting profiles in the game. In fact, I could never get into LA by Night because they so de-toothed Troika’s vision of him. Not to say LA by Night’s Nines was a poorly-developed character in his own right, ‘cause he wasn’t at all, but “my” Nines will always be unapologetically and only Troika’s: boiling angry, viciously pragmatic, a survivor who doesn’t let anyone too close lest they see through him, whose over-the-top confident façade cracks a little more every time his back’s against the wall. Troika’s Nines is the epitome of greater VTM’s “fallen rebel” archetype, and even though we don’t get to see it on all playthoughs, that makes it even better and more believable.

But as with all characterization in Bloodlines, we have to read between the lines and between our own play styles a bit to piece the truth of the puzzle together...

Besides the direct evidence Troika gives us—i.e. the music cues, which are a bit overbearing if I’m honest (sorry, Troika! ilu); the absence of Nines in Rosa’s prophecy re: people you can trust; and the overt warnings Camarilla-aligned characters give us about him—the biggest red flag about Rodriguez, imo? It’s twofold:

the way the characters he surrounds himself with talk about him and the type of vampire he chooses to fill his den. Namely: Nines exclusively recruits angry, spurned, mistreated people who are younger and far less experienced than he is

those messy, ugly, fleeting moments where you see his toughguy everyman personality crack

So! Starting with point one:

THE PERSONALITY CULT ITSELF

We can’t deny that Nines does not surround himself with peers. He surrounds himself with followers—people who don’t challenge him in any way, who are fanatically loyal, who openly profess their worship of him and their conviction he could never/would never do anything wrong. If you listen to how Damsel and Skelter talk about him, it’s with frightening adulation, often repeating Nines’s lines word-for-word without truly understanding the argumentation behind them. (Damsel’s the main offender here with her “IT’S A PYRAMID SCHEME… it just makes sense, you know? It just makes sense!” And then, of course, she gets pissed and refuses to speak to you when you push her into elaborating.)

Nines has clearly made himself much more than just a friend-figure or a Sire-figure to them. He’s utterly and completely mythologized by the LA Anarchs, held up next to other politically mythologized names like George Washington and Ho Chi Minh. His followers love him… but there’s a pecking order, and like good body shields, they believe their lives don’t matter as much as he matters. And they love that, too. They want to die for Nines. They’re not just willing to or resigned to it; they’re eager to die. Damsel will volunteer this information the first time you meet her. She just can’t wait to prove herself by taking a bullet for goddamn Nines Rodriguez. It’s literally how she introduces herself to new people.

And yet Nines deliberately withholds his attention and time from his followers. He uses his attention as a reward, as incentive. He rations some care and reassurance and help—makes you feel good and gives you reason to crave his attention—and then he pushes you away, back into his adoring ranks until the next “two minutes” you earn from him in which you’re special enough for such an exceptional, important, cool guy to talk to. That’s a classic manipulation tactic, and a classic personality cult tell.

And Troika is so damn fuckin’ brilliant about it because they don’t stop at showing us that an Anarch-aligned fledgling might feel this way—no, they make the PLAYER also feel this way. On our first playthrough of Bloodlines, we’re desperate to talk to Nines. We want the reward. “Let me finish the plaguebearer quests… let me run to the Elizabeth Dane… I hope Nines talks to me again now! Quick, to the Last Round! Maybe if I say the right thing to make him like me, he’ll give me another free EXPERIENCE POINT!” (iirc he’s one of two characters who will do so, and the only one who gives multiple points.)

But at the end of the day, Nines is indisputably the leader of the Anarchs, and even fledgling figures that out. (“Sounds like you’re the Prince of the Anarchs.”) He’s very much the Baron of Downtown LA, even if he won’t use that language. As for the grating day-to-day management and leadership stuff that might make him somewhat unpopular among the Anarchs, though? He fobs all that stuff off on Damsel!

Damsel, his Minion No. 1—whom a lot of players will hate on their early playthroughs, because she assigns tough missions with little to no reward. Damsel, who has no real power role in the Anarchs and functions only to serve Nines. You help Damsel, and you do Nines’s work—i.e. you do the work of the Barony of LA—and he doesn’t even have to take the admiration hit by having to ask you himself.

There’s only one non-follower of note around Nines. It’s Jack, and by his own words, he’s not one of Nines’s people; he disparages them, in fact. And we’ll notice that Jack—who is stronger, older, and wiser than Nines—very much doesn’t talk about Nines the same way Nines’s followers do. While Jack doesn’t directly insult him and occasionally defends him, Jack also has a downright shocking response to the announcement of the Blood Hunt. When fledgling desperately asks what they can do to help Nines—Jack says, word-for-word: I could give a damn.

Something ain’t quite right about this place.

Moving right along:

NINES IS A FAKE ALPHA MALE WHO KNOWS HE’S GOING TO DIE

Part of why Nines is so attractive to someone scared and weak like our fledgling (or Skelter or Damsel) is that he seems utterly fucking untouchable—like nothing scares him, and that must be reassuring when two of your age-old enemies are moving into town. But Nines’s tough, cool, Devil-may-care persona outs itself as a protective shell, too… and this is another thing I think Troika handled so subtly and so well.

You’ll notice that even Nines’s voice is dramatically different in a couple different situations: when Ming Xiao is borrowing his body, when he’s afraid, and when he’s distracted or deeply disturbed. (A successful Malkavian mind read will really slam a crack in his coolguy persona. For a second, the nonchalance shatters and he childishly screams SHUT UP!)

But whether you Malk him or not: In those isolated moments, the Coolguy Nines Rodriguez we normally see frays. Physically, even! His accent loses its burr (that ballsy rural American everyman accent), shoots up to a higher register—and reveals a much softer voice than the one he uses in front of other people. No wonder; part of Nines’s charisma comes from his performance of masculine confidence, and even if it’s not a toxically patriarchal masculinity in the way we often picture it, the fact this performance cracks at all shows it’s not his genuine self. He’s acting. In the way a lot of toughguy men do—but for Nines, whose survival depends upon attraction now, he’s acting toughguy for his very life.

I think those little fray-under-pressure moments are the “real” Nines, or as close as we’re going to get: scared, desperate, worn-down, and very aware of his doom.

Now, all that said…

BLATANT FALLEN REBEL CONCEPT APOLOGISM

I don’t think we can quite throw Rodriguez into the same Mean Monster Morality Dungeon for Evil Vampires as other Big Bads in LA. This is where motivation comes into play, at least for me. We know Nines can be merciless and violent, and he doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice his own soldiers (namely, um, US!) to protect his holdings. But he does seem to have a twinge of genuine anger over injustices wrought upon “little people” (look no further than Nocturne)—one that seems like it stems from a sense of right v. wrong rather than sheer pragmatism. This stands in stark opposition to the rationed pacificism of characters like LaCroix, who simply doesn’t want the headache of cleaning up a pile of dead humans on his nightly to-do list.

Nines also, of course, just doesn’t have the same kind of disaster reach other Bloodlines Big Bads do in how much harm he can cause. When LaCroix gets up to some bullshit, he crashes the national economy. Nines, like, crashes a car into a corporate office window or takes over a street or something. Can’t really compare the two when it comes to the scale of damage done.

And even Nines Rodriguez is, for all his strategy, still an honestly angry person. Not all of him is fake—what’s troubling about him is what he’s willing to sacrifice and do to satiate his anger-passion. It’s the standard Brujah emotional-moral struggle. Even though I agree with much of what he says about bloodsucking late capitalist vampires (tbh he seems to hate vampires in general!), one wonders if it’s not partially the anger-passion that’s warped him into the façade of a noble leader he’s become. It’s not a pure anger anymore; he’s weaponized it in selfish, unhealthy, destructive ways.

But if he’s a fallen rebel—and since he is still apparently capable of some genuine anger and sadness—then we can infer he wasn’t always like this. He fell, and narratively, that’s key to understanding Clan Brujah. Maybe he fell in a way all of us angry rebel-types risk falling if we let our hatred of the bloodsuckers in real life outgrow and consume our care for the real-world little people.

I think we also have to appreciate that—as far as we know—the shady shit Nines does, he primarily does to prolong his power. But for a threatened Anarch like Nines, power doesn’t mean expansion or accumulation as it might for an ascending Ventrue; it primarily means survival. The Camarilla and Kuei-jin incursions into LA have numbered his days, and he can’t possibly have any delusions about this, no matter how much he swaggers. So he does what he can do with the skills and limited resources he has. He corrupts vulnerable, angry, abused people by giving them the appearance of friendship, family, and hope they can become stronger—much like effective gang leaders do.

If he’s morally nastier than other power-players like LaCroix in some way, imo, it’s here. It’s the intimacy with which he manipulates the people around him. LaCroix may lie to you; Strauss may withhold information from you; Ming Xiao may double-cross you. But none of them ask that you love them. That’s not their goal; that’s not how they operate. None of them expect or encourage anyone to happily die for them of their own free will. If they get you killed, you’ll die resenting them—resenting that you had to die, at all.

But when you die for people like Nines Rodriguez, you do it willingly, if only because you believed he cared somehow and that he’d fight tooth-and-nail for you, too. You believed that you were a member of his little outcast family—or that you would be, if you just proved yourself a little bit more. If you just fought a little harder. If you were just a little happier about having the chance to die for the cause. Maybe if you die for Nines, then Nines will love you, too.

I don’t think he does. I don’t think he will. If he’s a true fallen rebel archetype, I don’t know if he can anymore.

That’s enough Anarchs for now! I’m gonna peace out with some copy/pasted lyrics from the theme song of Nines’s den: the ballad of the charming and vengeful Lecher Bitch. Stay sharp, my little Bloodlines fanatics!

Tell me your story Don't worry, I've been there Crown me your savior Don't worry, I'll be there

[Chorus] I said hey You're coming all the way I've got some hell to pay I'm diggin' all the way All the way down I said hey You're coming all the way I've got some hell to pay Gonna rip you every way On the way down again [Bridge] Don't belong lording above me Won't be hard to pull you underground It won't be long 'til you love me And I'll be coming at your back To break it down

#vtmb #vampire the masquerade bloodlines #nines rodriguez #tune in next week for my 5 page essay on why Wong Ho is the only nice person in Bloodlines!#not really #but maybe really #in conclusion nines ain't shit [drops mic]#[is mauled by damsel]

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swaps55 · 4 years

Note

For your WIP list: How about White Noise?

Oooh. This is an odd one. Before Andromeda came out, I started doodling a “what if the AI approached Kaidan Alenko?” story. I didn’t finish it before the game dropped, and then never came back to it. I now have plans to cannibalize parts of it for my next fic, but here’s a (lengthy) snippet that isn’t one of those useful bits. Pardon the rough prose - I was really rusty at the time.

Kaidan should feel a twinge of guilt. Being overdue with a mission debrief, even for something as useless as the Hammerhead field tests, isn’t exactly characteristic. Something the Admiral had been sure to point out. But it is useless. The Hammerhead is a waste of time. It all feels like a waste of time, ever since-

Even thinking the word 'Alchera' makes his chest tighten in a way he’d rather it didn’t. Almost two years later and he still fights the urge to brush ash off his shoulder plates, to force himself to turn around and go back instead of get into that pod.

In the corner of his eye blooms the phantom glow of a drive core going up, and followed by the same cold punch in his gut that knocks the breath from his lungs as hard now as it did then. He wipes his mouth with one hand, raises the other to signal the waiter for a beer.

“Lieutenant Alenko?”

Kaidan jumps, looks up and sees the N7 logo emblazoned on a breastplate of black armor. His heart stops.

“Mind if I sit?”

It takes a moment for the blood to stop rushing through Kaidan's ears. It’s not Shepard. Of course it’s not Shepard; Shepard’s dead. This man is older, maybe by a couple of decades, face craggy and riven in a way that reminds Kaidan a little of Admiral Hackett. The only resemblance he has to the Savior of the Citadel is the grim set of his jaw, a soldier’s exoskeleton of starched posture and that keen sense of awareness that makes it clear he knows where every exit is and how to take as many down as he can on his way out.

Kaidan must have acknowledged the man, who looks maddeningly familiar now that he's processing things with a little more sanity, because he sits down across the table. Stiff. Formal. None of Shepard's languid movement. Shepard has an absurd way of just flowing into a space, even with that starched soldier's posture.

Had. You'd think he'd be used that by now.

The waiter brings the beer, turns to the N7 soldier to take his order, but gets waved off.

“I was hoping you could spare a few minutes of your time,” he says, voice like gravel. Kaidan wonders if a piercing stare is a prerequisite for the N program.

“Sir,” Kaidan says, because he’s still not entirely sure if he’s said anything yet.

Nothing shifts in the N7’s expression. It’s like looking at a boulder. Kaidan really wants to take a pull from the beer, but leaves it untouched.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on your career. Eden Prime. Virmire. Battle of the Citadel. I’ve been curious to see what you were capable of outside Shepard’s shadow.”

Kaidan flinches. He tells himself that the N7 didn’t see it, but it’s a lie. If he’s anything like Shepard, he not only saw it, but has already figured out how to use it as an advantage. The bastard.

He’s not sure if he’s referring to the N7 or to Shepard, decides not to try and figure it out.

“I was beginning to think I wouldn’t get a chance to see it before departure, but I just read the mission reports from Aite. Nasty job. But you got it done. I’m impressed.”

Fucking Hammerhead. Fucking Cerberus. Fucking Gavin Archer. Fucking Hammerhead.

Something clicks in Kaidan’s brain. He sits up a little straighter, like someone just splashed cold water in his face. “You’re Alec Ryder,” he says, unable to keep a little bit of wonder from creeping into his voice.

Ryder nods, the movement crisp. Sharp. His shoulders tighten so subtly that a moment ago Kaidan would have missed it. But he’s paying attention now. He thinks about saluting, or Shaking Ryder’s hand. Both seem stupid. He settles for a respectful nod. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir.”

Kaidan thinks about asking him the same questions he probably gets asked by every single person who meets him. What was it like being on the first team through Charon? What’s Grissom like in person? How does it feel to be a hero? But his own experiences as of late push the questions aide. His answers to those kinds of questions feel disappointing; he can’t imagine Ryder’s are any different. You have a job and you do it. No matter what the cost. No matter who you lose. In the end you don’t feel like a hero so much as you just feel…tired.

Ryder’s gaze doesn’t falter, not for a moment, but something about it seems a little more at ease.

Ryder pushes a datapad across the table to him. It’s encrypted. High level encryption that even Tali might have had to pause for a few to crack it open. Kaidan picks it up. The display shows only a simple blue and white logo featuring a long, sleek ship and the words Andromeda Initiative. He glances back to Ryder, who is watching him carefully.

“I’m not familiar with the Andromeda Initiative."

“You’re not supposed to be,” Ryder replies. “It’s not an Alliance project. Civilian run. Do you know Jien Garsen?”

Kaidan racks his brain. “I’ve heard the name, but not much more than that.”

Ryder gives no sign whether this surprises or disappoints him or none of the above. “This datapad will give you the mission details. For your eyes only. Understood, soldier?”

Kaidan nods, more from reflex than intention. He's willing to bet Ryder doesn't hear ‘no’ from many people. Another thing he probably has in common with Shepard.

“What’s the mission?” Kaidan asks, shoving thoughts of Shepard abruptly from his mind. White noise. It’s just white noise.

“Andromeda.”

For a moment Kaidan thinks Ryder is just repeating the name of the initiative. But then it sinks home a little bit. His eyes widen. “Wait. You’re going to Andromeda?”

“Colonization effort," Ryder replies, expression still stoic. "It’s been in the works for ten years. The datapad will give you the details. But we need people. People like you. Tough. Skilled. Resourceful. And I won’t lie, the Alliance training will be a big help.”

“You’re taking humanity to Andromeda.”

“Not just humanity. Asari. Turians. Salarians. This project is huge, Alenko.”

Kaidan inhales. This time he does take a pull from his beer. Ryder offers him the encryption key to the datapad. Waits patiently until Kaidan uses it. Patience is something he and Shepard do not share.

Stop thinking about Shepard in the present tense.

Ryder doesn’t say a word as Kaidan flips through the contents of the datapad. The schematics. The mission statement. There’s Alliance hands in this, civilian project or no. The propaganda has a lot in common with the Alliance recruitment tactics that got him on his feet after BAaTT.

The beer is gone when Kaidan finally looks back up, a second one well on its way. “This is impressive,” he admits. “But I’m not sure why you came to me.”

“We need people like you.”

Kaidan laughs, but it sounds nervous. Flustered. “I’m flattered, but I have a job. I can’t walk away from the Alliance.”

“Can’t you?”

The question hangs like a noose. A sudden urge to flip the table and walk away grabs hold, and it’s only a deliberate sip of his beer that keeps him in his seat. “I’m an Alliance soldier,” he replies, voice quiet. Shepard would recognize it for the thin ice it was. Shepard isn't here.

“An Alliance soldier who knows about the Reaper threat but can’t do anything about it,” Ryder says. “An Alliance soldier who watched as his commanding officer’s legacy was manipulated into political propaganda while his crew was silenced. An Alliance soldier who wants to make a difference.”

But can’t. The unspoken words hover like a thick fog and refuse to dissipate. Kaidan looks back to the datapad. Anything to escape that goddamned stare.

“Talk to Garsen,” Ryder urges. “Listen to what she has to say. The Reapers are coming. You believe it. I believe it. If we can pull this off, we might still be able to save ourselves. But we need people like you to do it.”

Ryder’s chair scuffs against the floor plates, armor joints creaking as he gets to his feet. Kaidan doesn’t look up, and no farewell is offered. When he’s sure he’s alone, he puts his head in his hands, eyes squeezed shut, willing the crowds in the restaurant and the corridors of the Presidium to fade into white noise.

#ljanderson #mememe #meme replies #snippet #thank you!!#ljandersen

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scionofchaos · 3 years

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Dynamic Spirit Defense

If you encounter a spirit that is very dynamic, both in the use of its nature and its external movements, one that uses that Motion as a weapon and a tactic against you, then you will need to have the right method to contain it. Do not present it with a flat barrier to collide with, but choose a direction and use your wards or offensive techniques to deflect the moving spirit that way. Before it can leave your control, create another such barrier to deflect it again. The goal is to get it into a perpetual spiraling motion, in a torus, helix, or sphere. This way, the spirit continues using its motion to carry on ahead, but you have now obtained control over where it is allowed to go, locked it down to a small space. Once contained in this way, you can diminish the size of your containment pattern, enclosing and squeezing the spirit inside. This will either render it down to a compacted form that can no longer move that way, or pare it down to base essences with no consciousness. This is not "killing" the spirit, as the spirit can recover from that state given time, but you have neutralized the threat. From there, you can perform the desired measures of sending the essences away, or calling on nature or your deities/guides to take the essences from you. Remember: a spirit that moves and strikes rapidly is quickly extinguished.

A spirit whose practice is majorly vital can be difficult to conquer. They have a balance of conscious essence (for growth) and psychic essence (for action), and have infused those with vital essence to maintain control. This is a strong and dominant predator of the spiritual world, but not the most dangerous you'll encounter. Just like dealing with one whose primary essence is vital, you will want to burn away their techniques. Employ psychic essence to agitate and scatter their manipulating "limbs," like plucking the legs off an insect. Deprived of conscious essence, they will become all motion and all internal, and dry themselves out. Alternatively, you may take the opposite approach, using conscious essence to starve out the psychic essence within them. Their motion will cease, their "limbs" will freeze or melt away, and you can either feed upon what's left or simply return it to nature.

Now we come to a rather unusual one. A creature whose modus operandi -- their means of interaction and more specifically "attack" -- is only defined causally. Making use of that essence to communicate something to you. This communication in and of itself carries no internal essences, no physical, conscious, psychic, or vital direction. Your first question -- both now and in the moment -- should be "Is that even an attack?" There is no universal answer.

Even if the communion is not designed to set something off, to trigger your other essences directly, it can still be intended to harm. In this case, "harm" means convincing you to take some kind of action, or to change your perspective. This is not done through your senses or even telepathically, as that would involve other essences. The Causal realm is the realm of action and reaction on the most fundamental level. Not instinctive action, not deliberate action, but simply what is done. This communication affects you on the level of inspiring a given unconscious behavior, or a passive bearing. If the spirit wants you to perceive it as friendly, as peaceful, or even as divine/worthy of your devotion, this is the level on which to create the change. By influencing your reactions to specific signals, the spirit makes it seem like you are responding to it the way you want, without any outside influence. Humans aren't able to process their unconscious behaviors very clearly; most take it as being deliberate, or as being a product of nature. "That was something I chose." "That's just how people are in general."

This is how the spirit wants you to think. Their signals tell you that you are being treated well, that you are valued, that attention is paid to you. In response, you believe that that is true, and act accordingly. You find yourself doing this without thinking, without question. "Why should I fight something like that?" you might be asking. Clearly, the answer is because the spirit could be lying to you. ESPECIALLY if the spirit has you believe they are not capable of lying, that they find lying abhorrent, or that they are the embodiment of truth. How do you fight this? First, determine if the spirit is focused on you, or a group including you, or if they are not actively paying you attention. In that last case, it is easy enough to shield yourself against off-waves that were not even meant for you. You're just "overhearing" something. How do we determine its focus? The simplest solution is Causal; send them signals asking if they are paying attention to you.

The problem with this is that if they weren't before, you may have guaranteed they are now. A better solution is to use Psychic essence. If they are consciously focused on you, or just targeting a group that includes you, their Mind will indicate this by pointing the Motion of its essence in your direction. You might not be receiving direct Psychic manipulation or signals, but the mind of this spirit is facing that direction all the same.

If their Mind is not directing Psychic essence your way, the next step is to ignore them. Just put up simple wards to ensure that any "words" you might "overhear" do not mislead your subconscious. And that's it! Until they direct something specific at you, you're fine.

However, if their Mind is directing Psychic essence your way, whether the signals are received or whether they're just facing, that's bad. You will have to misdirect that attention, or gag them. Misdirection means providing an alternate source of interest to distract them from you, and actively deflecting any "words" you receive toward that scapegoat. This is harmful practice, so beware the larger Causal response of the universe. Only if the intercessor has volunteered for that purpose is this okay. A gag working means that you are actively attempting to silence the spirit, making it so they cannot send the communion to you or anyone else. You are creating a mirrored sphere around them, so that any Karma moved by their actions will only affect them. For added benefit, take inspiration from one-way glass; make the structure lensed so that the inside layer keeps causal waves from escaping, and make the outer layer allow causal waves in. This way, anyone trying to act upon the spirit will not find the mirrored sphere deflecting their Karma out. Instead, the backlash of reaction will be trapped inside, making it even worse for the spirit.

Once the misdirection or gag is in place, determine the motive for communication. You may attempt to force a motive of your design, by manipulating the spirit, but this can backfire. The best way I have found to do this is repeated, cautious journeys into the spirit's Mindscape. Learn from that what their demeanor is, and where their focus lies. When the focus has been made clear, you must get the spirit to understand that you will not be deceived. You are not to be given orders. They do not need to be told "I only serve X" or "X is the only god." That will just tell a spirit that successfully masquerading as your deity will be viable camouflage. As far as this spirit needs to know, you are the most skeptical of atheists and do not recognize any authority.

#psychic #causality #mysticism #warding #defense #spirituality #spiritwork #energywork #magick

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myhahnestopinion · 4 years

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THE AARONS 2019 - Best TV Episode

A lot of streaming services are switching over to a more traditional weekly release of episodes instead of dumping a whole season all at once. It may be because they, like me, want to highlight the unique achievements of singular episodes. It could also be that they don’t want people, like me, signing up for free trials to binge watch one show and then cancelling before they are billed anything... Here are the Aarons for Best TV Episode:

#10. “Chapter Fifty-One: Big Fun” (Riverdale, Season 3, Episode 16)

Chapter Fifty-One of Riverdale is quite aptly named. With a talented young cast on hand, Riverdale often indulges in music numbers, but their full-blown musical episodes still manage to stand out. Incorporating songs from the Broadway adaptation of Heathers, Riverdale uses the famous high-school satire as a meta-criticism of its own ever-growing ridiculousness. The characters give a fervent lament of their inability to be just regular high school students, but, in the end, are forced to confront their status as mere players on a stage and puppets of a ravenous following. Riverdale is often quite fun; how much more can it do for our amusement?

#9. “Striking Vipers” (Black Mirror, Season 5, Episode 1)

Though it made its name in pessimistic twist of fortune, Black Mirror has been best when indulging in affectionate tales. In its fifth season premiere, what begins as two friends testing out a near-future fighting video game swiftly and surprisingly switches gears into a sweet story of longing and vulnerability. The episode chooses not to map its relationship onto any existing conceptions of sexuality and gender, suggesting ways in which they may continue to evolve alongside new technology. Though there are hints on darkness on its edges, the episode is one of the heart-warming tales that have always been the series’ most striking.

#8. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” (Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 2)

The second episode of Game of Thrones’ final season was the calm before the storm in more ways than realized at the time. As its characters brace for their imminent battle against an undead horde with a night of quiet companionship, the show produced its last great moments before being swallowed by backlash to its rushed and illogical ending. Unlike the show after that point, the episode does right by its characters, building off their storied histories and delivering earned and endearing pay-offs to several relationships. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” forges the last vestige of good in its world; it would have been wise to say ‘good night’ afterward.

#7. “The Trial” (What We Do in The Shadows, Season 1, Episode 7)

The What We Do in The Shadows franchise has conjured a lot of comedy from the long legacy of vampire tropes; in the seventh episode of the new TV iteration, it put the spotlight on the various actors who made up that legacy. As our regular characters arrive for their criminal trial, the show lines up an impressive amount of guest stars, including, but not limited to, Tilda Swinton, Evan Rachel Wood, Wesley Snipes, and the trio from the original What We Do in The Shadows movie. The show doesn’t just use these stars to hang upside down on its laurels though; it’s plump with jokes certain to stir the blood. It’s a very large gathering of vampires, and it doesn’t suck one bit.

#6. “Replay” (The Twilight Zone, Season 1, Episode 3)

Jordan Peele was a promising voice to head up the new incarnation of The Twilight Zone, but the insightful, livid spark of his film projects seemed to get lost along the way for most of the season. “Replay”, though, was one that managed to replicate it. Like the best of the franchise, the situations are supernormal, but the anxieties are very real: a mother discovers a video camera that can rewind time, but still finds herself unable to protect her son from a prejudiced cop hunting them down. The fear of powerlessness is all too palpable; though a fantastic episode that’s worth a watch, it would be hard to sit through again.

#5. “Danny Patrol” (Doom Patrol, Season 1, Episode 8)

The company’s new streaming service has likely doomed Legends of Tomorrow from ever being able to reclaim its title as weirdest DC television series ever. Taking inspiration from writer Grant Morrison’s run in the comics, Doom Patrol is pure absurdity. In episode 8, the team’s quest to find their kidnapped leader brings them into the path of Danny, a sentient genderqueer teleporting street (Yes, like the streets you drive on. This one has thoughts and feelings and can teleport). This odd premise paves the way for the show to reemphasize its core message of learning to love one’s self. The episode most affecting moment is its big karaoke celebration of this idea from Matt Bomer’s Negative Man; the streets are alive with the sound of music.

#4. “A Quick One, While He’s Away” (BoJack Horseman, Season 6, Episode 8)

The first half of BoJack Horseman’s final season spent a lot of time saddling up its characters to ride off into the sunset… and one episode indicating they won’t get off that easy. The show has frequently experimented with new storytelling tactics, but it has never felt as purposeful as this one, which focuses exclusively on three ancillary characters from the show’s run. The show effortless transplants its engrossing conflicts and noted animal puns to the new trio, but the tragedy at play is knowing, without it being explicitly stated, that we are witnessing BoJack’s worst actions still reverberating in the lives of others. As the show prepares its definitive statement on the series-long question of whether BoJack can find happiness, the toughest answer to acknowledge is that we’ve been backing the wrong horse.

#3. “407 Proxy Authentication Required” (Mr. Robot, Season 4, Episode 7)

While its long-gestating final confrontation against the manipulators of the world economy wouldn’t be for another handful of episodes, “407 Proxy Authentication Required” was the one that finally brought balance to the world of Mr. Robot. Pairing down its characters and sets and stabilizing the series’ deliberately off-kilter cinematography, the episode unfolds as an intimate five act play, slowly preparing Elliot and the audience for a heart-wrenching revelation. It’s a brutal, but ultimately cathartic bit of television, and the finest hour the show has produced. The series rips all its long-standing proxies away, leaving the viewer no choice but to engage with its raw pain and hope for healing.

#2. “I’m In Love” (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Season 4, Episode 17)

After an improbable four season run, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gave its final bow in 2019, but the show had one last dramatic turn before exiting stage left for good. Having held herself responsible for her actions and addressed her underlying issues, the series finale, in which she is torn between three equally meaningful romantic interests, sees Rebecca Bunch thoroughly and healthily in love. In its final twist, the episode’s title proves as much of a misnomer as the series’ has been all along. Subversive, stirring, and sidesplitting to its very last breath, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s impeccable eleven o’clock number sent the series off on a high note.

AND THE BEST TV EPISODE OF 2019 IS...

#1. “This Extraordinary Being” (Watchmen, Season 1, Episode 6)

Masks as a method to hide trauma was a prominent theme of the Watchmen comic; the TV show sequel added a few interesting wrinkles to the idea. In its boldest reinvention of the source material, the episode presents an interpretive origin story of the mysterious comic character Hooded Justice through the eyes of his descendant, laying bare the show’s anxieties of inter-generational trauma. Just as the comic toyed with the composition of its medium, the episode also engages with its own make-up. It illustrates the visual arts’ power to either further the erasure or promote the healing of such lingering pain. As a singular piece of television, comprised as it is with standout guest actors and impressive technical qualities, it’s a great use of the artform; placed within the context of its historic inspirations on- and off- the page, it’s something truly extraordinary.

NEXT UP: THE 2019 AARON FOR BEST TV PERFORMANCE!

#tv #TheAarons2019 #TheAarons #TheAaronsTV #best of #best of 2019 #riverdale #black mirror #game of thrones #what we do in the shadows #the twilight zone #doom patrol #bojack horseman #mr robot #crazy ex girlfriend #watchmen

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