#the same disease and sense of being abandoned or even betrayed by the people who were supposed to save you

[andromeda3116]

you know i wonder where the essay is, i certainly don't have it prepared, what it reflects about society, that the '99 trigun was a fun action western-sci-fi anime with a plot that wove itself out slowly and had plenty of heart that got serious eventually but was also a quirky romp through most of its run

and the '23 trigun stampede is a dystopian sci-fi set in a crumbling desert that can barely support life with a dark plot that drags you under immediately and also does have a lot of heart but ultimately appears to have the theme of scavenging that heart from a place that gives you no reason to believe it exists

like, as time capsules i feel like it's unintentionally saying something about us, about where we've come to and come from, that the same basic story is told in two such wildly different ways, after less than a quarter-century

[miquella-everywhere]

Miquella and Griffith: Why the comparisons make no damn sense

So instead of me screaming to the sky, "Waah Miquella is Griffith theories make me so mad grrrr I hate them so much" I've decided that I'm going to do an analysis between the two characters and dissect why the comparisons and Giffiths influence on Miquella makes absolutely no damn sense.

So first and foremost, warning: I will be talking about and spoiling Berserk, so if you wanna read it for yourself then steer clear of this analysis

So to start off let's discuss Griffith and his character/motivations in Berserks story: Griffiths whole goal from childhood was to establish his own country, his own paradise and to achieve that goal he first established his own mercenary group The Band of the Hawk. Griffith was beautiful and charismatic and the people who were apart of his band all looked up to Griffith and admired him, placing all of their hopes and faith into him and his dream.

But as the story goes on Griffith hits an all time low point, and after essentially being tortured for a year, which makes him emaciated, weak and practically crippled for life, all of Griffiths dreams seem like an utter impossibility as he is left as nothing more than a shadow of his former self.

That is until he decides to cast everything aside to become a God.

And by cast everything aside I mean that he betrays his companions, his Band of the Hawk, and sacrifices their lives to untold evils in what is absolutely the most genuinely horrific and unsettling imagery I have ever seen from a work of fiction in my entire life.

(Going off topic but I cannot stress this enough that if you decide to read Berserk understand that the violence shown pulls no punches with its depictions and involves both heavy gore and sexual violence. Especially the sexual violence)

Anyway, what makes the Band of the Hawks sacrifice so jarring is that these people all loved Griffith. They adored him. Backed him every step of the way and were the ones to go and rescue him as he was being tortured, and they all mourned the pitiful state that he was in when they found him. But regardless they STILL tried to be hopeful for Griffiths sake.

The Band of the Hawk loved Griffith and that is why Griffiths betrayal of them hits so hard and is why Griffith is known as one of the most evil characters in fiction.

And all of these reasons are precisely why Griffith is such a good and compelling character.

From the beginning of Griffiths introduction you could tell that something was... off about him. But at the same time his charisma and big ambitions painted him in a sympathetic light and you rooted for Griffith. But as the story went on you could see how Griffith was going deeper and deeper into the darkness and, quite frankly, his subsequent torture is entirely his own fault because he made several stupid and completely avoidable choices.

And it's all because Griffith at his core is selfish.

And it's for exactly these reasons why it's so baffling to me that so many people believe that Miquella is going to be just as evil, or worse, than Griffith.

Because in truth unlike Griffith, Miquella is not selfish.

The main problem that I have with the Miquella is Griffith comparisons is that all of those theories hinge entirely on the Bewitching Branch item description, and so many people have gone out of their way to spin Miquellas ability to compel affection as definitive proof that he is manipulative and evil, meanwhile conveniently ignoring everything else that Miquella has done in the lore.

So for a single moment, let's pretend that the Bewitching Branch does not exist and take a look at all the other lore that surrounds Miquella:

Miquella has dedicated most of his life to curing Malenia, his twin sister, of her crippling disease, and has even crafted prosthetics for her as well as an entirely new type of God Repellent Metal, which can halt the effects of said disease

He was a Golden Order Fundamentalist but ultimately abandoned it because it could not cure Malenias sickness

He created a Haven for those who are outcasts in the eyes of the most dominating and repressive Order in the Lands Between

He watered said Haven/the Haligtree with his own blood so it could grow into something that could rival the Erdtree

He used his identity as St. Trina to sing to and ease those who have been afflicted by the Frenzied Flame

There are several statues that depict Miquella and Malenia embracing eachother, 1 in Altus in an area dubbed Miquellas Hideaway and several all over the Haligtree. The fact that this statue is the dominant imagery found at the Haligtree really hammers in the fact that the twins love eachother, and that the Haligtree isn't just Miquella's, but Malenias home as well

He also has a clear affection/love for his brother Godwyn as the statue at the Haligtree depicts him embracing his siblings and even created a sword to commemorate Godwyns death and prayed for him to Die a True Death.

The soldiers of the Haligtree came across a bitter revelation as they await Miquella(presumably they feel immense guilt for being unable to protect their Lord) and explode with light, which they hope will guide Miquellas return and no Miquella did not put the light in them to make them explode there is absolutely zero proof of that, looking at you vaati

And now to be fair, lets get into the comparisons that are shared between the Griffith and Miquella:

Both are highly charismatic and beautiful individuals to the point where both Griffith and Miquella are mistaken for being girls.

The Eclispe imagery. For Griffith the Eclipse is what allows him to ascend to Godhood(after sacrificing the people who love him) and for Miquella the Eclipse is presumably how they are trying to resurrect Godwyn (Miquellas plans for the Eclipse are mostly unknown/vague at this point)

The Egg. Griffith and Miquella both go through a type of metamorphosis involving being encased in a cocoon/egg.

And honestly that's kinda it. The straight comparisons between the two are highly lacking and purely thematic in my opinion, especially when you consider everything else going on between their respective characters.

So to summarize, the good things that Miquella has done outweighs the bad and that is why Miquella is, in actuality, the exact opposite of Griffith. Unlike Griffith who is selfish, Elden Ring canon points to Miquella being a compassionate and loving individual, and if anything, he is a complete inversion to Griffiths character.

With the points listed above a majority of the in game text highly suggests that Miquella is kind and altruistic, and with the newest text regarding Miquella in the DLC:

Points to Miquella potentially being selfless and self-sacrificial.

And also, I've seen several people argue that Miquella wants to become a God so he can create his own utopia/Falconia like Griffith did. And I'm like.... Uuuum okay well, there is a big problem with that argument along with an elephant in the room that's being completely ignored, and that is the fact that Miquella has already created his utopia/Falconia with the Haligtree and Elphael.

So as of this moment Miquellas exact goals are completely unknown, what he is doing in the World of Shadow cannot be determined until the DLC arrives. But my point remains that so many people seem to think that Miquella will be evil based off of, in my opinion, evidence that is completely lacking in substance, along with the pervasive belief that since Elden Ring has drawn inspiration from Berserk/Griffith it means that Miquella will end up as a similar type of evil character as Griffith, all while ignoring the things that Miquella has done in canon that sets him apart as his own character.

So I've said my piece and what I believe in, so I'm just going to leave this analysis with this last statement:

The good that Miquella has done and committed himself too in the Lands Between completely outweighs the singular implied evil of the Bewitching Branch.

[kinetic-elaboration]

October 12: Briarpatch 1x10

My Briarpatch re-watch is complete. I really enjoyed it and the ending was very satisfying!

I think this ep really showed off how well-cast everyone was. Seeing Alan Cumming just deliciously slurping up the scenery was great, but everyone just hit their noir toned roles so well. It was really satisfying even though or perhaps especially because it was so often over the top.

For example: “I’m the most terrifying thing in the world. A lady with a job. And I’m good at it.” That was?? Actually amazing? Feels good to hear her say it.

The episode did suffer a little bit from “has 10 finales” disease, in that the last 20 minutes easy--everything from the Confrontation Scene on--was just one ending after another. Oh, what a poignant conclusion. Oh wait! Oh, what a poignant conclusion. Gotcha--there’s more! But there were a lot of loose ends to tie up and personal notes to hit.

The intro, interspersing Dill’s plan with the actual plan being carried out, was so well-edited. I love that technique in general. I did find some parts of it a little bit hard to follow, even on a second viewing. For example, she told Spivey they were going to align themselves with Brattle, and got him to agree to that to her. He was supposed to break things off with Raytek at the same time. Presumably to get her to do something. But Dill also relied on Spivey still prioritizing his own skin, and trying to keep his alliance with Raytek anyway. At that point, Dill knew that Raytek was the second bomber. Was she trying to draw her out as Spivey’s backup? Which didn’t work, she actually came as Colder’s backup but it turned out the same? I presume that’s it. Although on the other hand, she knew the real estate deal was off, so maybe this was more about Spivey than Raytek?

Spivey she was just misdirecting entirely by letting him think she was really going to let Brattle go. To be honest, I’m not sure how she was expecting that to play out, if Colder hadn’t shown up. I guess use Brattle to get to Colder, and then let the FBI, who were never called off because she never had any intention of stopping the Senator at all, would get Brattle.

It’s a bit confusing and I would like it explained to me lol.

Another thing I really liked was that in this show about selfish people all working to their own selfish ends, where there really aren’t good guys and bad guys but just different types of bad guys who are more or less sympathetic, and our main character is a classic anti-heroine, everything still tied itself up in a morally satisfying way. It didn’t just throw up its hands at the end and say, well, everything is grey anyway so nothing matters! Rather, it had a very clear sense of what bad acts were, in this narrative, especially bad, and it punished the perpetrators of those acts accordingly.

Specifically, the cardinal sin of the story is hurting, betraying, using, or abandoning Felicity. Raytek, Spivey, and Colder all failed her in some way. And none of them get what they want. They are all roundly punished: Raytek and Colder with death, and Spivey with prison. (Brattle is also killed but he’s just an all around Bad Guy, so that’s unsurprising.) The Senator, on the other hand, is no peach, but he essentially gets what he wants: Spivey’s arrest will be a big win for him, Allegra is asking for almost nothing in exchange for not releasing the tape, and we can fairly well assume he will at least win the nomination for the Presidency. He was willing to kill Allegra! He’s pretty awful! But he wasn’t involved in the Felicity story. It would be unrealistic for everything to end happily ever after, in such a story, or with neat, clear lines where the deserving win and the wrongdoers are punished. Corruption is everywhere, at every level, and so many people are just selfish and awful and power hungry. So yeah, a corrupt, selfish, power hungry politician lives to fight another day. But Dill got justice for the person she came to avenge. That’s a happy ending, and it’s a morally satisfying ending.

It helps that there are a couple of just honest-to-goodness good people here, too, and that they unequivocally prosper. I’m thinking of Singe and Cindy, of course.

Dill as the anti-hero has a fitting ending as well. She is, of course, also complicit in Felicity’s death, and she says so many times. She’s guilty in the exact same way Spivey is: the only thing we ever saw was each other. But she has a self awareness that he never has, not even at the very end. And, critically, she doesn’t completely win. I see Dill’s ending as happy, yes, especially by her own definitions--she can drive again, she no longer fears her past, she’s free both of the burdens of her past but of everything, and she’s in control of her destiny again. And yet, her main reward is simply escape, and a blank slate. She doesn’t prosper, specifically. I’m not sure I’m explaining this correctly, especially since she’s never wanted the sorts of things, money and power etc., that the other characters want, so to say she doesn’t gain power or influence or whatever isn’t saying much. Still, I see her ending as more reaching purgatory than reaching heaven. Like the Master and Margarita in The Master and Margarita (weird comparison I know lol).

As Candy Bar tells her in the previous ep, you can’t beat the system, and the only morally pure thing to do is to leave it altogether. That’s what she does. She uses her blackmail to buy her freedom and also her escape from the whole immoral system. The system continues--the Senator on his way to the White House--she isn’t a hero, she didn’t bring the whole house of cards down. And it’s certainly arguable that her decision to leave entirely is actually morally pure. But then she was never a hero, right?

I also loved what the show did with the central conundrum of a murder mystery where the victim is important to the detective--the central conundrum of any narrative that starts with the death of someone close to the main characters--that the audience will never know that deceased character properly. We have to be TOLD what the character meant to other characters. We have to be TOLD what she was like. We have to be TOLD why we should care that she’s gone. I think Six Feet Under is a good example of this: the show starts and ends with major deaths in the Fisher Family but Nate’s death hits completely differently than Nathanial’s--because we know who Nate is.

Briarpatch’s solution to this is to fold it into the plot. Yes, Felicity looks like just a plot device, and not least to Spivey and Dill, who are brought together by her death just to spend 10 episodes doing their will-they-won’t-they, toxic-most-important-person dance. The audience forgets that Felicity was important to their relationship too. And Spivey and even Dill forget this at times too: as she tells him in their final scene, he’s wrong to say it was always the two of them. It was always THREE. He can’t look at her now and say that they can still win, because the only thing that has ever mattered is that Spivey and Dill come out on top. He betrayed the third person, and Dill can’t forgive that.

Never mind that it’s never really been Spivey and Dill anyway. It’s just been Spivey, Spivey, Spivey.

That she simply walks away while he’s holding the gun on her, a moment foreshadowed by her walking away from the kid with the gun, was really excellent.

The insistence of both Spivey and Colder that they are the good guys was VERY interesting in this overall context of a morally grey noir genre, with a morally grey anti-heroine at the center, whose ending was recognizing her own complicity in the evils she’s avenging and then walks away. Does Dill get to ‘win,’ comparatively, because she is honest with and about herself? Why is it so important to Colder and Spivey to see themselves as the good guys? Because it allows them to justify their bad acts? Colder is a quintessential “nice guy” who is absolutely devoid of any moral core at all, and completely delusional about it. It hasn’t been as obvious throughout with Spivey, but it’s certainly been simmering under the surface with him.

Contrast these two men to Raytek. She never says she’s a good person. She says she is a problem solver. She gets things done. She never worries about the cost because she has a larger goal in mind: fix the town, even if it means using people, double-crossing allies, lying, manipulating--even murder. These aren’t good or bad acts. They’re just steps in a plan. Nothing matters if you win.

Colder and Spivey have much weaker self-images. Colder is completely delusional. He’s completely separated his actions from his understanding of himself. He IS a good guy, and so everything he does is, by definition, something a good guy would do. And he kills Felicity over it--because she challenged his idea of himself and his idea of her. “She wore your sister’s face, but she was a different person. There was something twisted and evil inside and I had to kill it so I could keep loving the real Felicity” is a really chilling line.

With Spivey, again, it is subtler, but I thought there was something really sad about him facing Dill one last time and being completely unwilling to let go even a little bit from his own narrative. He was the good guy and he and Dill were united against the world and everything would work out for them eventually.

It helped that he could always blame Brattle for everything. And Brattle really did mess him up, and I do think meeting him again pushed Spivey back into that really dark mental place that years of abuse had created in him.

Or maybe it’s just as simple as, he will always care about himself most. He will always be selfish, to the very last.

It was definitely interesting to see a relationship, in Dill and Spivey, that WAS deep, and old, and multi-layered, where they DID love each other, as some combination of friends and family and lovers, where maybe in a sense they WERE soulmates, but they were also deeply twisted and bad for each other. Their relationship was so deeply unhealthy. It was all of those things at once.

[softyoongiionly]

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Just outside the boundaries of your town, deep within the trenches of the forest sits a massive tower made from smoke-stained ivory. Decrepit and ominous, it looms over your town like a warning- like a shadow...

There are opposing rumors as to what resides in the tower.

One of them, the one that just so happens to appeal to you the most, is that there is a deity living in that tower.  

The one who knows.  

The one who blesses and curses the deserving and offers wisdom that no mortal can.  

And now, faced with the imminent demise of your family- you have no choice but to seek answers in the darkness. 

What, in god’s name, will you find?

Pairing: Jimin x Reader

Genre: demi-god! au, demi-god! Jimin, mythology, slight angst, smut, fantasy

Word count: 8k (THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PWP)

Warnings: likely inaccurate representations of greek mythology lmao, unprotected sex (wrap it up plz), mentions of violence/death, slightly spooky??? allusions to corruption and murder (non-explicit), JIMIN (cause he’s always a warning), probably a messy plot cause I went feral with this one. parts are unedited oops. 

A/N: i have nothing to say. this was supposed to be demon porn and now we have a completely new au. SOMEONE PLEASE STOP ME. okay anyways,,,, i love u. 

Corruption.  

It ran rampant through your town like the plague, devouring everything in its path. One right after another, you have seen it swallow those who you had come to respect; good town folk, who at one time, moved through the world with a moral compass stronger than the one you felt you possessed, had now fallen ill to the disease.  

And you understood...to an extent. The universe was not a benevolent dealer. It randomly assigns cards to its patrons and cares not about the outcome- or the losses. You understood that sometimes people were simply without a winning hand.  

But the need to win was still present.  

However, your town was spoiled with a type of greed that wafted through the streets and turned everything to mold. Neighbor betraying neighbor, partner betraying partner- even mother’s betraying their children...

All to please one man...

Lord Instinctus was the ruler of your province. Born into nobility, he took over the position after his father passed away and began turning the tides in his favor. Taxes were raised, work hours following suit and, harsh punishments were administered to anyone who dared questioned the new system. He forced your town to pledge their loyalty to him on the day he took over and sent ‘enforcers’ to hide out in the town in search of any signs of rebellion.  

However, his cruelty was not unique. Too many men have followed the path paved before them and suckled at the teet of avarice, until they were compelled to out do one another.

To outkill one another...

What made Lord Instinctus unique was the fact that he had never shown his face before. During his initiation into the noble court, the townspeople were given blindfolds and told to face away from their Lord and simply listen. Few people broke the rules but, the ones who did were immediately executed.  

You still remember the shudder that ran through your body as you heard the sound of your townspeople hitting the pavement. From that point on, the tone was set. Insubordination means death; the terms were simple.  

The lack of knowledge and the possibility of death didn’t stop speculation from blooming. In fact, the appearance of the Lord was essentially the usual topic of conversation at every pub on the main street. After the freeing of spirits, both liquid or otherwise, the rumors begin pouring into the atmosphere.

“He’s probably horribly deformed...”

“Inbreeding is common amongst the nobility; it would make sense...”

“My cousin walked by the villa the other day, he said Lord Invictus had a tail!”

“A tail you say?! So is he some sort of hybrid?!”

“Oh please, that’s preposterous- he's probably just hideous...”

You bite your bottom lip, as you wipe the whiskey from the chestnut countertop, resisting the urge to smirk. Bartending was certainly not a glamorous job but, it paid your taxes and helped put food on the table for you and your family.  

Glamorous it was not but, amusing it definitely was.  

“I bet you he still beds a new woman every night though...”

“A pretty face ain’t worth more than all that gold he has aye?”

“Maybe he’s cursed...”

“That wouldn’t surprise me either- I hear noble families make deals with the magic folk all the time.”

“If you all want to know so bad, why don’t you just pay the tower a visit?”

With that meager suggestion, the bustle of the pub comes to halt- all eyes now on the man who mentioned a topic that is normally banned from public spaces.

“What? You can’t tell me you haven’t wondered what was up there...”

“We know what’s up there-”

“Or rather- who's up there.”

Just outside the boundaries of your town, deep within the trenches of the forest sits a massive tower made from smoke-stained ivory. Decrepit and ominous, it looms over your town like a warning- like a shadow...

It’s said to be the home a monster.  

The tower was used as a prison for the most dastardly of criminals. For years, just before the establishment of your town, it served as a last resort for the rotten underbelly of society. Countless lives were taken, madness ensued- until the revolution came. The tower was set aflame by revolutionaries but for whatever reason, it did not crumble.  

The ivory merely sizzled and turned gray and then over time, it turned black. For years it was abandoned until one day, just after sunset, light emanated from the tower once more. Onlookers who were near the building went inside to see if some vagrant had moved in.  

And they never returned...

Several spiritual advisors have visited the town, including religious figures from various faiths, and they have all arrived at the same conclusion: a demon has taken residence in the tower. Despite the efforts to bless the building, the light comes on every evening.  

Thus, it is assumed that the demon remains unharmed.  

“What about Mrs. Jeon? She left offerings for the beast and her son was cured of the plague the next morning.”

“Or Mr. Kim- he left one as well and found gold in his backyard that very night...”

“You aren’t suggesting there is a benevolent being in that tower, are you? Should I remind you of how many disappearances have occurred?”

There are opposing rumors you suppose.  

One of them, the one that just so happens to appeal to you the most, is that there is a deity living in that tower.  

The one who knows.  

The one who blesses and curses the deserving and offers wisdom that no mortal can.  

“Hey here’s a thought- how about Jacob tests his theory eh? Why don’t you go down and find out yourself? Report back to us with your findings...”

The pub erupts with laughter now, the uneasiness slowly melting away from the room.  

You elect to keep your thoughts to yourself, as you finish up counting the money you had made from that evening- making sure to leave a portion for the incoming team.  

The bite of the winter wind is harsh and untamed as it scraps across your skin, causing you to hurriedly put your coat on. It feels like winter never ends in your town and if it weren’t for the fact that your family stocks up throughout the year, you would be worried where your next meal is coming from.  

Walking down the street towards your home, you catch sight of the tower in the distance. The way the windows begin to glow, almost makes you feel like it’s somehow staring back at you- taunting you.  

You would be lying if you said it didn’t tempt you.  

It always has.  

Even as a young girl, you remember being drawn to the infamy, to the danger...

Your mother always told you that being curious was a good thing, that it led the greatest minds of humankind. You kept that with you as you moved through life, trying your best to understand what your purpose was.  

But times were hard...

With a malevolent lord hanging over the morale of your town, digging his fingers into the heart and soul of your people and crippling them with eternal debt, it was causing you to look for answers.  

And you were beginning to look in some unorthodox places.

Dinner with your family soothes the aching curiosity in your chest as you try and remind yourself of all the things you have to be grateful for. After your meal, you wrestle your little brother into his bed before telling him his favorite bedtime story. Once his eyelids have kissed, you turn out his light and move into the main room to wish sweet dreams upon your parents.  

And although the pleasantries are nice, there are a few things throughout the evening that disturbed you.  

The limp in your father’s movement.

The blisters on your mother’s hands.

The bags beneath the otherwise unburden gaze of your little brother.  

Exhaustion was palpable.  

Living beneath the weight of a corrupt leadership will do that to you.

As your head hits the pillow, you can hear your mother murmur in desperation.

“I won’t have enough to pay him this week...what are we going to do?”

“I can work extra hours at the mill- we will figure it out.”

“How could you possibly work any longer-”

You feel your chest twist with guilt as you hear the crack in your mother's voice.

“You’re falling apart my love...if you continue pushing yourself this way, I’m afraid I will lose you and I can’t- I can’t-”

The muffled nature of her cries suggests that your father has pulled her in for a hug, trying to erase the inevitable with his affection.  

“We will endure, I promise. Just hang on a little longer.”

With your father’s final words, their conversation begins to die down.  

This can’t possibly go on much longer. You might be able to pick up more hours at the pub and, perhaps procure a second job but, the dues will never end.  

Your family will never exist for any other reason aside from paying to the noble family.  

So you make a decision. Hard work clearly isn’t the answer and revolution would only shed innocent blood. If the practical world had nothing else to offer then, you would seek answers from beyond.  

Your parents retired to their rooms shortly after their conversation but, you wait until you’re sure the house has fallen silent before you make your next move. Embarking on this mission would be simple but what lies at your destination is anything but; so, you try to be prepared for the possible outcomes.

Wrapping yourself in the thickest coat you can find, you slip your dagger beneath the onyx material and slowly creep out of your bedroom.  

The streets were still bustling with life; your town rarely ever rests and the pubs and shops are open well past midnight.  

It might sound like the product of a vibrant town but, it’s mainly due to the ever-present demand for profit.  

Limited hours mean limited sales.

Thankfully, no one really notices your presence as you traverse your way down the streets and through the alleyway. The noise echoing from the main street slowly diminishes and makes way for the sound of the wind dancing through the trees. The forest itself does not frighten you. You grew up memorizing it with your father as he taught you the fundamentals or foraging and gardening. The sound of the owls is expected as is the chill that runs up your spine with the increase of the breeze.  

However, as you near the tower- fear begins to slither its way into your veins. It’s quite a sickening feeling as it seems to stop you in your tracks but, you push on anyway- determined to finish what you have started.

The wrought iron surrounding the tower is stained with rust, corroded and crackling with age, the creaking of its bars alarms you, stopping you in your tracks and forcing you to look up.  

And there it is: the tower.  

It stands above you like a menacing giant and although it’s presence should deter you, it doesn’t. Making an effort to be as silent as you can, you slip past the opening in the gate and begin walking up the broken cobblestone pathway.  

There is nothing but dirt surrounding the perimeter of the tower and other than the moon, the only light before you is coming from the very top window. It’s glowing but the color isn’t stable- it's as if it were shifting slowly from red to green to blue and then back again. Faced with the wooden French doors, you question the idea of knocking.  

If someone truly did live here, it would only be polite...right?

With a shaky hand, you knock three times as loudly as you can. For a moment there is nothing, but just as you ready your hand to knock again, the door groans and begins to slowly creak open.  

The already unstable heartbeat in your chest begins to rattle without mercy as you brace yourself for whatever horrible creature might lay on the other side. Instead, however, there is no one.  

The door opens entirely to reveal that instead of the simple but filthy interior you expect from an abandoned tower such as this one, there is a rather decadent home. Large marble pillars extend upwards seemingly holding nothing in place while glamorous furniture positions itself through the foray. Everything is cooled tone with greys and shades of blue, black often lining the borders of the funiture. There is no lantern, the moon lighting up the interior of the room just as it led your path up to the door.  

The layout doesn’t make sense.  

The tower is cylindrical and doesn’t offer enough space for such an open floor plan so, how is it that the inside looks like lavish mansion?

You swallow your fear and newfound confusion as you tentatively look around the expanse of the room.

“Hello?”

Nothing.  

You take a deep breath and decide that the likelihood of someone (or something) answering that call is slim, especially given the way you were welcomed into the tower in the first place.  

You place your hand inside your pocket, gripping the dagger for good measure before beginning to make your way towards the staircase. The moonlight is sufficient enough at first but for whatever reason, as you begin making your way up the stone staircase, the interior of the tower seems to slowly darken. Your grip on the dagger tightens as you stop walking, frozen in your steps, cursing yourself for embarking on a journey so reckless.  

Suddenly, all of the light from the room vanishes, forcing a gasp from your throat. You manage to grip the railing to steady yourself but you have no idea what you are to do next.  

And then, someone speaks.

“Well- you’re awfully far from home...aren’t you?”

The sound of the voice rushes through your senses much like the wind did. It’s too sweet for your liking but, it entrances you none the less.

“Who are you?”  

As much as you try to steady your breathing, the way your voice cracks, gives you away instantly.

Laughter bounces off the stone walls, sinister and playful all at once before the voice speaks again,

“Don’t you think that’s a question I should be asking you? You are the intruder after all...”

Disembodied or not, the voice makes a valid point. You did walk in unannounced and you most certainly weren’t invited.  

“I’m Y/N Y/L/N.” The strength in your voice comes back slightly as you grip the railing a bit tighter, “I came here because- “

“I know why you’re here...” The voice is much closer now, likely positioned at the top of the stairs, “Humans are so predictable; always looking for a handout.”

This offends you greatly and regardless of the amount of danger you might be in, you let the voice know anyway.

“I am not looking for a hand out. My family and I work from sunrise until sunset to make ends meet. I’m here to make an offering- not merely to take whatever miracles that you make.” Stronger and stronger, your voice rises to the occasion, preparing itself to either spar with the beast or scream for help.

“Miracles hm?” Sinister laughter slinks down the staircase, practically teasing the exposed skin of your neck, “Is that what you think I do?”  

You swallow the bile that creeps up your throat, “I’ve heard many stories- but I wanted to see for myself. Some of my people claim you’ve blessed them but, the clergy said a demon lived here...”

“Oh?” It rises with inquisition, “And you came anyway? Do I have a heretic in my presence?”  

Shaking your head does nothing in the darkness but it’s instinctual, “I don’t believe in demons- at least, not the kind who dwell in abandoned towers.”

“Is there a kind you do believe in then?”  

There is something in you that urges you forward, captivated by the sweet sound of the voice above you, desperate to view the owner and desperate to see the moonlight again.

“Hell is nothing but a metaphor and it’s demons all the same. There is plenty of evil here, plenty of suffering- by definition, there is a demon ruling over my town- he is draining us of our resources for his own gain. I couldn’t imagine a more accurate representation.”

Suddenly, you hear the sound of boots clicking slowly and steadily down the stone stairs. You brace yourself, still feeling frozen in your place- wishing to see whoever or whatever is front of you.

“If I did make miracles,” It muses and, now you’re able to discern that it’s only a few steps in front of you, “What exactly would you be offering me in return?”

Taking a deep breath through your nose, you place all your effort into trying to make out whether or not there was an actual owner to this voice. Finally, your eyes adjust enough to see the faint shadow of a figure which appears to be sitting on the second set of stairs.  

“Name your terms, I will do my best.”  

“Ah ah-” The voice corrects along with a side of twinkling laughter, “That isn’t how this works...”

You’re growing frustrated with the apparent mind games but, you know it’s in your best interest to be patient; you still don’t know what you’re dealing with.

“How does it work then?”

Silence passes through the air for a moment before the voice speaks again, “You must bring me the thing you treasure the most so, that I may know your true intentions- I cannot help you until I can see you properly.”

You snort, “You’d be able to see me if you hadn’t wiped the light from this room...”

Laughter comes again but this time, it’s lower and deepened with suggestion, “I’m not referring to physical sight, human. You might not be able to see in the dark but, I can.”

For whatever reason, its response sounds salacious and riddled with an innuendo that you’re slightly afraid to comment on.  

And the reaction it creates within you, only frightens you further.  

“I’ve just told you that I barely have enough money to scrape by- I don’t have anything of value to give you.”  

“I never asked you to bring me anything of value nor did I ask you to give it away- you’re not listening very well...I don’t know how I’m supposed to help you if you can’t follow instructions.”

It sounds irritated and fond all at once, prompting you to nod immediately, not wanting to upset your only shot at freedom.

“I’m sorry.” You breathe, “I’m just-”

“Don’t lie to me...”

Your gaze strains to try and make out the expression of the figure in front of you but, its futile- the darkness impeding your effort.

“What do you mean?”

“You were going to tell me that you’re scared.” The voice accuses, “But you’re not- even though, you most certainly should be.”  

It wasn’t wrong. You should have ran when the door opened on its own, when the lights began to dim, when a voice began speaking to you...

But you didn’t.

You were undeniably intrigued.  

“Are you going to hurt me?”

An insidious bought of laughter comes from the figure before it sighs, “Hmmm, maybe a little bit.”

When your lips part with something that resembles shock, the laughter comes again only slowing to a halt for the sound of the figure’s tongue tutting against its teeth.

“You are a curious girl...” It observes, “...promises of harm should not excite you and yet- excitement flows from you anyway. Why?”

It kills you to refrain from denying it but, you have no choice.

“Your voice-” A sigh leaves your lips, “it’s very intriguing.”

Maybe it’s part of the creature's abilities, you think, its voice is the main weapon to lure unsuspecting and vulnerable humans into its clutches. The only question is-  what happens once it has you.

“Is it now?” The voice sounds intrigued, “Most humans don’t seem to think so. Are you sure you’re hearing me right, girl? I’ve been told my voice is the thing of nightmares.”

This perplexes you; how could anyone possibly think such a voice was frightening? Despite this creature being anything but human, it sounds very much like a man- a warm and mischievous man who seems hellbent on getting you into bed.  

“What does my voice sound like to you?” It asks, a smile in its tone.

You ponder this question for a second, realizing very quickly that you can’t exactly tell this creature that it sounds like it’s trying to seduce you. But still, that does seem to be the only appropriate description.

“Sort of...like a melody.”

Laughter comes again but, this time it’s paired with the moonlight slowly fading back into the tower, covering every surface until it finally reveals the appearance of the figure.  

Beautiful.  

Not an it but a he...

A man with wings.  

On the steps before you, he stands, leaning casually against the railing now. Atop his head is a tousled mop of sapphire hair, just below are his eyes- nearly black and hooded with the same seduction as his voice and cloaking his figure is a black linen ensemble fitted only by the same color corset. His pillowy lips and soft skin would be a masterpiece on their own but coupled with the giant pair of onyx wings protruding proudly from his back- his visuals become simply devastating.  

“What do you see?” He smirks, licking over his lips.

Unable to resist, you shake your head in complete awe, all of the sensible words dying before they leave your throat, “You- are you an angel?”

The light allows you to see him now as his head tilts another round of laughter, “Try again...you’re very close.”

Perhaps the clergy was right...

“A demon then...” You resign because despite your previously-held beliefs, if this really was a demon, then you know very well you shouldn’t be dealing with him. “I should go.”

His smirk broadens, “But I thought you didn’t believe in demons?”

“I didn’t but, that’s clearly what you’re alluding to. If a winged man tells me he’s a demon, I think it’s wise that I return home.”  

Through your moment of clarity, your desire for him persists- especially now that you see what he looks like. But you know better than to make a deal with a demon, even if you are desperate.

“Do you think the universe is that simple? Angels and demons? Good and evil? You don’t think that maybe- in all of his vastness, there is a chance for the inbetweeners?” He presses and now his black eyes seem to glow, his gaze slightly hypnotic.  

Tightening your coat around your body, you stay staring at him for a moment before you respond, “Is that what you are? Something in between?”

He licks his lips, his eyes finally allowing themselves to wander over your figure. There isn’t much of you showing but, he still drinks you up regardless, exposing and exciting you all at once.  

“I was sent by the underworld to do business for the gods...” He drops his voice to a near whisper, his gaze burning a hole in you, which now aches to be filled.  

You take in a shaky breath through your nose, nodding in understanding, “Did you kill the people who disappeared here? Is that what happens when their judgment goes south?”  

He arches his brow, tilting his head with his inquiry- his voice dripping with darkness, “Maybe I did...maybe I didn’t. I don’t see how that’s relevant- especially since you’ve already decided you were leaving. Which of course-” He waves his hand then, the wooden door behind you creaking open, “-you are free to do.”

There is something about him you haven’t touched on but, it’s beginning to eat you up inside. He may be an otherworldly being, possessing the tower like a beautiful virus but, he is starting to look familiar. This of course, is hard to imagine because his beauty is so striking that you don’t see how you could ever forget it. But nonetheless, you feel like you’ve seen him before.  

And this is what has kept you frozen.  

“Will you not give me any answers?” You border on pleading but, attempt to keep your tone firm.

He chuckles, “You didn’t come to me for answers. You came for help- which I’ve already agreed to give you.”

The supernatural discourse that has transpired, thoroughly distracted you from the reasons for seeking him out in the first place. Your situation had not changed; you were still desperate for money, desperate for justice and desperate for peace.  

“You won’t hurt my family...” It’s not a question, and it leaves no room for any other response aside from the one he gives you.

“I won’t.”  

Nodding, you glance behind your shoulder towards the door, “I have to go home. I don’t have the item you asked for. I can be back within the hour...”

For the first time, he looks slightly disappointed but as you complete your sentence, he shakes his head, “No. Don't come back tonight.” He insists, “If you wish to do business with me- you must return tomorrow after midnight. I will wait for you at the shoreline.”

This confuses you, “The shoreline? Why can’t we meet here? The water is dangerous after dark.”

The smirk returns to his tender lips, “I know.”  

With that, he waves his hand again- causing the door to swing open and slam against the tower walls.

Jumping at the sound, your gaze shoots back behind you before returning to where the creature stood.  

But he had vanished.  

You have no choice but to heed his requests and rush away from the tower, the curiosity inside you almost too much to bear.  

Nothing is out of the ordinary as you walk back home, at least not at first. But when you pass the massive clock tower in the center of town, you realize something strange...

The clock hadn’t moved, not even a second.  

You remember very clearly reading the time as you hurried past it on your way to the tower and now, even as you’re staring at it, it stands perfectly still. Until suddenly, without warning, the hands of time begin to move again. The clicking almost startles you, your brain filling with a million questions despite your decision to turn away and return home.  

Time had seemingly stood still whilst you were in the tower.  

Slipping beneath the covers, you try your hardest to get to sleep despite being bombarded with images of the haunting man you had just encountered.  

You know you should be terrified.  

You know you should be wary.

But the familiarity of him has possessed you and, you’re determined to understand why.  

The next night, with your treasured object tucked securely in your coat, you make your way back to him.  

You make sure to check the clock tower before you do, logging the time away for later to see if last night had been more than just a fluke.  

12:32am.

The clock tower has never lied but, you’re starting to think it might be influenced by whatever resided in the tower- magic, beast, or otherwise.  

As you pass through the many trees, you begin to hear the chaotic crashing of the waves in the distance. The tower may be frightening but, few things could match the malevolent temper of the sea. In fact, you’ve always believed that nothing could. The sea was unrivaled in her cruelty, consuming the world at will, just for the fun of it- you've theorized that she likes the screams. During the day, she simmered- blue and serene, allowing boats to decorate her surface like candles on a birthday cake. At night though, her temper worsens and it’s as if she suddenly remembers all the injustice she has faced. Her waves swell to horrific heights, smashing into the seawalls built around your town, creeping over like a titan looking for vengeance.  

You’ve always felt pity for her. It must be hard: being the heart and soul of humanity, being responsible for the very nature of things- only to be forgotten. Only to be mistreated...

Your boots are discarded near the last patch of grass before the sand and, your toes brace themselves icy chill of the sea breeze. You’re especially thankful for the coat now as you suspect that your teeth would have already begun chattering had it not been for the thick fabric protecting you.  

The waves haven’t begun their violent dance just yet but, you can sense their temper beneath your feet. They will begin soon.  

“The sea-” The voice from the tower is behind you, “it suits you.”

Breathless, you turn to face him and even though you’re more prepared for his beauty than you were last night, it still shocks you.

He’s wearing a black silk gown, that drapes effortlessly off his body, the sleeves made out of French lace and extending well past his fingertips. His wings are shuttered behind him, folded almost modestly against his back.

“Thank you.” It’s the only response you have before you reach into the fold of your coat, “I have the-”

He holds up his hand, his voice commanding but gentle, “Wait. I want you to walk with me first. I don’t like rushing through my business deals.”

Your hand slowly retreats from your coat as you warily look behind you, “You want to walk along the shoreline? I told you, it’s too dangerous- at least for me it is, I don’t exactly have an escape mechanism attached to my back.”

He smirks, his tempting gaze flourishing with fondness you cannot place, “What causes you to mistrust the sea so much? Surely she wouldn’t hurt one of her own...”

Your brow furrows, “What do you mean?”

Extending from the confines of silk, his fingers reach out to you, fluttering with invitation, “I will show you.”

And really, you’d be a fool not to accept.  

Interlacing your fingers with his, you feel electricity simmer ever so slightly beneath your skin. You’re assuming it’s from the power that likely resides within him but, you don’t expect it to affect you so much.

The sound of the waves begins to softly roar in the distance but the water isn’t close enough to the shoreline to pose any immediate threat.

Not yet at least...

You begin walking alongside him as he leads you both in the opposite direction of your town border. For quite a few moments, he just gazes at the eternal stretch of sand before you, his soft mouth curved up ever so slightly. He looks pensive and serene all at once and, it confuses you.

“May I tell you a story?”

His request surprises you but, you aren’t really in a position to say no. And if you’re being honest, you really didn’t want to.  

“Yes.” You murmur, feeling compelled to keep your volume at a minimum.

He smiles softly to himself, glancing towards the water briefly before beginning.  

“The water has many gods...” He speaks softly, letting out a sigh, “Lir, Irish god of the sea, Tefnut, Egyptian goddess of the rain, Amimitl, Aztec god of lakes and fisherman...” His explanation already has you interested. You were taught much of the stories beyond your land but, it had always fascinated you, “The gods of the sea are known for the temperate nature, they often stay away from humans and avoid interfering with the mortal coil. Death by water is merely a request they carry out for the gods of death and destruction and thus, there is goddess who rules over the violence of the sea itself.”

Just as he finishes his sentence, the temper of the sea seems to roar to life, the swollen waves crashing aggressively, still not close enough to reach you.

Not yet at least...

“Cymopoleia, is the goddess of violent sea storms. Poseidon, her father, tasked her with overseeing the malignant waters and tending to the causalities. She was not the creator of the storms but she carried the ability.” He moves through the story as if he has told it a 100 times but he seems captivated by it nonetheless, “When it came time for her to bear a child. She conjured up a spirit from within her very core. She crafted them out of the essence of the sea and placed them inside of clamshell in her palace. She was awaiting the full moon when someone snuck into the depths of the ocean and stole them from her.”

The gasp that leaves your lips cannot be helped, you didn’t realize how engrossed you were until suddenly you recognize the port from another town nearby.

You had been walking awhile.

“Why would someone do that?” You press, shaking your head.

He sends a solemn look your way, “Many thoughtless humans believe that if they capture the essence of a god, they will become one themselves. Foolishly, he opened the clam shell and released the spirit into the world. By the time the goddess found him, it was too late- but she delegated his fate anyway. She took his life beneath the depths of a violent storm and placed a curse upon anyone who shared his bloodline. She made it so that any one of his descendants would bear the physical embodiment of his fate.”

“So, they look like they’ve died at sea?”

He can’t help but smirk, a bit of the darkness you saw at the tower, beginning to creep back. “Indeed. They are horribly disfigured and regardless of their efforts, they all meet the same fate. His lineage believes that if they send enough offerings out to sea or if they build high enough walls, that they will somehow escape their deaths. But of course, this if futile- the goddess vowed that she would continue to collect them until her spirit was returned.”  

His story ends and it’s like something clicks within you. Without warning, you squeeze his hand, slowing both of you to a stop, just before the light of the upcoming pier hits you.  

“Does this have something to do with my town? Is that why you’re telling me this?”  

Lord Invictus certainly fit the description for a descendent of this thief and, although it bores no sense of logic- you have no choice but to believe it anyway.  

It all fits together too well...

He turns towards you now, his smirk now a small smile, “It has to do with you Y/N.”

Your brow furrows, “Me? What do you mean?”

He nods to your coat, something otherworldly lingering in his eyes, “I’d like to see what you’ve brought with you now.”

Still riddled with confusion, you reach inside your coat and find that the item you had brought with you (a beaded necklace gifted to you at birth by your parents) had turned into something else.  

And now, sitting in the palm of your hand- was a clamshell.  

“What is this? This isn’t what I brought to you- I-” You begin to panic, confusion and fear starting to take over, “Did you do this? Did you take my necklace?”

Finally, the sinister smirk returns as his wings begin to unfurl from behind his back. Along with his shift in expression, another danger is brewing very close to you- you can feel it.  

The sea is growing irritated and whipping the wind and the water up into a frenzy. As you look toward the water, you have no choice but to look on in horror as you see the beginning of something deadly.  

A rogue wave.

The grip on your hand tightens as his extraordinary strength keeps you in place.  

“I think it’s time I formally introduce myself-” His voice is loaded with bad intentions but it sounds sweet anyway as he burns his gaze into yours, “My name is Jimin. Son of Tartarus, the god of punishment and Nyx, the goddess of the night.”

Your eyes are wide with desperation, not fully registering what he said before he’s yanking you against his chest and turning you to face the sea. Standing behind you, he unleashes a spell of wicked laughter as his wings unfurl from behind is back to wrap around the both of you, so that the only thing you’re able to see is the wall of water coming for you.  

“I have to come to send you home Y/N...your mother has been waiting for you a very long time.”

His arms are wrapped around you now, crushing you against his chest as his wings begin flapping- the wind picking up furiously around you.

“Jimin!” You scream, eyes welling up with tears, “You promised you wouldn’t hurt me! You promised! Why are you doing this to me?!”

He laughs at you, and it isn’t necessarily malevolent but merely amused, as if he in on a joke you weren’t part of.

“Shhhh, quiet down my little sea nymph...” He whispers salaciously into your ear, “...your fate will be painless.”

You’re crying now, digging your nails into his skin, attempting to break free as the massive creature that is the ocean rushes towards you without mercy. The crest of the wave arches above you proudly, the swirling darkness of the water mocking the mere audacity of your existence but, as you brace for impact- it never comes.  

Only the darkness does...

And it’s the darkness that consumes you.  

“Jimin!” A voice breaks into your subconscious, luring you out of what you hope was a nightmare, “You couldn’t have brought her home without scaring her? She was practically driftwood when she arrived here.”

That familiar twinkle of laughter sounds then and, it forces your eyes open.  

“I’m sorry your grace- it's just in my nature.” He defends poorly, still chuckling to himself, “I can’t imagine my brothers are doing much better.”

You are somewhere extraordinary, that much is certain. Above your immediate line of sight is an ornate glass ceiling that seems to glow a cerulean blue. All around you are gold furnishings, each decorated with various moldings of sea creatures.  

“She’s awake!”  

Your vision, still slightly cloudy, now lands upon a being so beautiful- that you have to blink a few times to ensure you’re seeing the right thing. Draped in blue silk and decorated with gold and pearls, is a woman who looks at you with nothing but love in her eyes.

“Oh my- its really you...”

She seems tentative but, you’re suddenly overcome with joy- filled with an almost cosmic sense of peace.  

“Mother!” You cry, rushing off of the bed you were laying on and into her arms.  

She takes you in her arms immediately, her skin cool against yours like the tepid waters of the bay. She sniffles, tightening her grip on you,

“I knew you’d come home...I knew one day I would find you.”

And it really doesn’t make much sense does it?

How could your life swing so violently from one direction to the next?

Your life on earth seems so insignificant now...now that you’re back with her.  

Cymopoleia- queen of violent sea storms and, your mother.  

She explains it all to you, gently stroking your hair and fawning over you.  

The spirit in the depths was you. Born into a human body, you were fated to one day meet with the demi-god of darkness, who with a bit of trickery- would return you to your rightful place in the cosmos.  

Your mother assures you that your mortal family would be relieved of your memory until it was safe for you to visit them, until the gods of fate decide. In addition, Lord Invictus would be the last of the bloodline to pay for what his ancestor had done and, the fog of greed and corruption- which begin the day you were born, would soon be lifted.  

The explanation is long and doesn’t leave you completely fulfilled but, your mother assures you that you have all the time in the world to understand the complexity of the universe.  

Hours later, after you’ve had a decent feast, your mother instructs Jimin to escort you to your bedroom.  

As he leads you down the hallway towards your chambers, you send a playful glare his way, “So- how much of what you told me was a lie?”

He merely smirks, “None of it.”

You scoff, “Even the part of about your voice? And all that nonsense about excitement and me being curious? You knew all along what was to happen- you just tricked me.”

Jimin chuckles darkly, stopping just outside your bedroom door before turning to you, “The part about my voice frightening people wasn’t a lie, Y/N. My father is the god of punishment, any mortal that hears my voice usually cowers in fear...”

“Is that why I felt so drawn to you? Because you were meant to take me home?”  

His smirk broadens, “No...you feel drawn me because you want to fuck me.”

Your mouth goes completely dry at his bold statement but, you are unable to deny it- your fingers suddenly twitching at your side.

“Wh-”

“It’s not your fault really...” He murmurs, his body shifting towards you, “...it’s just the way I was made. I am used to people lusting after me- however,” Jimin reaches out then, to brush his thumb over the swell of your cheek, “-I have never known true lust until I had the pleasure of meeting you.”

“You lust for me?” You whisper, completely drawn up with desire- finally allowing your true nature, the nature of a demi-goddess pour out of your soul.

He licks his lips, his gaze upon you timid as he presses his thumb into your face, “I do.”  

You turn to the side suddenly, capturing his thumb between your lips, “Show me.”

It's all it takes: that one phrase of consent being enough to unleash all the urges within him.

You’re inside your chamber seconds later, Jimin clawing at the fabric of your robe, his fingers digging into your skin as he does, his lips latching on to every part of you he can reach.

“I knew the moment you walked into my tower-” He grunts, “I knew- there was no way a mortal could be tempting, so dreadfully seductive.”

You sigh hopelessly, raking your hands through the sapphire tendrils on his head, your lips ghosting along the swell of his cheek, the tail of his brow, the shell of his ear...

“In the underworld...” He’s practically growling now, scratching his nails up the newly exposed skin of your back, “We are never taught to refuse our desires. You were my greatest challenge- it took everything in me not to devour you right there.”

You smirk now, positioning your lips at his ear, “I wouldn’t have known what to do with you though- aren't you glad you were patient?”

He grunts again, pressing his hips against yours defiantly, “Patience is for virtuous gods- “ He doesn't answer your question but, you know that he means yes. In spite of his darker nature, Jimin still believes in doing the right thing.... most of the time.  

He has you on the bed moments later, his wings spreading proudly. He’s panting, his eyes completely black with lust as he nudges your legs open, determined to finally taste what he’s been craving.  

For the demi-god of darkness, denying his desires for even a second is painful. He aches to fufill them over and over again...

You were certainly no exception.  

But you want to keep teasing him...

Reaching down, you spread yourself open for him- feeling the visceral substance of your arousal sticking to your inner thighs.

“What are you waiting for then?” You lean up, grasping your hand behind his neck and staring directly into the abyss that is his gaze, “Defile me...”

Jimin growls, sliding into you instantly, his hands quickly bracing themselves on either side of your head. He smirks as your eyes roll back the sheer pleasure of him inside of you causing your nipples to harden.  

“Oh look at that-” He chuckles, his own expression unstable with pleasure, “Are you going brain dead already hm? Is this cock that good?”

Your eyes come back into play as you stare up at him, your hands gripping either side of his face as he starts a power rhythm within you.  

This wasn’t meant to last long, the carnal desire too much for either one of you to handle...

Perhaps, if your feelings permitted it- you'd make love another time.  

Nodding, you moan as he increases the rhythm, pressing your forehead against his own.  

“You feel so good.” You whisper, “I didn’t know it could- oh...” A whimper leaves your lips as he hits that spot inside of you, the pleasure completely ruining your ability to speak.

“Of course you didn’t- you’ve only ever let mortals play with your pretty cunt haven’t you?” He laughs, mocking you and cooing all at once, “And now that I’ve gotten ahold of it, you’re never going to want anyone else. I will ruin you ugh-” He finally breaks, his own brow furrowed with the onslaught of his release as you tighten around him, “-ugh fuck yes. I can feel how badly your cunt wants me- it's like you’re begging me to cum.”

“I want you to cum,” You whisper shakily, kissing at his mouth, “Fill me up please, I need it.”

He growls, kissing you back with just as much fervor, his hips moving so fast that the pleasure fucks with your vision.  

“I’m going to make a mess of you, they will smell me on you until I can come back-” He promises, smirking ever so slightly, “and then- I'll paint the inside of you all over again won’t I? Such a masterpiece this cunt will be...and you’ll be all mine, cumming only for me.”  

And he wasn’t wrong because, mere seconds later- the two of you are cumming all over one another, ruining the silk sheets with your release and clawing desperately at one another.  

With the mutual utterance of your names, Jimin collapses beside you and, moments later- when you get your wits about you, he is ushering you onto his chest.  

Sweaty, exhausted and satisfied, you lay together in silence for quite a while.

Until finally you speak, “I’m not quite sure what came over me.”

Jimin chuckles but this time, the sound is much warmer than you’re used to, “Immortal lust, it’s a blessing and a curse but, eternal life has to stay interesting somehow.”

You trace patterns on his chest whilst he covers your body with one of his wings, the feathers teasing at your sensitive skin.

“Did you mean it?”  

And he doesn’t even bother asking, he knows exactly what you’re referring to.

“I want you.” He affirms, “If you’ll have me- I felt quite possessive of you then but, I won’t insist on anything you aren’t comfortable with.”

You smile, tracing a heart directly over the spot where his heart would beat, “It fits doesn’t it? You and I?”

If the past few days have taught you anything, it is that sometimes- it is appropriate to succumb to fate. Sometimes, believing in the simplicity of destiny works out. Being with Jimin felt right and, for now, this was enough.  

“It does.” His statement is simple but his expression says it all: he is elated.

You fall back into comfortable silence once again before one more pressing question leaves your lips, “Did I hear you mention something about your brothers earlier?”

Jimin nods, his eyes half-closed as he cuddles closer to you, “You did. I have six of them.”

“Are they- like you?” You murmur, unable to stop your curiosity.

He nods again, “They are.”

You think one more question will suffice but, his answer will unfortunately bring about a thousand more, “Are they all on missions too?”

Jimin’s trademark smirk shows itself once again as he snickers, “They are-” He repeats before a great sense of pride comes over his expression...

“I was just the first one to return.”

A/N: should this be a series? asking for a friend...

[therealvinelle]

Regarding the Volturi and the Southern wars

I’ve seen this fantheory floating about in fandom that the Volturi allow the newborn wars in Latin America to continue as part of some twelve-step-plan to become more powerful and also because they’re evil, and I am in the mood to debunk it with canon.

The argument is not unreasonable - the Volturi are peacekeepers of the supernatural world and could crush the newborn wars whenever they like. Why don’t they?

This would be another one of my posts where I explain why in my own words, and people either take me at my word or they don’t, but this one happens to be explained by Jasper in Eclipse.

First of, why and how the Volturi stepped in:

“When the body count reached epidemic proportions — in fact, your histories blame a disease for the population slump — the Volturi finally stepped in. The entire guard came together and sought out every newborn in the bottom half of North America. Benito was entrenched in Puebla, building his army as quickly as he could in order to take on the prize — Mexico City. The Volturi started with him, and then moved on to the rest. 

“Anyone who was found with the newborns was executed immediately, and, since everyone was trying to protect themselves from Benito, Mexico was emptied of vampires for a time. 

“The Volturi were cleaning house for almost a year. This was another chapter of our history that will always be remembered, though there were very few witnesses left to speak of what it was like. I spoke to someone once who had, from a distance, watched what happened when they visited Culiacán.”

(Eclipse, page 167)

The Volturi did squash the Southern wars. Completely. The participants had gone too far, they threatened the secret, and the Volturi acted accordingly.

They also fulfilled their peacekeeping mission:

“It was enough that the fever for conquest did not spread from the South. The rest of the world stayed sane. We owe the Volturi for our present way of life. (sic)

I think this is a good place to remind people of how the Volturi enforce their law. They do not execute criminals based on morality, or any human convention. They do not care about rapists, torturers, or murderers. They have no institutions to protect, no people in the traditional sense. They have one law and purpose, and that is to keep the secret.

There are amendments, yes, such as “don’t abandon a newborn”, but that’s because a newborn left to its own devices will have no control and no knowledge of the law, and be at a huge risk of betraying the secret. There are no amendments that do not in some way relate to the secret.

Which brings us to the last point, the point of contention. Why did the Southern wars resume?

Jasper to the rescue:

“But when the Volturi went back to Italy, the survivors were quick to stake their claims in the South.

 “It didn’t take long before covens began to dispute again. There was a lot of bad blood, if you’ll forgive the expression. Vendettas abounded. The idea of newborns was already there, and some were not able to resist. However, the Volturi had not been forgotten, and the southern covens were more careful this time. The newborns were selected from the human pool with more care, and given more training. They were used circumspectly, and the humans remained, for the most part, oblivious. Their creators gave the Volturi no reason to return.

“The wars resumed, but on a smaller scale. Every now and then, someone would go too far, speculation would begin in the human newspapers, and the Volturi would return and clean out the city. But they let the others, the careful ones, continue. . . .” (sic)

Part of the reason why these wars continue is because the Volturi can’t be everywhere at once. If Jane set up camp and made keeping the peace in Mexico her new raison d’être, the Southern wars would just take it someplace else, while Jane (who by all appearances is likely extremely busy) would be unable to do her job elsewhere in the world.

The idea of newborn wars had been had, and not even the Volturi can kill an idea.

Even so, look at what Jasper is saying here. He’s not saying the Volturi changed their minds, “alright, you kids really want your newborn wars, fine.” He’s saying that the nature of these wars changed. They were now small scale, with some of the warmongers, the ones the Volturi allow, being careful and not going too far.

The vampires in the Southern wars are treated exactly the same as every other vampire in the Twilight world. Keep the law and the Volturi let you be, break it and the Volturi punish you. 

The Volturi don’t crush the Southern wars for the same reason why they don’t crush vampires who eat people (or who become doctors and send their kids to high school for that matter), and it’s because they enforce only one law. 

[snicketstrange]

Rereading The End Chapter 13

Chapter 13: From the moment the Baudelaire teeth bit down on the apple—first Violet's, and then Klaus's, and then Sunny's—the stalks and caps of the Medusoid Mycelium began to shrink, and within moments all traces of the dreaded mushroom had withered away, and the children could breathe clearly and easily. The hybrid apple almost instantly cures the disease caused by the deadly fungus MM. This leads me to the conclusion that Kit's death was unnecessary. Kit could have been saved if the moment Beatrice Jr had her umbilical cord cut, she ate an apple. I don't know why Violet didn't even think about it, even if it didn't work out, I think it would be good for someone to have mentioned the possibility of saving Kit. "Stockpot," Sunny said, and walked to the rack of pots on the ceiling, where the snake helped her take down an enormous metal pot that could hold a great number of apples and in fact had been used to make an enormous vat of applesauce a number of years previously." This passage makes me even more certain that Lemony had read the island book, for how else would he know that precisely that cauldron was the same one that had been used to make a particular dessert years before? Certainly he read the island book and was able to compare information previously written in the book with the new information written by the Baudelaires. "Who was playing the violin in the candlelit restaurant when the Baudelaire parents first laid eyes on one another..." This description bothers me a lot. This seems to indicate that Bertrand and Beatrice met for the first time in a restaurant, however, I believed that one of the people cited by Lemony as B in the VFD school on TBL in Lemony's childhood was Bertrand. But to think that Bertrand Baudelaire first met Beatrice a few years after she met Lemony makes more sense given that Lemony apparently didn't trust Bertrand very much. In ATWQ, the way S. talks to Lemony about Bertrand seems to indicate that Lemony didn't know Bertrand personally or at least wasn't intimate with him. Ish suggests that all islanders leave the island after being poisoned. I always imagined that Ish actually believed he could save everyone by getting to the factory that produced the poison's thinner. But rereading the chapter today, I realized that his plan was to let everyone die. Those people had failed to produce a peaceful community, and he himself had failed as a facilitator. As I said, Olaf had triumphed. Ish apparently acknowledged his defeat. But for some reason, this motivated him to let everyone die except himself. And just as some cult leaders led all the faithful to commit collective suicide by making them believe that this was the way to achieve salvation, Ish also made his faithful commit collective suicide. The deadly MM fungus wouldn't spread across the world, and Ish knew it. He would make sure everyone was dead before they reached shore.  I'm sorry for Friday... Ish has become a child killer. Friday chose to die rather than withdraw from her family's religious sect even though she was smart enough to realize that her decision would result in her own death. Daniel Handler makes the dangerous message in Ish's words very clear: "Your mother is right, Friday," Ishmael said firmly. "You should respect your parent's wishes."  This time it wasn't a suggestion: it was something Ish said Friday should do. Ish didn't want to lose any of his faithful. Ish knew that apples could heal the island people, because he had read about it in the island book. He ate the apple himself to save himself. He really decided to kill the entire colony. And everyone followed him blindly to death. But did they survive through the apple that Ink brought to them? I truly believe Daniel Handler inserted that hope here just to lessen how dark the story was. He left that question unanswered. Lemony Snicket doesn't know if they died or not. But I'm pretty sure Daniel Handler knows they're dead. People refused to eat the apple, even when they were poisoned, even with the arguments of the Baudelaires. Why would they change their minds when a serpent that doesn't speak came to the vessel? Ish didn't want people to eat the apple, he wanted them to die. Do you really think Ish would let one of the islanders eat the apple when the snake arrived? Also, how much time did the islanders have before they passed out from lack of air? The Baudelaires were infected at the same time and had almost no strength... So, in a few minutes the chance of saving the islanders through a single apple brought by a mute animal would become close to zero, considering that the only person who would still be awake and with strength would be Ish himself, who evidently didn't want anyone to eat the apple. Now let's talk about Kit again. "How reliable is Snicket a narrator?" I think this question is asked many times and there are still people who will defend one side or the other of the issue. However now I realized that maybe we were asking the right question about the wrong Snicket. Kit Snicket needs to be re-evaluated with regard to her narration being trustworthy or not. It is true that the certainty of death often makes a person very trustworthy. But there's an important detail about this: Kit wasn't sure she was going to die. Kit believed that survival was possible, precisely because the cure was so close to her. "I hope I'm half as good a mother as yours was, Violet," she said. "You will be," Klaus said. "I don't know," (Kit said)  I believe Kit's plan was to have the baby and then be a good mother to her. Despite that, she also knew she could die. Therefore, as death was not an absolute certainty, total honesty was perhaps not the only option. Now let's get back to what we actually know: 1 - Kit claimed that the Queequeg was attacked. 2 - Fernald went to Hector's mobile home with the object of attacking it and according to Lemony Snicket that's what he did. (See TPP chapter 8)- 3 - According to Olaf, the Carmelite Submarine was stolen by Fernald and Fiona. (See TPP chapter 9 In other words, while Fernald was fighting the Quagmires he had already betrayed Olaf and he had already stolen Olaf's submarine along with Fiona. Come to think of it, realize how unlikely it is that what Kit said was true. She said: "I failed you," Kit Said Sadly, and Coughed. "Quigley Managed to Reach the Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home, Just as I Hoped He Would, and Helping His Siblings and Hector Catch the Treacherous Eagles in an Enormous Net, while I met Captain Widdershins and his stepchildren." Then there's Quigley's difficult move to self-sustaining hot air mobile home. How did he do it? We don't know... But in the world of asoue amazing things are possible. But after that Kit claims that Captain W was already with his stepchildren. This contradicts Lemony's claim that Fernald was the enemy who had led the eagles to the self-sustaining hot air mobile home. So if Lemony isn't lying, (and I don't see any reason for Lemony to lie about these details when he could have just omitted it) Kit is lying. Fernald wouldn't have stolen the Carmelita along with Fiona, then gone to the self -sustaining hot air mobile home, used the eagles to attack them, then left the eagles there, returned to the submarine, met Captain W, regretted it, found Kit and then abandoned the Carmelita and then went along with Kit to help to the Quagmires. I mean... Is this possible? Yes. But this is very unlikely. Especially since Kit claimed to have been attacked. Did Kit Snicket have reason to lie? I believe so. The reason is that her hypocrisy had been exposed. When she spoke out against the mutiny, two islanders had shown the Baudelaires that she herself was also a violent woman. Now she needed to invent a story to preserve her image. In fact, even if she died there that day, she certainly wanted the Baudelaires to tell her daughter good stories about Kit Snicket. In other words, Kit wanted the Baudelaires to portray her from the best angle. So Kit Snicket lied. She denied having been attacked and taken part in a match against Fernald. If there's any truth to Kit's story, I think it's more likely that Submarine Q detected Submarine C via sonar. (After all, we saw in TGG that this is quite possible). Submarine C attacked Submarine Q. (Submarine C has tentacles that can be used as weapons at short ranges, as we saw in TGG). Kit hurt her feet in this attack, as she claimed to have happened. Fernald was on Submarine C along with Fiona. And the eagles were nearby causing problems for the self-sustaining hot air mobile home, which was right above. Then yes, the house fell on them. Then things can make sense. Both submarine C and submarine Q were hit. And then Fernald and Fiona were seen by Kit for the first time, in the water. I hope several kids also got off the C-sub in time, and Kit didn't mention them to avoid needing to give details about the fight she had with C-sub. "From the depths of the sea a mysterious figure approaching—almost like a question mark, rising out of the water." As we saw in TGG, this question-mark entity had been behind Submarine C for a long time. It was submarine C that attracted her.  An important note: I am not saying that this was Daniel Handler's intention. He probably just got confused by generating these contradictions. I am saying that, given what is written, I think this is the best explanation. "All I heard," she said, "was one of the Quagmires calling Violet's name." That phrase always made me dream. Now I understand that DH's goal was probably to somehow strengthen the love triangle between Ducan, Violet and Quigley. But he did it at such an awkward moment that it made me imagine other, more interesting things. And do you know? I still have a right to imagine. In my headcanon, one of the Quagmires saw a woman inside looking like Violet. And he got confused, thinking she was the girl. And so he asks out loud, "Violet?" to which Kit interpreted that he was screaming for Violet. And that's my big plot Twist from asoue. Beatrice was alive all along, and not even Lemony Snicket knows it. That might not be true, but for me it's the perfect ending. Chapter 13, on the other hand, goes against my selfish desires. It's a chapter devoted to accepting death, and my headcanon is the exact opposite of that. The Baudelaires and Kit mourn the death of the people they loved. And they cry a lot more than all the previous descriptions. I think Daniel Handler abandoned all ideas about the possibility that one of the Baudelaire parents could have survived, although he honestly thought about it at some point. But as I've already explained, Headcanon are valid when the author decides to let the story have a life of its own. But I have to recognize that the story is better if you just accept how the story looks. Death is surprisingly simple. So I don't think the great unknown represents death. I think the great unknown represents the open ending of asoue and uncertainty about the fate of some characters. In the end, it doesn't matter whether the Baudelaires' parents survived or not. The fact is, they never met again in recorded history. Just like they've never met the Quagmires again. All these characters are in the great unknown. And like the publication of the end, the Baudelaires themselves are symbolically in the great unknown, as it doesn't matter whether or not they survived their departure from the island: in the end we won't have access to new official adventures about them. But the beauty of the unknown is that it stimulates the imagination. And it's interesting that in my imagination, Beatrice was already inside the great unknown when one of the Quagmires saw her. So, in my own Headcanon, Beatrice's fate is uncertain. As much as I want to escape from allegories to interpret asoue, the allegory is present even though the entity in the form of a question mark is a physical entity: the name given to the entity and its shape make it a walking allegory, just like the ants are a walking allegory for organization and work. We keep thinking: if it was God who created animals like these, would he want to teach us a lesson? And if Daniel Handler is the god of asoue, did he want to teach a lesson with the question-mark entity? I think the answer is yes in both cases. So, in a universe created by someone's creativity, entities can be both physical entities and allegories at the same time. So, I think that's what TGU is. And I don't see any more problems with that. It is an interesting fact to note that Kit believed her both brothers were dead. In LSTUA we notice that Kit was trying to exonerate Lemony of the Baudelaire arson charge, even though she knew he might already be dead, which may indicate that she believed Lemony could have died in the fire itself. Kit claims that the Baudelaire family and the Snicket family needed to stay away from each other, not just Lemony and Beatrice needed to stay away from each other. These mysterious motives must surely have been detailed in the letter Beatrice wrote to Lemony.  So I don't think the wedding was canceled because Beatrice fell in love with someone else.  I don't think the wedding was definitely canceled because they were life-threatening.  I think there are organizational reasons for the Snickets and the Baudelaires to keep away from each other. Now the scene of Olaf's death. I have to say: what an epic scene! Whether it was Olaf who killed Beatrice and Bertrand we will never know for sure, but he never admitted it even when he believed he would die. He didn't seem to be willing to hide facts at the time. He seemed to me to list the things he managed to do. And Olaf always liked to brag about his murders. So for me the fire was accidental. Oalf bit the apple in order to recover from the MM fungus. He, like Kit and Ish, apparently knew that apples cure the disease caused by the fungus. He at first refused. Had he accepted death? I think so. Now: What was the relationship between Kit and Olaf? Everything indicates that it had been an old relationship. Something like a first love. Olaf did not apologize. He didn't think he was wrong. He wasn't sorry for his villainy. Kit survived for more than an hour, I am sure of it, before Beatrice could be born. A mother's willpower is really impressive. This excerpt below is for me one of the most important: "The Baudelaires would sit together in the two large reading chairs and take turns reading out loud from the book their parents had left behind, and sometimes they would flip to the back of the book, and add a few lines to the history themselves. reading and writing, the siblings found many answers for which they had been looking, although each answer, of course, only brought forth another mystery, as there were many details of the Baudelaires' lives that seemed like a strange, unreadable shape of some great unknown." This is clear proof that the Baudelaires left their own history on the island. Not only did Klaus write about it, but all three Baudelaires did, including Sunny who must have had enough time to learn to write. And Lemony knows they wrote it. I can only conclude that Lemony knows what they wrote, and it is on this basis that Lemony makes a narrative from the Baudelaires' point of view, even including an exact record of what they thought and talked privately. Another evidence that Lemony read this book is seen in the following excerpt: "As the night grew later the ould drop off to sleep, just as their parents did, in the chairs in the secret space beneath the roots of the bitter apple tree." Lemony knew details of what had happened to the Baudelaires' parents, which evidently happened when they were on the island. They themselves had written these events in the same book. Now, regarding the final section of the chapter: "In many ways, the lives of the Baudelaire orphans that year is not unlike my own, now that I have concluded my investigation. Like Violet, like Klaus, and like Sunny, I visit certain grave, and often spend my mornings standing on a brae, staring out at the same sea. It is not the whole story, of course, but it is enough. Under the circumstances, it is the best for which you can hope." I think it's pretty clear that Lemony wrote this passage while he was on the island. Lemony was visiting the same graves as he waited for an opportunity to leave the island. I will still read TBL again. So I know that Lemony wrote the letter to the editor of TBL after he learned of Beatrice Jr.'s existence. After he learned of her existence, Lemony searched for the items cited in TBL. So after that he went to the island and finished writing TE on the island. As I said, it is very likely that at this time the island was already inhabited by very nice people who did not allow apples to be removed from the island.

[fectless]

(This is technically in response to the post right below this one, as world building totally counts for it, right?)

Anywho, more fandom thoughts, but for BLEACH this time. I recently started rewatching the anime again for the nth time as part of my language practice (and having the Japanese subtitles on while watching it in Japanese is an experience) and reached that episode where Aizen and co. get rescued by Menos Grande after declaring their intentions to Soul Society. And then a few things hit me.

The first: Rukia says, the first time Ichigo sees her sending someone on via Soul Burial, that one neither feels hunger nor gets sick in Soul Society. We know that this is false for a few reasons.

Those who can become shinigami definitely need to eat and all souls need water which implies that they can suffer from thirst (and perhaps heat exhaustion).

Captain Ukitake is suffering from an unknown disease that makes him literally cough out his lungs. I’ve read something about it being a defect in the make up of his soul that is only not killing him because of the pact with the Soul King’s arm, but I cannot recall if this was canon or fanon (as the Blood War arc was just like that). If so, does this mean that sickness does occur in Soul Society, but so rarely as to not be mentioned? Or does it occur more in the outer districts? Why does it occur?

Hisana died from a sickness as well. Yes, it’s stated to be exhaustion, but I feel like that doesn’t make sense? Like, the flashback in the anime has her abandoning Rukia after she collapses while carrying her around. And she collapses later when she regrets this and goes to look for her sister. And then she dies.

Seriously, why does it occur? It’s weird. And it cannot be an Aizen thing as I’m pretty sure Aizen is younger than Ukitake. Is it because of what happened to the soul king? Does it have something to do with when people get sent on (like if they were close to being a hollow)? Is it because they died while sick? Is it because of their resolve?

...Do we never see sick souls in Soul Society other than them because they usually just. Die pretty soon after arriving?

And if spiritual power leaking is what causes spiritual pressure, and the “vents” can be closed... do people in the districts sometimes close them by mistake and then blow up? Is spontaneous combustion a thing in the afterlife?

The second: I’m pretty sure “Ichirin no Hana” is a love song that Byakuya is singing to Hisana’s memory.

Someone has probably stated this before, but the lyrics of the song literally say how some one, a “single flower,” is precious and can’t be replaced. How that flower bloomed despite being stuck somewhere dark and how they looked lovely but like they were about to wither away. And that the singer would accept all of their pain if only that person would smile and stay with them...

The title of the song also matches the title of the chapter in which Byakuya reveals to Rukia the secrets he’d been keeping from her about Hisana. He uses the same words, “ichirin no hana” to describe the season in which she died

Literally his whole dilema during this arc, the entire way he interacted with Rukia up to this point, was that he was conflicted between his sense of duty (to his parents, his wife and keeping his word) and his feelings for his beloved Hisana. Rukia’s physical resemblance to her sister is almost uncanny and the lie she is told when she asks why she was adopted was, “You look like Byakuya’s late wife.” How much must he have hated that? A person whom he had sworn to protect that, had she arrived two years earlier might have saved his wife’s (after)life? A person that looks just like his beloved, who reminds him of her every time he sees her (for those first 50 years), but is not and never will be Hisana. And then. To know that she’s going to be executed for crimes, that she felt she could not rely upon him enough to even let him know she’d encountered trouble in the human world when he’s been doing his best to ensure she���s safe (because that is one of the few reasonable explanations for why Rukia hadn’t been promoted yet, and then was promoted during the 3 year gap)? To see her stripped of her rank, her strength even (with that collar and the stone of the prison tower). To see a small form who so resembles his beloved all listless and soon to die, wearing a white yukata like his wife had in her last days...

Watching it again made me feel things, okay? Like yeah, it seems like it’s a stupid dilema from some perspectives. Especially considering Central 46 had a run in with Aizen by then, but. Byakuya was raised in the Seireitei. He was raised knowing that his life was the Seireitei’s tool. That his duty, his reason for existing was for the sake of his family’s honor, so he must be composed, must act as the family and Soul Society bid him. That’s some mighty powerful brainwashing/indoctrination right there. And he broke it once already to marry some nobody from the slums. He did something not only against the norms, but something selfish. Maybe if she’d had high spiritual power this would have been accepted, but she was sickly and likely did not. He went against the clan elders who had probably instilled obedience in him since birth and was afraid of doing it again.

(And if you count the filler arcs, you can bet that they held that one Kuchiki who went traitor against him too. Like: “he married that Hisana girl against our orders? What next? Will he betray Soul Society too?”)

And maybe I’m making a bigger deal out of his upbringing than I need to. Maybe it wasn’t really like this. But I feel like it really was. (Moreso with the filler arcs and what I’ve heard of the light novels.)

Also, this song and the way that the opening animation fit together really solidifies the whole “Ichigo and Rukia were always meant to have a tragic romance” vibe that I kept getting the first time I encountered this series.

The third: Rukia was likely younger than six months (physically) when she was abandoned, but I’m pretty sure that she was older than three months when she and Hisana died.

Her blanket was pink in the flashback.

Sure, the above might not seem to have much significance but it’s been proven in canon that clothes are part of oneself. I reblogged a post a while ago that went into detail, but to sum it up, clothes are part of your self image and your self image determines a bit about what you look like when you die.

Babies are usually no longer swaddled by the time they’re six months old, and some places recommend that you stop by the end of their second month.

Babies have pretty bad vision when they’re born. They take four to six months to reliably track objects in motion and use binocular vision decently. They take about four months to see across a room, and about two months to see farther than maybe 30 cm away. And around the three month mark, they start having decent color vision. Around then is when babies supposedly start showing color preference.

Babies tend to have poor long term memory. (To be fair, they’ve got a lot going on compared to being in the womb and sensory overload sucks.) Their memory by the age of six months is only a few weeks. Two months old had a memory span of a few days.

If she’s been consistently wrapped in a pink blanket, then by the time she’s old enough to see color, she would be old enough to remember what color her blanket usually is— or if it was a different color that particular day.

The fourth: when Gin raises his spiritual pressure on Aizen’s orders, Chad remains standing. This raised a bunch of questions as Gin is stronger than Yammy (to the best of my memory).

Chad remained standing. Yes, his whole fight with Captain Kyouraku was about his resolve and how he would stand by his friends and fight for their safety/ideals but. Like. Earlier that year, his spiritual strength was on par with Yuzu. He’d been friends with Ichigo for years which was why he was even that strong. He’d been in a Hollow attack maybe three times before Rukia was arrested and could only barely see them the time Ishida pulled a stupid and used Hollow Bait. Sure, he has experience fighting and he’d trained under Yoruichi, but it feels sus considering how the others fared.

Orihime fell to her knees pretty quickly after Gin turned up the pressure. She’d also fought against high-ranking shinigami at that point, and trained under Yoruichi, and fought off Hollow (alone even! And she was the reason why Sora moved on, despite Ichigo’s Blade purifying him) before. And yet... It could just be a lack of resolve, as that had come up in earlier chapters but it doesn’t feel right.

Ishida is excused from this due to circumstances.

Tatsuki has been friends with him for ages. Sure, it seems like they weren’t as close after his Mom’s passing, but by then they’d already known each other for quite some time. I’m pretty sure that they were hanging out semi-regularly through junior high/middle school, at which point he got close with Chad and she got close with Orihime. She also has experience fighting (admittedly in martial arts rather than the street fights Ichigo and Chad get dragged into). She experienced at least one hollow attack during Ishida’s Stupid Day. But she collapses as soon as Yammy shows up? That feels off.

In contrast, Ganju was struggling about the same amount. He was born to a noble family— who are known to typically have decently high spiritual power, like his older brother Kaien and his cousin/uncle Issin. He was raised in the Rukongai, meaning he likely came across Hollow attacks. (And those definitely occur.)

Makes me wonder things about Karin’s strength. Like, she managed to escape from the hollow who attacked their house to run for Ichigo’s help (manga) or lived long enough while alone with it that Ichigo and Rukia could come save her (anime), both of which are quite impressive for an eleven year old. She also kept up with Hitsugaya when they played soccer and he’s a captain. Based on Ichigo’s experience, it’s likely that she too will become stronger as she grows up. And does she have an inner hollow too, or is that Ichigo only? If White was simply a parasite and decided to stick to Ichigo I could accept it. But as a hollow Ichigo is a Vast Lorde, and hollows of that level can split into parts (like Starrk and Lilynette).

Does Yuzu not really have any spiritual strength because she inherited more of the Quincy genes from her mom and the hollow genes she inherited don’t balance out that same way it does in her siblings...? Food for thought.

TLDR: how and why is sickness as thing in Soul Society? Byakuya listens to rock music and I’m p. sure the third opening song is him angsting over his wife’s death; it also gave me strong feelings about how he was prolly brainwashed growing up so his angst over Rukia’s fate is not actually stupid. I continue to have IchiRuki feels. Rukia and Hisana died when Rukia was about 3 months old. And I am more confused now about how spiritual power works than I was before I started rewatching the anime for language practice. Also, more questions have arisen about hollows.

[theoutcastrogue]

The last shall be first, and the first shall be aghast: in which the Plague upends the social order

When the plague hits, someone has to clean up the mess. Carrying and burying the dead, burning anything that might be infected, such tasks were absolutely necessary and of course tremendously dangerous: there's no faster way to get infected yourself. And yet, the people who chose (or were forced) to do it were consistently vilified. Sources usually depict them as greedy and amoral criminals, despicable thieves and murderers, vultures who thrived on death. (See also: the legend of Four Thieves Vinegar).

Is there any truth to that? Well, there is some, for sure. Sometimes the people tasked with cleaning up the mess would also clean the valuables from the latest victim's house, sometimes they'd ask exorbitant fees to do the job, and sometimes they'd even hold people for ransom more or less, threatening to mark them as infected (and drag them to a quarantined area, where they'd certainly GET infected). But on closer inspection, such incidents are verified a lot less than simply speculated, and the disdain towards them may have deeper causes.

When a plague first hit, very few would volunteer to clean up the mess. It was close to a death sentence, so people were either forced to do it, or were too destitute and desperate to refuse the offer of wages. Either way, they were already at the margins of society, the lowest of the low. Of that first wave, most would summarily die, and the few naturally immune (or very very lucky) would remain. And those few would have a thoroughly novel experience: for the first time in their life, they had power. The power to bargain for their labour, for starters.

Is that such a crime? And is it any wonder that it horrified the gentry?

To explore further this phenomenon and its perception, I give you two excerpts, both of which concern Italy around the ~1630 outbreak of the plague. The first is theory, from the book Epidemics and ideas: Essays on the historical perception of pestilence. The second is fiction, from the classic novel The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni. Happy reading.

~ Rogue

The Plague in Florence, 1630

1. Plague and perceptions of the poor in early modern Italy

“There was a sense in which the plague, while suspending certain forms of employment, created others through heavy public spending that was partly intended to enforce hygienic measures and partly to forestall the danger of 'tumult'. On occasions witnesses spoke of the poor as beneficiaries rather than victims of the plague, which had created sinister opportunities for them. The deserted city, with the houses of the well-to-do locked up and abandoned, became the province of the poor. [...]

Like carnival, plague inverted the normal world. It did so in its own way, by creating a temporary dependence on the unrespectable poor, especially vagrants and criminals, for the performance of essential services. Plague seemed to offer extraordinary gains to the ghoulish figures of undertakers, fumigators, cleaners and clearers of plague-stricken houses: monatti, beccamorti, picigamorti, nettezini, often characterised as scavenging birds, as the 'kites' of Florence and the 'crows' of France. Such functionaries were heavily recruited from prisoners, vagrants and galley slaves; but seemingly generous incentives, in the form of high advance payments to members of the ordinary labouring poor, were frequently offered by city governments.

Occasionally, as in Florence in the 1630s, there occurs a suggestion that the poor actually welcomed the plague because it released them from dependence on the uncertain fortunes of the textile industry. 'It seemed', wrote one Settimanni, 'that out of greed for the gain [from becoming bearers of the dead] they thought nothing of death and of the great danger in which they were clearly placing themselves.' Much the same sentiments were to be repeated in Defoe's Journal many years later.

It must be confessed that though the plague was chiefly among the poor, yet were the poor the most adventurous and fearless of it, and went about their employment with a sort of brutal courage; I must call it so, for it was founded neither on religion nor prudence; scarce did they use any caution, but ran into any business which they could get employment in, though it was the most hazardous.

Sometimes there was a grudging admiration for the courage of these graveyard workers; surprisingly, a contingent sent from Venice was praised for its skill and care by the chronicler of Cividale, and Dr Bertrand expressed a touching gratitude to the galley convicts who had served Marseilles. Equally often, however, the criminal strain in their natures seemed to predominate, emerging in foul conspiracies and plots to prolong the epidemics which brought them unlooked-for gains. Hence they assumed, in a different form, the role of bearers of the sickness. [...]

Mild forms of social revolution seemed to have occurred at the close of plague epidemics, both through a redistribution of wealth and through the emergence of those who had survived an attack of plague as a privileged body insolently sure of their own invulnerability.

Priests and friars who have survived the plague, and persons of low condition who have recovered from it, are both grown very rich, the first by burying, administering the sacraments, and helping the sick, and the second by physicking and serving infected persons - for people in these extreme needs were forced to spend lavishly and without restraint ... The fumigators, bearers of the dead, police constables, quacks, thieves and other such people did very well for themselves.'

So testified Dr Benaglio of Bergamo. Like usurers, these persons of low condition had allegedly grown fat on the misfortunes of others, and their being public employees exposed to high risk was no excuse for their offences. A carnival poem of Florence in 1631 celebrated the 'cunning man of the people (furbo plebo)', an uppity character sporting gloves and silk stockings and bedecked with flowers: one fit for carnival satire, but more lasting than carnival itself. Reports of the aftermath of plague were punctuated by complaints of insolent domestic servants, artisans and country labourers fully aware of their own scarcity value and demanding exorbitant wages. This was the price of disproportionately high losses among the labouring poor; the contraction of demand through the fall of population was offset by the high spending power of those who had become unexpectedly rich by inheritance.”

~ Brian Pullan, “Plague and perceptions of the poor in early modern Italy”, in Epidemics and ideas: Essays on the historical perception of pestilence (edited by Terence Ranger and Paul Slack, Cambridge University Press, 1992); abridged, emphasis mine

The Plague in Bologna, 1630

2.  “The Betrothed”

“Every day replacements and reinforcements had to be found for public servants of various kinds, such as monatti, apparitori and commissari. The monatti were employed on the most unpleasant and dangerous of the duties arising from the plague. They collected corpses from houses and streets, and from the lazaretto, carted them to the graveyards, and buried them; they carried or led the sick to the lazaretto, and kept them in order. They burnt or purified infected or suspect belongings. [...] The special task of the apparitori was to walk in front of the carts, ringing a bell to warn passers-by to keep out of the way. The commissari were in charge of both the categories mentioned above, and came under the immediate orders of the commission of health. [...]

Criminals who neither suffered nor feared the effects of the plague found fresh scope for their activities, and a new confidence of impunity at the same time, in the general confusion and the universal slackening of the forces of order. In fact the powers of law and order often fell into the hands of the worst of those criminals. The tasks of the monatti and apparitori attracted in the main those men for whom the allurements of robbery and licence were stronger than the terror of infection, stronger than all natural feelings of revulsion. Strict rules with severe penalties were drawn up for their guidance, their areas of activity were carefully defined, and commissari were appointed to control them, as we mentioned previously; and in every quarter of the city magistrates and nobles were appointed as delegates to exercise a higher supervision, with authority to deal in summary fashion with anything affecting public order. This system continued to operate effectively for a certain length of time. But as the numbers of those who died, ran away or lost their heads increased from day to day, the lower officials reached the stage of having no one to control them. The monatti, in particular, assumed absolute powers. They entered people’s homes as masters – or as enemies. We need not ask what robberies they committed, or how they treated the poor wretches whom disease betrayed into their hands. But those infected, villainous hands were also laid on the healthy, on the patients’ children, parents, wives or husbands, who were threatened with transportation to the lazaretto if they did not ransom themselves, or get someone else to ransom them, with large sums of money. On other occasions the monatti would demand payment for their legitimate services, refusing to take away putrefying corpses until they had received so many scudi for each one.

There were other stories, which it seems equally unsafe to believe or to reject, in view of the frivolity of some and the wickedness of others. It was said, and even Tadino asserts it as a fact, that the monatti and apparitori used to drop infected clothes off the carts on purpose, in order to maintain and spread the pestilence, which had become their livelihood, their domain, their pride and joy.”

~ Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed (1827); abridged

[lostgirlrewatch]

1x06 - Food For Thought

Written by: Pamela Pinch

Directed by: John Fawcett

Original Air Date: October 24, 2010

Food for thought, indeed. I love this episode a lot. I think this is also the only episode written by Pamela Pinch in the entire series. Sad. Anyway, let’s begin.

Bo and Kenzi follow Lauren to make a house call for a Fae with food poisoning. Kenzi contracts the same illness--a fatal supernatural disease that will kill her within a day. The others do whatever they can to save her.

Side note.

I swear, I could make an entire blog just out of complaining about Lauren. But I will suppress my instincts. And I will not.

Kenzi hates Lauren for seemingly no reason (or at least, we can only guess at what the reason might be), and Bo tries to tell her that Lauren is more interesting than she seems. Is she?

“Just TRY not to break anything.” At what point have Lauren and Kenzi ever interacted enough such that Kenzi has revealed to her a propensity for breaking stuff and that Lauren is valid in being annoyed about? At WHAT POINT? Lauren is literally just saying this out of NOWHERE to be rude.

This is one of my favorite episodes in the first season. Not much moves in terms of the overarching plot, but character-wise, a couple things are happening. One, Kenzi’s family dynamic with other characters like Dyson and Trick becomes more solidified. Two, Bo and Lauren team up and deepen their bond. If you’ve read literally any of my previous posts it should not be hard to guess which of those things I care more about. (It’s the former.)

The premise of the episode is simple, which I like, if kinda gross. Kenzi gets sick, and the others must find a way to save her. Bo is the hero type, the kind of person who desperately needs to take action to solve her problems rather than be passive. As the protagonist, her actions need to move the story forward (or at least, the overarching story, though she needn’t be the protagonist of every individual episode). As the main character, the show often dictates that she be at the center of the action. As such, she immediately hits the pavement on a quest for the cure to Kenzi’s illness. 

Joining her in this quest is Lauren, whose science-y knowledge proves crucial to breaking into a facility and obtaining an antidote. Lauren is instrumental in helping Bo save her closest friend, and appears to do so selflessly, with no ulterior motives. As a result, Bo is deeply touched. They tag team, they go on a mission together, and they bond. Bo trusts her a bit more now. On top of that, Bo is finally able to stop from killing a human in the middle of one of her feeds, thanks in no small part to Lauren’s treatments. Since Lauren has been on that journey of recovery with her, they also bond a little more over that. All of this is a build up to show us that Bo and Lauren have established a bond of trust by this point, and to show us that Bo now has several compelling reasons to care about and be grateful to Lauren. This is build-up that will have a payoff several episodes down the line, and we’ll see about that when we get there.

But because Bo is the hero, the Fixer, the action-taker, the one stricken with main character syndrome…while she’s out desperately trying to find a way to save Kenzi, sick Kenzi is left without her and someone else needs to take care of her while she’s…you know…scared, suffering, and dying.

Dyson primarily fulfills this role. In previous episodes, we have seen Dyson and Kenzi slowly build a friendship. When we begin the show, Kenzi is totally alone. She has virtually no relationship with her biological family and no friends of note. In the first episode, she chooses Bo as her family, accepts her into her circle of caring. Next, expanding outwards from this, naturally, comes Dyson, Bo’s love interest. Kenzi accepts him because Bo accepts him. Then, in her mind, Dyson betrays her trust by hurting Bo, but Dyson proves to Kenzi that he is a friend to both her AND Bo, so they make up and are cool after all. That’s where we leave them off when we start episode 1x06.

Do I think it was wrong of Bo to abandon Kenzi’s bedside to go off and find the antidote? No, not at all. Obviously, the antidote was necessary to save Kenzi’s life, which ultimately takes precedence over her immediate emotional needs. And saving Kenzi’s life is what Bo cares the most about. But I do find it incredibly interesting that this happened, because it sort of establishes a pattern in their relationship. A deliciously not super fun one. When the chips are down, Bo will always go to the ends of the earth to make sure Kenzi is physically okay. But in Kenzi’s most vulnerable, desperate emotional moments, is Bo always there to comfort her? Is she even often there to comfort her? I’m excited to keep watching and find out.

The good thing is that Dyson and Kenzi get a fantastic opportunity to deepen their bond instead. We even get this little moment with Trick, where we use an earlier scene to establish that Trick has this ancient artifact that is more valuable to him than almost anything in his possession, only to later show us that he is instantly willing to give it up just for the chance to prolong Kenzi’s life by a few hours.

I think the gravity of this is easily overlooked, given how forgettable those Trick scenes are by themselves. But let’s remember that Trick is like this gajillion year old Fae grandpa in a universe where humans are viewed on the same level as like…pet fish…and he was willing to give up one of his most valuable possessions to barely prolong the life of a human girl he hasn’t even known for that long. Trick, also, proves in this episode that Kenzi means something to him, and it’s pretty cute because we see that Kenzi cares about him too. 

You often get the sense that while Kenzi cares deeply about the people around her, she isn’t sure if they return her feelings. There’s a vague mistrust. She’s a bit baffled by Trick’s caring about her as much as she is touched by it.

Kenzi is traumatized. Well, obviously. Specifically, she has trauma relating to hospitals, illness, and death. We don’t know why, at least not at this point. The show doesn’t bother giving us any flashbacks or tidbits of backstory as a way of explaining why Kenzi is freaked out by hospitals or why graveyards make her feel calm. I find this rather unique and refreshing. We don’t really need to know the details, at least not right now. What’s much more important is that we see the trauma that series Kenzi lives with in the present, and moreover, how she deals with it.

Her discomfort being in a hospital gradually turns to fear as she becomes trapped there herself, and we see her latch on to Dyson as the only beacon of safety and familiarity there. When she wakes up, she not only finds herself alone (the one thing that terrifies her the most), she witnesses a woman die before her eyes. 

This is clearly very triggering for her and culminates in a panic attack. Kenzi reverts to survival mode at this point. 

I find it poignant that she is aware that leaving the hospital may shorten the time she has left, but that she would literally rather die alone on the street than stay another second in there. Alone. Kenzi. Would rather die. Alone. She even says so. “I’d rather die in a ditch.” She’s that desperate to get out of there. What exactly did happen to her in a hospital way back when?

The graveyard scene is phenomenal. How does Dyson know to find her there, anyway? Did I miss that part, or just forget? It’s been some time between rewatching this episode and writing this, so maybe. 

Kenzi doesn’t say much about herself, as usual, just that she used to come here a lot when she was a kid because “sometimes you just need a place to think, you know?” Graveyards are usually quiet and, depending on how you feel about them, peaceful. Maybe Kenzi grew up in a large, hectic household. An abusive, loud, stressful household. Maybe she has dead family members and friends that meant more to her than the ones she was living with. Who knows? I like that Dyson just sits and listens to her. He doesn’t try to pry, he doesn’t try to tell her what to do or strongarm her back to the hospital. Instead, he offers her a safe alternative and leaves the decision up to her. Kenzi agrees and asks if they can stay there a while first, because it’s nice. “Unless,” she says, “you have somewhere to be?”

There’s no resentment or maliciousness in that question. It’s genuine. She’s kinda used to people having somewhere else to be and something better to be doing.

Of course, he doesn’t. He doesn’t have anywhere else to be but there with her, supporting her. It’s a great character and relationship moment for them both.

I don’t have much else to say about this episode, though that was quite a lot.

Back to the beginning, as far as why Lauren and Kenzi don’t like each other, I have a few ideas. Mainly, I think they don’t like each other because the other doesn’t like them. Though, of course, that brings up a chicken and egg scenario, and I’m sure they’d both assert that the other disliked them first. 

But beyond that, I think there’s something about Lauren’s air, her attitude, and her STEM academic background that doesn’t sit right with Kenzi. That and, of course, her general mistrust of doctors, which this episode establishes. Kenzi sniffs out Lauren’s elitism right away and it offends her to the core, since she grew up on the street and has no education except for the one she got there. In Kenzi’s defense, she has valid evidence for feeling this way about Lauren. If I remember correctly, “Just try not to break anything,” isn’t the first passive aggressive insult Lauren has lobbed at Kenzi’s intelligence, much less Bo’s, and it won’t be the last. Lauren’s dislike of Kenzi might be similarly rooted, if on the opposite end of the spectrum. Lauren is a careful, methodical person. Perhaps Kenzi’s seemingly off-the-hook, carefree attitude rubs her the wrong way for whatever reason. Or, gasp…maybe Lauren is bitter that Kenzi, a fellow human, enjoys such a relatively free existence and more equitable relationship with her Fae friends, while Lauren is, you know, no heavy spoilers, but, forced to bow to the whims of her Fae masters.

Love this episode. Next time, we have “ArachoFaebia,” another Andras episode, which I love slightly less, and probably won’t have much to say about.

[trashyocstash]

i should've done this a while ago, but anyways, here's an updated list of all my ocs. descriptions and generally from the original.

rick and morty

julie:

my version of rick’s wife from the show “rick and morty”. she’s a very kind, sweet, loving, caring and forgiving person with a big heart. she’s also a huge hopeless romantic and has dreamed of love since she was a little girl, but the problem is, julie is painfully shy, quiet and gets easily nervous and scared. so for the longest time, finding a partner was difficult, until she met and fell in love with rick.

in addition to loving romance, julie also loves to read books, make food, listen to music, stargaze and is a huge girly girl. she likes to wear pretty clothes, make-up and jewelry. she does have a tomboy side, seen in her love of adventure with rick, but overall is very girly and feminine.

during the story, julie is 27 years old. she’s from the 1970s and was born in 1951, the rick/julie story takes place in 1978.

mark:

mark is one of julie’s best friends. he’s a peace-loving, goofy and friendly hippie, but don’t make him angry or you’ll regret it. he has a big kind heart, and likes to help people, he sees a lot of injustice in the world and wants it to be a better place. he’s the comic relief type.

he has a learning disability, and also suffers from severe depression, but lives in a world where mental health is taboo, so he tries to deal with it as best he can. his goofiness is really an attempt to hide his pain with a smile, he doesn’t want his friends to know he’s suffering.

he also really loves sci-fi and superheros, big comic nerd. he loves franchises like stars and star trek.

mark is 26 years old during the story, but as he was born in 1951 as well, he’s on the verge of turning 27. his love interest is vivian.

vivian:

julie’s other best friend, they’ve known each other since they were babies. vivian is more short-tempered and serious, not usually seen with a smile on her face. but despite the fact she comes of callous and humorless, she does have a good heart deep down and cares for others deeply, just isn’t the best at showing it.

she likes reading books, and secretly shares julie love of romance, and reads julie’s books on her, but tries to hide it.

she’s also bisexual, but due to the stigma surrounding lgbt people in the 70s, she avoids relationships with women. mark is her love interest.

vivian is also 27 years old during the story.

chris:

the son of rick and julie, and younger brother of beth, christopher “chris” sanchez looks like rick, but his personality is closer to julie’s.

he has an encyclopedia-level knowledge of plants, and works as a botanist. as a child, he also had his own garden in the backyard that julie helped him with. he and julie were also very close, in part due to rick being an absent father, and was devastated when she passed away when he was only 14. this, combined with rick being an absent father and abandoning him at only 11 caused chris to develop abandonment issues.

chris is very friendly and kind, and tends to patient and understanding. however, dealing with his family can cause him to become sour pretty quickly, as they won’t deal with their problems properly and don’t react well when julie is mentioned. on a side note, he’s also the only one who has dealt with her death properly and visits her grave every mother’s day to lay the same flowers they planted in his garden together, and to let her know that if she’s still out there in some way, that she’s still loved and cared about.

she ra

flameria:

flameria is the princess of tambora and also…an arsonist, she just can’t help but light things on fire. she has a very excitable, extroverted personality and is filled with energy. she yells a lot and can be a bit…much for people…also huge lesbian.

flameria can control fire and survive in extremely hot temperatures, it’s why she can live a volcano.

she’s dating @glampyra‘s oc jungleira.

duerma:

duerma is the princess or nubelaria, and has a very serene, gentle and mellow personality. she also has the ability to enter people's dreams, which she uses to help people. in addition, duerma can generate, control and manipulate clouds.

she is also known to he very patient and understanding, perhaps due to her dream ability.

crash bandicoot

kallipso:

kallipso is a tiger quoll, and is dating pinstripe. she has a cutesy vintage aesthetic going on, and also named herself.

undead ocs

leila:

leila died more recently, so she's still having some trouble adjusting to the afterlife, but thankfully for her, she has her friends and black cat spooks to help.

she has a cheerfully morbid personality, and likes making dark jokes. leila likes to stay positive and keep a smile on her face at all times, feeling it's for the best.

leila is also 20 years old, and died by drowning in algae-infested waters while she was unconscious, evident in her green skin and hair. her love interest is edgar, and she helps him learn more about the modern world.

edgar:

edgar died in 1924 when he was 23, accidentally getting electrocuted on the job. he's the most adjusted to life in the afterlife, and helps teach leila more about it. because he died in the 20s, he also sometimes spits out 20s slang, and leila, being his girlfriend, is the only one that understands him.

he has a hardworking personality and doesn't quit, even when he should. he has a more realistic view of the world, which is why he appreciates and admires leila's endless joy and optimism.

raine:

raine died in 1986 of an eye infection at 21. she has asperger's syndrome, which is why she's so intently interested in fashion and history, and can ramble on about both for hours.

raine loves to make fashions, and likes combing her interest of history into it as well. she makes clothes for her friends and boyfriend servius, just out of the kindness of her heart.

as she's autistic, raine is also very shy and quiet. she has trouble socializing, but her friends and servius are trying to help her out as best they can. it's also why she had the worst reaction to entering the afterlife, realizing she was dead and couldn't see her friends and family and couldn't go home sent her spiraling. but she's thankfully doing better now.

grant:

grant died of pneumonia at 22 in 2017, a result of his weak immune system. so because of that, grant is a germaphobe and perfectionist. he doesn't like messes, even though since he's dead, he can't catch any type of disease anymore.

he's also gay and dating xavier, but his overprotective and sheltering parents thought his homosexuality was just a phase and always dismissed it. as they sheltered him, and his weak immune system meant he didn't get out much, grant is terrible at socializing and is nervous to try new things. but he's getting there, slowly but surely.

as sad as it is, grant is more free dead than he ever was alive.

xavier:

xavier died at 25 in 2015 after falling off a cliff while hiking, as he wasn't looking where he was going. he has adhd and so tends to get easily distracted and forgetful.

xavier loves to pull off stunts and other crazy things. now that he's dead, he has no fear of getting injured or even worse. and it always worries grant, who he helps learn new things.

he's very reckless and headstrong, and excitable. it doesn't take much to make him laugh.

cassandra:

cassandra died at 19 in 2013 after getting murdered by two ex friends. as a result, she keeps herself closed off from others, afraid any new friends she get will betray her. it took her a long time to open up to the others.

she comes off as angry, bitter and moody, but once she's opened up enough, her true personality is revealed. cassandra is a prankster, and loves using her ghost abilities to mess with the dead. she loves to have fun and be wild and crazy.

cassandra also is a music lover, being part of a band when alive. and she's never stopped playing her music.

servius:

servius was an ancient roman soldier who died on the battlefield after getting shot in the heart with an arrow. he's very stuck in the past, and even now, he retains a belief in the roman gods. raine is helping teach him new things at least.

he has an intimating appearance, but he's a sweetheart deep down and raine has gotten him to develop a love of art. she finds art therapy is a great way for him to control his anger issues. in one word, he's a himbo.

supernatural ocs

evelyn:

evelyn is an anthropomorphic bat from a large rich family, and so has a lot of expectations placed on her. she's never been allowed to be herself and has been scolded for her interests in the past. however, mona has helped her open up and be herself. so she's a pastel goth instead of a "full on goth", which is normal in their world.

she has a deadpan, snarky and brutally honest personality, but also has a good heart deep down.

mona:

mona is an anthropomorphic pumpkin girl, and is basically the equivalent of goth in their world: she dresses up in pink and loves cute things. she comes from a large farming family, who don't understand her, but love her dearly. she also has an irish accent.

mona has a cheerful and excitable personality, and she loves to be silly and goof off. but she's also a hard worker and takes her job on the farm seriously. and she and evelyn and gfs.

yuka:

yuka is a qalupalik, a creature from the traditional inuit belief system. she has a ghost husky named amaruq, and has an adventurous and fun loving personality. she loves to do various snow-related sports like snowboarding and skiing.

mortis family

victor:

the father of the family, victor is a goofball with a dark sense of humor. show him a horror movie, he'll probably laugh. he's a dedicated and caring father, while astra works, he will care for the children and loves to play with them. victor is also a loving husband and can easily make the stoic astra laugh and smile.

astra:

the mother of the family, astra is a witch and comes from a family of them. she is a strong, powerful and confident woman, but isn't very front about it. she appears callous, but is really very loving and kind. she cares deeply for her husband and children, and keeps protective crystals in the children's rooms. astra runs an online business selling materials needed for witchcraft. her familiar is a samoyed named "snowdrop".

ravenna:

12 year old ravenna loves gothic fiction and hopes to write novels of the genre herself someday. her room is full of books and she loves to read and write. ravenna is the nicest of the family and has a big heart, but is very socially awkward. the other girls think she's weird and so she keeps her distance, and despite her mother trying to instill self-confidence in her, ravenna struggles with it because of her social problems. she is secretly jealous of ricky's social skills. she also helps her mother with witchcraft and has a familiar of her own, a pet raven named "poe", who she named after edger allen poe.

ricky:

his name is a pun on "rigor mortis", and he's 8 years old. ricky is fascinated by death and loves learning about anything relating to it, especially execution and torture methods. he has toy replicas of the methods as well and loves to play with them. he wants to be a mortician someday. ricky has his own group of friends who think he's really cool, and they play together a lot.

morella:

morella is 3 years old, and is just grasping her magical abilities. she can sometimes be seen climbing around on the walls and ceilings, and is very silly and mischievous. she also loves to draw, and her art hangs up on the fridge.

dracul:

he's not a member of the family, and instead is ravenna's love interest. he's from romania, specifically transylvania, and has a love of vampires, and specifically dracula due to his name. he's non-judgmental and is close to ravenna.

[abs0luteb4stard]

My spiritual war began half a lifetime ago. And I will carry it on even after I'm dead one day. Ω

Most people are raised with a religion or beliefs.

Some of them lose faith. Some become atheists. Some stay where they are in believing.

I I suppose I haven't fully stopped believing in a spiritual power/experience.

Call it the "God Gene" (VMAT2) or illogical stupidity, But I just can't purge that notion from my head.

According to the God Gene Hypothesis: "Spirituality is supposed to provide an evolutionary advantage by providing individuals with an innate sense of optimism."

I do not feel that optimism that there is a God or sentient universe out there. Or that "God has a plan".

I feel unspeakably betrayed.

When I was a young kid. I think I was very well behaved. I cared. I had a great heart. If that wasn't good enough for any god. Then they don't follow their own teachings.

When I got to middle school. I was scared. Three local schools were merged all my friends were lost in the shuffle. I thought it'll be difficult to make new friends, but I had hope.

Well, that hope wasn't lost. It was gouged out and raped from my spirit. Not just spiritually but my spirit of hope caring and goodness.

The bullying. They called me faggot, poor boy, foreigner (born here but was given a "foreign" name) on and on. They spit in my books. They knocked my books out of my hands everyday, between every class. Choked me, beat me, spit on me. There wasn't just a group, the group spread rumors and enlisted others in their attacks on me. Even my old friends from elementary school abandoned me because association with me was repugnant to their social standing. I once saw a buddy from elementary and said hello at his locker only to be ignored like I didn't exist.

Those 2 years of middle school left me completely empty. I remember I went to sleep every weeknight praying to die in my sleep. Ashamed at how that would hurt my parents if it came true. Then I would be woken up for school the next morning secretly crying because I was still alive and had to go through another day.

If there was a gun I would have gladly killed every one of those motherfuckers who were bullying me.

Especially Chas. He was the one who got the ball rolling on my destruction. How a dickhead who was seemingly proud of his failure of the 7th grade the year before I came there had such social clout with these pieces of shit I'll never understand.

High school was hell, but it slowly matured. Not without its own degrading moments where I was bullied or attacked or pushed down or spit on. But I think those who were there were preparing for their college or next step.

My grades were average. My spirit was broken already. My hope was nowhere. I was lucky to graduate probably.

I'm no longer normal. Those years of abuse at school changed me irrevocably. Everyday for 2 years. Non-stop. Physical, emotional, mental, pen tips pressed into the back of my neck till a bled. A pen cap pushed into my ear luckily it didn't hit my ear drum.

Principals, counselors, nobody did anything. Anything they did do was either a warning or giving me a punishment for retaliations.

I was punished for someone abusing me.

So I dropped out of local community college after a spotty 2 years. Continued schooling just came with anxieties and fear. I'd already had my life's share of that. I needed surgery and after I just let go of further education. Of a career of any kind.

Now I'm 33, soon to be 34. And these things that have effected me since half my life ago still affect me today. Call it C-PTSD or anxiety or trauma, social phobia, agoraphobia. It's all the same to me.

The bullies are gone but make no mistake theyre haunting me.

So where the fuck was God?

Where was his miracle for me?

Why didn't he spilt the red sea for me? I'm not as important as Moses. Where was his warning that I should build a boat like Noah?

No burning bush, no "hey Abraham, go kill your son", nothing. Not from this god or any fucking god.

Not once.

But some stupid genetic marker (VMAT2) anchors me to believe?

In the years since school I went through the divorce of my parents which was particularly hard if you knew me you'd understand.

My dad needed a 2nd open heart surgery which led to a big stroke from a clot that broke off. His arm and leg that were effected mostly came back. But his mind was effected permanently. The parts of the brain that were injured left him with memory problems. He couldn't live on his own, he'd already come back home with my mom and me before that to live with us after a hard hip replacement surgery.

Then I went through my mother's surprise lung cancer diagnosis, surgery, and so far no signs of it returning. Luckily it was found early after she had a cold and cough they wouldn't go away and got a chest x-ray.

Now my dad 4.5 years after his stroke and ongoing memory problems, he woke up yesterday the happiest man who ever lived, he had so much love and kisses and hugs to give.

But shockingly he completely forgot who I was. He thought I was a visiting neighbor. He forgot who my mom was. But he was happy to meet his son and wife for the first time again in this new place (it's the same place and the same people he'd always known before).

But I am crushed. I'm so deeply affected. He's happy and jolly enough for 3 people to meet us...

But my mom and I are very sad. It's such a shock. While he is thankfully happy and comfortable with his 'new family' that we are. I've cried more than my muted emotions have let me cry in the last 15 years.

He told me he's sorry that he missed being part of my life before now. Nothing cut my heart up quite like that. He apologizes for not knowing or recognizing me.

I've been betrayed by God all my life or at least that VMAT2 gene chemically telling my brain there's a higher power.

I'm just not important enough. No miracles to help me get out of this PTSD or my other medical issues. No reprieve from these life threatening illnesses my parents got one after the other. And now my father doesn't know who I am anymore.

Maybe god like those bullies just hate me too? If were created in his image then he's as capable of hate and torturing as we his human creations are.

After all he made a bet with the devil that Job in the bible would keep the faith in God no matter what god did to him. He gave him diseases, killed his livestock, killed his family with sickness, and burned down his house. But the dumb motherfucker still loved god.

He gave him all be house, animals and family after the ordeal, but the other wife and children didn't deserve to die for a bet. "But they went to heaven". They still had potential energy, lives to live grow old and have their own families, but "God" killed them to prove he was right in bet to the devil. That an idiot would still love him after all that.

So maybe I can't stop believing in God, or have some leftover spirituality.

But I'm not as fucking forgiving ad that dumb motherfucker Job. But I'm also not willing to just walk away from God's game. I'm more than ever cemented my hate for God. I'm giving the devil sympathy or joining his side. If there is such a thing.

I'm instead giving God - ALL MY HATE.

I've got infinite amounts of anger and hate in me. For every millisecond of my torture in school I hate those pieces of shit, at one point that was all that kept me from killing myself. I'm filled to overflowing.

Now there's nothing and no one I hate more than God. I don't care about abortion, I don't care about pollution, I don't care about animals raised in cages and mutilated.

My dad is apologizing to me for what his stroke did to make him forget me. He's apologizing to me with regret, shame and love in his eyes for something that's not his fault.

WHERE IS GOD!? hmm? His love and miracles? His bullshit?!

God. Guardian Angels? Any God or Goddess. Any religion, pagan gods, gods that we don't even know existed. Where are they? Spirits? Demons? Satan himself? Useless.

I have declared a war on God deep down in my soul. I'm not here to preach or change your religion, make you an atheist or garner views or to promote the devil.

But rest assured I am going to kill God. My determination is absolute.

Not in a social or political sense, I'm not going to become Nietzsche 2.0.

I'm going to prepare my heart and soul. My physical body, my mental attitude, my spirit, my soul. My life might go until I'm 120 years old and I'm fine with that.

But God will know fear because I will teach it to him. God has a death wish and I'm that wish come true.

You think Abu Ghraib looked terrible? What I do to God will make that seem like a Kumbaya summer camp.

I don't know what god is, what makes a deity, fucked if know if such a thing even exists. But I will torture, maim, and kill God.

These neo-pagans with their "All Gods are one God."

That's fine by me. Get the all Gods in one place so I can kill that motherfucker with a smile on my face. Even if he's holding the universe together, like Atlas holding the world. If it means the end of all things then I'm more than satisfied to end reality.

If there's a physical aspect to him on some spiritual realm or whether it's simply a psychic thought of the living mind or some genetic predisposed delusion. Maybe I've lost my mind too, maybe there's nothing left but my madness.

My wrath makes God in the old Testament look like a spoiled 3 year old child. God will get what's coming to him.

He is mine and I am his.

·

"Nor sleep, nor sanctuary, being naked, sick, the prayers of priests, nor times of sacrifice shall lift up their rotten privilege and custom against my hate to Martius. Where I find him, were it at home, upon my brother's guard, even there, will I wash my fierce hand in his heart."

—AUFIDIUS; Shakespeare's "Coriolanus"

·

·

"I'll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee."

—Caius Martius Coriolanus; play of the same name.

[mcrololo]

According to my memory this backstory was two episodes long but I couldn’t have been more wrong lmao. Anyway, wow, the lost fable, amirite? 

Constructive criticism under the cut.

Alright, I’m gonna skip the talk about cheesy overused tropes because that’s not my main issue for once (note: I’m gonna go off on tropes later anyway lmao). I’d like to talk about the worldbuilding in this episode so buckle up. 

To start things off, I actually liked Ozma dying to an unknown disease. It’s a very subtle way of saying magic and aura have their limits when it comes to healing (regardless of the fact that this might get retconned sooner or later, if it hasn’t happened already). 

Salem being a dumb greedy bitch plays nicely into her humanity. We all do crazy things for our loved ones, especially when they’re all we have left. Salem only had Ozma. When he died she was left with nothing. Of course she’s gonna try everything in her power to get him back. I would go to hell and back if it meant I could see my beloved alive and well again! Putting her next to the brother of creation is a nice way of showing their differences. Salem is human. The brother is a god. That was a good parallel. 

That being said, I have several issues with these brother gods. 

The most obvious one is the trope of good/bad god. It’s incredibly cliche to have a white/yellow/vibrant good god and a purple/black/dark lord. I can’t say they put their own spin on these brothers because neither of them seem to have more personality beyond ‘righteous’ and ‘sassy/impulsive’. They’re incredibly flat when it comes to characteristics, not to mention the good one has abs and broad shoulders and the bad one is a bit lanky. Where have I seen that before? I understand the need to show your audience who’s good and bad in just a second, but neither of these two seem to have a feud with one another. So why? 

If we look at their powers there’s not really a distinct difference other than the colors used. Both brothers can create whenever they please, they can both take away/destroy at their whim and they both have the ability to shapeshift. You can't even argue that the god of creation can give and take away life, while the god of destruction can take life and bring back from the dead because ultimately it’s the same thing. They even talk in the same manner. There’s really no difference. The only difference they have going for them is their swimming pool. One gives eternal life, and one grants the desire of destruction. That’s it. They could have easily be one god, but then there’s no feud. Oh wait. There wasn’t. The little tension there was was thanks to Salem and was almost immediately disputed. 

And this is just a minor bit but personally I’m tired of seeing gods talk all posh and proper. Give me brother gods who prank war each other and talk in ‘YEET’ lingo. I understand that this takes place millions and millions of years before Remnant’s recreation, before our heroes take part in the story, but who says these gods can’t be like that? It’s a fantasy setting. 

That aside, what’s up with their forms? During the whole episode they switch between two forms: humanoid and dragon. Which one is their regular form? Is dragon form a battle form? Do they switch to humanoid as to not scare their own creation? If the god of destruction doesn’t like humans entering his domain, why does he take on his humanoid form for Salem then? And if the god of creation doesn’t want to fight his brother, why does he switch to dragon form? When we see them again after Salem riles up all the humans, they’re in dragon form. Am I safe to assume that’s their regular form, or is it really just a battle form (considering they ARE under attack)? None of my questions really get answered. 

I really don’t understand the need to destroy the moon, unless it’s because the dark lord couldn’t keep his impuls in check. If someone could explain that one to me, I’d be grateful. 

Jumping back to the pools for a bit. Specifically the destruction one. We are told Salem felt the extreme desire to destroy after jumping in there but when we see her again she’s in a cabin who knows where? She’s not going out of her way to kill, and she doesn’t try until Ozma decides to ditch her. Then what’s the point of making her jump in that pool BEFORE Ozma ditches her? She could’ve jumped in after, abandoning what little humanity she has left in a desperate attempt to really kill herself. Her true love betrayed her, after all. 

Let’s talk about her true love for a bit. Didn’t Ozpin say his reincarnation was a curse bestowed upon him by the gods because he couldn’t stop Salem? Was that just another one of his lies or was this a convenient retcon? I honest to god can’t tell with this show nowadays. And why did the god of CREATION choose for Ozma to reincarnate in an already living being, eventually effectively DESTROYING the other soul? He’s going to end up alone anyway, so his excuse of ‘you won’t do this on your own’ doesn’t really add up. 

Oh and while we’re talking about Ozma and Salem: They really just invented an entirely new religion in what seems to be, what, ten or twenty years? Salem is immortal so I guess she doesn’t age, but Ozma is still the same reincarnation he was when he met Salem again. Assuming by the change in his hairstyle he aged a little, but other than that they really just... Made a whole religion in barely one lifetime, huh? 

I had issues with some of the lines/scenes too. Since I’m already making a post out of this episode I’ll just dump them here. 

‘It was here where mankind would fall to ruin’ that’s not… Why would you spoil that? Why give this line right here, when you’re showing the exact happening later on? These few seconds could have been used on something else, like more worldbuilding or something. I understand that someone is telling us a story, but why would you give away the core so easily? Does anyone even do that? 

‘None dared to enter his home’. There’s a skeleton right there. A human skeleton. Yeah you can argue this is to ~show~ he’s the god of destruction and death, but then it’s not ‘none’. Then it’s ‘very few’. I know this is nitpicking but even the small bits count. It can take just one word to throw someone out of your story and they may not return to it.  

‘And so you must understand the dark lord’s surprise’. Don’t tell me what to do. Viewers and readers usually don’t like it when you do this. This line is easily overlooked because she continues her story immediately after, but seriously. Don’t tell a viewer/reader what to do or feel. This is why people usually say ‘show, don’t tell’. Also why does he greet Salem like that? You know what I mean. 

Not a line but w/e. I don’t know what it is about Ozma’s brief return, but it feels a bit weird? His fear makes sense because he probably accepted death and suddenly he’s back alive, but his reaction is almost immediate and his fear is very intense. Was he in hell or something? Like the dude just opens his eyes, doesn’t even register his surroundings and immediately goes into panic mode. Why? At least give him a few seconds to look around. 

The god of creation destroys the Grimm like immediately after this scene. I wanted to point that out.

They mansplain immortality to the viewers. That’s literally mansplaining. Do they think we’re dumb? Salem can’t be that dumb, can she? Listen, I don’t WANT to straight out shit on RWBY’s writing anymore, but I really hate mansplaining. 

Alright, I get that the stabbing scene needs to be censored. I really do. But don’t let Salem walk around as if nothing happened in the EXACT same scene. There’s no cut, there’s no blood. If it had to be bloodless Salem, they could’ve transitioned from here. It feels like a small, unnecessary continuity error, but important either way. 

‘But it is nearly a remnant of what it once was’. I fucking LOVE this line, but if this was a shout-out to the world’s name it makes no sense unless edgy Salem thought ‘oh cool, that’s what I’m gonna name this planet now’. Actually that might be canon. Who knows.      

[josephmxa]

Worldbuilding: Andromeda Part III

Major Corporations

The world of Earth M31 where the Shadow Comics Series takes place holds many corporations worldwide, all with a mission to succeed in the economy, to flourish in society and become a staple the world will never forget. But there are certain companies that people can name off the top of their head because of how well their service had served society.

  Henrick Enterprises

Industry: Automotive and Prostheses

Divisions: Automotive

          Automotive Services

          Prostheses and Prosthetic Services

          Financial Services

 Founder(s): Ethan, Miles and Parker Henry

Founded: 1947

 Service: Henrick Enterprises is a UK bases Automotive and Prostheses manufacturing corporation. It designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines, and turbo machinery as well as the research and development of artificial devices that replaces a missing body part that may have been lost through trauma, disease, or congenital conditions.

 Division Leaders (United Provinces Branch):

          Automotive – Richard Henry

          Automotive Services – Ashley King

          Prostheses and Service – Lincoln Matthews

          Financial Services – Donald Dyne (CFO – Chief Financial Officer)

 Chief Executive Officer(s):

          United Provinces Branch: Richard and Don Henry

          The United Kingdom Branch: Brentford Henry

 History: Ethan Henry was a war veteran who started off his military career when he turned eighteen. He served honorably in the first world war at the age of twenty and as a result lost his right arm. By miraculous conditions through his adrenaline high squad and a stupendous medical team, he lived to see another day and was fortunate enough, to his family, to be honorably discharged and sent back home to them. Even though Ethan Henry eventually found love in Simone Malcolm, he didn’t feel quite whole. He simply took his life before the war for granted.

However, the sense of being emasculated led him to put forth his energy ad time towards making himself whole again. His passion only grew because of other men like him, such as the few men on his team that did survive and came out like he did. He couldn’t sit around and mope for something he couldn’t get back unless he stood and fought for it. Ethan had always been smart, always had a drive for learning, and he had to be better every day if he was to show his worth as a black man. With the help of his brother, Miles, who was a mechanic and Parker who was tired with his dead-end job working to make the white man richer, Henrick Enterprises officially started out in 1947 with a mission to help brothers and sisters like them and the less unfortunate.

  Light Corp

Industry: Electric Utility and Chemical Engineering

Divisions: Electric Utility

          Biochemical Engineering

          Food Engineering

          Financial Services

 Founder(s): Alexander Light and Monica Del Toro

Founded: 1981

 Service: Light Corp is an electricity transmission and distribution utility first serving the Canadian Province New York before branching out across the country and to Kingdom Cove. It’s become one of the country’s largest distribution utility companies among giants like Square One Hydro, Thunder and Lightning (TL), Static, etc. However, Light Corp is not a one trick pony like the aforementioned companies as it doubles in Biochemical and Food Engineering.

 Division Leaders:

              Electric Utility – Alexander Light

              Biochemical Engineering – Alexander and Donte

              Food Engineering – Donte Marvin

              Financial Services – Monica Del Toro (CFO)

 Division Leader Successors:

              Lucius Light

              Lucius and Andrew

              Andrew Marvin

              Simran Massoud

 Chief Executive Officer: Alexander Light

                        Lucius Light (Successor)

 History: Despite journalism calling him, Alexander “Lex” Light had a selfless heart for those in need. those who’ve been abandoned by the government and betrayed by their greed. Especially low income families who struggled to even find homes, much less afford electricity for their basic hygienic needs--such as when his own family had been through those very same situations before his father, Melvin Light, became a well respected war veteran. With a bachelor’s degree in Science, his major in Chemical and Electrical Engineering, Lex interned at his city’s main power plant; the York Power Plant. His internship there gained him a variety of experience and Light Corp became much more than a simple pipe dream. When a massive storm struck Metro City for two weeks and caused multiple power outages, Lex stepped up and provided an alternative source for distributing power to those affected.

It was because of his initiative that he was taken into a business meeting with his bosses that he met his future wife, and businesswoman, Monica Del Toro. She’s the other half of Light Corp who helped Lex gain and use his newfound opportunities to see his dream become reality. Thus, Lex founds Light Corp with the help of Monica in 1981. During Light Corp’s formative years, however, between 1981-1988, Lex came across a chemist by the name of Donte Marvin, who had specific skill sets in food and biochemical engineering, who came to be one of his best friends, and Monica was the the one who pitched him the idea of expanding Light Corp’s service to society. Thus the trio, Lex, Monica, and Donte, become the foundation of what is now known today as Light Corp, an electric utility company providing power to those at inexpensive rates while providing safe alternative treatments and medicine and improving the quality of food in poorer regions of the country.

  Metallic Incorporated

Industry: Research and Development

Divisions: Research and Development

          Financial Services

 Founder(s): Sebastian Sue and Camilla Alvarez

Founded: 1992

 Service: Metallic Incorporated is a Research and Development company with a mission to improve the standards of society, to reinvent the past, change the now and build a future for the next generation. With degrees in Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Sebastian and Camilla Sue are true entrepreneurs bringing to light their creative and fresh ideas such as revamping airports, aiding in the construction of other companies and improving home living for struggling families and individuals.

 Division Leaders:

              Research and Development – Sebastian and Camilla Sue

              Financial Services – Sebastian Sue (CFO)

 Division Leader Successors:

              Research and Development – Marissa Sue

              Financial Services – Camilla Sue (CFO Successor)

 Chief Executive Officer(s):

              Sebastian and Camilla Sue

              Marissa Sue (Successor)

 History: Despite growing up with silver spoons in their mouths, just one of the several wealthy families in Santo Domingo, childhood best friends Sebastian Sue and Camilla Alvarez felt the pain of those they were supposed to consider as less then. They dreamed of a society where everyone can benefit from and rather than go strictly into business for monetary gain like the rest of their family, Sebastian and Camilla went in for Civil and Mechanical Engineering respectively in hopes to pay it forward for the next generation. Upon leaving their families at the age of 17 to live together, they struggled and worked hard for their craft, understanding what the average person goes through just to make a living.

At the ripe age of 30, four years after starting a family, a daughter named Marissa, they relocated to the United Provinces some time in 1992 where they sought out their dream and founded Metallic Incorporated the same year. They saw better opportunity for their goals, still keeping in mind the pay it forward mentality that they hope to bring back to the Dominican Republic, their home country.

  Vanity Stone

Industry: Research and Development, Chemical Engineering

Divisions: Research and Development

          Biological Engineering

          Chemical Weapons

          Biotechnical Engineering

          Biomedical Engineering

 Founder(s): Lucius Light

Founded: 2011

 Service: Vanity Stone is a research and technological development subsidiary of Light Corp as a means to put better focus on the technological advancement of society. However, it’s also a means to develop counter measures in light of unique events Lucius has experiences throughout his life. He makes this no secret. He wants to better his country, his world, and he won’t live behind secrets and a wall of fear like the government, nor will he let superhumans and/or anomalies eradicate or supersede humanity.

 Division Leaders:

          Research and Development – Athena and Lucifer Titan

          Biochemical Engineering

          Biotechnical Engineering

          Biomedical Engineering

          Chemical Weapons

 Chief Executive Officer(s): Athena and Lucifer Titan

  History: Growing up, Lucius Light had been surrounded by strange anomalies in the form of his father’s writings and his own country’s past. His father’s adventures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fascinated him, but terrified him at the same time while the super soldier program the government put funding towards for a war had him lose tremendous respect for what he thought was a great country at first. That was also recounted in his father’s unpublished articles and he had always admired his journalistic nature; always siding with truth and reality, facts before fiction. But somewhere down the line, his father abandoned that and became a coward. One of his earliest points of memory draw him back to the business trip he went on with his father when he was a child, up north to Kingdom Cove where he experience what his father must’ve lived when the KSA.

Strange happenings erupted around during their stay and despite telling his father and knowing his father’s own suspicions, he was told to stop with the games and fictions, being repeatedly told the supernatural, and especially, superhumans were nothing but myth. And this single experience drove a fork in their relationship. When Lucius came across two abandoned children of Medusa and Zeus, the real Greek deities of the Greek world, he takes it upon himself to see that change is brought to the United Provinces. He sets up Vanity Stone, a subsidiary of Light Corp, in the vain of the government’s defunct super soldier program; a complete R&D business with Athena and Lucifer as the faces of the company.

Tags: @merigreenleaf

[attackfish]

I feel so sad that people don't appreciate Ursa's character, especially in the comics. In the show, she was only a loving mother with a secret surrounding her. She had almost no characterization beyond that. The comics showed us a much more complex and interesting character (and I don't think the comics contradict anything in the show), and even though she was not perfect, I don't think she deserves all the hate she gets.

Almost all of the hate Ursa gets in this fandom is from fans who want someone other than Azula to blame for Azula’s cruelty. You can also find these same people talking about how Iroh is terrible and sexist, and if he had been a better uncle, he would have fixed his niece the way he did his nephew, or that Mai and Ty Lee are terrible for “betraying” Azula, and if they had been better friends it would have fixed her, or that Zuko is a bad brother and should have fixed Azula. Basically everybody is responsible for fixing Azula except Azula.

This alone is infuriating, as I talk about in my last reblog here: [Link] because it makes Azula’s mental health and actions other people’s responsibility. This is abuser logic and it’s Azula’s own. She believes she has the right to use other people to prop up her own sense of self without their consent, and if they refuse, as Mai and Ty Lee did, they have wronged her. Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko are all victims of her abuse, and most arguments that they shouldn’t have “abandoned” or “betrayed” her focus on the fact that she needed them to maintain her equilibrium, or that she really did love them deep down, because her needs and feelings must take preeminence over those of her victims. Her needs deserve to be catered to, and her victims’ should be scorned as selfish and suppressed. Iroh and Ursa are not Azula’s victims, but the fannish logic is the same, the idea that they are selfish for not filling Azula’s emotional needs and thereby fixing her.

This logic interacts in a really poisonous way with society’s expectations of mothers, and this is one part of why the Ursa hate is so virulent. The other reason, I think is simply that she is a minor character and doesn’t have the fanbase to drown out the haters. There is of course no way to be a perfect mother, because mothers are people and people can’t be perfect. And yet the idea of imperfection on the part of a mother is one that we as a society are extremely uncomfortable with. Mothers in media are rarely allowed the same range of humanity as other characters, because we are uncomfortable with their independent humanity and the evidence that they have needs and wants separate from those related to the task of being mother. Real life mothers find their every decision critiqued in relation to how it might affect her children.

Mothers and the choices they make are credited with a near-magical ability to save or ruin their children. Back in the mid twentieth century, a frightening amount of ink was spilled blaming every conceivable psychiatric or developmental condition on mothers. If a mother was too affectionate, she would make her son gay, not affectionate enough, autistic. If she was one way, she could make her child schizophrenic, another, she could make them mentally retarded. She had to be perfect, and if anything went wrong, we knew who to blame. This attitude did not fade away as we learned the underlying causes of many diseases. Growing up, I got to watch doctors, teachers, and just general busybodies blame my brother’s and my own problems on my mother, problems that through my parents’ persistence would be diagnosed as an immune disorder. The difference, I might add, between how my mother was treated and how my father was is stark. So Azula is manifestly and obviously screwed up. In our current societal milieu, it’s not at all surprising that fans looking for a reason would almost reflexively blame her mother. It’s what we do. The fact that Azula had an obvious abusive father does not matter.

There’s another reason Azula fans who are looking for someone to blame for Azula’s actions will look to Ursa instead of Ozai, and that reason is Zuko. Zuko was Ozai’s unfavorite child, the one who was burned and cast off, while Azula was praised and cosseted. If Zuko could overcome the “worse” abuse, what excuse would Azula have? She must have an excuse, since what we are trying to do here after all is justify her behavior. This ignores of course how toxic and damaging being the favorite of somebody like Ozai actually is, and how terrifying being one fall from grace away from being treated like Zuko must have been, something I argue in my Three Pillars Theory of Azula: [Link]. I also have in fact witnessed what the kind of mothering Ursa’s staunchest critics claim she should have given Azula looks like in the real world, and it is not pretty: [Link]

The Azula fans who hold Ursa, or for that matter Iroh, Zuko, Mai, or Ty Lee, responsible for Azula’s actions often claim they want a redemption arc for her similar to the one Zuko got, however, this is pretty clearly not the case. One of the big themes of Zuko’s redemption and recovery arc is that he had to acknowledge fault. He had to acknowledge that yes, he was hurt and hurting, and thought he was doing right, but that he had hurt other people and needed to make amends. People who want to blame other people for Azula’s actions want to absolve her of the very responsibility Zuko learned to shoulder. Another major theme of Zuko’s redemption and recovery arc is that nobody could “fix” Zuko, which is to say nobody could do the emotional work of coming to realize both that he had been wronged by his father and should not try to please him, and that he had hurt people in the name of pleasing his father and in the name of Fire Nation imperialism, except for Zuko himself. Nobody could make amends on Zuko’s behalf, or heal his hurts. Zuko had to do that himself. Iroh could advise and support him, but he couldn’t do it for Zuko, or make Zuko’s choices for him. Most of the Azula fans who want somebody else to blame also want to give her somebody who will love away her damage and pain and make her a good person, which isn’t the way it works, and also is deeply deeply ironic, given that one of the biggest things Azula has to work on is her sense of entitlement to use others to fulfill her emotional needs.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

10th September >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 6:12-19 for Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time: ‘He spent the whole night in prayer to God’. 

Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Luke 6:12-19

Jesus chooses his twelve apostles

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.

Gospel (USA)

Luke 6:12-19

He spent the night in prayer. He chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles.

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

Reflections (6)

 (i) Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, Paul calls on us to be ‘rooted in’ Christ and to be ‘built on him’. He uses two images, one which is more rural, ‘rooted in’ and the other more urban, ‘built on’. Both images equally express the centrality and intimacy of our relationship with Christ. He is the soil in which we are rooted; he is the foundation on which we build our lives. He is to be the centre of our lives. Paul also declares in that reading why Christ is worthy to be the centre of our lives. It is because in him alone lives the fullness of divinity and in him we find our own fulfilment. He reveals God fully to us and, therefore, he can satisfy and fulfil the deepest longings of our heart. If Jesus, God incarnate, is to be the centre of our lives, God the Father was the centre of his life. His relationship with God was the primary relationship of his life, the root and foundation of all he said and did. In the gospel reading, Jesus spent the whole night in prayer to God. His relationship with God was so central to his life that he wanted and needed to spend that amount of time in prayerful communion with God. That prayerful communion with God inspired his choice of the twelve disciples and his teaching and healing the crowds that we hear about in the gospel reading. Because our relationship with Jesus is the central relationship in our lives, we will want and need to spend time with him in prayer. From that prayerful communion will flow our way of being in the world, our way of relating to others, especially those in greatest need.

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Luke, more than the other evangelists, portrays Jesus as a person of prayer. In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus spends the whole night in prayer before he chose a group of twelve from among his disciples on the following morning. Jesus’ choice of this significant group came out of his prayer. He prayerfully discerned those who would form this important group. Yet, the leader of this group would go on to deny him three times, and one of the group would betray him to his enemies. Jesus’ prayer did not guarantee perfect results. The fact that we pray does not mean that everything will work out just right. However, prayer deepens our communion with God, and if things do not work out as we might have hoped, we face all that in the strength that our communion with God gives us. Jesus was abandoned by those he had chosen, denied by one and betrayed by another, and all of that brought him pain. Yet, because of his prayerful communion of with God he came through that dark experience into a new life, which he has opened up to all who turn in him in faith.

 And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Luke depicts Jesus at prayer more than any of the other evangelists. In this morning’s gospel Luke says that Jesus spent the whole night in prayer to God before he chose twelve from the larger group of disciples. Jesus chose this smaller group of Twelve very carefully. Each one of the Twelve was, in a sense, the fruit of his prayer. Yet, as Luke says in the gospel reading, one of that group, Judas Iscariot, became a traitor. Not even Jesus’ prayerful choice guaranteed the faithfulness of those chosen. The Lord calls but those that are called need to respond to the calling. The Lord’s call itself does not ensure the human response. The Lord never ceases to call each one of us. Each day we seek afresh to respond to the Lord’s call. Just as Jesus’ choice of the Twelve came out of his prayer, so our response to the Lord’s call must come out of our prayer too. If we are to respond to the Lord’s call as he would want us to, we need to be in prayerful communion with him. Sometimes that prayer might take the form of a simple prayer of petition, such as, ‘Lord help me to be attentive to your call and to respond to it generously’.

 And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

When we have an important decision to make, we often find ourselves turning to prayer for guidance. We ask the Lord to enlighten us with the Spirit of Wisdom. At the beginning of this morning’s gospel reading, we find Jesus spending the whole night in prayer, before he made a very important decision. He wanted to select twelve from the wider group of disciples. There were traditionally twelve tribes in Israel and this group of twelve disciples were to be the nucleus of the renewed Israel that Jesus was working to create. Having prayed the whole night and having come down the mountain Jesus made his choice.  He prayerfully discerned the twelve who were to compose this special group. Peter is always mentioned first in this group, because he was the leader of the twelve. Yet, it was Peter who would deny Jesus publicly three times, and one of the group, Judas, who betray Jesus to his enemies. Even Jesus’ prayerful discernment could not ensure that these twelve would prove worthy of their special calling. Jesus must have known that; he knew more than anyone what human nature was capable of. Jesus calls us even though he can never be sure of our response. Even when we fail, we remain those whom he calls. We may be unfaithful to him from time to time, but he is always faithful to us. That may have been the difference between Peter and Judas. Peter understood that the Lord continued to love him, even though he had sinned, and so he repented. Judas did not grasp the depth of the Lord’s faithfulness, and so he despaired.

 And/Or

 (v) Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

I was struck by the last line in this evening’s gospel reading, ‘everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all’. People wanted to touch this man through whom God was working so powerfully. It wasn’t just enough to hear him or to see him; they needed to touch him. Touching the Lord is a more intimate, a more personal, form of communication with him than hearing or seeing. The sense of touch remains important in the faith life of us all. We too want to touch the Lord, and to be touched by him. It is above all in and through the Sacraments that we touch the Lord and allow him to touch our lives. In the Eucharist, for example, we take the bread in our hands or on our tongue and eat it; we take the chalice in our hands and drink from it. The sense of touch is very real there. As we take the bread and take the cup, as we touch the Lord in this way, the Lord takes us; he touches our lives. Like the people in the gospel reading, we too can experience the healing and renewing power that comes from him. The Lord who touches us in the Eucharist sends us forth to touch the lives of others in life-giving ways.

 And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

There are two locations in today’s gospel reading, a mountain and a level place. Jesus went up the mountain to pray. Indeed, Luke tells us that he spent the whole night in prayer to God. He had an important choice to make and he needed to be in prayerful communion with God to make a good choice. He had to choose twelve from among his disciples to be the nucleus of the new community he was forming. Just as the mountain was a place of prayer, the level ground was a place of ministry, both teaching and healing the sick and broken. The gospel reading tells us that people came from a very large area to listen to him and be cured of their diseases. The mountain and the level ground, prayer and ministry to others, formed the pattern of Jesus’ life. Our own lives as followers of Jesus will have something of that same pattern. We spend time in prayer and we spend time in the service of others. We need to be in communion with God in prayer and in communion with others in loving service. This two-fold pattern is a feature of each day as well as of our lives as a whole. Each day we spend time in prayer, whether it is the prayer of the Eucharist or other public forms of prayer or more silent and personal prayer.  Each day we come from our prayer to each other to bring something of the Lord’s love we have experienced in prayer to those we meet.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

Email: sjtbclontarf@eircom.net or  revmartinhogan@gmail.com

Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie  Please join us via our webcam.

Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC.

Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf.

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[superhusbands4ever]

10 Years of SteveTony Fic Rec

As I’m sure you all know by now, today (March 14th) is the 10th anniversary of The Confession and the 10th anniversary of the SteveTony ship!

Since my fic wasn’t done in time to post today (homework and midterms are a bitch), and I wanted to post something today for the anniversary of The Confession, I’ve decided to post a fic rec with my all time favorite stevetony fics of all time! Here we go! Hopefully my anniversary fic will be done by tomorrow lol

It’s long, you’ve been warned. Also, this is in no way an exhaustive list of my favs and when I think of more I might add them lol

Blue Lips, Blue Veins by romanoff - Explicit, 300K

Tony Stark is Iron Man.

Before that, he was an man with bigger heart than brain. Before that, he was an asshole with a bigger mouth than sense. And before that, he was was a scared little boy. Not that it matters. Stark's always have had iron in their backbone.

+ This is my absolute favorite fic of all time, honestly. It covers Tony’s entire life, literally from the minute he’s born and it shows, very well I might add, how Tony’s childhood and growing up affecting him mentally, emotionally, and developmentally. Maybe it’s because I’m a psych major at school, but this fic really got me. It is also the fic that started my headcannon of Tony as bipolar 2, and the portrayal of mental illness is so on point and accurate, I love it. It’s an emotional rollercoaster and you’ll cry a lot but it is soooo worth it. This fic is probably one of the best, if not the best Tony-centric and SteveTony fics of all time. I just love it so much.

The Last Love Song of Anthony E. Stark by jibrailis

After contracting an Asgardian virus, Tony starts forgetting things. And people. And Steve.

Winging It by arianapeterson19

The problem was that none of the important things - like life- came with a how-to guide. Everyone was just winging it and Tony wasn't entirely sure if he was okay with that.

Namesake by missbecky

An innocent question leads Steve to look up Edwin Jarvis, the former Stark family butler who gave JARVIS his name, and bring him back to New York to see Tony one last time.

When Life Becomes a Play (and I Don’t Know the Role I’m Cast) by firelord_zutara

Months after the Battle of New York, the team moves into the tower. Tony and Steve keep dancing around each other, but besides his feelings towards the man, Tony has enough to deal with, what with trying to come to terms with himself and his own, personal issues.  

He struggles through and through, but in the end, there's only one person who can save him -- the one person he hates the most: himself.

Deep in the Heart of Me by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)

There were days when the realization that he was someone’s father made Steve's head hurt, but mostly he was grateful that he could trust his instincts, because apparently Peter was what had been missing from his life. Yes, he still had lingering, unresolved issues from his time in the Army, and sure, he had what Bucky annoyingly referred to as a criminally untapped ass, and no life outside of work and Peter, but Steve was okay with how his life had turned out because of trusting his instincts.

Unfortunately, those same instincts had straight up betrayed him by going absolutely haywire upon being exposed to Tony Stark.

Veteran single dad Steve runs a tattoo shop. For his 40th birthday, Pepper arranges for Tony to get that tattoo he always wanted, and he winds up with the mother of all crushes instead. Jumping out of airplanes is one thing, but falling in love is something else entirely. Steve struggles with the idea of actually letting someone into his life. Tony is left trying to keep his heart from being broken while Steve figures things out.

But Loving Him is Red by theapplepielifestyle

"It is- it is not just destined, Steve Rogers. It will reach through the decades, through entire universes if it has to. It will scour the galaxies without rest until the two of you are standing next to each other. Migardians- Migardians call them soulmates, I believe."

-

Through the decades, through layers of realities, through superheroes and tangles of string- it will always be them.

Tales of the Bots Series by scifigrl47 - 487K

When Tony Stark was seventeen years old, he built his first AI.   On that day, he ceased to be his father's creation, and became a creating force in his own right.

That one act likely saved his life, and not always in the most obvious ways.

You Are My Sunshine by tonystarksnipples

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away." Barely a week after he and Steve's wedding, Tony is diagnosed with lung cancer. Both Steve and Tony take it upon themselves to play the optimist, despite their true worry.

Sing the Body Electric by georgygirl - Explicit, 427K

When a well-meaning nutcase from the cosmos determines that Steve and Tony have one of the strongest soul bonds she's ever sensed, she takes it into her own hands to ensure that Steve and Tony are able to have what she believes every soul-bonded couple wishes — and is made — for.

Too bad she doesn't tell Steve and Tony about this before she weaves her little magic spell. Now, Steve and Tony are forced to come to terms with the fact that the week Tony spent as a woman was not as harmless an exercise as they'd originally thought.

And there's no easy way to fix it.

+ It’s actually part of a series, though it can be read as a stand alone technically, but you’ll get a lot more out of it if you read the whole series.

Say When Verse by ann2who - Explicit, 328K

A series rewriting MCU verse, beginning with an alternate version of Iron Man 2, in which, instead of Natasha, Steve got assigned to help Tony while the genius was slowly dying of Palladium poisoning. Continues there in unfolding Steve's and Tony's journey through acceptance, trust, and eventually love.

+ Covers through CACW

Awakenings Verse by Agent_Orange_III, Brooke_Lynn - Explicit, 351K

The Battle of New York is only hours past, but Steve Rogers’ battle to assimilate to his new world has just begun. Steve realizes his frosty existence since his awakening is every bit as debilitating as the Arctic ice he escaped. He sets upon a journey of self-discovery, even as the Avengers make rebuilding what the Chitauri destroyed a priority, encountering notions of friendship, home, family, and love he’d never considered. But Steve is not alone: Despite efforts to deny it, Tony Stark has to face the fact that his heart has awakened as well. Steve manages to rock Tony’s world in ways he’s never imagined possible.

Awakenings details the romantic, heart-warming, and sexy story of Steve and Tony’s emerging relationship. Their transition from teammates to friends to lovers is bumpy yet charming, exasperating and exhilarating. Simultaneously, Phil and Clint’s love overcomes life-threatening obstacles, Thor finds new amusements in his adopted world, and Natasha and Bruce discover unexpected aspects of themselves.

If you enjoy romance, drama, hurt/comfort, hot sex, emotional growth, humor, heroic friendships, camaraderie, and a sweet, new-fashioned wedding, then this might be the story for you.

Upon Waking by Winterstar

A story of recovery. In a world without superheroes, Tony Stark, the disinherited son of a billionaire, goes to Afghanistan as an embedded media star, only to be held hostage for months until he’s rescued. During his recovery, his therapist Doctor Bruce Banner prescribes an unusual treatment; volunteer work at a rehab center. He meets an eclectic assembled group including a vet who thinks he’s Thor, a physical therapist who might be a spy, and an all American hero, Steve Rogers. It is Steve Rogers, the soldier in a coma, who captures his interest and, eventually, his heart.

Before the Darkness Swallows You by Veldeia

 Steve was gone.

 Tony was all alone in the dark, the blackness of the damp, rock-walled corridor only occasionally broken by the fluttering fluorescent lamps in the ceiling.

 He wasn’t afraid of the dark. An abandoned mine was by no means the scariest environment he’d ended up in. Still, he’d have been crazy not to be afraid of what lurked in these shadows.

Toaster Verse by scifigrl47 - 343K

Steve takes things like personal responsibility and respect seriously.  Tony's got people he pays to take care of that kind of thing, and anyway, he's pretty sure that he's going to die of some exotic disease in his workshop, because Dummy's still a little spotty about what is 'clean' enough to put on an open wound.  The rest of the Avengers are in this for personal gain, except for Clint, he just enjoys being a dick.

And some things shouldn't be a chore.

Saving the World (Is Totally A Date) by Wordsplat

Tony discovers Stane's betrayal while he's still being held captive. When he escapes, he sets out to ruin Stane as completely and ruthlessly as he can, playing up his PTSD and quitting his job to destroy Stane quietly from the outside. He also picks up a teaching job-all Pepper's fault-and oh, right, becomes a supervillain. Okay, that one was Tony's fault, but it was totally an accident.

In the meantime, a certain Capsicle is defrosted a year early, and is assigned the task of capturing the notorious Iron Man. It's not going particularly well, if the embarrassingly high number of times he's been kidnapped in the past six months is any indication. When SHIELD decides to help him "adjust" by getting him a teaching job, Steve is skeptical; but then there's Tony, and Steve finds he doesn't mind the 21st century so much after all.