Charades ideas

Hi everyone !
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First of all, some information about the script :
I don't mind monetization, but I'd like to be credited.
If certain elements written in the script cause problems during recording, I'm fine with minor adjustments (rephrasing sentences, adding reactions), as long as they preserve the original meaning of the script. All actions involving sound additions (noises, music, etc.) are not obligatory, but they can contribute to immersion in the story. The important thing is that the listener understands what's going on.
Also : English is not my first language, so don't hesitate to let me know if the script contains any errors, either in the writing or in the construction of the story.
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Context :
You're a witch respected throughout the kingdom. It may seem surprising, but you help the royal family with your powers and healing potions. To thank you, the king has decided to invite you to a ball. Perhaps it was more the idea of his son, the Prince, who seems interested in you. Your Familiar, on the other hand, has no intention of letting the heir to the throne get too close to you. Let's hope the party goes off without a hitch.
Additional info :

• The familiar's name is Ciaran and the prince’s name is Alaric (but you can change them if you want)
• Here's [PART 1]
• For this series, there are two versions of [PART 2] : [PART 2 MM4A Version] and this one wich is [PART 2 M4A Version]
• For this script, I'm referring to the Listener as a witch, but of course if you're using the M4A and M4M tags, you can use the terms mage (neutral) and wizard. Same for pronouns.

Estimated audio length : 1400 spoken word, 10 to 15min
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[Listener and Familiar arrive at the outer gate of the castle, on their way to the ball]
Speaker : Ugh, I really hate this costume. I feel too covered up, like I'm confined.
Speaker : How do humans stand this ? I feel ridiculous.
(...)

Speaker : You find me elegant like this ?
Speaker : Well, maybe this outfit isn't so bad after all...
(…)

Speaker (embarrassed) : You, too, look really charming in that attire...
[They walk]
Speaker : Well, we'd better hurry up and get inside ; the ball will start soon.
[Palace guards approach]
Speaker : Guards... Do you think they've come to welcome us ?
[The guards look aggressive]

Speaker : Well, judging by the weapons they're carrying, it seems they're not here to chat.
Speaker : Stay behind me ; it's dangerous.
[The guards seem unwilling to let them pass, swords clashing]

Speaker : Hey, hey, let's calm down ! We have invitations.
Speaker (annoyed) : Looks like you don't know who you're dealing with. This person is the most influential witch in the kingdom. I suggest you step back if you don't want to end up as toads.
(…)

Speaker (addressing Listener again) : I told you coming here was a bad idea.
Speaker : They're not exactly eager to see us join their little party.
(…)
[The guards finally let them through]

Speaker : Well, you finally agree to let us through, it’s about time.
Speaker : Come on, we should hurry before they change their minds.

[They enter the room]
Speaker : Well. I must admit this place is splendid. All these ornaments, this decoration, it must be incredibly expensive.
Speaker (bitterly) : It looks like the royal family has a penchant for extravagance. I bet half the kingdom's taxes go into these adornments.
(…)
Speaker : Well, at least they have good food. I hope the dishes taste as good as they look.
Speaker : We should head to the buffet to find out ! Comme on, follow me !
[They head towards the buffet]

Speaker : Look at all these delicacies. There, exotic fruits ! And here, pastries !
Speaker : There are even dishes I don’t recognize... They really don’t skimp on the food.
[Speaker grabs a plate and starts eating]

Speaker (taking a bite) : Mmm, delicious ! At least they know how to treat their guests.
Speaker (chewing) : Hmm… Oh, and this cake is really good !
[Speaker turns to the Listener]

Speaker (holding out a spoon to the Listener) : Here, taste this !
Speaker : Hm ? Does it bother you if I feed you ?
(…)

Speaker : Hey, it’s nothing ! You’re the one making it weird by refusing so vehemently !
Speaker : I swear this cake is delicious. Come on, say "Ahhh."
[Speaker feeds the Listener]

Speaker : There, very good. So ? What do you think ?
(…)

Speaker (content) : Hehe, I knew you’d like it ! After all, I know your tastes very well.
Speaker : Oh, you have a bit of cake on your cheek.
Speaker (amused) : You can be quite clumsy sometimes. Here, let me help you get that off.
[Speaker moves closer to the Listener, removes the bit of cake, and eats it]
Speaker (innocently) : Why are you looking at me like that ? You know you shouldn't waste food, even if it was on your face. That's why I had to eat it.
(…)

Speaker (leaning in) : Did I make you uncomfortable by doing that ?
Speaker : Not at all ? Your expression says otherwise though... You're really blushing, you know.
[Listener pushes the Speaker, fabric rustling]

Speaker : Haha, calm down ! If you keep fidgeting like that, you'll draw even more attention to us.
Speaker : Well, even without that, we can't really say we're inconspicuous.
Speaker : I mean, I'm still quite noticeable with my horns. Perhaps I should make them disappear for now.
[He makes them disappear]

Speaker (sarcastic) : There, done. Wouldn't want to scare these ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker : Yes, yes, I know, I promised to behave myself tonight. I'll keep my word, I promise.

Speaker : Speaking of promises, didn't the prince tell you he would be here tonight to discuss funding ?
Speaker : Yet I don't see him... Has that coward backed out ?
(Listener makes a remark)

Speaker : Oh, now that you mention it, I can see him.
Speaker (mocking) : Ohh, so Mr. Prince is still under his father's thumb. What a loser.
(…)

Speaker : What... What are you doing ? Do you want to go talk to him ?
Speaker : Why ? Is he incapable of mingling with the "commoners" ? Is mister too precious to make an appearance ?
(Listener gets upset)

Speaker : Tss, whatever, do as you please. I'll stay here waiting.
Speaker : But hurry, I already don't feel very comfortable here, I'd rather not be alone for too long.
(…)

Speaker (to himself, feeling a pang of jealousy) : Who does he think he is, monopolizing their attention like that ?
Speaker : And why do they want to talk to him so much ? This man is nothing special, he's bland and arrogant.
(…)

Speaker (to himself, realizing his own feelings) : Wait. Why does this situation bother me so much ?
Speaker (trying to find an excuse) : I... I know. I must be feeling this way because the atmosphere of this place is getting to me. It's overwhelming, and I'm not used to it. That's all.
[Speaker looks around]

Speaker : Anyway, the other guests seem more at ease.
Speaker : Now that I notice it, there are quite a few couples here... They must be looking forward to the dance later.
(…)

Speaker : Maybe I should offer to dance with them tonight... I would love to be able to hold them in my arms, swaying to the music... Just the two of us.
Speaker : But th-this would be purely professional, of course. To strengthen our bonds as colleagues. Ye-yeah, I should ask them.
(…)

Speaker : Well, for that to happen, they would have to hurry back first. At the moment, the prince doesn't seem to want to let them go.
[Familiar starts getting more and more frustrated]

Speaker (frustrated) : Is this prince stupid or what ? Doesn't he see that it's because of him they don't dare to leave ? He's really unbearable, clinging to them like a parasite !
Speaker (exasperated) : With his arrogant air, he must think he's above everyone just because he wears a crown and a few jewels. It's pathetic !

Speaker (getting angrier) : And all these nobles... They're here strutting around like peacocks, without caring about anything other than themselves.
Speaker (getting more and more agitated) : Ok, I've had enough of this charade. I'm going to go myself and put an end to this little masquerade so I can bring my witch/wizard/mage back here.
(Listener returns quickly to Speaker)

Speaker (suddenly calming down) : Oh, they're finally back.
Speaker (to the Listener) : Hmm... Welcome back.
(…)

Speaker : So uh... What did you talk about ?
Speaker (not convinced) : You just discussed the money needed for your research ? Are you sure ? It seemed like you talked for a long time for it to be just that.
(…)

Speaker : Alright, if you say so.
Speaker : Well, now that you're back, we can enjoy the party a bit.
[Ballroom music playing]

Speaker (trying to open up) : I... I was wondering... Well... Uh...
Speaker : You... You don't have to say yes, but would you consider dancing with me ?
(…)
Speaker : You were going to suggest the same thing ? Great, I really wanted to-
Speaker (catching himself) : I mean... uh yeah, I'm fine with dancing with you,

Speaker (moving closer to the Listener) : So... would you grant me this dance ?
Speaker (chuckles) : Well, I'm delighted.
[They step onto the dance floor]

Speaker : Now, place your hand on my shoulder. Yes, like that.
Speaker : As for me... Hm... I'll need to hold you by the waist. I hope that's alright with you.
Speaker : Perfect. Let's begin, then.
[They start to dance]

Speaker : Hey, are you embarrassed or something ? No ? Then why are you avoiding my gaze ?
Speaker : After all, I'm your dance partner right now, you shouldn't take your eyes off me
(…)

Speaker (teasingly) : Oh ? Does the idea of dancing with me make you uncomfortable ? Being in close proximity like this ?
Speaker (contentedly) : It doesn't really bother you ? Well, then stop averting your eyes and look at me.
(…)

Speaker : Hm ? Surprised that I can dance ? Well, it's something I've grown accustomed to.
Speaker : Back where I come from, we had many festivities like this. I received training to perform various dances to entertain my admirers.
(…)

Speaker : Yes, my admirers. Allow me to remind you that I hail from a rather renowned demon lineage.

Speaker (mischievously) : I had quite a following, if you must know...
Speaker (amused) : Oh, did I imagine it, or did you just furrow your brow ?
[He moves closer]

Speaker : Could it be that you're feeling a bit envious, perhaps ?
Speaker (lightly chuckling) : Hey, no need to look like that. You know you're the only one for me. I have no interest in dancing with anyone else...
(…)

Speaker (once again jealous) : Well, unfortunately, I can't say the same about you.
Speaker : Yes, you. Do you think I didn't notice the looks you and the Prince were exchanging earlier ?
(…)

Speaker (more coldly) : Oh, am I just imagining things ? Really ? Because that's not how it seemed to me.
Speaker (now more serious) : I know what I see. Don't tell me I'm wrong.
[Speaker grips the Listener more firmly]

Speaker : You can try to deny it all you want, but I can see what's going on. You can't say that the Prince is not fascinated by you.
Speaker : And don't tell me it's just politeness or protocol. I know attraction when I see it.
(…)

Speaker (more softly) : Listen, I... I don't want to argue with you. But I can't ignore this. Even if you don't feel love for the prince, he, on the other hand, seems quite taken with you.
Speaker : Plus, I'm not blind, you know. I can see that you're troubled. Don't you have something to tell me ?
(Listener explains)

Speaker (shocked) : What ?
Speaker : The prince... He asked you to come and live at the palace ?
Speaker (speaking loudly) : That bastard ! Who does he think he is ?
(The speaker almost shouts, and the dancing and music stop)

Speaker : Oops... I think I spoke too loudly.
Speaker : Everyone's looking at us now.
(The listener grabs the familiar, the fabric wrinkles)

Speaker : Hey, what are you doing ?
Speaker : You want to come out and talk ? But I...
Speaker (resigning) : Okay... I guess I've done enough anyway.

[They step out onto a balcony, surrounded by the sounds of the night]
Speaker : Look, I already know what's on your mind...
(…)

Speaker (awkwardly) : I apologize for my outburst. I shouldn't have let my emotions get the better of me.
Speaker : But seeing him so close to you earlier, and when you said he asks you to move to the palace... It just threw me off.
[He moves closer to Listener]

Speaker : I understand it's not my place to dictate where you go, and I'll stand by you no matter what. But... I'm afraid of losing you.
Speaker : Our connection means everything to me... You're my all word, you know.
(…)
Speaker (a bit surprised) : You… you don't intend to leave ?
Speaker : Well, it seems I worked myself up for nothing yet again... I apologize.
(…)

Speaker : You know, I truly appreciate having you around. And... I don't want you to go away from me.
[Listener kisses the Familiar's cheek]

Speaker (surprised) : Uh, what's with the sudden kiss ?
Speaker : No, no, it's fine, but what prompted it all of a sudden ?
(…)

Speaker : Me too... you are so important to me. More than I can express in words.
Speaker : And despite all the chaos, dancing with you was the highlight of the evening.
(…)

Speaker : So, should we return to the ball ?
Speaker : Well, you're right. Given the commotion I caused, we can't just go back as if nothing happened.
(…)

Speaker : And you seem tired as well. Perhaps it's best we head home.
(…)

Speaker : Come on, let's go home now
(End)
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Author's note : This script contains elements similar to the MM4A version, but I had to adapt some parts.

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“Now that we can talk, I think proper introductions are now in order,” Thallion formally states, as if he were a dignitary. “ am Thallion Emberwind, teacher of knowledge and keeper of info for the village of Caelora, in which you find yourself at this moment.”
“You have already met my sister-”
“Enough of that!” Lena interjects. “Hello again, I’m Lena.”
“And I am Silvra, it is good to finally speak to you clearly, hopefully intent is properly being passed now.”
“And I am Ethan Mitchell, I was an engineer in training, before I fell on a bucket and ended up here crossing who knows how many dimensions. I probably am also the one to have accidentally broke the tower, survived running through the blizzard, nearly knocked out Kidman, and… probably killed a guard.” I say, recapping how busy the last few days have been. As I speak, my pace slows and I can feel the beginning of a panic attack rising again.
The room falls silent, the gravity of my unintended confessions settling like a heavy cloak around us. I can feel a tightness building in my chest, the cold of the room seeping into my bones as the faces around me blurred.
“I… I killed someone, no thoughts, no hesitation, just…pow, wrist… in… torso.”
My eyes lose focus, my breathing increases in pace, and the weight of everything finally comes over me. Here I am, on a completely different planet, caught sometime between 1000 and 1600 equivalent, probably the smartest person here, but with the people skills of a gnat, and the thing I know the most is not even going to be invented for at least 200 years. I’ll most likely never see my family, or my friends, even though there are only a few. Hopefully my cat is ok. I also have only managed to cross the language barrier just recently, but was doing charades before that. I am useless in combat, never taking anything martial. I did swim, but not for a long time, and I was a soccer referee before that. Not only that, but I show up as dead to these elves. My phone shows more life than me!
Retreating further into my head, the idea that my summoning was a complete mistake builds up, and something inside me snaps. I do something I have not done in years.
I cry. And I don’t mean a single tear of mourning, whilst looking at a sunset. I bawl. Here I am, knowing no one, probably hunted, and easy to be considered dead. Here on the whim of an accident that took way too much power, but not the first time they tried it, according to the holding area I ran through. I am worthless, the summoning probably targeted my phone more than it targeted me!
Curling up on the floor, I let the emotions overtake me, I feel the eyes of the others upon me but I don’t care. Here I am, and there is no going back. Even if I was to return and “turn myself in” they would probably just take the phone and dump me or off me. Maybe I should just-
Suddenly, I am held, not angrily, or by the shoulders, but in a full wraparound hug. My thoughts immediately fly to when I was younger and being held by my mom, which only makes me feel worse.
“Shhh. Shhh. It’s ok.” Lena whispers in my ear, “You’ve been through a lot. A kid like you being pulled from your world, and thrust into this position, it is too much. I don’t know much about how summoning works, but why choose a kid, I don’t know. Just, hold me.
I don’t move, but slowly my breathing calms, and I stop sweating as profusely.
“Now, tell me, how old are you?”
“Twenty five”
“Twenty five?!” All shout in shock and surprise.
“Y-y-yes…”
Lena loosens her grip on me, and starts to get up. I stand up too, but am still shaking, the hug not lasting long enough.
“How long do your people live?” She asks, slightly perturbed.
“About eighty or so, longest is about one hundred”
“That, that is about our length! You are no kid! You…you are an adult! But short! What…how… who are you?!”
“I am Ethan, a human from Earth. I have no clue where that is from here. I am lost. My skills are not useful for this setting, and the main thing I know is not going to be invented for another few centuries at the minimum. I was summoned and ended up in the janitor closet, and all I can think of is that this is nothing but a bad nightmare and hope I wake up with a concussion from falling on a sidewalk!”
“As for my height, yes I am short. I am also very heavy for my size, making everything around me feel as if it were made out of foam, I find wood soft and spongy, and meat some of the most tender I have ever had. I work out every morning I have woken up here just to try and maintain my muscle mass, and have had to adapt to a weird walk skip hop method of moving because even the gravity is too light!”
“Gravity?” Thallion perks up. “That word did not translate, something about general pull?”
“Not the time for that, Thallion,” Silvra interjects.
“So yes, I am a little stressed, a little high strung, and a lot suffering from anxiety, worse than what I was having before I ended up here, and I cannot even get meds for it!” I complain, dejectedly, collapsing into the stuffed chair beside the door to the schoolroom.
“It’s not like I felt like I belonged much there, but I at least knew what to expect. It may have been seen as boring, but it was mine. I went to school for it for eighteen years. Here, here everything is new, and overwhelming. I am trying to make things make sense, but history was never my strong point, and again, what I know is next to worthless!”
They all stare at me, finally, Silvra steps forth and offers a shoulder pat, and a light hug. Lena follows suit, and tries to crush me in what could only be described as an attempt of a bear hug.
We stay like that for some time, Thallion looking awkwardly on the scene of the two tall women hugging a literal manchild.
“So aye managed ta comple’te round bi’ bu’te olerances are a’ me skill- oh. Sorry ta interrup’ I’ll leave ‘his here, annnd”
“Come back in Eldrin, Just in time for some formal introductions,” I say, trying to sound professional, while dealing with a throat full of snot and trying not to break down again.
“Oi? Tha voice? Ethan! Ye can’alk now?!”
“Kind of, I fixed the translator, it now works with sound.”
“Sound, eh, Well, le’ me si’ down here and you can ‘alk ta me all bout it.”
“I don’t know. It is pretty complicated, and involves quite a bit of various fields, some quite literally, but not the grain ones,” I state, half joking, enjoying the distraction from what just happened.
“Sounds allo like me prof before I became a smith.”
My eyes bug out, prof? he went to school?
“Aye, me prof in theory phys said stuff abou’ ac’ion a’ a dis’ance and tha’ our en’ire unders’anding of th’world is cons’rained by ‘ime. Also somethin abou’ sys’em hardening and ‘igh frequency swi’ing.
Those concepts sound more like quantum mechanics crossed with a preliminary understanding of magnetism to me, what an odd combination!
“Tell me, what else do you know about magnetism?”
“Magne’wha’ism”
Right, that’s it, definition time. I sit up, choking back emotions, and begin to explain some basics of electricity. At least I can bury my emotions in that for a while.
Lena looks at me with a side eye.
Maybe not that long.
Patreon Because someone asked https://www.patreon.com/CollinBarker

So in the past three years, my convictions have only grown stronger that GME is shorted in the hundreds of percentages, and those shorts are hidden in swaps, LEAPs, and other mechanisms.
The notice of GME having 45m shares ready to sell, even if their cash on hand is good for now, established a sort of cycle in my mind that I foresee happening...
• GME price eventually goes up
The volume this week wasn't mostly retail. Some big needed to reposition themselves. The end result is volatility, which is a perfect opportunity where...
• GameStop sells shares for cash
Simple enough. GameStop wants cash, so they execute the afformentioned plan. More shares with no immediate change in the underlying business means...
• GME price goes down
Typical reaction. More shares means more shareholder equity to spread around. Not to mention shorts now have grounds to short again. But wait, what's that? What are they doing with their cash since there's no bonds to pay? Well...
• GME takes action
My hot take you didn't ask for? Unless a new console has been released, their sales will continue down or remain flat. We can keep posting those buys at GameStop, but the masses usually have their peripherals and games they want prior to a new console launch. So, raise additional cash unless you're putting it to work? Asset purchase, dividend, share buyback, or something else. Ever since seeing the OCC tagging GME as a holding company, my mind took the Berkshire Hathaway route. I see GameStop as a holding company well down the road with their fingers (or fist) in many other business ventures through M&As or strategic partnerships. The S-3ASR filing from Friday reenforces this idea. Throw in the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) requirements and there are entities out there that need to locate real shares fairly quickly to prove they have what they say they hold. Regardless, there's added value to the shareholder equity with added assets and controlled liabilities. Therefore...
• GME price eventually goes up
The acquisition or returns to shareholders means assets increase. If assets increase without a huge hit to liabilities, then shareholder value must increase (assets = liabilities + shareholder equity). The board has opted to forgo salary, and costs appear more or less under control with the cash on hand. To continue parking cash in T-Bills for a 5% return to me is in poor form, so the cash must move. Otherwise, why raise it at this point? Even the short shart at Wedbush (Patcher) raised his "price target" from $5.60 to $7. He increased it 25%. It's a far cry from where it should be, but even he had to move the goal posts. That still leaves hundreds of millions of shares still short in an unwinnable position that must now wait for the next trip to get out, or limit their infinite risk.
The point? This is an infinite money glitch. Shorts never intend to close, and have been unable or unwilling to do so over the past decade. GameStop is in no dire position that collapse is imminent. So, as a result, price volatility as short positions shuffle around their positions. This is a perfect time to sell shares during a run (not all 45m in one go, but a few), watch the price come down, do something amazing, and which the price organically climb once more based on fundamentals rather than the big players trying to stay alive one more day. This charade can continue until shorts capitulate or collapse, or a greater action is taken by the GameStop Board to set the enterprise on a new and more prosperous course.
tl;dr - if you believe in the company & the idea shorts can't effectively close, then relax and enjoy the ride

I've been seeing their videos on my feed for quite some time and absolutely hate their annoying fake "content". I hate they feel the need to film every single little stupid thing with clearly the only intention being desperate for validation and praise for seemingly trying to look like the best wife and husband. Kay clearly forcing herself to act overly "cute", all while pretending she has no idea a camera is rolling and Tay desperately acting like the most perfect sugarsweet husband and always forcefully laughs very annoyingly and sheepishly about everything Kay says like a class A cringy simp, only so dumb ass naive people will reward them with stupid comments like 'omg you have the most wholesome relationship' not realizing they only show you want they want you to see to get likes and money.
Their whole portrayal of their relationship is nothing but a charade and most people are too dumb to see it, which annoys the shit out of me because it's those people that give people like Kay and Tay a platform.
I hate "we" put people like this on a pedestal and act like they're perfect based on insincere content when in reality, filming yourself like this, in a desperate attempt to portray yourself a certain way, should just be seen as pathetic, desperate, fake and highly questionable.

To provide some context, Mook Animation is a Japanese studio who is responsible for arguably the four most iconic Scooby-Doo films of all time: Zombie Island, Witch’s Ghost, Alien Invaders, and Cyber Chase. These films focused more on horror / supernatural elements, with a key element of each being that they featured real monsters and gave more depth to the gang’s personalities than the classic cartoons. Mook’s involvement with the franchise ended after Cyber Chase in 2001, due to clashes with the execs at Warner Bros. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I would want from a 5th film in this style, and this is the idea I came up with.
It would be titled “The Curse of Atlantis” and be released in 2002, with the same voice cast returning from Cyber Chase (Scott Innes as Shaggy and BJ Ward as Velma). For this film, I would tweak the formula and go for more of an anime / steampunk vibe (the final act features the gang using mech suits to fight off an army of Atlantean spirits unleashed by the villain, while the villain and one of the other protagonists fight one on one). I would really like the film to be done in traditional cel animation like the first three Mook films, but almost certainly it would be done in digital animation, like Cyber Chase.
Aside from the gang, these would be the characters introduced in this movie:

• Naomi and Elliot Blackwell - an eccentric millionaire couple in their early-mid 30s who are passionate about finding Atlantis. Later revealed to be apparent villains, but they were actually in the dark about their friend’s true motivations, and ended up helping the gang defeat him. Naomi is revealed to be descended from Atlanteans.
  
• Oliver Harrison - a mythology professor in his late 30s, and a close friend of Naomi and Elliot, later revealed to be descended from Atlanteans, and later still, as the true villain.
  
• Duke, Aria, and Wilson - three crew members on the expedition who dressed up as Atlantean spirits in an attempt to scare the gang off. They ended up helping the gang after Oliver betrayed them.
  
• Zola - a kindhearted and idealistic Atlantean who give the gang a tour of the city and, unlike most of his kind, does not have a deep distrust of the outside world, and even believes Atlantis may be able to rejoin the world someday and share its technology for the greater cause of mankind. He befriends the gang and takes them to his home to meet his family, and later, helps them escape when Oliver turns on them.
  

The curse is connected to a magical stone tablet imbued with the power of the gods (which led the group to Atlantis) which is Oliver was able to unleash the spirits. The tablet is a holy relic which is traditionally held by kings and contains immense power, but if the tablet is damaged or destroyed, a curse is unleashed upon its holder. This is how the island of Atlantis was originally cursed by the gods, as the hubris of the Atlanteans caused the tablet to be damaged and lost as sea during battle, it’s also how Oliver is defeated.
The film would be more explicitly connected to the previous 4 films canon wise, as Eric from Cyber Chase would make an early appearance recommending the gang’s services in translating the tablet, while Crystal and Amber from Alien Invaders are also mentioned while the gang are on Atlantis, as Shaggy and Scooby are wondering if any of the advanced technology on Atlantis could be used to contact them. Maybe there could also be a Hex Girls poster in the mystery machine as an Easter egg.
The first act involves the story of the fall of Atlantis being told as a frame narrative, which is then revealed to be a lecture from Oliver, who is later revealed to be planning an expedition to Atlantis with his wealthy friends Naomi and Elliot, who are funding everything. The trio have been unable to find anyone who can translate the tablet, until Eric, who is a student at the same university, points them towards mystery Inc. Velma succeeds in translating the tablet and the gang are invited to join the expedition as thanks.
Shaggy and Scooby would be chased by Atlantean spirits on the ship, which raises some suspicion for the gang about what’s really going on. Later, the gang would spend a day on Atlantis getting up to their usual shenanigans, but the spirits would return to cause trouble again, and Fred would come up with a plan to trap them. That night, they would lure the spirits into the trap, with it actually working perfectly on the first try, and the spirits would be unmasked and revealed as the crew members trying to scare them off before they realize that the main trio are here to loot the city.
Suddenly, said trio would appear carting out priceless treasures, but once Oliver realizes the charade is over, he betrays everyone else and reveals that his true intentions are far worse, as he plans to use the might of Atlantis’ advanced weaponry to subjugate the world to his will, as his ancestors once sought to do until they lost the tablet (Oliver and Naomi are both descended from Atlanteans who escaped the island’s original fate and spread out across the world). Oliver would then use the tablet to unleash an army of real Atlantean spirits which capture the gang, but they make a getaway thanks to Zola, their tour guide from earlier. During this chase, an original song would play called “Atlantis Awakened”. This leads to the aforementioned final act.
Like Ben from Witch’s Ghost, Oliver ends up having a “fate worse than death” defeat, as the spirits turn against him when the tablet is destroyed, and prevent him from escaping as the island sinks back into the ocean. The implication is that he will face the wrath of the gods alone, while the other Atlanteans will be spared, and all we see is his pure terror as he vanishes beneath the waves along with Atlantis.
The film would deal with the theme of whether the outside world is ready to coexist with Atlantis, and if they can be trusted to use Atlantean technology for good, with the answer being left at “not yet”, as even Zola, who has always been optimistic on this, concedes in the end. Meanwhile, despite being passionate about this subject, and having the potential to become rich and famous beyond their wildest dreams, Naomi and Elliot decide it’s best to ditch any evidence of Atlantis and tell the world it’s just a myth after all. Throughout the film, I envision the score being very thoughtful and mysterious, yet also melancholy, as it’s an unknown frontier, similar to Alien Invaders. The final shot would be of the gang standing by the ocean and gazing out upon the calm waters at sunset, knowing they’ll be amongst the few to ever know the truth, before driving off towards home.
I actually have the entire plot synopsis written up for this idea, this is just a summary of the main points.

well.. this is a really messed up story. I was in the lowest of my lows. My relationship wasn't working out and nothing really was. I didn't have many friends and everyday i felt so lonely. Over 3 years ago, i came up with the idea to make a fictional friend to make my then girlfriend jealous.
I did exactly that and i gave her likeable traits and a nice personality. I made sure she lived in another country so that it wasnt immediately obvious that I was lying. I made her a fake instagram account with pictures and everything (that didnt reveal the face).
First, I used this account to contact my gf and get really close to her. I also made sure to list out many similarities between the fictional friend and myself like our birthday. This went on for around 2 years and my girlfriend thought she was actually best friends with this girl while it was me the whole time. I wanted to stop after six months but it was already too late.
Then a week later, my girlfriend broke up with me and I was pretty upset. It was a long relationship and a super dumb reason to break off. It wasnt dirty but i made it dirty because i was mad at her. I said some things and she did too. The problem was, she was still constantly texting the fictional friend who had become a pretty big part of her life. Over time she had become so comfortable with her that she was telling her things she hadnt even told me.
On a lonely night, it was about 2am in the morning and i was wasted and lonely. I was walking around the dark street and I was just broken with everything going on in my family, my life and everything. I also decided it was time to end the act and come clean but i dont know what happened but soon, I was spam calling my ex after not having spoken to her from a few months.
First thing she says when she picks up is, "are you okay, please tell me youre not hurt". Now, I dont know but that just broke me more. I wanted to cry and scream at her for leaving me. I quietly told her that the fictional friend had k*lled herself and her mother called me to tell me. She was in shock for a few seconds and then she just hung up. She was definitely hit pretty hard and I feel so bad for even coming up with this charade in the first place.
I'm only writing this now because of the guilt and its been over a year... it was my birthday not long ago, she texted me happy birthday with a few compliments and god i miss her so much. Sorry for the long post and spelling mistakes. English isn't my first language.

Let's make it happen. I've been thinking about some category ideas.
Screwball: Slam-dunk, would be a good chance to talk about some older movies. Get some Hawks and Lubitsch and Sturges up in there.
Genre-rom-com: Some sci-fi rom-coms like Groundhog Day, Defending Your Life, Palm Springs, even The Lobster in its way. Plus fantasy rom-coms like Princess Bride or A Knight's Tale. Moonstruck as a rom-com-opera?
Rom-crime: Heists (Out of Sight), capers (Charade), thrillers (Something Wild), others (Married to the Mob)
Rom-dramedy: Broadcast News, Working Girl, Jerry Maguire, things of that nature. Movies about professionals.
British: All the Hugh Grant/Richard Curtis stuff, among others
Rom-coming of age: Your John Hugheses, your teen Shakespeare adaptations
Musicals??: Musicals.
Nora or Nancy: What it says on the tin.
Plus your standard Blockbuster, Oscar nominee, wild card categories could make an appearance. I guess I don't really have a place for just standard rom-coms here, so a lot of stuff might fall through the cracks, but I don't know, I didn't think about this for very long. Sean, if you're reading this, call me. I will be a fourth chair if you decide to make it a mega draft.

It would be titled “The Curse of Atlantis” and be released in 2002, with the same voice cast returning from Cyber Chase (Scott Innes as Shaggy and BJ Ward as Velma). For this film, I would tweak the formula and go for more of an anime / steampunk vibe (the final act features the gang using mech suits to fight off an army of Atlantean spirits unleashed by the villain, while the villain and one of the other protagonists fight one on one). I would really like the film to be done in cel animation, but almost certainly it would be done in digital animation, like Cyber Chase.
Aside from the gang, these would be the characters introduced in this movie:

• Naomi and Elliot Blackwell - an eccentric millionaire couple in their early-mid 30s who are passionate about finding Atlantis. Later revealed to be apparent villains, but they were actually in the dark about their friend’s true motivations, and ended up helping the gang defeat him. Naomi is revealed to be descended from Atlanteans.
  
• Oliver Harrison - a mythology professor in his late 30s, and a close friend of Naomi and Elliot, later revealed to be descended from Atlanteans, and later still, as the true villain.
  
• Duke, Aria, and Wilson - three crew members on the expedition who dressed up as Atlantean spirits in an attempt to scare the gang off. They ended up helping the gang after Oliver betrayed them.
  
• Zola - a kindhearted and idealistic Atlantean who give the gang a tour of the city and, unlike most of his kind, does not have a deep distrust of the outside world, and even believes Atlantis may be able to rejoin the world someday and share its technology for the greater cause of mankind. He befriends the gang and takes them to his home to meet his family, and later, helps them escape when Oliver turns on them.
  

The curse is connected to a magical stone tablet imbued with the power of the gods (which led the group to Atlantis) which is Oliver was able to unleash the spirits. The tablet is a holy relic which is traditionally held by kings and contains immense power, but if the tablet is damaged or destroyed, a curse is unleashed upon its holder. This is how the island of Atlantis was originally cursed by the gods, as the hubris of the Atlanteans caused the tablet to be damaged and lost as sea during battle, it’s also how Oliver is defeated.
The film would be more explicitly connected to the previous 4 films canon wise, as Eric from Cyber Chase would make an early appearance recommending the gang’s services in translating the tablet, while Crystal and Amber from Alien Invaders are also mentioned while the gang are on Atlantis, as Shaggy and Scooby are wondering if any of the advanced technology on Atlantis could be used to contact them. Maybe there could also be a Hex Girls poster in the mystery machine as an Easter egg.
The first act involves the story of the fall of Atlantis being told as a frame narrative, which is then revealed to be a lecture from Oliver, who is later revealed to be planning an expedition to Atlantis with his wealthy friends Naomi and Elliot, who are funding everything. The trio have been unable to find anyone who can translate the tablet, until Eric, who is a student at the same university, points them towards mystery Inc. Velma succeeds in translating the tablet and the gang are invited to join the expedition as thanks.
Shaggy and Scooby would be chased by Atlantean spirits on the ship, which raises some suspicion for the gang about what’s really going on. Later, the gang would spend a day on Atlantis getting up to their usual shenanigans, but the spirits would return to cause trouble again, and Fred would come up with a plan to trap them. That night, they would lure the spirits into the trap, with it actually working perfectly on the first try, and the spirits would be unmasked and revealed as the crew members trying to scare them off before they realize that the main trio are here to loot the city.
Suddenly, said trio would appear carting out priceless treasures, but once Oliver realizes the charade is over, he betrays everyone else and reveals that his true intentions are far worse, as he plans to use the might of Atlantis’ advanced weaponry to subjugate the world to his will, as his ancestors once sought to do until they lost the tablet (Oliver and Naomi are both descended from Atlanteans who escaped the island’s original fate and spread out across the world). Oliver would then use the tablet to unleash an army of real Atlantean spirits which capture the gang, but they make a getaway thanks to Zola, their tour guide from earlier. During this chase, an original song would play called “Atlantis Awakened”. This leads to the aforementioned final act.
Like Ben from Witch’s Ghost, Oliver ends up having a “fate worse than death” defeat, as the spirits turn against him when the tablet is destroyed, and prevent him from escaping as the island sinks back into the ocean. The implication is that he will face the wrath of the gods alone, while the other Atlanteans will be spared, and all we see is his pure terror as he vanishes beneath the waves along with Atlantis.
The film would deal with the theme of whether the outside world is ready to coexist with Atlantis, and if they can be trusted to use Atlantean technology for good, with the answer being left at “not yet”, as even Zola, who has always been optimistic on this, concedes in the end. Meanwhile, despite being passionate about this subject, and having the potential to become rich and famous beyond their wildest dreams, Naomi and Elliot decide it’s best to ditch any evidence of Atlantis and tell the world it’s just a myth after all. Throughout the film, I envision the score being very thoughtful and mysterious, yet also melancholy, as it’s an unknown frontier, similar to Alien Invaders. The final shot would be of the gang standing by the ocean and gazing out upon the calm waters at sunset, knowing they’ll be amongst the few to ever know the truth, before driving off towards home.
I actually have the entire plot summary written up for this idea. I really did put all of this thought into something that has no chance of happening :p.

I have a lot of thoughts at the moment about religion. Let me start my saying my family is from a very religious culture. Everyone in that culture in religious in some sense, atheism or irreligion is seen almost as some offensive mental disorder. My family isn’t that extreme, and I do love them.
I truly don’t think I believe in God anymore (more on this in the next paragraph). I think I’m at best an agnostic atheist, but I can’t tell anyone in real life about it. I have to keep this charade of a religious person when I’m not. The advice people give online is “be truthful, if your family loves you they’ll get through it”. This is very western advice in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, they wouldn’t ever hurt me, and I do think after many years they would start to accept it, but it would scar everything. I’m struggling with feeling invalid in my feelings and like a coward for not telling them. But I just know telling them would be a huge mistake. And I don’t want to take the alternate advice of moving out, and keeping very limited touch with them. I live my family and I wish they just weren’t born into such a rigid view. Hell for where we’re from they’re pretty liberal. I feel like I got unlucky being born to that part of the world.
On top of that, I don’t want to not believe in god. I don’t and like I said I struggle with feeling like a coward about not being honest about it, so I try to lean into those feelings of doubt, but at the same time I wish there was an afterlife. I wish my dead loved ones were somewhere warm, and that some god would count all the bs we’ve had to suffer and make it up to us. I wish there was someone to pray to when I scared and someone to listen to me when I’m alone, and someone more than human who won’t have off days and reservations. I’m deeply hurt at having to untangle myself from belief in god (which was kind of mechanical) to now accepting life is more or less meaningless and when we die that’s it. Now I’m terrified of death and of losing my loved ones.
I’m tired of everything. I’m tired of feeling judged by both sides of it. By feeling guilt at not being honest with good people who I love, and feeling like I’m a coward for refusing to do what so many people do when coming out to their conservative families. I feel like if anyone could see the truth they would have some judgement about how I can’t make up my mind about god and how I’m hiding my feelings from everyone. I really think it boils down to cultural differences. Religion and god are everything where I’m from. Being an atheist is literally every family’s biggest fear for their children if they can even wrap their heads around how it’s possible. I feel like when I talk in mostly western spaces (because truthfully deconstruction and even atheism are very western ideas) people think I’m crazy from a crazy family but it’s just a massive cultural difference I’ve been struggling with from every facet my entire life anyway. I feel like I’m not understood anywhere.

Seven
...
In 1945, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were students at Columbia University and were lodging in Joan Vollmer’s apartment on West 115th Street. Kerouac, a Catholic who had gotten in on a football scholarship described Ginsberg as “this spindly Jewish kid with horn-rimmed glasses and tremendous ears sticking out…burning black eyes”; the two men had a brief, awkward affair. Their friend William Burroughs was living nearby, on Riverside Drive, and after Kerouac and Ginsberg set him up with their landlady, he moved in, too. The gaunt and lanky Burroughs was more than a decade older than Ginsberg and Kerouac, and already seemed, Ginsberg recalled, to have the “ashen gray of an old-age cheek.” The younger pair admired him, Ginsberg wrote, like “ambassadors to a Chinese emperor.” Kerouac hailed him as “the last of the Faustian men.” Burroughs returned the compliment by introducing the other members of the “libertine circle,” as they dubbed themselves, to drugs, sailors, porn, bathhouses, and Wilhelm Reich.

After leaving Harvard in 1936, Burroughs had enrolled at the University of Vienna’s medical schools, Reich’s alma mater, with vague plans of becoming a psychoanalyst, but his stay was dominated by the administration of arsenic shots for the syphilis he had contracted in America, which left him feeling nauseated and depressed. He left after a semester. Back in New York, Burroughs was analyzed by Paul Federn, who had been Reich’s first therapist but whom Reich came to consider his nemesis. Burroughs was institutionalized in 1940 after he chopped off the tip of his finger in a Van Gogh - like gesture of unrequited love (Bellevue psychiatrists diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic). Burroughs’s parents gave him an allowance of two hundred dollars a month on the condition that he seek further help, and in 1946 Burroughs was undergoing narco-analysis with Dr. Lewis Wolberg, who used nitrous oxide and hypnosis to stimulated the unconscious.
Burroughs would return from his sessions with Wolberg to practice “wild analysis” on his friends, interpreting their dreams from the comfort of a wing chair. He also played a game that parodied the Reichian character analysis that he’d become interested in. The group would play an adaption of charades to facilitate the exploration of the onion layers of their personality armor. Burroughs referred to these exercises in amateur dramatics as “routines.” For example, underneath Burroughs’s public persona as the distinguished heir of an important St. Louis family lurked a prissy, lesbian English governess (“My dear, you’re just in time for tea. Don’t say those dirty words in front of everybody!”). Scratch the governess surface and you reached Old Luke, a gun-toting, tobacco-chewing sharecropper from the Deep South (“Ever gut a catfish?”). The last stratum, at his very core, held a silent Chinaman, a contemplative, impassive character who sat meditating on the banks of the Yangtse. Ginsberg’s hidden self was “the well-groomed Hungarian,” and Kerouac liked to play the naïve American lost in the sophistications of Paris.
Alfred Kinsey met Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac on one of their nocturnal trips to Time Square through their friend Herbert Huncke, the male prostitute who coined the term “beat” and introduced Burroughs to recreational drugs. Kinsey paid Huncke
Taking advantage of the proximity of Cott’s office to his father’s home, and still buzzing in the mouth, Ginsberg chose to come out during a posttherapeutic visit. “You mean you like to take men’s penises in your mouth?” his father said unsympathetically. But Cott thought homosexuality a perversion, as Reich did, and was working toward establishing heterosexual primacy rather than trying to persuade Ginsberg to come to terms with his queerness. “Frankly I won’t trust that kind of straight genital Reichian,” Burroughs wrote in disgust at this dogmatism. “Feller say, when a man gets too straight he’s just a god damned prick.”
Cott terminated Ginsberg’s therapy after three months because he continued to smoke pot against the doctor’s advice. Ginsberg though cannabis an integral part of his aesthetic education; Cott feared that it would lead to a psychotic episode. The summer he quit therapy, Ginsberg began experiencing auditory hallucinations. “It was like God had a human voice,” Ginsberg wrote of his transcendental experience, in which he discovered his calling as a poet, “with all the infinite tenderness and mortal gravity of a living Creator speaking to his son.” Consumed by a desire to share his amazing experience, Ginsberg crawled out onto his fire escape and tapped on the next-door neighbor’s windows, declaring to the two frightened girls inside, “I’ve seen God!”
His father, still reeling from the discovery of his son’s sexuality, feared that he was suffering from the paranoid schizophrenia that had caused his mother to be institutionalized in Pilgrim State, a mental hospital on Long Island. She also heard voices, feared her husband was trying to poison her, hallucinated Hitler’s mustache in the sink, and thought spies were following her. When Ginsberg entered Reichian analysis, she was reportedly banging her head against the wall so ferociously that the doctors recommended a lobotomy.
Ginsberg phoned up Dr. Cott, his former therapist, and told him, “It happened, I had some kind of breakthrough or psychotic experience.” Cott, who followed Reich in rejecting the talking cure, and who was obviously still angry at Ginsberg for choosing pot over therapy, said, “I’m afraid any discussion would have no value” and hung up on him. Soon afterward, when Ginsberg was involved in a car chase in a stolen vehicle that ended in a dramatic crash, he was encouraged by a law professor at Columbia, where he was still a student, to plead insanity. Dr. Cott appeared in court to testify to his mental instability, and two months later Ginsberg was admitted to the Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric institute, where he stayed for eight months.
During Ginsberg’s hospitalization, Burroughs wrote to Jack Kerouac to ask him to find out from Ginsberg what the “gadget made by Reichians” looked like. “I want especially to know its shape and if there is a window, and how one gets into it.” Kerouac doesn’t seem to have been much help in providing a blueprint. Burroughs built his first accumulator in the spring of 1949 when he was living on a rented farm in Pharr, Texas, with Kells Elvins, a friend from his Harvard days. They were both enthusiastically reading Reich’s The Cancer Biopathy and decided to build an accumulator in the orange grove Kells owned in the Rio Grande Valley. Built without recourse to any plans, the resulting device included some curious innovations. “Inside was an old icebox,” Burroughs explained, “which you could get inside and pull on a contrivance so that another box of sheet steel descended over you, so that the effect was presumably heightened.” It took them a few days to construct the box. The result was eight feet high, much taller than the ones Reich manufactured: “It was a regular townhouse,” Burroughs recalled.
The pair took turns sitting in the accumulator and obtained, Burroughs wrote, “unmistakable results.” Burroughs wondered what the Mexican farm laborers thought of this strange box that they entered “wrapped in old towels,” and came out of feeling “much sexier and healthier,” “with hard-ons.” Burroughs and Kells also made one of Reich’s smaller shooter boxes, with a funnel, which they used as a supplement to the big box. Their DIY was, Burroughs admitted, “a very sloppy job,” but it still have a powerful “sexual kick.”
"I have just been reading Wilhelm Reich’s latest book The Cancer Biopathy,” Burroughs wrote excitedly to Kerouac. “I tell you Jack, he is the only man in the analysis line who is on that beam. After reading the book I built an orgone accumulator and the gimmick really works. The man is not crazy, he’s a fucking genius.” Kerouac described Burroughs enthusiastically promoting the box in On the Road (1955). According to Kerouac, Burroughs said, “Say, why don’t you fellows try my orgone accumulator? Put some juice in your bones. I always rush up and take off ninety miles an hour for the nearest whorehouse, hor-hor-hor!”
Burroughs used an orgone box on and off for the rest of his life. (There is a picture of the rock star Kurt Cobain waving through the port-hole of Burrough’s last box, a scruffy, patched-up shed that he kept in the garden behind his house in Lawrence, Kansas.) In the 1970s he wrote an article for Oui magazine entitled “All the accumulators I have owned” in which he boasted, “Your intrepid reporter, at age thirty-seven, achieved spontaneous orgasm, no hands, in an orgone accumulator built in an orange grove in Pharr, Texas. It was the small, direct-application accumulator that did the trick.”
….
Perls concluded that any positive claims for the orgone box were attributable to the placebo effect. “I invariably found a fallacy,” he said of the orgone box users he met, “a suggestibility that could be directed in any way that I wanted.” Reich, Perls thought, had made a major contribution in giving Freud’s notion of resistance a body, but he erred in trying to make a verifiable reality out of the libido. “Now resistances do exist, there is no doubt about it,” Perls explained, “but libido was and is a hypothesized energy, invented by Freud himself to explain his model of man.” He thought Reich had hypnotized himself and his patients into the belief of the existence of the orgone as the physical and visible equivalent of libido.
Perls found that users of orgone boxes usually exhibited some paranoid symptoms. “Then I had another look at the armor theory,” Perls went on, “and I realized that the idea of the armor itself was a paranoid form. It supposes an attack from, and defense against, the environment.” Perls criticized vegetotherapy for encouraging the formation of paranoid features by encouraging the patient to “externalize, disown, and project material that could be assimilated and become part of the self.” Orgone energy, Perls concluded from his investigations into the orgone box, was “an invention of Reich’s fantasy which by then had gone astray.” The realization that the Reich he had met in New York was different from the one he had known in Europe, and that orgone mysticism was at the crackpot end of science, was tinged with melancholy. “The enfant terrible of the Vienna Institute turned out to be a genius,” Perls wrote in his autobiography, “only to eclipse himself as a ‘mad scientist.’”
In his own elaboration of character analysis, which he called Gestalt therapy, Perls turned the idea of armor around: where Reich had come to see character armor as a defense against a hostile external world, Perls saw that same layer of self as a shield for one’s own true drives - a straitjacket designed to safeguard against explosions of excitement from within. Thus, it wasn’t a shell to be crushed but something integral, to be owned. (Laura Perls said they tried to convince Rosenfeld to give up his box, that he could increase his physical vitality and mental agility “entirely on his own, without external devices.”) He wanted his patients to be aware of their bodies, to feel the present vividly in the “here and now,” to be “authentic,” to act on their desires.
Perls got his patients to act out their feelings so that they could assimilate and take responsibility for them. He had originally wanted to be a theater director - he’d been a student of Max Reinhardt’s when he was growing up in Berlin, and he’d become closely associated with the avant-garde Living Theatre troupe in New York. Julian Beck, a founder of the Living Theatre, explained to Perls’s biographer, Martin Shepard, of Gestalt therapy, “[Perls] had something in mind that was halfway between the kind of performance we were doing [direct spectacle, aimed at challenging the moral complacency of the audience] and therapeutic sessions.”
“You are my client,” Perls told one female patient. “I care for you like an artist, I bring something out that is hidden in you.” He described therapy as if it were a magic trick; the rabbit he claimed to pull out of the hat was a person shorn of the “neurosis of normalcy” and all the bourgeois niceties associated with it. This person, he hypothesized, was confident enough to be selfish, to act on rather than repress all her desires, whatever the social consequences. All the energy that others wasted on repression and concealment, Perls thought, should be available for creative self-expression. Another of Perls’s patients recalled, “Fritz loved some types - open bastard-bitch - open defenses, that type. He didn’t like anyone who would placate him or be too good to him or used good-girl or good-boy defenses - that drove him up the wall.”

Perls’s views ,and some of his methods, were much indebted to those pioneered by Reich in the thirties: Perls would habitually accuse his patients of being “phony” and was deliberately aggressive, much as Reich had been with him. Yet, his observations about the paranoid deviations in Reich’s terminology and thinking were painfully perceptive, precisely because he had built on those very ideas.
In 1951, Perls, Paul Goodman, and a Columbia professor of psychology named Ralph Hefferline published Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. Rewritten by Goodman, and bearing all the hallmarks of Goodman’s exasperating style, the book blends Reich’s ideas about energy blocks and flows with Sartre’s cafe philosophy to create an American brand of existentialism turned therapy. The authors intended their self-help book to provide the reader with the tools for revolution: “In recommending [these experiments] to you,” they warned of their mass-market therapy, “we commit an aggressive act aimed at your present status quo and whatever complacency it affords.” They promised immediate liberation, without the hard grind of political struggle; all you had to do was unleash your “authentic” self.
The “excitement” to which the subtitle of the book refers is a generalized libido, an elan vital that is seeking various outlets, not all of them sexual. Life, for Perls, was a series of “unfinished” or “undigested” situation, frustrations that were all waiting their turn for satisfactory closure. “After the available excitement has been fully transformed and experienced, then we have good closure, satisfaction, temporary peace and nirvana,” Perls summarized his position. “A [mere] discharge will barely bring about the feeling of exhaustion and being spent.”
It sounded very like the Reichian orgasm. But for Perls, excitement was no longer exclusively genital, as it was for Reich, and this shift only served to open up numerous other slipways to pleasure. In Reich’s view, the libido theory was an inviolable article of faith. In broadening its range to celebrate oral and anal pleasures, Perls heralded a polymorphously perverse and heretical vision - one that, ironically, would prove particularly amenable to exploitation under capitalism.
In 1952, Perls, his wife, Goodman, Isidore From, Elliott Shapiro, and two others founded the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, headquartered in the Perleses’ apartment and with treatment rooms at 315 Central Park West. The seven founding members met on a weekly basis for group therapy. There was no bureaucratic hierarchy and everyone, including Perls, was subject to the honest criticism that was seen as the key to self-discovery. It was a very public form of character analysis: members of the group would draw one another’s attention to every repression or hang-up, none of which was to be tolerated.
Elliot Shapiro, an ex-boxer and the head of a psychiatric school attached to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, brought a friend to one session; Shapiro’s friend said he “had never witnessed the aggressive and profound battling that went on in those groups. Nobody, virtually nobody, was safe at any time.” Shapiro recalled, “We hammered at each other, and hammered, and hammered - every week. And it was the most vigorous hammering you can image….If you could live through these groups and take the corrections, the insults, the remarks…” Not all the participants had sufficiently thick skins to take such brutal candor. The psychotherapist Jim Simkin left the group because he felt that everyone was “loading elephant shit on him,” as did Ralph Hefferline, a coauthor of Gestalt Therapy.
To promote this new school, Perls traveled from city to city, introducing an audience of psychiatrists, social workers, and other interested parties to his “here and now” philosophy. He taught groups in Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, and Miami how to be sensitive to their bodily needs and to follow their impulses, to be honest and unalienated. He’d be sharp and confrontational as he pushed his awareness techniques on the participants: What are you doing now? What are you experiencing? What are you feeling? Isadore From, who was part of the original New York group, remembers that these occasions were often very dramatic, with “a lot of shaking, trembling, anxiety” - effects that he thought were the result of the audiences’ hyperventilating under the strain of Perls’s relentless goading and questioning.
The New York Institute of Gestalt Therapy also ran public seminars, including one by Goodman, “The Psychology of Sex” (“What you can’t do, teach,” he said with a laugh). Following Reich, it was thought that neurosis could be treated by exposure to sexual pleasure. Goodman made this his area of expertise and people with sexual problems were often referred to him. One was a man who was worried about the quality of his orgasms after prostate surgery. Another thought he might be homosexual; the bisexual Goodman got his penis out and demanded that the patient touch it to help him make a diagnosis. In so doing he was no doubt influenced by Hitschmann, the Viennese analyst who once asked Perls, then tormented by sexual inadequacy, to show him his penis .
In one of Goodman’s group sessions, when someone complained of the lack of sexual companionship, Goodman went around the circle and set up a week’s worth of dates. “See, that wasn’t so difficult,” he reassured her. He was not beyond offering his own neurosis-busting services to patients of either sex, and once agreed to accompany a patient who invited him on an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe. He joked about setting up a College of Sex so as to put his vast experience to educational use. “I’m a sociopath,” he wanted a potential client. In a diary entry written in 1957, Goodman looked back on the previous decade and concluded that he’s made a “false cultus-religion (an obsession)” of sex: “The sexual act itself had just about the meaning of a ritual communion sacrifice.”

There are 2 AI fragments we have not seen in the show.
I. Greed:
In Season 10 Episode 17 “Remember me how I was” Tex reviews the files CT had collected and stolen from Project Freelancer. In them, a glossary of the AI fragments appears. Greed and Love are both listed, but we do not see these fragments ever on screen. The Greed fragment may have been scheduled for South. Her Greed led her to do terrible things, including betray Washington later on. when an agent received an AI not compatible with them, bad things happened. Maine was not very creative or ambitious. He followed orders. Sigma was not right for him and we all know what happened there. The Director’s experiment of giving an AI to one twin and not the other would have run its course by the time South would have finally been able to receive her fragment, had the implantation schedule not been interrupted. I believe this fragment was Xi. In Season 10 Episode 6, Carolina explains that each AI was supposed to have a particular owner. Sigma was hers. I think that Xi was designated either for South, (or Georgia, but we know less about him). This video makes a case for Georgia having Xi, but if I’m not mistaken, the timing is off. When Georgia goes missing, the AI fragments were not yet created, so Georgia would not have received it prior to his disappearance.
II.Love:
Similar to above. This fragment may have been destined for CT or Florida, had the Epsilon incident not happened. Love fits with both FL and CT’s personalities, with CT having an actual romantic arc in the show, and FL generally having a light and amicable nature to him. This AI may never have been distributed. It may have been destroyed in the EMP Washington set off at the Freelancer facility, it may have been destroyed in Season 15, or it was never given away by the Director. As strange as it may sound, the V.I.C. theory has more support than it may first appear. In addition to the points outlined in the video above, In Season 14 Part 1, Agent Florida speaks to V.I.C. on the radio. V.I.C. would not have been implanted in FL as might have been planned, because of the Epsilon incident that had happened recently to that time. Instead, to prevent a potential similar situation with FL, a scenario the Director could not afford, V.I.C. was kept in a computer under Blood Gulch. However, V.I.C. still refers to Agent FL as if he is subordinate to him, and he is, in fact, an AI from Project Freelancer given to an Freelancer Agent to assist in that agent’s mission. While FL is talking to V.I.C., V.I.C. makes a mistake, referring to the canyon as a simulation outpost. V.I.C. is familiar with Project Freelancer operations, but has not yet fully learned the new code of correspondence. This makes it seem more plausible that this is not V.I.C.’s first mistake. Perhaps V.I.C. needed to relearn more than just the name of the location he is stationed. Perhaps V.I.C. was given a new name, to comport with his position in the Blood Gulch charade, V.I.C. may have even been given a new visage, as to not arouse suspicion in the simulation troopers. After all, V.I.C. appears to be in a room full of computers, but he is just a program. It is clearly and canonically an image meant to deceive the simulation troopers into thinking he is a guy at “command”. This alone should confirm that V.I.C. is more than he is presented to be. In addition, V.I.C. refers to Agent FL by his Freelancer codename, not his Blood Gulch/government name. If V.I.C. was created specifically for Blood Gulch, it is hard to imagine why he would be making all of these mistakes that seem to suggest he is closer to Project Freelancer. The strongest evidence for this theory not included in the above video however, is what he says next. He says that FL is cleared to activate Alpha in Private Jimmy’s neural implant, and that if “our” theories are correct, Alpha would not have memory contamination. This implies that V.I.C. had come to this theory with someone other than just Agent FL. He would not need to tell Agent FL this if the theory was devised by FL and V.I.C. alone. FL would already know. I would speculate that the Counselor was more involved than FL. We know it was the Counselor’s idea to use FL and send them to Blood Gulch in the first place. This is all pretty much Aiden Price’s idea.
V.I.C. goes on to say that Agent FL cannot allow Alpha to learn anything about the other fragments. Alpha is not a fragment. V.I.C. should have simply said that Alpha should not be allowed to learn anything about the fragments, if indeed there were no fragments involved in Blood Gulch.
Also, I know V.I.C. Is later referred to by Dylan Andrews as a “dumb AI” but this is both just her opinion without knowledge of his origin and this takes place long after V.I.C. is messed up in season 14(pre season 1).
-Alternatively to the V.I.C. Theory, The Director may have kept the fragment, a manifestation of his own love, in order to try to help him recreate Alison. This fragment would be a manifestation of his love for his wife and child, and apart from being useful to his quest to recreate Alison, he may well have had a hard time parting with it, as it represented something about himself that felt increasingly distant to him. This fragment would have been deleted at the end of “Dont Say it”.
III. Never implanted
The final 2 fragments were never implanted because of the incident with Agent Washington and Epsilon. But one (Xi) may still be active.
IV. Sigma’s plan:
Xi is referenced on the board in the Freelancer classroom as a necessary part of Sigma’s Metastability group (the symbol of The Meta). The files seen in “Remember me how I was” and Sigma’s on screen actions confirm that Xi is an AI fragment. Sigma even knows enough about Xi to know that this fragment is a necessary part to Sigma’s Meta plan to achieve Metastability, and recreate the Alpha. This makes sense because Sigma was involved in the “birthday” of some other AIs, so he may have had some extra knowledge about their characteristics. But notice that he does not seek every existing fragment, only certain ones. I believe this is because Sigma did not exactly want to recreate the alpha exactly as it was pre-fragmentation. Sigma wanted to recreate a version of the alpha that he(Sigma) was the head of. He wanted to be a more powerful, metastable AI, but still be in charge. This was his grand ambition. Sigma knew a lot about the other fragments, and when it was time to start collecting and take control of Maine, The Meta leaves the Mother of Invention and hunts down the other AI bearing Freelancers. If Xi was aboard the MoI, Sigma would have tried to find it before leaving, or have gone back to the wreck to retrieve it. He never does this. I think this is because Sigma was aware that Xi was not on board. Sigma never found Xi, and therefore failed his mission, but I have a theory as to where Xi might be which I’ll get into in part 2.
EDIT: Correction: South was meant to get Eta. This would leave Xi to be designated to someone else.

Me: Wouldn't it be fun to wait to post this in the summer so you can say happy Christmas in July for once? Also me: that's a terrible joke. Just publish the thing.
Apologies for publishing in 2 parts. I'm not trying to drag it out I'm just aware this is the length of 2 episodes, reddit will only allow me 20 pics per post, and there's just too much going on for our beloved idiot in this one, so. I'm pacing myself.
It's not Christmas in July, it's Christmas 1919 at Downton and I spent an embarrassing amount of time wondering if Mr Fellowes really wants me to believe that the Crawleys decorated the Goliath of Christmas trees themselves (they didn't, but I like that Mary was sipping her tea and offering her view on things. Queen👑 ).
Plus, the setup for this episode intro had an actual checklist:
Tree? Check
Family arriving? Check
Violet judging this year's Christmas cards and looking for the contenders for worst cards of the year (they judge them on both content, and actual card)? Check
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Anna gets a gold heart brooch from Mary and Mrs Hughes is as excited about it as she is. Also, I can see the inspo for the entire Anna/Mary tag on AO3 right here. And Mrs Hughes ships it.
Just kidding, Bates is in prison, and we're all very sad.
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Carlisle is wondering why the Crawleys are being kind to their servants by letting them have some time off at lunchtime on Christmas Day, and I'm wondering if anyone (namely, us, the viewers) is supposed to be surprised by his behaviour.
I mean, blackmailing Lavinia just because? Blackmailing Mary into an engagement with him? Trying to manipulate Anna and Carson? Being physically abusive to Mary, and trying to control her life and behaviour? Bringing Lavinia back to "sacrifice" her to a lifetime as Matthew's nurse, so Mary won't spend that much time with Matthew (not because there was something off about that, just that Carlisle didn't want her to)?
He is an asshole. He was an asshole. He will always be an asshole. Glad we're finally all on the same page.
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Matthew and Mary are exchanging presents behind Robert's head in one scene and I'm very upset by it. Please, if anyone has any ideas, submit what you think they got each other for Christmas.
If you need any inspiration, here's what people would buy each other as presents in the 1920s according to the British Newspaper Archives:
Lots of cigarette paraphernalia Cocktails Banjos PENCILS Dance Frocks Shaving Kits Vacuum Cleaners
Keep that list in mind if you're disappointed with your presents next year.
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Matthew got a telephone call telling him that Mr Swire is very ill, and he will got to London to visit him. Mary gives him some condolences and he says "I'm sorry if I'm casting a gloom". I have a feeling the poor man had been pretty depressed for quite long, probably perked up a bit for Christmas and thought he was bringing the mood down again, but Mary responds with compassion. Oh Matthew.
Carlisle saw Mary go after Matthew in the hall, to ask about Mr Swire, and literally took his newspaper with him and followed her out there because that's completely normal behaviour. Just picture the ridiculousness of it: Mary and Matthew talking about Mr Swire and Bates' trial, romantic themes that they are, and Carlisle is so annoyed by it he's standing there in the background. Reading a newspaper, just to make sure they know he's still around (who could forget, mate).
Also, Mary saying she'll attend Bates' trial to support Anna, and Matthew immediately going "Would you like me to go with you?". Because of course he wants to support Mary in all things.
And this is Matthew's first villainous act for the episode: He asks Carlisle "or will YOU do that?" as in, since you're here, will you be supporting Mary in this endeavour.
Of course he isn't. Carlisle could never understand the concept of being there as emotional support for a Servant. He can't even understand why one would give a servant a few hours off on Christmas Day.
And just like that, Matthew scores one point in showcasing that Carlisle is a waste of space.
Matthew's Villainy points so far: 1
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Btw, Matthew has a few sets of looks reserved for Carlisle: Derision, derision, and more derision.
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They're playing charades (aka The Game), Mary is mimicking falling down, Matthew has a front row seat to it, and they're not playing on the same team so she can't rely on him to guess. Which means he can sit back and have the time of his life.
Carlisle complains about not liking the game and I'm left to wonder why he wanted that life so much since he could find nothing to enjoy in it.
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Mary IS still trying with him, however. He complains again on New Years Eve about the servants having some time off, and she reasons that it only happens twice a year, and he complains again that she doesn't understand because she didn't have to work for what she has.
Fellowes finally does the work on these two. I was having a conversation with another user recently, who was wondering why Mary picked Carlisle when she could have picked someone like Evelyn Napier.
Let's forget the Pamuk Scandal for a moment. Mary clearly wanted something more other than a traditional marriage. When we meet her, she's 21. She already has a husband in her pocket, if all she wanted was a position in society and a title, she'd have already been married to Patrick in 1912. But clearly, she wanted more out of life than to be someone's wife.
She wanted love, and she wanted to have something to do, whatever that was. She would have found both in Matthew, if things hadn't gone to complete shit, so why not consider Carlisle (back when he seemed normal)?
He was a working, self-made man, so he was interesting to her. He wasn't the run-of-the-mill rich boy she'd been exposed to her entire life, and if she married him she'd have a job in establishing him in London society and helping him build his empire. She'd Work, in short. She'd be allowed to use her brain.
But they don't match. At all. He offered her a marriage of convenience, and then was upset that she loved someone else, when Carlisle never offered her love in the first place. She wanted to be able to go about her life, he wanted her under his thumb to do his bidding. She was raised to have a certain respect for other people (e.g. the servants in the house), he thought that because he had money he could do whatever the fuck he wanted.
In short, they don't work together. Not even taking into account he was blackmailing her with a scandal, and Matthew was off stage left being Villainous (according to Carlisle. Villain, Perseus, it's all a matter of perspective.)
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I love how they contrast Carlisle's ruthlessness with Matthew's compassion (and look how she looks up to him). Because Matthew is also a working man, but he's kind. And even though he didn't have any connection to mr Swire anymore, he stood by him in his hour of need, to the bitter end.
Speaking of contrasting Carlisle's assholery to Matthew:
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Rosamund's WhatsHisFace of a suitor points out there's only three women following the shoot, and they should divide their time between the men taking part in said shoot (God forbid women are not around to entertain these assholes gents). Carlisle immediately rebuffs him before Mary can get a word in, saying "Lady Mary will stand by ME". Mary is about to, very politely, put him in his place, when Matthew comes in for his second act of Villainy so far, saying "I thought you said you'd stand by me for the first shoot, isn't that what you said?"
He doesn't push her to go with him, he's just giving her an exit plan. So that Mary doesn't have to bring herself in an awkward position in front of all those people, to defend her right to an opinion. And Mary takes it. Of course she does. She can show Carlisle he doesn't get to dictate what she does, and do so in a way that doesn't create gossip.
Matthew's Villainy points so far: 2
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Look how he looks at her. He's so happy she took him up on it. Whatever else happened beyond this, they were friends. He cared for her, and she cared for him. And he has her back here, and she accepted it, so easily. And that made him happy (and so, so smug. A true Villain).
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She loves how un-selfconscious he is. She's always loved it, all those years ago at the flower show when he'd mock himself for her benefit, to make her laugh. He does it here still but now she's not surprised by it, just endlessly fond. Dozens of men spent years showing off their (probably mediocre) skills, to win her favour, and of course she'd fall for the guy who was just being honest. Mary likes honesty, she never got much of it. Her world is a show of mirrors where nothing is what it seems, and it must have been so refreshing to be with someone who was exactly what he showed the world. It's only sad that it took her so long to realise that just as she loved him for who he was, he'd do the same. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
"He does rather beg to be teased" - this asshole has been deliberately messing with Carlisle for ages, hasn't he. I've only counted 2 Villainy points, but I bet he earned himself dozens before. Whenever he'd get pissed off at something Carlisle said he'd just whisk Mary away, just to show him that he could. Even if Carlisle was the fiance, Matthew was still an important person in her life, and he'd always be, and he made sure Carlisle knew that (and took great, great enjoyment in it).
Mary: The awful truth is, he’s starting to get on my nerves. Still, you’re not the person to burden with that.
Matthew: You’re still going to marry him, though.
Mary: Of course. Why wouldn’t I.
Matthew is not happy about this. He appears to not understand it, and I wish I could give him a a nice shake. Regardless of the information he doesn't have, Matthew, mate, it's not like she hasn't met other men. Like it or not, most of your lot back in the day belonged in the bin.
And Mary, as a high-society woman, didn't have a lot of options. She had to get married. And at least Carlisle wanted to buy Haxby, she'd be near her family, spend time in London. Before she'd have hoped to actually get some work done, within the capacity her marriage would allow her, but with things being as they are with Carlisle I think she's now hoping he'd be busy with his work and she could get on with her days and maybe not see much of him, as most couples of their class did. And that's not taking into account the actual reason why Mary thinks she absolutely Must marry Carlisle.
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Also, Matthew, let's not pretend you'd like any man she brought home. So either take a deep breath and confess some things, or get on with it.
Carlisle asks Mary why she and Matthew were laughing together. He asks "Am I never to be free of him?" and her answer is, of course not. Because, of course not.
First of all, sorry to say Richard, but, they're a package deal. I can't see either one of them giving up the other willingly, not after all this. But of course, the main thing is the aristocracy thing. He's the head of the family, you'll see A Lot of Matthew, if you and Mary get married. And Matthew has spent almost every minute of the episode so far making sure Richard knows this. One would say, he's trying to push him out (like a villain), through his sheer presence in Mary's life.
"I might understand if you let me think for a solitary minute that you preferred my company to his."
Here's another problem: He should know, this wasn't part of their terms. Of course, he's not an aristocrat, so he's not aware of how loveless marriages of convenience work, but since it WAS a loveless marriage of convenience he was offering, I wonder why THE FUCK, he demands her attention now.
Mary would perform her duty to him. She'd be the best hostess London ever saw. She'd be the pretty wife on his arm, and she'd charm his contacts, and she'd be the stepping stone for him to be accepted in aristocratic circles, and she'd give him children and hold his house. And yes, she'd love spending time with her family, and that included Matthew.
Richard is just being a petty, controlling, fuck. Because he wants more than she's willing to offer, and he wants more than what he'd originally asked. So he, can shove it.
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Richard: I’ve done everything I can to please you.
Mary: Do you mean you bought a large and rather vulgar house?
Richard: You cannot talk to me like that! What have I done to deserve it? What?!
Would you like a list of your crimes, Richard? I've posted it a bit further above.
Also, Mary. She was hoping he'd offer her an interesting life (before he turned out to be an asshole). But all he's offered so far is the same old bullshit she's been offered all her life: A big empty (emotionless) house. A demanding husband. A life full of constraints and limitations, set to her by a husband who expects to dictate everything she does.
It's at this point that Matthew, clearly the villain of the story, shows up because he hears Richard yelling at Mary and that just won't do.
My beloved idiot covers for Richard here. And she does it because of something she said to Matthew before "He's starting to get on my nerves, but you're not the person to burden with that."
She doesn't want Matthew to feel like he has to come to her rescue. She heard him, when he told her they can't be together (many times) in the previous episodes. And she loves him, so she's let him be. She knows he's got his own troubles, that he's been through a lot, and that shows with how she watches him walk away with a fair bit of worry in her eyes. Plus, she doesn't want him to do anything for her out of obligation. She just wants them to be friends, and friends don't solve your marital (or, in this case, pre-marital) problems. They can provide comedic relief, and support, but that's about it.
And as we said, Matthew is clearly the villain of this story.
Speaking of which, Matthew interrupted Richard's yelling at Mary so, I guess that means - Matthew's Villainy points so far: 3
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Speaking of friends: Matthew will be there, for Mary (and Anna) at Bates' trial, and Mary asks to be there when he brings back Mr Swire's ashes, since the man wanted to be buried next to his daughter (who had to be buried at Downton, and not near her home in London, for maximum guilt-trip points I guess).
I love how those two care, and support each other in difficult times. It IS what friends do. Of course, Carlisle is not happy about that either. And listen, if he was in love with Mary, I'd be very understanding. I'd be telling him to cut his losses and run. I'd be empathising. But I'm like, you've been an absolute tool for years now mate, how am I supposed to see your POV, when you're basically worrying that if those two, at some point, get their heads out of their asses and realise they make a great couple, you'll lose your trophy wife you've trapped in a marriage, through sheer luck (on your end).
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Carlisle, after that entire day of watching Mary and Matthew having a nice time out with the family, pressures Mary to set a wedding date. Mary wants to wait, I guess she hopes for some godly intervention because she definitely doesn't see any other way out of her current situation, and he goes so far as to literally grab her, and in front of her family too.
I'm finally not the only one who wants to shoot him dead. Of course, Robert won't do anything about it because when has Robert ever done anything for Mary (so far), but Matthew looks tempted.
(I had to cut out poor Carson because there's too many people on this frame as it is, but shout out to him for also worriedly watching in the background).
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Matthew: Mary. Can I help?
Mary: After today, I won’t insult you by asking what you mean.
Matthew: You don’t have to marry him, you know. You don’t have to marry anyone. You’ll always have a home here as long as I’m alive.
First of all, I LOVE, that his reaction was to ignore Carlisle, run after Mary, and ask her if he can help. He's not offering to be a saviour. Mary doesn't need one of those (she does need to find that steel in her spine though). But he's offering to support her, and he says it in a way that implies he'd do pretty much anything she asked (Do you want to poison him? I'll help carry him to the pigs pen).
Second of all, Matthew, you absolute Idiot.
Mary supporting you in your grief, you supporting her with Bates' trial, that's normal friend behaviour.
You telling her she can LIVE with you forever, and so she doesn't have to Marry Any Man, is so, so dumb.
What is she going to live with you as, Matthew? Your cousin again? Where is the cousinl-y behaviour line drawn? Private dinners? Maybe with some candles and soft music? Holidays in Europe together?
Also, where is that imaginary limit you've put to your happiness with her for the sake of Lavinia's (very real, according to canon) ghost, mate?
You clearly seem happy enough to spend time with Mary, support her, laugh with her. Is it just the romance that's killing your mood?
Is it that that's the harshest punishment Matthew could imagine, spending his life next to Mary without actually spending his life WITH her, or is it that in spite of how much he wanted to suffer for his mistake, he just couldn't bring himself to cut ties entirely? Or is it that her happiness was more important than his self-imposed martyrdom, so he couldn't keep himself away and let her throw away her life for God knows what (her own mistake, is the answer, because they both like making themselves suffer for past sins. They've got A LOT in common).
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Mary: Didn’t the war teach you never to make promises? And anyway, you’re wrong. I do have to marry him.
Matthew: But why? Not to prove you’ve broken with me, surely? We know where we stand. We’ve no need for...gestures.
Mary: If I told you the reason, you’d despise me, and that I really couldn’t bear.
She makes me so sad. She's so certain she'll be ruined and kicked out of her house if the scandal ever came out.
And I get it. It was how she'd been raised. And all she's heard so far is how she's "a slut" and "damaged goods" and Mary's self-image is in tatters. She doesn't view herself as anyone worth fighting for, she doesn't want anyone else to fight for her, and she won't even fight for herself, and to me that's the saddest part of all.
She's entirely defeated, has been for a long time. This entire season. She's taken every blow and hasn't dodged them at all. Welcoming Lavinia, accepting Matthew as a friend and nothing more. Being by his side when he got injured, taking care of him and accepting his rejection without a peep. Listening to him announce his wedding and helping Lavinia plan it. Baring herself to Carlisle, giving him "the tools to destroy her", willingly, to salvage the family name, and to help Bates. And later letting Matthew call her, and himself "cursed", and walking away from it, somehow. Probably because she believes it.
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She told Carson, after Pamuk died, that "she knows what it means to be happy, but she knows she herself will never be happy" and she has proved to have embraced that sentiment, fully. Her despair back then is reflected here. Mary is not looking for happiness. She's just looking for cover. Some place where she can be sure she won't be hurt anymore.
She didn't believe that would be in a marriage with Matthew, and Matthew's strict morals so far, and his own self-hatred, have only further proven to her that she had been correct. She thinks that if Matthew can't excuse himself a kiss with a woman he loved, he won't ever excuse her having sex with a man she didn't love. And for all the unhappiness, all the cold comfort she sees in her future, she at least has his friendship. And how could she ever risk losing that? What would she be left with? Who else is there in the world, that supports her like he has? Her mother, who brought back Lavinia to push her away from Matthew? Her father? Who values the family above all else? Nothing. And no one. Just Matthew.
So she can bear Carlisle's cruelty, his moods and his demands. And she can bear the thought of living life on his arm to be paraded around London society for his benefit. But she can't bear the thought of Matthew thinking ill of her. Can't bear having him look at her the way her mother, or her sister did. And she's so honest here in her pain. She hasn't shown any of it, of the backloads of it, to anyone other than Anna, all season. But she can't keep it in now, after all that, in front of Matthew.
My poor broken child 💔
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She hears Cora yell her name and there's despair in her eyes. Even now she has family obligations to fulfil, so whatever emotional breakthrough she could have made, gets interrupted because heaven forbid she's not there for the Crawleys to play card games with.
Before I forget, Matthew goes after Mary, hoping to help her in her hour of need therefore, Matthew's Villainy points so far: 4
Matthew directs that accusatory look to Cora and I'm so proud of him for that. Cora's involvement in Mary's life has been nothing short of catastrophic. With her only saving grace being the fact that she wasn't actually willing to throw her daughter out of her house. I don't know how she gets to be so worried about the situation now, considering it's, largely, of her own making.
This whole season has been about pain and loss, in its various forms. And Mary's has been largely contained, because that's who she is, she keeps everything close to her heart, especially the things that hurt her. But it's all spilling out in this episode. There's so many things she can't contain, like Carlisle's jealousy, her own grief, at this point, after so many years. And for all those who look, it's the most obvious thing in the world, that Mary is suffering.
Well. Almost all.
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Robert calls Carlisle grabbing Mary in front of her family "an awkward moment", and calls Mary "tired" of Carlisle.
Yes, Robert. Of all the things Mary is feeling at the moment, tiredness is one of them. Not sure if it's the most obvious one, but with you I've learned to bring a small basket.
He also, unlike Matthew, doesn't respect Mary enough to go up to her and ask her if she needs anything from, idk, her father. Some help, some advice. He asks his wife to tell him if he's overlooked anything, and how is the answer to that not "Pretty much everything that's ever happened in this house".
And at this point, I will leave you, because we're half way through and I've already hit both my word, and my image limit. The first one is self-imposed, for the second one, send your grievances @ reddit.

I never considered myself to be smart, but I never thought I was stupid. As Artemis and I left Athena's oasis, I couldn't help but ponder the enormity of what had just happened. My mind was beginning to clear up and reflection set in as I followed Artemis through solid objects, down rabbit holes, through fire, sleet, and bodies of water.
The fire didn't burn me.
The cold didn't freeze me.
The water didn't drown me.
To think that my stupid human brain caused me to err in judgement to such a degree that I would step into the domain of godhood where I didn't belong... all because I was horny. I cringed the thought away. Yes, it was the hottest thing that had ever happened to me, but the way Athena looked at me; it sent chills down my spine. There would surely be consequences for this, but Artemis had clammed up completely, and wasn't answering my questions.
"Artemis?" I whined. "Hey... I'm sorry. I didn't know this would happen."
She stopped in the middle of the woods. We stood surrounded by a captive audience of oak trees; it was eerily silent. She turned and cast me a long look before walking into one of the larger oaks. I sighed and followed her through it. On the other side, we were back in Thyra under a familiar violet menagerie of stars and planets. She had stopped, finally, sitting down and leaning back.
I stepped in front of her. "Artemis? What, umm... Whatcha doing?"
"Waiting," she said plainly.
I looked around at the desolate canyon.
"... Waiting for what?"
"Judgement," she sighed. "This will be the first place Father will look for me when he hears the news."
"Father?"
"You may know him as Zeus."
A little bit of sweat gathered around my temples. He was the main guy. Like the biggest name in Greek myth. Everyone knows Zeus. But judgement... what was about to happen?
"I thought we were going to go hunt some beast in the Underworld or something." I looked down at my rifle and ran my hand along the length of the barrel. "I was scared at first, but now I want to see what a weapon kissed by Hephaestus can do."
I scoffed. I didn't know where that kind of verbiage came from. Kissed by Hepheastus? What was I, a poet all of the sudden? When I looked up, she looked sick. Her face was sagging and her eyes were lifeless. She leaned back and laid flat on the ground, her arms and legs outstretched as though she were dead.
"I too was eager to hunt," she said in a forlorn tone. "But that was before, in my miserable judgement, I welcomed you into divinity."
That was the first time she'd confirmed it with her own lips and it struck me for the first time that this was truly happening. The weight of it fell on my shoulders and did my level best to suppress it down. I didn't want to think about the implications just yet.
"I thought it was just a blessing," I said, sitting down next to her. "I didn't know there was a limit..."
"Athena tried to pry you from my breast, but you were stuck to it like a stubborn babe. You refused to listen."
"I didn't even realize it!" I defended myself. "Why couldn't you have just blessed me in a different way? Why did it have to be so weird?"
"Each god and goddess may bestow blessings, but for each it is different, and tied to their domain," she answered. "I am the goddess of the hunt, but also of nature, childcare, and birth. My blessing is bestowed as such that reflects my divine purpose." She cast me an annoyed glance, "You are the one who has decided it is weird."
I set the rifle down in front of me and leaned forward, thinking carefully. I didn't want to dig my hole any deeper with Artemis. I didn't need her mad at me too. "I'm sorry," I said finally. "But on earth it's kind of a sexual thing."
"Your species is perverse," she said, closing her eyes. "Am I to blame for that too?"
"No!" I said quickly. "I'm not blaming you for a damn thing, but-"
"The blame lies with me entirely," she cut me off. "I brought you here. I took you to Athena's Oasis. I fed you the milk of the gods with my own breast. Who else is to blame but me? My father will certainly say as much when he finds us."
I swallowed. I didn't know what to do. I was in over my head; way out of my depth to such a degree that I wondered if maybe it was just a good idea to keep quiet and sit still. But I had one question that was burning behind my eyes.
"What's going to happen to you?" I asked.
She opened her eyes and stared at the sky as she contemplated. "... I suppose I'll be reduced to my base components and be remade a more capable daughter. They call it rebirthing."
"Artemis," I said softly. "That sounds like dying."
"There is no death," she refuted. "Only rebirth. I will be remade."
"Yeah, it still sounds like death to me," I pressed.
"It's the closest thing to death that goddess can experience," came a familiar voice from behind me. I turned to see Apollo walking slowly toward us. "Sister, sister," he chanted. "What have you done this time?"
I wasn't overwhelmed by his beauty this time, but I still felt my chest tighten. It was the same feeling as seeing an ex from a long time ago in a public space like the mall or the grocery store. A flutter of something that once was there, but nothing substantial.
"Word will spread," Artemis said, her voice cracking. "And when Father has discovered what I have done, he will do what is right, I am certain of it."
"Will he?" Apollo asked. "Because Father has never been one to overreact, yes?" His tone carried the faintest hint of sarcasm.
Artemis didn't respond.
"I can't help but feel responsible for all of this," I said, getting to my feet. "I'll accept full responsibility."
"That will not be up to you," Artemis said, sitting up and hugging her knees.
"You may assume all the responsibility you like," said Apollo, turning to face me. "But there is not a single god or goddess on Mount Olympus that will accept that. You were a simple-minded human when you erred. It is what your kind does. Would you curse an acorn for falling from a tree?"
"I get it, I get it," I rolled my eyes. "But it's not fair. Artemis didn't know I would fuck up the way I did. She doesn't deserve to die!"
"Make no mistake," Apollo said sternly. "It will not just be her, but Athena and Hephaestus for participating in this little charade." He turned his eyes toward the cracked canyon floor and sighed. "... And of course, I as well."
"No!" Artemis was on her feet.
"I will be punished for failing to alert Father to your wily machinations," he looked up at her. "I turned a blind eye. And I did it while Brian was still a human."
Artemis held his gaze for a second before turning and looking at me. "... The Fates," she whispered.
"The Fates?" I looked between the two of them. "What's going on?"
"Father will speak with the Fates," Artemis said as though in a panic, returning her attention to her brother. "They know all that is and all that will be."
"For humans," Apollo clarified, turning to me. "The Fates have no knowledge concerning the gods and goddesses. But everything that transpired around you while you were human will be a part of their knowledge."
"So Zeus will talk to them..." I began to put it together. "And you'll have no plausible deniability. They'll have seen you interacting with me here."
"Hephaestus and Athena as well," Apollo nodded. "None of us can deny what we've done here." He looked at his sister and scowled. "Because we trusted in her to know what she was doing."
This was a mess. A complete disaster of my own making. I was such an idiot. I should have known better than to trespass against the gods. For had I known that Artemis would pay such a price, I would have never chased such an audacious undertaking. I held one hand to my head and felt that same nausea that had overtaken me back at the oasis. My inner dialogue was changing. I was thinking in a voice that wasn't really my own. I could feel myself slowly changing somehow.
"Forgive me," Artemis said to her brother.
"He may," came another voice to her left. In the blink of an eye, a newcomer had manifested. "But I will not. I trusted you to know better, Artemis."
After only a moment, I recognized him. It was Hephaestus, but human-sized and not all glowy and scary. He also bore a nasty scar across the right side of his face. I hadn't noticed it in the shadowy forge, but it was distracting. He stared daggers at Artemis, his strong arms folded across his chest.
Artemis buried her face in her hands. "I did not mean to risk you all alongside me," she sobbed. "I am so ashamed."
"As well you should be," Apollo spoke furiously. "Father already detests Hephaestus. He will be rebirthed as well."
"He detests me," Hepheastus, turned to Apollo, "Because I dared to suggest he was wrong about something. Though, if you ask me, the old man has hated me from the moment he laid eyes on me."
"Stop, stop, stop," I lifted my hands. "Just... let's just think about this for a second. Why do we have to wait around for Zeus to find out?" I asked. "We could just, y'know, get out of here. Nobody has to be killed over this, we can just leave, can't we? He doesn't know anything yet!"
"You imbecile," Apollo seethed, putting his face inches from mine. "You know nothing about anything. Keep your moronic human notions to yourself for so long as they persist within you."
That broke my heart. I wrestled with the emotions that roiled within me. I took a step back and inhaled, holding the tears back. I wasn't going to cry. I was a grown-ass man. So why did I feel like a toddler in time-out?
"Actually," came a new voice from behind Artemis. We turned to see Athena caressing her chin thoughtfully. "While his primal human instincts compell him to flee... in this case, it might not be the worst idea."
"You've hit your head, yes?" Apollo asked. "You would take a human's side? So much for a goddess of wisdom. Take your council elswehere."
"Mind your manners, Brother," Artemis spoke up. "That is Athena you are addressing. You will hear her speak."
We all stood in a moment of tense silence. Athena began to pace around the gathered gods, patiently choosing her words before she spoke them.
"Father has had a hot temper as of the last few hundred years," she began. "Don't act like you all haven't been weary of him; that you haven't shared whispers of concern with your siblings."
Everyone turned their eyes away from her, as though unwilling to accept it. But I could tell from the expressions on their faces that she was telling the truth. Something was going on with Zeus, it seemed, but what? Why were his kids so afraid of him?
"He has been rebirthing gods and goddesses for small offenses as of late," Athena went on. "I, for one, have been living in fear of his ire for some time now. He is not the same as he once was."
"Do not speak ill of Father," Artemis came to Zeus's defense. "He is facing difficulties!"
"That is..." Apollo trailed off. "A hefty accusation," he said finally, staring the goddess down.
Athena stared back with equal ferocity. "Then why, Apollo, did you keep your sister's little venture to yourself?"
He remained quiet. I didn't know the gods bickered like this. I always assumed they were some big happy family just living in paradise, but it seemed like there was at least some degree of treachery afoot.
Afoot?
I winced.
"Your silence says it all," Athena smirked before turning serious. "What little empathy Father once possessed is gone. We can all wait around to be rebirthed to Father's liking," she passed her eyes over us. "Or we can flee. The worst thing that can happen to us is rebirth either way."
"I have yearned to leave his gaze for eons now," said Hephaestus. "I will join in an escape effort."
"There would be little effort required," Apollo announced. "There has never been an attempt to leave the pantheon. It would likely be as simple as walking through an open doorway. But this discussion is traitorous; blasphemers, each and every one of you."
"I will run with Athena," Artemis announced.
"Sister!" Apollo scolded.
"Athena is more than my sister, she is my best friend," Artemis balled her fists. "If it were anyone else who suggested it, I may not have listened. But Athena's wise words have guided me through great trials."
"I am with them," Hephaestus said to Apollo. "You can stay here with the accident," he eyed me angrily.
Artemis looked as though she wanted to come to my defense, but ultimately said nothing.
Another arrow through my heart.
"Hephaestus," I began my sentence without anywhere for it to go. "I... I might not be..." I flailed. Suddenly, I had a question. "Wait," I pointed at him. "Why can I understand you now?"
"Because, dear Brian," Athena answered for him, walking up to me and placing a hand against my forehead. "You are a god now. It doesn't matter whether Hephaestus likes it or not, you are divinity born of mankind."
"Well," I glanced around without moving my head. "What am I the god of?"
"She is checking," Apollo said. "Be quiet while she divinates your domains."
I felt a tingling sensation around my forehead. It tickled, and I couldn't help but giggle a little. It made Artemis smile and my heart soared.
"You are..." Athena spoke, closing her eyes, her concentration tightening. "The god of indulgence and isolation," she announced, opening her eyes and smiling at me. She removed her hand and stepped back, leaving me in a stunned silence.
"Did you just call me fat and lonely?" I blurted out.
Athena lifted her hand to her mouth and dimples manifested on her cheeks. Artemis did the same, but couldn't stifle her laughter. Apollo snickered and turned his head. I stood there with my mouth wide open as Hephaestus began to chuckle to himself. But he didn't look happy about it. He would smile and laugh before scowling it away, and then start laughing again as though he were being tickled while in a terrible mood. The others adopted an expression not dissimilar to mine and stared at the god of the forge.
"I can't stop," Hephaestus managed between breathy laughter.
"By the stars," Athena murmured. "I don't believe I've ever seen Hephaestus laugh."
"Nobody has," Apollo said in equal wonderment.
"That is your sense of humor?" Artemis asked, aghast. "It is so... childish! So unexpected!"
"I have no sense of humor!" Hephaestus barked, finally getting his laughter under control. "He did something to me!"
"I didn't do anything!" I threw my arms up.
"Perhaps," Athena smiled at me. "He also holds the domain of humor. I didn't search for it."
"Great," I said angrily. "I'm 'Hilarious', the fat and ugly Greek god of comedy, I love it."
Hephaestus exploded in a renewed fit of laughter, once more prompting the others to laugh again. I stood there in the center of it and frowned.
"Can we get out of here now?" I shouted.
They laughed harder.
This sucked.
Writing Prompt Submitted by u/blablador-2001

I’m hosting a bbq for my upcoming graduation. A lot of my family and friends are coming about 17. Ages from 22-70 years old.
How should I get them to mingle and what are some game ideas?
I’m thinking charades and a bean bag toss in the small backyard

The Deadpool & Wolverine movie looks like it could really be amazing and could truly be a return to form for the MCU. And I'm hyped.
I've been reading rumors in reddit threads and watching YouTube theory videos for the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine movie. Things are sounding great. Except one potential joke scene.
One of these Easter egg joke ideas is Deadpool recreating Ironman's infinity stones snap in End Game and repeating Tony Stark's last words "I am Ironman". On the face of it sounded amusing. Super iconic MCU scene now with Deadpool, dope.
But I remembered my feelings at that scene and the feelings each time I've rewatched Infinity War and Endgame. I remembered it's significance in honoring the humble beginnings of the first Ironman (2008) movie. I remembered how perfect it makes this unprecedented epic 23 film journey over a decade.
And this gave me pause. Making a joke out of one of the most deeply touching important scenes in the entire Cinematic Universe has me worrying that it could only cheapen that moment.
Don't get me wrong, I love Deadpool, both in the comics and the two Fox movies. I also love good call backs and Easter eggs. Hulk whipping Thor around in Ragnarok like he did Loki in Avengers,chefs kiss.
But imagine your feelings after a joke callback about: - Frigga's death from Thor:TDW. - Black widow's self sacrifice on Vorimir - Killmonger's end "just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jump from the ships" - Wanda destroy the one thing she loves most only to have it thrown in her face with a rewind - Groot protecting everyone in GotG 1 "We are Groot"
Imagine. A joke scene with a Deadpool recreation of Peter in Tony's arms "I don't want to go. Mr Stark, I don't want to go please. Sir, please. I'm sorry" ...dust
It just doesn't sit right.
It would undermine the seriousness that the MCU has been able to wield with these fantastical comic book characters. Which I think is a core aspect of what has been special about the MCU. I truly hope that these rumors I've seen are exactly that, just wild fan theoretical machinations. But
But
But, if they have any basis in the actual film, I dearly hope they land on the cutting room floor.
Does anyone else feel similarly? Am I crazy off base? If I am, can anyone explain how making a parody charade of the most tender moments in MCU history is a smart choice?

Hi!! I am looking for some creative ways to tell my fam that my husband and I are expecting. We play a lot of Secret Hitle Avalon type of games and am stumped. I also thought of adding in an extra card in skull king or uno but my family is so large we can't play those games as a group. Let me know your ideas! (I have seen lots already about charads, pictionairy, and telestrations) Thank you!!!

Been using meth frequently for almost 18 or 19 years. In fact I've been doing it daily for about the last 9 or 10 years. The 8 or 9 years before that I was using probably 4 to 6 days a week. I didn't used to think I was addicted because I started out using it just to make myself want to go to work and to make it getting up super early in the morning easier( I work shitty hours 3am-1pm most days). My life has changed a lot over the last few years though. When I started I was a bachelor and I'm married now and have two beautiful daughters. Nobody has any idea of my addiction. In fact the only person that knows about it is my plug. But after doing it daily for so long I can really start to tell it's taking a toll on me. My lungs, my teeth, my skin, my heart are all starting to show the effects of my usage. I've lived this lie and kept up this charade for almost 8 years now of somebody that can get up and go to work really early and work his ass off all day then come home and still have energy for the family. So the idea of stopping kind of scares me. I don't want to have to go do a treatment or rehab because I've heard those don't do a whole lot of good for someone trying to quit. I really just kind of want to know what to expect mentally and physically so I could better prepare myself and to have a greater chance of not relapsing or going back to relying on it to not be tired. Anyone got any pointers?

With the ACC Spring Meetings this week, Andrea Adelson has an update on what all is happening.
If there is anything new here, I think it's the cache of emails that ESPN got via FOIA from FSU.
It is striking how much of these seems to be driven by boosters and how unhinged some of them are. I thought that mentality at FSU (booster run athletic department) had subsided in recent years, but this makes you wonder.
The failure to accept any responsibility with the idea that losing a world class QB and seeing your team suddenly no longer look elite couldn't have been a major part of the reason they missed the playoff. It's all about the ACC - even though Clemson made the playoff six times including years where they actually had losses.
"Really? Just move on like nothing just happened. Just spend thousands more dollars after getting slapped in the face ... by an incompetent, low football IQ committee? No thanks. ... We stuck with FSU through the 2015-2020 debacle only to have our players, coaches, Boosters, Administration and fans humiliated in front of the whole country."
Humiliated in front of the whole country? Low football IQ committee? The Florida Man vibe is strong.
"We must get out of the ACC or we are officially dead as a college football program ... The time is now. We must do whatever it takes to get out. We beg of you to end this charade."
Is every football team in the Big-12 or the ACC (which basically make the same money) "officially dead?" Oh, the drama.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40119917/acc-spring-meetings-2024-clemson-florida-state-lawsuits

I finished watching this video talking about the end of Two and a Half Men, and despite the show not deserving probably too much better, I hate that it went out with a snarl instead of a whimper.
My rework assumes three things:

• Chuck Lorre can be persuaded to pause or end his near-blood feud with Charlie Sheen (a big assumption)
  
• Charlie Sheen is sincere in his attempts to reconcile (an even bigger assumption)
  
• the network would allow for a longer series finale in their now-failing show (the biggest assumption)
  

.
Assuming those three things, the 1st part roughly follows the not-shit part of the actual finale:

• Alan and Walden find out that Charlie has a ton of unclaimed royalties; include a joke about Alan finally being able to start his own life, and Walden finally being able to get rid of the house
  
• They find out that they need a death certificate to claim them
  
• They find out no-one actually has a death certificate for Charlie, and that Rose is the only person who says that he died
  
• They find out a woman claimed the money a little while later; Alan thinks it was rose, while Walden remains unconvinced
  
• Walden hires a PI to look into things while the duo talk to all of Charlie's exes; most of them have wildly different opinions on Charlie, and a few of the kinder ones offer Alan condolences, but all say that they received a large amount of money and a note apologizing for how he acted
  
• Alan has an outburst at one of their apartments; tells Walden that Charlie started acting like an asshole and drinking more right before he went to Paris, and honestly honestly kind of glad that he's gone
  
• They arrive back at Walden's house; Walden comments that he didn't remember hiring a landscaper, only for the PI to reveal himself (ala Gene Parmesan)
  
• Part 1/Act 1 ends on the reveal that Rose flew out to Paris only a few days before Charlie's murder, and didn't fly out with him at the end of "That Darn Priest"
  

.
Part 2/Act 2 starts with Alan and Walden discussing their newfound suspicions of Rose

• They both receive threatening messages (bricks thrown through the back window) saying to not look into this "if they know what's good for them"
  
• They both go to the cops
  
• The detective assigned to their case has the same last name as Rose
  
• They receive another threatening message, telling them the cops won't help them
  
• They both decide that they have to break into Rose's house themselves
  
• They both call their former significant others
  
• They both are at best feigned sympathy, at worst rebuked by them; Walden is chastised for not having any direction in his life after his co-founder took the Microsoft buyout money; Alan is chastised for being a mooch, and only caring to go on this extended charade because there's still money in it
  
• Alan begins arguing with Judith/whoever is the harsh ex, and wanders into the living room
  
• Right as he's about to win the argument, a quiet knocking is heard from the front door
  
• Alan grabs a golf club/vase/some other vaguely comedic weapon and readies to swing while he opens the door
  
• The door opens, and he swings, only for Jake to dodge out of the way
  
• They both hug; Alan asks why Jake's in town; Jake says that he's back stateside because he's on vacation and figured he'd surprise his dad
  
• Jake makes a joke about not coming home if this is how he's going to be welcomed
  
• Alan explains that Charlie might still be alive
  
• Jake immediately knows it's Rose, and asks if they want him to break into her house
  
• Alan is stunned by Jake's initiative, while Walden shows up and gives a much warmer hello to Jake
  
• The two ask Jake how he was able to get leave from the Army; Jake explains that he was discharged from the army because of an injury, and has found work for a local company in Japan as a translator. He then explains that he met his wife while working there, and that technically this is a "working vacation"
  
• The three decide to break into Rose's house after they see her car leave, and wouldn't you know, they see her car leaving the house right after they say that
  
• The trio break in, corny spy music plays, and they find an ajar door leading to a basement
  
• Walden wonders how a beach house could have a basement as the other two head deeper into the house
  
• The camera pans to behind the three of them as Jake looks down into the basement; he says that it's a dungeon, with chains on the wall, Charlie's clothes and cloth gags in a cabinet, a taser and other torture devices laid out on a table, and even a small pit dug into the ground, with a bed placed at the bottom. The three begin loudly discussing where Charlie could be if he wasn't there
  
• "I'm right here, you idiots. What are you doing in my house?" Charlie says, as he and Rose arrive home
  
• The three explain they thought he was dead, but then wasn't dead, but then thought he was being kept hostage, and ask what the dungeon's for if he's not a hostage
  
• He explains that he was a dead man walking; he spent the first week in Paris doing awful things (Alan responds "like you weren't doing that already?"), and that Rose found him in an alleyway outside of a hookah bar out of his mind, mumbling about Tiger Blood and how much he was winning
  
• She nursed him back to health in Paris, and Charlie realized finally that he couldn't keep acting the way he was to people he cared about; not everyone is crazy enough to stick with him through his assholishness like Rose is ("No offense" he says to Rose)
  
• They came up with a plan to fake his death while Charlie went to rehab, after which he figured that everyone else was probably doing fine without him
  
• He only recently realized that he still had a lot to apologize for, so he took his accrued royalty earnings and tried to send everyone notes and gifts explaining that he's a changed man
  
• The three of them ask where their money is
  
• He gives them a look, and explains that 1) He has no idea who the hell Walden is, 2) He didn't know where Jake lived, 3) He never would expected Alan to get another guy to mooch off of like he did Charlie
  
• He composes himself, and apologizes to Jake for not keeping in touch more
  
• He then apologizes to Alan for not appreciating him more, and for not telling him that he was still alive sooner
  
• Alan calls him an asshole, and then hugs him and says that he's glad he's not dead
  
• The scene cuts to all 5 of them a couple nights later; all of them reflect on these past 12 years and how crazy they've been
  
• Charlie says something like, "Hey, do you guys realize what we're doing right now?"
  
• Alan responds "What's that?"
  
• Charlie says "Winning" and then the camera pans out to show the beach; the credits roll on the beach background, while the 5 of them all sing the Two and a Half Men theme song
  

.
God, I spent too much time on this, but hopefully it's at least slightly better than what we got

There's a TLDR at the bottom.
I stumbled across an old cranium cadoo game at a 2nd hand shop. We replaced the old crusty Playdough with some new play dough and gave it a try last night.
It was fun but it became very obvious that the game was intended for very young children, and as such was far too easy for adults. There are for instance instantly spottable spot the difference cards. There are cards that are super easy questions e.g what word do the pictures combine to make?: 📌🅾️🔑🅾️ (pinnochio) or what is logically wrong in this picture and there is clearly only one person on the seesaw and yet that person is raised up. Etc.
There were also problems with the game play itself. Basically each person has a pile of tokens that you can use to place in a grid the goal is to complete connect four. If you have a combo card then the person who guesses what you've drawn, sculpted, or acted will share the same grid section as you, but if you have a solo card then only you have to figure out the answer yourself and so only you get that square. There is a dice that has 3 options (combo card, solo card, or you choose) obviously if the end goal is to place tokens and to prevent others from placing tokens then it makes sense to always choose solo. Therefore 2 thirds of the time you're solving the way too easy logic cards as described above, rather than the combo cards while combo cards are really the only ones that can potentially be a challenge.
The only solocard challenge that could potentially have difficulty is the scavenger hunts however us being the lazy adults that we are all of the scavenger hunt cards were skipped.
The combo cards rely on the card taker looking through red lenses to see a secret word that others have to guess. Through pictionary, charades, or sculpting. These were the funnest cards, but we found that everyone else at the table had difficulty in reading the secret word. My mother in law had the most difficulty and could not read any of the words regardless of lighting scenarios, no matter how hard she tried to maneuver the card and lense to see, whenever she got a combo card she had to make up a random word instead of using the secret word, because if she can't read it then the only alternative would be for someone else to read it which basically forfeits their round. The other 2 players were able to read the card but stated that they struggled and had to look at it at a precise angle. I was the only one that could clearly see the word through the lens regardless of what angle i was holding it at. I theorize that this is because I am the only one without glasses, and all 3 others had glasses, perhaps their glasses and the red lense badly interfere with each other? My MIL as well as having glasses had laser eye surgery to improve their vision which might be why she was the only one completely unable to read the words? It is worth noting that the issue was not the size of the words as all three are able to see small words as long as they are wearing their glasses.
No one ever made connect four, just like 2 adults of reasonable intelligence going up against each other will never have a winner at tic tac toe. But luckily in such a scenario the game can still be won by whoever has the most tokens down.
We had a lot of fun with the combo cards as acting drawing and sculpting is enough of a challenge. It was also a lot of fun blocking everyone from making connect four.
Because it was a lot of fun but just aimed at a too young audience, I figured it might be a good idea to see if there are other cranium games that were made more for adults rather than for young children, and well there are a lot of different versions. I have no idea which ones are better than the others what kinds of cards they have or their difficulty levels. Or what game play would be missing. I'm not particularly any good at trivial pursuit for instance so while I'm hoping to avoid another young kids game I also don't want the difficulty levels to be too high.
TLDR: I don't know which cranium game I should get next, there's just so many, and I don't know their difficulty levels, I don't know what gameplay is missing or added to each or primarily what kinds of logic cards are in each game. Cranium cudoo had fun moments but is aimed at a far too young audience. Trivial pursuit on the other hand is too far in the other end.
Are you familiar with any of the different games e.g Cranium Hoopla, cranium afterdark, Cranium standard, Cranium anniversary edition, Cranium Primo etc?
What are their main differences, what would I be missing out on choosing one over another?

I'm up for renewal this month. Have had my caplan for 6+ years. Have been doing the annual renewal phone/chat circus each year. First was $60++/yr, then $72++/yr. Frankly I drive less now and was getting tired of calling/chatting every year.
Opened a chat today to ask about renewal again, and I politely mentioned that I knew there were offers out there for 3 years for $99 and 5 years for $149 and would be happy with either of those. Chat agent said those plans were for new customers only and "as a long time customer the best we can offer is $6/month plus taxes and fees" for M&E. I asked to cancel and then it became "how about $4.99/month. this is the best offer for you." At that point I said both those offers were still to expensive and asked to cancel.
After a long wait, they came back with "Music Showcase for 6 months for $30 + fees and taxes. This is a great deal!" I mentioned that was actually a worse deal than the $4.99/month M&E they just offered and again asked to cancel.
At this point, the agent asked if I had seen the offer and I sent them a screenshot of the 5 for $149. Another long wait, then "That offer is only for vehicle older than 2015 model." (I have a 2019).
So I sent the screenshot of the 3 for $99. Another long wait. Then "3 year for $99 is for the vehicle that are recently purchased the offer is recently introduced by siriusxm your vehicle is 2019 model." And a restated $4.99++/month M&E offer.
Based on what this agent told me, my 2019 is too old for the 3 year plan, but too new for the 5 year plan. I asked to cancel and had to decline the $6/month plan *four more times* before he actually processed it.
This whole charade seems silly, but I guess they get enough people to stick that it's worth wasting the time/wages of these chat and phone agents to sustain the difference between the plans. They did however lose my subscription until they can match the sign-up offers that are all over the place all the time. And in the meantime, I may lose all motivation to take the service back at all.
Luckily I'm in Atlanta and the 99X (OTA radio station) comeback + cheaper phone data/streaming + a USB stick full of music means I don't really need SXM much anymore, even on road trips. I have no idea if competition like that will start to take its toll on SXM, but for now, I'm out.