#It’s about the gods who create and judge us and how we eventually come to judge them

[galahadenough]

While I'm posting dreams, here's another one.

This was in many ways one of my strangest dreams due to the fact that it lingered far more than any dream usually does. The physical sensations of training in magic remained, even into that evening I could still feel the pull of magic and the feel of the staff as it either shot over my shoulder or thunked into my palm. In addition, the myth in the dream continued to narrate smoothly after I woke up, instead of halting abruptly and quickly fading.

After training, a myth was told.

A man wandered, lost and purposeless after the destruction of his home, before a god took pity on him and appointed him guardian of the gates to the afterlife. He could not be with his family, but he could ensure their afterlife. He did his job and welcomed in all who came to him.

Soon after he took on this role he saw a soul who looked particularly troubled. He asked them what weighed on their mind. The response shook the man and for the first time he turned a soul away. From this point forward he would weigh and judge each individual who came to his gate. Over time, his eyes grew impartial and dispassionate, able to see the truths at the very core of souls. Thus he became the Gatekeeper.

The Gatekeeper held his station until the end of all things. As this world ended and another began, one last soul stood before the Gatekeeper. The very same god who gave him purpose so many years ago now stood on the edge between life and death, the last speck of life leaving a dying world. He explained that after this final passing the Gatekeeper could at last rest and rejoin his family on the other side.

The Gatekeeper looked into his soul and saw pride, saw pain and weariness, joy and contentment. He saw sadness and guilt without regret.

He saw the deaths of his family from so very long ago.

The Gatekeeper was content with his role and knew the necessity of his post. The man the Gatekeeper once was felt the return of time-dulled bitterness and anger.

This immortal soul cannot be taken by oblivion. He must either pass through the gate or continue his life here, but the Gatekeeper cannot leave until the last soul has left.

The being that was neither god nor mortal looked upon the god who created him and spoke his judgement.

[leoascendente]

Saturn placement/ the lord of karma and its life lessons🪐

~ Saturn archetype:

Saturn traditionally rules capricorn and the 10th house and has a co regency with Uranus for Aquarius and the 11th house. It's called like this because of the Roman god of time, agriculture and harvest, in Greek mythology was known as the titan Chronos.

In astrology it rules our limits and because time is our biggest limitation as human beings, we have an uncertain amount of time in this planet to fulfill our purpose

It also rules structure and laws, in the natal chart it shows us where we have to put discipline and follow the rules

Saturn was a titan, the father of Jupiter, it's a really ancient deity that rules over karma and teaches us how to overcome lessons and challenges that weight in our souls and block us from developing our best selves

Saturn placement is always complicated but, even though he's a severe teacher, he's also very generous rewarding our efforts and discipline

Saturn is commonly seen as a malefic planet because its placement in our natal chart shows us in which area of our lifes we will experience delays or problems, many times solving those issues in solitude

Aries/1st house: Fear of not being enough This placement can be really hard to deal with, this natives can feel like they are always being judged and observed by something they can't see or by other people in general, the thing is that their hardest critic is usually themselves. This placement also deals with physical problems but most of the time created by their own mindset, the natives usually feel uncomfortable in their skin like if there's something that needs to change about themselves to be better and accepted by others, they also may feel clumsy or like they don't have total control over their bodies. The best therapy for these natives is to shift their inner dialogue into a more positive and compassionate one, also being less critical with themselves, especialy when it comes to making mistakes. These natives usually prefer to be cautious, they don't like to take risks, they usually had a tough and strict childhood with almost no fun and being responsible for things not appropiate for their age, in some cases the birth was difficult too. The good thing about this placement is that the natives have a very powerful and intimidating presence, they take their time to make the best decition to eventually reach their goals, very ambitious and perseverant people that get every goal they set

Taurus/ 2nd house: Fear of not having enough As a Taurus saturn myself, we really have a hard time when it comes to money and resources, one of our biggest lessons is to differenciate money from abundance, money is just an amount of cash, abundance is having a roof over us, a healthy body and mind and a full fridge, it's important for us to differenciate because we can tend to vaue ourselves based on our financial situation. This placement also makes really stubborn people who have difficulties changing their mindset, specially about morals, values and beliefs, they also have a hard time admitting mistakes. This placement makes greedy colectors of everything that has value for them, they like fancy and expensive things, if saturn has bad aspects there can be an obssesion for making money and greediness, the good thing is that these natives want to get that luxorious life by themselves not depending or parasiting someone else, in fact, these natives prefer to make gifts instead of receiving them. The good aspect about his placement is that the natives knows how to make financial profits out of anything, if they have an apple tree they sell the apple, the apple pie and the apple jam; they also have an awesome eye to find hidden treasures or things with an special value, like an antique they find that end up being an historical treasure.

Gemini/ 3rd house: Fear of not knowing enough This placement makes difficult to communicate the native's thoughts and feelings clearly, many times because of a deep fear to be misunderstood by others, in some other cases it's caused by the fear of someone else taking their words againts the native. It is not that these natives don't have communicative skills, this difficulty comes from an inherent and irrational fear. The good thing is that this self repression can be handled in other ways, Billie Eilish has this placement and her music coud be her way to communicate her feelings in a healthy way, also healing the throat chakra could be beneficial for the natives. This placement usually gives the native a bad experience with siblings or cousins that are perceived as a burden, these natives could also feel lonely or prefered solitude over the people around them in their childhood. Their biggest karmic lesson is to be patient with themselves when it comes to aquiring knowledge and expressing their opinions and not caring that much about being misunderstood. I have seen people with this placement that had a really hard experience with neighbors, some even suffered bulliyng in school or being comppared a lot with their siblings or cousins

Cancer/ 4th house: Fear of not being loved or cared enough This might be one of the thoughest placements to have, it usually indicates a very repressive and strict household or a difficult mother figure that repressed the native from a very young age, this placement is especially tough on women, I have seen this placement before on girls who have an 'almond mom'. These natives usually grow up in a cold enviroment where their emotional needs were neglected or emotions didn't had space to be expressed, sometimes this means that the family could go through a period of scarcity when they were kids. They had to deal with very painful emotions of not feeling enough or asking themselves what's wrong with them, all those wounds majorly come from this dittached and emotionally cold childhood and household, this also makes them distrust other people or get emotionally attached to people that don't reciprocate their feelings. They don't usually feel comfortable with domestic tasks and may prefer to spend time outdoors, these natives may also avoid creating a home or a family or they make it at an older age, the second half of their lives tend to be a lot more comfortable as they get a deeper understanding of themselves

Leo/ 5th house: Fear of being rejected These natives are really scared of failure and not being enough , constantly ruminating if they are doing the right thing or not, they are more methodical than passionate in everything they do so their lesson is to learn to follow their heart without worrying about what others may think. Saturn in fire houses or signs always ignites the fear of taking risks but in this specific placement it goes further, Saturn here loose so much time analyzing that ends up loosing positive opportunities to grow. The inner child is repressed in this placement, spontaneity is blocked by Saturn, having fun seems to be a hard work for these natives, the good thing is that therapies to heal the inner child have a very positive effect on people with this placement, also hobbies and playful activities in their free time are great for them. These natives usually have an inner fear of what they can create, it can be personal projects but it also applies to their children, Saturn in this sign/house have a very rigid idea of perfection so there's a massive fear to be dissaponted with their creations for not being as ideal as they expected. On the positive aspect, these natives are very trustworthy and when they find something that awakens their passion that can turn into a work where they can create awesome things, their lesson would be to learn how to have fun and don't be so demanding with themselves

Virgo/ 6th house: Fear of being a failure These natives usually suffer from dygestive problems and tend to be obsessively hypocondriac with their health, as a funny personal experience, I met someone with this placement that though she had lung cancer because of a little pain in the back, spoiler: she just had stress and a bad posture. These natives have the best organization and administration skills , they also have an amazing eye for the little details that go unnoticed for the rest of us, the bad thing is that they have an unhealthy obssesion for order and will try to impose it on everyone else. These natives can be extremely controlling of their surroundings and the people in their lives, they also value themselves based on their productivity levels but don't give enough credit to their own merits but this is a common trait on every earth saturn. Routines and daily habits can feel opressive, also taking care of their physical needs can have an extra negative impact on their health, usually these natives experience physicl symptoms for their own internal conflicts, especially in regards of their skin, bones or knees. These natives are very critic with others but even more with themselves, but instead of being so demanding they would feel better with themselves by cultivating the skills they already have, I have also seen that they are great in careers related to health of people or animals.

Libra/ 7th house: Fear of commitment For these natives, relationships, especially romantic ones becomes a source of stress and repression, fear of commitment is really prominent because they can associate a partner with the end of their freedom. They have a very clinic eye to catch flaws iin their partners to avoid getting into deeper bonds, these natives have a really hard time trying to settle down and avoid being dependent on someone or somebody else being dependent on them. The good thing here is that if they open up to a relationship and get more in touch with their feelings, they can find a lot of truths about themselves through their partner. The bad thing is that these natives tend to project their own personal issues over their partner to avoid recognizing them on themselves, if Saturn is bad aspected it can be the total opposite and end up acting as a mirror for other people's internal wounds. Another positive trait of releasing this fear of commitment and intimacy is that they are able to create an indestrutible bond with their partner based on trust and loyalty. Usually these natives feel attracted to people that can offer a solid stability, especially in financial terms, I have even seen that they end up in marriages with a considerable age gap or they get married late in life. There could be some fear to get involved in legal matters, also these kiind of processes can extend for a long time and be complicated to solve

Scorpio/ 8th house: Fear of the unknown These placement can be very complex and express the saturnian energy in very different ways depending on the native, some may fear the unknown, others tend fear intimacy. These natives have a really hard time opening up even though they crave that intimacy they fear so much, superficial and void bonds are not for them so they end up being the lone wolf willingly before opening up to the wrong person. These natives tend to be very closed off, they avoid feeling vulnerable in front of other people, especially when it comes to emotional bonds, here they have to learn dircenrment because they can contradict themselves between what they desire and what they end up doing. This placement tend to isolate themselves even though creating a genuine bond with someone else can be the clue to their healing and personal growth, they also tend to end up with people with very different backgrounds or personal beliefs that can be used as a catalist for these natives to challenge themselves and their beliefs system. These natives usually avoid merging anything with other people, either it be emotionally or in material terms, sharing is not their best trait because before sharing they are already thinking in what they could loose, also they are relctant to receive from others, again either emotionally or material. They are usually very sceptic but mostly because of fear and not because they don't really believe

Sagittarius/ 9th house: Fear of not being experienced enough As a 9th house Saturn myself, we are the embodyment of the exceptic or the fanatic, there's no middle term. On Scorpio, saturn is sceptic because of fear, on Sagittarius is sceptic because of lack of proofs, we have vision of god very related to the abrahamic religions, like the long bearded guy that's seated in the clouds watching over us waiting for us to make a mistake so he can punish us, so depending on the aspects of Saturn we can be combative against that version of 'god' or being fearful of him, our big lesson is to trascend spiritually in our vision of a higher power. We like to learn but based on personal experiences, we may be reluctant to highr education but some may feel pressured to follow that path even though they'd prefer to focus just on what we are interested on. Here we find n inner conflict between Jupiter's desire (the ruler of the 9th house) of freedom and the responsabilities Saturn place over us, we don't feel too comfortable with taking risks and jumping into adventure without previous analisis and preparation, we could also experience delays or blockages when it comes to long travels.

Capricorn/ 10th house: Fear of not being in control Here saturn is at home so the energy flows more comfortable, these are very ambitious natives but very sensitive to their reputation, they have really big aspirations and expectations for themselves and their goals in life, they want to be recognized and admired for their merits. They tend to be more on the traditional values in every aspect of their life, these natives feel more comfortable following social standards and working hard with dedication to get to the place they want to be in life even if that places a lot of pressure over their shoulders, I have also noticed that these natives are really into marriage and family, like everything they do must be long term. The lesson for these natives is to enjoy life and allow themselves to make mistakes without fear of being judged, also to be relaxed and not always so focused on productivity and merits. They are not the emotional type of person or at least, emotions and feelings are not a priority, these natives have a bad fame of being a little maquiavelic but in fact they have a really solid moral compass but their ambition is too powerful so they can experience an internal battle between what they want and what they should do. In general these natives are destined to proffesional success just because they will actively work to achieve every dream they have, not by luck but by hard work

Aquarius/ 11th house: Fear of not fitting in with anybody These are very rational and selective people, they don't allow too much people into their inner circle even though they usually feel very connected to large groups, they prefer quality over quantity when it comes to friends. They are usually the father/mother in their group of friends, it can cause a lot of stress on them but they innately feel this need of giving mental clarity to those who are important for them. I have seen in these natives that they feel more connected to the family they find through their life than their own biological family and they feel very pressured to be valued and appreciated by their friends, like their friend's perspective of them is more important than their own self perception. Bad aspected, Saturn here can tend to isolation to avoid the responsabilities that an emotional bond could involve but deep inside they crave for that fraternal bond based on loyalty. These natives may not feel comfortable on team work but they have a lot of talent to do it, in fact, people who work with them tend to rely a lot on these natives because of their wisdom and talent to see the bigger picture.

Pisces/ 12th house: Fear to the unseen or what's hidden This is a complicated placement to have but it also have some nice blessings when Saturn's energy is channeled in a healthy way. These natives are very sensitive to what's going on outside of them, it's like being on perpetual state of alert in case any hidden danger appears, they are usually very suspisious of other people's intentions too. There's predisposition to paranoia, lack of trust and pesimism because anything could become a potential danger, their subconscious mind is really wide but these natives can fear their own mind from a very young age, usually they experience some kindof complications in the womb of their mothers, if this is your placement I highly suggest you to ask your mum how her pregnancy was. The good thing about this placement is the connection to the collective subconscious, this makes the natives really good at knowing other people's needs and deficiencies, knowing someone's problem makes it easier to find a solution so these natives usually dedicate their lives to the service of others, they fear what other people could do against them but they can't fight the urge to help others. These placement have some warnings, the first one would be the tendency to isolation after overstimulation, the second one would be about institutions, there's a karmic debt torwards them so be careful because they could end up locked up in them willingly or not, depending on the native . Unwillingly it could be ending up in jail, hospitals and that sort of institutions, but willingly they could be very healpful for the people who are locked inside those places, I met a girl with this placement that work as a therapist in a female prison and she was really loved there.

[enderalwitches]

Will the Cycle End? How will it end and why?

To avoid prolonging the suspense, we’ll answer the burning question right away: the Cycle will end. Will humanity — or whoever inhabits Vyn at that time — survive? That depends on many factors.

Now we’ll explain the conclusions we’ve reached. But just to emphasize: this article is based on lore assumptions. This is important to understand. Even though we’ve used a lot of obscure facts here.

Also, let us warn you that it’s quite a maze ahead. We’ll have to deal with the Sea of Eventualities, Black Stones, Red Madness, the High Ones, and connect information from all the games to attempt an analysis.

So let’s begin.

First, let’s mention the fact that the life cycle of any world in the universe is quite clearly defined and evident, judging by the lore of Nehrim. This is stated by Arkt and Sarantha, characters who have witnessed the end of at least one world — and perhaps even more, though we won’t speculate on the exact number.

Almost everything repeats itself, except that the Cleansing doesn’t happen. Any world simply dies. Its remnants end up in the dimension known as the "Shadow World" — a timeless place where no rebirths occur.

Thus died Irdor, the world from which Asatoron brought the Aeterna to Vyn. By the way, Asatoron had seen many different worlds. And only in Vyn did he sense something was wrong. He was the first, one could say, to understand the Cycle. Perhaps, however, before his madness, he didn’t have time to realize it to take any action. Or maybe it was such predestination that drove him insane? We do not know, and for this article, there is no need for us to make assumptions, at least on this topic.

Now, let's list all the necessary steps in the Cycle, so we have them in front of our eyes, and we will have to refer to this list more than once:

New inhabitants come to the empty world / life arises right on the spot.

Their civilization flourishes.

A cataclysm of undefined nature erases progress almost to zero.

After the "dark" years, a new order arises — Gods appear.

The Gods are killed by Someone.

The world is preparing to die. And dies.

Here ends the list for any world, but Vyn is not just any; it has the Cleansing. So here are a couple more steps:

The High Ones cast the Red Madness, and Emissaries appear.

The Beacon is built.

The "improper" launch triggers the Cleansing.

The quotation marks, of course, are not without reason. And also, not included in the list, but somewhere before the 5th step, an indefinite number of Black Stones is created. This is also a very important detail for the conclusions of this article.

Let’s talk about them. As is customary, the canons of the games don't quite match up. We studied everything to come to a version that combines the lore of all the games on this matter.

About the stones, we know that they appear at some stage of the Cycle, contain unhealthy magical energy, and feed it to the Beacon. According to the canon of Arktwend, the stones were created by Arkt, and according to the canon of Enderal — the Pyreans knew about this technology as well.

Let’s quote Lexil:

"In the old tablets you found in Old Dothulgrad, there is talk of "Black Embers", which are supposed to be some kind of energy supply for the Beacon. The Pyreans were talking about the Black Pearls. Old jewels, sometimes also known as "Black Stones". They appeared for the first time in the Golden Era and every self-important noble literally fought to get one in his possession. Apparently, they originated from Stormwend, the Old City in the heart of Arktwend."

That is, the developers did try to attach a hint of Arkt, whom they decided to avoid in Enderal. We do not criticize such a decision, knowing his history and powers. Such a character could very well have shattered the entire plot of the game. But at least he received an indirect mention, yay.

However, Arkt created far more stones than just three. The Pyreans’ “Black Embers” could have been more as well. From here, it’s a matter of speculation — did he use Pyrean technology or did he create everything himself? Does it really matter? No. But, judging by Lexil’s words about the homeland of the artifacts, we are indeed dealing with Arkt’s stones. So, the technology matches.

What’s important is what kind of energy is contained in them.

Let’s note that, according to the canons of Arktwend and Nehrim, at the time of the creation of the Black Stones, Arkt was far from being a positive character. And the stones drove (and continue to drive) their new owners mad. It’s hardly that the energy contained in the stones can be called light and pure. It’s either negative or chaos, which cannot be defined. And it doesn’t really matter to us which of these two is ultimately true. We only need a fragment, a sample of magical entropy, to create a “vaccine.”

Do we think we’ve managed to spark your interest? Before we explain, however, let’s reflect on some observations.

The reason for our interest and subsequent “investigation” was, strangely enough, the fauna of Nehrim. Players know, and for those who haven’t played, we’ll inform you that the local animals are afflicted by a certain disease: the beasts fall into a frenzy and attack everyone around. There is no quest to solve this issue, the lore is silent. That didn’t satisfy us, so we found the answer on our own.

Judging by the symptoms, the disease is very similar to the Red Madness. Except for the green flickering, but we’ll assume that’s a feature of Nehrim. However, with the Red Madness, there’s a “but” — according to the list above, it occurs only after the death of the Gods. This is where we started digging and drawing conclusions on completely different topics, and the answer to the current question came much, much later. And the answer was quite obvious — the Nehrim’s Lightborn perished much earlier than the rest. Thanks to Narathzul. Clearly, one Erodan was enough to destabilize the magical background of at least the lands that belonged to him. However, this destabilization wasn’t enough to affect the minds of the people.

But from this arose the next question: if both beasts and humans fall victim to the Red Madness, how do they get infected? How does it reach them?

We surely know only one thing — the Red Madness is cast by the High Ones, and that’s their only direct influence on the Cycle, affecting the world of real things in some way. They cannot do anything else, except perhaps verbally humiliate the Prophet during rare rendezvous.

But they have access to something, some common “database,” where they selectively choose victims for the disease.

What is this “something”?

Here we make an assumption, a major and fundamental one for this article. We turn to the theory of magic in Vyn, reread the books, recall Tealor’s speeches. And we come to the following conclusion: the term “Sea of Eventualities” needs to be expanded.

Not much is known about the Sea, really. People with developed magical talent can look into neighbouring eventualities, i.e., parallel universes. And they can pull the necessary things from there into our world. It is also believed that Vyn itself once emerged from the Sea. However, the book theory of magic says nothing about the origin of magical talent. What determines it? Where does it come from? How is it developed?

We know that magical predisposition is inherited. Also, some magical seed can be planted in a rural fisherman, who, in a moment of stress, suddenly finds himself able to float above the ground or summon fire from the sky. And in his late years, he will also become a mage in this way. There is no consistency to it.

We also know that after the death of the Gods, many magically gifted people began to have the same dreams. And — Tealor tells us about some common subconscious, to which all living beings are “connected.”

This is where we expand the term "Sea of Eventualities" — we assume that it is responsible for all the paranormal phenomena in the world. We stop perceiving it exclusively as a window to parallel universes and think more complexly. After all, if it allows the manifestation of magic, then let it be responsible for the process from start to finish. There is nowhere else for magical talent to come from, right? We also define the common subconscious here. If mages are more open to its manifestations, then again, this is the domain of the Sea's influence.

Thus, we will continue to consider that living beings are, to one extent or another, “connected” to the Sea of Eventualities.

Strangely enough, the fact of the Cleansing supports this theory. Its destructive power affects people but not the surrounding world. It turns out that victims need to be somehow singled out to avoid burning forests and fields along the way. This is exactly where access to some common “database” of all living beings comes in handy. And its description can be found above in this paragraph.

And then comes the fun part: we will analyse in detail why the Sea could be responsible for the death of the world or the Cleansing.

Spoiler: it's still the humans' fault, but not directly because of their corruption that the Cycle ends. As if in the era of Asatoron or the age of the Lightborns, the situation with the sinfulness of the population was somehow different? That sounds ridiculous. There have always been antagonists doing evil, there have always been prideful ones, liars, and humanity’s essence didn't make any particularly impressive sinful leap that would provoke the Cleansing when it actually happens.

Yes, the game really wants to tell us that humans are to blame, "for not outrunning their shadow," as the Father puts it. We won’t argue, but rather explain this within the framework of this theory. Because it all turns out to be not quite what we tend to think.

It’s a popular belief on the web that, had the Prophet and the others done nothing, the Cleansing wouldn’t have happened. And that’s not true. The outcome would have been the same, or different — the death of the world. Because humanity’s corruption had ALREADY accumulated to a sufficient extent, the gods were ALREADY dead, and the world was ALREADY dying. The process is irreversible. Perhaps someone else would build the Beacon and trigger the Cleansing, or perhaps they wouldn’t have time. The end is ahead, and it’s clear.

But let’s focus on the "corruption" that is supposedly responsible for the Cleansing, as it is commonly believed. As we mentioned earlier, characters wishing to do anything but good didn’t suddenly start appearing right now, triggering the mechanism. You can start with Asatoron, for example. In his madness, he did terrible things, not only in Vyn. Let’s not delve into the pleasures of local star wars. However, we’ll mention Voran — the Starlings’ “star” — kicked to Vyn by them to stop Asatoron and his army — a necessary evil that worked as intended but also caused immense harm to the world and its magical balance. Later, after the dark age and the rise of the Lightborn, Vyn is tormented by demon invasions, continents turn into icy wastelands, they get magically infected again (and this is very important), they drown, collapse, and change order. All this is due to intelligent beings who wield magic and their corruption — the thirst for power, belief in their own exceptionalism, pride, and everything else. Humans and Aeterna cause immense harm to the world for millennia on end. Not only in the physical realm.

By the time of the events in Nehrim (the game), we are presented with the canonical fact that magical stability in Vyn must be artificially maintained. Otherwise, anomalies will spread across regions without human intervention.

The conclusion here is simple: if we have already decided to categorize all magical matters within the sphere of influence of the Sea of Eventualities, then — it "wears out." So much so that it allows the High Ones to reach the "connection point" with living beings, that very shared subconscious, and cause the Red Madness. This is a step in the Cycle, right after the death of the Lightborns.

The Gods, as well as the magical sanctuaries that are explained to us in Nehrim, can be classified as stabilizers of the Sea. Upon the death of one Erodan, the Red Madness reaches the weakest minds — animals. After the death of all the Gods, access to humans is also opened.

Here, we’d like to make a small remark and recall the Pyrean remedy for the Red Madness. As we were able to understand from the notes of the apothecary who was searching for the recipe — yes, the Pyreans were able to find a solution. But it didn’t just cure the disease, it literally wiped everything out from the patient’s head. The memories of a Pyrean child, which appeared to the apothecary as visions, made it absolutely clear: the poor soul had fallen into a very painful madness. We make the assumption that this potion severed his connection to the Sea. Which, it turns out, is necessary for humans to live and maintain their sanity. In other words, this kind of solution is definitely not the way out.

But what’s the way out?

Right, to launch the Beacon. It’s time to gather the puzzle pieces.

Earlier, we mentioned that the Beacon works as a kind of vaccine. It’s twice as complicated — a double vaccination.

In the case of being fed by the Black Stones, it will understand, absorbing their chaotic energy, that it needs to remove the same chaos from the Sea of Eventualities. This is necessary to return the Sea to a stable state and start a new Cycle. With or without humans — it’s all the same. Otherwise — the death of the world. The Cleansing is necessary and must happen.

So, how can we avoid the destruction of humanity? Yes, the solution must be the Numinos. The essence and selfhood of one of the High Ones, in order to destroy the rest.

But the High Ones aren’t directly responsible for the Cleansing, you might say? However, the goal is precisely to destroy them. They have access to the “database” of the living, and they could easily open the door to the “server room” for the Cleansing. In terms of immaterial things, there is no data about their powers and possibilities, so we came to this logic.

But if you make the "vaccine" double and mix in the essence of the High One, it will burn them along with the magical filth of the Sea of Eventualities, which is responsible for the death of worlds.

Is it that simple...?

Let’s assume it is, and we’ve decided on it. We can exhale.

But the main questions of the article are completely different. For now, we’ve only figured out the mechanism.

Let’s assume the Cleansing happens with the Numinos, as planned. Let’s assume that Tealor’s mission is a success. The High Ones are defeated, and the Sea of Eventualities is stabilized. Magical anomalies leave the long-forgotten islands and hefty chunks of continents. The Cycle is interrupted.

What do we have left, and where have we ended up?

Essentially, we are at the start of the Cycle. Only civilization is already formed, even though wars are ravaging the countries. The world is fine, it’s not planning to die again.

But there’s a “but.” The world remains stable only as long as civilization doesn’t pollute the Sea with magic again. Life in worlds without the Cycle is one-time and predictable. The death of the world is the final point for each of them.

Is there a solution...?

This is the area for even bolder guesses, but we’re not left entirely without logic. Let’s suppose that, without the High Ones looming above our heads, ready to “correct and expand” the direction of the Cleansing, humans could launch the Beacon without Numinos, in order to cleanse the Sea of chaotic magic. They would have to find the Black Stones or create new ones, but this is a small price to pay.

In that case — yes, both the Cycle and the death of the world are simply cancelled. The Cleansing would become a mandatory ritual, and the fate of immortal Vyn could serve as an example for other worlds. Perhaps it would be possible to share technologies. A beautiful and distant future couldn’t look better, agree? And with that, we think we can conclude this “branch.” Because there are others.

Let’s assume, for a moment, that the Cleansing is launched according to the “correct” plan, with Numinos, but humanity still perishes, just like every Cycle. What happens next? If we decide that Numinos will still help destroy the High Ones, the next Cycle won’t fear any Cleansing. It will simply be the last for Vyn, unless the new inhabitants figure out how to cleanse the Sea of their magic pollution and thus avoid the death of the world.

But what if we do nothing?

Yes, this is a very valid question to ask. By “nothing,” we mean leaving the ideas about the “successful” Cleansing. Let the Cycle repeat an endless number of times without change. What should we expect? We believe the Cycle will be interrupted even in that case. How? Let’s return to the question of the Sea of Eventualities.

We have material for observations, though it is very limited. We can compare at most two and a half — maximum — Cycles. The most obvious comparison would be between Pyra and “us.” So, the Pyreans achieved much more in the realm of magic. A simple example: they could transfer human souls into temples, massive structures. Our civilization has only reached… paintings. And simulacra. One might mention Kurmai with his Apotheosis, but the Starlings — the inhabitants of another world — have nothing to do with Vyn. The “half,” mentioned earlier, is the Black Guardian. The contraption he made for himself could also be considered an advanced technology compared to the achievements of our Cycle.

What conclusion can we draw?

The Sea of Eventualities is getting “shallower.” People have less magical talent, they achieve less, and progress in the realm of magic from Cycle to Cycle becomes increasingly scarce.

Why is this happening?

Because the Sea was originally designed to be one-time only. But it isn’t allowed to die naturally — it’s patched up and repaired with the Cleansing and made to work again. As we mentioned above, it wears out over time. And after X Cycles, we could very well find ourselves somewhere where magical progress won’t reach the formation of new Lightborn or their death. A civilization incapable of magic simply won’t be able to bring what remains of the Sea to its limit. The Cycle will freeze. And if the Lightborn are killed, but for some reason the incompetent civilization in terms of magic fails to set up and launch the Beacon, the world will die as it was originally designed. It turns out that, in this branch, Vyn’s fate is determined by a specific moment of weakness in its population.

We think it’s time to wrap this up. We’ve considered all the perspectives, excluding interference from the outside. If we were to also speculate about them, the logic of predictability would be thrown out the window.

For now — let’s remind you once again that all of the above is based on lore assumptions. But what kind of analysis would be possible without them in our fandom?

We thank you for your attention!

[hiswordsarekisses]

Those who only want to do their own thing resent being told what to do - even by God.

Unfortunately, rebellion in the heart blinds the mind.

Hilariously, we think we know better than God. We see His Word as “rules” and “control” instead of instructions sent from the loving heart of the creator of the universe so that we would know how things were created to work, what works best, or doesn’t work at all. He wanted to protect us…

When we ignore the instructions and follow our own small-human-mind, it opens the door and invites spiritual, moral, and social chaos into our lives.

…Which we would know - if we weren’t ignoring the instructions.

Those who gladly follow the instructions are, as a result, given wisdom. Wisdom is not intelligence - wisdom is God given understanding and insight. You can be the smartest guy in the room and have no godly wisdom.

Those who have been given godly wisdom are able to realize God’s direction comes from the deepest love of His heart, and have learned (sometimes the hard way like me!) that life done God’s way is abundantly good, and life done our own way always - eventually- turns out badly.

Those who only do what is right in their own eyes - are doing evil in God’s. And as a result, that comes back to bite them - just like God tried to protect them from.

This is nothing new. The people during the time of Judges had begun to fall away and follow their own distorted judgement. Thinking they were wise, they became fools. They decided their opinions, rather than God’s written Word, was the best to guide them, and so they rebelled against the Lord.

Even in their “religion” and worship they began to do things their way, just like the way things are happening in churches right now. It didn’t start recently, this has been a thing since way back then.

Reading through chapters 17-21 of Judges is like the horrific things you hear about even today. A very clear example of how things spiral downward when we think we know best.

Both the book of Jude and the 2nd chapter of 2nd Peter can speak to that day - and this day - and all the days in between, because nothing changes. In the lives of those who live without God - evil takes hold.

Twice in Judges it is stated; “In those days there was no King in Israel. Everyone did what was right in His own eyes.” (17:6, 21:25)

This brought to mind how God says in Psalm 50:

“For you hate My instruction and cast My words behind you…”

and..

“… you thought I was just like you...”

And in Isaiah 55 He says:

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

…And goes on to speak of the power and surety of His Word.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death,” Proverbs‬ ‭14‬:‭12‬ says.

‬And even though we are “disobedient and rebel against Him, flinging His law behind our backs - in His great compassion, He did not put an end to us; nor did He forsake us, for He is a gracious and compassionate God.”(Nehemiah‬ ‭9‬)

He never stops reaching out. He never stops calling. But one day it will be the last day. Because He knows that while He is patient with the wicked, His people suffer.

And “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.” Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭37‬

We have a King. The only right way is His way.

[strqyr]

Steeples my fingers. I'm gonna dump out some thoughts if you don't mind (of Ozpin, as per usual since your thoughts on him are So Damn Tasty)

I think it's weird how people point out Ozpin saying "we should act every day as if the gods will come back and enact their judgment" as if this means that he thinks that judgement day is inevitable and thus he still plans on enacting it

And like. I can see where people come from- but it so obviously goes against Every Other part of his character. And thing is- Oz thinks that Salem will, eventually, bring the Relics together to summon the Gods so they destroy everything.

He thinks her plan is this: 1. Start dividing people. 2. Snatch up the Relics. 3. Bring the Relics together to summon the Gods so they destroy everything.

Alongside this, he thinks Salem can't be stopped, only prevented and has only VERY recently started thinking otherwise (and who knows if what he said to Hazel was what he actually thinks?). He thinks the only thing he can do is to prevent her from getting the Relics. And, if she does get the Relics, that he should at least keep people united because at least then everything won't be destroyed.

Why wouldn't he think judgement day is inevitable? To him, Salem will bring about said judgement day and he can't stop her. Of course he's gonna think it's inevitable, even if said judgement day is no longer his goal. Like. Gestures. Idk it feels obvious to me lol

i always took that to be more of a general, basic "moral of the story" kind of thing rather than any kind of admission that oz is actively working towards or preparing for the judgment to happen. i mean, sure, in case he does lose the relics and someone—be it salem on purpose or someone else on accident lol—brings them together and summons the gods, you want to be prepared for the best odds, but it's not like... intentional? that the judgment has to happen and he's trying to make everything work in a way that the outcome would be favorable?

man's basically stalling and making no moves of actually trying to unite the world any means necessary—he had the chance at the end of the great war when every other ruler bowed before him, and he didn't take it. hell, in the very same notes he says "we have a fragile peace, and in some way, we are more divided than ever." this is not someone who's goal is to bring worth the judgment day, like. he's practically sabotaging himself at this stage lmao

and, i mean. the people of remnant aren't super religious nowadays. the story about the brother gods is considered a fairy tale. "even if the gods aren't real, even if they don't return to judge us for our deeds, we should act each day as though they are arriving tomorrow" is saying hey, even if you don't believe in all of this, the message is still good and worth listening to: one of unity, of creating a peaceful world where everyone lives in harmony—why wouldn't you want that and work towards it?

however, i wouldn't say oz sees the judgment day as inevitable, more so he considers its outcome—that of the world being destroyed—as inevitable. i think 'the indecisive king' sums it up pretty well: the king sees a future with crossroads with seemingly no favorable outcome, and no matter what options he considers, no matter what advice he gets, he can't find a solution that changes it.

ozma is at the crossroads. he can bring worth the judgment, but there doesn't seem to be a favorable outcome; even if the world in general was fully united, he believes that as long as salem exists and is, well, salem, the gods will deem humanity unworthy—that's why he thought he needed to destroy her. his alternative is to keep living, which he has done at the cost of lives of his hosts, describing the process of merge as "extraordinarily strenuous" on everyone involved.

there's no good outcome, and ultimately it becomes about the lives of few vs the lives of everyone, and oz has chosen the lives of few even when the alternative would also end his own curse.

so all he can do is keep the relics safe as best as he can and hopefully away from salem, who he believes will either use them to "change the world" (which can mean many things) or to end it in hopes it will end her curse as well.

...kind of a side note too since this is something i noticed while going through the fairy tale, but the way the god of light describes ending the world as "if not... we will let them burn." stands out because, well: "this is the beginning of the end, ozpin... and i can't wait to watch you burn."

if that doesn't say something about oz's point of view, then i don't know what will lol

[numbr2-pencil]

(Just some writing thoughts)

Seasons of Sin started as just a few intimate scenes developing in my imagination over several years. The idea of trying to describe long, spidery fingers grazing against skin, or the slow movement of lips and breath against a specific part of the throat. Certain phrases or suggestive strings of words that made my skin prickle.

Fast forward to today, and I have a much richer story in my head, with more moving pieces and fleshed-out characters, plot twists and running themes – and a way better idea of the kinda of intimate scenes (smut – which is so liberating in and of itself, to even be able to write smut focused on a woman's perspective and competing sensations of pleasure, pain, shame and joy, etc; but that's for another time) that I actually want to read, and how to write them myself.

Point being – compare the publication dates in the first half of SoS, with those in the second half. Consistency and dedicated time to practicing your writing makes a world of difference.

(Story time below or whatever.)

It had been a very long time since I'd done anything in the way of writing, creative, academic or otherwise. Hell, I hadn't even been keeping a journal since COVID happened – definitely a mistake on my part; I think keeping track of the days, even just by noting any small, mundane details about how I spent my time, would have been better for my mental health than doom-scrolling as much as I did.

Then I had a baby, and in case you didn't know, babies tend to eat up a lot of time, energy and brain power.

Anyway, the first year at home with a new baby was also sometimes a bit boring. The little intimate scenes keep repeating in my imagination, and I keep on struggling to elaborate on the details as they come and go. I want to make those little daydream-ie moments bigger, more real.

Hey wait, why don't I just write them down? Seems obvious lol

So yeah, I started jotting some freeform/loose notes in my phone as they came to mind. Then I would take time to sew the bits together. Soon I had slightly more grounded scenes of these unnamed figures interacting with each other.

Then I said to myself, ok, you know you're picturing Judge Claude Frollo here, right? Like in spite of my best efforts to pretend that was not the case.

So that gave me more of a setting. And it also made me want to develop the thinly veiled self-insert female figure, into a fleshed-out character with her own name, features, history and motives.

Thank god for all the name generators that exist on this weird and wonderful place we call the internet.

Anyway – making the conscious effort to sit down and play around with these small vignettes eventually lead to posting them on @ao3org. And that eventually lead to asking myself, ok but how do these moments connect? How do we move from this room into the next? What might happen after this scene ends?

And the more consistently I worked on it – allowing myself to dedicate a little time, every day, to reading and writing – the better and better I felt about it. The scenes became more detailed, more grounded; my grammar and vocabulary expanded; hell, even my short-term memory felt like it was going back to pre-COVID brain fog, just from keeping track of little points along the plot of Sybille's story.

When I compare the publication dates of each chapter in Winter versus Summer, I can see the huge difference consistency makes.

Don't get me wrong – writing fanfiction is supposed to just be fun. It's allowed to be fulfilling in and of itself, no matter the author's writing proficiency, the word count, the grammar, the themes at play, whatever. It's yours and it's created out of love and curiosity, and that makes it a fucking gem.

(Also like, dead dove/do not eat, alright? If it's not for you, it's not for you; don't take a shit on somebody else's imagination, or berate them for at least trying to exercise their creative muscles.)

But, yeah.

As someone who used to always dream of writing stories to share with others, it's been so fulfilling to finally put those old ideas down to paper (my phone's notes app) and practice, practice, practice until it felt right.

TL;DR – if creative writing is something you're interested in, and you want to develop your skills and your personal style, consistency and practice really are the key.

[sakuraswordly]

Tsubasa: What is life? What is it to be alive? What is a human? Also......why does this world need light and darkness?

Arthur: I never thought about that. What's out of the blue today?

Tsubasa: If I need to balance and set the rule...I need to be king and in human too, right? Humans have a profound impact on their environment and possess a unique capacity for creativity, empathy, and self-awareness compared to other animals.

Arthur: You're right.

Tsubasa: You're a fellowship dedicated to upholding justice and protecting the weak. Your kindness is often demonstrated through acts of mercy, generosity towards your subjects, and a commitment to creating a just and harmonious kingdom.

Arthur: Tsubasa.....you really want to be king for his people?

Tsubasa: His people.....? I still don't know yet why humans? Why are humans so special because they contain "emotions" they call?

Arthur: Too much confused question. Maybe you're right. One day you need to test by yourself why humans have both happy and painful lives.

.

Sage: Aren't you afraid of dying?

Sonic: (Dying?)

.

Punch: Humans did contain something special but......why is life so precious? What am I born for? Can my mother find the answer for me?

.

Punch & Sonic: (Why everyone keep say to us we need a path and purpose for living to this world?)

.

Punch: In the prime world timeline....you never ever in history...you never be the famous scientist...even your home country Poland never ever to exist. All countries are united until the end of the world destroys everything.

"Everything has a trade-off, not everything you hope is always free, even desire."

.

In the beginning, he loved gods more than men. Eventually, he hated gods more than men. And in the end, he decided to look at all that belonged to humanity.

He decided to look. He decided to come to understand the lives of every human being, under the standards of a king. That was his foundation.

There was a king who reigned in ancient Uruk. There was a king who acknowledged no one as his equal. There was a king who passed judgment over all, making no distinction between those who defied him and those who obeyed him.

Never acknowledging equality with anyone, he continued to take lives without mercy. All that remained in his wake were people, broken and crying, and the desolated land. Desires which continued to be born, and nature which continued to be uncovered. Both hideous, appalling scenes. The moment the crucible of desire comes into the world. There was a king who approved that and turned away.

The desire to make human beings properly human was born in this era. Because the king who was ordered to judge that animal nature approved of human desire. …because he approved of plunder.

The result of that was this wasteland. A garden of desire where he continued to scorn, hate, and judge ugliness. Covered in that mud, he smiled.

“Ah, indeed — how disgusting the future is.”

.

Gilgamesh : You say you want to know what evil is. Then I will tell you, so you make take the knowledge with you to your final resting place. Never taught where sin lies or the weight of punishment, unable even to judge your own worth, you closed your eyes. “Why am I being eradicated?” Not realizing the reason for that even unto your final moments, that is your “evil.”

Punch: This reality is cruel but I still love this reality. Even if I sacrifice everything, I will protect the hope to the very end. Even if this is a mistake, even though I lost myself, even I lost my way into nothingness, I never had a regret from the beginning I was born.

.

:

Peter: But I failed to notice you.....if I had more power then I......I think…I want to be forgiven. Hm. More than anything.

Gilgamesh: By who?

Peter: ............

Gilgamesh: *Sigh* You're more narrow-minded than I thought. Isn’t it time you did the forgiving?

[almaqead]

"Bewitched!" Introduction to Surah 15, Al Hijr, "The Jaguar."

Surah Al-Hijr, the 15th chapter of the Qur'an, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in Mecca shortly before his migration to Medinah. The chapter's name, which translates to "The Stoneland" or "The Rocky Tract", comes from verse 80, which references the ancient city of Mada'in Saleh, also known as Hegra. The city is known for its pre-Islamic dwellings carved into large rock formations.

In Hebrew, the Banner Al Hijra means "On the back of the jaguar." As we have explained, the revelation of the Quran in Mecca "squash and sap the juice" was considered heresy by Muhammad's contemporaries and he was eventually forced to flee to Medina "who will judge my brother?" also "the place of the polity." Medi nah means "more than sufficient amounts of Noah."

Muhammad's flight from Mecca is ironic as the persons who made him unwelcome there eventually begged him to return. The return is of course called the Hajj, "to solemnize" and resulted in one of the bloodiest campaigns a prophet engaged in in history, not unlike Krishna's in the Bhagavad Gita. Muhammad unlike his Indian counterpart never claimed to be a god or affiliated himself with God directly. He said instead God could be known by everyone through certain observances. The first observance was of God's Mercy, the second was of man's utter rottenness.

In Ibrahim we learn what is good about man such as firm knowledge of God's plan must be shared. Persons and societies that cannot attain to this knowledge and desire to test their limits instead are prey for Allah, the Predator, who will attack without a warning to defend His pride. Still as any Muslim will attest, one does not want to know of the existence of Allah by His Wrath only by His Grace.

Al Hijr has a Value in Gematria of 718, "The Zah" "how do we get there from here?"

This question is still pertinent for much of the world which wonders why we are still fighting over Israel or why its governments cannot do right by them. Why do so many todays and tomorrows have to unfold while our societies wait to agree to do what is necessary to survive?

There are no good reasons. I have been obnoxious about this, doing and saying outrageous things so the world of today can see how it languishes in wickedness when it has every inkling and mechanism needed to create the Masjid, the ultimate refuge for mankind. It is my hope future generations will learn from what I have had to say and never ever let another Donald Trump live longer than a day, and never allow another October 7 to happen again.

The war in Israel and the one over Israel has to stop. As for climate change and all the flooding, burning, and the epidemic of homelessness that has resulted and the mass migrations due to war and oppression, these we have also tolerated long past their due dates.

We have chosen not to be merciful but to be rotten. Let us now see what the Quran has to say about achieving solutions for the lives we have given ourselves:

15: 1-9:

Alif-Lãm-Ra, "the voice of the Champion". These are the verses of the Book; the clear Quran.

˹The day will come when˺ the disbelievers will certainly wish they had submitted ˹to Allah˺.1

˹So˺ let them eat and enjoy themselves and be diverted by ˹false˺ hope, for they will soon know.

We have never destroyed a society without a destined term.

No people can advance their doom, nor can they delay it.

They say, “O you to whom the Reminder1 is revealed! You must be insane!

Why do you not bring us the angels, if what you say is true?”

We do not send the angels down except for a just cause, and then ˹the end of˺ the disbelievers will not be delayed.

It is certainly We Who have revealed the Reminder, and it is certainly We Who will preserve it.

Commentary:

Donald Trump, the Republicans and their friends in Hamas and Hezbollah are not going to turn their heads and cough our miracles for this failing world from between their asshole butt cheeks. They are wrecking everything. Their lack of intelligence, absence of Zakah, their inability to perform wonders for the sake of the welfare of the human race are obvious.

There is not a trace of the wisdom of the Quran, of the blessings of angels about them anywhere.

15: 10-15:

Indeed, We sent messengers before you ˹O Prophet˺ among the groups of early peoples,

but no messenger ever came to them without being mocked.

This is how We allow disbelief ˹to steep˺ into the hearts of the wicked.

They would not believe in this ˹Quran˺ despite the ˹many˺ examples of those ˹destroyed˺ before.

And even if We opened for them a gate to heaven, through which they continued to ascend,

still they would say, “Our eyes have truly been dazzled! In fact, we must have been bewitched.”

Mankind knows it is off its trajectory towards the Masjid because of the terrorist tactics being spawned like the fires of hell from "fundamentalists" that claim their religion has "bewitched them" and given them special permissions.

They are the disbelievers about which the Quran was written to warn us. Death to Israel they say, but these words are nowhere to be found in Muhammad's Book. Instead the Quran says Israel is mankind's sole cause.

Retrieved from https://www.templemount.org/quranland.html:

THE QUR'AN SAYS:

"To Moses We [Allah] gave nine clear signs. Ask the Israelites how he [Moses] first appeared amongst them. Pharoah said to him: 'Moses, I can see that you are bewitched.' 'You know full well,' he [Moses] replied, 'that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has revealed these visible signs. Pharoah, you are doomed.'" "Pharoah sought to scare them [the Israelites] out of the land [of Israel]: but We [Allah] drowned him [Pharoah] together with all who were with him. Then We [Allah] said to the Israelites: 'Dwell in this land [the Land of Israel]. When the promise of the hereafter [End of Days] comes to be fulfilled, We [Allah] shall assemble you [the Israelites] all together [in the Land of Israel]." "We [Allah] have revealed the Qur'an with the truth, and with the truth it has come down. We have sent you [Muhammed] forth only to proclaim good news and to give warning." [Qur'an, "Night Journey," chapter 17:100-104]

God wanted to give Avraham a double blessing, through Ishmael and through Isaac, and ordered that Ishmael's descendents should live in the desert of Arabia and Isaac's in Canaan.

The Qur'an recognizes the Land of Israel as the heritage of the Jews and it explains that, before the Last Judgment, Jews will return to dwell there. This prophecy has already been fulfilled.

Viewing the Jewish return to Israel as a Western invasion and Zionists as recent colonizers is new. It has no basis in authentic Islamic faith. According to the Qur'an, no person, people or religious community can claim a permanent right of possession over any territory. The Earth belongs exclusively to God, and He is free to entrust sovereignty over land to whomever He likes for whatever time period that He chooses.

"Say: 'O God, King of the kingdom (1), Thou givest the kingdom to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off the kingdom from whom Thou pleasest; Thou endowest with honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest: all the best is in Thy hand. Verily, Thou hast power over all things.'"(2) [Qur'an 3:26]

From the above Qur'anic verse we deduce a basic principle of the Monotheistic philosophy of history: God chooses as He likes in the relationship between peoples and countries. Sometimes He gives a land to a people, and sometimes He takes His possession back and gives it to another people.

In general, we can say that He gives as a reward for faithfulness and takes back as a punishment for wickedness, but this rule does not permit us to say that God's ways are always plain and clear to our eyes, since His secrets are inaccessible to the human intellect.

Using Islam as a basis for preventing Arabs from recognizing any sovereign right of Jews over the Land of Israel is new. Such beliefs are not found in classical Islamic sources.

Concluding that anti-Zionism is the logical outgrowth of Islamic faith is wrong. This conclusion represents the false transformation of Islam from a religion into a secularized ideology.

The fundamentalist Muslim program to use Islam as an instrument for political warfare against Jews finds a major obstacle in the Qur'an itself. Both the Bible and the Qur'an state quite clearly that the right of the Israelites to the Land of Israel does not depend on conquest and colonization. This right flows from the will of almighty God Himself.

Both the Jewish and Islamic Scriptures teach that God, through His chosen servant Moses, decided to free the offspring of Jacob from slavery in Egypt and to constitute them as heirs of the Promised Land. Whoever claims that Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is something new and rooted in human politics denies divine revelation and divine prophecy as explicitly expressed in our Holy Books (the Bible and Koran).

The Qur'an relates the words by which Moses ordered the Israelites to conquer the Land:

"And [remember] when Moses said to his people: 'O my people, call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.'" [Qur'an 5:20-21]

Moreover - and those who try to use Islam as a weapon against Israel always conveniently ignore this point - the Holy Qur'an explicitly refers to the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel before the Last Judgment - where it says: "And thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd.'" [Qur'an 17:104]

Therefore, from an Islamic point of view, there is NO fundamental reason which prohibits Muslims from recognizing Israel as a friendly State.

So as the sage says, the way we want the Jaguar to turn so it takes us from here to there is found in 17:104, "by mingling together in the Promised Land."

This is the correct way to solve mankind's biggest current problem, the war in Gaza, which is now encompassing every household on this planet; it is also the smartest way, finally it is God's Way.

[spiritsoulandbody]

#DailyDevotion Can Christians Pray This? It Doesn't Sound Very Nice.

#DailyDevotion Can Christians Pray This? It Doesn't Sound Very Nice. Psalm 94 God of vengeance; O LORD, God of vengeance, shine! 2Rise, Judge of the world, give the proud what they deserve. 3How long, O LORD, how long will the wicked rejoice? 4Gushing and talking boldly, all who do wrong brag about themselves. 5They trample on Your people, O LORD, and make Your own suffer. 6They kill the widow and the stranger and murder orphans, 7saying, “The LORD doesn't see it; Jacob's God doesn't even notice it.” Gee Psalmist, that doesn't sound very Christian. Jesus, however, prayed this prayer too. We can pray this prayer. It is asking God to do what He said He would do. God is patient and long-suffering with the wicked, not wanting any to perish but wanting all to repent and inherit eternal life. But there is coming a day of judgment upon the earth. The day is set. God's people since the beginning of creation have been calling mankind to repent. Israel was called to call the nations to repent. John the Baptist and Jesus have called the world to repent. Jesus commissioned the Church to call the world to repent and be saved. We have warned the world, turn from your wicked ways and trust in Jesus to escape the terrible day of the LORD. They think we are unloving and unchristian doing that. God, the LORD, is a God of vengeance. This isn't just for the Old Testament. God has shown His love for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Those who refuse this love and go and do all their wicked hearts want to do will eventually experience God's wrath since they despised God's love. So the Church joins with Jesus in praying this Psalm. We too cry out with the martyrs under the alter, “How long will the wicked rejoice?” The wicked of the world, we have seen them exposed and become all the more bolder against Christians, at least here in the United States, taking pride in their sin and parading it before the world. They have caused much suffering among Christians here. Other wicked people have caused the LORD's people to suffer in other parts of the world. All the wicked, no matter their peculiar sin, sin and think the LORD doesn't see it or notice because the LORD is being patient with them. But God's judgment will fall upon them one day, quickly and swiftly. Even in the midst of that, they will not repent but curse God. 8You mindless ones among the people, understand; you fools, when will you get wise? 9He planted the ear — can't He hear? He formed the eye — can't He see? 10He disciplines nations — can't He correct? He teaches people — doesn't He know? 11The LORD knows that what man thinks is nothing. Well that doesn't sound very nice or winsome either, psalmist. Where do you get off calling these people mindless and fools? (I ask this sarcastically) Can you believe some Christians actually respond like this. It's like they never have read the bible or they just skip all the parts they don't like. We as Christians are to call the mindless and foolish people of the world to understand. We are called to be faithful to Jesus and call the people of the world, the people we meet who are sinning, to turn from their sin and to turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and a new life in Christ. God had created them with ears to hear and eyes to see. Yet, they are too blind to truly recognize the acts of God in the world which are calling them to repentance. As it is written in Revelation 19:9 “When they were badly burned, they blasphemed the name of God, Who controlled these plagues, and they did not repent to give Him glory.” And again, Rev. 16:11 “People gnawed their tongues in anguish, llcursed the God of heaven for their pains and their sores but did not repent of what they had done.” The LORD has taught the nations through the Church to correct and discipline the nations. He knows what man thinks is nothing. What He thinks is all that matters. Conform your mind to Christ and how He thinks, turn from sin and turn to Him and live. Heavenly Father, grant Your Church boldness to call the world to repentance so they may live and escape Your judgment. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

[little-tealing]

WAAHH THE ANGST THESE TWO GIVE ARE ASTRONOMICALLY GORGEOUS

(honestly, I need to catch up because the kr fandom is brutal with their spoilers and I'm not okay)

...maybe I'm just a little judgemental towards casey because I believe she's already had her chance to choose between what's "good" and "doing what's right."— a great example would be her denial when judging moriarty as a character (before the whole memory spiel); as a detective, she failed to comprehend to search for the bigger picture and focused solely on getting answers out of moriarty (understandable, she's human after all and just couldn't believe someone close to her would do such a thing) and didn't bother to tell people off when they'd hailed her as their saviour for "killing" him, especially when she already had her own doubts of being saved by him (as mentioned). She was so fixated on wanting to know what went wrong that she forgot to do the one thing she was passionate about— dig deeper, which again, is proven to be incredibly difficult with how witty and sly moriarty is. also how literally no evidence was left behind after the crime scene crumbled and got buried.

on another note, I personally like to think that casey didn't reveal his return to the public solely because she's already seen how his existence turned a kingdom upside down. not to mention, kunst auction house happened before the memory arc, so it's safe to assume that she still stood with her side of justice— especially with the whole, "I'll arrest you" thing.

opinion wise? casey is a well built character, but she lacks real and emotional responses to certain situations, while having completely logical ones in others (in terms of her character at least)— especially with the whole marriage arc; I know rudger probably doesn't care that she tried to kill him— but she did nonetheless, and I'd say that's pretty worthy for never wanting to show your face to someone again (especially if you believe what they did is right— post memory arc). She's trying to make amends but rudger clearly doesn't want the end of it, which is why I prefer the whole executioner idea thing— she's going to have to realise he's wrong (by law) eventually, whether or not he's saving people. (another interesting divergence that we could potentially see is casey siding with him over the “law” she swore to abide— grr, come on sayren, bring back my girl)

as for the acts of murder— she wouldn't have felt pity if she believed what he was doing was the right thing. rudger constantly takes up the role of being an executioner for people who he believes (and rightfully so) deserves it.

this discussion did make me realise that casey is no different, considering the fact she was so god damn ready to put an end to moriarty.

which correlates with the whole "bird cage" god thing— we've been told (as of the time this was posted) that rudger wants this barrier gone, and we (the readers) were told that the barrier in a sense was lumensis trying to control the development of humans; but I don't see why sayren would use such powerful language just to imply that he was trying to save all of humanity. looking at everything rudger's been through, it's starting to seem like he wants to destroy the gods and the world they've created, instead of lumensis alone.

then again, this is another thing that befuddles me— who is the antagonist of his story? does he even have one with all the possible endings that we've been predicting for? there's casey, surna, the heretic god, lumensis, the church of lumensis and there's even the possibility of himself. (credits to @/stonespears because *chef kiss* that idea of him just formatting his og life like a phone is 🤌🤌)(edit: the gist of this idea is that he returns to his og world with no memory of what happened)— honestly speaking though, although casey's one of the characters with the most screen time, I can't really see how she'd play a part in the life rudger has set out, especially when we already have characters with lesser screen time but a major role for suspense etc (grander, surna, rene). not jinxing this because I beg you sayren, don't offscreen my watergirl.

++also your annoyance is very relatable— especially as an mtl reader, I must say some comments on chapters make me want to pull my hair out/lh

(please keep talking to me, I love these kinds of conversations jebdkndksndnd :dies:— also, I sometimes get the feeling I'm not saying what I'm thinking, so I'm a little sorry for that jahaha,, )

+++ and omg thank you for rambling this much with me, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.

(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)/♡

this entire conversation makes me want to start a discussion about machiavelli—because rudger babe, taking that name after pulling everything as moriarty was not a good idea; especially with the whole, "killing for a reason is killing nonetheless" idea (from the irl Machiavelli).

on casey selmore & ludger cherish:

the more i read into the novel, the more i wanna scream at the manhwa for missing out the context for caseys grievance over moriarty/ludger, and thus making the readers think she is annoying for it. despite their rivalry/bickering before moriarty was deep into the things™️, considering caseys personality, she still prolly saw moriarty as her best friend (or someone who gets her the most). and if my best friend suddenly changed 180° and became a notorious villain, yet still trying to save me when we were supposed to be nemesis, i as someone whose whole career is pursuing the truth would also wanna chase them into the end of earth and make them confess their reasons. ludger's assessment of casey obsessively chasing him out of her pride may contain a part of truth, but i find it unfair to say that's her whole deal. (if you are familiar with ace attorney, i dont think its incorrect to say their relationship after falling out is similar to phoenix wright and miles edgeworth after DL-6.)

spoilers for 268+: i personally dont think casey was at fault for falling for moriartys bit when for his whole life lying is his whole expertise and the gods also bless him with auto crits on deception.

spoilers for 356+: i do hate that casey was the one who ended up apologizing when between the two, ludger was clearly in the wrong. i suppose at the time it made sense since casey needed ludgers forgiveness for closure and full mental recovery, so i wont dwell much on this.

spoilers for 497+: since ch268, casey was the only one actively trying to mend their relationship while it became clear and clearer in ch497 that ludger was the one actively pushing her away. i think after the moriartys bit, ludger ended up seeing himself as someone who is irredeemable and one day poetic justice will become his downfall. based on ludgers past behaviors during their reichenbachs falls and now his last convo with casey, he seems to be building casey up to be his executioner. i dont wanna say this is end game foreshadowing or ludgers death flag but fuck if thinking about it doesnt make me screaming crying throwing up eating drywall.

[kandyrezi]

Kcalb + Wodahs [thesis]

Still working on some fics, but in the meanwhile, I had this post in my drafts for so long and I forgot about it entirely, so I thought I might as well edit and post it now.

I was going to discuss the “Kurotsuno & Sullivan’s relation to Kcalb” theory first, but I got finished with this one a lot faster, so I’ll be posting the former one at a later date. This headcanon post concerns Wodahs & Kcalb + their relation to one another.

This is just for fun, so I apologize for any potential inaccuracies - if that’s the case, then I implore people to point them out so I can try and fix any inconsistencies there might be. This is quite short, but there’s always a lot to talk about.

I want to first start off by not focusing on either Kcalb or Wodahs, but on other characters far distant from TGG to give a bit more context and background behind my theory. Namely, this image here is quite intriguing.

Ivlis, Rosaliya, & Reficul are labeled as, “Manufactured by God” - that is, they were created by the God of the world they (used to) reside in.

Two appear to be missing from this picture, leaving out Satanick & Kcalb, but they obviously had to appear somehow. They did not materialize out of thin air by nothingness - we've seen previously, as an example, Siralos created Ivlis (& Igls) from flames, Meikai was created from a star by Satanick. So, if their corresponding Gods did not make them out of something, then where did they come from?

Speaking out of materializing out of thin air, All of the Gods ALSO had to “appear” somehow, as they are not clearly the highest deities in DSPverse, considering Vicers, Justim, Photon, Nortkele, Reminiscences are all above them in terms of ranking and categorizing, although it's largely unknown what they are supposed to represent (in the grander scheme) or even what species they are. They could also similarly just be cosmic deities, but higher-ranking than the gods we currently know most about.

It is likely, as one of many possibilities, that either Justim or Vicers created them. Judging by the image below - by how Justim is in focus and standing in front of all the other gods - I’m inclined to think they are the one who created all the Gods, at the very least, since they have been stated to be “God of Gods” - yet Vicers has never been called “Devil of Devils”, which would make sense if Vicers only created two of them (Satanick and Kcalb), as the rest of the devils were created by their own corresponding Gods.

Justim: *gestures behind them* these r my ocs! ^ u ^

(Not really related as such, but Photon and Nortkele are fairly obvious in a sense what they’re supposed to represent (it’s pretty much spelled out in their names), but that leaves Reminiscences… so, maybe they (she?) are a personification of “Matter” while their dark counterpart is a personification of “Antimatter”? Either way, they’re supposed to represent at least something floating around in space? An atom? A neutron? We’ll have to wait patiently for a while longer for another clue.)

Anyway, back to Vicers.

“The power to bestow life and the power to take it all away.”

So, Vicers can both create and destroy, it seems like. If he really did make Kcalb, he could have bestowed the latter with his destruction powers.

Vicers & Justim’s relationship seems quite complex, they’ve been inconsistently described as several things ( “can’t stand eachother, can’t live without one another either” / “used to have a big fight in the past”, and now “lovers” ), all these facebook relationship statues could be spread out within a specific span of time; maybe they started off as friends, then got into a conflict with one another, almost started (or did start) a war, then they made up, but it was still quite tense between them. At long last, they settled their differences and then became friends again, eventually lovers.

Wodahs could similarly have been created by either Vicers or Justim (or they could have created them together, as sort of a peace treaty and proof that two opposite beings can co-exist together, but I am more inclined towards only Vicers having manufactured Kcalb, as well as Wodahs.)

EDIT: Future!me has come to edit this wall of text before posting, having now read some of the more recent information from one of DSP's drawing livestreams. "Did Etihw create Wodahs?" question was answered with an uncertain: "You can say yes AND no to that." well, that kinda throws the "Vicers created Wodahs" theory out the window, doesn't it?

So, what if Etihw gave life to something that originally belonged Kcalb? Like a feather from a crow?

Characters of different species can be “blood siblings” as we’ve seen (Igls Unth is an angel, Ivlis is a demon, but they’re still technically 'siblings' created by the same god, if you see them as such), so could Kcalb & Wodahs be the same? It might be more appropriate to refer to them as half-siblings in this case.

Reficul & Sol / Ivlis & Igls Unth “Devil and the Head Angel” - both duos are considered blood siblings, so why couldn’t Wodahs & Kcalb be considered the same? (granted, Reficul used to be an angel, so using her is kind of a flimsier example.)

I personally can’t get behind either 1) “Kcalb used to be an angel” or 2) “Wodahs used to be a demon” theories, because

1) For Kcalb to have been angel, he would have to have been created by Etihw in the first place, but that’s clearly (as we saw in the previous point) not the case.

2) Wodahs has been an angel since he was a young babey;

and a FALLEN angel, no less? Gray wings in DSP’s universe are associated with damnation by god... hmm…

We’ve seen angels turn into demons, but never a demon turning into an angel. The concept of "redemption for your sins" doesn’t appear to exist with Gods & their angels. Once you’ve turned into a demon, there is no "reversing" that effect or gaining back the status as an angel. It’s the same with biblical/mythological concept of angels/demons (as all fallen angels automatically become demons, but never in reverse).

Since all angels are typically created by Gods, Wodahs could possibly be an outlier and considered not a true angel, but a “farce” in a sense he was created out of something that originally belonged to a Devil, hence why his wings have been gray since he was a child.

He’s also quite brutal in some instances in TGG in contrast to most angels; he keeps bullying/purposefully reminding Kcalb about his missing eye (instead of just letting go of the past), chokes out Grora and almost breaks her leg when she messed up his flowerbeds, and his GGT!self was seen trying to drunkenly molest GGT!Grora in one of the omakes...)

But, maybe in the past things were different with someone like Etihw (who is generally considered an anomaly amongst the other gods), who was willing to give Wodahs actual pure white wings and halo when he left Kcalb to go over to Etihw’s side during the war (thus is the reason Kcalb took his eye for betraying him in the first place).

He still shows more loyalty to Kcalb in the game over Etihw despite everything, which reaffirms my theory of him not having a very close relation to Etihw post-war.

Curious to hear anyone else's thoughts on this!

[thequillandscreen]

Translation of relevant portions of Writer Moon Yooseok’s interview because we get more confirmation of lawful husbands!!!! Source

▲ How do you feel now that “The Devil Judge” has wrapped up? Please say something to the viewers who’ve given the show a lot of love.

I’m sad that I can no longer see the performances of these great actors every weekend. I was watching it in viewer mode. The show as first conceived as a 20-episode series, so I’m a bit regretful that I couldn’t discuss the story more carefully and see the actors' performances some more. Thank you very much to the viewers who supported and joined us.

▲ There were many characters who seemed to occupy reversed gender roles. Was there any special reason for that? When creating characters, I completely ignored gender. I don't know if gender has a big meaning except in certain contexts, such as the sexual violence that Jeong Sunah suffered from Seo Jeonghak. Cha Kyunghee was just an powerful person with a lot of ambition, and Yoon Soohyun was just a detective who wanted to protect her first love. Both are familiar characters that are often played by men in Korean dramas. Conversely, the role of Kim Gaon is often given to female characters. Characters locked in conventional gender roles are obvious and uninteresting, but I think the bias that all women should be subjective and men can be flat is also contrived. All humans are individual.

▲ While writing 'Devil Judge', was there a scene that you put a lot of effort or worried over? This was Soohyun’s death scene at the end of episode 13. Yohan has Isaac, and Gaon has Soohyun. They are the only people who gave them unconditional love and helped them hold onto their lives. The script initally had a scene where Isaac tried to take his own life, in the belief that his father wouldn’t abuse Yohan if he was gone. While thinking about how to express such unconditional almost religious (divine) love, I wrote a scene where a dying Soohyun, looked at Gaon's forehead wound and, "Are you okay? You’re bleeding." From this tragic death toward to the end of episode 15, when it is revealed that everything was Sunah’s cruel plan, the play runs towards catastrophe. Like a Greek tragedy, where the incomprehensible gods dictate a cruel fate. 

It's not a very prominent scene, but I also remember the scene at the start of episode 12 where K, who follows Yohan like a shadow, tells Gaon his innermost thoughts for the first time, saying that if Gaon stays with Yohan, he will eventually lose everything. Actually, I wrote this scene while thinking about the movie 'Let Me In'. When writing that scene, the image of Hakan, the middle-aged man who lives with Eli, a lonely vampire, and meets a tragic end, and Oskar, a boy who bears the same fate, comes to mind.

[This is the summary of the movie and oh wow, it seriously confirms that Gaon, K and Yohan were in a love triangle]

▲ I am curious about how to interpret the ending of 'Devil Judge'. Kang Yohan escaped from the Supreme Court through the escape route he prepared in advance and went to Switzerland with Elijah, and he boldly appeared at the Judicial Reform Hearing to see if Gaon was doing well. This wasn’t in Gaon’s imagination, but there are viewers who misunderstand that. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that Yohan is doing well with Elijah, and we will see him again soon with Gaon. The world doesn't change that easily

[YOU GUYS LAWFUL FAMILY CONFIRMED. AND HE REALLY DID SAY “SOON”]

▲ Did you monitor audience reactions? If so, please tell us a comment that stuck with you

I mainly monitored overseas reactions, and it was interesting because there were a lot of reactions from people from different countries claiming that the show was talking about their own country, and I was once again afraid of what direction the world is going in now.

[Friends, I wonder if he saw all our lawful husbands tag  😂😂]

[septemberadical]

Thank you for your thoughtful response, let's break it down:

He did create Adam and Eve with the capacity to choose. They chose sin, and in doing so enslaved themselves and their descendants to sin.

Why did he create them with the capacity, very specifically, to choose sin? Why not create a bunch of mini-gods that could do no wrong and would take care of the earth and live in the garden of eden forever? That one decision led to every evil thing ever done, god presumably had the power to avoid all of that suffering and he chose not to. As far as I can tell, and you seem to agree, the plan is to eventually destroy the world anyway and build a new one with all these perfect, god-like people in their 'new bodies' anyway. Why not cut out the middle man and just create that world right away?

The price for their freedom and ours had to be paid in blood - Jesus’ blood.

Again, why? Why did he have to reincarnate himself into something and then have it be killed? Why not use his divine powers, presumably the same ones he used to create the world and helped Jesus heal the sick and whatnot, to forgive the sins without having someone excruciatingly killed in a truly horrific way?

It’s important to understand that part of God’s nature, in addition to being all-powerful and all-loving, is that He exists outside of time and beyond our ability to reason and understand. We have parables like the one above to help us, but ultimately we can’t fully comprehend everything involved. If God tried to explain it fully, it would probably (literally) blow our minds.

Am I just supposed to trust that despite the contradictions and strangeness of the bible that god has a secret plan whose fantastic logic is too much for my tiny mind to understand and would blow up if I even attempted to? Like, you see how that's a logical stand-still right? I just have to take it on faith that everything weird or strange or down-right horrific in the bible is part of a divine plan that I actually can't know about, and nobody can know about, but I just have to trust that it's true?

As far as the world without end, that’s a reference to Heaven, which exists beyond time. We have reference to those who have already died in the Faith being in heaven looking down on us and crying out for God to judge the wicked (Revelation 6:9-11)

What does "in the Faith" refer to and what makes it so those that are in there get into this heaven while others don't? And why are the pious followers of the god of mercy baying for the blood and torture of those on earth, regardless of their religious status?

there will be a time that Jesus returns visibly, coming back the same way He went up into Heaven (Acts 1:11). At that time, this world as we know it will be destroyed. The dead will be raised, and those who died in the Faith will be given restored and glorified bodies,

Again, if god has the power to do all of this, and presumably always has been able to, why this whole big charade? Revelation is basically a fever dream of impossible events all beyond the reach of logic or plausibility, surely creating a world without all this trouble was not beyond someone as omnipotent as the god of the bible.

while those who are outside the Faith will be cast out (the descriptions of where they go are numerous, and include “the outer darkness”, “unquenchable fire” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth”). All those who are in the Faith will then spend eternity in God’s new creation where there is no more pain, suffering, evil, or death.

Again, who are 'in the Faith' and why do they deserve this fate while others don't? What does belief in god have to do with being deserving of this unquenchable fire and weeping and gnashing?

Why does God allow evil to exist?

Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭24‬-‭30‬ ‭NASB

“But God is perfect and all powerful, why can’t He get rid of the evil without harming the good?”

Because the evil isn’t just “bad people” among us. The evil is in our own sinful hearts. To get rid of evil, He would have to get rid of us too.

In our Baptism, in Confession and Absolution, in hearing the Gospel, and in Holy Communion, we receive the forgiveness of our sins won for us by Christ on the cross. But while we live here on earth, we still live with our sinfulness - though we are no longer slaves to it (Romans 6).

When Christ returns on the Last Day, then we can finally be resurrected in our glorified, perfected bodies and live with Him without sin and all its consequences. That will happen - just in God’s timing, not ours.

It may feel like we are waiting a long time and suffering under the weight of evil in this world, but when we are in the world without end, this life will seem like a distant memory, a blip compared to eternity.

Almighty, everlasting God, Your Son has assured forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death. Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit that our faith in Christ may increase daily and that we may hold fast to the hope that on the Last Day we shall be raised in glory to eternal life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

[drazzilder]

A Hellish Encounter

By Drazzilder

Chapter 12: Love

This chapter is rated 18+/NSFW

Depictions of M/M sex, oral sex, and anal sex

You couldn’t get home soon enough as the two of you could barely keep your hands off each other. Enji even ran 3 red lights in order to get home faster. The sun just set as you pull up in the driveway. Enji was so excited/nervous that he struggled get to key in the lock. Once the door closed, you were all over one another. He slammed you against a wall as he pressed his whole body on you. The cologne he is wearing is driving you insane as it mixes with his natural sent. You were getting weak at the knees from the onslaught of his body and lips. Before, you always took things slow, but now you are practically eating each other as your lips collide. Not an inch of space was between the both of you as you continue kissing. Your one hand grabs his lower back as the other runs through his hair. He has a forceful grip around your chest as you kiss for what feels like forever.

After some time, you break the kiss and look him right on the eyes, those turquoise eyes of his making your heart flutter. In the heat the moment you say: “I love you, Enji.” The words you spoke broke his concentration on you.

“That was out of nowhere.”

“Well, I mean it, I don’t think I have ever fallen in love with someone like this before. I mean with Adam, I did like him, and loved him as a friend but I see you and I growing old together, sharing laughs and sorrows. I know it’s all of a sudden but I really do love you. I’m sorry if it’s too soon for you.”

“Well, I don’t know if I am ready to say it yet but I’m glad you said it.”

“I hope I didn’t ruin the mood but I felt like I had to say something.”

“You didn’t ruin anything….” he says as he begins kissing you again, this time taking it slower. Each kiss on your face deliberate and gentle. You can’t help but moan as he is driving you wild, bucking and writhing in his arms as your body wants more.  He starts to lead to towards the bedroom as you are entangled with one another. After managing to find the door, he slams it open and you quickly find yourself on the bed. Looking up, the big man himself starts stripping at the end of the bed as you watch with baited breath. He takes his time, letting you savor the moment. The shirt is the first thing to come off, button by button, revealing that magnificent upper body of his. The pants come down next, as he turns around so you get the full view. You have to stop yourself from grabbing that delicious ass of his. You have seen him in his underwear practically every night but things are a little bit different now. There is a nice outline forming on his boxer briefs. He winks at you as he slowly lowers his underwear with both thumbs in the waistband. That’s when you see what you have been waiting for. Everything about Enji was big, but my god, that cock of his was something else: close to 9 inches long and 2 inches wide. You hold your breath as you gaze upon Enji’s full body.

“You like what you see, boy?”

“Oh, yes. I’m ready.”

“You’re what?”

“God Enji, fuck me already.”

“Good, but your clothes are in the way. Take them off.” he growls

You strip down as quickly as you can, not wanting to slow the momentum. It’s difficult to get your pants off with your ragging erection but you manage. When you get to your underwear, you’re at the bed of the bed when end Enji stops you.

“Before we go any further, I want you to know I never want to hurt you. If anything gets too much, I want you to stop me. The safe word is ‘butternut’. You feel even the littlest bit uncomfortable, stop me. Ok?”

“I don’t think I will need it but it makes me feel safe, thank you.”

“Good, now get ready!”

He grabs the waistband of your underwear and rips them off of you in one swift motion. He smiles at what he sees. You’re not as big as him, but 6 inches is nothing to scoff at. Your both start embracing each other again, but this time you start grinding against this thigh, aching for relief. He notices this and pushes you down on the bed.

“I see someone is eager, how about I help you out a bit.”

He grabs your dick with one hand and begins pumping up and down slowly. You’re not small yourself but his massive hand practically covers the whole thing. You eventually start moving your hips in motion with his hand you’re getting close. He releases and you’re staring at him again.

“Don’t get too eager, we are just getting started.”

He flips you over and moves over to the nightstand, pulling out a bottle of lube. He gently squeezes a generous amount in his left hand and begins to warm is up with his quirk. With a smirk, he begins making circles around your rim, toying with you. Even though you have mentally prepared yourself, your body still tenses up when he starts to enter you with his index finger.

“For someone who has sex before, you’re awfully tight. It’s going to take at least 3 fingers to make sure your loose enough.”

“It’s been over 4 years since I got any, and you know an awful amount about anal sex for being a first timer.”

“Well, I do my research.” He says as he shifts his hand.

“Mmhmm……oh……ENJI!”

While you two were talking, he has been busy trying to find your buttons. Poking and prodding until he found the spots to drive you wild. Judging by the moans coming from you, he was having no trouble finding them. He then quickly takes his finger out only to be replaced by 2. This time he is taking it slower as you start shaking just enough for him to notice. He leans forward and gives your shoulder a few hot kisses. “Relax, I’ve got you.” He says as he pulls you up on all fours, his hot breath tickling your neck. The shaking subsides long enough for Enji to get his third finger. This time you breathing almost stops but he continues to kiss your back and run his hand through your hair, making sure you’re ok. After a few minutes, he pulls his hand away from your backside and you instinctively back up toward him, wanting more.

“Glad to see your eager again. Get ready.”

His voice almost sounding like a rumble as he puts lube on his shaft. He uses both hands to spread your backside wide. Then he uses hand for bracing, one hand for aiming as he puts his tip at your back door. You stop breathing in anticipation and you know Enji has the biggest grin on his face right now. Slowly, he starts to push himself into you and you moan before not breathing again. He steadies himself to wait for you to relax. This action goes for a few minutes, pushing forward and waiting for you to adjust to his size, always making sure you are ok. The entire time he uses his quirk to massage your backside with his hands, keeping you grounded. Finally, when he is fully in, he leans forwards to give you a kiss on the back of your neck. The action moving him inside of you just the right way to rub against your prostate.

“OH MY GOD!” You scream, but you use all of your will power to hold it in.

“It looks like I found a good spot, are you ok?”

“I….I’ll be fine, just don’t move too much.” You say with heavy breathing. He stays on top of you for a minute or so then slow gets back up. He starts to slowly pull out then he quickly pushes himself back in. You raise your head back in ecstasy as he keeps thrusting in and out. The initial pain starts to turn to pleasure as your moans grow louder with each thrust. His skin starts to warm up as he starts to move faster and faster. The room is filled with the sounds of grunts, moans and skin slapping against each other. Steam starts coming off of his skin as he loses control. You try to match his pace but you’re starting to lose feeling in your legs again. He switches to both hands around your waste to support you.

“Little flame, in or out?”

“In!” you manage to say between your moans.

Not a second later Enji releases inside of you. It’s hot and you feel it filling your insides with every pump of his cock. It continues for what feels like forever but then starts to slow down till nothing is left. That’s when he falls on top of you. You can’t hold his motionless body up and you both land on the bed.

“Enji, you’re crushing me….”

“Sorry, I got so selfish. I didn’t hear you finish.”

“It’s ok.” you say still panting.

“I won’t be happy till you do, now turn over.”

“You’re going to have to do it for me, I lost feeling in in my legs.”

“What?! Are you ok? Why didn’t you say to stop?”

“I’m fine, it was just too good and you know I get weak at the knees when your around me.”

“That’s good to hear.” He says as he rolls you over, positioning your legs so he can see your dick more clearly. With one fell swoop, he takes your whole shaft into his mouth and begins sucking. You’re just long enough to feel the back of his throat as he uses his tongue to great success. His mouth was so hot that it almost feels like you’re on fire but it eventually turns to pleasure. You would have thought he has given head before but you don’t dare ask, you just want him to keep going. He then starts to move his head up and down as uses his lips to create more suction. Every once and a while he lifts fully off with a ‘pop’ sound as he releases your tip. He quickly then goes back all the way down. It doesn’t take long till your feeling hot inside and your about ready to burst.

“Enji, I….I can’t hold it…..” you say through gritted teeth.

All he can do is grunt with your member in his mouth but you understood. You release everything into Enji’s throat as he quickly swallows everything. Once you’re done, he lifts up and crawls on the bed next to you. He wraps those big arms of his around you and kisses your face.

“How is my little flame?”

“That…. that was amazing.”

“I know” he says with a boasting smile “it was great for me too.”

“Uh, Enji, we might have a problem.”

“Hmm?” He tilts his head.

“You finished in me first and I have been on my backside….”

He raises an eyebrow in confusion until he realizes what happened. “Let’s clean up, and I’ll change the sheets.”

He draws a bath and comes back to carry you into the bathroom. Your legs are still numb from everything but you don’t care, you love it when he is carrying you. He manages to get you both in the large tub, him against the back of the tub with you in front of him. He slowly starts to scrub your skin, as if he could hurt you: so gentle and kind with his motions. You two soak in the warm water as you bask in each other’s presence. You rest your head on his chest as he rubs your head. You sit in the bath for a while as you two relax.

“(Y/N)?”

“Yes Enji.”

“I think am now ready to say it.”

“Hmm?” You respond now are looking at him.

“I love you, (Y/N).”

“Really? Why now?”

“I have never felt this way about anyone and I keep going back to how you described love, then I keep going back to thinking about you. You are the only person who has ever wanted to know who I am and to help me as a person. I never would have thought I could have had this feeling of love before. I always thought I was full of hate and anger.”

“I’m glad you finally said it and I know you’re full of so much love and happiness, we just need to find it, together. Oh, and Enji.”

“Yes?”

“I love you too.”

You two kiss a few times before it is time to get ready for bed. Enji quickly changes the sheets as you sit on a chair in the room. He places you in bed and quickly gets under the covers. Even though you’re both still naked at this point, Enji is producing enough heat to keep you both warm.

“You know I’m so glad I helped at the crossing incident.”

“You should be, you saved everyone.”

“Plus, I meet you.” You say giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh, yea.” As he blushes.

Next Chapter

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children Ch. 8

What's this? An update! Massive thanks to my betas for helping me get through this chapter <3

In Which: A few answers are given to the family and Danny is rudely awoken

[Side note: If you wanna know the general ages of the batfam, its listed in the AO3 version. I also talk about katanas in the end notes ^-^]

AO3 | Prologue | 7 | [ 8 ] | 9 DAMIAN INFORMED TODD—and Drake when he arrived on his bike sometime later on—that the boy whose face is plastered across the monitor was neither a picture of himself nor of Father.

Drake took one glance at the monitor and sighed, pressing his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “Just when I thought this day was getting better.”

“What, did that café on 5th finally let customers supersize their drink?”

“God that would be the dream, wouldn’t it?” Drake sighed wistfully. “Nah, but I did get a lead on where some of that stolen Cadmus tech might’ve ended up. I was gonna spend the night following up on it, but I guess we have to deal with,” he gestured to the monitor, “whatever this is.”

Todd leaned against the edge of the computer, arms crossed over the red bat insignia on his chest. “What are we dealing with this time, brat? A clone? An alternate universe counterpart? Magic shenanigans?”

Maybe. Perhaps. All of those were perfectly valid conclusions for the enigma that was Daniel James Fenton. (Why Fenton and not al Ghul? Or even Wayne?)

Damian, too, was a genetic experiment; a ‘test tube baby’ as Drake put it at times. Damian was born for greatness, created to be perfect. The perfect soldier. The perfect assassin. The perfect heir. Was this boy—Daniel—like him as well?

A failed one, then. Perhaps the precursor to Damian’s own existence. But that would not explain why the boy was allowed to exist for so long. His grandfather demanded perfection, especially from those of his own blood. If the boy was a failure, he would have been eliminated immediately, not sent to live with some eccentric scientists in the Midwest.

Damian was not naïve enough to think that his mother and grandfather did not keep secrets from him. On the contrary, he expected it. The League of Shadows dealt in secrets as often as it did in death. Certain information was worth its weight in gold, whether it was given or buried away.

But he could not help the sharp pang in his chest. A lightning strike, quick and electrifying at the notion that they kept secrets about their family from him.

His father’s face flashed in his mind. The shock turned into a slow, dawning horror. That flicker of light, of recognition, as he scrutinized the contents of the flash drive and cross-referenced it with a public database.

And grief.

Damian recognized the grief.

Alfred, too, nearly dropped his tray of fresh-baked cookies when he stepped in front of the monitor. His usual unflappable demeanor was momentarily broken at his father’s whispered “Sixteen years. Alfred— he’s sixteen years old.”

His father knew of the boy. He was allowed to know of Daniel when he was not allowed to know about Damian.

------

Grayson returned to the cave with a distinct lack of energy in his step. His mask dangled off the tips of his fingers, chin angled downwards and covered largely by his hand. For a split second, their eyes met. Grayson shifted his gaze away, scratching the back of his neck. Father told him, then. Damian wondered how much Father revealed to his favorite son.

Damian clucked his tongue and buried himself deeper into the chair, arms crossed and pointedly looking away. If it was not for his accursed ankle, he’d have headed out to the training ring to take his frustrations out on the dummies.

“Oh, thank god you’re here, Dickface. Damian’s completely out of it.”

Damian shot him a look. “Shut up, Todd.”

“Leave him alone, Jay. Is Tim back yet?”

Drake emerged from the changing room in a dark green shirt, a fresh cup of coffee in hand. He took one long sip before exhaling. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“O-kay…” He pressed his hands together, mouth thinned into a grim line. “Uh, hey Tim, glad to see you back safe. Bruce is coming down soon to explain some things.” He let out a deep sigh, carding a hand through his hair. “This kind of thing would probably be better with the girls around, but I—god, I don’t know.”

Todd raised an eyebrow. “Don’t know whether to call Steph and Cass in Hong Kong, or don’t know what’s going on?”

“Yes.”

------

When Father arrived, Pennyworth following dutifully behind him, it was with an aching slowness in his gait. His steps measured and precise, preternaturally quiet as he made his way to stand by Damian’s chair. Damian sat up straighter, shoulders squared and back an inch away from the backrest. The rest, even Todd, stood at attention; an ingrained habit among Robins and an amusing instinct even among the senior heroes of the Justice League when it came to facing the Batman.

His father kept a steady hand on Damian’s shoulder, and Damian, shamefully, leaned into the touch; his head inclined towards his father’s hand so much so that he could feel the ends of his hair being pushed up slightly as he brushed against his father’s forearm.

He spoke with his usual monotone, as if he was heading a Justice League meeting as opposed to unveiling the secrets surrounding that boy. He brought forward the few photos they obtained from the flash drive. “A few weeks ago, we were alerted of suspicious movement from the League of Shadows in Amity Park, Illinois. Their objectives are, as of now, unclear, though it appears to be tied to the death of Amity Park resident, Daniel Fenton.”

One photo was a standard ID picture people get for their driver’s license, the lighting deliberately horrible so that any attempt to look decent would always end in failure. Another photo was a little better; a candid scene of him chatting with two others his age, a Caucasian girl in gothic-style clothes and an African-American holding a sleek, but still very outdated PDA. His blue eyes crinkled at the corners, hand reaching up to his face to stifle a laugh. There were other photos like this, some candid, others posed. At the forefront of each, a boy that looked too much like his father, too much like Damian.

His father glanced at the photos. He shut his eyes and when he opened them again, he fixed them on some distant stalactite in the Cave. “Around six months ago, Daniel was pronounced dead in a vehicular accident. A body was present, but according to police reports, he was identified via his driver’s license as opposed to any kind of DNA profiling.” He leaned over Damian’s chair to pull up a profile of Masters. “Our source—Vladimir Masters, mayor of Amity and a friend of the Fenton family—indicated his belief that Daniel is actually alive. I am inclined to agree.”

“He’s your son, isn’t he,” Drake said, more of a statement than a question.

Father gave a curt nod. “I cannot say for certain until I can perform a DNA test, but I highly suspect that to be the case.”

“First the demon spawn, now this. Great.” Todd made a hand motion towards the screen. “You know, Bruce, not knowing you have a kid once might be a coincidence, but twice? How do you do that?”

“As of three hours ago, I was still under the impression that my son never made it to term.”

“What?”

“Over sixteen years ago I was involved in a mission that put Ra’s and I on the same side. During that time, Talia and I entered a relationship that resulted in a pregnancy. Though initially ecstatic, she eventually led me to believe she miscarried the child and pushed me away. For what ends, I do not know, but trust me Jason, if I knew—” He paused, the hand that was not on Damian’s shoulder curled into a tight fist.

Father pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why she hid it from me then doesn’t matter. Why Talia wants him back now is important. Judging from Daniel’s records, he was adopted into the Fenton family as an infant and has since lived a seemingly normal life as a civilian. His adoptive parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton, are brilliant scientists and engineers focused on the field of paranormal studies. Eccentricities aside, they have zero connections to the League of Assassins or any other concerning parties.”

“So why now?” Dick asked, shifting his concerned gaze from Bruce to the static picture of Danny’s tired smile. “Why, after all this time, decide that now would be the best time to recover him?”

------

Danny’s experienced plenty of rude awakenings before, but waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to avoid his kidnapper-slash-assassin-slash-biological-mom launching a surprise attack takes the fucking cake. He can’t believe he’s saying this, but thank god for all those late night ghost attacks that conditioned him to be a light sleeper. And, of course, the League’s insistence that everyone be in optimal condition regardless of how little sleep you actually got.

Danny kicked Talia off of him, ripping his blanket away before scrambling to his feet. Seriously, if the universe decided to spontaneously give him powers again, he’d really like an upgrade to his ghost senses, please and thank you. Something that works on humans and not just ghosts. Like spidey-senses. He’d really, really like some spidey-senses.

“Your reaction times have improved considerably,” Talia said.

He eyed the katana sheathed beside his bedroll. “Thanks. Who could have guessed that constantly challenging someone to a spar in the unholy hours of morning would make them paranoid to sleep too much? Really, how am I supposed to grow taller at this rate? ” If he could just get it--

She smiled, taking a step forward. “Prepare yourself.”

“Heh.” Danny stepped further away from Talia, keeping his back to the mouth of the cave. One hand stretched in front of him and the other, coated in a green light, was kept hidden behind his back. “Am I actually gonna get some answers today?”

“Let us make it interesting. Last 10 minutes against me and I shall tell you more about your brother.” Talia twirled her blade. “If you happen to draw blood, you may ask any one thing of me.”

“Anything?”

“Within reason.”

His face caught between a grimace and a smile. He’d rather be sleeping right now, but if he had to be awake, then he’d better make the most of it. “Deal.”

Talia’s smile dropped. She veered her body to the right, barely dodging the streak of bright green that whizzed from behind her. The ectoplasmic energy that surrounded the katana bled away as the handle connected with Danny’s outstretched hand.

She quickly glanced back at Danny’s bedding. Beside it lay an empty sheath. “You have telekinesis?”

He shrugged. “It comes and goes.” Yeah, no way was Danny gonna admit that seven-out-of-ten-times he forgot that he had telekinesis. Besides, that shit was hard to do when he wasn’t Phantom.

“A surprise attack from behind is a sound strategy, Daniel. Though it’ll take a lot more than that to harm me.”

Danny pointed to the side of his cheek. “Are you sure about that?”

Talia frowned. She reached up to her face. Her fingers brushed against her cheek and came away with a thin streak of blood.

Danny grinned, pointing his blade at his opponent. “First blood goes to me.”

------

Fact: most fights don’t last long. An average street fight could last anywhere between 25 to 40 seconds, and sword fights rarely last over a minute. Like Talia said, the goal of a fight was to end it with as few injuries to oneself as possible. Humans, even the most skilled ones, can rarely last long in a fight. Prolonged combat is suicide; it makes you tired, makes your muscles heavy. It’s nothing like what Hollywood would have you believe.

Even with Danny’s own enhanced stamina and Talia holding back, he couldn’t last a full ten-minute spar. If Talia didn’t finish him within twenty-five seconds, then he’d fall by his own human limitations.

But the goal wasn’t to spar continuously for ten minutes.

He only had to last that long.

Danny sprinted out of the cave. The sun barely peeked out of the horizon, a thin line of deep orange breaking apart the wide expanse of blue-black sky above. He couldn’t see shit; great news since that meant there’s a good chance Talia couldn’t either, but that doesn’t fix the fact that he can’t see.

Nearly stumbling on the ice, Danny veered to the left. The edges of the lake stopped at towering rocks twice Danny’s height, leaving little room for cover. Though if he remembered correctly, there should be a few crevices here and there to hide in.

“You’ll have to be faster than that, Daniel.”

Shit—

Danny stopped. He brought his sword up to parry Talia’s strike and twisted away, putting distance between them.

Well, so much for just avoiding her for 10 minutes.

He adjusted his grip, keeping his sword steady and eyes trained on Talia as they circled each other. Danny lunged with an overhead strike. Talia used one hand to block the downswing by gripping his wrists. She thrust her sword forward, the tip harshly poking Danny’s abdomen.

“Less than three minutes.” Talia let his wrist go, Danny’s arms slumping to his sides.

He sighed as he sheathed his sword. “Damn, I thought I’d last longer than that.”

“You made a good effort,” Talia assured him. “Putting as much distance between us at the beginning was a good strategy. You recognized the win conditions immediately and attempted a battle of attrition.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I am very proud of you habibi, especially as you managed to draw first blood.”

A warmth grew in Danny’s stomach at the words, heating his cheeks. Sheepishly, he scratched the back of his head. “I wasn’t entirely sure that would work, honestly.”

“It was clever; half a second later and you might have even killed me. You are an al Ghul through and through” She brushed his hair out of his face. “What would you like as your prize, then?”

Danny’s heart clenched. He frowned, dropping his arm to his side. If I was such an al Ghul, then why didn’t you keep me? The question lodged itself in his throat, stifling his thoughts. It was something he’d been wondering for a while, actually, in the moments of solitude he had at the compound. Talia, during their training, would always remark at his potential. How talented he was, how adaptable he was, how much greater he would have been if he had been trained at a younger age.

Well then, why wasn’t he? Why did she give him up?

But each time he tried to ask, his tongue would turn to lead and the moment would pass, the question still left unsaid and simmering at the back of his mind. A Pandora’s Box that held none of the world’s evil but all of Danny’s possible shortcomings.

He could ask the question now.

He could.

He didn’t.

“Why did you take me?”

Talia tilted her head. “It is because you’re my son.”

“No. Not that. It has to be something more than that. You had sixteen years to come back for me—or, hell, you could have just never left me.” His breath hitched, fingers mussing his hair and hiding his eyes. “Why else did you take me?”

“It is true that there was more than one reason why we decided to retrieve you from Amity Park. One of which is because you are my son and an heir of the Demon’s Head.” Talia stilled. The dark skies of dawn made it impossible for him to read her. “The second reason was to protect you.”

“You kidnapped me…to protect me?”

“Knowledge of the ghosts of Amity have spread through the more insidious parts of the world. There are many out there who would pay exorbitant fees to study one of you or to use you.”

Use him? What did she mean by—

Oh.

Ghosts—Amity Park’s brand of ghosts—were a new element that the world had to contend with. Amity Park might have a crime rate of zero but that wasn’t the case everywhere else. Theft, assault, murder; the world was rampant with crimes and criminals clawing their way to the very top. Having ghosts, even ones with the most basic powerset, would be a huge advantage.

“There’s no way that would work,” Danny insisted. “Most ghosts just want to be left alone, and the ones that want to wreak havoc would never work with humans. The only reason they even work with halfas like me at times is because they still consider us as ghosts.”

“If my sources are to be believed, ghosts might not even get a choice.”

Danny’s blood curdled in his veins.

No.

Someone’s found a way to control ghosts.

[kudzushadow]

There for You | Part 1 of 3 | A Harlivy Fanfiction

Summary: After Harley finds Ivy in tears on the floor of the bathroom, realization dawns on her about how hard the past year had been on Ivy, from literally dying (1x12) to mind control. (2x12) They have a heartfelt conversation about the events leading up to the moment, and learn that sometimes it's ok to confide in the ones you care for. (Based on the scene from Eat Bang! Kill Tour: Issue #1)

Hurt/Comfort | TW: Past trauma mentions, slight hints of past abuse. | Spoilers for Harley Quinn: The Animated Series & Eat Bang! Kill Tour: Issue #1

See bottom for extra notes!

-

"...Ive?" Harley's eyes widened as she rounded a corner and was greeted with a sight that made her heart ache.

Ivy sat on the bathroom floor, head buried in her hands as her whole body shook with sobs. 

Harley was immediately kneeling by her side, arms wrapping protectively around her girlfriend without a second of hesitation. "Shh. It's alright, Ive. Everything's going to be ok…" Ivy had been acting strange since the wedding, but she hadn't been willing to open up to Harley. Now Harley was beyond worried, it was clearly more serious than the redhead had been letting on.

Ivy immediately relaxed into the blonde, tucking her face into Harley's chest. Eventually her sobs quieted down, but Harley could feel her trembling as she held her. While she tried to figure out what to say, she rubbed Ivy’s back comfortingly. 

After a couple moments of silence, after holding Ivy, feeling her tremble, listening to her uneven breathing… seeing her tear stained cheeks… realization began to dawn on Harley. God, she was so stupid and oblivious! She’d been so focused on her own feelings, she hadn’t even begun to consider Ivy’s… and how hard it must’ve been, being stuck in the middle of everything. 

“Ivy… I'm sorry. I’m so sorry… I’ve been so caught up in my own feelings, I hadn’t given any thought to how heavy all of this must weigh on you…” She brushed a strand of hair from Ivy’s face before continuing. “You’ve been through so much this past year, and I’ve been a pretty shitty friend. I should’ve been there for you, I should’ve helped you, should’ve protected you… and if I could go back in time and do it all differently, I would. A thousand times over.”

“...but I can’t, and that’s something I’ll regret as long as I live. Yet you’ve always been there for me, even when I created huge messes… when I joined the Legion of Doom, when I went back to Joker, when I released an army of parademons, when the Injustice League froze me… god, that last one sucked. Yet you rescued me. You always rescue me, Ive. Always help me. Always take care of me, even though I’m not sure I deserve it most of the time…” Harley looked away, shutting her eyes for a moment before forcing herself to continue. “...Ivy, you don’t have to pretend to be strong in front of me. You’re hurting… and that’s ok. We all hurt sometimes, but that doesn’t make us weak… or… or less human. I’m here now though. I want to share that burden with you, if you’ll let me.” Harley looked back at Ivy, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “I love you, Ive. I love you so much… and if you ever… yknow, want to talk about… well, anything at all, really… I just want you to know I’m here.” 

Ivy turned her head away, and the next few minutes passed slowly in silence. Harley held Ivy, didn’t once let go, but with each passing second she became increasingly worried she’d done something wrong. Was it something she’d said? Oh god, had she made it worse? 

“Ive, I didn’t mean-”

“Harley.” Ivy pulled away slightly, raising her head so she could meet Harley’s wide blue eyes. “I-” She paused, choking back a sob. “I hurt you, I hurt Chuck… I hurt so many people… all because I didn’t know what I wanted then… and to be honest, I’m not sure what I want now, either…”

Harley’s heart dropped, and she opened her mouth to respond before Ivy cut her off.

“-...but Harley… so much has happened. You’ve made mistakes, I’ve made mistakes… and you’re trying to change… that’s good, and I’m proud of you… but you're right, we can’t change the past, no matter how hard we try.” Ivy shut her eyes, letting out a shaky exhale before continuing. “Opening up… relationships… hell, just being around other people is… is hard for me… but you showed me the good in humanity. That not all humans are… are monsters. My life before I met you… was… lonely. Even with all my plants, I had nobody to talk to. Nobody to confide in… but I liked it that way. It was safe. Nobody was going to judge me, or… or abandon me... and I guess that’s why I… why I chose Chuck… because he was the safer option.”

I trust you, with my life… but I don’t trust you with my heart.

Harley winced inwardly, but she understood where Ivy was coming from. Harley definitely didn’t have the best track record with… well, anything really. 

So I… I’m marrying Kiteman.

“I was… I was scared. Scared that if I… if I went with what my heart was telling me, it was just going to get broken… and after everything, I just… I couldn’t stand the idea of that happening. Of losing you again…” Ivy trailed off, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

You were my one friend, and I asked you for one favor, but instead you ditched me for the Joker, who treats you like shit! 

“Ivy… I had no idea you felt that way.” Harley spoke softly, using her free hand to lift Ivy’s chin so she could look into those beautiful green eyes… eyes whose depths she often found herself lost in. “I… didn’t know what I really wanted then. It was like… like I was trying to fill a hole inside me… like part of me was missing… and then, that night at the pit…” She smiled, using her thumb to brush a tear from Ivy’s cheek. “That was one of the most amazing nights of my life. I hadn’t realized… I hadn’t realized what it felt like to have someone else care about you. To have someone love you. Joker definitely never cared about me… not in the way you do… and... y'know, maybe I didn’t deserve it. Like I said, I haven’t always been the most reliable… but that changes today… if you’ll give me a shot, that is…”

Ivy looked up at Harley as she brushed the tear away, and smiled sadly. “...You’re trying to change… and that’s what matters. Harls, I do love you. A lot…. More than I care to admit… and… this whole relationship thing is new to me, but… I’m… I’m willing to give it a shot. To give you a shot… and today… today was proof of how much you’ve changed. How much you’re willing to sacrifice for others…” Ivy rested her head on Harley’s shoulder, but her mind was clearly wandering.

“...but that’s not all that’s troubling you, is it?”

“...perceptive as always.” Ivy chuckled halfheartedly, then looked away again. “It’s… it’s fine. It’s nothing important…”

“Well, I am a psychiatrist… but seriously Ive, you can tell me anything.” Harley stroked her cheek. “You know that.” 

“Harley, I really don’t want to talk about it… can we just… can you help me out of this dress?”

“...yeah. Sure thing.” Harley stood up before reaching out a hand to help Ivy up. She definitely wasn’t going to let this drop that easily, but Ivy clearly didn’t want to talk anymore right now… so instead Harley busied herself with the zipper of Ivy’s wedding dress and the sights underneath.

- End of part 1 -

I think all of it copied and pasted? If it looks like anything is missing please lmk!

This... this is what quarantine, lack of sleep, and having covid does to you. Helps you get over writers block. This is my first work I've gone public with, and originally I wasn't going to post it but a friend gave me the confidence to share it! So... here it is, I guess?

I was going to post it on Archives of Our Own too, but I have to wait till the 14th to get an account. 😐

Comments mean the world, even if it's just a couple words. I'll even take criticism to heart! By commenting you all can let me know what you think, and if you want to see the other parts...

Any interaction is appreciated, and my inbox and dms are always open! Thank you, and have a great day! (Or night!)