#morrison has to put up with a lot

[eclipseolympius]

Morrison: Don't accidentally kill someone on this job.

Dante: I'm not a fucking idiot, Morrison.

Lady: We know how to do it on purpose.

[engagemythrusters]

Here's some angst, because sometimes bodies just feel like a mess. plus a bad background xoxo

[mollyrealized]

How Michael Met Neil

original direct link [MP3]

(Neil, if you see this, please feel free to grab the transcript and store on your site; I had no easy way of contacting you.)

DAVID TENNANT: Tell me about @neil-gaiman then, because he's in that category [previously: “such a profound effect on my life”] as well.

MICHAEL SHEEN: So this is what has brought us together.

DAVID: Yes.

MICHAEL: To the new love story for the 21st century.

DAVID: Exactly.

MICHAEL: So when I went to drama school, there was a guy called Gary Turner in my year. And within the first few weeks, we were doing something, having a drink or whatever. And he said to me, “Do you read comic books?”

And I said, “No.”  I mean, this is … what … '88?  '88, '89.  So it was … now I know that it was a period of time that was a big change, transformation going through comic books.  Rather than it being thought of as just superheroes and Batman and Superman, there was this whole new era of a generation of writers like Grant Morrison.

DAVID: The kids who'd grown up reading comic books were now making comic books

MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah, and starting to address different kinds of subjects through the comic book medium. So it wasn't about just superheroes, it was all kinds of stuff going on – really fascinating stuff. And I was totally unaware of this.

And so this guy Gary said to me, "Do you read them?" And I said, "No."  And he went, "Right, okay, here's The Watchman [sic] by Alan Moore. Here's Swamp Thing. Here's Hellblazer. And here's Sandman.”

And Sandman was Neil Gaiman's big series that put his name on the map. And I read all those, and, just – I was blown away by all of them, but particularly the Sandman stories, because he was drawing on mythology, which was something I was really interested in, and fairy tales, folklore, and philosophy, and Shakespeare, and all kinds of stuff were being mixed up in this story.  And I absolutely loved it.

So I became a big fan of Neil's, and started reading everything by him. And then fairly shortly after that, within six months to a year, Good Omens the book came out, which Neil wrote with Terry Pratchett. And so I got the book – because I was obviously a big fan of Neil's by this point – read it, loved it, then started reading Terry Pratchett’s stuff as well, because I didn't know his stuff before then – and then spent years and years and years just being a huge fan of both of them.

And then eventually when – I'd done films like the Underworld films and doing Twilight films. And I think it was one of the Twilight films, there was a lot of very snooty interviews that happened where people who considered themselves well above talking about things like Twilight were having to interview me … and, weirdly, coming at it from the attitude of 'clearly this is below you as well' … weirdly thinking I'm gonna go, 'Yeah, fucking Twilight.”

And I just used to go, "You know what? Some of the greatest writing of the last 50-100 years has happened in science fiction or fantasy."  Philip K Dick is one of my favorite writers of all time. In fact, the production of Hamlet I did was mainly influenced by Philip K Dick.  Ursula K. Le Guin and Asimov, and all these amazing people. And I talked about Neil as well. And so I went off on a bit of a rant in this interview.

Anyway, the interview came out about six months later, maybe.  Knock on the door, open the door, delivery of a big box. That’s interesting. Open the box, there's a card at the top of the box. I open the card.

It says, From one fan to another, Neil Gaiman.  And inside the box are first editions of Neil's stuff, and all kinds of interesting things by Neil. And he just sent this stuff.

DAVID: You'd never met him?

MICHAEL: Never met him. He'd read the interview, or someone had let him know about this interview where I'd sung his praises and stood up for him and the people who work within that sort of genre as being like …

And he just got in touch. We met up for the first time when he came to – I was in Los Angeles at the time, and he came to LA.  And he said, "I'll take you for a meal."

I said, “All right.”

He said, "Do you want to go somewhere posh, or somewhere interesting?”

I said, "Let's go somewhere interesting."

He said, "Right, I'm going to take you to this restaurant called The Hump." And it's at Santa Monica Airport. And it's a sushi restaurant.

I was like, “Right, okay.” So I had a Mini at the time. And we get in my Mini and we drive off to Santa Monica Airport. And this restaurant was right on the tarmac, like, you could sit in the restaurant (there's nobody else there when we got there, we got there quite early) and you're watching the planes landing on Santa Monica Airport. It's extraordinary. 

And the chef comes out and Neil says, "Just bring us whatever you want. Chef's choice."

So, I'd never really eaten sushi before. So we sit there; we had this incredible meal where they keep bringing these dishes out and they say, “This is [blah, blah, blah]. Just use a little bit of soy sauce or whatever.”  You know, “This is eel.  This is [blah].”

And then there was this one dish where they brought out and they didn't say what it was. It was like “mystery dish”, we had it ... delicious. Anyway, a few more people started coming into the restaurant as time went on.

And we're sort of getting near the end, and I said, "Neil, I can't eat anymore. I'm gonna have to stop now. This is great, but I can't eat–"

"Right, okay. We'll ask for the bill in a minute."

And then the door opens and some very official people come in. And it was the Feds. And the Feds came in, and we knew they were because they had jackets on that said they were part of the Federal Bureau of Whatever. And about six of them come in. Two of them go … one goes behind the counter, two go into the kitchen, one goes to the back. They've all got like guns on and stuff.

And me and Neil are like, "What on Earth is going on?"

And then eventually one guy goes, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't ordered already, please leave. If you're still eating your meal, please finish up, pay your bill, leave."*

[* - delivered in a perfect American ‘serious law agent’ accent/impression]

And we were like, "Oh my God, are we poisoned? Is there some terrible thing that's happened?"  

We'd finished, so we pay our bill.  And then all the kitchen staff are brought out. And the head chef is there. The guy who's been bringing us this food. And he's in tears. And he says to Neil, "I'm so sorry." He apologizes to Neil.  And we leave. We have no idea what happened.

DAVID: But you're assuming it's the mystery dish.

MICHAEL: Well, we're assuming that we can't be going to – we can't be –  it can't be poisonous. You know what I mean? It can't be that there's terrible, terrible things.

So the next day was the Oscars, which is why Neil was in town. Because Coraline had been nominated for an Oscar. Best documentary that year was won by The Cove, which was by a team of people who had come across dolphins being killed, I think.

Turns out, what was happening at this restaurant was that they were having illegal endangered species flown in to the airport, and then being brought around the back of the restaurant into the kitchen.

We had eaten whale – endangered species whale. That was the mystery dish that they didn't say what it was.

And the team behind The Cove were behind this sting, and they took them down that night whilst we were there.

DAVID: That’s extraordinary.

MICHAEL: And we didn't find this out for months.  So for months, me and Neil were like, "Have you worked anything out yet? Have you heard anything?"

"No, I haven't heard anything."

And then we heard that it was something to do with The Cove, and then we eventually found out that that restaurant, they were all arrested. The restaurant was shut down. And it was because of that. And we'd eaten whale that night.

DAVID: And that was your first meeting with Neil Gaiman.

MICHAEL: That was my first meeting. And also in the drive home that night from that restaurant, he said, and we were in my Mini, he said, "Have you found the secret compartment?"

I said, "What are you talking about?" It's such a Neil Gaiman thing to say.

DAVID: Isn't it?

MICHAEL: The secret compartment? Yeah. Each Mini has got a secret compartment. I said, "I had no idea." It's secret. And he pressed a little button and a thing opened up. And it was a secret compartment in my own car that Neil Gaiman showed me.

DAVID: Was there anything inside it?

MICHAEL: Yeah, there was a little man. And he jumped out and went, "Hello!" No, there was nothing in there. There was afterwards because I started putting...

DAVID: Sure. That's a very Neil Gaiman story. All of that is such a Neil Gaiman story.

MICHAEL: That's how it began. Yeah.

DAVID: And then he came to offer you the part in Good Omens.

MICHAEL: Yeah. Well, we became friends and we would whenever he was in town, we would meet up and yeah, and then eventually he started, he said, "You know, I'm working on an adaptation of Good Omens." And I can remember at one point Terry Gilliam was going to maybe make a film of it. And I remember being there with Neil and Terry when they were talking about it. And...

DAVID: Were you involved at that point?

MICHAEL: No, no, I wasn't involved. I just happened to have met up with Neil that day.

DAVID: Right.

MICHAEL: And then Terry Gilliam came along and they were chatting, that was the day they were talking about that or whatever.

And then eventually he sent me one of the scripts for an early draft of like the first episode of Good Omens. And he said – and we started talking about me being involved in it, doing it – he said, “Would you be interested?” I was like, "Yeah, of course."  I went, "Oh my God." And he said, "Well, I'll send you the scripts when they come," and I would read them, and we'd talk about them a little bit. And so I was involved.

But it was always at that point with the idea, because he'd always said about playing Crowley in it. And so, as time went on, as I was reading the scripts, I was thinking, "I don't think I can play Crowley. I don't think I'm going to be able to do it." And I started to get a bit nervous because I thought, “I don't want to tell Neil that I don't think I can do this.”  But I just felt like I don't think I can play Crowley.

DAVID: Of course you can [play Crowley?].

MICHAEL: Well, I just on a sort of, on a gut level, sometimes you have it on a gut level.

DAVID: Sure, sure.

MICHAEL: I can do this.

DAVID: Yeah.

MICHAEL: Or I can't do this. And I just thought, “You know what, this is not the part for me. The other part is better for me, I think. I think I can do that, I don't think I could do that.”

But I was scared to tell Neil because I thought, "Well, he wants me to play Crowley" – and then it turned out he had been feeling the same way as well.  And he hadn't wanted to mention it to me, but he was like, "I think Michael should really play Aziraphale."

And neither of us would bring it up.  And then eventually we did. And it was one of those things where you go, "Oh, thank God you said that. I feel exactly the same way." And then I think within a fairly short space of time, he said, “I think we've got … David Tennant … for Crowley.” And we both got very excited about that.

And then all these extraordinary people started to join in. And then, and then off we went.

DAVID: That's the other thing about Neil, he collects people, doesn't he? So he'll just go, “Oh, yeah, I've phoned up Frances McDormand, she's up for it.” Yeah. You're, what?

MICHAEL: “I emailed Jon Hamm.”

DAVID: Yeah.

MICHAEL: And yeah, and you realize how beloved he is and how beloved his work is. And I think we would both recognise that Good Omens is one of the most beloved of all of Neil's stuff.

DAVID: Yes.

MICHAEL: And had never been turned into anything.

DAVID: Yeah.

MICHAEL: And so the kind of responsibility of that, I mean, for me, for someone who has been a fan of him and a fan of the book for so long, I can empathize with all the fans out there who are like, “Oh, they better not fuck this up.”

DAVID: Yes.

MICHAEL: “And this had better be good.” And I have that part of me. But then, of course, the other part of me is like, “But I'm the one who might be fucking it up.”

DAVID: Yeah.

MICHAEL: So I feel that responsibility as well.

DAVID: But we have Neil on site.

MICHAEL: Yes. Well, Neil being the showrunner …

DAVID: Yeah. I think it takes the curse off.

MICHAEL: … I think it made a massive difference, didn't it? Yeah. You feel like you're in safe hands.

DAVID: Well, we think. Not that the world has seen it yet.

MICHAEL (grimly): No, I know.

DAVID: But it was a -- it's been a -- it's been a joy to work with you on it. I can't wait for the world to see it.

MICHAEL: Oh my God.  Oh, well, I mean, it's the only, I've done a few things where there are two people, it's a bit of a double act, like Frost-Nixon and The Queen, I suppose, in some ways. But, and I've done it, Amadeus or whatever.

This is the only thing I've done where I really don't think of it as “my character” or “my performance as that character”.  I think of it totally as us.

DAVID: Yeah.

MICHAEL: The two of us.

DAVID: Yes.

MICHAEL: Like they, what I do is defined by what you do.

DAVID: Yeah.

MICHAEL: And that was such a joy to have that experience. And it made it so much easier in a way as well, I found, because you don't feel like you're on your own in it. Like it's totally us together doing this and the two characters totally complement each other. And the experience of doing it was just a real joy.

DAVID: Yeah.  Well, I hope the world is as excited to see it as we are to talk about it, frankly.

MICHAEL: You know, there's, having talked about T.S. Eliot earlier, there's another bit from The Wasteland where there's a line which goes, These fragments I have shored against my ruin.

And this is how I think about life now. There is so much in life, no matter what your circumstances, no matter what, where you've got, what you've done, how much money you got, all that. Life's hard.  I mean, you can, it can take you down at any point.

You have to find this stuff. You have to like find things that will, these fragments that you hold to yourself, they become like a liferaft, and especially as time goes on, I think, as I've got older, I've realized it is a thin line between surviving this life and going under.

And the things that keep you afloat are these fragments, these things that are meaningful to you and what's meaningful to you will be not-meaningful to someone else, you know. But whatever it is that matters to you, it doesn't matter what it was you were into when you were a teenager, a kid, it doesn't matter what it is. Go and find them, and find some way to hold them close to you. 

Make it, go and get it. Because those are the things that keep you afloat. They really are. Like doing that with him or whatever it is, these are the fragments that have shored against my ruin. Absolutely.

DAVID: That's lovely. Michael, thank you so much.

MICHAEL: Thank you.

DAVID: For talking today and for being here.

MICHAEL: Oh, it's a pleasure. Thank you.

[artbyblastweave]

I think about Star Wars a lot more than I post about Star Wars, and I've had some free time recently to type up some thoughts on Episode 7 that've been swirling around in my head for a couple of years. There were a few ideas and plot beats, and moments of apparent self-examination in Episode 7 which I thought were fairly compelling, even though they ultimately paid no dividends:

First was Finn’s character concept. “Star Wars as experienced from the perspective of a Stormtrooper undergoing a crisis of faith” is a rich hook; humanizing and giving a face to what's basically the platonic implementation of the faceless mook. Unfortunately, the potency of the arc was undercut by the pre-existing textual ambiguity as to what stormtroopers actually are. Star Wars extended canon has settled on the idea that each trilogy features an entirely novel cohort of white-clad mooks, each with a fundamentally different underlying dynamic. The clones and the First-Order forces are different flavors of slave army; in contrast, the stormtroopers are more frequently portrayed in the expanded universe as military careerists, stormtrooper being a thing you work up to rather than a gig for a fresh conscript. A slave-soldier who defects is a very different character from a military careerist who defects, and they invite different analysis. There's a bait-and-switch going on here, in that Finn gestures in the direction of the familiar OT stormtroopers but can't comment on or examine them because he's actually part of a novel dynamic invented for the new movies. And there's one final nail in the coffin here, signaled by the number of times I've had to invoke the expanded universe so far. When Finn debuted, the racists were of course, legion, but I also ran into a number of people who were sincerely confused as to why they'd recast Temuera Morrison. Going off the seven films that existed at the time, it wasn't unreasonable to read the prequel trilogy as an origin story for where the OT stormtroopers came from. Going only off the nine films that exist now, it still isn't unreasonable! It's muddied from so many different directions by their failure to establish the ground rules in the mainline films before they tried to put on subversive airs about it. I am still irritated by this.

Next up is how Han Solo was written. I actually liked the tack they took with him quite a bit. Because initially, right, his role in the movie is just to be Han Solo. He's back, and he hasn't changed! He's still kicking ass and taking names, he's still the lovable scoundrel you knew and loved from your childhood- and the principle cast members react to his presence with the same reverence the film's trying to invoke in the audience, they've grown up hearing the same stories about him. Except that episode 7, at least, is also very aware of the fact that if Han Solo is still recognizably the same guy thirty years on, it indicates that things have gone totally off the rails for him. We find out that the lovable rogue routine is the result of him backsliding, his happy ending blown up by massive personal tragedy rooted in communicative failures and (implicitly) his parental shortcomings. It feels deliberately in conversation with the nostalgic impulse driving the entire film- here's your childhood hero back just as you remember, here's what that stagnation costs. And it also feels like it's in conversation with what was a fairly common strain of Han Solo Take- the idea that Ep. 6 cuts off at a very convenient point, and that Han and Leia's fly-by-night wartime relationship wouldn't survive the rigors of domesticity. Obviously, that's not the only direction you can take with the character; the old EU basically threaded the needle of keeping Han recognizable without rolling back his character development gains. But it felt like they were actually committing to a direction, a direction that was aware of the space, and not a reflexively deferential and flattering one, which at the time I appreciated! The problem, of course, is that for it to really land, you need to have a really, really strong idea of what actually went down-of what Han's specific shortcomings and failures were. And given the game of ping-pong they proceeded to play with Kylo Ren's characterization, this turned out to be. Less than doable.

Kylo Ren is the third thing about Episode 7 that I liked. His character concept is basically an extended admission by the filmmakers that there's no way to top Vader as an antagonist. Instead, they lean into the opposite direction- they make him underwhelming on purpose. Someone who's chasing Vader's legacy in the same way any post-OT Star Wars villain is going to, pursuing Vader's aesthetic and the associated power without really understanding or undergoing the convoluted web of suffering and dysfunction that produced Vader. It's framed as a genuine twist that there's nothing particularly wrong with his face under that helmet. Whatever it takes to be Vader, he doesn't have it, and he knows that he doesn't have it, and the pursuit of it drives him to greater and greater acts of cartoonish villainy. The failure to one-up Vader is offloaded to the character instead of the writers, and it was genuinely interesting to watch. For one movie. The problem, of course, is that if the entire character archetype is "Vader, but less compelling," you can't try to give the bastard Vader's exact character arc. You can't retroactively bolt on a Vader-tier tragic backstory when you spent a whole movie signaling that whatever happened to him wasn't as compelling as what happened to Vader. You can't milk his angst for two more movies when it's the kind of angst on display in "Rocking the Suburbs" by Ben Folds!

There's a level on which I feel like Moff Gideon was a semi-successful implementation of Vader-Wannabe concept; he's the same kind of middling operator courting the Vader Aesthetic for clout, but he's doing it in the context of the imperial warlord era, where there's a lot of practical power available to anyone who can paint themselves to the Imperial Remnants as a plausible successor to Vader. Hand in Hand with this obvious politicking, Gideon is loathsome, which relieves the writers of the burden of having to plausibly redeem the guy; he's doing exactly what he needs to do and there'll never be a mandate to expand him beyond what his characterization can support. Unfortunately, the calculated and cynical nature of how he's emulating Vader precludes the immaturity and hero-worship elements on display with Kylo, which is unfortunate; the sincerity on display in Kylo's pursuit of authenticity is an important part of why he worked, to the extent that he worked at all, and it'd be worth unpacking in a better trilogy. As he stands Kylo is a clever idea, and that's all he is- he lacks the scaffolding to go from merely clever to actively good.

[soapyghostie]

Hey! Absolutely random request, but imagine reader being a tired person that out of wounds and stress they just fall asleep when they're being carried, about to go on a hook. How would the dbd killers(any, really) react?

Like, imagine. Being carried, without anything under legs can already make someone sleepy if they don't have adrenaline pumped through their veins. Plus, i know that having wounds(aka blood loss) can make people very tired.

Since this request it a little vague, I decided to get a little creative with it and wrote some angst because I’m a sucker for angst with dad slashers (except Frank is your big brother in this request). 😭 Hope you enjoy!

The Ghost Face/Danny Johnson

Danny would be confused at first, bloodlust still kicking through his veins even after killing all our teammates as he carries you, his injured daughter, to the hook (Sorry (Y/N), he’s just doing his job. No hard feelings). He’ll pause for a moment, trying to process the fact that you feel asleep on his shoulder.

As he realizes that you fell asleep due to exhaustion and stress from your wounds, Danny’s demeanor would soften and his parental instincts within him kicks in. He’ll gently adjust you in his arms from being thrown over his shoulder to being carried bridal style, ensuring that you’re comfortable even as he still proceeds to hook you. 

Seeing you in such a vulnerable state would stir up a lot of internal conflict in Danny. He’s torn between his role as a merciless killer and his love for you as his daughter as he hesitates to sacrifice you to the Entity. Danny’s had a lot of bad performances in trials lately and he really needs the 4K. However, to get the 4K he needs to sacrifice you. Of course it has to be you: the Entity is so cruel. 

As to not get punished by the Entity, sadly, Danny will throw you onto the hook. Danny would feel a pang of remorse and sadness. He knows that he’s the cause of your pain and exhaustion, and seeing you in such a vulnerable state serves as a painful reminder of the life he’s subjected you to. He silently reflects on his actions and their consequences. He’ll gaze at your sleeping form dangling from the hook, grappling with the complexities of his emotions and the choices he made. 

Despite his conflicted emotions, Danny remains committed to his role in the Entity’s twisted game. However, Danny’s determination to protect you remains unwavering. He’ll play the Entity’s game and continue this dark path as a killer if it means to ensure your safety as he doesn’t want you to be harmed as a result of his shortcomings… 

The Legion/Frank Morrison

Frank would be initially shocked and panicked to see you, his younger sister, in such a vulnerable state. Despite his tough ‘bad boy’ exterior, he deeply cares about you and seeing you hurt triggers his protective instincts. 

The sight of you falling asleep from exhaustion and stress while carrying you to the hook fills Frank with anger and frustration. He’ll curse under his breath, feeling powerless to protect you and frustrated with the situation at hand. First off, your god damn heavy after going unconscious and, secondly, he has no choice but to hook you due to the amount of failed trials he’s had lately to try and please the Entity. 

Despite his anger, Frank, also like Danny, would feel a sense of inner conflict. On one hand, he wants to lash out at the Entity for throwing her into a trial with him, but on the other hand, he knows he has to get the 4K by hooking you so you end up safe and sound at the survivor camp instead of the agony the Entity threatened to put you through if he didn’t start stepping it up in trials. You’re the reason he has the strength to keep going in this awful, twisted game of cat and mouse. 

Frank would grapple with the feeling of guilt and responsibility for your condition. As your older brother, he feels entitled to preventing you from getting hurt in the first place and blames himself for everything that has happened to you. Despite his conflicting emotions, he would carefully and gently place you on the hook, making sure you're as comfortable as possible given the circumstances. As he watches you sleep on the hook, Frank would have a quiet moment of reflection. He reminisces about y’all’s childhood together and vows silently to himself to do whatever it takes to keep you safe. 

Seeing you vulnerable would only fuel Frank’s determination to perform better in trials. He would be even more relentless in his pursuit of survivors, driven by the desire to protect you from the Entity’s hungry claws. 

The Shape/Michael Myers

Michael would pause, a flicker of confusion crossing his expressionless face. The sight of you, his daughter, falling asleep despite the dire circumstances briefly disrupts his usual relentless pursuit to satisfy his murderous desires. 

Deep within his obscured psyche, a conflict brews. While Michael is driven by an insatiable urge to kill, his parental instincts stir, conflicting with his murderous impulses. This momentary hesitation leads to a brief internal struggle, the likes of which observers of Michael would never perceive. 

Despite the task at hand and the chaos of the trial, Michael momentarily freezes, holding your unconscious body with an eerie stillness. His iconic breathing momentarily ceases, as if he too, like Danny and Frank, were contemplating the peculiar situation. 

In a rare display of tenderness, Michael gingerly adjusts your position, ensuring that you're comfortable even as he prepares to hook you. His movements would be precise, almost caring, as if he’s trying to shield you from further harm, even in your unconscious state. As he gazes upon your sleeping form, fragments of memories flicker through Michael’s mind. Images of you as a child, innocent and untouched by the darkness that now envelopes you both, momentarily soften his gaze, perhaps even cause a subtle twitch at the corners of his mouth – a long-forgotten smile. You are his world. 

Ultimately, the weight of his desire to kill and the futility of his attempts to connect with you wash over Michael. With a heavy heart hidden beneath his iconic mask, he proceeds with the task at hand – sacrificing you to the Entity. With a solemn determination, Michael carries you to the hook, his obsession with killing eclipsing any semblance of any paternal sentiment.

[secretlystephaniebrown]

I Read Nearly Every Appearance of the Lazarus Pit Before Flashpoint and All I Got Was A Headache: A Meta Commentary

So! The Lazarus Pit!

The Lazarus Pit is obviously an iconic part of the Batman Franchise. We encounter it everywhere, from the Under the Red Hood movie, to the Lazarus Planet event which just ended.

But has the Lazarus Pit always been this way?

It's comics. Of course not.

Very long comic rant with citations below!

The Nu52 and following reboots obviously overhauled Lazarus Lore so completely they're functionally a different thing, so I'm not talking about them. Today, instead, we're talking about post-crisis/pre-Flashpoint Lazarus Pits, their contradictions, and what we can make of them.

The Lazarus Pits have been around nearly as long as Ra's and Talia have been, and even before they appeared, it was clear that Ra's had some method of extending his life.

Batman (1940-2011) #235

The first Lazarus Pit itself seems to be in a chalet in Switzerland, and it's very different than what we will later associate it as. It is instead, a mortuary slab that lowers itself into a pit of "bubbling liquid"

Batman (1940-2011) #243

In these early versions, the Lazarus Pit is portrayed as a medical invention that Ra's has used to extend his life.

It is shown to have consequences, which fandom has, of course, latched onto.

Batman (1940-2011) #244

Here, we see the Lazarus Madness described as including "the strength of ten men", and he is able to be able to resist nearly all attacks from Batman and Lo Ling.

In addition, Ra's claims that he has used the pit too often, which is shown to be the driving force behind his interest in Bruce and his legacy.

Batman (1940-2011) #244

Later appearances of Ra's and the pit throughout this era add a few more interesting tidbits.

He claims that only he can use the Lazarus Pit... but puts Talia in it in that same issue, claiming that it's okay if it's just a quick dip.

Batman (1940-2011) #335

Is Ra's lying about no one else being able to use the pit? Almost certainly. He will start putting anyone he wants into the pit soon enough.

Those with a keen eye might notice that the Lazarus Pit is already going through some aesthetic changes: we're still seeing a slab being lowered into a small pit, but now the liquid within is orange! This will come up a lot!

Next up we have the storyline Grant Morrison refused to read: Son of the Demon.

In Son of the Demon, Ra's claims that there was an earlier version of the Pit, before the final version Bruce has already encountered. In this version, he claims that Mellisande, Talia's mother, was pushed into this proto-pit, and it killed her.

Batman: Son of the Demon (1987)

Denny O'Neil will later retcon this in 1993, claiming that Talia's mother died of a drug overdose, and Ra's refused to bring her back.

But it is consistent in early versions of the story that Lazarus Pits, if not entered with proper care and with the right preparations, can be dangerous.

Bride of the Demon is the next storyline, and Ra's BRINGS the Lazarus Pits in this one. Ra's finds himself a hot MILF girlfriend and puts her in the Pit to make her younger so she can give him kids.

Batman: Bride of the Demon (1990)

This Lazarus Pit is shown to be more experimental than past versions, with Ra's and Dr. Weltmann attempting to prevent the Lazarus Madness factor.

Ra's later puts a child in the pit as a bribe to his father, but the kid had possibly been dead too long, and it was hinted there were going to be long-term consequences for the actions... which were dropped. As was the wife, who was supposedly pregnant at the end of this story. Comics!

This is the first time that limits on the Lazarus Pit are presented, but it is certainly not the last. This idea that there's an upper limit on how long someone can be dead for before a Lazarus Pit doesn't do anything will come back again.

Batman: Birth of the Demon finally brings in a more mystical aspect to the Lazarus Pits, which so far have been vaguely scientific. In this story, we are introduced to the fact that Lazarus Pits are located on the convergence points of leylines (which in-universe have something to do with the electro-magnetic field). Ra's's approximate age is revealed, and it is shown that Bruce and Ra's have been fighting a real-estate battle over sites where Lazarus Pits can be built.

Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992)

In flashbacks, we learn that Ra's figured out how to build a Lazarus Pit, and was not actually the first person to use it. Instead, it was for the son of the Sultan Ra's worked for as a physician.

After the Sultan's son went mad, killed Sora, and blamed Ra's for it, Ra's had his vengeance... by putting the son in a false Lazarus Pit.

This pit was sabotaged by not being built on a Leyline. So uh... be careful with those, I guess!

So in short: by the end of this era of Denny O'Neil/Mike Barr Lazarus Lore, we know that anyone can use a Lazarus Pit, but Ra's controls them with his knowledge of how to create them. Bruce can find where they should be by tracking leylines, and will pass this knowledge on to others over time.

We then enter a new era! The Chuck Dixon era, to be specific.

Chuck Dixon has surprisingly few retcons for us. We first really encounter his take on Lazarus Lore in his mini series Bane of the Demon, where Bane works with Ra's and co.

We get a brief recap of the lore here:

Batman: Bane of the Demon #3 (1998)

We are now introduced to an interesting new layer: the Lazarus Pits can be predicted, not just detected. Ra's has headquarters set up all over the world, in places where Lazarus Pits not only are, but will be. Some pit locations appear to remain the same throughout the years (Ra's has built numerous pits on the location of the first site: at least three that we know of), but generally, Lazarus Pits seem to be a one-time deal.

Ra's clearly has dedicated most of his life to these pits; to acquiring their locations, to predicting where they will be, experimenting with how to make them better... so obviously, he guards the formula for how to make them extremely closely, right?

Well. Not according to Chuck.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989-2007) #145

And if you've noticed that head of green hair on the ground there, that's right folks! BRUCE WAYNE PUT A DEAD JOKER IN A LAZARUS PIT HE MADE HIMSELF.

Bruce justifies it by telling Alfred that if he does this, it means Ra's can't use it later. However, it does not change the fact that Bruce put the Joker in a Lazarus Pit. No I'm not going to be over this ever. Jason might have a point, actually.

Ra's decides, after this, that he wants another wife. And he picks Dinah Lance! But whoops, as it happens, Dinah was tortured and can't have kids (also lost her Canary Cry), way back in Green Arrow, before Ollie died! So Ra's decides to throw her in a Lazarus Pit. It... doesn't go well. Lazarus Madness + Restored Canary Cry = one destroyed building.

Birds of Prey (1999-2009) #33

Oh look! We've got locations! And of course every other Lazarus Pit we've seen or will see except Birth of the Demon is nowhere near any of these convergence points!

So! To recap the current state of the lore: Lazarus Pits are a combination of science and magic. They are an alchemical creation, built on leyline nodes. Generally, they are one-use only, or at least they require centuries to be re-usable. They can resurrect the newly-dead, but but Ra's is very cautious about letting other people use them, probably because he's a control freak, and he doesn't have too many of them left.

We depart the Dixon era and enter... the Nyssa Raatko era.

Nyssa is introduced in Death and the Maidens, with Greg Rucka, who is a huge fan of Denny O'Neil, still sticking pretty close to the original lore.

Here, we see that Bruce has still been on his kick of preventing Ra's from building more Lazarus Pits by buying up real estate where they could be. This forced Ra's to try to reconcile with his daughter Nyssa, who he gave a Lazarus Pit to sometime in the 1700s.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #1

"But hey!" I can hear you say. "Isn't part of the thing that you mentioned earlier is that they're one-use?"

Well they are! For Ra's.

Nyssa, however, is a smart lady.

Nyssa, at some point in her life, figured out how to make a Lazarus Pit reusable. So she's been getting a lot of mileage out of this baby, and has been since the 1700s.

This story also presents an explanation for why the Lazarus Pit is sometimes green and sometimes orange: Nyssa's is orange and Ra's has green ones. I guess maybe the earlier orange pits that Ra's had were him trying to make them reusable like Nyssa? Hmm.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #4

When questioned about it, Nyssa tells Talia that there used to be more pits, so he was less protective of them when he gave her this one.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #6

At the end of this storyline, Ra's is dead, Nyssa is the new Ra's al Ghul, and according to Bruce, she has the only Lazarus Pit left.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #9

Nyssa pops up again in Batgirl, facing off against Cass, and brags about her special pit again. Cass and Shiva both get dips in it. Fun times!

Batgirl (2000-2006) #69

Yes, the torture hooks are a reoccurring feature of Nyssa's pit. I don't know why.

But wait! A brief interlude!

Jason Todd came back to comics in a storyline: Under the Hood, in 2005, which wrapped up in 2006. We weren't told how Jason came back in the story itself, but a few months after Under the Hood ended, we get Batman Annual #25, which shows Talia shoving Jason into a Lazarus Pit while Ra's was using it.

Batman Annual #25 (2006)

There's no discussion about if this is a weird dip. He's got brain activity again though!

This is revisited again in Red Hood: The Lost Days, but it doesn't really add anything from the point of Lazarus Lore, except that Ra's posits that Jason, having already been resurrected, could have suffered some long-term consequences, unlike literally anyone else who had a dip.

Red Hood: The Lost Days (2010-2011) #2

Anyways, enough Jason! Nyssa gets killed off-page in OYL, so she's gone now, Talia's running the show and oh fuck it's Morrison-era. And Morrison never bothered to read any other Ra's or Talia story because it wasn't Silver Age or something. So... retcon time!

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul attempts to retell Birth of the Demon, but with a few retcons. The pits were discovered, not made, being the official point in which the Lazarus Pits become purely magical phenomena, rather than a work of alchemy.

Batman Annual #26 (2007)

Bruce also mentions that the Pits are connected to actual waterways, which is a massive difference from the shallow pits from earlier eras.

This era does however confirm the concept that older bodies, further along in the decay process, probably shouldn't be dipped in the Lazarus Pit. At least, Dick convinced Tim of this fact after a little while.

(Also White Ghost wants a perfectly healthy, alive Tim to bathe in the Lazarus Pit, and this is never explained. Maybe it was a distraction?)

Nightwing (1996-2009) #139

In this era, and the Batman: Reborn era following it, the Lazarus Pits are pretty absent, but the few references we do get from this point forward (including in Red Hood: The Lost Days, which are published in 2010-2011), tend to use the Morrison-era canon that the pits are natural. And also we're back to having a lot of them, instead of just Nyssa's singular one in the Balkans, and, since Ra's has a new young(er) body, there's no sense of urgency to buy up/prevent him from making new pits. Potentially, Dusan/White Ghost took advantage of the fact that the Bats thought Ra's was dead to buy back the real-estate and make new pits, but that's using the pre-Morrison lore. I guess in Morrison era, the Bats just... don't know where Pits are until they find one, and then they blow it up.

We also no longer see any one-time-use limitations. One could assume that Talia figured out the formula Nyssa used to keep the pits reusable and told Ra's, if we're trying to merge the canons.

And that's not even counting whatever is happening in the post-Flashpoint era. Lazarus Planet gives me a headache. Let's not talk about it just now.

Anyways, in short: I think the artificial, single-use Lazarus Pits are way more fun. But anyways, here's the citations to help you decide what YOU think Lazarus Lore should be!

[krypticcafe]

any chance for dbd killers (especially myers) reacting to a partner who wants to take the relationship real slow? how would they take it? would they push, or be respectful? patience? bonus for cuddle time 💜✨

DBD killers w/a partner who wants to take it slow

rating: teen

character(s): GN!Reader, Shape/Michael Myers, Ghostface/Danny "Jed" Olsen, The Executioner/Pyramid Head, The Cannibal/Bubba Sawyer, Legion/Frank Morrison

warning(s): suggestive themes, canon-typical violence and behavior, language

a/n: pardon the unannounced hiatus, cue the usual fanfic writer life drama, gonna be dusting off the request box :]

Michael

Thank. GOD. He's not gonna say it, but Michael's beyond relieved because he's just not comfortable jumping into things, or anything at all. He likes consistency, not change, so he really needs the time to even just adjust to the fact that he's actually letting this relationship happen (no offense). Even the first time he let you live, he felt all irritated about it because it just felt wrong. But after he saw you leave med packs for him from time to time, lurk behind him while he was off chasing others, he started to grow a little more lenient towards you, much to your pleasure.

After you see the approval in his eyes, you're relieved, too. It's not that you thought Michael wouldn't take the suggestion well, it's that it was the first time you two were seriously discussing your relationship. Neither of you put a label on yourselves, you just both knew that you liked each other a little more than you did with other people. Kind of like a silent agreement.

But now you take confidence in knowing you can be as slow as you want with him, after all, you both have all of eternity to work it out, or at least until the Entity decides to do something about it. Though seeing as they haven't stopped you so far, you're probably fine for now.

It's a long time until you guys show any actual physical affection. The closest it's been is Michael getting revenge on people who use you as bait and grabbing your wrist to pull you to a safe spot while you help clean his gear during visits in between matches and lean on him or he holds you in his lap while sitting in comfortable silence (you've caught him falling asleep on a few occasions).

Expect it to take a while more if you guys actually want to get intimate, he's just too much of a 'business first' guy.

All in all, mission success.

Danny

"Like how slow?"

You should've expected this. While Michael is relieved, Danny, well, he doesn't take it as well. He's one of the clingiest of all the killers and makes it difficult not to be paranoid all the time of someone finding out. He's a hands-on type of guy and this... is kind of torture for him.

After some insistence and some pleading on your side, he'll give in, but it's not guaranteed. He has to resist his urges like some little kid trying not to open Christmas presents a day early. All day, every day, he's just thinking about smothering you in his touch, and it gets him frustrated (in both ways), so he has to take it out somehow.

You can literally see it in real-time when he's cutting through survivors like butter, not even bothering to act playful or make quips, just snarling and hissing at them like a feral cat. You make a mental note to give him a bit of something after the match, like a kiss or some cuddle time.

Other than that, he whines. A lot. Like it's so fucking annoying please make him shut up with a kiss or something, the killers can't stand hearing him bitch incoherently and you can only take so much of it as well. Also, he's a manipulative ass to expect him to be pushy and try to pressure you here and there.

It's kinda funny though, in a way you sorta conditioned him to feel even more euphoric when you do anything romantic with him. He's asking, no, begging for extra kisses, holding you real tight when you cuddle, and you swear you can feel him melting under your touch. Heart eyes and all, he's so obsessed with you.

Whenever you let him know you're ready to move things forward, expect him to be a little overexcited about it. Like if you finally let him get in your pants, he's gonna work you like there's no tomorrow, all that pent-up energy is flooding out the door.

I'm sorry, but you're literally caging an animal by asking *the* Ghostface to take it slow. He's only gonna get more hungry over time.

Pyra

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think he cares. Like he's fine taking it as slow as you want, it's not a huge deal to him, and really, he has no room for judgment outside of killing people. You'll ask and he'll respond with the usual metallic grunt and boom. Problem solved.

In all honesty, it's probably good to take it slow with him if you want a nice, loving relationship with him. Because of his lack of experience, fast-paced relationships might just be too much for him to deal with, but taking your time lets him process how it even works. Dates, kissing, and anything beyond that aren't in his area of expertise, nor did he ever expect it to be, it's not his primary purpose.

This allows him to welcome something new in his life for once beyond the mundane life of Silent Hill and the matches in the realm of the Entity. He's not used to actually having personal priorities, so the adjustment period progresses along with your relationship. He's quick to find out that he really likes physical contact with you, too.

Most likely you'll be taking the initiative with him, teaching him the little things you like to do like cuddling and holding each other close. He really likes that, being able to just envelope you and keep you safe and close in such a comfortable manner.

I don't he exactly has a concept of... 'horny', it's more of a hunger I guess? A hunger to be close and in your presence, so he kinda has times when he'll stick to your side like a big old scary guard dog. If you wanna indulge him a little, go ahead.

Yeah, I can't really say much for him other than it is what it is.

Bubba

He tries his best to be patient, he really does. Bubba's more than understanding about it, because he's already elated that you love him back in the first place! Though sometimes he just really wants to pepper your face in kisses and smother you in love, pick you up and swing you around in his arms, take you to some of the nicer parts of the Entity's realm, he almost forgets they all live in some sick game.

Horrible advice, but try not to be so... cute around him. I like to think he has cuteness aggression, so it's very hard to keep his hands to himself when you look so... so... nope, no, Bubba, focus, you're supposed to be chasing Ace right now- oooo but don't wanna just eat them up and make them yours!

He wants to do so much with you but it's kind of for the best to keep him from rushing into things. Even he's a little worried that he'll tire you out from his eagerness to get things moving. Hell, he even spooked himself when he found himself daydreaming about marrying you mid-match. He can't help it though, it's the southern love in him that gets him all antsy (he thinks you'd look very nice in a suit or dress if you're wondering).

Yeah, and don't think you don't know either, not when he's humming "Here Comes the Bride" while sawing up Kate in halves in front of you.

Oh, and you thought the wedding fever was bad? Wait until the baby fever kicks up. Since day one of falling in love with you, this man has been dreaming of church bells, vows, cribs, pacifiers, and all that. He's never told you it in full detail but you just know he does. Whether you want it for your relationship or not, he still loves you nonetheless.

Despite it all, you help remind him to appreciate what's in the moment, that you both have an eternity together in damnation to get to that point. So long as time and the Entity are on your side, he's more than happy to take things slow with you and he'll be sure to enjoy every moment you have together.

Frank

"You're joking, right?"

No surprise here either, Frank doesn't take it all too well. He's an impatient bastard and mostly thinks with his dick more than his head sometimes. To be honest, he never even anticipated getting into a relationship with you. He thought most of the survivors were annoying and unlikable in their own ways, he even found you irritating at some point just not as much as the others, or so he'd claim.

You try to explain to him why and unfortunately, it does result in a back and forth between you two, the other members of Legion even chiming in on your defense. It's until you point into his face that you both literally have forever in this endless hell so "what's the big deal about us taking our time" and for him to just think about it for a bit.

And yeah he does, but it takes a while for Frank to wrap his head around it. He's used to just getting what he wants, jumping into things headfirst, and figuring out the details from there. His whole philosophy defies normalcy, defies everything he hates about Ormond and the banal, suburban society it is. He lives for the rush, the excitement, the recklessness. Time and care in a relationship remind him too much of a "normal life".

But the others remind him there's nothing normal about where they are now. Hell, they get to wreak havoc and chaos in the trials, it's everything they dreamed of. Making a statement for themselves. And frankly (no pun intended), he likes you a little too much to let it go. So instead of rushing himself into things, he finds a new thrill in testing the limits. He teases you with lingering touches and suggestive remarks, leaves you wanting, craving just a little more of that.

He clicks his tongue, "I thought we were taking it slow?"

That little bitch. He's got you wrapped around his finger and you know it. But don't think you're the only one aching, no. Call him a sadomasochist because it's practically killing him too, how much he has to hold back. Yet it's such a rush, keeping his hands to himself and itching for the day when you let him do whatever. He. Wants.

[poemnic-tarot]

The Next 3 months Forecast - Timeless PAC Reading⛅️🍎

(Disclaimer: This is a general reading please only take what resonate. For entertainment purposes only)

⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧 You Are Loved ⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧

Check out my master list: PAC Reading Master List

This is a PAID Reading example!!!!. If you resonate with is you can order a paid reading from me exactly like this here: Paid Reading

Don't forget to save it! screenshot for future Guidance!!

This is a Timeless PAC Reading, it will apply to whatever time you are reading this.

⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧 You Are Loved ⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧

Pile 1🫧❄️

Energy check : The frog

"Treat yourself like how you want your parent to treat you"

Pile 1 you might feel a bit conflicted between to keep going or stopping or resting for a while. It is conflicting to you because you feel quite burdensome, like you have a lot of things to do and on your plate.You may have a conscious or unconscious high expectation of yourself to get everything done, even-though you don't really feel like it at all. You might feel depleted and in need of a break and it is vital that you do so. We cannot run with an empty fuel or even if we do we won't go far either.

It is time to nourish yourself with self care activities that you might have been putting off. Put down worries and stress for a while and if resting make you feel guilty, it is also the perfect time to examine on the reason why that is. Rest is your birth right, no need to earned it.

Pile 1 if this is your current energy then these are your next 3 months.

(Remember energy is alway shifting and changing depending on our present decisions)

❄️🫧1st Month - 5 of swords🫧❄️

"Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another" - Toni Morrison

The Artist greatest tortured has alway been the process of creation. It is when we have no idea if what we are currently working on will turn out like we hope for/or expected. That is how life is, a process, a work in progress. Remember that there is no destination to reach. It is indeed the journey that we must focus on.If things are up in the air right now and nothing has been decide yet, it is only because we ourself haven't make that decision. And deciding what to do is part of the process, instead of attaching fear, insecurity, nervousness, certainly uncertainty, around the process of not knowing yet. We can rewrite the story by changing it to anticipation, into excitement and entertaining what life have to offer you. Your life story is yours and you can change the genres at anytime.Is this life a tragedy?, a mystery?, a love story?, an adventure or just a slice of life. Whatever it is, you decide. By changing our perspective we changed our story suddenly.

And there is power in choosing, in giving yourself choices. God like power equivalent. There's a lot of fears attach to giving ourself choices that's why not a lot of people do it. "I don't have a choice" is a common phrase because it is easier to have everything up to fate. This is the time/opportunity to ask yourself what you want your fate to look like?. Freewill is on your side and whatever you decided, that is your fate. We do not know our fate by searching. We know our purpose by already done the deed then we decided that THIS is what we want to do. I want to do this, I choose this =your fate. Fate follow your decision. How many times/area in our life where we can 100 percent said that we choose this ourself?.

We are finally free from the unconscious drive, now it is time to live with intention. And that might feel uncomfortable and even hard but trusting in yourself is key. They say knowing is half the battle, so know thy self. Getting to know who you really are, what you really want to do will help you navigate this time easier.The most important thing is, you don't need to figure out the outcome of your decision or how it's going to turn out. All you need to make sure is that do you want to do this?.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 14. Ask for help

'What do you really need? be willing to accept support. There is so much support available to you. You only need to ask for help and you will receive it. Let go of fear and pride as they do not benefit you nor give you what you desire.'

Signs: 555, 1414, fishes, island, blue, water, Pisces, Aquarius

Songs: Is it love by Loreen

You'll find me in the echo of the dark Workin' on the riddle of your heart Lost you in a maze, now let me out Is it love? Is it love? Is it love?

Poem: Will You Fight? by @cant-find-my-name There's no beauty in this pain if incarnation exists I wish to never feel it again Life too hurt to live I have nothing else left to give Put me out of my mystery I demand to be free All these trials and tribulations You think you won't get over them But you did before So what's another one? But they go on and on You realised it won't be done The hardship are endless I have been giving my best That's the circle of life Will you give up now Or will you continue to fight?

Quote from Pinterest:

🎐✨2nd Month - The fool ✨🎐

"It's okay that you're not who you thought you would be".

This is the time for experiment, for adventures, of discovering who you decided to be. We are alway learning about ourself so don't be surprise when a new side popped up. Be curious. What identity/story /belief are we so attach to or that we keep telling ourself?. I'm not the type to do that, or I cannot do this because I am not XYZ enough. How about we see ourself as a blank canvas for a change and that the empty space is not to be fear but to be fills with infinite possibilities. To achieve or want something new, firstly we must also become someone we never been before. For example, if you want to be a healthy person who is fit, then become someone who frequent the gym or do workouts. It mean tuning our frequency to match the vibrations of our desire outcome. For the little things and the big ones.

This world is our playground, this world is our oyster, and we are an avatar whose here to learn and have fun and become as many things as possible. Non attachment is key towards outcome, identity or how the story will unfolds. We do not know what will happen but one thing we know for sure is that every new day is a new lesson to learn from.

Embodies the energy of creation/ take inspiration from around you. Everything you go through or witness have a connection towards you one way or the other. Any ideas/creative projects that suddenly strike you is no coincidence, it find you deliberately. Every things that has been created was an idea once and if there's one that has found you, do not be afraid to answer the call. Be curious.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: Have faith. Trust your faith in this situation.

"When we honestly believe things will work out, our faith will confidently see us through. It can be challenging to move forward when you aren't sure what the outcome will be. Stay present with whatever is in front of you right now. You may have doubts or fear when you take a step forward or make a decision, but faith gives you the courage to continue"

Signs: daisy, dandelion, Sun, tiger, Golden butterfly, golden wings, crocodile, balloon, 33, yellow

Song: Coming back for you by Fireboy DML

Well I pray that the universe Gives you way more than you deserve When the tears fall like shooting stars Remember who you are Just look up to the sky you'll see

Poem: Who You Can Be by @cant-find-my-name

When you stop holding tight To who you thought you were And instead be open to new

Possibilities of you Then you'll see Who you truly are Or can become Weak foundation must be undone Old identity forgotten Mind full of limitations Cannot attract abundance Because you are not open To receive them It's time to wake up and see See the possible version Of Who You Can Be

Quote from Pinterest:

🍭🍡3rd month - 2 of wands🍡🍭

"Every next level of your life will demand a different you".

Pile 1, in this time the way forward is open for you. Keep your momentum. You are unstoppable. Your energy is unstoppable. You are a force to be reckon with, take action towards your visions. If you have vision/ideas, a dream reality, this is the time to take action towards it. The need for movement is not from doubt or fears. From now on, 'I want to act with love' and you might learn that the decisions and action after that will be different than the way you operate before. Because when you operate from love, there's a certain confident, an inner knowing and an unshakable faith that everything is going to be alright. Because it has alway been that way.

Everything in this universe is right, nothing is wrong. When you realise that, whatever action you take, will alway be the right one. You will be able to clearly see the Success in your ventures as you move forward. The picture you painted in your head is coming together in real life. This reality is unfolding in a way that you alway know to be true. In a way, deep inside you know that this universe has alway favour you. Everything is working for you, it is time to accept this truth and work for ourself.

There will be a lot of energy within us this month, use this wisely to propel our goals forward, in any area of our life.

Richard L. Evans Quote: “Your direction is more important than your speed.”

When you finally pick a direction walk towards it with head held high. You choosing your own path/way is already success in itself.

Stars Dragons Oracle quote - Find your light and follow it home - until you realised that with every step you are already there.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 24. Focus on love. Look for the good in everyone.

"Focusing on the love will change and heal any negativity that is there.How you perceive a situation has a lot to do with how you feel about them."

Signs: Letter JJ, orange, sunset, Dragons, lantern, 2423,

Songs: Rise by League of Legends, Mako, and The Word Alive

Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your bones, go and take it This is your moment, now is your time, so Prove yourself and RISE, RISE Make 'em remember you RISE Push through hell and RISE, RISE They will remember you RISE

Poem: Confident by @cant-find-my-name

So this is what confident feels like It's no longer undefined It's no longer random burst Unexpected, at the mercy of when it Will emerge Now I can call on it Anytime At the tip of of my fingers At the top of my tongue My body oozes of confident Trust in oneself is the definition To give it my all To not hesitate or keep myself small With my inner strength With all my might I will stand tall In the front line and face it all

Quote from Pinterest:

⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧 You Are Loved ⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧

Pile 2🌦🌕

Energy check : The wolf

"I understand if the wound is greater than an apology can cure"

Pile 2 You might be dealing with disappointment right now. If something or someone has turn out differently then you expected, this is an opportunity to let go. We think we might have a great idea of someone and if that person deviate from our view of them, life might suddenly does not make sense. That someone can also be yourself. If things or person actions does not make sense to you, we can only ask ourself if we align with their actions or not. We can't control people but we can control how we response to them. We human are a unique individual but we are not that different from each other. WE all have the same fundamental needs, the need to belong, the need to be loved, the need to fulfils our own desires, the need for stability/security.

What motive/base intention drive you?, and people close to you. The base alway determine the action. And what kind of action are you okay/align with to fulfils that particular need of yours. And what actions simply doesn't.

For you, the end doesn't justify the means. Even if the intention is good but the action to fulfil that needs is hurting you in some way either from others or even yourself, it is okay to acknowledge that that is not the way you want to proceed. Understanding what you can or cannot tolerate is key.

Pile 2 if this is your current energy then these are your next 3 months.

(Remember energy is alway shifting and changing depending on our present decisions)

✉️🪄1st month - 7 of pentacles🪄✉️

"You can try again tomorrow"

Pile 2 You have infinite chances.You might be questioning where is your reward for all the hard work you did?.The real question is, how can I become the things I want?. People might not realise it but even with the desires for material goals or material obtainment is to fulfil a certain need/emotion within us. For example, stable income for the feeling of security, a physical home to fulfils the feeling of belonging. We do not need to wait until obtaining those things to feel that particular emotions. We can cultivate a sense of security within us now. If you seek abundance, embody it, become it because you are what you attract.

We must ask ourself why we made importance certain goals in our life. And if our efforts did not show case in obtaining that goals, do we lose something in the process?. There is never a lost in trying and if you have try, you have already gain. Wisdom, lessons, getting to know another side of yourself. Different situations bring out a different you, different outcome bring out a different you. It ask you what do you truly value?, your hard work or the result of it?. Aren't both equally important?. So why do we disregard one when the ending is not what we expected?. If the same way hasn't work for you before, why not try a different way?. What are we trying to achieve here?. Who are we becoming in the process while we pursue our goals? do we feel lighter or heavier?. You have work hard to become who you are today, but strip away the obvious, who are you really?. What is your soul like?. Do you know what your soul feel like?. If the situation seem like it isn't working for you, it time to take back your power and make it work for you.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 33. Appreciate this moment. Every situation is an opportunity to grow and find love.

"Challenging circumstances rarely make sense at the time. It is important to face what is happening so you can learn the lessons. Ask the angels to show you what is important in this moment."

Signs: 333, Conch shell, seashells, angels, archangel Ariel, Yellow

Song: Thank God I Do by Lauren Daigle

I've started breathing The weight is lifted here With You, it's easy My head is finally clear There's nothing missing When You are by my side I took the long road But now I realize I'm home with You, I'm home

Poem: Why isn't That Me? by @cant-find-my-name

I look up at the sky And saw people fly My immediate thought was Why isn't that me? What else do I need to feel more free? To feel happy What is the formula for greatness? And why don't I have it? My confident is all but a grand Emulation What do I lack that they don't? How can they spread their wings without care And why don't I dare Going for it too? Is it hard work or talent Or is it bravery or passion? Both which I can't find within me So if I want to be up there too I have to find the success recipe I need to solve this inner Mystery

Quote from Pinterest:

🍓🫧2nd month - King of pentacles🫧🍓

"Because we can't see what's ahead, you have to trust that dots will somehow connect in your future"

Pile 2 This is the month to build a strong foundation on what you valued, what you truly believe in. We managed to get this far but we know we can go much farther. This life is a journey and in a way you have "made it". The trust you have in yourself never lead you astray. Your faith in your visions, instinct, your own path will alway lead you home. In a way, you were never lost, you alway know where you are heading to.

This has been a long journey for you but it is a worthwhile one. You have achieved so much, time to acknowledge THAT. You know who you are, you are stable inside yourself, you trust your path like never before. And it is these differences in you that will transformed your outer reality. As above so below, as within so with out. You can clearly see in front of you now, no obstruction, no confusion. You alway know that there's no need to rush, it is not the destination but the journey that is the most exhilarating and satisfying.The fulfilment is in the way there, life is a never ending journey and you cannot wait to invent a new path for yourself to embark on.

Slow and steady win the race. and you know that wherever it is you're suppose to go, you are never late. You are alway on time. And having fun, taking in the view, smelling the roses, on your way there is what define your experiences more than the destination.Life become fulfilling to you now as you seek more experience that feeds you rather than deplete you.

"I don't want to feel better, I want to know better. I should have known that God is not in the meal but in the sharing of the meal. I should have told you that holiness resides in needing each other, in acts of survival made generous."

Julian K. Jarboe ( I saw this post in tumblr and was call to put it here)

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 28. The union of Hearts. A love connection defies explanation.

"It is important to recognise the significance love has in your life. Shift your attention to the essentials in your relationships. Celebrate the wealth of love present in your life. This card is prompting you to redirect your awareness from your goals and desired outcomes, onto your relationships."

Signs: 111, 88, 28, constellation, Centaurus, open fields, Black knight, shield

Song: At All Costs by Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine

If happiness was a tangible thing It would be you If you'd have told me the feeling you'd bring I'd think it untrue And people search for a wonder like you All of their lives You still amaze me after all this time

Poem: This is Truly Tragic by @poemnic-tarot

Have I been worried about the result? Anxious about the outcome? And in the in between time Missed all the fun? Mind, what a tragedy This is truly tragic I've only lived for fleeting moments That in the big Picture Doesn't contribute to anything Now I get it, I will try not to live in stress Of course I have my worries But now I know when To let it rest

Quote from Pinterest:

❄️💫3rd Month - 7 of swords💫❄️

"One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels"

Pile 2 in this month you might feel quite independent. It is encourage you to go your own path. Solitute or spending time by yourself might be what you needed. No need to be agreeable with people if you have a different opinion. You learn more by listening, especially listening to what's not being said. If there is a revelation or a certain truth or even a shift in perspective revealing themselves this time we can take our time to come to term with it. No need to react right away, or identify with it. We can observe the behaviours of other to determine if it align with us. Feeling differently than what we should feel doesn't mean we are wrong or that we should conform. Accepting our individuality is key, our uniqueness is what will set us free.

If something is crumbling down let it fall. You cannot save a fake foundation. You know the truth will alway come out, and the truth is never meant to hurt you, but only to set you free. Free from flock mentality or the matrix. When you have seen you cannot unseen. And how ever you feel about it is up to you and yours alone no need to hold back on our feeling or frustration, or anger.

Original path mean designing your own blueprint. If this world seem fake to you suddenly, know that your mind, your belief is what makes your reality. Your belief will set your path, do you believe in freedom?. Because it become yours when you believe in it. You are not trap here, you are on a solo journey. Hang in there, discard the need for things to make sense. YOUR REASON can be different from other people that's why you are leading a different life than other people. You are the truth that this world need, if this world is filled with illusion, you are the real gold among plastic. A truth seeker, a truth speaker. Observe the truth, find it, become it.

Signs: 777, snow, white, crescent moon, Hummingbird, morning glory, sea, blue flowers, lava, magma, a record player

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 31. Love makes the difference. love helps heal past hurts and provides a sense of security and self - worth.

"Love is strong and can endure anything. if you trust love everything else will fall into place.When there are challenges, it is important to keep your heart open."

Song: Hummingbird by James Blake and Metro Boomin

And hummingbird I know that's our time (that's our time) But stay on Stay on, stay on with me And hummingbird I can never unsee What you've shown me Stay on, stay on with me

Poem: Four Of Wands by @cant-find-my-name

With hopeful seed You planted your needs And wish them well Hoping they grow To abundance more For you to sell But What are flowers? And what are weed? Which shall you keep? Which is which? You cannot tell In Four Of Wands You have built But slowly, reality seeps in Like stained water, dripping into your ideal dreams Your house must sustain Strong concrete standing Firm foundation as storm rolled in It won't be blown apart As you will make sure That you're not building a house of cards

Quote from Pinterest:

⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧 You Are Loved ⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧

🌸⚡️Pile 3⚡️🌸

Energy check: The Lion

"This moment will just be another story someday"

"You can try again tomorrow"

Pile 3, you might be feeling sad or nostalgic lately. But there's no specific situation to cause this particular emotion.You might be feeling like you have outgrown your environment and people around you. You feel like you cannot relate to your usual people, things, or even hobby. What you used to vibe with, there isn't the same connection there anymore. You feel like the same things, people , places just doesn't do it for you anymore.

This is because you have gone through a massive transformation. You have ascended spiritually, at first internally, then the outer reality will let you know that it's time to go. You feel like the same thing does not satisfied you anymore. In a way, your soul is seeking something new, a new adventure, a new challenge. You are ready for the next level. You will slowly transition to new things naturally as the same old routine, hobby, places you used to frequent will not quench that thirst of yours.

Yes, it's okay to feel sad, even grieving the past, but also you can celebrate. You made it Pile 3, you have mastered your growth. A new chapter is awaiting you. In fact, you are already on your way there, the feeling of dissatisfaction is the first clue.

Song: The Hills by Rachel

Have you ever noticed That your house don't feel like home? (Home, home) In a room that you've outgrown Scrubbing at the writing on the walls (walls, walls) Everybody's been there So you try your best to leave (leave, leave) I was told the grass is greener But it's just a fantasy, it seems

Pile 3 if this is your current energy then these are your next 3 months.

(Remember energy is alway shifting and changing depending on our present decisions)

🍏✨1st month - 7 of pentacles✨🍏

"Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forget the flower at his feet."

Pile 3, this is the month of appreciation. You do not need to look far to feel satisfied. We can concentrate on what we don't have yet, who we want to be with, where we want go. Those empty spaces are not a representation of how worthy you are or not. You are worthy as you are, with or without what you seek. Put in effort and focus on what you actually vibe with. Ask yourself what you rather be doing. Work smarter not harder. You know you can do it when you decide to. Trust that whatever you put efforts in it will grow. Just like how you did yourself. Energy flow where attention goes.

You witness the result in yourself, when you poured into your self you notice how much you grow. Everything in life is like a plant, a tree, or a flower. Everything we want to build need focus, attention, efforts and energy, as well as the right environment and nutrient. Whether that is people, project, work or habits. Adjust accordingly, what do you need the most right now. To feel better physically?, rest, to grow a business? consistency. We know what everything need in order to become the beautiful flower we know it would. Give yourself three things this month Pile 3, Time, Patient and faith. When you apply this to your self or the things you want, you have everything. You reap what you sow, anything you focus on and put energy in will eventually grow. No matter how slow, the flower will inevitably bloomed.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 30. True Love. this love is once in a life time.

"Unconditional love is easier said than done. maintaining the love in a relationship takes more than good intentions. Positive intentions are a solid first step, but it is better to learn how to nurture your relationship each day."

Signs: 144, 72, 11, letter T, Pig, white snake, fireworks, better late than never, guitar, Elf, Ocean waves, sparrow

Song: On The Ground by Rosé

I worked my whole life Just to get right, just to be like "Look at me, I'm never coming down" I worked my whole life Just to get high, just to realize Everything I need is on the Everything I need is on the ground

Poem: Skills and Hard Work by @cant-find-my-name

Take up the skills and Devoured it Eat it up for breakfast The component you have it The natural talent and hard work Two plus two equals Our passionate love It's not hard at all It's who I am My habit is practice Putting formulas together For my benefit I want to conquered the world Then so be it If I can't make bread from scratch Then Victory? Forget about it

Quote from Pinterest:

🐇🌙2nd Month - The Tower🌙🐇

"Biggest lesson: Don't ever think it can't happen to you."

"Remember how far you've come instead of how far you've to go"

Pile 3, in this month you must remember that everything is going according to plan. It might not seem so but we have to accept that we are not all knowing. All we can focus on is trust in the process. Notice how every time we ask/pray for something we get the opposite?. For example, you wish for true authentic love, the universe will reveal where that is not present.Maybe even magnify it to you where true love isn't.A big red arrow pointing to show you that what you pray for is alway there, but we must transformed it into exactly what we ask for.

Keep calm and continue what you're doing. If the ground you're standing on is crumbling, let it fall. You asked for this.There's a quote that goes something like this"people witness The violent it take to change but no one knows the violent it takes to stay the same" Choose your hard. Nothing is wrong. Everything is right within this universe. What you're witnessing is transformation. The cocoon is transforming into a butterfly. But in between that, how violent, chaotic is the change?. Transformation is not pretty, it might even look like destruction. No matter what's it look like this month, remember that the transformation is alway in your favour.Keep that in mind. When the planet moves, it move in your favour, it moves for your greatest good. The process of transformation is not for the feint of heart, it require trust and calmness and the ability to breathe as illusion breaks.

'Demolish the fortress of yourself so that your truth may flow free from the ruins.' explanation of the Tower card from Tarot of Stars eternal.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 15.Practice Compassion. See things from a fresh perspective. Love and compassion always bring positive outcomes.

Signs: Red, purple, Mars, Fire signs, blue tit, blue feather, blue crystal cluster, forget me not, blue rose

Song: We Are The Champions by Queen

I've taken my bows And my curtain calls You brought me fame and fortune And everything that goes with it I thank you all But it's been no bed of roses No pleasure cruise I consider it a challenge before The human race And I ain't gonna lose

Poem: Peace Will Find You Somehow by @cant-find-my-name

If you're scare of things going wrong Then, you're scare of living Cause life will almost alway goes wrong Darling, Your lesson here is to learn To be okay with chaos Cause it will happen Or happening There is no stopping Peace cannot be found when all is all Peace can be found now Even in the midst of War During bloodshed and Violence All around If you take a deep breath Plant both feet on the ground Even then Peace will find you somehowQuote from Pinterest:

☘️🌾3rd Month - 6 of cups🌾🍀

Pile 3, this is an intense time for you. Where you feel everything so deeply, you might notice that every senses is intensify.Your taste buds, scent of smell, especially your emotions. When you're happy it's so high and when you're low it's so low. This might feel like a rollercoaster time period. Pleasure and pain goes hand in hand, you could say one cannot exist without the other. But we do not have to be at the mercy of pleasure or pains. They do not or should not define our life experiences. Everything in this UNIVERSE is neutral. You are the one defining your experience as pleasure or pain or even both. It's doesn't have to be either or, it can be either and.

What experiences do you categorise as painful and which are defined to you as pleasurable?. It possible to have both in one day, if you define today as painful you have already limited it capacity. To define is limit. Remember you can have both in one, if this day start as not so good, the rest can change to better. You are the one who define your experience not the other way around.

You can either see the experiences you had as a mistake, or a lesson to learn or grows from. There is no mistake or accident in this universe, everyone you meet or everything you've been through is to shape you to who you are. Ask yourself who you want to become, and see every experience after that as a lessons to help you transform into that person. Reconnect to joy not pain.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 3.Back to what you love. Re-evaluate your desires.

"You are meant to live a life of happiness. Bliss, love, relationship and wealth are your fate. you can change your mind at any time and do something you have always longed to. when you do something you love, you reconnect to your bliss."

Signs: 33, scorpion, dove, Video games, Playground, tree roots, 66

Song: You say by Lauren Daigle

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know Ooh-oh You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing You say I am strong when I think I am weak And you say I am held when I am falling short And when I don't belong, oh You say I am Yours And I believe (I) Oh, I believe (I) What You say of me (I) I believe

Poem: Turn It Around by @cant-find-my-name

Turn it around You have it the ability Trust it you do Turn Negative into Positive If that is too much Turn it neutral Nothing is against you It is all a projection Or your bias assumption As well as Misplace subjection In the grand schemes of things You are fine, you are doing alright Maybe you expect too much, Maybe you were expecting fireworks and parade To indicate Victory But small wins count The fact that you are here today Is proof enough for you to seeQuote from Pinterest:

⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧 You Are Loved ⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧

🫑Pile 4🐁🌽

Energy check - The Bear, Whale

"Getting no message is also a message" Pile 4 you just ended a big cycle recently and it was tiring. It was a long arduous journey. You might feel like you just run a marathon or the equivalent. Maybe in the outer reality it seem like you haven't done much but, energetically, you have just transmuted a big, big cycle. Well done. Great job.

When you decided that you deserve something better, instead of keeping yourself small, you want to not only survive but thrive. The inner work come first. And the inner work was the hardest part.You passed the hardest part, take a rest and give your self a pat on the back. You might think there's still things you want to do to build to try and you will.Look how far you have come. But we must acknowledge all that we did first before we can move on.

You have an inner knowing inside you that you want to follow, you know your purpose and you are eager to start. Preparation is key. Just like before running a marathon you must first train your stamina, your body, have a consistent routine, adjust habit accordingly, and whatever else you need in order to start your race and move forward in that direction.What small little foundation that need to be done in order for you to run a marathon? to start running?.

Song: Rise by Katy perry

I won't just survive Oh, you will see me thrive Can't write my story I'm beyond the archetype I won't just conform No matter how you shake my core 'Cause my roots, they run deep, oh

Pile 4 if this is your current energy then these are your next 3 months.

(Remember energy is alway shifting and changing depending on our present decisions)

🍥🪶1st month - The fool🪶🍥

Pile 4, this is a big month for you. This is where your journey start. You might feel magic in the air. Literal electric charge in the atmosphere. Luck is on your side. This is a favourable time for you to embark on the path that you alway dream of. Everyone have that thing on their mind, secret desires or wishes that seem impossible every time we think about it ( for example, moving to another country, change job) Do you have something like that in your heart?. This month is when we face it, surrender to it calling. We are finally answering and asking our desires what does it want us to do?. Give me the first step and I'll take it.Start your preparation to stay ready (for example, moving to another country, research the visa, law, and documentation etc,) What else should we do except follow our soul?.

Fear, doubts, is a natural part of life but they will be taking a backseat while you are literally flowing, walking on air, walking on water as you call it. Your intuition is quite strong and it's important to let it lead you at this time. Nothing have to make sense. We don't have to know everything, just the next step is enough. We don't have to know where we're going, that's part of the fun. You had ended a big cycle recently and if you were wondering, when will the next one start?because it starting to feel stale in the old chapter.

This is the time of a new chapter for you and it might seem like everything is up in the air, but that usually how everything start. Let the positive energy and the dawn enveloped you. Feel the sun on your skin and bask in your New world.Every new path is a path back home and home is where your heart is.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 3. Back to what you love. Evaluate your desires.

"You can change what you are doing at any time. You do not have to feel stuck. Go back to what you know and, more importantly to what you love."

Signs: Pink, Green,1010. Dove, golden energy, roses, sun

Song: The Last Of The Real Ones by Fall Out Boy

I was just an only child of the universe And then I found you And then I found you You are the sun and I am just the planets Spinning around you Spinning around you You were too good to be true Gold plated But what's inside you But what's inside you I know this whole damn city thinks it needs you But not as much as I do As much as I do, yeah

Poem: Divine’s Call by @cant-find-my-name

Heavy rain calls for Lightning

But it’s hard to predict when the strike

Will come

You hardly would miss the Rumblings

The electric energy as charged as the sun

You know we will intervene

For the greatest good of all

It’s time to step out into this world

Instead of keeping yourself

Small

You know you can conquered earth

Ocean, Heavens

You did it many times before

And each time

Your name will never be mistaken

As nothing but

The Divine’s Call

Quote from Pinterest:

🌸🌕2nd month - 7 of Cups🌕🌸

“It was never a question of biology of nature or nurture. I know now that we heal up through being loved and through loving others”

Pile 4, Watch out for this month. There might be a lot of distraction. A lot of people or even tasks that might asked for your attention and it is important to be extra discerning this month. For we might find that the month has passed by and you might feel like you haven't got anything you want done.Things that you resonate with. If you want to finish a project, a book, a new hobbies/skills be mindful of how much time and energy you're putting in. Because if you find that the progress is slow, we must be realistic and ask ourself did we poured that much energy in it? if not then we might want to do more of it.

There might be a lot of options coming to you this month but the most important thing to keep in mind is, to choose the option that is the most rejuvenating, healing, the option that pour into you or return your energy. Whether that is people, project, jobs, friends, events etc. There is only one rule for you, do I feel drained or rejuvenate with this?. What would a person who love themselves do? Ask yourself this question again and again no matter what situation you are in, because the answer to it is the clarity you're looking for to avoid confusion. If you feeling extra muddy and blurry on your choices this month, do not make any important decision. Give your self time and patient and never pressure yourself to quickly choose, Because you have time alway.

If anything or anyone doesn't give you time and pressure you to choose quickly or threaten that it will be gone, whether it is a job, person etc. Do we want to associate with something that does not give us time to think about it? because what meant for you will never pass you by. Pile 4, what is yours will only wait for you.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 15. Practice compassion. see things from a fresh perspective.

"Walking in someone else's shoes can bring us to a tender understanding that may always bring positive outcomes."

Signs: blue tit, crystal Geode, squirrel, Wind chimes, ocean waves

Song: LIMBO by Keshi

I've just been goin' through motions, back and forth like a ocean I am a fraud, I am the shit, hoping that nobody notice Bang chest in the morning, head down in the night Drink less if I wanted, strike up with a light And square up, I'm the mightiest Myself in the fight, hurt twice, but I tried it No advice for this shit, might die for this shit Do I feel alive, feel alive, feel alive?

Poem: Blue Or Red? by @cant-find-my-name

Feeling lost but I know I am guided I don't hold the map I followed the stars The constellations showed me the path Only I can see I choose to go my own way And the journey is lonely And vicious Many times, I've thought to maybe Stop And let the conventional normalcy Control me Like everyone else Being different made you a target Everyone chooses Blue But I said Red Now they can all see My choice in all it's glory They all went for ordinary But I decided to create my own Fate

Quote from Pinterest:

🎏🪄3rd Month - Ace of Wands🪄🎏

"You don't notice your progress in life because you are always raising the bar"

Pile 4, Fist of all for this month please recognised that you have done a lot, You have come so far and this need to be recognised especially this month, by you. You might feel inspired to start a new project, new hobby or even a new chapter in life. One of the reason might be because you have clear out a lot of old energy, whether that is old relationship, friendship, past wounds, etc. You did so much to be at a place of non attachment. A blank/clean slate, you might feel like nothing is holding you back anymore, you might find that it's easier to go for or do the things you've alway wanted. And you are right. You can use this fearless/bold energy to birth that creative project, or book that ticket of yours. Whatever it is follow your courage and inspired action for it will lead you to the answer you might not know you seek.

In the past you might have asked yourself what am I doing this for?, why do I keep going? or why am I fighting so hard for my dream? These might be your question in the past that will be reveal to you this month. You will know why you chose what you've chosen. This is what you were seeking without knowing. This is what you were waiting for, your signs, your signal, your path. And when you encounter it you will not miss it or mistaken it for anything. Whether that is a person, a career, a life purpose, or even where you will live. And this meeting will set fire to your soul and ignited your passion once more. Which will propel you towards a new, long, but promising future/chapter. Please look out for it but do not seek it, it will find you especially when you feel inspired to act suddenly. Let your soul take the lead this month and watch it surprise you. Watch out for an important person, partnership, soul family this month, wink wink.

Advice from Whispers Of Love Oracle: 27 Spiritual Connection. A relationship has a connection that goes beyond this lifetime.

"Everything happens for a reason. Some people come into your life to help you learn a lesson and they will make a real impact on your life. Whether it be with a lover, a primary partner or in a relationship for growth, a spiritual connection is important to you now."

Signs: Wands, Red, green, 444, 27, Saturn, crown chakra, Purple

Song: Taylor Swift - Begin Again

And you throw your head back laughing Like a little kid I think it's strange that you think I'm funny, 'cause He never did I've been spending the last eight months Thinking all love ever does Is break and burn, and end But on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again

Poem: Song Bird by @cant-find-my-name

Song Bird you grew your wings

And strengthen your voice

Now your words glided ears

Like gentle melody

Of glowing river and easy breeze

The beat rhyme with the rhythm of the hearts

Everyone will hear your songs

But they might not understand it right away

And that's okay

No need to adjust the tune or

Filter it down

No need to be scare if

You are too loud

This volcanic sound

Will echoes around

And reaches the vibration

To the ones

That needed to know and get your lyrics

They would not question it

So Songbird

Sing your song

And speak your words

Eventually

Every creatures will sing along

Quote from Pinterest:

⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧 You Are Loved ⭐️ 🫧 ✨ ✿ 🌧

Thank you so much for reading!! 🧿See you soon!🧊

Check out @cant-find-my-name for more of my Original poetry or Follow my IG PoemNic🍤

Check out my YouTube channel for more Pick A Card - PoemNic-Tarot🍧

Donate to support me. Thank you in advance!:🧃

[laufire]

I don’t know if you’re still doing the AU ask game but what are your thoughts on the “Jason and Damian meet each other via LOA” au? I know you’re writing a young justice au and that’s basically canon in that universe right? I don’t headcanon them knowing each other early in mainline canon but as a separate au/elseworld sort of thing it does intrigue me

if my inbox is open, consider it fair game for any asks (from a game or otherwise) you might send :P

when it comes to mainline canon, no, I don't headcanon them knowing each other during the lost days era, and that goes into my own headcanons on the al ghuls and damian's upbringing.

my view in that respect takes some things from what morrison built with damian into account, but ignores anything that's in contradiction with batman: son of the demon. the result is, among other things, that I 100% believe talia tried to put damian up for adoption, but ra's caught up to it. the years later, in part as a punishment, in part because of his need to be the most (maybe the only) important person in talia's life, as well as a desire to control, and to mold damian specifically, ra's limited how much damian and talia were in each other's lives. am I the only one who sees some parallels with bruce's parenting here btw.

in my head this means that, at most (and this is something I do use in some WIPs), damian got to see jason from afar when he was catatonic, maybe a few times. later... well, after jason almost kills bruce before stopping himself, talia definitely doesn't want them to meet. if she ever contemplated the option of introducing them (probably never that seriously, just as a distant possibility if at all) after jason started to kill on behalf of victims, particularly children, she weighted the options (jason's protectiveness over children vs. his bruce issues) and decided not to.

now, for the young justice cartoon fic! it is true that jason and damian know each other day, since damian was born specifically. but this doesn't happen in the league of assassins (league of shadows in the show) because by the time damian is born, the al ghuls have left the league LOL.

I actually headcanon that the al ghul's left the league BECAUSE damian was going to be born. I think talia put her foot down and ra's actually listened, and decided he'd accomplish his goals in a way that would compromise for his daughter's desires (young justice makes room for both bruce AND ra's to be better parents. ain't that something lol).

as for some headcanons about jason and damian in this 'verse! (which will be canon. in my fic. xDD)

the (canon) birthdates for them are 1999 for jason, and 2018 for damian. that's an almost 20 years gap and imo it significally affects how they relate to one another. in many ways, jason is a quasi-parental figure more than a brotherly one (he wouldn't call damian his son, but he's... his brother, his kid... his, you know?). at the beginning of the fic, when they're hiding from the new league of shadows, their cover is actually father and son lol.

related to the above: I headcanon that yes, this one time jason and talia do have a biiiiiiiit of a surrogate mother-son relationship (talia was born in 1984 btw). BUT. only because it comes with heavy doses of spousification/parentification lol. this contributed to that kind of dynamic with damian, because in this world talia's pregnancy was complicated, damian's health was at risk when he was born, talia had one hell of a post-partum depression... basically, despite the fact that jason himself wasn't at his peak then (canonically he just started regaining some memories after this), talia relied a lot on him at this time. if bruce can do it with HIS robins... xD

re: jason's health. he dies in 2013, and yet in 2018, when he has his first appearance on the show, he's not recovered (he doesn't say much, he struggles when he does, and we're told he has memory issues). my personal headcanon is that this jason doesn't go into the pit and recovers the long, hard way. I love giving characters chronic issues so I've decided he has aphasia. mostly expressed with difficulties talking, but sometimes reading as well. this was all to say that by the time my fic starts damian is six and he's gotten in the habit of reading to jason (has been learning to read by doing this, actually lol). this includes political/philosophical books that are definitely not aimed at kids his age (but damian's upbringing, albeit not as terrible as in the mainline, has been sui generis), but also "the demon headmaster", because jason think he's really funny.

I've decided to take one of the few things I liked about how they wrote dcau!jason (but with my own spin) and given him an older bio sister. the age different wasn't AS big as with him and damian, but circumstances conspired so that dani had to take care of jason on the streets (in this canon, I have her as barely 17 when she died, with jason as 10 when he meets bruce). jason picked up on quite a few things from her.

due to several reasons (including the fact that the joker's been dead for a while, at harley's hands), jason is less interested in a utrh-type crusade here. he's instead put it all on damian. he's who he'd die for and kill for and fight the entire world for.

[aalghul]

Nice post about Roy I like how kind your response was. But yeah as a Roy fan I find the idea that he would hate anyone but the man who killed his daughter to be silly. Cause like thing is Roy has a line till he doesn’t. Like you said Roy draws a line for himself with Cheshire but he never ever 100 percent commits. Even after the bombing and her holding a gun to Lian and threatening to shoot her while trying to escape prison, in his time with the League he still is hinted to love her and still lets Lian visit her. Flash forward to now they are still on again off again lovers/enemies. The old Titans ‘Roy breaks up with Cheshire’ story was written like it was the full end of their relationship but DC loves that concept and in comics they will always come back.

With Mia or people hurting his family Roy would not care at the end of the day unless that family member died sorry. Roy forgave a woman who babysat Lian and helped terrorists kidnap her and then broke his leg in an attempt to kill Cheshire. No he didn’t just forgive her he offered to let her keep babysitting Lian saying he didn’t think he had the right to judge anyone.

People other than Roy say he belongs in the light but Roy kind of hates that about himself and actively denies and resists it because he thinks the dirty work is the real important work. He worked in fantasy superhero CIA for years and even killed for them, left and made the Outsiders, initially didn’t want to leave and basically stayed till the last second till his mental health gave in, joined the League and didn’t actually have a great time with the group or ever really believe he belonged, had a horrible ending with that group and became a straight up villain after the ROA fiasco and worked on a team of villains all of whom except Slade he expressed some sort of sympathy for.

Roy just doesn’t give up on people and kind of really wants to do antihero work and tries to again and again. The age/maturity thing kind of gets it but that only matters where you connect Roy and Jason, they are peers and work together in some fashion off screen for a year in Outsiders, put a ROA recovering villain Roy with really any post UTRH Jason save Morrison Jason and you could write an intergenerational friendship arc easy.

People forget but before 52 first started a lot of people wanted a Jason Roy book. It was floated around as an idea for ages and rumor was even Winick made a pitch but can’t confirm. When 52 was first announced a lot of people thought not only that RHATO made sense and only Kory didn’t belong but thought the comic had real potential. And really it might have since Roy and Cheshire at one point would not have made sense for either character and notably everything about their relationship happened off screen. We give things a pass because of how well the stories are written. I think most issues with comics are people moralizing about the characters and saying they would never do this or that when 9 times out of 10 the writer just shat over the execution of a concept and the writing as is was shit.

-- i’m just going to include my thoughts down here --

I agree with everything you said about Roy just not being the person who holds a lot of hatred for people. He comes off as strict and even angry sometimes, but at heart, he’s one of the most understanding characters.

I always took Roy’s failed attempts at being an anti-hero as proof that it’s not what he’s meant to do. He keeps trying because he sees his sympathy and desire to do more as a sign that he needs to get his hands dirtier, but each time leaves him with the realization that he can’t be doing that type of work. He was reluctant to leave the Outsiders because he didn’t want to abandon them, that’s why he does leave as soon as Ollie provides funding for them (which he also does specifically because he knows Roy wouldn’t leave, no matter how much he wanted to, otherwise). The Outsiders did end in Roy himself realizing he couldn’t stay there.

I think Roy has always worked best in the various Titans teams he’s been part of. Unfortunately, Teen Titans (2003) set a new status quo with enough of the original Titans leaving and the team working under the leadership of younger members even when more experienced Titans were present. So we could never really go back to the titans as they were in any of the iterations prior to that.

I don’t think Jason and Roy worked together for a whole year; it was just Jason reaching out to Dick, and then subsequently teaming up with him and Roy to give them information of Black Lightning. Which definitely worked to let Roy know the type of person that Jason is (i.e. not a villain), but it was also very much through Dick, so it would again be a reminder of the time that Jason, as a child, teamed up with Roy and the others. Roy’s affinity to taking a guiding role when he works with team members significantly younger than him is just such an important part of who he is that I can’t get past it. I don’t mean to say that Roy’s going to treat Jason like a child, but that there’s going to be a significant gap between their friendship as compared to the friendship that post-flashpoint gave them. Roy is just at a completely different stage from Jason, who is essentially just beginning to catch up on life as a teenager. That difference can’t be ignored easily.

I didn’t read comics back then (and was also a very little kid lol) so I didn’t know about that being something people wanted back then! It must be disappointing to see how it’s turned out.

At the end of the day, I personally think that Roy and Jason could work together very well short-term, and then it would have to end in them walking their separate ways because Roy can never stay in the dark too long, whether he admits it or not. I get what you’re saying about good execution making all the difference, though! I just want to stay as consistent to Roy’s character as possible, so Jason and Roy as best friends/a long-term anti-hero duo never quite works out.

[zahri-melitor]

One thing about doing a Lazarus Pit read:

The Damian pregnancy timeline makes even less sense in my head, because if you're using Son of the Demon as the basis this probably happens either immediately before Jason, or perhaps during Jason and before Tim, because Talia implies in Bride that she hasn't seen Bruce again in the interim.

Which means if Ibn was actually canonical, he would be somewhere between 3-5 years old when Damian first appears after OYL. Because Tim is a very very very new Robin in Bride (he doesn't have his costume yet), and Talia has presumably been out of sight for a year having Ibn, and Jason probably became Robin at MOST 2 years prior to when Bride seems to be set, so if Talia had met Jason she has turned back up almost immediately after giving birth.

And realistically, even if we shove everything back to around the point of the 'wedding', that takes place when Dick is 18ish years old and at Hudson. I can only make Damian 6-7 by using that and Dick remaining Robin until 19.

Of course, as I have reiterated, the Demon Trilogy are specifically non-canonical and a separate universe, and instead interact with the Kingdom Come verse.

But as we know, Grant Morrison didn't read back to check any basic things like 'what happened with the pregnancy' and 'when did Bruce and Talia meet' (while Dick was at Hudson! Dick gets kidnapped from Hudson in the very second story!)

So given we have COIE AND Zero Hour AND Infinite Crisis to affect retcons to this timeline (rather than a certain writer not doing basic research, it was Superboy punching time) I presume we now push Bruce and Talia's first meeting well back. Because for timeline reasons for Damian to be 10 at OYL, Bruce and Talia need to have met at least 11 years earlier. Which in timeline maths puts it in Year 6 or so, when Dick is 13-14 years old.

Now I don't mind filling out Dick's teen years somewhat more, we retcon and ignore a whole lot of stuff that actually happened back then, but also it changes the dynamics somewhat, and makes me very sceptical of Son of the Demon being in any way canonical, because Bruce just decamped for a month or so to work for Ra's? With a 14 year old left behind with Alfred? Suuuure.

On the other hand, moving the timeline back to Year 6 for conception means we can move Bruce and Talia a lot closer in age. Year 1 is traditionally when Bruce is 25, so for Year 6 he's about 30. Talia, meanwhile, when she first meets Bruce is a 'medical student in Cairo', which suggests she has her Bachelors and is studying Medicine, so somewhere between 21-25. A 5-6 year age gap works nicely here and is perfectly reasonable.

Also in terms of storylines about how Talia could have thought there was a miscarriage (an EXTREMELY early one let me point out): she was actually pregnant with Athanasia AND Damian and miscarried Athanasia.

There. You're welcome.

[mister-ious]

I was stalking Neil Ellice’s instagram and fuck his posts are so endearing and adorbs so here are Johnny Mactavish instagram/social media headcanons

All sfw

You guys know that one photo Neil posted with that Van Morrison song? I feel like Soap would do the same with his instagram.

Soap would post slideshows of pictures of him and Task Force 141, photos of different countries and cities he’s been because of deployment (if he was allowed to take his phone with him), and he would almost always put a blues/rock song in the background.

He’d also post reels sometimes. Like, you know how you can turn your stories into a reel? He’d do that. Though, sometimes, he would film silly stuff that happens in the barracks or on missions. Most of the time it’d be him and Gaz fucking around with the other soldiers.

Something Soap would do in a reel would be scaring Gaz with a toad.. just, picking a big slimy one and going up to Gaz, stretching his arm out closer to Gaz and chasing him through wherever they are.

“I swear to fucking god, Soap. Get that thing away from me you knobber!”

Captioned: Twat! Hahahahaha! 🤣🤣

There was this one slideshow Soap posted. It was right after the Las Almas mission, and it was ten blurry photos of Ghost in his balaclava. Basically, Soap would randomly just pull out his phone whenever Ghost had the balaclava on (not the skull mask) and just try to take a photo but Ghost would always notice and just nab Soap’s phone out of his hand right as he took the picture. And Soap put a nice jazz song in the background.

Captioned: Hes shy 😶‍🌫️

After he posted this slideshow, he followed it up with photos of the other members of Task Force 141. Every slideshow would have some jazz song in the background lolol

Soap would probably have around 30 followers. Half would be friends from the military, the other would be some family and friends back home. I don’t think he’d be the type to have a lot of followers but maybe I’m just projecting.

Oooh Soap would be somewhat of a shitposter. I just know he has over 100 posts on his account and a Bajillion archived stories (mostly comprised of cringey but cute memes or some animal videos he reposts).

Anyways thats it. Soap on instagram. I will be really upset if this is ooc.

[nkjemisin]

Hi! (Just to get in front of it, I'm not asking you for anything. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your work and I SEE the decolonization in it. I'm definitely also neurodivergent, so forgive me if I over- or under-explain a point.) But I realize this is an Ask Me Anything... egad.

I'm working on a piece about Broken Earth for the Decolonizing the EcoGothic volume of the Gothic Nature Journal, and I just wanted to let you know that I am blown away by the way you tell stories. I was in a Gothic Horror (I'm really not that big of a Gothic literature nerd, I swear!) class while I was in graduate school last year and we read Toni Morrison's Beloved. That was the second time that I read that novel in particular, and the first time I read it I got hung up on Mama Suggs. Her character and her ceremonies in the clearing were very powerful, and I couldn't put a pin in why until I read Broken Earth. Something about the connection between Essun and Alabaster's bodies transforming as a result of their magic use and the utter negation and abuse and colonization of the black body in both stories and historic times of slavery (and the prison industrial complex today, let's be real). Reading Broken Earth helped me understand that. So thank you.

I'm sorry this is turning into a mini essay, but I also wanted to mention another connection I found between the two on my second read (a connection I formed, I'm definitely not trying to say that I know for sure what you were going for because of course there's a lot to the stories) was between that of the characters Nassun and Denver. Near the end of the novel, after Beloved's ghost has all but taken everything from Sethe, Denver begins to step off of the safe porch and enter into the unsafe world alone for the first time to try and find help. She finds herself recalling a conversation that she heard between Baby Suggs and her mother:

“Oh, some of them [white people] do all right by us,” Sethe said. Baby suggs responds,

“And every time it’s a surprise, ain’t it? Don’t box with me. There’s more of us they drowned than there is all of them ever lived from the start of time. Lay down your sword. This ain’t a battle; it’s a rout” (287). Denver then asks the memory of her grandmother what she should do, then. “Know it, and go on out the yard. Go on,” her grandmother responds (288).

What should Denver, or Nassun, do with the knowledge that they will never truly be safe? She has to accept it, but go on anyway. One foot after another, and so on. I felt a bit of this driving Nassun after her father takes her away from their home in Tirimo... and I dunno. You and Toni Morrison both write stories that stick with me, personally, and make me think. And think and think.

Oh I'm also not assuming you've read Beloved, either. I'm sorry! I this is turning into a mess. I think I'll stop there. Just, thank you. For your stories and for your characters and for the story of Syl Anagist. I loved the Inheritance Trilogy also, I'm just very stuck on Broken Earth because of this piece I'm working on. Thank you! Sorry.

No need to apologize! But I can't answer your question because I haven't read Beloved. Read and loved several Morrison novels, but not that one. (I keep meaning to, but my Mount ToBeRead is the size of Everest and growing.) Both books are inspired by the same historical event, and I think because of that, folks who don't know about Margaret Garner reasonably assume I'm riffing on Morrison rather than reality. But nope, the Broken Earth trilogy is just one of several creative works that are in conversation with the Garner tragedy. Any similarities you see probably come from the fact that Morrison and I share a racial and gender identity, and had a similar reaction to realizing just how much our current lives are impacted by hidden historical horrors.

Even if I'd read Beloved, however, I probably wouldn't be able to answer your question. Lit crit is best done by people other than the author, IMO. We're too close to our work to tell you very much about it.

[brw]

soooo any in-depth thoughts/analysis on the recent x-force comic?

Ooooh okay, so I've definitely already ranted far too much to @elvain and @positivelybeastly but yes, I have quite a few, on various levels of complexity. The main thing that really stands out me is this; we have followed Hank for 50 issues of this, and a solid chunk of Percy's Wolverine. We have been in his head at different stages, and observed his thought patterns and his reasoning at different intervals, however weak or out of character those are. Not once did he ever mention or even think about Simon. So it really does stand out that without a moment's hesitation or consideration, he gave his life for Simon. No messing around, no second thoughts... because it was Simon, and Simon specifically. He would have never in a million years done that for anyone on Krakoa. He was willing to permanently ruin his relationship with Jean and with Emma and with so many people he cares about, but not Simon. Simon, he will throw himself in front of time and time again. Even if you're not reading these two as romantic, the literal actual text is clearly that Simon is on a higher tier of emotional importance to Hank, even the worst version of Hank, than anyone else. That stands out. Intentional or not, that is what happens! The only person who could get Hank to stop thinking about Krakoa or about mutantkind's survival above all ethics or morals was Simon Williams.

Now, Percy doesn't write a particularly strong Simon. While Simon is a pacifist, he also kind of fucking hates Logan, and I really don't think even pacifist Simon wouldn't tell Logan to get the fuck out of his face here.

(also, Simon is like 6'2. What the hell is Logan standing on to make him seem so tall?)

And I know for a fact that Percy hasn't read these issues because it doesn't make any sense to write Hank the way he does if he actually has this much knowledge... BUT. But. It does stand out to me how willing Simon was to put himself in front of that gun/nuke thing, because Simon has done that before, and he has died from it. He dies in issue one of Force Works to protect earth from the Kree Ionic Cannon, which comes across as a reference to the comic event Operation: Galactic Storm, where Simon fails to stop a bomb going off that kills many Kree soldiers and this trauma permanently changes the tone of the 1991 Wonder Man series.

Simon has become someone very willing to sacrifice himself to protect other people, because the fear of being responsible for so many deaths has outweighed his fear of dying himself. Anyway, after Force Works, we see Simon's funeral in Tales of the Marvels: Wonder Years, and Hank is briefly interviewed and shown at that funeral, and he looks absolutely miserable.

And it is just... does Beast Prime remember this? Remember how difficult it was to lose his best friend? Hank becomes increasingly reclusive and focused on curing the legacy virus at the expense of his friendships during the 90s; is this part of this? Does this influence just how quick of a decision it was, to put himself and his life in front of Simon once again sacrificing himself for the benefit of others?

As I said, I do not think Ben has read either Force Works or Wonder Years, because why would you read those for this and not any Hank McCoy comic ever, but it does remind me of those moments and there's just. a lot of parallels there I enjoy.

However, I do feel frustrated slightly by the decision made to literally blow up Hank from the 80s–2020s? That's 40 years, and a lot of people have contributed to Hank in that time. Morrison, Whedon, Lobdell, Gillen, Waid, Ewing, Wells, Claremont, and hell, even people who's Hank's I don't like very much, like Bendis or Fraction, they all still had at least something to contribute to the character and it feels wrong that so much of that history is just. gone. Is Percy's writing worth this loss? Has he made any interesting statements about Hank McCoy as a character to justify steamrolling over 40 years of history and established lore and character development? Abigail Brand, gone from Hank's memory. His time travel shenanigans, gone. Dark Beast, a vague comment. Breaking through the door of Avengers mansion to kiss Simon on the floor and give him red roses, also gone. Becoming feline, to the sands of time. It's just depressing that so much has been cut out because writing an actual redemption arc would require having positive thoughts about Hank and we know Percy doesn't have those. I suppose I'm also just generally against the idea that villains have to die to be redeemed, anyway; is it not more interesting and more complex when someone has done so many horrible things as Hank had done under Percy, and he still is capable of change? Why can he only prove that capability in death? It feels like a very lazy way out and I really hope MacKay or someone gives Hank those memories back because so many wonderful and interesting dynamics have been lost because of it and I don't want them just to roll over it as if it hasn't happened.

But it does still really stand out that. Hank was willing to give everything up for Simon, and Simon specifically. Simon was the first person Defenders era Beast could think of that would make things better, that he felt safe talking to, and Simon is the one and only person Beast Prime was willing to die for, to put all the rest of his motivations and impulses on hold for and give up his life because he couldn't bare to lose his friend again.

And now the new Hank is living in Simon's small, one bed flat in L.A.

He's not helping the X-Men fight Orchis or the sentinels, or help X-Force with the Sabertooth problem... no, he's followed Simon to L.A. despite being covered in fur. That's true love if I've ever seen it.

It is also absolutely hysterical how little X-Force did in their own finale. Because did Hank give up his life because he felt regret over what he did for them? Did they successfully inspire change or successfully stop him in any way other than drag a sentinel to bother Simon and Hank? No! They didn't do anything! Logan stabbed Beast Prime but that didn't stop him, Simon being at risk and being in danger did! The combined forces of X-Force and a giant sentinel are not enough to stop Hank McCoy but the actor from Arkon IV is. Not because Simon even spoke to Beast Prime, or because he's thought about Simon once in the past 5 years, but because it was impulsive. Hank loves Simon so deeply that he will give his life for him even at his very worst, even after 5+ years of no contact and no thoughts about him. That's the actual closing statement of X-Force. How much Hank McCoy would do anything for this d list lame actor/underwear model.

[prolix-yuy]

HAPPY 500!

So I have a prompt for [Din x Reader] using the theme of "Identity Crisis" wherein the reader learns she's either related to a high ranking Imperial or maybe she was created by the Imps using clone technology and he comforts her?

My darling Kelly, what an excellent prompt! I've been in my Din feels a lot lately and when I heard you weren't feeling well I wanted to share this story sooner so you can curl up with it. I hope you enjoy where this went, it veered into an unexpected deep dive on family and legacy but I'm very happy with how it turned out. Thank you for the prompt, I hope you enjoy!

Legacy

Pairing: Din Djarin x Original F!Character (not named but with a physical description)

Summary: The discovery of your origin has you questioning what your future holds.

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: T, allusions to sexual acts, heavy discussions of self-worth and personal identity. While this story is not explicit, my blog and the content shared on it is 18+ MINORS DNI.

Notes: This story is written in reader format, but because the character is connected to Boba Fett and therefore Temuera Morrison, she is described with similar features to the Māori people. Gold stars go to anyone who catches the reference to another Star Wars show I've sprinkled in!

The hum of the N1 matches the numbness in your limbs as silence sits heavy on your tongue. Din doesn’t look back, hasn’t since you climbed into the astromech compartment and waited for takeoff. 

“You could be my sister.”

The words tumbled from Boba Fett’s mouth after the heat of battle, tugging his helmet off to reveal the scars of the Sarlacc pit, the nose that followed the shape of yours, twin eyes, brethren in skin. You even imagined his hair to be as thickly curled as your own, though he lacked it.

“I don’t know my mother, or my father. You could be right,” you’d tossed back, smile glinting in the twin suns. But later, when meals were shared and Boba found you trying to sneak back to the N1, he clarified.

“If you are who I think you are, then you have no mother.”

You narrowed your eyes, hand on your blaster as the scarred man in Mandalorian armor similar to your ally’s motioned for you to sit. 

“Bold claim for a man who has laid eyes on me once,” you warned, ready to cut out his tongue for the insinuation, daimyo or not. 

“I wish I could believe myself to be insolent,” Boba said, a little quieter, a little more regretful this time. 

As he spoke your affront melted to amazement, then to anger, and finally to the grief. If you could find fault in his argument you would, and you tried. 

“I’ve never been to Camino.”

“I have a chain code, a name, a life. Surely they would never let a…let me live like this.”

“How do you know?”

But Boba had answers, good ones too. You tried to hold his reasoning to the light for imperfections, but the deep pit of dread opening in your stomach gobbled up your strength. It lined up, questions you’d always had, memories you wished you could access. In mere minutes he offered you pieces of your life that made a more terrifying image than your worst nightmares.

Clone.

The word echoes in your mind as Din pilots the N1 away from Tatooine, the ache in your body like two massifs struggling to rip you in two.

The blank spot in your memory up until twelve years of age shouts at you, begging you to crack open its shiny black shell and reveal its secrets. You used to beat your first against it, scream at it to fall away. Now you want to bury it deeper, let no light shine upon it. 

There are memories you access without thought - reflexes faster than your mind can keep up, skill with any blaster put in your hands, accuracy that scares you - that now drip with military training. 

Your headaches - by-product of inhibitor chip removal, Boba explained - now explain how you’d gone undetected for so many years. 

The shadowy memories of silhouettes in armor surrounding you. A scarred face with a wide smile. Relentless tapping on holopads. Hands, one flesh, one durasteel. A skull half in shadow. Target signs. A child’s laugh. They hold secrets but none this revelation has offered up.

The bubble of viscous fluid you coughed up when you crawled out of that tank, wondering why the bacta was green instead of blue. 

“You must have been under for years.”

Din heard much of Boba’s explanations, finding you frozen across from his brother in arms. He was by your shoulder when the first sob came, your fist cramming it back down your throat. Grogu, tucked into the crook of his arm, made a concerned warble.

“Why would they do this?” was the first true question you had. Boba sighed with a world-weary breath.

“You were made to build an army. Why you deviated in this way I couldn’t tell you. I’ve heard whispers that my father’s genetic code was degrading. But why they would let you live…”

“And why were you allowed to become the man you are today?” you spat out, rising to leave, Din looming in shadow behind. He hadn’t said a word the entire time.

Boba smiled crookedly. “Legacy.”

It was best you never met your father.

Din pushes the N1 out of hyperspace, the lurch refocusing your eyes. A planet swims into view, dollops of white and blue and green that swirl together like a treasured marble. 

“Thought you didn’t have another stop before mine,” you grumble into the communicator, rubbing your temples with the heels of your hands. The exhaustion is finally catching up with you. Just two days ago you were fresh off a mercenary job, flush with credits and ready to sink neck-deep into a bath, good food and better company. Then Din Djarin darkened your doorway, his plea for assistance falling on deaf ears until a familiar name buzzed through the vocoder.

Pike Syndicate.

It piqued your interest and released a new burn in your veins.

“What’s the payment?” you asked, tilted back in your seat in your rented room. One you planned to commit many acts of pleasure while occupying. 

“The debt of two Mandalorians.”

Your eyebrow raised involuntarily. 

“I didn’t know there were more of you willing to work with me.”

“I’m out of options.”

“And friends, I’ll wager.”

Din stepped further into your space.

“You wouldn’t call us friends?”

You mulled on the offer a few minutes longer.

“Can I cash in on your debt now?” you purred. Din’s helmet tilted to the side, hand coming down to palm at his belt buckle. The bucket was a nuisance, but he always made up with it in stamina and voracity. 

You did like getting an advance.

“It’s important,” Din says, voice crackling with static as he veers the N1 into landing formation. You brace in the seat, gritting your teeth through the hurtling speed. The size of the ship makes you feel like you’re entering the atmosphere in a children’s toy, one moment away from crumpling under the weight of gravity. 

Once the N1 breaks the atmospheric barrier it glides like a seabird over stretches of blue water, skimming low enough to ruffle a canopy of trees that lead to an open field. This is Din’s destination, powering down and opening both cockpits to allow you out. A hard-won smile graces your face when you watch his broad shoulders unfold, tugging himself out of the pilot’s seat that’s two sizes too small for him. You’re no more graceful, but an astromech compartment was never meant for a full person to squeeze into. Grogu had a much easier time, practically leaping like the frogs you’d seen him devour.

“Okay, we’re here,” you sigh, stretching your legs. The sun on your back does improve your disposition marginally, fresh air reviving your lungs. “Meet you in, what, a few hours?” you ask, surveying the plain for something to occupy your time. Anything to remove the pounding drum of clone clone clone from your brain.

“I need you to come with me,” he says before striding into the treeline, slow enough for you to overcome your confusion but quick enough to make you keep a steady pace. Grogu’s ears bounce playfully over his shoulder, black marble eyes blinking back at you.

“What’s this about, Din?” you ask, blood pumping in your ears as annoyance scars your face. “I’m not in the mood for an add-on job.”

“Not a job,” Din answers, not breaking stride.

Rolling your eyes you follow, trying to hold on to the annoyance and anger that was fast making a home in your spine, but it’s melting away with the gentle breeze on your face, the sweetness of the air, the softness of the ground beneath your feet. By the time brighter light bursts ahead your mood shifts to a pensive melancholy you meant to save for behind closed doors. Din doesn’t need to be a part of that. 

A few more steps and you’re in a different field, a breathtaking one resplendent with buttery yellow flowers surrounding a tree with sprawling branches supporting a thick head of leaves. The light that filters through dapples the ground with ever-changing patterns. Grogu lets out an excited squeak, fussing to be put down. Wordlessly Din moves towards the tree, picking his way carefully through the flowers. You follow his footsteps, a nameless emotion growing in your throat. The flowers brush against your calves, identical sunny faces turning to watch your journey.

By the time you get there Din is sitting beneath the tree, the trunk steadying his back. The helmet is as unreadable as ever but his body language is anything but. It’s an invitation to rest beside him, to speak on the events of the day. Grogu ignores the directive, instead toddling out to investigate the blooms. His head barely clears them, the tips of his ears flagging his path. Fighting against your instinct to run, to not show anything that could be used against you, you sit. 

The field from the center is even more magical, a golden sea of rippling petals surrounding you. The wind blows striations of color into the buttery landscape, leafy greens and earth browns. Slowly, your heart returns to your chest. Your hands unclench, your shoulders ease down. When you finally feel a semblance of peace you speak.

“Is this your way of comforting me?” you ask, the sharpness of your tone cutting through the heaviness in the air. 

“No,” Din rumbles, shifting beside you. A smirk curves your cheek until warm fingers circle your wrist. Your eyes lock on Din’s hands - bare - taking one into both of his. They dwarf you, heavy fingered and worn. He’s never touched you like this before. 

“What are you mourning right now?” he asks, thumb circling your pulse in a soothing pattern. 

He’s being soft to you because he thinks you're fragile, the nasty voice lashes out, but is quickly replaced by wonder. 

He’s being soft because he cares.

“I looked for them, for a long time. Wanted to know what my mother smelled like, how she smiled. Wanted to see what parts were hers and which were my fathers. I hoped they wouldn’t turn me away, or tell me something terrible about why they abandoned me.” You take in a shuddering breath. “It was more a dream than I thought.”

Din nods, stroking your palm in long soothing paths. It keeps you tethered.

“The loss of the family you never had?”

Chewing on your cheek, you shake your head.

“It was always a possibility they could be gone forever, that I might never learn more.” You let Din watch your face, not trying to school it for the proper emotions. You didn’t even know which ones should come out now.

“All this time I wanted to know why I couldn’t remember. My body knows what I am, but to have nothing come through…”

A skull in darkness. No, maybe a tattoo.

“And now I do. And it’s…so much worse.”

Din cocks his head.

“Worse than anything you thought before?”

You snort, the steel starting to return to your bones.

“A clone, Din. Made to serve the Empire. I thought what I was forgetting was love, and loss. Instead I was forgetting being a slave.” Tears brim now, smearing the landscape into an abstract mess. “I wanted to know what I was before, and now I’m terrified. Was I in the GAR? Did I…” You trail off, the implications too great. 

“Whatever you were, you’re here now, and you have the time, and the ability, to change,” Din says, and it might be the longest sentence you’ve ever heard from him. It comes close to making you feel better.

“I can’t change this,” you rebut, pinching skin between your fingernails. “I can’t change that I am exactly like them, down to my chemical makeup. A karked-up clone, but one still.” 

Din releases your hands and leans over, reaching for something behind him. When his hands return there’s a yellow blossom pinched between his fingers. He twirls it briefly.

“It looks exactly the same,” he muses, tossing his head to the field surrounding you. “But I could never tell you how old it is, or how it grew. If it got enough water, or sunlight. That makes it unique. That makes it beautiful.” Din drops the flower into your palm, the kiss of the petals featherlight. You try to see it, the reassurance he’s giving you, but it’s too small a gesture.

“It still shares everything with the rest,” you say. “It’s still a part of the whole.”

“There are things that can be shared that are greater than blood.” The helmet tips, hands coming together to worry at his oft-hidden skin.

Silence reigns again, your head thumping back against the smooth bark. Closing your eyes, you study the pattern of your heartbeat, steady and true in your chest. If they cut you open and placed your heart beside another of your genetic brothers, would they be able to tell the difference? Even with what you know it is capable of?

A click and a hiss echo next to you. Then a voice you’ve never heard. Not like this.

“Look at me.”

You peel your eyes open, the sight shocking you into a crouch. Before you is still the Mandalorian, armor and strength and valor. But the helmet is nestled in the moss, a man’s face revealed. Din Djarin, who you’ve only known by name for a short time, stares back.

You’d fantasized on what the Mandalorian looked like under the ever-present helmet, but to know now is to confirm and supersede all your expectations. Brown tousled hair, matted in places where the helmet pressed the curls flush. A dusting of scruff along his jaw and upper lip, flecks of caramel and silver. Full lips curved in a nervous grimace. Heavy brows constantly twitching against the urge to squeeze his eyes shut.

And Maker, his eyes. Deep brown and so expressive you realize he couldn’t possibly lie to you without the helmet. They dart to yours before dropping down, so unused to eye contact he can’t hold it long. 

“Din…” you whisper, the forest fading to ochre around you. He quirks a smile. 

“That’s me,” he says with a breathless chuckle. You shuffle closer, observing the uncertainty painting his face. 

“Din, your Creed…” you ask, but his hands return to yours. Sitting hip to hip and face to face for the first time, he’s more beautiful than you have the right to see.

“I broke it when I showed my face to Grogu. I am Mandalorian no more,” he says, sadness now mixing in his eyes. “But I still wear it to be close to my brothers, to feel part of the culture that raised me. I am seen as one of many…” The tears are threatening to spill now, Din’s eyes turning sympathetic as he cups your cheek. “...but underneath I am Din Djarin. I will always be that boy, this man. And what I share with my brothers is nothing compared to what I can choose to share.”

“Din, I’m not…”

He shushes you with a press of those powerful fingers.

“This isn’t about worthiness or what you deserve. This is about free will, and choice. I choose to share my face with you. I need nothing in return. This is my choice. I choose to be Din Djarin with you.” He studies your face a moment longer, thumb interrupting the track of a tear. “What do you choose to be?”

The answer is so simple that saying it aloud is like writing it in stone.

“I choose to be me. No matter what came before. I’m me, for the rest of my days.”

Din nods and smiles, the motion so familiar but so different seeing how he looks at you. It makes you want to give him something in return.

“I’d like to kiss you, Din.”

His eyebrows shoot up into his messy hair, mouth falling open into an O that pulls a smile back on your face. Sitting up on your knees, you take Din’s head into your hands. He trembles at the contact, your fingers slipping into his sweat-damp hair.

“I’ve never…” he stutters, which you soothe with a scratch of your nails on the nape of his neck.

“I won’t take your first kiss from you,” you tease, “Save that for someone you love.” 

As you lean closer he breathes out, “There are many kinds of love.”

“When did you get so wise, Din Djarin?” 

He lets out a puff of air before you press your lips to his forehead, inhaling musk and metal and something earthy before you pull back. His eyes are closed, lips parted, and before you can move too far he cradles your head and pulls your foreheads together. You stay like that for a handful of breaths, the monikers and duties of your lives washing away. 

“Can we stay a while longer?” you ask, your noses bumping together. His is larger than you thought, broken along the bridge at least once, and wrinkles when he smiles.

“As long as you like,” he says, letting you settle back. A stronger breeze ruffles your clothing as you turn to see Grogu stretching his little green claws out, a tiny magician to the audience of flowers. The wind whips around the tree and suddenly the air is full of delicate yellow petals, swirling in a golden vortex. You laugh, a belly one this time, as Grogu’s gestures lift and twirl the petals in the air.

“Good job kid,” Din calls, Grogu’s ears lifting briefly before he turns and waddles back to his guardian satisfied. Din unclasps his cape, folding it into a neat bundle before settling it on his lap. 

“Rest,” he says simply, and while you normally hate a directive your body hangs heavy with exhaustion. Grogu climbs Din’s thigh before he lifts him up to rest on his chest. With a baby yawn he drops his head to Din’s cowl and closes his eyes. Din looks at him for a moment before pressing a kiss to his wrinkled forehead. It warms your whole body.

That is the first kiss you’re meant to have, Din.

He pats the makeshift pillow in his lap and you lean down to rest your head. The petals are still lazily swirling in the air, drifting to the ground in handfuls. He waits for you to still before he lays his large hand on your head, softly stroking your hair and temple. Time slows in this bubble you’ve found yourself in, a world outside demanding answers and ready with tragedy at every corner. But for this brief moment you’ll let yourself rest in the care of someone who you share more with than blood, or oaths.

END

[unwhitewashthebadbatch]

Hello, really appreciate the work you're doing to bring awareness! I was wondering if you have thoughts/resources/suggestions etc. for fic writers who want to portray the clones well. I'm genuinely thinking that adding an author's note might be a good idea, but I'd love to have thoughts on respectfully mentioning the clones' appearance within fic itself. Thank you so much for all you do!

Hi, and thanks!

When it comes to writing, it's sometimes easier to come up with a list of "Dont's" than "Dos". This guide from NaNoWriMo is pretty straight forward!

Of course, there are some caveats: unless this is a modern AU, you can't directly say the clones are Māori because that term doesn't exist in Star Wars. However, this doesn't mean that their features don't! From another character's PoV, you could say they have even brown skin, dark eyes, and dark curly (not coily) hair with broad noses. You can tweak these for your level of prose, such as saying "warm" brown skin or coal-dark eyes/hair--but do NOT use food descriptions, as this is objectifying and dehumanizing. So no "chocolatey" (I have seen this) or anything like that.

Some authors like to code their characters as being from a certain culture, race, or ethnic background. Think of how Temuera Morrison portrayed Boba in The Book of Boba Fett and the Mandalorian, where he proudly put his Māori culture at the forefront of his fight in the latter show. I'm much less versed on the basics of Māori culture and ways of life than I am other cultures, so I personally don't know how to code the clones in the GAR as such. This is where research is important, both in terms of doing your own reading and reaching out to Māori cultural experts if they are willing to explain something.

One thing that I've seen that's quite popular in fics/art is Tā moko, which are the tattoos you may see some Māori with, like this:

However, Tā moko is sacred and, from what I understand, relates specifically to one's ancestors, whakapapa (genealogy, loosely), and rank within society. Non-Māori can use kirituhi. @/tu_edmonds on TikTok/Instagram is a Māori bassist for Alien Weaponry who has Tā moko and also has a video explaining the difference between that and kirituhi. He's also got loads of other good explainers for Māori culture and language.

Physically, don't be scared to make the clones short! Temuera Morrison himself is only 5'7". I don't know why they made the clones six feet. Morrison also has a stockier build, the way a lot of Māori do, so don't be afraid to describe them being bigger and less cut/lean than the 180 lbs they supposedly are in canon (although I refuse to believe that's true because that is incredibly thin).

This might be more than you bargained for, whoops! But these are the basic things I could come up with for describing clones in fics!

There are other ways to support #UnwhitewashTBB, if you like. I've been looking at and supporting @end-otw-racism (highly recommend you support them too!) and people will change the title of their fics or tag there works with #EndOTWRacism, as well as bookmark them/add them to collections? I'm not sure how exactly it works.

But if you or anyone else understands how this works, and your work is explicitly non-racist in nature (and focuses on the clones) I don't see why you can't also tag your work or write an AN that says #UnwhitewashTBB.

Hope this helps!

~ Mod CH