#just. the fact that people have been inorganically twisted to something they never should have been and wouldnt have been able to grow into

[jamiethebee]

I honestly truly hate the mashup (the Shigaraki/afo meld)

[four-am-fangirling]

Through Thick and Thin (and the Occasional Poisoning)

Throwing my hat in the ring @whumptober2019!

...

Rhodey was worried.

That in of itself wasn’t particularly unusual, especially since he had somehow become the de-facto caregiver of a too-smart-for-his-own-good-but-still-somehow-incredibly-stupid teenager. Rhodey spent a lot of time agonising over Tony, now accustomed to the ever-present knot of worry in his gut and voice in the back of his mind reminding him to make the kid eat. He had become particularly adept at looking for warning signs, the red flags in his friend’s behaviour now far easier to spot.

Red flags like his younger roommate’s shaking hands.

Tony had stumbled back to the dorm about an hour ago, having worked himself to almost-collapse on some project or other, red-cheeked and hands shaking uncontrollably. Rhodey had picked up on the exhaustion immediately, ushering the teenager to the couch and getting some half-decent food into him. This wasn’t such an unusual occurrence.

What was unusual, however, is the fact that almost an hour later Tony’s hands were still shaking. That was a big red flag for Rhodey.

“Tones?”

The teenager looked up at him, bleary-eyed and flushed from his spot on the couch.

“Yeah?” His speech wasn’t far off incomprehensible mumbling.

“Your hands are still shaking. Did you notice that?”

He knew that often when Tony came back exhausted, he was barely aware of the things going on around him. Rhodey’s suspicions were supported when the genius looked down at his hands and dazedly lifted them to his flushed cheeks, as though checking that he was, in fact, shaking.

“Huh,”

The elder boy suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. For all his many talents, Tony wasn’t particularly observant.

The worried feeling in his gut clenched a little tighter, and Rhodey looked back over to his friend. Tony’s hands, still wracked with tremors, were scratching lightly at his arms. The older boy reached over, taking the younger’s hands in his.

“Tones, why are you scratching?”

“M’itchy,” the teenager attempted to yank his arms out of the stronger grip, and Rhodey felt the shaking kick up a notch.

“Okay, man. Any ideas why you’re itchy?”

Tony simply shook his head, still struggling against the older boy’s grip. Rhodey refused to let go, alarms blaring in his mind and the worried energy in his gut clenching tightly. Suddenly, the teenager became frantic – head shaking violently, struggling and kicking. The older boy kept a tight hold on him.

“Tones? What’s up?”

“Bugs.”

“Bugs? What d’you mean bugs?”

Rhodey looked at him, perplexed and concerned. Tony twitched violently, shirt damp with sweat and his damn hands still shaking uncontrollably. Something was seriously wrong. The teenager looked up at him, brown eyes wide and face flushed a sickly pink.

“Bugs. Under my skin.”

Okay, this was not good. Pulling his friend closer, he examined his inner arms for any needle marks. This could definitely be drugged behaviour, although Tony had never acted like this when he was high before…

“Okay man, I need you to think. Have you taken anything weird? I promise I won’t be mad, Tones.”

The teenager just shook his head harder, becoming more and more frantic by the second. That’s it. Rhodey was not qualified for this shit.

“Tones, I’m gonna let you go now so I can call an ambulance. Okay?”

There was no response, but he didn’t really have to wait for one. This could just be a particularly nasty trip – maybe the kid had gotten a call from his father, gone and tried something new – but it could also be some sort of bad reaction, and Rhodey wasn’t taking any chances.

Letting Tony go, he dashed to the nearest phone, simultaneously relieved and horrified that all the kid did was continue to desperately tear at his skin with blunt nails. Dialling 911, he focussed on cataloguing Tony’s symptoms and clearly explaining the situation to the woman on the other end of the line, all the while attempting to block out his friend’s panicked mumblings, and the rough whisper of tearing skin.

The paramedics arrived not even 5 minutes later, but Tony had still managed to cover every exposed inch of skin in long, angry pink stripes – breaking it in some places and smearing traces of blood across his inflamed flesh. The image of his friend, trembling and moaning and tearing at his skin with bloodied nails as the paramedics loaded him into the ambulance… that would haunt him to his dying day, Rhodey was sure of it.

His only relief was that one kindly man asked if he would like to ride with Tony to the hospital.

He held his hands the whole way.

…

At the hospital, Rhodey spent agonising hours pacing the waiting room, stomach twisted into knots and mind blaring at him the whole time. It was almost 5am by the time a doctor came to speak to him.

“James Rhodes?”

Rhodey stepped towards the doctor, eyes locked on the woman – desperately trying to read her body language, to unravel the rigid line of her posture and find underneath it something about Tony.

Anything about Tony.

“That’s me.”

“You’re here for Anthony Stark, correct?”

Rhodey nodded, and she smiled - genuinely smiled – and a little of the tension in his gut melted at the sight.

“So, Doc, what’s the prognosis?”

“Anthony appeared to be suffering from mercury poisoning. In fact, one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen. He should be fine, although we will need to monitor him for a couple of days. Do you have any idea where he could have been exposed to a high dose of inorganic mercury recently?”

Rhodey paused, attempting to catalogue all of the information that had just been dumped on him.

“Wait. So, you’re telling me all of the shaking, the itching… he was saying there were goddamn bugs under his skin, for God’s sake! That was all from mercury poisoning?”

The doctor nodded, and her kindly smile vanished.

“As you can see, it is very serious indeed. And other people could be affected by this too, depending on how your friend was exposed to this level of mercury. You need to think – do you have any idea on how he could’ve come into contact with this?”

Tony had come back from the labs shaking…

“We’re students at MIT – Tony was in one of the science or engineering labs, working on a project. There could be other students, or professors, that were exposed to this too.”

The doctor smiled again, though her eyes looked strained.

“Thank you. We’ll sort that all out at MIT, no need to worry. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get onto that. Anthony is in room 7,” She began to walk away, but turned back after a few steps, “You’re a very good friend, James.”

…

Tony was lying in a hospital bed, his small frame dwarfed by the sterile room. He had never looked so young, and Rhodey’s heart clenched.

He took a step into the room, and suddenly Tony’s eyes were blinking open.

“Hey, platypus. How’re you doing?” His voice was soft, but regardless Rhodey felt the knot in his stomach dissolve.

Tony was okay.

It would all be okay.

So they sat, and talked together for a while - after some light chastisement on Rhodey’s part, of course. When the teenager fell asleep, the older boy made a trip back to their dorm to get some more comfortable clothing for the both of them, and a couple things to keep Tony entertained - there was no way in hell he’d let the kid leave the hospital early. So maybe this kind of thing happened too often, and maybe Rhodey’s mothering instincts were a bit too finely honed to be healthy. He knew that his life was changed forever the second this scrawny kid stumbled into it - but, somewhat surprisingly, he was okay with that. He had become an older brother, a protector, a common-sense instiller, a 24-hour revolving restaurant service and 90% of this kid’s impulse control - among other things. First and foremost though, Tony was his best friend.

And he’d never have it any other way.

[catsafarithewriter]

Prompt 13: "When I say ‘go’, run. Run and don’t look back. I’ll be right behind you, I promise.”

A/N: Heya so, reason number 3008 why I’ve been slow on this was distraction caused by the wonderful little series Emara, an animated series on YouTube about a cybernetic superheroine and, naturally, I decided to grab some of my favourite bits and apply it to a TCR setting. 

Basic premise: Baron is a Creation, Haru is… part Creation, for reasons that haven’t been revealed, they’ve worked alongside each other as superheroes for a while now (Haru going by Demeter, for several reasons) but there’s definitely some ulterior motives going on. 

I have a lot more ideas for this AU, so I’m hoping to carry it on/expand it. 

This ended up being super long… sorry! (Like… 3.5K words long)

EDIT: If you enjoyed this, please check out the full fic it became: Do Creations Dream of Clockwork Sheep? FFNET link here and AO3 link here! 

No one was quite sure where Creations came from.

Haru had spent the better part of a year gaining the trustof one, and she still couldn’t answer that. She hadn’t even been sure that theycould blend in with human society until she met Baron.

Humbert.

Baron.

Life had been so much simpler before discovering thatHumbert von Gikkingen, tea shop owner and local busybody, and Baron,self-proclaimed superhero Creation, were one and the same.

She looked to Baron now and tried to see somethingrecognisable. Beyond the feline features and wooden skin hidden behind the fur,there was little to be identified from the human she had thought she’d known.Only his eyes retained their original colour, and even they were changed;rounded and catlike and glimmering like gems. She wondered if, like his skin,his eyes were inorganic too. If, if she touched them, she would feel stone.

It had been easier when he had just been Baron.

What people didknow about Creations was limited, but there were some concrete facts. Creationswere magic. They had mostly inorganic forms – usually stone or wood, but notlimited to either – and were hardier and longer-lived than your average person.

And they certainly didn’t bleed.

Haru watched the red seeping through Baron’s jacket and triedvery hard to believe that. They didn’t bleed and they didn’t get hurt and theycertainly didn’t die on her watch. She helped Baron down to the floor behindthe desk, her hand brushing against the wound and, oh god, it certainly felt like blood. A faint tang of iron inthe air told her it smelt like blood too.

“I thought you were all wood except for the fur,” shewhispered coarsely, trying and only partly succeeding in hiding the horror.“How are you bleeding?”

Baron chuckled, and the chuckle turned into a wince. “Whatcan I say? I like finding new ways to surprise you, Miss Demeter.”

“What I’d like isfor you to shut up and try not to bleed out.”

“How about one out of two?”

“Apparently you can’t do either. How attached are you toyour jacket?”

“Is this a choice between dying and my jacket? Because myimpeccable fashion sense only goes so far.”

“I’ll take that as a negative,” Haru said, and she tore theblood-soaked jacket away to reveal the wound beneath. “Fuck.”

Baron, very carefully, didn’t look down. “That doesn’t soundencouraging.”

Haru folded up the ruined jacket and pressed it into hishand. “Keep that against the wound. Also, again: How are you bleeding?” Haru repeated. And why did there have to be so much? “Aren’t you meant to be madeof wood? Where is the blood even comingfrom?”

Baron was breathing shallowly now, his eyes diluting. “Theelectric shock – I believe it’s disrupted my magic. Can’t… can’t revert back toinorganic state.” His glassy eyes met hers with some difficulty, and heconjured up a watery smile. “But don’t tell anyone – can’t let people know I goall to pieces at a little electricity.”

Haru struggled to return the smile. If Macavity knew it wasthat easy to disrupt Creation magic… the amount that weakness alone would beworth… “How do we stop it?” she asked instead.

“It’ll wear off. In time.”

“We don’t have time. We have a mutant Creation trying to eatus.”

“When you put it like that,it sounds so unwinnable.”

“Well then, how do you suggest we stop it?” Haru snapped.“We have one crazed Creation… thingrampaging the building, you bleeding out, and I…” She finally registered thefaint but insistent beeping trying valiantly to be heard over the cacophony ofchaos on the floor below. “Oh no.” She twisted to one side and pulled up thehem of her trousers to see the light on her artificial legs fade. The strengthin her limbs gave way and she caught the edge of the desk to avoid collapsingentirely. “Oh shit.”

“Demeter?”

Haru lowered herself down. Gentle hysteria and of course this would happen nowskittered on the corner of her mind. She took a shaky breath. “And my legs havejust run out of juice. Fantastic.Perfect time to forget to bring a recharger. I don’t suppose you have one ofyour patented improvised plans in progress, do you?”

“I sling you over my shoulder and make a run for it?”

The crashing got closer. The monster Creation was workingits way up through the building and it sounded like their floor was next on theagenda.

“That would be tempting if you could even support yourself.So that’s Plan A. What’s Plan B? I sling you over my shoulder and haul us out?”

“Just one. Where do you get the magic to recharge yourlegs?”

“What?”

“Only,” and Baron sounded casual in the way that people dowhen they’ve caught someone out in a lie, “all naturally… occurring Creations,even part Creations, generate theirown magic.” Those infuriatingly contradicting gemstone eyes met Haru’s. “So whatare you?”

She held his gaze at the question she had been avoiding formonths now. Macavity supplied her the magic for her part-Creation legs, legssupplied by the same organisation that Macavity ran, but she had never receiveda straight answer for where either came from. She set her mouth in a thin line.“Right now, I’m stuck in the same situation as you. We need a plan.”

He didn’t look away. If he thought she would break down andadmit everything, then he hadn’t been paying attention these last elevenmonths. He gave a tiny nod. Not accepting her answer, but setting aside thedeceit for now. “Apart from the legs, how are you coping?” he asked. “Are youhurt?”

“I hurt like hell everywhere. But, no,” Haru added. “Nothingserious.”

Another nod. Another decision made. “Good. That’s… good.Then you should run for it before the monster Creation reaches us.”

“Weren’t you listening? My legs–” She inhaled sharply asBaron curled a hand around her ankle and a jolt of unfamiliar magic shotthrough her. Feeling flooded her limbs, her metal half-Creation legs sparkingwith white light before settling back to their usual gentle glow. “Baron? Whatdid you–”

“You needed magic. I gave you magic.” He leant back againstthe desk, his eyes dimmed in a way that was neither human nor gemstone. Helifted a hand from his side, despite the hiss of warning from Haru, and gavethat ever-familiar chuckle. “Well, would you look at that? It stopped thebleeding.”

“In the same way that removing all your blood would, yes,”Haru retorted. She shuffled closer and saw that the bloodied wound was scarredwood now. “Baron,” she said, “what does it mean when your fur is just paint?”

Baron’s breathing was definitely hollow now, like windrattling through dead branches. “It means I’m getting dangerously close tooverspending my magic budget.”

“How do we stop it?”

“You don’t. I usually sleep it off before…”

A spasm ricocheted through him and he gasped, a long andhollow gasp, and painted fur stole along his jawline. His fur – real fur, theonly luxury of the illusion of life he usually afforded – sank down, to bereplaced with paint strokes and grainlines.

“Baron?! Before? Before what?”

“Before I automatically revert,” he managed. His words cameout clumsy, like he was fighting around a numbed mouth. His hand found Haru’sand gripped it. She could feel his wooden skin beneath his glove. It felt soempty. “You need to go, before it reaches us.”

“No! I’m not leaving you.”

“The magic in your legs won’t last long before it runs out.You can’t get us both out of here.”

Haru thought back to the chalk pen and symbols she’d beentaught. To confess it now would reveal her work alongside the Cat Kingdom –official portal security identification only – but if it was between that and leaving Baron to die…

“Actually, I have a better idea.”

And that, naturally, was when the monster Creation burstthrough.

In her time working alongside Baron, Haru hadn’t really metmany Creations. Most, she assumed, kept to themselves and didn’t go out onvigilante runs, but even she could tell that there was something… off about this one. It wasn’t just thefact that it was giant, pulled out of proportion of anything approaching human,or the way it lumbered like a newborn calf, if newborn calves were in the habitof being eight feet tall bipedal monstrosities with teeth that clattered likethe unholy offspring between a chainsaw and a meat grinder. It probably wasn’teven only the way magic pulsed out from it, bleeding, tainted, like pus from aninfected wound. There was just something innately… wrong about it.

Even Haru’s first instinct to fight faltered as the creaturepulled itself up through the wreckage in the floor. “Baron. What kind ofCreation is that?”

“The monster type.”

“You don’t have a clue, do you?”

Baron coughed. “I told you; it’s a monster. Now hurry andrun before it eats you.”

“Like hell I’m doing that.” Haru brought herself to herfeet, gingerly testing her legs. Baron had been right; his magic refillwouldn’t last long. She could already feel the foreign energy depleting.

Guess she had to make it count then.

“Hey! Hey, yeah, you! Big and ugly!”

Those luminous eyes turned to her. No pupil. Why did it haveno pupil? Wasn’t it nightmare-inducing enough without? She heard Baron curse,but he wasn’t in any state to stop her exceptionally foolish plan.

“You hungry? Yeah! Then come and get me!” She threwsomething from the nearest desk for good measure – a stapler, it turned out tobe – and made a run for the window. For a moment, she heard no sound of pursuitand almost slowed to glance back to make sure she was being followed, when thefloor shook and something snagged the tails of her coat.

She spun, shaking the jacket off and kept moving. The windowneared and she leapt, twisting her legs up to shatter the glass, and twistingfurther to grab the ledge before she could fall.

A grotesque hand loomed through the window and snatched atempty air.

Haru pulled herself along, grabbing the sill of the window’sunshattered neighbour and digging her toes into the brickwork. “Come on, comeon, come on…” she murmured.

The hand retreated and silence settled. It hadn’t been enough.

Maybe she should have thrown two staplers.

Then the hand reappeared – two hands, a head, those eyes, shoulders, and the monsterCreation began to pull itself through the window.

Haru’s plan was working, but suddenly it didn’t seem so great.

It swung one giant hand her way. She leapt up out of reach,scrabbling for a handhold on the wall, and turned back to eye her pursuer.

It didn’t bat an eyelid – probably because it didn’t haveany – and sunk its claws into the wall beneath her. It released its steady holdon the window frame. It started to swing upwards, hand going for the ledgeabove, and Haru dropped.

She propelled herself down, feet first, burning through theborrowed magic as she shifted her feet into forms of spikes, and plummeted theminto the monster’s face.

There was no blood. She didn’t even feel the spikes sinkinto its sorry excuse for skin, but it howled, and those clattering, grindingteeth even gave pause, and its hold on the building slipped.

It slipped.

And it fell.

It fell and Haru was falling too. She grasped for theshattered windowsill – caught it, slipped, drew blood, and carried on falling –and then her whole body went taut as something grabbed her wrist.

Baron leant out of the window, his face more wood than furnow, but his hold sure. His mouth attempted a smile, but only one side moved.“And where do you think you’re going, Miss Demeter?”

“Up,” she gasped. “Pull me up!”

“As you wish.” Another hand joined the first, the fingerscurling uneasily around her arms – and if Haru listened, she was sure she couldhear the creak of wooden joints – but once it was secure, he hauled her inside.

She tumbled to the floor and immediately pulled herself backto the window. Baron joined her a moment later and they both admired her work.

“Do you think that worked?” Haru asked. “Is it dead?” Itwasn’t moving but, again, there was no blood.

“I think it’s stopped it for now,” Baron answered. Hestarted to move away from the window, but hesitated when Haru continued towatch. “Demeter?”

Among the crowds rapidly surrounding the fallen giant werepeople in dark grey suits. People who moved with a kind of uncanny grace amongthe frantic crowds. One man in particular moved towards the building, tall andgaunt, and turned his sunken eyes up to the destroyed floor.

Haru’s arms were shaking. She let them drop, and she droppedwith them, sinking down to the carpeted floor with no pretence of grace.“They’re coming.”

Baron continued to watch the crowds below. Haru wondered ifhe noticed the outliers amongst the onlookers, knew what they came for.Probably not. They were good at avoiding such attention. “Who?” he asked. “Thepolice? It’ll take them a little time to work their way up through the carnageour monster friend left, who knows, they might even want to congratulate us,for once–”

“No.” Haru exhaled slowly. Her legs were dead. Again.“They’re coming for you. They know you’ll be weak after that.”

“Who?” And this time there was a wariness in his question,like he knew he wouldn’t like the answer. “Who, Demeter?”

She met his gaze. Held it. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why not–”

“Just like I can’t tell you that they’re coming for you. Orthat you should run.”

“Then we should both flee–”

Haru laughed. Short and harsh and more bitter than she hadmeant. “I’m not going anywhere, Baron. Not with these legs.” She grabbed hishand as he reached out. “And you’re not going to repeat your little trick fromearlier. I saw how much it took out of you. You can’t do it again.”

“Demeter, look at me,” Baron said. “I can barely stand – Icouldn’t help when the monster Creation came back for round two, and I couldbarely make it to the window in time to catch you. You’re not the only onewho’s in no fit state to run. But – if I do this – you’re the only one whostands a chance of getting out of here.”

“And that’s where you’d be wrong. Move.”

Baron hesitated, but complied, shuffling away from her. Shepulled out a chalk pen from her pocket, not missing Baron’s raised eyebrow atthe strange gem shimmering at the end. As best she could with her dormant legs,she drew a circle into the floor around her, filling the outer rim with symbolsthat had been carved well into her memory. Once done, she motioned to Baron.“Help me up.”

He did so, carefully avoiding the chalk lines. “What isthis?”

“Teleportation circle. To the Cat Kingdom.”

He inhaled sharply. “Only official portal codes can makethat jump.”

“I know.” She met his gaze, daring him to add anything else.He did not. “This one should go to the edge of the kingdom, to a safe housethat even- that nobody knows about. It only takes one at a time, so take aseat.”

“Me? But you–”

She held up the pens bejewelled end. “Portal crystal codedspecifically to me. You can’t work it, and no other magic will trigger thisportal. Go and don’t look back. I’ll be right behind you, I promise.”

He met her gaze. His eyes were entirely dulled now and shewondered if he could even see. But he nodded and gently lowered her to thefloor. “Right behind me,” he echoed.

“Like always,” she lied, and the moment he took to thecentre, she stabbed the portal crystal into the circle and Baron disappeared ina sphere of white light.

The new silence around her felt somehow heavier than thesilence shared between her and Baron, but she tried not to dwell on that.Instead, she dragged herself into the circle’s centre and shakily redrew theblurred lines she left behind. She could hear footsteps ascending their waythrough the building – just one set, getting closer, with a steady and surebeat that she would recognise anywhere – and she struck the circle with thecrystal one last time.

The lines glowed. And then faded. The remnant light in theportal crystal died entirely and the fight melted from Haru’s bones. Bringingthe pen to the light, she could see that a hairline crack ran along the gem.Probably damaged during the fight, and its magic had leaked from it, leavingjust enough for a single journey. “Well,” she said to the empty room, “Itried.”

“Oh, you certain did, Miss Yoshioka.”

She turned her head to see Macavity walk into the room.

The first time Haru met Macavity in his human form, she hadbeen surprised at how real it had seemed. But the more she got to know him, themore she realised you could take the cat out of the Cat Kingdom, but you can’ttake the Cat Kingdom out of the cat. His (true) feline form was a thin gingertabby with sunken eyes and a swaying, snakelike walk that belied something ofthe predator in him. His human form was tall and gaunt, with those same sunkeneyes, human but no warmer for it, and a stride that never broke its internalrhythm.

“Now, we seem to be missing one Creation, don’t you think?”he asked.

“What? Was big and ugly down there not enough for you?” Harureturned, motioning weakly to the window. “What’s a lady gotta do around hereto get some recognition?”

“You were meant to bring Baron in.”

“And I would have done, but it’s a little difficult whenones legs run out of battery.” She patted her inactive calves for emphasis andtried not to let Macavity see the fear behind her eyes. She had gone againsteverything she’d been ordered, every priority and rule set out before her, andthe only thing she had going for her right now was that Macavity hadn’tactually seen her release Baron.

“So I see. Such a shame.” Macavity approached and squatteddown at the edge of her circle, those shadowed eyes falling level with Haru’s. “And,tell me, what kind of state was Baron in after your little spat with the rogueCreation? He didn’t look like he was doing too well when he hauled you backinside. How much magic did he have left?”

“More than I did,” Haru said, biting the inside of her mouthto keep herself from saying anything she would regret. “Look, if I could havestopped him, don’t you think I would have?”

Those sunken eyes didn’t blink. “Would you?”

“Isn’t that my mission?” Haru retorted. “What do you wanthim for, anyway? You never told me that.”

“That’s need to know information, Miss Yoshioka. Need toknow. And you don’t. However, what I needto know is where Baron went next and what, exactly, you are doing with thisfailed attempt at a teleportation circle.” Those eyes narrowed further. “I hopeyou weren’t thinking of running away.”

Failed. He thought she’d failed.Small mercies. She kept her gaze level and told the closest thing to truth shedared. “He’s going to the Cat Kingdom.”

Macavity’s gaze flickered, again, to the chalk circle. Somethingalmost approaching surprise flashed across his face. “The Cat Kingdom?” heechoed.

“Said he was looking for answers.” She watched thefaux-human’s face for any sign that she was hitting the right mark, but therewas nothing. “Since magic originated from the Cat Kingdom in the first place,and Creations are made of magic, or something. It must have made sense to him.I was going to the Cat Kingdom to warn them.”

A moment passed.

Two.

Macavity nodded, accepting her explanation – for now. He straightenedback up, stepping away from Haru. “Well, Miss Yoshioka, I think you’ve done allyou can for today. We’ll get you scooted back home and recharged and we’ll letyou know when you’ll be dropping by the Cat Kingdom to track down our mutualfriend. That sound good?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, good.”

He started for the door, where more people in dark suitsstood waiting. Haru hadn’t noticed them before now.

“Sir?” she asked. “You never told me where the magic for mylegs come from either.”

That gaunt face tilted back, eyes glimmering. “Need to know,Miss Yoshioka. Need to know.”

SHAMELESS EDIT: If you enjoyed this, please check out the full fic it became: Do Creations Dream of Clockwork Sheep? FFNET link here and AO3 link here!

[exhaustedwerewolf]

Detroit: Become Human fans, please consider checking out C4/AMC Humans!

I’ve been meaning to make this post since D:BH’s release, but I just found out that Humans was canceled after three seasons, and in my grief, I’m going to finally deliver. I’m not sure what the overlap between these two fandoms is like because I’ve never seen anyone talking about it and couldn’t find any posts tagged with both, which surprises me a lot.

For those unfamiliar with either, both shows are set in a world where humanoid robots are commonplace as servants and members of the workforce, and what happens when some of these individuals begin to achieve sentience. Asides from the subject matter- so similar I literally don’t have to explain them separately- so many characters have parallel roles in the story, the commonalities, from the overarching themes, to the robot detective, to the blue blood, are practically endless. I really want to draw people’s attention to Humans, though, because in my opinion it’s a severely underrated show, and I think those who enjoyed D:BH would get more of what they loved from it, and those who had more mixed feelings about it would find Humans delivers where D:BH lacks.

Let me explain what I mean.

Warning, though, that this ramble won’t be spoiler free, so if you‘re interested in the show but don’t want to read any spoilers- I’d really urge you to give it a shot!

Also warning, I’m a little dismissive of D:BH here, but that’s not to say I dislike it or don’t think people should like it, etc. I’m just trying to explain why I think in some areas, Humans does better- ofc, Humans is a tv show and not a game that needs engaging gameplay and multiple endings, so it has opportunities D:BH doesn’t.

The Synths (Androids)

I’m not a huge fan of the way androids are presented in D:BH, and the reason I’d argue for that is Cage makes no real effort to “other,” them- in fact, he goes beyond the logical to make them as human as possible. Androids’ body language and movement, range of facial expressions, idiosyncratic habits like Connor’s coin flipping, tendency even, to lie down to rest... they endear them to the player, but they’re ultimately all superfluous. Why were these things programmed in? Why don’t they operate as economically as possible? Further, why do androids become deviant, and burst out of their programming? We’re told it’s due to “stress,” but why can they feel such stress in the first place, and why does it trigger sudden sentience? We never get a clear answer. It’s pretty unclear, admittedly, how sentient androids are before they become deviant in the first place- and I see where the game was coming from with that, however...

Synths in Humans are far more unsettling- the actors portray their movements with a jarringly uniform perfection. Their speech and facial expressions are far less emotional, because emotions were never intended for them. They can’t feel physical pain, (although incurring damage remains a stressful and frightening experience) because again, that was never intended for them, and so they have no mechanism by which to do so. This gives humans arguing that they’re only machines a lot more clout. Everyone has memories of blank slates who never laugh or smile, and who can be turned off with a tap under the chin, only to crumple like mannequins. There’s times when they’re presented to the audience as unapologetically eerie and even disgusting, and it’s easy to see, therefore, how they’re being perceived by the public as machines or monsters, which arguably, was somewhat less credible in D:BH, where even non-deviant androids were personable and warm, had the capacity to create art from their imaginations, etc. Letting synths be genuinely different to humans while still portraying them as sentient and deserving of rights, rather than just... “human, but mechanical,” gives the issue a lot more nuance and fuels the inclusion of elements like anti-synth propaganda, and counter-protest, which I’ll talk more about later.

(As a note, the “why” behind their sentience is also explained in a manner that was, imho, more coherent and satisfying.)

As I mentioned before, a lot of the characters have seeming direct parallels, so I’m going to take this opportunity to talk about a couple of characters in depth.

Niska

The blue-haired Traci’s appearance is one of the most controversial elements of the game, from what I’ve seen. The writers undeniably dipped their toes into multiple subjects fraught with heavy implications in her scene, but ultimately that was as far as it went- Traci and her lover only existed to further the narratives of Hank and Connor (and to provide a frankly fan-servicey fight scene while scantily clad in the rain, but hey, that’s neither here nor there.) To anyone who found this character interesting but ultimately underutilized, might I introduce you to the light of my life; Niska. Like Traci, Niska spends a stint as a prostitute, and ultimately kills one of her patrons and skips the joint. Like Traci, Niska is a wlw- although her relationship with her girlfriend comes a little later on in the show. Unlike Traci, Niska is one of the main protagonists of the show, and undeniably one of the most important- she holds everyone’s fate in her hands more than once, she’s fascinating from an emotional point of view- her traumas are confronted in depth and not dismissed- and her actions are very often a driving force in the plot line. Her relationship with her girlfriend is developed on screen, and in many ways, arguably the most important in the entire show.

Max

I‘ve seen criticism of the revolution storyline in D:BH in that violent protest always nets you a bad ending, and in that the peaceful route is arguably too idealistic.I’d posit Max’s storyline (and the effects of his dynamics with Mia, Niska, etc.) as a more nuanced exploration of the issue. There’s characters pushing for both paths and they’re all portrayed as understandable, and their reasons for pushing either a peaceful or violent agenda are present and reasonable. As similar as he might seem to Markus at first glance, I’d argue Max, soft-spoken, brotherly, and empathetic, is a very different kind of leader, so I’m hesitant to compare them too much. But it’s interesting to see a character like this in such a high-pressure leadership role, and I’d argue that this is a less rose-tinted look at compassion in the face of oppression and violence.

Sam

I’m not going to mince words on D:BH’s  Alice twist- to me, it felt inorganic and disappointing. I felt like the game withheld foreshadowing and intentionally misdirected the player to keep the reveal a surprise, and that really bothered me. However you feel about the Alice reveal, it’s undeniable that it is so late on in the game means that the whole idea of robo-kids being adopted into human families doesn’t really get explored in much depth. Humans gets more into the grit of this, discussing how a kid like this would be able to relate to kids and adults alike, what this strange form of “eternal youth,” would mean, etc. If that was an idea that interested you, you’ll get far more of it in Humans. 

This really isn’t where the parallels stop- like I mentioned, we have a robot detective with a really close relationship with their human partner (hannor shippers, I’m looking right at you) we’ve got themes of domestic violence and abuse, we’ve got separated families, we’ve got art and morality- I can’t be here all day, but I’ll say it like this; if it’s explored in D:BH, it’s probably explored in Humans, too.

The Humans

D:BH is very much grounded in the perspective of androids- all the player characters are androids, as are the majority of the supporting cast- Hank is arguably the only human character that gets any real screen time, and one of the only real insights we get into how humans are coping with this new android-filled world. I think this is a shame, because the setting is a really interesting one, and a lot goes unexplored, or at least, unexplored in depth. It frankly feels kind of disingenuous to me to only see little of Markus’ impact beyond a number on the screen labeled “public opinion,” and this is something that I feel Humans deals with a lot better. One of Humans’ biggest strengths is, ironically, the humans in it- the viewer is grounded in this sweeping, overarching plotline primarily through the perspective of the Hawkins family, but ultimately other human characters play a lot of important roles as well. We’ve got synth/human romances, we’ve got humans passing as synths (yes, that IS Princess Shuri down there) we’ve got synths passing as humans, we’ve got humans campaigning for synth rights, we’ve got humans campaigning for synth extinction. Getting the human side of the story is really valuable and adds so much to the narrative as a whole, it makes the protagonists’ struggle more real and raises the stakes.

Frankly this post is a mess but if you made it this far, thanks for reading, and please watch Humans if you like this type of sci-fi. I promise it’s worth it.

[thewinebottlenr43-blog]

Killing Steel

Mc murders Steel. With a bit of love.Nine times. Nine! Before  i successfully wrote  his  downfall.  So where is my trophy evi author? ! It was lucky shot. The lucky part coming from @Cheion  who encouraged and helped  me murder him one last time. Thanks for that. 👍👍👍

You are screaming. But Herald screams more, the mental seizures slowly crumpling his mind to bits. You had fought for a while. The kid was strong. You made him strong. Confident. To say you weren't proud was an understatement. But all heroes break eventually. Three years as a villian had taught you that.

Or was it when you broke up into pieces?

It doesn’t matter, not anymore.

Perhaps it did once, in a different place. In a different time. When you were souring among the angels. When you could feel guilt for what you are doing now. It dosen’t matter. The angel had fallen and rage is the only feeling you can bear these days. The heroes stand in your way. It's not your fault for taking them out. Herald is no difference.  He tries to speak, tries to beg. But you won't allow it. His mind becomes a distant memory as you feel it shutting down.

"Forgive me kid but you can’t save me. I'm not the hero you once worshipped. I never was.”

With a final shock wave, Heralds mind puffs up like smoke. A silence hits your thoughts.  Three down. One to go. He should be here now. If not for the fact that he is a Ranger and a hero, That's his  weakness. Caring. Something you didn't share. No – couldn’t share. Not after what happened.

You thought you were prepared. But they found you. Found your hideout. Their faces as familiar to you as your body. Two Re Genes. Strong; too strong.  You had to run. Seek out help. Tell him everything.

You had thought you could trust him. But he had spat in your face.  You remember the sound of the alarms as you entered the Rangers headquarters in your costume. The  daylight removing it’s intimidating  flavour. Was it simply made for the nightlife? You were lucky Lady Argent wasn’t arround.

There was a confrontation. A shocked Herald unable to speak as you removed your mask. An incessant Ortega, berating al the terible  things you did. Did you feel sory then? Maybe you did if not for Steels ire.

"We don't help  a murderer".

That’s when you snapped.

He tried to stop you.  They all did.  In their own way. Even when you  asked for forgiveness. Even when you  told  them everything. Begged them to focus on the bigger picture. So much for relying on the angel’s grace. In the end you were the problem. The villIan to be stopped,  to be put away.  You don't think you ever  felt as much rage as you did that day it all came crashing down. Certainly enough to break the bond between you and Marshal Steel. The moments you both shared. Moments of finding out the man behind the cold mask. Moments of training together. Moments of pain, of love, of tears.  Tears you kept to yourself, knowing what you coudn’t be. Tears that are a distant memory.

There he is.

You look at the HUD display as Steel rushes towards you, a dark mass of metal. There is no pause in his steps. No threats and warnings of making you surrender.

No, this is revenge. The egg had finally cracked.

You fly upwards just as he prepares for a punch. His mind is shielded. But the nanovores should take care of that. All you need is a good spot and a well-aimed punch.  You don't have time to plan for either as Steel starts firing at your armor. Maybe you should have settled for those  telepathic boosters, instead of enhanced speed.  it's hard to focus on two things.

The firing stops.  

Shit. You wish you could have noticed it but it's too late as your armor shuts down. The weight of gravity hitting you as you fall.

Steel catches your legs with a tight grip.

"Bullets. With microenhanced emps. Did you think I was just firing at you?"

He rips of your jets . Slamming you to the ground.  Your armor beeping all kinds of yellow. Shit. You need to move.  He dosen’t give you the chance. Aming  a kick to your side. The pain almost unbearable.

"No more games. It's just you and me now."

"Not before I take you apart."

You lash out in a desperate move . Throwing yourself against him. The nanovores hungry, set on their target as you release them.  You don't know if they hit a weak spot.  All you can do is focus on feeding their hunger.

Steel launches another attack. On the chest, to the side, to the head. Shit, that one hurt.  Shit he's strong. Of course he is. You know it. Personally,  intimately. The memories slipping into your mind.

Prostetic hands holding yours firmly. Arms strong as a bull pushing you forward, trapping you in a tight spot. You can feel the mods pressing against your cloths. A cold hand touches your face.  It stays there. His mind an expression of uncertainty.

" This .." He pauses . "Maybe we should..."

You don't let him finish. You’re a telepath.  You know what he feels. Did you feel the same? Was pressing your lips against his your way of avoiding your true feelings? The same feelings that occupied his own thoughts. The doubts, the fear, the concequences? Or was this how you really felt? Pressing yourself tighter around him. Kissing him ever so deeply. Having found someone to share  a part of yourself with. Why did the nightmares stop after that day?

Nothing made sense anymore.  Except for the brutal screams of another presence. Telling you to wake up. To remember.

They are in.

Metal pressed against skin. Pain everywhere. It hurts, it really hurts. Shit. You can't see.  Your mask is beyond repair, clinging to your face. The HUD  showing various colors. An indication  of its poor state.  You throw of your helmet.

Trying to get up is more than you can bargain for. You can already feel the blood trickling down from everywhere. Shit.  Are you bleeding out?  

You slowly take off the rest of your armor.  Painfully aware of the dark mass of metal in front of you. Sparks of electricity popping out of its left shoulder.  A small ladder  sticking out of its back.  Did Steel escape after the armor shut down?

"Aaaah! Get of!"

You flinch.

Steel. You feel him backed up to nearby wall. Something stuck to his hands.  Hungry. Shit.  Not now it's too soon. Nanovores eating him alive. You don't want that. You can't have that.  Not before you make him confess what he did to you. Justice will be served  but you don’t intend to be sloppy about it. Bleeding out as you are , its harder to focus on them. Especially when they have something to eat. Nobody likes their dinner disturbed. You don't mind, pressing your will against them.  

They swirl around you as your gaze finds Steel. His left  fingers half torn.  Sparks coming out of them. You almost want to drop to the floor. Let yourself bleed out.  Give up to the nightmares. No. You need to do this. Just one more and then...

"You look terrible."

He stands there. One arm holding the other. Pain is visible across  his face.  

"Likewise"

"I've been through worse." It's not a lie. Even though he clutches his damaged arm a bit too tight. A tightness you once experienced. How would it feel to relive it? No. You shake your thoughts.  Forcing yourself to smile.

"So have I Steel. More than you can imagine . "

"You killed Herald!"

"Add two more to your list."

"He adored you. Even after his legs got broken.  Even after finding out the truth."

" He cared too much.  All of you did. Well maybe not Argent. But Ortega. Nosey as always."

"Do Re Genes even have emotions? Or is that a just  facade?"

"Maybe. Disappointed?"

"No. I knew you were trouble the first time we met."

"Come on, Steel. I can see the windows to your house. Did you think this would last? After what you did. What all of you did?"

You point to your body. So much blood on the ground. Almost ready to pass out.

"Don't you put the blame on me!  You brought this on yourself. Putting on a costume. Murdering people. Friends."

" You think I wanted this?  I'm not the villIan here. Who left their friend to die? Who left him to the hounds? Not remembered? Not cared for? "

" That's not fair!"

"I'm sure Anathema would agree!"

"You killed people! What was I suposed to do?! Putting you away was the best option."

"Liar!  For once admit that your are the problem.  you wanted to help. You just coudn’t accept al those people who died for nothing, while you are still alive working for a twisted system. "

"Stop it!"

His emotions had boiled up. But there’s something beneath it all. Guilt. Sadness. Fear to accept the truth.

"So you decided to take all your frustration on the one thing you felt closest to.  The one thing you could never have. Me."

"Always getting inside people's heads! As if you have a right to do so!"

"I didn't ask for my powers. I didn't ask to be made. But I guess this is where we are."

Your knees hit the ground. Shit. You won't be able to stay conscious for long.

Steel straightens his shoulders.

"Maybe you’re right."

"Maybe?!"

" I just... After you told us everything. It was hard.  Hard not to just give up. I've seen wars. People dying. Comrades. This however..."

He shakes his head.  

"Human progress builds on suffering." You  say as you give him a smile. " I know."

" Still, it dosen’t excuse  what you did."

"I'm not sorry. "

"That's why I have to take you down."

Releasing his left arm he pulls out a small handgun.  Looking unsure as he aims it at you.

"You didn't used to carry that when I was around. Guess you needed some company, huh?"

"For whatever it's worth,  I...It was nice. What we had." He puts his hands on the tiger. Unsure of what to do. Is that a hint of redemption you detect from his thoughts? You know there is no such thing left in you  anymore. Your just broken and bloodied pieces of shards. Unable to mend themselves.

"For whatever it's worth." You agree.  Taking advantage of his doubts. It takes not more than a second before the nanovores are upon Steel again. Eating the gun away. You direct their attention  to the rest of his body.  The scream is not what you would have imagined.  There is no laughter as you take your foe apart. No joy as the nanovores devour anything inorganic. No comfort as blood gushes out from various places, once occupied by various mods. His mind is still active. You pull it towards yourself. Like rowing a boat backwards. Stripping it away from his body with the last of your strength.  

It's there, you and it together. A   bubble, inside your mind.  Slowly fleeting away as you surround it with the memories. The acid air. Anathema’s skin dissolving. Going upstairs. The vertigo as the bubble loses itself to the madness. The rage. The window. The darknes.  You pull yourself along with it. He who desires revenge should dig two graves. You know  who to dig them for.

The bubble gets   smaller and smaller,   fading away into  the deep dark nothingness. You tag along. Finally at peace with yourself.  Letting the darkness dissolve your whole being. Your body collapses and the world goes quiet.

.....

Beneath the moonless sky, ambulances and police sirens beep to nobody's attention. The bald doctor with small round glasses takes a peek at the dead toy in front of him. Stupid cuckoo.  Always thinking they can run away. But that's why they are called cuckoos. In the end nobody can run away from the farm. Not even through death. With a shark like smile, the doctor picks up the empty body, putting it inside a nearby van. He would make sure to make it less annoying this time. Much less annoying. And far less human. How many times had it escaped? And how many times did he have to suffer for it? Not this time. The doctor adjusts his glasses as he step into the van. Driving away from the chaos behind. Letting the cops and citizens of Los Diablos to deal with the death of the last Ranger, which the doctor didn't care one wit about.

Just another nobody biting the dust.

[coldalbion]

Part 1: I was Odin and Loki devotee for 3 years and I considered having quite a strong connection with both of them despite of being a noob so to say. At one point I tried to become part of a certain small pagan community, because I felt I needed a pack; I didn't know much about anything and wanted to learn. Couple of months went well. Then I found out admin was a manipulative closet nazi and gay/transphobe.

Part 2: The rest of the ppl there didn't mind it at all in the name of "tolerating different opinions" and just laughed it off. I was so outraged, and I left. However, they too were norse pagans or inclined in one way or another towards the practice. They were talking like the gods had their back, helped them to get forward and agreed with what they were doing. Tried to talk me to "open my mind" to it as well.Part 3: When I was younger, I used to loathe everything monoteism related because of people like that. Now the same fury I thought had already been dead and buried, emerged stronger than ever, and this time it wasn't aimed at monoteism, but norse gods. I felt betrayed and used. I thought I'll rather be alone than have anything to do with deities who hang out with nazis or other human scum, while crying my eyes out and getting rid of my altar.Part 4: A friend tried to tell me to be reasonable, reminded me they're just people and people can talk shit or be deluded, and asked do I trust more the gods or people. I answered "I don't trust anybody anymore. Everyone can just fuck off." Now it feels like I've chopped off my own arm and run into space, far away from Earth, and just drifting there with nowhere to go. Like I would've lost one of my senses. It's dead silent.Still, just a thought of putting the altar back pisses me off, as everything norse related reminds me of those people. And I hate it as well how big of an infuence they have over me. I'm not even sure why am I writing this. I was thinking have you or someone of your followers perhaps had similar experiences and how did they overcome it?

That’s a horrible thing to have happen anon, and it’s never easy to experience betrayal - particularly when it’s in an arena where you feel that you were an individual who knew less, and in a sense looked up to those others as worthy of respect. I can only imagine what it felt like to have folks you used to consider pack, people you thought worthy and trusted to watch your back and look out for your spiritual well being, embrace or give time to such vile ideas which should never be tolerated.It’s bad enough when authors or authorities you respected turn out to not be what you thought they were, or espouse sentiments that are anathema to our own sense of justice and right living, let alone when those ideas have been proven to lead to atrocity after atrocity, violations of body and soul for thousands, nay, millions of people.So I understand you anger, and your sense of loss, because while the circumstances were different, I too have felt the gutting horror, the rising bile, and the brutal bruising of the soul under such an abuse. Because make no mistake, abuse of trust is abuse. When we make ourselves vulnerable to another, when we open our hearts enough to allow others to draw us along on a journey, we take a risk, allowing them to come into contact with pieces of ourselves we do not often expose in ordinary life. When we extend them that privilege - and make no mistake, it is a privilege - in a very real sense we give them access to the private laws, those intimate paths of thought and action we lay down which govern our inner lives, and we expect people to abide by them when in those spaces. True friends acknowledge those laws, and abide by them in interactions with us - even if they don’t always agree completely, in toto, because they respect us, and wish us to prosper. The recognise that these laws are the root-channels our life-force has forged throughout our existence, and they respect that which animates us - that which brings us Life and More Life. That which allows us to become More ourselves.This doesn’t mean that they should kowtow to us, but that they should act with respect towards us, and when in our orbit behave in a manner which is regarded by all parties as respectful within the context of relationship. Thus, I can have a respectful relationship with a friend even if our interactions seem naught but insulting to each other, because, contrary to what might appear to outsiders, we both know the insights arise out of love and respect.I mention respect, because many people have an inorganic ossified notion of respect, and honour and the like. They do not understand that they are both properties of betweenness - bonds between groups and individuals, gods and human, friends, siblings, parents and children etc. When those bonds, those shared agreements, implicit, or explicit, are broken ? Life, sense, meaning? They are disrupted - the flow of the world, its rhythms, its pulses, are thrown into disarray.Anger, rage - these are primal emotions, primal forces. Raw powers unleashed in some manner to grasp, to shape the world into new meanings, either by defending our integrity, or allowing us to gain a foothold in the world by overpowering things enough for us to make sense of them. In the service of Life, in the service of hope and kindness? They are holy things, but like many things, perhaps all things, they can be debased, can be twisted or turn harmful. When combined with fear, they can lead to atrocities, as we mentioned earlier.Make no mistake then, anon, but believe me when I say: You have been wronged. You have been wronged, and have every right to be angry. You have been wronged by people, not gods. But your anger at the gods is understandable. After all, it was for, and through them, that you encountered the people who abused your trust.So when you friend asked you whether you trusted the gods, I understand what they were trying to do. But the truth is, it has very little to do with the gods at all, except in a manner which I’ll come to into a moment.It is not surprising that your rage is also spilling over towards the gods, despite that sense of loss that you mention. Not surprising at all, not only for reasons you yourself mention, but also because you do not wish to be like those people who broke your trust, and what bound you to them was, seemingly, the gods. Was altars and shrines and hailing the names of Odin and Loki. To honour those gods is do as they did.So. Do not do as they did. Forgo the altars. Forgo the blots. Forgo the poisoned practice. Forgo “Anything Norse” as you put it. Those bonds are shattered. Let the anger rage, righteously.Let the fury have its head. Let it roar, let it surge, let it pulse. Let the pain of the wound sing. And know this, as you drift above the earth, senseless..The gods are. They are not their names (How can they be, when Odin has hundreds?) They are not their shrines. They are not their so-called worshippers.The gods were.A thousand years before your birth, they interacted with humans.

The gods will be.With you, or without. Long after you die, they remain. After this generation, and the next, and the next. No one raised up their names or gave them cultus, or erected altars or shrines for centuries.Yet still, they impacted upon you.Think about that, for a moment. Across all of space and time, down the centuries, down the generations, they made contact, and you forged a bond. 

Independently.Before your betrayers ever came into your life, it was You And Them.Before Nazi scumfucks were even a glimmer in Hitler’s grandparents eye, there they were.Before your betrayal, your relationship with them was good, was prosperous, yes? It served the purpose of Life, enhanced your existence, and in doing so, enhanced the existences of those around you, yes?And those arseholes took that from you. Made the forms and functions of your spiritual life into things of hate and apologism for hate.How fucking dare they?!How dare they break something holy, how dare they violate frith like that?So. Consider this: If I feel your rage, who else does? If I regard such violation as a crime, who else might?Suppose, just for a second, for a moment, that the anger, the disgust you feel at anything resembling ‘Norse’ as presented by our society right now? Suppose it’s not just yours. Suppose it’s theirs too.Suppose for a moment that those signs and symbols by which you previously navigated your relationship with The Master of Fury and the Mother of Sleipnir, are indeed poisoned for you.Suppose therefore that your anger may (or may not) be a sign from them, a desire to develop a more intimate relationship with them, beyond name and form, beyond ‘Norse’ into pure Life, existence itself. To form new bonds which cannot be contaminated by society, and in fact might lead to the destruction of poisonous ideas, via a more organic betweeness -  a vitalistic, enthusing, Life-affirming relationship of frith between all things, which by definition opposes hate?My advice anon: Allow your fury to guide you to the place where you feel whole. I suspect you’ll meet some strangely familiar folks, though their faces may be different.Be well, and know that I understand. 

[veebsin]

Shklance a/b/o intersex alpha and omega Keith 4/?

Keith woke to a gentle burn under his skin. It simmered, making him groan as he sat up. The heat didn’t bother him, but the fact he felt absolutely disgusting did. He needed a shower. Why hadn’t he showered after-

Oh.

He rubbed his eyes. Lance had left him alone, leaving after they had fucked. Which made him feel... horrible. Didn’t they say they needed to talk? Keith frowned, the thought sour on his tongue. He wasn’t an omega. He didn’t need the constant touch of an alpha during a heat. In fact, he didn’t go...

...

Damn it. Keith closed his eyes, feeling heat under his skin. He was an alpha. Being in heat... he didn’t do that. Alphas didn’t go into heat. And yet, here he was, feeling dried cum on his legs and his cunt still slick, still yearning for more.

He’d need to talk to Shiro. No matter what else happened, if he was in heat, he would need to talk to an omega about what exactly that would entail. Sex ed for alphas only went over the basics in consideration for betas and omegas. He would need to know what his body would do during heat, and what to expect. He knew on average how long heats lasted - a week - but he wasn’t sure how long his would last. Maybe less, with the alpha hormones in him.

Maybe his heat would be less intense than most omegas, considering. There were transdynamic people. He wished he had paid more attention in class now to if transdynamic people had weaker heats. It might help him figure this out.

First, shower. Then talk to Shiro.

A thought occurred to him as he showered that maybe no one would know how his heat would go. He had Galra blood in him, after all. It might end up that Keith would have longer heats. Or worse ones.

Keith turned the shower off with vicious movements. He could feel himself starting to get slicker, needy. Quickly, he dressed, leaving the shower, and stopped as he saw Lance there with a tray, food and drink on it. “Hey,” Lance said cheerfully, putting the tray down. “You’re going to be hungry, so I brought you something. At least, Shiro’s always starving after we fuck.”

So he had just... gone to get something to eat. Keith went over to the tray, looking down at the goo. Slowly, he picked up the spoon, taking a bite- then devoured everything on the plate. He didn’t realize just how starving he felt until just then. Water felt just as good, and he drank as fast as he could without choking. Keith sighed when it was all gone, feeling... like it wasn’t enough. Still feeling hungry, thirsty, horny-

”Okay, so.” Lance sat down on Keith’s bed. “Serious talk. You’re having a heat.”

Keith nodded.

Lance sighed, leaning forward and resting his arms on his thighs. “Real talk. How do you want to do this? I mean, you don’t have to get fucked by an alpha to get through a heat. You don’t really need me for this. So, you know, you don’t have to deal with me.”

Keith ran a hand through his hair. “Lance, this is the first heat I’ve ever had to deal with. If you wanted to ask me about ruts, I know all about those. I’ve been an alpha all my life. This... this is the first time I’ve ever had a heat, and I never had to go through sex ed for omegas, so I don’t know what I can and can’t do.”

”Want me to get Shiro? Though, I think he literally ended his heat when you started yours so I don’t know how that’s going to go. I seriously have no idea if you putting out omega pheromones like that will set him off again.”

”I kind of was going to go talk to Shiro anyway,” Keith admitted.

”Awesome! Then I should, uh...” Lance laughed awkwardly. “Go, I guess.”

Keith didn’t know how to answer that at first. Then- “I wouldn’t mind. If I need an alpha.”

Lance blinked. “Oh. Um. Okay.”

Keith took a deep breath. “I’ll go talk to Shiro now.” He turned for the door, trying to ignore how he already felt how slick his underwear felt. Hopefully Shiro would have a solution.

Only for his veins to burn. Keith crumpled to the ground, letting out a breathy cry. Damn it. The need to fuck hit him faster than he expected. While he could still think- “Unless you want to fuck me, Lance, get out of here. Because I’m about to start begging.”

”Uh...”

Keith grit his teeth, waiting.

And Lance left, making Keith feel both relieved and panicked. He knew from sex ed that he needed an alpha... but he didn’t know if he really did need an alpha, if he would be okay. But he didn’t need to keep fucking Lance, he didn’t need-

The door opened again, and he heard someone kneel down beside him. Two hands, one human, one inorganic, lifted his chin, wiped his face. Shiro. He opened his mouth only to feel Shiro kiss him, gentle.

Someone else knelt behind him. Hands stripped him of everything below the waist, and Keith broke the kiss to see Lance looking up at him.

”Don’t worry,” Shiro murmured in his ear. “For your first heat, you need to be taken care of. Normally this we’d be giving you toys and then cuddling afterwards, but we don’t have the sex toys. So Lance is going to make you cum until you can’t see straight. And I’ll be right here for you.”

Keith whined. “Shiro, what-”

”Hold onto me. I’m here.” Shiro grabbed his hand as Lance leaned forward, licking Keith’s sopping folds.

Keith groaned, lifting his hips into the touch. Lance easily slipped a finger into him, fucking his cunt quickly, swiftly adding two more as Keith’s body adjusted. His fingers twisted, brushing against something wonderful in his body that made him gasp. Lance flicked his fingers over and over that spot until Keith came, then didn’t stop until he came again, gasping.

And Shiro held his hand the entire time that Lance made him cum with his fingers alone, driving him out of his mind as each orgasm made his body burn worse and worse. He didn’t know when he started sobbing, only when Shiro wiped away his tears, speaking soothingly.

When Lance finally thrust into him, Keith screamed. He didn’t stop cumming, it didn’t stop being good, didn’t stop burning, didn’t stop-

And then he felt Lance stop, cumming inside him, and felt his knot-

Shiro’s hand on his was the only thing grounding him as he came one last time, blacking out for a moment. When he came back to himself, he felt hands stroking his hair, feeling so nice... and he felt someone pulling him into their arms, and smelled alpha, wonderful alpha...

Everything was nice...

Keith smiled, falling asleep.

[frattocri9724]

Steven Universe: Obsidian The Crystal Temple Fusion -  Possible Powers and Abilities

Hello, everybody. Today, as I explained in my previous post, I’m going to talk to you about my personal deduction about the possible power and strength of Obsidian, the name given to the Crystal Temple Fusion by the creator Rebecca Sugar. This giant Fusion is depicted as the giant rock sculpture covering the entrance of the Crystal Temple. It’s never been estimated if it had ever existed, what abilities or powers she could have shown or anything else. There’s a current rumor which suggests that the fusion Obsidian was mentioned during Pearl’s own retelling of Captain Dewey’s story in “Mindful Education”, which, don’t get me wrong, is very possible, but that’s another story that we are not gonna discuss about in this article. What I’m gonna do is trying to find out how possibly powerful this Fusion is and, trust me, the implications of the conclusion I managed to reach are both terrifying and awesome at the same time. Obsidian, the Crystal Temple Fusion, isn’t just overpowered - she’s probably THE most overpowered Fusion in the entire series. Fusions like Malachite, Alexandrite, or even Blue and Yellow Diamond wouldn’t even stand a chance against this monstrosity. Now, obviously, it’s important to enlist which criterias I will cover over the course of the article in order to estimate Obsidian’s possible strength and special abilities and powers. For istance, I will try to perform power scaling of the “Steven Universe” franchise as much as I can and, in order to better develop the scaling, I will partially rely on some external sources, like the VS Battle Wiki, the OBD Wiki’s feats calculations and the SpaceBattles.com forum about the “Steven Universe respect/feats” post. Now, hear me out: I personally aknowledge that all of these sites do have their fair share amount of faults and errors. These sites aren’t full reliable sources (especially the VS Battle Wikia) but, at least, these sites would still help me to construct the basis for my analysis of Obsidian because I still need to start from somewhere and, if someone knows a better place on the internet to find more reliable informations about Steven Universe’s characters’s capabilities, please write to me in the comments. Also, I will obviously scale down or high the Fusion Obsidian to other better known characters in the series. So, with that said, let’s begin. For starters, let’s briefly recap what is a Fusion. In the “Steven Universe” franchise, a Fusion is an amalgamation of two or multiple Gems which combine their physical essences into one powerful being that’s noticebly stronger than the single parts. Furthermore, the Fusion is achieved through a synchronized dance between the Gems which also must perfectly synchronize their emotions and minds at best in order to maintain the Fusion. Fusions in “Steven Universe”, more or less, follow a simple rule for power scaling: the strength of the Fusion depends on both the number of the Gems involved in the ritual and, most importantly, it depends on the power of the singular Gems. Think about “Gurren Lagann” mechas’s combinations, but with space rock warriors. For example, a lot of people would agree to think that Smoky Quartz, the Fusion between Steven and Amethyst, is far weaker than Sugilite, the Fusion between Amethyst and Garnet. Finally, as Sarsonyx stated while talking to Smoky Quartz, a Fusion always develops something new, like a new power or a new weapon, and it’s been shown during the series that Fusions always manage to create or develop abilities, weapons and powers which are a combination of the Gems’s individual powers and weapons or, even more impressively, they might even develop further enhanced versions of the Gems’s powers. For istance, Garnet’s Electrokinesis is a combination of Ruby’s Thermokinesis and Sapphire’s Cryokinesis, while Alexandrite’s giant flame stream that she shot at Malachite is probably an ultimately powered-up verison of Ruby’s heat-based powers which gets an upgrade due to the fact that Alexandrite is a quadruple Fusion. Speaking of which, Alexandrite is gonna be mentioned quite often in this analysis because it’s a key factor in order to estimate Obsidian’s power. From the few pieces of informations we got from the creators, Obsidian is presumably a Fusion between the original Crystal Gems, so Amethyst, Pearl, Garnet and Rose Quartz- ops, sorry, should I have said, Pink Diamond?! That’s right, folks! The Fusion Obsidian is starting to become more interesting. First off, let’s take Alexandrite. Alexandrite is the quadruple Fusion between Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl and is described as “an incredible force on the battlefield”, it’s the Crystal Gems’s ace in the sleeves and the strongest weapon they have at their disposal against unchallengable odds. This Fusion is strong enough to challenge Malachite, the Fusion between Lapis Lazuli and Jasper, and managing to held her own against her. Being a Fusion of the present Crystal Gems, Alexandrite can be considered stronger, faster and tougher than the previous Fusions like Opal, Sardonyx and Sugilite. Among them, Opal’s Light Arrows fairly exceed the power output of one Laser Light Cannon, which was capable of one-shoting the Red Eye, which is probably larger than the Crystal Temple itself; Sardonyx has been statd of being able to attack at sub-relativistic speeds since she managed to launch the Rubies into space from the Moon Base for several hundreds of chilometers; Sugilite was considered the Fusion with the highest raw destructive power among the previous Fusions and she was capable of destroying a Communication Hub with a single twisted punch. With these comparisons in mind, you can get an idea of just how stronger Alexandrite is. She’s also bigger than Sugilite and her estimated height is around 25”. Most importantly, being a Fusion of the Crystal Gems, Alexandrite does have access to each one of the Gems’s special powers and skills. Since now, Alexandrite showed the ability to summon nearly each one of the Gems’s and Fusions’s weapons, like Opal’s bow, Sugilite’s flail, Amethyst’s whip, Pearl's spear and Sardonyx's war hammer. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the opportunity to further watch more of Alexandrite’s abilities and powers; however, since she summoned the Gems’s weapons, we can assume that she’s also capable of utilizing their special powers too. Last, but not least, Alexandrite has one major known weakness: due to the fact that multiple Gems combine their energies to create such war machine, they require an extremely high level of concentration and effort to keep themselves together. This is the reason why, should the Gems not collaborate, the Fusion can be easely broken. This is also the reason why Alexandrite may look weaker than she truly is, not because of her durability, but due to the effort needed to maintain the synchronization. Think about this Fusion like the Super Saiyan 3 form for Goku. Now, with that said, you take Alexnadrite, then you add Pink Diamond into the mix and there you have the special recipe for an unstoppable Gem juggernaut. Being a Diamond, Pink should be considered one of the most powerful Gems in her universe and, even though she’s considered the weakest of the Diamonds, she would still be superior than the majority of other top tier characters in the series, like Garnet, Topaz, Jasper and Lapis Lazuli. As shown in the series, the Diamonds are arguably capable to witstand the combined assault of the Crystal Gems, Lapis, Lion and Bismuth all at the same time without getting injured. Blue Diamond, in particular, witstood so much punishment from all directions and even freeing herself from Lapis’s chains that were strong enough to restrain Malachite and getting crushed by her own spaceship thrown by the Cluster, resulting only with her being more pissed of than hurt. After all, Pink was still Rose Quartz, the leader of the rebellion back at the Gem War. From what we saw Pink doing, we say that she’s strong enough to easely defeat a triple Rubies Fusion, stopping a spinning Ferris wheel with her bare hands and even generating so much pressure in her hands she managed to turn dirt into shards of diamonds and, most notably, she has probably shown the highest amounts of powers in the series than any other character. Such powers include the Bubble and the Shield. Not only the Bubble is a fairly effective defensive power but Pink’s son, Steven, showed also the ability to protrude sharp spikes out of the bubble, allowing the user to transform defense into offense. The Shield, in particular, is Pink’s trademark defensive tool and it’s been shown to be nearly indestructible. Even once summoned by the far less experienced Steven Universe, the Shield protected him and the Crystal Gems from an energy blast shor by Peridot’s warship that was gonna destroy both the Crystal Temple and, arguably, even Beach City. The Shield seems also to be able to deflect energy-based attacks pretty easely, regardless of their actual destructivness, like the Diamond’s Corruption Attack. As for other powers, Pink shows the ability to float in midair, granting her improved aerial mobility, including the ability to freelt control the speed of the fall and, most important than anything, are Pink’s healing powers. As shown even by her son Steven, Pink’s healing power allow the user to heal and repair both organic and inorganic matter. It’s only thanks to this power that Pink’s rebellion managed to survive and kept fighting during the Gem War. Also, as demonstrated by Steven, the healing powers can be utilized to create sentient plant life forms which solely obey to their creator’s will, protecting him at all costs, and as well reviving the deads. So, after enlisting all of Pink Diamonds’s powers and briefly trying to estimate her strength compared to other major characters in the series, let’s get to the main question of the article: what kind of abilities, powers and skills could Obsidian develop now knowing that it contains the powers of a Diamond? Firstly, let’s just say that just the implication of adding a Diamond into a Fusion would undoubtedly increase the power of such Fusion to unimaginable levels. I mean, look from this perspective: as said before, Alexandrite’s approximate height ranges between 25 feet tall, and I also read somewhere that the Diamond’s actual height should not be below 30 feet, so, with that said, by adding Pink Diamond to Alexandrite’s Fusion, her overal height should easely surpass 35 feet. Imagine a Fusion even bigger than a Diamonds. It’s just terryfingl to think about. Heck, if we want to further exagerate, we can fairly assume that the possible height of this Fusion is almost comparable to the actual sculpture of the Crystal Temple. I know it sounds so off but, considering how much big the Diamonds are, it’s not that impossible to imagine it. But, now let’s have some fun with her possible powers, shall we? So, for Alexandrite we have all of Pearl’s, Garnet’s and Amethyst’s powers and weapons all combined into one. For Pearl we have amazing acrobatic skills and combat capabilities, her Spear can both shot fast light projectiles and concentrated explosive light blasts, summoning as many Holo-Pearls as she wishes, which combat settings and patterns can be modified to Pearl’s choice; for Amerhyst we have two whips that can slice through Injectors’s metal drills with ease, she can curl herself into a ball and quickly spin, ramming into her opponents, her whips can eventually discharge a sort of explosive purple fire and she can even combine the spin dash with the explosive fire, creating a devastating explosive charged attack; for Garnet we have an already numerous set of abilites, such as superhuman physical capabilities superior to the last Gems, her Gauntlets can level down mountains, create shockwaves and can be shot like Rockets, she can manipulate, absorb and redirect electricity, she’s heatproof and can see the possible futures outcomes, granting her a significant advantage in nearly every possible battle scenario. For Obsidian’s possible powers displays, I imagine her as being capable to manipulate each one of the Gems’s elemental powers to massive scales. For instance, Ruby’s Thermokinesis? Obsidian could just shot a continuos blast of flames from her inferior mouth like Alexandrite but with much greater impact force. Sapphire’s Cryokinesis? Obsidian could be capable to lower her own temperature so much she would be capable to freeze down to the absolute zero whatever thing she touches or even generating a freezing ray that would permanently incapacitate her opponent. Garnet’s Electrokinesis? Obsidian could be capable to launch lightnings from her hands or mouth like Yellow Diamond does and electrocute her opponents. Amethyst’s explosive fire? Obsidian may be capable of combining such power with Ruby’s Thermokinesis, creating an explosive fire beam that annhilates everything in its path. Having the Crystal Gems’s complete arsenal at her disposal, I imagine Obsidian being able to wield each one of these weapons all at once with her eight arms. Obsidian would walk throughout the battlefield with Pearl’s spear, Garnet’s gauntlets, Amethyst’s whips and Pink’s shield, all of which’s power would have been increased tremendously due to the Fusion. Obsidian would also be capable to channel all of her elemental powers into her weapons, granting herself so much long ranged combat options her opponents wouldn’t be capable to respond to all of them at the same time. Adding Pink’s shield to the Fusion’s arsenal, the Crystal Gems’s weapons could be combined with the shield, granting access to many new fusion weapons, including a final combination of each weapon into one final devastating tool of destruction, but more about that last one later. As I searched throughout the internet, a popular combination between Rose’s shield and Pearl’s spear would be something like a parasol or an umbrella: this seemingly bizarre weapon would combine the shield’s unpenetrable defenses with the spear’s maneuverability and extended range of attack, both at short and long ranges, including the ability to shot energy projectiles from the center of the shield, making this weapon looke very similar to the modified umbrellas of DC Comics’s Penguin. A combination between Pink’s shield and Amethyst’s whip would more than likely resemble a slingshot, similar to One Piece’s Usop’s own weapon, the Kabuto. The shield would create the pouch and the whips would create the strings. This weapon would grant the Fusion a higher piercing power compared to Opal’s arrow and probably a faster firing rate. Addictionally, Garnet’s gauntlets could be used as devastating projectiles. A combination between Pink’s shield and Garnet”s gauntlets could be a pair of cestus. In fact, theoretically, despite their destructivness, Garnet’s gauntlets act more like boxing gloves, serving as a protection, while cestis serve more like offensive tools so, in this case, Rose’s shield would become the thick plate and might manifest spikes in the form of rose thorns. The other weapons’s combinations could be even more or even different than what I showed you but, now, let’s get to the powers. This is the part that gets tricky because, while imagining new weapons combinations is much more intuitive, trying to combine Alexandrite’s arsenal of special powers with Pink’s own mostly defensive and supportive-oriented powes is no easy task, but I will still try to do my best. For example, Pink’s spiked shield could be combined with Amethyst’s explosive fire to create a detonating trap for her opponents; upon the adversary makes contact with the spikes, whether it’s with a weapon or their bodies, the spikes would trigger an explosion in the targeted area of the bubble. I also imagine Obsidian infusing the thorns of the bubble with Pearl’s light enegy, creating dangerous projectiles capable of easley piercing through a Diamond warship. Once used by Obsidian, Garnet’s future vision would start to become cleared and less unfocused, allowing Obsidian to more accurately predict the new outcome of the battle or even the single moves and attack patterns of the adversary, nullifying their strategies altogether. There’s also the remote possibility for Obsidian to transform her healing powers into an offensive tool: for example, she couls combine her healing tears with Sapphire’s cryokinesis which, once put upon an adversary, it could instantly freeze that part of the body covered by the power, and so on and on The combinations of Obsidian’s collection of powers and weapons are so diversified that we could stay here the whole day and we will only end up guessing which kind of combination is the best so, to end this article which I already am proud of finally bringing it to life after a long time, I’m going to imagine Obsidian’s most likely ultimate weapon, which is a broadsword. The reason for this quite simple yet efficient idea comes from the fact that, in the episode “Ocean Gem”, once Lapis steals the oceans, we can watch Beach City’s seabed and notice a huge sculpture of a sword. If we looke even more accurately, we will see that the material of this giant sword is the same used for the Crystal Temple. Once the battle gets serious, Obsidian would summon all of her weapons and the she will combine all of them into one huge tool of destruction. This weapon would be substantially a colossal version of Rose’s Sword, with the difference of being completely indestructible for Gems’s standards. Obsidian, thanks to this sword, would be capable to poof even a Diamond, something that has been thought as being impossible and just the movement of the weapon would cause wide shockwaves across the battlefield, leveling city blocks and buildings with just a wide swing. Also, as for the other weapons, Obsidian would also be able to channel her elemental powers into the broadsword, granting herself a major boost in attacking power and speed, as well the ability to unleash the energy through the blade as waves of fire, ice or thunder. Last, but not least, despite all of the fun I had today with the research, Obsidian would have one major weakness: its time limit, which would be extremely and laughably short compared to other Fusions. Speaking in Dragon Ball terms, if Alexandrite is the Super Saiyan 3, then Obsidian would be the Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Kaioken ×10. Obsidian would only be capable of displaying a small portion of her capabilities during a fight because, the longer the Crystal Gems stay fused, the higher the risk is for them of losing their energies so tremendously they would poof themselves due to the strain upon their gemstones. A Fusion with such a potential magnitude of power would be the one of the greatest “glass cannons” in fiction, should she exist: great, nearly unstoppable destructive power but a disappointing and low defense and endurance compared to the energy output. As a final deduction about this Fusion, I will definitively place Obsidian well above the likes of both Alexandrite and Malachite as well. Yes, while Malachite does have Lapis’s ability to manipulate the oceans lf an entire planet to her will, I’m pretty sure that Obsidian’s own physicality would allow her to witstand Malachite’s offense and then obliterate her with just a hypothetical swing of her broadsword. I would also place Obsidian above the likes of Yellow and Blue Diamond due to the fact that, despite Pink is considered the weakest of the Diamonds, it’s only so when she’s alone but, thanks to the Fusion’s enhancing potential, even Yellow and Blue would experience a good amount of troubles with a Fusion that’s potentially bigger, stronger, faster, thougher and with a massively superior array of powers and weapons at her disposal. However, to be totally fair, I’m not sure to place Obsidian higher or equally to White Diamond because: 1) We don’t have enough information about White’s powers, skills or anything like these informations to prove that she’s weaker than Obsidian, and 2) White Diamond ia probably even stronger than Obsidian due to the fact that it’s been suggested that Homeworld’s destruction may have been caused by White herself, making her probably a Planet level in terms of destructive capability, while I’d rank Obsidian more like a Multi-Continent level or something slightly higher than this, but not too much. Most importantly, this Fusion would still not be a match for the Cluster, the only officially planet buster in the series, just like any other character in the series. So, finally, there you have it, my personal analysis of the Crystal Temple Fusion Obsidian. Keep in mind that all of these assumtpions belong to the analysis of an hypothetical Fusion which might never become canon or appearing in any Steven Universe sources. All of the assumptions about Obsidian’s possible powers and skills are all a product of my immagination so, if you don’t like it, please try to not be too rude about it; this is all just for fun. On the contrary, write me down into the comments what do you think about Obsidian’s possible powers. I’m very curious about your opinion. Have a nice day and goodbye!

[firstumcschenectady]

Welcoming and Loving in Difficult Times

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305Pronouns: she/her/hershttp://fumcschenectady.org/ By Michele Cole

03/12/17

You know, one of my favorite holy days is Ash Wednesday, odd as that may sound. I can’t really explain why that is, except that there’s something very grounding about being reminded that we are from the earth and to it we shall return. It’s a reminder that we are a part of the big cosmic dance that includes all living things as well as inorganic creations like rocks and sand (particularly beach sand!  ) Or maybe it fulfills some kind of need to take a step back and really look at how I live in and relate to the world outside myself. I know these days I love to hear Pastor Sara read the litany from Yom Kippur when she preaches in the joint ecumenical service; it’s beautiful and life affirming. The downside to Ash Wednesday, at least for me, is that it’s the beginning of Lent, which I’ve never liked very much. As many of you know I grew up Catholic, although in talking with others I find it was much the same elsewhere during that time. I was a very imaginative and sensitive child and my very traditional parish emphasized during Lent what was wrong with me, and what I needed to do to be worthy. I was taught, or at least I believed, that I was so bad that Jesus had to die because of me; and so of course I felt very guilty that I helped to kill God. This isn’t a judgement on the religion in which I was raised. This is how it was, and I took it all in.  

However, that’s not the end of the story. As I was reading an online article on the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Discipleship website a light bulb went off in my head. I realized that the focus of Lent has changed since my childhood, and indeed began changing across denominational Christianity a few decades ago. Rather than a time of grimness that we just need to suffer through, the theology and practice of Lent has changed its focus to embrace a quiet time of reflection and preparation. This shift in perspective brought us back to the days of the early Christ followers, when they saw Lent as a time of preparation for the sacrament of Baptism. For them, Lent was the home stretch, as it were, when converts to Jesus’ Way received their final faith formation before they entered the sacred covenant with Christ and Christ’s church.  This time was not all inward focused, however; community members and soon-to-be members were expected to look outwardly as well, tending to those in need. Lent culminated in Easter, but also in baptism into a new way of living for oneself and others.

I also learned that for this Lenten season, the Methodist Church has decided to focus on living out our baptismal calling, with a look each week at a different baptismal question. Now, before you decide this sermon is going to be as dry as dust, please hear me out! Maybe it will be, but I’m finding it quite interesting how all of this is coming together. You see, this week’s question is --  “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?”  Quite a well-timed question, as it fits in rather nicely with the Scriptural passages I chose for today and, unfortunately, with the tenor of world events that have been happening recently.

Our second reading for today recalls the sheep and goats parable that is told just before Matthew’s recounting of Jesus’ passion and resurrection. Given the timing as the last instruction before the end, it can be thought of as holding special emphasis as the final word on Jesus’ social teachings. Let me put a little context around it, as I pulled most of it out. This comes at the end of Matthew’s chapter 25, where Jesus has been cautioning His followers about the coming of God’s kingdom and what their attitudes and activities should be.   He has already told them to be alert, lest God come when they are not prepared, and also to be bold, not cautious, as they go about spreading the Good News and growing the number of disciples. Now he is taking those teachings to a new level; not only are they to be concerned about their own day to day living, but they are to notice and enhance the lives of the neediest among them. This is not just a morality tale, though, of how we are to act … it is also a tale of how we are to BE in the world and what attributes we are to cultivate in ourselves. For if you read the rest of the story, you will see that neither the sheep who were kind to the needy nor the goats who were not, did it because Jesus was alive in the marginalized. They didn’t realize it was Him. Those who reached out expressed their compassionate care of each other, their desire to help another in a time of great need. The goats had no such compassion and in fact, by saying “we didn’t realize it was you” betrayed their cynicism; had they known it was Jesus certainly they would have done something for Him. For their neighbor, not so much.

So ultimately this is a love story, a story where we are the lovers, where because we are loved we can in turn pass it on. It is a story that reminds us in fairly clear language what we, in our love for each other, are to do. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, welcome the stranger – while I imagine that we’ve heard these words many times before, they are taking on new meaning today, in a world that seems to get meaner and harder with each news cycle. I admit to being somewhat of a Facebook junkie, and I spend some time each day reading story after story about one group pitting themselves against another more marginalized group, as if there is just a finite amount of love and kindness in the world and it shouldn’t be spent on ‘them.’ More people are being overtly demonized, with more dire consequences, than in any time in my memory. It’s easy enough to do, and there are certain segments of our society now that seem to relish the task. I was reminded of this when I saw Wicked last weekend, which was fabulous by the way!  I don’t know how many of you know the story but in a nutshell, it’s a story about the ‘wicked’ witch of the west and how she came to be wicked. And it turns out that it wasn’t her doing at all. She was not ‘the bad one,’ but rather the victim of ‘othering.’ She was different from birth, with a different color skin from everyone else, and so she was ostracized. She developed a talent for doing spells and went to see the Wizard of Oz, who turned out to be just a man, not really a wizard. She realized that he’d come into power on a lie, and was in the process of eliminating all diversity in the land of Oz. She argued with him and refused to join him; instead she ran away. At which point the ‘Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ began to systematically demonize her, spreading rumors about her evilness and telling lies about bad things that she had not done. By the end of it, the people of Oz were thoroughly convinced that she was bad to the bone, an evil wicked witch, even though her whole reputation was built on lies. She was trying to do good, but the castle was twisting everything she did, until finally she was no more …

Which brings me back to the present time, and the demonization of the ‘other,’ whether he is an immigrant, or she is a refugee child fleeing from destruction in her homeland, or they are a family of Muslims who are seeking safety from an extremist organization that wants them dead. How are we to think about the rhetoric that is flowing over us like so many words, telling stories about the people who are leaving all they know to come to where they hope is a safe place, guided only by their hopes and the love of God who wants all God’s children to be safe. Let’s take a moment to look at the lessons in the first reading, when God called Abram and Sarai out of the land of their birth to venture into a new land where their descendants will number like stars in the sky.

Abram and Sarai were the ultimate strangers; at a time when there were no Motel 6s or Google Earth maps, they trusted God and went where they were told. They were promised that they would be safe, that they would be led to a new land, and that they would be a blessing to the world. This story doesn’t say how they were treated along the way, whether they were hassled or confronted, or whether they encountered the hospitality that is so critical to so many stories in the Old Testament. What we do know, though, is that they made it through to each place they were led. They brought their customs and beliefs to a foreign land and worshiped their God, and apparently were left alone to do this in peace. And of course from them was born the Jewish people. This isn’t just a creation story, though, detailing how the people of Israel began. It is also a metaphor for how we are supposed to live, and to think about others who are strangers in our lands. As Timothy F. Simpson has pointed out in the online forum Political Theology Today,  this story is intended both to make us think that we should be them (that is, that we should be following where God leads, and trusting in God’s promises), but also that we could be them. That like Sarai and Abram if we follow where God leads we could be traveling to places we’ve never been before, meeting people unlike us and bringing blessings to whoever is there before us. This heightened sensitivity, or empathy, for the stranger takes us in a couple of directions. It can lead us to put ourselves in their place, encouraging us to treat them as we would wish to be treated if we were far from home and family. We are also led to recognize the blessings brought into our communities by those whose talents and perspectives are different from our own. We are called to be inclusive, to recognize the humanity of the stranger, to be welcoming …

Welcoming … it can be very hard for us to do, especially when those we greet look or act differently from us, or from how we think they should. Heightened tensions in the United States and around the world are resulting in policies targeting Muslims and brown skinned people, murders of people with brown skins or turbans, anti-Semitism resulting in bomb threats and cemetery desecrations, and more murders of trans women of color. In the absence of facts, ‘alternative truth’ is leading Americans to fear and hate immigrants, refugees and anyone outside of our comfort zone. Yet all is not yet lost, even though sometimes I’m not sure I recognize our country anymore. Amid yells of “go back to where you came from” we have to be the people of welcome, of abundant love. We have to recognize the humanity of those who others demonize, and share our humanity with them. We must model for the world what we would like the world to become, and represent not only the wanderer but also the One to whom we belong. If that sounds vague I’m afraid it is, because each of us has a different talent to share, and more or less time to exercise it. Each of us has a different perspective on current events, and how we would like to influence them. What I’m really suggesting is that we need to be awake to what is going on around us at all levels of our society, and to be ready to respond in whatever way makes the most sense for each of us. As we seek to reach out to the least of these, and welcome the strangers among us, we often need to look no farther than next to us, or down the street, or sometimes even no farther than our own mirror.

In the Matthew passage, the point is made that Christ has aligned himself with the ‘least of these’ and in so doing, is found in all of us. I would argue that when we think about bringing compassion and love to each other, we should also pay attention to how we can care for ourselves. It can be hard to do, I know, because I’m working on it myself. It can be very easy to look after everyone else but ignore our own very real needs for love, connection, compassion. Right now I’m very concerned about how many people are hurting, both the targets of nastiness and those of us who care about them and for them. The 24 hour news cycle is producing lots of anger, despair and hopelessness as it seems we go from one painful episode to another. Many of us are simply exhausted and are struggling to make sense of what’s happening around us. It’s in times like this that we are called to nurture ourselves, to bring that same abundance of compassion and love to ourselves that we give to each other. It’s ok to recognize that our energy isn’t limitless and our passion needs feeding before we can feed another.  

This brings me to another challenge that I’m struggling with; I don’t have an answer for it, I just want to put it out here for your consideration. I’ve talked a lot today about loving the least of these, and reaching out to our neighbors, especially those who are being oppressed and marginalized by society. But, that leaves out a group of people whom we may not want to consider but who I feel we must. What about those folks who are doing, saying and believing things that we find absolutely abhorrent? Those whose attitudes we believe to be completely wrong and even contrary to the Good News that we listen to and love? I don’t know if you remember, but Sara preached about the question I raised at the Connection gathering a few weeks ago, wondering how peace and anger can co-exist, how we can be peaceful without losing the edge that draws us into social action. I am now raising a similar question, but one that may make us a little more uncomfortable. At least it makes me squirm.  I’m trying to figure out how to love someone who I would much rather hate, or at least detest a lot. Who I may actually think is dangerous to me or to our society. I don’t mean that squishy kind of love that Kay Jewelers sings about, but instead the robust love that we are told to bestow on each other just for being a child of God in whom Jesus lives. What does that love look like when its object is someone we don’t like? How do we manifest it in our lives, and how do we come to terms with it ourselves? I also wonder if, by saying that there are people who by their words or actions don’t merit my love and concern, am I not being just like those very people who hate others and wish ill for them?  Does the guilt or innocence of the person impact my Christian love for them? Just a few of the questions swirling around in my head. I’d welcome a conversation about them sometime if anyone wants to take that one on!

Our readings for this morning provide guidance as we consider the baptismal question I posed earlier … “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?”  If we are to answer yes to this question, we must follow the direction we receive from God to welcome the stranger among us.  To feed, clothe, visit and care for the least among us with an abundant compassion and love that reaches out because our neighbor is in need, recognizing that Christ lives in everyone we touch. To care for ourselves because we see the Christ in ourselves, and to provide us with the strength and determination to keep reaching out where we are needed. And finally to love without measure not only those who are loveable, or those who we ‘should’ love but also those who think differently from us or who have different values. Because to resist evil and injustice do we not need to counter it with love as well as with action? As Martin Luther King Jr. said in his 1963 book of sermons Strength to Love, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies– or else? The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.” These were timely words in 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr put them to paper. They are equally of timely today. May we find it in ourselves to love our enemies, even as we struggle for a world where all are treated fairly and welcomed without hesitation.

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

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