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goldenhickeysandramen · 2 years ago

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Things I dont like of Chapter 2 (the rise of solos)

You have heard me say it more than once that I don't like Chapter 2.

After much thought, and internal reflexions (cause sometimes I catch myself being mad or sad) I want to share with you the reasons (as a therapy):

1. There is no Ot7 content. Obviously, it's not the purpose, but if we want to see our favorites together (e.g. jikook), it's hard, and it makes me very sad 😥. There is only content from those who have something to promote, and so they do crossover, or a 2 x 1 (even in the design department).

2. Chapter 2 is the rise of solos, and maybe the end of the power or strength Army (as fandom) used to have.

The true face of many accounts that are SOLO has come out.

And when I say “SOLO”, I mean those who want the artist outside of BTS. I respect all opinions. But, if I knew that was their pov from the outset, I would not follow those accounts. Still, I follow accounts that follow and agree with those accounts... 😓😓 and the fact is that I don't know what the fuck to do, because sometimes I have the feeling that I need to start over and do a clean up, even though that would mean not following moots that I appreciate a lot.

I'm a bit of a solo myself. We all are. With our favorites. It's logical.

But I want BTS back in 2025 or 2026. I don't want any of them to leave the group unless they want to.

And so far, they have expressed their willingness to be back together. I don't know... maybe they are constantly lying to us... or maybe it's the FUCKING TRUTH!

As solos become more polarized, fandom will lose strength.

3. I do NOT like Hybe's planning at all. I'm sorry for what I'm going to do now, which is to compare, but it doesn't seem right to me that Hobi, for example, had almost 4 months for it (from July 15th when JiTB was released til mid October when Jin released the Astronaut) and Jimin only 4 weeks. Of course, the solution is to give more time to Jimin (not shade to my dear Hobi).

Let's see... wasn't this supposed to have been planned for a long time? This chapter 2....

Didn't Suga or RM have some songs already prepared before?

Why not the vocal line?

And what the fuck happened to the 3 songs and 3 MVs that Jungkook was talking to Hobi in early 2021?

Something is wrong here? Do you see it too?

4. In addition to planning, it should be added that Hybe is being very negligent in the way it promotes its biggest intangible assets: BTS members. I won't expand on this, because I already made a post.

https://www.tumblr.com/hickeyramenjmjk/714301263540584449/he-doesnt-deserve-this?source=share

But I do want to add something. It is good for all of us to speak out and raise our voices in the face of injustice. But we have to keep in mind that the solution is in Hybe now and the radio issue.

In my opinion, it is not organic to make massive purchases to boost anyone's position. I mean, from my pov, the merit is to take the song to the top 1 because everyone who listens to it, likes it, and then "it sounds more and more" and also they buy it. Army is needed, especially at the begining, but can't be the only source of success of BTS.

BTS members deserve to be EXPORTED worldwide! Hybe DO YOUR JOB!

5. Despite some glimpses of change (i.e. Bangtan naked era 😏) some things remain the same, to my own disappointment (but my fault & my expectations).

By this I mean certain very Kpop dynamics, which BTS still respects. Despite their privileged position and sailing between two seas: kpop and more western culture .... I think it's clear to us that where they are living influences their behaviour.

By this I mean all: the subject of women, how they should present themselves in front of Army, maintaining the illusions of the "ships", having impeccable friends and collaborations (although as drinking is culturally accepted there, that seems to be well seen...).

It is funny to me when I see a lot of my PJMS-moots think that everything Jimin is going to do is always some kind of "coming out". There may be glimpses, and hints, but nothing could be further from the truth. Expectations of him are very high (free him from that burden!).... and they forget that he is one of the members who has the most respect for the elders and for his culture and values. If you talk to K-army they will point out that Jimin speaks with impeccable respect for Army. It's not for nothing that he's always at the top of the reputation rankings.

(Side note: maybe that's why the final part of "Letter" is so important, that it's not written in informal and that Jimin would never sing in that tone to Army).

There are things that have not changed and I wished they would change. For instance:

- I never expected jikook to come out of the closet, if I'm correct and they are together. But I also didn't expect such a level of misguidedness and protection (compared to other members, with whom they seem to go out to the theatre, football or drinking with no problem).

- I expected Taejennie to attend a premiere together, of some of their actor friends, and they didn't even greet each other at the Harry Styles concert.

I don't think I'll ever get over this.

https://twitter.com/taenniefacts/status/1643833776986890241?s=20

Even if you don't think they're a couple, and that it was all a set-up (a bit naive, actually), it's impossible to think that they don't know each other, given that they share a lot of friends (starting with the Paradise family).

But on the contrary, to cover up what for me is obvious, Tae has over-used certain mass-raising behaviours.... you know what I mean.

- I thought Jimin was going to tell us a bit more about his album, and he censored things for the minors in his vlive. I will never forgive our Jiminie for this.😣

I still have faith in Jungkook's recent misbehavior 😂. Although not much either.... But if he comes out in one pic alone with Calvins, I'll adore him for life and think there's hope for change 🥹

Anyway... the best thing about this era is seeing their talent and getting to know their solo works. Obviously. And of course to see how all the top brands want them...

and how they show more and more skin! hahahahaha....Let's enjoy it...

cr: @taebokkiii

Don't get me wrong. I'd rather 10 times “chapters 2″ than see them go off to military service.

But I MISS BTS. A LOT.

AND I MISS JIKOOK, TOO MUCH indeed.

And I needed to make this post, because it's a way to get out the helplessness I feel these months (while I also think about what to do with my twitter experience lately and the rise of solos).

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mahvaladara · 1 year ago

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Arlo of Immortal - Thank you!

1. How does your character think of their father? What do they hate and love about him? What influence - literal or imagined - did the father have? 2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have? 3. Brothers, sisters? Who do they like? Why? What do they despise about their siblings? 19. What were your character’s deepest disillusions? In life? What are they now?

Arlo Sullyvan

(Yup. I am using this pic.)

1. How does your character think of their father? What do they hate and love about him? What influence - literal or imagined - did the father have?

Arlo likes his father. He gets along with his father. He knows Mal isn't perfect at all, and he knows, with all his power Mal could have done so much to prevent all he went through, but Arlo has come to terms with it, he has come to terms with Mal's apparent negligence on that aspect and has forgiven him. In the human aspect, Arlo likes his dad. What do they hate about Mal? The ease with which he can distance himself from everything. To him everything is relative and a matter of perspective. What he loves? Mal's understanding. Somehow, he manages to always understand what Arlo is going through and what he needs to hear. His greatest influence in Arlo is the way of thinking. Two things he has learned from Mal: You'll always be a villain in someone else's book. And power attracts trouble. The more power you have, the bigger the trouble.

2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have?

Arlo has always been distant from his mother. He cares for her, loves her even, but they are quite distant from one another. He can't say that he actually knows his mother. He hates that she is pretentious. But loves how inteligent and ambitious she is. Sadly she hasn't left a lasting impression on him other than "mom's cooking" that is just stellar.

3. Brothers, sisters? Who do they like? Why? What do they despise about their siblings?

Arlo's siblings by order are Apollo, Syracusia, Alcina and Dimitri. He actually always cared for his siblings, even Apollo, and never wanted things to turn out the way they did. He cares for Alcina and Dimitri, but left home with them still kids so he doesn't know much about them now that they are teens. Syra's the only one he's kept contact. He loves Syra and has always been very close to her. He's one of the few people who were there for her when people found out she was intersex. He always had time to play with her, and he has kept every trinket she ever made for him.

19. What were your character’s deepest disillusions? In life? What are they now?

That family doesn't always mean union. How easy it was for his brother to betray and trade him for Anika, how easy it was for his dad to brush his hands from the events as if them not being his problem, how easy it was for his mom to turn a blind eye. Many things. Currently he's just disappointed with the fact that he can do everything right, go through hell and back and ammend his wrongs and still be considered the villain, still be unforgivable. And his biggest disilusion is that even if the person he wants forgiveness from the most does forgive him, if he can't forgive himself, nothing will take the guilt away.

#arlo #character development

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aikoiya · 5 months ago

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I actually have some ideas!

Also, I'm thinking that, for the Maddie & Jack situation, we could go a similar route to the Ao3 fanfic series A Phantom In New York City. Or even take a couple of cues from Shadow of Doubt & Phantom of Truth where, yes, Maddie & Jack really freaking mess up. And they mess up bad, but they legitimately love their children. Thing is, they are egotistical & tend to have difficulty taking other people's opinions into account.

Not to mention, I see them as having issues with their senses of object permanence. This, as well as my hc that Jack & Maddie are both neurodivergent in some shape or form, results in them getting wrapped up in their own heads, wrapped up in each other, laser focusing on their fixations (namely ghosts) &, at times, results in them being unintentionally negligent despite really & truly adoring their family.

They are also the scientists who managed to prove without a shadow of a doubt that ghosts are real. And this is after having been disregarded for years as crackpot within the scientific community.

As a result, now they tie their pride to being right. Especially when it comes to ghosts.

And we all know their initial thoughts on ghosts. All of them are evil.

Now, because of this, if the reveal doesn't take place correctly, it can result in them reacting in the exact worst way possible.

In other words, I think in order for it to go well, I believe that they both need to be convinced that Phantom & Danny are the same person or they will incorrectly believe that he is either being possessed or has been replaced by Phantom. Or at least, that Danny a/o Phantom ‘believe’ they are.

If they aren't convinced, then they will do what I'm sure a lot of angst phans believe, attempt to capture him & either torture him until he tells them where Danny is or attempt to ‘purge him of Phantom’s influence.’

Now, at the end of the day, even if the reveal goes the exact wrong way, I still think it's possible for things to get better. However, again, the key is them realizing that Danny & Phantom are the same person. Though, if it isn't via the use of science to, like, scan his DNA or something, then they're liable to believe that Danny died in the portal & may not even contemplate the possibility that the residual electricity may have resuscitated his body, thus returning him to life.

As such, they'd believe that his ghost was possessing his own corpse. Or, if they do think of it, they might think that the ‘ectoplasmic imprint of consciousness’ created by his own death was possessing his body & may try to expunge it.

Either way, they might try to separate his ectoplasm from him via the Ghost Catcher. However, I'm of the opinion that due to literally being half-ghost, this would divide his personality, though in different ways depending on what he wants at the time.

And, while the 2 halves would be okay for a while, as time would pass, both would begin to degrade until the ghost destabilizes & the human dies.

Basically, bad times.

But yeah, back to the idea I have for the actual story.

I'm also thinking, instead of just going outright Pat O'Brian, what if I literally go the angle of merging the characters of Pat O'Brian & Ralph Dibny here? So, I'm going with the initial name, Pat Dibny & a merging of their backstories & powers.

Like, I really enjoyed Ralph in the Flash show & I especially enjoyed his sleuthing, but joking nature. If I remember rightly, he was actually legitimately good as a detective & was, evidently, a talented chemist, just not the best at being very serious, is all. I also liked his love for mysteries.

So I very much like the idea of merging the 2 & maybe having his wife also be a detective too to sort of go a similar route to Joshua & Margaret from Adventure Time. Like, literally make it a family business.

In such a situation, as Plastic Man, he'll have all of Plastic Man's powers, but plus Elongated Man's enhanced sense of smell.

Regardless, he'll end up in a happy, healthy, & supportive marriage. Because Ralph should get at least 1 iteration where he gets to be happy.

I also like how Pat O’Brian continued to maintain his connections with the criminal underworld to gather information despite having reformed. It'll be useful both as a hero & a detective, so I'm keeping that.

My thoughts are that Pat Dibny was initially a corrupt cop in Gotham, who was using his connections to help him as a crook (Kite Man). But after everything with his nieces & nephew, as well as the accident that turned him into Plastic Man, plus his encounter with the monk who turned away the police when he sensed in him a greater capacity for good, he realized that he'd been completely dissatisfied with his criminal life & remembered his childhood dream of one day becoming a detective. And the original reason why he became a cop.

It'd been so long since he was that bright-eyed kid absolutely enthralled with mysteries & a desire to help clean Gotham up... He guessed that all the corruption in the force had just... it got to him... beat him down... In a way, Kite Man was his way of getting out his frustration…

His gang didn't know it, but he tended to donate his portion of the loot to the many orphanages around Gotham as he'd been one since 10.

As a P.I., he does a lot of work involving things like kidnapping & child trafficking. That isn't to say that he doesn't also do murder cases, stolen items, & other things, but he definitely tends to get a lot more driven when the victims are kids. Which, he tends to be really good with due to his personality.

But I do like the idea that he initially adopts them illegally, but after the accident, meeting the monk, & deciding that he wants to change & be better. Batman notices & helps him to create a new identity & legally adopt his nieces & nephew.

Which, would make it easier for him to become a P.I. because if he has a new identity, then he can't be a cop anymore. Because only Pat Dibny was registered as a cop. But, now, he's Ralph O'Brian & he can finally pursue his own dream of solving mysteries & cleaning up Gotham, but without the corruption saturating the GPD getting in the way of his every attempt.

I can also see him, Dick, & even Gordon becoming drinking buddies that often commiserate over the sorry state of the force & plot how to root out all the corrupt cops in the precinct, which Ralph can act as an anonymous source for.

Oh! I love the idea of them & Jason all coming over to play cards with the Villain Fam on weekends after they move to the new house!

I want a fic where Danny is adopted but not by the JL but a villian. BUT! It is a very minor villian to the point where people are absolutely gobsmacked when he calls the villian dad, like everyone just stops what they're doing and watch the interaction. Bonus points if they find out that Danny is an absolute powerhouse monster and wonder what entity away from God's light did they fuck to have him.

"That's your son?"

"Yes."

"The glowing white haired teen?"

"Yes."

"The same glowing white haired teen that just froze a star and then ate it?..."

"Yes! And?"

"THE FUCK YOU MEAN "AND?", HE JUST ATE A STAR!!"

___________

Danny in a less than human form: *screeching*

"Scream all you want but you still have school tomorrow and you're going."

Danny: *leaves taking the cold and weirdness with him*

"Sorry about that, he gets a bit cranky when he has to take a nap."

The rest of the villians in the meeting terrified: Oh...

___________

"It would much easier if you got your son to help with your task."

"Absolutely fucking not! He's not going to do ANY vigilante/villian bullshit if I have any say in it."

"You have the ultimate weapon at your side and you-"

"My son is blessing not a weapon, I advise you to NEVER speak about him like that ever again."

____________

Villian, threatening JL Hero: Tell your kid stay away from my son, he doesn't need any of that shit yall bring into his life.

JL Hero: What?

____________

Personally I like to imagine this somebody as Kite-Man but that's just me, use whoever yall like.

#danny phantom #dp #dc #dp x dc #villainous full house au

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littleharpethcrossfit · 1 year ago

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Saturday, 21 October, 2023.

It was a brisk 45 degrees at the early workout, but it warmed to 60 degrees by the start of the 0930. A perfect sunny Fall morning at the Barn.

The Admiral and Birthday Boy Armando led our mobility warmup.

Warmup #2

Demo'ed by Dana.

4 Rounds

10 Banded Good Mornings

10 Banded Thrusters

Armando's 51st Birthday WOD

1 ROUND

10 Bench Press ( 185 / 135 / 85 )

Row-Ski 1,972m or Bike 3,944m

18 Deadlifts ( 225 / 185 / 125 )

51 Sledge-Hammers

10 Minute Interval For Rest And Re-set Equipment

Bernard's 47th Birthday WOD

1 Round

10 Shoulder To Overhead ( 135 / 95 / 75 )

Row-Ski 1,976m or Bike 3,952m

24 Power Cleans ( 135 / 95 / 75 )

47 Sledge-Hammers

Scores:

Post Time For Armando WOD and Time For Bernard WOD.

HOWEVER, Chicken-Legged Larry gave me some heart-felt suggestions regarding the posting of scores, and since I am always and forever in tune with the old "2 heads are better than 1" (except in marriage), I realized that posting scores as one combined number was a superior method. Even better would have been scoring the elapsed time from start to finish including the 10 minute rest. But since we didn't post that way, I did all the math, combining everyone's scores and collating them as (thanklessly) always.

Shane=25:34** Bernard=25:41** Larry=26:03** Armando=26:20** Ed=27:58** Elisa/Kayla/Alicia=28:06 Robert=28:30** LSU=28 "something" Nathan=29:30* Rodney=29:31 Jon=29:33 Warren A=29:38 Joe=30 "something" Mitch=30:56 Dyer=32:09* Tim=32:30* Cherrita=33:45 Coach=35:54 Tom=35:56 WG=38:16 Faith (The Kid)=39:39 Shannon/Michelle=41:00 Sandy=42:00 Average Dave="Personal Records" Many failed to post scores. Like the lovely Ruth Anne.

Notes:

Considering these two Birthday WODs were designed by unprofessional programmers while under the influence of copious alcohol, our gang performed them with enthusiasm and negligible glomming.

Jon was sponsored by Rodney and is a Pediatrician known professionally by many of us. FYI, Robert has a jealous and monetarily competitive disliking for all Medical Doctors. Billed as a mono-structural athlete (runner), Jon seemed to do well under Rodney's tutelage and left with a fine BSN T-shirt. Michelle is Shannon's Sister and today was her first visit to the Barn. I think Michelle was intimidated and did not want to work out with us, stating her inclination to just go for a run in the park. With some arm-twisting and locking the Arboretum gate, I got her to work out with Sister Shannon. And it was a beautiful thing to watch. I'm sure they made fond memories today. She left with a T-shirt also.

Usually Kayla brews us iced coffee on Saturday mornings. Timmy even brought extra ice. Alas, Kayla didn't bring the coffee fixings today, mumbling the excuse that she "didn't come here from home". She left in a hot-rush immediately after the WOD like maybe she left something boiling over a hot fire, or maybe left the shower running.

Miss Linda returns from visiting our North Carolina Kids today, and she is going to be crabbier than usual when she sees all her pre-cooked meals that she left for me untouched in the fridge. She will know that several of my favorite Barn Girls fed me with their own home-cookin'. Usually the resident dog would have profited from this situation, but Miss Esther took Ginger The Pup home with her for the last few days.

This commercial showing Domino Pizza delivery persons flying thru the air delivering hot Pizza's without benefit of parachutes or drones is going to result in an outbreak of youngsters who identify as birds getting killed jumping from planes or other high places. Kayla brought a SoCal girl-friend to the Barn last week who I believe thinks she is a bird. Sammy D wasn't here that day, else they woulda bonded like Gorilla Glue.

Sunday at 0730 and 1 PM. I hope Kayla can make it.

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lover-of-trash-and-people · 4 years ago

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okay acknowledgement post for all the bad that my boy alek has done to change my own mind because im still thirsty for the darkling somehow (spoilers) (tw: mentions of r*pe)

1. He's a mass murderer: This is a fact, it has been acknowledged, just accept it already {re: the destruction of Novokribirsk via the expansion of the Shadow Fold at the end of Shadow and Bone (god, forgive me for being such a geek)}.

2. He created the Shadow Fold and wanted to expand and weaponize it: the creation might have been either an accident or a product of negligence but the fact that he wanted to expand and weaponize it knowing the kind of damage it caused is just, just pure evil.

3. He as good as offered an underaged girl under his protection and tutelage up to an old man as a sexual favour to further his political/idk what endeavours: He put Genya Safin through hell as his spy in the court. He knew not only that she was miserable but also that she was getting r*ped by the Ravkan king and that there was nobody to protect her from this. He not only let it happen, but he also influenced her to stay in this horrible situation by manipulating her into believing she was helping her country and her kind's salvation.

4. He killed tons of Grisha for no good reason: He set on his goal of protecting all Grisha and creating a safe space for them and then he went on to kill many of them or at least try to do so if they opposed him or defected from his side or betrayed him in any manner. The exception being, Genya Safin, who we will get into in the next point.

5. He created nichevo'ya using merzost and used them for destructive purposes to harm people: played with the balance at the making of the world by creating nichevo'ya in the first place, then mfer went ahead and set them loose on people. People, including the wonderful Genya Safin, someone who he had already manipulated and exploited to no end.

6. His behaviour towards BAGHRA: he blinded his own mother. He blinded his own mother. That's it. for letting the sun summoner alina escape and telling her the truth about his intentions. nothing wrong really.

7. His behaviour towards Alina: let's see. he uprooted her from her life and started her training with the other Grisha to further his purposes as provided under point no. 2. he manipulated her and toyed with her feelings for him to do the same. he made genya intercept alina's letters to her childhood bestie soon to be lover mal (basically her only connection with her old life as well as the only person who sort of genuinely showed that he cared for her so far hence toying with her mind further) and made sure they didnt reach mal, he then tried to mind-control her and completely rob her of her free will so far as her powers went by putting a collar on her. i believe there was some thing involved when she was in his captivity that would classify as torture as well.

8. He just manipulated and toyed with so many people for his personal gain - all the Grisha who looked upto him/had any positive emotion towards him including Alina, Genya, Zoya, Baghra, David, Ivan, Fedyor, Sergei, like the list goes on.

I understand and acknowledge that the circumstances under which he had to grow up and live his life and his mother's parenting due to what she went through added with like the burden of eternity and the loneliness and the isolation that he talks of didn't provide the best conditions for him to be a good person. But, I cannot let that excuse all of his behaviour anymore. I cannot forgive him for all that he has done. Please feel free to add onto this list because I think all Darkling stans need to take cognizance of what he has done before just being like ooh dark mysterious misunderstood hot guy who has made mistakes like NO it isn't just that and I need to get that inside my brain no matter how much I want to just thirst after him and Ben Barnes, my 00s fictional character dream boyfriend.

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linkspooky · 5 years ago

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Scummy Heroes are to Blame

My Hero Academia has always been about this idea. In a literal society of heroes, there are people who do not get saed. Even though the literal job of heroes is to save people, heroes have become not much more than a militant branch of the police force in hero society under the thumb of the hero commission.

This conflict comes to a head in Dabi, Twice, and Hawks who are all three of them people who weren’t saved by heroes.

1. A Society Where Heroes Don’t Save People

Most of the heroic characters on their side of the story have a very vague idea of what a hero is, almost like that’s thematic or something. There seems to be two types, heroes who save people, and heroes who defeat villains, with the latter being the more popular one. However, there have been a couple of moments that idealize what a hero should be.

Both Mirio and Deku say that a hero should always act to save a crying little girl in front of them.

Twice says that someone who helps their friends can’t possibly be a bad guy. These are simple heroic ideals that we see Hawks a heroic character completely fail to live up to in the coming chapters.

Twice is hardly acting like a villain in this scenario. He’s acting nothing like the threat to hero society that Hawks imagined him to be with his great ability to create almost an entire army of duplicates with his quirk. He is crying, and begging for help, like a person would.

Hawks is faced with a person crying because someone they trusted, and wanted to be friends with and treated like a person betrayed them, and used them as a tool to complete their bojective all along. Hawks is faced with not a villain, but a victim.

Hawks is, slaughtering copies of the true companions that Twice does everything for. Attacking a person who is helpless and crying out in frustration. Coldly deciding to kill someone who says out loud that the only reason they want to fight is for the happiness of their friends.

In a traidtional sense Twice is the one fighting with Nakama power, and Hawks is the character who the power of Nakama has failed to reach and is instead cutting those same friends down. Despite the fact that Twice is a terrorist and a murderer, and Hawks is a hero who has wholly dedicated his life to saving others the framing of the situation has been entirely flipped. It’s Hawks who looks like the villain, and Twice who looks like the hero struggling to fight for his friends.

This is where the nuance of the series kicks in. Hero and villains are not strictly defined roles, they’re only called that because hero society dictates they are.

One of the first things that Shigaraki says in the series is that heroes using violent suppression in order to defeat villains is just something that creates more violence in the end. Something which All Might pointedly refuses to listen to, accusing Shigaraki of just being a bad person who enjoys violence. Ironically this is something Shigaraki is utterly dehumanized by and accused of over, and over, and over again.

However as we learn more of Shigaraki’s story we learn that Shigaraki was a kid with heroic ambitions, who was failed by society at every level. The reason he’s violent is because he was exposed to violence again and again as a kid, his violent impulses were literally beaten into them.

The black and white morality of hero society blames victims for falling, and then insists the reason that they fell in the first place was because they were bad people. Hero society again and again intentionally lets people fall and then villainizes them rather than sympathizing with them as victims.

If you fall its entirely on your own, and also a sign of your character. You have to get back on your feet on your own merits. If you fail to make it back into society than it’s not the fault of society, you’re just a bad person for becoming a victim in the first place.

Mirio and Deku both believe that you should always help a crying girl in pain like Eri, but at the same time if they had not saved her at that exact moment, if they had let her grow up like Shimura Tenko grew up, to develop violent tendencies, to act like anything other than the perfect crying victim then she would have been left behind the same way Shimura was, the same way Twice is at this exact moment.

In a society overflowing with heroes, there are people who are ignored and do not get saved. Shimura Tenko as a five year old, wonder if it’s his fault for killing his family that no one came to save him. Already by that time he’s internalized the idea that a bad child like him doesn’t deserve to get saved.

Twice even says the same as well. In hero society only the good and the virtuous get saved. People like twice who are broken are left behind and forgotten, because it’s more convenient for society to function that way.

I relate this idea to Albert Camus, the fall. A book that explores the idea of who is guilty for society, and comes to the conclusion that everyone is guilty.

The Fall operates on the premise that all are guilty. This is indeed a classic argument for Camus, but the narrator of this novel goes so far as to suggest that all men are murderers, even if only by accident or through negligence (like not saving others from death). Since the novel was written in the aftermath of WWII, this is a particularly poignant argument. This sort of "universal guilt" makes any attempt at judgment completely hypocritical. A guilty man condemning another man of guilt is absurd by nature.

Everyone who participates in society creates it actively. I’ll explore this idea with Hawks more in a minute, but related to who is responsible for hero society it’s important to look at the conflict of heroes and villains. The heroes themselves blame the villains for all the ills of hero society. However, it’s important to remember who holds all the power. Sure, there are outliers like Re-Destro who are corporate millionaires with a vast infleunce, but for the most part all of the ruling power in society belongs to the heroes. While the villains are for the most part, homeless people, outlaws, with little resources or influence of society as a whole. Villains are outcasted and blamed for society, despite being you know... outcasts, people outside of society.

Which is why Villains themselves will always be nothing more than a symptom. Even the League of Villains themselves is just a rebellion. They’re not rebelling for the hell of it, they were created in direct response to problems already presence in society, and they demand that society address those problems. The ones who hold the real power over a corrupt system are heroes, villains are always going to be reactionary to that corrupt system. Sure, the answer might not be ‘destroy the entirety of society to make it better’, but the League are also the only people trying to do anything. Only the outsiders and the outcasts seem to be aware that something is wrong in the first place, because they’re the most directly affected by it.

So, like Camus we are asked to consider who is really responsible for the fall of society?

2. Twice and Hawks, to be an individual or member of society.

Which is why the way Hawks acts the past two chapters is so unheroic, even in accordance of the very loose ideas of what the story set up as what a hero is. Hawks isn’t trying to save Twice. He’s trying to save himself, his own cosncience, because he thinks it’s wrong to kill a “good person” like Twice. He’s acting to save Twice with no regards of what Twice’s wants and needs are.

Rather than try to understand and sympathize with Twice, Hawks approaches him using his entire identity as a hero as a wall between them. He acts in the role of a hero, I am going to capture you the villain and put you in jail. Hawks makes this impersonal as possible and sinks into the role of being a hero, while Twice is still acting as Twice the person.

However, Hawks only cares about saving Twice. Because Twice is the one he dubs as a good person and therefore worthy of being saved. He doesn’t care enough to empathize with the rest of the league, even though Twice cares more about his friends than his life.

Which is what Twice explicitly calls out. That Hawks is not acting like a hero in this situation. He’s not acting selflessly. He’s not trying to save anyone. He’s only acting in ways that satisfy himself. Hawks is acting to reinforce his incorrect world view, that he has to be the one who makes sacrifices for the sake of a faceless majority, even if that person they’re sacrificing is crying and begging in front of them.

Twice brings up the idea that Toga despite being a killer out for blood is also a person who was incredibly kind to him in a moment of weakness. Which is something we the reader know, that all of the members of the league of villains, violent as they are are still people, who are capable of both good an bad. Most of the league members didn’t even fall becausethey were bad, but because of abusive circumstances, parental abuse for Toga, Shigaraki, failure of the social safety net in Twice’s case, victim of societal prejudgice in Spinner’s case.

What Twice suggests is that all of these people that hero society leaves behind are still capable of good, capable of selflessness. Shigaraki is again and again called one of the most violent characters in the series who only cares about destroying for its own sake, and yet he’s the one who gave Twice a home.

The league faces this accusation constant times. That the reason they do crime is because they’re bad people, that they don’t think about how other people feel at all, that’s the only explanation for why they would strike out against society.

And time and time again we’re shown the opposite is the case. Dabi thinks about the heroes he’s killed so much he feels himself slowly going insane. Shigaraki feels such intense remorse for killing his family in what was a total accident, that not only does he take all the blame on himself for years, but he also purposefully triggers himself with their dead hands so he’ll never escape from the guilt of killing them. These are all people fully aware of the bad they are committing underneath their actions, but also who believe otherwise that they have no choice but to do these bad things.

The league of villains has to rebel, because the response of hero society to all of their damage has always been the same thing. Exactly what Hawks does this chapter.

Shut up and take it. Hawks is telling Twice to lie down and stop fighting against him because 1) he doesn’t want to kill Twice and it would be easier on his conscience, and 2) this is what Hawks has always done.

Hawks always chooses to sacrifice himself. He always chooses the good of society over what he personally wants. He’ll always choose the worst option for himself if it means he can do better for others. Hawks in the face of Twice’s individualist rebellion can’t really handle it, because Hawks has never fought back against his own shackles of society.

His plan has always been if he does everything the hero commission tells him to do then... that will somehow help him achieve his society where heroes have more freedom and agency in their lives. I’ve been over Hawks’ backstory a few times, but it makes sense for Hawks to be caught in this negative feedback loop. He’s been conditioned to fight all alone and achieve everything on his own by sacrificing himself his entire life, he’s basically had the ideals of a self sacrificing hero forced onto him. His personality has been intentionally molded to heroics, the same way that Shigaraki was molded to become a villain.

Which is why when Hawks gets someone who genuinely sympathizes with him and treats him like a person, and suggests to hawks something that he has never heard in his entire life, that he can rely on other people, that he can trust other people, that he can let other people help him Hawks genuinely does not get it.

He chooses to fall back on what his abusers have taught him, rather than to trust Twice’s genuine good will. Which is once again common abuse victim behavior, a lot of abuse victims regress and fall into bad patterns because their abuse is what they know, whereas healthy relationships and boundaries are unknown to them.

Twice even says so, that Hawks actions are pitaible here. How sad is it that hero or villain, nobody in the world trusts Hawks? He doesn’t have a friend on either side now, and he’s trying to kill the one person who sympathized with him genuinely as a person because Hawks doesn’t know what to do with that sympathy, or escape the cage he’s been trapped in his entire life.

The difference between Hawks and Twice is that while they have both been wronged by society, Twice fights back with his legitimate grievance against society, whereas Hawks will never fight back. He chooses to let himself suffer if that means that the faceless majority will be spared his suffering. It seems like Hawks is making the sefless choice here, but in choosing not to fight back he’s also repeating the evils of hero society.

You can see it in his monologue to Twice. The one hero that Hawks idealizes the most, is one of the most abusive members of hero society. An abuser who did to his own children what he hero commission did to Hawks. Hawks holds up to an ideal the most toxic element of hero society, the idea that heroics is just numbers. Hawks runs his hero agency the exact same way Endeavor does, efficiency, above all else, it’s just Hawks cares more about saving people and Endeavor cares more about catching villains and resolving cases. His ideal hero is somebody impersonal like Endeavor, who puts efficiency and speed above all else. Hawks’ goal is to be the most effecitve tool possible.

In Hawks’ choice to side with hero society however, we see him passively repeating the abuse that was done to him.

Hawks encourages Endeavor of all people to train his interns hard. Because the hero commission is planning to use a bunch of fifteen year olds as their backup in case their main plan fails. Which means Hawks is actively encouraging what was done to him, (being robbed of his childhood and raised as a child soldier solely for the purpose of being a hero) to be done to the UA students as well. He doesn’t really interact well with Bakugo, someone who is also a child prodigy who has been affected all of their lives due to the fact that he had a quirk suited for being a hero.

By choosing to passively do what he’s told, Hawks ends up perpetuating Hero Society’s ills. Hawks’ offer to Twice isn’t really one that will genuinely save him (ie guaranteeing the safety of him and all of his friends if they stop violently resisting) but rather he offers Twice the chance to conform so he can fit in with society’s ideals. Just like Hawks always takes the choice to conform himself rather than try to be an individual in any way.

Which is why we finally get to Twice’s accusation. That Hawks isn’t acting heroic. He’s not trying to save the person in front of him that’s crying and begging for help.

Why does Dabi get the jump on Hawks? It’s because Hawks’ wings aren’t meant to be used as weapons like this. he always trained himself so that his feathers could hear even the faintest cries for help. Suddenly Twice is literally screaming for help in front of him, and Hawks ignores him. He’s no longer acting like a hero, and so therefore his wings that can hear anything are now deaf, just like Hawks is trying to be by repressing everything else but his mission.

3. Dabi and Hawks

Once again there’s a point of foiling here. Twice and Hawks are both loners to their respective organizations. Dabi never tells other people what his intentions are and he acts with a begrudging sense of teamwork at best.

As much as Dabi complains that he doesn’t care about Shigaraki’s backstory, that he doesn’t want to play friends with the rest of the league, he still in the end gives his absolute all in the fight against Deka City, and fights to the point where he’s literally burning himself alive on the inside because the elague asked him to.

Hawks and Dabi are by nature very two faced people. They are both made up of two individuals, the person they present to the world and everyone around them, and then their real self which they choose to keep hidden.

They are also total opposites in how they present themselves. Dabi acts like he’s callous and cold on the surface. He pretends to be someone who enjoys killing, when Snatch accuses him of being behind a string of murders he basically laughs it off.

However, we’re shown in private that he’s the opposite of his public persona. Rather than someone who can laugh off what he’s done, and enjoys being a villain he thinks about what he’s done so much, with so much remorse that he feels himself going crazy. This is the opposite of how Hawks shows himself. In public Hawks is a very likable, carefree guy, who is totally dedicated to saving other people. Whereas when he reveals what is his “true self” in front of Twice, he plays the role of ruthless villain the same way that Dabi does with snatch. He even goes so far as to taunt Twice for trusting him.

The way they both present themselves is totally reversed, Hawks plays the good guy while deep down he considers himself to be the conniving bad guy. Dabi plays the bad guy while deep down he considers himself to be a very conscience heavy person who knows what he’s doing is wrong but is trying to accomplish some kind of good.

There’s a reason that Hawks’ entire face is shown in shadow in this cene. Hawks is incredibly repressed. He represses his ruthless side, in order to play not only the hero, but the helpless tool of the hero commission. The reason he’s shown in shadow is because his repressed side is coming out. All of his cold caluclation, the fact that he doesn’t trust a single person, all of these are traits that Hawks himself is unaware of but are nonetheless part of who he is as a person.

Dabi expresses what Hawks represses. Hawks has all the bad traits under the surface to appear good, Dabi wears all of his bad traits on the surface to appear bad. They really are inversions of one another, and they’re also both fixated around the ideal of heroes.

There’s a lot of debate over whether Hawks or Dabi gave the narration line “It’s the fault of us scummy heroes” it actually doesn’t matter who said it, the reason it was drawn over both of them is because it applies to both of them. Hawks and Dabi are both people who were failed by, and even manipulated by scummy heroes in their life, Dabi by Endeavor, and Hawks by the Hero Commission. When Hawks even admits that heroes were not what he thought they were, and he feels trapped and used by them to Twice the image that appears in his mind is Endeavor’s back turning away from them.

Dabi and Hawks have been wronged by heroes, and raised and molded to be heroes as child soldiers and they both keep this idealized image of a way heroes should act in their heart. However, both of them have completely opposite responses, Dabi rebels, and Hawks submits.

They have opposite reactions to their abuse, Dabi externalizing by trying to change the world around him (persecuting scummy heroes who don’t fit his stadndards) and Hawks internalizes he tries to change the world by changing himself. Dabi punishes others for not reaching the ideal of perfect hero that he holds, whereas Hawks tries to change himself and tries to become the perfect hero that is always selfless, and always chooses to save the most people possible.

Neither of these are healthy choices, and both of them are destructive. You can’t even argue that Hawks’ choices only harm himself anymore, because we see him literally choosing to murder a person that is crying and begging in front of him, because he’s convinced himself he doesn’t have any choices in this situation. Just because you don’t make a choice for yourself doesn’t mean you’ll never harm someone, in fact your refusal to act on your own will can lead you to do something you don’t want to do and being unable to stop yourself which is clearly the case for Twice and Hawks.

The one difference between Dabi and Hawks however, is the people surrounding them. Dabi is antisocial, always acts like he’s not a member of the group, and yet the people around Dabi choose to trust him anyway.

Hawks and Dabi say a lot of things about who they are, but then reveal who they are in their actions. This too, is where they are inverses of each other. Dabi constantly insults his friends, doesn’t act like he’s a part of the group, says he doesn’t trust them, but ultimately when the chips are down Dabi gives his all to fighting with the league of villains. He complains about it the whole time, but he does it. Part of the reason why Dabi ultimately sides with them is because Shigaraki does give Dabi this trust to go off and do his own thing as long as he comes back at the end of the day.

Dabi could have easily turned out to be someone just like Hawks, not interested in the goals of the League of Villains as a whole, and instead just there to use them for his own benefit. I believe his actions in the latest chapter show that he’s not. Dabi goes out of his way to save Twice, because Twice actually is a comrade to him no matter how much Dabi pretends otherwise.

Now we don’t know if Dabi ultimately invited Hawks into the league knowing that he would betray them, or what his plans are, but ultimately his actions are the opposite of Hawks. Hawks the hero chooses to kill Twice in this scene. Dabi, the villain chooses to save Twice. Dabi is in a sense fighting for his comrades in this scene, where Hawks is fighting against the idea of camraderie and trust. He even, literally kills the symbols of all of twice’s comrades when he pulls duplicates of them. Hawks and Dabi are very similiar people, but in different environments, Dabi exists in ane environment of trust, Hawks in one where no trust exists, and because of that Dabi is able to make better choices in the moment.

We see Hawks’ visor shatter in this scene just like it did in the pro hero arc, and it’s important to remember what the signfiicance of that visor shattering means. His visor is basically his mask he wears at all time. The thought he expresses when his visor shatters is what is underneath the mask, that he’s not good enough.

Hawks decision to always sacrifice comes from his own sense of inferiority. He doesn’t feel like he’s enough to save the people he wants to save. The reason he doesn’t try sincerely to save Twice is because he doesn’t think he can. His self worth is so abysmally low. The reason that Hawks doesn’t try to fight back, to try to be a person, to do what he wants which is clearly not to hurt Twice is because Hawks himself has never been in an environment that sees him as a person.

Which is why Dabi gets the upper hand on him. Hawks can make plans, he can act as ruthlessly as possible, but you can’t suppress yourself to the extent that Hawks does. Everything that’s suppressed will eventually come out. If suppression worked, Dabi wouldn’t have half of his body burned off, Twice wouldn’t be split in two, and Himiko wouldn’t have gone crazy with blood lust. What Hawks was suppressing was how much he did not want to hurt Twice in that moment. He wasn’t being true to who he really was, and what he wanted, and as Dabi calls him out for sentiment tripped him up.

What Hawks needs to do is ironically, not learn to be a better hero, but learn to be like Dabi. If he would only allow himself to be true to himself then he would have been able to save Twice in that moment. Hawks, Twice, Dabi, all three of them are good people but the current hero society doesn’t allow them to be good. They all have to learn to fight against society to be the individuals they want to be.

#dabi #hawks #takami keigo #twice #jin bubaigawara #hawks meta #league of villain meta #mha meta #my hero academia meta #lov meta

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mprjanedoe · 4 years ago

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Statement of Harm & Abuse caused by Steam Powered Giraffe’s former bandmember Michael Philip Reed

I am making this post after reading Steam Powered Giraffe’s recent tweets about Michael and also seeing another tweet circling around from a fan/friend of his as well. This statement is being posted publicly to make the Steam Powered Giraffe fandom and community aware of the breadth of Michael’s harmful actions. Steam Powered Giraffe also tweeted encouraging victims to come forward privately with more information, and because of this I have sent this statement directly to SPG so they are aware of this now as well.

This post is formed by input from victims, occasionally about each other, and occasionally through observations about themselves directly, that occurred over a span of roughly 10 years, informally through text and private messaging, as well as casual conversation at parties and during socializing. His victims should not be subject to more retraumatizing or identification due to fear of retaliation. Along this vein, I also do not wish to identify myself. Frequently his victims of abuse are non-romantic partners.

Michael and I were friends for a number of years. We became friends when I was 18 and he was 26. During the entirety of our friendship I watched him make friends with young women and notably - minors, as well as pursue relationships with them that blurred the lines of platonic and romantic behavior. I watched him emotionally manipulate multiple young women + minors in their teens he had as friends, often causing animosity between the people he was manipulating, which he then used to his gain whenever confronted on his behavior by scoffing it off as jealousy. Part of the emotional manipulation that contributed to this that I witnessed and was also victim to was a deliberate effort on Michael’s part to be secretive about all of the people in his social group who were in the category of young women and minors, despite all parties involved knowing each other in some way because they knew he was “friends” with them. Michael specifically had no problem chatting about mutual friends who were adults and men - however there was a notably distinct difference when talking about young women/minors. He groomed multiple minors that I knew, engaging in physical affection and romantic/sexual emotional manipulation. In some cases he waited until they legally became an adult to make sexual advances. In others, with victims as young as 15 years old, he did pursue and act upon sexual advances. In case it is not abundantly clear - this is sexual assault and in the context of engaging in sex acts with minors is rape.

Even in the case of victims Michael did not form an ongoing intimate relationship with, Michael was consistently friendly around young women and minors (predominantly met through Steam Powered Giraffe and before and after shows) in inappropriate ways, often openly flirting with them upon meeting them and encouraging them to keep in touch. There were many instances he initiated obtaining direct contact info with fans after meeting them, some he was privy to were minors at the time. I have witnessed this in person, Steam Powered Giraffe has received reports of this, and I have been told this directly by fans and friends of friends who have met him in passing. He regularly held chat rooms with young women and minors and in those chatrooms often made innuendoes and flirty jokes.

In addition to Michael being manipulative to many young, impressionable people, he was also an irresponsible friend - which in the context of having a social circle filled with young women and minors, was negligent and dangerous. He actively participated in peer pressuring and coaxing his young “friends” into illegal recreational drugs - predominantly psychedelics and alcohol and encouraged friends his age who did those drugs to peer pressure his young companions into these behaviors as well. He not only peer pressured and coaxed his victims into using illegal recreational drugs, but also personally offered them as he had them in his possession. He also would solicit his “friends” to hang out with him at night and drink (most if not all of whom were under 21, so he had to supply the alcohol) and then disappear or offer to let people crash at his place and then rescind his offer last minute. This put his young victims in danger and at risk, especially when under the influence of alcohol. On a number of occasions where I wasn’t directly affected by this, I was one of the people with a car who would pick up our mutual friends left hanging.

As evidenced by another tweet circulating, Michael has also said a number of racist things. He has wallowed in his white guilt openly and unproductively with multiple people of color, seeking comfort and to unburden his conscience. He has frequently made his white guilt a focus and expected emotional labor from POC, and has said some very offensive and distasteful things, like repeatedly saying he wished he was a black man, and that part of that desire was because he felt his music should be sung with a black man’s voice. His wishing to be black is grotesque for a number of reasons: - because he wanted to be absolved of his white guilt without taking any personal action to dismantle white supremacy, and also fetishizing black people as there is no monolithic black voice, black people are all individual and unique and to fixate on an idea of something they may have that he wanted is racist and inappropriate to say the least. He also made comments in front of friends and at parties to a POC he was romantically involved with repeatedly saying this person was white passing enough for him, as he wasn’t normally attracted to women of color. He also boasted to multiple friends that much of his friend group were people of color.

All in all, after years of knowing Michael, seeing his behaviors towards myself and towards others, these very clear statements need to be made.

1. Michael is a pedophile who has a long history of actively and physically preying on minors and young women. Michael has preyed upon minors and young women, and has coerced minors (under the age of 17) into sexual activity - which is sexual assault and rape. He has calculatedly manipulated young women 5-10 years his junior to be his “friend”, often treating them and implying they were in a relationship, and lying to other people involved, creating an extremely toxic social circle of gaslighted young people being manipulated and abused. He cyclically pulled from this group of individuals one at a time and withheld attention from the others to maintain control and silence of the entire group. This is sexual abuse, in any context. He has used his fame and social capital and his brand of charming and kind dude to make excuses for his behavior and seem like he would never be the type to commit it. When called out on this- he directly lies. Lying about his behavior even when presented with evidence is frequent.

2. Michael is racist. He has made multiple racist comments to people of color who were close to him over a number of years, he has sought out emotional support for his white guilt without addressing how he should personally fight against racism and white supremacy. He has fetishized people of color and fixated on them.

Those who have gotten close enough to Michael know that despite his kindhearted exterior, he can be shockingly cold and lash out in very cruel ways unexpectedly. He has done this to every single one of his victims that I’ve known, including myself, and his victims are anticipating the potential that he will retaliate in response to being called out for his actions. Private and informal testimonies from sexual partners and friends of a variety of ages, forms of relationship, and gender indicate severe emotional abuse.

I would like to acknowledge my role in accountability in this situation for those who may be wondering why I am privy to all of this information but have not spoken out sooner - 18 is not a monolithic age of wizened adulthood - and being that I met Michael when he was nearly 10 years my senior and he pursued friendship with me, I was also taken advantage of for my age and naivety. I was a consistent victim of his emotional manipulation, and felt vaguely uncomfortable for the entirety of knowing and interacting with him, but also personally looked up to him and was charmed by the kindhearted well intentioned image he cultivated both publicly and privately. Upon reading Bunny’s tweets on the matter and reflecting on all that I have been aware of has occurred, it became abundantly clear that it was crucial to make this statement.

To all who have considered themselves friends and colleagues of Michael’s who are in his age group - do not mislead yourselves that there were no signs of Michael’s behavior. This should’ve been dealt with much swifter than nearly a decade down the line when great irrevocable harm has been dealt to Michael’s victims, and there were many publicly visible signs that Michael was way too close with young people - predominantly young women and minors, even if the deeper grotesque details remained in secrecy. The same things that enticed Michael’s young victims to believe being close to him was safe and exciting, are much of the same signs that should’ve been clear to his peers were deeply inappropriate. Based on Bunny’s tweets regarding Michael getting “too friendly” with young fans, and being caught kissing a minor after a show years ago, it is abundantly clear there was a pattern of harmful predatory behavior that was appropriately investigated enough to stop sooner. I ask that all those who have associated with Michael who were peers of him as adults to reflect on this and take open accountability for their role in enabling his behavior either actively or passively in turning a blind eye and/or not investigating his behavior/personally challenging it.

We are asking that this statement is posted on all of SPG’s public channels for visibility - and that fans spread this information and that Steam Powered Giraffe does everything they can to deplatform and demonetize Michael. We are also asking that there is space for this information to spread and breathe and that things do not immediately or quickly return back to status quo within the Steam Powered Giraffe fandom. People have been seriously impacted by this and the trajectory of the lives of many youths has been altered permanently. Considering Steam Powered Giraffe’s success and fame was integral to giving Michael influence over his victims and the opportunity to meet them in the first place, it is only appropriate that there is a significant period of pause - in respect of the victims, and for those finding out about Michael’s actions to process this information.

#steam powered giraffe #michael reed #michael philip reed #mpr #spg #bunny bennett #david michael bennett #isabella bunny bennett #mprjanedoe #steam powered giraffe fan #spg fan

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akaluan · 4 years ago

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Erich/Kisuke: One Night Stand Turned Serious + Balcony Wooing Scene Part 2

They meet again on the battlefield.

Kisuke is late this time, having been caught up in clearing out a monster nest, and isn’t paying attention to his senses the way he should. He’s late, and the Invasion has already begun, and who knows how many people have already died because of his incompetence—

He skids to a stop on the edge of the battleground, eyes widening as he takes in the sheer devastation, the dead and dying monsters, the torn up ground…

And Erich in the midst of it all, exhausted but still fighting, emerald power flaring around his body like roaring flames, tearing through the monsters that remain.

Kisuke wills himself to turn away, to leave before the man spots him, but—

There are more monsters pouring through the Otherworld Tear, the Invasion larger than any other Kisuke has seen to date, and if he leaves…

If he leaves, he doesn’t know if Erich will survive.

So he draws his blade and plunges into the fight, carving a path to Erich’s side without a second thought; they’ve fought together before — fought well together before — and for all he suspects that Erich wants him dead, he doubts the man will sink to stabbing him in the back.

(Erich seems more like a stab-in-the-front sort of man.)

(It’s refreshing.)

Erich casts a startled look his way, then bares his teeth in a grin and says, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Maa, I was a bit delayed, sorry!” Kisuke replies as he settles in to fight at Erich’s side. It’s almost like breathing, if Kisuke’s being honest, the two of them flowing around each other as if they’ve done this all their lives, and in moments they’ve regained the upper hand. They start pushing the monsters back, destroying the invaders with negligent ease, and then—

“Look out!”

Kisuke looks up. Looks over. Curses at the sight of a Behemoth’s head emerging from the Tear, a bright cerulean orb of power already gathering in its mouth.

A Behemoth’s Cero will wipe them and the town behind them off the map.

He can’t let that happen.

“Awaken, Benihime!” Kisuke cries before he can think better of it, plucking at her awareness and rousing her from her rest. She uncoils from within his soul, stretching through his body to reach beyond him, layering crimson power across his blade as he keeps fighting, keeps killing, his attention on the Behemoth as he waits for the right moment—

“Nake, Benihime!” he shouts, slashing his blade through the air as the Behemoth fires its Cero.

Behind him, Erich sucks in a shocked breath as crimson blasts slam into the Behemoth’s cerulean Cero, the two attacks wavering in the air for one.

Brief.

Moment—

Kisuke crows his victory as the Cero evaporates into a small shockwave that knocks lesser monsters aside, then darts forward, another “Nake, Benihime!” calling forth a second arc of crimson blasts that tear through the monsters before him. He leaps. Brings his blade to bear. Cries “Kamisori, Benihime!” as he slashes down, and—

The Behemoth shrieks once, high-brittle-final, before its head tumbles to the ground and its body falls back within the Tear.

(*What barely suitable prey it was,*) Benihime scoffs in his mind as she begins to withdraw, then pauses to peer through his senses. (*So this is who you’ve been so wound up about,*) she purrs, presence draping across his mind with a sensation like sharp nails across his shoulders. (*How interesting.*)

(*Hime…*) Kisuke tries, hoping that he can dissuade her from… from whatever she’s intending, though the effort only earns him a throaty chuckle.

Honestly, he can understand why she’s fascinated, because he’s fascinated too; Erich is using the opening Kisuke gave him to completely destroy the few remaining monsters, his body limned with emerald power and his eyes practically glowing. It doesn’t take long before the battlefield is still and the Tear slowly, reluctantly closes, leaving behind another ruined area littered with bodies.

As if the Tear’s presence was the only thing keeping him up, Erich immediately crumples as his power fades away.

Kisuke bolts to Erich’s side with a curse, barely remembering to sheathe Benihime before he gets close enough to appear a threat. He kneels at the man’s side, scanning for any hint of a wound, but—

“Just tired,” Erich grunts as he reaches up with one trembling hand and shoves sweat-soaked hair out of his face. “I’ll be fine after some rest.”

“Maa… will you… let me help you back?” Kisuke hesitantly asks, then flinches at the bone dry look Erich levels at him in response. “It’s fine if you don’t want me to! But you seem, uhm, that is…”

Erich stares at him for a long moment, then huffs and holds out a hand. “Getting back up by myself is going to be… difficult,” he admits with a grimace. “Help me up and I’ll give you directions to my place here.”

“R-right, yes. I can do that.” Kisuke swallows at the implied invitation back to Erich’s dwelling and forces himself to focus; now isn’t the time to get lost in daydreams, especially with Erich in no condition to do anything but sleep.

(Still, a man can dream, can’t he?)

(Wait, no, damnit!)

(He needs to stop getting distracted!)

Ignoring Benihime’s wicked laughter, Kisuke pulls Erich’s arm over his shoulder and wraps his free arm around the man’s waist, then grunts as he heaves them both to their feet in an awkward, almost drunken stumble. Erich tenses in his grip, gaze slanting wary-uncertain-cautious, then breathes a soft sigh and slumps into Kisuke’s side, letting Kisuke carry most of his weight.

The trip back is slow and painful, the ground too torn and strewn with monstrous bodies for it to be anything else, but they make it back to town in one piece. From there, Erich directs him through the winding streets to another large, multi-family building, then up the stairs and down the hall.

Kisuke already suspects he knows where Erich’s room is: there’s a bucket and a tub set beside one door in particular, both filled with steaming water, just like there was at Erich’s other place. “Do you have people do your laundry at every town?” he asks in amusement as the approach the door.

Erich shrugs awkwardly and straightens up a bit, tugging at his blood-stained shirt in an effort to work it free. “Monster blood stains quickly,” is all he says.

Kisuke snorts but concedes the point: part of why he wears such dark clothing is because of how easily monster blood stains things. He just… finds it amusing that people simply leave buckets of steaming water outside Erich’s door any time a fight happens. “Come on,” he says as he skillfully fishes Erich’s key out of the man’s own pocket and unlocks the door, ignoring Erich’s offended squawk as he does. “In we go. I’ll take care of bringing your clothes back out.”

“Someone’s handsy tonight,” Erich mutters as they enter the room. “And when I’m in no state to appreciate it, too.”

Benihime cackles in Kisuke’s mind as his mouth goes dry and his mind swirls with ideas. “I’m certain I could still make you feel good,” he blurts out, then immediately ducks his head as his cheeks flame.

(Oh heavens above, what has he just done?!)

(Erich is going to kill him!)

“I might just take you up on that,” Erich says with a smirk, then slips free of Kisuke’s grip and settles on a stool with a soft groan of relief. “Though I make no promises on how long I’ll stay awake,” he admits as he starts to pull his clothing off, completely unbothered by Kisuke’s presence.

Kisuke’s mind goes blank-still-fuzzy at Erich’s words, his body acting on instinct to accept the man’s clothes as they’re handed to him.

(Erich wants…?)

(Erich— Erich still wants him?)

(Really?)

He swallows back his disbelief and forces a smile on his face. “Maa, that won’t be a problem at all,” he promises as he steps away to drop Erich’s soiled clothing into the tub of steaming water in the hall, then grabs the bucket, closes the door, and returns to Erich’s side with it. “If I can help you sleep, I’m certainly not going to complain.”

Erich gives him a considering look, then leans over to pull the washcloth from the bucket and wring it out. “There aren’t many who’d agree to that,” he says as he swipes the cloth over his skin to wipe away the worst of the grime.

“Aha, well, I’m hardly your average person,” Kisuke jokes weakly, then takes a steadying breath and leans over, plucking the washcloth from Erich’s hand before the man can protest. He rinses it out, wrings the excess water from it, then straightens up and begins to carefully clean Erich’s body. He takes it slow, watchful for any wounds, and just… lets himself enjoy the moment.

Erich leans into his touch with a quiet hum, head tipping down until his chin is touching his chest and his breathing begins to even out. It’s clear he’s enjoying it, especially when Kisuke gives in and rests a hand on Erich’s shoulder. That earns him a soft, pleased noise and a tiny shift to press closer.

Even the way Benihime is humming beneath his skin isn’t enough to bother Kisuke; her presence is warm-familiar-known and she doesn’t feel bloodthirsty, just curious.

It’s soothing, if he’s being honest; Benihime rarely involves herself in his personal life, but she does tend to make her opinions known if he accidentally wakes her. That she seems to like Erich is… it’s good. It’s a relief. It means he won’t have to be on guard at all times.

Kisuke drops the washcloth into the dirtied water and gives Erich a quick once-over; the man is as clean as he can get without a proper bath, and Kisuke hasn’t yet found any wounds, but he still worries. Worries enough to gather his flagging strength into a healing kido, to press it deep into Erich’s body—

Benihime crows her victory and rushes through his arm, using his kido as a bridge to dive into Erich’s body, her influence arcing through the man and tearing a pained cry from his throat.

“No!” Kisuke yelps as he hauls at Benihime’s presence, trying desperately to yank her back, to pull her away before she can do something irreversible—!

(*He has been wounded time and time again,*) she whispers in his mind, a smug-cheerful-pleased chuckle in her words. (*Feel how ragged he’s been run, my Kisuke. Feel it!*)

And through her, he can: a lifetime of combat has carved its mark deep into Erich’s body, with deep, hidden scars taking their toll on him one battle at a time. And Benihime sweeps into them, pressing the sense of damaged bone-injured joint-scarred muscle into Kisuke’s mind as she sinks her nails into each bit of damage, each spark of pain—

“He didn’t agree!” Kisuke protests, ragged-helpless-aching as Benihime drags strength from his body and into Erich’s. As she tears apart Erich’s old wounds and repairs him. Strengthens him. Builds him anew.

Erich gasps and slumps forward, toppling from the stool and to the floor, tearing away their connection as he does. He groans, weakly shoving himself over onto his back, and stares up at Kisuke with wide, confused eyes as he forces out a breathless, “K-Kisuke…? What…?”

Kisuke scrambles to his feet and stumbles back, legs barely holding him after Benihime’s unexpected actions. She’s purring in the back of his mind, pleased-content-satisfied, and it makes him sick with shock; Shinigami contract with Otherworld Beings to gain their strength, but this… he’s never heard of a contract spirit doing something so against their partner’s will!

What else has she been holding back? What other things has she done that he doesn’t know?!

“Kisuke…?” Erich prompts again, pushing himself up on one trembling elbow. “You okay…?”

“Sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know— she’s never—” Kisuke takes a breath, his hand trembling with shock as he shoves it through his hair and looks away, unable to meet Erich’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” he forces out with as much strength as he can, before he turns and bolts.

(There’s no way Erich will want him around after that.)

(What has he done?!)

#erich/kisuke #urahara kisuke #erich von rerugan #prompt fill #now for benihime to get involved lol #kisuke never asked for any of this

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johannas-motivational-insults · 5 years ago

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I’ve seen a lot of people saying things along the lines of ”portal!Catra just wants to be with Adora and doesn’t resent her so obviously Catra is uwu soft baby who just wants to be loved and doesn’t actually want power” and implying that all Catra needs to find happiness and fulfillment is to give up the power-hungry charade and go be with her girlfriend. As an abuse survivor myself, I find this troubling on a number of levels, and I have a few things to say to this:

1) Portal!Catra is not real Catra.

Portal!Catra is something straight out of a really ooc high school au. She is very different from real Catra, and the contrast is meant to be shocking (much like the asshole au version of Buffy in BtVS 3x09 “The Wish”). It’s a reflection of how people are shaped by their circumstances, it’s not a character study of Catra’s actual wants and needs.

The Catra we saw in the portal, before she remembered her real history, was not dealing with the fallout of a lifetime of abuse. She did not know to be afraid of Shadow Weaver. In fact, she rolled her eyes and groaned when Shadow Weaver scolded her and Adora for goofing off and said she had high hopes for both of them. Real Catra would have killed to hear Shadow Weaver say she had high hopes for her, and here she was acting like it was an annoying lecture she heard all the time. The Catra of this “perfect world” has not spent her whole life being tortured and degraded and humiliated and told that she would never amount to anything.

So yeah, it makes sense that this version of Catra is happy for her friend who got promoted, in contrast to real Catra’s reaction. In this reality it’s good for the whole squad, and they all got the chance to prove themselves in Thaymor. In this reality it’s not a reminder that no matter what she does, she’ll never be as good as Adora, always be seen as useless and never get a chance to prove her worth. This Catra knows maybe she could become a Force Captain one day too. And if she didn’t, maybe it wouldn’t be the end of the world; she hasn’t been told time and time again how incapable she is, so she doesn’t have her canon self’s all-encompassing urge to prove people wrong about her.

In the portal reality, Catra wasn’t blamed for Adora’s failings or treated like a nuisance - a sidekick at best, a liability at worst. She wasn’t pushed down so Adora could be lifted up, they were lifted up together. Of course this Catra doesn’t resent Adora the same way she does in canon or have the same obsession with proving herself.

2) “Just being with Adora” is what caused this problem in the first place.

Catra spent her childhood finding solace in Adora while battling a growing resentment towards her. We’ve all seen “Promise,” this fact is right there in canon. Just being with Adora was Catra’s strategy to try to stay happy throughout her childhood, but it wasn’t working.

Adora was the only good thing in Catra’s life, but this relationship brought her pain as well, and not just from Shadow Weaver. She felt like Adora didn’t respect her, didn’t believe in her. And it’s hard to blame her when you see some of Adora’s cocky posturing, like the “sure you did” and “riiiiight” comments. Adora’s just teasing and playfully asserting dominance (perhaps even trying to flirt a little), but to Catra it doesn’t feel playful, it feels malicious and disrespectful. The one person who makes her feel like she’s worth anything at all so casually dismissing her abilities is devastating.

Sacrificing her need for respect and validation to go be with Adora is not going to fix Catra’s problems. It is not progress, for Catra or Catradora. It’s regression into the unhealthy dynamic that caused much of the conflict between them in the first place.

3) There is no reclaiming this “ideal Catra.”

This may seem like a callous thing to say, but it doesn’t matter what Catra could have been under better circumstances. We are all shaped by our experiences, and no amount of love or therapy will undo what we have already gone through and how it shaped our psychology. All we can do is learn how best to live with who we are now. I’ve had to learn this the hard way, as someone with an acquired disability and a boatload of trauma. There is no ideal version of yourself to get back to, only future versions of yourself to work towards.

This is as true for Catra as it is for anyone irl. It’s not fair to say that Catra “at her core” just wants to be safe and loved and with Adora and therefore all her other needs borne of her abuse and neglect are meaningless. That’s extremely negligent, actually. That attitude minimizes Catra’s trauma, implies that she just needs to learn to get over it and then she won’t have these “impurities” in her personality anymore.

Catra has been abused, and she will always be hypersensitive to indicators of abuse. She’ll get triggered and riled up by seemingly innocuous things when it feels like someone is trying to dominate or subjugate her, take away her agency. She is always going to need to feel a certain sense of power and control just to feel safe and comfortable. In certain situations and around certain people she may feel safe enough to let that guard down and just relax and trust, but that’s a privilege, not a right. On that note...

4) Catra does not need to chase this ideal for anyone’s comfort.

Yes, Catra needs to change. She needs to stop pushing away everyone who loves her, she needs to curb her self-destructive impulses. She needs to take steps toward not just redemption, but healing. This will only be possible once people finally start to acknowledge her trauma, but that’s a whole other story.

However, Catra does not need to change the ways her abuse has shaped her. That’s impossible, and an unfair expectation. Healing from trauma is not the same as erasing it, and this is a very common misconception in the real world as well as in fandom. It’s also an extremely harmful misconception.

Now, this idea in particular is a popular theme in discussions of Catradora’s relationship dynamics, the implication being that Catra will only be happy/healed if she can get to the point where she not only can, but wants to yield control to Adora and that if she can’t/won’t then she doesn’t really trust her and their relationship is broken. The yikes level of this argument, especially in NSFW contexts (which is where you will often see it), is off the charts. It is not fair to expect an abuse survivor to put herself in uncomfortable and potentially triggering situations just to prove she trusts her partner or to demonstrate personal growth. Period.

Now, that’s not to say expressions of trust on Catra’s part wouldn’t be good for the relationship. Adora wants to take care of Catra as much as Catra wants to take care of her, and feeling like Catra trusts her (in those contexts or in others) would certainly stroke Adora’s ego. The problem lies in it being an expectation or us treating it like a milestone, something to celebrate. If Adora is a good partner she will work with Catra as she is and let her express trust in ways she feels comfortable with, rather than pressuring her to do things she’s not comfortable with to prove her feelings for Adora or illustrate her progress.

In short, erasing her history and ignoring her abuse is harmful.

Like I said, portal!Catra is not real Catra, and we can’t treat her like she is. It makes zero sense to ignore or villainize her perfectly legitimate need to feel powerful and in control over her own life just because someone who lived a totally different life didn’t have that same need to the same degree.

And I know I will get comments that canon Catra doesn’t really want power either, but I disagree. Catra doesn’t really want to rule the world, it’s true, but she wants to prove that she can. We’ve seen her enjoy being in a leadership position because she’s good at it and it reminds her of her own competence and worth. Just because she found no satisfaction in losing her soul to take over the world does not mean she finds no genuine fulfillment in being in a position of influence.

Even regardless of how much she enjoys it, Catra is still drawn to power because she has grown to associate it with positive outcomes like safety, agency, and self-actualization. Yes, power may not be Catra’s ultimate goal, but that doesn’t make it meaningless to her. And I really wish people would stop acting like a perfectly normal response to abuse is a character flaw that needs to be fixed.

It seems a lot of people are quick to forget Catradora’s real history as depicted in “Promise” because they like the “Remember” version of their relationship better. Because they like this version of Catra better. It’s understandable - who doesn’t want to see Catra happy, right? But like Adora so devastatingly told Catra (and all of us), it’s not real.

We need to stop pretending it’s real.

#spop #she-ra #she ra #meta #catra #child abuse #catradora #catra and shadow weaver #1x11 promise #3x05 remember #mine #i really went off here #idec #i've been trying to write this for months #and finally got the inspiration/clarity to finish #i hope it lives up to the hype #portal!catra is not real catra

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zerobotic · 4 years ago

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Well, you asked for it and you can’t say I didn’t warn you :3

First off, the usual disclaimer that I did enjoy DH2. I thought it had some very interesting level design ideas with the clockwork mansion and crack in the slab, the new powers were very cool and fun to use, and it polished some of the rough edges from the first game’s mechanics. It’s just the story and such that disappointed me after how much I loved the first game.

So to start off here’s some of the things I found disappointing or frustrating (and keep in mind these are all just my personal feelings on the games):

“Spoiled rich person learns a lesson from poverty tourism” is a plot that gets on my nerves in general and that’s more or less what happened here with Emily’s story

Like, not to disagree with an anti-rich-people story but the first one did a much more poignant job of highlighting greed and corruption and letting you be the one actually fighting it, rather than putting you in the position of perpetuating it. It felt like the first game showed it, while the second game just preached about it.

Boy this sure did feel out of character for both Corvo and Emily. Emily watched her mother be murdered at ten years old for the sake of political power, and then was held hostage for six months while being told her father was executed for her mother’s death. She got a firsthand view of how much the people of the empire were suffering during this time, and then when she finally got rescued she was immediately kidnapped and used as a pawn again by yet more schemers after her mother’s throne. You cannot tell me that’s a person who would grow up to be spoiled and carefree and complacent with their position, or someone who wouldn’t give a shit about their people. Yes, I know that she was a headstrong, rebellious kid with an adventurous streak, and I’m not trying to claim she wouldn’t probably still prefer, on some level or another, to escape to the rooftops with a sword rather than being stuck in court. I’m just saying that kids grow up and change and whoever wrote the second game seems to be stuck on taking ten-year-old Emily at face value for her adult self’s personality too, instead of considering how the first game’s events might have actually influenced her. She’s got more than enough firsthand experience to know to be wary of scheming nobles. (Also I definitely got the feeling, playing the first game, that at least a bit of how Emily behaved at the Hound Pits was her trying to cope with what was happening.) You also can’t tell me that Corvo, father and royal protector of the current empress, man with the most reason and justification to be paranoid out of everyone in the whole damn empire after everything he’s been through, would be so negligent in paying attention to a coup that the first mission claims pretty much everyone in Dunwall knew was happening.

Building off of that, in general it felt like the first game wasn’t allowed to have much of an impact. It pays lipservice to Jessamine’s death, and acknowledges Corvo having been a badass back then, but that’s....about it? Like I said in the other post, the first game felt so saturated in grief, both for Jessamine and for everything else going on in Dunwall, that it really influenced the overall tone of the game. The second one kinda feels like the first one never happened, or at least didn’t have any lasting influence on the characters or world, and it’s kind of jarring going from one to the other.

So with all that said, here’s my idea for a different DH2. Still using Karnaca as the setting and Delilah as the primary antagonist, just...different.

"Delilah wants to use a reality-altering painting to change the world into her vision of it” is still a plot point. Except, instead of the end of the game, it’s the beginning. It’s a logical extension of her actions and powers during the Daud DLC - the plan to use Emily’s painting to take over almost worked til it was stopped, so there’s clearly potential there. She’ll just think bigger, more direct this time.

The game starts on a ship. Emily and Corvo are en route to Karnaca for some sort of diplomatic mission. We get to know them a little bit during this opening trip: Emily isn’t an absent, complacent ruler, she's a young woman who inherited a difficult throne as a child, after a series of traumatic events, and now she's trying hard to live up to her mother's legacy and prove herself worthy to an empire that still seems to only see her as the child she was during the interregnum. She’s doing her best, but she’s insecure about all of that, and spends a lot of time frustrated with the back and forth scheming of the nobles, trying to please everyone instead of putting her foot down and getting things done. Corvo is trying to keep her safe where he failed Jessamine, but court still isn’t his preferred arena either.

The night before they’re due to arrive in Karnaca, we start getting hints that something is...off. Strange dreams, maybe?

They land in Karnaca and things are different than expected. But they don’t get time to look around, because there's guards there to arrest them, claiming they’re wanted criminals. They’ve got music boxes or something that can strip Corvo of his powers, and only one of them gets away while the other is taken. The one that gets away is stuck alone, disoriented, and hunted in an unfamiliar city - even if you play as Corvo, things are different than he remembers. More different than can be explained by just time.

They meet Meagan Foster. She takes them to meet a group of ex-whalers (the player character doesn’t know who they are). They’re a group that got back in touch with each other in Karnaca after Daud left and the whalers split, and they still do shady shit, but these days it’s generally more smuggling type stuff and they’ve put down the assassin blades. They’re the equivalent of the loyalist home base in this game. Meagan is still the Samuel stand-in, taking the player places and narrating things as necessary.

Information is shared and the player finds out that somehow, the world is changed from what they remember. Delilah is the empress, here, come by it what seemed like legitimately at some point in the 15 years between Jessamine’s death and now, and Emily and Corvo are wanted criminals. No one seems aware of the change except for the player and the whalers (who only remember it because of their experience with magic, though the player character doesn’t learn that til much later).

Clearly it’s Delilah who did something, because she has magic, and she’s the one on the throne now.

The Outsider shows up in their dreams that first night in the new world, but something is clearly wrong in the void, too, and it seems like he’s barely capable of reaching out and communicating with them. He offers the mark, but disappears before really getting a chance to explain anything.

The player goes through the game now with the goal of finding out what happened, how it happened, and how it can be fixed. DH2 and DOTO explained a lot more than I felt they should’ve, at times, and I preferred how the first game balanced worldbuilding with mystery. So, let things be explored and figured out along the way.

Things are real bad in this universe. From Emily's perspective as she goes through the game, we get commentary questioning whether or not she was doing a good job, and comparing it to how things are in Delilah's world. There’s lots of corruption and poverty and people suffering, and the question "is this just Delilah's world? How much of this going on in mine too? In trying to navigate court instead of putting my foot down, was I failing my people in the end after all? Would it have been better if my mother was still the empress?" The difference between this and what DH2 did is that she was trying, there was just a lot hindering her, including her own doubts. In this one, those questions aren’t preaching, they’re a sign that she does care and is pained by the idea of her people suffering like this again, by the mere possibility that it might not be just Delilah’s world.

Corvo and Emily have distinct perspectives, not just the same lines very slightly altered.

The bloodfly infestations are either 1) a natural thing that wasnt supposed to turn ugly like this and has been affected by Delilah’s magic, or 2) wholly the product of unnatural magic. None of this "we need them and they’re always like this, just not this bad" stuff. if you're gonna repeat the plague motif, make it actually horrifying, like the rat plague was. In fact, there’s obvious magic influence here and there in general - maybe not quite as thorough as at Brigmore Manor, but it’s present enough to give you the creeping feeling that things aren’t right, here, visual confirmation of Delilah’s influence, that things have been changed and twisted from their normal state of things. Hell, maybe this is where the hollows from DOTO come in, the original world and Delilah’s altered version of it trying to bleed through each other in some spaces. Maybe that’s a different explanation for the crack in the slab mission, even.

Actually, if you’re gonna repeat the plague motif, lean into the similarities between the rat plague era and now. Have them be reminded here and there by things they see, recount what happened and how terrible it was, compare it to now. Give NPCs lines about the comparison and how some of them left Dunwall only to be stuck living through something like this a second time. Let the first game have happened and had an impact, folks, cmon.

On a similar note, if you’re gonna keep Delilah's backstory the same when we finally learn it, let Emily and Corvo get mad about it. They lived through the first game - what right does Delilah have to talk like she's got a monopoly on suffering and that's why she should have the throne?

Delilah's mistake was assuming Emily was a sheltered child who wouldn’t come for her, rather than someone who's already been through a lot and come out on top. That was almost a satisfying thing about the second game but they messed up the execution of the whole concept and I want it to actually pay off.

I’m not sure if the targets in this one should be the same or how much should change there. Honestly, except for Breanna, the targets in DH2 felt a lot less relevant to what was going on than the DH1 targets did, like...why are half these people even at this ritual? But for simplicity’s sake let’s keep it as close as we can, while also adjusting for the fact that this reality has been tailor-made for Delilah and her buddies. Perhaps the Duke is only the Duke here because things were rewritten to put one of Delilah’s allies in charge, and it was supposed to still be his father. Hypatia isn’t the crown killer (what even was that plot point honestly), she’s the doctor they found to help Delilah recover after her time in the void, and now they’ve rewritten things to imprison her in the institute to keep her quiet and out of the way, and you get wind of it and go to see what she knows. Etc. Is Sokolov involved in this version of things? I dunno! But speaking of Sokolov I want some sort of explanation for where the other surviving loyalists are, damnit.

Delilah did something in and to the void, just like in canon, but it actually has a visible impact here (beyond just a total aesthetic redesign of the void between games that never gets commented on). The void is struggling under her influence when you find shrines, and you never know what you're gonna find at one of them, or what the Outsider is gonna be like, if he even shows up. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the way DH2 gave him a human backstory, because I liked the mystery there behind what he was and what the void was, but this is open to go either way, either with Delilah finding his death site like in canon, or some other way she found to influence it. I’m not sure how the progression would go of how the void changes over the course of the game, but it would be cool to get to help/save the Outsider in some kinda way.

Finding Corvo's childhood home should have more impact. Let it be like when you find the saferoom in Dunwall tower, in the first game. A temporary refuge in a dangerous place, full of obvious memory and grief - not so much for the time spent here since that's so long in the past, but for all that's been lost, everything they've been through and are in the middle of going through. Especially if you're playing Emily - this is the home of the father she just lost.

Let the heart be vague and ominous again, and let our interactions with it be sad, especially as Emily! I’m still messed up about the first time I heard "the doom of Pandyssia has come to the city" in DH1, and the lines about the floodwaters and the plague victims, give me stuff like that! Especially in a world that isn’t meant to exist the way it currently is, where things have been twisted almost beyond recognition. And give me lines that remind Emily of the mother she lost and how this is the first time she's heard her voice since she was a child!

Give us more on citizens and how they're suffering in this world, the way the first game showed us plague victims who died in each other's arms, journals from the desperate and dying, living people sent to the flooded district. Let it be a reminder to Emily why it's worth it, why she has to change the world back and what she wants to be fighting for when she gets her throne back. Another reason to question - has she been doing all she can? (Alternatively, a source of righteous fury for high chaos Emily.)

This is a journey of self discovery for Emily, either low or high chaos. It's about realizing she hasn’t been doing all she could, despite her intentions, because she's been trying to please everyone and in the end it still wasn’t good enough. She needs to stop living under her mother's shadow and come into her own (and the heart plays a role in this epiphany, probably. This might actually come to a head when she has to let her mother's spirit go, if we're gonna keep that plot point.)

High chaos Emily is similar but in a more "alright no more nice empress" kinda way whereas low chaos is more about conviction to put her foot down to do what's right.

You meet people during the game who in a good ending become part of her new council. Common people, who are more in touch with what needs to be done. It pisses nobles off but she's determined to do better, after everything. It helps both her and Corvo come to terms with the whole safety thing, because you can't ever make sure you're totally safe but you can try to make sure the empire can keep going should something happen to its ruler.

In fact, part of Corvo's perspective on this game probably would involve him still wanting to keep Emily out of things for safety's sake, and wondering if sheltering her from knowledge of magic and such contributed to this situation.

When it's revealed who the whalers are, it's late in the game after we've already come to like them a lot. They don't betray you like the loyalists did, but it should still feel like a punch to the gut for Emily and Corvo.

They don’t know where Daud is, haven’t seen him since the whalers disbanded .

Billie talks about that whole thing, and it's complicated. She decides maybe she should try to find him, after all. Cue DLC, which is about finding Daud, and helping/saving him, and the two reconciling and Billie finding some kind of...if not redemption, then absolution. A parallel to the first game’s DLC, Billie getting an arc like that in Emily’s game the way Daud got that arc in Corvo’s game. Y’know, instead of DOTO going and undoing all of Daud’s character growth.

I know I’m kind of handwaving the actual mechanics of who the targets are and how you actually go about uncovering what happened and how you can fix it and take down Delilah in the end, but this is all just. Concepts. If I were to try to write this as a fic or something I’d have to actually sit down and work out all those details, but for now this is something that’s just been living in my head since like an hour after I finished DH2 for the first time a couple years ago.

(I did warn you it was gonna be long lmao)

#turnabout rambles #mvtk42

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abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzpcc · 3 years ago

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Macarthur: A Grim Portrayal of Philippine Poverty

⠀ ⠀ Written by Bob Ong, Macarthur is a novel that follows the lives of a group of friends who have to deal with their own flaws: Cyrus, Noel, Jim, and Voltron. Although he is known for his works themed after satire and humor, Bob Ong deviated from his usual formula to produce a novel depicting life in a Filipino slum community. The story opens with one of the main characters getting chased after stealing and swallowing an expensive necklace. He eventually gets caught by a corrupt policeman and is forced to defecate and hand over the stolen piece of jewelry. Macarthur can create very believable scenarios that everyone in the Philippines knows actually happen in real life. As a result, the novel is able to develop most of its cast of characters in a realistic way to show how miserable and tragic lives in the slums of the Philippines are.

⠀ ⠀ Education was one of the ideas contained in the novel. In particular, many mentions of education were from Cyrus or his grandfather, Mang Justo. When the four boys were at the fair, Cyrus asked his friends whether or not they wanted to turn their lives around, and uttered the following quote: “If I had finished my studies, I and Tatay [Mang Justo] would be rich now.”1 This dream for a proper education, along with something he had said earlier about building a business to buy a big TV and cook Tinola for his grandfather, showed that Cyrus had a will to turn his life around. Unfortunately, due to society, he had not been able to continue with this dream. It shows that many people are willing to change for the better, but they have no means.

⠀ ⠀ Later, when Noel and Mang Justo had a heart-to-heart talk about life, the topic of the discussion shifted to Noel’s education. At one point, Noel said that he wanted to return to school, but he did not know where to start. To this, Mang Justo responds: “You’ll only have to study for twenty years. You have to be able to endure that much, otherwise you’ll have to suffer for fifty years instead.”2 Having regret for himself and worry for the boy, he relayed this powerful analogy that emphasizes the importance of proper education. Overall, it can be seen that Mang Justo is a very empathetic man shown to have elder wisdom coming from his experiences in poverty and the successes of his children.

⠀ ⠀ Another theme that the novel tries to tackle is the idea of expectations. The characters in the novel are shown to have their own hopes and dreams. Through the eyes of the characters, we see how each of them struggles in order to achieve their goals. As previously mentioned, Cyrus and Noel had aspirations for their futures. Unfortunately, we see both of these characters’ aspirations come crashing down by the end of the novel due to the circumstances they have been exposed to. It shows the grim reality of the life of those who live in poverty. Jim can also be seen being affected by said circumstances. Due to poverty, he and his wife struggle to raise their child. One scene in the novel shows the two arguing with each other. Olive, Jim’s wife, was unsatisfied with the life they were living; Jim did not meet her expectations.3

⠀ ⠀ Voltron is another example of failed expectations in the novel. His mother, Aling Seding, was said to have high expectations of him—a fact that was shown by the name his mother had given to him. His legal name, Amadeus, was never used to refer to him in the entire span of the novel. He was commonly referred to as either Voltron or Denver, Voltron being used by his close friends and Denver being used either by his mother or colleagues. The name Amadeus may actually refer to the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was a child prodigy. This name represents the expectations that Aling Seding once had when Voltron was younger. At one part of the story, Voltron, together with his friends and mother, were having a drinking session. While having their chat, Voltron’s mother happened to say a comment in passing. She called Voltron a punyeta (roughly translated to asshole), saying that she had put so much effort for him to go to school, disappointed at the fact that he dropped out.4 This being said, the only people who refer to Voltron as Denver were people who did not think that highly of him. Besides his mother, only his colleagues, who were implied to be doing illegal activities, were the ones who referred to him as Denver. These colleagues obviously do not think highly of him; it was implied that these people were responsible for Voltron’s death. If these people did actually respect Voltron, they would not have let him die. His third name, Voltron, is an obvious reference to the animated television show of the same name. Voltron (the character in the novel), was described to have a bumpy chest, a small head, and big limbs. His physical appearance is an allusion to the actual television character, having the same physical features. Though, the connection between the two characters does not only end with their physical appearance. The television character Voltron was also commonly referred to as “Defender of The Universe”. As seen in the novel, Voltron wanted to stay away from mischievous activities. After meeting with Edwin, he was described as not wanting to join said activities.5 He can also be seen abstaining from vices his friends do, even going to the point of trying to convince them to do the same.6 From a conversation between Cyrus and Voltron, it can also be seen that Voltron heavily disagrees with Cyrus’ sentiments on stealing. This being said, the parallels between the characters from the television show and the novel can be drawn. Voltron (in the novel) can also be described as the “Defender of the Universe”, the word “universe” referring to his friends. This shows his efforts of trying to protect his friends from bad influences.

⠀ ⠀ Other than education and dreams, poverty and addiction are also very prominent themes in the novel. Owing to poverty, the characters in the story face various problems. Being the eldest son and having a widowed mother, Voltron needs to stand for his other siblings. He needs to borrow money to meet the daily needs of the family and his youngest sibling. Another character, Jim, has an unstable income causing him to quarrel with Olive. In order to have a more decent life, the four main characters have tried to change towards a better path, but were unsuccessful in the end.

⠀ ⠀ Sometimes, people steal in order to survive. Due to the extremely uneven wealth distribution in modern society, people often steal to meet their basic needs such as food and clothing. Stealing seemed to be a daily routine of Cyrus’ life. He told Mang Justo that he has a job, but when Mang Justo asked him about which factory he was employed in, he paused for a few seconds before answering. The “work” he might be referring to is stealing. Although it is a white lie, it also revealed his deceitful behavior.

⠀ ⠀ Many issues arise from addiction as well. Cyrus consumes drugs which leads to the tragedy that happens near the end of the story. Again, Cyrus stole accessories from an ale. However, this time, he stole an accessory for the spendings of Mang Justo’s kidney transplant. Seeing Topak was almost near and reaching him, he went to the comfort room. Cyrus swallowed one of the accessories and kept the other one in his pocket. Then, he took the five packs of shabu from his pocket and consumed them one by one. From this it can be seen that Cyrus usually has drugs with him.

⠀ ⠀ In many cases, addiction is a kind of escape from reality or a short-term sense of security. Through smoking, drugs, drinking alcohol, games, the internet, and other forms of addiction, people get rid of worrying emotions temporarily. In the end, people fall into a brutal cycle and cannot get rid of their vices. Hence, their personality, lifestyles, and people around them will also be affected.

⠀ ⠀ The novel is a realistic portrayal of the life of lower-class Filipinos, revealing many social issues such as poverty, addiction, unemployment, and lack of education. The story showed the qualities, growth, and change of the characters. The four friends represent the young people in Philippine society, with virtuous innate qualities, but inadvertently led down the wrong path, tainted with bad vices. At the same time, they also want to escape from the vicious cycle of poverty, so they reflect on themselves and promise to reform themselves after realizing their mistakes. However, they do not let go of their vices because they think they can control their addiction. Things do not work out the way the friends thought they would, and the story ends as it does in the real world, where not all efforts are rewarded positively.

⠀ ⠀ Not only in the book, but these topics have always been social issues that have been brought up in reality. The author's intention in writing this story is not only to bring up these topics again, but also to warn readers to make every life choice wisely because even a small negligence can affect them. The story of the four friends is fictional, but the people in the real world have only one life to live.

Quote sources

Translated from Filipino. Original quote: “Kung nakapag-aral ako, mayaman kami dapat ngayon ni Tatay.” p. 45.

Translated from Filipino. Original quote: “Dalawang dekada ka lang mag-aaral. Kung di mo pagtitiyagaan, anak, limang dekada ng kahirapan ang kapalit.” p. 87.

“Kumakain tayo, Jim! Nagdadamit tayo. Nagkakasakit tayo. Kailangan natin ng legal na tubig at kuryente. Kailangan mo ng matinong trabaho. Kailangan ni Jon-Jon ng tatay. Kailangan ko ng asawa. Kailangan nating mabuhay! Ito na ba yung rurok ng mga pangarap mo, Jim? Hanggang dito ka na lang ba? Eto na ba yon lahat?!” pp. 37–38.

“Etong si Denver putangina ‘tong batang ‘to pinag-aaral ko dati, sa sabungan naman pala tumutuloy, kaya punyeta ka, sabi ko, huminto ka nalang, wala ka namang pakinabang!” p. 49.

Alam nya ang reputasyon ng kausap. Alam nyang nakakatulong ito sa mga handang magpatulong. At yun ang tanging katarantaduhan sa buhay na kinatatakutan nya ata hangga’t maaari ay gusto sanang iwasan.” p. 25.

“Tarugo kasi kayo, ayaw niyo tigilan mga bisyo nyo e,” p. 15.

Image sources:

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claudinei-de-jesus · 4 years ago

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The Second Coming of Christ

1. The fact of your coming.

The fact of Christ's second coming is mentioned more than 300 times in the New Testament. Paul refers to the event about fifty times.

Someone has already said that the second coming is mentioned eight times more than the first. Entire epistles (Cl and 2Tess.) And entire chapters (Mat. 24, Mat. 13) are dedicated to the subject. Without a doubt, it is one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament.

2. The way of your coming.

It will be personal (John 14: 3; Acts 1: 10,11; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 1: 7; 22: 7), literal (Acts 1:10; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; Apo . 1: 7; Zec. 14: 4), visible (Heb. 9:28; Fps. 3:20; Zac. 12:10) and glorious (Matt. 16:27; 25:31; 2Th. 1: 7 -9; Gal. 3: 4). There are interpretations that try to avoid the opinion that the coming of Christ is literal and personal. Some teach that death is the second coming of Christ. But the Bible shows that the second coming is the opposite of death, for the dead in Christ will rise at that time.

With death we will go to Christ, but when he comes he will come to fetch us. Certain passages (Matt. 16:28; Phil. 3:20) lose their meaning if we replace death with a second coming. Finally, death is an enemy, while the coming of Christ is the glorious hope. Some maintain that the second coming was the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Others teach that Christ came at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, but in each of these cases there was no resurrection of the dead, nor the rapture of the living, nor other predicted events that will accompany the second advent.

3. The time of his coming.

Attempts were made to determine the date of Christ's coming, but in none of them did the Lord come at the appointed time for men! He declared that the exact time of his coming is hidden in the divine councils. (Matt. 24: 36-42; Mar. 13:21, 22.) It is a good thing.

Who would like to know in advance his exact time of death? Such knowledge would have the effect of disturbing and rendering the person useless. It is enough for us to know that death can come at any moment; therefore, we must work "while it is daytime because the night comes when no one can work". The same reasoning applies to the end of the present dispensation. That day has not been revealed to us either, but we know that it will be sudden (1Cor. 15:52; Matt. 24:27) and unexpected (2Ped. 3: 4; Mat. 24: 48-51; Rev. 16:15). The Lord warns his servants: "Negotiate until I come"

We give below an overview of Christ's teaching on the time of his coming: after the destruction of Jerusalem the Jews will be banished from all nations, driven out of his land, which will be subjugated by the Gentiles until the end of time, when God will judge the Gentile nations (Luke 21:24). During this time, the servants of Christ will carry on their work (Luke 19: 11-27), preaching the Gospel to all nations (Matt. 24:14).

It will be a time of delay during which the church will often be tempted to doubt the return of its Lord (Luke 18: 1-8), when some will prepare and others will become negligent, while the Bridegroom will delay (Matt. 25: 1-11). Unfaithful ministers will stray, saying to themselves, "My Lord is slow to come" (Luke 12:45).

"Long afterwards" (Matt. 25:19), "... midnight (Matt. 25: 6),‹ the hour and day that none of his disciples know of (Matt. 24:36, 42.50) , the Lord will suddenly appear to gather his servants and judge them according to their works (Matt. 25:19; and 2 Cor. 5:10). Later, after the Gospel had been universally preached and after the world had it rejected, when the people are living completely ignorant of the impending catastrophe, as in the days of Noah (Matt. 24: 37-39) and in the days of the destruction of Sodom (Luke 17:28, 29) the Son of man will come in glory and power to judge the nations of the world and to reign over them (Matt. 25: 31-46).

4. Signs of your coming.

Scripture teaches that the appearance of Christ ushering in the Millennial Age will be preceded by an eventful time of transition, in which there will be physical upheavals, wars, economic crises, moral decline, religious apostasy, infidelity, general panic and bewilderment. The last part of that transitional period is called "The Great Tribulation", during which the whole world will be under the rule of a government against God and anti-Christian. Believers in God will be brutally persecuted, and the Jewish nation, in particular, will pass through the furnace of affliction.

5. The purpose of your coming.

(a) In relation to the church. Thus writes Dr. Pardington: Just as the first coming of the Lord extended over a period of 30 years, so the second coming will influence various events. At the first coming he was revealed as the Child of Bethlehem; later as the Lamb of God, when he was baptized, and as the Redeemer on Calvary. At the second coming he will appear to his secretly and suddenly to transfer them to the Wedding of the Lamb. This apparition is called the rapture or "Parousia" (which means "apparition" or "presence" or "arrival" in the Greek language). At that time believers will be judged to determine their rewards for services rendered (Matt. 25: 14-30). After the rapture, a period of terrible tribulation follows, which will end in revelation, or open manifestation of

Christ from heaven, when he will establish his messianic kingdom on earth.

(b) In relation to Israel. He who is the Head and Savior of the church, of the people of heaven, is also the promised Messiah of Israel, of the earthly people. As Messiah, he will free these people from tribulation, bring them together from the four corners of the earth, restore them to their former land and reign over them as their long-promised King over the House of David.

(c) In relation to the antichrist. The spirit of the Antichrist is already in the world (1 John 4: 3; 2:18; 2:22), but yet another final Antichrist will come (2 Thess. 2: 3). In the last days he will rise from the old world (Rev. 13: 1) and will become the sovereign over a resurrected Roman Empire that will dominate the whole world. He will assume great political (Dan. 7: 8, 25), commercial (Dan. 8:25; Rev. 13:16, 17) and religious (Rev. 17: 1-15) power. He will be anti-God and anti-Christ, and will persecute Christians in an attempt to extinguish Christianity. (Dan. 7:25; 8:24; Rev. 13: 7, 15). Knowing that men desire to have some religion, he will establish a cult based on the divinity of man and the supremacy of the state.

As an embodiment of that state, he will demand the worship of the people, and form a priesthood to enforce and promulgate that worship. (2Th. 2: 9,10; Rev. 13: 12-15.) The antichrist will take the doctrine of the supremacy of the state to the extreme, which teaches that government is the supreme power, around which everything, including itself man's conscience, has to be subordinate to him. Since there is no higher power or law than the State, according to them, God and his law must be abolished in order to worship the State. The first attempt to establish the cult of the State is recorded in Daniel ch. 3. Nebuchadnezzar was proud of the powerful empire he had built. "Is not this the great Babylon that I have built? ..." (Dan. 4:30).

So dazzled was he in the face of human power and government, that the state for him became like a god. What better way to impress men with your glory than to order them to have the symbol of that government worshiped! Therefore, he built a great golden image and ordered all peoples to prostrate themselves before it, under pain of death. The image was not that of a local deity, but it represented the state itself. Refusing to worship the image was considered atheism or betrayal. When instituting this new religion, Nebuchadnezzar as if saying to the people: "Who gave you the beautiful cities, the good roads, and beautiful gardens? The State! Who provides you with food and service, who founds schools and sponsors temples?

The state! Who defends you from enemy attacks? The state! then is the State, this power, not a god? So, what greater god do you want than your exalted government? Prostrate yourselves before the symbol of great Babylon! "And if God had not humbled him from his blasphemous pride (Dan. 4: 28-37), Nebuchadnezzar perhaps would have demanded the worship of his own person as head of state. Like the three Hebrew children (Dan. 3) were persecuted for refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's image, so first-century Christians suffered because they refused to pay divine homage to Caesar's image.

There was tolerance for all religions in the Roman Empire, but on condition that the image of Caesar as a symbol of the state was venerated. Christians were persecuted, not so much for their loyalty to Christ, but because they refused to worship Caesar and say, "Caesar is Lord." They refused to worship the state as a god. The French Revolution offers another example of this policy. God and Christ were thrown out and a god, or goddess, made himself the "Fatherland" (the State). So said one of the leaders: "The state is supreme in all things. When the state speaks, the church has nothing to say." Loyalty to the state has risen to the position of religion.

The assembly decreed that altars should be erected in every village with the following inscription: "The citizen is born, lives and dies for La Patrie." A ritual was prepared for baptisms, weddings and civil burials. The state religion had its hymns and prayers, its fasts and feasts. The New Testament recognizes human government as divinely ordained for the maintenance of order and justice. The Christian, therefore, owes loyalty to his homeland.

Both the church and the state have their share in the divine program, and each must be limited to its own sphere. God must receive what belongs to him, and Caesar must receive what belongs to him. But it turns out that many times Caesar demands things that are from God, with the result that the church, very against his will, clashes with the government. Scripture predicts that these conflicts will peak in the future. The last civilization will be anti-God, and the antichrist, its leader, the world dictator, will make the laws of this superstate supreme over all other laws ", and will demand the worship of his person as the personification of the state. The same Scriptures predict the victory of God and that on the ruins of the anti-Christian world empire, he will raise up his kingdom in which God is supreme - the Kingdom of God. (Dan. 2:34, 35, 44; Rev. 11:15; 19: 11-21.)

(d) In relation to nations. The nations will be judged, the kingdoms of the world will be destroyed, and all peoples will be subject to the King of kings. (Dan. 2:44; Mic. 4: 1; Isa. 49:22, 23; Jer. 23: 5; Luc. 1:32; Zec. 14: 9; Isa. 24:23; Rev. 11:15 .) Christ will rule the nations with an iron rod; he will remove all oppression and injustice from the land and inaugurate the golden age of a thousand years. (Ps. 2: 7-9; 72; Isa. 11: 1-9; Rev. 20: 6.) "Then the end will come, when he has given the kingdom over to God the Father and when he has annihilated the entire empire , and all power and strength "(1Cor. 15:24).

There are three stages in the work of Christ as Mediator: His work as a Prophet, accomplished during his earthly ministry; his work as a Priest, begun on the cross and continued during the current dispensation; and his work as King, beginning with his coming and continuing during the Millennium. After the Millennium has accomplished its work of uniting humanity to God, so that the inhabitants of heaven and earth form one big family where God will be everything and will be in everyone. (Eph. 1:10; 3:14, 15.)

However, Christ will continue to reign as the God-man, and to share in the divine government, for "his kingdom will have no end" (Luke 1:33). .. A segunda vinda de Cristo

1. O fato de sua vinda.

O fato da segunda vinda de Cristo é mais de 300 vezes no Novo Testamento. Paulo refere-se ao evento umas cinqüenta vezes.

Alguém já disse que a segunda vinda é mencionada oito vezes mais do que a primeira. Epístolas inteiras (Cl e 2Tess.) E capítulos inteiros (Mat. 24, Mat. 13) são dedicados ao assunto. Sem dúvida, é uma das doutrinas mais importantes do Novo Testamento.

2. Uma maneira de sua vinda.

Será de maneira pessoal (João 14: 3; Atos 1: 10,11; 1Tess. 4:16; Apo. 1: 7; 22: 7), literal (Atos 1:10; 1Tess. 4:16, 17; Apo. . 1: 7; Zac. 14: 4), visível (Heb. 9:28; Fps. 3:20; Zac. 12:10) e gloriosa (Mat. 16:27; 25:31; 2Tess. 1: 7 -9; Gál. 3: 4). Há interpretações que procuram evitar a opinião de que a vinda de Cristo seja literal e pessoal. Alguns ensinam que a morte é uma segunda vinda de Cristo. Mas a Bíblia mostra que uma segunda vinda é o contrário da morte, pois os mortos em Cristo ressuscitarão nessa ocasião.

Com a morte iremos para Cristo, mas na sua vinda ele virá para nos buscar. Certas passagens (Mat. 16:28; Fil. 3:20) perdem seu significado se substituíssemos morte por segunda vinda. Finalmente, a morte é um inimigo, enquanto a vinda de Cristo é a gloriosa esperança. Alguns sustentam que a segunda vinda foi a descida do Espírito no dia de Pentecoste. Outros ensinam que Cristo veio no tempo da destruição de Jerusalém no ano 70 d.C., mas em cada um desses casos não houve ressurreição dos mortos, nem o arrebatamento dos vivos, nem outros eventos preditos que acompanham o segundo advento.

3. O Tempo da sua vinda.

Tentativas houve para determinar os dados da vinda de Cristo, mas em nenhuma delas o Senhor veio na hora marcada pelos homens! Ele requer que o tempo exato de sua vinda está oculto nos conselhos divinos. (Mat. 24: 36-42; Mar. 13:21, 22.) é bom que seja assim.

Quem gostaria de saber com antecedência a hora exata de sua morte? Tal conhecimento teria o efeito de perturbar e inutilizar uma pessoa. Basta que saibamos que a morte pode vir a qualquer instante; portanto, dever trabalhar "enquanto é dia pois a noite vem quando ninguém pode trabalhar". O mesmo raciocínio serve quanto ao fim da presente dispensação. Esse dia também não nos foi revelado, mas sabemos será repentino (1Cor. 15:52; Mat. 24:27) e inesperado (2Ped. 3: 4; Mat. 24: 48-51; Apo. 16:15). O Senhor avisa seus servos: "Negociai até que eu venha"

Damos em seguida uma visão geral do ensino de Cristo sobre o tempo da sua vinda: após a destruição de Jerusalém os serão desterrados entre todas as nações, expulsos de sua terra, a qual passará a ser subjugada pelos gentios até o fim dos tempos, quando Deus julgará as nações gentias (Luc. 21:24). Durante esse período os servos de Cristo levarão sua obra avante (Luc. 19: 11-27) pregando o Evangelho a todas as nações (Mat. 24:14).

Será um tempo de demora durante o qual muitas vezes a igreja será tentada a duvidar do retomo do seu Senhor (Luc. 18: 1-8), quando alguns se prepararão e outros se tornarão negligentes, enquanto o Noivo demorar (Mat. 25: 1-11). Ministros infiéis desviar-se-ão, dizendo consigo mesmos: "O meu Senhor tarda a vir" (Luc. 12:45).

"Muito tempo depois" (Mat. 25:19), "… meia-noite (Mat. 25: 6),‹ a hora e no dia dos quais nenhum dos seus discípulos sabe (Mat. 24:36, 42,50) , o Senhor repentinamente vencido para ajuntar seus servos e julgá-los segundo como suas obras (Mat. 25:19; e 2Cor. 5:10). Mais tarde, depois de ter sido pregado universalmente o Evangelho e após o mundo havê-lo rejeitado, quando o povo estiver vivendo completamente ignorante quanto à catástrofe iminente, como nos dias de Noé (Mat. 24: 37-39) e nos dias da destruição de Sodoma (Luc. 17:28, 29) virá o Filho do homem em glória e poder para julgar as nações do mundo e sobre elas reinar (Mat. 25: 31-46).

4. Sinais de sua vinda.

As Escrituras ensinam que a aparição de Cristo inaugurando a Idade Milenial será precedida por um tempo agitado de transição, no qual haverá distúrbios físicos, guerras, crises preventivas, declínio moral, apostasia religiosa, infidelidade, pânico geral e perplexidade. A última parte desse período transitório chama-se "A Grande Tribulação", durante a qual o mundo inteiro estará sob o domínio governo contra Deus e anticristão. Crentes em Deus serão brutalmente perseguidos, e uma nação judaica, em particular, passará pela fornalha da aflição.

5. O propósito de sua vinda.

(a) Em relação à igreja. Assim chamado ao Dr. Pardington: Assim como a primeira vinda do Senhor se estendeu sobre um período de 30 anos, assim como a segunda vinda influirá em vários eventos. Na primeira vinda ele foi revelado como o Menino de Belém; mais tarde como o Cordeiro de Deus, ao ser batizado, e como o Redentor no Calvário. Na segunda vinda anunciada aos seus secreta e repentinamente para trasladá-los às Bodas do Cordeiro. Essa aparição chama-se o arrebatamento ou "Parousia" (que significa "aparição" ou "presença" ou "chegada" na língua grega). Nessa ocasião os crentes serão julgados para determinar as suas recompensas por serviços prestados (Mat. 25: 14-30). Após o arrebatamento, segue-se um período de terrível tribulação, que terminará na revelação, ou manifestação aberta de

Cristo proveniente do céu, quando ele estabelecer seu reino messiânico sobre a terra.

(b) Em relação a Israel. Aquele que é a Cabeça e Salvador da igreja, do povo do céu, é também o prometido Messias de Israel, do povo terrestre. Como Messias, ele libertará esse povo da tribulação, congregá-lo-á dos quatro cantos da terra, restaurá-lo-á na sua antiga terra e sobre ele reinará como seu, há muito prometido, Rei sobre a Casa de Davi.

(c) Em relação ao anticristo. O espírito do anticristo já está no mundo (1João 4: 3; 2:18; 2:22), mas ainda virá outro anticristo final (2Ts. 2: 3). Nos últimos dias ele se levantará o velho mundo (Apo. 13: 1) e tornar-se-á o sóbrio sobre um Império Romano ressuscitado que dominará todo o mundo. Assumirá grande poder político (Dn 7: 8, 25), comercial (Dn 8:25; Apo. 13:16, 17) e religioso (Apo. 17: 1-15). Ele será anti-Deus e anti-Cristo, e perseguirá os cristãos numa tentativa de extinção do Cristianismo. (Dan. 7:25; 8:24; Apo. 13: 7, 15). Sabendo que os homens que desejam ter alguma religião, ele estabelecerá um culto baseado na divindade do homem e na supremacia do Estado.

Como personificação desse Estado, ele exigirá o culto do povo, e formará um sacerdócio para fazer cumprir e promulgar esse culto. (2Tess. 2: 9,10; Apo. 13: 12-15.) O anticristo levará ao extremo a doutrina da supremacia do Estado, a qual ensina que o governo é o supremo poder, em torno do qual tudo, incluindo a própria consciente do homem, tem que estar subordinado. Visto que não existe poder ou lei mais elevados do que o Estado, segundo eles, Deus e sua lei precisam ser abolidos para prestar culto ao Estado. A primeira tentativa para estabelecer o culto ao Estado está registrado em Daniel cap. 3. Nabucodonosor orgulhou-se do poderoso império que edificara. "não é esta a grande Babilônia que eu edifiquei? ..." (Dan. 4:30).

Tão deslumbrado ficou ele diante do poderio e governos humanos, que o Estado para ele se tomou como um deus. Que melhor maneira de impressionar os homens com sua glória, do que ordenar-lhes que o símbolo desse governo fosse venerado! Portanto, ele edificou uma grande imagem dourada e mandou que todos os povos se prostrassem diante dela, sob pena de morte. A imagem não foi a de uma divindade local, mas representava o próprio Estado. Recusar cultuar a imagem era considerado ateísmo ou traição. Ao instituir essa nova religião, Nabucodonosor como que dizia ao povo: "Quem vos deu as belas cidades, as boas estradas, e belos jardins? O Estado! Quem vos provê de alimentos e serviço, quem funda escolas e patrocina templos?

O Estado! Quem vos defende dos inimigos? O Estado! não será então o Estado, esse poderio, um deus? Portanto, que maior deus quereis do que vosso exaltado governo? Prostrai-vos perante o símbolo da grande Babilônia! "E se Deus não o tivesse humilhado do seu orgulho blasfemo (Dan. 4: 28-37), Nabucodonosor talvez tivesse exigido o culto de sua própria pessoa como chefe do Estado. Como os três os filhos hebreus (Dan. 3) foram perseguidos por se recusarem a curvar-se perante a imagem de Nabucodonosor, assim os cristãos do primeiro século sofreram porque se recusaram a render homenagens divinas à imagem de César.

Havia de tolerância todas as religiões no Império Romano, mas sob a condição de que fosse venerada a imagem de César como símbolo do Estado. Os cristãos foram perseguidos, não tanto por sua lealdade a Cristo, mas porque se recusaram a adorar a César e dizer: "César é Senhor." Recusaram-se a cultuar o Estado como deus. A Revolução francesa oferece outro exemplo dessa política. Deus e Cristo foram lançados fora e um deus, ou deusa, se fez do "Pátria". Assim disse um dos lideres: "O Estado é supremo em todas as coisas. Quando o Estado se pronuncia, a igreja não tem nada a dizer." A lealdade ao Estado elevou-se à posição de religião.

A assembléia decretou que em todas as vilas feitas levantados altares com a seguinte inscrição: "O cidadão nasce, vive e morre por La Patrie." Preparou-se um ritual para batismos, casamentos e enterros civis. A religião do Estado possuía seus hinos e orações, seus jejuns e festas. O Novo Testamento reconhecido o governo humano como divinamente ordenado para a manutenção da ordem e da justiça. O cristão, por conseguinte, deve lealdade à sua pátria.

Tanto a igreja como o estado têm sua parte no programa divino, e cada qual deve limitar-se a sua esfera. Deus deve receber o que pertence, e César deve receber o que pertence. Mas acontece que muitas vezes César exige as coisas que são de Deus, atualizando a igreja, muito contra sua vontade, entra em choque com o governo. As Escrituras prevêem que esses conflitos futuramente chegarão ao seu ponto máximo. A última civilização será anti-Deus, e o anticristo, seu chefe, o ditador mundial, tornará as leis desse superestado supremas sobre todas as demais leis ", e exigirá o culto à sua pessoa como a personificação do Estado. As primeiras Escrituras predizem uma vitória de Deus e que sobre as ruínas do império mundial "anticristão, ele levantará seu reino no qual Deus é supremo - o Reino de Deus. (Dan. 2:34, 35, 44; Apo. 11:15; 19: 11-21.)

(d) Em relação às nações. As nações serão julgadas, os reinos do mundo destruídos, e todos os povos estão sujeitos ao Rei dos reis. (Dan. 2:44; Miq. 4: 1; Isa. 49:22, 23; Jer. 23: 5; Luc. 1:32; Zac. 14: 9; Isa. 24:23; Apo. 11:15 .) Cristo regerá as nações com vara de ferro; tirará toda a opressão e injustiça da terra e inaugurará a Idade áurea de mil anos. (Sal. 2: 7-9; 72; Isa. 11: 1-9; Apo. 20: 6.) "Depois virá o fim, quando houver entregado o reino a Deus, o Pai, e quando houver aniquilado todo o império , e toda potestade e força "(1 Cor. 15:24).

Há três estágios na obra de Cristo como Mediador: Sua obra como Profeta, cumprida durante seu ministério terrestre; sua obra como Sacerdote, começada na cruz e continuada durante a dispensação atual; e sua obra como Rei, começando com sua vinda e continuando durante o Milênio. Depois do milênio ter cumprido sua obra de unir a humanidade a Deus, de forma que os habitantes do céu e da terra formem uma só grande família onde Deus será tudo e estará em todos. (Efés. 1:10; 3:14, 15.)

Contudo, Cristo continuará a reinar como o Deus-homem, e compartilhar do governo divino, pois "o seu reino não terá fim" (Luc. 1:33).

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petrichorparacosm · 4 years ago

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A Conspiracy Theorist’s Take On Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories

So, I am a lifelong Conspiracy Theorist. However, I am part of the often forgot about majority of theorists who don’t base their theories purely on internet hearsay and bigotry. Let’s talk COVID- 19, without that nonsense clouding the truth.

This post is U.S. centric.

I. Origins

I think that the virology lab in Wuhan had something to do with it, just because of how highly suspicious the location of the initial outbreak is. There are a few different possibilities:

a) it was a bio weapon in the later stages of development and was accidentally released;

b) it was a bio weapon in the early stages of development and its release was accidental or meant to be a test but got wildly out of hand;

c) it wasn’t a bio weapon but scientific negligence is what led to the initial outbreak;

d) it’s part of a bigger plan. We’ll get to that theory later

COVID- 19 is highly contagious and has produced several potent mutations, but the death rate is low. This supports either the non- bio weapon or early- stage bio weapon theory: if this was a late stage- bio weapon or an intention release of one, the death rate would be higher. I also don’t think that China would have intentionally released the virus in Wuhan, as this has garnered suspicion and negative attention. It would have made more sense to release it elsewhere, which is why I think it was either accidental or premature.

II. Masks

Three coexisting facts:

1. If the virus came from China, then the American government + corporate powers probably didn’t have a (direct) hand in it;

2. This doesn’t mean that the government + corporate powers aren’t taking advantage of the situation (they definitely are);

3. There is a historical precedent for wearing masks in public and avoiding gatherings during pandemics and epidemics (e.g., the Spanish Flu).

Masks are a conventional, reasonable strategy for avoiding affection. Whether there are organizations using mask mandates for their own purposes is an entirely separate matter, and should be treated as such.

Also, the theory that masks are step one in trying to force Islamic dress codes on us is an example of blatant misinformation used to distract from actual conspiracies + hate mongering used to divide us (the masses). I could give a lot of rebuttals to this bout of Islamophobic nonsense, but I’ll say this: If the malevolent powers that be in this country were, for some reason, interested in forcing Islamic dress codes upon us, our faces would not be their first concern. It would be our midriffs, arms, and legs, then head coverings. Face coverings are far from universal among Islamic communities.

III. Vaccines

This is where stuff gets more complicated. There are a lot of concerns and theories over the vaccine, some of which are more valid than others. There is, of course, the pre- pandemic anti- vaccination movement, which warrants its own discussion. As someone who acknowledges the science behind vaccines in general as sound, I approach this debate with the question “is there anything risky or nefarious about any of the vaccines?”

The most prevalent concerns tend to be :

A) the vaccines were rushed in production and testing and may be unsafe;

B) the vaccines contain a microchip to track us/influence our behavior;

C) the vaccines are designed to reduce or eliminate fertility (especially in women).

Unfortunately, A has no easy answer. The CDC has recently released data that suggests that the vaccine has a higher casualty rate than any other vaccine in the past 20 years, but this still only accounts for 2% of covid related death. To simplify: the COVID-19 vaccines have a high death rate for a vaccine, but a much lower death rate than actual COVID-19.

Of course, it doesn’t help that there’s no real way to verify these numbers, and many news sources either a) refuse to look in to it or b) staunchly believe that COVID was created for the sole purpose of making their lord and savior, Trump, look bad.

Regardless, waiting to get vaccinated is an understandable course of action even if, statistically, getting vaccinated reduces total risk.

Let’s track the history of B: the head of the Russian Communist party and a former Donald Trump advisor support the theory that the vaccines contain microchips to track the movement of the vaccinated, track who has been vaccinated, and possibly influence behavior.

Also feeding the theory is the fact that Bill Gates wanted to give the vaccinated “digital certificates” to identify themselves, and was at one point playing with the idea of injecting people with a “special ink” to make an “invisible tattoo” that would be used to identify the vaccinated without the use of records.

I trust none of these individuals, as each have their own agendas. What makes me skeptical of this theory is that the U.S. government + the corporate powers already track all of us through cell phones and security cameras (fun fact: the U.S. has more surveillance cameras per person than China).

When I took the vaccine out of necessity, I took meticulous notes before and afterwards, documenting my thoughts, opinions, and patterns of behavior. I have not noted any changes.

Finally, C. This one is difficult to prove or disprove, because

1) most people who get vaccinated aren’t going to immediately start actively trying to have babies;

2) fertility rates have been steadily declining for decades;

3) although changes in menstration have been reported after vaccination, the vast majority experienced this as a short term side effect only (I.e, their cycles went back to normal). I had no change in my cycle, nor did my mother.

I will say that I’m not interested in ever giving birth, which is one reason I’m not worried about this- I’m much more inclined to worry about current humans that theoretical future humans.

Now, one thing to note is that reducing the population so drastically is a counterintuitive move for the elites. Less workers = each individual worker is, statistically, less disposable. Less consumers = less consumption.

The only way this theory could be true and make sense is if it’s just the lead up to something else, like lab- based, expensive reproduction to mostly avoid the above, kill off the “undesirables,” and put people in debt whenever they want kids, functionally putting them further under corporate control.

If this was the plan, than the Global Powers That Be (assuming that this was the result of collusion and not China’s attempt at a bio weapon) definitely weren’t ready yet: that kind of technology is available, but not nearly efficient or cost- effective for them to avoid the worker- shortage pitfall yet. Just look at how corporate America has nearly buckled under its own weight at the current shortage of minimum wage workers!

TLDR; the vaccine came from the Wuhan lab and was either a prematurely released bio weapon, the result of epidemiological negligence, or the lead up to some grand conspiracy to control human reproduction, which would be a stupid move on the part of the government- corporate- military complex, and would have required global cooperation and coordination.

Sources/references:

#covid #covid 19 #covid vaccine #vaccines #masks #fertility #surveilance #bill gates #conspiracy #conspiracy theories #long post #us #politics

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the-lady-writes-what · 4 years ago

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Update on Fox Gods’ Wife

Before I pass out in bed, I managed to plot out the first three chapters of the new fic. In all likelihood, it’ll be posted on my AO3 account but I’ll post previews and teasers with official links. For projects like this, I feel like they’re too long for Tumblr and for multiple chapter works I tend to run 4000-5000+ per chapter as the minimum. If I hit my groove, I can pump out between 6000-8000+ for one chapter. I feel like that is too long for a Tumblr post. Below are the chapters I came up with. The way I plot everything is using astrology and tarot cards because I’ve always hated those maps they give out in English classes. This is a weird system I came up with that happens to work for me. If you have any questions about it or want to try it yourself, you’re more than welcome to ask me. I’m not a professional tarot card reader, but the divination aspects of tarot isn’t what I use for my writing craft anyway.

Chapter 1

1. The Moon: intuition, illusion, fear, subconscious, the unconscious, mystery, secrets, psychic work, imagination, falsehood, deception/deceptive people in one’s life; Masae is caught in a daydream during her break. She returns to work and gets a vague from her boyfriend. She faces a subconscious fear that Neito is somehow lying to her, but she can’t pinpoint it. As she leaves work, Masae runs into harmless spirits that she feeds her leftovers. When she finally arrives home, there is no there to greet her.

2. Two of Cups, reversed: imbalance, disconnection, unworthiness, struggle, quarrels and misunderstandings, love not returned, a secret liaison, disharmony, cooling affection; Masae’s boyfriend eventually comes home. Neito complains about having to get dinner himself while gaslighting Masae about not texting him about what to get supper. Masae makes a weak apology (even though she doesn’t need to). Neito seemingly tries to make up his attitude earlier by flirting with her. While making love, Masae notices something odd about Neito’s behavior in the bedroom but brushes it aside.

3. King of Pentacles: power, influence, abundance, security, material success, pragmatism, a steady, methodical, and reliable man, an older established man, businessman; The next day at work, Masae is struggling to focus on work. Her boss comes around to scold her for not doing her work properly, even though she is. Masae bites her tongue and returns to work discouraged.

4. The Fool, reversed: carelessness, negligence, uncertainty, apathy, restlessness and boredom, the need for a new beginning, folly; Masae returns home from work again. This time she finds that Neito is home before her. He makes a barely believable story and gaslights her. Masae finds an earring in the bedroom, but doesn’t recognize it. She shrugs it off and puts it in her jewelry box.

5. High Priestess: the subconscious, wisdom, serenity, intuition, emotions, feminine power, spirituality, inner power, the influence of women, hidden influences at work, mysteries and secrets; Masae is visited by her Aunt Emi when Neito leaves a brief business trip. Emi is a shaman of sorts and understands Masae’s secret abilities to see spirits and ghosts. Emi is convinced that there is negative energy in the home Masae shares with Neito. Masae eventually tells Emi that she’s been feeling weird, off-putting vibes from Neito and tells her about the earring she found on the bedroom floor. Their conversation is cut off by Neito. Emi leaves reluctantly. Neito chides Masae for relying on her “crazy aunt” for advice. “Thank goodness you’re not blood related. I wouldn’t want it spreading through the gene pool. You don’t honestly believe in spirits and all that nonsense do you, Masae?” Wanting to please him, she quickly denies it. Masae lies in bed, unable to sleep.

Chapter 2

1. The Hanged Man: sacrifice, release, new perspective, surrender, letting go, seeing things from a different perspective, suspension, detachment from the material, meditation; Masae is stuck. She begins to become paranoid about Neito and her feelings towards him. She slowly begins to suspect him of something and it becomes more obvious that he’s hiding an affair behind her back. When she confronts him about it, Neito is quick to gaslight her and lie through his teeth. He makes her feel bad for even suggesting he’s cheating on her. Even after listening to him, Masae still can’t help but trust her gut feeling that he’s cheating on her. Masae slips into a depression and can’t seem to enjoy her books and manga anymore.

2. Nine of Wands, reversed: failure, defensiveness, hesitation, paranoia, cut your losses, existing partnership has lost its glow, spite; Masae comes home to find Neito with a female guest in their home. She feels jealous, but doesn’t make a show of it while the other woman is there. Neito’s guest seems oblivious Masae’s discomfort. Once she leaves, Neito chides Masae for not letting him know when she was coming home. They have a fight and Masae stays with her aunt instead of sharing her bed with Neito.

3. Six of Pentacles: generosity, charity, empathy, kindness, give and take, cooperation, gifts and awards; Masae comes to her Aunt Emi weighed down by fear and anxiety. She explains that she just had a fight with Neito and asks if she could stay a while. Naturally, Aunt Emi is more than happy to take her in for as long as it takes. Almost a week later, Neito arrives at the door with flowers and well-worded apology. He seemingly apologizes for his actions, however he does all of this while Aunt Emi is away and can’t warn Masae about Neito’s subtle gaslighting. Masae is so used to it, that she doesn’t notice it and takes him back.

4. The Star: renewal, hope, serenity, clarity, happiness, light at the end of the tunnel; Neito becomes sweeter than before as if to mask something. Masae begins to have her suspcions again, but is willing to give him a second chance. In a matter of days, Neito is still sickly-sweet to Masae, although by now she doesn’t notice the subtle deceipt. Neito plans a big date night to make up for his previous behavior.

5. The Tower: upheaval, change, awakening, shock, freedom, upsets, destruction of the old system, breakups, conflict and disruptions; Masae gets ready for her date with Neito when she gets a omninous text from her aunt. She tries not to think about it when she goes out with Neito. Everything seems to be going well until dessert. One of Neito’s exes spies them from across the restaurant. She explains that Neito is a chronic cheater and shows Masae pictures of Neito’s social media with the girl she saw at their home. Masae is so upset that she leaves the restaurant in tears.

Chapter Three

1. The Lovers: unification, choices, harmony, relationships, partnerships, the union of opposites, cooperation; In a town called Kitsunemura, located on Awaji Island, a young couple visit a shrine dedicated to a couple of fox gods. They pray for a successful and wonderful marriage. On their way out, the woman mentions how sad the shrine looks these days because it looks so old and run-down. The chapter cuts to Shouta and Hizashi, the fox gods, apparent opposites but also (sometimes) lovers themselves.

2. Four of Cups: meditation, resentment, apathy, discontentment, withdrawal, rest, boredom, lack of inspiration; Shouta looks around at the shrine and sighs. Hizashi is riding the cloud of accomplishment of helping yet another couple before he notices how downcast Shouta now appears. Shouta tells him that the state of the shrine won’t bring in enough people and they’ll be forced to return to Heaven (home of the gods). They can’t simply fix the shrine themselves due to limitations in their powers and drawing too much attention to the shrine (it might frighten more people away if it were to suddenly change overnight). Hizashi suggests going somewhere to alleviate their boredom. Shouta takes another look around the shrine and reluctantly agrees with the plan.

3. Seven of Cups: illusion, imagination, unrealistic desires, possibility, fantasy, dreams; Hizashi and Shouta go to the Spirit World (the go-between world of gods, spirits, and ghosts). They go to the Gods’ Quarter where they go to an inn to drink away their boredom. While they’re entertained, Hizashi senses one of their few devotees asking for help. He’s wasted and doesn’t think much of it. He drunkenly tells Shouta, but they both end up in a stupor and fall asleep together.

4. Eight of Pentacles: creativity, concentration, craftsmanship, focus, skill, work, determination; Hizashi wakes up with a hang-over only to discover that he’s back home. Shouta had carried him back home, but awoken early to see if there was something he could do for the shrine. Hizashi finds him at work reviving some of the plants and trees, however it has little effect as the shrine’s general appearance does not seem to improve or be able to attract more devotees.

5. The Star: renewal, hope, serenity, clarity, happiness, light at the end of the tunnel; Shouta and Hizashi sit up to watch the night sky after expending so much spiritual energy trying to fix their own shrine. Hizashi snuggles up to Shouta and holds him. Shouta notices some stars falling out of the sky and recalls the “mortal tradition” of making a wish on a falling star. Shouta doesn’t bother exploring the tradition, but Hizashi wishes that their bosses would send someone to help them save the shrine and keep them on earth.

#more writing stuff #OC #plotting #fox god AU #Fox Gods' WIfe #my hero academia fanfiction #slow burn

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