#you will get your mail delivered

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Not entirely sure I’m actually alive as I type this seeing as I haven’t gotten more than five hours of sleep a night for the last week and a half but we persevere. And frankly what kind of fanfic author would I be if I didn’t post in spite of sleep deprivation and also death. NEITHER RAIN NOR SLEET NOR SNOW...

Anyway, happy day-before-the-finale! I hope you’re all as ready for our funerals as I am! I’m not ready. help.

Title: Fractals from the Lightning Bolt

Rating: T for vague sexual references and I wanted to be on the safe side

Pairing: Buck/Eddie

Chapters: 20/54

Chapter Summary: Yet another post-Buckley parents spec fic because I was just in a Mood apparently.

[puppyeared]

littlest furth shop

@laikascomet

[sunderwight]

Thinking about the weird camaraderie that exists between demons but not angels in GO.

Have we ever seen two angels who are actually friends? Or even friendly to one another? We have met angels with a capacity to be friendly in general, but I think the closest we've come to two angels actually getting along would be Gabriel making a point to laugh at Sandalphon's terrible "can't have a war without War" line in S1.

Most scenes between the angels actually seem to have an undercurrent of absolute hostility. Teeth-clenched teamwork. No wonder it took them so long to notice that Aziraphale wasn't on the same page as the rest of them! The rest of them are barely on the same page as one another, either! When Gabriel goes against the majority vote, no one bats an eye at demoting him and wiping his memory. Michael and Uriel immediately begin vying for his job. The only times we've seen angels team up is when they're working together to bully someone else, like when they're trying to intimidate Aziraphale in S1 or going to the aftermath of the bookshop raid in S2.

Saraqael's overall neutrality towards Muriel is the closest we get to two angels in Heaven getting along, and it's more a lack of hostility than any kind of friendliness. At least until Gabriel loses his memories and Muriel shows up to spy on Aziraphale, and Aziraphale decides to be kind to both of them.

Demons, on the other hand, actually seem to form alliances and even friendships among one another. Hastur and Ligur are awful, but Hastur seems genuinely distraught over Ligur's death, not just fearful of suffering the same fate. Shax and Furfur conspire together and even though the 1940's investigation into Crowley's fraternizing doesn't work out for Furfur, it's not due to any double-crossing on Shax's part. Unlike the angels, who stick almost exclusively to making threats until the Metatron decides to try dangling a carrot at the end of the season, demons actually offer rewards to other demons when trying to work together. Beelzebub offers Crowley a promotion if he can bring them Gabriel, Furfur offers to back Shax up politically if she goes for the Duke position opening, and Crowley successfully stalls Hastur in S1 by pretending everything was a test and he's going to be put in charge of a legion as a reward for passing. They're still not great at socializing, but they're significantly ahead of the angels.

Of course, it's a fact that demons are awful to one another (Eric's treatment is really bad, they throw that random demon into holy water just to test it, "it'd be a funny world if demons went around trusting one another", etc) but they still seem more capable of forming friendships than the angels do.

I think that's because Hell cramps and crowds everyone together to try and increase their suffering and hostility, whereas Heaven isolates angels to decrease the odds of questioning or rebellion. Hell's methods are unpleasant, but it still ends up putting demons together, and some of those demons inevitably forge alliances and make friendships. Because as Crowley and Beelzebub demonstrate, demons are still social creatures with the capacity for love and affection, even if it's strongly discouraged and buried under nine million layers of trauma and a cultural mandate against kindness.

Angels are the same, but isolation makes is harder to form connections than overcrowding. Muriel and Jimbriel are both so eager to make friends, but Muriel's spent the past millennia shut in an empty office, and Gabriel has been distanced from his peers both through his position and also through Heaven's culture of fear and surveillance. He only breaks away from it when he finds something that's stronger than "choosing sides" (stronger than the fear of being rejected by Heaven and Falling, in fact strong enough that Falling seems worth it if he gets to be with someone he loves). Both Muriel and Gabriel are only able to start forming connections when they're away from Heaven.

I just think it's interesting that demons, despite being supposedly devoid of love, have an advantage in forming relationships compared to angels. Angels are supposed to love, but have far fewer opportunities to actually do so. Demons aren't supposed to love, but they make connections anyway.

[thedeafprophet]

was anyone going to tell me you can accept gifts when in a state of some confusion or was i out here assuming you couldnt in menace states for no reason

[hoofpeet]

why don't you like Colorado?

Also, what typeface do you use for your comics?

I switch between Bell MT and Poor Richard every once in a while!! And for Colorado-- this state would probably be nice to live in if it wasn't literally impossible to find stable housing-- I'm probably biased here because we've been having an ESPECIALLY rough go of it but . Both times we looked for apartments here the search took 3+ months to secure a place, with ~2,100 a month apparently being kinda low for this area. The majority of my coworkers are either currently looking for a place or were evicted/priced out of their last places so . TL;DR The housing situation is a literal nightmare around here

[bogkeep]

the way the most recent pokemon games don't let you turn off the exp share or the affection mechanic bonuses is nothing short of maddening. i think they make great accessibility features If Only They Were Optional and the flavour text is cute, but i want to have a fun casual playthrough that's at least mildly challenging without having to make it a nuzlocke or something. i don't want to feed my starter bitter medicines to make her hate me :(

[nitw]

why do you gotta tell me the same thing THRICE if it's still not out for delivery!!

[cuntwrap--supreme]

"It's so disgusting that you have to work on memorial day!" says the woman who ordered 6 packages from Amazon that have to be delivered by today.

[moghedien]

Love when I catch eBay sellers committing mail fraud

[mosslistic]

Psa: if you get a paper round. And you have a mailbox which cannot fit your hand in. We can’t fit the paper in either! So you can: get a bigger one! Or, if you can’t afford that, perhaps don’t fucking complain when I can’t get the paper in, because it is an inch wide!!

[99probalos]

terfs keep liking my art. maybe i should just mail shitty printer paper versions of my sketches out to my mutuals to save myself the trouble of seeing "i-hate-those-transgenders liked your post!" pop up on my phone

[knitmeapony]

If you live in the US your household can order more free covid tests. Starting in late september, 2024, you will be able to order more tests at https://covidtests.gov . No shipping handling or any other charges, just feeling your address and have four nasal swab tests sent to your home for free.

There is also a new covid booster coming out after labor day. If you are doing any kind of significant traveling, or you will be spending a lot of time around big groups of people like at college or school, please plan on getting this year's flu shot as well as your covid booster. We had a winter level surge over the summer, I am very worried that we are going to have an even more significant surge this fall and winter.

[veunho]

Playing Nor Gloom Of Night when absolutely nobody ever has uploaded their own experience with the game so every step I take I'm like am I doing this shit right;;;

[ghoulfr13nd]

hii!! i'm doing great, thank you! hope you're doing good as well! don't worry, you're not neglecting me or anything, im actually glad you're not forcing yourself when you don't have energy! that's a win for the self-care! :D fhdsjk and you know, that's completely fair, there's a lot of songs to listen to, especially the rage one, oof! and i saw you also started doing classes playlists which in my opinion are even harder than aspect playlists so i'm impressed! :O and hell yes! classpect obsession be upon ye!!! fhdsjkf i need to know what classpects your ocs got im so curious!

music anon 🎶

WELL IM!!! very excited to reply its just. like i start to reply and then i get too excited and my brain goes into a tizzy and i have to change tracks because my thoughts are like. “pop! pop! pop!”

BUT YEAH IM WORKING ON CLASSES TOO there was this issue i kept running into where i was like. “ugh this song would be good for” uhhh. idk whats a good example. “a maid of void but not a prince of void.” like i wanted that nuance. and i realized the only way i could get that was by specifically doing classes too. i really hope when i get done that you’ll be able to combine different playlists to get accurate title representation!

IVE ACTUALLY only done Mac so far but she got thief and either heart or rage, and i’m torn on that one. i think rage fits her excellently, but i don’t know if thief of rage really fits her personal challenges. and thief of heart sounds so absolutely stellar, but again, i dont know that that combination fits her. i DO think thief is an excellent class for her on its own - good intentions , egocentric. but their challenge to share that aspect, i’m not sure fits? typing this out — she might actually be a maid. shes someone who leaves herself to be crafted by someone else. she’s god’s angel, and so her wants and goals should be dictated by god, right? but as she comes into herself and realizes that no, she actually rejects everything she’s been told to be, and starts to form her own identity — that feels very maid to me. and i think it would fit very well with both heart and rage. you’ll have to let me know what you think!!

[doux-amer]

Thinking about it, it's not that I was lonely or anything growing up. I had a lot of friends and people I had fun with and talked to a bunch, but due to the way I was brought up, I wasn't able to really deepen and nurture those friendships. It's something that's impacted me to this day and at one point in my life, I became aware that some friends were not as close as I told myself they were except one particular moment, this wasn't because they did anything shitty (and that shitty thing wasn't done out of malice or intent), but it's that thing when you're young and you call everyone your close friends and you grow up and you realize lol, no they're just friends! And that's okay!).

And then I learned to see relationships I had with people very objectively (for the most part! I'm only human) which helped me be a more balanced adult and why I don't particularly get upset that certain friendships fade. That's just part of life, and when you're an adult, it's even harder to maintain a certain intensity and intimacy in friendships and a certain amount of interaction. I don't know if this is weird to say, but I think that's why I get taken aback and it means a lot to me when I have to recalibrate my perspective on a relationship because a good friend actually values what we have more than I expected.

Obviously, this is uncomfortable and bemusing when you know for a fact that their perspective isn't accurate and they're implying there's an intimacy there that in fact isn't, but when it's someone you care about and they level up the friendship like that...I'm not explaining things right. It hasn't happened much tbh even if I obviously had and have friends who have appreciated and celebrated our friendships and that means a lot too, that you know where you stand and you never have to question it, but there are some friendships where you realize oh...I mean a lot to this person. Oh, this is how much I mean to them or they like me this much?

[tossawary]

One of my personal nitpicks for historical fantasy is a lack of servants, staff, subordinates, and... idk... subjects? Like, their absence is not... a total dealbreaker for me, depending on the situations the characters are in and whether or not I can just assume that other people are there in the background... but so many of the protagonists in historical fantasy stuff are higher-ranking (very often royalty), and/or have busy jobs, and/or have enormous houses that would necessitate having at least part-time staff.

Like, girl, you should have a maid! WHERE is your chaperone?! WHO is driving this carriage?! Where are your footmen? Are you trying to imply that a WEALTHY DUCHESS is taking a CAB?! You know that you probably have tenants, right? Where is your steward?! Where is your lawyer? Your accountant?! (Like, yeah, you're not going to have your lawyer living in your house, but you HAVE one, right???)

Or, man, you're supposed to be a military commander and you don't even have a single secretary?! Where is your SQUIRE?! (In the spirit of historical fiction, I am jumping wildly across time periods with every sentence here.) Man, I know you aren't looking after your own boots. Where are your GUARDS?! Who set up this tent for you?! Who is looking after your horse?! Who is making and carrying the incredibly valuable maps people are recklessly stabbing daggers into?!

SOMEONE has to be scrubbing these floors and delivering the mail and cooking the meals and doing laundry, and they're probably all DIFFERENT people! My dentist has at least three different receptionists and we can't even get ONE for our court wizard here? A sorcerer's apprentice to take notes? Someone like Sherlock Holmes could get away with just having a housekeeper and taking taxis, sure, but your character is supposed to be a KING?! Why is he answering his own front door? He's going to get assassinated. His SERVANTS should have SERVANTS.

Like, yes, I understand that a lot of servants in certain places at certain times were supposed to make their labor invisible, but there have always been servants who still had to interact directly with the masters of the house?! Yeah, there are potentially really messy ethics here, class divisions are bullshit, but I don't think that completely ignoring the reality that humans have ALWAYS been doing work for other humans is better than just including some well-paid and well-treated servants and employees? Because a complete absence of them, especially where logically for the worldbuilding there MUST be servants (and probably exploited servants, or worse, for some particular worldbuilds to work), often makes me think that your main characters just don't care enough to notice the "lower class" people or know their names.

Also, even Frodo Baggins had a gardener and Samwise Gamgee might be the best damn character in the story?! Sam saved the world?! Servants are PEOPLE. Servants are often the funniest and most interesting characters, tbh, with the most to say about a society and its workings (yes, Discworld is a very good book series, highly recommend), and also the joke of some romantic scene being carefully orchestrated by a stage crew of servants frantically diving into bushes to stay out of sight never gets old to me. Teamwork makes the dream work!

I don't want to gatekeep historical fiction, especially not historical fantasy, because the worlds don't necessarily have to conform to our own and may have magic and characters are often in very unique circumstances, but... sometimes I pick up a story and it's like... "Author, please tell me that you know there is a difference between a butler and a valet?!"