#In the latter two cases there was no definite answer to be had

[ieidolon]

oh thank god, reviewing and fixing my works cited list and in-text citations only took me like an hour. my supervisor said she'd ideally set aside a whole day for it but i'm already done, which means i can spend the rest of my day editing. 47.5 hours till deadline

[notmyneighbor]

r&d | yog sothoth x female reader

part 1/?

words | 2.8k

tnmn nightmare mode, human experimentation, science fiction, human/vampire relationship, evil dr. w. afton, eventual explicit content, none in this chapter

ao3 link

When you first hear about the new program being offered by your employer, you’re more than a little hesitant.

It’s marketed as a way to help door guardians like yourself decompress after the rigors of screening so many doppelgangers, but you’re wary of the attached disclaimer that your sessions will be monitored and recorded ‘to further aid future candidates.’ It all feels a little too intrusive and boundary crossing for your liking, so it’s a fast decline from you—until you’re offered the extra incentive of a bonus check to sweeten the deal. Money talks, and the promised amount is practically screaming your name. In the end, you volunteer to be one of the pioneers in the study.

That’s how you find yourself in a room that looks more like a doctor’s office than the therapist’s cozy space you’d been expecting, the comfortable couch you’d imagined replaced with a chair that bears a resemblance to a dentist’s contraption more than anything else. Those misgivings and doubts are kicking in again, but then your mind argues back that there’s a good chunk of funds waiting for you at the end of this, so surely it’s not too much of a hardship to bear.

You’re more than a little surprised to see a familiar face after the receptionist guides you to the chair and leaves you to your fate. It’s one of the residents of the building you guard. That engaged physicist that lives on the third floor, W. Afton. You’ve always thought it odd that his first name isn’t revealed on any of his identification paperwork—everything on file only had his first initial listed.

He enters the room briskly, carrying a clipboard and a black case. He closes the door and sets the latter item down on the counter, then settles onto the wheeled stool nearby. You suddenly have the distinct, uncomfortable feeling that this is more of a medical program than a psychiatric one.

You lean forward, your bare arms sticking unpleasantly to the vinyl cushioning beneath you. “Dr. Afton? I think there’s been some misunderstanding. I’m going to just—”

He waves a hand in the air to interrupt you, scrawling something on the clipboard resting on his thighs before his head lifts. The way the fluorescent lighting touches his glasses temporarily obscures his eyes from sight. “Nonsense. You’ve agreed to participate. This is where you’re meant to be.”

“Um, with all due respect, I was led to believe this was a psychiatric program? Aren’t you a physicist?”

“My expertise lies in research, and that’s precisely what you’ve agreed to help the DDD with. You might as well sit back and get comfortable. I’m going to ask you a series of questions, and I want you to answer them to the best of your ability. The truth, mind you; not what you think you should say or what you think I want to hear.”

You shift in your seat, glancing at the closed door and licking your lips nervously. “Are we being monitored? The literature said we would be.”

He lifts a finger and points to the corner of two intersecting walls and you realize there is a camera there. “Visual only, no audio. As promised, this is being kept confidential to assure accuracy and no bias. You can confide in me with confidence.” His lips twitch in an almost smile. His eyeglasses slide down the bridge of his nose slightly and you see slate gray eyes regarding you, until he shoves them back into place and rakes back a tendril of dark hair that’s fallen across his forehead.

“Um…” Something about this is definitely off. A lot of somethings. “Would you mind showing me your documents first, so I can verify it’s really you?”

“Of course it’s really me. How else do you think I got inside this facility? This isn’t one of those wretched downtown apartments,” he says. You’re living in one of those so called wretched downtown apartments, you want to retort, but you bite your tongue. “Still, I suppose that’s what you’re accustomed to. A lingering sort of paranoia about verifying human identity,” he mumbles to himself, writing on the paper in his lap again. “Fine. I’ll humor you, just this once. Just to make you feel a little more comfortable.” He sets the pen and clipboard down and walks to your seat, digging in his pants pocket for a leather billfold. The doctor extracts his identification card and hands it to you. “I trust I don’t need to submit an entry request as well?”

You’d never spoken much to the man, in your tenure as doorman, and you’re beginning to see why. He’s unfriendly and borderline rude. You can feel the impatience and irritation wafting from him. What did Mia, the schoolteacher he is engaged to, see in him? She’s so cheerful and kind. Opposites attract, maybe.

“It looks okay,” you mumble, handing the card back to Afton. He tucks it inside his wallet and the accessory vanishes back into his pocket. “I trust you’re satisfied? Or is there some other protocol you feel you need to follow?”

“No, you’re fine.” You feel your cheeks flushing at his condescending demeanor.

“As I’ve said already.” The soles of his polished dress shoes click loudly on the linoleum as he returns to his seat, retrieving the clipboard and writing utensil again. “Now then, shall we begin? We’re wasting valuable company time.”

“Yes.”

“Good. First question. Have you ever mistakenly misidentified a doppelganger? Or a human?”

“No to both.” It was true. Your track record, thus far, has been impeccable.

A grunt and another mark on the paper. “Have any of the doppelgangers ever threatened violence?”

“A few. Mainly once they’ve been called out.”

“Did any of them ever try to bribe you to gain entry?”

“No. I did have one promise to fully reveal himself if I let him in, and he also stated I must not like my neighbors that much, so it wouldn’t matter if I let him in anyway.”

Afton pauses, his pen freezing mid stroke. “How do you think he arrived at that conclusion? That you did not care for your neighbors? Did you have much discourse with him prior to this?”

“No. No more than the usual standard greeting. He remembered to show his card and his entry request, and they were a perfect forgery, but he wasn’t on the day’s list of expected entrants.”

“Is that when the doppel revealed himself?”

“Yes.”

“Were you frightened?”

“Of course. But the barrier is there as soon as I sound the alarm. And the DDD cleaners always come right away.”

Some more writing follows this. Afton presses on the metal at the top of the board to release the pages and turns the top one over, releasing the spring and snapping the holder back into place. “Do you ever have trouble sleeping at night?”

You shrug. “Sometimes.”

“Do you find yourself thinking about your job, even when you are off duty?”

“I guess so.”

The physicist’s lips press in a thin line. “Keep your responses to definitive yes or no answers, please.” He jerks on the tail end of his necktie to straighten it. It is a deep shade of eggplant today.

“Yes,” you say, knowing your tone is definitely a little sharp, but you’re unable to help it. You’ve been on edge ever since the man walked into the room.

“What sorts of things do you think about?”

“Wondering if I made all the right decisions. What the next day will bring. What would happen if the doppels got better at disguising themselves and blending in. Where they come from in the first place.”

Afton taps the end of the pen against the paper thoughtfully. “Do you think that will happen? That they’ll eventually be successful? That you’ll make the wrong decision?”

“I hope not. But yes, it’s a concern of mine.”

“A fear, too, wouldn’t you say?”

“I suppose so.” He glares at you. “Yes,” you clarify, gritting your teeth.

“I see.” He writes briefly and then sets the items back on the counter, this time reaching for the black case as he rises. His back blocks the contents from view.

“So now what happens?”

“You’ve fulfilled your end of the bargain, so now it’s time we fulfilled ours. Providing an outlet for these pent up fears of yours.”

“Which means?”

Lightning fast, Afton slips something into his lab coat pocket. He turns to face you, and the smile he has is nothing short of sinister, a kind of rictus, as if he is one of the doppels, trying the motion out without understanding its purpose.

“You’re finally going to get caught up on some of that sleep you’ve been missing. You know, because you’ve been so worried about the doppelgangers.”

“I didn’t say—”

“Now, now. None of that. It’s too late to change your answers. It’s all been documented.” Almost casually he reaches out to rest a hand on the arm of your chair and you hear a clicking sound. In the blink of an eye twin metal bands snap over your wrists.

“What the fuck?!” You struggle against the restraints, your heels flailing and digging in uselessly as your squirm, trying to escape. “Let me go!”

“You agreed to this, remember?”

“To be restrained? No way. Get me out of this thing right now.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that just yet. One more step to go.” His voice is so calm, so placid. He’s making it sound as if this is the most normal thing in the world. His hand disappears into his coat pocket and you finally see what he’d hidden there earlier: a syringe with some eerie glowing fluid. “You’re going to want to hold still for this. It would be so unfortunate if I missed and had to puncture your skin more than once.” He does not look the least bit remorseful. Instead, there is a look of almost glee on his normally solemn features. Excitement. He’s enjoying this.

“You can’t inject me with that! I don’t consent! Help!”

“You’re wasting your breath. Sound proof room. Confidential, remember? As I told you earlier. And you did consent. We have your signature on file. A legally binding contract.” His fingers curl around your elbow, turning the joint slightly so he has access to the larger vein in the hollow of your upper extremity,

“This can’t possibly be legal. You’re not a medical doctor! You don’t even know how to give an injection!

”Do you think the doppels are the only ones who know how to forge an ID?” His voice is a low, sultry rasp. Gloating, now.

You gape at him. “What the…who are you?”

“The name is real enough. I suppose we’re better acquainted now, so you can learn my first name. Not that you’ll remember any of this later. It’s William.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s what I do. My job. Seeing this through. Experimenting. Research. Enough chatter.” You feel the tip of the needle laid against your skin and you instantly freeze, holding your breath.

“Please, stop, William,” you implore gently, hoping this approach might prove more effective than yelling and struggling, knowing all the same it’s a futile attempt.

Afton’s gray eyes meet yours. “Sweet dreams. See you when you get back.” Pain. Heat inside your arm, then liquid ice.

Darkness.

***

The first thing you smell is brimstone.

You’re not even sure how you recognize that scent. Your eyes open and you find yourself in the security booth you work in every day.

But it’s different.

Four eyes, one at each corner of the window, stare back at you, following your hand movements. The walls are spattered with blood. The papers and files are crumpled and stained. There’s an ominous looking fluid dripping from the air vent. The handle of the phone looks like it’s coated in some unpleasant substance. There are holes in the plaster and some of the wiring for the door panel control is exposed, the ends fraying. You shudder and the eyes follow this motion too, ever attentive.

A tapping sound draws your attention back to the window.

You have a prospective entrant outside the glass, their hand resting on that clear panel, which has several spidery cracks, you notice with a growing sense of alarm. There are claws clicking on that smudged surface that needed to be wiped down with ammonia desperately, the owner bearing a strong resemblance to the man you know as Francis Mosses.

Alike in some ways, such as the general build and facial structure, but different, too. These eyes are golden and red rimmed. He has pierced ears, silver spikes driven into each. A gold nose ring. A choker with spikes to match the earrings, with a padlock dangling from his throat. Whereas the milkman always wears a white uniform, this figure is clad in a black dress shirt with some suspicious stains on his left chest. There are also a pair of fangs poking from the barrier of his lips, and your first immediate thought is that this pale figure is a vampire.

Ludicrous, right? But then again, is it any more wild than the eyes that are watching you from the window frame, the obviously trippy effects of whatever junk Afton has injected you with taking hold, making you have this strange nightmare?

The figure slides an ID card and entry request into the slot and you want to laugh at that mundane formality. As if you’re going to let a bloodsucker in. Yes, see, it says it right there on his paperwork. He went out to suck blood. Vampire.

“You’re new, human.”

Your eyes flick up to the creature’s face. “Have there been many others here?”

“A few.” He nods towards the room you’re standing inside. “You gonna hit the buzzer and let me in?”

“I…” You glance down at his name. Yog Sothoth. He lives in a different apartment than Francis. A different floor entirely, if these documents are accurate. “This is just a bad dream. It has to be. None of this is real.”

“It’s real. That DDD from your world found a way to create a portal here. Drugged you and sent you through it, just like the others.”

You frown. “It says here astral plane? What does that mean?”

“Exactly what it says on the label. You’re in an alternate realm that can only be reached through spiritual transcendence. In short, your mind is here, your body elsewhere. At least, I think that’s how it works.”

“This is crazy.” You pause. “What happened to the others? The humans who got here before me?”

“I couldn’t tell you. They disappear fairly quickly. Not sure who’s responsible. It wasn’t me,” he adds quickly. “If that’s what you’re thinking. I just take a little at a time. And I don’t discriminate. Blood is blood, though I must say your species is a lot cleaner than some of the other riffraff around here.”

“If it’s only your mind that’s here, why do you need to feed at all?”

“Mmm, doesn’t work that way. Me and the other residents, we are actually, physically here. It’s just you humans that are straddling both worlds.”

“I do have a physical form here, though. I can interact with things.” You lift up Yog’s entry request to demonstrate. “This makes no sense.”

The vampire shrugs. “I don’t make the rules, I just exist by them. So, am I good to come in?”

“There are really doppels here, too?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“How do I get back home?”

“I don’t know, exactly. Maybe the DDD will bring you back when the experiment or whatever the hell they’re doing is over? The other humans I spoke with seemed as in the dark about it as you are.”

“The DDD,” you murmur darkly. You’ve been proud to work for them. Glad to be able to help your fellow neighbors. Now, though? You hardly know what to think.

“Not sure which is worse, to be honest.”

You grunt in agreement. Afton had said something about seeing you when you got back, so you have to believe that there will actually be a return trip. There didn’t seem to be much purpose behind just sending you along one way and then not gaining any knowledge from that venture. He’d also mentioned you wouldn't remember what had happened in the office with him, which also makes you wonder: are you doomed to just keep repeating this experiment? Unwittingly participating because you’ll have no recollection of the DDD’s seeming betrayal? What was the point of any of this? You slide Yog’s things back to him, forcing yourself to focus on the creature standing across from you. “You’re chattier than Francis.”

“Francis?”

“The human that looks like you in my world. You seem like you’re a good person like he is. Maybe that’s the same in every universe.” You push the button to release the lock on the door. “I guess I might as well let you in.”

The bloodsucker hesitates. “I hope you make it back home safely. If I don’t see you tomorrow, it was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

You lock the door behind him.

[matan4il]

Hello

I saw a comment you made in your post about eurovision that had a statistic of 90% of Jews are Zionists (I think this is what it said but I might be wording it wrong, in which case I'm sorry) and I wanted to know if you had a source for this information? I'm genuinely curious because I don't think I've heard this before.

Hi Nonnie!

It's so funny, that statistic is actually so very commonly recited among Jews, it's a reminder that what we consider "basic knowledge" is often more about our specific environment and experience, rather than a universal principle.

Okay, so to be accurate, this statistic is an estimate based on separate polls and indicators from different Jewish communities around the world, because as far as I know, no one has ever done a global survey on Zionism among Jews. Usually, this would make me somewhat reserved, but honestly, the localized polls and indicators are so consistent, and in every community we find that the overwhelming majority of Jews ARE Zionist, that I think the 90% of Jews are Zionist is somewhere between reliable to possibly even being a bit of an underestimate.

Something I find interesting, is that where they posed two questions, which asked Jews, "Are you a Zionist?" and another that asked, "Do you believe Israel has the right to exist?" the answer was affirmative in higher percentages for the latter. It's a little like the difference between asking, "Are you a feminist?" and "Do you believe women deserve equal rights?" Where the word 'feminist' has been vilified, and distorted, people might hesitate to define themselves that way, despite believing in equal rights for women (even though that's the basic belief of a feminist), answering "no" to the former and "yes" to the latter. Similarly, the belief in Israel's right to exist IS the definition of a Zionist, while the term itself is being demonized. You believe in a right for the Jewish state to exist, just like a state for every other nation has the right to exist, or even just based on the fact that a Jewish state already exists and destroying it would be a disastrous act of ethnic cleansing? Congrats, you're a Zionist. You can be critical of its current government, but you're still a Zionist. It's that simple. The fact that even when people are sometimes reluctant to define themselves as Zionist, they still believe in the fundamental principle of Zionism, is what leads me to believe that even some of these surveys, if they only ask, "Are you a Zionist?" are actually an underrepresentation of how many Jews are Zionist.

I hope this helps! Have a good day!

(for more of my posts regarding antisemitism and Israel, click here)

[mistywaves98]

Omg double request???????? slay??????? Whatabout,,,,,, yan albedo,, kidnapping reader n keeping her in a cage for stress relief,, like he'll occasionally feed her and give her water ofc, but a lot of the time he'll lace it with aphrodesiacs and let her suffer in the cage until she's begging to be fucked- boy makes absolutely sure she humiliates herself- like girl's fighting for her freedom? He'll just make her so desperate she has nowhere to turn to but to him.

-the amazing super awesome best anon ever/jjj

Sorry for taking sooo long with this, I lost motivation and when I got it back I decided to rewrite the whole thing 💀 and I'm finally back from the dead!

✧･ﾟ:* Yandere! Albedo x Fem! Reader

✧･ﾟ:* ¡Warnings!: NSFW, Yandere/Darker Themes, Kidnapping, Fingering, Making out, Aphrodisiacs, Teasing, slight sadist! Albedo, that's all I think!

✧･ﾟ:* Minor writing smut! DNI if uncomfy!

Reblogs are greatly appreciated!

You hadn't even known him for that long or that closely, yet he felt a constant yearning whenever you weren't around. You were just another adventurer that completed commissions for the guild, so why did he like you so much? This want for you was hindering his research since he couldn't focus when you were on his mind 24/7. Weighing his options he figured it would be pointless trying to persuade you to stay with him forever since you enjoyed your freedom, it was really obvious. So what was plan B?

Why to keep you with him by force of course.

As adventurous as you were, you could also be a little to trusting and oblivious at times. Everything was calculated down to the smallest detail. Eventually he had formulated the perfect plan to make sure you were his. Due to Albedo's precision, it wasn't long before you were in his lab, unconscious.

Upon stripping you of your weapon and vision, Albedo realized that he missed one crucial thing. He didn't plan on what to do with you after kidnapping you. It's not like you were there for any reason other than to satisfy his desire for your company.

Eventually he settled on a cage he happened to have when he wanted to observe live monsters he captured for research. He cleaned and even cushioned it a bit before placing your limp body inside. Once he locked the gate he decided that all was good and he could focus again now that you were under his surveillance 24/7.

It had been months, maybe even years and although the likely answer to how much time had passed was the former, the latter was definitely what it felt like. Although it was unlikely you could have escaped, Albedo decided to cuff your arm to the bars just in case. The bindings were tight and made your wrists sore but there was nothing you could do about it.

It made you furious that all you could do was sit there like a doll on display, only taken out to be tampered with from time to time. But again, you were helpless.

You were snapped out of your sulking as the hinges of your cage creaked open and a plate of steaming food was placed into it. As quickly as it was unlocked, it was shut once more. You stared at the meal with a sour look, as good of a cook he was you didn't trust his food because of numerous.... occasions.

But you were so hungry and you could feel your mouth watering at the smell. So as always, you reluctantly gave into your needs.

Why did it end up like this? You already knew the answer. Aphrodisiacs. In your food. That's what lead you here, completely naked on his lap with your back against his chest, two fingers shoved in your mouth while three more are shoved up your pussy not moving an inch. You desperately try to grind your hips onto them for any sort of friction to help you reach your high but you just can't. You can't even begin when the pads of his gloved hand flatten your tongue against the bottom of your mouth. The most you can do is pathetically whimper in hopes he'll get the hint and he does but would rather see you suffer so you just have to sit there, waiting until he decides what to do to you.

"I assume you want me to move my fingers,hm?" A sharp thrust makes you gasp. "C'mon, tell me darling, what do you want from me." He chuckles cruelly when all that escapes you mouth is muffled whines and incoherent noises. "Ok ok, I'll let you talk." As soon as the fingers leave your mouth you speak,"Please, please let me cum! I-I'll be good, just—" You're cut off by another thrust of his fingers into your tight cunt but this time they continue plunging in and out making you moan in ecstasy as you feel your orgasm building up.

Albedo's free hand traveled down your neck and began fondling your exposed breasts making you arch your back at the added stimulation. In doing so you slightly shifted your positions and you couldn't help but cry out as you felt him hit that sweet spot inside of you. "N-ngh f-feels soooo good 'bedo! Please don't s-stop!" Hearing you say his name always made something stir inside of him, something that told him to go harder. "C-cumming!" With that you gushed all over his fingers, coating them with cum that dripped onto his lap, soaking his clothes but that was the least of his worries. You couldn't see the ways his eyes darkened form the position you were in but when he moved a hand to tilt your chin to face him you were met with that scary smirk that, even through your dazed state, had learned to fear because it always meant nothing good.

"Who gave gave you permission to cum? I don't recall saying you could orgasm, now look at the mess you've made." As if there wasn't already a mess," 'm sorry...I—" you were cut off as his lips met yours. His hand shifted form your chin to hold your face in a way that give him firmer grip. Drool ran down your chin as his tongue entered your mouth, licking everywhere it could reach.

When he finally broke the kiss, you were panting heavily. Albedo observed your face as you gazed at him through half lidded eyes. Dried tears stained your face as a bright red blush covered it, beads of sweat ran down your face and your eyes we're puffy and swollen. You were certainly a sight for sore eyes, Albedo made sure to make a mental image of it to paint later.

Lifting you up into the desk, be shoved everything on it aside as he laid you on your stomach. Now your lower half was hanging over the edge and you tensed as the cold surface met your hot skin. You gasped as something big and hard pressed up against your pussy's entrance. "You wanted to cum so bad so you did so without my approval, how disobedient of you... but don't worry, now I'll give you all the orgasms you want."

[novafire-is-thinking]

So I was wondering for a long time what would canonically happen if a human stayed inside a Cybertronian while they transformed. I came across two pages in IDW comics that mostly answered my question:

However, would this apply to all other Transformers or does it only apply to those with the same body type as Bumblebee or only Bumblebee? Does the alt mode have anything to do with this? Would the transforming noise be louder or muffled from the inside?

It definitely depends on the bot’s body type and alt mode. It probably depends on the show and continuity too.

Prime

In the second episode of Prime, Miko forgets to grab her guitar before hopping out of Bulkhead. It ends up somewhere in his “subspace”:

Notice how she says “back seat.”

In the IDW panels you sent, Bumblebee shifts his passengers to his back seat before transforming.

This tells me that, when a Cybertronian with a car mode is transforming from alt mode to root mode, people and items are probably safer and/or more comfortable if they’re in the back seat.

A couple of episodes later, it’s discovered that Miko tagged along without Bulkhead realizing it. Twice:

In the moments leading up to this part, Bulkhead is seen launching from the ground in alt mode and transforming to his root mode midair to grab onto a rocky cliff side. Miko was inside the entire time and survived, although she definitely suffered for it.

What about root mode to alt mode transformation? What would happen then?

Well, in season 3, Miko does what she does and ends up inside of Wheeljack’s subspace:

It’s never shown whether WJ first transformed to alt mode to let her hop in or if he just opened up his chest and dropped her in. My guess is the latter since, on the way out of the hangar to the ship, Magnus and Bulkhead weren’t far ahead of him when she asked if she could come. They probably would have noticed him switch to his alt mode, which neither Wheeljack nor Miko wanted.

The thing is, did he think before dropping Miko inside?

I doubt that he did, but these are the questions I would have:

Since combat might require split-second transformation, did he drop her in knowing she would survive an emergency transformation to his alt mode? (Unknown)

Did he tell her in which part of his subspace she’d be most comfortable in case he had to transform to his alt mode? (Probably not)

Was his plan to let her out in Magnus’ ship before going outside? (Maybe)

So, in TFP, The safety and comfort of a human inside a bot going from car mode to root mode is unknown.

Unfortunately, I have nothing I can go off of for fliers.

Rescue Bots

Several times throughout the series, the human members of the rescue team ride inside their partners’ chests when they switch to and from their alt modes. It’s safe and comfortable. They even get nice seats. lol

Barring the fact that this is a kids show which requires this feature, I wonder if the bots were able to choose this for their human partners or if they just made sure to scan alt modes with that particular type of subspace.

It would definitely be interesting to know if Cybertronians have the ability to choose which insides and kibble go where when first scanning an alt mode…

Anyway—

Rise of the Beasts + Bayverse films

RotB gave us a golden glimpse of Cybertronian transformation abilities.

Behold…one of my favorite parts of the movie:

Originally, I was going to use the AoE clip of Optimus scanning his new alt mode and transforming around his human passengers, but this clip works better. It’s an excellent display of what a Cybertronian body is capable of.

With more than a handful of distinct alt modes, Mirage appears to be a special case. I mean, the guy can literally separate pieces of his body to give to others and become an armored suit for a human.

Can all Cybertronians do that? I have no idea. When’s it my turn to be lovingly wrapped in living metal armor? Hm?

Looking at both AoE and RotB, Cybertronians appear to have the ability to move individual parts (within limits).

It would make sense if all bots could at least do what Mirage does in the above clip, if nothing more than that.

This is incredibly useful when transforming with human passengers.

Now, to answer your last question (finally):

The noise level inside a bot during transformation would depend on which parts are being moved and how much shifting is taking place. Cosmetic shifts would be muffled since they’re happening outside, but if parts surrounding the human(s) are being shifted, it’s going to be loud and clear to the passenger(s).

Movies are almost never a good way of determining realistic noise levels, but in the clip with Mirage and Noah, things don’t sound muffled at all.

[dodger-chan]

So, I spent the last week rewatching* Deadloch to determine if it really is a fair play mystery, and my answer is: yes, kinda. Yes, in that you do get all the information the detectives do before the reveal (though sometimes the information will be withheld for a scene or two for dramatic effect). Kinda because the clues given in the first seven episodes** are not enough to point the finger at the murderer without looking at the show as a piece of art, and considering what its themes are and which of the viable suspects would best reflect those themes. Specific spoilers under the cut. Do not read until after you have watched Deadloch, which you should do as it is amazing.

*reading the subtitle files and watching a few key scenes

** I'm not including the 8th episode, where the killer is revealed, because by that point you're not getting clues, you're getting answers.

Every clue I noticed that implicates Ray, with commentary

(episode one) Cath mentions going to treat Ray's pet: Not super useful, as we see Ray with Lou later, and learn that Lou is old and likely to need medical treatment. It doesn't mention the pentobarbital, though presumably Lou is Ray's excuse for getting it from Cath. It also gets his name in the show right away.

(episode two) When Ray takes Eddie to the shack, he mentions Skye O'Dwyer is his best friend. We also know he works for her mom at the bakery, and seems to care for the whole family. So when we start considering who would kill Sam O'Dwyer, he's definitely close enough to the family to be a suspect.

(same scene) We learn Ray isn't from Deadloch, but has been living there for some time. But the line is vague on when specifically he moved. It would have been helpful to know he moved before Sam was killed.

(same scene) Eddie lets Ray know she's leaving as soon as they find Sam and his boat, where she thinks (correctly) the murders happened. It's not a secret, but he's the only non-police character we're shown specifically being told this information.

(episode two) Ray doesn't have any lines after he leaves Eddie at the shack, so I watched the end of the episode and he doesn't rejoin the other main characters at the Bush Wolf. Not suspicious in and of itself, but if you go back and look for alibis, it's clear he doesn't have one for planting Sam's body/setting the boat on fire

(episode three) Sam's body is planted immediately after Eddie keys in on him as a suspect. Amusingly, this seems to be less about Ray wanting to show he's smarter than to cops and more about making sure Eddie stays in town.

(episode three) Eddie again tells Ray she's leaving as soon as they have the DNA match, then leaves him after taking a swab. The next guy in line goes to Ray to get swabbed for the test. This implies it's possible he didn't submit his sample and that's why the blood on the boat didn't match him. It's also possible that the blood was from a previously undiscovered victim. I don't think we ever find out which was the case. My assumption is the latter, because why would he hand over a DNA sample if it might implicate him?

(episode four) Kind of an anti-clue: Ray at the beginner swimmer class. An experienced sailor isn't necessarily a good swimmer, and he used a boat for the first five (discovered) victims. Of course, this turns out to be a lie and Ray's actually an accomplished swimmer, but it doesn't make sense that he'd be pretending to need lessons.

(episode five) Ray is one of the first people to find Jimmy's body and reports it, fits with killer wanting to see other people reacting to his art.

(episode five) Another anti-clue: Ray vomits when he sees the body, and again while telling Eddie about it. The character might have been able to fake it that first time (he was preparing food, he could have snuck a slurry into his mouth like the actor actually did) but I think the character had to be genuinely vomiting the second time.

(episode five) Even with my glasses on I couldn't read the list of names the priest faxed over while it was on the tv. Taking a screenshot and zooming in gave me a better look, but while one of the names looked like it might have been Ray McLintock, it wasn't clear. Given that Eddie didn't know his name (he told her when she took his DNA, but it didn't stick) I think it would have been fine for us to see his name on the list, but not have it ping with her. (Spouse and I were calling him "Ray Pies" when we talked over the episodes, so I doubt the name would have pinged for me, but it would have been nice to have confirmation he knew about the religious stuff).

(episode six) “I’ve made some mistakes with women, and I’ve had some pretty weird interests” okay, it's not much of a clue by itself, but in retrospect, yeah, I think he has.

(episode seven) The six extra bodies surface and it turns out they were frozen and had defrosted over the last forty-eight hours. This means the killer started to defrost them around the time of the DNA testing. Also when Eddie told Ray she'd be leaving soon.

(episode seven) Eddie admits to actually liking Ray. She's a mess with shitty taste, there had to be something wrong about him.

That's pretty much it for clues within the show. It's not a lot, and I'd argue it's not enough to consider the mystery solvable. It's fine when clues don't seem to be relevant before you know who done it, but I think they need to be a little more conclusive when you look back over them. In the first seven episodes we don't know that Ray has access to pentobarbitol, or that his pet is still alive, or about Sam not being his first kill. At no point do we find out where he was storing those frozen corpses for years (sure, Skye has a cool room for her restaurant, but she would be using it) or how he got his hands on William Carruther's old car. And we don't know he moved to Deadloch before the murders began until we find out he was committing them.

Still, if you start with the theme of reinvention, and you eliminate suspects based on definitive alibis and not psychological profiles, Ray is one of the better suspects left, especially if, like me, you'd been assuming Margaret killed her brother from the moment we heard he'd left the country. Ray being the killer wasn't a shock, but I didn't know ahead of the scene in episode eight where Eddie finds Lou, even if I joked about Ray being the killer because Eddie liked him. So in conclusion: fair play, kinda.

[sepublic]

Not if Luz Could; If she Should

One of the interesting takeaways from Follies at the Coven Day Parade is the fact that Luz, for all of her fear of not being accepted by her mother, was still decently rational; After all, she'd seen firsthand how Vee got accepted by Camila, and found out from Vee that her mother had even changed her mind to go back and accompany her to Reality Check camp, clearly concerned for her!!! So Luz got to see a bit of her mom's side of the story, and understand better that she meant and intended well.

Likewise, she seemed to understand that when Camila made Luz promise to stay, that her mom was kind of freaking out and not in a clear state of mind, and panicked because she wasn't sure she'd see Luz again. And all of this culminates in Luz staving off the building self-loathing by hoping she can still prove to her mom that the Boiling Isles is good for her, that she's met good people, and that Camila means well enough to change her mind after calming down and getting a proper look at the situation.

And she's not wrong!!! Honestly, I wonder if Luz would've been as uncertain about her mom accepting her in Enchanting Grom Fright, if she'd known earlier about Camila coming back to drive her to camp personally (I bet you Camila checked the trash bin and was relieved to see Luz had retrieved her book)… Granted, seeing Grom turn into her worst fear, and never quite being able to confront that -instead, defeating Grom comes after it has already discarded the illusion- definitely played a role, so I'm not sure if Luz would've been able to shake that off just yet. But maybe, there was a chance she could've told Camila before Grom... Alas.

But then with Hollow Mind, Luz's concern changes; She realizes she taught Belos the last glyph, and helped him find the Collector, the latter of which was what made the draining spell even possible to begin with. Luz has helped Belos more than anyone else, sans the Collector themselves of course; And that couldn't have happened without Luz, or so she feels.

And this complicates things when she reunites with her mother for two months; Because by this point, Camila has obviously calmed down, figured things out. And seeing Luz's teenage friends just further cements in her mind, Oh yeah, Luz really benefits from these people.

But it's no longer that simple after Hollow Mind; Now for Luz, the dilemma isn't whether Camila will let her maintain contact with both realms, that part has been resolved already. By the time Luz reunites with her mother, the problem is now: Do I deserve to be in the Demon Realm? Do I deserve to stay, am I allowed to, or am I an inherent threat as an outsider who contributed to colonization? The question is no longer if Luz CAN stay in both realms, the answer is yes; It's if she morally should.

I'm thinking of Luz's interaction with Camila in Thanks to Them, in the bedroom; Luz asks Camila why she isn't mad at her, so she's figured out by now that Camila is chill with the situation, with Luz's choice, etc. Luz can't comprehend why in her self-loathing, but she's smart enough to pick up on this at least. Luz even expresses her dream of letting Camila meet King and Eda.

But it's when Camila tries to reassure Luz by explaining that people just need to learn from their mistakes, that Luz, in her fucked-up state of mind, misinterprets how she should learn; In this case, by just no longer going back to the Demon Realm, because going there is what caused this whole mess, she believes.

Likewise, Luz thinks it's also her way to make things up to Camila for 'abandoning' her, because even if Luz knows she can get away with having both worlds, again, she shouldn't. Luz thinks her mom should be harder, should disagree (or really, agree) with Luz, because Luz deserves to be punished. Her mom is too forgiving for allowing this; Camila deserves to be angry and set those boundaries, Luz believes!

So then the resolution comes; First, from Luz realizing she doesn't owe anyone a self-inflicted punishment that nobody wants for Luz, except Luz herself (and Belos, ugh). And of course, what Camila meant is that Luz needs to forgive herself for making mistakes, and fix them in a manner that rationally addresses what culpability Luz reasonably has, rather than just laying it all on herself because For Want of a Nail, because of a traumatized need to retroactively feel in control by believing she could've done something about the situation, and still can by holding onto some limited agency via administering what justice Luz can.

In this case, it's the misguided agency and 'justice' of punishing herself, because in many ways it's easier for Luz to hurt herself than bring herself to hurt someone like the Collector; She believes she knows herself more than anyone else, so Luz can make that judgment.

Belos is a... different and very justified story on Luz's part, because even in her worst throes of self-loathing she has the common sense to recognize that he's objectively evil; Her self-hatred comes from recognizing that objective evil, and believing she's contributed to it. Luz essentially hopes to take Belos down with her, so they can both stop hurting others. Luz's dilemma is initially questioning the morality of wanting him dead, but she isn't questioning if Belos is evil or if it's right to stop him, either.

And then, the second part of Luz's resolution; Meeting the Titan. King's dad represents the very world Luz has visited and fallen in love with, her relationship with her is Luz's relationship with the land itself, with the Demon Realm, etc. And in the end, the Titan reassures Luz; She's proven herself as someone who means well, who reflects. She is not an inherently harmful presence to the isles, or even reasonably harmful at all! She's done so much good, with the Titan's own son King being an undeniable example that rings close to both of their hearts.

This is because Luz put in the work to actually understand the Boiling Isles and its people, to listen to and respect them, and care for them for their own sake, and not just as a projection of her own fantasies; Their lives matter more than that, but Luz is also allowed to hold onto her fantasy and live it out in a healthy way, because fantasy, art, dreams; These are what let us live, as do our connections with others. She should choose herself, in the Titan’s words; Not just making that choice herself, but to prioritize herself as well.

In the end, the Titan is simply the voice for this world and its people, telling Luz that he's experienced actual colonization and fetishization, and it ain't what Luz has done. The Titan acts not as a God but as the collective voice for everyone Luz has helped, especially as someone able to have witnessed all of these events. The Titan's reassurance is the world paying Luz back for her kindness and respect, and Luz listening to it is Luz prioritizing the opinions of these people she's afraid of having helped colonize, more than the colonizer's.

In other words, she's not speaking over them like, say, a colonizer might. Luz is once again respecting and listening to what the Demon Realm has to say, and their authority on the subject, because she knows she doesn't just get to decide for people, as she was afraid of doing; And all of this comes around and does wonders for Luz's emotional health. And there's that necessary humility that comes from listening to her loved ones over herself and her self-pity, and there's also that bravery and self-love necessary to dare to believe in that reassurance.

Luz’s ultimate goal throughout the show is kind of the same, yet it clearly evolves in response to her experiences and character development, some of which is negative for Luz in the form of trauma! Overall, it's a fascinating shift in priority for Luz's arc that enables it to last, it’s the writers’ way of keeping Luz from her resolution because she’s still guessing; Not so much because she’s repeating the same question but because after answering one, she’s been given another that comes with Luz’s worldview being challenged deeply, thanks to other things in Luz’s life; These goals are smaller on the thematic level of her core mission of acceptance (even if they are a bigger priority in-universe), but they do affect and sometimes even get in the way of it. And that keeps things fresh and interesting!

Luz is still uncertain about the future in a way that makes sense, and doesn't just hinge on Luz not knowing her mother because she eventually does know!!! She simply disagrees by that point due to developments. Hell she even disagrees with the others of the Boiling Isles; By S2B, it was less about Luz convincing Camila to let her stay in both worlds, and more if Luz was morally allowed to stay in both worlds after deeming herself guilty of causing harm to one, and wanting to atone for that and minimize damage; Even at the cost of Luz's own happiness.

But, as it turns out; This also comes at the cost of her loved ones' happiness too! It makes them miserable to see Luz miserable, her self-loathing does not exist in a vacuum and in fact spreads out to the others, manifesting in different ways. So again there's this accountability to self-love that you don't see discussed in media a whole lot (at least the media I've seen, which could be limited), and conversely there's a pride in ignoring everyone else's reassurance.

Reminds me of the claim that the motivating sin of all is Pride and it never truly dies... And it really does linger and poison in the most insidious, roundabout ways that you'd think don't qualify. But in the end, Luz let go of that stubbornness and just listened to the Boiling Isles, both literally and figuratively. And that's another reason why she could never be the colonizer she believes herself to be, even after being gaslit to the contrary by an actual colonizer trying to drag Luz down to his level.

Because Luz is an Immigrant, and that is not inherently Colonial; Because what makes an outsider Colonial is their relationship with the land and people they visit, and boy did Luz actually nurture and get that relationship right. All of this is just a pretty fascinating and nuanced way of exploring Luz's arc, and the question of whether it's okay to want things and prioritize yourself from time to time, and if it's as simple as matter of if you CAN because that doesn't necessarily translate to the responsibility of if you SHOULD; But in Luz's case, it very much is that and she earned this part. And it just goes to show Luz's responsibility in engaging with fantasy and reality; It's meta, it's a story about stories and I love that so much!

[new-kit-on-the-block]

Miraculous - The watered-down significance of akumatization

(This is an analysis, but it's also a sort of rant. So there's a lot of text underneath the cut. Just a fair warning.)

I have a problem with the way that the latter seasons of Miraculous handle akumatization.

There's a pretty basic rule of thumb when it comes to writing the bigger moments of your story:

If something is a big deal, let it be a big deal.

Seasons 4 and 5 don't always do that.

Let's take a look at what I mean.

These are screenshots of the three separate occasions that characters have broken out of akumatization in seasons 4 and 5.

Take note of who these characters are and their importance (or lack thereof) to the overall plot.

On the one hand, you have Alya and Nino, the two main characters' respective best friends. It's only natural in a show like this for these two to be strong enough to break out of akumatization, it makes the main characters look like they definitely chose their friends right.

And then you have Alix's Redditor conspiracy-theorist older brother.

Why is he one of the big three who managed such a significant feat like this?

It's not like he's been shown to be particularly strong-willed. In fact, one could argue that he's even less so than most other characters due to how much further he fell into the rabbit hole of Lila's manipulation than anyone else.

His gullibility and irrationality are the entire reason he gets akumatized in the first place.

And he doesn't ever play a significant role after this, either. The only other time that he even had so much as a speaking role was the other time he got akumatized way back in season 1 for not being allowed to sacrifice someone to the Egyptian gods.

Now, these aren't the first times that people have fought back against Hawkmoth while being akumatized. But they are the first times that they've successfully broken out.

Pixelator questioned Hawkmoth's authority over him, and in response, Hawkmoth did something with his hand that started causing physical pain to Pixelator, reinstating his control over his akuma.

The only other time an akuma victim fought back was Robustus, which was a special case because he rebelled against Hawkmoth by using the specific abilities that were granted to him.

Neither of them even tried to escape akumatization.

Akumatization has always been set up as something powerful. Something that takes the worst parts of you and amplifies them to the point of no longer being capable of rational thought.

We never end up questioning why people don't try to resist akumatization if they know that they might end up hurting people. We already know the answer. It's because they can't.

Even Ms. Bustier, possibly the character who hated akumatization the most at the time, couldn't avoid becoming akumatized despite her best efforts.

So three separate people breaking free from their akumatization should imply that Gabriel's control over his victims is getting weaker, which would be a very big deal.

But nothing is ever done with that. After Alix's brother, nobody ever broke out of akumatization again. The ability to do so is used as nothing more than a plot device in these few episodes.

Another thing is that, if anything, Gabriel's grasp over his victims' emotional state should be even stronger.

His akumas are canonically more powerful than before, to make the lucky charms that Ladybug hands out stop working against him.

If bigger and more powerful akumas don't make his hold on people even stronger than before, then the entire arc of Ladybug realizing that she can create charms to prevent people from being akumatized more than once, and Hawkmoth's counter-arc of nullifying her efforts by simply creating bigger akumas was all just a complete waste of time.

After Guiltrip, I assumed that they were building up to Rose being able to break out of akumatization through her naturally positive nature alone, and then they would have an arc of her teaching others how to do the same.

Suffice to say, neither of those things happened.

Rose's "inner voice" that she's apparently had in her head this entire time doesn't serve any actual purpose other than to make her worthy of the pig miraculous.

To be clear: I don't have any issues with Rose's invisible illness never being mentioned at any point before Guiltrip. That's the entire point of an invisible illness.

My point is that Rose's ability to break free from negative emotion-based mind control is an extremely important ability that was never even so much as hinted at before or even brought up again any time after Guiltrip.

So, once again, it's just an extremely important one-off ability that doesn't matter and doesn't affect the stakes whatsoever.

These seasons keep throwing moments at us that should be very big deals but are never treated as such.

Now let's compare all of this to an actually good akumatization-related scene.

When Chloe successfully rejected akumatization.

When this happened, it was huge, and it felt like it too.

Not just because of how impressive the feat itself was, but also because of where Chloe was in her character arc.

Chloe was under the impression that Ladybug might never let her be Queen Bee again. Full stop.

She had potentially permanently lost a privilege that really mattered to her, Lila was starting to get inside her head, and she was becoming mean to Sabrina again.

By all accounts, Chloe should've been in the stage of her arc where she started to revert back to her old self. The old Chloe would've accepted Hawkmoth's words without a second thought.

If this was the conventional Zuko-style arc that so many writers try and fail to replicate, this would've been the scene where it seems like she may not actually get redeemed, and would fall back on old patterns of hers. Which is an interesting enough arc on its own.

But we instead have a girl who doesn't have any way of truly knowing better, has no good role models, and is close only to people who enable her worst behaviors. And she chooses to be good.

Her worst fears are starting to come true, nobody seems to have any care or respect for her, and a smarter and more experienced grown man is using all of these negative emotions against her to mind control her. And she still chooses to trust the process and work to gain back Ladybug's trust. Exactly like Ladybug told her to.

The one time she was given really good advice, it stuck with her.

This is the moment that flat-out confirms that Chloe can be redeemed, and actively wants to be better.

Not only did she not get akumatized, she almost made it look easy.

But the show still makes it perfectly clear that this wasn't an easy feat by any means.

She was visibly exhausted and scared after the akuma left, breathing heavily like she almost just drowned.

But the important part is that she did it. She didn't get akumatized. And she is shown to be rightfully proud of this fact.

It's also interesting to note that no other character has ever broken out of akumatization, mid-akumatization.

In the seasons to come, several people would be breaking out of akumatization after they had already been akumatized. But Chloe is the first, and only, person to reject akumatization before it even took hold.

That's how you give a moment like this the emotional weight that it deserves, by letting it stand on its own and not bombarding your audience with the same scene played out by several other characters.

Chloe was the only one to do this, and that shows that she could bring something special to the team if she actually got the chance to be a heroine again. It makes us consider the possibility that her stubborn and argumentative nature might actually end up being a silver lining. She can still be herself while saving people. In her own way.

She can be a hero. She can become a better person. And she doesn't have to change a thing about herself.

It would be a really nice message to send.

Which just makes it all the more disappointing when it doesn't amount to anything.

If the point of her character was that she could've been better, but became worse instead, that would've made for an interesting sort of tragedy.

But that's not what it is. I know that's not what the writers intended because if that were the case, then Ladybug would've probably had some lines about how much potential Chloe had, and how well she was doing before she went back to her old self.

We don't get any of that. What we get instead is the show and characters acting like Chloe was always as bad as she is in seasons 4 and 5.

She never actually liked Adrien. She was never kind to her father or Sabrina. She never wanted to get better.

And that's just not true.

Sorry, the main point of this post was to showcase the difference between important moments that were given the appropriate emotional weight, and those that weren't. But I just went off on a bit of a tangent there.

God. Even when this show gets something right, it gets like ten other things wrong.

Anyway, TDLR: If you want a moment to be significant, let it be significant. Let it make big changes that actually matter. Don't be a coward who's too afraid to change the hierarchy of your story in any kind of way that matters.

If you want a moment to have an impact on your audience, give it time to breathe on its own, and don't repeat it for at least a little while after.

And for God's sake, if an ability is a big deal, then don't let some unimportant side character that no one cares about also have that ability. It just makes it seem like it's not.

[sonicasura]

I got done watching playthroughs of Poppy Playtime Chapter 3 from EmotionalMarcus and Superhorrorbro. Highly suggest the latter if you want to check it out as he found all the hidden tapes. Man was this chapter insane so here's my take on it with obvious massive spoilers.

Edit: For those who need a refresher, Ch 1 +2 VHS tapes, Chapter 3 Analog Trailers, Project Playtime VHS, Interactive ARG, and In-game Documents.

First off, Deep Sleep definitely answered a lot of questions but also left more too. The important ones revolving around the Prototype and the toys themselves. Here's a summarized version.

CatNap ran a cult worshipping the Prototype as his god. Toys were forced to follow him to survive in Playcare including the other Bigger Bodies Smiling Critters. However the food issue led to not only infighting but also cannibalism.

Picky Piggy ate Bubba Bubbaphant, KickinChickin and Craftycorn. Dog Day was labeled a heretic thus was slowly eaten by the smaller Critters until only his upper torso left. The horrific thing is he been left alive to suffer. At least until the smaller Critters' puppeted his body to chase after the Player.

Poppy and Kissy Missy wants to kill the Prototype. There's a possibility Kissy cared about a child in Playcare before she became a toy. Part of this being the theory that the Bigger Body was once a worker.

There were toys who served as teachers in the schoolhouse. Due to the Hour of Joy, one toy called Ms Delight gone insane and killed all her fellow teachers to survive. CatNap avoids her haunt for an unknown reason. Maybe because she's an ally or someone he once cared about.

CatNap had been a tool to the Prototype as he's killed for his failure. This might've not been a case once upon a time due to a theory about him used to being Elliot Ludwig. Apparently the Prototype acts as a hivemind with him assimilating and copying others.

Tom Sawyer/The Doctor gotten killed sometime before the Hour of Joy. It might've been the Prototype due to an interview tape between the two prior to Leith Pierre interview with CatNap. The abuse done to the toys might've spurred on the takeover.

Hour of Joy was a massive slaughter where every human been killed no matter who they were. CatNap might be responding for the kids death with Ollie being a possible toy survivor. Kissy Missy was taken over and been a participant as well. She might've gotten captured or killed at the end of the chapter.

Now onto my personal theories starting with the Prototype.

He is a hivemind based organism most likely made from Elliot Ludwig. The Prototype could've gone insane as he kept assimilating others. Possible breaking point that led to the Hour of Joy being the Doctor since he been studying him too than it being one sided.

The slaughter had an massive ulterior goal. Prototype doesn't require food and the shrine CatNap made of him has multiple human bodies in it. Ollie also confirmed that the shrine is nothing compared to the real deal.

The Prototype might've assimilated most of the victims before moving onto the other toys. Further proof is CatNap's state once you fully see him. He's so thin that you can his bones and ribcage. The employees were their only food provider which led to this post apocalyptic style cannibalism.

If the Prototype was benevolent then a lot of strings could be pulled where the corrupt humans perish and they puppet Playtime Co in the shadows. No more experiments as the company would function under them. Clueless employees delivering a constant food supply and the kids could actually see the real world. Maybe the toys follow them out as no one is aware.

Poppy even mentioned the Player running the company so she knew there was a better way to handle things. The Prototype locked her up to prevent this foil in his plans. Hour of Joy was a purposely planned slaughter.

Second theory involves Huggy Wuggy and the Player. Throughout the chapter, our first Bigger Body had been a major constant element. He is the first and last one we see through CatNap's nightmares. There's a hidden important connection which involves the Prototype too.

I think the hivemind spared him as it's clear they were more of a victim than foe. CatNap would've spare him if he left this all behind. Huggy Wuggy might've attacked the Player near the entrance during the Hour of Joy before leaving.

Final theory revolves around the toys. Dog Day and CatNap are further evidence that the Bigger Bodies can have diverse bodies. Mommy Longlegs died when she cut in half but the canine Smiling Critter didn't. Boxy Boxy devours people whole hinting at very strong stomach acid despite his small body while CatNap has an expanded ribcage and can breathe gas.

There is one common similarity amongst all the toys except for Poppy. All of them can be affected by the Prototype. My theory involves their brain containing an actual fragment from him. The Doctor constantly dissected the Prototype and might've added portions to the other toys as a key material in their creation.

It also explains why Mommy alongside Kissy aren't on his side. The Prototype's influence acts sorta like a suggestion meaning they can resist him. Mommy Longlegs was left alone as the more hostile Bigger Bodies look over their own territories. Huggy Wuggy is an exception since he acts more like a puppet until the Prototype activates him.

Things are heating up as Chapter Four might be the last one for Poppy Playtime since CatNap was the Prototype's final key player. I won't say there could be complications on the way as more experiments were mentioned in Chapter 3 specifically Experiment 'Void'.

For now, this is all we got.

[renard-dartigue]

Today's Bravern episode was awesome, had alot of funny moments. I'm convinced Bravern's VA is having a blast lol.

Also

Lulu: You got games on your phone?

Spoiler discussion below

So Superbia is back and that is genuinely fascinating because he might give us more hints as to where Bravern and deathdrives come from.

Something that really stood out to me was the fact that before Superbia could speak Japanese, he was clearly trying to communicate in his original language. Isn't it strange how Bravern doesn't understand this language? How does he know Superbia's name then? I legit believed Bravern knew because Superbia told him during their fight in Hawaii. But I guess that wasn't the case???

Its also strange how Bravern isn't baffled by Superbia's return, almost like he expected him to come back after exploding. Like how do I put this? Ok so clearly, this isn't the same Superbia as the one Isami and Bravern defeated. He must have been rebuilt. Whether or not he has the same memories isn't clear since Superbia doesn't seem to know Bravern. Or maybe he does but because of the language barrier he didn't understand Bravern's fancy introduction. Regardless, there is a possibility that Braven doesn't know everything about deathdrives.

My biggest questions right now are: Is there a chance to bring Superbia to their side? Does Superbia only want Lulu because she makes him stronger? Or does he have a similar attachment to Lulu as Bravern does to Isami? Because if its the latter I could definitely see Superbia joining their side if its the only way he can protect Lulu. Cause let's face it, ain't no way that girl is leaving her dad's(yup thats Smith) side willingly. Personally, I hope Superbia joins the team just to see him and Bravern talk more. I'd love to watch two giant robots bicker over dumb shit while Isami losses his mind lol.

Also, I love Smith dude. This isn't American bias or anything. (Especially given what my country's leaders are doing right now but let's not get into it). When Smith is positive its so infectious and I think him and I are on the same wavelength. There is this moment when him, Isami, and Bravern are flying over to Japan and Bravern says one of his wacky phrases followed by an awkward silence. I literally, out LOWD, say "Ookay". And right after that Smith says "Ookay" in the EXACT same way and I started wheezing dude. 💀

Ok ok that's enough rambling lol. Now to wait another week for (hopefully) some answers.

For once I gotta say, the English in this hasn't been as painful as some other animes I've seen. Both Smith and the Major have been pretty alright. (What I'm saying is that I'm not cringing as much when a primary English speaking character doesn't pronounce English words right.)

[seiya-starsniper]

Rating: Teen || Chapters: 2/5 || Word Count 3.5k/??

Summary: The Dead Boy Detectives run into a familiar pub while out on a case, and Crystal has to contend with an unfortunate event from her past.

AO3 Tags: POV Multiple, Hob Gadling gives live advice to a bunch of teenagers, while helping them solve cases, that's it that's the fic, also he maybe plays matchmaker for his hot mess bestie

Chapter 1

Read Chapter 2 below, or using the link above on AO3!

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Hob Gadling considers himself to be a rather open minded man. He's lived hundreds of years, and seen thousands of strange and unusual things in that same amount of time, so the chances of something catching him completely off guard are rather slim in the year 2024.

The last few days, however, have proven that there are still many, many things that can surprise him. 

One of those things being one Charles Rowland, who is currently waving at Hob from the entryway of the New Inn.

Hob normally doesn't like to get involved in anything having to do with the supernatural, and especially not anything related to the type of work that Edwin and Charles do. He'd met them purely by chance after some asshole with delusions of grandeur had tried to frame him for a series of murders. He’d sent Edwin and Charles on a wild goose chase in a poor attempt to cover his own tracks.

Hob thought that once they caught the real murderer together and cleared things up, that would be the end of things. But then, Hob kept getting involved in their cases over the years, all of them entirely on accident. Eventually, somewhere between the fourth and fifth poltergeist, Hob decided he might as well figure out how to defend himself against supernatural entities, and maybe make himself useful for these poor boys too. They certainly needed all the help they could get.

Hob had been glad to hear that Edwin and Charles had recently gotten some sort of amnesty in exchange for continuing to help ghosts and other souls move on. It was good work, what these boys did. Hob has seen ghosts that haunted the same places for centuries finally be to pass on into the afterlife thanks to them. And now, they not only had permission to keep going, but had gotten more help to do it too.

The addition of Crystal to their little crew had been a surprise, and Jenny an even bigger surprise, though the latter seems less interested in solving cases, and more in making sure Crystal doesn't get herself killed in the process.

Still, Hob's only ever seen the teens all together in some sort of group, never alone, and he's definitely never seen Charles without Edwin. From the moment Hob had first met the two ghost boys, they’d always been a singular unit in his mind. And yet here Charles was, alone and looking strangely expectant while trying to appear casual as he waits for Hob to close out the tabs on the last remaining lunch hour patrons.

“Everything all right?” Hob asks when Charles approaches him once his last customer leaves. 

“Of course!” Charles answers, his signature smile bright on display. “I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to say hello. And to thank you again for the assist the other day.”

As a ghost, Charles is technically always in the neighborhood, so Hob knows that that’s not all that there is to his visit. It also hasn't escaped Hob's notice that Charles specifically picked the one day Jenny wasn't working the kitchen this week to drop by the pub. He clearly doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s here.

But Hob knows by now how to deal with skittish teenagers. Even dead ones.

“Well I'm almost done here and then I'm gonna head upstairs for a cuppa,” Hob says. Mark’s going to be here soon to relieve me of duty. Happy to have some company if you have the time to spare for an old man.”

“Oh! Yeah sure, I'm not busy,” Charles says, and cute that he’s still trying to pretend that he hadn’t come here with a purpose, when his eagerness is so clearly written all over his face. “Don't need any food though, as you know.”

“Sure, sure,” Hob replies, waving his hand dismissively so Charles can head upstairs ahead of him. He's going to make a cup of tea for Charles anyways. The boy always seemed to love the steam that came out of the mugs, even though he’d never admit it out loud.

Mark comes in exactly at 2:00pm, and Hob chats with him for a few minutes, before he clocks out and heads upstairs to his flat above the pub. Charles is already waiting for him in the living room, and Hob immediately sets to the task of warming up some hot water in the kettle and grabbing some mugs for tea.

“So how are things at the agency?” Hob asks as he waits for the water to heat. “Busy as ever, or more so now that you’ve got yourselves a psychic?”

“Definitely busier,” Charles says. “Crystal’s been a massive help with our cases, we're solving them even faster than before.”

“Good,” Hob replies, just as the kettle clicks, letting him know the water is done. “I’m glad she’s using her powers for good nowadays,” he adds as he brings the two mugs over to the couch. Charles looks surprised by the extra mug, but accepts it without a word. Hob doesn’t expect him to drink any of the tea, of course, but as predicted, Charles seems to fall into a trance watching the steam rise out of the cup.

“Thanks for not giving her too much of a hard time,” Charles says when Hob sits down in the recliner across from him. “She’s been really down on herself lately for everything in her past.”

“I can only imagine,” Hob agrees. He knew a thing or two about wanting to reinvent oneself and burning away the past. He’s had hundreds of years to do so after all. In fact, it could even be argued that Crystal was far ahead of where Hob would’ve been had he been in her shoes. The girl he’d met a few nights ago was so different from the one he’d met a year ago in court that Hob would’ve thought she had a twin instead. 

“Seems like you two get along well,” Hob notes after a brief silence has passed. Charles perks up immediately, taking the opening in the conversation.

“We do,” Charles replies, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “She’s amazing.”

“Yeah? So are the two of you a thing then?” Hob asks, and would you look at that, turns out ghosts can blush after all. 

“I—maybe?” Charles says, his voice pitched higher with uncertainty. “I don’t know, actually. I mean, it's, well…complicated I guess?”

“How so?” Hob asks. He’d suspected there had been something going on between them, it was obvious in their body language, and how they gently teased one another throughout the night after the banshee had gone. Now Charles is talking like a man newly in love and completely besotted.

“Is she giving you mixed signals?” Hob follows up when Charles doesn't answer.

“No!” Charles exclaims, shaking his head. “It’s me really, I’m—I don’t know.” He sighs in frustration and runs a hand through his hair. “I thought for a while that’s what I wanted and then Edwin—” he suddenly cuts himself off, a small amount of panic now crossing his features.

Ah. Now the reason for Charles' visit suddenly makes itself clear. Crystal clear even, but Hob keeps that terrible pun to himself. 

“So Edwin finally told you how he felt about you?” Hob asks, deciding to rip the bandage off now and quell the strange awkwardness in the room. Charles’ head whips up so fast Hob feels his own neck start to cramp up in sympathy.

“You knew ?” Charles asks. “But Edwin said he’d only figured it out when we were in Port Townsend!”

Hob shrugs. “Sometimes, things are easier to spot when you’re not in the middle of them,” he replies. “But it was pretty clear that, at the very least, Edwin considered you the most important person to him. It's not surprising he fell in love with you too.”

“You really think so?” Charles asks. “Because I don't—I’d never really thought about it before, you know? He's my most important person too, but I never thought that we would be more than that. But now that he's said it, I can't stop thinking about it.”

“Yeah?” Hob asks. “Does it bother you that he feels that way?” A shake of the head. Good. “Do you ever think you could return those feelings?”

“I don’t know, and that’s the problem!” Charles cries, his voice pitching near to a whine. He stands and paces around Hob’s living room, and Hob has to try not to laugh into his tea. Teenage problems were always the same, whether a live or dead.

“To be honest, I’m still really into Crystal,” Charles starts, “...but then after everything with Edwin, and what happened to Niko, I started thinking, well, how long will that really last? Crystal’s alive, I’m not. She’s going to—she won’t—she’ll eventually—”

“Grow up?” Hob offers when the teen can’t find the right words. “Grow old, hopefully? Live a fulfilling life with someone else that’s flesh and blood?”

“I—yeah. Ideally yes,” Charles replies, though it's clear the thought bothers him by the way he scrunches his features. “But also, what if us being together puts her in too much danger? What if she—if what happened to Niko happens to her, I couldn't bear it, Mr. Gadling.”

“Hob,” Hob corrects the boy gently. “I've told you before that you don't need to call me Mister anything, makes me feel way older than I already feel,” he adds with a laugh. Charles gives him a half smile and just shrugs helplessly. Some habits were impossible to break, it seemed.

“And those are perfectly reasonable fears to have,” Hob continues. “Crystal is her own person though, and you need to take into account that she might find the risk worth it. And to be honest, I feel like the risk to her life is the same, whether you two are romantically involved or not.”

“Yeah, I suppose you're right,” Charles agrees, flopping back down onto Hob’s couch and staring back into the still steaming mug of tea. “So do you think we should give it a go, then?”

Hob shrugs. “I think you two like each other,” he replies, “but whether you think a relationship is worth it is up to you. Does Edwin know about you two?”

“He knows—some stuff yeah,” Charles replies sheepishly. “I had told him I liked her way before he, you know, confessed to me and all. And like, even afterwards, it seems like he’s fine, but I really don’t know if it’s all actually fine, or if he’s just trying to act like he’s fine just because I look fine but he’s not really fine and what if I’ve mucked everything up or—”

“Hey, slow down, Charles,” Hob interjects, and the boy’s mouth clicks shut immediately. “From what I can see, nothing has changed between you, so I wouldn't worry about it,” he adds, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “Besides, you and Edwin have been together this long now, you've got more than enough time to sort things out, one way or the other.”

“Yeah,” Charles agrees, his voice now wistfully soft and clearly full of affection. “When we were in Hell, I said that to him,you know. That we have eternity to figure it all out.”

“Did you now?” Hob asks, now smiling himself. “Sounds like you two are on the same page then, as per usual. Now you just need to make a decision yourself and Crystal.”

“Yeah…yeah you're right,” Charles says, seeming to come to a decision. His back straightens and he sits up, his signature smile back on his face. “Edwin and I may have forever, but Crystal doesn't and it's rude to keep a lady waiting right?”

“Absolutely," Hob replies.

Charles leaves shortly after, promising not to overthink everything and let his feelings come naturally to him. Hob is fairly certain he knows where things will land eventually, and he's sure Charles does too. It doesn't make the journey to get there any less worthwhile.

[i-can-read-to-him]

The Wesper Fic Club's Author Spotlight is a post series that aims to feature two to three fic authors a month, randomly selected from a pool of names put forth on our server. The authors are then asked to answer three interview questions, select up to five of their fics for us to feature, and finally, recommend three fics by others in the fandom.

(Note: Our spotlighted fics are not limited to Wesper, though they tend to be a central pairing in most of our authors' featured works.)

This week, we are putting a spotlight on Lou's writing!

Socials: @waterloou (Tumblr) | hugharekillianmelou (AO3)

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Part One: Author Interview

Q: What do you consider your strengths as a writer?

A: I’m using these quotes from sparrow bc I’m gonna be honest and say I really don’t know how to perceive myself: “Off the top of my head, I would say you are very good at lyrical prose, imagery and atmosphere, thoughtful characterization, anddd I don’t know how to articulate this as cleanly, but like… the way you handle dark subject matter (like MCD) in a way that makes it feel... like something that should be dangerous to handle, but it is safely contained. Like one of those poisonous Victorian era books with the striking green colour [Scheele's Green] displayed in a glass case. Also, you maintain canon characterization even in AU settings, which is honestly a skill not everyone has. I love AUs, but some people lose sight of canon so quick and it ends up feeling very OOC.”

Q: What’s your favourite fic you’ve written for this fandom?

A: It’s called Lay Me Gently in the Cold Dark Earth and it’s from Wylan’s perspective when he’s 6 feet under and how he interacts with the earth around him and Jesper. Idk how else to describe it. 

Q: What advice do you have for those facing writer’s block?

A: My only suggestion is just to switch to notebooks and use prompt lists. I struggle with writers block far too much it’s hard for me to sit down and write something most of the time. 

Q: When did you first start writing? What keeps you going today?

A: Jonas Brothers YouTube imagines. I had a little flip notebook on a family vacation and lots of time to kill so I wrote my own imagines/fanfiction. It was also like not a self insert but like I’d insert someone age appropriate and live vicariously through them.  I have so so many ideas and only I can execute them correctly so obviously I need to keep writing. It’s a tough job but if I want the content I need to make it 

Q: Who is your favourite character? What do you love about them?

A: JESPER LLEWELLYN FAHEY!!!! He’s just so complex and loving and I also relate to him most bc of his sadness and feelings of inadequacy and using humor as a cover up. I saw the trailers before I read the books and then I read the books before I watched the show but that one clip of Jesper in those first trailers had me hooked ever since.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the Grishaverse, where would you go?

A: Shu Han because it looks like I’d have the most fun there. 

Q: If you could be friends with any character in the Grishaverse, who would it be?

A: Tolya!!! He’s got a lovely disposition and it’s nice to have someone with similar interests.

Q: Have you had a chance to interact with the SAB cast? Tell us about your experience(s).

A: The only interaction I’ve had is Jack liking my drawing of him. Honestly tho even tho this cast is amazing I think I’d be fine never meeting any of them. There’s already all my questions answered and I’d probably make a fool out of myself if I met them. 

Q: What are some recurring themes you’ve noticed in your writing?

A: I am using more sparrow quotes bc my only answer was “Hozier coded” and idk if that answer was enough: “I think grief/death/mourning is definitely something that comes up a lot. Related to that... I want to say 'transcendent love,' if that makes sense. Definitely also strong platonic bonds, so friendship... Oh, balance and opposites (how the latter interacts and achieves balance)... sometimes with concepts like life and death, but also with people like Wylan and Jesper.” Ty sparrow ur iconic 

Q: What kind of music do you like to listen to while writing?

A: Hozier, lots of like folk or floaty type of genres. 

Q: Are there any songs you strongly associate with a favourite character or ship?

A: "half return" by Adrianne Lenker could be associated with either Wylan or Jesper and their childhoods. I do think it’s odd that this is the first fandom where music is not the driving force of my writing or associating with characters.

Q: What is one of your favourite scenes from the source material (book or show)?

A: Jesper’s introduction in the show is a classic and he’s just SO COOL.

Q: If could change anything about (book or show) canon, what would it be?

A: 😭 besides it being cancelled? Matthias’ fate. 

Q: What are some headcanons you have that you consider your personal canon?

A: MODERN AU: Jesper is an engineering major. Wylan is a chemistry major (hates it), switches to biology and music double major. Jesper makes and sells jewelry on the side.  REGULAR SETTING: Jesper lives for a long long time and Wylan reincarnates many times and they are together until they both pass. 

Q: Tell us about something in your fics that you’re proud of and wish would get more notice.

A: I do like the poetic flow they have from time to time! It’s nice reading something I wrote and being invested. This is a cop out answer but I think they’ve been appreciated an adequate amount! Everyone is so sweet reading and commenting!

Q: What’s something you haven’t written yet, but want to write in the future?

A: OH BOY I have a list: - This is written but mouse wylan  - sci fi au  - Hozier song wesper series  - human meat business crows serial killers  - Hellraiser au wesper  - whump wesper jesper shot  - Halloween series  - vampire crows au 

Q: What’s something you wish you could write, but don’t think you ever will?

A: Most of the ideas listed above. My brain just doesn’t want to write the ideas. Also Smut. Did it once idk if I could write it again

Q: How do you feel about your fics being translated into other languages?

A: Go ham. As long as it’s credited to me idc

Q: Apart from sight, what is your favourite of the senses to describe when writing?

A: Touch I love touch descriptions because you can get an insight into how the characters experience the world.

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Part Two: Selected Works

Two corpses we were, two corpses I saw

Not Rated | 275 words | Wesper Hozier coded, Decay, Burial, Happy Ending

Short diddy about knight/pianist wesper

Golden slumbers

Teen | 460 words | Wesper Grief/Mourning, Pre-Grief, Aging, Jesper-centric

Jesper would always be a mourner

Lay me gently in the cold dark earth

Not Rated | 388 words | Wesper Hozier coded, POV Wylan, Character Death, Happy Ending

Wylan needs Jesper, even after life

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Part Three: Author's Recs

without pity by demigodbeautiies

Mature | 21.9K | Wesper Non-Con Drug Use, Whump, Mild Gore, Angst with a Happy Ending

It’s 10 am on a Wednesday when Wylan Van Eck’s life crumbles around him. Which feels ridiculous, honestly, but that’s life, isn’t it?  - Jesper gets drugged with jurda parem. Wylan tries his best to deal with it. That, apparently, is hard to do when his life is falling apart.

A Lack Of Air Supply by Milkfrog

Mature | 106.7K | Wesper Past Child Abuse, Agoraphobia, Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Wylan Van Eck

"Wylan Van Eck, until the age of 8, felt like royalty. Like the world was made for him, and him alone. He could do anything he wanted to. He could dream of a future so expansive he'd have to live multiple lives in order to fit everything he wanted to do. But Wylan Van Eck, at 22 years old, cannot even leave his apartment." (aka. Wylan has agoraphobia n Jesper moves into the apartment next to him <3)

only love can hurt like this by leehab23

Explicit | 82.2K | Wesper, Kanej Jesper-centric, Second Chance Romance, Pining, Angst, Happy Ending

“I need a drink,” Kaz said. With that, Jesper could agree. “Lead the way.” Kaz took one step and froze, swearing under his breath. Jesper followed his eyeline, his blood turning to ice when he saw what—or rather who—Kaz had noticed across the room. OR: After running away three years ago to Novyi Zem, Jesper finds himself back in Ketterdam. He agrees to pose as Kaz’s date for a job and has an unfortunate run-in with a certain red-headed ex.

Before Sunrise by @aphroditestummyrolls

General | 2.1K | Colm & Jesper, Colm/Aditi Good Parent Colm Fahey, Colm-centric, Baby Jesper

He’d like to say he expected it— it’s a well known fact that babies cry. The first months of parenthood are a tiring business. That was what everyone said, and the ones who didn’t say it were certainly thinking it. But, not all babies cried like Jesper Fahey cried. Just like every night for the past 2 and a half months, the second Addy stopped her gentle rocking and pacing, it started up again— first, as disgruntled fussing, huffing and puffing like a grumpy little bear cub. His downy fluff of curls pressed against his mama’s palm as he scrubbed his nose into her collarbone, tiny fist clenching in her night dress. Colm sighed. OR Jesper is a colicky little baby, and Colm just wants his poor wife to be able to sleep.

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Please support our authors by commenting and leaving kudos on any stories of theirs you read and enjoy! Don't forget to also reblog this post and check back soon for our next author spotlight to come.

Interested in joining our server and getting to know our community? Feel free to request an invite via the @i-can-read-to-him ask box.

[kanmom51]

JK-Tae and JK-JM - The two lives and the differences between them

I will start by saying this is not a competition.

Nah-ah.

Also, let’s keep this clear from the get go:

JK and Tae are close friends.  10 years’ worth of growing up together, living together, working together, playing together friends.

But here are the magic words:  growing up. 

And when you grow up you change, your likes and dislikes they change, your interests they change.  You can suddenly find yourself not sharing those same common grounds you did as kids, teenagers or even young adults.  And that, at times changes friendships or even ends them, the latter not being the case with JK and Tae.

But in life there are different kinds of friendships, different levels of friendships.

JK, JM and Tae.

All three of these young men are close friends for years now.

I repeat - all three of them.

And add Hobi into the mix, all four definitely spend time together, by choice, not work related (Hobi told us that in the Las Vegas live).  Probably less now (all four) because of JM being super busy, while the younger two (JK and Tae) are obviously taking much needed time to wind down at the moment.

These guys are all in touch, all the members, that is, including Jin (who sends them messages once in a while too). They talk constantly on their group chat. We knew that before from comments members made in the past and we know it now too from Tae, RM and JK's interactions in the lives.

What I’ll be trying to convey in my post is the different reactions JK has to either of the two joining, the way he interacts with each of them, and his behaviour while doing so. Watching the three lives (including the IG live) the differences are quite obvious, as obvious as the difference between how you would interact with a good friend as opposed to interacting with your partner, someone you are intimate with, someone you are in a long term relationship with.

It's all about the:

RIB

Reaction - Interaction - Behaviour.

Reaction

First reaction with JM -

First reaction when JK sees JM has commented on his live is excitement. He's all smiley, giddy.

JK's first reaction with Tae:

Hold on for a minute I’m talking about something important here. 

And then, when he's done answering the fan, he follows with:

Tae's here? Why are you here?

Ahm... ok then...

Interaction - Behaviour

Next let's look at the interaction and behaviour, cause I do think the two kind of intertwine, don't they?

With JM:

“Jiminie hyung is here, right? No? Right? He's here?” 

JK was super excited when JM showed up in his comments and he wanted him to stay.  Well, that is, what he really wanted was for JM to come join him at his place, lol.

And again

And when it was clear that JM couldn’t come over and had to go back to work JK turned on his assertive caretaker button telling him to stay healthy.

With Tae:

The low key bickering...JK did or did not tell Tae he was going to sleep before doing the live...

And then, the back and forth about doing the joint live:

 JK asks Tae laughingly if he can handle the consequences of doing the live (as they were not supposed to be doing lives on IG), to which Tae answers he’ll take the responsibility.

I'm gonna go on a limb here and say that Tae was the one wanting to do the live on IG, JK not so much wanting it, but agreeing to it kind of reluctantly...  JK wasn’t forced into it, and I really don’t think he was bugged by Tae.  It’s not something he really wanted to do either though, and it felt like he really wanted Tae to give up on the idea, lol.

Then we have the live, more JK and Tae interaction, both on screen.

It wasn't jelling. Yes, the connection wasn't great, but even when it got better...ahm...

In the live: We have talk about the option to do the joint live – quite a bit of talk about that and the possibility of adding the option to Weverse; We have talk about Bam – Tae saying how big he's become, JK saying he's just as big;  We have talk about the comments, a lot about them being flags; We have talk about the conversation JK had in his live with a fan about getting tattoos and the 7 tattoo – what Tae told his parents about it; We have them keep going back to a common joke (the rice joke?);

Side note:  the way Tae talked about Bam it’s obvious he hasn’t seen him in quite a while.  Fact.  Why that is, we don’t know.  Could be them not meeting up at JK’s, could be Bam being away at family/training school.  But it’s clear it’s been a long time since he’s seen him.

At some point JK brings Bam over (this is a second time Bam is in the live), uses him as a buffer, or maybe a conversation starter/ice breaker. JK was going to town with Bam.  

Tae was trying to get Bam to go to his place/house/crate, it didn't work, Bam ignoring him (, and JK just continuing to mess around with Bam.

With no convo Tae turns to playing with filters, and then I guess just gave up cause JK wasn't in the game. At the end Tae saying he’s sleepy, for JK to go back to his Weverse live and off we go, end of IG live, JK saying goodbye waiting for Tae to disconnect.  He does say goodbye but that’s it.  No other niceties.

In the 13 minutes we had a lot of searching for comments, drinking, getting up doing stuff, playing with Bam – doing the distractions, cause again, the conversation wasn’t flowing.

Now, I will give a little credit to the bad connection, but nah, even if you take that into consideration, I think you need to be deaf and blind to continue to think there is anything more than mateship between those two men.

JM wasn't even physically there in JK’s live (not in person and not on screen) and the sparks were flying crazy, can you even imagine if we had them both on live like that?

A few things extra I noticed in the IG live:

First is Tae’s reaction after asking if JK doesn’t have anything to do the next day and JK saying “well, Bam has a medical checkup”.  It was so sus. It was his usual “aha, yep, I’m obviously not buying that or know something otherwise you’re not saying out loud” kind of face…

Now the translation could be a little inaccurate, but Tae’s non verbal reaction is hard to miss.

JK changes the subject, but this reaction, the snicker and giggle that follow, I attribute to JK's previous answer...

And damn, I'd say those facial expressions, the eyebrow wiggles, multiple times, that's Tae knowing something we don't and probably shouldn't either...

He was clearly amused, and I myself am dying of curiosity to know why…

Being the live was on a Friday night, maybe a certain band member name starting with Ji and ending with min was supposed to have the Saturday off…

If you look real hard you can also detect somewhat of a smirk on JK’s face too. 

Ehmm... we also have what seemed perhaps to be JK's brother taking Bam to the Vet? Or at least spending time with him, maybe without JK?

It could have absolutely nothing to do with Jimin, but one thing I can tell you is that there was absolutely nothing innocent behind that eyebrow wiggle of Tae’s, nor the smirk, nor the giggle.

Second was when JK during the IG live mentioned there is option to have up to 4 people doing the live at once:

Yep.  Talking out of experience I guess Tae. You know it.

Third, JK keeps asking Tae “aren’t you going to sleep?” or “when are you going to sleep?” 

Hinting much?

🤕

Me clarifying myself once again:

I am certainly not saying JK and Tae are not good friends, close friends.  

But like I said, in life there are different kinds of friendships, levels of friendships, levels of intimacy that grow beyond friendship.

These two they have history, they have several common interests, but perhaps they limited now days. There is nothing wrong with that, people grow up they move in different directions. The two still love to game together, we know that, and probably/maybe spend time doing other activities. They are mates. But there are no sparks, no intimacy there. These are not two men in a long term love relationship. Spin it any way you want, they just aren't.

To sum it up:

There are clear differences between the two interactions.

Also, I can't find a way to convey in words the difference in JK's voice, the intonation of his speech. You have to watch them both to understand how different he was in each of those instances.

with JM:

JM’s here?  Where is he?  Stop everything, I need to see if JM left a comment.  Then, JM, please come and eat some chicken with me - come over - I'm waiting for you very impatiently...are you still there? please still be there... come join me...

Also with JM:

Ear to ear smile, and going into full caretaker mode, dropping the honorific to tell JM to look after himself (knowing just how much JM pushes himself when working).

JM's name being mentioned by JK 12 times within 7 minutes.

With Tae:

Wait a minute I can't pay attention to you yet, I have something more important to do;  Then – nonchalantly asking: why are you here? (ouch);  Ok, I’ll do the live you wanted, just as long as nothing big happens; 

Also with Tae:

I’m going to get alcohol; Here’s Bam; Let’s talk about the live options on IG and how we should make them for Weverse too; When are you going to bed? Aren't you going to bed already?

I wonder, do you spot the difference?

Also, go watch them!!!

[hwxnghyynjin]

You Should See Me In A Crown

Pairing: park jongseong x reader Genre: royalty!au, horror, smut, angst Warnings: character death, mentions of throwing up blood, gore, illness, mentions of witchcraft, nightmares, smut (unprotected sex, biting, grinding), swearing, I think that's it Word count: 6,063 Taglist: @foxdaisy @heeseongism

There are two types of people in the world. Rich and poor. You came from the latter. Growing up, your family didn’t really have much, which meant that you couldn’t afford to buy medicine in case you end up sick. Luckily that didn’t happen. Until one day.

Your younger brother suddenly got really sick, to the point where he was vomiting blood. A fever so bad, he felt like he was in a sauna, sweating profusely. He felt so weak, couldn’t get out of bed. He couldn’t even eat or drink, his throat burning, feeling like he was swallowing daggers.

You didn’t know what to do, crying every single night to sleep, worried about your little brother. He got sicker as the days passed, starting to smell like rotting meat, which confused you. You’ve never seen anything like that before, and it scared you.

On the 7th day of his illness, your brother passed away, his eyes bleeding out of their sockets, blood trickling out of his mouth and nose. That was one of the worst days of your life, you felt like you failed to protect him. The sight of your dead brother made you scream, tears blurring your vision. Your parents didn’t say anything, crying silently as you laid over your brother's body. Your mother tried to pry you away from him but you wouldn’t budge. Your younger sister sitting in the corner, sobs leaving his small body.

A few days after his death, your sister was the next person to get sick, the same symptoms as your brother had. She even died the same way: eyes bleeding out of their sockets, blood trickling out of her mouth and nose. You didn’t know what to do at that point, but you were definitely sure that something was wrong.

Your questions were answered a few days later as your mother was sentenced to death from being accused of witchcraft. Why would your own mother kill her own children? Your own brother and sister? Did she actually do it, or was she framed? Or was it something else?

Seeing your mother being burnt at the stake was something you weren’t expecting, but being accused of witchcraft is the worst type of crime, according to the government. Hearing her screams echoed in your mind, haunting your nightmares every single night.

Now, 8 years later at the age of 20, everything else has gone to shit.

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You woke up in a dark room, more specifically your bedroom, the sound of birds knocking on your window. Getting out of bed, you trodded your way towards the window, drawing back the curtains to see a bunch of crows knocking into the window, some of them falling to the ground. Not again, you thought. That’s the third time this week, and it’s only a Tuesday. 

Since you’re now out of bed, you thought it would be a good idea to get dressed, and that’s exactly what you did. Taking your nightgown off, you grabbed the first items of clothing you saw, which was a pair of black pants and a white dress shirt, buttoning it up. You brushed your hair, getting rid of your bed hair, brushing through the knots. Tying the laces of your boots, you left your bedroom, going to do your daily errands.

You walked through the woods, taking in the surroundings around you. Leaves crunched under your feet, the smell of smoke hits your senses. You wondered where the smoke was coming from, until you found the culprit. A small barn was engulfed in flames, which wasn’t surprising to you anymore, especially after the riots. You just hoped no one was in there. 

Ever since the rich and the poor have gone against each other, there have been numerous wars, both big and small. All the poor have been trying to do is live their lives, but the rich have been ripping that away from them: stealing their money, livestock, even their homes. Thousands of people have died because of it, you’re surprised you haven’t been attacked.

You walked further into the woods, on your way to the farmers market. A sudden loud noise made you stop in your tracks, a loud growl ringing in your ears. A shiver ran down your spine as the sound got closer, fear running through your body.

Suddenly, a huge boar-like creature came charging towards you, its teeth sharp and tusks massive. It seemed rabid, drool dripping from its mouth, the creature roaring aggressively. You screamed, turning on your heels as you ran away, flight kicking in. 

You avoided running into any obstacles, jumping over any rocks so you wouldn’t trip. You didn’t bother turning around, not wanting to see the rabid creature chasing you. Suddenly, the roaring of the creature stopped, replaced by a squeal as a loud thud was heard from behind you. You turned around, seeing the creature lying on the ground, an arrow piercing its side, blood gushing out of it.

You tried to find where the arrow came from, looking in different directions. A boy around your age appeared, holding a crossbow. His jet black hair slicked back, wearing what looked like protective gear. You don’t know who he is but he's really attractive. 

“Ma’am, what are you doing out here? You’ll get yourself killed if you’re not careful now please, turn back around. Unless you want to get yourself killed”, what an asshole. You scowled at him, not even bothering to thank him for saving your life. You turned around, leaving the woods.

“Hey, a thank you would be nice!” he yelled, earning a middle finger from you, making him speechless. How dare a peasant give him that attitude? 

“Who was that?” one of his knights asked him. “I have no idea but she’s feisty”, he continued looking at you as you disappeared into the distance, completely out of the woods. “Jay, we should head back, I don’t like these woods, they’re creepy”, the knight, known as Jake, said. 

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You laid down on your bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what happened a few hours ago. That man saved your ass from being eaten, yet he was a complete asshole to you. By what he was wearing, you were sure he was one of the rich. Now it makes so much sense why he was an asshole. You scoffed to yourself, already beginning to hate your saviour. Then again, you’ve always hated the rich for how they treated the poor, including yourself.

Back in the kingdom, Jay walked down a corridor, minding his own business when he heard 2 distinct voices coming from behind a door. He’s not one for eavesdropping but he just couldn’t resist. 

“What do you mean the king has proposed a meeting? A meeting for what?”

“I’m not sure but he said something about something, or someone, wanting to destroy the kingdom, which might lead to hundreds of deaths and he wants to do something to stop it”

Jay’s heart stopped. Something wants to destroy the kingdom? He was deep in thought that he didn’t hear the door opening until it was too late. One of the guards that came out of the room cleared his throat which got Jay’s attention. 

“You ok, sire? You look like you’ve seen a ghost”, one of the guards said, raising one of his eyebrows. “I-i’m fine”, Jay said as he walked off, going towards his room. He closed his door, thinking about what the guards were talking about. Why would someone want to destroy the entire kingdom, wanting to kill hundreds of innocent civilians? 

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It’s been a few days since your near death encounter, and you’re wandering around the forest, and you know you shouldn’t but your curiosity got the better of you. The sound of leaves crunching under your feet is all you could hear apart from the sound of your breathing, it was that quiet, which was strange. The atmosphere felt heavy around you, your breathing becoming heavy. You felt like someone, or something, was watching you, your movements getting slower. As you turned around, you felt your body being thrown, your body hitting against a tree, knocking you to the ground with a thud.

You groaned as you held the back of your head, trying to sit up. As you eventually managed to sit up, you came face to face with a woman. She had fair skin, long dark hair and her clothes looked dirty, her feet bare. The thing that stood out to you the most, though, was her eyes. They looked cloudy, lifeless. She was looking at you but she also wasn’t. Like, she was looking at you but her focus wasn’t on you. 

You went to get up to go towards her but as soon as you moved, she disappeared. She didn’t turn around and leave, she literally disappeared into thin air. Did you just witness a ghost? You managed to stand up, holding onto the tree for support, when the sound of footsteps startled you, making you turn around. There he was, the same guy who saved you, the asshole.

“I told you to stay out of these woods”, he said, narrowing his eyes at you. You didn’t say anything, just continued holding your head, feeling a lump forming. Suddenly, a whistling sound could be heard around you, making the both of you look in the same direction. A black mist headed towards you, fear running through your body. Jay suddenly grabbed your hand, turning on his heels. 

“Hey, what the fuck are you doing?!” you shouted, wondering what he was doing and where he was taking you. “Do you want to die? Because I can leave you out here if you want to”, he said, raising his eyebrow. You didn’t want to die so you just followed him. Jay jumped onto his horse, helping you onto it after him. He held the reins of the horse, whilst you held onto Jay for support, not wanting to fall off. The horse galloped away, heading out of the woods, heading towards the castle. You turned around to see if the mist was still following you, and to your surprise, it wasn’t. It stayed above the woods, the black mist getting thicker as it surrounded the trees. 

Jay reached the castle, the sound of hooves trotting against concrete as he headed into the grounds of the castle. The horse came to a halt, other knights came running out of the castle. Jay got off the horse, helping you down after him. “Jay, who’s this?”, one of the knights said, when he suddenly recognised you. “Isn’t this the same girl you helped the other day in the woods?” he asked, to which you rolled your eyes.

“I do have a name, you know”, you said, looking between the two. “Well, what is your name because I don’t recall you telling me it”, Jay said, looking at you. You glared at him before telling him your name: Jung Y/N. Just hearing your name made his eyes grow wide. “Wasn’t your mother burnt at the stake for witchcraft? Well, accused of witchcraft”, Jay said, making other knights look at you. You felt uncomfortable with all the eyes on you, glaring at Jay. 

“Shut up”, you muttered under your breath, running into the castle, wanting to get away from all the attention. Jay and his knights followed you, wanting to ensure that the king doesn’t see you. Jay caught up with you and grabbed your wrist, turning you around to look at him. “Don’t just come running into the castle without me, the king might see you and kill you”, Jay said, a hint of fear in his voice, which you weren’t expecting. Why would the king kill you? Jay noticed the confusion on your face, bringing you into a room. He closed the door behind him, pushing you into the middle of the room. 

“I heard a couple of knights talking the other day, after I saved you, talking about someone or something wanting to destroy the kingdom, which could lead to hundreds or thousands of deaths, and if he sees you, someone who he doesn’t know, in his kingdom, he might kill you. He’s been cautious the past few days, being careful about who he lets into the castle. So I would be careful if I were you”, Jay said, his eyes burning into yours. 

“This means I can’t go home, doesn’t it?” you asked, Jay nodding his head. You sighed, running your fingers through your hair. “There’s a spare bedroom which isn’t in use opposite mine, if you want to use that. I mean, only if you want to”, Jay said, his turn to run his hands through his hair. All of a sudden, the sound of thunder boomed loudly throughout the kingdom, making you jump into Jay’s arms. Jay wrapped his arms around you, rubbing your arms up and down, trying to calm you down. You pulled away after a few seconds, apologising. Jay may be attractive, but that doesn’t mean you will fall for his charms. 

A few hours went by, and you're sitting on a bed, which was a lot more comfier than yours. You looked around the room, noticing the details. The red velvet curtains, which had a gold fringe, the textured cream walls detailed with a large gold mirror. There was a knock on the door, making you jump. You called for the person to come in, a woman revealing herself, holding something in her hand. She bowed, putting some clothes on your bed and left without a word. You noticed she put a nightgown on your bed, the material soft underneath your hands. 

You realised it was getting dark outside so you decided to get changed into your nightgown, and turn in for the night. You wondered if the dark mist had moved past the woods, the thought alone just terrified you to the core.

--------------------------------

You saw your brother and sister, their backs towards you. You raced after them, but the more you ran, the further they got from you. You ran for what seemed like ages, getting nowhere near them. The more you ran, the more your vision became clouded with blood. There was blood everywhere, the sound of your brother and sisters screaming deafened your ears, the screeching became louder and unbearable. You covered your ears, your running came to a stop. 

You dropped to your knees, your vision now blurred with tears. The screaming wouldn’t stop. You screamed for it to stop, shaking your head from side to side. You screamed once more for it to stop, finally being able to hear yourself shout as silence surrounded you. You looked forward, seeing your brother and sister ahead of you, now looking at you. But there was someone standing behind them. It was your mother. 

You shouted at her to leave them alone, but it was no use. She grabbed your brother and sisters shoulders, gripping them. Blood started pouring out of their eyes, nose and mouth. That’s when your mother burst into flames, her screams making your ears bleed.

You woke up with a scream, covered in sweat. Another nightmare. You tried catching your breath, your heartbeat erratic. You managed to calm down after a while, but you couldn’t seem to fall back asleep.

You just laid there, looking up at the ceiling. You laid there for a moment, when the sound of whispering from outside your bedroom door caught your attention. You got out of bed, tiptoed over towards the door and carefully put your ear against the door. The sound of 2 men talking to each other, but you couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. You realised you weren’t going to find out what they were talking about so you turned around and went back to bed but in the process of turning around, you knocked into something and fell over with a yelp.

The door opened, revealing 2 knights, who you assumed were the ones outside your door. You were prepared to get yelled at but to your surprise, the complete opposite happened. “You okay, m’lady?” one of the knights asked, causing you to clear your throat. “I’m okay. Just wanted to stretch my legs since I had a cramp, but I must have tripped in the process of going back to bed”, you managed to come up with an excuse, and luckily the knights believed you, nodding their heads and closing the door behind them as they left. You let out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding in, and got back into bed.

--------------------------------

Over the course of the next few days, the black mist has gotten closer to the kingdom, a few people in your village getting sick, which ended up with them dying. Everyone in the kingdom is panicking, running around like headless chickens. You and Jay have been helping each other come up with a plan on how to stop whoever, or whatever, is trying to destroy the kingdom. You were in your room whilst Jay was in his, getting ready to go out with the other knights to go on a hunt to the woods. The both of you knew it was dangerous, but you had no other choice. All you had to do was be extra careful.

You laced up your boots, straightened out your clothes (which was given to you by one of the female knights) and looked at yourself in the mirror, before leaving your room. You came face to face with Jay, who nodded at you and headed towards the entrance of the castle, where some of the other knights were waiting. 

You made it into the woods, seeing dozens of dead bodies on the ground. Every single body has blood coming out of their eyes, nose and mouth. They all died the same way your brother and sister died, 8 years ago. Your mother didn’t kill your siblings. Whatever the black mist is, killed your siblings. And it’s come back to destroy the kingdom. 

You didn’t realise you were staring at the dead bodies until you felt someone touch your arm. You came back to reality, looking down at the person touching your arm: Jay. “you ready?” he asked, to which you nodded. You’re not sure what you’re ready for but you’re ready for something. You got off your horse, heading straight into the woods. Once you made it into the heart of the woods, that’s when you saw something, or someone: it was the same woman you saw a few days ago only this time, she looked cleaner.  

“Hey, what are you doing here, it’s dangerous”, one of the knights said to the woman, who didn’t budge. The knight, who’s name you didn’t get, walked towards the woman but that was a bad idea as she grabbed the knight by the neck, breaking it immediately. Is she behind this, or is she being controlled by something?

A few knights ran in the other direction, but the woman seemed to summon something, which grabbed the knights who tried to run away, killing them instantly, ripping some of them in half. It was a bloodbath. You didn’t know what to do as you just stood there, watching everything unfold in front of you. You saw Jay run towards the woman, and that’s when something clicked in you. You ran towards Jay, putting your hand out to try and grab him, but you weren’t quick enough. Jay was thrown against a tree, hitting his head. The woman clawed at his chest, making him scream out in pain. You stood behind her, grabbing her and throwing her backwards away from Jay.

“Leave us alone!” you shouted at her, or whoever she was because she was definitely not human. “You look like your mother”, she said, her voice definitely sounded non-human. You screamed, lunged forward and tackled her to the ground, grabbed the nearest object and whacked her over the head, but that was the wrong thing to do as she threw you backwards, your back hitting the ground. You don’t remember anything after that as everything went black.

--------------------------------

When you came to, you noticed you were in an unfamiliar room. You also felt… different. You couldn’t describe it though, you just didn’t feel like yourself. You sat up and looked around the room you were in. You definitely weren’t in your room that you were located in. Who’s bedroom are you in? Suddenly a voice broke you out of your trance. 

“Oh thank god you’re awake, I was worried you weren’t going to wake up”, Jay walked over to you, and that’s when you realised he was shirtless. There were marks on his chest, from when he was clawed back in the woods. His hair was wet and slicked back, probably from recently being bathed. You weren’t going to lie, he was very attractive and you won’t deny it. There was something in you that just wanted to mark his neck up and down, which wasn’t like you. 

Jay sat down next to you, placing an arm on your shoulder. He took back his hand with a gasp. “You’re freezing! I’ll get you something more warm to put on”, he went to get up to get you a blanket but you stopped him, not saying a word as you grabbed his wrist. You’re not sure what came over you as you kissed him, smashing your lips against his. His lips were soft, you could taste wine against them, the sweetness hitting your senses. You pushed him on the bed, climbing on top of him, not removing your lips from his.

Jay was confused as to what came over you, but he didn’t stop you. He deepened the kiss, holding your hips as you straddled his waist. You grinded yourself against him, gripping the material of the sheets on the bed, digging your nails into it. Before you knew it, you were underneath Jay, your clothes discarded on the floor. His lips attached to your neck, sucking purple spots on your skin, eliciting a moan from you. You grabbed his clothed cock, palming him through his pants, earning a groan from him. The next thing you knew, you were both naked on the bed, Jay thrusting in and out of you at a reasonable pace.

You arched your back as Jay hits your sweet spot, his cock hitting you in all the right places. You grabbed his buttcheeks, squeezing them as you dug your nails in the flesh of his cheeks, earning a hiss from Jay. You reached up, kissing him, sucking on his bottom lip. You weren’t usually like this. You were on the calmer side of things, like to be soft and sweet. This was a completely different side to you, and you didn’t know what got into you, but Jay loved seeing you like this. You came to your orgasm, your legs shaking as your eyes rolled back, Jay soon coming to his not long after you.

Without giving Jay a chance to breathe, you flipped the both of you over, you now on top. You grinded against his cock, your nails digging into the flesh of his thighs. Moans kept escaping Jay as you continued grinding against him, cum leaking out of his tip and onto his stomach, his abs glistening with cum. You leant down and shoved your face into the crook of his neck, attaching your lips to his skin. You sucked dark purple spots on his skin before latching your teeth into his skin, biting him. Jay hissed as you bit him hard, causing blood to trickle down his neck. Jay was surprised as he loudly moaned at the sensation, making him cum instantly, staining his chest with cum.

Jay laid there as he tried catching his breath, his chest moving up and down at a fast pace. As Jay continued to lay there, you grabbed your clothes, putting them back on without saying anything. You went to leave Jay’s room when you stopped you. “Where are you going?” he asked, looking at you, now sitting up. You just smirked at him, opened the door and left without another word. Jay looked at the door in confusion, wondering what the hell has happened to you. Did something happen to you in the woods?

You walked along the halls, which were lit up by lamps, the only source of light in the kingdom due to it now being dark outside. You put the hood of your cape over your head, your black dress, gliding along the floor with every step you take. You managed to leave the kingdom without being seen, running down the steps, the moonlight being your only source of light to lead you on your way.

--------------------------------

“Where’s Y/N? I can’t find her anywhere, she’s not in her room”, one of the servants exclaimed, worry evident on her face. She’s been trying to find her all morning, unfortunately with no luck. Jay, Jake, a couple of other knights and the King sat at the table in the great hall, looking at the servant. “What do you mean you can’t find her?” Jay asked, worry now written all over his face. He stood up, making his chair fall backwards. It was the King’s turn to stand up now, towering over the table.

“She probably wandered home since she doesn’t belong here. Jay, you brought her here, didn’t you? She lives in the poor part of the kingdom, right? I want you to go find her and when you do, I want you to kill her, no matter what”, the King ordered, but from the sound of his voice, Jay realised there was something more to this than the King is saying. 

“What do you mean ‘kill her’?! What aren’t you telling us? You can’t keep things to yourself without telling us, sire” Jay said, annoyance in his voice. He kept arguing with the King until the King had enough. “Enough! You do as I say or I will kill you and then kill Y/N myself. Now go!” the King said, slamming his hands down on the table. Jay grumbled before leaving the table, Jake and a few other knights following him. Before they got to the door and left, the King spoke up, his voice full of fear.

“You really want to know what’s happening?” the King said, making them turn around to look at him. The King sat back down, sighing. “8 years ago, the same thing happened across the kingdom. Everyone in the village got sick, ranging from children to adults. I knew Y/N’s parents as I saved Y/N’s mother when she was still pregnant with her. I was just passing by when I saw her standing on top of her bridge, assuming that she was going to jump off, I ran to her and got her down, to which she broke down in tears, her husband running to me holding her. Since that day, I watched them from a distance, keeping an eye on them to see if they’re safe”, he took a deep breath before he continued.

“I continued to watch them from afar for years after that, watching Y/N grow up, as well as her siblings. One day, as I was strolling along through the woods, I noticed something strange. I saw a figure of what seemed to be a woman. They had long black hair, their skin looked pale and their clothes dirty. Though I had a feeling it wasn’t actually a woman, but a spirit. My suspicions were answered when a few days later, the village got infected, children and adults growing ill, dying. It was a bloodbath. When I got to their home, there was blood everywhere. Blood stained beds and carpet, as well as blood on the walls. The house was empty, or at least I thought it was empty until I heard a voice. A female voice. It was Y/N, she was talking to someone, or something. I looked inside a room, and there she was: Y/N sitting on the floor, tear clad cheeks. I saw the same thing I saw a few days prior, sitting in front of Y/N”.

“Get away from her!”, the King yelled, trying to get the thing away from Y/N. The thing ran away, out of the house and back into the woods. But in the process, Y/N got scared and ran in the same direction. What did the spirit want with Y/N?

“Why didn’t you do anything?” Jay questioned. “Because by the time I realised, it was too late! The spirit possessed Y/N’s mother, killing her children, but not before destroying hundreds of lives in the village. But that’s the thing. Y/N’s mother wasn’t supposed to become possessed. It was supposed to be Y/N. And I think that’s why it’s come back”, the King said, fear in his eyes. “Now go, before it’s too late”, the King ordered, Jay and his knights running out of the main hall and out of the castle, hoping to find you before it’s too late. 

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Jay and his knights wandered into the woods, and the sight they walked into made them frown. There were dead bodies everywhere, blood coming out of their eyes, mouth and nose. Some bodies were torn into 2, some had their limbs missing, and guts were hanging out of their chests. Jake wanted to throw up, to which he did, puking his guts up. Jay walked forward, trying to see any sign that you were there, but he couldn’t find anything. Suddenly, a gust of wind came out of nowhere, making some of the knights almost fall over. Jay saw you in the distance, walking towards them. But you didn’t look like yourself. You were covered in blood. Blood splatters on your face, dress and on the sword you were holding. Wait, sword? Where the fuck did you get a sword from?

“Y/N, what are you doing?” Jay asked, walking towards you slowly. That’s when you spoke up. Except, it wasn’t your voice. “It’s too late. Y/N is gone”, your voice- which wasn’t your voice- sounded demonic. You lifted your arm, putting your hand out. Black mist appeared from behind you, and you pushed your hand out, making the knights behind Jay be thrown backwards, some of them being thrown into a tree, knocking them out. The sound of thunder roared in the distance, lightning lighting up the sky. Rain came pouring down from the sky, making it hard to see in front of you.

“Time to die”, you said, a smirk on your face.

You lifted your bloodied sword, ready to strike. Jay ran forward, holding his sword up. Both swords came into contact with a clang, the force causing vibrations to run through your bodies. You both fought, clashing swords. You sliced Jay’s arm, making him hiss as blood marked his arm. You fought for what felt like hours, losing track of time.

“I will rule the kingdom! It should have been me, not that stupid king. If he didn’t kill me, I would have ruled the kingdom and become Queen! Guess the King isn’t as innocent as everything thinks he is”, you said, smirking at Jay, making him stop in his tracks. “What do you mean?”, Jay asked, lowering his sword, letting his guard down. 

“Ah, he didn’t tell you, did he? He had a wife years ago, who was going to become Queen but become the King was fucking jealous of that, he murdered her in the woods. She thought that they were having a nice day in the woods, going to have a picnic, but he grabbed his sword and struck her right then and there, her body falling to the ground. That was me, I was the wife”, you said, your voice becoming more and more demonic the angrier the spirit got. Suddenly, the King ran out of nowhere from behind Jay, standing in front of him. 

“Guinevere, stop this please!” the King bellowed, hoping that she would stop. But unfortunately for him, that made her more angry. All of a sudden, the King gasped and fell to the ground until his body came to a stop. Blood trickled out of his eyes, nose and mouth. Shit.

“Guess I’ll be Queen after all”, you smirked at Jay, raising your sword, getting ready to strike. Out of nowhere, Jake’s body stepped in front of Jay’s, raising his arms. He grabbed the sword, yelling as the blade dug into the palms of his hands. “Stop it, you bitch”, Jake yelled, managing to grab the sword out of your hand. You screamed like a banshee, making Jay and Jake hold their ears, the sound too painful to listen to.

Jake looked at Jay, giving him a look that said ‘you know what you need to do’, to which Jay nodded. Jake threw the sword to Jay, and Jay ran up to you. He turned you around, putting the sword to your throat. You held onto Jay’s arms, digging your nails into them. “Y/N, if you’re still in there, I’m really sorry for what I’m about to do”, Jay said as he closed his eyes. You chuckled evilly, the spirit inside you preparing for what’s about to happen.

“You can do what you want to me, you’re not going to get Y/N back. She was already dead before I possessed her”, the spirit said, taunting Jay with her words. Jay let go of her and turned her around to look at him. He grabbed the sword with both hands as he yelled, striking the sword right into your chest, a scream leaving you. The spirit possessing you let out a screech, making Jay’s and Jake’s ears bleed. Black mist came out of your mouth, heading towards the sky before it disappeared completely, evaporating. 

Your body dropped to the ground with a thud, the sword still in your chest. Jay wrapped his arms around you, tears staining his cheeks as he sobbed. Jake stood there, not knowing what to do or say. Jay stayed like that for what seemed like hours, just holding your lifeless body. Some of his tears dropped onto where the sword used to be, falling into the wound on your chest. All of a sudden, the wound in your chest started to disappear, the colour in your skin now becoming more full of life. You gasped as you opened your eyes, startling Jay. 

“What happened? How did I get here?” you asked, looking around you, wondering why you were in the woods, and why Jay was holding you. He started crying again, of happiness this time as he hugged you, wrapping his arms around you. “You’re alive, I thought we lost you, oh my god”, Jay cried of happiness. You were confused but wrapped your arms around him, melting into the hug. 

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You laid in Jay’s bed, looking up at him as he explained what happened to you, and you felt awful. You killed all those people? Including the King? You knew that it wasn’t actually you as you were possessed, but you still felt awful. You started crying as the guilt started eating you up, the whole kingdom is probably going to be scared of you or hate you for what’s happened. Jay was startled as you started crying your eyes out, not knowing what to do. You voiced your feelings, feeling like you were at fault for everything that has happened, even though that it wasn’t you and you shouldn’t feel like that, but you couldn’t help it. 

“Hey, if anyone says anything to you about it or tries to make you feel like shit then, they will have me to deal with, ok?”, he said, smiling softly at you. You returned a smile, smiling up at him. You leaned closer to him, lifting your head up. You gave him a soft kiss on the lips, holding his cheek, rubbing your thumb along the skin. Jay smiled into the kiss, melting into you. You’re not sure what’s going to happen now but what you do know is that you're most definitely in love with Park Jongseong.

[sisterdivinium]

If we are to take a deep dive, it is best to assure the place we're leaping from is stable, so let's do that by starting with the obvious.

The subject in both of these sentences is the same: the Halo. Both of these characters have borne it. Both sentences present the same grammatical structure and answer directly to one another despite the distance in time and space between one and the other's utterances. To Ava, the receiver of these conflicting messages, both claims prove themselves to be ultimately true, for the Halo acts as a gift, in granting her a second chance at a life she never had, and also as a burden, as it imposes on her responsibilities and demands of her sacrifices she would otherwise have never known.

But the show itself openly invites us to dig deeper, so we should not be contented with the obvious alone.

If there is always more, then we must peel back the surface and peek at what is underneath if we are to grasp at least a fraction of the functioning of Warrior Nun in different levels—be it in small scale, pertaining to the characters themselves, or be it in large scale, including how all of it relates to us as viewers in the end.

These two moments of season one are but a fragment of the show’s comprehensive universe, but we will examine them closely to see just how much meaning we can find in them, deceptively simple as they seem.

As mentioned above, the grammatical structure of both sentences is shared between them: “the [subject] is a [noun]”. This could lead to some sort of direct description we associate with the act of definition, of explaining what something is, as in “the pope is a man” or, to use the same reference as Mother Superion and Shannon do, “the Halo is an object”. In fact, had this been the case, we would have been closer to Ava’s own conclusion of the Halo being “a hunk of magic metal embedded in [her] back”, as this is a characteristic anyone could ascribe to it upon examination.

Yet the words used by both former warrior nuns are “gift” and “burden”. If they describe the Halo, then it is not in terms derived from objectively observable traits it possesses (such as it being made of metal), but in a wholly subjective manner. When Mother Superion and Shannon say the Halo is this or that, both imply that it is this or that as relates to themselves. In relaying what the Halo supposedly “is” to Ava, they pre-interpret it for her, infusing it with their own points of view—their beliefs. What they say of the Halo is much more a reflection of who they are than anything the Halo in itself could be.

A) The gift

A gift is, as we know, a present. It presupposes a giver and a receiver, as well as some degree of gratitude on the part of the latter, even if justified by politeness alone.

Mother Superion, embodying the authority of the Catholic church, framed by candles and an altar behind her while making use of short, straightforward affirmations, does not need to clearly state who occupies these positions: we can safely infer that the giver here is God and the beneficiary of this divine benevolence is Ava. A definiteness is patent in the sentences that follow—here is the power of the institution at work, for if Mother Superion starts out by “defining” the Halo, now she defines Ava through it. An inversion takes place, as the woman allows the object to define the woman (as “God’s champion” who “fights in His name”) rather than the other way around. The church, the Halo construct Ava as a subject, subjecting her to certain ideas of what she should be. She is the warrior nun despite having no say in it, not being a warrior and much less a nun.

At first sight, it wouldn’t make sense to interact with Ava in these terms, especially if, by this scene, Mother Superion has already read her file. It wouldn’t be difficult to deduce how expressions crafted with religious colours might impact an audience that does not show any religious proclivities. Furthermore, the tradition of rhetoric has always taught that speakers ought to adapt to their listeners if they wish to get their point across, so either Mother Superion is incompetent at communication, lacking sensibility and skills, or she is making a calculated move—one that is fully supported by her hierarchical position. After all, superiors seldom need to rationally convince their subordinates of doing something given how the latter are compelled instead by power dynamics to get in line—or else.

The strategy doesn’t really work on Ava.

In semiotic terms, we could even argue that there is something confusing happening in this scene—a narrative phase of manipulation (wherein someone tries to get someone else to accept and do something), we could say that it contains hints of both seduction (a positive commentary on the interlocutor—it’s not just about anyone who can be god’s champion, so this is a positive distinction) and intimidation (the threat of negative consequences if the interlocutor doesn’t comply—there is an implied order in the sequence, meaning Ava cannot refuse to be “God’s champion”). Ava might not share in this world-view, but it is what the church and its followers propose: a gift from God is a positive value. Being chosen by God to do something, even fighting and possibly dying in the process, is a positive value. Lilith is standing right there beside them and, at this point, she would surely agree and see nothing of this exchange in a negative light.

Yet Ava isn’t a nun and indeed she does not perceive any of these “honours” as being desirable. Mother Superion’s stance, the image she presents of herself as a strict nun herself when Ava has been mistreated by them all her life, equally gives her no reason to be persuaded, much on the contrary.

The manipulation fails. Ava is told God gave her the gift of life… And that now she is to endanger and potentially lose that very same life as some sort of gesture of gratitude. The logic is unimpressive at best and frankly absurd at worst.

Within the framework of the church, however, it makes perfect sense. Misattributed and misconstrued as it might be, the motto of credo quia absurdum is still pertinent: “I believe because it is absurd”. That a god should grant life only to claim it back through violence is perfectly acceptable if one believes in this god’s unquestionable authority rather than seeing this demand as something ridiculous or cruel.

The very concepts of God, service, battle, duty, blessings only make sense to the faithful, something Ava isn’t. She’s just a puny little individual resisting the pressures brought upon her by a powerful institution.

She and Mother Superion are only speaking over one another, not really having a conversation; Ava doesn’t care to listen to what the church has to say, she doesn’t take it seriously, and the church likewise does not take her individuality, her person into consideration.

However, we would do well to remember that Mother Superion is not simply a mouthpiece for the church—she is also Suzanne, lowly little individual with lowly individual desires and resentment just as Ava.

And, regardless of the effacement of self that monastic as well as military institutions enforce on their members, just as Ava’s subjectivity isn’t neatly negated by direct statements in line with reigning dogma, Suzanne’s own subjectivity also seeps through her words and attitudes. If not blatantly, at the very least there is a remarkable struggle taking place within her, suggested by her use of language as well as her demeanour.

The Halo, after all, defines her as well.

If bearing it is the greatest honour, a mark of God’s favour, if it defines a person, then losing it has an equal power of definition. The distinction it confers on someone is inescapable, for good or ill, and either one dies gloriously as “God’s champion” or one survives it, survives its removal, and is deemed rejected and unworthy by this so magnanimous God. The Halo soaks up all of the positive value ascribed to it—meaning those who lack it adopt a negative one in contrast, be it Suzanne who had it and lost it or even Lilith, who should’ve had it and didn’t.

Still it is considered “a gift”, something given by God… One could say it is a form of grace.

Suzanne’s noun and Vincent’s verb have the same origin, of course, the same stem. Despite the argument between them in this other scene, ultimately there is agreement between the two of them judging by their choice of vocabulary and Mother Superion’s reaction immediately afterwards. If this were not true in some degree, there would have been little need for Mother Superion to correct Ava in the first place, for Ava calls the Halo “a hunk of magic metal”, yes, but she also refers to it as “top prize”, as a reward—which, unlike “gifts”, are meant to be earned, to use Vincent’s comparison. There is a mixture of concepts here.

Without wanting to overcomplicate this text, let us say that ideology is a certain way of understanding the world and that it constructs and is constructed by our discourse, our use of language. One of the functions of ideology is that of attempting to smother contradiction, to smoothen the world’s complexities, simplify them, rationalise them away, however incapable it truly is at accomplishing that given how reality is too complex to be so tamed. Here, then, we see a notable sort of contradiction in Mother Superion’s discourse (in her ideology) that isn’t easily solved: a detail, a problem left out from the thought system. She agrees that grace, in the form of the Halo or not, is given, yet she treats it as if it were earned. This is a crack in the wall; it’s an idiosyncrasy, proof of a subject torn between the different voices that compose her subjectivity, the fragments, the different discourses that, put together, make her up as a whole.

What could be more contradictory than calling something which has scarred her physically, mentally and emotionally a “gift”?

If we create and are created in turn by means of discourse (“you are God’s champion”), if we can only understand and interact with the world when it is mediated by discourses and their correlated ideologies, what would it have meant if Suzanne had assigned another value to the Halo?

The inversion of values would certainly have ejected her from the church. If the Halo, to her, gained negative value, thus allowing her to retain some amount of positive value, her participation in the institution would be impracticable. She would be at odds with the dominant ideology, its structures, its rules… And she would face the resistance Ava faced by assuming such antagonism.

And sure, she might have regained some sort of “freedom”, but what would she have then lost? Resentment or not, there appears to be one central, recurrent positive value, one central desire to most characters in Warrior Nun and it would not be far-fetched to assume Suzanne shares in it herself and is unwilling to part with it.

B) The burden

Needless to say that if there is a generous deal of “burden” to Suzanne’s “gift”, there is also some “gift” in Shannon’s “burden”, judging by her mentioning the family she gained through bearing the Halo. Curiously enough, the dynamic of receiving something and paying for it with that very “gift”—Shannon getting a family and losing it by the very same means—is identical to the dynamics involved in getting Ava to accept her fate as warrior nun, by “paying” for the “gift” of life by risking that very same life in battle.

Shannon has received the “gift”—and fulfilled her role to perfection, allowed to thank God for it personally… If the Halo was taken from Suzanne, Shannon is the one “taken” because of it, alongside other ex-bearers.

Here there are no euphemisms. Shannon has lived the consequences of being “God’s champion” until the very end, so she has no need for distorted truths meant to keep things in order, to avoid questioning the principle of order itself which is the institutional view. There is still a struggle (there is always a struggle) as she admits to finding something positive (a family) through her loyalty to the cause even if the cause is what kills her and other women like her. The contrast between Mother Superion’s speech focused on individual responsibility and Shannon’s avowal of how it is “too great for one person to bear” tells us more than enough about how they each envision individuality, community, the possibility of action, who can make it come about—how life and death, different paths, different destinies, inform perception of the same thing.

Their values are inverted.

Mother Superion’s “gift” is Shannon’s “burden”; Mother Superion’s tendency, while alive, to value death (“You fight in His name”) is countered by a dead Shannon’s valorisation of life (“So much promise unfulfilled. So much life unlived. And for what?”) The scenes are in direct opposition to one another, they respond to one another as mirrored images.

So much so that the reply is not merely linguistic, hidden away in dialogue, but quite evidently displayed in visual terms as well. A mirror offers us reflections that are inverted—left in place of right, right as left—and so are these scenes inverted in relation to one another: in the moment of saying the sentences we’re concerned with, Mother Superion and Shannon stand in much the same place. If we do not notice, it is because the camera pans around in different angles—with the former, we watch the scene from a point at Ava's left, while the latter is shown from an angle at her right. We are literally treated to reflected images, seen from opposite points of view.

Colour, too, guides our reading of both scenes set side by side. With Mother Superion, we are in the realm of the church and its associated earthly tones as established throughout the first season, whereas Ava’s vision of Shannon paints the dream church in a shade of blue. Blue is, of course, the hue which had been mostly tied to Jillian Salvius, to ArqTech, to science. With science comes the concept of reason, as opposed to the sepia haze of faith.

Mary is also drawn against a backdrop of bright blue sky when she is investigating the docks and relying on her reason rather than her faith concerning Shannon’s death.

Shannon’s opinion on the Halo might be just as subjective as Mother Superion’s before her, but it is filtered through personal experience and observation, through reason rather than blind belief in a mission.

Yet we are forgetting something. Ava, having died already, claims there is nothing on the other side. If that is so, why is she meeting Shannon now? And why is this meeting taking place in circumstances that reflect previous events in an inverted manner?

As dreams often reuse what we have lived when awake, re-rendering our memories, transforming them, so it is possible that Ava is not having a vision but a dream—that she is talking not to Shannon, but to some facet of herself, Ava, manifesting as Shannon after connecting with her memory through the warrior nun book.

As Ava clings to it and the knowledge it affords her, it would make sense for her conscience to finally figure out a proper retort to what she heard of Mother Superion in that earlier moment, a retort fuelled by new information and by her own reasoning. At the very least, it would be more plausible to consider this hypothesis than to assume her vision of Shannon is a real communication with her spirit granted by the Halo, for, if we are witnessing a new phase of manipulation, then the message being transmitted this time concerns the Halo’s “lifecycle” itself—and how it must be brought to an end. If it is sentient as some characters believe, why would it let Ava meet Shannon and be exposed to the idea of working against the Halo’s own interests of perpetuation?

After all, the implications behind Shannon’s words are evident: again, if the Halo also defines the woman, then it defines sister Shannon, sister Melanie and all other warrior nuns going back to Areala with one word which will soon apply to Ava and whomever follows: that word is dead, crushed under the burden.

And this time, the message, a sort of compassionate provocation (“a burden too great to bear”—even for you), hits its mark, inspiring Ava to end the tradition and be the last warrior nun.

We are not in the semantic field of religion, even if it is there, in the background, being answered to; here we are not speaking of God or battles fought for this distant general in the sky, but of family, of women slaughtered in the name of a mission. This is no longer some ethereal question but an immediate concern. Whether this is Shannon or Ava herself subconsciously masquerading as Shannon to facilitate her own “awakening”, the point gets across now that it is transmitted in language that makes sense to Ava, now that there are common values between speaker and listener.

One could even hypothesise that, at this point, Shannon being a former warrior nun lends credibility to her words in Ava’s mind as she is a woman experienced in this role Ava is supposed to play.

If so, we can also understand the bridge of empathy that is built between Ava and Mother Superion later on when it is revealed that Suzanne, too, was a halo bearer and that she, too, has carried this “burden”. Both forge new understandings of one another through this common background and a personal exchange that is nothing like their first encounter—when the “gift” is said to have rejected the older nun, when its “burden” is divulged to Ava.

As Ava recognises Shannon, so do Ava and Mother Superion eventually recognise one another as well—so do they begin to comprehend how they did carry similar values, only obscured by their dissimilar ideologies and their resulting language use. If no other, then the value of family is what binds them together through Suzanne’s new disposition to embrace all of her sisters and Ava’s newfound conduct in considering them her sisters to begin with. They come closer in the catacombs and, at last, meet halfway by season two.

Yet we, the viewers, as touched by this miscommunication that ends well as we may be, after all of this talk of gifts and burdens, we remain none the wiser on what the Halo actually is.

C) The energy source

As previously exposed, we are kept in the dark because most sentences that speak of this iconic object in the series are subjective, focused on the characters’ own relationship to it or their ideas about it rather than any substantial data on what it might truly be apart from a “hunk of magic metal” currently in Ava’s back.

Perhaps because we spend so much time with the nuns, satisfied as they are with the logic of plain belief instead of concerned with tangible, provable things that can or should be explained. The most we get is the information on how the Halo is some kind of weapon, an amplifier attuned to the bearer’s body and soul.

Enter Jillian Salvius.

While her understanding of the Halo is admittedly insufficient, her research on it limited, her available vocabulary and scientific knowledge too slim (!) to encompass such an item, she does not say something like “the Halo is a mystery” or “a conundrum” as she says of Lilith later on. It would be true, just as it being a “gift” or “burden” is true considering those who called it thus, yet Jillian uses another sort of language instead.

Being a scientist, doctor Salvius opts for what we consider to be appropriate scientific modes of speaking, that is, by creating an impression of objectivity. It is not her personal reaction or opinion of the Halo that she offers, but whatever traits she can see or learn of in that moment: an energy source, an object that defies physics, a foreign body of undefined material. Ava “translates” this as being “an alien battery”, but the fact is that we are served a definition of the Halo unlike those we had before. It isn’t much, but for once we are not given a character’s personal interpretation of it…

Or so it seems. We none of us are capable of being fully objective, for none of us can rid ourselves of our selves—Jillian posits the Halo as an energy source, which seems innocent and impartial enough, but soon afterwards we understand what that means to her.

In themselves, the words “energy source” don’t carry many other connotations. Yet, for Jillian, these words that seem so neutral and “scientific”, so clear cut, do not sustain the facade of objectivity. She has spoken of energy before, it is an active component of her research, a common word in her lexicon; to Ava, “energy source” is “a battery”, but to Kristian and Jillian, who are part of ArqTech, who know what goes on within its walls, these words automatically acquire another meaning.

Yes, that of a battery, but one with a very specific purpose. Under the guise of neutral discourse, a very personal interpretation of the Halo, just as if it were a “gift” or “burden”, lies hidden. It is an energy source—one that doctor Salvius can potentially use to power her contraption. It is a “solution”, perhaps even a “gift”, of circumstance if not of god.

And it, too, defines Ava despite herself. When it fails, Jillian says she was wrong about Ava, not the Halo, thus conflating the two.

In the end, even she who might well be the smartest character, the one most closely connected with science and concrete knowledge, cannot guard herself from letting the unsaid (or “unsayable”) slip through her lips. She, too, in spite of her apparent objective language, exhibits a subjective kind of relationship with the world around her, influenced by the ideologies that cross her being.

D) Ending thoughts

Perhaps, when all is said and done, we are never truly able to follow that maxim we’ve seen more than once on Warrior Nun.

Perhaps we simply cannot think or act if we do not perceive things as at least partially related to ourselves.

It is not necessarily a bad thing, though, as long as different views can coexist, as long as they do not trample one another, as long as one person or group don’t elect themselves as the owners of truth, attempting to eliminate all who do not follow them as Adriel tried to do. In a democracy, in a place and a moment in history where there is freedom of thought and creed and speech, the phenomenon of various voices competing for the spotlight, taking turns under it is normal and healthy.

Warrior Nun gives us a fascinating insight on the multiplicity of voices that compose a society, even if there are elements of it which seek to suffocate those voices. It is a microcosm where different ideologies, through language, are confronted with one another, where they struggle to make sense of things—and where each of those points of view over a given subject might carry a morsel of truth. The Halo is a piece of metal and a gift and a burden and an energy source; none of these ideas or perceptions necessarily exclude the other, none is “more correct” than the other because, if so, then the question would be: as regards which character?

To Ava, at least, it is all these things and maybe more.

There are attempts to implant a hegemonic interpretation of facts. The very story of Areala, Adriel, the Halo’s trajectory along the centuries, how this is “the way it has been for one thousand years” is a strategy to cement a singular view. The repetition, the constant reworking of tradition, telling this story over and over with each warrior nun… That is the church at play, ideology trying to fill in any gaps, keep things as they are, conserve them and the structures that organise them, guaranteeing that things have one certain sort of sense and not another, one value, one meaning.

But life is not stagnant and people are not all swallowed whole by ideology even when they subscribe to it willingly, as a member of a church would. There are always things that cannot be explained, things that are beyond the scope of ideology—contradictions, pesky little details that escape the invisible goggles with which we look at reality. The truth is that it is far more complex than we can contain it with a few buzzwords, man-made or divine. There is always another side, always a reply, a constant dialogue between our different ways of seeing, understanding, being and, therefore, speaking.

A more visible example comes from those scenes in season two where Yasmine and Adriel are both telling the exact same story, only through their own perspectives, interpreting it in their own ways.

The show provides many opportunities to see how varied human voice can be, how the point of view of whoever is telling the story bears a mighty influence on the narrative, whether consciously or not, malicious or not. That, in turn, may inspire us to look around us, in the real world; to look at how we are representing things, others and even ourselves as well as how others represent us through the words we use.

This is not an exhaustive study, long as it is. As said before, it is but a glance at two scenes, two little lines of dialogue which are, however, intimately connected with others, with the stuff of the entire show—with the stuff of life. We could write more on how possessive pronouns and other sorts of phrases with the idea of the Halo “belonging” to someone or being “owned” by someone are used, just to remain in the area of discourse about the Halo alone.

But the present text has given all it had to give and its author does not wish to be a burden on her readers any more than she already has been.

[conflictofthemind]

Not saying this means anything especially since TBSOAS (the book) only came out in 2020, more of a “hey this is weird” post but:

I’ve always thought these two looked / were similar as two wavy blond haired blue eyed men, and it definitely helps that they both premiered (in the case of film Corio) within one year of each other . But there’s like, more than that? And some of it is very strange?

First off, they are two characters who since the start of their chronological stories teeter between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ with a lot of forces in their life, including their evil scientist mentor, pushing them towards the dark side by use of manipulation tactics. Henry is much more of a direct victim to this than Corio is though, and the latter also does have more good influences in his life.

“Fueled with the terror of becoming Prey, see how quickly we become Predator?” - Dr. Gaul

“I could restore balance to a broken world… a predator, but for good” - Henry Creel / 001

Also, can I mention how both TBOSAS and TFS are set in the same exact time period? The Hunger Games uses retro futurism since the entire story is set centuries from now, but the era is clearly inspired by the late 50s to early 60s, especially given that it takes place 60 years before the main series.

Now here’s the actual weird part that had me making this post.

Both of their origin stories center on a romance with a female co-lead that ends with them killing her (heavy question mark). That’s not the weird part. It’s the way that the plots of both of these origin stories and said female characters are based off of old European folk-songs that were popular in Appalachia. TFS is based off of ‘The Tale of Barbara Allen’ and TBOSAS is based off of ‘The Ballad of Lucy Gray’ - Stranger Things just bothered to change her name to Patty Newby. Barbara Allen (Patty) appears as a covey sister of Lucy Gray in TBSOAS. Naturally, both of these characters are singers which plays a role in their respective stories.

I just have to say, it’s a very obscure source of inspiration to happen twice like this. There is a little part of me that thinks Kate Trefry and the writing crew on TFS might have been fans of The Hunger Games. But who knows.

Suzanne Collins wrote the TBOSAS prequel to answer the question of ‘nature vs nurture’ and how much choice villains have in becoming their future selves - which is the exact same question that is actively being posed by Stranger Things in regards to Henry.

And then how I got started on this line of thinking again today - the older adult versions of these characters both kidnap the respective sweet boy love interests and hijack them against the main characters. For strategic reasons and, in the case of Peeta, emotionally torturing the main character so she gives up. Will and Peeta are just both so similar as characters; soft and sensitive, traumatized, painters, both the poor underdogs with (seemingly) unrequited love for the protagonist though Mike isn’t really the protagonist.

I’m not sure if there’s actual inspiration being taken here. I typically assume not on the basis that I’m someone who can find connections between any pieces of media I enjoy. But the whole Appalachian folktale angle of it all is strange to me.

While I don’t think Henry was conceived with this in mind, it’s possible the inspiration sprang up during the further fleshing out of his backstory and into writing The First Shadow. Maybe it will even have an impact on the final season.

One of the things I liked about TBOSAS was the theme of the past coming back to haunt Snow in the future through Katniss and the music Lucy Gray created living on through her. If this was in any way inspiration, I’d love to see Vecna haunted by how similar Will is to him and especially the ways that he is different and able to do better.