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criticalrolo · 1 year

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level one, prep, and tpk; secret and heart for sigrun

Level One: What was your first experience with D&D? How did you hear about it? What was your first game like?

My first experience was DMing a one shot LOL

I had just gotten really into critical role in 2016, and was nearly caught up, when some of my friends (who didn't know I was currently Hyperfixating On DnD) actually casually brought up that they'd never played dnd before but it sounded like fun. They just needed someone to run the game since no one there really knew the rules. Cue me jumping into the conversation being like, "HAHAHAH HeyyyYyy you guys wanna play some dnd and need someone to run it? as it JUST SO HAPPENS, I know the rules and would LOOOVE to try running a game hahahaha..."

So I prepped more for that one shot than I ever did for any session ever, it was a level 1 4 hour game where I made everyone character sheets, bought dice sets for everyone, and had them clear out a wizard's basement filled with giant rats. It was REALLY fun, no one seemed to catch on that i ALSO had no idea what i was doing, and afterwards I asked if they would be interested in a Longer Campaign. I had a couple takers, and that first campaign ran for probably about five sessions before the school year ended, so nothing too wild happened, but after that I got some real games set up and ... here we are several years later :)

Prep: How much prep work do you do? How far out do you prep?

I do like... 1-3 hours of prep work before each individual session. And even then, it's mostly like... finding maps and stat blocks for NPCs. I go into each Arc that I run with a general outline in mind for what big beats I want to have happen, but otherwise I let each session progress based on what the PCs decide to do. It's definitely a combination of laying down tracks vs improv on the fly, but so far it's worked out for me! Having a really loose style has definitely helped make the story feel organic and player choice-oriented while still keeping things moving in the direction I'm hoping it'll go. And it gives flexibility for when players do things WILDLY unexpected!

TPK: Have you ever had a game go completely off the rails? TPK? How did you adjust?

I've come CLOSE to some TPKs but the players juuuust managed to squeak by, which is always my favorite kind of vibe. It's way harder to plan for that than you'd think when you've been DMing for 7 PCs for so long LOL

Honestly I don't think I've had anything go completely off the rails, or even really come Close to being that out of control? I've definitely had players make WILD choices that altered the course of FUTURE sessions, but my DMing style allows for a lot of flexibility I think, so I've never really been. THROWN by anything if that makes sense. I always LOVE it when the players make choices that Alter The Narrative Entirely.

My favorite example is when a friend of mine playing a cleric who was devoted (by accident) to Chaos, decided at the last second, in game, to NOT accept the help of their Chaos God and decided to just DIE instead. We had worked out a plan for her corruption arc!! It was going to be sick!! But apparently in the moment, during a big fight against a really difficult Boss, she looked around at her friends and decided her character would actually rather die than become corrupted and potentially break the world/hurt her friends. it was INSANE and COMPLETELY changed the next arc of the campaign since Ethros. DIED and couldn't be revived. And I loved it and we worked out a whole new arc for Ethros later :)

Secret: Is there anything that you know about your character but your character doesn’t know? What is it? How did you come up with this secret?

AUGH YES -- this was actually something that happened in game. From her backstory, Sigrun's village was attacked by raiders and she nearly died in the assault. She was healed by a strange figure she didn't recognize, swore an oath to what she Believed To Be the old gods to get revenge for them, and then this figure gave her Daisy and sent her off to safety.

NOW SIGRUN DOESN'T KNOW THIS... but that figure was actually her dad Osvald. who was sent forward in time by the Old God of Negentropy. to fulfill his wish to protect her. So I was playing Osvald at the time in a mini campaign, got this wish, and wished to Protect Sigrun. Then the DM narrated Osvald getting sent into the future, and I realized it was a scene from SIGRUN'S backstory, and I promptly lost my mind casting cure wounds on her and find familiar to give her Daisy. it was SOOOO GOOD

Heart: What drives your character? Do they have a theme, question, mission, etc. that they’re holding onto? How did you pick it for them?

Sigrun's character absolutely revolves around the theme of Family, in all its messiness and love. What do you do when the people who raised you tried their best but couldn't give you what you needed? How do you feel about them? How do you deal with people leaving, with being alone, with them going off without you? What do you owe family, if anything?

She has this mission to rescue her family members (yes I do this backstory in different variations for like. all of my PCs. dont worry about it) who have all been taken by this interdimensional raiding group, but something she doesn't admit to herself is that she's somehow trying to rescue her Dead Father too. And maybe she's trying to rescue herself? She's got insane abandonment issues from the various family members Leaving (by choice or by force), and I think there's a part of her subconscious that desperately wishes someone had come back for her when she was little, so now she's trying to act out that wish by Rescuing Everyone Else.

#sigrun #dnd #GREAT questions im gonna go cry over my viking girl

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thesolotomyhan · 2 years

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a/n: i felt like this was shorter than any other work i have done but idk i guess not in the end lol but a relatively short crowd asked me about this so here it is,,and i was kind of just playing around with words for him and this is what it came to be because of the limited scenes he had + i didnt want to steer too off of his character but i made it somewhat happen lmaoo so i hope the few of you guys like this? yeah

warnings: nsfw! …….dont look at me pls +unedited

woW what a mf’ing throwback ,, lmaoo i went back to rewatch scenes of s3 of narcos just to get a good grasp on his character and i ended up just rewatching the entire season and to say i am entering my obsession once again on this dumb show would be a little underestimat e

BU T i just- i want to personally thank and kiss whoevers hand requested me to write for alvaro ,, alvaro herrera,, BABY HERRERA ??? HOLY SH- he is fine to say the least and im here with my bs yet again- so lets beginnnn

and dd whereeee can i even begin to be honest ,, pinshe alvaro con sus chinitos Y OJOS DE COLOR ?? - i instantly felt weAK, ay dios mio -

this mf definitely has the physical genes to be in the herrera family in obvious terms and i just love the vibe he seemed to carry sorry

like for some reason he gave me the feeling hes the more “crazier” /laid back one and not so tense when it comes down to him and pacho ya feel?

pacho is the one that is somewhat looking over his shoulder just a bit more than alvaro does to an extent -

and the reason i brought this up is because even tho we are not talking about pacho,, the differences they both are in a relationship changes in ways that are shown i feel ? alvaro gives me a different tune and i just wanted to get that into the conversation here since hes related to pacho and we have already gotten a good sense/grasp with him and yeah

and woww ok since i brought this up ? let me just give you guys this overall view on how alvaro is in a relationship by what i think ?

because i just feel it,, i feel like he would be the indulging type you know? the kind that is,, if you wanted to so something or go somewhere,, you bet his ass is already tagging along with you -

he just “lives in the moment” is what im sort of going for and i dont know why he reminds me of that overall

so before i move on,,, i was debating whether or not to include this but obviously if youre reading this i added it and left it as it was,,

but for a hot minute i could not decide how the first meeting between the two of you went -

because i kind of saw two ways this could go,, like he may have just met you randomly,, youre not associated with anyone,, youre just his nena and thats it -

i sort of imagined him just starting to bring you around and if anyone asks he just says some shit like “oh es una amiga” and just leaves it as it is because thats how the two of you started out as,, just friends-

and then sooner or later since hes always around you you just become his girl ? ya know -

but then,, then i had this other thought pop up into my mind because i just - i love the idea of you also being amados little sister :) and meeting alvaro that way ?

because could you just imagine those meetups amado and pacho would have but instead of just the two of them :)

they both bring their younger siblings which include you :) and alvaro :) la pinche pareja enamorados along :) and ughH yeah its just the idea of it all heh

like i imagine pacho and amado starting to call themselves compadre and shit just for the jokes,,,

pacho being the one to get the idea of you and alvaro dating more out there just to get amado to do a double take when he says it like “no, a mi pinshe hermanita no cabron” or something lol-

and obviously it just,, takes its own flow from there if you guys feel me -

but auGH i also wanted to let something out,, that i know you all saw,,, with the way pacho treats alvaro :( calling him “mijo” and shit :((((

just taking that protective older brother figure to its truest forms :(( ay no

i just know as soon as your relationship starts being serious between you and alvaro and pacho fuvking sees the way alvaro is around you and just :(

how much he cares about you con solo una mirada that he gives you :( you would have pachos ass sold because hes already going to be calling you cuñada or mija the next fucking hour and wow :(

i just - i also see pacho always having the stupidest smile whenever he sees the two of you together doing the most random to simplest thing

or him giving a small smile whenever he hears you and alvaro laughing at some dumb thing but it fills the air with both of your guys happiness y ay no -

pinche pacho being the older brother , number 1 supporter :(( that i breathe for in this scenario :(

and. ugH siguiendo adelante - i just feel like alvaro would be apasionado with everything he does with you ya know ?

like he just attempts to give his 200% effort into anything that has to do with you :(

just because his nena deserves the top of the line service :(( he cant help but always think that with you :(

and this motto he has going on would def apply to situations when he wants to give you some gift,, like for him in his mindset,, it cant be something simple ever with him to gift you with i feel like,,

he probably thinks he needs to give you something that is near to what value he thinks you deserve and more :( pinshe atento -

so i feel like he goes over the top with gifts almost all of the time but he gets things that expresses his feelings clearly,, its all sentimental for him and i cry imagining it :(

and also ? los besos ?? this man no se conforme with one,, he needs a minimum of two or more,, no matter what just because i think he would love ? the attention he would get from you :)

but also because of the thought of him giving you that stupid small smile he does when you pull away after giving him unos cuantos besitos

his hand gently holding one of yours and doing that thing where you both dont pull either of your hands away until youre both too far out of reach is when you let go ayy-

and i just- you know how i mentioned just a few seconds ago how i imagine him being in general,, atento to everything around him and that includes you ?

i feel like that in itself just goes without saying he would be the type to like to lay back maybe in some chair or something,, your back to his chest with you sitting in between his legs on some calm night -

probably star gazing or some shit,,or just randomly talking about whatever but it would be just some soft lovey dovey type of thing and i die a little inside imagining it -

i just love the idea of him loving to hold you from behind because then he has an easy access to leave kisses on your neck :) or just simply resting his chin on top of your head when he has you snuggled back into him :( im

or NaHHh get this,,, you know what would get this enamorado niño to literally turn bright red but at the same time get him to automatically smile with orgullo ? the butterfly type of feeling to get to him ??

the image of him seeing you wearing one of his shirts :))

maybe underneath youre in one of your swimsuits/bathing set walking yourself around to get to the pool and his ass just has his eyes trained on you -

the glint of surprised happiness in his eyes that he gets to see you in this light,, wearing his shirt, and the way it literally drapes over you,,, walking around the house :)

he could die happily right there seeing that everyday especially if your contenta with him UGH pls

his smile only growing even bigger when you look over at him con toda tu belleza ayy no

and now you know what ? i know you guys all saw that scene where this mf is literally just holding a firework and giggling - GIGGLING about that and that scene just gives me “childish”. vibes where he likes to fuck around with you doing the stupidest shit and laughing into eachother afterwards

like either just daring the other to do some random thing either of you came up with or chasing the other around but it just always ends up with the two of you laughing like no tomorrow enjoying the time youre both spending :( augh

or do you guys remember that “kind of” final scene when pacho said “his love for tequila exceeds his tolerance” ?? i just :(

i couldnt help myself- sabes que exceeds all of that ?????? tU PINSHE AMORRR

like :( :( you would be his reason,, his ser de vida,,, you would be his pinshe voz y luz de sus ojos im sorry :(

my brain just liked to connect that sentence with pacho finishing it off like “-pero el amor que tiene para su nena suspira todo” and :((( wow

overall he is such a fun vibe and would love to spend time with you being totalmente enamorado or doing the most random thing you can think of goodnight-

Now i wasnt planning on this :)

but i saw that this hc/whatever you want to call if was quite short -

and my ass just let her fingers type away on this desmadre so buckle up mfs

,,, nOWW GET THISSSS <<<<<<<<<<SOFT DOM VIBES>>>>

im telling you right now he is the fuvkin definition of soft dom vibES - like to the point if you were to look up a picture of what a soft dom looks like,,,

i would paste this mf’s picture in the first 5 rows because he- BABY ALVARO? Would be the first one in line and i will die on this hill sorry im just saying -

because :)) wOW that whole vibe he seemed to carry around with him in those few scenes he had ayy no -

tomando sus vacaciones and literally just living in the moment gave me this whole sense for him to begin with and i just wish to share some thoughts i had come to me -

because like ,,,, the thought of him wantiNG you to be on top ,,, while he can just lay back and watch you fuck yourself on top of him gives me LIfe,, im sorry

Imagining his stupid cocky smile that he would be giiving you , his eyes wanting to focus on your half closed drunken eyes but he cant help but sneak glances down your body and the way your slick smears down onto his hips,,

your hips slamming down onto his repeatedly with his hands wandering up your legs and holding onto your hips it has you bringing up your hands up away from his chest to slam onto the shaking headboard -

your whines somehow becoming louder as you throw your head back as soon as you feel :) his thumb come to play with your clit -

god- you know he has his mouth slightly open just because of the fuvkin view he has on you and just,,,

how your b o d y reacts to his movements,,,

him bringing one of his hands to cup your chin,,, making you look down at him with a hazy look in your eyes ,,,

him probably moving his hand to hold your cheek and silently usher your head down to his just so he can kiss you,, bringing his other hand away from holding onto your hip to just wrapping his whole arm around your back,,,

and at the same time hes moving his body to sit up straight and bring you even closer if its possible-

thrusting his hips up into you making himself meet your bounces half way,, him smiling into your lips when he hears your muffled moans trying to slip past both of your lips -

one of your hands coming to grasp onto a patch of his hair to try to keep your drunken state of mind grounded from the taste of his mouth,, the way you feel secured against his body and just ,,, the feeling of his cock pumping into you and dragging against your wet walls - I AM SoRry for that ohhH dios ,

Additionally ? i just feel it in my bones that for him??? It would feel like you would be giving him the whole world on a silver platter if youre willing to go down on your knees for him, -

like for some reason the first thing my mind pictured was him just sitting in one of those chairs amado had in his boujee ass vacation home,,, like the ones that hes sitting in, in that first scene of all 3 of them together in that villa you know ?

an y wa y s him having a drink in his hand,,, literally fucking slouched in his chair as he just has his head thrown back,, his shirt probably open and all the while :) youre down on your knees :) blowing him :)))

one of your hands :) holding him :) by the base :)) just giving him that extra feeling of you while you hollow your cheeks around him :)

he cant help but let out those small grunts, and slowly thrust his hips up into your mouth because youre gradually fucking his mind/any common sense out of him-

god- his unoccupied hand coming to hold the back of your head just to at least keep himself from absolutely losing it in that moment -

but as soon as he dares to sneak a glance down at you :) and you look up to meet his eyes :) you just relaxing your throat and pushing him back even further it makes your eyes water ugh-

it would make this mf almost forget he had a drink in his hand as he just lets his mouth hang open as he just lets his head fall back again imM woW -

orr or get this :) esos pinshes chinitos he has as hair :) that i mentioned :)

him :) loving the feeling of your hands to be pulling on his hair :))))

doesnt matter the amount of force you use because this nasty mf would groan out when he feels you tangle your hands into his messy ass hair

because :) the thought of:) him going down on you and having you arch your back off the bed :)

as one of your hands tangle in his hair and pull when :) :) you feel his tongue run up and through your folds as one of his fingers starts to push into you ?? is just wow -

and i dont know i just feel like as soon as you begin to tug on his hair with the tight fistfuls you can gather in your blurred state of mind,, :)

it fuels this mf to bury his head further into your legs,,, grunting into you,, his arms that are around wrapped around your legs just pulling your legs even further open -

like im talking about his nose would be just buried right up against your clit,,, his tongue pushing even more into your slick heat,, moving his head back and forth against you to get the most out of you and ay no i cant i have to leave because i am currently a stuttering mess i-

tag list: @coaxium-captain-rex @visintaes @sheeshgivemeabreak @artemiseamoon @wtfisgoingonlol @boomclapxox @carlislecullenisadilf @ashlingiswriting

let me know if you want to be added!

#alvaro herrera #narcos #alvaro herrera x reader #narcos imagine #narcos imagines

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night-dark-woods · 2 years

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YESSS another person out there who reads Mara Sov as autistic!

YES YES YES hope its ok i answer this publically if not not ill delete it as an ask and just post it BUT she is sooooo very much autistic to me like. i love her sooooo much and thats a huge huge part of it ESPECIALLY bc she gets to be SO delightfully complex and morally gray and a deeply sympathetic character who still is a bit of a horrible person sometimes which just ISNT something we GET a lot as autistic ppl like. augh!!! mara sov was constructed in a lab for me to care about.

anyway im not citing stuff bc im on mobile and copypasting to the tumblr app is Hell but i have fully read the marasenna like 4 times in the last 2 months so this is going to be rambly as all hell but:

-talk about fucking black and white morality. going back to earth is the Right Thing To Do and she will absolutely condemn* her entire colony ship to mortality for that.

-her conviction that she knows secrets and things no one else knows, that she is always in control in a way others arent, and her Need for that to be true, and her sense of herself as separate/better/other/above the rest and having a connection to a deeper knowledge. i feel like theory of mind gets tossed around as a dsm checkbox without people like. fully understanding the nuances of it.

-relatedly her... mercenary? approach to the social interactions and relationships she has (and her utter panic and confusion when she cannot use her models that she has, eg sjur). like she may not be able to Feel what other people feel but she can certainly pattern-match and manipulate.

-her absolutely oversized eldest daughter & gifted kid syndrome taken to absolutely absurd extremes (thanks osana and alis li!) bc of what authority figures told her to be true about herself at 19. (one of the times she had to dramatically readjust her model of How Social Interactions Work- the concept that how she is perceived is Her Responsibility which she immediately internalizes as Law). ALSO osana saying that mara never wanted to be her daughter like. ok we get it ur kid is strange and acts "older than her age" and is more self-possessed than a child her age should be except when shes not.

-god just. honestly everything about how shes written. idr if u have read seth dickinson's published books (the traitor baru cormorant) but baru from those books is SO SO SO similar like. ruthless in that the ends justify absolutely any means, self-centered, brilliant with a massive blindspot where it comes to emotions, manipulative bc she relies on a carefully constructed understanding of how social interactions work, most importantly disastrously world-shatteringly gay.

also i feel like part of it is that a lot of the traits and things that make me read mara as autistic are like... internal experience traits that arent easily recognizable by allistic ppl bc they dont Have a recognizably autistic-specific external manifestation and instead come off as like. being a bitch or selfish or stuck up or cold or Whatever. but are like immediately viscerally recognizable if u experience things the same way.

maybe at some point ill make an Actual Post abt mara sov, the travelers most autistic creature. but so much of it is Unexplainable Vibes. if u kno u kno. also thank u for sending this ask and giving me a chance to talk abt mara i love her SO much.

*i dont believe immortality is inherently good, so i dont think it was condemning is like, the right word, but in context of how characters see it.

#mara sov #asks #i am so so normal about mara come closer please i promise im normal about her.#im SO glad im not alone in reading her this way as well also!!!#long post

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crymeariverontheradio · 2 years

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oaky so basically i’ve got a Tiana playlist and was wondering if you have any songs that remind you of them? technically it’s for the fanfic i’m writing, but it’s really just songs that apply to them, there’s like one song that doesn’t on the entire playlist

the playlist is mostly Alec Benjamin and Hoizer, and Cinnamon Girl by Lana del Ray is also on there

it’s doesn’t need to be about them i’m just look for ✨the vibes✨

also your fanfic was the reason i started to listen to Lana Del Ray, i recognized her name as someone my sister liked and decided to finally give her a listen.

so many songs you do not understand

I'm just gonna list em lets go

Lucky Ones, by Lana Del Rey

Ever wanted a song about waiting, and wondering, and being on the sidelines of love for maybe your whole life, maybe not, and then just. Finding the right person. And it's perfect, and amazing, and they understand you, and it's like, finally, you and me are the lucky ones this time.

Shadows, by Aero Chord and Nevve

The most Tiana song you've ever heard. Augh. Look at this beautiful song. Look at the similies, the metaphor. I love everything about this song, especially when applied to Tiana. Even though it only lasts til' dawn, love me in the shadows. Just. HHH.

Say Love, by James TW

I have a huge headcanon that Biana is not good with professions of love. That is all.

Lovefool, cover by Postmodern Jukebox

I have a huge headcanon that because Biana's not good with professions of love Tam gets worried about it and Biana gets worried about it and then they're kind of both just begging that the other loves them. That is all.

Let Me Love You, by Justin Bieber and DJ Snake

Both of these people need to work on letting people treat them good. Both of them deserve all the love in the world. Neither of them expect a healthy relationship, but THATS WHAT THEYRE GETTING. SCREW THEM AND THEIR MISCONSTRUED CONCEPTS OF LOVE!

Him & I, by Halsey and G-Eazy*

*coughs* So if you want the song these two kick butt to, the sheer power couple vibes of this one are enough to get you by. Like, it's a little toxic, but it's a Mafia/Gang AU song-ified. It's honestly a really fun song to listen to, and I really like the idea of a mafia au for these two.

Rude, by MAGIC!

This one is literally just, "Let me marry your daughter" "no" "Great, I don't care anyways" "what" "yeah im marrying your daughter the permission was just a formality" and it works because no matter what you think of the guy alden would never let his daughter marry a banished, war criminal, twin. It's completely out of character. So. Yeah.

Our Love Is God, from the Heathers soundtrack*

EDGY! EMO! SUPER DARK! BUT ALSO! IN A FRESH, CONFIDENT, SPARKLY WAY! Both Tam and Biana would unironically listen to this song. It's unnerving to watch them sing it together.

Satellite, by Starset

SatelIite, shine on me tonight. I will be your gravity, I will stay and never leave. My satellite, are you here tonight? Shine your light and set me free. Take the darkness out of me.

Radio, by Lana Del Rey*

Biana. Biana vibes. Now her life is sweet like cinnamon.

this is what falling in love feels like, by JVKE

This song is really weird, but in a fun, hip, and spicy way. It feels like a sundress, or maybe a patterned shirt tucked into some high-waisted pants, and sunshine pouring through the windows of a car and burning on your arms.

Got You On My Mind, by NF

oh my stars this song is wholesome. this is literally Tiana. From Tam's POV. Also Biana's. But primarily Tam's. I will not expand. Just LISTEN TO THIS SONG.

Desperado, by Rihanna

Two people driving off into their imperfect, twilight-tinged sunset together. Aggressively dark. But also, kinda romantic in a weird way.

I hope you like these!

#kotlc #kotlc biana #kotlc tam #biana vacker #tam song #music #music recommendation #river's radio #song lyrics #songs #kotlc tiana #kotlc songs #thanks for the ask!

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vaugarde · 1 year

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hello! same anon that was asking moonscape about pmmm stuff. i've been looking through your pmmm-related posts a bit after i saw your reply and i love the way you talk about the characters and really seem to understand them! do you maybe have some more headcanons or general thoughts you'd want to share? i can never get enough of hearing fan's cool thoughts about the show

AHHH thank you!! im really flattered omg i'll put some general thoughts and rambles under the cut so my mutual who hasnt seen it yet wont see

-i know you said you saw my reply already but just gonna repeat it so its on my blog: homura was a foster child who lost her parents when she was young, and because of her heart condition she was passed around to several different (usually christian) families that usually didn't care much for her, only about the check. this led to her initial meek and self deprecating personality. the reason she latched onto madoka is because she's the first person to ever show her true kindness. when she changes her hair style, she cuts off from her current foster family entirely and lives on her own (and may have stolen the foster checks and other cash to do so)

-on top of that she struggles with her feelings with madoka and feeling like she's cruel and selfish for loving her because of her christian upbringing and going to catholic school. families likely didn't take well to her being gay

-hitomi is a closeted lesbian

-kyosuke gives me egg vibes so.

-im basic i like madohomu best but like polyam holy quintet is so real also

-people who say madohomu is one sided are so wrong. how do u explain any of madoka's actions towards homura when walpurgisnacht happens

-some of my favorite moments in the show relate to homura stuff bc GOD all of her scenes are just. enhanced by the plot twist

-wait ive mentioned this but people who think homura doesn't care about the other girls are so??? literally yes she does care about them, she loves madoka the most of course but she cares about sayaka's life when she goes to retrieve her soul gem and her telling sayaka she'll kill her to spare madoka the pain is clearly just her doing the worst thing she can to force sayaka to act. she's kinda distant from everything she's done at this point and is willing to act cruel to get what she wants.

-i kinda love that canonically mami is the strongest magical girl. mami is underrated tbh, i know she's a main character but her spinoff manga was SO good and she's such a tragic character in her own right. she's a deeply lonely person and even if i didn't care for magia record season 1, i really like the approach they went with her character there, where in this universe she's the one who convinced madoka and sayaka to contract, and when she learns the truth, she becomes ridden with guilt and joins the magias to save them because she feels responsible for their fates now. it's such a good place to take her character (and im kinda sad they eventually go "oh no it was brainwashing nvm")

-i absolutely adore this show's brand of horror. the entire thing is just Off in a lot of ways but it's in ways you struggle to place, and the whole thing is thanks to shaft's editing. there's a youtube vid i watched where like the tilting shots up to where the girls look down on the "camera" or random close ups on objects with quiet sounds adds to the feeling that something is wrong even when the show hasn't taken it's dark turn yet. i think focusing a lot of the actual horror elements on the terror of everyone's situation and gradually revealing how much worse everything is is so perfect, it's all paced perfectly to be as hard hitting as possible. and the actual violent moments are done well, none of them are really THAT bad but they're blunt and shocking enough to hit where it hurts. idk if im describing it right but augh its so good

-on that topic the theory that pmmm is framed as a stage show is also so good. i gotta find the post i reblogged about that bc man it adds to the show

#mail #anonymous #ty again!!!

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playgirlpontius · 2 years

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(obligatory this is babygirlpontius on anon since i can’t send stuff from my sideblog) your furry au has captivated me but in particular bam(bi), like deer margera has completely taken over my brain 🫡if you have any more hcs or anything i’d love to hear them

AUGH THIS IS SO NICE THANK YOUUUU 💕💕💕

And for SURE the furry au of the boys has completely taken over MY mind and I'm the one that made it up so heres some extra hcs of beloved Bambi just for u bestie 💜💜

(taggin you on this so u see it later lmao @babygirlpontius)

So for starters he's a whitetail deer/black bear hybrid! I tried to draw him with more deer-like features in his debut drawing but it kind of came out looking like a bear with broken deer antlers LMAO... regardless he usually looks more deer-like aside from obviously his fur patterns and his ears aren't.

Since deer are very skittish prey creatures he is usually the first one to run off whenever there's something dangerous. And also because deer have really good sense of hearing for predators, any sudden loud noises will send him running. The guys get a kick out of this and unfortunately scare him really bad with all of this JDJDJSDH.... ALSO I learned that whitetail deer are the shyest of any deer species and that's actually really funny considering how Bam is.

Bucks actually try to avoid eye contact with each other because staring each other down means that you wanna fight, so Bam being this fuckin asshole that he is loves to stare at people for no reason even if the dude he's staring at isn't even a deer at all. This happens all the time with the crew and everyone just thinks he has a staring problem but no he just wants to fight everyone LMAO

Deer can jump really high, which I guess in this au was the reason he was being such a cocky bastard before Dave kicked him in the face LOL.. Also why he could jump through the gates when he got locked in with that cobra in ja2 (speaking of that skit he was giving very deer vibes w the way he pranced around...)

Something funny I do with every deer furry I make regardless if it's an au or my own fursona but in winter when they shed their antlers I make them wear this fuckin like wraparound bandage around their head to prevent any more trauma and disease to their newly growing antlers and also to not freak people out but like the idea of Bam in these bandages is so funny because yknow like toothache bandages where they go around your entire head and rest on your chin like it looks like that but it just covers his antlers and he just looks miserable every first few days of winter before he can take it off and April insists that he keeps it on despite how fuckin hilarious he looks in it 😭

Here's a shitty artists rendition of what I'm talking about that I drew with my finger LMAO

#furry au #ask #sorry if this was boring my knowledge of bam is limited I just think he looks cool and has the vibes of a deer #Thank you for liking my art though!!! Means a lot to me 🥰🥰🥰#friend tag 💜💜

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fandomn00blr · 2 years

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This is how head canons happen...

I wanted Girl Scouts to exist in my retro-modernish future techno zombie AU, mostly because I want Fenris to mindlessly eat an entire sleeve of thin mints while high (for personal reasons you guys), and so I decided they’d be called the Junior Four8s. The Four8s are my AU equivalent to the Wardens (from CONPLAN 8888, and yeah, they’ve got sort of a biker gang vibe because I can, and also bikers in charge of scout troops is just fun for me ok?). But that’s not the point of this rambling disaster...

The point is...I have now absolutely fallen in love with the idea of some kind of Junior Warden Scouts in non-AU Thedas. We know the Templars recruit kids (boooo!), but the Junior Wardens would be this weird, far more idiosyncratic, non-recruitment, goodwill thing...like half fan club/half practical Blight survival group that gives kids something to do/belong to, with troops often being led by bored Wardens in between Blights (ahem! Blackwall is already basically a troop leader when we meet him in DAI...and also Stroud assigning Loghain to a troop in Amaranthine after their kindly old leader goes off to their Calling would be HILARIOUS, but also Carver? Omg Velanna and Sigrun co-leading a troop...augh!). Cailan would have probably been a member of his local troop in Denerim, leaning more toward the fan club side of things and away from that whole practical survivalist thing, of course.

#dragon age #head canon #wardens #junior warden scouts #dont mind me #dark sprawl au #but also #warden things

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avauntus · 3 years

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Supernatural - a retrospective

This is super self-indulgent, and I have so much else I’ve promised-- I owe a long-fic rec post, and ao3 comments, wip work, and that’s just my fandom stuff I’m behind on. *sigh*

But it’s late on a Saturday and now I’ve finished Supernatural, I want to share what I think are my top few eps, and a few other comments. I promise some of this will be different from the “greatest hits” you probably usually see, and I’ll try to make it worth your time. *wry smile*

Look, we have to have categories like: “Most Likely to Live in My Head Rent-Free for the Rest of my Life” and “Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction” that are different from “Favorites,” because that’s just the cursed energy this show has. ;-)

My top five

#5 - 13.01 - “Lost and Found”

Written by: Andrew Dabb | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

In fandom, this is most often referred to as the start of the “Grieving Widower” arc, tongue-in-cheek. Also has Alexander Calvert (Jack) walking around completely in the nude for the first third of the ep. (Neither of these are why this is in my top 5, but he has a good story about wardrobe for his ‘first day.’)

I didn’t expect much out of this episode the first time I watched it, but I’ve gone over this ‘section’ of the show maybe 3-4 times in my Netflix catch-up, and I watch this one in full every time. From Jack being...not at all what anyone expected and an unsteady vindication, to the stunning cinematography (there’s a post that compares shots to Brokeback Mountain, but I think the shots here might be better), to the sheriff who takes the time to remind her deputy that “...there’s no such thing as ‘weird.’ Everyone’s normal in their own way,” to the slow reveal of exactly how hard the events of the previous night (12x23 - All Along the Watchtower) are hitting Dean and Sam and in different ways...(how long the episode takes to reveal to you how Dean fucked up his hand, and what he was saying when he did. Augh!) The Winchesters are trying to rally, but they have been taking hits for a long time, and the cracks are showing.

#4 - 15.06 - “Golden Time”

Written by: Meredith Glynn | Directed by: John F. Showalter

Supernatural has a terrible track record with representation in all stripes. It is infamously consistent in killing off anyone minority, female, or non-White. One of the interesting things about the chaotic meta-narrative of season 15 is you can see the lack of fucks some of the writer’s room had to give about not even being subtle about tearing down that type of ‘White-male-hero-journey” now that they were in a literal “what will they do, fire me?” situation.

I’m a Cas fan, and this episode, which gives him an actual, ‘case-of-the-week’ hunter’s narrative where he gets to save the day on his own, successfully, was wonderful. I love that for him! But more than that, for me, this episode is emotional to me for other reasons-- the way Dean and Cas circle around each other on their angry phone call (with the body language! They are broadcasting so LOUD and neither can see because they’re on the phone!), Sam’s story here, where he’s inheriting things from Rowena that allow him in turn to save Eileen, to Cas’ speech and quick anger at the lake when you reflect on his entire journey of self-realization from a soldier of blind faith to an agent of free will... “You selfish little men in your positions of authority...” I just... *clears throat, grabs tissue*

#3 - 6.20 - “The Man Who Would Be King”

Written & Directed by: Ben Edlund

Speaking of Cas’ journey... I know some folks don’t like the angst and drama of the ‘Heaven and Hell’ plots of Supernatural, but I am here for it. Oh, did we need another reason to include this episode? This has some of the most metal quotes I have heard from any TV show. Ever.

I mean, look at this:

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have said: Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it.”

“Explaining freedom to angels is a bit like explaining poetry to fish.”

The delivery of: “It's not too late. Damn it, Cas! We can fix this!” “Dean, it’s not broken!” is one of those Supernatural bits that will live in my head until the end of time. All of Edlund’s episodes are among my favorites, but this (along with “5.04 - The End”) was on another level.

#2 - 5.16 - “Dark Side of the Moon”

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin | Directed by: Jeff Wollnough

I think of this episode every time I hear Bob Dylan sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” This is kinda a giant montage episode, but the connecting concepts are so...satisfying.

“Heaven is your favorite memories.” “ It’s called the axis mundi. It’s a path that runs through heaven. Different people see it as different things. For you, it’s two-lane asphalt.” “This is your idea of heaven? Wow, this was one of the worst nights of my life.” “I don’t think I realized how long you’ve been cleaning up Dad’s messes.” “It’s awesome to finally have an application—a practical application—for string theory.” “Everyone leaves you, Dean. You noticed?” “Why is God talking to me? Gardner-to-gardener, and between us, I think he gets lonely.” “You son of a bitch, I believed in... ” Whoosh.

#1 - 4.01 - “Lazarus Rising”

Written by: Eric Kripke | Directed by: Kim Manners

So...this is the episode where Castiel, angel of thee Lord, shows up. And that’s primarily why it earns the no. 1 spot, because 80% of my enjoyment of Supernatural from this point on was Cas-adjacent. Plus this entire episode just hits. ALL OF IT. Dean’s homecoming. Ruby, my darling. Bobby’s entire vibe. Pamela Barnes, easily one of the most interesting women Supernatural ever introduced. Cas being so hot to say “Hi” to Dean he forgets he wounds people.

But beyond that-- the way the show writes their ‘oh, by the way, angels’ narrative! If you haven’t seen this episode, would you believe me if I told you that THIS EPISODE, the episode where Supernatural said “canonically, Judeo-Christian Heaven is real, btw” involves no churches but does involve a séance, a soulmark handprint brand, and a himbo angel that “gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition”...but they were all “no homo, guys” for years?

Truly no one was out here doing it like Supernatural even back in 2008.

Others--

15.18 - “Despair”

“Most Likely to Live Rent-Free in My Head for the Rest of my Life”

Written by: Robert Berens | Directed by: Richard Speight, Jr.

You know why this episode is here. It broke reality. I could be wrong-- but I’d put good money on this episode being the subject of academic theses in the future. That doesn’t automatically make for interesting story, but...

Has there ever been a case, in a mainstream US TV show where a major lead character (Cas) came out as queer so late in the game in a narratively-important way? I’m not aware of it, but I might just be behind on my television.

This episode has great writing, and (blessedly) amazing direction and blocking anyway. Check out the above gif - that is some next level foreshadowing going on in the cinematography, and this isn’t even the most remarked upon shot in this episode. (Seriously, I had to search for 40 minutes for this gif, please respect my game, lol.) Everyone who was involved in 15x18 is giddy talking about their investment, from the costume designer to the actors to the director to the writer...

...And then a bunch of them steadfastly have avoided posting much Supernatural-related since. So that’s...loud. There is a bunch of subtext in this episode that is screamingly loud; there is a bunch of text in this episode that makes several things clear fandom has been chattering over for years and years. The meta-commentary around this episode continues, months later. There are over 700 fics on AO3 with this episode tag.

I have more to say about the themes of ‘free will’ and ‘love’ and ‘identity’ tied to this episode, but seriously-- you’ve probably read 17 versions of it on Tumblr already, so.

This is the last time we see Cas, and the last time Supernatural can claim anything close to narrative consistency. For that alone, it’d earn free head-space.

Runners-up: “4.20 - The Rapture”; “5.04 - The End”; “7.21 - Reading is Fundamental”; “8.21 - The Great Escapist”; “9.06 - Heaven Can’t Wait”; “12.19 - The Future”; “14.08 - Byzantium”

6.17 - “My Heart Will Go On”/8.07 - “A Little Slice of Kevin”

“Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction”

Written by: Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder (6.17); Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia (6.17); Charlie Carner (8.07)

Usually the show kills off it’s “one-episode” female characters, but do you know one time it didn’t? When the Moirai (the Fates - specifically Atropos, the shearer of the Threads of Fate) showed up in canon in 6.17. She was posited to have “two older sisters that were bigger than her- in every sense of the word,” ...and Castiel had to back down when she challenged him to a cosmic game of chicken over the Winchester’s lives.

Then they never returned to that idea again.

“A Little Slice of Kevin” is on here for the opposite reason -- an amazing idea that was really underwritten in the episode it showed up in. Dean Winchester has been dragging himself across the fabric of universes; the literal Word of God is in play in a warehouse in Middle America; Cas is back from Purgatory, but what does that mean, micro and macro? As a person on the street, what would it mean, or feel like, to learn you were a Prophet of the Lord, uncalled? That what you are, everything you are, is a cosmic contingency?

Maybe Fate has an opinion on all these shenanigans?

Perhaps all that doesn’t make sense, but it certainly made an impression on ~2012 me. To this day, it remains the WIP I can open up and fool myself with the ‘twist.’ I wish I remembered where I was going with it so I could finish it.

Runners Up: “2.20 - What Is and What Should Never Be”; “5.04 - The End”; “6.15 - The French Mistake”; 12.12 - “Stuck in the Middle (with you)”; “13.05 - Advanced Thanatology” “14.03 - The Scar”; “14.10 - Nihilism”; “15.15 - Gimme Shelter” ... and “15.20 - Carry On” (obviously)

Fifteen seasons. There were plenty of other episodes I loved that didn’t make these limited lists. But overall -- thank you, Supernatural, for the run. Even if I’m upset at the ending, I can appreciate the game. If you watch the show, what were your favorite episodes?

#spn #supernatural #meta #review

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years

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mtmte liveblog issue 9

back at it again, and its time for the shadowplay arc, HELL yeah

oh I'm so excited i love this arc lets DO this

oooh its nightbeat and quark!! way before they become relevant, which is so cool

‘one of those recepticon fanatics’ lmao imagine if they were...the recepticons. just doesn't have the same ring to it

god i fucking love all the politics of mtmte. i love how they’re talking about the senate here before we really get to See how bad they were (we heard a bit about it from whirl a few issues ago, and now here)

love how nightbeat is pretty much agreeing with the decepticon ideology here, even if its clear that he isn't Actually a decepticon - it just drives home the fact that, in this story, The Decepticons Were Right About A Lot Of That Stuff (or at least, they had a reason other than ‘destruction’ for rebelling).

AND THEN THERES RUNG!!!!!!! WITH HIS MODEL OF THE LOST LIGHT....god i fuckgin LOVE the continuity in this story bc the first time reading this ur like oh ok rung is old yea makes sense...but then later all the time travel stuff happens and then its like OHHHHH

damn poor rung nightbeat can rlly tell he's lonely just by looking at him vbhjdkdfhbjsjkdf geez. also nightbeat that's ur mystery stick bf from the future js!!

quarks extreme POV on all of the stuff is so interesting, and makes so much sense bc of Course he would think that as a non-combatant scientist who, due to his functional value in current society, wouldn't really benefit much from a revolution - in fact, he’d probably lose a lot. and that’s the sort of thing where you’re like, ok well think about everyone else dude, have some perspective - but at the same time, quark did suffer a pretty terrible fate, so his fears weren't entirely unfounded...augh, its so fascinating...im sorry I'm not gonna shut up about space robot politics this Entire time

HOW did nobody notice that dead body before now

ratchet spray-painting the hands he stole from pharma to match his own paintjob is like...kinda gruesome if you think about it hvbhsjkdfbkjdf

i love rewind sooo much oh my god

he rlly stashed rung’s comatose body in a wheelchair behind the bar hbkjdhfbshjkdf rewind

rewind and chromedome’s tag-team explanation....ough hhhhh THEM

wait a sec, rewind, you have medical records in your database? that is, at least according to regular medical laws, very illegal lmao. my favorite long-running theme in mtmte: the fact that hipaa and osha laws on cybertron are either basically nonexistent, or just universally disregarded

what the actual fuck is up w/cybertronian time units. that shit is wack as hell

ooh i love how chromedome looks different in the flashback - no shoulder tires! - that's a cool detail

how come prowl just said ‘minute,’ rewind was busting it up w/all the wack ass fantasy time units just a second ago. geez

also goddd i love the scenery of pre-war cybertron, its SUCH a cool setting like, visually and aesthetically and politically

like, i adore details like the sign in the bg that says ‘everyone’s shape serves a purpose.’ really adds to the ‘society on the precipice of civil war currently controlled by an increasingly-desperate faction who are doling out propaganda like crazy in an attempt to maintain their image and control over the populace’ vibe

good ole murder mystery setup. love it!

pre-war prowl is such an interesting character. actually prowl in general is such an interesting character...I kinda wrote him off during my first read of mtmte (and even a little during my second readthru) as just this dude who’s an asshole (espec bc my prev tf experience involved watching tfa as a kid, and this prowl is very different from tfa prowl lol)...but prowl is SUCH a multi-faceted and interesting character, even in the relatively little we see of him in mtmte

plus it was interesting to learn later that prowl was one of the characters that jro wanted for mtmte and didn't get, and MAN i wish he got prowl bc I would've loved to see what jro would've done w/prowl on the lost light, that would've been amazing. like, just imagine the arc he would have...I have no idea what that arc would BE, but I know it would be awesome. plus I’d be really interested to see how prowl would factor in, relationships-wise, amongst the crew of the lost light. so much potential!

anyways. I'm in a very talky mood tonight it seems. its currently 4 am so that kinda explains it. ok, moving on!

chromedome and prowl bantering....in their own morbid forensic-cop way...

skids bvhjdbsfjasf. speaking what we’re all thinking: is prowl gonna keep showing up in mtmte despite not technically being part of the cast??

swerves drawing of prowl lmaoooo

AND THEN REWIND IN SOME OF MY FAVORITE MTMTE PANELS....fuckgin cracks me up every time god. rewind was rlly about to flip their entire ass table just to demonstrate that prowl is a serial table-flipper...and then he cant even make the table budge and he just stares at his hands like ‘how could you betray me like this’ hvbajkhhsfdhksdf PEAK hilarity

drift hvbshfdjbasdfj his forcibly cheery expression even tho he’s being harassed by rodimus, who is a big whiny toddler w/drift lmao

rodimus is the type of guy who, upon drift not replying to one of his texts, would post a whole twitter thread being all like ‘these days u cant trust any1 to hav ur back...u think u kno someone and then they just ghost you...(1/14)’

again, rewind, HOW and WHY do you just Have medical reports, oh my god, somebody please call a hipaa agent I’m scared,

ratchet interrupting the story to give a quick medical PSA....that's Such an on-brand thing for Me to do that I feel like jro is assigning me ratchet kin as I read this

also, hey, its sonic and boom, those two decepticons from delphi! nice little continuity there

AND HERES ORION PAX SUPER COP

can’t believe idw made my dad optimus prime into a cop. smh. shouldn't be that shocked tho, I feel like half the idw characters are cops

orion rlly hit them w/the omae wa mo shinderu arrest strat

orion: I cant believe you're beating this guy up. anyways, now I'm gonna beat YOU up,

when ratchet puts his hand over drifts mouth and then gets spray paint on drifts face bhjdfsvsdjhfgbjdskf

pre-war ratchet and drift ;_; ratchet’s little inspirational speech...the fact that he tells drift that he’s special...the fact that drift remembered all of this even after 4 million+ yrs...it gets me bro it GETS me

ALSO the layers in the fact that drift then goes on to become a well-known murderous decepticon...so this little scene of him and ratchet in the past gives a lot of context to ratchet’s general attitude towards drift - ratchet clearly feels at least somewhat responsible for all the blood on drift’s hands, since he saved drift’s life way back in the day

the whole relinquishment clinic thing is such cool worldbuilding, bc of course that's the kind of thing that would develop in a society of robot aliens who are only allowed to work within the rigid confines of their alt mode

I love the whole matrix thing bc its kinda like being the pope or st but also you have a ton of political sway, so its a super important position, so of Course the corrupt senate would want full control over that power, and would assassinate the current prime to try to get their own guy in

god vhbhjsdkbgshjdf rodimus is such a dick lmao poor drift

HHHHH I love that the cybertronian version of an autopsy is taking the dudes body apart into the smallest components and laying them all out. that's so fucking cool

hmmmm chromedome maybe you should Not be interested in mnemology, how about that,

oh god. time to start being sad about op and senator shockwave. oh god

senator shockwave more like senator sexy

also the first time I read this I thought I had just missed his name and like halfway thru the story I went back and scoured the pages looking for it hbvhsjdfbshgfdsbj then I was like oh ok so we’re maybe supposed to just know who this guy is from another comic? but NOPE it was very deliberate and I only realized very close to the end that they were setting up some sort of reveal

its funny bc normally I'm not a huge fan of stories where politics play a huge role but I fuckgin love it here, the politics and worldbuilding is all so interesting and also balanced out with a healthy dose of cool sci-fi hijinks, so

lmao there's chromedome being obsessed w/people making the ‘pfft’ sound

also wow yet more hindsight, maybe you Shouldn’t be so interested in the Institute, chromedome,

OHHHH shit I forgot abt the red alert stuff happening at the same time as this :( :( :(

AUGHHH what a fucked up situation. god

oooof i gotta continue now!! what a solid issue, I love the shadowplay arc

#lj rereads mtmte

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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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even MORE mandalorian ep 3 observations

this episode is so dense there’s just so much stuff in it!

- every single moment of baby yoda looking around in wonder and trepidation and trying to get mando’s attention is a fresh dagger in my heart. dishonorable mention to when he sees the small-ish alien in the spacesuit in the market and makes a quizzical noise and looks up at mando because it so perfectly matches up to how babies go ‘???’ at their parents to get explanations and reassurance. also the baby totally gets bad vibes off the storm troopers immediately and glances up unsettled but all full of trust like ‘dad why are we here?’ aUGH this short walk is probably going to haunt me and mando both for the rest of our lives

his little mouth falling open when he sees the doorbell eyestalk thing haha he’s doing the shocked pikachu face!

- when dr pershing is scanning the baby and it looks uncomfortable you can see mando moving forward just a little bit. dad instincts clearly screaming and kicking to get to the surface there lol

with the reveal in episode 7 that the empire dude is kind of an unironic mandalorian fanboy... boy this whole thing feels real weird

- if my eyes do not deceive me I think mando’s hands are actually shaking when he reaches out for the beskar. you’re welcome I didn’t want to be alone in knowing this

- you might find yourself wondering how many bars of beskar the reward consists of and who would be enough of a loser to pause the show just to count them out. I can inform you that it seems to be 20 altogether, 10 per stack. (i’d really thought they’d go for 30, just to twist that fucking salt-encrusted knife in the wound)

- “My armor has lost its integrity; I may need to begin again” fhsakdlfhds OH MY GOD he was not kidding; on the first watch I was just thinking about the breast plate but if you look closely half of his armor is just loosely tied on with rags fskdjfhask everyone else probably realized this before but what can I say I’m slow and easily amused

like yeah okay that’s a line with great thematic resonance and importance -- yes, he is going to have to change and essentially start over -- but also... poor mando had to clean his muddy armor post-mudhorn and then after bending the pieces back into shape as best he could he resorted to TYING THEM BACK ON that is one of the funniest and most endearing things I’ve ever seen, this is the way motherfuckers (Actual Engineer Kuiil watching him and shaking his head like ‘well that looks like so much scrap metal to me at this point but you do you kid’)

- just like in episode 1: while the armorer is preparing to work the camera occasionally cuts back to mando and every time there’s the sound of people screaming in the background fklhdsalkfhsda it’s just so UPSETTING

they keep zooming in on the melting Empire symbol in this one -- it’s definitely meant to underscore the general unease of the situation both because of the baby and the y’know empire part, but is it also hinting that mando might be flashing back to something to do with the purge too in a less direct way? :Ia

- relatedly: the armorer remains so fucking cool. I love how her design tells you that she’s clearly a part of the group but also something more, between the gold and the fur and the more refined/owl-like helmet shape. she looks so sturdy, like you might as well try to move a mountain. she also looks timeless compared to the others, you can absolutely believe she’s the personification of their traditions. (traditionally mandalorian armor has just looked. really really silly to me so huge kudos to the design team of this show making me go HELL YEAH whenever I look at mando or the armorer)

- cha boy pulling up to the club with a fresh new colour scheme lol it was nice of the tribe to give him a new cape and... idk what you’d call that fabric stuff he wears under the metal armor but it’s all in a unified Look now. ‘this would be appropriate for your station’ huh, so is he pretty high up their ranks? is this a seniority thing? some of the mandos in the background look very basic compared to mando, paz vizla and the armorer -- is it possible that a lot of the older mandos died in the purge and they fought to save the younger ones? this group does seem very focused on protecting the children (the foundlings are the future)

- hahaha mando has his hands tightly curled into fists the entire time he sits during the talk with greef karga -- his whole body is going ‘actually. this. is FINE I can’t believe how fine it is I can totally keep going like this’ through gritted teeth. so much good hand acting in this ep! and I love how in this new armor he’s coming out of his indifference and apathy -- what are the empire remnants doing here in the first place, actually? what the hell do they want with a baby? he comes alive a bit and it’s incredibly satisfying

- it really takes him all of twenty seconds after noticing the missing metal ball to make up his mind to do this completely buckwild thing. I love him

- credit to dr pershing for trying to shield the baby with his own body even though he’s a bespectacled noodly scientist with no weapons up against a dude in full armor and the wrath of gods in his bearing right then.

- the baby opens his eyes and realizes who’s carrying him while they’re inside the base and he leans his little head against mando’s chest 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 too bad this happens when mando is too preoccupied literally roasting a stormtrooper to notice but I saw it and I cried

- that little uh jump almost? when mando opens fire when he’s surrounded by the bounty hunters? YES WONDERFUL. and he’s still so gentle when he puts the baby down ;___;

- you know mando’s grappling line is in many ways the polar opposite of his flame thrower. reliable. sturdy. incredibly versatile. unflashy but gets the job done. look at how well your brother is doing, flame thrower, why can’t you be more like him

also he does seem to sort of like greef karga even though he doesn’t trust him very much (and rightly so haha), and karga’s regret that mando broke the code doesn’t seem entirely rooted in losing his best man either. like they clearly don’t understand each other (or at least karga VERY Does Not Understand how mando actually works under the surface, when he’s not just going through the motions) but there’s a sense of mutual respect there anyway. I wonder just how long they’ve been working together (this being star wars... how much do you bet we’re getting tie-in novels explaining just that lol)

#star wars #the mandalorian #meta #I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM YOU HAVE A PROBLEM #hands down still the best episode tho #it's as full of Stuff as episode 7 but it holds its emotional core better (though tbf it also has less to do since it's mid-season)#debora chow knows her stuff #grabbing a few minutes between family stuff to post this haha

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marithlizard · 4 years

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Reactions to RWBY v7c11 “Gravity”

Am I scared to look at my dashboard and find out what happens in c12? Oh yes. Putting it off with this even though I already posted my houghts on the spoilers for c11 last week. Seeing the full episode is different!

And the duel begins. General, you didn't bring any snipers or other support because you're operating on machismo and cool factor right now. But it's not just yourself you're risking. The Remnant Leadership Review Board gives this strategy a D for Dumbass.

I do like the way the writers keep coming up with different ways to handwave acrobatic aerial combat for each character.

Watts is way more formidable in combat than expected - surviving in a lethal 1:1 duel with James for this long, including melee, isn’t something you can do with tech tricks alone. Who did he spar with in the castle gym?

Action choreography is not particularly a thing I care about in a show, but RWBY does it just so inventively and fluidly. This time I'm replaying at half speed just to spot all the cool little bits. And I still can't figure out what happened to Watts' rings that would make him have to rebuild them. Did he use them up somehow to trap James' arm?

Mmm, no, not getting any kind of emotional relationship vibe here, just prima donna techbro vs CEO. Seen your type in a dozen Silicon Valley startups, Arthur. "What made you bitter enough to join Salem and agree to destroy the entire world?" "Passed over for grant funding."

I never noticed before that James' eyes are a gorgeous shade of blue. No wait OW OW OW how many people could do that to their own limb to get out of a trap, without the boosted adrenaline of imminent death? James has endured pain and mastered it at a level the kids can't imagine.

"Where did they put them?" Still don't think that's a throwaway line. Still worried about it.

....yeah, Watts isn't dead. I would have killed him on the spot, and sniggering psycho tail boy too. But James and Clover are solidly Lawful alignment. And it's going to come back to bite (and sting) them.

Mm. The Tyrian fight has a couple of nifty bits, but his duel with Qrow in v4 is much more to my artistic and dramatic taste.

James: Can I PLEASE just be done with today now? Chess piece: Not even close.

I guess I shouldn't think of the Atlas students as sheep here, given that in v3 the regular Beacon students probably also did nothing but obediently mill around offscreen. But is team FNKI really the only one with any heroic initiative?

Oh that shot of Winter running across the stained-glass reflection on the snow is beautiful.

"You don't have to understand orders, kids. You just have to follow them." And that is why I have never trusted the Ace Ops, and I don't think the writers ever meant us to. They're not evil. They're military.

Watching James' reassuring-commander exterior disintegrate in fear in front of everyone is just painful. With one perfectly-chosen symbol Cinder made his already-cracked mental armor crumble into powder.

SHOOT IT YOU ALL HAVE GUNS don't let it talk you're going to let it talk aren't you. Fatal mistake. It is a real weakness in the writing, that the characters often just stand around or fail to follow up on things in order to allow Plot to happen. :(

"Surrender the staff and the lamp to me, and they needn't suffer any further." "Because you'll kill them." "Exactly. The peace of death is something mortals always fail to appreciate."

The kids should know that Amity wasn't ready, shouldn't they? They've been heavily involved in the project for weeks.

I don’t have anything new to say about Salem or Summer here, but that was fantastically done all around. And Salem’s voice actress is brilliant.

(Also, while I’ve had problems with team RWBY’s choices in the past, none this episode. Good job kids.)

James, you know damned well RWBYJNRQ are a match for the Ace Ops, that no one else could possibly take them down, and that you desperately need every one of these elite fighters right now whether they're obeying your orders or not. And then you walk out of the room to let them chew each other up? Cinder and Salem will be delighted. The musical overtones of a sad "Trust Love" over the dramatic visuals are great, but RT that doesn't justify making the characters act like idiots to get them to the plot points you want. This is dumb. :(

And I think we still could have gotten to these plot points without sacrificing character consistency, with more skillful writing and direction. Hopefully the new writers will learn from v7 and level up next season. Everyone else already knows what’s going on with Oscar by now, and I should go find out instead of speculating. AUGH.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby v7 spoilers #augh

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unproduciblesmackdown · 4 years

Note

40, 47, 59, 62, 76

lmao hell yeah thanks for All this support i love it!! quastions

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

really idk i feel like even our schools’s Antics were pretty par for the course and i was just sitting in the corner reading the whole time basically......trying to think if anything wild happened in college but even then it was p similar. well you know what, whatever donors covered the majority of the cost of the school’s black box theater being renovated apparently Stipulated that every other year a rodgers and hammerstein production be put on. absolute freaks. my roommate/friend and their then-boyfriend, the one mormon i have Knowingly Known in my life, were in pirates of penzance (sic?) together. hilarious

47. favorite type of cheese?

i like cheddar and like, parmesan, smoked gouda.....let’s get that shit Sharp!!! and hard lmao

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

idk i’d be like an npc just doing their weird thing on their own. i’ve never played pokemons unless you count pokemons Go but i think about the famed “i like shorts they’re comfy and easy to wear” npc kid. like, yeah. i feel the same. and would say similar bullshit nobody asked about

62. seven characters you relate to?

oh god.........recognizing the self through the relatable characters :|

well let’s just talk about the wrol roles right off b/c the characters that Most occupy my gay thoughts (which is to say: my general thoughts) will inevitably get priority when it comes to Remembering things

1) whom among us doesn’t relate to jared kleinman........will roland emerging from relative obscurity and coming for our entire fucking lives like the goddamn legend he is. it’s tough b/c it’s like, oh well alana is relatable too, so is evan unfortunately sorry evan, and in ways i might ~usually act~ like one of those two more than jared but. no. it is Jared who wins the relatability contest, and we all get to be beautifully haunted by it forever

2) leaning hard into winston even with the few glimpses of him b/c somehow will Cannot play an allistic cishet. and this is even More of a case where maybe i don’t much have winston’s demeanor.......even without winston being a beacon of confidence, he has more confidence lmao. and he has that ability to just Be Himself in a situation which, i wish i had that moxie lmao. i am a lot more [usually trying to be accommodating wayyyy harder than i should], booo......even though he’s clearly not great at conflict considering how it doesn’t take Too much to put him out, it’d be pretty impossible for me to be all “called them hacks and lame” or carry out a very irritated monologue in front of four people in the first place lmao. but who knows. and it’s more in the details of like, oh no winston’s the odd one out even though he hasn’t really Done Anything, but we all ~understand~ why he Deserves it.........his expectation / treating it basically as Fact that he will disappoint people.......the [weird] [offputting] behaviors and his way of speaking in What he Says and How He Says It seeming wrong to people.......like it’s only 15-ish min of content that we have here and we don’t have the least info about will’s own thoughts on the character but it’s like. how is this such an iconic Gay Autistic Quant b/c these vibes are so rare. and i appreciate that he can be ~difficult~ lmao. same with jared though i didn’t mention it. i can be difficult!! love it for us...

3) briony atkins from murder of bindy mackenzie as a character who Does act more like how i Usually Act Like lmao.....god we’re only on three i forgot there was seven of these. and yet i know there’s probably at least 2 dozen characters who could make this list and i just won’t think of most of them unless directly reminded......but anyways yeah i mean in person i mostly do Not want attention unless i feel comfortable enough / in my element or whatever. especially if it’d be some situation like “sitting in a group of randos” lol. i mean it depends b/c i also can sometimes be ~on~ in terms of Masking and trying to be like Haha I’m Social I’m Regular and i def engage in Nervous Chatter sometimes, but like, very often it’s like god don’t talk to me and i don’t want to talk either.....and then yeah people Will be surprised that like, idk, i’m opinionated as shit and idk that i Enjoy Things / Have Thoughts And Feelings coz the assumption i guess is that you must simply have nothing to say. so the dismissal of this person who seemingly has nothing to contribute and must be Boring rings true lmfao.....but then of course it’s also important that her personality Under that is the one getting mistaken for emily’s lol cuz yeah At Heart i am sure of that dramatic / intense / excitable type Sometimes. but it takes some excavation before i am like “oh i can engage in my actual self” and like weeks and months to get comfortable w/ people and i’m always suspicious that anyone actually would enjoy it and i’m not too much......i am a motormouth actually and have something to say about any and everything and like to Have Fun Here but like. idk i come off as boring and can be Notably Quiet lmao

4) oscar martinez from the office is weirdly [Haha Same] sometimes lmfao. sort of keeps to himself but also has to pipe up with Opinions and Pedantry and the kind of Drama of a restrained theatre gay. some deleted scene from an episode where during an interview clip of Jimothy in a theater lobby and you have oscar call from across the group in that [wearied Ugh God] way of ‘jim, they’re remaking ___’ while jim just kind of gives a cursory “wow gosh” or whatever and like, i sure don’t have lots of Theatre Opinions but that “oh jeez i have a Take on this and have to share it with someone” vibe is like hahaha yeah.....it’s funny in the “the gang goes to the ice rink for a third of the ep” bit where you just catch oscar doing [ice skating turn] with some solemn intensity.......the “here’s a question nobody’s asking: is this worth it” quote.........way at the end where there’s a whole deal with one of the indoor plants and he’s like “why is it a He” @ the collective gendering of the houseplant lmfao.......i love the one thing where he and pam and uhh toby right? have the Finer Things book club or whatever and jim wants to join just like ~ironically~ and pam has to tell him that oscar doesn’t want him to join b/c he’s not going to take it seriously and use it as a Jokes Vehicle. and then you get the scene at the end where jim Is basically doing that and they’re just like taking it out of him and oscar’s all very seriously like “did you get it all out of your system” lmfao like yeah, earnest members only lmao.....the thing where he gets mad at angela’s like Jazz Musician Posed Babies posters all “it’s kitsch it Destroys art” lmaoooo and in a totally different season all “this is the problem with debate” over the completely inconsequential “is [whichever actress, i forget] Hot” “”””debate””””.......the whole tendency to get involved and always have a take to get across.....opinionated-sometimes-to-the-point-of-petty central. also that he’s the canon gay, are there even any others? anyways and as the us office’s spiritual successor i’ll add on to this by uh what’s the name of billy eichner’s character on parks and rec? it’s craig right. that Self-Powered Intensity is very #me as well.

5) augh god........im like lmfao shit who represents my Hater Club side. hmmm. oh no wait you know what. totally different but i love Prof Beatrice Hotchkiss in the trt nancy drew pc game. she’s holed up in her room writing all the time and just is weird when you try to talk to her all like no i won’t open the door, bring me food, do this Research, bring me my Ski Boots i guess......and then when you do meet her it’s all at like post-midnight in the lounge and she’s all like, encouraging you as a Night Owl and your investigative curiosity and all and i’m like oh word yeah being up in the dead of night is the shit. she’s just weird and passionate and this is another character i might not Act hardly at all like but who i vibe with lmfao. hotchkiss was the supportive adult in my life

6) remembering how hotchkiss is a historian made me think of academia which made me think of like, once again with “these vibes are So So Rare” i really ought to put the wrol role of Nato on the list cuz like. that essential representation of “gets gr8 grades but isn’t really ~academic~ / doesn’t care about that and really just cares about Hanging W Friends and [real specific interests]” is like wow damn that’s the Mood. coz like to an extent i can always Relate to the ~overachiever~ types a la the [nerd character gets all-A’s and other nerd shit] deal, but there’s eventually the issue of like.....those characters like bindy mackenzies and alana becks Care about their achievements (not exclusively as some ppl would have it 9_9) and are Studious whereas i always hated school and was a godawful student in terms of Habits and always got good grades b/c the devil was with me or something and like people will think i must have tried real hard and dedicated myself to Academics and stuff and it’s like.........no................not at all hardly, sure i did my hw every night but at like 11:29 pm or studied for a midterm at lunch right before the class lol or flipped through a lil bit of the sat study guide the night prior.........the “low-effort dumbass who Academically Excels Anyhow” representation is so crucial like!! i run into a wall when it’s the Good Grades nerd character who is real studious and focused and stuff like. couldn’t be me. meanwhile the “naturally weird + probably some ‘deliberate’ weirdness” and “likes animals” and “most likely to just wanna Roll With It” and “shitty focus lol” and “non sequiturs” and “without [activity] i do nothing” is all like....ahahahohoho..........nato rly got to make this list. and honorable mention for Wrol Jeremy. again: whom doesn’t relate!!!!!!!!

7) damnit i know there’s So many answers to [characters i relate to] and whom cover like, more particular Facets here but i’m struggling lmao. Uh. like i’m like, who’s the Hot Mess / continually evolving disaster characters i vibe with......who’s the peak despresso detached Haters rep......who embodies the solo production lifestyle........dammit you know what lol i tend to Feel for like, the background ~nobodies~ who might just get like totally destroyed in some movie with life or death stakes just to like, show how much danger our heroes / Important Complex Protags are. same w/ jeremy not feeling like the Hero / the one who the story’s about / the cool guy / player 1 / etc etc etc i’m like oo i’d be the npc who doesn’t really do anything, i’d be the rando getting blown away in the background of someone else’s story. on a totally different note another shoutout / honorable mention to wybie from the coraline lmfao one of the best characters invented from thin air for an adaptation......tangentially relevant b/c he’s entirely here to support the protag / not his story at all, just here to help and prompt interactions / exposition really.......but love that [weird loner kid who’s best friend is a cat and annoys the other kid and doesn’t Get it and has specific interests and entertains himself and just is doing weird shit around here tf dude lmao killing it] like, #mood. #lifestyle. less dismal to relate to than the bg person who dies......his counterpart who totally dies is somewhat fleshed out / given Investment so it doesnt Really count as [background Nobody who’s really just fodder for “defining the stakes / threat level”] Character Concept

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

latkes maybe......Yummy

#i expect to now just think of like ten dozen Other Characters who would've been great to mention #c'est la vie!!! c'est comme ca!!!! speaking of. thinking of the hc that winston jsut. drops french phrases into his speech sometimes #building on the moi....tbt ur benston fic w quelle horreur.....#nothingunrealistic1

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the-voice-of-hell · 3 years

Text

Rent is Theft, part 19

Read from the beginning here, read the previous chapter here. Note: My MC is a Filipina trans woman and I am not. If you have notes on that or anything else, hit me up.

***

In retrospect, it was a pretty big leap from my success with the allergy medicine to assuming I could make sorcery happen, but I did not hesitate or doubt what I was attempting to do. My worry of it not working was less about a lack of faith in magic than a lack of confidence in my choices of method.

But whatever those doubts, once I had my plan, I committed to it.

I moved all the remaining furniture out of the living room except one tiny end table that would serve as my “wooden altar.” I used bulk white chalk to create the magic circle, ladled with a little dustpan. The prescribed seven foot diameter was just about the entire width of my little living room. Inside that I used the bulk chalk to make an equilateral triangle about five feet per side. I had put on a face mask and sprayed the surface of that geometry with a fixative I’d brewed up with a combination of research and guesswork. It didn’t have to be permanent, just last long enough for some use, and I figured the high school technique of using hairspray to fix pastels on construction paper wasn’t going to work here.

I leaned against my kitchenette to rest, observing the work. Sloppy, but could be worse. I went back at it, writing three symbols of Mercury inside the triangle in yellow chalk. That had to be sidewalk chalk, so it was much more slow going. The triangle called for “various symbols of Mercury” and the most I could find that seemed legit was the three - the caduceus, of course, with snakes entwining a winged rod; an astrological symbol that looked like Venus with horns; and the periodic table abbreviation Hg. At the end I used my fixative again.

That was the hard stuff, and took more than an hour to complete. After that my room had a chemical smell, but I needed to eat, so I grabbed some string cheese, peanuts, and a bottle of wine to the bedroom. Rest. It had been a long morning and would be very easy to fall asleep, but I resisted. I rolled the glass on my face, cool with condensation.

I finished the whole bottle, just in case the drunkenness was an important ingredient. Although when should I be doing that drinking? Should I have done it before the chalk? Later, right before midnight? The bottle had me feeling chill, but not really drunk. My tolerance was getting high. Bad shit.

There were two brushed steel racks holding spot lights for the walls, one on each side of the room. I ran a string between them as taut as I could get it, and from that hung my St. Hubert bottle of mercury. Along the rest of the line I used clothespins to hang rumpled blue-violet wolfsbane flowers. At regular intervals around the outer circle, I placed glass olive oil bottles with their contents drained and replaced with candles - for the time remaining unlit. On the island counter of the kitchenette, I reserved two places for my blood mixture and for the sulfur-beaverbutt-camphor mixture. On the opposite side of the circle, out by the window, one of the olive oil candle bottles sat on the little side table with my three wands.

Were they wands or switches? They were meant for violence, at least per the book. The previous night I’d tried to soften the business ends by sanding them and covering them with frayed twine. I didn’t know how important it was for Knobby to get hit with the very specific woods involved, so it wasn’t perfect coverage. It was surely going to sting.

Not drunk enough. I opened a box of wine in the fridge and poured a glass, then walked out to the living room. “Evil spirits, your time is nigh! I am a highly magical bitch!” I drank the glass to the bottom, then threw it into the far corner of the room, where it broke against the window and lay in sparkling chunks. I let my head dip, my eyes close. “I am a highly magical b--”

There was a knock at the door. I answered, opening a comfortable crack for my floories. “Hello guys.”

Marcie asked, “Eh, are you drunk, honey?”

“Whu-? Oh. Listen, I’m only a lil’ tipsy, and it’s for magical reasons. I’m serious now.”

Marcie and Mike had teamed up, and were at the door together. Mike said, “So, we haven’t found Knobby. Getting pretty bushed, gotta take a break.”

“Want to come into my humble witch’s den? There is no furniture in the living room now.”

“That’s OK, Courtney. We’ll go to my place, charge up my cellphone for a bit.”

“Right on. You know where Momi is lookin’?”

“Last time we passed her she was on some floors downstairs.”

“He won’t be down there,” I thought aloud. “Thanks, guys. I’m about ready in here. I’ll see you later.”

They left, I drank a bit of water and took a bathroom break, then went out to find Momi. I still didn’t expect to find Knobby while I was at it, just wanted to be close to her again. Out in the hall I heard the elevator. I glanced that way to see Perry coming back from who knows where. He didn’t acknowledge me, but gave the untended eyeballs in the hall corners a sad look. I went into the stairwell. I’ll clean up that crap for you when I get back, buddy.

I found Momi walking around the eighth floor and smiled as I stumbled toward her. She gave me a concerned look. “Are you OK? You’re drunk.”

“I’m only a little drunk, and it’s not because I’m losing my nerve. It’s for magical reasons. Magical, I swear!”

“Mmm, OK, I guess.” She had clamped a strong hand on my shoulder to arrest my sloppy affection, so no hugging was to be had. That said, her touch made me happy. Her strength made me feel weak, in a good way.

“So I was thinking, there’s nobody living on these floors right now, so we should just look upstairs. Where the biddies are.”

“Biddies?”

“The old ladies that are complaining about our dogboy.”

“Heheh. I guess a werewolf is just a dogboy, expecially if he’s a teenager.”

“Shit, you’re so cute. That’s why I act funny, so I can see you smile.” I tried to get my paws on her, but she still held me back. “Weh. What can I do, baby?” I gave up and clasped my hands together in a prayer to my goddess, probably giving off Peter Lorre Mad Love vibes.

“We should go. You aren’t wearing your allergy medicine.” She pointed at the carpet.

I looked down. She had the pill amulet on and the floor around her sneakers was fine. The carpet under my feet was puffing and pinkish, starting to glisten. “Oh Christ.”

***

We got my amulet and took the elevator to the top floor, which again had a different layout from our floor. There were still a few small apartments available, but the spacing of the doors suggested large penthouse suites. I remembered how much those cost from the listings when I moved in. It made me wanna knock the top off the fucking building. The hall there was designed to admit a maximum of sunlight and had much more powerful indoor lighting as well, keeping it bathed in an overwhelming glow. Having never seen that hall before, I felt like an escapee from Plato’s cave, about to get shot by the guards and chucked back into the underground.

But from the brief visit I knew the day was rapidly diminishing. If we couldn’t turn up Knobby, this full moon might be a bust. Still, if we couldn’t turn up Knobby, it also meant I could just spend my night loving my girlfriend, which was much more pressing in my mind just then.

We entered the stairwell, ready to go floor to floor again. A few steps in and I tripped, about to fall hard and break apart like dry kindling. Momi grabbed me and held me still on the stairs. One of my ankles was slightly twisted, my feet were on different steps, my hips twisted in place. I untangled them and set my feet carefully in place on the closer step.

When she spoke her lips were right by my ear. I could feel her breath on me. “Courtney! Be careful! Holy Jesus.”

“You better hold me just a little longer, I’m not... quite...” No, I was totally set. I just loved the feeling, squished against her soft body in her big arms, though my head wrap was probably whacking her in the eyes. “OK, I’m good.” I held the rail this time. I moved slow to trick her into going down side by side with me, then I matched her pace.

“You ready to wrestle a dogboy?,” I asked.

“You think he will fight me?”

“I guess he might come if we ask nice. If we say we have doggy biscuits.”

“Good. I don’t want to hurt him.”

“Yeah... So if this works, maybe we can do exorcisms on our heads, y’know? Unsquirrel your hair. What would you do with your hair, if you could control it again?”

We opened the door and looked into the hall of the next floor down. No Knobby.

“Ooh, I don’t know. What would look pretty?”

“Anything on you, baby. Maybe just to show your hair who’s boss you could do some crazy punk rock ’do. Like a big bright red and pink mohawk with leopard spotted buzz on one side and green and purple liberty spikes on the other.”

“Oh my god, that would be so weird.”

“Braided pigtails.”

“I tried that before. It takes too long, and it hurts.”

“Trim the sides and back, do a big pompadour.”

“Like Janelle Monáe? She can only do that because she’s skinny and pretty.”

I opened the door to the next floor down and peeked in. Nothing. “Uggh, come on, babe. You can do whatever you want. And we’re just daydreaming here, right? Wildest dreams, silly time. What would you do?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m gonna bleach your ends white and dye them bright fuchsia. How you like that?”

“I guess I don’t mind.”

“Oh you don’t mind, huh? What else could I do to you, that you’d just sit there and tolerate?”

“Courtney, do you really wanna know how far you can push, before I put you in a dumpster?”

“Augh! Oh no, baby, I sure don’t!”

“It’s OK. I wouldn’t put you in a dumpster.”

“So can I paint your face like a clown?”

“What? Why would you wanna do that?”

“Not a scary clown, Momi.” I looked in on another empty floor. “Like a cute clown.”

“Do you wanna have sex with a clown?”

“Never thought about it. Might be fun.”

“I would sit and tolerate that.”

“Whoa. Kinky. But it wouldn’t be fun if you were a total pillow princess about it. You’d have to do something clowny. Like, uh, slap me with a toy fish or something.”

“I could tolerate that.”

“That’s just... fucking amazing. What should I do with this newfound sex power I have? To get you to do weird stuff.”

“Hehehe.”

“That sounds like carte blanche to me. I’m gonna go mad with power.”

We looked in on another floor. Some young dude was walking into his apartment and stopped a moment when he noticed us. We acknowledged each other with little nods and he went on. We continued our descent.

***

Marcie reached Richie on her cell, Richie was getting sporadic texts from Olivia, and supposedly the kids were going to come back home before midnight. Word was that they had found Knobby’s deformity pretty useful for garnering sympathy while panhandling, were trying to make the most of it.

I had my doubts but through the phone game we found out there were too many possible spots they were using, and they changed spots several times per day, so hunting them down would be a huge pain. We settled in to wait for them.

When Graeme came home at eight, he said he’d met Patrick in the hall, and Patrick told him the biddies were at it again - claiming that very afternoon someone had seen a large dog in the hall, urinating this time. I went floor to floor, looking for the spot, and found it on the fourteenth floor. When had he slipped by us?

Marcie got worn out, while Mike seemed more energetic as the night went on, so we let him do some searching by himself - on the condition that he keep his green ass out of sight. Around ten, Patrick reported back that he’d seen the werewolf, but it got away. He had barely seen it, only had another deuce it had left in the hall to confirm his suspicions of what the hustling figure had been.

In response to that, we had Richie text Olivia again. She got back to say she and Knobby were almost home. I found that too vexing to really consider. I shushed Richie when he started following that train of thought to its obvious conclusion.

Olivia and Knobby took the elevator up and were immediately grabbed up by Patrick and swept into my apartment. That can’t have been very comforting, but they seemed genially clueless when brought before their queen.

“Hello kids,” I said. “This is a bit of a surprise party for you, Knobby.”

He beamed nervously. His smile was huge and white for a homeless kid. I think at some point he had said his dad was a dentist. “Wha-a-a-at? Really? Look like...” He lost his train of thought as his eyes took in the whole scene - the chalk circle, the single chair in the center of the room over the hermetic symbols.

Olivia asked, “What the fuck is this shit?”

By now we had Momi, Richie, Deandre, Graeme, and Patrick in the room. Graeme looked ready to step in and be politic, but it was my show. I answered, “It’s nothing bad. Olivia, how hard are you holding your neck down right now? You notice we’re all having problems like that?”

“What’s it got to do with-”

“What’s it got to do with me?,” Knobby said.

“This seems like it’s the building’s way of trying to get us caught. Somebody in particular has been turning into a dog and causing a scene around our neighbors. We have to stop it.”

“Oh no,” Olivia said, “They’re gonna kill you!”

I rolled my eyes and showed them both palms. “No sacrificial dagger here, kids. Come on.”

Knobby went back on his haunches in a truly dog-like fashion, cringing in fear. “Oh no!”

“We’re not even going to hurt you, seriously! I came up with this magic spell. We have to spank you with those wands and pour some gross magic sauce on you, but you’ll be fine! Not even a bruise.”

He clung to her thigh pathetically. Suddenly her head turned completely upside down, her neck escaping the collar of her unseasonably heavy jacket. She scrambled to sort herself out, push the neck back in. “Ugh!”

“We have to do it guys. I’ll let you use my shower to clean up after, OK? Just, please, cooperate?”

“I don’t wanna,” he whimpered.

Richie said, “When has she ever hurt us guys? If Courtney says you’re going to be OK, you’re going to be OK. Chill, bro.”

“If this works,” Graeme said, “We’re all going to do it, to cure our problems. My red hands, Olivia’s neck, Mike’s green skin...”

Olivia settled her head down, buttoned the jacket collar to hold her neck in again. “Mmm, I dunno...”

Knobby finally let go of her leg, tried to prop himself up to a standing position - still a deep crouch. “I guess if everyone is gonna do it, I don’t like having to creep around like this. You swear it won’t hurt?”

“It might hurt a tiny bit.” I pointed to the table with the wands. “We’re going to smack you with those sticks a few times, but just a few times, right? Then I’m going to pour this gross stuff on you - some reheated pig blood and a magic potion. Both have to be pretty hot, but they won’t be boiling, OK?”

“Oh God, that’s gross,” he muttered, but he wasn’t trying to get away anymore.

“I’m glad you’re helping out, because the ritual says we’re supposed to tie you up, and I don’t wanna hafta do that. We care about you guys.”

“Speak for your damn selfs,” Perry said, as Marcie brought him into the room.

“Be nice, Perry,” Marcie said.

“I don’t know you,” he groaned.

Patrick took him by the arm off to the far side of the circle.

I looked to Marcie. “Only missing Mike now.”

“He was so rambunctious, wanted to keep looking. I haven’t had a chance to let him know we found Knobby already, and he doesn’t have a cellphone.”

“We’ll do this without him if we have to, but I really want everybody to be here. One, just so everybody knows what we’re all doing - so nobody gets any wrong ideas or loses trust. And two, I feel like the spell is more likely to work if we’re all in attendance.”

Grime said, “I sit on my ass all day at work. I could use the workout. Anybody else feel rested enough to go bring Mike back?”

Deandre said, “My feet are tore up.”

Almost everybody had done a ton of walking around town, or at work, or upstairs and down.

Richie said, “I’m kinda beat, but it’s important. I’ll help out.”

“Alright,” said Grime. “If we do this logically, there’s no way he can get past us. I say we have one of us in each stairwell, right..?” He kept splaining as they went out the door.

I addressed the rest of the floories. “OK, you’re all guests here! It’s a while before midnight, so head on into my bedroom. I have a selection of comfy seats, I’ll bring in beverages - just watch out for the chalk. Thanks Patrick, just step over... OK, there you go.”

They all went in to relax. I had some bowls of chex mix for the occasion, the kind with bugles and cheez-its. Hopefully nobody had food allergies or was vegan. I came back with a box of wine, a sleeve of red disposable cups, and a big jug of cheap fruit punch.

“Alright, here’s the stuff. Anybody want anything else? I can slice some cheese, got some donuts but they might be a bit stale.”

A few people availed themselves of that hospitality, others started chatting, and a few minutes later I was able to settle in beside Leimomi. She smiled weakly at me, then we both did the same to Olivia and Knobby, who were sitting across from us. I realized too late that was probably in creepy unison, and had a dark chuckle. Knobby laughed nervously, Olivia did not.

“I’m really hoping this works, guys, and if it doesn’t, the worst that happened is we wasted our time and Knobby had to take a shower. OK?”

“I got ya, I got ya,” he said.

“It’ll be great to get out of these stupid head wraps. Momi and I are looking like fake Erykah Badus.”

“Who’s that?,” Olivia asked.

***