#ultimately I did cause I don't want you to think that in extreme cases of surgery there aren't any risks or long term consequences

[hoes4hoseok]

enhypen as midnights

txt version ☆ folklore version ☆ masterlist

it feels like it's been ages (because it's been nearly NINE MONTHS) since i've done an enhypen x taylor post but here it is! i feel kind of nervous posting this but whatever, i just gotta hit the button at some point.

sunghoon as snow on the beach

"you wanting me tonight feels impossible, but it's coming down, no sound, it's all around, like snow on the beach"

falling for sunghoon would feel so tragic at first because you'd think there's just no way he likes you back?? 😭

&& it'd consume a lot of your time just thinking about what it would be like if it did

so when you'd realize that he does when he finally tells you?? it'd feel magical

&&, not to be extremely literal, but a kiss on a snowy beach with sunghoon?? that WOULD be magical

initially, i considered having sunghoon being maroon instead of this song, so tell me what you think!

jay as midnight rain

"he was sunshine, i was midnight rain"

jay is ambitious. so for the record, i'm not saying that he isn't.

however, if you were dating him while he was already successful (aka now) & you weren't where you wanted to be, i think it'd naturally cause a rift like this song describes

&& sometimes, you'd look back & think about the life you would've had together

but ultimately, it may be for the best that you broke up because you wouldn't have been able to pursue your dreams together

(i do not wish this fate on any of you.)

ni-ki as question...?

"i don't remember who i was before you painted all my nights a color i've searched for since"

seeing ni-ki after you broke up would f with your head

not because he did anything on purpose, but because it would be really freaking hard to see him and think about him being with someone else

&& you'd hope that no one compares to what you & him had for him, because that's how you feel

but in reality, you'll never know

&& eventually, hopefully you'd move on. or run back to him? there's no moral of the story here.

sunoo as karma

"karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?"

this song focuses on good things karma has brought to him rather than bad things it’s brought others

&& i think that’s a mindset sunoo would/does share

sunoo minds his business & good things come to him (in this case, you! you're the good thing that came to him!)

it’s been happening since i-land era we KNOW 👏(idc he was popular for a reason)

jungwon as sweet nothing

"outside, they're push & shoving, you're in the kitchen humming, all that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing"

is anyone surprised by my choices for jungwon anymore? because these are so predictable i swear LMFAO

so i chose this song because jungwon seems like the type to not hold you to the same high standards that everyone else does

&& you'd be able to do the same for him, especially since he probably feels a lot of responsibility as the leader of the group

he'd give you that feeling of it not mattering what everyone else thinks because you have each other 🤧

heeseung as paris

"romance is not dead if you keep it just yours"

having a private relationship with heeseung is probably in the top 10 most romantic things ever 🫶🏽

so romantic that it feels like everything else fades away when you’re together & you’re somewhere else 😭

&& you wouldn’t have to put a ton of work into keeping that up because yeah, sometimes the relationship doesn’t feel like paris

&& that’s okay. it’s worth it for the good times :)

jake as glitch

"a brief interruption, a slight malfunction, i'd go back to wanting dudes who give nothing"

falling for jake when you're used to people who treat you like trash would feel so unreal

because that man would be such a good boyfriend <3

&& when that happens you'd kind of second guess whether you deserve to be treated that well

&& it would feel like something that isn't supposed to happen & you'd suspect that you'll return to the pattern of trash guys "after him"

but you deserve him & you deserve to be happy,, & he'd make that very clear to you in his actions and words

txt version ☆ folklore version ☆ masterlist

[staringdownabarrel]

I know Worf gets a lot of flack for being a bad parent, and in some ways he really is, but honestly, I find it easy to be sympathetic to him as well.

When Worf first becomes a single father, he clearly recognises that he isn't in an ideal spot to be a parent, and that he doesn't have the right temperament for it. That's the real reason why Alexander is sent to live with Worf's adoptive parents on Earth initially. While this often gets read as Worf dumping an unwanted child, it's also just as much a recognition that he isn't cut out to be a parent.

Worf's initial recognition that he isn't cut out to be a parent is vindicated in TNG, too. In New Ground, when Worf first starts taking care of Alexander full time for real, it isn't just a matter of him not having the right temperament for it. It's also a matter of him straight up not having the time for it, either. A lot of the early issues he has with Alexander stem from him being on duty when Alexander is causing issues.

Alexander is also presented as being an extremely difficult child in canon. Consider the other Star Trek kids in the TNG era. Wesley, Naomi, Jake, and Nog all have their issues, are being raised by single (and in the case of Wesley and Jake specifically, widowed) parents in the communal starship/space station environment, but still manage to get along okay. Alexander on the other hand is presented as having behavioural and defiance issues.

This does make a lot of intuitive sense. He was there when his mother was killed and he's still too young to have developed any effective coping skills for it. The other children introduced tend to have been in this position for a while and have had time to develop those skills. Of course Alexander is going to be a difficult child by comparison.

But still, this isn't exactly a good recipe for Worf. He's in a position he isn't really cut out for, raising a child he never really wanted, who also has deep behavioural issues he's unequipped to handle. This was always going to lead to him being a deeply frustrated parent and considerably worse at it than the other Star Trek parents.

Plus, you know, we never get a phase where Alexander is the sweet little kid. TNG just skips straight to Alexander the brat. This is only compounded by the fact that the Berman era writers weren't very good at writing child characters, so even the less bratty Alexander scenes still end up being grating.

At least in real life when kids are going through their more difficult phases, parents have the memories of them being sweet kids to fall back on. They can still go, "Okay, this is just a phase and eventually they're gonna come out and be the good kids with good values like I remember." Worf never really gets that. He only ever gets Alexander the difficult child, not Alexander the good kid.

It's not like Worf doesn't try to connect with Alexander. A lot of him trying to get Alexander to be more interested in his Klingon heritage is read as Worf essentially trying to force his religion on Alexander, but I don't see it that way. I think it's more Worf trying to bridge the gap between him and his son. Most parents want their kids to have some knowledge of their heritage anyway, so Worf isn't being inherently unreasonable on this point.

He also seems to be ultimately okay with Alexander embracing his human side, if somewhat uncomfortable at times. This is a large part of Worf's character arc in Firstborn. So reading Worf's attempts at trying to get Alexander to be more interested in his Klingon heritage as being an attempt at connecting more deeply does make overall sense.

Really, the big thing Worf gets right in the TNG era is that he is actively getting therapy for it with Troi. This is something Worf did better even compared to real parents today, thirty years later. Loads of parents would never consider this kind of dynamic, but for Worf, it's something he accepts as necessary given his lack of parental abilities and Alexander's ongoing issues. I feel like this is an aspect that doesn't get focused on enough when people talk about Worf's parenting.

This is also one of the points where DS9 really derails Worf's character. Even when Alexander comes back into Worf's life as a member of the Klingon Defense Forces, there's never any new therapy sessions for the two. They have the ongoing father and son conflict, but none of the attempts at resolution that existed in TNG. So we go from a positive example of someone trying to resolve a conflict to a less positive one, and I really feel like this colours a lot of people's views on Worf's parenting more than it should.

[cosmicjoke]

Selfishness and selflessness are constant themes in the characters in AoT. Each character has varying degrees of both. I feel like Levi was definitely one of the most selfless ones. When this topic is brought up a lot outside of Tumblr I feel like most people tend to leave Levi out of this discussion because he's mostly just seen as "badass action figure" instead of a character who fully carries the humongous burden of being humanities strongest soldier... Which characters do you think were ultimately the most selfish?

People like to reduce Levi to a trope, but the truth is, he's one of the most complex characters in the story. That they don't get that is their problem, I suppose. And yes, Levi is also the most selfless character in the series, for reasons I've talked at length about, so I won't bore you by going into why here, other than to say Levi commits himself fully to the lives and dreams of others, while carrying no real dream or desire of his own. There's no self-serving motivation behind his actions, ever. He's a tragic hero in that regard. Because it's both admirable to be that selfless, and also deeply sad. Levi, basically, genuinely is what Historia early on pretended to be.

As for who I think the most selfish characters are, that's pretty easy to answer, honestly. In no particular order, it would be:

Eren

Zeke

Historia

Characters like Reiner and Annie also acted extremely selfishly at points, and their selfishness lead to untold amounts of destruction, particularly Reiner. There's a reason Eren compares himself to Reiner right before he attacks Liberio. Because Eren knows what he's about to do is wrong, and that he's doing it for selfish reasons, and Reiner also knew, during his second attack on Paradis, that what he was doing was wrong, and he was doing it for selfish reasons (in his case, the desire to be seen as a hero and become an honorary Marleyan). Neither Riener or Eren had an excuse for why they killed so many people. It's why Reiner is so consumed by guilt later, and has these episodes of displaying a kind of split personality. Ultimately, though, Reiner owned up to his sins and did all he could to make up for them, whereas Eren just fully embraced his evil desires and went all the way with them.

I've talked at length about Eren, Zeke and Historia, and why their actions were so selfish, so I won't go into a long explanation here. Needless to say, Eren committed a worldwide genocide because he refused to accept the world the way it was, and wanted it to be like what he saw in Armin's book. Zeke literally instigated a war and caused the deaths of countless people because of his selfish, self-aggrandizing wish to be the world's "savior" through the execution of his own genocide, and Historia stood by and did nothing to stop Eren from committing a genocide and also allowed countless numbers of her own, former comrades to be killed or critically injured and imperiled all because she decided she didn't want to follow through on her previous promise to them, because she wanted to go on living herself.

[kuhakukage]

Fuck, marry, kill. But describe how you would do each one and why. Choose three characters from Naruto. Three from Death Note. And another three from a fandom of your choosing.

Naruto:

Fuck: Naruko, Naruto's sexy-no-jutsu form. Because I wanted to see him squirmed under my embrace. I wanted to see him being unlike his usual confident self, I wanted to make him cry. I would make him scream out my name. I wanted him to watch as violated him and cannot do anything under the paralysis seal I slapped on him.

Marry: Rin Nohara. She seemed to be a kind person and would work well with children. I feel like she's the type who put other people before herself with how she decided to act in the manga. So much so that she's willing to pay the ultimate price of her life. I have no opinion on marriage ceremony so I'll chose base on what she would choose. Though, personally, I just wanted to elope with her.

Kill: If I could kill off permanently, Orochimaru for his disgustingly long list of crimes against humanity. I would create a Limited Tsukuyomi Jutsu where the worst thing he could think of would happen and cast it on him. Afterwards, I would seal off his regeneration technique, take away all his limbs, and buried him alive while stuck with a seal that sucked chakra and wait for him to die off chakra. exhaustion. Otherwise, I would choose Hiashi, for not doing anything to change the hyuga, but rather enable it. He chose to torture his brother after assuming he has killing intent toward his daughter. DID HE THINK THAT BEING FORCED TO SERVE SOMEONE AND DEDICATE YOUR LIFE TO A BUNCH OF PEOPLE THAT SAW YOU AS LESSER WOULD BE FUN? I would brand him with the caged-bird curse seal and use it to cause him so much pain and make him beg for mercy. I would do this until he become a vegetable after that lifetime of pain and kill him by feeding him to pigs.

Death Note:

Fuck: Halle Lidner. She's hot and blonde, so basically my fetish. She seemed like a dom, so I want to dom her. I wanted to see her defiant face as I bound her to the bed, I want to make her insult me yet can only watch as I violated her. I wanted humiliate her until she become exhausted from her effort of resisting.

Marry: Naomi Misora, I LOVE HER. SHE IS SO INTELLIGENT AND COMPETENT. I HATE THAT SHE HAS TO GO BEFORE MEETING L OTHERWISE LIGHT WOULD HAVE BEEN CAUGHT EXTREMELY EARLY. I ALSO LOVE HER IN THE BB'S CASE. Anyways, as I have said before I have no opinion on marriage ceremony and would go along her whim, which is most likely a normal wedding.

Kill: Hitoshi Demegawa. This trash is a sleazy, greedy and arrogant little pig. It decided to scam its viewers out of their money, setting up a fake cult to worship Kira and demanding donations starting at the million-yen mark. I would dropped a mountain of cash so heavy it would be crushed.

Detective Conan:

Fuck: Vermouth AKA Sharon Vineyard. Oh god, she's so hot that if I die after fucking her, I would still do it. I don't even mind if she dom me. IN FACT, I welcome it. I do wish for her to be gentle though. I liked how intelligent, insightful and bold she is. I also like how cruel she is yet also how she developed a conscience after being saved by Ran and Shinichi.

Marry: Miyano Shiho. I would love to be with her for the rest of my life. I really don't care how bossy and demanding she is. I love how serious and intelligent she is. She's also so pretty and old style. I wish to relax her attitude a bit after getting into a relationship with her. I don't think much of marriage ceremony and would do what she want. I would probably suggested a grand ceremony just because of how much I liked her.

Kill: Misao Yamamura because he's dumb, but thinks he's smart, and has no personality. To quote Conan, "poor Gunma Perfecture." One of the most irritating things he does is in Movie 20 when all the detectives are trying to be sneaky, and this bitch just tripped and announced to the guy that he's a police, taking advantage of getting a hostage to protect himself. What kind of police does that? He thinks that he's smart even though the children are smarter than him sometimes. Even though he's a detective, he messes up a lot and misses really obvious clues. Plus, he's scared of everything, like blood and dead bodies, and he's superstitious, believing in curses and ghosts. He even ditches his job to grab lunch instead of doing what he's supposed to. And when it comes to Gunma, he's pretty clueless about it, needing locals to correct him on stuff despite being based in it. I don't know how I could choose a single method when I'm so tired of this guy. Honestly, I just wanted to push him off a skyscraper and not look back.

[ineffable-human]

Season 2 (potential) Clues

Get ready for another theory post y'all we don't have enough clearly

GIF made with help by @afhyer

Being a collection of things I found weird/noteable in Season 2 that could be potential Clues for Season 3. (and my theories, some sound, some crackpot)

Note 1: I use my dudes non-genderedly 

Note 2: I am not tech savvy enough to get screenshots from Scamazon or make gifs or anything so sorry for the low-quality phone images/lack of images in some cases

Jim and the God Possession

Jim and the whole memory loss thing was a great part of the show, but it did bring up some interesting moments when Jim got God-possessed (As I like to call it). These moments prove to be fairly crucial, especially the first one. 

It’s through the God-voice that Aziraphale and Crowley get to thinking about the Job job. Now I have oodles of theories about what this does to/for them, but ultimately I think it comes down to relaying two main ideas. 1. There’s always a work around to the main problem

2. Demons (and to an extent angels) have free will/a choice

Now the second one is less God-like but still leads us (and Crowley) into the minisode about the magic show. Here we learn two more important pieces of information.

1. There’s such a thing as a miracle block

2. Aziraphale and Crowley can pull off tricks without needing to use miracles

My (crackpot-ish) Theory: knowing Gabriel is commonly referred to as God’s messenger in many bibles/renditions, I think it’s likely that he got redirected to Aziraphale’s shop by God to deliver these messages.

Aziraphale’s reactions during the Beelzebub/Gabriel scene

They’re feckin’ weird, my dudes. 

I noticed two things right off the bat.

First. His lovey-dovey face. 

Okay, I know we all know that Aziraphale feels love and that he loves love, but that doesn’t seem to be the entirety of what’s going on here. Look at that face! LOOK AT IT! 

Extremely crackpot theory: Aziraphale knew about Gabe and Beelz’s relationship ahead of time.

Most likely theory: Aziraphale is happy seeing proof that it’s possible to find something more important than choosing sides

(couldn't get a gif but watch it cause there's certainly a thought pattern going on when this happens) Second. His reaction when Crowley tells Gabriel and Beelzebub about Alpha Centauri. He looks both saddened and regretful. WHY? Not just because he rejected Crowley once, but because (crackpot theory) he knows he’s gonna have to reject him again!!! Idk whatever way you look at it that’s QUITE the reaction to Crowley giving away their spot like that.

Crowley's reactions after

Let’s start with whatever Crowley is up to when the angles are all talking.

He’s just off, lounging in the chair. Doing nothing. Doesn't even RESPOND when Michael threatens to erase Aziraphale. Mr. I DID NOT CARE FOR IT, just sits there and lets that go unanswered. WHY??? Even if the book of life isn’t real like he claims, it’s still a little out of character for him to just do nothing at all. And the fact that he just sends Azirpahale off with the Metatron after is like…bruh really? 

Okay now, go look at Crowley AFTER Aziraphale goes for a chat with the Metatron. IDK about anyone else but this boy does not look happy. (couldn't get any clear shots SOB) He looks angry when he’s talking to Muriel about the breakfast. And when was the last time he mentioned needing an extreme amount of alcohol? When they were trying to stop the first apocalypse.

I know that everyone’s thinking he’s all excited and happy to go see Aziraphale and get together etc. But this all happened BEFORE Maggie and Nina walked over to tell him to confess.

My Theory: Crowley does know Aziraphale, and knows how badly he wants to work with heaven and be good and all that jazz. Which is why he’s anticipating Aziraphale coming back to say, hey I’ve been offered a job. He expects them to go talk it over at breakfast and is preparing to say goodbye/help him come up with a plan to stop armageddon pt2. But then he gets the idea to confess and Aziraphale hits him with the ‘be an angel again yay’ whammy, and he just loses it.

The Non-Acceptance Acceptance

Something just interesting to note…the Metatron sends Aziraphale into the bookshop with a ‘take your time, we don’t need an answer right away’ but then comes in right after Crowley leaves acting as if Aziraphale said yes all along.

Theory (potentially crackpot): The Metatron (potentially with the help of demon Maggie{I got ideas, my duded}) manipulated and orchestrated their breakup by getting them both to a heightened state of emotions and throwing them together. He knew Aziraphale would get into a fight with Crowley and that Crowley was the only reason he wouldn’t go with them.

The Coffee and the Embassy

Do I wish the coffee was super drugged and Aziraphale was not himself? Yes. But let’s put that idea aside and just look at the facts.

I’m gonna start with how weird it is that the bookshop is still an embassy. Aziraphale does call it an ex/past-heaven outpost, but it’s still his and still has heavenly power. Whereas Crowley lost his flat when he lost his job.

Why is this? It’s possible that the flat was owned by hell whereas Azirpahale bought the shop himself. But it still doesn’t explain why heaven was still ‘protecting’ the home of a ‘traitor’.

My theory for this does concern the coffee. But not the drink itself or what may or may not be in it. Rather, the way it’s presented to Aziraphale. 

First, the Metatron says some of the things in that weird way of his, like the “hefty jiggy of almond” and whatnot. It sounds very ‘hint-hint wink-wink nudge-nudge’ to me, like he’s talking in code to Aziraphale. 

Second, Aziraphale says that there’s nothing left to talk about, and he’s made his position quite clear. The only time we’ve seen them talk was in Season 1 when Aziraphale tries to talk to God. And in that conversation, Aziraphale didn’t say anything about his *position*.

My theory: Azirapahle and the Metatron talked at some point between S1 end and S2 end. Most likely very closely after S1 ended, and Aziraphale did something (perhaps made a deal) where he was able to keep the shop and maintain its embassy status.

Addendum HELLA CRACKPOT like so cracky it’s just a giant hole: Metatron secretly good guy come at me XD

The flow of the fight

So I won’t go deep into my big crazy theory about the fight being fake, but I will point out the strange things I noticed, why they feel off, and what I think it might mean…. I also could not garner the energy to take pictures of this scene sorry SOB

First, Aziraphale when he’s telling Crowley the ‘good news’. He keeps glancing out the window. As if checking that the Metatron is still watching. And if he’s watching, we don’t know if he’s maybe listening too. And Azirpahale’s whole attitude in this opening bit feels kind of like his stage-presence.

Next, we get the weird half-information about the talk with the Metatron. We don’t really see the full convo, which is part of the point, I believe. We don’t even know if that conversation happened at all. 

After that, Crowley gets thrown for a loop with the whole restoring angel status, obvs. But then they go right into their old fight of heaven and hell and good and bad. Which was, I think, the main thing that’s a little off here. And that’s because of how much Aziraphale noticed and was seen noticing those ‘light-grays’ of the world and of the whole situation. The entire graverobbing bit was him learning that the difference between good and bad and right and wrong are blurred/a matter of how you view things. 

Yes, the miscommunication is the main issue here, but the fact that the good/bad debate comes up again is interesting to note. Especially since it’s Aziraphale that pulls the hell is bad heaven is good card. If we go on the idea that this conversation is being bugged and they’re trying to talk between talking, it kind of seems like Crowley is throwing out the ‘I thought we weren’t choosing sides???’ and Aziraphale brings up the good/bad to indicate that it’s not about choosing sides but about doing what’s *right* (like saving goats and children).

Next, Crowley hits us with the line about heaven ending life on earth. Because he knows the angels were planning a second armageddon. Now I don’t believe that Crowley, for however hurt he is, believes that Aziraphale would willingly go along with that plan. But Azirpahale doesn’t know about it, right? This out of place line (in direct response to heaven being the side of truth light and good) is Crowley’s way of cluing Aziraphale in on the bigger picture. Note, specifically, the pause before Crowley speaks again as Aziraphale processes that.

Aziraphale didn’t say no, but he also didn’t say yes. I think this is the key point in the argument. Aziraphale just learned that heaven is still planning to try and destroy Earth. And he knows that if he does nothing, they probably will. So here he is, essentially accepting the job so that he can put a stop to it. And here he is trying to tell Crowley that’s his plan

Crowley understands what’s going on. And he decides to confess, right? This confession gets *interesting*. First, Aziraphale glances out the window when Crowley says they’re a team, yes? Because he’s still checking for Metatron’s presence. Second, Aziraphale looks confused by Crowley’s line of reasoning. Crowley is talking about them relying on each other and working together, but Aziraphale’s idea of that (in this situation anyway) would be him coming to heaven to help.

Crowley’s eyes wander a lot, but he also looks pointedly out the window at one point, while he’s struggling to get the words out. And I think that he’s trying to get his confession out while knowing that they’re being watched/listened to. I mean, gosh it’s tough enough to confess let alone when someone is watching.

As to why Crowley decided to confess: I don’t think it’s an act of desperation to get Aziraphale to choose him over heaven and just abandon everything. I think it’s his act of desperation to get Aziraphale to realize that going to heaven has BIG FUCKING TRAP written all over it and that they can do more to fix things together on Earth than anywhere/way else. And Aziraphale pulls a similar move by asking him to come with him. He knows it’s dangerous and he does need Crowley there to help.

Now this is another weird turn in the convo. After Aziraphale asks Crowley to come with him again, Crowley throws out ‘you can’t leave the bookshop’. And Aziraphale responds with the ‘nothing lasts forever’. Now I’m sure I’m missing something here because both of these lines feel so weird and out of place I’m gonna assume they are some kind of code or I’m dense about the line of reasoning here.

What’s really interesting tho is that Aziraphale looks kind of…hopeful? After he says it, right before Crowley walks away. Like he was expecting some kind of different reaction to that line. Maybe Crowley missed the Clue, too.

After that, it’s easy to see why Aziraphale would stop him from leaving and reharp on the point of them working together in heaven. He doesn’t know if Crowley fully understands the Plan, or if he’ll help when Aziraphale needs him. And he’ll definitely need him.

Then we get another little shift in the mood/convo. Aziraphale gets angry/frustrated, possibly because Crowley isn’t picking up on the idea. We’re so used to seeing Crowley get angry in their fights, but the few times Aziraphale does get angry he gets *angry*. Here, however, he’s clearly trying to mask it. 

Okay, the whole Nightingales line, imma be honest, made no sense. Like, in the fandom it makes sense because of the song, but like, in the depths of this conversation I was like ??? what a strange way to put it. But Aziraphale does react to it, so we have to assume there’s something about it that they both understood/knew. (I will touch BRIEFLY on my ‘the entire argument was a magic trick bit’ to say that this is Crowley letting Aziraphale know that the kiss/his feelings aren’t part of the scheme).

I don’t even know with the whole ‘I forgive you’ bit, man. There’s a lot of ideas, but the way Aziraphale’s face changes from shocked, to sad, to angry, to immediate regret after says a lot as well. Crackpot theory: Aziraphale trying to change Crowley to an angel early by ‘forgiving’ him as the new supreme archangel so he can kidnap him away to heaven.

After the Fight

NOW! An important thing to note after the fight! When the Metatron mentions the second coming, yeah Aziraphale get’s that OH SHIT face. But I don’t think it’s an ‘oh shit they are up to no good’ face. It’s an ‘oh shit this is a different beast than just shutting down another apocalypse’. And the way he looks at Crowley after is very much a ‘help me I’ve bitten off more than I can chew’ kinda look.

Also a potentially important thing. Crowley’s face is pretty blank during both that and the driving away. Which is weird because his face is usually so expressive you can tell what he’s feeling even with the glasses on. He looks more…pensive than sad to me but that Could Just Be Me.

Aziraphale's fucking smile at the end

I mean just look at that, lil bastard. That’s totally a hahaha I FOOLED THEM face. Enough said.

The miracle block and Aziraphale's failed Jedi mind trick

Putting aside the totally real possibility that Maggie is a demon (further evidence available upon request), I thought it was weird that Aziraphale’s little jedi mind trick to try and get her to leave/forget about the night didn’t work. 

Where else did we see miracles not work? The magic show!

My theory: Someone put a miracle block on the bookshop during the invasion. My addendum theory: It was Maggie

The weird music sting and Mrs. Chen

Furfur did mention that he could muster up a feel of illease/malcontent, but this moment when Mrs. Chen is heading in and we get that little music sting feels very weird. It’s such a noticeable/long cut that it just feels like it’s gotta be something more.

And it’s a very similar music sting as when the Metatron gives Crowley his lil evil snarl face My theory: I don’t even have one, but there’s something there.

Crowley not remembering people/the thing about not seeing their faces

Okay this one kinda gets a little iffy but stick with me for a second. Twice in the show we see Crowley not remembering someone (first, Furfur and then Saraqael). Now, someone asked Neil Gaiman about this and iirc his answer was something along the lines of ‘who says Crowley sees people’s faces?’

So, from that answer (if we can trust anything he says XD), we can gather that Crowley recognizes people based more on their aura/soul than their physical features.

Now then, this is an interesting thing to keep in mind when you see his reaction to new Beelzebub and Jim.

When he sees Beelzebub, he does immediately recognize a difference. But it’s important to note here: Beelzebub mentions they’ve had that face for ages. Remember this.

When he sees Jim, he recognizes him as Gabriel, even though we could suspect/assume that his aura/soul looks different since losing his memories and angel powers. 

But what’s the real kicker, is that Crowley recognizes the Metatron off the fucking bat when none of the feckin’ angels do, despite probably having seen his giant floating head during the trial.!!!! AND let’s not forget the the Metatron instantly recognizes him as a demon and calls him as such when the rest of the season has shown multiple times that angels can’t immediately recognize demons (at least not on Earth) 

Now, we can chock it up to, well yes Crowley would recognize their faces since he’s interacted with them more/more recently, but we should also keep in mind a very useful/common storytelling tactic: which is to make something important seem unimportant by playing it off as a joke.

A prime example is Jim and the fly. He tries to sway them with books, and makes a joke about gravity. But the fly did play an important role. The jokes distracted from the importance.

And both scenes of Furfur and Saraqael are played a bit as a joke from their reactions. 

My theory: Crowley is suffering some kind of memory loss from the great war.

Addendum/Alternate theory: Some/Most demons got themselves new faces when they fell, and the face Beelzebub has now was their old angel one. 

Gabriel and the Institutional Problem

I know the Scamazon subtitles were wrong BUT I WAS SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS AS A THEORY WHEN I FIRST WATCHED THAT I WANNA SHARE IT ANYWAY

When Jim is talking about what he remembers, he says “if it happens again, It can make it seem like an institutional problem.” But the og bad subtitles had him saying “if it happens again, *I* can make it seem like an institutional problem.” If the subtitles *were* correct it would put a pretty big disconnect between what the Metatron said in the trial and what Jim/Gabriel thought or said.

My now sadly discounted Theory: Gabriel was purposefully trying to expose the issues in heaven/lead to some kind of shenanigans that would shut down further apocalypse attempts. Crackpot Addendum: he was instructed to do so by God. ((And yes, if you're wondering, I did come back on Tumblr after like, 3 years of being gone just to post this nonsense thank you and goodnight!))

[thedawningofthehour]

Its always a joy to see an update from your fic and I do hope this one treats you better than the last and that youre well!

I havent quite read through the latest chapter yet, but I remembered a question Id forgotten to send. Some time ago you answered a different ask I believe wanting to know what would happen if Leo were to ask Draxum to join them. I think you said Draxum would have refused him, but obviously he didnt do that with Raph and so Im wondering, what was different? Would he have still refused Leo had he beaten Raph to the punch or would Draxum have accepted Leo in this time since they had the collars at the ready?

Hope you have a great rest of your day!

Thank you! In general readership went way down when I moved from Book 1 to 2, but it worked itself back up. Not to the point doth was at in the last few chapters, but better. It's plummeted again, but I'm hoping it'll pick back up like it did for Book 2. (otherwise, I'm not really sure what's happening, other than people getting fatigued? Did a bunch of people stop reading because of Raph doing his stupid thing?)

Clarification: Draxum would have initially refused him. Leo would have had to sell himself, and really make a good case for it because Draxum would have been very resistant to the idea. But that's the sort of thing Leo really excels at. So I don't think it's out of the question that he'd succeed. He'd just really have to nail it in one go.

I mean, a couple reasons. A major one being that Draxum really doesn't like Leo. Leo is overwhelmingly the one poking the sword in Draxum's side, he's loud and disobedient and Draxum thinks he doesn't take anything seriously. He's come to realize what a mastermind strategist Leo is, but honestly that just makes him hate him more because Leo is usually strategizing against him. He hates how fanatically devoted he is to bringing his twin back, he hates that he can't just kill Leo or beat him to a pulp. And he hates that on some level, he still thinks to himself "in another life he'd be my son."

But the main factor in all this is the way Draxum views Raph. Draxum glorifying Raph's size and strength is a huge theme here and it goes back to the table chapters. Raph was the only other turtle he seriously considered taking besides Donnie, and even though he ultimately decided against it due to the difficulties of holding him, it always bothered him that he still technically didn't get everything he wanted. Logically, he knows that Raph's fighting prowess could be replicated-Tigerclaw isn't one of his mutants, but he's proof that Draxum could easily obtain other powerful mutants that came willingly to his cause and were far more loyal.

The problem being that Draxum, as much as he pretends he's not, is very sentimental. He planned to raise the turtles themselves, both as warriors and people, and especially now with how close he's grown to Galois he thinks more and more about what life could have been had Lou Jitsu not kidnapped them. It wasn't just having a super elite warrior at his beck and call, it was the thought of having this massive, extremely powerful mutant warrior and being able to call him his. He considers both Donatello and Raphael to have been his masterwork-and he can't even take full credit for Donnie because it wasn't his intention to make him a genius. It drove him crazy not to have his masterpiece by his side, and even if he can't admit to creating Raph now he still knows Raphael was his work. He feels very smug about that.

Another thing is going back to the risk vs rewards thing. The reason Draxum didn't kidnap Raph along with Donnie was because he'd be physically impossible to control, but with Raph submitting willingly (and having a shock collar that could paralyze him on command) that was much less of a concern. But Raph, as strong and powerful as he is, is also...not very bright. Like, he absolutely has good problem-solving skills, and while he's not on Leo or Mikey's level he is emotionally intelligent. But there's no way he could outsmart Draxum, and he's also aware of his own limits enough to know not to try. A shock collar and the threat of instant death is enough to subdue him.

It would not be enough for Leo. Even if Draxum didn't think Leo could outsmart him outright, he'd still try. His attempts could be destructive, and he'd likely be forced to hurt or even kill Leo in retaliation. Which he wouldn't consider a breach of his promise to Donatello, since Leo would have initiated the entire thing and agreed upon those conditions, but agreeing to Leo's proposal knowing it would most likely end with Draxum killing him wasn't really in the spirit of the promise. And again, part of him still doesn't want to kill Leo. Part of him still understands that he's his son's brother, and they both love the same person even if they're calling him by different names.

Also Raph's proposal addressed a major insecurity of Draxum's, that being the subject of Galois's safety. He's freaked out. He knows he has to let Gale out of the house at some point, but he's terrified of what might happen when he does. 'Giant murder turtle bodyguard' might not solve the problem, but it makes it a whole lot better, and it's done in a way that doesn't make Draxum look like a crazy overprotective father. He might worry about Raph messing with Gale's head, but he knows Raph is still extremely protective of him and would die before he let Gale get hurt. Leo-what could Leo do for him? He wasn't big and intimidating, had already proven that he couldn't protect Galois properly-he's still injured from that event, at this point Draxum would have every reason to believe Leo's lack of mobility is permanent. It just wouldn't be worth the risk.

In short: Draxum knew he really shouldn't take any turtle up on that offer. It was a stupid decision, and it went against what he promised Donatello. But Raph did the equivalent of dangling a piece of meat in front of him and Draxum was practically salivating the second Raph knelt before him.

[tobiasdrake]

Either Desuhiko's about to close one checkmate of a brilliant trap, or he's committed the biggest whoopsy-doodle of all time.

That's a good question. Either he hung onto it because he's an opportunistic filcher or he hung onto it for bait. Once again, it's genuinely hard to tell whether Desuhiko is playing a fool or is a fool.

If he is acting, he deserves an award.

I don't know that Desuhiko would do that.

But I don't know that he wouldn't either.

Now that she's confirmed the ring's location, she's looking for her opening. I wonder if she knew he had it on him from the start of the interview, or if this was a genuine surprise? She baited him with the hidden treasure talk but I'm not sure she was anticipating him whipping it out of his pocket.

Now she makes her move. Oh, I hope this blindsides Desuhiko. I want her to get away with this so bad. Enyne is awesome.

DESUHIKO YOU FOOL

Or mastermind. One of the two. Desuhiko is, at this moment in time, a quantum imbecile. He's wearing Schrodinger's Dunce Cap. He exists in simultaneous states, where he both is and is not a useless clown, and will remain in such a state until one is finally observed to be true and the probabilities collapse into reality.

Oh wow, that's a fantastic engraving. Whoever stashed the hidden treasure had an amazing gift of prophecy!

She casually slides it on her finger. What a baller move. I love this woman. She's fantastic. 10/10 Would play a game about the legendary homunculus thief. Stealing works best under cover of night anyway so it's not like the sun would bother her.

Huh. Didn't think Yakou would willingly participate in a sham investigation guaranteed to draw Peacekeeper attention. That's uncharacteristically helpful of him.

I don't like that she's explaining everything. This feels like they're setting her up for Desuhiko to flip the tables and turn everything around on her.

Come on, Enyne. Forget the shrimp in a blanket and get out of there!

Uh, how did you "destroy her image"? People don't respect her for being uncatchable. I mean, that's part of her reputation, but the main thing they respect is her charity. What part of the fake ring theft was designed to make her stop seeming to be a charitable figure?

I want that to be true. Come on, Enyne. You have the ring. Get out of there before the other shoe drops.

Is he being serious right now? No tricks? She really did get the drop on him? ~_~ I'm so nervous right now. I haven't felt this tense since I figured out who the killers were in Chapter 2 and realized how badly I didn't want to solve the case.

It's a good plan. Not hard to do, either, if you're someone who has their ear to the ground.

Yeah, I figured. Which means we're back at "Enyne fences merchandise somehow in a city that would have an extremely hard time sustaining a criminal underground".

Go! Get out of here!

DAMMIT NO

Someone stuff Desuhiko in a box before he has a chance to say anything else!

Oh goddammit.

Has she lost, though? Like. Hey. Desuhiko? Where is the trap part of this trap?

Like. What is stopping her from kicking him in the face, grabbing up the real ring, and then strolling out the door? Desuhiko's gloating like this is his ultimate master play but I don't see any jaws sprung yet.

For a moment, I thought maybe he trapped the ring. It's obviously made by his Disguise Kit, so I figured it might, like, jab her finger with a sedative or something.

But. No. He's just. Standing there gloating. Where's the trap?

Oh fuck off, you libidinous piglet. She robs museums and then something something and then donates the money to charitable causes. She's engaging in wealth redistribution. That's a far more noble endeavor than the lengths you're going to see your name in a headline.

So, for real, Desuhiko. Where are the jaws? This trap isn't coming together.

I don't know what else you think you can do. If you had Yomi's men here, you might be able to take her in. Emphasis might. She's a notorious unstoppable thief so she might be as badass as Halara.

But I still don't see what's stopping her from flipping you upside down and prying the ring out of your hand with minimal effort. You are not an intimidating person. Go on, Desuhiko. What is the plan?

What.

WHAT. DESUHIKO NO. WHAT THE FUCK DESUHIKO.

This is alarmingly in character for him BUT STILL. KICK HIM IN THE FACE AND TAKE THE RING.

The quantum imbecile has been observed. The douche function collapsed, probability became certainty, and the reality has been locked in as... both. Great job, Desuhiko.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

Serious question. If John and Yoko had lived in London and he had surrounded her with his old mates and people who only answered to him, if he had isolated her from her family and friends and then persuaded her to give him all her money, drugged her and controlled what she ate, would you still say, well, it’s OK, because she said he was her best friend and we should respect that?

I bet you wouldn’t.

I didn't really say anything about "respect" I don't think, I'm talking about understanding. In that sense, yes, it's respecting someone's perspective. If Yoko had that perspective I think it would be worthy of consideration, even if it would ultimately "not be right".

I do think you're using a worst case scenario assessment of John and Yoko in this suggested role reversal, when, as we've discussed, we don't really know the full facts cause a lot of this comes from Goldman, who very obviously had an axe to grind. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to say Yoko was abusive in this scenario, but I also think it's probably not true that John had zero influence on what was going on in that marriage. He had extreme body dysmorphia before he met Yoko; he got into depressive, self-isolating episodes before he met Yoko. Maybe she exacerbated those issues while thinking she was helping (I believe she followed the macrobioting diet as well and by her own indication she helped John lose the weight he himself was determined to lose). Also, I take issue with your "drugged" wording. Did Yoko forcefeed or secretly drug John? If so, that's news to me (and kind of suspect). Otherwise, a lot of people provided drugs to John Lennon.

TBH, I personally doubt she was a net positive influence on him – I see how I may have come off unwarrantedly defensive of her, but you also have to understand that less than a week ago I was getting anons seriously suggesting Yoko had John killed, plus it is just relatively obvious that some people in this space will do everything to discredit how much this relationship mattered to John. Something can matter to him and be ultimately bad for him! Drugs for instance – but an analysis of John that did not accept that drugs played a big role in his life that he did not on the whole perceive as a bad thing at the time (or at least not with the same understanding we have nowadays) would be a bad analysis of him. (I'm not saying Yoko necessarily = drugs, I'm somewhat adopting the worst faith perspective)

Here's a question for you: do you approach John and Cyn's relationship with this same attitude? John arguably put Cyn through hell and treated her horribly when they divorced. I'm not gonna ennumerate his shortcomings, I'm sure you know them well enough, but are they really not even in the ballpark of what Yoko did? And especially if you apply the same skepticism you seem to have for Yoko to John, as in, assuming the worst allegations are true? (it's even crazier to me, when, a lot of tinhats on this site [and I'm not saying you're one of them anon] seem to basically assume John did not care about Cyn)

Also, to be clear, it's fine if you like John more than Yoko – I get these things are subjective. But if we're talking about accusations that are verging on criminal… idk I want to approach it with tact personally.

[chloe-caulfield94]

Chloe's request for assisted suicide

Chloe's request to be put out of her misery in Episode 4 is the only decision in Season 1 I spent a considerable amount of time agonizing over before I chose. I'm not saying that the other choices Max faced during that crazy week in October of 2013 didn't hold much gravity, because of course they did, but in all other cases I quickly had a pretty clear picture of what I would do, and more importantly, what Max would do.

Ultimately, I decided not to honour Chloe's request and I repeated that decision in all subsequent playthroughs.

I'm not ideologically opposed to medically assisted suicide. While I personally am extremely lucky to enjoy perfect health, I realize that sometimes a person's illness may cause them so much physical pain that their existence becomes unbearable and is worse than not existing.

Everything seems to encourage Max to grant Chloe's last wish. Chloe's condition is terminal. Her family is being crushed by debt. She clearly says that she wants to go out on her own terms.

But I couldn't escape the feeling that Chloe's pain was more emotional than physical in nature. How happy she was to have spent one day with her best friend. Wasn't her feeling of hopelessness, which made her wish for death, a product of being abandoned, at least in part? Wouldn't she be more willing to stay for whatever time she had left if she had someone to share that time with?

Overdosing Chloe felt like an extremely cheap way out for Alternative Max. Just one day with Chloe and that's it? It's not entirely clear if that timeline stopped existing when Max undid her rescue of William. When I played the game my understanding was that there is only one timeline, which can be modified by changing the past. But the LiS comics introduced the notion that all the timelines exist simultaneously. So after our Max went back to the main timeline, the timeline where William lived persisted somewhere out there. Assuming that Alternative Max would retain our Max's feelings for Chloe, wouldn't it be better if she spent whatever time Chloe had left with her? Making her lot in life more bearable? Showing her that there's at least a little bit of hope? Spending many more days with her like the one she spent with her on the beach and watching movies? Maybe after more days like that Chloe would stop wishing for death?

We don't know how long Alternative Chloe had left. Maybe a few years? Maybe a few months? But however long or short period of time that would be, I feel it would be wrong to say that there couldn't be any moments of joy, happiness and love in it. I think that Alternative Chloe's request was predicated on her not believing that Max would want to spend any more time with her. If Max refuses to overdose her, she says "You're just bailing on me, like everyone else". Alternative Chloe is so used to being neglected that she instinctively assumes that Max popped back into her life just for a minute. But what if she stayed for a while longer? After refusing to honour Chloe's request, Max says "I am never leaving you again". I'd like to think that this was not only a promise from our Max to our Chloe, but also a promise from Alternative Max to Alternative Chloe. A promise to stay with her and make her days a little less dark.

I don't know and I can't imagine how it is to live with a terminal illness. I don't know and I can't imagine how it is to be paralysed from the neck down. But the notion that the only thing a terminally ill, paralysed person can wish for is the embrace of death felt deeply wrong to me.

Chloe rationalized her decision by saying this is to spare her parents from suffering. But both William and Joyce are adamant to fight for their daughter till the very end. I don't think she gets to decide for them. I recently watched a great movie, "Words on Bathroom Walls". It's about a highschool boy who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He hides his condition from his girlfriend and when it's no longer possible to hide, he breaks up with her, because he doesn't want her to suffer due to his illness. He assumes she would not want to be with a sick boy. When she finds out why he broke up with her, she's angry. Because it was not his decision to make. She should be the one to decide if she wants to be with him and support him in his illness. And she chooses to be with him, despite knowing that it will not always be easy. I think it's William's and Joyce's decision if they want to share the burden that was so unfairly thrusted upon Chloe. And they decided to share it.

As an aside note, Max sleeping with her head on Alternative Chloe's knees is such a moving picture. It's both cute and sad.

I'm curious, what was your decision and if you don't mind sharing, what swayed you one way or another?

[geoledgy]

don't think I'll ever have a big site but I loved the way you did your carrd before for the characters one. rather I use that to be simple or a different site I'm interested in how you make it look nice?

or at least something similar but a little different on neo or what your currently using. plus something earlier to understand how each part of code works. cause reading it hurts my brain a bit and placing it might be different then what I'm used to with toyhouse.

Aw, thank you! Carrd is an incredible site to use for character pages and also simple enough that it's easy to use. The only reason I don't anymore is because it has always been my ultimate endgoal to code my own character site...so I stopped paying for my carrd premium (which isn't expensive at all in my honest opinion, I think it was $5/yr) sooooo...that's why all my pages are broken now OTL...carrd is a bit forgiving and you can play around with the different elements to see what looks best for you so don't be scared to mess with it

I actually just took my carrd's html via page inspect and remade the whole thing for my NONCO characters, it's the actual same layout hahaha all I did was make a bunch of containers and put stuff inside them, like so (container is bottom left) and each block on the carrd is a different container.

For the extreme basics of site coding, I recommend watching and following along these 2 videos (html & css) and also sketching out a general layout for your site so that you can envision what it might look like. (I also included the general setup of TB's page below as well in case that might help...!)

In regards to site building, a container holds your entire site content and sets the restraints for how big the rest of your elements can be. (explanation for css divs is better explained in the video so I highly recommend it to understand context) I also recommend making your boxes a solid random color at first just to see how big they are and how much room you want/need/have and then deleting the color/changing it to something nicer afterwards. The good thing about sites in contrast to toyhouse is there are no constraints to where anything is placed...the world is your oyster. (which is why it's good to sketch a layout first)

Hope that helps!

[mpregjohnwinchester]

happy deanjohn friday!! does JOHN know about dean and bobby and how do you want him to find out?

happy deanjohn friday to you also (or Saturday now!) ❤ and thanks for the ask this is so spicy!!

maybe a less spicy answer though: i actually think that john would never ever find out. i don't even think he would ever suspect - kind of similar to what's been brought up about bobby suspecting johndean, i think that works both ways - if john notices anything slightly strange in their interactions his first thought is not going to be "well they're obviously bumping uglies" - he'd find other, way less extreme explanations before he landed there. it's uncomfortable as fuck to think about, but bobby has also been a parental figure in dean's life - someone john has trusted, which, no matter how sour his and bobby's relationship obviously got later, trusting bobby to take care of his kids would have been a huge deal for someone as paranoid as john. so later in life, when dean is an adult, it would just not occur to him that deanbobby could ever be the case. plus i'm also not sure how tuned in john is to other people to even notice much about them anyway! he's quite self absorbed. that no doubt extends to dean.

and dean - i don't see dean keeping, or being able to keep, many secrets from john. but there's no way he's ever telling john about this. he well knows that bobby wouldn't be long for this world if he ever did. and if we're talking background johndean - then dean also knows that for john to find out would be very bad for him. no one wants their husband to know that they're secretly banging their best friend, right? i think i see bobby as an escape from john, that bobby can maybe give him things that john can't. consistency. appreciation. undivided attention - a lonely old man like bobby is not going to take a pretty young thing in his bed for granted, and he isn't going to take dean for granted generally. dean may not even be conscious that this is what it's about for him - and he may feel very conflicted and guilty about it. but it's all the more reason for john to never know - because it would be admitting to both john and to himself that john isn't willing or able to give him what he needs. that would be so painful for dean to confront i think. john too, probably - he does not great things and behaves in not great ways. but i think he at least feels a lot of guilt about them.

bobby, obviously, is not going to let on. to protect dean and to protect himself. he too knows that john would kill him and probably not just metaphorically lol. i think bobby would be super conflicted and confused about the whole thing as it is - for maybe obvious reasons - but that's another post.

but yeah- ultimately i see deanbobby as something that happens in a great amount of secrecy. i don't know about anyone else but to me dean and bobby having a sexual relationship feels way more taboo than john and dean having one - which is crazy, but biological or not, i can't see bobby as anything other than dean's dad. i actually always felt low key squicked about shipping them until some very indepth and convincing conversations with @vintagedean recently. i know bobby also has his own not-small flaws and not everyone is as up his arse as i am lol - but anyway, to me that taboo is definitely reflected in any relationship they have. they aren't talking about it or acknowledging it unless it's happening. they're not being lax about hiding it from sam, they really don't want him to know either. it only ever happens in bobby's house, and only when no one else is around. it's something they'll both probably take to their grave.

so how would i want john to find out? i don't think i do. for me personally the secrecy/shame/extramarital affair angle is a huge part of the appeal of this ship. though i'm sure it would cause dean a lot of anxiety - getting back into bed with john after a solo hunt, knowing full well he took a detour on the way back, still a little sore and dazed from bobby - but he knows, deep down, that john isn't going to notice. he doesn't seem to notice much at all.

[charrfie]

I have a few!! 7 and 9 for elle, 20 and 23 for zee, 25 and 34 for azuramenth, please! I know that's quite a few, so you don't have to answer them all lol I'm just so curious

"You don't have to answer all of them" OKAY WELL I DID SO TOO BAD!!!!!!!!!!! Sticking these under a read more bc its very long. Since it is SO easy for me to get carried away when talking about my ocs

7) Elle's favorite animal? Why?

This is a tough one, it's not really something I've dived into yet! I think the strongest answer I have for this at the moment is bears. She admires their strength and ferocity while also finding their appearance very endearing; it's a nice contrast. I'll think about this some more!

9) Elle's favorite and least favorite foods? Is she a picky eater/does she have dietary restrictions?

I havent picked out a favorite/least favorite food for elle yet but I can at least tell you about her eating habits! She's not so much a picky eater, at least not ideally. She loves to try new foods and likes a lot of stuff! However, she ultimately has to shoot a lot of stuff down though due to her stomach being very sensitive. She feels sick very easily (whether thats due to a food being rich/heavy, not having the right texture, or just being too much food in general), so as a result she's very peckish.

20) Can zee drive?

Short answer, yes, zee can drive. She's a very skilled pilot of any vehicle. But while this is something she can do, it's not like she has a car of her own. As far as I know cars don't exist in the raposa world unless the creator or hero personally draws them into the world, so they're not really regulated/common? She would much rather traverse on foot anyway, even if they were common.

23) How would you describe zee's voice? Can she sing?

Zee's voice is fairly gruff. It falls at a fairly low octave and she often has some degree of vocal fry going on, whether talking or singing. She's loud!!! And as for speech patterns, she exaggerates her words a lot to make her point, both in tone and volume. She enjoys humming more than singing, but she does sing every now and again, usually while she's out at sea or doing something boring.

25) How good/bad is azuramenth's hearing and eyesight?

Extremely interesting question!!! Warning you ahead of time, this question is going to have a long-winded answer since it delves into some general species info that I've worked on before, namely that of angels and demons since Azuramenth/Azurael has had experience being both. For context, angels and demons aren't so much an elusive, ever-changing thing in the world of a businessmans cult, but they're actual defined species that share similar traits. Granted, a species mortals don't know anything about (or at least most of them!), but a species regardless.

Angels do not have the ability to hear. They communicate strictly through the transferring of information, which can be a bit tricky to define in a concise manner. Think of it this way: when an angel wants to communicate with another angel, said angel they are "talking" to will suddenly come to know the information as if it is simply fact. If conversing with a mortal, while the mortal speaks aloud, the angel will read their thoughts pertaining to the words they're speaking and will understand it in that manner. They converse vocally regardless, even if it falls on "deaf" ears. An angel's vision tends to be blurry due to their exposure to bright lights in their environments. To further this, the light they emit themselves shines onto the backs of their eyeballs, causing a mild case of blindness. They are completely blind in the dark as their eyes can't adjust.

As for the other side of this question, demons have an incredibly sharp sense of both vision and hearing. Their senses are much more grounded to reality than an angel's senses would be. They converse as mortals would. It should be noted that while their vision is extremely strong (much stronger than the average mortal), they have difficulty seeing in environments with a lot of light. This is largely due to how intensely keen their sight is, and light tends to be too sharp on eyes that sensitive. It's also worth nothing that not all demons have eyes and/or ears, but their other senses are heightened.

34) How would azuramenth describe herself?

If you were to ask her, Azuramenth would likely only define herself as a very blunt "strong" or "powerful." Maybe even "angry." It's difficult to get much else out of her. For this hypothetical though, if she didn't have as many walls raised, "hurting" would be another one. "Sorry."

[casgape]

honestly my take on 2x03 isn't so much that it's Dean choosing Sam over John, it's Dean choosing between Sam as John & Worse John. Cause like, Sam is arguing on behalf of monster personhood (a topic he repeatedly is ambivalent about due to the fact that spn can't question its premises effectively), but I think another aspect of that is like. If John were alive, John would've checked out the case - the cattle mutilation would be concerning as a potential demonic omen. But if nothing else was demonic, I think he'd see hunting vampires (which he thinks are extinct) as a distraction from the real mission, regardless of whether or not he thinks they deserve to die or not. Like yeah, Dean & Gordon are set up as parallels, and in the context of John's last words, that makes sense, but I don't think it's just that?

Sam effectively winds up functioning as his brother's conscience - which Dean thanks him for. While still saying that John did the best he could. So, while monster personhood is maybe part of Sam's motivation here, I do think another part of it is that Sam is a good tactician. Going after vampires who aren't doing anything is a waste of time.

But anyway, he's very obviously leashing Dean against his worst impulses. But, I don't buy it as a mutual obsession thing, I think that Sam sees Dean fucking losing it and is just putting him in a conservatorship for his own good. Sam isn't consciously thinking, how do I control Dean today, he's just, taking control for his own good (the same way he learned from his father).

And, doing that also neatly buys him some autonomy that he can't get otherwise, because yeah he might want to get away from Dean/his family, but the events of season 1 reinforce that even if he runs, he can't ever really stay away without endangering people he cares about, and random people he's never met. Determining when and who he should be siccing Dean on is a power he's never gotten to have before, and I think that would be motivating for someone who's always been controlled. And he doesn't even have to do the hard work of unlearning the deathcult propaganda either, he just gives it a newer, kinder face.

On top of that, I think Sam wants to escape the deathcult and take his brother with him, in the way that many abused children want to protect others in their family. But as for many abused children, his sense of normal is extremely skewed. Even if he had more contact with the outside world, that's only 4 years. And he is still the one making excuses for and justifying John's behavior in that episode. I don't think he's consciously aware of any of this stuff because that would imply that he processed it and was able to name how fucked up their worldview is. I think Sam can point to the obvious stuff (melting silver into bullets, child neglect) and say "that's bad", but the stuff around who/what counts as a person, what you should endure to not be worthy of execution, etc I don't think Sam ever really unpacks over the course of the series really (thinking of Jack), but I think it also means that even in the early seasons, replicating some aspects of John's relationship with Dean could be something he sees as a good thing.

I just think it's fun when Sam is a walking contradiction - compelled to try to gain autonomy/power whenever he can, and unable to truly leave his family dynamics behind. And, attempting to see monster personhood as something real, and still ultimately failing, due to the nature of the deathcult.

[nerves-nebula]

More thoughts on belos (since you said you're open to hearing them!)

Belos is the ultimate example of "if I can't see it it doesn't exist"

But in his case it's all about concepts/beliefs. If he isn't believing a certain thing in that moment, it just doesn't exist. This isn't displayed as much in the first season (first season belos is built different) but definitely in the later parts of season two and VERY MUCH in season three.

Belos is very old, like super super old. Especially with a curse that also appears to alter his manner of thinking (or perhaps he tries to think more ""humanly"" when not in his goop-monster form). With the experience of multiple hundreds of years, it's hard for specific things to be important, after all whats a year to 300 years?

So to counteract that (or it's a side effect of it/his funky personality?) he operates off of extreme associative thinking. If he's presented with something he has access to his knowledge/opinions/etc related to that. If whatever reminder isn't there? He just.. does not acknowledge it. It's like it didn't exist. No train there? Trains don't exist at all.

There's not as much proof about this in terms of physical reminders, but definitely in patterns of thought. When he's confronted with something that reminds him of Caleb? Then everything is about that, and whatever isn't about that doesn't exist. If he is thinking about the grimwalkers? They're related, but a separate topic. There isn't the grief there, it's all about function. What did he do to make the grimwalkers? What can he make them do?

SO basically that leads to:

Hunter being his own person (or I guess person-like thing to Belos..)? That only exists in the context of Belos needing to manipulate him. Hunter is just one in a series of grimwalkers he's made? That only exists when Belos wants it to, otherwise it's just his new Caleb-shaped (psychological) chew toy. Flapjack? Flapjack only exists in context to Evelyn, Caleb and the past.

That I think would explain some of his odd behaviour in season 3, and perhaps give reason to why he talked about saving peoples souls. Since he's in the human realm, even if it's changed a ton, he's probably remembering a lot of things he's forgotten over the centuries because he's forced to by simply existing within the human realm.

Talking about saving souls rather than humanity could be influenced by his brain remembering a lot more of his religious upbringing (god saves the soul sorta stuff)

i am chewing on this askkk I love this kinda analysis of belos. I think I have an idea of this kind of mentality, possibly an example of it irl even, but I NEVER put it to words like this.

the sheer contradiction of reality this kind of compartmentalization implies. one moment hunter is just another grimwalker toy, the next he's his own person with specific desires for belos to manipulate, the next he's a new Caleb, and all are true just at different times. AughHgh oOAGUhgagdhg. ngl this is just like my mom XDDD

I'm gonna try to reference back to this ask whenever I write belos cause honestly I don't have a super strong grasp on his characterization imo and i like this reading of him

aUGHHH thank you for putting the time to write this btw, I put it off cause it was kinda long but I am fuckin, rIVETEd.

Things I am doing to this ask: chewing, bitting, eating, shaking

[peacefiction]

As someone involved in the anti/proship discourse in the past, it’s exhausting. Both communities devote time to arguing with and complaining about each other, some centering their entire personalities around it. They refuse to leave each other alone despite how much they claim to despise one another. There are people as young as 13 and old as 40 involved in this ongoing 7-year-old discourse.

Honestly? None of this discourse would’ve started if people filtered or blocked works they disliked. Regardless of how you feel about a ship or character, you can’t control what other people enjoy in fiction. That’s why you have the power to curate your online experience instead of bullying people over liking what you don’t. As long as it's fictional, then no one is being harmed.

Fictional characters and ships aren’t a serious matter and shouldn’t be treated as such. None of it is worth doxxing people and bullying them into suicide. You ship what you want, and others ship what they want; it’s not complicated.

I don't mean this to choose a "side" between anti and proship—both have substantial issues, which is why I felt the need to make the term peacefic—but on the anti side, I do feel like there's often this strong desire for power and control. Control over other people's actions and posting habits, and in extreme cases control over their thoughts ("thought crimes"). Power and authority to be the ones who make the rules about what is or is not allowed to be written about, drawn, consumed in fiction.

Even if you take the stance that fiction can cause real world harm, you have to think about how such "rules" would be implemented and upheld in a practical sense. A single random individual on the internet does not have the power to control what millions of others are posting day by day, and even if they did, they would not have the time or energy to deal with it on that scale. Not to mention the question of why this particular individual should be the one who draws the line between what's problematic or not.

Then, the idea of giving power to others to allow them to moderate never guarantees that their interests will align with your own. They could decide that works about healing from trauma are too far, because they depict that trauma at all, even in a negative light. They could decide that queerness, or polyamory, or consensual kink is too far.

Ultimately, that kind of moderation isn't really feasible, in my opinion. And much harassment over fiction occurs as a way to feel in control of others in place of being able to directly stop them.

It would feel negligible for me to pretend that harassment solely comes from antis, though. Some proshippers take people's personal boundaries as an attack, as if saying "proship DNI" is the same as getting harassed by an anti. Blocking and filtering are important for the safety and comfort of all. No one owes you online interaction. A self-proclaimed anti who blocks all proshippers on sight without harassing them is well within their rights of curating their experience! Bullying them for their choice to avoid you isn't any better.

I think it's important for everyone to accept the fact that we are not in control of other's actions, regardless of how we feel about it. It would do some good for even individuals in favor of censorship to know this.

Thank you for the ask! ☮️📝

[anotherbeastarsblog]

Chapter 1 finished

Not even counting my late start on it this one took, maybe 6 times longer than I expected it to. I hope this isn't the case going forward, since the first chapter is over twice the length of most and a lot of what I did today was reformatting and separating and adding redundancies and whatnot.

I think I ended with something like 2k words already, lord knows how many that got deleted/reworked, and I kept expanding the scope of what I wanted to record as I realized what would be useful, both to myself and to anyone looking at the project upon it's completion. It started as wanting a brief summary of the timeline and now I expect it to end up as the ultimate reference document.

To maybe help demonstrate how much this is ballooning.

I also spent much of today getting sidetracked by thinking way too hard about the drama club's membership, outlined here if you wanna see cause I don't wanna write it all again here.

Only other update on the back end of things is I think I've decided I'm gonna be doing this one volume at a time. That way I can attack it a little harder without worrying about burning out on it, giving myself a break in between.

ON TO MY THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER ITSELF

We definitely don't give Tem enough credit. He really stands his ground at the end, he looks his attacker in the eye and he is vicious. What he says, that carnivores are all monsters, that this was inevitable, that no one will be surprised, that all feels too measured to be heat-of-the-moment. Tem has all that locked and loaded because I think Tem really thought all that. He has carnivore friends, sure, but who doesn't? That doesn't mean you don't think they're going to kill you.

Did you know Els has a boyfriend? He's only mentioned in one line in the first chapter so I didn't remember that at all, but it also kinda changes things right? The love letter doesn't feel like just the normal relatable nerves around having a crush anymore. I'm not trying to say like "Tem is a bastard actually and everyone's wrong for liking him" but I was already of the opinion that fanon Tem is basically already unrecognizable as canon Tem, the most Just Some Dude character of all time. I just think there's a lot to go on to explore a darker version of Tem, a stereotypical sheltered casually racist herbivore indifferent to carnivores actual problems, and I'm a little sad no one has done it.

On the translations, my opinion is the same so far as it has been for a while, and I probably won't be mentioning it in these posts unless something drastic happens.

I really think the official translation is better, in basically every way, except when it's not. The fan translations have the same problem all fan translations do, they're a little stiff and sometimes too literal, plenty of moments you might go "That sounds a little off" or "probably a better way to word that" but nothing explicitly bad. The official translation makes the language more expressive, character voices come through extremely well, but then once maybe every 15-20 pages it just completely drops the ball.