Untitled

[muirmarie]

bread and circuses where claudius orders mccoy's execution instead of kirk's (still attempting to force kirk's hand), and when the guards come to take mccoy from the cell, he - under the impression that he and spock are okay now, after their fight - tosses out as a goodbye something like: "don't worry, mister spock, i'm sure doctor m'benga will keep those numbers up for you" - trying to show with a joke that he's not upset or blaming spock for not being able to save him

alas, our dear mister spock, who has been in emotional turmoil these last however many hours, absolutely fails to take it in the way mccoy had intended it.

he thinks, as coolly logical and rational and inscrutable and CLEARLY (lol) amazing at hiding and burying his emotional responses as he is: he thinks that mccoy believed him. he thinks mccoy believed that spock had only saved him for the good of the ship. he thinks that mccoy believed that spock doesn't care about him.

and now it's too late to actually have that honest conversation that mccoy had wanted.

so mccoy's going to die believing that.

[the rest of the episode is the same, mccoy's saved just as kirk was, etc etc, i just think it would be mean to do this to our beloved spock (and therefore, also, fun, lmao)]

[muirmarie]

tbh i think the funniest way to do the After for this is for spock to get Super Intent when it comes to all things mccoy, because he still can't, like, bring himself to Say It, so he's just being super weird and intense—he stares Too Much (he's trying to figure out how to make mccoy understand), and refuses to engage in arguments (see doctor, i'm not being mean to you, obviously you should understand that means i like you???) and even worse he starts arguing that the doctor shouldn't join landing parties (he doesn't want the doctor in mortal danger =/). and mccoy's like OKAY I GUESS MAYBE WE AREN'T OKAY, I GUESS SPOCK DOES ACTUALLY DISLIKE ME???

and kirk is ThisClose to a nervous breakdown as he deals with the pair of them, because the more spock tries to pin mccoy down the more mccoy's adamantly determined to wriggle free. and obviously kirk still wants mccoy to join landing parties, and kirk not only enjoys when they bicker but also finds it genuinely helpful when he's trying to decide what to do, and kirk would sure rather have his uhhh quite limited free time just be the three of them hanging out again rather than this weird intense pressure cooker of a situation where spock keeps staring intensely at mccoy and mccoy glares right back all while kirk's just, like, trying to play some chess

he wants to try to just let them figure it out themselves, but he finally cracks when spock makes the argument that the cmo should be kept aboard in a meeting WITH AN ADMIRAL, and kirk has to cut in with a bite in his voice because that is his emotional support doctor, spock, what the hell are you doing, and he brings spock to ground in his quarters and is like WHAT IS GOING ON WHY DO YOU SUDDENLY HATE DOCTOR MCCOY???

and spock does the vulcan equivalent of breaking down in tears, all stiff upper-lipped thousand yard stare why does everyone think i dislike the doctor about it, like the more he's tried to prove that he actually REALLY LIKES the doctor the more disastrous things have gone, and now even kirk thinks he hates him???? spock is Out Of His Depth.

and kirk finally drags the whole story out of spock, really having to put his back into it because spock's being the obstinate idiot he normally is, and kirk just pinches the bridge of his nose and is like. i am giving you a direct order as your captain to go TALK to mccoy.

and THEN spock, known emotionally repressed weirdo extraordinaire, is like, well if my captain orders me then obviously i have no choice, i can put all blame on what comes next on jim, i am personally entirely innocent in this situation, time to follow my captain's orders <3

and of course kirk just wanted spock to like, actually explain that he doesn't hate mccoy and that he simply has been doing his misguided best to ensure mccoy's safety, but spock, the king of doing too much, is like, no, obviously kirk meant i should go storm into mccoy's office and finally stop bottling up all these confusing feelings i've had for two months, time to back that doctor into a wall and—crucially, still not explaining a goddamn thing—kiss him until he understands how much i care for him.

(ten to one spock gets hypoed halfway through because mccoy's convinced he's possessed or what have you, and then kirk, teeth gritted, a migraine of epic proportions on the horizon, has to stand next to spock's unconscious body on the biobed and explain to mccoy that actually spock's just in love with mccoy, can the two of you please sort your shit out, and then kirk takes a hypo to stave off the migraine and goes and gets Extremely Drunk with scotty.)

spock wakes up and mccoy is staring at him with an unreadable expression, his fingers tapping lightly on the bed. and then he sighs, and presses his index and middle finger lightly against spock's. and spock just blinks a long, slow, content blink, fully learning from this the Wrong Lesson that he can absolutely skate by without ever having to Say It.

(two months in, mccoy will be threatening to strangle the life out of spock, and spock will still be just trying to kiss him in lieu of using his words <3)

(they are actually gonna be the death of their captain tbh)

[industrations]

[the-dragon-hearted]

Ohhh I love them

[ao3commentoftheday]

Did you know that AO3 allows fics with homicide in them? There’s a whole tag for Major Character Death and even more tags so you can find exactly what kind of character death you want to read. 

Don’t they know that murder is illegal? You just know there are a bunch of homicidal maniacs out there who love to read those stories. They write them, too, in between killing people. 

Anyone can read the stories on AO3! Kids can read them! They’re getting exposed to stabbing, poisoning, even guns! And they’re writing the heroes doing the killing, too! That’s basically telling kids it’s okay to go out and murder their families. It’s promoting violence and encouraging homicide and if we don’t do something about it soon, you’ll be murdered next!

[zoanzon]

[ao3commentoftheday]

The devil came to my house and tried to burn it down, which is why this post exists in the first place.

[leadoodles]

I can’t believe that tumblr user ao3commentoftheday is telling KIDS to go out knocking on doors asking for the devil! /s

[ao3commentoftheday]

but only *after* they piss on the poor! /s

[alltherestofus]

My feed keeps giving me posts about how Azune is "a kid" because he said he's "not that much older" than Demodis Blix and folks writing these entire essays about how they're like the same age.

Guys guys guys AZUNE IS 27. He is not a kid. He may have been denied a childhood and that's very sad, but he's a 27 year old man he is not a child wtf are you all talking about.

Demodis Blix is 22! He is also not a kid. Occtis is 20. Also not a kid. However, calling someone 20-22 a kid, especially one in college, is part of language so I'll give you those. Murray infantilizes them bc she's is part of the school leadership so that's like her job.

But guys. Azune is 27. The man is not a boy or a child or a baby. is2g Luis is clearly playing up this part of the character specifically to present himself as vulnerable to Murray and y'all are unironically taking that manipulation at face value.

[mayapapaya33]

Agree with you for everything except I'm not sure Azune is (consciously at least) manipulating Murray. The emotional breakdown is definitely real, maybe he knows she's a safe person to do it in front of. Maybe he wants someone to finally give a shit for once in his life. I'm not sure I'd call that manipulation per say.

The Vulnerability is real. I could see Azune being mercenary enough to use his vulnerability to his advantage if he thought he had to, but I'm not sure if he is doing it in these specific instances.

[mayapapaya33]

Aw man, why are they giving poor Pop Pop Wilhand the crazy cult neighbors? Leave Pike's Pop Pop alone!

[mayapapaya33]

Watching episode 6... Is that Purvan?? Also why does {Redacted} look like Red Skull?

[schemer-aishama]

I love the fact that Shadia is being given a ton of symbolism for being the one to officially "reforge" the Pariah Blades by turning their purpose from combat blade to theater prop. It's beautiful symbolism, that by turning the blade from weapon to prop, it's as if she is turning the legacy of the orcs themselves from warriors into artists. Amazing.

But I want to take a moment to point out that the reason Shadia has the blades at all is because of Bolaire.

It was Bolaire's idea to steal them from the museum when they did. It's a move that likely would have happened at some point in the campaign, but Bolaire pushed to do it now. To take advantage of the chaos sown in the museum and move the blades before House Cormoray got their claws in too deep. When Brennan sicced Lady Cormoray on him and Hal, it felt like a signal from the GM to the players that it was too soon for them to be making this move, but then he deus ex machina'd them out of danger, and the story went on.

I now think that getting the Pariah Blades out of the museum was a necessary step that would've been happening now, during the Convergence, had Bolaire not thought to do it first.

Because now, we know that these rituals involving the afterlives need an anchor of some sort, forged from an artifact that has changed its purpose. The letter the Soldiers brought back all but spells out that the blood for the ritual needed the Pariah Blades to be there as well as an anchor. Without that specific anchor, the ritual at the Round might've been destined to fail, just like whatever disastrous thing happened with Thjazi and Mara on Reaper's Day all those years ago.

It's not likely to get addressed by the narrative, because the symbolism of Shadia is so very powerful here, but I think there's important symbolism to Bolaire being the one to rescue the blades, too.

He's a historian who fought to keep the history of the orcish people in the hands of the orcs themselves, instead of the greedy human houses trying to twist that history. He's fighting to keep the Truth in the hands of those who will keep telling it, the Storytellers, like Hal. And, given what Bolaire is, there is a high likelihood that Bolaire himself would never have existed had the orcs not chosen to take up arms against Azgra and forge the Blades in the first place. Bolaire is himself an equivalent to a Pariah Blade working to keep his "cousins" out of the hands of the very tyrants he and they were created to oppose.

The Panto Mask, made to kill a god, now working as a historian. The artifact that changed its own purpose, now helping other artifacts to change theirs.

Bolaire couldn't have known that the Blades themselves would end up as part of the play, but now that they have, he may have just provided a key component to yet another powerful ritual taking place in a sacred theater. And there is symbolism in that too, in the theater mask providing a component to the upcoming theater magic, even if Bolaire himself will not be present at the play.

If the Pariah Blades being at the theater end up being key to whatever ritual takes place, then both Shadia and Bolaire will have been necessary to that success.

[occidentalavian]

Dairon: I think somebody in the Dynasty is a mole and working with the Cerberus Assembly.

Mighty Nein: Damn that’s crazy. Anyway meet our friend Essek Thelyss!

[mayapapaya33]

They have SOMEWHAT made up for the appalling lack of Gilmore by having him be a canon ex of Vax's.

[mayapapaya33]

lol animated VM can never go back to Rexxentrum again. For such a dumb reason too. It's a library and they're trying to protect the world, this whole heist was so unnecessary lol. If they'd just gone in and been like: here's the situation, do you have any information? The whole thing would have been fine. But they wouldn't be the disasters we know and love if they used logic or talked to people I guess.

[mayapapaya33]

Oh it's Yudala Fon!!! That's so funny, what are they doing here? Is this the Rexxentrum Archive?!

[mayapapaya33]

I'm a little sad they had to rush and have the confrontation with Tary's father so soon after meeting him. It makes sense to firmly establish the character and tie him into the plot, but I was hoping for more of the confrontation from the campaign. But Tary hasn't spent enough time with Percy yet for that.

I'm also sliiiiiightly disappointed that Howaardt is so boisterously a bad dad. I enjoyed Matt's more subtle bad dad scenes in the campaign. But again, they haven't had the time to establish any of the stuff about Tary being gay or betrothed or the Darrington finances. I just remember Matt's quiet rage as Howaardt in the campaign, I was genuinely worried he was going to hit Tary at one point.

[mayapapaya33]

How DARE they give the magic carpet to Howaardt Darrington?!?!?!?! Is nothing sacred anymore? lol

[mayapapaya33]

Watching s4e4; Whaaaaaaaat the fuuuuuck is up with Pike? lol I mean I know in general what they're doing, but what is this vision where she's a cobalt soul member wielding what looks like Mythcarver? Or maybe one of her ancestors? Her in a past life?

[rann-poisoncage]

wanted to draw that Hannan/Vaelus moment+Katt, but I needed to draw hannan and there is so few references of him so I decided to draw my own, then got too tired to draw the rest XD...

[mayapapaya33]

RIP Anthony Stewart Head. I watched BTVS at a young age, so you're undoubtedly responsible for forming a large part of my personality and sense of humor. Glies was always my favorite character. I'll miss your singing.

[mayapapaya33]

Watching/Rewatching some Narrative Telephone episodes and in Widogast's Web of Words there's a little joke where someone sang Zemni Fields Forever to the tune of Strawberry Fields Forever. Has anyone actually done that parody yet?