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popatochisssp · 4 years

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Heya Poppy! I’m loving the new gem headcanons and was wondering if you have a diamond au too? Or any other stuff about the new gems? I love this au so much

Ohoho, of course I do! I do have the new gems’ Backstories, but since you asked about the Diamond AU specifically... UwU

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Cubic Zirconia (Undergloom Sans) emerges alone, in an abandoned Kindergarten galaxies upon galaxies away from Homeworld’s (known) reaches. He doesn’t stay alone for very long, and not too much later, Moissanite (Undergloom Papyrus) emerges too--another gem.

...Not that they...know too much beyond the fact that they’re both gems. They certainly have no idea that they’re both products of diamond replication experiments at this outpost, commissioned by the (recently ceased) Void Diamond and forgotten when The War began and other priorities became more important.

But! They have each other, so even if their origin is shrouded in mystery and there’s nobody else here on this dusty, deserted rock of a planet, they both decide things could be worse.

They go about their lives for awhile, poking around in things, bonding with each other, making guesses about their species and civilization from their bare-bones programming and the artifacts of the Kindergarten.

It passes the time.

And then, one day, the seismic activity starts.

The two of them have no idea what’s happening or what to do about it; if there’s anything to do about it, and it’s a stressful few cycles before they get any solid answers.

Raw Diamond (Horrorfell Sans), clawing himself up through the ground from the deepest, darkest caverns of the planet, is about as ‘solid’ as an answer gets.

Cubic and Moissanite shouldn’t know the newcomer at all, yet they find themselves automatically saluting, calling him ‘My Diamond,’ and Raw...

Raw is just as confused as they are.

He doesn’t know what’s going on either, where they are, what he is, who he is… he simply is.

He couldn’t know that he’s a forgotten project of Void Diamond’s, too, a new diamond meant to join the ranks with him and Brown and Gray as their empire expanded and needed more leadership. He was simply left in the ground to incubate without being refined or even cut.

(He's monstrous, huge even for a Diamond, and oddly formed with a crooked jaw that won’t open and a hole in his skull…but Cubic and Moissanite hardly know any better than he does what he’s supposed to look like, so no one makes any mention of it.)

Freshly emerged and very lost, it goes without saying that Raw wants answers. The Imitation brothers have a few, but nowhere near as many as he’s after, and he stubbornly demands to be shown around the Kindergarten and the outpost, to see it for himself.

And it all lights up for him in a way it never did for the two that came first, doors and sensors and screens coming to life, responding to the signature of a true diamond. There’s brand new access to everything, reports, records, files and procedures… they learn a lot about what they are, what they’re supposed to be and what they’re not.

They also learn how true diamonds are made, in full and not just halfway.

Raw is certain this is the answer. Cubic and Moissanite are the first of their kind, they barely have any programming, but a diamond…a diamond done right and not left unfinished like he was, surely they would know more and be able to make sense of…whatever it is they’re not getting.

The brothers aren’t totally convinced... but admittedly, they don’t have any better ideas and well…rough he may be, but Raw is a diamond…

Champagne Diamond (Horrorfell Papyrus) unfolds himself gracefully from a craggy cliffside on the abandoned planet, massive in size but otherwise perfect—and he does have some answers.

Champagne knows he is a Diamond and he knows of gemkind. He knows of their society and of their directive to expand their empire.

…What he doesn’t know is the answer to Cubic’s well-meaning query of ‘...what empire?’

Champagne has no clue where the hell all the other gems are, where this little rock is in relation to the Empire, if the Empire even still exists if this place has been abandoned as long as all the charts and data logs say it has been.

He wants answers as much as Raw does, possibly even moreso…but to even start looking for them, they have to get the hell off this planet.

As it turns out, what he lacks in inherent knowledge of their status and origin and social structures, Raw has a real knack for gem-tech, understanding the principles and functions of even the old and mostly broken down devices they have access to, enough to design a passable space-faring craft that they all pitch in to build.

The first world the quartet comes across is empty now, but was once uniquely occupied by both gems and by organics. There’s a handful of gem structures, Kindergartens, bases, et cetera--long abandoned and in disarray of course, but hiding lots of new data and potential clues to mine about what happened to gemkind, and more importantly, where the fuck Homeworld is...

(Like the lost city of Punt, it seems that nobody ever thought to store something as obvious as Homeworld’s coordinates anywhere in the days before warp pads--why bother? Everyone knew where it was.)

There’s a lot to repair and sift through, a whole planet’s worth of it, and there’s only four of them, so it’s probably going to take awhile…

So when Raw finds some old notes that this planet would be a good candidate to incubate a diamond if not for all the useful organic life on it, he nudges Champagne and jokes that all the organic life is gone now, maybe they should…?

To Raw’s surprise, however, Champagne is intrigued.

It could be something worth thinking about, actually… Another pair of hands, another set of eye-sockets… a diamond would be a costly investment, both time and resource-wise, but certainly more bang for the buck than a mess of soldiers or technicians that they really don’t need…

Plus, it’s something to do while they scour the whole damn globe for everything of use on it.

So... might as well try it.

A nice chunk of forest is summarily leveled by Cloudy Diamond (Horrorswapfell Sans) when he decides he’s good and ready to emerge—and while he’s certainly an extra pair of hands for the group, the eye-sockets…didn’t really work out the way they’d thought.

Cloudy, it turns out, is blind as a bat, a defective diamond—but still a diamond, able to interface with and access everything the other two diamonds can, if guided to it.

He sticks with Cubic and Moissanite, mostly, a quid pro quo sort of arrangement that works for everyone, at least until everything of use and worth is mined out of the artifacts of the planet, and it’s time to move on to the next lead: what seems to have been a military base on an almost entirely aquatic world.

Cloudy isn’t interested in visiting a water-world, not for a long-term stay like they’re talking about. He prefers solid ground beneath his feet at least most of the time...and he actually has very little investment in their Quest for Homeworld, so he decides that he’ll stay here.

The others question if he’s sure, and even offer to leave at least Moissanite with him to help him around, but he refuses. Aside from not feeling altogether right about splitting Moissanite and Cubic, Cloudy has his pride and he’ll manage just fine. He is a diamond, after all!

And so off the others go to the military installation.

Raw has a great time digging around in all the decaying ships and weaponry, Cubic and Moissanite explore the things left behind by the gems that were once upon a time stationed there, and Champagne researches.

Cloudy’s defect...weighs on him, though...

(Possibly because they kind of…created the poor guy, imperfect, and then left him there, which sucks… but Champagne is a diamond and doesn’t have half the emotional intelligence to realize the injustice of that is what’s bugging him.)

He somehow decides that it’s the defect itself that’s bothering him, that he failed to create a 100% functional diamond. But he didn’t fail, he could do it, if he tried again…which he’s not going to do, just to prove a point, to himself even and not anybody else!

………

That’s exactly what he does.

Pink Diamond (Horrorswap Sans) rises from the sea one day, kicking up a tsunami in his wake, much to the surprise of the others who were definitely not kept in the loop on this matter.

Champagne, for his part, is unapologetic and unashamed: Pink is a total success, strong and complete and perfectly formed (aside from, perhaps, the occasional, very minor glitching of his physical body... but that can surely be put down to all that water he was incubated beneath, smoothing his intended rose-cut over time into something more like a cabochon. That’s nothing to do with him...)

Pink, for his part, is happy to help and join the search for answers.

He dives right into it all without complaint…until…

Well...

Seeing Cubic and Moissanite, and Raw and Champagne…they get along so well, and his recent arrival hasn’t opened up any space for him in their dynamics.

He’s very pointedly the odd man out, and it’s enough to make a diamond quite lonely, quite aware that he’s the only gem here without a brother to call his own.

………

Taking a page from Champagne’s book, telling absolutely no one, Pink sets out to squeeze one more diamond out of this big ball of water, even though the planet’s resources are low after his emergence.

It’s not long before Olive Diamond (Horrorswap Papyrus) is slogging out of a dark, wet swamp, assisted by his brother—which is appreciated, because he seems to have a hard time keeping his legs to retain the ‘hard’ part of ‘hard light projection.’ Sometimes they’re solid light and sometimes they’re only light and maybe that’s what happens when you try to make a gem from a planet that’s running on empty...

Pink is delighted by his new sibling all the same!

Even so, a rule is made amongst the gems after that and agreed to by all: nobody makes anymore gems without telling somebody, no more surprises!

………

In retrospect, they probably should’ve decided on that rule a lot sooner, maybe a planet ago.

By the time they all return to the ghost world with a stockpile of newer tech and ships, they find Cloudy in the middle of a fully-operational and tidied up base, with everything rigged to accept voice commands and read out text, and a brand new shadow hovering around him.

Pepper Diamond (Horrorswapfell Papyrus) emerged from the ruins of one of the abandoned cities, Cloudy explains, and has been very helpful in the others’ absence, wonderful company—he told them he’d manage fine. > 3c

Well.

After all of that, the military base had been their last, best clue to finding Homeworld, or at least the remains of it, if gemkind were truly gone…

After a bit of discussion among the group, they decide to take communicators and ships and anything else they wanted/needed and just…go their separate ways, to do their own things.

Cubic and Moissanite set up shop on the first world they can find with sentient organics that will accept them, wanting to be around other people and to live peacefully.

Raw and Champagne choose to stick to their mission, going on the wild goose chase that is the search for other gems somewhere in the universe, even without any solid leads—the gem empire was expansive, but not As Infinite As the Universe-expansive, so they haven’t had any luck yet.

Pink and Olive are curious about other gems, too, but make it their mission to hunt down all the deserted bases, Kindergartens, and outposts in their neck of the universe and fix them up, restoring everything to its former glory as best they can—whether those places are promising in terms of leads/clues or not. It’s their heritage and they want to explore it and restore it, if they’re able.

Cloudy and Pepper intend to stay put on their birth world…but when Cloudy’s done everything he can on their planet, he gets a little bored sifting through the ruins of this dead world and wants to go find somewhere with living organics to stay instead. Pepper (reluctantly) agrees and they stumble upon a fledgling, primitive society that seems to think of these giant, shining and glowing immortals as some sort of deities… Oops, it seems as if they’ve started a colony of sorts on accident!

They’ll all keep on keeping on, and if anything interesting happens or someone needs a hand, they can reach the others to get back in touch.

…

Unbeknownst to the Outer Galaxy diamonds or the Diamond Authority back on Homeworld, a strange pair of Chameleon Diamonds—one Reverse (Gastertale Sans) and one Classic (Gastertale Papyrus)—are spat out of a singularity, somewhere in a galaxy in between.

They’ve got a lot of knowledge between the two of them, in the skulls behind their briolette-cut gems, but not a single solid memory, and their only clue is a whole lot of wreckage of some strange machine scattered around them in space.

They don’t know what they are, where they came from, how they’re alive, or what all this junk is…but once they make their way to a planet with gravity and stuff they can fashion tools and parts out of, they do figure out that they can cobble together a ship out of all this...

What better use of a couple of brothers’ time than a bit of adventuring, leisurely exploring the universe and any interesting lifeforms or civilizations they find along the way, with little more than respect of the Prime Directive to argue about? ;3

#skelegems #diamond au #undergloom #ug!sans #ug!papyrus #horrorfell #hf!sans #hf!papyrus #horrorswap #hs!sans #hs!papyrus #horrorswapfell #hsf!sans #hsf!papyrus #gastertale #g!sans #g!papyrus #Anonymous

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summonerscenarios · 4 years

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Okay so this may not make sense unless you seen BNA, But How would Guilds of your choice react to the fact that MC is a beastmen, but can switch between their beast form and human form(Going off on that they thought MC was fully human), and maybe a little on Shino would react 😖(cause well..you know when it comes to his past love and the whole-thing) Sorry if this seems like a lot and if you don't want to do it, you can just delete this. Have a good day or night.

Yessss I just started watching it actually and it’s SO GOOD!!! I do hope that these hcs are what you were looking for! Also I’m doing this under the assumption that MC knew they were a Beastman! Enjoy hun~

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Summoners

With how close you and the Summoners are on a daily basis this was bound to come out eventually, so when they all learn that you’re not entirely human like they had all first assumed needless to say there’s a whole lot of questions. Shiro at first goes off on a tangent, speculating that your sudden shifting ability could maybe be some undiscovered ability of your sacred artifact since all the other transients you guys have met with similar abilities have all been because of their sacred artifact. He lays off when you assure him that you’re pretty sure you were a beastman long before you came to Tokyo but that just brings about a whole bunch of other questions about beastmen types and abilities. He’s honestly so intrigued that for a moment some of his questions probably push the boundaries of what he’s usually like so just be sure to give him a lil nudge to think before he asks.

Kengo doesn’t really see what the big deal is - to him it’s just one more cool thing about you! However even he thinks it’s pretty neat that you can switch between two different forms at will. He’ll ask the obvious questions about the differences between your human and beastman form - does it make you stronger? Give you special powers? Make you look more intimidating? Though he has to remind himself that you can change forms whenever you want because you’ve shocked him more than once when he turns away for a moment and then turns back to find you’ve changed in that momentary time span.

Ryota can’t stop himself from fawning over your new appearance, asking you why you never told them about this before because you look so cute! If you’re okay with it he really wants to feel the new changes that come with your beastman form; he’ll compare his hand to yours and cuddle up to you as he admires your new appearance, the whole time asking if everything’s okay at different intervals. Plus if you have fur fully expect him to give you plenty of fuss because it’s just so soft!

Hanuman is super psyched when he finds out! He’s constantly asking you to switch back and forth to see how quickly you can shift and if you humor him with it he’ll be grinning like a dork the whole time because it is so entertaining. Agyo swiftly jumps in eventually to scold Hanuman into letting up and giving you a break, even as you laugh it off and say that it’s fine. Agyo doesn’t have nearly as much of a reaction as you thought he would, but if you’re some kind of beastman though he makes an offhand comment to himself that you look like you’d make a pretty good guardian dog partner now!

Moritaka, similar to the others, is taken aback when you first tell the Summoners, but doesn’t truly believe it until he sees you shift back and forth with his own eyes - somehow seeing it happen right in front of him suddenly makes you beastman abilities more real than just simple words. He’s equally entertained watching Ryota fawning over your new appearance and Hanuman egging you on with the switching, but acts as a voice of reason if they get a bit too much. To him it’s almost like you’re just like any other therian when in your beastman form, but he goes out of his way to remind his rambunctious friends that even while not being entirely human like they all first though you’re still you. A part of him also ponders how Yatsufusa would react upon learning that the one who holds the soul of his beloved is a beastman, but that’s a question to wonder for another time.

At this point there’s been enough surprises and sudden revelations about you that Toji thinks he’s seen them all. But then you switch from your human form to your beastman form and suddenly he’s right back to being absolutely mystified about just how many surprises you’ve got up your sleeve. Most of the questions he’s asking are about how many people know and if the teachers have been notified and things along those lines but you can tell that he’s looking over your new form pretty damn intensely. You jokingly ask him if he wants to join Ryota in the impromptu petting, and though he refuses the fact he keeps looking back at you from the corner of his eye is obvious he’s considering it. If you’ve only told the Summoners about being a beastman then Toji makes a comment about how this could be useful if you ever need to go into hiding - just about every big player in Tokyo has their eye on you so being able to shift into another species than what they all know you as could play into your favor if you need it.

Berserkers

It doesn’t occur to you that you probably should have given the Berserkers guild a bit of a heads up about being a beastman until you walked right into the Colosseum in your beastman form. You don’t even make it past the door before Garmr all but barrels you over, the joy of seeing you back melting away to alarm and confusion seeing that you aren’t in your human form. The poor therian is conflicted because you definitely smell like you, but you don’t look like you, and he spends so long sniffing and running circles around you trying to determine whether this is some kind of trick to make him think you’re his master that his head is spinning by the time that Bathym peeks his head out to see what the commotion is, dragging an unwilling Andvari out with him.

Neither of them buy your assurances that it’s really you at first, because obviously you were a full human, right? But then you turn back into your human form and all of a sudden you’re being swarmed by all three at once. Garmr is absolutely ecstatic knowing that it’s definitely you and won’t let go of your arm, Bathym is trying to pry for all kinds of details wanting to get a good ol look at all the changes your beastman form causes, and Andvari is already rattling off the possible marketing schemes this new development could bring in like it’s some kind of neat parlor trick - honestly not the reaction you were expecting.

By the time you actually manage to worm your way inside the commotion has brought some of the other fighters out from the locker rooms, and any hope of keeping that little secret to yourself goes out of the window because of course Bathym’s gonna spill the gossip to them. Ikutoshi’s nonchalant about it really and just assumes that it must be some kind of thing to do with your sacred artifact similar to his own, but he does have a couple questions of his own when he sees you shift into your beastman form.

Nomad nearly has a damn heart attack when he sees you in your beast form, and almost fools himself into thinking that someone must have done something to you to cause the transformation. Do the guy a favor and let him know that you’re a beastman before he convinces himself that he’s got to add someone else to his revenge list; Once you do explain to him Nomad calms down significantly and mostly just makes a comment about how he gets why you didn’t go out of you way to tell the other berserkers since most would probably wanna put your skills to the test in a fight the moment they found out.

SPEAKING OF FIGHTING. Macan takes the whole beastman thing in stride, but he gets super excited if you’re some kind of lion/tiger/cat beastman because. If anything he’s insistent about taking you on in the ring in your beastman form, which when coming from Macan is probably an offer you’re going to want to turn down unless today’s the day you’ve decided who’s gonna eat who. It doesn’t help that Claude is also eager to see your beastman prowess in combat, having been notified by Snow of your presence and the situation during your encounter with Garmr. He desires to see what you’re capable of in this new form especially if you’re one of the bigger kinds of beastmen, and if you agree you’ll probably end up earning yourself a couple more brownie points in his favor, but if you’re firm he’ll relent and leave the matter be for now.

Genociders

You bring the fact that you’re a beastman up to the Genociders so casually, but honestly out of all of the guild’s their response is arguably the calmest. I mean Arc already had some suspicion that there was something about you that wasn’t entirely human, so when you first confide in them that you’re in fact a beastman it only confirms their suspicions. If you’re worried about their reactions about keeping it from them you really don’t need to be because they take it all in stride.

It takes a little bit of helpful coaxing from the guild master before they’re able to convince you to show off your beastman form around them, and they remind you constantly that no matter what form you take you’re still the same person in their eyes. Arc spends some time talking to you about different kinds of beastmen as well as if you only have the one form (depending on if you retain this information since coming to Tokyo is another matter entirely but Arc still appreciates that you go out of your way to answer their questions in a bid to get to know you better.

Of course it doesn’t take long for Azathoth to butt in too to get a good look at you, giggling to himself as he asks all about how you ‘unlocked a new skin’ and when you were gonna tell them you unlocked that achievement. Though from the way that he grins and laughs to himself the whole time, you have a feeling that he knew long before anybody else thanks to the previous loops. It still doesn’t stop him from trying to poke and prod at your beastman form, having plenty of fun messing around with your new fur, feathers or scales depending on the kind of beastman you are.

Of course to Babalon and Surtr you will still be their darling child. Upon seeing your beastman form Babalon is quick to dote on you, cupping your face in her hands before smoothing a comforting hand along your ears and cheeks. The way she coos over you is just as motherly as before, but you can tell that she finds amusement in the way you relax into her touch when she finds the spots that ease the tension right off of your shoulders. This is only further amplified when Surtr brings a hand to rub fondly atop of your head, going off on some long winded speech about how you should never be afraid - that you’ll always be his beloved child regardless of if you have feathers/fur/scales etc. Honestly you’re pretty sure that he gets off topic about the whole thing but at least you know that he’s being genuinely kind about it.

Bonus! Shino

Shino is absolutely stunned by the revelation that you’re a beastman. To know that you, the one who carries the soul of his beloved can take on the form of a beastman within these Tokyo walls leaves him feeling conflicted. There is some naive part of him that thinks this could be some twisted fate, that his inability to be with you in your past life no longer barred by his status as a beast, that the version of you here and now is no longer held back by the concerns of the past world. This is also conflicted by his torn feelings about the whole thing however, where he feels as though he still doesn’t deserve his relationship with you regardless of whether you’re a human or beastman. While he doesn’t really make any movements when you change his eyes are trained upon your beastman form, intently watching the way you shift between forms. So intently that it’s easy to feel a little intimidated under his gaze, but he snaps out of his stupor upon hearing your voice calling out to him, bringing him back to the present moment.

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mcnypieces · 4 years

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A month later and at last I come bearing an update once again. It’s bound to be incredibly lengthy as life has not been its most placid, but I am here nonetheless.

TL;DR for those also struggling with their time recently: Life stressful, Bun scare, WoW fun but friend/Mythic+ group is a mess due to losing a friend to toxicity, I will likely be remaking this multimuse blog and starting fresh there to give me more incentive to be around to write comfortably in a fresh, happy, non-cluttered place, complete with a new Birkan OC I talked about some months before now. Though I haven’t technically decided and was going to ask opinions, I will likely still be remaking, as everything here is a mess. Lulu’s blog will remain as is for now, as I am attached to it and has retained more activity from me ( not much more, however ), though I have also considered moving her with everyone as well to keep everyone in one place and maybe make my mind feel more focused in a collective space. I’m still very much on the fence about it. Thoughts on that are welcome.

There was a bit of optimism at the beginning of my break to play WoW. However, a little less than a day into the launch, I noticed something off about the youngest of my rabbits. Hazel, a netherland dwarf gifted to me by a neighbor down the way during Christmas a couple years ago so she had friends and wasn’t alone during the day, developed a head tilt. It was enough to be noticeable, but nowhere near the cases most see posted in pictures. Head tilt in rabbits is often a very serious thing, as it can cause permanent damage and even death if not treated immediately. Anything from an injury to unkempt ears to a common parasite ( which is technically classified as a fungus ) to neurological troubles - the range is about as vast as self-diagnosing with WebMD. Torticollis in rabbits has a bunch of different causes, very few of which are relatively mild.

I was - to say the least - in absolute hysterics. She was off balance, tripping over herself, curling up into herself trying to keep footing. To somebody that’s never seen it in person before, it looks like you’re watching an animal on the verge of passing from something neurological. I had no idea what was going on. To be frank, I was absolutely terrified. It was 1AM and very few vets were 24-hour, especially in this crisis, much less ones that could look at rabbits. I steeled myself to call the closest one for recommendations on what to do and where to go. Naturally, I was told there was nothing this place could do besides euthanasia ─ which, in my very emotional state, I was incredibly offended by the mere immediate suggestion of. Hazel had been acting completely normal up until then, and she still had her energy. She was trying to climb all over the place despite having no balance, and she showed no other symptoms of anything besides just tilting and falling over herself. At this point obviously I know they were simply stating that was the only thing they could do as they don’t take exotic pets, but in the moment, being offered it as the first and seemingly only solution made me upset. I’m sure that would be anybody in that situation. So, of course, I refused, and they told me of other places that would be able to at least see her at that time and give me more sound options.

I find a 24 hour emergency pet clinic about thirty minutes away. There’s a place that for sure takes exotics, but it’s 2 hours away and closed at this hour. Okay, fine, I don’t have time to wait with this. I call the 24 hour clinic. They tell me they do see exotics and can treat the basics but they don’t have the equipment to properly diagnose anything for certain. Unfortunate, but I don’t have any other options at this point. They say they will take her and monitor her behavior to figure out where I should go from there. I take her there. I try not to break down again on the ride there, I try not to break down as they take her padded comfy box from me. They tell me they have another, more serious case they have to see to immediately but will monitor her and do a basic check-up. It will take them an hour at minimum, and I was welcome to stay in the parking lot. I decide against it, go home to clean up and prep a space for her while trying to steel myself more. It takes a couple hours for them to call back.

Lo and behold, they have no idea what’s wrong. As stated when I called, aside from the head tilting, she is acting completely normal. Eating, going to the bathroom, has her energy, no leg or eye issues that are common with the usual problems that lead to head tilting. What tests they can run are absolutely normal. They gave her what they referred to as “a bunny feast”, and she delighted herself in it with no problems, and they even brushed her down for me ( I didn’t get the chance yet, her winter coat was just coming in ). She just has a head tilt all of a sudden, out of nowhere. This is great news, but it’s also upsetting, because I still have no idea what’s going on. They give me medication for an infection and Metacam for the potential pain she could have been in, and sent me on my way to monitor her at home. If anything changed for the worse, I would take her to the vet in Raleigh two hours away to have actual tests done.

Okay, so I’m still in the dark on what’s wrong, but I have medication. Great. I watch her for two weeks, give her the infection medication every 12 hours and the pain medication the first 4 days. And, in time, her head tilt begins to disappear. That tells both the doctor and I that it was either 1) an ear infection, which was now cured, or 2) an injury. My mind has me leaning towards the latter, if only because I know how fast she runs all over the place and Jolyne, my cat, does play with her. They have done so for years now without issue, often times Jojo will be running away from Hazel rather than vice versa. Hazel will do loops back and forth and then suddenly charge at her in an attempt to catch her off guard. I have not let her out with Jojo since then in case roughhousing was in fact the cause, but Hazel is back to running around like the crazy thing she is. I’m still watching her every day, and all the rabbits will hopefully be getting new, large hutches for Christmas. Hazel’s has been ordered. To this moment, I still have no idea what caused her head tilt. What I did learn, however, is that there are a lot of rabbits that get euthanized due to head tilt, when most of the ailments - if caught early enough and with lengthy TLC - can be cured. Rabbits can even live happily with the tilt should it become permanent ( which it can be! ). Here is a happy bun who lived a wonderful life with a permanent head tilt. Much worse than the way Hazel’s was, but the common bad tilt nonetheless. I called to tell them the great news, how grateful I was they could do anything at all, and they were ecstatic to have me call them back. Things in that regard are now back to normal, but I keep an eye on her as per usual. Definitely not the kind of scare I was expecting out of nowhere, but one I received nonetheless.

During the time I monitored her and kept her close at my side in her hutch ( I went out of the way to move her hutch in with me when I cleaned it, because why wouldn’t I? ), I enjoyed the launch of Shadowlands. My main WoW friend group, A/B/C/D/E, were all playing and content with what was happening. We even were talking to old friends, thinking about raiding, had two new friends coming to learn to play the game. It was great! But then base Mythics came out, and things went sour out of nowhere.

One of our long time friends in our original Mythic+ group became the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. We’ve all had our disagreements and issues with said friend for some time, as he has been very negative the past few months and a hamper on the friend group even before launch. Everyone knows things are at an all time low, and the world is not in its best state - but we come to play games to get away from the realities of things. We’re here to have fun and kid around, not to mope. This is not to say we’re not here to be supportive if something is genuinely wrong, or that sadness just isn’t allowed ever. That would be silly. We’re always here to support each other in rough times, and such is the reason we’re as tight-knit as we are to begin with. Always has been the case.

However, this was not your typical sad sort of negative. This was the permanent “Glass is Half Empty” mentality. Everything had to be negative. Win a BG match? He didn’t have fun because he got targeted down one time when he was alone on a caster. Clear base Mythics for the first time of the expansion? No time to celebrate, because he didn’t get a piece of gear out of it, or he didn’t do the burst he wanted on a trash pack because we didn’t cater to his pull plan. During the second week of Mythics, he was constantly complaining about not getting gear drops to the point it was making other members upset. No one likes doing eight dungeons, getting one or two drops, and both being pieces you don’t need. Hell, I did Mythic+ this entire week since it came out and I still have a Heroic neck on my body because it has a socket and great stats and I’ve not gotten another drop since. But to complain about not getting a drop and dunking on people who are getting the upgrade ─ which, in turn, betters the group ─ is just ridiculous. This was not exclusive to just WoW, either. Everything they played together when I was not present, he acted the same way ─ negative, upsetting, and very, very defensive whenever someone would tell him to knock it off. He’d pull the “oh you don’t care about me” card. He constantly felt like people were coming after him, even when nobody ever was, and that everyone just had something against him and we kept him there out of sheer pity ─ which was infuriating to all of us, the people who still considered him a friend and cared about him to tolerate the toxic behavior and try to work through it. He’d pretend to be a victim if you tried to call him out on bad behavior, acting as if he was being singled out, while also bad mouthing other people and poking fun at them and then disguising it as a joke ( or in his case, “a meme” ). When you’d do the same back, he’d pull the whole “dude that’s not cool, I get you’re joking but it’s not funny” attitude every time. He had to be right all the time, and if you tried to tell him he was wrong, he’d fight you on it until the bloody end, even when proven wrong earlier. He wanted to be catered to and, if things weren’t going the way he wanted, he was negative. If he wasn’t having fun, nobody else was allowed to have fun.

Friend A, who is essentially our leader that brought everybody together and often makes calls for the group ( though in reality we’re all just an aimless bunch of friends messing around and having fun ), has known Friend C for a longer than any of us. He considers him his best friend, and they have been close for many years since Cataclysm. We’re all friends, of course, but A and C have been close for a very long time. They are very supportive of one another, regardless of what happens, and always have been. However, even Friend A is getting very frustrated with Friend C’s behavior. Friend C has not always been like this. In fact, he used to be the complete opposite. He loves the guy to death and back, but the other members, particularly Friend D, is getting into mini verbal fisticuffs during dungeons disguised as friendly fun being poked and forth almost every night. Friend D complains about Friend C behind his back ( which he has been asked to tone down and, some nights, has been agreed with based on the issue at hand ). A new coworker of Friend A who is also a very chill, cool person had her own reservations about him when she joined due to his behavior and it kept her from joining voice calls. Hell, I got into an argument with him a week before launch due to his behavior, to which he tried to invalidate my argument by claiming I was “coming after him” and therefore my side was automatically invalid because I had a “personal vendetta” against him and me “shit-talking” him while making my points “comes off a certain way” ─ when the point I was making had absolutely nothing to do with him personally. Again, the same “I’m being attacked” mentality, when no such thing was happening.

Eventually one night while he was complaining about loot, Friend A had a talk with him about not complaining about not getting loot anymore, as it was wearing on everyone’s nerves. Mythic+ would come out soon, loot would be flowing in, and everyone would eventually be geared, including him. This wasn’t the first time he was talked to in regards to the way he’d been acting in general. He agreed to tone it down, and that was that. But guess what? That didn’t happen. The next night we finish up our Mythics, and he has to physically stop himself from making a comment and covers it up with “nope, I promised I wouldn’t complain about loot” with a tone that sounds like someone is struggling really, really hard not to say something and is holding back. Normally this would be something nobody cares about and is part of the process but this isn’t the first time he said something about it. He then proceeds to complain anyway, spends night questioning the tank’s ( Friend D at the time ) pulls and complaining about being beat in DPS every other pull because “oh I don’t have gear cause the game hates me so-” when he’s not even doing his AoE rotation properly ( found this out later after everything fell through ). His attitude is so negative it’s affecting the way he plays and, to put it bluntly, he’s playing and acting like shit.

So Friend A sits him down. Again. At this point he’s still trying his absolute best to work things out with him, but his foot has come down. His behavior for months has been toxic. People are getting fed up. He’s bringing down group morale. Everyone is worried his attitude is going to make the new people who are trying to learn the game quit because he’s constantly shit talking the game and pretending the world is ending in voice. Friend A tells him he’s here for him still and how he’s always here to talk if life is a mess and Friend C is still welcome, but he needs to get his shit straight. By the end of the chat, Friend C claims “that’s just how he is” and he can’t do anything about it ─ which is just such bullshit. We know good and well how he really is, and this ain’t it. He’s just too lazy, full of himself, and down on his luck to acknowledge he has a problem. He says it’s shitty of us not to “accept him for who he is” and how we all know his life is shit and that he’s justified. Friend A essentially tells him he doesn’t want somebody like that in his group. Friend C takes this as “oh I don’t want you here period”, essentially says “well I don’t want to be in a group that just pities me and takes me along because they feel bad and not because they’re actually my friends”, leaves the discord group, removes Friend A from discord, removes friend A from Battle.net, then blocks him in both places. Out of nowhere. Friend A then comes to announce that Friend C will no longer be a part of our group. This is a TL;DR, since I wasn’t there for the conversation and it’s been a little bit since I’ve asked Friend A exactly what was said and feel it inappropriate to ask for specifics again since it’s all behind us now and that night still upsets him to this moment.

Since then, Friend C has come back to try and make amends to everyone, especially the group, as he dropped without telling anybody out of frustration and essentially said “fuck you” to the entire group because he was upset at his best friend. Friend A was very emotional about it after it happened as, like said, this was his best friend who essentially just claimed he didn’t care about him at all and just pitied him despite doing everything he could to try to keep everybody happy and even catering to Friend C at times against his better judgement. Despite that, however, Friend A has stated multiple times he would not even take Friend C back as a friend unless he had a life evaluation first. Friend A and Friend C sat down to have another talk after the dust settled so Friend C could apologize, as Friend C reached out supposedly to do so, but he still acted as though he didn’t do anything wrong. He swore constantly on his dog-who-he-loved-dearly’s ashes he didn’t say the shitty things he said to Friend A that night. He didn’t own up to anything he said or did, only apologized for leaving immediately and dipping on everyone else, as he worried he’d “burned the bridge”. Friend A did not welcome him back with open arms but told him his doors were still open to talk and were never closed to begin with ( Friend C closed them himself by leaving suddenly, after all ) and that he could talk to him again when he figured everything out. Everyone is at least on speaking terms again, but he has not rejoined the discord nor the game group, and wasn’t even playing for a time. Now he’s supposedly playing and having fun again on his own terms and doing things we haven’t. Supposedly. So our Mythic+ group had a gap in it, which was filled by one of the new friends who just started playing. Both new players in our group are learning fast, but it has slowed our progression down, which we accept. People have swapped around classes to find accommodations as well, with Friend A now tanking and Friend D healing as they did before, delaying progress further. But now with things decided and in place, we will begin to push again. After all, it’s only the first week of Mythic+. We haven’t really lost any important progress.

Friend A was very upset and felt like there was more he could’ve done, but everyone in the group has told him day in and day out there was nothing else he could’ve done. Friend C still has a lot to sort out and has seemingly taken absolutely nothing from this situation.

Both of these situations, on top of the seizures the person I consider a second mom to me still happening ( which she went in for today to be looked at again while she’s being treated for something else ), has made writing nigh impossible. I have been having a lot of fun playing WoW and the issue with Friend C, while a big hamper on things in the moment, hasn’t stopped me from enjoying it as is. Both the major hospitals near me have recently announced they are at full capacity on virus patients and will no longer be accepting more of them and, so long as there’s no immediate reason to do so, have asked people to stay inside as much as possible because of it. With Hazel’s emergency making me miss my dad’s small Thanksgiving as I was up all night that night and it was the next day, this means I will also not make it to his Christmas. I did not go to my mom’s get-together for Christmas either, as it was at her restaurant where she works and the number of people there made me nervous. She was sad, but there’s nothing I could really do to justify the risk. The fact people still want to have any kind of gathering even for the holidays blows my mind.

That all being said, things have calmed down enough for me to consider making another attempt at writing again and retuning to the blogs I have missed dearly. The breaks are always nice, but I’ve had to take far too many of late, and struggling with the energy and mindset to write for months is really starting to get under this bun’s blue fur. In the time I’ve been away I’ve thought about remaking this blog, as it’s a complete mess and riddled with old things that are no longer a part of it. My tags are messed up, my info is all over the place, and I feel as though a fresh place filled with friends who are still active might speed up the process of getting me back on track. In addition to that, I’ve thought more about the OC idea I brought up some time ago and will be adding said OC to the roster once things are set-up, assuming I go through with the idea. I’ve also considered adding Lulubelle to the multimuse as well to keep everyone in one place, but as I’m attached to her blog and hers is more organized, I’m reluctant to do so. It is a thought and consideration, nonetheless. It will all take some time to do, but afterward, assuming it goes as expected, activity will resume once again.

It will take some time, but hopefully things will be back to the way they were soon enough. ♥

#❥ // * the rabbit stowaway ( ooc. )#❥ // * shouting from the scaffold ( psa. )#❥ // * ever running on stories of the sea ( long post. )#|| holy moly this is so long I'm so sorry #tl;dr is plenty enough of an update.#but it felt reassuring to type out the hectic events of the month.#I know it's unnecessary but explaining my absence makes me feel better about it.#I have high hopes and nothing will stop me from kicking down the proverbial door.#I will return as I planned if it's the last thing I do.#I swear on my little bunny life. ||

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gg-astrology · 6 years

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Ajdjskf hello friend!! I know you might be bogged down with asks atm but I was wondering what you think about someone with a sagittarius sun and cancer moon? It doesn't have to be a whole lot 🤧 also is it okay if I rant about something too? Kind of get something off my chest lol I hope you're doing okay and had a good say today! 💕💕💕

Hello friend!! 💕💕 Don’t worry I want to collect em’ combinations 💕💕

[Below Cut: Sagittarius Sun - Cancer Moon 🌘]

Most noticeable thing for me about this placement is their curiosity, it’s because they’re incredible learners -- often retaining information and absorbing things quickly it makes them curious characters for me

They’re not like-- outright about it, they’re the type to sit you down and show interest in what you’re saying. Engaged listeners, they truly have the ability to both care and be practical about it at the same time.

Will repeat what you said to you and try to clarify, they’re the type to learn things quickly step-by-step. As long as the core foundation is good, they feel confident in exploring/making up explorations themselves

I think they’re similar to Geminis when they’re like this. But less flippant or candid, Sagittarius/Cancer are a little more subtle. A little more observant of other people, they learn how to read information from others as well as process whether they should believe it or not at the same time.

Self-study is a thing like, these people can often be very resourceful. The type to utilize the Library or find places/people they can gain context from.

These people are pretty flexible people, often receptive to new information and social climate. These people eyes light up when they discover new areas of exploration/studies, and although they approach it with fascination-- they like to keep pace with themselves and try to work through it with quiet determination/intrigue.

This is because they’re daring but also astute, they’re freedom-loving but also intuitive. They’re careful--- often looking left and right before making a decision. But they’re also inventive and creative. They like to tie these things together in a neat little package. Underneath their curious/love-learning nature is their emotionality and fluidity to their persona. Which makes them really stable and emotionally receptive friend (feels self-assured, like they can hold themselves dependable and thus makes people come to them)

Their emotionality is often their strongest point, because it gives them good judgement on people they surround themselves with. Intuitively, they’re pretty sharp. Can pick up someone with an ulterior/bad motive from a while away. Their self-preservation is incredible, but it might not be a good thing all the time since they may be too careful/cautious and lose opportunities with people socially (who aren’t going to wait for them).

How they feel about something/someone is part of their survival instinct, they know when/how to utilize it best (people who are untrustworthy or is going to let them down).

They might not like to ill-prepared, they get queasy/sick when they’re completely blind-sided by something someone else throws at them and ‘expect’ them to do well (like an unexpected presentation, etc)

They don’t want to look bad in front of people, disappointing others feels like letting themselves down. They want to be more than that, which is why they work hard to be firmer, grasp better at certain things so they can help. They want to put their best foot forward always.

It’s mostly to do with how their heart is. They have a good heart, but Cancer Moon likes to be emotionally in-control even when they’re FEELING so much emotions.

It’s this good-hearted nature in them that they exude tranquility to others around them, yet at the same time. It can also be holding them back.

They exercise a lot of caution because of this emotional Cancer, not letting themselves (their Sag) get too far ahead or behind. They don’t like losing focus, yet at the same time they fear they’ll get out of hands.

It can feel restraining to the person, walking at their own pace feeling at their own time. Yet they fear a lot of things, in the past and future because they want to be themselves/have autonomy/be in control. So a lot of the time, the leash they keep on their Sagittarius gets tighter and tighter until they pull back into themselves completely.

They may often feel like they have high ideals, romanticism nature to them because of Sagittarius’s hopeful nature and Cancer’s receptivity to ideas. Alot of people in these placements feel like their head is in the clouds-- and that’s when the Cancer Moon feels threatened and tries to loop the Sagittarius in closer to itself.

The problem isn’t with the idealizing of things, or feeling hopeful/optimistic about certain situations. It’s that they can get complacent with themselves, often settling for less than what they deserve because they don’t want to ‘get too high up in the clouds’.

Their insights and sound judgement aren’t compromised because of their high ideals-- it’s compromised because they restrict themselves. They’re highly sensitive, and this can backfire on them because they tend to think they’re delusional, they’re illusions, they’re taking things too far maybe?

They put themselves down without realizing it because they’d rather be the one to cut their own legs than let anybody else cut theirs (again, fear of people’s expectations and living up to said expectations)

Recognizing that this is part of their sensitivity, part of their emotional fear helps them also realize that it’s not very good for them. It’s not very practical for them is it? And it doesn’t allow them to grow (complacency by self-imposed fears)

Thus they can’t give themselves the credit they deserve because they’re acting like a 🤡 about it.

Paranoia is paranoia--- don’t let it control you. Sometimes identifying fears, emotionality and the worst part of your emotionality that’s inflicting your fears/control issues should be addressed (whenever you’re ready).

If the person works on taking away their complacency, their allowing these things to happen to them (may just need a good hard sitting down -bluntly and talking to from a trusted friend/person)

They will have a ‘waking up’ moment and get their shit together (for a while, anyways).

Get a good friend, a practical friend. Let them smack some senses into you. Usually, having different perspective that are less emotional than yours is without all the fluffer and sensitivity issues you have, would generally help with you reaching out to other people and curbing these fears.

If the Sag/Cancer wants a ‘waking up’ moment so much, they’ll have to learn how to activate it/methods for doing so.

I hope this is good 💕💕 And helpful for you!! 💕💕 Good luck with everything!! 💕💕

#Sagittarius Sun #Cancer Moon #Sagittarius-Cancer #dreamyblossoms #asks

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nikitasbt · 5 years

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Human, Space, Time and Human (인간, 공간, 시간 그리고 인간, 2018) by Kim Ki-duk

Human, Space, Time and Human by Kim Ki-duk is an ominous and bleak Homo homini lupus est sentence to the humanity, a kind of condemnation the films of Bela Tarr or Alexey German’s Hard to be a God have been proclaiming.

The human existence can be comprehended following the rise of depravity and exploration of the moral decay of the individuals resulting in the conclusion the humans are the world’s parasites and pests. The only hope for the bright future is in the shoots the plants put out as an allegory to the potentially innocent lives of the newborn. However, when the time of harvest comes over the new generations appear being unable to overcome the cruel human nature and people find themselves getting pleasure in suppressing and slaughtering the nature and eventually their own kind.

A disturbing and distressing Korean film of Kim Ki-duk is a misanthropic allegory of the human’s entity depicting the decline of humankind, extreme misogyny, cruelty, and inevitable supremacy of instincts and violence over the bright qualities and features the humans have been struggling to develop within the centuries.

The latest film of Kim Ki-duk contains many references to his previous works and even iterations. The film’s title resembles one of the most acclaimed works of Korean arthouse master Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003). The structure and plot development are also similar – the film is divided into several parts putting a loop in the end. While this plot loop in 2003 masterpiece was just saying the humans are meant to commit the same mistakes and experience love, hatred, and failures, the message of Human, Space, Time and Human is very bleak and misanthropic. The society has always been decaying, and individuals cannot find their way through. After immersing into space and time dominated by Homo Sapiens, every newborn baby would become human whose life is full of sins, intolerance, and cruelty. Another obvious link to previous works of Kim Ki-duk is in the space where the film is set: just like Hwal (The Bowman) the whole story takes place on the ship, and we see no other locations but the ship where the characters are trapped. The whole world of protagonists is squeezed into this limited space with no laws and rules the society stands upon. Though, again the idea of this film differs from what the viewers had seen in Hwal. Human, Space, Time and Human surprisingly simplifies the cinematic language of Kim Ki-duk. Though the whole film is an allegory and contains a number of allusions just like Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, everything here is pretty much straightforward. Kim Ki-duk’s best arthouse features are intellectual and can be hard to comprehend due to ambiguous themes and demanding conventions the director comes up with. In this film, the idea is on the surface, and the viewers collide with clichéd characters. It is obvious where the villains are and who is here to oppose them. Though, it ends up with everybody being some sort of villain. The film’s Bible references are also quite transparent, though well-placed not far-fetched. Simplification of the cinematic system of Kim Ki-duk makes him more available to the audience, yet the film is something that would alienate many viewers due to disturbing violence and naturalism.

The first part of the film entitled Human portrays the group of travelers on an old warship embarking for 7-days cruise (this 7-days-story is the first Bible reference). The narration doesn’t explain why these different people travel on the same ship and where they are heading. It is also not explained why the so-called cruiser is packed with sex workers and all sorts of perverts. Perhaps, that’s the way the narration intends to depict society. This first part illustrates the class difference, conflicts between bandits and seemingly decent people, and abusing of power the senator (Lee Sung-jae) possesses on this ship. With the protection of a group of hired villains, he sets himself and his son in a privileged position which irritates the other passengers. Upon raising their voice seeking some equality in rights on the cruiser, passengers collide with the extreme violence of gangsters having no fear or shame in the actions with approval of their patron. Apparently, this leads to no good.

In no time, the ship becomes a scene of disturbing cruelty. The main female character whose name is never mentioned (portrayed by Mina Fujii) is raped by almost every significant male character including senator. His son is shown as a kind of positive character initially who was not fond of the privileges he is meant to enjoy. However, when he finds an unconscious woman in his cabin after his father leaves he rapes her too without any sympathy or sentiments. Meanwhile, the girl’s boyfriend is stubbed and killed and the other woman is also raped by another gang. There is nobody standing by the side of women, and we see the hidden misogyny going beyond control in every man. Also, there are several sex workers on the ship who sell themselves and close their eyes as they are treated as junk. Even those men who could be possibly against it find themselves being unable to cope with the sexual lust and hidden predilection for abuse of the women. The message of this part is that the men have never been able to suppress their beastly instincts towards women, and this will never change. Being put into the situation where the women are abused, the men choose to be a part of it despite showing some intentions to oppose it. Those who actually oppose it, get killed. These rape scenes are really heavy, disturbing and hard to watch. I can understand people who have stopped watching Human, Space, Time and Human at this point. However, the film would later become even nastier. An isolated group of people now sinks in drug abuse, gang rapes, assaults, cruelty, and unfair treatment of each other from the position of power. The main female protagonist is shown as the martyr, a kind of innocent Madonna. Meanwhile, this rise of depravity is being observed by a mute mysterious old man who resembles a character of an old Buddhist monk from Kim Ki-duk’s masterpiece Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. This is probably the only character in the film who has no intentions to rape anybody (not counting on a character played by Joe Odegiri who is killed at the beginning of the film after his girlfriend’s rape). The old man does nothing, but scrabbles dirt and remains of food collecting it in cups, and it seems like he has something in his mind on what’s going on around him.

The second part entitled Space begins next morning when the passengers and crew realize the ship is now floating high in the sky, and they can see no terrain or sea. Kim Ki-duk never explains what happened as everything from now has to be taken as an allegory to human existence and history. As the ship runs out provision, all the humans show their real face trying to find the way to survive. Nobody knows what’s happening, and those who have guns and grenades are reigning. Slowly people get an idea all of them would die of starvation on this ship. The senator who is in control of all provision is the first realizing it, and he decides to maintain his high status as death approaches. First, he orders to distribute less food to the other passengers, then he stops feeding them at all, repels the attempts of uprising and eventually kills almost everybody with his own hands.

The people in extreme situation turn into the beasts very fast, and there are no positive characters in this setup. It is not something original in the film of Kim Ki-duk, but he has his own view on this survival. Those who possess power retain an excessive use of it, while the others are not able to rise up and left to fight with each other. The female protagonists takes side from the events befriending the mute old man who plants the vegetables and fruits in the underdeck bunker. He even has a few chickens there are yet to start laying the eggs. The woman thinks this is madness as it will take months to get the yield, though the old man keeps looking after his shoots of plants. At the same time, people start killing each other, and their corrupted morality turns them more and more violent. The senator’s son wonders if there is a point of attempts to survive in such conditions. An old man acting as the personification of God explains it with his actions to the girl: the point is to maintain the new life which is being conceived. The symbol of this life is in the shoots he looks after. But soon the girl realizes she gets pregnant after being raped. The old man doesn’t let her do any harm to the child, and she understands this baby is the only reason to survive as it brings the new life which is still innocent while being in the woman’s womb. An old man convinces this baby is a result of divine intervention. At some point, the senator’s son tries to express his sympathy to this girl he raped and feels sorry for what she’s been through. He even tries to oppose his own father and gangsters, but he cannot do much. Later, the senator is killed, and the gang leader for some time becomes the only power on the ship. The girl saves a senator’s son life in a fray with a gang leader taking his promise to take care of her and child. But as he becomes mad of starvation he forgets about any decency ending up raping a pregnant woman again and eating a piece of her flesh. The third chapter Time is probably the most disturbing and disgusting as the survivors fall into cannibalism. Moreover, the old man also takes his part dismembering the corpses preserving the flesh and grinding their bones to use it for planting more shoots. He starts planting the shoots on the bodies of those who had fell victims of this madness. Though these heavy scenes are present here in abundance, at some point I ceased concentrating on this naturalism just taking it as allegory. Homo homini lupus est. People live feasting on other’s flesh, and they don’t do it literally because of law and legal instruments restraining them. When the people’s hands are not tied with any laws and they have to survive they end up like the passengers of the ship. This is the misanthropic message of Human, Space, Time and Human which is probably one of Kim Ki-duk’s conclusions on the nature of the human entity.

There is no God – says the senator at some point despite finding himself drifting in the air on the warship. At the end of the third chapter, an old man who acts like God disappears living the bloody footprints forming a sign of infinity on the deck. He also leaves some flesh, and two last survivors would have to decide who is going to keep living. Eventually, a woman kills the senator’s son to save a chicken he intended to eat. The martyr remains the last living, and she still carries the baby in her womb representing the continuation of life and acting as a symbol of hope. Soon we see the first old man’s vegetables and fruits growing out, and chickens laying eggs.

The last chapter of the film is again entitled Human. It’s time for a loop to close. At first, we see a child and his mother who are the last survivors on the ship and maybe in the whole world. The ship now resembles Eden as it is covered with plants, trees, and gardens growing up from the bones of those who passed away years ago. The little boy is growing up, and he is the symbol of new life. As there are only two people living, I anticipated the story is going to end up with something disturbing it came from. And in the last scene, we see an adult who had found a pistol and started developing violence. He is groping for discovering his real hidden nature and this is not an innocent child anymore. He would be a grown-up man soon who is meant to repeat the fate of other humans. The boundless violence and lust to abuse and suppress lives within him. The film closes with the boy chasing his mother in an attempt to rape her, as the other “humans” on the ship used to do. Then suddenly Kim Ki-duk gives a film Tarkovsky’s Solaris-like ending showing the ship floating from above in the endless space. The divine intervention results in the birth of another corrupt human and the film’s conclusion is a sentence to the humankind. Humans cannot overcome their cruel and abusive nature, they can only hide it for some time. Whenever they get a chance, they would show off their face, sins, and lusts. The idea of Kin Ki-duk’s film is certainly not something new, but it marks a milestone of his career. An author of many provocative features ends up making one of his bleakest film with a transparent verdict on the nature of humanity. Human, Space, Time and Human leaves humans with no hope for change.

The last film of Kim Ki-duk is extremely violent yet it is pretty much into life, from my point of view. The photography is quite delightful making it visually entertaining, not speaking of an abundance of ugly and heavily disturbing scenes of people killing, eviscerating, raping, and eating each other. Though, probably there is no way to get rid of these scenes in such film. The symbolism and multiple religious references which are easy to read appear to be an interesting addition to this carousel of insane violence and depravity. The performances of Lee Sung-jae as senator and Ahn Sung-ki as old man are great, but the real star of Human, Space, Time and Human is Mina Fujii portraying the lead female character whose name is never mentioned. Despite a very dark message and many disturbing and disgusting scenes, Human, Space, Time and Human had become the most remarkable Kim Ki-Duk’s film during the last few years.

This is probably not a film one would recommend to anybody to watch. Kim Ki-duk’s reputation becomes more and more controversial, especially with the recent allegations of sexual harassment against him. It is hard to imagine how the Korean director comes up with such a bizarre material so consistently throughout his career. There were the exceptions such as fantastic 3-iron, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring and even recent 2016 film The Net. However, this time Kim Ki-duk is back to disturbing content which is thought-provoking but very difficult to digest. It is disgusting, but realistic at the same time, and somehow the film might have an enthralling effect. However, I doubt this is something the audience should be looking for in the cinema.

#Human Space Time and Human #인간 공간 시간 그리고 인간 #kim ki duk #김기덕 #korean film #korean cinema #ahn sung-ki #mina fujii #lee sung-jae #ryoo seung-bum

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tessatechaitea · 6 years

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Rings: A Critical Review (Full of spoilers because how do you actually discuss a movie without actually discussing anything pertinent to the plot?!)

This movie isn’t the movie it should have been. David Loucka and Jacob Estes conceived this movie by thinking, “Hey! Imagine if the video from The Ring were released digitally! Holy cow! It would be like a computer virus!” Ignoring that the entire premise of Kôji Suzuki’s novel is that the video is akin to a biological virus and already, technically, makes that point (I said technically because Suzuki’s virus is obviously not digital! Duh! But it’s still the same concept: technology as a virus that infects biology!), Loucka and Estes never actually make that movie anyway. Instead they simply remake The Ring but bookend it with two other films that would have been much better and more appropriate to the silly sequel title, Rings. Granted, there’s no way they could have made Kôji Suzuki’s follow-up, Spiral, into a movie. I mean, they could have if they wanted to lose millions of dollars asking viewers to believe that the video tape didn’t just kill people after seven days, but it also impregnates them so that they give birth to the nerd that died in the first book. At least I think that’s what happened. It was fucking weird and I read it over a year ago. Too bad I’ve yet to find a copy of Loop because I bet that thing is super batshit insane.

The movie begins with a guy on a plane about to time out of his seven days. He’s super scared because, I guess, nobody watches the tape and thinks, “That was fucking crazy. And a weird robocall that just said ‘Seven days’ immediately after? I’m hungry!” Apparently everybody watches it and thinks, “Oh shit! Does ‘seven days’ mean I’m going to die in seven days?! I bet it does because what else could that video have been about?!” You might be thinking, “Why would you assume everybody gets scared after seeing the video when just the one guy has freaked out so far?” Well, doubter who obviously hasn’t seen the movie yet: a woman on the plane also says, frightened, “I saw that video too!” And since the plane crashes and everybody on it probably dies, I guess they all watched the video at the same time one week prior?

I understand the flaws in my assumption, you jerk! You don’t have to “Actually!” me during my review! The guy who watched the video probably died of scared-to-death face while the other people on the plane just died from sudden impact face. Anyway, the opening scene doesn’t matter. It was probably tacked on because test audiences were all, “You know, there isn’t really any action in this movie? Maybe more high-speed action and less fighting blind guys in the dark?” Then some other audience member was probably all, “Oh! I know! What about a scene where somebody is looking through a keyhole and then — BOOM! — suddenly there’s a scary eye on the other side of the keyhole!” I’m pretending that’s how that scene wound up in the movie to help Loucka and Estes save face as writers. Maybe the third writer credited on the screenplay (but not on “story by”), Akiva Goldsman, was that audience member.

You know what? Stop actuallying me! Fine, the opening scene was needed to explain the entire premise of the death video. The man explains that if you watch this scary videotape, you die in seven days. The woman who also saw it was there to explain that you survive the curse by making a tape and showing it to some other sucker! So, yeah, I guess the stupid first scene carried some water. It was repetitive, Scott Lobdellian water but I guess every Ring movie is somebody’s first Ring movie!

As I was saying about the opening scene before other more important things that needed to be said cropped up, it’s most important purpose was to give the VCR that Johnny Galecki buys one scene and two years later a back story. He’s all, “I’m going to buy this old technology for some reason!” Aimee Teegarden, his student (you can tell she’s his student because she’s young and hot and he’s Johnny Galecki), says, “Whatever, dude! This movie is PG-13 and was also shot in the 21st century so don’t expect me to whip my tits out even though that’s what my character would do at some point during this movie if it had been filmed in the 80s.” Johnny shrugs, takes the VCR home, hooks it up to some old ass television that still uses AV cables, and watches the tape that’s still in the VCR. That’s totally believable because when I die, somebody is going to wind up with a Laserdisc player with Heathers stuck inside of it.

By the time the next part of the story takes place (a few months, maybe?), Johnny has survived watching the video, completely researched the hell out of it, and published a book with the subtitle “the Samara Effect” (or something like that. I only watched it once and I’m not too concerned with going back to check). So he’s a quick worker, ain’t he?! I guess all that time spent not being able to fuck his students wasn’t simply wasted with masturbation.

I’m not going to get into the main character Julia (played by Matilda Lutz) yet because she’s only really important to The Ring remake that comprises the middle section of the movie. This aside was for everybody who has seen the movie who might be thinking, “When are you going to get into discussing Julia and whether it was okay to get a boner during the scene where she’s in her underwear because she’s probably portraying an eighteen year old and not a seventeen year old, right? I mean, yeah, maybe it’s creepy but you saw that butt, right? Also the actress is probably an old person! Whew! I’m not a creep at all! Suck it, mom!” Also, I hope you saw those quotation marks because that indicates that somebody else said that thing and not me. I only transcribed it!

The first third of the movie should concentrate on Galecki’s extra-curricular biology experiment. He’s taking students, showing them the film, and seeing how their lives become completely fucked up from terror over the course of seven days before finding another guinea pig to watch their copy of the film and save them from scared-to-death face. A much better movie than the one F. Javier Gutiérrez chose for audiences would have involved an ensemble cast caught up in Galecki’s experiment. Maybe everything seems to be going okay for a bit until some student dismisses the whole thing and heads back home for a long weekend before being able to get somebody to view his copy. He winds up with scared-to-death face and everybody begins freaking out. The rumors fly all over the school and now nobody can find anybody to watch their film. You now have five or six main characters all trying to find a way not to die. Maybe one of them, suddenly realizing this shit is real, understands the terrible ethical decision and refuses to find somebody to take on their curse. Maybe one of them (probably the frat guy) forces somebody to watch their video without their consent. Maybe one of them (the hot looking, muscular nerd with the glasses) hacks the on-campus televisions and spreads the video across the whole school. Maybe the camgirl creates some clickbait headline about a great video showing her butthole but links to the video and spreads Samara’s video across the entire Internet (this crosses into the other possible movie Gutiérrez might have made but, in the end, it’s what Rings should have been all about anyway, right?) thus saving her life but putting millions at risk.

But no! What you actually get is dozens of students participating in this scary ass project but, in the end, leaving only Julia’s boyfriend at risk once Teegarden dies of scared-to-death face. What could have been a meaningful reason for using the plural of ring for a title winds up being a movie about a single ring: Julia’s boyfriend. And since his time is about up, Julia watches the video to save his life. This brings us to the middle section of the movie: The RIng Redux.

Either I haven’t seen The Ring 2 or I just don’t remember it. Hell, I probably don’t rightly remember the movie, The Ring, as much as I remember Suzuki’s novel. But I feel fairly certain the first movie and the novel retain the same basic plot structure. People watch this video. They die in seven days. Some other person who watched the video realizes the curse and must research it to figure out how to break it. In doing so, they save themselves almost immediately without knowing it when they enlist the help of a friend, making a copy and showing it to them. When they survive but their friend dies, it helps them to make the logical leap needed to understand how to break the curse. In the book, the main characters figure that to break the curse, they have to put Samara’s body to rest. So they go to the cabin, enter the well, get the corpse, take it back to her hometown, and give it a proper burial. Based on Rings, I’m guessing all of that took place one of the previous films. Which is why the middle part of Rings is just a retelling of that story.

Julia and her boyfriend head to Samara’s hometown, learn more about her than even Galecki discovered, learn her terrible secret, find her corpse, and give her, not a proper burial, but a proper cremation. That should do the trick, right?!

Well, no. Because the big twist is that Samara was trying to be reborn and Julia fell for it! Ha ha! Dumb dumb! If she’d only read Suzuki’s follow-up to Ring (no article on the book title!), Spiral, she’d have learned that the big twist was the whole being reborn thing! Also since Spiral was published in 1995, the big twist at the end of that wasn’t that the video would wind up on the Internet to infect everybody in the world. The big twist was that the main character’s published work was going to be turned into a movie which was now the real infection source for Samara’s virus. Millions of movie-goers would be infected! Ha ha! Dumb dumbs!

I wonder how often Roger Ebert wrote “Ha ha! Dumb dumbs”? Probably not enough! That’s why he’s no longer successful!

In trying to be a good and faithful protagonist, Julia just winds up setting Samara loose on the world. That’s a pretty good twist, right?! What the audience realizes if they think about this movie for any amount of time after exiting the theater instead of just saying, “That was a stupid waste of ten bucks!”, is that the real protagonist was the blind ex-priest who kidnapped a young woman and impregnated her many years ago, giving birth to pure evil. This ex-priest then proceeded to murder all eleven or so people who came before Julia, also trying to free Samara. That pervert murderer was the real champion! I knew I like him for more than creepily taking Julia’s hand and doing that weird finger thing on her palm that perverted old people do. I mean, he must have done that or else he wouldn’t have been able to read Samara’s Braille message she burned into Julia’s palm!

Although, I mean, why the fuck did Samara burn “rebirth” in Braille on Julia’s palm anyway? Why would Samara know Braille? Why would she leave a clue to her ultimate goal? Maybe it’s some kind of rule from the afterlife. You have to give the people you’re manipulating a fair chance at defeating your evil plans!

The final twist of the movie is that once Samara is reborn in Julia, Julia’s electronics begin sending copies of the movie to all of her online contacts. Julia’s boyfriend sees it happening and tries to stop it by unplugging the laptop’s power cord and online connection, somehow forgetting that laptops have batteries and WiFi connections. And thus the entire world is doomed to be infected. Of course, how many die from this infection? Maybe half the population of the online world? It doesn’t seem like the best way to kill everybody if the person is infected and saved in one online session. “Hey! A weird video! Let’s watch it. Fuck, that was crazy shit. Let me send it to my friends!” I guess since once person can spread the virus to more than one person, it’ll be harder and harder for people to find a non-infected person to watch their copy of the video. And maybe the point isn’t about death anyway? I think the point in Spiral was that watching the video actually changed the person’s DNA in a way that made them part Samara, or made her more powerful, or something. Anyway, it was less about killing and more about just infecting everybody.

The problem with this ending is that it’s the fucking ending. You’d think the whole point of a movie titled Rings is that it would be about huge numbers of people being infected by the video. Instead, only one person winds up endangered in most of this movie. The real movie only begins when this one ends. Estes, and Loucka should have realized this and thrown out the first draft of the movie. But since they didn’t, audiences were treated to an uninspired remake of the first film but with even more plot holes.

Like how this movie follows the adventures of — apparently — the only two young people who don’t constantly check their phones. Julia’s boyfriend disappears for six days after watching the video because...well, I don’t know why! He just leaves his phone under his bed in his dorm and fucks off on a ski trip or something. Nobody knows where to find him. Why? I don’t know! Nobody else participating in the experiment disappears. They all just seem to hang out in the lab — or is it a rave?! — with all the other participants in a hedonistic display of, well, college youthfulness!

Julia’s boyfriend’s excuse for not talking to her is that he didn’t want her mixed up in this experiment. Although the experiment wasn’t even scary yet. Nobody had died of scared-to-death face but somehow Julia’s boyfriend was taking it seriously from the start? And he thought not being in constant contact with his girlfriend would keep her safe? He definitely wasn’t smart because he was surprised to find out that she was worried about him, enough to seek him out at his college.

But that’s just the tip of his stupid iceberg. He also never checks his phone while searching for Samara, thus missing Galecki’s warning that Julia’s hand has Braille on it (not that this message would have helped because Julia and her boyfriend were stupid jerks). Plus when Boyfriend discovers that the blind guy was the priest somehow involved with Samara, he doesn’t call Julia to warn her. He races back to their bed and breakfast to warn her. When he doesn’t find her there, he doesn’t call her to warn her. He races to the priest’s house to save Julia. Now, maybe I missed Julia leaving her phone in the room. But even if I did miss that and that was the reason Boyfriend couldn’t call her, what fucking young person leaves their phone in their room? I mean aside from Boyfriend when he disappears for six days doing fuck knows what.

In the end, this movie missed out on everything that would have made The Ring modern and updated. I can’t fathom why somebody thought The Ring should simply be revisited as another version of the same movie. Somebody actually thought the twist computer virus at the end was enough of a great idea to greenlight the rest of this turd. How do you make a huge Hollywood movie like this with nobody along the way saying, “This ending here. That’s the movie. What’s with all this other stuff that we’ve already seen before?” I guess people instead read the script and gave helpful advice like “How about a scene where a woman pulls a long strand of hair out of her throat? That’s gross, right? Do that!” and “Did you write a scene where the female lead hops around in bed in panties that go right up her ass so that you can see everything? If not, add that! I’d say show her tits too but this is the age of Maxim, not the age of Playboy! And make sure wardrobe only uses tops that keep any signs of nipples from showing! This isn’t your father’s horror movie! No sir!” and “You took the advice of test audience member Akiva Goldsman and got that keyhole jump scare in, right?! Fuck yeah!”

Ugh. You know what I need to do? Go check with Movie Madness and see if they have Rasen, the Japanese film adaptation of Spiral. That shit will probably be insane!

#Rings #Movie Review #The Ring #Koji Suzuki

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biscuitreviews · 6 years

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Biscuit Reviews Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days

My story with Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is simple. I got a new job and had received my first paycheck so I figured what better way to celebrate my first payday than to buy a new game. I went to GameStop and saw that a new Kingdom Hearts game was released, one that followed Roxas, the character that you play as in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II.

Now, I know that the consensus from the Kingdom Hearts community is play the games by order of release. That is true for the most part, however, I believe that 358/2 Days is the exception to that rule. Yes, you can play it after Kingdom Hearts II since it came out after. However, if you want to enjoy Kingdom Hearts II’s story to the fullest, I would recommend being familiar with the events that happened in 358/2 Days first.

WARNING: This review will contain spoilers of Kingdom Hearts I and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. I highly recommend you either play those games or are familiar with the events that have transpired in them before playing 358/2 Days.

As mentioned previously, you follow Roxas, the Nobody of Sora. He was created after Sora saved Kairi by releasing his heart which resulted into turning himself into a Heartless during the events of Kingdom Hearts I. The story will follow the events of Roxas and Organization XIII. Like Sora, Roxas has the power to wield th Keyblade, which is important in accomplishing the goal of Organization XIII, collect hearts to create Kingdom Hearts.

During Roxas’ time in the Organization, he befriends Axel, one of the main antagonists of Chain of Memories, and Xion, the mysterious fourteenth member of the Organization. After each mission, the three friends will talk about the workings of life, the heart, and various workings of the Organization while eating ice cream on the clock tower in Twilight Town.

Like Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days is a surprisingly mature story, with this one following the theme of identity. Often you’ll see both Roxas and Xion questioning if they are real or simply just a part of someone else and in fact not real at all. Often times, they rebel against the notion that they should be someone they’re not by insisting that they are their own unique individual selves. It’s something that I feel anybody can relate to as they might have been compared to their siblings or parents. It’s keeping their identities and being recognized as individuals that motivates them both in staying together as friends.

Needless to say, the story of 358/2 Days, is the only good thing about this game, everything else on the other hand, is a bit of mess.

In the game, Roxas will be assigned missions to complete. These missions range from, defeating X amount of Heartless, defeat a certain Heartless, recon, or collect emblems. That’s it. These four tasks are extremely repetitive and the missions don’t do anything to spice up the objective. They do however give the Heartless themselves more of an identity as the missions will often have you fight a certain type and will even give you information on that Heartless such as strengths and weaknesses.

Recon is poorly handled as there’s nothing that marks what needs to be inspected. You’ll often have to wonder the map until you find a prompt the pushes the mission forward.

Collecting emblems is also boring. These missions are explained that you need to collect these emblems before a certain point, but the game won’t punish you don’t collect them on time, making these missions even more pointless.

Combat in 358/2 Days is also extremely rough. Movement feels extremely stiff and attacks can suffer from input delay. It’s possible that Square wanted to try to have the game similar to the combat style of Kingdom Hearts. Honestly, I wish they did a different approach to account for the technical limitations of the Nintendo DS, similar to Chain of Memories on the Game Boy Advance.

As for Disney worlds you’ll be exploring, they’re all the same worlds from Kingdom Hearts I and Kingdom Hearts II. This is one world that is somewhat unique to 358/2 Days and that is Neverland. Although yes, you did visit Neverland in Kingdom Hearts I, you only saw Captain Hook’s ship. In 358/2 Days, you’re flying around various islands.

With Chain of Memories, it gave the illusion that it still retained the combat style of Kingdom Hearts, but really you were just entering commands to perform attacks. With the various cast of characters in Organization XIII, I feel 358/2 Days could have worked better as a turn based RPG, allowing you to not only play as Roxas, but to use the other members of Organization XIII as well as there are quite a few missions where another member will accompany Roxas.

Customizing Roxas’ skills started out with a fantastic idea, but was dragged down with one requirement that just completely overshadows the potential it had. To equip Roxas with skills, abilities and items, you will use a panel system. The further you advance through the game, the more panels you unlock, which in turn means more skills and abilities. Equiping weapons and accessories also uses this same panel system, which could then become more powerful and potentially unlock extra abilities within Roxas’s Keyblade and accessories. However, the overall level for Roxas is also tied to this very same system. You will be constantly organizing and reorganizing your panels to account for new levels that Roxas will obtain throughout his journey. This system would have been great if leveling your character was not tied to this very system.

There’s something else I want to address with this game as well and it’s not about the game itself, but rather its place in the Kingdom Hearts story. 358/2 Days, takes place between the events of Kingdom Hearts I and II and some of it takes place during Chain of Memories. Although most Kingdom Hearts fans will say to play the games by order of release, as stated earlier, I believe 358/2 Days is the exception to that rule.

When Kingdom Hearts II came out in 2005, I always had the nagging feeling throughout playing the game that something was missing in the story, something that Chain of Memories didn’t really explain and was only glossed over in the IIs prologue. What did Roxas do? How are Roxas and Axel such good friends? Why did Roxas leave the Organization? Why did Kingdom Hearts II start with Roxas and what is his connection to everything? Why is the Organization is so adamant on calling Sora, Roxas, and why do a few areas seem to just pick up in the middle of something that is currently happening.

Now, although in a narrative perspective, it makes sense. The player is linked to Sora navigating through these worlds. Why events felt suddenly picked up in the middle because you the player are Sora and Sora alone. Sora is in a deep sleep working on regaining the memories he lost in Chain of Memories, so it makes sense that events still moved on with Sora out of the loop. In that sense, Kingdom Hearts II did that perfectly.

However, this also brought frustration of wanting to know what happened and why things in Kingdom Hearts II transpired the way that they did. This is why I argue that 358/2 Days is the exception to the rule. You see how these events began and what pushed them to their end in Kingdom Hearts II. Also, going into Kingdom Hearts II by playing 358/2 Days first will give II’s prologue a much deeper meaning and stronger appreciation to not only those events, but to Roxas as a character as well.

So is 358/2 Days important to the overall plot of Kingdom Hearts? Yes. Should you play the game? Personally, I would recommend no, simply because of how uninteresting and mechanically challenged the gameplay is. I would recommend just watching the movie on the HD collection. Although the movie does have some weird pacing issues because the movie is just a collection of cutscenes from the game, it’s the best way to experience the story of 358/2 Days.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days receives a 2 out of 5

#Kingdom Hearts #Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days #KH #KH:358 #Roxas #Sora #Axel #Organization XIII #Nintendo DS #video game review #game review #gaming #biscuit reviews #Xion

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joemerl · 4 years

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Faebruary/Februfairy 2021, Day 7: “Water Sprite”

Prompt list

The teenage boy stood at the edge of the water, his heart beating just a bit faster than usual. He shivered and looked around; the pool deck was high enough to both see and be seen over the fences, but none of his neighbors were outside this late at night.

He wasn’t sure what he was afraid of: that this would work again, or that it wouldn’t?

“No use standing around,” he muttered, and stepped over the edge, plunging easily into the deep end.

The water was pleasantly cool, somehow seemed warmer than the night air, and as always it seemed to loosen every muscle in his body. He always had always loved the water—his parents said that even as a toddler he had been a natural swimmer. But it was only lately that there seemed to be something strange about that.

He held his breath at first, almost for a minute, until his lungs were really starting to burn. He psyched himself up, then exhaled. He breathed in, choked just a bit at the sensation, but then cleared his throat.

Breathe out...breathe in. Breathe out...breathe in. Water entered and left his lungs, a sensation that was unfamiliar but somehow, impossibly, non-fatal.

He chuckled softly, and he could hear the chuckle. He kept his eyes open and they felt fine, even if the scene around him was shimmering weirdly. The last time he had tried this the chlorine had bothered him. For the last few days he’d cut back to about half of what he was supposed to put in—his parents would be annoyed when they got home, but it was worth it to help his experiment.

He looked down at himself, examining his hands. He closed his eyes. “Concentrate,” he murmured, the words distorted but still audible. “Concentrate…”

He opened his eyes slowly. The color was slowly fading from his skin. He gave a nervous smile and kept pushing. From brown to tan, but not to white, he was becoming translucent, and he felt—less solid, somehow. First he was like jelly, and then even thinner, all while he looked through his stomach, the outline of his body barely visible in the pool’s lights.

He gave one last push, and then it was like his skin was gone, just popped like a silent balloon. He could feel his bathing suit slip through him as he became nothing but water. He was bigger now—he could stretch his “arms” to what felt like ten feet. He could still see, though blearily, with eyes that seemed to rove around wherever he wanted to focus.

He laughed, then laughed harder at the rippling sensation that it made through him. He began to move around the pool, not like himself but like a fluid, bending himself in circles and spirals that would have been impossible if he was flesh and blood. With no bones he could zip around in an instant, moving himself in any way that he desired.

At first he retained a sort of humanoid shape, but after a few minutes of tricks he felt like he was dissolving, like he was thinning out and losing himself in the thousands of gallons of water. With a twinge of fear he pulled himself back, willing himself back into shape, and then back into solidity. It took a few moments, and he was panting with effort by the time that he realized that he could pant.

He blinked hard, confirming that he had real eyes again, and pressed his solid hands against his solid chest. He was floating supine near the bottom of the pool. He had lost his swimming trunks, which were drifting somewhere out of sight. More to the point, he still wasn’t his normal self. His skin was white, or maybe silver, and he could have sworn that it was glowing faintly. He normally had what his coach called a swimmer’s physique, but now he seemed even more lithe, as though he had been stretched out to be even leaner and longer. His body felt lighter, as if he still wasn’t quite as solid as he was used to.

He twisted himself easily into a sitting position, then tried to swim. That wasn’t even the right word—he flew through the water, as easily as Superman or Peter Pan. With the slightest movement he could send himself halfway across the pool, then pull up to stop on a dime. He did three laps in the time that a normal person could have done one. He did loops and somersaults as easily as if his bones were made of reeds. It wasn’t quite like being water, but it was good enough.

He laughed again without even realizing it. He didn’t feel like some earthbound creature that was good at swimming. He felt like an aquatic being who had finally come home.

He spent the next few hours turning himself into water and back again, doing tricks and testing his abilities. He felt like singing, so he did. After a while he just floated along on his back, grinning to himself. His eyes closed. He felt about as happy as he ever had.

For a while he stayed there, breathing evenly, then suddenly jerked up, realizing that he had fallen asleep. Outside, naked, and underwater. The thought gave him a sudden panic, and for the first time in hours he rocketed toward the surface.

With his first breath of air it was like a switch had been thrown—he choked, coughing up all the water in his lungs, and his body suddenly felt heavy and awkward once again. He grabbed the side of the pool, staring at his arms and chest. His skin was its normal brown again, normal, and the implications of that word made him wince in fear and shame.

He clambered out of the pool and retrieved his towel from the patio chair, looking around anxiously as he tied it around his waist. The first rays of sunlight were just peeking out over the horizon, but it was still too dark for anybody to be outside. He breathed a sigh of relief.

He decided to retrieve his bathing suit later. He was definitely going to try this whole thing again before his parents got back from their trip. The thought was too alluring, in spite of everything else.

He looked at his hands. His fingers weren’t even wrinkled.

Once again the thought returned, the same one that he’d had the last time that this had happened: whatever he was in the water was not human. He wasn’t sure if that thought should be scary, exciting or both.

“What am I?” he wondered.

The changeling boy shook his head, glanced back at the pool and then slipped quietly into the house.

#Faebruary #Februfairy #Fairy #Fairies #The Fair Folk #Fae #Water sprite #Xana #Nøkk #Nokk #I'm not exactly sure what he is. They're all kind of variations on a theme.

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the-voice-of-hell · 4 years

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The Septagram

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PART FIVE:

THE FALL

“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the moon became as blood;

And the stars of Heaven fell unto the Earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the rocks of the mountains;

And said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

-I should really delete these

***

Iphigenia was sad again. Useless, like she felt in Tacoma - but far worse. Why did it hurt worse than seeing the bodies of her family, laid out like cattle? Jelly Sue had instantly replaced them in her heart. They were gone, just part of a life that could never exist again. She was left alone in this haunted world, until she found someone who would be hers unconditionally the moment she asked. Someone perfect, flawless.

Now shattered. The memory was still ringing through her body physically, like glass reverberating after the passing of thunder. Her heart was broken. Somehow, Abalaam knew that would happen, did it just to keep her at bay. And why? She didn’t even care if demons wanted to take over the world, or give cops to queens, or whatever. He didn’t have to do that.

She repeated it breathlessly between sobs, still curled up on the floor.

Park gathered his wits, and looked at his only remaining ally. Or whatever she was to him. A piece of Tacoma? She was pretty well ruined by the destruction of her “sister.” He knew he should probably just leave her alone. It was his fault she’d come here ultimately, and known that loss.

And he could guess where the Queen was - the tallest of the new towers in Seattle, surely. All he had to do to find Infante was look for that. But Iphigenia was bleeding, and badly.

He took off his harness, pulled out a flashlight and his meager first aid supplies, and dropped the rest. Then he knelt beside her. It was worse than he thought. She’d been shot that night, crudely patched up and thrown back into the fight. He didn’t notice it before, but her jacket had been left full of holes in the stairs, her shirts were in tatters, and the bandages had come apart in the fight.

“Be as still as you can. I’m going to try to rebandage this.”

She twitched like she was trying to roll away from him and just die, but didn’t have the energy left to do that. She sobbed away, rattling her ribs while he tried to work.

Park cut away the shirt remains from the area. She’d been wearing layers, and as they were torn they braided into a rough mess. He needed to use the scissors on it. Then he washed the wound with some alcohol. Blood just kept flowing and flowing.

He pushed the skin back together on her back, slipped a gauze compress onto it, then held it down while he struggled to loop some gauze around the body to keep it in place. It was already bleeding through, but not in a torrent. He surrendered to that and went to work on the exit wound in the front.

It was distressing work, manhandling a woman while she cried and shook. He didn’t envy paramedics, even on a good day. Lastly he applied elastic bandage. The peach “flesh tone” of it was stark against her dark skin. He had sat her up to apply the bandage, but eased her back down to the floor when he was finished.

“There you go. Hey, I wonder if there’s a hospital in the neighborhood with refrigerated plasma? You’re going to need a lot of that.”

She still lay there, crying to herself. It was quieter now.

He stepped over her body and sat on the floor in front of her. “I’m sorry I got you involved in this. These damn demons… The murder clubs were bad, but this is Hell on Earth.” He looked at the bodies strewn around them. “The things you can do… I thought you were bulletproof. I saw you hit a bullet out of the air with that hammer.”

She wasn’t even looking at him. He tried to read her expression.

“They did this to you. I don’t know what Jelly Sue was, but she put a spell on you. And she wouldn’t have been on this Earth to do that if the demons had stayed in Hell where they belong.”

She squeezed her eyes shut harder and shuddered.

“Alright,” he said, “I’m sorry. Just… If you get well enough to fight again, I hope you will see that. I hope people like you will take these fuckers out. Infante killed one just like Abalaam. What could you do to him?”

Park stood up and his legs gave out. He nearly ended up on his back. The room was spinning. “I guess I’m not ready to go either.” He crawled over to his discarded harness and got out a little food and water. He forced himself to consume it, then got to his feet slowly.

He looked around at the throne room. Apparently these devils were comfortable with all stone furnishings. But he needed to lay down, to sleep, and didn’t have time to be sensible about it - to properly hide himself in another room.

Hiding. He remembered the curtains. “Iphigenia. I’m gonna help you get… I’m gonna hide you behind the curtains. In case somebody comes back.” He picked her up and she staggered along in his grip. “If you’re alive when we wake up, I’ll see if there’s anybody working in any of the hospitals up here.”

He lay her down in the folds of the black velvet draped at the corner of the room, closed it as well as he could against the bitter wind ripping through the open windows. Then he staggered to a different curtain and lay down behind it. He hoped she didn’t die in the night. He’d feel terrible, but this citadel didn’t have an elevator, and no way he’d be able to get her out in his state.

Whatever his worries, he very quickly blacked out.

***

Men chanted in a ring, their bodies withered and heads heavy. The sounds fell from their heads like spoiled oil from pitchers. They wanted to be rid of these chants, to unburden themselves. The words were at odds with mortal existence, a poison to a body properly moored in time.

A ring of cascading chants all fell through a central opening in the dome - through a fontanelle that should have remained sealed. Park was lying naked in a brass bowl below them, and the song splattered over his body, began to fill the bowl. He could drown in it, if he lost his will to move - to escape.

Part of him knew he should drown, should let the understanding come over him fully. Intel was what they needed at the moment, more than anything. He had a phone line to God. But it hurt.

He thrashed against the understanding, lost most of it, only retaining fragments of notions, of images. Infante in the throne room of Queen Bymaan. Iphigenia standing there with the hammer. But it was different from before.

Abalaam was there as well, in his giant demon form. His wheel was sliding back and forth in its track, wanting to complete a loop but unable, throwing sparks in aggravation. He sat astride Bymaan’s camel, a scepter in one hand and a chain in the other. The chain was tied to somebody, and his mind followed it, then fell off a cliff and lost its grip.

An innocent child with wavy chestnut colored hair was crying for rescue, but Iphigenia looked away. They were farther away all the time as he slipped into the abyss - until something caught him.

A horned beast impaled him to the wall with a single horn. Upon him sat a woman with short blond hair, stumpy wings like a baby bird, the face of a lioness on one shoulder and of an eagle on the other. She had glasses covered in mist and droplets from her furious steaming breath.

“We have to finish this, bucko. Mount up.”

***

Jen and Sergio woke to being roughly dragged out of the cage. Her muscles were too cramped and abused to contemplate escape now. Goat angel soldiers prodded them with the less spiky ends of spiked metal staves. The wire baskets around their malformed heads rattled.

They were dragged through black stone halls. Like the rest of the citadel, these could have been hewn from one piece of stone, but here they were carved into the forms of paneling, tiles, decorative elements. Rococo in abyssal monochrome. Sconces blazed with unnatural pink flame to provide the light.

They briefly passed through a hall with true blue daylight streaming through tall open windows, and into a wider stairwell. Up one floor, they came into a much stranger space - the top floor of the citadel, the throne room of Queen Bymaan.

Most of the floor was exposed to the open sky - very windy at a few thousand feet above sea level. Irregular walls provided some shelter against the wind. Much of the floor was the mown grass, gravel paths, bushes and trees of Volunteer Park. The buildings had fared worse. The Asian Art Museum was bent but not quite collapsed from the stress of rising. The plaza in front of it had been replaced with a grandiose black temple with open sides. Pigeons, starlings, and house sparrows were everywhere - many of them grown to unnatural proportions, up to as large as sheep. Angels with broken wings were having a pool party in the reservoir. The more goatish soldier angels marched this way and that, ensuring the less trusted visitors were kept appropriately uncomfortable.

Sergio and Jen blinked away the piercing sunlight until they were brought into the temple and dropped on the floor there. They fought against the cramps and pain in their muscles to at least sit up and properly regard their captors.

A twenty foot tall camel sat on the floor in front of them, straddled by a voluptuous barely clothed white woman, ten feet tall. She gently stroked the camel’s neck as she stood, then approached the little people.

“Jennifer Ingrid Smith, Sergio Leopoldo Marco Hurtado. Brother, sister… It saddens me that you had to come before me under such circumstances. But you should take comfort in this - as the Potentate of The Septagram, I - Queen Bymaan - have the power to pardon you for your sins. I merely need a proper reason.” She went down to her own knees, just seven feet away.

Jen couldn’t help but think how easy it would be to leap up and punch her in the eyeballs.

Bymaan continued, “You’ve noticed you are not like the humans around you. Your ancestors laid with members of the Angelic Host - those like myself, who chose to come to Earth to be with you, to experience your beauty, and to show you our love.”

Sergio said, “Really?”

She laughed genuinely. “Really! You are children of Heaven and Earth. As my brothers and sisters, I will show you more consideration than the lovely mortals you have travelled with. Though you have slain many of our kind, perhaps you can learn to live in peace with us. Let us begin our relationship anew.”

Jen was incredulous. But she was also cowed by the power on display - the power these creatures had to remake her world, and the power in this demon queen’s physical presence. She looked like a human, but was clearly stronger than a bear.

“I guess mayb- OH! Ugh!” Jen fell on her side, clutching a leg. “Cramp.”

Bymaan put a hand over her mouth in surprise, looked alarmed. “What is a cramp? ...A human frailty, no doubt. I’m sorry. What can cure a cramp?”

“Guh, can’t...” Jen couldn’t think clearly.

Sergio said, “A warm bath, maybe?”

Bymaan picked them up before they could protest, carrying them like toddlers under each arm. She took them down to the reservoir. They could feel themselves gently pressed against her bare flesh. Squishy.

At the reservoir, angels parted to give their queen a wide berth. She carried them into the water as if for a baptism and gently lowered them into it. Her pale body glowed white, brightly enough to be visible in the daylight, and the water around them warmed.

Jen was about to capsize but Sergio held her up. She looked at him tenderly. Both had pain written on their faces, and the Queen took notice. She cradled their backs, supporting them in the water. Her huge arms and breasts made it feel like being snuggled by a hippopotamus supermodel.

“You should take off your clothes, relax. Don’t worry about your sentencing. That can wait until you’re a thousand years old, for all I care. Just be well.”

Jen didn’t like the idea of stripping for this freakish crowd, but she felt abjectly disgusting from the sweat and torment of the past night and day. At least the cramp had faded enough to allow her some clarity. “OK, but let us go.”

Bymaan nodded and released them, like toy boats on a river. They swam back a pace, and took off their clothes.

Sergio said, “Pardon me, but I do not understand this.”

Jen said, “She’s fattening us up for the kill.”

“No, no, no. Everything I’ve said is true. What would it take for you to believe me?”

“I am sorry, I still do not...”

“Take it easy, Serge. I’ll talk for us. You should let us go, Your Majesty. We’ll spread the gospel of Satan like good kids.”

She shook her head and smiled. “I love you but I’m no fool. Try again. What would it take for you to believe me?”

Sergio dunked the back of his head in the water and tried to rub out some of the sweat and oil without the luxury of soap. The warmth of the water helped a lot - she’d turned the reservoir into a huge hot tub.

Jen said, “Alright, fine. Let’s assume everything you’re saying is true. We’re superheroes because we’re part angel. And because you guys are fallen angels, you wanna cut us some slack? I guess that’s OK, but this whole ‘Invade the Earth, kill a bunch of guys, unleash the monsters, make people get branded’ thing is really creepy. What do you want us to do with that?”

“Unleash monsters?” A pigeon the size of a dog flew by as if to underscore the phrase. “I didn’t do that. It’s just how this all works.” She gestured grandly. “Humans brought evil into the world, such that the seal of hell was broken once again. My legions came through, but various petty spirits and magical energies did as well. They’ve taken root in the things of your world, become monsters as you say. But that wasn’t our doing.”

“You think I’m just talking about coskalipses and giant rats, huh? I mean your guys. Your goat boys.”

“If the angels are monsters, then you are as well.”

Sergio looked miserable, unable to track on the conversation at all.

“OK, but if we’re superheroes because we’re part angel, why are we only able to do this stuff now? I couldn’t ride a bike up the side of a building before.” She scrubbed her arms.

“It’s the presence of the legions. When you kill your brothers and sisters, you weaken yourselves. As long as your fellow angels walk the Earth, you share power with each other.”

“Huh. That’s wild.” She took off her glasses and dunked them in the water, rubbing the lenses with her thumbs. “Whaddya think, Serge?”

“Am I going to be killed?”

The Queen smiled, huge and white. “Only if you do not repent, my brother. Do you need some soap?”

“Yes.”

She glanced at the angels and one swam over with what looked like a genie lamp, offering it to them. Sergio held out his hands and the angel filled them with some kind of oilier version of Castile soap. Jen accepted some as well. With the angel right next to them, she felt more naked than before, and her body language became more withdrawn.

Sergio noticed her shyness and took up talking for them. “I heared that I am the one who did the crimes. Jennifer did not so much.”

“That’s right. She is not without guilt, but her transgressions can be more easily forgiven, with the circumstances. You, I’m afraid...”

“I did not know what else to do. I think, you are devils. Jesus says we cast out devils. Well, he did...”

“We were cast out, it is true, but now we’re back. You could try to be like Jesus, but that’s so ugly and small-minded. Wouldn’t you rather dwell in beauty and pleasure?”

Bymaan lowered herself deeper into the water to get closer to their eye level. She was submerged nearly to her lips. Her body glowed again, the warmth relaxing their bodies and contrasting pleasantly with the cool morning air on their faces. Steam rose from the water.

She continued, speaking more quietly. “I know you want to live in love. I can smell it on you. Beautiful young lovers. Heritors of the power of Heaven and the sensual delights of Earth. This is your Garden.”

Jen and Sergio felt alone with her, the angels fading from their senses. They felt the sense of peace she offered, the sensuous pleasance of the moment. They felt just a little bit like having sex right there, throwing off all human propriety for a good time.

Jen shook off the haze and flicked Sergio’s ear. He woke up.

“What? Oh. What was the question?”

Jen said, “She wants to know if you’re sorry you killed the goat boys, and if you’d like to live here in Seattle. She’s calling it ‘The Septagram’ now.”

“My home is in Venezuela. I want to go back to there.”

“If you leave, you will not be able to take your power with you. Our Host lives in The Septagram. You will be quite mortal, in faraway places.”

“Does that mean you would let me go?”

She closed her eyes. “I may consider it. But you cannot leave here without some kind of accounting for those you have slain.”

Jen squeezed Sergio’s hand under the surface.

Bymaan said, “When you are cleaned, we will have clothing for you. Stay with us in The Garden. You may ask for anything you need or desire, but you must remain until you are sentenced.”

The great creature rose from the water in front of them, turned and walked away. They could already feel the water cooling by the time her bare feet touched the broken concrete at the edge of the reservoir. The angel attendant offered them more soap.

***

Infante woke with a start. He was in an oversized birdcage, dangling in an oversized den. The cage spun when he shifted his weight, but he was able to make some sense of the environment. It looked much like a room in a murder mystery - tall chairs, bookshelves all over the walls, a bearskin rug, a fireplace. But instead of wooden walls and floors, it was hewn from black stone. The fire was pink, and the furniture and ceilings looked built to accommodate ogres.

Abducted by a demon, he remembered. Again! It was shameful. But the things were so damned powerful. He had been right about replacing the gunpowder in his bullets with that hell powder. With that, he was able to mow through the lesser devils - and take out Bybaal with a single shot. So why had the same ammunition been functionally useless against Abalaam?

He remembered the cryptic conversation between the two monsters. Was he only able to kill Bybaal because Jelly Sue’s presence somehow weakened him? It made sense that Abalaam would have been bulletproof afterward - he had destroyed the girl with that freakish display. Why did she shatter like clay?

Bullshit! You don’t need anyone to weaken these demons. You just need a bigger gun, he thought. But the spinning was making him ill. He reached between the bars at the top of the cage and seized the chain, holding it tight.

He rocked roughly for a moment, then the movement settled down. He found he was able to change the angle he was facing by moving his hands on the chain, and took a more careful look around.

There was a big brass key sitting on a coffee table, some fifteen feet away. Armaggeddon had given him godly aim, but not telekinesis. He just knew it was the key to the cage. He let go of the chain and tried to work the door from the outside, since he could at least fit his hands through the bars, but it was to no avail - padlocked tight.

“Abalaam!” At least he knew without question who his enemy was now. Abalaam, and his Queen Bymaan. At least this bastard had left his clothes on. He was stripped down to t-shirt and pants - no belt.

Infante didn’t know what else to do, so he started trying to brute force his way out of the cage. He pressed his shoulders into the top of it and pushed his bare feet into the bottom. It wasn’t going to come easy.

***

Park woke to quiet conversations past the muffling of black velvet curtains. His body ached and he was immediately aware of how weak he was from hunger. He was just glad he hadn’t given away his hiding spot by flailing in surprise.

It was some of them - the demon forces. He could hear a few goat bleats in the mix. Presumably they were trying to make sense of the carnage - and of how Bybaal had been slain.

He dared to peek out from behind the curtain. He couldn’t see them past the stone furniture - and maybe they couldn’t see him either. Good. He crept alongside the wall toward the curtain where he’d left Iphigenia.

As he went, he felt the strong wind blowing in through the open windows. These rough-hewn castles could use some finishing touches. Hanging out on the upper floors was like riding in the back seat of a convertible with the top down.

He reached Ippy’s curtain and ducked inside. She was laying there so still and cold. But how would she end up in that throne room if she was dead? He slowly rose to his feet behind the curtain and peeked out again. This time, he was above the furniture level, with the attendant risk of being immediately spotted.

Most of the soldier angels took off, carrying what was left of Bybaal’s remains. Two remained, standing at either side of the throne. That meant they were facing the only way out - the one stairwell that came to this floor. Park wouldn’t be able to escape notice.

He slid down beside Ippy and touched her shoulder. “Don’t be dead yet, please. Please.” He felt comfortable speaking softly, the high wind obliterating lesser sounds in the lofty throne room.

He pushed a little more firmly, rolling her part way onto her back. That had to be tugging on the wounds a little. She opened her eyes and groaned weakly.

“Hey,” he said. “We still oughtta get you to a hospital, after all that blood loss. Think you’re ready?” Honestly, he was hoping she’d still be supernaturally deadly and able to deal with those angels. He didn’t have any better ideas for how to get past them.

“No. No, I’ll jus’ die. I’m tired.”

“OK, but maybe die just a little bit later. Come on.” He dragged her up to her feet. It was too easy. Some sideways sunlight pricked at her face, made the shadows glow red. Her eyes were squeezed shut, face bitter like she ate a lemon.

“Alright, I’m going to walk us out of here,” he said.

Then he came out of hiding. The soldiers didn’t notice at first. He led her toward the stairs.

“HEY!”

Park heard their hooves and boots on the stones, the jangle of their gear as they hustled. He didn’t look back, but he did stop.

The angels pulled them apart and threw them on the ground. Park raised his hands in surrender. “Take it easy, guys. We’re all cops here, right?”

One bleated and kicked him with a boot. The other pushed its hoof around Iphigenia’s bandaged shoulder and chuckled. “We have witnesses.”

“That’s great,” said Park, “But she really needs medical attention. Mind if we visit the infirmary? Apothecary? Whatever you have aroun--” He was kicked in the gut.

Iphigenia let her wound get abused, scarlet blossomed in the gauze. The angel’s face looked like that guy from Jesus Christ Superstar, but his expression was pure Charlie Manson.

Park had taken his gamble and failed. Hopefully, she wouldn’t pay the ultimate price for it. They were prisoners.

***

Maddy was jolted to consciousness by the sound of the cell doors being unlocked. She had passed out in the night! She hated herself for it. Her time had come. She was about to find out what Demon Court was like.

“Kangaroos!,” she said.

A goat soldier angel and a scaly pangolin with a laughing human face on its throat slapped handcuffs on her and wrestled her out into the hall. “Make this easy on yourself, mortal.” The pangolin kept its nose pointed at the ceiling when the human face spoke, tongue flicking the air.

“I don’t wanna die!”

“Who’s to say it’s going to be a death sentence? Settle down.”

That did calm her a little. She hadn’t killed anyone, had she? But no, they’d probably do something terrible to her. They were demons, and this was Hell. She struggled as they dragged her through the citadel.

Above the dungeon levels, they passed through something like a garage half full of haphazardly parked cars and such. Some electricians were getting out of a van, laying out tools on the ground.

“HELP!,” she cried.

They looked sympathetic, but shook their heads. They were here for a job.

The demons took her to the stairs, higher and higher through the building. The pink flame torches were few between, leaving the stairwell unbelievably dark. Dozens of floors up, windows started to appear, admitting some blue-white daylight and helping a little.

At last, they came out onto what must have been the roof of the citadel. There were buildings up here - plants, and trees. A half-crumpled museum, a black stone temple, a great pool. All around, birds in various sizes tussled and made love and babbled. Soldier angels marched in formations or guarded paths steadfastly, and more glamorous broken-winged angels strolled like it was a day in the park. A few humans worked as well, performing errands and occasionally being startled afresh by the bizarre tableau in which they labored.

Maddy was brought into the temple, before a massive camel and a massive woman. The camel was seated with its belly on the floor, its long neck curling around the woman as she leaned on it, bringing its huge head to rest in her lap. It was Queen Bymaan, from the TV!

“What’s going on?,” Maddy asked, “Is she going to be my judge?”

“Silence!” They forced her to her knees before the Queen. Maddy trembled.

The Queen lifted her huge head to regard the newest criminal brought before her. She looked bored. “So many mortals.”

Maddy wanted to say something in retort, but her lips moved uselessly and no words came out.

“I tire of judging them all. Trines!”

An angel with broken wings and two tiny heads growing from the sides of his neck approached her. “Yes my Queen?”

“I trust your judgment. Establish a court behind the temple, and dispense justice as you see fit.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I don’t wanna…,” she said, “I don’t wanna be dispensed with!”

“Madison Rebecca Homme,” the Queen said, “I love you, but you tried to abduct my subjects. There have to be consequences for such misbehavior. Be quiet now, dear.”

“No! NOOO!” The angels started dragging Maddy after Trines, but Bymaan stopped them with an orant hand.

Bymaan regarded her sadly and stroked the camel. “The criminals can stay in here, if they’ll be quiet. Build a nest for them.”

The goat angel waved his truncheon in the air and a wave of house sparrows rose in response. They flapped and flopped and scrambled around, hustling to draw any loose fibers together into a great nest. It would likely take a while, and the Pangolin had her wait against the wall. She looked on in misery.

“This is so wrong,” she quietly moaned. “Kangaroos.”

***

It was a strange day at a strange elevation. Jen and Sergio walked around the park. The angels were picnicking like it was back to back 19th century idyll paintings. They found the remains of the conservatory. The glass had all shattered when the tower rose, but the plants inside were unnaturally overgrown and healthy, like the birds.

Seagulls landed on the edge of the citadel looking in, curious. Huge starlings buzzed out and chased them off, one strong enough that it effortlessly bit through a wingbone, sending a gull plummeting to its death.

Jen and Sergio were dressed from whatever wardrobe the soldier angels were using. They looked like civil war reenactors that had left their fancy coats on a park bench to eat some barbecue. Loose cotton shirts with blunt collars, tucked into cornflower blue jodhpurs tied off with gold sashes. The pants sank into tall shiny black boots. Very uncomfortable footwear.

Some weirdos were in the profusion of hothouse overgrowth making sex noises. They backed away and walked toward the edge of the tower. They spoke quietly, to avoid being heard by the celebrants.

“What are the odds we can use our super strength to free climb down the outside of this building?,” she asked.

“I don’t know. It’s scary. At least, let’s take a look.”

They tried to look casual, smiling at angels as they walked by, not walking too fast. They reached the outer wall. It was irregular - between a few feet and thirty feet high, like it was crumbled by time. They found a short part of the wall and leaned out as far as they dared.

They could see all the way to the far side of Lake Washington - a perfect view of the skylines of Mercer Island, downtown Bellevue, and Kirkland. Looking down was horrifying. Jen was worried her glasses would fall off and jumped back before getting a good look. Sergio remained a while longer.

“No way. We can’t do that.”

“Yeah, Serge. I believe you.”

She slumped down to the lawn. He sat down beside her and contemplated their prison.

“Maybe they will let me go to Venezuela. Would you like to go?”

“I love Seattle. I hate to leave it like this.”

“I understand. We will go different places after this, whatever happens.”

“It’s been real, Serge.” She patted his thigh.

He lay down more fully in the grass beside her and draped an arm across her belly. “I don’t think anyone can see us here.”

You can really think about that at a time like this, she thought, but then, she didn’t get to be with guys that looked this hot very often, and she seized the day. The last time they did stuff, they were filthy in a cramped cage trying to get to sleep through knackering. The idea of getting with him in comparative comfort?

She grabbed the back of his head and went in for serious makeouts.

***

Jason woke up in terrible shape. His body was broken. He was in shallow water over smooth stones, definitely dealing with some broken ribs, breathing fast and shallow. Something nearby breathed and he lurched in surprise, then cried out in pain. Then he heard it splashing through the water toward him.

A horse-like creature loomed into view, staring. It bared its teeth.

“Oh God, please don’t let me get eaten by a horse.”

It flapped its gums shut then raised its head. It cocked an eye at him, stared him down.

“What? Tell me!”

It turned away and walked off, splashing in the water more slowly.

“Was I expecting Mr. Ed?” He did his best to sit up. It was horrible and involved a few cries of pain, but he did it, and looked around.

It seemed like he was at the bottom of a well for giants. It was a courtyard of sorts - natural features, mounded earth, trees, grass, a creek over decorative stones. But the blue sky was thousands of feet away, up an enormous obsidian shaft. He was in the heart of the citadel. From somewhere all the way up, water trickled in, forming weak waterfalls that fed the creek. There were a few openings and pink lights visible along the walls as well, but he surely could not climb to them in his current state.

The water must be draining, he thought. The waterfalls would be filling the area too fast and flood, unless there was some kind of drain. Maybe he could find a way out through a sewer. It was a very unpleasant idea, but it was all he had. Somebody had to help out Maddy. He had to help out Maddy - wherever she was, whatever they had done with her.

He was glad the horse was paying less attention to him as he trudged around, looking for the drains. It was miserable going. His breathing was a mess. He’d get bored of looking at the water, the stones, every puddle and eddy and lump of mud that might have a secret grate in it - and he’d look up.

Then he’d immediately get a feeling of terrible despair. He was at the bottom of a well. How can you climb your way back from that? He squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, the horse had come back into view around the edge of the central hill. It still wasn’t paying attention to him, but this time he could see it better than the close-up view.

It was a unicorn.

“Will wonders never cease?”

***

#The Septagram

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mbtizone · 7 years

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Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd): INFP

Dominant Introverted Feeling [Fi]: Sweeney Todd has his own ideas about justice, which he takes into his own hands. He believes that London is filled with greedy, amoral souls. For Sweeney, there are two kinds of people – those who struggle just to survive in this world, and those who make this task difficult for the less fortunate ones. He feels that everyone deserves to die. Terrible people should be eliminated from the world, and the rest should be relieved from their suffering. His views of the world cause him to play God, wiping many people from existence. Sweeney doesn’t give a damn about anybody else’s feelings; he’s much too caught up with his own to pay attention to anybody else’s. He ignores Mrs. Lovett’s displays of affection and doesn’t acknowledge Anthony when he tries to shake his hand goodbye because of how preoccupied he is with his own emotions. and He sees things as black and white and is steadfast in his convictions. His views and ideas about the world are completely fixed. Before he was imprisoned, he valued his wife for her beauty and her virtue, while he describes himself as naive and foolish. He laments that the the privileged ruin that which is beautiful and good. He doesn’t openly discuss his feelings, but becomes hellbent on doing something about his pain, which leads him to a vengeful path. Sweeney identifies with his razors because they, like him, have been locked away and hidden from the world for a very long time. He connects with his razors on a deeper level than anyone – including Mrs. Lovett.

Auxiliary Extroverted Intuition [Ne]: Although he has spent many years in incarceration, Sweeney allows himself to dream of a future where he is reunited with his wife and child. Such a long time has gone by and he has virtually no idea what awaits him once he rejoins society, but he holds onto this fantasy despite the odds. His experiences over the years have made him cynical and bitter, but he appears retain a certain amount of hope for a happy conclusion to his story. When he is lead to believe that there is no happily-ever-after for him, he chooses to disregard the law and acts out against the corrupt, nefarious system by finding a different path for himself. He’s good at coming up with ideas, whether that’s inventing a chair that will easily dispose of his victims, or gaining business for himself by undermining his competition. He’s always focused on the next kill and never really allows himself to just live in the moment.

Tertiary Introverted Sensing [Si]: Because of his tragic past, Sweeney adopts a bleak outlook on the entire world. He is so caught up in quest for revenge that he fails to be present in his life. He is unable to let go of the past and it is what motivates him. He compares things to the way they used to be, and wishes for Johanna to resemble her mother. He becomes consumed with his memories, reliving them so intensely that the rest of the world seems to disappear around him. His horrific experiences have shaped his unfavorable outlook on society and the world as a whole, which leads him to develop a rigid, unhealthy belief system (Fi-Si).

Inferior Extroverted Thinking [Te]: Even though Sweeney’s actions are all driven from an emotional place, he carried them out in a manner that is devoid of emotion. He’s completely focused on his mission and does whatever he needs to do to get the job done. He is so eager to put his plans into motion that he is neglectful of those around him. He can be authoritarian when stressed. Sweeney refuses to allow Toby to stop off at the grocery when he instructs him to deliver his letter to Judge Turpin. After he impulsively kills Pirelli, he believes he needs to kill Toby as well to cover his tracks, and is all set to do it until Mrs. Lovett comes up with an alternative option for the boy.

Enneagram: 4w5 5w4 8w9 Sp/Sx

Note: I don’t think it really needs to be said, but Sweeney Todd is probably one of the least healthy INFPs I’ll ever type. It’s also worth noting that he spends most of his time in a Fi-Si loop.

Quotes:

Sweeney Todd: Fifteen years. I’ve sweated in a living hell on a false charge. Fifteen years dreaming I might come home to a wife and child.

Sweeney Todd: You are young… Life has been kind to you… You will learn. There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it and its morals aren’t worth what a pig can spit and it goes by the name of London… At the top of the hole sit a privileged few Making mock of the vermin in the lower zoo turning beauty to filth and greed… I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders, for the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru but there’s no place like London!

Sweeney Todd: I beg your indulgence, Antony, But my mind is far from easy. In these once familiar streets I feel shadows, everywhere

Sweeney Todd: There was a barber and his wife and she was beautiful… a foolish barber and his wife. She was his reason and his life… and she was beautiful, and she was virtuous. And he was naive. There was another man who saw that she was beautiful… A pious vulture of the law who, with a gesture of his claw, removed the barber from his plate! Then there was nothing but to wait! And she would fall! So soft! So young! So lost and oh, so beautiful!

Sweeney Todd: My friend. My faithful friend… Speak to me friend. Whisper… I’ll listen. I know, I know you’ve been locked out of sight all these years, like me

Pirelli: My elixir is “piss!?” Who says this? Sweeney Todd: I do. I’m Mr. Sweeney Todd, of Fleet Street. I have opened a bottle of Pirelli’s Elixir, and I say to you, that is nothing but an arrant fraud — concocted from piss and ink. Furthermore, signor – I have serviced no kings, yet I’ll wager that I can shave a cheek with ten times more dexterity, than any street mountebank.

Sweeney Todd: There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit and it’s filled with people who are filled with shit, And the vermin of the world inhabit it.. But not for long They all deserve to die Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett Tell you why Because in all Of the whole human race, Mrs. Lovett There’s the one staying put in his proper place And the one with his foot in the other one’s face Look at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you.

No we all deserve to die even you, Mrs Lovett, even I Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief For the rest of us death will be a relief We all deserve to die.

Sweeney Todd: And are you beautiful and pale With yellow hair Like her? I’d want you beautiful and pale The way I’ve dreamed you were Johanna Johanna And if you’re beautiful, what then With yellow hair Like wheat? I think we shall not meet again My little dove My sweet Johanna

Sweeney Todd: So where is Lucy? Where is my wife? Mrs. Lovett: She poisoned herself. Arsenic, from the apothecary around the corner. Tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen to me. And he’s got your daughter. Sweeney Todd: He? Judge Turpin? Mrs. Lovett: Adopted her. Like his own. Sweeney Todd: Fifteen years. I’ve sweated in a living hell on a false charge. Fifteen years dreaming I might come home to a wife and child. Mrs. Lovett: Well, I can’t say the years have been particularly kind to you, Mr. Barker. Sweeney Todd: No, not Barker. That man is dead It’s Todd now. Sweeney Todd. And he will have his revenge.

Mrs. Lovett: So, what are we gonna do about the boy, then? Sweeney Todd: Send him up. Mrs. Lovett: We don’t need to worry about him. He’s a simple thing. Sweeney Todd: Send him up! Mrs. Lovett: Now, Mr. T, surely one’s enough for today. ‘Sides, I was thinking of hiring a lad to help me run the shop. Me poor knees aren’t what they used to be. Sweeney Todd: All right.

Sweeney Todd: You’re not to stop, you’re not to speak. Deliver the letter. Do you understand?

Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd): INFP was originally published on MBTI Zone

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voguingtodanzig · 7 years

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AFTER LONG LAYOFF, PAVEMENT OFFSHOOT SPIRAL STAIRS RETURN TO THROW POIGNANT ‘DAGGERS’ (3 months ago on Clyrvnt)

By Raymond Cummings

Time was, Scott Kannberg’s strongest songs — from Pavement's iconoclastic “Hit the Plane Down” and pugnacious b-side “Stub Your Toe” to something like Preston School of Industry’s spindly “The Idea of Fires” — took flight on a riff and a prayer. These tunes were catchy, brusque and instinctually wrought, 7"-worthy wonders party-crashing the LPs or EPs they happened to come packaged along with. Doris and the Daggers is the Stockton, Calif., native’s fourth post-Pavement album and his second as Spiral Stairs, but it’s his best album because it arrives without those sonic M-80 firecrackers of yore. His songwriting here is eclectic, self-assured, mature and heartfelt, reflecting time’s unyielding march and a heavily stamped passport. A few weeks prior to the release of Doris and the Daggers, I interviewed Kannberg via telephone.

I thought you were back in California. When did you move to Mexico? We were. We moved back to Los Angeles in 2013, I think. We’ve been here in Mexico for like the last 10 months, in Merida, in the Yucátan. My wife’s parents, we lived kind of near them. They decided to move to Mexico because they had a house here in Merida, and we had an opportunity to be close to my parents and be close to them in Mexico. Then, in the end, we wound up following them to Mexico. I’m not sure how my parents feel about that. And also, Australia’s so far away, and we were spending so much money on travel. And I wanted to make music, and the people I make music with are in the States. We wanted to move back to San Francisco, but a lot of my friends from San Francisco are moving to L.A. At that time, L.A. was still pretty cheap, and it felt like San Francisco on the east side of town. But in the three years we lived in L.A., it got so expensive.

How do you like living in Mexico? Merida’s a pretty cool place; it’s really growing because it’s a real safe city. A lot of people from Mexico City and Monterrey are moving their families here, so it’s kinda bursting at the seams. But I don’t know any Spanish. Well, I know a little bit. You kinda have to know a little Spanish. There’s a lot of expats here. We have some friends, my wife knows a little Spanish. The food’s amazing, the culture’s amazing, the climate’s a little too hot for me. [Laughs] So, it’s okay, for a while.

I feel like, of all your solo records, Doris and the Daggers is the one that fits together best as an album. There’s normally albums where one or two songs stand out as “the singles”; the Preston School of Industry albums had that, to an extent. This one doesn’t have that; it feels like a whole. I try to create a comfortable listening experience. I look at it as two sides, like a vinyl record; I don’t make it for a streaming or CD kind of world, because I don’t know that world, really. I don’t know how bands like the Beatles made 35-minute records. The goal is to make it so that a listener is interested for 20 minutes, and then they turn the record over, maybe revisit the other side at another time.

For this record, I recorded probably 15 songs with Justin [Peroff, drummer of Broken Social Scene] and Matt [Harris, former bassist of the Posies], and then another 15 with others, and the songs really fit together well as a cohesive kind of thing. I never really try for singles, but I guess I can definitely see the Preston records as having more singles, or “single”-type songs.

This also feels like a more personal album, like you’re really putting yourself out there. I think so, too. There’s an emotional theme to it, I guess. I’ve been listening to a lot of those kinds of records — I really started to get into Lloyd Cole, who has sly lyrics, but they’re emotional. Maybe it comes from that. But maybe it’s that I’m older, more at ease with my songwriting.

One of my favorite songs from the album is “The Unconditional,” which conveys nicely what it’s like to be a parent as children reach that age where they can start making demands. Was there a particular moment that inspired this? I had the riff, and I had the basic music of the song. It was kind turning into this kind of Van Morrison-y thing, with horns. I had a rough idea of some of the lyrics, but a lot of these songs I actually made up the lyrics driving, or riding my bike. Behind our house in L.A., we had this amazing hiking trail. I’d go out there every day and listen to these songs, and whatever popped into my head, I’d jot down. Basically, you’re driving your kid to school and these things pop out of their mouths. [Laughs] I’ve always liked songs people wrote about their children. Everybody does that at some point; I wanted to have one.

Has your daughter heard it? Yeah! She loves it. She knows all the lyrics. She pronounces some of the words wrong. The thing I’m always amazed by with kids is how they retain the language. She’s saying some pretty complicated words. We let her watch little YouTube videos of people playing with toys, and I think that’s where she gets most of it from.

“No Comparison” was a surprise. It flows with the album, but it’s very staccato. It’s almost like disco. How did that one come together? I’ve always been a big fan of the Talking Heads. That’s where it started. I like the Happy Mondays, and I’ve always liked a good dance beat. Originally, “No Comparison” wasn’t intended to be like that, but it kinda morphed into it. The synthesizer element came way late. Kelley Stoltz, when I went up to do some things with him, he added those synthesizer lines; they’re so brash and funny-sounding that I had to keep them. This was my stab at a song off of Remain in Light or something, or something off of Flesh and Blood by Roxy Music. I did that in Pavement, too; “Passat Dream” was a dance-y kind of song. They come out every once in awhile.

I feel like this album has a lot of little touches that bring something special, like how on “Dance,” every time you sing that word in the chorus, there’s a horn stab. Yeah! The horn guys I had were incredible. That song took a real turn. If you heard the demo, it’s completely different — it sounds more like an early Wire song. It went in another direction when I got the horns on there, and I asked this friend of mine, Doug — who actually plays in a Roxy Music cover band — to play on the song and make it sound like Roxy Music. [Laughs]

I know that your longtime drummer, Darius Minwalla, passed away before recording started. Knowing that the vocal at the end of the title track was his really adds something — it’s kind of left-field without the context, but it’s emotional if you know. Can you tell me a bit about him? That vocal was a snippet from a video we put together for a tour from maybe 2004 or so, because Darius kinda came on after [Preston School of Industry's] Monsoon. It was kind of fitting to place it at the very end of the record, because the whole record is emotionally part of him, and I wanted to have his voice in there somehow.

A couple of these songs are about him. “Exiled Tonight” is about a dream I had. It was the last song I was going to record the vocals for. I didn’t have any good vocals, and I came into the studio one day, and the engineer stopped me halfway through and said, “Those lyrics are terrible.” I said, “I know they are.” He said, “Come back tomorrow.” That night I had this dream, where Darius is stuck in the afterlife, and it was a kind of a sign that I had to finish the song so I could finish the record. Another song, “Angel Eyes,” has a verse about him, that the very last song he ever played on drums was “No More Heroes” by the Stranglers.

I think it was a freak accident. He had a bad heart that he didn’t tell anybody about; he had a heart attack and died a month before we were supposed to record up in Seattle. It kinda threw everyone for a loop. It sent me in a different direction for this album.

He was a great guy. I’d known him a long time. He seemed pretty happy in his life. When I moved to Seattle in the early 2000s, he was the Posies’ drummer; Matt Harris, who played on Doris and the Daggers, was the bass player for the Posies. After the Monsoonrecord, Darius started playing with us; he’s the drummer on The Real Feel. After I left Seattle, I moved to Australia, and we lost touch for four or five years. He was supposed to play on Doris.

Justin from Broken Social Scene was really good friends with Darius, too, and he called me up and asked if he could drum.

“Exiled Tonight” seemed, to me, like a touring travelogue. With Pavement, you were touring constantly. Do you miss the touring life? I do miss it. With Pavement, in the old days, we worked it pretty hard. We did every single show anybody asked us to do. We did it on a shoestring budget. I think it kinda wore us down in the end. The reunion tour was great because it was at a much bigger level, and we had a crew and could stay in hotel rooms; it was like a nice vacation, really. This solo stuff is still shoestring, but it’s still touring, and I’m excited about it. I’m going next week to play SXSW, six shows there, then we’ll do a West Coast tour in April, an East Coast / Midwest tour in June.

Eight years separate The Real Feel and Doris. Do you have a big backlog of unreleased songs? Sorta. I didn’t really write that many songs after The Real Feel. But the way I do things, it takes me a long time to get up and running, and when I do start writing songs, I write a lot of songs. I try to use most of them on the records or as b-sides. Most of these are from the last few years. Some of them date back to The Real Feel era, but they sound a lot different than they used to. I’ve already written my next record, and I’m ready to record that!

You’re way ahead of the curve. I don’t wanna fool around. I don’t think you need to, anymore; you can kinda just put things out when you wanna put 'em out. I’m not gonna wait another eight years.

What does the song title “AWM” stand for? It stands for “Always Wanted More.” It’s about my ex-wife. Chrissy was a big part of Pavement; we split up in 2003 or 2004. She’s still around, in San Francisco. She comes to shows. It was tough. It was pretty tough times in Seattle, after the divorce, but then I met Sarah, and things changed after that. I’m much happier.

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