#THIS CHARACTER IS NOT AN ABRAHAMIC FIGURE

[formthethird]

veronica

[immediatebreakfast]

I have seen a few posts about how Van Helsing and Dracula are positioned as foils between eachother in the narrative by how their introductions, and history with a younger male character (Jack and Jonathan) are seen in the context of the text. I love them, and I do want to add another theme that I noticed.

Both Van Helsing and Dracula are the archetype of the Foreigner within the english characters that we have known. The main difference in how these older men are received is based on not only the classical xenophobia argument, but also their roles as destroyer/savior in the eyes of the narrative.

Count Dracula is the "Bad" Foreigner, the one that secretly comes with the intentions of invading England with brute strenght while dragging all of the "Old" world on his shoulders. In here Dracula is both the watsonian evil warlord vampire that kills innocent people because he enjoys their suffering, and the doylist stereotype of all of Victorian England's xenophobic anxieties over other cultures that they thought had the power to destroy their lives.

Van Helsing on the other hand is the "Good" Foreigner in a subtle contrast. This one doesn't have to use a plan to secretly come to England, he is invited by a person that knows him. He does come from the "Old" world, but the narrative establishes that he is a man of scientific knowledge. Here Van Helsing is the watsonian wise old professor who comes with a vast sea of knowledge with the intentions of helping Lucy, and the doylist "acceptable" type of foreigner that comes to help the characters without having any intentions of threatening the established culture.

[nogetron]

King Solomon, the greatest of the ancient biblical kings. As the son of the slayer of Goliath, David, Solomon inherited the throne of Israel. One night in his youth Solomon prayed to God, appearing in his dream God asked him what he wanted and Solomon asked God for the wisdom to rule his people justly and fairly. Moved by his earnest and selfless wish, God granted his wish and more, granting him great knowledge, the ability to talk to animals and awakening his magical abilities. To thank the god that granted him such wisdom, Solomon began construction of the first temple. However its construction was constantly hindered and destroyed by demons, so Solomon once again asked God for guidance. In response the archangel Michael descended to Solomon and bestowed upon him a ring that could capture and control demons, with it he imprisoned the demons and forced them to complete the temple dedicated to their eternal enemy. Solomon’s archenemy was Asmodeus, a demon of lust who constantly troubled Solomon. One story details that after casting Solomon’s ring into a river, Asmodeus threw Solomon across the world, causing the king to lose the throne and his riches. Despite this Solomon was able to recover his ring and defeat Asmodeus, reclaiming his spot on the throne. Solomon held many wives as king, with some stating over 700. Many of his wives were the queens and princesses of other kingdoms, such as the Queen of Sheba and the pharaoh’s daughter. After his death his son Rehoboam took over the throne, however under his rule the kingdom of Israel suffered and ultimately fractured.

King Solomon is a greatly revered monarch among the Abrahamic faiths, especially among the more mystic branches of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Gnosticism. Though the practice of sorcery in the Abrahamic faiths can be traced back to the beginning of the Jewish faith, Solomon has still been an important figure throughout mysticism. The book that really sparked demonology was the Testament of Solomon, an extra biblical book that detailed the many demons who Solomon captured, this book was used as reference for the Key of Solomon, which laid out the framework for demon classification. Solomon also appears frequently in the One Thousand and One Nights, mostly mentioned off hand, however in one story he imprisoned a jinn within a bottle thrown into the sea, this story is thought to have evolved from the story Solomon’s combat against Asmodeus. The royal family of Ethiopia claimed to be descendants of Solomon as well as holding the ark of the covenant, similarly Ethiopia was the first country to officially adopt Christianity as a religion. The historicity of Solomon is debated among researchers, however the consensus is that he most likely did exist, but the splendor of his kingdom was most likely exaggerated.

[brittlebutch]

[fictional-antisemitism-analysis]

Aerith anon again- damnit im in the wrong place anyway sorry about that, for antisemitism i guess it would be Sephiroth because appropriation of Sefirot?

Verdict: wghat

I am not very familiar with jewish mysticism (though i do plan to look into it!) or ff and,,,,,, they really just named him after a concept ?? like with the noun ???? i do love me a good (or bad. bad's usually better) noun name, i was just expecting something more subtle when i saw this ask. I do believe this is appropriation, especially with his mother/whatever being named after god (her name is jenova)?? This isn't very composed or formal because i never am was really caught off guard by the fact this needed no digging and was very blatant, like i saw this ask and thought he'd have some vague tie to it but Nope

here is an analysis of various aspects of his name/character from his page on the fandom wiki (specifically the etymology section), i do not know how accurate these are as once again i know nothing about ff, but i think it adds to the discussion

here is what the mentioned safer sephiroth looks like

[tobysbadhorns]

Despite really liking kekkai sensen it is kinda just baffling how some things are just not explained like why is Leonardo sending most of his money to his sister when their parents don't seem to have any money problems and does he keep seending her money after she's engaged and is Toby (her boyfriend not me ) not evil ? For sure he's not evil??? Specially because she's like 16 and well he might also be 16 but he looks older but mostly he doesn't get Michela's jokes!!?? (BTW I love Michela when she reappeared I would never have guessed her bond with her brother would have felt so genuine like they very clearly lived together and get eachother completely and she's very funny and determined ) also michela is blind why is Leonardo sending her handwritten letters instead of emails ?it could be because he is expecting their family to read it to Michela but that just feels a little sad and a little not like Leonardo since he's not writting letters to his parents as well.

And lastly does klaus have eyebrows?

[doyouknowthisjewishcharacter]

Do you know this Jewish character?

[compacflt]

okay so something I love in what you've written is the running thematic element of how the "lack" of a character is treated as its own entity/character, not only with Goose--how he’s the “center of the universe” as you say--but also with Sarah. Idk if I just focused hard on Ice’s childhood/adolescence the entire time reading because I’m obsessed with how you wrote him, but the way there were bits and pieces thrown in about her as the story unfolded (Tom's pot-smoking era, the way they grew up so different but had a similar childhood, the unreturned letters and phone calls--also, Ice seeing Chorus Line on Broadway alone was so silly I loved it. Iceman Kazansky: pilot by day, musical theater fan by night. why was he so interested in fucking Chorus Line of all musicals.) but she never actually made an in-the-flesh appearance makes the entire fic, and Ice’s characterization, so dynamic and moving. Like Ice didn’t grow up as a sad little kid with no siblings and some evil overbearing Admiral father that turned him into a Navy-regulated cog in the machine; he had a sister (and grandmother?? A hipster Woodstock grandma?) who loved or at least cared for him a long long time ago, and her presence left a very visible mark (both emotionally and career-wise) on him no matter how “ice cold” he made himself. And in the very very beginning of WWGATTAI, he and Mav were bro-talking about their families and Ice was all like “grr I might as well not have a sister” because he’s secretly Popeye he was grouchy and young and Sarah had stopped talking to him, but then 9/11 happened and he kept trying to get in touch with her just to make sure she’s okay, and then they finally get to talk at the end of Debriefing and it's like...he's reached the top and he's become the person he's always wanted to become, but he's still the exact same. He wants his sister. He's “The Iceman" and can probably run the Navy on his own, but he’s also just someone’s little brother that used to smoke pot with all the other California hippies. He misses her but he can't talk about it.

Also, you didn't just shoehorn her into the story as a character that would be the Tom Kazansky Version of Carole-and-Goose (or as Ice's wife LMAO) and I loved how you gave her personal depth and a purpose/life outside the story while still adding to Ice's characterization through giving him another person to (a) care too much about and (b) shove into his closet of skeletons because the relationship he has with them is breaking some sort of federal regulation. I hope this all makes sense hahaha, but anyway I loved Sarah and how you treated her. It was so entertaining/heartbreaking to watch Ice wrestle with how the main three people he loves are his communist sister, a male romantic partner who is also a subordinate he bails out of sticky situations constantly, and the son of the man he was involved in the death of. crazy stuff.

ok this is so funny & I love this so much because… it wasn't really how I was thinking about it at the time & I'm so glad it comes across as much warmer than how I originally wrote it... okay like i could explain everything but muh “death of the author”…… eh fuck it okay. I’ll put it under a cut so you can choose not to watch me auto-fellate. another long post, sorry. 

so, on Sarah. 

I should start this post by saying straight off the bat that she’s literally just a self-insert for me, the author, as a leftist who lives in New York and would not give someone like Tom the time of day, so I could feel better morally/ethically about writing Top Gun fanfiction. So, there’s that. But she (just like everyone else in this fic) is just a tool to get across information about Ice and the story as a whole, and there’s a reason she was introduced in chapter one (two if you’re reading on AO3 i guess. no prologue, wtf is up with that AO3 you guys need to fix that). I wanted to convey a shitload of information at the start, especially because I was posting semi-weekly and wanted people to know what they were getting into because it’s a slow burn.

To summarize what happens in chapter one:

Goose is dead. 

Ice and Maverick kill some MiGskyites in addition to killing Goose and it cements some weird fucked-up hyperinterdependent relationship between them. 

No, this does not make them instantly friends. They are still fundamentally different people who dislike each other’s outlook on life.

Ice kills some more Soviets and becomes Maverick’s equal, though still not in rank/honor. 

Ice writes to his sister Sarah, who doesn’t answer. 

Ice hooks up with a girl, but finds that he can’t relate to her as much as he did before the experience of TOPGUN. Also, he can’t relate to women at all.

Ice tries to visit Sarah, and is rejected.

Ice sees A Chorus Line on Broadway by himself.

Ice and Maverick talk to each other as semi-equals, and Ice explains that his sister is a Commie who will never talk to him again. He also explains that he wants to get to the top because he thinks it will make him a good man, or that he can make the Navy better because he himself is a good man. Maverick says, yeah right bozo.

So we’re 5,000 words into a 90,000-word fic and already you know the following:

This entire story and everyone in it revolves around Goose’s death and who gets the blame for Goose’s death. 

Ice and Mav are brought together not because they like each other, but because the experience of killing both their friend and their enemies has made it impossible for anyone else on Earth to understand them to that same extent. From the first word, they're already both so fucked-up it really is each other or nobody.

This is gonna be a sloooow burn.

Ice and Mav might end up as superior and subordinate, but they are fundamentally equal ("you can be my wingman anytime/bullshit you can be mine"), and start out as equals. They are now directly responsible for the same amount of death.

Sarah is Ice’s sister, so Ice is definitely not getting married to a woman in this fic. Good news for everyone scared by the slow burn.

Ice had previously had fun with women, and still wants to marry a woman because it "follows all the rules," but after meeting Maverick/the whole TOPGUN experience he finds them annoying/unrelatable. He can’t relate to women at all and doesn't believe this woman when she tells him she loves him because he himself has never been in love with a woman. He is gay.

Ice sees A Chorus Line on Broadway by himself. He is gay. 

Sarah will not be in this fic, and Ice is a categorically lonely man who is isolated from anyone who could possibly help him talk about how he feels. 

Sarah is a Communist who rejected her military brother, not the other way around, so this is a leftist fic from a leftist perspective, but about conservative men whose conservative personal and political opinions will be repeatedly challenged by the end. This is not a pro-Navy story. 

As a corollary to that, the ship for Ice to “be a good man” has already sailed. He’s gonna try his best to be a good man—emphasis on man—throughout the story, but he’s already failed from the very first line. 

And Ice steadfastly and stubbornly refuses to be honest with us or himself about how he feels about any of the above.

So you basically have everything you need to understand the rest of the story. Now you (reader) and I (author) can meet each other in the middle on equal terms, and the real story can actually finally get started in the next chapter. It’s a lot of information. Which is why it’s not written very well and the pacing is fucked. 

But yeah I just used “Sarah” as an expository tool to help first-time readers understand the political lens of this fic from the get-go, so we don’t have to have a lot of hand-wringing when Ice becomes a war hero of the Persian Gulf War or anything like that (though in my a/n for chapter 5 i did admittedly do some hand-wringing. i gotta delete those a/ns). So, Sarah becomes kind of a weak stand-in for Ice’s political guilt. She’s only mentioned four times besides chapter one, i think—once when Ice is with “Laura” (he is still incredibly guilty about all the people he killed & feels like he let “Sarah” down); once with 9/11 (he still thinks about “Sarah” often enough that she’s the first thing he thinks of when the country has been attacked [still haven't decided if this is the real Sarah though]); once when he’s getting high with Maverick (he is constantly reminded by the brass of the ways in which he is not a good man); and once at the end of “Debriefing,” where they actually get to talk to each other—because he has finally “snapped out of it” and left the Navy.

This fic wasn’t meant to be my sorta-kinda-but-not-really-anti-military soapbox preaching, though, which is why Sarah’s hardly in it at all. It’s a D-plot. Maybe even an E-plot. All in service of the Icemav A-plot. That end scene has a couple different purposes, actually. The second is that Sarah, who at this point is pretty much just a stranger, becomes a receptacle for Ice to prove that he can finally be honest with himself and others about his relationship with Maverick. And…that’s pretty much it. I did do more with her in my Slider one-shot but i honestly dk if that’s getting posted at this point (ITS ROUGH) so im not gonna talk about it now. 

But—that was all Sarah as a symbol, which is very un-fun. Sarah as a character is kind of a blank slate, but how Ice thinks about her/misses her is not, as you said :) I’m wary of posting headcanons that are dependent on my fic, though I do have many, because I feel like that’s not really the point of headcanons… “compacflt!Ice-specific headcanons…” idk that seems a little self-aggrandizing even for me. But, yeah, I guess I would characterize my Ice’s childhood as not greeeaaat, because his dad apparently died in Vietnam when he was like eight and his mom apparently died in a car crash when he was twelve (which is why he’s such a good driver [ch 8 notwithstanding DO NOT DRIVE 120 ON I-5]), but also not, like, abusive or anything. Raised by his grandmother (in the Slider one-shot, which I might as well spoil for you since I’m feeling quite hopeless about it, Slider kinda helps Ice deal with her death in the second year they’re at the Academy together, and it’s how their friendship really starts) who might have been hippy-ish and encouraged him breaking the rules, but also he & his sister were very very impacted by the death of their father at war. This is getting kind of deep into it, and I’m just kinda making it up, but I think there was probably a lot of strife between him and Sarah when he was gearing up to go to the Academy/getting his recommendations etc., like actual arguments and screaming matches—yes, she’s disappointed in him, but more than anything she wants to keep him safe so he doesn’t die like their dad (relevant for ice/rooster later)—and he ended up losing her, so it made a deep, deep impression on how he handles (avoids) confrontation about serious stuff like this when he knows he's gonna lose… my ice has a confrontation issue, obviously. but so does canon. see him "apologizing" to maverick for goose's death in the movie for another example of this. bro is struggling.

But thats just me makin shit up so whatever.

But that’s me just makin shit up so whatever.

[soupsspoons]

26. Denise (Double Update)

Hannah could hear Daryl's heavy breath as she crouched below him, Denise still laying dead in her hands.

"You got something to say to me?" The man taunted, "You gonna clear the air? Step up on that high horse? No, you don't talk much."

The man nodded his head, signaling to the other men to get the group's weapons. A larger man with a rifle walked up to Hannah, a smirk drawn on his face.

"Come on, get up little girl," He looked down at Denise, "She ain't going nowhere." As Hannah stood, slowly, she could smell the stench coming off of the man. It was worse than anything she had smelled before. Worse than the smell of the apothecary. Worse than the smell of the storage closet. He drew closer to her and it became stronger. Hannah grimaced as his hands patted her sides, squeezing as they went along.

"Hey," Rosita warned the man.

"It's fine," Hannah said softly, her body tense.

The man finished, pulling the knife from Hannah's belt, and smiled at Rosita "Yeah, it's fine."

"Hey, Jim," The man patting down Daryl spoke, "What's in her pocket there?"

Hannah froze. She could feel Daryl's eyes on her.

"Let's see shall we?" The man was almost giddy as he said it, seeing the fear on Hannah's face, "Whatchu got there little girl?"

Slowly, the man reached his hand into Hannah's left pants pocket, feeling around for what had made the protrusion. Hannah shut her eyes, breathing as slowly as possible. It felt like ages that the man stood in front of her, his stench stronger than before. Finally, he pulled away. In his hands, as Hannah had feared, were the three lipsticks she had stashed while at the apothecary.

The man laughed, mockingly.

"D, look at this," He tossed the tubes to the man holding Eugene. 'D'.

D caught the tubes in one hand, inspecting them with a smirk. He chuckled to himself before looking at Hannah.

"You got someone you wanna get pretty for, hun?"

Hannah looked away.

"I shoulda done it," Daryl spoke, malice heavy in his voice.

"Oh, what's that?" D said, throwing the lipsticks to the side "Seriously, I didn't catch what you said."

"I shoulda killed you," Daryl repeated, staring D down.

"Yeah. You probably should've," D paused, "So here we are, kinda begs the question, right? Who brought this on who? I mean, I get that you'll just have to take my word for this, but she wasn't even the one I was aiming for. It's nothing personal"

As D continued to speak, Hannah could see Eugene looking over into the woods at something she couldn't quite see.

"What do you want?" Rosita asked D.

"I'm sorry, darlin', I didn't catch your name," He taunted, "I'm D, or Dwight. You can call me either." Dwight waited for a response, "So? What's your name?"

"Rosita," she said sharply, "What do you want?"

"Well, Rosita," Dwight said, mockingly, "It's not what I want. It's what you and Daryl," He paused, "and this random little girl you brought with you, are gonna do. You're gonna let us into your little complex. It looks just beautiful in there, you know. And then you're gonna let us take whatever, and whoever we want," Dwight reached down, shaking Eugene's shoulders as he spoke, "Or we blow Eugene heres brains out. Then the girl's. Then yours. And then his." Daryl's face was stone as Dwight spoke, "I hope it doesn't come to that, really. Nobody else has to die. We just try and start with one, that's it. You know, maximum impact to get our point across," Eugene's breathing began to pick up, "So, what's it gonna be? You tell me."

With a deep breath, Eugene spoke up from below Dwight, "You want to kill someone, you start with our companion hiding over behind the oil barrels. He's a first-class a-hole and he deserves it so much more than us four."

At his words, Dwight pulled his gun out of its holster, motioning for his men to check out the barrels. Hannah watched as they moved in, guns ready. She held her breath, waiting for everything to go to shit.

Just before the men reached the barrels, Dwight screamed out, doubling over and letting go of Eugene. He had bit his crotch, holding on as the man screamed.

Suddenly shots began to ring out from the woods, killing some of the saviors beside Dwight. Everyone reached for their own guns, shooting at anything they could hit. Daryl reached for the man in front of him, cutting his throat and taking his gun. Hannah ran behind an abandoned car, knowing her knife would be no help to her.

As she crouched down by the passenger door, the glass of the window above her shattered, sprinkling the shards over her head. From underneath the car, Hannah could see the fallen body of a savior, his gun laying loosely in his arm. With a quick check of her surroundings, Hannah shimmied underneath the car, reaching as far as she could for the gun. She could only get her torso underneath before Hannah knew she would be seen. Stretching her arm again, Hannah could now reach the fabric of the gun's strap. As she began to pull, the body beneath the gun started to stir, releasing a low growl. It had turned much faster than she expected. Quickly, Hannah tried to pull back on the strap, but the walker caught it between its fingers, holding on with everything it had. Without a second thought, Hannah swung her leg beside her, kicking at the growling creature. Its jaw snapped, hanging loosely like a hinge.

"Come on," She begged.

Suddenly, blood spurted out of the walker's head, splashing against Hannah's face. Someone had shot it. She moved as fast as she could, grabbing the gun and looking just over the hood of the car. Her eyes searched for Daryl or Rosita, expecting them to be the ones who shot the walker. Instead, as she looked around, though it seemed impossible, it was Dwight who was looking at her. Just as fast as she had seen it, he looked away, but Hannah had seen it nonetheless.

She didn't have time to question him before Hannah saw another savior running at Daryl. His back was turned, and without any hesitation, Hannah pulled the trigger. She watched the man fall. She watched the blood pour out around him. Hannah shuttered.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Dwight shouted through the gunfire. He let out a few final shots before running away with his men. Immediately, Daryl ran to grab his dropped bow, aiming at the man who had shot Denise.

"Daryl, stop!" Rosita yelled out before he could do anything.

Hannah ran out from behind the car, following Rosita's voice. She was crouched over Eugene, who was still laying on the tracks. As Hannah got closer, she realized the worst had happened. Rosita held her hands over the wound on Eugene's side, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. Abraham had run over as well, helping to pick him up off the tracks. Hanah stood beside Rosita, holding onto Eugene's legs as they carried him to the truck, leaving Denise's body where it had fallen. Hannah felt tears drip onto her hot cheeks as they ran.

---

They didn't make it even halfway to Alexandria before Eugene began losing consciousness. His blood covered Abraham and Rosita, who sat in the back of the truck, trying desperately to keep him awake.

"Shit," Abraham huffed, "Shit!"

"Guys, he's lost too much blood, we won't make it," Rosita spoke frantically.

"We're gonna make it," Daryl pressed harder on the gas, throwing everyone back into their seats.

Rosita pulled a jacket out of her bag, tying it as best she could around Eugene's torso, "We've gotta stop the bleeding."

Abruptly, Daryl hit the brakes on the truck, causing the wheels to squeak and the gears to grumble. Hannah fell forward, bracing herself on the dashboard in front of her. She looked ahead, now seeing what made Daryl stop.

The tree that they had run into all that time ago was still laying on the road, blocking their path.

"Bitch nuts," Abraham sighed.

"Go around it," Rosita said, although she knew it wasn't possible.

"We can't," Daryl said, trying to be calm.

"Then we'll carry him," Rosita added.

"We can't. It's too far."

The car was silent. Hannah looked back from the front seat. She watched Eugene as he lay peacefully on Abraham, his chest rising ever so slightly. Above him, she could also see the despair on everyone's faces.

"He's not dead," Hannah said to no one in particular, "He's not dead, okay? He's still breathing. We can't just stop, we can't..." Hannah didn't finish. Everyone in the car looked at her, a sort of condescension in their eyes. But Hannah knew they could do something. They had to do something.

She turned to Daryl, "Please."

Daryl looked at her, saying nothing. Finally, his jaw tightened and he turned to Abraham, "Get out. We gotta move the tree."

As the two men left the car, Hannah moved to the backseat to try and help Rosita. When she entered, Hannah could see the wetness on the woman's face but said nothing.

"I'll keep the pressure," Rosita said, pulling the jacket tighter. Hannah nodded and reached over, letting her ear rest on Eugene's chest. She could hear his heart beating softly. When her head rose, Rosita looked at her, her eyes asking the question.

Hannah nodded. He was alive.

"You've gotta check if the bullet went all the way through," Rosita said, filling the tense air. The two girl's rolled Eugene to his side, looking underneath where the bullet had entered. There was no exit wound.

"Shit," Hannah muttered. Rosita understood what that meant, gently lifting Eugene's head and stepping outside of the car. She leaned over his body, her hand still stroking his long hair.

"Most of it's intact, but there are some shards in there," Rosita said after inspecting the wound.

Hannah rubbed her hands over her face and the two looked at each other.

She called Daryl and Abraham over, who had managed to move the tree about a foot. Daryl too looked at the wound and came to the same conclusion.

Hannah knew what that meant. She knew it was bad. All the times she had watched Denise work on patients, all the books she had taken from the infirmary to read on the gazebo, somehow, all of it was going to have to save Eugene.

"We gotta get them out," Hannah breathed.

No one said anything.

"Okay, um" Hannah breathed, thinking, "Rosita, do you still have the alcohol you found earlier?"

"Yeah," She said, quickly moving to grab her bag out of the truck bed.

"Okay, good, good," Hannah muttered to herself, "Shit, he still needs blood. We don't have an IV." Hannah looked to the other men, who only looked back at her like she had the answer. Then, Abraham's face lit up.

"Denise's bag is still here, maybe she's got something in there,"

"I'll look," Rosita yelled back to them.

"Alright, I'm O-Neg, is anybody else?"

Both men shook their heads.

Rosita came to the side of the truck, the bag of booze in one hand and an old IV in the other.

"Oh, thank shit," Abraham let out and Hannah heard Daryl sigh. Rosita threw Hannah the IV before pouring some of the alcohol onto Eugene's wound. Hannah jumped up onto the seat, pulling Eugene's legs over her own.

She passed the bag to the man closest to her, "Abraham, can you stick me?" He didn't move, only staring at the scene in front of him, "What are you, scared of needles? Stick me," Hannah said, sterner than she had meant to. When Abraham still didn't move, Daryl came to Hannah's side, wrapping his belt around her arm, and put in the IV. Hannah winced.

"Ok, we gotta get that bullet out," Hannah said, letting her arm rest over Eugene's legs. "Daryl, you got any scissors or pliers or anything?"

"Yeah. yeah," he breathed, pulling his bag off his shoulder and pulling out a pair of needle nose pliers, still with bike grease on its head. He wiped it off on his shirt and passed them to Rosita, who poured some of the liquid over them.

"You guys keep working on the tree, okay," Hannah motioned towards Abraham and Daryl, "We got this."

As the two men left the truck, Hannah looked back over to Rosita, who was holding the pliers in one hand, trying to hide the dread on her face.

"Rosita," Hannah questioned.

"I don't know what to do. I don't think--"

"You just have to grab them, okay," Hannah was beginning to feel the effects of the IV, her head feeling light as she spoke, "You just have to look around and pull anything silver, alright? It's simple. You can do it."

"How do you know? How do you know what to do?" Rosita asked.

Hannah felt her eyes closing as she spoke.

"Denise showed me."

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ

Hi Loveliessss!! Ahhh omg a double update!! I am so grateful for you guys being so patient and understanding with my update schedule, so I hope this makes up for that.

Why did Dwight shoot the walker??? That was so weird, right??? 😏

Thanks for Reading!

[kbjones]

Number 150 of 150

This is the last one! Abraham Lincoln https://wp.me/pLP9Y-5ek #USHistory #artsample #kidlitart #kidlit #president #AbrahamLincoln #16 #educational #history

This is the last one! 150 characters, isolated on white, created for a large project for Learning A-Z. Here’s Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States (1809-1865). He was president during the US Civil War and was assassinated on April 15, 1865. He is best known for abolishing slavery in the US. More about him here. Abraham Lincoln

[voided-selfships]

Btw! How'd you come up with your adventure time sona? I've just started self shipping with fionna but I haven't made a sona yet djsdhd @ghost--girlfriend

@ghost--girlfriend

Okay so this is funny bc I was struggling for maybe 2 days before I went "Oh, shapeshifter, duh." Because a lot of my self inserts are shapeshifters. And they were originally gonna be just that before I went "now what if I made them a fucked up scientist before the war." Which is just a combination of what I love making my inserts shapeshifters and fucked up scientists /silly

[devourable]

your first time • yanderes x reader, part one

nsfw, minors and ageless dni ;; smut (duh), virgin top x bottom gn reader, various kinks that will be tagged per character.

ft. abraham (yandere church boy), sterling (yandere prodigy), gene (yandere hacker), tobias and sebastian (yandere best friends), and mykolas (yandere monster)

this part will just be the guys (excluding the delinquents)! i wanted to put most of my polyamorous groups as well as the girls and enbies in part two. decided last minute to change it a bit and make it sort of ambiguous as to if the reader is a virgin or not. regardless!

thanks again for 2k 🫶

the church boy — abraham atkins ;; dacryphilia, elements of sizeplay, mentions of religion

abraham thought his first time would be well into the future, after he’d gotten married at his church and whisked off to start his own family like his father before him. it was just a part of life to him, not something to really care about or look forward to; but it was supposed to happen that way. but abe… he just couldn’t resist you!

he knew he shouldve stopped you the moment you had found yourself on his lap, pinning him to his bed after what was supposed to be an sleepover had gone completely off course. and he should’ve stopped you when you got your tongue in his mouth, grinded on him, getting him hard for practically the first time in his life. he should’ve stopped things before they went too far — but he couldn’t stop you. or himself, after he started to clumsily hump you back, his hands finding and delicately groping your ass in an attempt to figure out how he could fit against you best. abe has such an innocent hunger about him, he so desperately wants more — more what, exactly? he doesn't really know. you definitely end up having to take lead because he wholeheartedly doesn't know what he's doing.

but once you coax him out of his nerves and a bit of trial and error (he absolutely wouldn't have fit in you dry; and even after you taught him how to work you open and got his dick wet enough, it was still a tight fit!), you finally, finally get him inside you. and abe, poor abe didn't even know what hit him. despite the tears tumbling down his face purely from how good you felt around him, despite the deep rooted guilt of committing such a sin with the one he loved clawing at his chest, he couldn’t help how brutally he ended up fucking you. he’d pour out all of his pent up desire into you in one night, fucking you through climax after climax till you were seeing stars too.

the prodigy — sterling cygnus ;; overstimulation, risky(ish) setting/exhibitionism

it must all be a game to you, his feelings and this weird dynamic in your relationship. even when the two of you actually start dating (…sorta), he still had it in his head that you were just trying to fuck with him. what other reason could there be to explain how he felt aside from it being your fault?

it was when the two of you were in his dorm that he actually decided to push your boundaries, see what you would let him do before your ‘facade’ finally cracked. but you didn’t stop him when he pinned you against your bed, or when he started kissing you, or when the kiss transformed into an unintentionally heated makeout session. it wasn’t until you had started to pull off your shirt and palm at him through his pants that he started to think that you might’ve actually wanted him.

sterling didn’t really know how it went so far, but he stopped caring when the absolute carnal need to just feel you took over his brain. you must’ve assumed that he didn’t know how to make you feel good because he’s inexperienced, right? no? well, he doesn’t believe you. and to ensure you do, you’re not getting out of that dorm until he’s made you cum on him again, and again, and again. you’d have to think he’s playing with you at some point with how often he switches between fucking you and fingering you — he insists on making you cum both ways as many times as you can handle. he’s rattling the walls and got you sobbing his name so loud that no doubt the entire dorm can hear you (the walls were never that thick to begin with anyway). he relishes in not only knowing he’s completely claimed you, but now all of your colleagues will know too. he doesn’t care how much of a mess he’s making with your insides or how much of him spills out of you, nor does he care if you’re exhausted and sore from the waist down. you’re not done until he’s done with you — and being the overachiever he is, who knows when that’ll be? he’d hate to leave you thinking he’s anything but your number one.

the hacker — gene eliades ;; a lil dubcon-y, filming w/o reader’s knowledge

gene had waited for you to make a move on him first, he really did. he even tried enticing you in his own way, always sitting with his legs open so you could see the very clear outline of his dick through his pants, sitting you on his lap when he was working and keeping a hand on your body at all times. he’d kiss you, tell you how crazy you drove him, anything to give you an idea of what he wanted. but you never took that extra step and it left him wondering if it was because you were toying with him or if you really were that dense. either way, he had had enough, and after one particular day where the need burning in the pit of his stomach just wouldn’t go away, he decided that he wouldn’t wait anymore.

when you tried to slip off of his leg to do something, his arm curled around your waist and pulled you square into his lap, making sure you felt every inch of his erection against your ass. you were so irresponsible, constantly getting him riled up and never doing anything about it. did you even like him at all? regardless of your answer he was already sliding his hands under your clothes, groping your chest with one and working your bottoms down with the other.

it was unceremonious, the way gene bent you over his desk and buried himself up to the hilt in you before you could even voice any potential protests. but the feeling of him hitting all the right spots in you made your mind go blank, unable to do anything but moan his name every time he pulled you back against him. god, he loved hearing the way you whimpered for him, feeling you stretch around him when he fucked you just a bit too hard, the way your hips fit so nicely in his hands.

it was a good thing you were too fucked out to notice the little light next to his webcam aimed down at you. you wouldn’t mind if you did, he assumed — there was nothing wrong with wanting to remember this moment later, was there?

the boys next door — tobias & sebastian ;; double penetration, threesome

the pair had fantasized about losing their virginity to you years before it actually happened. the amount of times they’d gotten each other off with your name falling from their lips was too many to count, but god knows it just wasn’t enough for the two. but they never acted on those feelings, not until they had planned out the day to ensure it would be perfect.

you did find it a bit suspicious that the first time you were all free for the weekend at the same time was on the night that toby’s parents went out for an unplanned vacation, but you easily overlooked it when the pair offered you a sleepover (for old time’s sake!), bribed with promises of your favorite snacks and whatever movies you wanted to watch. you were sandwiched between the two in your best friend’s room, oh so aware of the growing tension but unsure where it was leading to — but then toby suddenly asked to kiss you. and what you assumed would be a playful peck ended with you pinned to the bed with tobias holding your wrists while sebastian made himself comfortable between your legs.

they really like you, and they know you like them too — you wanna be their first, don’t you? be their special someone? that’s what toby’s asking between kisses while seb’s lifting your shirt and sliding a hand down the front of your pants. it wasn’t until you finally gave them the permission they’d waited so long for that the pair allowed themself to really get the night started.

toby was the first to break you in while seb held you in his lap. it was a shame the pair didn’t think to record the moment… the face you made when toby fucked into you was so cute! and the noise you made when seb slid under you to try and squeeze into you alongside toby would play in their minds over and over again. they might’ve pushed you a bit too hard, stretching you well beyond your limit without even letting you catch your breath. they just couldn’t resist! you were clamping down on them, sucking them both in like you didn’t wanna let them go. it felt so good to make you cum.

the two were still up long after you had passed out, ogling your ruined state with an undeniable urge to fuck you up even more. they saw it like a badge of honor, proof that you’d always be theirs. the two would let you rest for the time being, but don’t worry — they still had an entire weekend with you ahead, and they didn’t plan on letting you step foot outside that house till their time was up.

the beast — mykolas ;; teratophilia (duh), size difference, outercourse/thighfucking

mykolas really, really didn’t want to hurt you. he was well aware of how big he was, especially compared to you — if you got hurt because he couldn’t control himself, he wouldn’t know what to do!

all of those thoughts were completely disregarded when he started rutting, though. the poor monster couldn’t think straight with his hormones running amok, and you being you — so soft, so small, so vulnerable, it was like you were designed to torture him through the season. you’d very quickly catch on to what was happening to your monstrous partner, considering you’d often be woken up by him grinding up against your back or stomach in a desperate bid to try and relieve the borderline painfully throbbing cock that was bothering him more and more these days. and though he’d never make his needs known vocally, you could just tell — that sad, pleading look he’d give you every time you looked at his pitiful form was just begging you to take care of him.

you knew for certain that you couldn’t just fuck him in his current state. his cock practically matched the length of your torso! and with how reckless his hormones were making him, the possibility of him ‘accidentally’ making you take more than you could handle was too high, even if you did try to take control. so to work around this problem, you opted to get a bit creative with your methods.

mykolas didn’t quite understand what was going on at first when you bent over in front of him, pants pulled down to your knees. but when you guided him between your legs and clamped your thighs around his length, you could tell the switch in his brain had flipped and he completely allowed instinct to take over. you had no clue just how good it’d feel when mykolas’s hard, wet cock rutted against you relentlessly until he was gripping your waist and pulling you against him, fucking your thighs like you were his living fleshlight. but fuck, the way he managed to slide against every sensitive spot he had access to despite his carnal state was nearly driving you insane. and mykolas delighted in the way you clawed at the ground and mewled for him, your voice so pretty when you stammered out his name. it didn’t take long for either of you to cum at that rate.

despite the mess mykolas made of your thighs and stomach, though, he wouldn’t let you get off him. he’d been pent up for so long, repressing his desire to mate with you, he couldn’t just stop there! so he went again, and again, humping you in any position he could think of, pinning you down, thoroughly wrecking you as best as he could. you were gonna be in for a rough mating season now that mykie knew how to relieve himself with you — but you didn’t mind, he assumed. you were the one that showed him how to feel better, after all.

[see-arcane]

Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

 ‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

…

……

………

…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.  

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.  

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.  

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

 “The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

[slyakoch13]

1st gen mercenaries are real people from history

I'm just once again amazed at how witty and creative Valve were, when they were creating TF2 and its lore. "The 2nd generation are mercenaries from the classics, and who then is the 1st generation…OH LET'S MAKE ALL OF THEM REAL HISTORICAL PEOPLE!"

So we have:

"Billy the Kid" (an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West ) - Scout

 Stonewall Jackson (was a general officer in the Confederate States Army) - Soldier

Abraham Lincoln (you know) - Pyro

Alfred Nobel (inventor of dynamite) - Demo

John Henry (an American folk hero) - Heavy

Nikola Tesla (inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist) - Engineer

Sigmund Freud (yeah)- Medic

Davy Crockett - Sniper

Fu Manchu (cinema. media character; an archetype of the evil criminal genius) - Spy

For a long time, I ignored the first generation mercenaries, thinking that they were just anonymous people with no history. Later I found out that Abraham Lincoln was canonically a mercenary in TF2 and thought how funny it was. But I didn’t even realize that ALL the mercs of the first generation were real historical figures. This is most likely due to the fact that they are(mostly) figures of American folklore and history (and I’m not American).

In short, I just really like this idea: to make a team entirely consisting of references to folklore characters or real people.

[heavenlymorals]

Biblical References in Both RDR games.

I love biblical references so much. When it comes to literature, it's probably my favorite type of symbolism. Like I genuinely get so happy when I connect things to the Bible which is what I'm going to do right now 😊😊 I also like the way that religion is incorporated into RDR as a whole, including the main characters' reaction to it.

So yup, here are just a few references or connections that I was able to make in no particular order.

Also, some of these are complete reaches and I'm aware of that, but fuck it, it's my blog and I do what I want 💪🏼

- The character and tragedy of Issac. In the Bible, Issac is the child of Abraham who is asked to be sacrificed by God by his father as a test of faith. God eventually intervenes to save Issac because he only wanted to test Abraham's faith. Dutch is shown as a God-like figure to the gang, as their devotion is to him. Arthur, indirectly, sacrifices Issac by not being there and by following what Dutch wanted. Arthur, Issac, and Dutch are parallels to Abraham, Issac, and God.

- Leviticus is the book that comes after the book of Exodus. After the gang's escape or exodus from Blackwater after the Blackwater massacre, they are met by Leviticus Cornwall, who becomes the next obstacle for the gang. After the gang's exodus, they get in trouble with Leviticus.

- The image of the deer and a mountain. Psalm 18:32-34 in the Bible says, "It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way blameless? He makes my feet like deers' feet, and sets me upon my high places." In Arthur's condemnation of Dutch, Micah, and their evil, he becomes steady in his identity and beliefs, like a deer's feet on a mountain, which is where he dies in the end. W symbolism.

- The mission "Sodom? Back to Gomorrah." In the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities that were so morally depraved and evil that God decided to destroy the both of them, saying that if there was even one good person in those cities, he'd spare them, but there weren't. In those missions, you also do two evil acts, going from one and then BACK to the other. You rob the bank and then go BACK to collect the debt from Edith Downes. So you finish one evil deed and to straight to the next. This can also show how morally bankrupt Arthur's apathy made him at this point in the game.

- Micah's guns say "Vengeance is hereby mine." This could be a reference to Roman's 12:19 "vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord." Micah's violent nature makes him take his anger out on the world.

- "Your father is seduced by him with the forked tongue. It's no use hoping." The blind prophet to Arthur. Pretty straight forward symbolism, it's a nod to the snake that seduced Eve, just like how Micah manipulates Dutch.

- Dutch walking away from Arthur when he dies and though he realizes his wrong doing and feels shame, his pride forbids him from apologizing or saying he was wrong. This can be a parallel to how Adam and Eve run away from God when they feel shame over believing in the snake, but their pride won't allow them to apologize to God, hence damning them like how Micah damned Dutch.

- There were twelve ACTIVE gang members before the Blackwater massacre. When I mean active, I mean gang members who are canonically consistent (so not uncle, Swanson, Strauss, or the girls) on going on jobs for the gang. Micah, Bill, Javier, John, Hosea, Arthur, Charles, Sean, Lenny, Josiah, Mac and Davey Callender. Christ had 12 disciples and Dutch is portrayed as a savior to the gang, or a Christ like figure. And would you look at that, there is a traitor in both groups of twelve (Micah and Judas).

- Both John and Arthur's graves have scripture from Jesus's sermon on the mountain (Matthew 5:1-12). John's is blessed are the peacemakers and Arthur's is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

- The go back for the money ending. If you go back for the money and have low honor, you'll see that the camp is engulfed in flames as you try to get the money. The fight with Micah is brutal and you die faced down in the dark. This death is an allegory for going to either hell and purgatory as you choose a final evil act of leaving your brother to possibly die just so you can get money as an act of revenge. If you have high honor, you are still surrounded by flames, but you still have a chance at heaven given that you die facing up seeing the light one final time.

- The help John ending has similar connotations. If you have low honor, you die by gunshot and are shrouded in darkness, which can symbolize the absence of God's light and how Arthur's final act couldn't absolve the lack of guilt he feels for the rest of the actions that he KNOWS are evil (click here for a my interpretation of Arthur's morality). In high honor, though, you get to crawl to the mountain side and see the rising sun, symbolizing heaven, warmth, and a new purity.

- In low honor, the coyote goes down to a dark cave, representing damnation and the rejection of holy light. In high honor, the deer steps into a heavenly field of light. Love that so much to be honest.

- Just the very Catholic vibe of Arthur's redemption. Doing good deeds, feeling guilt, all that.

- John's new life is basically this: "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need." -Ephesians 4:28. John gives up his old life to be an honest laborer, a rancher, and a proper man.

- The Strange Man in RDR rides on a donkey, which is pretty interesting because Jesus Christ also made his grand entry on a donkey.

- Just the Strange Man in general to be honest. Some say he's God, others say he's the Devil, and others say he's Cain from the Bible, which is my personal favorite theory but whatever.

- Dutch's horse could be a reference to Revelations 6:8- "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him." Dutch's rash actions caused the death of the gang and RDR's incarnate of Hades or Hell was Micah, following him. Dutch is the only one, canonically, to have a pale horse.

- "Am I prepared for eternal damnation? Am I passed any kind of saving? Or is that just fairy tales?" Arthur in his journal. I love this line so much because of its very agnostic nature whilst still showing the Christian mindset of 1899 America. This line also shows that Arthur is canonically agnostic which is a yippee from me because it's like the only thing me and this man have in common lmao 😭

- "Bad news awaits you, sir. Sadly, sooner than you think. But beyond the news, paradise awaits. Paradise.." Blind Man Cassidy to Arthur. Sorry but I just love that. High honor Arthur lived such an awful life but he still has a chance at paradise and heaven? Love that so much.

- God (pun intended), I love biblical symbolism. Couldn't you tell?

[deadpresidents]

On the cliffs of Normandy, in a small holding area, the President of the United States was looking out at the English Channel. It was only six weeks ago, on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and President Biden had just finished his remarks at the American cemetery atop Omaha Beach. Guests had been congratulating him on the speech, but he didn't want to talk about himself. The moment was not about him; it was about the men who had fought and died there. "Today feels so large," he told me. "This may sound strange -- and I don't mean it to -- but when I was out there, I felt the honor of it, the sanctity of it. To speak for the American people, to speak over those graves, it's a profound thing." He turned from the view over the beaches and gestured back toward the war dead. "You want to do right by them, by the country."

Mr. Biden has spent a lifetime trying to do right by the nation, and he did so in the most epic of ways when he chose to end his campaign for re-election. His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington who also stepped away from the presidency. To put something ahead of one's immediate desires -- to give, rather than to try to take -- is perhaps the most difficult thing for any human being to do. And Mr. Biden has done just that.

To be clear: Mr. Biden is my friend, and it has been a privilege to help him when I can. Not because I am a Democrat -- I belong to neither party and have voted for both Democrats and Republicans -- but because I believe him to be a defender of the Constitution and a public servant of honor and of grace at a time when extreme forces threaten the nation. I do not agree with everything he has done or wanted to do in terms of policy. But I know him to be a good man, a patriot and a president who has met challenges all too similar to those Abraham Lincoln faced. Here is the story I believe history will tell of Joe Biden. With American democracy in an hour of maximum danger in Donald Trump's presidency, Mr. Biden stepped in the breach. He staved off an authoritarian threat at home, rallied the world against autocrats abroad, laid the foundations for decades of prosperity, managed the end of a once-in-a-century pandemic, successfully legislated on vital issues of climate and infrastructure and has conducted a presidency worthy of the greatest of his predecessors. History and fate brought him to the pinnacle in a late season in his life, and in the end, he respected fate -- and he respected the American people.

It is, of course, an incredibly difficult moment. Highs and lows, victories and defeats, joy and pain: It has been ever thus for Mr. Biden. In the distant autumn of 1972, he experienced the most exhilarating of hours -- election to the United States Senate at the age of 29. He was no scion; he earned it. The darkness fell: His wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident that seriously injured his two sons, Beau and Hunter. But he endured, found purpose in the pain, became deeper, wiser, more empathetic. Through the decades, two presidential campaigns imploded, and in 2015 his son Beau, a lawyer and wonderfully promising young political figure, died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq.

Such tragedy would have broken many lesser men. Mr. Biden, however, never gave up, never gave in, never surrendered the hope that a fallen, frail and fallible world could be made better, stronger and more whole if people could summon just enough goodness and enough courage to build rather than tear down. Character, as the Greeks first taught us, is destiny, and Mr. Biden's character is both a mirror and a maker of his nation's. Like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, he is optimistic, resilient and kind, a steward of American greatness, a love of the great game of politics and, at heart, a hopeless romantic about the country that has given him so much.

Nothing bears out this point as well as his decision to let history happen in the 2024 election. Not matter how much people say that this was inevitable after the debate in Atlanta last month, there was nothing foreordained about an American President ending his political career for the sake of his country and his party. By surrendering the possibility of enduring in the seat of ultimate power, Mr. Biden has taught us a landmark lesson in patriotism, humility and wisdom.

Now the question comes to the rest of us. What will we the people do? We face the most significant of choices. Mr. Roosevelt framed the war whose dead Mr. Biden commemorated at Normandy in June as a battle between democracy and dictatorship. It is not too much to say that we, too, have what Mr. Roosevelt called a "rendezvous with destiny" at home and abroad. Mr. Biden has put country above self, the Constitution above personal ambition, the future of democracy above temporal gain. It is up to us to follow his lead.

-- "Joe Biden, My Friend and an American Hero" by Jon Meacham, New York Times, July 22, 2024.