#man did Son just like make it to earth but earth was raptured and now the devil is just having a fun time

[weissflower]

i love Harlan Guthrie shows because I never know if the terrifying voice speaking from where no one should be is Harlan Guthrie (supposed to be dead), Harlan Guthrie (supposed to be trapped somewhere), or Harlan Guthrie (terrifying new thing that’s yet to be heard).

[feedingtheflockministry]

One Will Be Taken and the Other One Left

In my youth I was taught to believe in the pre tribulation rapture, and various scripture passages were used to support it. One passage that was often referred to was, “one will be taken and the other one left”. When we take a closer look at both the passages of scripture from Matthew 24:27-51 and Luke 17:22-37 what we see is not the faithful servants being taken, but rather the unfaithful servants.

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

In Luke the same dialogue is taking place, but at the end of it the disciples asks Jesus, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.” In Matthew’s telling of this account he states this just before the end of the tribulation of those days.

Those who are taken are destroyed as in the days of Noah and Lot. They are not the believers, but unbelievers. Even those that share a bed together are effected by this. For there are believers who are married to unbelievers (by married I mean a man and a woman). Just look at Lot and his wife. His wife looked back at Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt. For there will be much grief covering the earth at the second coming.

Many believers out there pray continuously for the rapture to take place. Others make YouTube videos centered around this subject while speaking in the name of prophetic words, or dreams and visions of the pre tribulation rapture. Little do they understand that they are praying for the wrath of God to come upon humanity. They spread fear through their lack of understanding, instead of preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We must stop all of this! We must instead pray for His mercy, grace, forgiveness, compassion, and patience for ALL people. That He blesses the nations and their inhabitants with a soft heart of repentance in order that they may receive the gospel message as truth that will lead them to salvation.

Scripture Passages for this Message:

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30)

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Notice, first the tares and second the wheat, not reverse as the pre or mid tribulation rapture teaches)

The Glorious Return (Matthew 24:27-51)

For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not passaway until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Luke’s Gospel of the Second Coming (Luke 17:22-37)

And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. [Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”] And answering they said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.”

[tj-van-heerden]

Salvation of utmost importance

Our salvation from Hell, into the Kingdom of God, is of utmost importance in our lives - it determines where we will spend our future, in the next age and unto eternity - in Heaven or Hell. Of similar importance is the catching up (rapture, 1Thess 4:16, 17 - see below) of the bride (God's chosen and faithful ones); this will happen during the time of great tribulation [or, oppression] in the world (Matt 24:21 - see below), but just before the great wrath of God is coming upon the earth. Not all Christians will be caught up - only the chosen and faithful ones. The rest of the Christians will have to go through the most terrible times of the great tribulation [or, oppression]. We must give first importance to our relationship with God - if that is right and good, we will have peace with God and live a life in the loving care of our Father in Heaven, and He will always be with us, no matter how hard life can get. We must never sit on the fence; we must never serve Him halfheartedly. We must love Him, trust in Him, be faithful to Him, and obey Him with all our heart and mind every day. So can we be safe in the judgment. This is a warning, but if we make the right choice it can give us a life of peace, no matter the circumstances. Remember that many are called, but few are chosen.

Matt 22:11-14 [WEB] But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’ For many are called, but few chosen.

(The wedding clothes are your relationship with God and your righteous life before Him. God enables you by his Holy Spirit to put on the wedding clothes).

Rev 19:7, 8 [WEB] Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.” It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Matt 24:31 [WEB] He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Matt 7:13, 14 [WEB] “Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.

Luke 13:23, 24 [WEB] One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, “Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.

Matt 13:41-43 [WEB] The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Matt 25:29, 30 [WEB] For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away. Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matt 24:21 [WEB] for then there will be great tribulation [or, oppression], such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.

Luke 21:36 [WEB] Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.

1Thess 4:16, 17 [WEB] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.

[princeofgod-2021]

LIGHT OF LIFE 426

John 1:4

UNDERSTANDING PROPHETIC MANDATES 60: TIME OF FULFILLMENT 2

Amo 3:7 CERTAINLY, THE ALMIGHTY LORD DOESN'T DO ANYTHING UNLESS HE FIRST REVEALS HIS SECRET TO HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS. GW

Now, let’s look closely and consider the central relevance of this Subtopic.

Around the Time of the Prophecy that God has given you, there could be an event - yet an element of Prophecy or a plain event - that announces your own event or awakes you to get ready.

Consider the following:

Mat 24:27-28 The appearing of the Son of Man will burst forth with the brightness of a lightning strike that shines from one end of the sky to the other, illuminating the earth. How do birds of prey know where the dead body is? THEY JUST KNOW INSTINCTIVELY, AND SO YOU WILL KNOW WHEN I APPEAR. TPT

Do you remember what the Story of the Ten Virgins emphasizes? Keep your Spirit fully Alive!

Mat 25:2-4 Five of them were foolish, and the other five were wise. THE FOOLISH ONES TOOK THEIR LAMPS BUT DID NOT TAKE ANY EXTRA OIL WITH THEM, while the wise ones took containers full of oil for their lamps. GNB

It shouldn’t surprise you why the story comes in the next chapter after Jesus’ “End Time” narrative.

They are related: Jesus was simply saying that the Spiritual Christians will instinctively know about His coming and it takes the Spirit that has filled them, to “activate” their Rapture.

Joh 6:63 IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT MAKES ALIVE, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. MKJV

1Co 15:51-52 Listen, I will tell you a mystery: WE WILL NOT ALL SLEEP, BUT WE WILL ALL BE CHANGED IN A MOMENT, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. NET

It’s evident that just about the very time of rapture, the Saints will [somehow] be aware in their spirits and given the chance to make themselves ready.

Only the VIRGINS have this privilege.

Mat 25:5-7 Now the husband was a long time in coming, AND THEY ALL WENT TO SLEEP. But in the middle of the night there is a cry, The husband comes! Go out to him. THEN ALL THOSE VIRGINS GOT UP, AND MADE READY THEIR LIGHTS. BBE

Don’t get me wrong please. I am not trying to introduce any heresies.

Just trying to understand what Jesus said here. We all know what He said here also about the “Day of Rapture”, right?

Mat 24:36 "NO ONE KNOWS WHEN THAT DAY OR TIME WILL BE. THE SON AND THE ANGELS IN HEAVEN DON'T KNOW when it will be. Only the Father knows. ERV

But as a child of God, you will be able to follow the processes leading to that day and be conscious in your Spirit that something significant is going to happen, and you must be prepared.

Mat 24:37-39 When the Son of Man appears, THINGS WILL BE JUST AS THEY WERE WHEN NOAH LIVED…People were eating, drinking, and getting married right up to the day that the flood came and Noah went into the big boat. They didn't know anything was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man appears. CEV

In the days of Noah, the rest of the world didn’t know what was coming but Noah did, right?

Noah was following the processes with God all the way.

He may not know exactly what was going to happen though, but he was not at all unaware.

This is the point!

Luk 21:34 “BUT BE ON YOUR GUARD SO THAT YOUR HEARTS ARE NOT WEIGHED DOWN with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and THAT DAY CLOSE DOWN UPON YOU SUDDENLY LIKE A TRAP. NET

Simply put: be spiritually alert and THAT DAY will not catch you OFF-GUARD.

Here’s another one:

1Th 5:2,4,5 For you already know quite well that THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL COME UNEXPECTEDLY AND AS A COMPLETE SURPRISE…But you, beloved brothers and sisters, ARE NOT LIVING IN THE DARK, allowing that day to creep up on you like a thief coming to steal. For you are all children of the light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night nor to darkness. TPT

That DAY can only be a snare to the godless and unbelieving men and scorners of the world.

Ecc 9:12 NO ONE KNOWS WHEN HIS TIME WILL COME. Like fish that are caught in a cruel net or birds caught in a snare, HUMANS are TRAPPED BY A DISASTER when it SUDDENLY strikes them. GW

So beloved, this is plainly saying that if you’re dedicated in service to God till that DAY or season near it, something will suddenly jolt you to leave everything else and prepare.

You may not even know why you are excited in spirit, but you just see yourself doing “spiritual spring cleaning”.

You know, Jesus actually said that the VIRGINS would have slept off just before that day, right?

Mat 25:5 The bridegroom was late in coming, SO THEY BEGAN TO NOD AND FALL ASLEEP. GNB

Believers will not be disqualified for Sleeping off, but for not having what it takes to “fly” after they have been woken up for last minute preps.

I pray that we all will HEAR the wake-up-call and be filled with the Spirit enough to Fly, IN JESUS NAME.

Come back on Friday, for more of this insightful and enlightening Sub-Subtopic.

Keep Shinning!

Brother Prince

Wednesday, November 01, 2023

08055125517; 08023904307

[anaveragebibliophile]

He Comes First

Thranduil x Wife!reader x Young!Legolas 

Summary: After finding out some exciting news about your and Thranduil’s future as parents, you begin reminiscing on the all the joys and wonders that this life has given you (especially getting to see your husband excel at fatherhood). 

PART 1 

PART 2: 

https://anaveragebibliophile.tumblr.com/post/659269636241637376/cyclical-love

“Are you one-hundred percent certain, Morwen? I know you are an expert at discerning such things, but I cannot help but still feel the uncertainty reverberating through me,” you said, hands gripping your kneecaps as you awaited the healer’s response. 

“Yes, my queen. All of the signs are there: the nausea, the subsequent morning sickness, the exhaustion. I am positive that I am correct in my diagnosis.” 

“Oh, by the Valar (God),” you responded, your right hand drifting to hold your stomach protectively. “I am with child. Thranduil and I will be welcoming another elfing next fall.” 

“Yes, Queen (y/n). When the leaves begin to fall, you will be holding another blessing in your arms.” 

Walking back to your and Thran’s chambers provided ample time for rumination on this news (because the healer’s quarters were on the other side of the palace). Now, that’s not to say this contemplation was meant to curb any sentiments of regret, resentment, or anger. Not at all. In reality, you couldn’t stop a huge smile from framing your face. You couldn’t help but embrace the elation that was filling every facet of your heart, soul, and mind. Oh, this was a dream come true. 

Obviously, the topic of having another child had been discussed between you and your husband many times (usually on fireside date night with goblets of wine and lots of cuddling). And the funny thing was that the prospect had cemented itself more securely over the last few months. Having and caring for another child no longer appeared to be this unattainable desire, but, instead, it filled you and Thran with this rapture, this thrill. And why wouldn’t it really? Legolas was everything you both could have hoped for, so why not try for that relentless feeling of contentment one more time? You’d have to be asinine not to. 

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“Ada, Ada are you awake?” Legolas’ melodic voice asked, breaking through the tranquil haze you’d encompassed yourself in. 

“There is no need to fret, my little leaf. Ada is just resting his eyes. He is tired,” your husband’s deep baritone responded. 

“Of course, Ada, but that is not why I was asking. Would it be alright if I laid on your chest?” 

“You already know the answer to that, Legolas. Climb on up, iôn nîn (my son).” 

And climb on up he did, at least from what you saw through the little crack in the door. Once your little elfling’s voice alerted you to the fact that your two favorite people in all of Middle Earth were in your chambers, your immediate instinct was to rush and join in on the cuddle session that was so obviously taking place. Yet, somehow, right as you put your hand on the doorknob, it was as if your feet were tethered to the floor. You couldn’t move. You couldn’t speak. All because you turned your head. All because of what you were bearing witness to. 

Legolas was sprawled starfish-like on his father’s chest, his little face turned into the right side of Thranduil’s neck. You could see the red, depressed sleep lines marring his face from his morning nap (where he and the pillow became great comrades). And even though that was such an adorable sight, what you saw your husband doing made joy spread through your entire heart in such a way that you thought it might implode on you. 

Sometimes your little leaf struggled to fall asleep at night. Whether it be because of a nightmare or a fear of separation from his parents no one could truly say. His insomnia was variable at best and inevitable at worst. However, regardless of the circumstances, your and Thran’s mission was to get your son some relief, no matter the cost. And you tried everything you could think of: lullabies, rocking, warm milk, literally anything that the rule book on parenting tells you to attempt, but nothing would make any impact. That is, until your husband changed the game. 

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One night in mid-winter, Legolas’ inability to sleep had reached its peak. He hadn’t been feeling well for most of the day--spending most of it snuggled with you in the sitting room or with Thranduil in his office--and by the end of the night had been sporting a pretty nasty fever. He was miserable, plain and simple. You had hoped that the illness would’ve given him the opportunity to give in to his fatigue, to barricade himself in a dream-like state. Wrong. Instead, the infection chose to create a pain in his ear that wouldn’t abate by any means. No question, it made him absolutely hysterical. 

Despite this, though, he was most at peace with your husband, the man who spent most of that day with his lips pressed in a thin, white line and his stomach in knots. All he hoped for was his son to be improving, but it didn’t seem like Valar (God) was in the mood to grant that wish. So, he did what he was best at: finding a way to take control of the situation. In this case, the problem was Legolas’ discomfort. The little guy was trying to sleep--on his side, his back, in Thran’s arms, in whatever position his brain could conjure up--but would then proceed to hold his left ear and whimper. Anything he did would cause pain to shoot through him.  

“Alright, little leaf,” Thranduil said while rocking his son in his arms for the tenth time that day, “how about we try having you rest on my chest. You might sleep better that way.” And all he got was an almost imperceptible nod from the elfling that was clenching his hand so tight. 

Moving over to the bed, he slowly settled himself in the center, making sure not to jostle his son too much. Quietly humming to Legolas, he carefully moved his right hand up and down his spinal column and left lingering kisses on his forehead. 

“There we go, iôn nîn (my son),” he said. “Hopefully this helps. Gi melin (I love you).”

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“Darling, you can come in, you know. This is your space too,” your husband’s voice articulated, a hint of mockery and teasing in his tone (all in good fun). 

Opening the door all the way, you smiled at the treasures that laid before you. One curled into his father’s chest like an armadillo. The other grinning like a fool at said armadillo. 

“My apologies, sweetheart. Once I got here, I couldn’t refrain from letting you have that special one-on-one time with him.” 

Your husband’s right cheekbone lifted up to create an off-centered smile of sorts. “How was your appointment with Morwen? Was she able to give you some herbs to aid your sickness?”

“Yes, she was. But that is not the only thing she mentioned to me. About why I am ill anyway.” 

“What else is wrong? Whatever it is, it is treatable, yes?” Thranduil queried, his voice getting higher by at least three octaves. 

“Yes, honey. It is treatable. I’ll only have to wait about six more months.”

At that, your husband paused, concentration taking over his features. You felt his brain’s agony at the mere thought of analyzing the riddle and attempting to figure it out. Every mechanism was moving to decipher the answer. 

And then it all clicked. 

“If what you say is true, then that means we are….” 

TBC 

[mantra4ia]

Favorite "The Amazing Devil" songs

I mean, apart from actually all of them

1. Drinking Song for the Socially Anxious:

Like a puppet with no strings, untangling my headphones, sometimes it's the only thing that keeps my head in place / my heart is tearing pages from the funny story I rehearsed because I know I don't belong / my kindness is my sword. I do my best to breathe but they're stealing all the air / I'll sing silence and ask my glass of wine for guidance... I'll speak with my eyes, you'll think I'm weird...I don't find this easy like you. / I'm lying on a bed of coats trying desperately to cope, it's just sometimes nice to feel what it's like in someone else's coat. / We're bursting at the seams because the noise is crushing us... In a moment of total rapture, with every strength I have, I ask if you play D&D and your face lights up like you've woken up from this endless f****** nightmare / if God made us in his image then God's a fucking nerd. / Going to go home and dress my cat up like Batman.

2. Wild Blue Yonder:

One last time, love, come and rip my clothes off / Let's wander 'til the fuckers demand an encore.

Flirting (not flirting) at the back of a bookshop - Come and rip off my socks like you're blasting the locks off of a bank vault. This time we're done for.

All the books we drowned, and the candle we lit, we'll use it to burn this whole place to the ground. I'm lost, I'm found in you

Every stone you threw, I stood on to better see the view

let's hide under the covers, we don't know what's out there, could be all our demons darlings (or a robot vampire)

I've got something in my (eye/I) surrender

3. Chords:

Remember today that you are loved...Paint your eyes with sunsets. / I need a drink or two / If your voice begins to crack and you ever feel alone, they might laugh...But know we'll sing your name when you come home. / Remember (please), today you're enough / Gift to us all your blame 'cause we'll be all that you hate about yourself, so you can grow.

4. Pray:

Sweet nothings are screamed, not spoken

God made all man in his image (God made all men) Honey, I'm, I'm no man. I'm what's left when children go to war.

I'll run until I begin to understand what holy men really mean, when they speak of sand and sons and seams, and symphonies and sweat and sex and sin.

5. Fair:

It's what my heart just yearns to say...It's what my rotting bones will sing...Today, I somehow understand the reason I was born. / It's not fair (how much I love you), 'cause you make me laugh when I'm actually really fucking cross at you for something / darling I was born to press my head between your shoulder blades / It's not fair, 'cause you make me weep when I'm just trying to watch The Office with my yogurt / how unreasonable / Christ, you'll be the death of me / And calm throughout his melodrama, she will turn and say... you don't need to pretend to be someone you're not 'cause it's not like I've never heard you fart and snore and for some godforsaken reason I'm still here, love. / Where have you been?" She'll whisper, "I've waited, so long for you to come" / And as the stars above them hum...He'll turn to her and say, "That's what she said."

6. Marbles:

She sang, "do you think I'm sexy?" - And oh God, I really did.

Sipping drinks till we cry - oh if one more guy calls me darling then I swear to you, and to God, I will murder them all. Will the bastards applaud when I show that I'm flawed? - You're not flawed darling, you're just a little underrehearsed.

I sink to the floor, "What's the point anymore?" - You reply with the glint in your eye, "I don't don't know, but I'm here."

I've loved you for a hundred years - certainly f****** feels like it.

7. That Old Witch Sleep...:

That old witch sleep wishes, she kisses my eyelids, "you don't have to be brilliant" / They're just shadows searching for light, they can't stay / you are in the earth of me / Oh, sleep now, she pleads - You're not a coward 'cause you cower. You're brave because they broke you yet broken still you breathe / let's bury this...'cause I'm not trapped with you, you see, you're the one who's trapped with me. / Where you see weakness I see wit, sometimes I fall to pieces to see what bits of me don't fit / Pour me another shard full of glass, I toast to their talents and I forgive them at last.

8. Battle Cries:

Thirty winters will pass, you'll look back at the woman 50-year-old-you will be proud to have known

After summers of fasting, I feel hunger for the person 15-year-old-me would be proud to have known...And we'd laugh at the ghosts of our fears. We were gods, we were kids.

That creaking you hear in my bones, it's not pain, it's applause.

"Come at me, your blaggards," you'd yell from the banks, wielding words against make-believe wizards and tanks.

And these lines aren't wrinkles, they're just dollops of paint on a new work of art.

All it took to unearth —in the dust and the dirt— some release or respite from the heat and the hurt, was taking the time now and then to ask how I am.

This isn't a breakup it's a season finale / And now at the end (At the end of all things) I'm not gonna scream, beat my chest at the wind. I'm doing fine.

9. Inkpot Gods:

I made a vow out to the dark, "Please, let her live..." 'Cause she is so much more than all her scars and if she doesn't have the will...I'll stay, because I will be the man my father never was.

What you hear is not silence, it's just the trees waiting to hear what next you'll hum.

What you see is not the dark, it's just the gods upturning ink pots 'cause they know what you'll become

To those Gods I'll say bluntly, "you ever touch or harm him" please rest assured that you might not fear a man. But to a woman, by the end, you'll kneel and plea 'cause I'm more than what my mum told me to be.

10. The Calling

Back then, I was dauntless / my weakness made me weep less than I would ever show to you / I'd burn so bright it blinded...that light guided me here / To wring those embers from my broken heart and broken liver / I'm between that 'just one more' and 'drank too much' again / I look into the waters and see a face I don't understand / We're both unwanted daughters / I don't recognize..."What changed?" I ask, "So strange, " she replies / Shoulder the sky (I can't wait to show you how much) / back then I wasn't hopeful...I promise you I'll write "I love you" your sleeping hand / and when that fox howls, I'll howl with it. In its cries, I'll find an end. / When I think I'm fine, you'll visit and happen to me all over again. In the waters, I see a face I don't want look back / the rocks beneath my feet begin to crack / long ago that current caught us and we tried, I tried, I really fucking tried...But the rain kept coming down, I watched that woman drown.

Honorary lyrics and imagery

The trees tell us their stories, we called them liars...We thought you were mental, you were talking to trees!

Autumn hands

Write me weird, write me willing, write me well.

Be good, be safe, be kind.

It's like all the wallpaper inside my heart is peeling off. I'm showing all the stains and things they wrote on the wall before...today we ripped it off, we showed the world that we exist. Never really liked the pattern that much on the wallpaper, so anyway.

Brick by brick you built us...our mortar was your laughter... I'll brick by brick rebuild us out of hows and whys not whens

Burn a hundred theaters to get the wall paper right

We made universes out of bitten lips and broken hands

‘Cos I will suffer silence for the strings you tune

I pack what is needed for the journey to come. All my books and bracken and booze.

Do you like my dress, it has pockets?

If I have to be who I was, do I have to be who I am?

Leaves like fallen shards of stained glass windows shinning

You asked me for my fire now watch me burn

Mop up what's left of my lungs

You do not get to hurt me just because I asked you once if you were alright

To the dark I said pour and forgot to say when...And for the first time in all my life I know I'm more than what I fear.

I make myself acquainted with the saint of never getting it right

My saint, she is dancing and every step I choose to take begins to set the world aflame.

That wine you were saving, it's saving me now, love...I whisper aloud to my saint "oh we're going to get on."

[fxa]

i transcribed all of the scenes with or about michael and adam from the 15x19 script!

INT. CHURCH - NIGHT

Gothic and creepy. Dark but for candles burning in various candelabra stands. Our heroes appear at the head of an aisle, looking around the gloom, then slowly making their way toward the altar. LIGHTNING.

VARIOUS ANGLES-- Saints and angels in statues and stained glass glare down at Sam, Dean and Jack.

SAM, DEAN, JACK-- Heading down the aisle, warily looking around. They near the altar and stop. All over the altar area are stacks of scholarly religious books, pages with scribbled notes, torn out pictures of religious icons. While Sam and Dean peruse the books, Jack glances back up the aisle, spotting something.

Sam and Dean look to see:

NEW ANGLE-- At the very start of the aisle stands a dark figure in near-silhouette. Motionless. Our heroes brace themselves. Outside: THUNDER, LIGHTNING. And in the brief flash of light, we see: THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL (still in Adam's vessel) . He watches them.

SAM Michael.

MICHAEL So. You survived.

Michael warily approaches. A moment. He suddenly stares at Jack, realizing:

MICHAEL You. You're.

JACK Jack.

MICHAEL (marveling) My brother's son. The nephilim.

Michael softens a bit. Then:

MICHAEL When the rapture first began, I took refuge here. (small smile) It is St. Michael's, you may have noticed.

DEAN Hidin' out from your dad?

MICHAEL I'm sure he's aware I took your side against him. I've avoided using any powers that might attract his attention.

SAM And Adam?

MICHAEL (sadly) Gone, I'm sorry to say. We were in one of his beloved burger joints . He'd just finished a double chili-cheese, when his essence was pulled from the vessel. (indicates himself) Exterminated by my father. Like everyone else.

That hits Sam and Dean.

DEAN Poor bastard never caught a break.

MICHAEL How did the three of you manage?

DEAN Your old man has a sense of humor. He thought it'd be hilarious watching the three of us on an empty planet.

Sam glances around at the piles of books.

SAM Were you... doing some reading?

MICHAEL I never spent much time on Earth. I was curious about the perception of God and Heaven.

DEAN And?

MICHAEL Amazingly, the believers loved him. They have for thousands of years. (ruefully) My efforts were more effective than I'd hoped.

SAM "Your" efforts?

MICHAEL When God left Heaven, I was certain of his return. I made sure the angels and prophets burnished his image on Earth. The all-seeing, all-knowing, all-caring God.

DEAN (of course) Daddy's boy.

JACK And now? After seeing what Chuck's done?

DEAN We reached out to you. You ignored us.

Michael stares sadly off in the distance, then looks from Sam to Dean to Jack.

MICHAEL That was then, this is now. (then) Tell me what you need me to do.

BLACKOUT.

INT. MEN OF LETTERS - LIBRARY

Dean's putting down his stuff, having just arrived with Michael.

MICHAEL Last time I was here things were less friendly. I feel almost naked without manacles.

DEAN We're more casual this time around.

MICHAEL And the angel? Where is Castiel?

Dean looks at Michael, his pained look says it all.

MICHAEL I'm sorry. He was a good soldier.

Jack enters, carrying a sandwich. Michael eyes it.

MICHAEL You... eat.

JACK Part human.

MICHAEL I imagine your father had plenty to say about me.

JACK Not much, actually. He said after he was exiled, you were grandad's favorite.

MICHAEL Let's say I tried.

JACK Why? Why would you help him?

MICHAEL Sons and their fathers are... complicated. (glances at Dean) Ask Dean.

Dean shoots him a look. Sam enters carrying the God Book.

SAM Michael, this is the book we were telling you about.

MICHAEL One of Death's books.

DEAN But this one? It's on God. It'll tell us how to kill him.

SAM From what we know, only Death can open it, but we figure... maybe you can too?

MICHAEL-- Nods, then seems to center himself. His EYES GLOW. He practically vibrates with power, and so DOES THE BOOK. It GLOWS briefly, then all is silent. Michael tries to raise the cover. Nope. He closes his eyes and places a hand on the book. He reopens his eyes, looking somber.

MICHAEL I'm sorry.

(...)

INT. MEN OF LETTERS - LIBRARY - DAY

Lucifer's at a table, building a house of playing cards , watching Jack, who is staring off. Jack glances over at Lucifer, who smiles warmly. Jack looks stony. Michael enters and freezes, seeing Lucifer.

MICHAEL (contemptuous) They told me you came here after the Empty expelled you. Amazing. No room for you in the Empty which is... Empty.

LUCIFER Bro. Look at you! The Almost Mighty. Pop's pet. The sap who carried Dad's load in Heaven, cleaned up his messes... and got left in the Cage.

Michael is seething. Sam and Dean enter, glancing around at the palpable tension.

MICHAEL (to the guys) You're seriously thinking of trusting him?

DEAN I wouldn't say "trust" exactly.

LUCIFER Mikey, I understand your bitterness. After all you did for the old man, you got no better from him than me. The son voted most likely to suck.

MICHAEL I did what I did because it was the right thing to do. Not to get his love.

LUCIFER Good thing, since he didn't have any love to give. Not to you, not to me, not to humanity. You see that, right?

SAM AND DEAN-- glance at each other, surprised at how easily Lucifer's getting to Michael.

BETTY (O.S.) Ahem.

NEW ANGLE-- Betty stands dramatically in an archway, holding the God book.

BETTY Asshats? I have opened the book.

A hush falls over the room.

SAM And?

BETTY It's in here. All that you want. I know how God ends.

BLACKOUT.

INT. MEN OF LETTERS LIBRARY - DAY

Where we left off. Sam, Dean, Jack, Michael and Lucifer all stare at Betty. She stands haughtily holding the God Book.

SAM So you're sure. You know how to end him.

BETTY Of course I'm sure. I'm Death.

DEAN You've been Death for an hour.

BETTY Still.

She opens to the end of the God Book. Everyone falls silent.

BETTY (reading) "Behold. And in the end, there is the ending of he who created the beginning. And thus it will be..."

LUCIFER Fascinating.

And he points a finger at Betty, WHO EXPLODES INTO ATOMS! The open God Book SLAMS to the floor, but Lucifer opens his palm and THE OPEN BOOK STREAKS INTO HIS GRASP! (Note: we don 't see the pages, and Lucifer doesn't examine it.)

Sam and Dean charge at Lucifer, but he waves a hand AND THE TWO GUYS SLAM TO THE FLOOR.

LUCIFER (re: the book) Yeah, this is what the old man wanted to get his hands on. (looking at them all) He's actually the one who sprung me outta the Empty. I'm kinda the new favorite.

Livid, Michael advances on Lucifer, who VANISHES, and:

NEW ANGLE-- Lucifer's teleported to another part of the room.

LUCIFER (to Michael) It's sorta like the old days. When Dad trusted me with the heavy lifting. And... what'd he say about you? Oh yeah. "Michael's a cuck."

Michael's EYES GLOW. He WAVES A HAND and RIPPLES OF POWER HURTLE TOWARD LUCIFER. But:

ENTRY TO CROW'S NEST-- Lucifer's teleported to safety.

LUCIFER Wow, Mikey. You're a little rusty, huh?

He points, and MICHAEL IS DRIVEN BACK as WAVES OF INTENSE POWER RIPPLE THE AIR! Michael reels, dropping to a knee.

NEW ANGLE-- As Lucifer spins to see Jack.

LUCIFER So. Son. It's been fab reconnecting, but you gotta make a decision. Ditch these losers and join me and grampa on a winning team.

Unnoticed by Lucifer, who's focused on Jack, in the b.g. Sam and Dean are quietly struggling to their feet.

LUCIFER-- Draws close to Jack, who tries to stand his ground.

LUCIFER It's also the only way you re gettin ' outta here alive. You're not strong enough to take me on. (right in Jack's face) Whaddya say, kid? And suddenly MICHAEL APPEARS BEHIND LUCIFER. Sensing him, Lucifer spins to face Michael, his EYES GLOWING RED.

LUCIFER You don't learn.

And MICHAEL PLUNGES AN ARCHANGEL BLADE INTO LUCIFER'S HEART! LUCIFER SHRIEKS, LIGHT BLASTING FROM EYES AND MOUTH!

JACK-- Rocked by the blast, eyes wide, absorbing its power.

LUCIFER-- Now GLOWING WHITE HOT, VANISHES!

JACK-- Is again buffeted by all this display of force!

THE ROOM-- Michael looks over at Sam.

MICHAEL Thank you for the blade.

Sam glances at Jack, who's looking off-balance, practically vibrating from all that's happened.

SAM Jack? (no response) Jack, are you okay?

JACK-- His eyes suddenly GLOW GOLD.

INT. MEN OF LETTERS - GALLEY - DAY

Exhausted and moody, Michael recovers at the table. Dean enters, crosses to the fridge, rummages for a beer.

DEAN How you doin'? You okay?

MICHAEL A bit winded. I haven't been in a battle like that for several centuries.

DEAN Well... glad you were here. Chuck's gettin' desperate; he knows something's up. Just wouldn't take the chance of showin' up himself.

MICHAEL (troubled) Yes. He sent Lucifer. Brought him back from the dead. He didn't even reach out to me.

DEAN (staring) Did you want him to?

MICHAEL (too quickly) Of course not. (then) Chuck obviously knows the God Book could be lethal to him. But it's actually fairly useless without Death to read it.

DEAN We'll see. At least it's opened. Sam thought he recognized a few symbols in the writing. Maybe some version of Enochian. He's trying to use the Book of the Damned to figure out the end. (then) And by that, I mean the end.

INT. MEN OF LETTERS - LIBRARY - NIGHT

Late. Dean half-dozes in a chair. Jack scrolls through a laptop. Michael anxiously enters, absently flipping through a lore book.

MICHAEL (to Jack) How's Sam doing? Any progress?

Dean stirs, glances at his watch.

DEAN I sure as Hell hope so. He's been at it long enough. (spots something O.S.) But you can ask him.

NEW ANGLE-- As Sam enters from a corridor, looking weary.

SAM It was slow going. But I think I was able to piece it together.

MICHAEL "It".

SAM The spell. There's a spell. It has to be done in a particular place at an exact angle from the sun. and it'll release an unstoppable force that will find Chuck... and finish him.

Michael stares, a little awed, and...

EXT. ROAD - DAY

The Impala races down the empty roadway.

EXT. HILLTOP - DAY

A barren, windswept spot. Dean, Jack, and Michael are getting out of the Impala. Sam has the trunk open, pulling out a stack of large SPELL BOWLS, along with the God Book.

SHORT POPS: Sam lays the spell bowls out in a triangle. Dean measures ingredients into the bowls. Michael watches with mounting anxiety. Sam places the God Book face-down in the center of the triangle of bowls. They all glance off at the sun, hanging low behind clouds. Sam looks at his watch.

THE HILLTOP

Everyone is keyed up. This is it.

DEAN We ready?

SAM (tense) Yeah.

DEAN Do it.

Sam STRIKES A MATCH, tosses it in one of the bowls. A FLAME SHOOTS UP. Then one, by one, THE OTHER BOWLS BEGIN TO GLOW IN DIFFERENT COLORS, COLUMNS OF LIGHT STARTING TO GROW FROM THEM! A moment as the power grows, then:

A THUNDERCLAP! A SHIMMER OF LIGHT, and CHUCK APPEARS! Everyone freezes. Chuck waves a hand and Sam and Dean are staggered back against boulders! The BOWLS STOP GLOWING AND ARE BLASTED IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS!

Jack starts to rush forward, and Chuck waves a hand, SLAMMING JACK DOWN TO THE GROUND! Only Michael seems to remain oddly calm.

MICHAEL Father.

CHUCK Son.

Michael smiles expectantly.

CHUCK And listen, I do appreciate the heads up about... (re: the spell setup) All this.

MICHAEL My destiny has always been to serve you.

CHUCK Yeah... the thing is, it's kinda late in the game. You did side with the Winchesters, and I really can't forgive that.

MICHAEL (stricken) Father, no, it was a lapse of judgment I admit, but I will never...

CHUCK Save it.

Chuck's EYES GLOW and with both hands he UNLEASHES A MONSTROUS BLAST OF POWER that envelops a shrieking Michael, who BLOWS APART IN AN EXPLOSION THAT ROCKS THE HILLSIDE and creates a GALE FORCE WIND!

JACK-- Looks up into the HOWLING WIND, stunned, absorbing power from the blast, eyes wide, his body practically vibrating.

CHUCK-- Turns. INCLUDE THE WINCHESTERS, who slowly move toward him.

(...)

CHUCK-- Drained of power, lies wretchedly on the ground as Sam and Dean approach. Sam has the God Book.

CHUCK This this is how it ends? My book?

SAM

(evenly) See for yourself.

He tosses the book toward Chuck. It lands on its back, pages wide open for all to see. A breeze rustles the pages as Chuck brings his face close to see: A BOOK FULL OF COMPLETELY BLANK PAGES!

CHUCK There's... nothing there.

SAM Oh, there is. But only Death can read it.

DEAN So we had to come up with Plan "B." (then) Which wasn't all that hard once we saw that Michael really was a daddy's boy.

INTERCUT QUICK FLASHBACKS:

LIBRARY: Michael reacts to Lucifer's goading about Lucifer being the new favorite. Sam and Dean take note of Michael's reaction and glance at each other.

DEAN (V.O.) He didn't take it real well that you'd asked for Lucifer's help. Mike was desperate to be the favorite again.

LIBRARY: Sam leafs through the God Book with Dean standing nearby. THE PAGES ARE REVEALED TO BE BLANK.

SAM (V.O.) Since we couldn't read the book, we had to come up with a story about finding the spell, which we knew Michael would feed straight to you.

THE EMPTY: (From Ep. 18) Jack implodes in the Empty!

DEAN (V.O.) And it turns out-- all that prep, to make Jack a cosmic bomb?

SMALL TOWN STREET: Jack finishes praying to Kelly, starts toward the diner, plants and flowers wilting in his wake.

Unseen in the original scene: Sam and Dean are watching from the diner window. Their POV shows the wilting taking place.

DEAN (V.O.) It turned him into a sort of power vacuum.

BUNKER: Sam touches Jack's shoulder and reels a bit, then looks puzzled.

DEAN (V.O.) He was sucking in bits of power from all over. Getting stronger.

BUNKER: Lucifer and Michael hurtle waves of power at each other. Jack's eyes GLOW.

DEAN (V.O.) And when the heavyweights started duking it out... it really charged him up.

SAM We knew Michael would warn you and you'd show up here... then you killed your son...

DEAN ...and beat the crap out of us, letting loose more power. God power.

SAM Jack absorbed it all. It made him--

DEAN Unstoppable.

(...)

INT. MEN OF LETTERS - LIBRARY - NIGHT

Still and silent. Sam and Dean, holding beers, enter and look around the place.

SAM Pretty quiet.

They sit on the edges of opposite tables. Sam raises his bottle.

SAM To Jack.

They touch bottles and drink.

DEAN And Cass. And Mom.

SAM And Adam.

DEAN And Kelly. And Bobby. And John.

SAM Dad?

DEAN Yeah.

Sam shrugs; they take long pulls from the beers. Dean sighs wistfully.

DEAN And everyone... we've lost along the way.

Drink and silence.

[giftofshewbread]

Gone            (Prophecy Update)

 By Daymond Duck    Published on: September 26, 2021

After Moses died, Joshua became the leader of the Jewish people. Joshua led them across the Jordan River, took them to a place called Shiloh, and gave Shiloh to the largest and most powerful tribe called Ephraim. The Jews erected a Tabernacle there, priests served there, offered sacrifices there, felt God’s presence there, and it was a special place to God for more than 300 years. But the Jews eventually abandoned God, started worshipping a false God, angered God, stirred His wrath, and He destroyed Shiloh (Psa. 78:56-67).

Those that think that God won’t destroy a nation should go and look at Shiloh (Jer. 7:12).

Those that think that God won’t destroy a city should go and look at Sodom and Gomorrah.

On Sept. 16, 2021, several members of the media reported on an interview that former White House Press Sec. Sean Spicer had with former Pres. Trump.

Trump said, “Our country has gone really downhill in the last eight months like nobody’s ever seen before. And we’re not going to have a country left in three years; I’ll tell you that.”

Is Biden really the end of America?

Will America’s Deep State and the global Deep State succeed in bringing about the demise of America before 2024 and the establishment of a godless world government and religion by 2030 or sooner?

Perhaps, it is time for the Lukewarm Laodicean churches and those that think that God won’t destroy a godless world government and religion to go and look at the tower of Babel.

Without God, America is gone.

Consider the following:

Vice Pres. Harris was part of a group that raised funds to bail rioters, looters, and arsonists out of jail, and one has now committed murder.

The Biden administration knows that human traffickers, drug dealers, terrorists, and people infected with Covid are crossing the U.S. border with Mexico, but they are ignoring it or, in some cases, assisting it.

Biden said he would not leave American citizens in Afghanistan, but he has left hundreds there.

Biden let Taliban terrorists have up to 80 billion dollars of U.S. weapons.

The FBI destroyed Hillary’s cell phones for her.

Biden lied about his knowledge of Hunter Biden’s alleged crimes (he boasted about threatening the Pres. of Ukraine if he didn’t fire the man investigating Hunter; e-mails on Hunter’s laptop have been confirmed to be legitimate), but that is okay with the Democrat Party, and the FBI and DOJ have done nothing.

Pelosi, Schumer, and the Democrats impeached Trump over something he didn’t say in a phone call to Russia, but they are ignoring Gen. Milley’s treasonous calls to China, even though he could have endangered the security of the U.S.

Biden has been warned that too much spending can collapse the U.S. economy, but he continues to propose multi-trillion-dollar stimulus packages.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that mandated vaccinations are unconstitutional, but Biden is trying to force people to get one.

The Biden administration is trying to force average citizens to get vaccinated, but he has exempted Congress, their aides, the DOJ, the U.S. Supreme Court, and postal workers.

Fauci lied to Congress about funding Covid research in Wuhan, China, but the Biden administration supports him.

The above list shows that the America most of us grew up in is already gone, but there is no need to worry because the Church will soon be gone (Raptured) too.

FYI: Trump’s slogan was “Make America Great Again” (Strengthen America don’t weaken it). Biden’s slogan was “Build Back Better” (Get rid of the old America and build it back with a different America. That is what he is doing). Obama called it “The Fundamental Transformation of America”).

This writer believes the length of the above list could easily be doubled, but readers will get the point, and there are other things that need to be mentioned.

One, concerning the decline of the U.S. and the establishment of the Ten Kings: on Sept. 20, 2021, it was reported that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) met to discuss weakened ties to the U.S. and the restructuring of CELAC into a block of nations patterned after the E.U.

Ten groups of nations patterned after the E.U. with a leader over each group (Ten leaders or Ten Kings) that would eventually cede their power to one leader has been a globalist goal for many years.

Also concerning the decline of the U.S.: Biden’s surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan has triggered calls for the E.U. to establish a military that does not have ties to NATO.

Also concerning the decline of the U.S.: France has recalled its ambassador to the U.S. for the first time in history over a deal the U.S. and U.K. made to provide Australia with the technology to build submarines.

Two, concerning world government: the globalists have weakened America, and now China wants to replace America, take over the New World Order (NWO) and dominate it, not submit to it.

The globalists are just as much against China dominating their New World Order as they were against America dominating it.

George Soros and some of his globalist buddies are now getting worried about the growing power of China. They are even trying to cut off investments in China to weaken China like they weakened the U.S.

According to the Bible, the E.U. will be the main power in the coming world government, not China.

Expect China to resist and invade the Middle East as one of the Kings of the East, but don’t expect China to defeat the Antichrist and head up the coming world government.

Three, concerning the Mark of the Beast: it will be a global mandate to identify and track everyone on earth, and it will go into effect at the middle of the Tribulation Period.

There is good reason to believe that Covid-19 vaccine certificates are on the way to becoming a global mandate to identify and track people.

On Sept. 15, 2021, it was reported that 35-40 nations (Israel, the E.U., and other nations that want to join) will have a digital system in place by early October to identify and track those that have been vaccinated and those that have had Covid-19 and recovered. Those that get an approved certificate will be allowed to travel, enter restaurants and other venues, but those that don’t get one will not be allowed to do these things.

Four, concerning Israel and Jerusalem: America’s Deep State has manipulated Pres. Biden into many mistakes since putting him into office.

It seems that God is willing to let America’s Deep State and Biden weaken America because He said He will allow them to establish a godless world government and religion for seven years.

But now, these godless people appear to be preparing to weaken Israel by reopening America’s special consulate for the P.A. in Jerusalem and canceling America’s recognition of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

God will allow them to do this for three reasons:

He is letting Israel learn to trust Him and not the nations.

He is letting the nations choose their own judgment (what they try to do to Israel will come back on them; Zech. 12:3).

He is letting the world know that He is God, He restored Israel, and Israel cannot be destroyed (Amos 9:11-15).

FYI: America’s Deep State apparently does not know, believe, or understand the story about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (a type of Israel in the Tribulation Period). One like the Son of God delivered them out of it (Dan. 3:25), and all Israel, all that believe in Yeshua, will be saved in the wilderness (Matt. 25:16-22) by a Deliverer out of Zion (Rom. 11:26).

Five, in May of this year, terrorists in Gaza fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, but many were shot down by Israel’s anti-missile Iron Dome System.

Israel needs to replace and boost her stock of Iron Dome missiles.

In June of this year, U.S. Sec. of State Lloyd Austin told Israel’s Defense Min. Benny Gantz that the U.S. plans to replace Israel’s Iron Dome missiles. On Aug. 27, Pres. Biden met with Israeli Prime Min. Bennett and said the U.S. will replace Israel’s Iron Dome missiles. Nancy Pelosi recently put $1 billion to replace Israel’s Iron Dome missiles in a bill to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, but the Squad and other leftist Democrats strongly objected to spending money on the defense of Israel. Pelosi removed the money but promised to put it in a later bill.

The Biden administration has made many mistakes (Afghanistan, border with Mexico, etc.), but nothing could be as bad as abandoning its promises to defend Israel.

Six, concerning the division of Israel and the Battle of Armageddon: on Sept. 21, 2021, Pres. Biden repeated his support for the Two-State solution in a speech at the U.N. (but he did say it will be a long time before it happens).

Seven, concerning wickedness and corruption at the end of the age: on Sept. 16, 2021, Special Counsel John Durham got an indictment against a Democrat lawyer for creating and giving false information (lying) to the FBI to smear Pres. Trump during the 2016 Pres. Campaign. According to the indictment, the lawyer’s lies were used to suggest that Trump was colluding with the Russians.

In 2016, the FBI questioned him about it, and he gave the FBI false information while claiming to be an ordinary citizen and denied that he was being paid by anyone to give the FBI a false story.

It is now 5 years later, and the FBI says it has proof that the Democrat lawyer was billing the Clinton campaign, and Clinton’s group was paying him for his work. There are now rumors that Durham plans to go after Mrs. Clinton, but this writer is skeptical. It would not be surprising if Durham goes after some of Clinton’s aides, but Clinton is a prominent member of America’s Deep State.

Some say George Soros is destroying America, and Obama is in his third presidency, but nothing is ever done about what they are doing. Why?

The DOJ and FBI appear to be treating America’s Deep State as a protected class of people. If this is not true, why haven’t they been prosecuted for some of the things they have done? If it is true, it means the DOJ and FBI are protecting the wickedness, corruption, and treason of America’s Deep State (like in the days of Noah when the wickedness of man was great).

FYI: Here is some good news.

If (a big “IF”) God allows the Antichrist to confirm a 7-year covenant with many for peace in the Middle East by 2030, Jesus will be sitting on the throne of David in Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of God will exist on earth by 2037. Christians will be here in new bodies with their loved ones; Christians won’t get sick or die; there will be peace, justice, and righteousness on earth; no Covid, etc.

The bad things mentioned above are signs that a new world is coming soon.

Eight, concerning a falling away in the Church: on Sept. 21, 2021, LifeSiteNews reported that Pope Francis has a history of praising pro-abortion politicians, he supports serving communion to pro-abortion politicians, and he has endorsed gay civil unions.

Pope Francis has the spiritual qualifications of the False Prophet (supports world government, world religion, etc.), but he is getting old. If he is the False Prophet, the Rapture could be very soon.

Before closing, here is a personal message.

I get a little uncomfortable when other ministries ask me to publicize what they are doing because if they or some of their people go astray, I don’t want it to have a negative impact on Rapture Ready or my ministry. Having said this, a Christian group called Tactical Civics is seeking God-fearing patriots that want to restore America. I am thankful for (and support) anyone that wants to restore America. A member of the group has asked me to encourage people that Love Jesus and America to watch the 11-minute video at this link: www.tacticalcivics.com/video

The group wants more people to know what they are doing and perhaps get involved.

Finally, are you Rapture Ready?

If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

[vanessakirbyfans]

Vanessa Kirby suggests we meet on the Mall, the central location for her on-screen triumph as the young Princess Margaret in The Crown. I’m standing outside the shuttered Institute of Contemporary Arts when she strides into view, a slender, leggy figure with bleached hair and brilliant blue eyes, clad in trademark black, but for her gleaming white Converse trainers.

"I haven’t been here since we were filming!" she marvels through her mask, gazing up the processional avenue towards Buckingham Palace. "I was whizzing up the road on a motorbike, holding onto the back of Matthew Goode [as Antony Armstrong-Jones] and feeling so exhilarated about what on Earth was happening to my life ��� being in a job I loved, playing someone I loved."

Her ebullient mood was dented when Margaret’s handbag, into which she’d put her own phone, was blown away from between her feet, and an opportunistic passer-by ran off with it. "By the time I could check Find My iPhone, it was already in Leicester Square," she says. "Of course, the costume department were furious because the bag was vintage and a one-off." We both laugh, rather ruefully, for such anecdotes already seem to belong to a more carefree time. This bright, crisp lunchtime in lockdown, the Mall is all but deserted –there would be no need for roadblocks or filming at dawn today – while the roles Kirby is here to discuss are light-years away from her embodiment of a pampered royal party girl.

The morning of our meeting, Pieces of a Woman has launched on Netflix to rapturous reviews and critical acclaim that has seen Kirby, in her first lead role, picked as a front-runner for the award season’s most coveted best-actress gongs.

It is not, however, an easy watch. Kirby plays Martha, a first-time mother whose baby dies moments after being born; the film follows Martha’s subsequent disintegration, alongside that of her close relationships. Her labour, which comes at the start of the film, is some 26 minutes of one unbroken take that manages to be simultaneously intimate and menacing as the camera swoops around the apartment and hovers beside the traumatised protagonists.

Kirby’s performance is astonishingly unselfconscious, which is the more surprising since she never went to drama school (turning down the offer of a place at Lamda in favour of stage roles at Bolton’s Octagon Theatre) and says she couldn't bring herself to dance in front of her friends. "I’m the one who sits in the corner and watches." She describes seeing herself on-screen as "disconcerting", and "not a very natural human experience", and indeed even finds making Zoom calls a trial. "There’s nothing to hide behind!"

For Pieces of a Woman, the director Kornel Mundruczo decided that the birth scene would be the first to be shot, she tells me, as we stroll around St James’s Park, conducting ourselves like a couple of spies in a Le Carré novel. "I knew I’d have to be naked, and literally open my legs and give birth in front of a group of strangers I’d only met that morning. I was actually quite thankful – I thought, the rest of it’s going to be a lot easier."

In fact, she says, she found herself swept away by the emotion of the story. "Normally, it’s so hard to forget there are machines in your face, but I had no idea that a camera was even there." Was it traumatic to act? "The first time we shot it, I was literally sobbing for 10 minutes afterwards. I couldn’t get out of it. My brain was telling me it wasn’t real, but my unconscious didn’t know the difference, especially with having a real baby in my arms.

"Kornel came over onto the bed and held me so tight. He didn’t let go of me for five minutes, and he said, 'Just remember this feeling.' That really helped me for the rest of the movie, when the character doesn’t express anything, but almost has to be doing the howling without speaking a word."

Kirby took her research seriously, even asking a mother-to-be –a total stranger – to allow her to be present in the delivery room at the birth of her son in a north-London hospital. "I remember every single second of it," the actress says emphatically. "I was there, glued to my seat, for seven hours, not even a loo break! I was just amazed, in awe. I saw a woman completely surrender and go on this spiritual journey, which involved indescribable pain, clearly, but also ecstasy. It gave me a whole new respect for women and how powerful they are, and a new empathy for men, because they feel so helpless. And obviously, seeing the baby come out was the most incredible thing in the world I’ve ever seen, by far. After he was born, all of the mother’s colour returned, she looked like an angel, she had a kind of holy glow." Bathetically, it was only then that the couple recognised Kirby. "They were going, 'Oh my God, it’s Princess Margaret! This is so weird!'"

The experience has given her a new philosophy on life, she says. "I was watching the mother go through these contractions, which were excruciating, and the pushing, and then there was a moment of calm, and of expansion. And so, when I’m going through things in my life, I say to myself, this is like a contraction, surrender to it, because there might be something born from it. Sometimes we don’t want that; when we’re feeling something horrible, we want it to pass as far as possible. I’m teaching myself to allow it to be there and not resist or push it away, and that’s because of that woman."

But her character’s storyline also demanded that Kirby understand the experience of stillbirth. A friend introduced her to a woman who had lost her baby Luciana under eerily similar circumstances to those in Martha’s narrative. "She shared everything with me." They have become close friends, and the film’s ending is dedicated to Luciana. Kirby continues to work with Sands, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity, and is voluble in her admiration of the Duchess of Sussex and Chrissy Teigen, both of whom have recently spoken out about their own experiences of miscarriage.

"I feel so close to them and so proud of them for breaking that silence," she says. "Meghan is probably the last person who would feel comfortable sharing her very personal, intimate feelings. It’s that courage that I want to continue to honour. What they’re saying is, if you’ve been through it, we have too, we share your story. I think that makes you feel less lonely. But one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage, which is far more than I knew about. Society finds it difficult to hold space for that kind of pain."

Her parents, to whom she is very close, have both seen the film and wept throughout, she says. As if on cue, her phone pings, and her eyes soften when she checks the message; it’s a childhood friend who herself miscarried, getting in touch to say how much the film has meant to her.

The integrity of Kirby’s performance has already netted her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. "It doesn’t seem real," she says. "I have it in its case – I wouldn’t have it on display, it looks like a football trophy – but occasionally I glance at it and think, 'Did that really happen? Or did I make it up in a weird dream?'" In a similar vein, she is reluctant to engage with the Oscar buzz surrounding her. "I don’t even know when they are," she admits. "My 13-year-old self would have a heart attack. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it!"

Kirby’s other film, The World to Come, is set in mid-19th-century America but touches on the same themes of bereavement and redemption. The central character Abigail, played by Katherine Waterston, has also lost her young daughter, and in her grief, turns away from her husband to have an affair with Tallie, her free-spirited, flame-haired neighbour. "I was glad I was playing Tallie rather than Abigail, because it might have been a bit too much," Kirby confesses – though without giving away spoilers, that role is pretty traumatic too...

The screenplay is taken from the short story of the same name by Jim Shepard, which was inspired by an entry he found in an antique diary: 'My best friend’s moved away, and I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again.' "It was one woman’s voice, like an echo from the past, and we’ll never know who she was," says Kirby. "The World to Come really educated me about what life was like for women not that long ago. They didn’t have a choice about anything they did with their time. You were owned by the house, and the man, and you had no freedom outside that. The best thing about doing this mad job sometimes is having your ignorance illuminated. I gravitate towards things that push beyond my experience, I want to go to places I don’t know, I’m not familiar with."

The experience of making both films has changed her profoundly. "I can’t do anything unless it means something to me now," she says. "It’s a better way to work, because you’re not focused on yourself at all. So maybe I’ll only work once every 10 years!"

To ensure that this is not the case, and in order to find more untold, female-led stories, her ambition is now to set up her own production company. "Even a few years ago, a film about a woman losing a baby would have been unthinkable. There are so many voiceless people, and I have a voice in this industry, and I want to make sure the tribe is represented properly."

It is undeniably awkward, therefore, that her male co-stars in the films, Shia LaBeouf and Casey Affleck, both of whom play violent, abusive husbands, have been called out for their treatment of women. In December, the British singer FKA Twigs filed a lawsuit against LaBeouf, her ex-partner, alleging that he "hurts women. He uses them. He abuses them, both physically and mentally". While LaBeouf largely denied the accusations, he admitted in a statement to The New York Times: "I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say."

Meanwhile, Affleck was sued by two female crew members working on his 2010 film I’m Still Here, one of whom accused him of sexual harassment. He denied the allegations, and the lawsuits were settled out of court, but he later told the Associated Press: "I behaved in a way, and I allowed others to behave in a way, that was really unprofessional, and I’m sorry."

Kirby is understandably reluctant to get into any of this. "I can’t comment on a legal case that’s going on in someone’s personal life," she says. "I feel really protective of Pieces, so that’s what I want to speak about. Because it came out at eight this morning, all I can think about is the mothers I spoke to, and wanting them to be my focus. I just know my job is to honour them."

Perhaps counter-intuitively, starring in Pieces has awakened in her the desire for a family of her own. "It’s definitely made me want a baby, for sure," she says; but she hasn’t currently got a partner, having split up from Callum Turner (Frank Churchill in last year’s Emma), whom she met when they co-starred in the 2014 film Queen & Country. "This year has made me think a lot about the home I want to create. I like the idea of inviting someone into a space that’s mine, preferably before I have kids."

In the near future, however, Kirby has nothing on her plate except for getting through a third lockdown. "I’m free as a bird! I’ve read a lot of stuff, and said no to a lot of stuff..." She currently shares a flat in Tooting, south London, with her sister Juliet, an assistant director, and two friends. "I was just about to move out to live on my own in north London – my God, I would have been so lonely! My sister saved me. It was so nice to have routines together. We were trying to take a bit of exercise, cooking together, watching films that made us feel better, drinking wine on Friday nights..."

By now, having circled St James’s Park several times, we are strolling back towards the Corinthia Hotel, where Kirby has a full programme of Zoom interviews lined up for the afternoon. "That’s why I’m so happy to have actually had the chance to go out and meet you in real life," she says enthusiastically. "It’s funny when everything in your life closes down, and you have to sit with yourself, and you suddenly notice all the things you have and you’re grateful for. I hope that feeling never goes away – I will never underestimate how lucky I am."

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #230: THE LAST FAREWELL!

April, 1983

“Yellowjacket no more!”

Aw, dang! Hank got raptured!

Captain America, Thor, and Hawkeye is a weird collection of characters to be staring forlornly at the empty Yellowjacket uniform.

Thor hasn’t really expressed much about the Yellowjacket situation in comparison. You think they could squeeze Wasp into the shot. Just her ex-husband is all. She’s just the team leader is all.

Put Wasp on the cover, you cowards.

So last times on Avengers: Hank Pym got himself kicked out of the Avengers and out of his marriage and pretty much deserved it. He was tricked into committing treason by his arch-nemesis Egghead and sent to jail. He sat in jail for, like, a really long time. The wheels really spun on the arc.

He was kicked out of the Avengers/walked before he could be kicked out in #213. He was arrested at the end of issue #217. His trial was in issue #228.

He was kidnapped from his trial by the Masters of Evil. Then in #229, he turned the tables on them all in quite a satisfying manner and slugged Egghead in the egg head.

Then Hawkeye manslaughtered him. He’s dead.

Hawkeye arrowed the science gun to stop Egghead from shooting Hank in the back and then the science gun backfired and microwaved that egg.

This makes Hank’s victory a little bittersweet for him.

Hank Pym: “I defeated the Masters of Evil single-handed... but more than anything, I wanted to bring Egghead to justice. He was a thorn in my side for so many years. I was never able to defeat him for long, not when I was Ant-Man... and not even after I became Giant-Man! He bedeviled me in every identity I assumed. He did me the greatest wrong when I was Yellowjacket. I’d already ruined my Avengers career, when he tricked me into committing a federal crime!”

Hawkeye too is set to thinking by what happened. Maybe humming a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody to himself too.

Hawkeye: “This is unreal! I’ve never killed a man before! I never planned on anything like this happening! Yeah, but I can’t feel sorry for Egghead! If anyone deserved this, he did! My brother Barney bought the farm, stopping Egghead from killing the Avengers. And if I hadn’t acted when I did, Hank Pym would be dead! If I had to do it again... I would!”

Hawkeye: ‘Eh, fuck ‘em!’

hah.

But Hank laments that with Egghead dead, so goes his chance of proving his innocence by turning him over to the law.

Hank Pym: “Egghead was always getting away from me, Hawkeye. It’s almost as if he’s pulled the ultimate escape!”

Fun fact: There doesn’t seem to be an Ultimate Egghead! Why would there need to be? Even more than in the 616, Ultimate Hank Pym is by far his own worst enemy.

Hawkeye basically tells Hank to buck up and that there’s basically incriminating evidence lying all over the place.

He doesn’t say it but even Egghead’s dead deceased corpse is kind of like evidence. Evidence that he wasn’t dead until recently.

Captain Marvel shows up because someone finally came looking for Hawkeye.

Hank is surprised, much like others have been that this is Captain Marvel. He knew the old guy, the super saiyan. And I guess he didn’t hear there was a new one.

Hawkeye: “We’ve had a few changes since you went in the slammer, Hank. C.M. is an Avenger in training.”

Huh. Captain Marvel doesn’t even react to the dead body. Then again, there’s a lot of bodies lying all around the place.

And while Hawkeye is introducing the new Captain Marvel to Hank, one of those bodies stirs.

Moonstone has regained consciousness and assesses the situation. She could blast Hank, Captain Marvel, and Hawkeye with her coherent light pew pew but that’d just weaken her.

Like in the previous issue, Moonstone is one of the few supervillains who knows when to fold ‘em.

So she decides to skeedaddle while the getting is good but whoops.

Getting wasn’t good.

The rest of the Avengers have shown up and cornered her while she was pondering.

So Moonstone decides ‘eh fuck it’ and promises to spill all the beans if it gets her a lighter sentence.

So days later, the mostly off-screen trial of Hank Pym finally ends.

A loooot of new evidence suddenly popping up led the prosecution to withdraw all charges.

The lead prosecution witness, Trish Starr, suddenly reversing her testimony after putting on Tony Stark’s magical mental-scan helmet kind of tanked the case, really.

Wait, they really did just admit the use of the helmet in the trial when its new, unsubstantiated technology whose inventor disappeared?

Damn, I knew the Marvel legal system was wild (considering comic books as legal documents as explored in Dan Slott’s run on the character) but still!

Although it makes sense. Egghead got Trish to incriminate Hank by using the bionic arm to alter her memories. The helmet Tony invented undoes that kind of alteration. This connects the dots quite reasonably. Glad Stern was paying attention when preparing to finish this arc.

Moonstone and Beetle confirming that Egghead was using Hank as a tool also helps.

In fact, not only did the prosecution drop all their charges, the judge also dismissed all the charges. Which feels redundant? I dunno much about law, really. Just the She-Hulk version of law. Which, again, uses comic books as legal documents.

Apparently happening at around the same time, Hawkeye also had his day in court.

Literally a day.

It wasn’t a trial, just a hearing to investigate whether he was guilty of wrong-doing in the death of Egghead.

Newsman with a newsplan: “Though he was threatened with contempt-of-court charges a number of times -- Hawkeye was found innocent of any wrong-doing in the death of Dr. Elihas Starr -- the self-styled Egghead.”

Yeah, I bet Hawkeye was threatened with contempt-of-court a bunch. And I bet you anything that at least one of the times he rejoined with “No, you’re out of order! This whole damn courtroom is out of order!”

And then the judge probably just sighed.

I mean, look at that unbelievable Hawkeye in the bottom left panel.

Anyway, I think Stern must have felt a little pent up having to start his Avengers run finishing off someone else’s story, especially having to devote a recap issue to it since the plot had been interspersed with fill-ins.

Because in the middle of concluding this arc, he throws in two plot beats that I have to assume are to set up stuff of his own.

A day after the trial, the Beetle is being escorted to a cell in a Western Pennsylvanian federal maximum security prison when he bumps into another prisoner.

What neither the Beetle or the guard notices is that the bump to “Sam Smithers” has peeled off some skin on his arm and revealed THAT HE IS ACTUALLY MADE OF WOOD!

Suspect possibly a living puppet.

And elsewhere but samewhen, IN SPACE, specifically on Saturn’s moon Titan, Thanos’ brother Eros is basically complaining about being bored.

When Captain Mar-vell died of having a lot of cancer, he asked Eros to look after Mar-vell’s... uh... -google- robot girlfriend?? Elysius.

Eventual mom to Genis and Phyla-Vells.

Soooooo, Eros has done as Mar-vell’s deathbed wish was and spent an agonizing several consecutive months hanging out in Titan’s beautiful inside forests and just having a real hard time caring about one thing for such a long period of time.

I’m not even being unfair to him.

Eros: “This is the first time in ages that I’ve spent so many consecutive months on Titan! I have ever been a wanderer! I’ve sought out adventure across the wide cosmos. Frankly, I have known romance on more worlds than most sentient beings could imagine. That’s part of the problem. Our friendship has been wonderful, but I’m having a hard time adjusting to it. My previous relationships have all been of a fleeting nature.”

‘Look its not you, its me’ except for attempting to dump someone as a friend, instead of romantically.

Not dump, even. He just kind of wants to ditch her and is asking in a roundabout way if she’s emotionally stable enough to ditch.

She goes, yeah sure, go off and have fun. And maybe she’s getting tired of his company too.

Elysius: “Look... you’ve been a great comfort to me these last few months, but now I need to be alone for a while with my thoughts.”

Geez, how clingy has he been this whole time while desperately wanting to be anywhere else?

Anyway, since she’s fine with him fucking off, he does fuck off. Right to the Hall of Science.

Where Eros’ dad is like ‘oh ffs’ when Eros tells him that he needs to use the LIVING COMPUTER Isaac to look up planets with the highest adventure potential.

Mentor of Titan is a man deeply disappointed in both of his sons for very different reasons.

Anyway, would you really be surprised if I told you that Earth was in the Top 3 planets in known space for adventure?

You wouldn’t, right?

Meanwhile, back at the plot, Hank Pym is on a boat with Trish Starr.

She wants to apologize for that time she incriminated him but Hank isn’t going to blame her for being as much a pawn in Egghead’s scheme as he was.

Trish: “Yes, uncle was like that all of his life. I think he really enjoyed using people.”

And she remembers the first time they met in Marvel Feature #5, where Egghead tried to drain her mind to power his machines. Because. Batteries hadn’t been invented? Because he’s just not happy unless he’s screwing over someone else?

Second one sounds likeliest.

She also remembers the time he car bombed her car but siphoned out most of the gas first.

Trish: “He didn’t want to kill me... only maim me. Nice guy, my uncle.”

Yeah. Its stories like that why its only Trish and Hank also Fred Sloan on a boat at Egghead’s funeral. Yeah, by the way, this is basically Egghead’s funeral.

Fred is only here for Trish.

Hank reacts to Fred so I wondered if he’s important in some way or if Hank recognized him but I checked the wiki and his main importance seems to be... this issue? So I don’t know why Hank reacts to the guy.

So Fred is just here for Trish. Trish is here out of duty, since she was Egghead’s only known family. And Hank is also only here out of duty but more archnemesis ‘can’t believe that asshole is dead and I don’t even get to feel good about it’ duty. I assume.

Hank even gets the honor (?) of laying Egghead to rest. By dumping his ashes into New York harbor.

Mostly because it doesn’t seem like Trish wants to?

So Hank quotes some Mark Twain and dumps the ashes.

Hank Pym: “‘Death... the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all -- the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.’ Farewell, Egghead.”

Trish: “It’s awful to say this -- but I can’t find it in myself to be sorry. I think I’m glad he’s dead.”

And that’s Egghead’s legacy. Mourned by no one. And his death is only not cheered because the only people that cared feel shitty about feeling glad he’s dead.

ANYWAY, there’s some other loose ends to tie up.

So Hank takes a taxi to the Avengers Mansion and I guess finally explicitly explains why the mansion has seemed to change positions over time?

Hank Pym: “I never thought I’d be coming here again. The place has certainly changed since the day Jan and I met here with Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk to draft the Avengers charter and by-laws. And I still recall the time Iron Man and Thor moved the mansion back from the street to give us more privacy. What a project that was!”

Sounds like a heck of a noodle incident, Hank.

... Why just Thor and Iron Man? Did they... did they literally just shove the mansion back from the street? ... There’s... basements and caves under there. How does that work? That seems like a massive architectural project.

Hank, pls, I need to know more details. You can’t just drop that information and casually stroll away. HANK!

Captain Marvel meets Hank at the door and escorts him inside, captain marveling at how calm Hank is despite everything he’s been through.

Hank shows up to the Avengers meeting and-

Oh god, She-Hulk looks like she wants to punch the suppressed emotions right out of Jan. She-Hulk, pls.

So, Wasp is super formal, calling Hank Dr. Pym and telling him that they want to use the mento-scan helmet to see if he was under outside influence when he did all the very bad things he did.

All of the Avengers are harboring their own concerns.

She-Hulk: “I’ve read legal briefs that were more informal! She’s cool on the surface, but inside -- ! Jannie, why are you doing this to yourself?!”

Are you guys already at the cute nickname stage of your friendship or is that just the way She-Hulk be?

Cap is worried that this is rough on Jan but that she’s doing what she needs to do as the Avengers chairwoman. But he’s more worried about the absence of Iron Man who is still missing and who ignored three calls to assemble.

Thor is just internally like ‘just do the helmet, my dude.’

Hawkeye is literally biting his lip at the tension.

Hawkeye: “Jan divorced Hank after his last breakdown. If we find out that he wasn’t to blame, what’s it gonna do to the both of ‘em? I hate this! That stupid court hearing was a breeze in comparison.”

Huh, Hawkeye has a point. Even if outside influence is proven, its not as straightforward as Jan and Hank instantly getting back together, no harm no foul. There was harm. And the problems with their relationship were deeper than one incident. But it would also create this possible expectation that they should get back together because the specific incident wasn’t Hank’s fault.

And Captain Marvel is still looking at this from an outsiders’ perspective.

Captain Marvel: “They’re really hurting over this... all of them! They all care so very, very much. If I ever become a fully active Avenger, I pray that I can live up to their example.”

So Hank very calmly agrees to use the helmet. But...

Hank Pym: “Sorry... no outside influences. It would have changed a lot of things if there had been, wouldn’t it? But no, I made my own mistakes... and I have to live with them.”

Thiiiiis was the best decision for the story arc. It may seem, in retrospect, the worst decision in the long run, but I can respect the story for standing by what it has done and standing by the growth Hank has had as a result of everything that happened.

I think a lot of more modern marvel comics have gone a little wild with letting the heroes do all kinds of dubious things and also die because it can be easily undone. It was a Skrull, they were being mind-controlled, it was an AU Nazi version of them created by a cosmic cube child. Or by giving the hero some big redemptive moment like Iron Man wiping his mind to make up for doing Civil War. Or Iron Man dying to make up for Civil War 2. You can explore whatever scenarios you want without worrying about dealing with the consequences long-term.

But in this era of Marvel, they were concerned with the long-term. Not to say that there weren’t cop-outs back in this day too. But since books were expected to keep going indefinitely instead of being cancelled and relaunched, there’s less of a sense of ‘this thing is only here to play with for a little while.’ If you wrote a thing, another writer was expected to follow up on it.

And I miss that a little.

So not giving a cop-out bullshit thing that undoes Hank’s actions was bad in the long run for his image as a character. But that’s a long way from now problem, exacerbated by writers like Chuck Austin and Mark Millar who wanted to wallow in it.

For an arc where Hank fell from grace and proved himself again, taking ownership of what a garbage fire his life can be was necessary.

One among many reasons I probably won’t like the Crossing when I get to it, haha.

With Hank’s actions proven as being Hank’s actions, Hank says there’s one more loose end that he wants to help tie off.

He wants to participate as witness when the Avengers hold a court of inquiry for Hawkeye killing Egghead.

This comes as an absolute surprise to Hawkeye, who I guess never read the bylaws. Which honestly, is very in-character for him.

But it being brought up, he insists that all he has to do is enter the findings of the state judge and be done with it.

Hank insists he participate though.

Hank Pym: “Hawkeye is faced with charges because he acted in my defense. It’s only right that I act in his.”

So, the Avengers go to the first floor library, which is apparently the court of inquiry room. I feel like we’re suddenly getting a lot of details about the layout of the Avengers Mansion in recent issues.

So Wasp convenes the court all formal style, so formal style that Hawkeye thinks that stickler Cap(tain America) couldn’t have done a better job. The purpose of the court of inquiry is to determine the validity of the charge of “unreasonable use of deadly force” and determine what if any proper disciplinary action should be taken.

I think Hawkeye is annoyed at having to go through with this (read the bylaws, my dude) because when Wasp asks if he has anything to add to his claim of innocence of the charge, he says he already gave the court copies of the court transcript that cleared him of the same charge, but also decides to speechify a little, because he wasn’t accused of contempt of court enough today.

Hawkeye: “I have already given the chair copies of the transcript of a hearing of the state courts... a hearing which found me not guilty of the same charge. And I have something else to say as well!”

“I don’t deny that my actions caused the death of Egghead. But in no way did I use undue force! I found Hank Pym in mortal danger, and I used the necessary means to save him... period. After all, we are supposed to be the Avengers, right?”

Luckily for Hawkeye, the Avengers are more willing to put up with him than a state court so Jan just goes ‘ok, noted.’

Captain Marvel also has a minor change of heart on Hawkeye. I don’t think we’ve gotten her in-depth feelings on him before (although he did get pissy about her joining the team, we didn’t see her response to that) but she’s impressed because she thought he had more wind than conviction but is seeing that isn’t so. And she’s also impressed by Serious Mode Jan who she thought was kind of flighty.

Captain Monica Marvel seeing all kinds of new sides of the Avengers lately.

Also, this isn’t important and you won’t be able to see what I mean unless I included more caps than I wanted to, but in the panel establishing the court of inquiry, Monica is just standing off to the side. But in the next panel she appears in, she’s moved over to sit on a couch instead.

I think its a framing thing but its still kind of funny to imagine her going ‘wait why am I standing up’ and heading for the comfy couch.

With Hawkeye’s statement given, Wasp invites Hank Pym to speak his piece.

And Hank gets up and gives an entirely unnecessary but probably appreciated defense of Hawkeye.

Hank Pym: “Ladies and gentlemen... I have not always been on the friendliest of terms with Hawkeye. Point of fact, we nearly came to blows a number of times... back in the days when I was an Avenger. But in all the time I’ve known him, Hawkeye has never used undue force.”

“I realize that this inquiry is little more than a formality. I have no doubt that you will find in his behalf. He did, as he said, act only in my defense. Unlike my own recent case before you, there is not the slightest hint of misconduct or negligence. The only thing Hawkeye is guilty of is being a good Avenger.”

“When I last spoke before this body, at my court-martial, I was not in a rational state of mind. I was unfit to be an Avenger. You wisely expelled me. I never expected to speak before you again. And now, I can think of no finer final statement than this... It has been my sincere honor to have known Hawkeye’s fellowship... as it has to have known yours.”

Okay. So. Half a defense of Hawkeye. And half... just a general good-bye and a demonstration that he actually does know how to deliver a defense at a court-martial. Cool.

I imagine if he had a mic, he would have dropped it.

Probably not, actually. Hank isn’t that exact blend of cool and inconsiderate for a mic drop.

Jarvis intercepts Hank on his way out and asks that he come with him to the second floor study. Jarvis has taken the liberty of gathering up the personal items Hank just kind of left in the mansion and packing them for him.

One suitcase has a bunch of Hank’s clothes that he had stashed in the mansion over the years. Including some wacky ties for wacky tie Fridays and a shirt that Hank had just plumb lost.

The other suitcase is a spare Yellowjacket outfit. In case Hank ever needs it.

Then Hank and Jarvis shake hands, Hank thanking Jarvis for everything that he’s done for him and the Avengers. He asks Jarvis to take care of himself because he knows he doesn’t have to ask him to take care of the Avengers.

This is a very touching scene. Its so touching that Jarvis excuses himself to go get misty eyed.

This is a Jarvis appreciation blog because I appreciate Jarvis as well.

Then, as Hank heads back down the staircase, he is intercepted by Thor, Captain America, and Hawkeye.

Yeah, the court of inquiry resolved off-screen because of how forgone a conclusion it was.

The three Avengers basically fall all over themselves to pat Hank on the back. Hank actually looks somewhat panicked by the positive affirmation.

That’s some mixture of funny and sad that I can’t identify.

Hawkeye tells Hank how much he appreciated his unnecessary defense. Thor clasps Hank’s shoulder and tells him he’s a class act, but in Thor-y words. And Cap extends an offer for whatever the Avengers can do to help Hank get back on his feet.

Hank thanks him for the offer but he’s already received an offer from a small research foundation in the Midwest.

Seems like getting exonerated of a treason charge is the best resume of all. That and Hank’s actual impressive resume.

But Cap has some stuff to work out re: Hank because he starts off on the stuff he put on the back burner back in that Ghost Rider issue.

Cap(tain America): “Hank... I know Iron Man would agree, if he were here, that we’re all sorry about the way things worked out. We should have realized the pressures you’d been under, prior to your breakdown. I was group leader at the time! I should have -- !”

Hank Pym: “Hold it right there, Cap! What I did, I did to myself! If I could have admitted that my problems existed... If I’d been willing to open up to you folks... Well, ‘if’ can be a big word sometimes. The fact of the matter is, I screwed up. And you did the only thing you could do! I don’t blame any of you.”

Hank has boarded the personal responsibility train and goddammit he’s riding it to the end of the line!

Good for him. Good clarity for the arc to have in its last issue.

But having started to slightly shout at the Avengers that he’s taking responsibility dammit! (he looks a bit pissed when he’s responding to Cap) Hank awkwardly excuses himself.

Cap tries to stop Hank from leaving because he has reached the bargaining stage of grief, I guess.

Cap: “Hank, wait! It doesn’t have to end like this! We could make a special amendment to the by-laws! We could reinstate you as an Avenger! You could be a special reservist -- !”

Hank: “Thanks, Cap. But no thanks. Trying to play super hero was the biggest mistake I ever made with my life! I was only fooling myself in ever thinking otherwise. But if you ever really think you might need a Yellowjacket again some day...”

He hands Cap the Yellowjacket suitcase.

Hank: “... Here! All you need is a good man and what’s in this case!”

I would hope, anyway. It’s going to be awkward if he opens it up later and its full of wacky ties.

The funny thing, although not really funny ha ha, is that Yellowjacket is the one codename of Hank’s that never really catches on outside of him.

You have multiple Ant-Men, a couple Goliaths, at least one other Giant-Man. There was a second Yellowjacket, eventually. But she didn’t make a big splash.

Despite Hank’s attempt here to pass the torch, Yellowjacket is a codename that remains inextricably tied to him. Which might be the problem. If there were another, more successful or at least more endearing Yellowjacket, Hank’s infamy in the role would not stand out so much.

Alas.

She-Hulk and Captain Marvel try next to intercept Hank. They don’t know him very well but they wanted to say their goodbyes too, despite not really knowing him that well.

Its the thought that definitely counts, probably.

But Hawkeye has some social awareness for a change and draws their attention to Wasp who is hanging back, but who clearly wants to talk to Hank.

So the rest of the Avengers quickly vacate to let Hank and Jan finally have closure. Or re-closure. “I want a divorce and to never see you again” is a kind of closure.

The situation has changed, however.

They both try to apologize to each other and then laugh at the awkwardness.

Hank: “Janet van Dyne, you are one in a million! After all that I put you through, you want to tell me that you’re sorry?”

Wasp: “I think we both made some mistakes along the way, but there were some good times... weren’t there?”

Hank: “Yes. But you can’t base a marriage on just a few good times. I fell for the young lady who reminded me of my first wife... and you thought you’d found the strong, silent hero. But I was never that strong, Jan. You know that now.”

Wasp: “Uh-huh.”

Damn, his prison time really did bring Hank a lot of clarity. That or the pile of therapists Tony kept throwing at him.

Hank also kind of talks over Jan here. Or at least steers the conversation. I don’t know what Jan would have said because Hank tells her that they both have other lives to lead and tells her to take care of herself.

Maybe its for the best, if, like Cap, she was going to try to shoulder all the blame for Hank’s bad decisions.

Hank walks out the door and finds Trish and Fred from the boat waiting to give him a ride to the airport. And then he is gone.

Like in the final image of the COURT-MARTIAL issue, Jan watches at the window.

“The last time Henry Pym left these walls, Janet felt like crying... but couldn’t find any tears. Today, at last, she has found the tears... for her former husband... for her team... for herself. Today, there is pain and remorse and release. There will be time enough for joy and hope tomorrow.”

Emotional catharsis can be like that.

In that the book kept going ‘Jan is really holding her emotions in and that’s probably not overall great for her’ its good that she can let it out now.

Kind of laughing at Captain Marvel and She-Hulk who only recently just met Jan being the ones going there there while the men she has known for years are just awkwardly standing in the background.

And that’s the fall and rise of Hank Pym. Apparently collected in trade as The Trial of Yellowjacket, which is a decent enough name too.

Overall, a good arc. That is kind of hampered by the need for filler and a writer change near the end. But honestly, Stern catches the ball and runs with it. He concludes the arc just as good as Shooter would’ve.

This arc is all kinds of iconic for Hank, although, unfortunately, most people are only aware of the beginning and maybe have a hazy understanding of what the ending does.

Although. This is a really good send-off for Hank. A really, really good send-off that would have worked best if he did like he said and quit superheroing forever.

That’s not to be, obviously, not in a perpetual narrative machine like Marvel. But it feels like it could have been and maybe should have been the last word on his character.

I enjoy Hank in Busiek’s Avengers and in Avengers Academy. And also, conceptually, Hank telling Reed “it’s on, bitch.” I very don’t enjoy Ultimate Hank Pym. So its a balancing act. The perfect exit for the character vs but I like some stuff when they brought him back.

Anyway.

After this, Stern gets to move on to his own material. Which he already planted the seeds for in this issue.

That’s a pun.

Follow @essential-avengers​ because of my bad puns. Also like and reblog, if you like to reblog.

[theleftoversworld]

The Lord is My Shepard

There can’t be more than two hundred people in this dirt pile that they call a town. Why am I here? Why do I do this? Is it not God’s will that they die for their sins? The rapture has come. They were not taken by the Lord’s hand, so their punishment must be here, on earth. But you have called me here Lord... you must have your reasons. Casandra thinks as she rides her motorbike up to the lone business that looks like it’s operational. The same in all of these filthy towns. The church is derelict, and the tavern is thriving. Filthy Godless people. She’s been in these towns enough to know that in boondocks like this there is always a board with jobs listed on it. That’s why she’s here. The church sent her on a pilgrimage around rural Illinois to help the people and find out what God’s plan is for her. The other reason she’s here is that taverns like this always have passable whiskey, which is required before attempting to deal with these people. She runs a hand through her long knotted brown hair to try to get the bugs and leaves out of it. After a moment’s pause she pulls her rosary from inside her leather jacket. This should have some sway to help her get information and stop the drooling men from trying to make a pass. She takes one last breath of clean fresh air before heading inside. It smells like every other tavern in this cursed land. Urine, body odor, and desperation. There’s half a dozen men at the bar already. They look like they spent their day out in the sun digging dirt. They have nothing here. No crops can grow here after the rapture, the earth doesn’t want to support them anymore. Why don’t they leave these barren lands and find someplace where they can actually survive instead of scraping by? A sunburnt man in overalls who stands behind the bar gives her a once over. “Ya?” He says in an accusing tone as though she’s forcing him to be there. “Whiskey.” She grunts, trying to match his tone. She’s learned that gruff works better than nice, and she’s never been good at being cordial. In one motion she sits down and puts enough money on the table for three shots. “Two shots and the extra is to leave me alone.” The man behind the bar seems to appreciate this. He pours two shots and then turns his back on her. She downs the first shot and winces. No chaser, the pain gives her focus, lets her see things she normally wouldn’t. The man at the other end of the bar has a dirt covered lipstick mark on his neck. Probably having an affair with another dirt person. The child at that round table keeps shifting in her seat. She has to pee and her parents haven’t noticed. The family in the back of the bar nearest the rear door, a mother and two kids. The mother has blood on her pants near her ankle. She’s resting it on her other foot so it doesn’t accidentally get any weight put on it. Something bit her. From the mess on her clothes she’s been working with animals. Where’s her husband? Dead? Or did he just leave? Cassandra takes a long breath. Nothing in here is immediately threatening. She can take a bit of time to think. She rests back on her barstool. I was a devout child. I went to catholic school, attended church twice a week. Every extra curricular thing I could do with the church I did. So why was I left behind in the Rapture? Why did God not take me to live with him? Why am I still here on this diseased planet? She frowns. This line of thought never gets her anywhere but into a fight. As if on cue a young man sits down next to her. Really he’s more of a boy than a man. If I ignore him, maybe he won’t say anything. I need work, the last thing I need is to break this kid’s teeth. She thinks and reaches for her second shot. “Hey, you’re pretty good looking for a church girl.” The man says and reaches out to stop her from grabbing the shot. “If you touch me I will circumcise you with my sword.” She growls. “I can’t promise it will be clean.” He quickly retracts his hand. “Meant no harm. We just never get visitors. Especially ones that look as good as you.” She throws the shot back. “Ever think you’re the

reason?” She slams the glass down and gets up to leave. She can feel everyone’s eyes on her now but she doesn’t care. They don’t deserve to be saved. I bet they don’t even go to church on Sunday. She thinks as she makes for the exit. Once she’s outside she spies the jobs board. It looks like someone’s been through here already. “Damn the hunters.” She grumbles as she walks to it. “They took almost everything... Let’s see what they left for me. The storekeeper’s wife is missing. I would bet money she’s above that bar working. I could smell the sin from outside. Aaaand sheep have been attacked at night on the edge of town.” She sighs. “One sucks far less than the other.” She rips the sheep job off the board and heads to the south end of town.

The town is so small she could have walked to the farm but she needs what’s on her bike. At the edge of town she finds a house with around twenty sheep in a hastily constructed small pen. A gate on one end of the pen tells her that they used to free range outside of town, but not anymore. Poor buggers. The animals have it the worst. They don’t understand that they are being punished along with the sinners.

After speaking to the owner of the house she goes back to her bike to set up. It’s the woman from the bar. She informs Cassandra that the attacks come at night so she might as well set up a camp and wait. When pressed for what happened to her ankle she says she stepped into a trap meant for the zombies. Cassandra nods, she seems a bit clumsy and careless. After a few more questions she heads back to her bike.

The church sent her out with rations, MRE’s that they got from what was left of the US military. This one is potato chowder and she hates to admit it, but it wasn’t half bad. Probably better than whatever she would have gotten at that tavern. Damn, the tavern. Another few shots would sure help the time pass. She hears a familiar voice calling from the house. It’s one of the boys. He must have dropped his dinner. She thinks and tries to ignore him. But then something he says catches her ear. “Please! She’s frothing like a rabid dog!” He shouts. She’s on her feet in an instant and running. She pulls out her sword as she runs as well as a small silver dagger she keeps in a belt pouch. “Sounds like a werewolf transformation! Where is she?” She asks as she makes it to the door. “On the kitchen floor! This way!” The boy shouts and leads her to the room. As soon as she enters the room though she knows that it’s not werewolves. The boy’s mother is there on the floor, foaming from the mouth like he said. But her eyes are almost bugging out of her head and the most telling part is her leg. The wound, which is now exposed, is septic and the skin around it has turned green. “Damnit! She needs to die now!” Casandra shouts and pulls her sword back but the boy steps in her way.

“No! She’s my mom! Help her! Doesn’t the church help people?” “There is no helping her! She’s been infected with the zombie virus! Now step aside or I will cleave you to get to her!” Cassandra yells angrily. He doesn’t move. “Lord, have mercy on their souls!” She growls but as she starts to bring the sword down. The boy lets out a bone shaking scream that causes her to wince and stop her blade. The boy falls and it becomes quickly obvious. The boy’s mother is chewing on his leg, tearing flesh with her teeth. The boy is looking at her in horror and screaming, both in terror and in pain. Cassandra shakes her head violently to clear it and then chops the boy’s head off in one swift motion. “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.” She entones as she then goes to cut off the mothers head. “May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.” Once she’s done she looks at them in some disgust and takes stock of everything. “I guess I know what attacked the sheep then. I need some holy water to perform the ritual to make sure you two stay dead. And to find the other child, maybe they can be saved. Though I doubt it.” She turns to go to her bike but she stops in her tracks. One of the problems with zombies is that they don’t moan like they did in the movies. They are surprisingly quiet and can sneak up on you if you aren’t paying attention. There are fifteen of them in the house, between her and the front door. She glances at the window and sees more of them outside watching her. “No way out.” One of the zombies says. “If you give up, we will make it quick.” “Give up? Give up!?!” She says, getting angry. She raises her sword and changes into the zombies in the hallway. I believe in God! The Father Almighty! Creator of Heaven and earth!

and in Jesus Christ! His only Son Our Lord!” She shouts as she cleaves through the first two zombies. “Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate! Was crucified, died, and was buried!” Two more zombies fall at her feet, their evil purged from this world by her divine blade.

Although she is covered in their putrid blood, she doesn’t falter. This is her life, she was put on earth to slay evil. “He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead!” Five try to rush her at once but she steps back and makes a wide swing. She cuts off four arms and then raises her sword hand, clenched fist facing the zombies. “He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead!” A stream of fire comes from her hand like a hose. She sweeps it over the zombies that remain between her and the door. “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting!” She finishes the prayer and then barrels through the now burning zombies. They don’t feel pain, so fire is a double edged sword. They don’t recoil from it, so it makes them a danger if they touch you. But they are also fragile to begin with, so fire makes them like glass. She plows through them and runs out the front door. By the light of the burning house she fights zombies, slicing through them with ease. Once they are all dead she tosses their bodies into the house to make sure they burn.

By this time townspeople have turned out to see what is going on. They could see the fire and came running but they do not approach her. She ignores them while she’s working. If they wanted to help they could have joined in but they didn’t, telling her what they thought of her work. Once she’s done tossing bodies into the house she walks up to the bartender. “Let it burn. You want to make sure that none of them stand back up.” Then she boards her bike. No pay for this job, the person who put the job on the board was the second person she beheaded. She takes off, heading for the next town. It is not worth staying in a town where you burned down a house. That’s a lesson she learned already. Especially in small towns. They seem to take that personally.

Once the glow of the fire fades behind her she allows herself to relax a little. “Almighty and Loving God, I praise you from my heart, that of your boundless goodness you have preserved me this night past, and have, with the impenetrable shield of your providence, protected me from the power and malice of the devil.” She mutters as she rides off into the darkness. “Do not withdraw Lord, I kindly ask, your protection from me, but mercifully on this day watch over me with the eyes of your mercy. Lead my soul and body according to the rule of your will, and fill my heart with your Holy Spirit, that I may pass this day, and all the rest of my days, to your glory. Amen.”

Taglist: : @hellishhin @thelaughingstag

[theexecutionerssong]

Okay Gaëlle, i hate to do this but I have to. What are your favorite episodes of Supernatural throughout the seasons 1-15🤔 shit you can even tell me why, i would very much enjoy to hear it. Because I am not ready to let this damn show go, so I’ve been watching videos/talking about different episodes all day long.

On are you kidding me sdfghjk i could make you a top 100 but I’ll try to keep it under... 40, in chronological order it is because do NOT ask me to pick my favorites among favorites. And if I start to tell you why, we’ll still be here in a week, so you can draw conclusions from the quotes ^^

2x20 What Is and What Should Never Be: Our happiness for all those people's lives, no contest. Right? But why? Why is it my job to save these people? Why do I have to be some kind of hero? What about us, huh? What, Mom's not supposed to live her life, Sammy's not supposed to get married? Why do we have to sacrifice everything, Dad?

3x10 Dream a Little Dream of Me: Dad knew who you really were. A good soldier and nothing else. Daddy's blunt little instrument. Your own father didn't care whether you lived or died. Why should you?

My father was an obsessed bastard! All that crap he dumped on me, about protecting Sam! That was his crap. He's the one who couldn't protect his family. He- He's the one who let Mom die. Who wasn't there for Sam. I always was! He wasn't fair! I didn't deserve what he put on me. And I don't deserve to go to Hell!

4x01 Lazarus Rising: You don't think you deserve to be saved

4x03 In the Beginning:  On November 2nd, 1983, don't get out of bed. No matter what you hear, or what you see. Promise me you won't get out of bed.

4x16 On the Head of a Pin:  For what it's worth, I would give anything not to have you do this.

4x20 The Rapture: I wanna make sure you understand. You won't die or age. If this last year was painful for you, picture a hundred, a thousand more like it. - It doesn't matter. You take me. Just take me.

4x22 Lucifer Rising: You're not in this story. - Yeah, well... We're making it up as we go.

5x04 The End: What happened to you? - Life

5x10 Abandon All Hope...:  Mom... This might literally be your last chance to treat me like an adult. Might wanna take it?

5x13 The Song Remains the same:  It's okay, baby. It's all okay. Angels are watching over you.

6x15 The French Mistake: honestly how iconic, doesn’t need quotes

6x20 The Man Who Would Be King: It sounds so simple when you say it like that. Where were you when I needed to hear it? - I was there. Where were you?

7x04 Defending Your Life: Hunters are never kids. I never was.

7x17 The Born Again Identity: You’re not a machine, Dean.

8x01 We Need to Talk about Kevin:  It was bloody, messy. 31 flavors of bottom dwelling nasties. Hell, most days felt like 360 degree combat. But there was something about being there... it felt pure.

8x07 A Little Slice of Kevin: You can’t save everyone, my friend. Though you try.

8x17 Goodbye Stranger: We need you. I need you.

8x23 Sacrifice: Where do I start to even look for forgiveness?

9x06 Heaven Can Wait: Nobody told you. Nobody explained. You're just… shoved out kicking and screaming into this human life, without any idea why any of it feels the way it feels, or why this confusion, which feels like it's… a hair's breadth from terror or pain. You know, just when you think you do understand, it'll turn out you're wrong. You didn't understand anything at all.

9x11 First Born: no proper quotes but it introduced Cain so that’s that.

9x22 Stairway to Heaven: his true weakness is revealed. He's in love... with humanity. 

9x23 Do You Believe in Miracle: I'm proud of us.

10x05 Fan Fiction:  Supernatural has everything. Life, death, resurrection, redemption -- but above all, family. All set to music you can really tap your toe to. It isn't some meandering piece of genre dreck, it's... epic.

10x14 The Executioner’s Song (what a surprise): First, first you'd kill Crowley -- there'd be some strange mixed feelings on that one, but you'd have your reason, get it done, no remorse. And then you'd kill the angel Castiel, now that one, that I suspect would hurt something awful. And then! Then would come the murder you'd never survive, the one that would finally turn you into as a much of a savage as it did me... Your brother, Sam. The only thing standing between you and that destiny is this Blade. You're welcome my son.

10x22 The Prisoner:  When you finally turn, and you will turn... Sam, and everyone you know, everyone you love... they could be long dead. Everyone except me. I'm the one who will have to watch you murder the world.

11x04 Baby: because it was GENIUS

11x20 Don’t Call me Shurley: Fare Thee Well

12x10  Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets:  Do it. You blast me away, you'll blast away every angel in the room. I'll survive. Castiel, on the other hand, he's hurt. He might live or he might just end up a bloody smear on the wall. Roll the dice... Yeah. That's what I thought.

12x12 Stuck in the Middle (With You): No, you listen to me. You... Look, thank you. Thank you. Knowing you, it... it's been the best part of my life. And the things that... the things we've shared together, they have changed me. You're my family. I love you. I love all of you.

12x19 The Future:  It's a gift. You keep those.

13x10 Wayward Sisters: all of it and it’s a damn shame the spin off wasn’t picked off

14x13 Lebanon: I guess that I had hoped, eventually, you would... get yourself a normal life, a peaceful life, a family. - I have a family.

15x03 The Rupture: (just because i’m an angst hoe)  You used to trust me, give me the benefit of the doubt. Now you can barely look at me. My powers are failing, and -- and I've tried to talk to you, over and over, and you just don't want to hear it. You don't care. I'm... dead to you. 

15x09 The Trap:  You don't have to say it. I heard your prayer.

15x17 Unity:  My entire life, you've protected me-- from Dad, from Lucifer, from everything. I didn't always like it, you know, but... it's the one thing in the whole world that I could always count on. It's the only thing I've ever known that was true.

15x18 Despair: I always wondered, ever since I took that burden, that curse, I wondered what it could be? What my true happiness could even look like. I never found an answer because the one thing I want... It's something I know I can't have. But I think I know... I think I know now. Happiness isn't in the having, it's in just being. It's in just saying it. I know. I know how you see yourself, Dean. You see yourself the same way our enemies see you. You're destructive, and you're angry, and you're broken. You're “daddy's blunt instrument.” And you think that hate and anger, that's... That's what drives you, that's who you are. It's not. And everyone who knows you see it. Everything you have ever done, the good and the bad, you have done for love. You raised your little brother for love. You fought for this whole world for love. That is who you are. You're the most caring man on Earth. You are the most selfless, loving human being I will ever know. You know, ever since we met, ever since I pulled you out of Hell... Knowing you has changed me. Because you cared, I cared. I cared about you. I cared about Sam, I cared about Jack... I cared about the whole world because of you. You changed me, Dean. - Why does this sound like a goodbye? - Because it is. I love you.

[sasorikigai]

Uno reverse card: Imagine if Commander Hanzo 1) ended up thrown far into the future to wittness Yang the last one standing and a broken person still standing and holding her promise to survive. 2) He's died. But pulled himself back into the world as Scorpion to see the hell it became after all these years with Yang yet remaining. 3) A terrible nightmare for Commander Hasashi of watching Yang die slowly to fight for his survival.

UNO REVERSE I DID NOT EXPECT || @yetremains || always accepting 

1) ended up thrown far into the future to witness Yang the last one standing and a broken person still standing and holding her promise to survive

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ 🔥 || How his own words would whisper their way into his head until he was just as airy and fleeting; nothing, but a wisp of smoke swirling through a dewy mist in the midst of verdant, stacked forest of people he had known throughout his lifetime. Warriors who survive trauma wear a certain vulnerability around them, and some are still hungry for prey, their tongues filled with lies to pull victims and innocents back into the void they have just escaped from. How Hanzo Hasashi will fall with the moments, both treasured and forgotten in the rapid path of his strenuous life, as he would fall into the the abysmal, vicious loophole of repeated destruction and hollowed loss, as the battering sandstorm will scoop the chambers of his heart and lungs hollow. He would let all the unfettered emotions seep in, with his mind’s voice perilously low and convulsing with visible tremor. He would too often let life think it was going to win, but little did it know; he bares serrated, glinting teeth, too, sharper than its and a heart that has survived terrible pain young. 

The untamed, towering behemoth embers are the catalyst of his own heart and soul, for even the most hardened warriors who survive trauma do wear a certain vulnerability around them, but this kind of vulnerability is from where the pyromancer’s greatest strength emanates. He was meant to be the last man standing, having endured the merciless barrage of losing everything in his grasp; starting with every one of Shirai Ryu, then his wife and son, even his own precious life and soul in the end as an ultimatum. 

While he does not have to unburden his soul for everyone; it will be enough if he does that for those he loves, as another moment, another eternal recurrence and chaos once again. Chaos that surrounds both, chaos that reflects their perdition; perdition that will haunt them to their inevitable grave. The shadows feel overwhelming again, as Hanzo fears not being strong enough to face her. “You are allowed to sink, I’ve been striving to stay afloat so long as I have forgotten about how it feels to dive into the beauty of darkness,” perhaps he had already been succumbed into the devastation, settler-colonial dispossession that would rob him of his sanity and threaten to sever his sustenance. And he would eventually capitulate beneath the swift, all those moments of shocking, quick, abrasive rapture that would come out of the blue, that is worse than any collisions and destruction he’d face. “I refuse to see you as a ghostly body on the same road, with all the dangling pieces of heart, as the unoffered love will only frightfully abloom further as the barren land within my own heart bursts open.” 

2) He's died. But pulled himself back into the world as Scorpion to see the hell it became after all these years with Yang yet remaining

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ 🔥 || The widowed dead spirit within Hanzo Hasashi begins his weeping, the forsaking god is sleeping, and Scorpion, savage ravaged keeper of infernal flames mark the humble hour of his own leaving. For the fog lifts at cusp of evening, conjuring feelings, the bottle he is drinking, memory best left to the side of the road, near the spot by the bridge, by the by, and a salt-swept bay, in his dreaming, seeping down concrete, so very lonely, the last survivor, somber and sweet, not worth marking, nor lamenting. The resurrected spectre of the Netherrealm’s undying fire continues to unravel of his despair; a fallen god’s weaved gold, shining, brighter than a supernova taking forth the falsified magnanimity of a wreathed hearth-fire turning into rushing crescent of a macabre grin, bubbling crimson until the shredding fragments of his heart runs dry.

In an afterwards of his catalytic annihilation, the valley of the mountains would permeate with squelched spillage running amok, and no quenching of solar flare would completely dry the sanguine stretch, as his sin would continue to feed the soil in scorched, charred blackness. And Scorpion’s bursting firestorm would intensity, and his being would breach through the stacked crevasse of the realms’ layers, as the coagulated pool would taint the Earth for eons, as muddy maroon would fade to the faint gray of his irises. Mother Earth could not bear the violence she had witnessed, but she could only ephemerally cradle him. Now, moss mimics the shape of a girl, wisteria bound; held fast to the mountain land. 

But a warrior’s hand would be thrown out, left to an eternity’s, reaching for another’s. Talia Jones Yang’s silhouette remains blanketed by roasted daisies and roses, red as blood. Perhaps she came to offer him either an excruciating, perpetual torment and damnation, or panacea to go through the hollowed chasm of his path, as he would breach through the condemned fate of existing as an intangible spectre, living in-between worlds, existing, yet forgotten as the scar tissues will continue to rupture from the clotted stage, festering and emitting suppurations as his throat becomes acid-kissed. Burnt sugar atonement, penance paid in rough tongue and bubbling scar tissue. Perhaps the female warrior was the withering, eroding fragment of Hanzo Hasashi, clawing through the indomitable eldritch magic of his nihilism and deadly vengeance, wrought unhinged towards the world that refused to support his existence. ▬▬ι═══════ﺤ 🔥 ||

3) A terrible nightmare for Commander Hasashi of watching Yang die slowly to fight for his survival

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ 🔥 || Hanzo sees himself in the stream, his fingertips becoming nonexistent gossamer upon the shoulder of Yang’s reflection. How his agony would flare so bright, the black waters becoming molten, as the obsidian ripple of death-saturated mountainous tides whiten with the dust of his crumbling bones as they sculpt his face in the bleeding, macerated flesh. Amber and ochre baked, parched soil of his flesh causes the earth of his being to crack open; veins spreading, flowers wilting, fleshy fruit browning and shriveling. The ecosystem of his unhealed bruises building up underneath his soaked uniform, weighing him down like a hardening cement. One bruise for each memory, as he unravels trauma like he would of old, knitted sweaters and consume hopelessness between temporal respite, as Commander Hasashi struggles with all the stacked layers of fear and betrayal of his resilient will as he attempts to breach through the guarded gray, the swirling fog. 

It’s not the violent conflict between parts of the truth, but the quiet suppression of half of it, which becomes the formidable evil; there is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides; it is when they attend only to one that errors harden into prejudices, and truth itself ceases to have the effect of truth, by being exaggerated into the semblance of falsehood. How he wishes to scoop out the turmoil hinder the storm of moribund death, of its serrated maw. 

The imagined susurrus of the sea becomes the soundtrack behind his safehouse summer, and it has become Hanzo Hasashi’s confession; a place to keep his heart safe. The water will always reach and run to the shore like the eternal cacophony of whooshing black hole. He hopes Yang could hear his voice in the silence; stuck in-between the inescapable give and take, a push and pull, a heaven and hell - spent living for love, as he would grotesquely feel guilty of gravitating towards the act of living. And he would drown in such concepts that has lost meaning; hunger, pain, anger, shame, regret, loss, and unease. In all sickness, discomfort, grief, which is deep and endless. As he would continue to dance around the diseases of his soul and hope to romance his death in the hopes of his life, as he continues to witness the varying vicissitudes of Yang’s death, Hanzo finds himself waxing and waning and waiting the iridescent black white of his viewfinder to dig further graveyards. 

This is the way of things; for every stagnation and motionlessness is just another death, and he is surrounded by the mangled, gnarled expanse of floating bodies. He would let go of his heart as he would drift away on a sea of moonlight, and dream to make a home in the shore of Harumi’s eyes, as built veins and tissues and cells - all disintegrate and crumble as legion of pain becomes Atlas upon his broken shoulder. ▬▬ι═══════ﺤ 🔥 || 

[riseupandcomeaway]

Dear left,

I am writing to you in the hopes that you actually don’t need to read this. This should only be read if all of a sudden I disappear along with millions of others and you’re still here. Many have noticed that a common denominator of the missing people is their spiritual belief in Jesus Christ as Son of God, Savior and Lord.

Immediately after the Rapture there will be accidents involving all kinds of vehicles with missing passengers, including cars, trains, airplanes, boats… you name it. There may be piles of clothes and personal belongings lying around everywhere, all over the planet.

Why did it happen?  Because the Lord Almighty is about to pour his wrath upon the earth. God is about to pour His wrath out on the inhabitants of the earth in one last ditch effort to get humanities attention. You have been left behind because prior to the rapture (the snatching away of the true Christians) you have refused to believe in Christ for salvation, or to repent of your sins that have separated you from Him.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND: We were not abducted by aliens, we have not wandered off, we have not disintegrated from a horrible disease, and we have not been taken hostage.  Any other scenario presented to you about our disappearance is a lie. We have been Raptured.  It was foretold in the bible. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and sol shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thes. 4:16-17). We are with God. Plain and simple. Don’t take my word for it, please read it for yourself in a book that’s been around for centuries. In fact, more than two millennia - The Bible. The Bible is a long book; in fact it’s a compilation of 66 Books / Letters. Takes a while to get through, but it does end. Let me save you the suspense. God wins.

You are in for some extremely difficult times. You will want to start finding some remote location in which to hide. Save drinking water, food stores, vitamins, medical supplies, a generator, gasoline and oil. You’ll be needing all of these things. You’ll need to know how to grow your own food. The lawlessness that will scourge the earth will have seen no rival. Grab a bible now! There may come a time when it will be impossible to obtain one and illegal to own one. It can give you the truth better than my simple words ever could. Don’t believe anything that is being fed to the world through the media or the government. Cling to Jesus Christ and His saving work of atonement on the cross for your sins.

Now, you need to prepare for the next seven years. This seven year period will start with a world leader who will emerge and broker a peace treaty with Israel for 7 years. This is the antichrist. Three and a half years into this treaty, he will break it himself and force the world to worship him as God. This will occur in the rebuilt Third Temple Mount of Israel. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Look in Daniel 9:26,27. This week is seven years. This begins the Tribulation. After seven years, Jesus will come (the Second Coming) and touch Mount Olives causing an earthquake and He will reign for 1,000 years. When you hear this treaty announced (probably within a few months, or at most a few years), you can mark your calendar and know when Christ will come.

The antichrist will sit in the Jewish Temple, and he will say he is god.  He is NOT! This beast is a great deceiver. The whole world will be amazed and follow him. People will be drawn to this remarkable, charismatic, dynamic, compelling, nearly irresistible man as he masquerades as a saviour, forming a one-world government for a world craving for direction and order. The world will hail him as its savior. He will set himself above all else and will deceive many into accepting him as the supreme dictator.

He will want to control everyone and modern technology can now easily accomplish that. With the world in chaos, perhaps more terrorism, and missing people, keeping track of everyone will sound necessary for the world to become stable and safe again. He will institute a new way of things, including demanding that all people, everywhere, get a special mark on their right hand or forehead. This is the manifestation of the mark of the beast; 666.  At the time of this writing, we do not know exactly what form this mark will take. A lot of people think that it will be some sort of implantable microchip. This makes sense because of the ability to track purchases electronically is commonplace. It could be that the microchip will be tied into a huge database that verifies the person’s bank accounts and automatically deducts the funds. Also, the antichrist may pitch different selling points of the mark like the ability to track lost children, the ability to catch criminals very fast, the ability to safeguard your money. However, I believe the main point of the mark will be to show your allegiance to the antichrist. You will know it is the mark of the beast because you will not be able to buy or sell ANYTHING without it; not food, water, clothes, shelter; nothing. This will control all your financial transactions. More than likely, money will be obsolete and any funds you may have in the bank (or stocks, etc ) is worthless unless you take this mark. Living day to day will become difficult without the ability to buy or sell anything. Once someone takes this mark of the beast they cannot take it back to make a choice for Christ.  The stakes are high and the decision that you make will determine where you will be for eternity.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AGREE TO TAKE THIS MARK!!

TAKING THIS MARK WILL SIGNIFY THAT YOU ARE A SATAN WORSHIPPER, YOUR SOUL WILL BE LOST, AND YOU WILL SUFFER FOREVER.

I won’t mince words about what this system (the mark of the beast ) means to you. Your chances of making it alive to the end of the tribulation period is slim. It will likely cost you your life here on earth but will give you eternity in exchange.

The whole world is going to hate you and it will be a daily struggle to just to stay alive. The only way I can see for you to get from where you are now to where we are now is that not only will you have to pass through great tribulation, but also you will probably have to suffer a martyr’s death for refusing to worship the “Image of the Beast.” It’s a shame. It really is. But you had your chance, just like the rest of us. It would have been so much easier back when the Church and the Holy Spirit were on earth for you to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. It’s going to be hard now, really hard, but you can do it. YOU HAVE TO DO IT. Look at it like I used to look at my life on earth. Even if I lived to be 100 years old, that compared to eternity would be like one tiny drop of water compared to all the oceans. It’s the same with you. Even if you have to suffer 7 years of hell and even if you have to die a martyr’s death; compared to eternity it is like a tiny drop of water compared to all the oceans.

Let me assure you that your reward in heaven is incomprehensibly better than any temporary safety you may garner from accepting this mark. I want to leave you with this verse:

Revelation 21:4

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

If you happen to have read this before the rapture, here are some of the site I highly recommend you to visit on a regular basis to keep yourself informed as the hour draws nearer:

NOW THE END BEGINS

ACTIVIST POST

WHATFINGER

RAPTURE READY

GERI UNGUREAN

LISA BOYD

JASON A ON YOUTUBE

THE CORBETT REPORT

SPIRO SKOURAS

BREITBART NEWS

THE JERUSALEM POST

ZERO HEDGE

Till the glorious appearing,

🤍

ctto

[asynjja]

@arzhur​   said,   “   Value   loyalty   above   all   else.   ”

                    𝐈𝐓   𝐈𝐒   𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆   𝐇𝐎𝐖   𝐀   𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄   𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄   𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃   𝐀𝐍𝐃   𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐃   𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃   𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄   𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄   𝐒𝐎   𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐘;   the   great   halls   of   Camelot,   its   streets   with   their   eager   inhabitants,   and   the   sight   that   unravels   at   dawn   when   she   rises   –   it   feels   so   DIFFERENT   than   what   it   used   to   be.   The   absence   of   dragons   that   skim   across   the   sky   leaves   a   heart   reluctant   to   trust   the   future   that   might   come,   but   the   forests   with   their   emerald   crowns   remain   the   same,   standing   with   PERSEVERANCE   against   the   change   of   time.   At   times,   she   feels   like   she   KNOWS   Albion.   But   that   cannot   be:   if   she   knows   it   then   she   does   so   only   through   the   eyes   of   the   king   and   by   his   words.   When   he   talks   about   his   people,   she   becomes   HUMBLE,   as   humble   as   she   used   to   feel   when   she   was   younger.   Wide-eyed   and   with   an   unquenchable   thirst   to   discover   what   hid   underneath   the   auburn   skin   of   the   earth,   she   used   to   believe   the   universe   held   many   more   ENTICING   secrets   than   it   did   daunting   ones.   He   rekindles   that   curiosity,   even   if   it   remains   hesitant.   How   he   does   it   or   why,   she   does   not   want   to   question.   Mostly,   out   of   fear   that   knowing   his   reasons   and   methods   could   DISENCHANT   the   sway   he   holds   over   her. 

Arthur   Pendragon   is   a   concept,   an   enigma;   whenever   he   rises   onto   his   feet,   the   earth   SHIFTS   a   little   although   anticipating   the   steps   he   may   take   and   their   consequences.   And   she   is   certain,   since   knowing   him   more   so   than   ever   before,   that   life   follows   a   GUIDELINE   and   that   all   possible   endings   are   predicted   if   not   yet   defined.   This   life   is   a   short   one,   she   sees   it   whenever   she   looks   into   his   eyes.   Skuld   stares   back   with   eyes   not   much   older   than   his   and   no   visible   wrinkles   on   her   fatigued   features   –   Arthur   Pendragon   dies   YOUNG.   Where   he   does,   she   does   not   know   but   that   he   will,   is   certain.   It   changes   her,   changes   every   word   she   speaks   to   him.   The   few   nights   that   he   spends   with   her   when   his   time   allows,   she   quenches   the   premonition   in   whatever   way   she   finds   suitable.   His   chest   rises   and   sinks   in   his   sleep   like   the   ebb   and   flow   of   the   ocean,   a   REASSURING   image   that   comes   back   to   mind   whenever   charcoal   eyes   cast   their   gaze   across   the   lands   of   Camelot.   Somewhere   out   there,   where   lands   kiss   the   water,   his   chest   rises   and   sinks   evermore   and   her   inability   to   talk   about   the   dread   that   fills   her   whenever   she   looks   at   him   becomes   INSIGNIFICANT.   She   knows   the   ocean,   knows   her   tides   and   her   depths   and   in   the   dark,   she   even   knows   her   whispers   like   she   knows   HIS.   

Tongue   could   not   have   verbalised   her   emotions   even   if   she   wanted   to.   Returning   home   from   work   and   falling   into   the   arms   of   the   two   men   that   have   loved   her   despite   the   consequences   of   doing   so,   should   REASSURE   a   mind   that   she   perhaps   merely   overacts.   It   doesn’t.   Neither   Kua   nor   Willem   can   understand   what   it   must   be   like   to   predict   a   fate   outside   one’s   own   reach,   how   it   makes   you   wonder   if   enough   love   could   make   you   blind   and   FORGET.   So   she   dwells   on   it   on   her   own   as   Camelot   continues   its   hustle   and   bustle.   The   emerald   crowns   of   the   trees   beyond   the   walls   of   the   kingdom   will   remain   persistent   then   also,   when   Arthur   has   died   and   she   has   withered.   Perhaps   they   will   MOURN   at   least   in   her   imagination,   taking   back   what   once   was   theirs   and   leaving   behind   something   to   remember.   Fingertips   yearn   to   take   a   little   of   the   soil   with   her,   to   incorporate   it   into   her   veins   and   to   memorise   the   effort   made   to   bring   back   what   Albion   had   lost   under   tyranny.   But   no   king   dies   innocent;   if   she   wants   to   remember   Arthur   Pendragon,   she   wants   to   remember   him   as   he   is   NOW   –   watching   her   from   the   entrance   to   the   room,   curious,   courageous,   a   man   who   makes   no   time   for   her   when   his   people   need   him   more.   That   man,   she   LOVES.   Perhaps   he   dies   before   she   can   grow   to   hate   him,   or   perhaps   he   dies   before   he   can   grow   to   hate   HER.   

A   smile   masks   the   troublesome   pondering   when   she   catches   his   gaze.   She   dissolves   her   figure   from   the   windowsill,   posture   meticulously   calculated.   The   castle   is   no   safe   haven   and   perhaps   never   will   be   –   but   at   times,   she   yearns   to   feel   what   it   must   be   like   to   LIVE   with   him.   He   is   the   king,   a   lover,   but   she   lacks   the   right   proximity   to   call   him   a   friend.   And   that   the   love   is   MUTUAL,   of   course,   cannot   be   shown.   Feet   settle   for   a   comfortable   pace,   the   unspoken   warning   that   he   only   has   a   little   time   for   a   very   short   walk   is   absolutely   clear.   Still,   he   could   have   spent   his   limited   time   in   any   other   way   and   she   appreciates   every   brief   conversation   they   hold.

“   Sir   Gwaine   entertained   me   earlier   this   day   with   a   story   from   when   he   lived   as   a   vagabond,   ”   she   begins,   mouth   already   CURVED   with   the   implication   of   a   smirk.   He   raises   his   brows   in   expectation.   “   It   surprises   me   you   picked   him   to   become   part   of   the   round   table   –   even   now,   he   still   exhibits   certain   characteristics   that   only   a   man   of   rogue   honour   has.   ”   The   joke   falls   flat,   though   she   takes   no   offense;   the   crown   is   a   heavy   burden   and   one   she   is   fortunate   to   have   AVOIDED   throughout   all   her   life.   She   would   not   want   to   marry   Arthur   Pendragon,   either.   It   does   not   matter   how   much   she   loves   him,   does   not   matter   how   meticulously   well   she   knows   his   expressions   –   and   when   his   frown   is   a   mere   HABIT   and   not   a   manifestation   of   his   thoughts.   She   was   not   born   to   be   queen.   Many   other   women   fulfil   the   role   much   better   than   she   ever   could.   It   is   in   ARTHUR’S   responsibility   to   be   just,   it   is   not   in   hers.   She   has   no   qualms   about   refusing   to   aid   whomever   she   dislikes   and   had   Arthur   not   somehow   pulled   her   into   his   grasp,   she   perhaps   would   not   have   followed   him,   not   even   AFTER   he’d   proven   his   loyalty   to   the   people.   

Life   is   fleeting   and   a   lifetime   of   suffering   occasionally   makes   one   SELFISH.   She   aids   the   sick   because   she   finds   a   purpose   in   it,   and   the   same   purpose   she   used   to   find   in   WAR.   Allowing   her   the   power   to   make   decisions   would   not   end   well   for   Camelot.   HIM,   she   could   give   a   life   of   abundance,   a   life   of   adventure   and   carelessness   –   and   perhaps,   had   she   met   him   at   any   other   point   in   life,   perhaps   he   could   have   been   successfully   MOULDED   into   a   man   willing   to   entertain   a   life   like   the   that.   But   the   man   she   fell   in   love   with   looks   at   her   pensively   and   then   he   utters   with   knitted   brows,   “   Value   loyalty   above   all   else.   However   rogue   his   demeanour   might   be,   Sir   Gwaine   saved   my   life   more   than   once.   ”

A   GRIN   follows   the   his   word’s   of   honest   admiration.   She   once   knew   the   way   that   his   mother   looked   at   his   father.   She   never   mentions   it   –   the   wound   of   losing   a   beloved   parent   hardly   ever   heals.   She   knows   it   HERSELF.   In   every   life   she   lives,   she   loses   her   mother   and   her   father   hardly   ever   even   knows   of   her   birth.   But   the   way   Ygraine   de   Bois   looked   at   Uther   Pendragon   even   before   his   appointment   of   Camelot’s   king,   she   REMEMBERS   and   occasionally,   when   the   mirror   reflects   her   weary   expression   in   passing,   she   catches   herself   regarding   Arthur   with   almost   the   same   RAPTURE.   This   time,   is   one   of   those   occasions.   But   in   one   thing,   she   was   wrong;   the   devotion   he   pours   into   the   life   of   his   people,   it   is   not   UTHER’S.   His   father   wanted   a   son   so   desperately   and   was   so   blinded   by   the   loss   of   his   wife   that   he   forgot   he’d   never   truly   LOST   her   in   the   first   place.

The   sun   tickles   upon   pale   olive   skin   when   the   walls   of   the   castle   are   finally   left   behind.   She   halts,   turns   to   her   king.   The   sheer   fabric   that   covers   dark   waves   of   hair   trembles   uneasily   in   a   brief   draught   of   wind   as   brows   furrow   and   a   FROWN   replaces   the   light-hearted   expression.   “   I   used   to   think   true   loyalty   was   a   lie   –   and   any   cheap   imitation   of   it,   bought   and   not   freely   given.   ”   The   smile   that   she   dons   is   dishonest   and   BLAND,   charcoal   eyes   stare   at   him   with   some   kind   of   affliction.   That   she   lowers   her   gaze,   she   only   does   to   avoid   the   EMBARRASSMENT   that   comes   with   having   been   proven   wrong.   “   Should   there   ever   come   a   time   where   I   harbour   the   same   erroneous   presumption,   remind   me   of   your   words.   ”   

                                            —   𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍   𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒   𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑,   𝐇𝐄   𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒   𝐀𝐍𝐃   𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒   𝐒𝐎   𝐔𝐍𝐁𝐄𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐒𝐓   𝐓𝐎   𝐇𝐈𝐌.   She   lingers   in   the   lecture   hall   after   his   presentation’s   ending,   a   grin   on   her   lips   and   with   the   last   slide   still   projected   onto   the   screen.   “   However   rogue   his   honour   might   have   been,   Sir   Gwaine   saved   his   king’s   life   more   than   once,   hm?   ”   James   Pendragon   looks   up,   features   expressing   a   slight   semblance   of   CONFUSION   as   though   he   attempts   to   unravel   the   familiarity   of   the   sentence.   But   the   moment   she   believes   to   see   recognition   in   far   too   acquainted   eyes,   he   shakes   it   OFF.   Her   grin   remains;   the   emerald   crowns   of   trees   have   persisted   against   history’s   transience   and   the   ocean   still   ebbs   and   flows   as   though   it   REMEMBERS.   Perhaps   if   she   digs   open   his   grave,   he   will   too.

                    It’s   the   first   time   she   ever   invites   him   to   a   coffee.

[dreamycastaway]

Opposites Attract

Gardener!Aziraphale x Nanny!Crowley for @nim-lock!! Thank you for the prompt!!

“They were almost exact opposites of each other,” Warlock began, and, knowing that his friends would probably take this to mean that his Nanny was thin and all angles, while his gardener was soft and round, or that she was stern and he was gentle, immediately clarified his statement: “and not just in the way you’re thinking of. I mean, she literally told me I would ‘rule when Earth’s destroyed’ and he told me I ‘must never destroy the Earth.’” He shook his head. “Why would you say either of those things to a child?”

It was eleven years and change since the apocalypse was narrowly averted by four eleven year olds, with a bit of help from two lovers who wouldn’t admit it, two people who were remarkably bad at their jobs, and two people who found themselves in the midst of something they rather would not have been dragged into. For the most part, everyone had gotten on with their lives, either being in the know concerning what had not happened and breathing a sigh of relief that it had not, or not being in the know about anything, and being remarkably unaffected by how close they had come to Rapture. Only one person could not be sorted neatly into one of these two categories: Warlock Dowling.

Warlock Dowling, now a young man, had done relatively well for himself in the second half of his life. He had done relatively well in the first half of his life, too, but he had not done it for himself. Warlock would later recall that on his eleventh birthday, it was as if a switch had flipped inside him and he decided he wanted to stop being such a menace. On both counts, Warlock Dowling was wrong. What Warlock had realized was that the world ought to be cherished and that he ought to embrace being human, and he had realized this some days after his eleventh birthday. But the human mind is fickle and overly dependent upon heuristics, and the mind of a child all the more so.

It was now eleven years and one day since Warlock Dowling had somehow come to the realization that, in no uncertain terms, he didn’t want to be a brat anymore. This decision had served him well thus far with everyone but his parents and their ilk, whose misplaced disappointment in this son began with his decision at eleven and change to not be a brat anymore, and was then compounded by his decision at sixteen to tell them he was bisexual, his decision at eighteen to go to Oxford instead of West Point, and his decision at twenty to become a vegetarian and announce that he considered himself a pacifist. His parents’ disappointment upset him, but he had accepted it with as much grace as a twenty-two-year-old was able.

It was all of these monumental decisions plus several hundred smaller ones that had brought Warlock Dowling to where he was now: crammed in with six friends at a small table in the King’s Arms pub, celebrating his belated birthday over pints and pies. They had been there for a while now, as made obvious by the empty glasses, the red faces, and the wide smiles that would make their mouths sore in the morning. As is typical on the eve of a graduation, they had spent the last several hours reminiscing. Having run out of stories about their college years, but still trapped in the sticky embrace of nostalgia, the young adults had turned to childhood stories.

“Oh, Warlock, tell them about that nanny of yours.” Warlock looked across the table to see his best friend of four years sipping the last bit of her drink, incredulity already starting to take hold on her face as she remembered all the ridiculous stories Warlock had told her their first year.

“Yeah, alright,” he smiled. “But I’ve got to tell them all about Brother Francis too. He’s half of why it was all so weird.”

“How could I forget about Francis! Was he even a monk?” She flashed Warlock the type of grin exchanged between old friends who are proud to know each other well.

“Honestly, I … don’t think so. And I think “Nanny” might actually have been, like, a drag persona or something.”

Even with the storytelling chops of a young man who had read everything he could get his hands on even before he decided to study English Literature at Oxford, and had written quite a bit besides, it was still difficult to get the story started. How do you manage to capture a childhood defined by the constant presence of two of the strangest people you’d ever met, while keeping it short enough to tell your friends over drinks?

“They were almost exact opposites of each other,” he began, and, knowing that his friends would probably take this to mean that his Nanny was thin and all angles, while his gardener was soft and round, or that she was stern and he was gentle, immediately clarified his statement: “and notjust in the way you’re thinking of. I mean, she literally told me I would ‘rule when Earth’s destroyed’ and he told me I ‘must never destroy the Earth.’” He shook his head. “Why would you say either of those things to a child?”

“Jeez. They must have hated each other even worse than your parents.”

Warlock grimaced a little at the jab, but quickly decided he wasn’t going to let his parents get in the way of enjoying his birthday party. “You’d think, right? But I actually think they were … in love?”

His friends snorted and giggled.

“No, really! Like, okay, I had this plant when I was six, right? And …”

As the storytelling got underway, the young Mr. Dowling felt as if he were back in his six-year-old body, toddling through the gardens in his soon-to-be-unpolished little loafers, his ridiculous-for-a-six-year-old American flag lapel pin reflecting sunlight in a rather obnoxious way. He was holding something close to his chest, in a way that clearly was more for his own comfort than the object’s safety.

“Brother Francis!” he yelled, a few tears starting to stream down his face. “Brother Francis!” He called out again as he approached the kind old man, rather more sobbing than yelling at this point.

“Young Master Warlock!” Brother Francis turned around, gray eyes twinkling as they always did. “Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Anthony,” Warlock cried. “I think … I think he’s dead.”

A moment of panic passed over Brother Francis’ face, for reasons incredibly obvious to anyone knowing who Brother Francis really was. Luckily, it went unnoticed by the inconsolable child, who was far more concerned with wiping the tears off his face and shoving the object he had been clutching towards the gardener than he was with parsing the micro-expressions of the much older man.

The object, as it turned out, was a half-dead Venus Fly Trap in an all-black terracotta pot.

“Oh, Anthony!” Brother Francis said, recalling the plant he had given to Warlock earlier this week. “Yes, Anthony, of course.” He looked at the plant, pretending to know anything about plants, praying that what he said next would be true. “Anthony’s going to be just fine, Master Warlock.”

“Really?” Warlock said through blubbering tears.

“Yes. Why don’t I look after him tonight, hmm?”

“Okay…”

“Go ahead and tell him you’ll be back for him tomorrow afternoon, hmm?” The gardener paused, and patted Warlock reassuringly on the back. “And then go enjoy this beautiful Saturday and I’ll watch over him until tonight, when I can take him to the plant doctor.”

Warlock nodded resolutely, imagining that this is how “the troops” his father talked about so often must feel when they cross the threshold into field hospitals, bearing their wounded comrades. He leaned down to whisper some reassuring words to Anthony, hugged the gardener, and ran off into the Saturday afternoon.

**

Unbeknownst to anyone besides the two of them, Nanny and Brother Francis met every other Saturday night, under the pretense of discussing how they felt their plan was coming along. Frequently, there were other, unspoken agenda items, of varying degrees of excitement. Tonight, the first thing on the docket was Anthony.

Nanny was circling Brother Francis in a way that would have rather reminded the in-the-know onlooker of the demon Crowley. “You … gave him a plant named Anthony?” Nanny asked, trying desperately to keep any tone out of her tone of voice. She mostly succeeded at seeming neutral, helped immeasurably by her dark glasses.

A smirk that looked as if it would be more at home on the face of the angel Aziraphale began to play on Brother Francis’ lips. “Yes. You can imagine how horrified I was when he told me Anthony was dead.”

“But … Anthony is my name.”

“Yes, well. I told you I’d get used to it. I guess I’ve grown rather too fond of it.”

Nanny had stopped her serpentine walking, and was now standing across from the gardener with Anthony on the table between them. “Why a Fly Trap?”

“I read in a parenting column that teaching children to raise plants can help instill a sense of responsibility and care. And I figured, what with him liking dinosaurs and their teeth so much …” Neither being could stifle their chuckle. The Almighty’s little joke about a race of giant lizards ruling the planet got funnier with every passing year, and every passing human that believed it. “Besides, I know how Dagon and Beelzebub hate these things … I thought you might get quite a kick out of it.” This earned him an uproarious laugh from Nanny, who found herself almost doubled over by the thought of Beelzebub’s face if they knew the Anti-Christ was raising a Fly Trap.

Nanny feigned wiping a tear from below her glasses, and the old man across from her looked at her expectantly. “So?”

“So … what?”

The gardener exhaled, irritated at being put in the position of explaining something so obvious. “So, can you heal this plant?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Warlock told me you were going to ‘take him to the plant doctor,’” Nanny teased. “Besides … healing is rather too ‘good’ a thing for me to do, isn’t it?”

Brother Francis’ face had not been built to express annoyance, but it was trying its hardest nonetheless. He knew that Nanny had quite a green thumb, and he wasn’t sure why this particular task was seeming to drag on like a live reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses. He opened his mouth with the intention of expressing his aggravation, but thought better of it at the last minute, deciding to take the high road. “Please.”

“Fine.” She looked at the pot, well aware that what she was about to do would not be a hellish influence on the boy’s life. “Never was able to say ‘no’ to you,” she mumbled. The second half of her thought: though it seems to be much of what you say to me lingered on her mind as she leaned down towards the plant.

Given the other similarities between Nanny and the demon Crowley, one would have expected her to start yelling at the Fly Trap, screaming at it that she knew it could do better. Unfortunately, shouting threats at plants was a rather unsuitable gardening technique for a clandestine meeting in the middle of the night, and Nanny was forced to resort to softly, but sternly, telling Anthony the Fly Trap that she wasn’t angry, she was just disappointed.

She pushed the Fly Trap back towards the gardener. “I think it’ll shape up now.” She paused. “But it does need more sunlight. You can tell Warlock it’s doctor’s orders.”

Relief that he had not lied to the child about the plant being alright spread across Brother Francis’ face. He looked down on the already perkier Fly Trap. “Oh, thank you! You know, sometimes I think you should have been the gardener.”

Nanny and Brother Francis were opposites in a great many ways, but perhaps one of their most difficult differences was that Brother Francis tended to say things without thinking when he was overjoyed, and Nanny tended to say things without thinking when she was angry. Brother Francis had not been thinking when he suggested that Nanny should have been a gardener, and as he watched her purse her already thin lips into an even tighter line, he knew he had made a mistake. He took in a deep breath and blinked slowly, waiting for the sound of Nanny screaming or the greenhouse door slamming behind her. Instead, he heard one small, stifled sob.

A quiet “oh” escaped his lips, full of sadness, and he quickly stepped around the table to embrace his companion. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he said over and over again as she stood limp in his arms, crying softly.

No one else on the face of the Earth could have understood that long before this being had been Nanny or Crowley, he had once been a gardener, in the first and finest Garden there had ever been. It had been his apple tree that had been so powerful that the Almighty had deemed it forbidden. He had been so proud of his tree, the Tree of Everything. It was by praising his horticultural chops that Lucifer had convinced the Gardener to hear him out in the first place. The rest, of course, is history – the beginning of his sauntering vaguely downwards.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the muttering continued, Brother Francis’ voice breaking as he tried to contain his own tears. He knew better than to ask for forgiveness, to use that word his friend hated so much. He was almost certain that this would be, at the very least, the end of their colleagueship in the Dowling home. He was deeply worried that that would certainly foreshadow the end of the world. He would not allow himself to give in to the fear that this may be the end of their friendship.

As Brother Francis teetered on the edge of panic, he heard his companion take a shuddering breath. He stepped back a few inches, holding his breath as he waited for Nanny’s verdict.

“It’s okay, Angel.” She said, the first time she had called him that since they had arrived here. “It’s okay,” she repeated, and the two of them let the tension fall away from their shoulders. “I’m just glad no one else was here to see that.”

What neither Nanny or Brother Francis had realized was that someone else had been there to see it – none other than young Warlock, who had snuck out of bed in hopes of catching a glimpse of the mysterious plant doctor.

Luckily for the nanny and the gardener, he had not understood most of what he had observed. The boy tiptoed back towards the house, carrying the weight of the exciting new secret that his Nanny was apparently moonlighting as a plant doctor named Anthony. And that his Nanny and his gardener were somehow, despite all their differences, deeply and unchangeably in love.

**

“So … what happened to them?” The question from across the table pulled Warlock out of his hazy reminiscence and back to the cramped pub table.

He shrugged. “They just both … disappeared one day.”

His friends stared back at him in stunned silence. “Did you look for them?”

“I guess, but I was eleven. The fact they hadn’t told anyone I asked that they were leaving basically put a stop to my detective work.”

“Did you ever see them again?”

“I … don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“Oh, he ‘doesn’t think so’. You hear that lads? Warlock’s life is so damn weird, he’s not sure if he’s run into the weirdest two people I’ve ever heard of, who happened to disappear under mysterious circumstances.” His friends laughed. “Maybe you’ve had enough to drink, Warlock.” Warlock looked down at his several empty beer glasses, and agreed that he probably had had enough to drink.

As the conversation moved on to other people’s much more typical nannies and babysitters, Warlock remembered the odd second-hand bookstore he had stumbled into a few months ago. It had seemed to him to be owned by a husband and husband team – one of whom was thin and all angles, one of whom was soft and round. They had been helping each other into their coats and chattering about what the lunch special at the Ritz might be this time of year when he walked in. This normally wouldn’t have stood out to him much – secondhand bookstores tended to contain all sorts of people.

What had stood out to the young man was that while his back was turned to the till as he browsed, he had been almost certain he heard the shorter of the two say softly to the taller “Look, Anthony, Sweetheart, it’s Warlock Dowling. He’s all grown up.”

Warlock spun around, his mouth forming the question before he even knew what he was asking. “Brother Francis?” But the shop was empty. On the register was a small, handwritten note: “Out to lunch. May return later.”