#and he's king. so why not get him a Surrogate and make him an heir. for Reasons it can't be any of his fellow maegor black magic babies

[novococain]

🦴

[shaisuki]

Can you please do Reo's reaction to pregnant y/n's death?

REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD

FT. YANDERE! HUSBAND MIKAGE REO

content warnings: character death, complications of birth and pregnancy, blood, suicide, talks about killing a child. dead dove not eat.

notes: i hope i did this one justice.

synopsis: you got the best revenge you can ever serve to him.

everything was a blur.

from the moment your water broke and the contractions coming apart since you insisted on walking around the hospital. a week from your due date and the baby is coming.

you were instantly whisked and prepped up for your birth. nurses and doctors surrounding you and you were like the fucking vip and treated like you were about to give birth to a king. it could pass as well. since you were going to be the mother of the mikage heir.

reo arrives within the first minute of your contractions. dressed in a medical gown and he's by your side. holding your hand and whispering sweet nothings to you. encouraging that you were both to have a baby and it will be done in the next minutes.

fucking asshole. he's babbling. this is how reo gets when he's happy. excited that you were about to give birth to his child and you wondered if this was really his intention to you in the first place. popping his heirs like they were easy to come by. he should have hired woman who were willing to be a surrogate or someone whose more than willing to give his wants and demands.

unfortunately for you. reo wants you and he wants he gets it.

the pain was blinding. your muscles screaming for you to rest. your eyes who can't stop the tears from flowing from how painful it was. the doctors encouraged you to push. the baby is crowning and you need to get it out. you muster what strength is left in you and with that flashes of light dances in your vision and your ears ringing.

it took a you a few seconds to register the cheers of the doctors and your baby's cries echoing in the room.

it's alive?

the baby's alive?

this couldn't be happening. the chances are high of you losing the baby so then why this damned child of yours have to live. does they want to suffer the same fate as you? why are you having this thoughts you were sure you were to suffer.

you make out reo's smile despite the harshness of the light in the room. he's all smile. you barely can make out the words he's spouting but you feel his hands on you. your head hitting the pillows once again.

this is it. he's finally a father. you gave him a son. a heir. he couldn't be more prouder than what he is feeling right now. he have a family he can call his own. he can continue his legacy.

he looks at you proudly. kissing you like there's no tomorrow but why are you frowning? aren't you happy that you're a mother now? what are you sad? why are you turning pale?

the machine beeps in a hurried manner. mimicking your heartbeat and the doctors surrounding you are in full attention. sweat drips in their forehead at the sudden beep of the machine. eyes wide at the sudden symptoms of one of the complications of birth they didn't think would happen. you were bleeding. soaking the sheets in a heavy flow that the doctors were almost shouting at the nurses to prepare the equipment to aid you.

what was happening to you?

suddenly you were aware of what's about to happen to you. your body aches more than usual. muscles turning weaker and your eyelids felt heavy. you can hear them. desperately trying to save you but you were beyond saving. it looks like your prayers were heard.

you would relish on the expression reo was having. horrified at the sight that his wife is dying on this table. you deserve it. you ruined my life and i will ruin yours.

reo sees you trying to grab him and he takes your hand in his. a smile plastered on your face and you pull reo with your remaining strength and then you began to whisper. the words that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

“this is your karma, reo.” his eyes widens at your confession. “you're going to lose me and i-i feel bad for our child, he didn't die with me instead he won't grow up without his mother and he would have a father like you.”

and with that, the futile attempts of the doctor came to stop when your heartbeat turned into a flatline in the monitor and you closed your eyes. forever.

it's finished now. you were gone. he drops your cold hand. the image of your laying in the table with your cold, lifeless body will continue to replay for the rest of his life. this should not be happening. he wants to scream to the doctors attending to you why such tragedy happened. to himself. you were supposed to be alive. raising his child with you.

he left the room shortly after you were pronounced dead. walking aimlessly at the hospital and his sight caught in the corner of his eyes are nurses tending to his newborn child.

he couldn't bear to look at his child for a second longer and that's how you get your revenge on him for the hell he put you through.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

If it is exposed that surrogates were used - still not convinced either way- how do you think M and H will spin this? Also, the BRF? Maybe for both parties if there were surrogates, it best the secret be kept because the level of outrage from the public would be beyond insane. However, I think whoever breaks the news first, does have a better chance of controlling narrative.

It's not going to make sense, but Harry and Meghan will say they had no choice, the big bad BRF made her because of antiquated "heir and spare" rules and maybe throw the race card in for good measure ("we had to have our own children because Harry's family needed the optics even though we told them we were happy to adopt instead"). If they're still together, that is.

If they're divorced, then Harry and Meghan will blame each other. Harry will say he had no idea because Meghan never talked to him or let him accompany her to her doctor appointments (which would validate some tea from their Australia trip). (This would also contradict the stories in Spare but that's a separate issue.) Meghan will say Harry forced her to lie because he was so desperate to be a father and she was too scared of his anger/temper to say no.

The BRF will claim that they had no idea because Harry and Meghan did everything themselves. There's enough evidence that they have plausible deniability - admissions in Spare of not communicating updates, the second pregnancy happening in the US, The Queen's doctors not signing the birth announcement.

Where the BRF gets into trouble is over how complicit they are. If Harry and Meghan have hard, solid proof showing that the BRF was fully aware - like emails or letters from Charles or Jason Knauf or Edward Young specifically discussing it - then Charles's goose is cooked. There's a lot of speculation that this is the case: someone at Buckingham Palace and/or Clarence House knows there was a surrogacy, and if this is the case, then it's mutually-assured destruction so it's in everyone's favor to keep it a secret: the Sussexes have their children in the line of succession and they get to use titles for the children and Charles doesn't get crucified by the public for tampering with the line of succession.

(William might see some blowback but ultimately he's safe from any fallout because he acted pretty quickly to get the Sussexes away from Kensington Palace and his staff. That it was announced in October/November 2018 the Sussexes were going out on their own means William was working on it since before the wedding, most likely.)

As for who announces, I don't think it's a case of "he who announces first controls the narrative." For me, it's a case of "he who holds the names controls the narrative." In other words, the "team" who has the proof naming someone who knows about the surrogate(s) and publishes it is the one who controls the narrative.

So if Meghan and Harry have proof naming someone in the BRF as having knowledge of any surrogate(s), then they control the narrative. But if they don't, then it's in the BRF's favor because the BRF doesn't have anything to lose. They have enough plausible deniability (plus Meghan and Harry being known liars) to keep the hot seat exclusively on the Sussexes. And I think that's where we are - if there are palace names named, they aren't senior enough and can easily be thrown under the bus but revealing surrogacy hurts Harry and that's why the BRF is keeping the secret.

I suspect that under King Charles, the BRF will keep the secret as long as Harry remains married to Meghan and/or as long as they maintain this detente in Sussex-BRF relations. If the Sussexes launch new attacks on the BRF (to include further Nigeria-like problems where they acted as royals without authorization) or if Harry leaves Meghan, then I can see the BRF nuclearizing them/her once and for all by revealing surrogate(s). (I feel like King William wouldn't hide it, but he also wouldn't reveal it either.)

On the flip side, I see Meghan keeping the secret as long as it remains more profitable for her to do so. So she will keep it until it's more advantageous to talk about it post-divorce in a memoir or revenge tour. And I suspect Meghan may try to use this for leverage in a divorce settlement to get more money.

All allegedly, of course. After all, surrogacy is only just a rumor.

[vancilocs]

i think i have enough ideas for another lore dump (details subject to change obvi)

so. third kingdom. kinda turmoilic

about 30 years or so ago there was this violent thronestealing plot that happened. there was king, and queen, and the heir to the throne and probably some younger siblings, but in one night some usurper cousin or a more distant relative snuck in and slayed pretty much everyone; except the heir managed to escape with like a handful of servants (and her own porcelain bodyguard). she was like 13-14 at this point. also trans, but not out yet, except to her bodyguard. this is relevant.

(she had a bit of a teenage crush on him, not in any real way, more like youre really cool and nice and oh no puberty got my brain scrambled)

but the escape was really narrow and while trying to get out the servants got picked off and the bodyguard held his own final stand and stayed behind to let the heir escape. so she had to run off all by her lonesome.......

she wandered the countryside for a bit to get as far away as she could and through some avenues she ended up in contact with Skullface whos?? a general nogooder??? has a skull for a face??? (and she/he pronouns. whats her agab? its a secret) who promised that hed help her take the throne back and take revenge on her relatives, if shed in turn make him an advisor/give her another high rank in her court. she agreed bc why not, she was a tormented teenager who wanted revenge in any way

thus began the training. it was p easy to hide away bc the new monarchs goons were looking for a prince, the eejits, so she just went by the name she had already picked for herself (also skullface shaved off the horn over her eye/covered the mark and her dragon eye with bandages to further hide her identity. shes a poor injured girl leave her alone. dyed her red hair probably too, it was quite distinctive) and began training sword and magic both

maybe a decade passes and skullface has molded her into a right meanie, while also working on his own to collect willing people to help her overtake the castle. the new monarch wasnt very liked overall.

(now skullfaces original plan was to basically use her and groom her into being his puppet on the throne BUT he grew to genuinely care for her and now truly wishes the best for her and only wants to be by her side to help. not quite a surrogate parent, more like your parents cool sibling? theyre partners in crime)

so they storm the castle one night. princess stabs people and skullface blasts them with magic (first_4_notes_of_megalovania.mp3) and the peasants and knights theyve rallied help also. princess stabs her cousin/whatever to death and retakes the throne. yahoo

and in the basement they find her porcelain bodyguard. hes basically been there for 10 years (since he was 14 or so) for the castles new occupants to torment - basically chained him down there and gave him a sword and people would go fight him for fun. mans turned semiferal atp. but when princess shows up he recognizes her, knows her real name bc she told him all those years ago, and he does an argos from the odyssey and dies in her arms immediately after.

shes inconsolable obviously, that was the Only Thing remaining of her past happy life, her family is gone, her friends are gone, the usurpers destroyed all the stuff that reminded her of home, paintings burned furniture destroyed history books torn etc. also that was her FRIEND

so she delves a bit into necromancy with skullfaces reluctant help, and drags him back to the land of the living (not super well, but somewhat). hes mangled, needs some prostheses probably or at least joint braces, has nightmares and short-term memory issues. tends to cut off at his death and after that everythings a bit hazy. but he remembers his liege and loves her, appreciates her coming back like he knew she would, is her bodyguard again like the old times.

sometimes she kinda regrets it tho, was it fair to bring him back like that? she didnt ask him, hes been through so much, didnt he deserve to rest? but he seems happy so she guesses its ok. he says its ok. also wonders how long the magic will hold up, will he stick around forever now?

(hes doing ok. most people dont really like him bc hes a zombie but some dont mind. im p sure he even has a kid, but for some reason isnt together with the mom anymore. probably bc her family wont let her marry an undead. but im not entirely sure bc why would her familys opinion matter when she could just live at the castle since he has a very prestigious position anyways)

anyway shes slightly tormented. but she has friends. shes got bodyguard, and skullface as her trusty advisor and support, but also shes got a wife and kids, And shes fairly close with fenrir. him and konoe did offer support for her taking her old home back. konoe is a good help when it comes to political knowledge and aid, but shes had good talks with fenrir abt grief and how daunting it feels to suddenly be a ruler. when fenrir lost his kid she even came to visit to offer her condolences.

other ppl in the castle include a giant snake tail woman. mothman probably also.

[depressedhatakekakashi]

I had head canons for Soldier Gai in GOS, and was wondering if any of it sounded right to you.

Since his life is shorter, it has to focus more on his younger years, but that doesn't mean its not interesting!

I could see him born into a family of knights. He had two moms and they used another knight buddy as a surrogate (Because why not XD) and these two were very strong and high ranking, so they had the means to give Gai a good life, education, and training to make him to be the best warrior in the land. He was going to be their only heir since neither of them wanted to lose too much time training/ rising up the ranks being pregnant. So Gai was raised very loved, doted on, and with a firm sense of responsibility and duty poured into him.

With all this, Gai was given all he needed to be a prodigy soldier, and his natural battle instincts from past lives, made the boy an absolute BEAST by the time he was 11! Which got him noticed by the royal family. Gai even may have been asked to help spar with the royal children to help them learn how to defend themselves from someone their own age who could relate to them.

This also got him and his moms up close and really friendly with the royal family, which he couldn't explain why, but the royals almost also felt like extended family. Like uncles, aunties and cousins he never met and loved. He especially got close to a princess at the time, who became smitten with Gai, but for some reason Gai never could explain, he never felt anything like that back for her.

Still with her trying to show off and get his attention, she often showed him ancient books of history they could read together. They spent time running around the secret tunnels of the castle, and at one point, Gai probably saw the greedy merchant and got some...bad vibes from the dude. He asked about him/ tried to warn his friend of the bad vibes but was assured he was a close family friend and there was nothing to worry about. In fact he was coming up with new business strategies to help bring more money to the kingdom!

As he grows older, he gets stronger. And the Princess' feelings deepen. Even after Gai finds someone he likes in the army. A cute but slightly older boy, the son of another general, and the princess is jelous but she tries not to let it affect her... until she ends up venting to one of her friends at some point and the merchant ends up over hearing and uses it as another tool to twist her mind.

"You're right. You are so much better than that other boy. What madness is Gai not seeing it."

"What a shame that boy was in the picture, otherwise you would have Gai's full attention."

"If only something were to happen...then he would be all yours again. No one can resist the power/ riches the thrown grants. And likewise no one can resist you."

The greedy merchant gets into her ear and she grows more spoiled, which in turn has Gai distancing himself more until one day, she demands he love her. He tells her "no and that I don't even recognize you anymore!" And leaves out a secret tunnel because she was blocking an exit to try and force him to stay. They end up going down the tunnel and end up stopping when they hear the merchant talking about his evil scheme. Just part of it but both have that "oh shit" moment, and go to inform the king-

Only... the princess has been bad mouthing Gai for months. He's lost a lot of credibility for hurting her feelings. And even when the princess tries to tell them what they heard, they blame Gai for twisting things after they came out of a wall together; no boy and girl at their ages should be alone together! And, obviously he used her feelings for him to manipulate her into spewing such false accusations. Besides, the declaration of war is already on its way. They will have to gather their army and fight.

Gai tries to plead his case but is silenced and sent to the front lines. The Princess begs their dad to change his mind but its too late. Whether or not he stops now enemies are on their way to attack. It can no longer be stopped. The princess begs one last attempt to let Gai stay as a royal guard. To be left behind and protect them and Gai is offered the spot... but he denies it. His boyfriend, mothers, friends and comrades in arms shall be fighting. He needs to be out there to defend them and the people of this kingdome. This gets Gai and the princess into one last fight and she says something cruel about his boyfriend she can not take back... and Gai leaves her to join the battle.

From there on Gai will eventually be the last to die after everyone he cares for perishes. Having to use the dragon's power to sneak in a stalemate, and seeing his favourite god Kakashi, for the first and only time before he dies. (Of course he was a devoted worshiper but that didn't make it into this story).

After the merchant's death by the hands/ rain of Kakashi, his FULL plan was revealed, and it shakes the royal family to their core. Thanks to one man they lost their entire army, a very specific style of martial arts/combat, their people are near defenseless, they lost many foreign allies, the land itself is forever changed with a new lake in the city, the GODS are mad at them, and they have no money because it all went to war. They will need to resort to desperate measures for them and the kingdom to recover,

With this a seed has been planted, Kakazu can start taking advantage of these desperate times, especially as revenge after Kakash killed one of his best worshipers. He was going to slowly dip more poison in the royals ears, taking over the decendants of the lover Kakashionce had (prince Gai), and had oh so recently lost.

Still the royal family are not evil yet, but these desperate times may lead them to desperate measures that will eventually make them lose their way. As for the princess, she lives in both shame for her foolishness while also trying to deny she had any fault in the matter because she was young, naive and manipulated. Her being unable to admit fault in what she did, will be a inherited factor that will lead to worst times for all...

What do you think?

I really like the princess falling for Gai and becoming bitter and angry when he does not return her feelings. I don’t think a boyfriend is needed for that though. I think Gai just only ever seeing her as a friend and her being upset over this because everyone but the boy she wants is smitten with her

That would be more than enough for the merchant to start manipulating her. To convince her that more power and more riches will surely capture her knights attention

Also add a lil spice from the old stories of prince Gai that they have, where he claimed to have ‘fallen for a knight’ (Kakashi disguised as a knight) and only married someone else out of necessity for the kingdom (he actually loved his queen very much and would be horrified to find out people wrote stories where he didn’t love her)

Surely the princess wants to be like her ancestor but better

She wants the prize that her ancestor couldn’t have. The handsome knight.

And to get that prize she needs money and power

So she falls into the merchants trap and starts working with him, never once thinking about what Gai might want or caring that he’s not interested in ruining the friendship they have.

After Gai’s death and the merchants drowning the Princess falls into despair. Her actions cost her the man she loved, in more ways than one, and now her village is suffering. Yes she still has that cruel voice in her ear telling her it’s not her fault.

Assuring her none of this would have happened if she’d just been given what she ‘deserved’

And that starts to become her character. A greedy monarch who forgets about her people and spends money carelessly on parties rather than rebuilding her village.

Her son becomes greedy, and slowly but surely the old gods they followed are set to the side and Kakuzu takes their place

Kakashi’s now out for blood because Kakuzu is being a smug shit about this all

[dalmascan-requiem]

Willows of the Canary

There exists an oft-forgotten fairytale. It's a tale of a princess and her knight; one of love and growth. A tale of an idyllic kingdom--and of what is hiding just underneath the surface that threatens its peace.

Even in a fairytale world, nothing is perfect... and sometimes love isn't enough. Will these two have their happily ever after?

Let's meet our heroes.

Princess Eir

As the sole heir to the throne, Eir has lived a sheltered life--one she's very much hated. In the public eye, the Princess acts demure and polite, the very image of royalty. However, behind closed doors, Eir's personality is a lot more blunt and rough.

To get away from the stifling castle, Eir tends to sneak out, posing as a mercenary. She claims this lets her see how her subjects live and how to serve them better--but no one is sure if she's telling the truth about this, or simply making up an excuse.

As the future Queen, Eir is well-versed in magic, and she is especially skilled in white and ice-based black magic. She has also learned knifeplay and how to keep a low profile from Gemna--but don't tell her father that.

Reyna

Reyna is an overly-serious knight, a man of few words and one to hide his emotions. He is not particularly comfortable with the pomp and circumstance of the royal court, but regardless of this and no one knowing where he came from, Reyna has been tasked with being the Princess's protector.

The reality is that Reyna is part Blaer family, a group of assassins and spies that were formally in the royal family's employ. They travelled the kingdom as dancers and practitioners of Kreigstanz, and used this cover to suss out any threats to the throne.

However, when the King's brother suddenly died, the Blaer family was accused of murdering him, and they where exiled to the harsh, far northern ends of the kingdom.

Keeping all of this in mind, it makes little sense why Reyna would want to become a knight and protect the royal family. Is he looking to get revenge for his family, or is he looking to break away from them?

Gemna

An elderly Bangaa, Gemna has been in the employ of the royal family for longer than any alive can remember. When Eir's mother died shortly after she was born, Gemna raised the young princess, essentially becoming the woman's surrogate mother. She is often more interested in Eir's needs and desires than those of the kingdom itself.

While Gemna often helps Eir with her schemes and sneaking out of the castle, she does so in order to ensure she is as safe as possible (no one would be able to stop her, anyway). The Bangaa taught Eir how to move about silently and defend herself, and generally does her best to prepare her for the world outside the castle.

No one knows much about Gemna other than her role in the castle as the princess's handmaiden. She has no blood family to speak of, nor does she speak of the past.

The Bangaa's unique skillset implies she had less than a savory life before coming into the castle's employ. No one pries, however--Gemna has always had the royal family's needs in mind first and foremost.

The King

Simply put, the king is the king. He is kind to his subjects, though that doesn't mean he's a pushover as hell be firm and harsh as the situation demands. The King does his best to prepare Eir for her ascension to the throne, but his overprotective nature often hinders more than it helps.

Granted, the King's overzealous efforts to protect his daughter aren't completely unwarranted. After the King's brother died under mysterious circumstances and the Queen passing shortly after Eir's birth, he wants to do everything in his power to keep her safe.

He is a master of ice magic, as his ascension to the throne required.

The Kingdom

The land where this fairytale takes place is an idyllic alpine locale. The land provides many of the kingdom's resources, and its people aren't left wanting--provided they live near the castle town. The farther away one gets from the King's watchful gaze, the less the kingdom's citizens have, and the more desperate they become to carve out a decent life.

The kingdom itself is relatively secluded--while other countries are nearby, there has not been any strife or tension in many decades. This is attributed to the King's father, who brokered a peace treaty with nearby nations to trade some of their natural resources in exchange for neutrality in their conflicts.

[yenpet-yenaet]

Gen. 16 to 18

ii chr. 4

Despite God’s several promises to Abram that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars, Abram still doesn’t have a son and Sarai is starting to be upset too. See suggests to Abram that he use her slave-girl Hagar as a surrogate mother. Sarai gives Hagar to Abram as a wife, they do the deed, and Hagar conceives. After conceiving, Hagar was no longer submissive enough for Sarai’s taste so she goes to Abram and is upset at him too. Abram says Hagar is her slave-girl, so Sarai can do with her as she pleases. Sarai harrasses Hagar, driving her out into the wilderness, and Hagar starts to make her way to her native Egypt, dejected. That’s when an “angel of the Lord” finds her and asks her where she’s going. “From Sarai my mistress I am fleeing,” she says. And the angel of the Lord says to her, “Return to your mistress and suffer abuse at her hand.” Big yikes! Sounds pretty awful, but at least God will make a great nation of her as well. The angel tells her to name the child Ishmael, because the Lord heard her suffering. And this Ishmael will grow up to be “a wild ass of a man.” Hagar names God as ‘El-Roi’ (God who sees) and then wonders how she can still be alive after seeing God. Also apparently there’s an old well associated with the place where Hagar saw God and its name is Beer-lahai-roi. Finally, Hagar goes back to Sarai and Abram, and has Ishmael when Abram is 86 years old.

Fast forward 13 years; Ishmael is now 13 and Abram is now 99. And he and Sarai still don’t have a son. God appears to Abram to make another covenant with him. God will make Abram’s children numerous, he shall be the ancestor of many nations, his descendants shall be kings. God again promises the land of Canaan to Abram’s progeny in perpetuity. As part of the covenant, Abram’s name is now Abraham, and a few verses later, Sarai’s becomes Sarah. The sign of this covenant will be that every male child in Abraham’s house will be circumcised at the age of eight days, and every adult who is in Abram’s house right now, free or slave, will also be circumcised. “So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant,” says God. He adds that any male who isn’t circumcised will be cut off from his people because he broke God’s covenant. Going back to Sarah, God blesses her with the name change and promises her a son, that she might give rise to nations. Abraham laughs at this and thinks Ha! Can a child be born to me, 99-years-old? And can Sarah even bear, being 90? He says to God that he’d consent to Ishmael being his heir, with God’s blessing. But no, Abraham’s heir will not be Ishmael, because in a year from now, Sarah will have a son whose name shall be Isaac. And God will also establish a covenant with Isaac for ever and ever. As for Ishmael, he’ll do just fine being the future father of 12 princes and all. After this little exchange with God, Abraham gathers all the men in his house, his relatives, slaves, Ishmael, and he circumcises them as per the new covenant.

Chapter 18 gets a little weird. So, God appears to Abraham while he’s sitting in the entrance to his tent because it’s hot outside. Abraham looks up and sees three men whom he immediately treats as important, calling one of them ‘my lord’ and frantically being hospitable to them. He says he’ll bring some water, wash their feet, and bring a little bread, so that the visitors might refresh themselves. So Abraham dashes off, hastens to tell Sarah to quickly make three gallons of bread and cakes, and then he goes over to his herd, takes a calf, and gives it to a servant to prepare. He also takes milk and curds and brings them out to the visitors. The visitors ask where Sarah is; Abraham says “in the tent.” Then one of the visitors says he will return in due time and Sarah will have a son. Sarah hears this, laughs, and thinks to herself, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” God hears her thoughts and asks why she laughed. Sarah denies laughing, but God knows. 

After two of the visitors look toward Sodom. God and Abraham are together, and God wonders if maybe he should hide from Abraham what he’s about to do. He resolves against it, thinking “No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” He tells Abraham that the outcry, the cries of the afflicted, coming from Sodom are great, and their sin is great. God will go down and see what to do about that. The two other men leave for Sodom, and we will catch up with them tomorrow, but for now, Abraham protests God. He is outraged that the Judge of the earth would destroy the city if there were even 50 righteous people in it. God acquiesces. Abraham keeps haggling down the number of righteous people for whose sake Sodom wouldn’t be destroyed down to 10. For the sake of 10 righteous people, God won’t destroy the city. 

This first story of Hagar getting exiled, because there is another, has quite a few things going on. It stands at the center of Abraham’s chiasmatic story, flanked on either side by similar themes such as the Covenant, Lot, and Sarah. The story itself serves as a precursor to the birth of Isaac, with the birth of Ishmael, but also looks forward to the Exodus in a way. An Egyptian being oppressed by an Israelite and fleeing to Egypt. Another oddity of this story is the first naming of God and the first appearance of God’s messengers. Verse 7 is the first verse to ever mention a ‘messenger of the Lord’ or ‘an angel of the Lord’ coming down to speak with humans. However, this particular instance is complicated by the fact that Hagar refers to it as God, wondering how she could have even survived seeing Him. The angel should be interpreted as entirely humanoid, lacking any features like halos or wings, similar to the visitors in chapter 18. There have many explanations posited as to why this entity goes from being an angel to God himself, from an author editing a previous version that was ‘too’ anthropomorphic, to being explained by the authors having a fundamentally different understanding of angels than we do today; being more emanations of God than separate beings. The name that Hagar gives God is quite strange too, as it seems like a hackneyed explanation for why that has that particular name. Or it could be the cult of YHWH absorbing local Canaanite gods and adding them as alternative names of the One God. That being said, the name itself is very important to Hagar’s story as it serves a thematic purpose: “the outcast slave girl is vouchsafed a revelation which she survives, and is assured that, as Abram’s wife, she will be progenitrix of a great people" (Alter). Basically, God is looking out for the outcasts. Ishmael’s name itself means ‘God heard’ because God heard Hagar’s plight.

This is the second time Abraham has made a covenant with God, and all the covenants ultimately are reminiscent of the first one with Noah. Similar to the one with Noah, this covenant is bound to Israel as an everlasting covenant because it is grounded in what God does, not what the humans do. Why the sign of the covenant is circumcision specifically isn’t known. We know it was a somewhat common procedure in Egypt, but it would have been foreign to Mesopotamia. It was also usually done around puberty, not infancy. Perhaps it’s connected with fertility, as that does seem to be a thing God constantly promises Abraham. The changing of their names is also probably a sign of the covenant, and that seems to be a somewhat recurring event; Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter, and Saul became Paul. Abraham’s laughter here, in addition to anticipating Sarah’s laughter in the following chapter, again looks forward to the birth of Isaac, whose name means ‘he laughs.’ 

The first half or so of chapter 18 starts off by showing the extremity of Abraham’s hospitality, how he does so much for the visitors and prostrates himself before them. This is compared with Lot’s hospitality and the people of Sodom’s inhospitality in the very next chapter. It has been recognized that the actual text pertaining to the visitors makes no sense. Sometimes there’s three of them, and sometimes it’s just God. The text can be made sense of by picturing God as one of the visitors and two of his angels with him, two angels who go to Sodom later. Still, the text is… weird. We know that all three are divine, or at least not human, by the fact that they know Sarah’s name and that she will have a son in due time. The whole opening scene bears striking similarity to the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat, in which a childless man is visited by a god, and then Aqhat makes his wife prepare a meal for them. 

Sarah’s speech is full of euphemisms and circumlocutions. “Ceased to be with… after the manner of women” means she’s postmenopausal. “Shall I have pleasure?” is obviously (obviously!) a double entendre. And her laughing, too, anticipates Isaac. It should be noted here just how humanlike God is in these stories, sitting in tents, chatting with people, having banter, haggling, and so on. After the little dialogue with Sarah, God thinks to himself that he made a covenant with Abraham to teach his household justice and righteousness. The text then uses those two same words over and over in Abraham’s haggling with God over saving Sodom for the sake of a few righteous people. God’s speech before this mirrors his language from the Tower of Babel episode (“I must go down and see…”). Unsurprisingly, the outcome will be similar too. 

Next up: 19 to 21.

[copperbadge]

Just reread the bit about Michealis's countdownbefore he bemoans his lack of grandchildren and I'm curious if Eddi and Gregory are planning to have kids, whether by adoption, surrogacy, or Eddie leaving some monstrous concoction on a window sill and attracting a lovable street urchin they they take in?

Totally cool if you have no thoughts, I just thought of the whole window sill street urchin and so had to ask.

Lord, I hadn't even considered the "booby trapped pastry to catch an urchin" method of parenthood, Eddie probably likes that one best.

I've got in mind a story about it, which involves them asking Eddie's sister to be their surrogate; the child would be hers and Gregory's, but that way there's a blood connection to Eddie, which could be important for a number of legal reasons and very important when one of your dads is a celebrity and the other one is literally a king.

But I think also there's...it feels like there's a gap in popular culture surrounding adoption and its "legitimacy" and more importantly the joy that can come of it. I know people who have adopted and people who are adopted and the psychic damage both subsets take from stuff like the Thor movie jokes about "He's adopted" is pretty real. In Infinite Jes, Lachlan's story about adopting his daughter is based in a real life adoption story that a real life podcaster has told that was deeply touching and emotional. Which is why it was important for me to both have Lachlan say she's adopted and to have his partner's mother love her no differently than she would a biological grandchild.

And so I haven't taken the idea of adoption off the table, particularly adoption of older children who get drastically diminishing returns once they leave infancy. Especially since Gregory was raised in the legacy of "You have to want to be a king" -- it's lovely to have children whatever they want to do with their lives, but adopting a smart older kid who's interested in and good at politics, who might want to follow in the family business, and who also needs love and care from people who desperately do want to be parents, is a smart move all around.

I do also have a subplot in mind where the media keeps insisting that Gregory's going to adopt Noah and make him the next king, and Michaelis is irritated but Noah thinks it's hugely funny.

"Gregory's going to adopt me," Noah announced at breakfast the next morning when Michaelis walked in. "I'm going to become the royal heir and be super fancy. I'll go to some really good ivy league school after all and give up all this podcasting nonsense." 

"You can do better than Ivy League," Michaelis said, playing into the joke, and also recognizing when Noah was honing his impression of him. "Gregory went to the Sorbonne. And from there to the London School of Economics."

"A whole school of economics? I've had nightmares like that," Noah said. 

"It is a real place full of extremely serious people," Michaelis said.

IDK, I'm still thinking about it. There's plenty of time yet, at least in my world. (Michaelis is tapping his watch.)

[kinsey3furry300]

So how the heck do the Avengers pay for stuff, and how rich are they?

So, in the wake of “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” There’s a lot of debate about why Sam didn’t seem to get paid well for his work in the Avengers (at least in the MCU continuity), and this has got me thinking: we’ve got no evidence that the Avengers are, financially, anything but a hot mess. So lets break it down, Avenger by Avenger, using real-world pay scales for the ones who have jobs.

Tony: a billionaire, so clearly he’s a financial genius, right? Well….. his actions say otherwise. He’s shown to be wildly irresponsible with his money. He inherited a lot of wealth form his parents which was managed by the first Jarvis, Obadiah, and Pepper for him, he buys and then gives away not just woks of art, but entire collections by major 20th century artists on a whim, destroyed his own cars and home without concern, he tanks the value of his own company in the first Iron Man with a bad press interview, gets kicked of his own bord of directors, and ultimately, in Iron Man 2, gives control of his company to Pepper. He’s insanely rich, and insanely smart, but man, he’s not smart with his money. So all the cool stuff, his suits, the Avengers tower, the facility up-state: that’s all paid for by him, but Pepper is holding the purse-stings.  So, does he pay the others? We have no evidence for most of them… but we do with Spidey. Peter Parker is in the Stark Internship Program a euphemism to hide the fact he’s training and mentoring him as a super-hero, but I find the wording interesting: he refers to Spidey, his surrogate son and chosen heir, as an intern. I.E., Unpaid.  I’m guessing this is Howard’s influence over him, some sort of ‘make you own way in the world, son’ attitude, but  if he’s not paying Spidey, is he paying anyone else? He certainly pays for stuff super heroes suits and things, equipment, fuel, the base, but does he pay anyone a wage? No one ever mentions it. You think it would come up.

So, if he’s not paying them a wage, where do Avengers  (and thier allies) get their day-to-day money from, and are they rich? Using google and https://www.federalpay.org, lets find out.

Cap: Well, before Civil war, he’s a shield operative, and he presumably still holds his military rank: he’s a US Army captain, with (well) over 40 years service, so USD$88,142.40 per year, with $237.71  drill pay (pay per drill you have to do on weekends, on leave or outside of normal service) and $175.00 per month hazard pay (which I bet is interesting) on top of that. As a WW2 veteran, he’d be eligible for a war pension if he:

Was not discharged for dishonorable reasons; and,

Served 90 days of active military duty; and,

Served at least one day during wartime ("wartime" as determined by the VA); and,

Had  countable family income below a certain yearly limit; and,

Is  age 65 years or older; or

Regardless of age is permanently disabled, not due to wilful misconduct.

As he’s still receiving 90k per year, he’s ineligible for a pension as his countable yearly income is above the limit.  So if shield pays him in accordance with his rank and years of service, about $90, 600 per year incuding hazard pay.

After civil war, he’s a fugitive on the run, so presumably flat broke. I’d asume he gets his pension returened to him after the snap.

He’s also just gone from the 40’s to the present day, so 70 years of inflation probably makes buying things very confusing for him: everything would seem insanely expensive at first. He’d also not know what the correct prices are for anything invented after 45. You might get used to how much more expensive food and coffee is, but how much is a smart-phone worth? $200? $2000 $20000? Who knows? I bet the others have to facepalm a lot when he either refuses to pay for what he sees as clear price-gouging, and at the same time regularly pays insane amounts of money for goods and services because he doesn’t know better. He also has no known assets other than his pay: he rents an apartment making him one of the few American males in his age-group who isn’t a home-owner

Thor: Does Asgard even have currency? It’s depicted like a “Crystal spires and toga” type utopia with no poverty: even working class Asgardian’s like Scourge seem to be pretty well-off and want for nothing, so he’s from a post-scarcity society where actual magic is a thing. His “Another” coffee cup smashing and the fact he doesn’t have a computer of phone in Ragnarök might indicate that, no, he just doesn’t have, need or understand money. Splitting a bar tab with him must be a nightmare. His breakdown post snap indicates he’s got some cash, but not a huge amount, and is probably skiving of Valkyrie and the other Asgardians.

Banner: Okay, so a PhD could make you a lot of money from patents… in pharmacology or engineering. Theoretical physics? Not so good. And if Banner did have any patents, they’ve probably been seized under eminent domain by the US military.  At the start of The Hulk film, he’s working a entry-level factory job at a botteling plant in Brazil. The minimum wage in Brazil is 1069.62 Real per month, that’s 12,835.44 Real per year, or around $2437.79 US per year, before everything goes wrong for him! He then runs off to India, works for Tony for a bit and then gets shot into space. Spidey may actually make more in allowance than Banner does, and Banner is a gown ass man with bills to pay: I’d imagine he loses a lot in ripped clothing.

Natasha and Barton: Pre Civil-war, both are government spooks, so how well does that pay? The salaries of CIA Intelligence Analysts based in the US range from $25,838 to $685,701 , with a median salary of $125,340, so let’s assume that Shield pays in a similar range: $685,701 per year for Director Fury, around 125,000 for Natasha and Cliff, which explains Cliff’s nice, middle-class mid-western home. Post civil war, presumably not great: we know that Natasha spends a lot of her savings running and hiding all across the world, and Cliff takes a deal and presumably lives of his savings, pension and his wife’s income.

Rhodes: Full USAF colonel with over 10 years service? $105,562.80 per year, plus $293.23 drill pay per drill and $175 per month hazard pay, and because he’s team Stark and not Team Cap in Civil War, he’d not lose any of that. He presumably also gets an injury pay-out after his accident. After T’challa and Stark, he might be the best paid avenger.

Dr Strange: spends all his money he made as a surgeon on trying to cure his hands: spends literally his last dollars heading to Nepal to train. Wong even jokes with him about their lack of worldly money when asking for a tuna-melt. But, can use illusion to make people think he has money, and his home and clothes etc. come with the job, so in the same boat as Thor in that he has no money, but needs none AKA, he’s a bastard to try and split a restaurant bill with.

Wanda and Vision: No know source of income, just sort of live in Tony’s hose and eat his food, and on top of that Wanda goes on the run after civil war… yet they can stay in fancy hotels in Edinburgh, a relatively expensive city, and Vison apparently bought them a house to retire in, so one of them has some source of money. Maybe Tony gave Vision years of back-pay form when he was still Jarvis, or maybe the vison has a day job, which is, frankly, hilarious. Could you imagine him as a barista? I can, and it makes me very happy.

Scott Lang: I’d assumed he’d be super, super broke, but apparently the average pay for a private security consultant in the Bay area is $85,430 per year. Not bad. Pity he gets sucked into the quantum realm just as his business is taking off, so presumably, flat broke again.

Bucky: no known income, and I doubt Hydra paid him for being the Winter Soldier so he probably has no savings, but he should, technically, qualify for a military pension. As a single veteran, he’d be  eligible for federal tax-free pension of up to $1732 per month, or $20,784 tax free per year. Not much for someone who lives in NYC. He may also be eligible for medical benefits over the loss of his arm. Whether or not he got to see any of that money given how confused his life has been over the past 10 years is unclear, but on paper he’s eligible.

T’challa: He is, quite possibly, richer than Stark, and as an absolute monarch pays no tax and has access to his Nation’s vast wealth in vibanium. It’s good to be the king!

Captain Marvel: USAF captain, and a test pilot; the test pilot school only accepts applicants with a service length of less than 9 years 6 months (10 years six moths of helicopters) as they don’t want older applicants. With 8 years service, $79,538.40, plus drill pay and hazard.  However, no know (human) pay since 1990. Flat broke.

Guardians of the Galaxy: no data, but I’m assuming “Cowboy Bebop” levels of perpetual never-ending poverty given the way they choose to live. I’d also assume Rocket has taken all their cash into some sort of Ponzi scheme of his own creation, because just look at him, of course he has.

Spidey: he’s got about $10 of his aunts’ money at any given time, so he can buy lunch… which may in fact be more than Banner or Lang, and we know it’s more that Strange or Thor.

 So, here the big one: how rich or how broke is Sam?

Sam Wilson: annoyingly, we’re not directly told what rank Sam held in any MCU film. USAF pararescue “Maroon berets” are generally NCO’s (but there’ are officer-ranked pararescue) , and he’s seen working on his wings at one point, where as officers don’t generally work on or maintain airframes. He’s shown wearing a Nation Air guard grey while jogging at one point to confuse the matter further. The general consensus on redit is he’s a former USAF tech sergeant (E-6). But how long was he in the air force? With six years service (the minimum sensible time he could have served to work in pararescue based on his age), that would be $41,464.80 per year, plus drill pay and hazard. As Anthony Mackie, the actor that plays him, was 36 as of Civil War, and assuming the character is the same age, and assuming he retired from the air force that year, and he joined the USAF at 17, the youngest you can join, he’d have served 19 years, giving him a pay of $51,566.40, the maximum pay you can get at this rank before promotion to Master Sergent,  but meaning he left just before he’d qualify for the 50% final salary pension you’d qualify for after 20 years. Which seems weird. So let’s assume the character is one year older than the actor that plays him and served 20 years (ages 17-37), that means Sam has a military pension of $25,783.20 per year (20,784 of it tax-free), plus any injury benefits. He councils other veterans, but doesn’t get paid for that. He also chooses Team Cap in Civil War, so would become a wanted criminal, and so lose his income between 2016 and 2018, and then gets snapped and has no income for 5 years, which would destroy his credit rating. Like the rest of Team Cap, he presumably gets his post snap pardon, and goes to work for the US government at his former pay and rank. However, given how Captain John Walker treats him as an equal, it’s possible he’s been promoted to a captain when the  hired back, giving him a pay of between $54,176.40 to $88,142.40 (with 20 years experience, depending on if they take into account his prior service or not, and how much prior service he has), but either way, he’s just starting this as a new job after being legally dead for 5 years: no savings, and no credit.

Commercial fishing vessels cost about 10% of their total value per year in maintenance alone. I can’t identify what sort of boat the Wilson’s have, but some quick googling indicates that the cheapest  15m long wooden in-shore shrimp trawler costs around $140,000, so that’s $14,000 per year in maintenance costs alone, minimum. And that’s a lower estimate, assuming the rest of the business is sound, which we know it isn’t.

So, in concussion, yes, Sam is in some serious financial trouble until he can re-build his savings and credit, but the scary bit is he’s not alone in that: he’s probably better off than Lang, Banner, Danvers, Strange, Thor, Bucky, Wanda and Parker. Only Clint (if he gets a full pardon and gets his full pension), Rhodes, Stark and T’challa aren’t in some sort of potential financial problems. That asshole bank teller was right: despite the fact it seems to pay well on paper, with a few exceptions, the Avengers financials are probibaly a mess. EDIT: Rocket is running the Ponzi scheme, if that’s not clear from context. The others know they have money somewhere, but not where it’s gone. And It’s been pointed out to me that as he’s technically a POW while he’s the Winter Soldier, Bucky is owed over 70 years back-pay, equal to over 3 million dollars, details in the notes.

[giaourtopita]

I am not sure if this explicitly collides with any of the rules (I guess it's just a thin ice, but I'll give it a shot), but do you think you could write the new datables with an MC who doesn't want biological children but wants to adopt/foster instead? ^^ Feel free to delete this if you don't want to write this :)

adopting a child with the undatables

you're right it was just on thin ice!! i made the mc female in this because i find it more fitting and basically she doesn't want to get pregnant because she's too scared of it and finds it unnecessary, i hope you'll like it <333

warnings; f mc, does surrogacy need a warning (??) idk, head empty no thoughts just wholesome dads, minor lesson 35-36 spoiler for solomon's part.

diavolo

- he would be sad that the mc doesn't want to get pregnant since he needs an heir.

- she suggests that they adopt and he gets excited, still not excited as having a biological heir, he'll be king soon so an heir is something that is required by every king.

- they opt on adopting a baby because they only want the child to have memories of them, diavolo loves his baby as if he was his biological one. however a biological heir is needed for the throne.

- diavolo looks for an alternative, he finds the perfect solution to his problem. they'll just use a surrogate. he brought it up to mc and after adopting her baby she did think that he would need a sibling and since she wouldn't be the one to get pregnant she was okay with it.

- diavolo was grateful that mc was okay with it because that way he would have an heir that's biologically related to him, the current king and mc plus his son would have a baby sister so everyone wins.

- overall diavolo is a very loving father who will definitely sit down and be silly with his kids, he loves them both so much!!

barbatos

- honestly he would be okay with not having children.

- however if mc wants a child he would love it, after all mc does.

- when mc tells him that she's not okay with getting pregnant, he is very understanding. he knows that kind off stuff are not for everyone so obviously he would be okay with not having a biological child.

- in fact, he would like it even more if the child in question is not toddler or a baby but rather a child that can at least that can go to washroom on their own.

- the only thing he would want them to do is learn from him how to be a butler, barbatos thinks that the skills of a butler are skills essential to everyone so he will want his child to know how to do things well.

- barbatos would be a strict dad but he definitely has his soft moments, moments like giving his child advice, tucking them to sleep or reading them a story are moments to be remembered because they don't happen as often as barbatos wishes due to his busy work schedule.

simeon

- is the most understanding person, he is an angel after all. when mc tells him that she's afraid of getting pregnant he is also very understanding, almost too understanding.

- he thinks adopting a child is such a good thing to do and is very excited to adopt.

- he doesn't care about age or gender so every child would be perfect in his eyes, he and mc might as well end up adopting 20 kids in one sitting because of how cute simeon thinks they all look.

- since mc can't do it he would never force her to get pregnant so having a biological child stops being a thought all together.

- he just wants to be a good dad so that the kids they adopt together are as comfortable around him as possible.

- he's a mix of diavolo and barbatos in the sense that yes he will join his children for a tea party but he also will scold them if needed, but he's also very loving even if he's scolding them, the type to bring them a plate full of fruit after a scolding.

solomon

minor lesson 35-36 spoiler!!

- he would also want a biological child since he wants to pass on his legacy, but he doesn't really care for it though since he can't die.

- has lived long enough to know that pregnancy is a valid thing to be scared of so he's not going to bother being persuasive about it since mc is clearly uncomfortable doing it.

- when mc tells him she would rather adopt he's thrilled. he wants to adopt a 12 year old because 12 year olds are sharp enough to understand magic.

- teaches them magic like crazy and due to that they become one of the strongest sorcerers, after their parents of course.

- he definitely would make really wack dad jokes.

- is the type to teach them really valuable things and then the next minute completely fooling around with them, would also summon his demons in order for his child to practice magic on them, they try to convince him that this is not okay but all he says is that they need to get better at magic and that why he does it.

luke

- the one being adopted in simeon's part including the other children.

[celticcrossanon]

BRF Spread - Anon Question - 12th of March, 2021

This is speculation only.

12th of March, 2021

Question: Why was Archie not allowed to use the title of the Earl of Dumbarton?

Interpretation: Archie is not allowed to use the title of the Earl of Dumbarton because there are major doubts about his legitimacy for the purpose of inheriting a title, i.e. if he was born from a surrogate and/or adopted, he is not able to inherit the title and so has no right to use it. 

Underlying Energy: The Sun

The god pictured on the card of the Sun is Apollo, who among other things is the god of truth. He stands on green grass in front of a blue sky. Everything in the background is on display; there is nothing shrouded in the shadows. This card is the sun at midday, beaming down upon the earth and revealing everything with its light. There is no place to hide under the noon sun.

The sun sounds the same as the son, and here the son in the question is Archie. Is everything out in the open about Archie? No. His carrying and his birth was shrouded in secrecy/darkness and not carried out in the open/in the light. This lack of truthfulness around the birth of Archie is the underlying theme of this reading. 

It is important because adopted children and children born from surrogacy can not inherit a peerage title under English law. This was proven in a case a few years back, when a peer challenged the law to include his surrogate-born child as an heir to his title, and he failed. So if Archie is adopted and/or born from a surrogate, he can not use the title the Earl of Dumbarton. Questions about his birth throw doubt on the legitimacy of his claim to the title.

The Sun is a major arcana card. Questions about Harry’s son and the lack of light around his birth are a major reason that Archie does not use the title of the Earl of Dumbarton. 

First Card: The Hanged Man

This is the card of sacrifice and the card of The Traitor. 

Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods, is chained upside down to a rock by his ankle. This tells me that someone has committed treachery against powerful people (the gods). In the context of this reading, the people with power are the British Royal Family, so someone is betraying them. 

It is not a one and done betrayal, either. The eagle comes every day to tear out Prometheus’s liver, so they live with the result of their treachery every day. As a result of his act of treachery, Prometheus is chained, so the traitor could be literally or figuratively chained to something or someone as a result of his or her act of treachery.

This is a major arcana card, so like the Sun card, this treachery is a major reason as to why Archie does not use a courtesy title from his father.

Second Card: The Ten of Cups

This is the card of emotional fulfilment. It is the card of happy ever after, total commitment, all your wishes coming true. Whatever the act of treachery was, the traitor is committed to it and happy about it. 

The card itself shows the marriage of Psyche (soul) and Eros (love). It is a lavish wedding, on Mount Olympus in front of the gods (powerful people, here the BRF). Prince Harry and Meghan had just such a wedding, costing more than the wedding of the direct heir to the throne (Prince William) several years earlier. 

A colloquial way of referring to your wife is as the “ball and chain”. marriage is also seen by some as a loss of freedom. Taken together with the first card, where the traitor is chained to the rock as a result of his act of betrayal, this means that the traitor is either Harry or Meghan (or both), as they were ‘chained” together at their wedding. 

Coming straight after the traitor card, this card shows what the betrayal was about/why it occurred, so the wedding was either the reason for the initial betrayal or the act of betrayal.  Some sort of treachery was necessary for the wedding of Meghan and Harry to occur and/or the wedding itself was an act of treachery. Whatever that treachery was, the person who performed it was very happy with the outcome. 

Third Card: The Seven of Swords

Like the first card, this is another card of betrayal, this time betrayal by stealth. On the card we see Orestes sneaking in the palace of Argos under the cover of night, on his way to kill his mother for murdering his father. This tells me that this act of treachery was done in secret/under the cover of darkness, the exact opposite of the Sun card as the underlying energy of this thread. It was done by someone who had snuck into the palace somehow, i.e. not a member of the BRF (who have a legitimate reason to be at the palace), but by one of the married-ins. As this question is about Archie, and the married in involved in his birth is Meghan Markle, this act of treachery was performed by Meghan.

The other clue as to the nature of this act in in Orestes’s motive - he is going to kill his mother, Clytemnestra, the Queen of Argos. Harry’s mother is dead, but he does have a grandmother who is the Queen of a country. This is an act of treachery perpetuated by Meghan Markle against HM the Queen. 

The only act of treachery that Meghan could commit against the Queen that concerns her son, is if Archie is not born from her physical body but was carried by a surrogate or is adopted. Either situation would make Archie ineligible not just for the use of the title of Earl of Dumbarton, but also for a place in the line of succession, as heirs to the throne must be born from the body of their royal mothers. 

Tampering with the line of succession is not just an act of treachery, it is treason, and as such is written down in law, the same way as plotting to kill a monarch is an act of treason under the law. If Meghan passed off a surrogate or adopted child as one born from her body, that would be an act of treachery and an act of treason against the Queen, just as Orestes is sneaking into the palace to commit an act of treason by killing the monarch (his mother).

Fourth Card: The King of Pentacles

This card represents a mature earth sign person, specifically a Taurus, and the values of stability and wealth. It is a King, the highest of the court cards. The person who fits this card is HM the Queen, a sun sign Taurus who is literally the highest ranked person in the UK. 

If we look at the third and fourth cards together we can see that the figure with the swords (Orestes) is moving towards the King of Pentacles (HM the Queen), and not away from them.  The act of treachery of the third card is an act committed against the Queen.

The act of treachery is not only committed against the Queen, but also against the stability and wealth that the King of Pentacles represents. It is an act designed to disrupt the stability of the UK and the stability of the line of succession in order to gain wealth that would otherwise be unavailable to the perpetrator, Meghan (for example, if she divorced without kids she would get less money than if she divorced with kids).

Fifth Card: The Three of Wands

This card shows Jason holding three torches in his hands while a man kneels at his feet, offering him a crown. This is a card of the initial success of a venture.

 Meghan’s deception about the birth of Archie appears to be initially successful.  Archie was placed in the line of succession by newspapers with no correction from the BRF. For all intents and purposes, Archie had been offered his crown. Meghan holds the torches, providing light, as she controlled the amount of light surrounding Archie’s birth. This was not a lot, the birth was shrouded in secrecy. Even when Archie was presented to the press (and so to the general public) it was a tightly controlled affair, with limited press access, and the press had to ask for Archie’s face to be visible enough that they could take a picture of him. It seemed that her plan had succeeded.

However, it was announced that Archie would be known as Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor instead of the Earl of Dumbarton, as per the wishes of his parents. The aristocrats picked up on this as a signal that something was wrong (Lady Colin Campbell explains this in one of her videos). Archie was still in the line of succession, but he did not gain the use of the title the Earl of Dumbarton. The seeds of doubt were sown in the upper classes. Meghan has a lot of work ahead to bring her plan to a successful conclusion, hence her current insistence that Archie deserves a title.

Conclusion:

Acts of treachery and deception around both the wedding of Meghan and Harry and the birth of Archie mean that there are doubts about Archie’s eligibility to be known as the Earl of Dumbarton. These acts of treachery were committed against HM the Queen and the stability of her throne (the line of succession).

The Carrying and Birth of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor

His mother, Meghan had several characteristics that are not consistent with carrying a child, including a bump that changed size seemingly at will (e.g. increasing to triple its size while walking from the car to an event), and being able to perform acts no other pregnant woman could (e.g. kneeling with legs together). This cast doubt on the pregnancy from the start.

His mother, Meghan, refused the services of the royal doctors to choose her own birthing team, but we were never told who they were. 

Archie’s birth was supposed to take place at Portland hospital, but no-one saw the Harkles enter or leave the hospital. Two messages were given to the press, one that Meghan was in labour, and one less than an hour later that the baby had been born. Both messages were later shown to have been sent after the birth had taken place.

Archie was supposed to have been delivered by Doctor Penelope Law, the Countess of Bradford, but both the countess and her husband have positively denied this.

Archie was not shown to the press on the hospital steps after his birth, a tradition carried out by Sarah, the Duchess of York at Portland Hospital with both of her children, Beatrice and Eugenie, who at the time of their births were 5th and 6th in line to the throne respectively.

No doctors signed off on the birth announcement for Archie that was posted on an easel in front of Buckingham Palace.

On the same birth announcement, the wording begins “The Queen and the Royal Family are delighted at the news that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex was safely delivered of a son today...’, and not “Her Royal Highness the <title> of <name> was safely delivered of a son/daughter...”, which has been the format for every other royal birth in the family. This states very plainly that the Royal Family was only told about the birth; they have no witnesses that it actually occurred (as the royal doctors stand witness to the other royal births).

[tk5150]

Santa Baby

Momo is in an arranged marriage with Shouto and is not very happy about it but, it was just a business transaction to her and Shouto. Her heart lies with you. You guys were so in love that even though it was a messed up situation that Momo was in you were still heartbroken. Every Time you see her in the news media and magazines you always see her smile. But, this smile wasn’t genuine at all.

“Momo, I miss you so much,” you said over the phone. “I miss you too, my diamond...I’m sorry I won’t be able to come home to you for another week...Shouto has a meeting and he wishes me to join him in Kyoto” she said. You sighed. “Okay...will he allow you to see me after?” you asked until you heard Shouto’s voice in the background.

“Is that y/n? Can I talk to her for a minute? I promise I will make it worth her while” he said. Momo handed him the phone. “Hi y/n...how are you? I hope you are faring well” Shouto greeted you. “I’m faring well” you answered. “I have a meeting Monday and I need Momo...I know you guys love each other but, she has duties to uphold...so I am offering you to stay at our manor permanently...as her de facto spouse” he propositioned you. “May I please speak to Momo?” you asked Shouto and he handed her the phone. “Yes, my diamond?” she answered. “Did you guys talk about this?” you questioned her. “Of course...we both concluded that it would be in my best interest to live at the manor permanently and that you would join us” Momo explained.

“What is the stipulation?” you questioned Momo. Momo sighed “That you are willing to be our surrogate...because I can’t get pregnant” “What?! Why?” you said in shock. “Please y/n I love you and Shouto knows this, but he also knows that he needs to produce an heir to the Todoroki Family...say that you will agree, my love, and say that you are willing to do this for me” Momo pleaded with you. You truly loved her so much that you were willing to do anything for her, so you agreed. You heard Shouto in the background “Good! So it’s agreed...expect the movers to arrive at the end of the week...I will send a driver to your residence in a couple of days” You said your goodbyes to Momo and hung up.

A couple of days passed……..

Suitcase by your side you looked up at the Todoroki estate and sighed heavily.  Well...here goes nothing  you breathed to yourself and walked in. You found Momo and Shouto sitting in the sitting room expecting you. You sat down on the sofa and turned to Momo and smiled “I missed you baby” Momo blushed. “I missed you too,” she replied in return. You looked at Shouto “So...what fertility center are we going to use?” you questioned him. “We’re not using a fertility center y/n we will do this naturally...the first sessio-” Shouto was interrupted by you. “What? No fertility center...you mean that you want to-” you couldn’t finish when Momo chimed in. “Yes my diamond this is going to be a natural conception but, don't worry I will be there so that you won’t feel uncomfortable or he doesn’t try anything on you” Momo reassured you.

“First session will take place on Christmas Eve and the next if that session didn’t take place would be scheduled,” Shouto explained. “Bu-but I've never been touched by a man before,” you said with a very concerned look on your face looking at Momo. “So, this is your first time with a man...I see...well, I promise you that this has nothing to do with love on my behalf but, considering that Momo loves you...you can focus on her” Shouto instructed. Momo sat next to you to comfort you and reassure you that she will be there every step of the way.

Christmas Eve Night…

You walked into their shared room looking around it was cold, uninviting, Alaskan king in the middle of the bedroom, dim lighting, the sound of soft acoustic Christmas songs played in the background, Momo’s and your sex toys displayed on the side of the bed. Momo was in the back of you, startling you. “Hey,” she said. “Don’t be nervous my diamond” she said while leading you to the bed. “I’ll be here every step of the way” she comforted you. She kissed your neck and slowly undressed you, kissing every inch of your body, then placed you in the middle of the bed.

Caressing your curves so gently, she gently opened your legs. You were alerted to Shouto walking in wearing nothing but silk boxers sitting on a very large armchair. Momo cupped your cheeks. “Focus on me my love, focus on me” she reassured you. She gently started kissing your stomach down to the hood of your cunt. You let out a moan. She slowly parted your pussy lips exposing your beautiful bud and began to lick it ever so slowly. You moan her name. Shouto was getting hard at the sound of Momo’s name being moaned out of your mouth. Momo turned to Shouto and nodded while she moved to your side, making you focus on just her. You felt the slight dip on the bed when Shouto got on the bed crawling to you and before you knew it he was between your legs. He slowly entered you causing him to groan. “Baby focus on me you don’t have to see him...see me baby” Momo whispered in your ear while kissing you. You felt his length enter you and heard his groans while feeling Momo sucking on your nipples trying to focus on her loving touches and not watching Shouto thrust in you, you let out a moan.

That night Momo, Shouto, and you had 5 sex sessions. The next morning you found yourself naked in bed alone, you dragged yourself out of bed and into your room which had your very own bathroom. You took a shower and went downstairs where you heard “ Santa baby, just slip a Sable under the tree for me...Been an awful good girl...Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight...Santa baby, a '54 convertible too, light blue...I'll wait up for you, dear...Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight”  you heard Momo in the living room drinking her coffee talking to Shouto. “Do you think last night’s session took?” Momo asked Shouto. “I hope so...you could tell that she wasn’t feeling comfortable with me inside of her” Shouto replied. “When are you going to tell her Shouto?” Momo questioned. “When she gets comfortable with me, not before...I don't want her to run off Momo,” Shouto replied.

You walked in on their conversation. “Tell me what?” you asked. Both in shock at your interruption of their conversation Momo quickly got up and hugged you “Merry Christmas y/n...how did you sleep?” she asked you. “No, Momo...don’t change the subject, tell me what?” you retorted. Shouto quickly went to the tree and grabbed a present and handed it to you “Here from Santa”. You sat down and opened the present dismissing their conversation but, you reminded yourself to mention it later on this week but, since it’s Christmas you dropped the subject.

Think of all the fun I've missed...Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed...Next year, I could be just as good...If you check off my Christmas list...Santa baby, I want a yacht, and really, that's not a lot...Been an angel all year...Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

[crazynekochan]

Dangan Persona AU

Notes on the 6th palace

Ruled by Byakuya Togami.

Captive is Chihiro Fujisaki (trapped in a metal cage surrounded by some really nasty robotic animals in the boss room; will be torn apart by said animals as part of “showtime” if not rescued in time).

Shadow manifests as a cyborg-looking gladiator dressed as a king, with a classic ermine cape with the Togami crest embroidered on the back, with his boss form being him as a robotic gladiator with a sword and chains that bind him to a scepter and a shield with the Togami crest also emblazoned on it (he can wield both as part of his attacks), switching between different magic skills and physical abilities, representing how the Togami clan gives him great power but also brings him down.

Palace is a huge Colosseum where you have to fight through the levels before getting onto the actual fighting field where Chihiro is being kept. Byakuya is the most popular gladiator (well more of gladiator/heel wrestler mix) and there are tons of facilities dedicated to both his use and so that the audience can use it to both admire and rail against him.

During it, you see various parts of Byakuya’s personality that he refuses to show to others, like his care for his defeated siblings, his crush on Makoto, even his anger and hatred for being part of the Togami family ripping away whatever chance of a normal childhood he would’ve had. The whole thing is pretty much an exercise in breaking down Byakuya’s cool asshole exterior to find a true princely young man with a whole lot of daddy and mommy issues (because come one, no way this guy doesn’t have daddy and mommy issues). This’s really not what Byakuya would want to have the party here see, but he doesn’t have a Persona yet and his attacks aren’t that effective on shadows so he’s stuck with them to get through.

This palace also makes a lot more use of cognitions, with most of the fans being regular humans, while the enemies are his various fans or security, Aloysius acting as his mechanic/coach/high honored surrogate father. He even has his classmates there as some of the other fighters. With the exception of Toko, head of Byakuya’s fan club (and shockingly normal looking), and Makoto, who is depicted as a princess (basically Makoto but with a cute crown on his head and even more cutesy anime) that Shadow Byakuya is constantly trying to impress with almost no idea about how normal human courting customs work. It kills Byakuya so fucking much on the inside but it gives the party some good laughs and wishes that their phones worked in the Metaverse (or whatever this place is called), while the real Makoto just blushes like hell.

As the palace goes on, you see just how much Byakuya internally resents the role he’s been placed into by everyone’s expectations as a Togami and the heir, how he’s alienated himself from everyone around him and can barely interact with normal society without making an ass of himself, but he’s been so stuck in these ways that he would be “useless” in normal society, with the depictions of him (in the more stylized flashbacks to Byakuya’s childhood) becoming more and more robotic as time goes on. 

When they finally get to the ring, Chihiro’s just generally doing their best to cling tightly to the bars of the cage while Shadow Byakuya lectures him in disappointment because he’s not going to get any stronger if he doesn’t at least try some pull-ups while on the bars. Byakuya gets up on the stage first and Shadow Byakuya at least gives him a good run, having the cage pulled to a higher vantage point via cables and the animals dispersed. But Shadow Byakuya absolutely fucking whoops Byakuya’s ass, with some of the most vicious, nastiest, most self-loathing things said to him in an incredibly brutal “why you suck” speech while simultaneously brutally kicking Byakuya’s ass all around the arena. Before, finally, the party gets there and keeps the Shadow from giving the finishing blow, starting the boss fight.

After the fight, Byakuya’s still not even remotely put together enough emotionally that he can confess that he’s actually the Shadow, so he orders everyone but Toko, Hajime, and Makoto to leave while he makes the contract, earning his persona. Then after they’ve escaped the collapsing palace and rescued Chihiro, Byakuya calls Makoto to talk in private in his dorm room. They never say what happened then, but Makoto was a bit pink and Byakuya still refuses to talk about it, but they are closer than before

---

Mod: The idea of having Byakuya as a famous and praised gladiator fits so well, cause he did basically fight all of his siblings despite being the “underdog” due to being the youngest and won against them. So also fitting to have the Palace be a Colosseum where the party has to fight their way up to get the chance to fight the Shadow

But oh god Byakuya must be suffering when all of his deepest most hidden emotions and feelings are getting revealed so openly for everyone to see, cause he has a gigantic ego and usually refuses to show emotions, especially ones like love and vulnerability, in the open. And here they are presented. Especially the part of his crush on sweet Makoto, which is good teasing material which is after all hard to get with Byakuya x)

Must be a sight seeing Byakuya being on the receiving end of his own “why you suck” speeches and getting kicked around like it’s nothing. Cause he’s such a prideful person after all who always pretends to have everything in control as if he were the king of this world who is as perfect as can be. Only that he actually isn’t and he has to admit to it or things will not get any better at all. Which is the hardest part, but at least he did it and even let the people he trusts see it and see him being vulnerable. Even if he refuses to say anything about it afterwards

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel IV:

WHY ARE THEY CALLED CLASS VII?

WHO ARE CLASS VI?

Anyway - I started playing Trails in August, and I’ve finally, finally caught up (yes I know Hajimari I can’t read Japanese) and like... what do I do now?

It’s a fantastic series and I’m so, so glad I picked up Trails in the Sky on a whim last summer

This game was long. Is it longer than the other ones? It felt that way

The best part was the first chapter because Rean wasn’t in it and yeah I still don’t like him!!! But seriously, it was astonishing how much more I was enjoying things without him

I audibly groaned when goddamn bonding points returned in the second chapter

Actually that was a lie, the best part was Any Time My Angel Estelle Was On Screen

I missed her so much

I let her get the final hit of the game against the boss because she’s the best

Speaking of angels I caught three Wazy cameos!!!

Also Gilbert came back and if there had been a camera on me... I quite literally teared up a little I was so thrilled

I hate the curse it is dumb and rips all the nuance out of the characters. People do not need a goddamn evil curse to be swayed to extremes by overzealous nationalism. Trails I know you are better than this, I played Sky and Crossbell

Fav new location was Milsante (liked Alster too, though). I really like going to tiny little outposts and villages in JRPGs, they make the world feel more real

What the hell was up with the Osgiliath Basin? As in, Giliath Osborne??? Is this going to be a Hajimari thing?

Oh yeah, HOT TAKE, Alan Richard >>> Giliath Osborne. I was reading an LP of Sky FC while playing the game, and Richard’s motivation is clearer and less over-complex, more sympathetic, and he’s just generally a far more human character

Alan Richard best political antagonist in the series fight me (Rufus Albarea distant second)

For best supernatural/cult-y antagonist I’m stuck between Weissmann and Joachim. Or maybe Campanella lol

Oh uh speaking of characters named Georg I will never not hate everything about the George and Angie subplot. Angie should have died and George should have stayed evil, or it shouldn’t have happened at all. As it is, it was a complete waste of time - you could take it all out and NOTHING would change

Angie would have been the perfect character to sacrifice as well, she’s just important enough that it would feel like ‘oh shit’s getting real’ but not so important that it’s unbelievable

(like Olivier. I could not fully believe they’d actually kill him, and the moment Laura told me ‘they never found the bodies’ I was like, oh, so they’re definitely all still alive, cool)

I mean, it would be a Bury Your Gays, but honestly... there are things I like about Angie, but is anyone really looking to her as a lesbian role model? I hope not. Yikes

So yeah I guess I hate George now for getting my hopes up and then being boring. Shame

I did the Towa romantic ending, of course. I genuinely think she’s the best match for Rean, of all his love interests

Chaaaracters

Rean: Still the least interesting person. Not a good sign when I’m sadder about the robot dying than the main protagonist yeeting himself into the sun (side note, the two endings thing? Unnecessary and dumb). There is no reason girls would like him this much, blah blah I’ve said it all before. Liked his new hair. Honestly would have respected it if they’d had the balls to kill him off. I basically never even used him in battle lol, Juna became my new team leader

Juna: Honourary protagonist imo. I’ve changed my mind since CS3, she’s my fav new Class VII without a doubt. She’s just really good and full of personality and depth and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM WHY

Kurt: pls falcom don’t try to force this aroace king into a nonsense ship with Sully I liked her but what are you doing, anyway Kurt is great and he got cool new swords and he got to hang out with Mueller, who I adore, I love Kurt

Altina: I also love this little bunny. Her relationship with Millium is so lovely and seeing her grow and become her own person made me so happy and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM I LITERALLY SAID SHE HAS THE BEST RELATIONSHIP WITH REAN OF ALL THE GIRLS BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T DO THAT IN THE LAST GAME WHY DO YOU HATE ME????

Musse: Yeah I’m still not sold on Musse but I liked her better this time! I like a smart, confident girl! Just stop being weird about your teacher and we’d be golden!

Ash: Good boy. Sweet boy. Ash and Joshua game now Falcom

Alisa: Still cannot believe she’s presented as the deuteragonist by the marketing - but you know what? Solid arc, she got some closure with her parents, maybe she and Jusis can get together for tea and complain about their messed up families. She’s never going to be a character I like all that much, but I don’t dislike her. I just wish she hadn’t clearly been written as ‘Rean’s love interest’ before anything else

Elliot: I love Elliot, I really do. I mean, I wish he hadn’t been flanderised to the point of speaking in music puns half the time, but he’s a solid, consistently pleasant character

Laura: Goddamnit Falcom please give Laura anything resembling an emotion regarding her dad dying. Also you tell me she’s kind of oblivious and stuff but we never see it. I like Laura but she really could have been more

Machias: I love Machias, fight me fan base. He’s so funny to me. It feels like, at this point, all he really wants is a nice office job, near a nice coffee shop, where he files papers and sometimes gets to yell at corrupt rich people, but NO, he has to run about in dungeons and fight monsters, and are you FUCKING kidding me, ANOTHER crazy snake cultist!?!? It’s great, he’s the only one who’s just done with it all and love it

I low key headcanon that he and Jusis are kinda dating at this point, but we don’t see anything because the games are from Rean’s POV and they don’t want to tell him because they know he’d be weird about it

Jusis: I still really like Jusis! He’s interesting, and his surrogate brother-sister relationship with Millium is so sweet (yes, I saw that bouquet catch, Falcom, and I hate it, stop it, gross). Awesome to see him confront his brother, obviously I let him have the final blow. Rufus was a great antagonist. Jusis has some of the best development over the games, and is also really fun to use in battle (apparently I am the only one who feels this way though :/ ah well)

Fie: I was surprised by how much I liked Fie’s confession scene, seeing as I don’t like Rean/Fie at ALL. Fie finally gets to have feelings about her dad, and we see her working with Zin at the end! Very happy for Fie, best girl

Emma: Ahhh I still find Emma kinda dull and exposition heavy, but she also had a nice arc, I liked her relationship with Rose, all good

Rose beat me at Vantage Masters for 40 minutes lol

Gaius: It’s still extremely funny to me that Gaius became one of the most important people on the continent *off screen*. And he still doesn’t really do anything. He has his own airship now, I guess. Justice for Gaius

Sara: Kind of faded from relevance after CS1, but I do really like her all the same. And I loved her speech at the end

Crow: At the end his hair got darker and everyone was like ‘you’re back to normal!’ and I literally did not realise he was meant to have been looking different

But anyway Crow is a really good character and I literally never didn’t enjoy him. I love the bit where Jusis and Machias team up to call him a cringy edgelord, because they are right. Crow is fantastic

Towa: Towa has never done anything wrong in her life and all of Erebonia should pay for her therapy

Patrick: I cannot believe how much I love Patrick now, compared to CS1. He’s just such a sweetie. Good boy

Elise: Take her to the sun with you, Rean. Pointless character

Alfin: Is she the heir now? I hope so. She’s such a funny character, not my fav, but I enjoyed her

Angie and George: Should have died, moving on

Celine: I love her, but did she really need a human form? No, no she did not. Great character though

Tita: Special mention, because you know what? I do not like this version of Tita! Like I said, I was reading FC recently and she was so much better there! Now a third of her lines are just her saying ‘Agate’ in various different tones. And it feels like she’s lost a lot of her confidence, where’s the little girl who followed us up Carnelia Tower? I would have preferred them to just not bring her back at all

Duvalie: Haha I love Duvalie she’s great. Stop implying that she’s crushing on Rean. Literally WHY would she. Ugh

Rose: Everything about Rose is great, I would play a full game about her backstory. More Rose

Ships!

Obviously I like Machias/Jusis because I am BASIC

I didn’t like Olivier/Schera back in Sky, but you know what? They sold me. It’s cute (even if I feel Schera’s character was neglected in favour of Being A Love Interest, sigh). Though I’m not sure when Olivier made the switch from ‘Schera is one of many people I flirt with’ to ‘Schera is my one and only’?

But am I the only person who’s kinda on the Oliver/Schera/Mueller train? I’m not normally into OT3s, but Olivier and Mueller have one of the best dynamics in the series, and Schera and Mueller would probably get along great if they were ever allowed to properly interact. And you know Olivier would be down

Like I say, I do not like Jusis/Millium at all, it’s not a ‘I like another ship better’ thing, it just massively skeeves me out because of the maturity difference 

Ash/Tatiana was unexpected but adorable

Patrick/Elise, because I want Patrick to be happy and Rean to be mad

Also Elise/Alfin, sorry Patrick

I hope Anton and Sharon really do get together. Sharon deserves unconditional love and Anton deserves a happy ending

Sharon also deserves to hook up with Sara like once

I also sort of feel like Sara/Claire would be fun

I’ve actually like Gaius/Linde from CS1, I’m happy it’s kind of a thing now!

If Lila/Maybelle is the LET’S GO LESBIANS Trails ship, then Emily/Theresia is LET’S GO BABY LESBIANS

Vincent/Margarita. They’re both horrible people. At least this way no one else has to deal with them

Joining my Kloe/Josette in the ‘crack ships I love that have very, very little canon basis’ is Fritz/Kairi, based on their interactions in that one mission and then that they’re eating together at Mishelam. It’s pretty much just a height differences thing, lol

Miles/Elnan. I have literally no justification for this

Other stuff There was this one scene where Gaius says how nice it is that Mueller cares about Olivier and Mueller just snaps his head round and the scene ends, and I don’t think it was meant to be funny but I laughed for like a full minute

The intro to the music at Mishelam is extremely creepy to me

I love the Pom Party mini game a whole lot

There were... a lot of typos in the second half of the script. It’s massive, so I’m not mad, but I hope there’s a patch at some point

BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL I love her

Uh if we’re still doing romance next arc please give us a gay option, no Crow did not count

I hate divine knight battles! I really do! That last one against Ishmelga was really hard and not in a fun way! In a ‘this is bullshit fake difficulty’ way. Please don’t bring them back!

The true final battle, though? FANTASTIC, now THAT is a final boss! One of the best in the series, like that’s such a fun gimmick!

I got it trapped in break state and spammed Heaven’s Kiss/Quick Star, because I’m a strategic gamer 

I am embarrassed by how long it took me to recognise Lucy

KLOE CAMEO!!!

Oh and I assume Kaela is going to be important next arc, since it’s in Calvard?

I love Thomas??? And Rosine???

Why was the grandmaster reveal hidden behind watching the ending twice, why do that? Great scene, though

My theory is that she is Aidios, I will cling to this for as long as possible

I probably have like a million other things to say that I’m just not remembering right now. Look forward to random shouts into the void about it in upcoming weeks, followers

I really enjoyed this overall, despite the problems I mentioned above. It was just fun, I like the cast, the gameplay is great... just a solid game

Trails is a really fantastic franchise - not perfect, but what is? I’ve had such a fun time with it over the past half-year, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thank you, Falcom, the localisation team, the VAs - stellar job all around

This is normally where I’d end on a joke but like. Nah, I’m just happy. Cue ‘The Whereabouts of Light’

[prairiedust]

The Further Folklore of Supernatural

Here’s a little more folklore meta in light of how season 15 has been playing out if anyone is game. I genuinely thought that Moriah would be the end of the folklore stuff and tossed out “Folk the Author” as an “epilogue,” so this is probably less of an addendum than it is a waymarker as I try to continue to parse these themes into the last seven episodes.

Welp. *waves hands at everything* THIS is not how anyone expected 2020 to go. Things got a little bit big and I stopped thinking about Spn in light of needing that energy elsewhere. But I also don’t want this crapfest to ruin how I fan my favorite show, so here I go again. I will attempt a TL;DR, too!

If you’ve read my old “folklore” analysis here about how I think fairy tales and all their baggage fit into Supernatural season 14, you know that I believe Castiel has stepped into a Sleeping Beauty type story, and that coincidentally a few themes and symbolism from Snow White kept popping up around Dean. (I hold Sam to be a Protagonist in the modern “literary fiction” sense of the word, but emotionally, thematically, and narratively he’s always been a little inaccessible to me. I finally understood him when the death-of-the-author plot surfaced, and I’ll get to Sam eventually here. And Jack, there’s a little Jack in here, too.) 

If you would rather have the TL;DR than read several thousands of words about how folklore and myth *might* be abstractly connected to an American genre show, all I can say is that I tried. The textual support is all in the folklore posts. This is as succinct a summary as I could fabricate. At least I’m not gonna talk about Sam and bricolage and freeplay! This is an almost completely theory-free post! If you don’t want to read or don’t need a refresher and just want to know how this has been working in 15, you can scroll down to “END OF TL;DR”.

So, to catch up, I’m not talking about the folklore and mythology that this show has always relied on for plot and MOTWs. I wasn’t drilling down into urban legends like Hook Man or world folk monsters like shtrigas or pishtacos. By “folklore” I mean the study of storytelling tropes and tale types that have been with us for ages. One of the many subtexts of the end of the series. I’ve been tracking this because I think it’s fun to see how fairy tale imagery and mythology might layer preconscious suggestions into the text of the show. I personally think it was loud enough to be seen easily, but more than likely viewers felt unsettled, felt cheered, or felt like they knew what was coming? I’m curious to know. Anyway.

When we found out that Kelly Kline was going to name her baby “Jack” waaaaay back in season 12, things started chiming. Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack the Giant Killer. Jack Tales. Jack is a powerful Western character, sort of a cross between a noble hero and a trickster, featuring in stories that often blur lines and boundaries. He is both the poor man’s youngest son and the equal to King Arthur’s heir. Jack is both everyman and extraordinary. Jack is so cool, I wish I had more time to parse that but his qualities are not subtle in the text/subtext, anyway.

But back to my half-crack reading of seasons 14 and 15. 

Once upon a time in Supernatural, there were two fairy tales being told. Both fairy tales are found all over the world and in many forms, but they all can be grouped together because they all contain shared elements of the same basic plot or shared themes, and these two in particular are sister stories. So when I mention “Sleeping Beauty,” I’m talking about lots of different versions of the folk tale, and the same for “Snow White,” which can be found in one form or another in storytelling traditions all over the place. It is both helpful and irritating that these are both Disney movies, too.

Jack makes an allusion to Sleeping Beauty in 14x03 The Scar while talking to Castiel-- it’s the kind of subtextual flash that in and of itself means little and proves nothing, but then beginning with The Scar we got three stories in a row that dealt with “sleepers” of some sort-- Lora in 14x03 doomed to die because of a witch’s spell, Stuart in 14x04 Mint Condition in a coma because of a ghost attack, and Sasha’s father in 14x05 Nightmare Logic under the spell of a clever djinn. It’s powerful subtext, like a soft light that bathes these episodes in the color of fairy tale and makes Jack’s Dramatic Swoon at the end of Optimism all the more Dramatic-- subtext amplifying the plot. Jack goes to Heaven, but is eventually cornered by the Shadow, who wants him in the Empty where he will sleep forever-- the Shadow being an entity who has claimed the husks of dead angels since their inception and thus implies a “curse” laid on Jack from the moment he came into being-- but Castiel, who is ever a thief in oh so many ways, makes a bargain with the Shadow and essentially takes over the consequences of Jack’s Sleeping Beauty story (hence my rarely used but hilarious tag “Castiel Thief of Endings.”)

Now that we know from 14x20 Moriah that the Shadow and Billie the Reaper are, if not allies, at least working together when Jack is awakened in the Empty, does that mean that Castiel’s deal is still on the table, or has that fate been thwarted? *pounds table* Was Jack’s death and Chuck’s rise as a “greater threat” in 14x20 enough to shift Castiel’s ending? It’s the kind of subtextual question that lends tension to the narrative and it’s what I am here for. 

Well, speaking of thwarted expectations, Dean’s arc was being shadowed by a Snow White tale type. We all know Snow White but why don’t I sum it up anyway, since Disney messed up the folktale ending lol. Snow White is cast out of her home by her jealous stepmother (and echoes of the stepmother’s magic mirror show up in 15x02 Gods and Monsters) who sends her huntsman to kill her; the dude can’t do it and turns the girl loose in the forest instead. Snow White joins a band of outsiders who live in the forest-- in the Disney movie and the Grimms’ tale they are dwarfs, in some versions she happens upon a band of robbers-- and they love her very much and we presume she’s safe for the rest of her life; Michael mysteriously turns Dean loose to join Sam’s gathering of hunters, however we know, like Stepmom, Michael is still out there. The stepmother finds out that Snow White is actually alive and contrives to kill her herself. Eventually succeeding, Snow White appears to die and is usually laid to rest in a crystal casket/glass coffin. Her stepmother’s machinations have _stolen her agency_ (further paralleling Dean’s possession by AU!Michael.) A Handsome Prince stumbles upon Snow White, is besmitten with her, and he asks her protectors if he can have her, as one does. Leaving the Disney adaptation aside, Snow White awakens when whatever item that has caused her death-like state is dislodged (piece of apple in her throat) or removed (magic corset) or withdrawn (poisoned hairpin) by her protectors. Snow White is a story about the community of the dwarves of band of robbers or adopted family caring deeply for her, and when Dean starts making his own crystal casket, the ma’lak box, in which he will ride out eternity in tormented symbiosis with Apocalypse Michael, he has to rely on his family to help him see the plan through. However, here’s where Jack-- who is as much a chaos engine as his surrogate father Castiel if not more so-- steps in and ruins the ending. Jack smites Michael. Dean Winchester is saved. Again. To put the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, Jack later destroys the ma’lek box entirely. 

That was quite the surprise ending… for one of the stories.

Was the end of season 14 the end of the Sleeping Beauty theme, also?

END OF TL;DR

I quit writing about “folklore” for a while, but that doesn’t mean it stopped being a theme. It just stopped being fun to write about as the story got more and more dark, and when it transmuted into two parallel themes of “folklore” or storytelling by the people versus Death of the Author--or storytelling by a lauded authority-- and there was so much angst about the boundaries of Chuck’s powers, I just wanted to sit back and enjoy that. I did distill my thoughts about Sam’s new arc in the DotA plot, which I thought would subsume the folktale themes but hey, we still have folktales around, too. I mean, we have Sam and we have Dean, and we have two “literary” subtexts, or maybe rather two subjects about the nature of story, something that I thought was a little bit of a surprise.

Storytelling was a Feature of 15x07 Last Call, both in the sense that Lee and Dean swap new stories and tell old tales of their adventures together as they catch up, but also in the sense that we got additional “text”-- hints of a backstory where John and Dean hunted with Lee in that swampy long-ago “Stanford era,” and again we get storytelling when _Lee recounts how he ended up keeping a marid in his basement_. There is also an allusion to the Thousand and One Arabian Nights in that episode that I yelled about in a meta that I never put on the interwebs, but the “marid” is in a specific tale in many editions of that collection, and thus calls in not only a different folktale tradition but the concept of a framed/nested narrative, which I believe will be important to understanding the last episodes of the series, but that’s an aside. In 15x08 Our Father Who Aren’t In Heaven, Castiel _tells Michael the story_ of how everyone ended up where they are now to convince him to help. And Michael and Adam’s allyship, if not friendship, was probably the best subversion of any “storytelling” expectation we’ve ever had on this show. Belphagor set us up for “room full of crazy” or something, but, no. We got symbiosis. 

That almost sums up how I’ve been viewing the last “era” of spn. This wasn’t in the master post, but I shouted a lot about underworlds before 15x09 Purgatory 2: Return to Purgatory, and then stopped shouting because I had to ferment for a while. Also, as has been mentioned, the world turned to crap. But talking to other meta writers during the ramp up to the resumption of the season helped me realize just why this reading of myth to folktales to literature feels so right.

Underworlds and Otherworlds…. Everybody has crossed into an “underworld” or three in Supernatural, it’s really nbd. It was actually surface-level plot in season 13. By the time 15x09 rolled around, our heroes are just, like, strolling in and out of “sealed off” Hell after doing a level one spell and chilling with Billie in the Empty and even that Purgatory trip didn’t have the same feeling of danger that, say, crossing into the AU did. But also, we’re at the point where subtext is leading us to a _satisfactory_ ending. Where before we had serial text, like a cumulative tale type-- “The House that Jack Built”-- which just kept adding more and more plot, we’re hurtling o’er the apex of Freytag’s pyramid now and things are getting loud.

But they’re also getting very shifty.

I wrote a little bit about Sam Winchester successfully reviving Eileen in 15x06 Golden Time and the “Orpheus and Eurydice” symbolism of him keeping his back to her. (I’m not linking it because it’s so, so rough.) But because Sam is not an underworld hero, not completely-- I see him as a modern Protagonist coming to terms in a psychoanalytical model with things like mortality, fallibility, and mastery-- maybe bildungsroman, even -- he was able to subvert the tragic ending of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice because it is not “his” story. But if I were pressed to find a mythic or folk tale type to measure Sam against, I could. I would probably sideye “the sorcerer’s apprentice” trope (ATU 325-The Magician and his Pupil :D ) which began as a poem that entered European folklore on different fronts. (and weirdly, that story was also Disnified in Fantasia. That’s probably more my own limitation as a gen x american lol than anything coming from the writer’s room.)

Dean got his moment in Purgatory where he was able to finally come to grips with his anger and heal the rift between himself and Castiel because Purgatory is a different kind of underworld. Dean is a successful threshold-crosser, having crossed that boundary out of Purgatory before, but in 15x09, his prayer to Castiel is all a subtextual evocation of doing the emotional and mental work of therapy, which Sam, as a modern protagonist, is usually caught up in. The mythic hero also deals with mortality, failibilty, and mastery, but in different terms. I hope I’m doing an okay job peeling apart these nuances that I’m seeing.

Since Castiel accompanied Dean to Purgatory, and in the past made his own wildly successful incursion into and out of Hell with Dean’s soul, and was the one in The Trap who actually retrieved the Leviathan blossom, Castiel counts as an underworld hero, too, but you can pull the lever and send the tumblers spinning again and make him a fairy tale character in that he has made this Bargain with the Empty which is both in the “modern” tradition of subverting a fairy tale, and the tale type “deal with the devil.” Or he could be seen as a modern protagonist in that he’s lowkey grappling with questions of selfhood and identification. “I am an angel of the lord.” “I am no one.” “It’s Steve, now.” “You are nothing.” “I am an angel.”

We even got an episode that playfully explored the concept of “hero” by subverting our expectations (Sam and Dean were rescued by, of all people, an upgraded Garth.) It was called The Hero’s Journey, after the Joseph Campbell book about mythic heroes.... !!! Like, what??? !!!! I didn’t even have anything to say about that episode, it just rocked. The “meta” was just all out there in plot, like the olives and boiled eggs in a 1950’s gelatin recipe. 

Some of this slipperiness in the subtext points right at the study of folklore and the (admittedly Eurocentric at first) efforts to transform a “soft science” into something approaching scientific rigor. The Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale index is today a codifying or cataloguing tool, with which anthropologists and literature scholars can line up stories based on the motifs found within them-- it is useful for cataloguing tales, making comparative studies, and for trying to trace these stories back through human history to find the One First Story of that type, for instance the ur-story that led to Snow White. When did people first start telling that tale, where, how did it spread, and why are we still telling it today? The danger in using the ATU index is that by stripping a story down to it’s bones, we lose the story, if that makes sense. The beauty of using the ATU index is that you find many, many more interconnected stories. It’s sort of a paradox. Some scholars criticize the ATU, claiming that one could take a random selection of these motifs and shuffle them to create a story and, you sort of could? That’s the beauty of the system. 

So that brings us to Jack. I feel like Jack, as in Jack of all Trades, is anything that the narrative needs him to be. As far as I can find, “Jack” is not a “tale type.” He shows up alongside any number of them-- sometimes as a trickster, sometimes as a hero, almost always as a kind of slippery character. In the first folklore post, I invested many words in exploring Dabb’s obsession with threes-- AU Michael asks three beings what they desire, asks his human victim to guess his name three times, then we follow three sleeper stories, and so on. The original TFW was three people. But Jack makes four. 

What is Jack’s story going to be?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And speaking for a sec about the origins of myth and folklore-- what about ALL OF THE OTHER PEOPLE in the world? Are they lowkey churning the matrix of reality on their own and generating their own content, like Becky and her AO3 stories and mackettes? 

*¯\_(ツ)_/¯ intensifies*

It all just feels so good at this point, even the peril that I feel surrounding Castiel.

I *think* this will be the last of the longform metas before the end of the series. I mean, I can only hope so. I’ll drop some stuff about individual episodes that might be applicable as I rewatch, and I might clean up my post about Last Call and drop it on here, but I just wanted to kind of hold this up as a mile marker before the Final Seven air.

[theinsanecrayonbox]

haha ok, here’s a fun backlog of doodles that needs some explaining...at least the progress of evolution of thought i guess

so, first i doodled Sabreclaw and Scarlet Spider-Girl; fun shipping, yay. then i doodled Yellow Jacket and Doxxie; again, fun shipping. but then i hit a bump, as Misha’s single, and is certainly NOT going to date Patrick, so i doodled that silly ‘comic’  still fun. -the story there is meta and ‘canon’, wherein Misha originally had a crush on Wiccan (who wound up with Hulkling), then tried to date Speed (and screwed that up because pf the whole twin replacement thing), then eventually found himself kissing Thunderstrike -(i am REALLY loose with my timeline here...since Kevin Masterson was part of A-Next, matching Sabreclaw and Spider-Girl’s ages, yet he’s that age in current continuity with the Maximoff twins so...idk)

then, during one of many car rides, thoughts went wandering, and i came upon the idea of the “Panther twins” there. (people who’ve followed me for ages might recognize, and yes this is a rebooted Adanna). they are not actually twins; T’Challa and Ororo got married in my timeline here, but had a hard time trying to conceive and have an heir; eventually they went for invitro, and it was a rough pregnancy, so rough that the doctors took some of the unimplanted embryos and used a surrogate to have a backup heir...without telling them. Ororo ended up giving birth to Adanna, and about 7 months later they couple were told about Azari (7 months, because the doctors/state heads who put the backup heir plan into action figured that if Adanna didn’t survive, that was long enough to cover up the first baby’s death, but it’s long enough that they could also spin it that Ororo ha just gotten pregnant again immediately if they both survived). T’Challa and Ororo were furious of course, because this was a huge violation of their trust and other stuff, but...they took Azari, because he was their son just the same as Adanna was their daughter, there was never any doubt or argument over that. however...it all doesn’t fully end happily as we roll up to the “current’ time of my MC2 where we got teenagers here; when the kids were somewhere between 12-14, Ororo and T’Challa got divorced, the kids staying in Wakanda; Azari’s origins were discovered by him at that time, but he didn’t bring it up (and secretly kinda believes he’s part of the reason his parents split up). so they’ve had somewhere between 3-5 years without their mother constantly around to help buffer the royal training and stuff, because oh boy; there are those who think Azari should be the crowned heir, because he’s the eldest son, while others think it should be Adanna because she’s the eldest child and Panther spirit approved (give me a little leeway here, not 100% familiar with Black Panther lore...). when it comes to the kids, Adanna wants to be queen, wants to be Black Panther, while Azari doesn’t want to be king, and has mixed feelings about the Panther mantle (again since he knows his mom didn’t give birth to him, he kinda fears the Panther spirit doesn’t think he’s a real heir...). Adanna inherited some of the heart-herb powers (again because she was naturally born) and electrical conductivity, while Azari inherited more of their mother’s skill sets (they can actually “link up’ and super charge electrical currents together, completing a proper positive to negative circuit, yay for mutant siblings’ powers working in tandem) and is kinda super smart but easily bored so seems like a slacker; he gets along pretty well with his aunt Shuri. so anyways, there comes a breaking point, a blow up between Azari and T’Challa, and it’s suggested that Azari perhaps go and lives with Ororo for a while...

so Azari comes and joins an X-team, just about the same time that Misha leaves his Avengers team (i mean, they had multiples, and they had both Creed brothers, so it makes sense to split them up lol) after the Kevin fiasco and the two of them kinda hit it off and wind up coupling up. leading to plenty of jokes about Azari’s callsign, cause he can’t *really* settle on one he likes, because Misha is Warwolf, so “Battlecat” follows that naming scheme, but at the same  time Misha could be “White Wolf” if Azari goes with Black Panther XD also, Azari hates being called T’Chaka, because in Wakanda all the adults only ever addressed him formally as “Prince T’Chaka”, so that’s why he primarily goes by Azari Munroe...plus you know, trying to blend in better while living with his mom

that was a lot of text...i think too many things sometimes