We should totally have more jl fics where someone is acting ooc and immediately everyone is trying to determine whether they're an imposter or brainwashed or possessed without making it obvious.
Like, a running joke on the tower. Batman makes a sarcastic joke and flash immediately asks him to blink twice if he's under mind control.
Someone starting a sentence with 'Not to be possessed but -'
People calling off sick by saying 'if I come in today that's not me and you should arrest them' and then dragging themselves in to pick up something they accidentally left and everyone takes the mick by saying stuff like 'this isn't you! I believe in you, you can fight this!' when they're grabbing a hoodie from a chair like har har.
Superhero community slang just in general slipping into their civilian lives. Clark says 'before I start I assure you I have not had my will superseded by mister mind' as an ice breaker at a presentation and gets weird and worried looks all night.
It actually ends up helping on several occasions because it's so very very hard to infiltrate an extremely high risk team and then respond in kind without missing a beat when people casually accuse you of being an imposter because you didn't hold your pen the way you normally do. It'd wreck any controlling consciousness' self esteem XD. They've made several shapeshifters cry.
Also the exasperated sighs when you make a suggestion you normally wouldn't and everyone starts squinting at you looking for anything out of the ordinary.
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the thing is, like, imogen is blunt, and indecisive, and impulsive. she's cynical, angry at the world, and seemingly much less interested in doing good than in holding on to her loved ones. she's hypocritical, incredibly violent one moment and horrified at the prospect the next. she's passive aggressive, on occasion. she's overly critical. she's scatterbrained.
and all of that stuff is very fucking fascinating, and so fun to watch, and core to what makes her her. but not only are those things not the totality of imogen as a character, they're very much inextricable from the things that make her sympathetic.
imogen has spent much of the last decade of her life in pain, and isolated because of it. when she wasn't alone she couldn't relax, having to keep tight control over her mind so as to not get overwhelmed or invade the privacy of others. because even through all that pain and loneliness, she still bore the responsibility not to impose on other people's minds. and when she fails or slips up or gives in, all of the distrust and suspicion she recieves regardless is suddenly viewed as justified.
which is not to say imogen is not responsible for her actions, or the harm she causes others. of course she is! no one is saying she isn't! but, just like literally every other person, her actions don't exist in a void but within the context of both her past and present.
analyzing that context and coming up with explanations of her behavior that consider it is not excusing her actions or refusing to acknowledge her flaws. it is not coddling imogen to sympathize with her even when she's fucking up. these are pretty standard ways to discuss a character you enjoy actually! it's weird that having a nuanced perspective on a character's actions is being treated as an issue!
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i JUST realized this might be related to one of my other friends in the mvk fandom suddenly hardblocking me so uh
hey y'all! if you frequent the mvk tag, there is a regular blogger there who i will not name, but who has some sort of pathological attachment/obsession with me. they and i were tumblr mutuals but we were not close. we DM'd twice and had scattered interactions here and there.
they are accusing me of:
being abusive toward them
being otherwise cruel to them
being ableist against disabled folks who are high-support???
sending suibait/having my friends send suibait
probably other things.
EDIT: someone's informed me they're accusing me of posting private stuff from their vent account? the only account i know of theirs is the one we were mutuals on
i can't stress enough that none of this is true. there is no proof of it and if you press this person they will have none. all that happened was some time about a year ago when we were mutuals, i feared they might be vagueblogging about me when i was having depressive episodes and i sent them this message about it:
i was being honest here, but they then turned around and said i was spot on--they were vagueblogging about how badly they wanted me to shut the fuck up, stop whining, etc (paraphrasing, but that was the vibe exactly) every time i needed social support. they have since deleted their message admitting to this. i am so sorry i cannot prove it.
since then multiple mutual friends of ours have unfollowed them because they squat on ym blog and, again, pathologically blog about me. they revel and make posts about "justice" and "karma" whenever i am upset on here. they scream and yell and cry whenever i am happy. they have admitted to wanting to convince their mutuals to abandon me:
again, i can't prove this is about me but i have a lot of testimonials from people who noticed this being in both our circles and can vouch for it. initially i was just going to roll my eyes and move on but i think they might be telling other people i'm some horrible fucking abuser who mistreated them when i wasn't even close enough to them to do so.
anyways, sorry to everyone who tracks the tag! i don't know how to prove that i didn't hurt this person. but... like... if they approach you, please do your best to use best judgement and consider the facts in front of you.
again, i will not be naming them. this is not a callout post. this is a preventative measure, because i am a traumatized wreck and i really cannot deal with things of this nature.
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Classification of ghosts and spirits is complicated, a fact further complicated by the fact that no attempt at comprehensive ghostly cladistics ever spreads very far. Sure, most people could tell you that poltergeists are more physically violent than other ghosts, but anything more than that? No chance.
(This is further complicated by the fact that "poltergeist" is a nonsense term to actual ghosts. They have their own system and, needless to say, it little resembles anything the living come up with.)
There is a cult in San Francisco trying to summon something called a "bridge spirit" and the Teen Titans are pretty sure that doesn't mean a spirit that is connected to a literal bridge. They only have guesses for the cult's purpose, though. The group is surprisingly cagey about their goals.
Despite Vlad's affectation to the contrary, none of the halfas know much about what they are or how they work. They definitely don't expect people to be able to summon them.
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How did it feel for Gabriel to fall? His decent into a deep depression over everything that has happened. His slow transformation with all the new growing pains, the loss of his ability to summon light constructs and flight... for him to go through so much pain and yet choosing to let V1 inherit his light. Does he feel ANY regret at all in his choice there?
definitely, gabriel has many complex and varied emotions that surround his fall from what has changed, what he has given up, and what his life looks like now. being fallen is, by design whether purposeful or not, a very miserable state. angels are so wholly defined by their work, by their relation to god, that to be severed from him will naturally make one feel incomplete and comes with predetermined guilt and regret. gabriel has come to understand that the system he worked so hard for was broken - the council, despite believing in the word of god as much as he did, was tyrannical, yet he now wonders if the fault lay in its root or its stars, not those that carried it out necessarily. the council had not really strayed from god, they carried on his will as they interpreted it, and so gabriel sees, logically, morally as he now defines it, that god had been. wrong. he had done harm and so had not been infallible as they believed. yet this was gabriel's world, it's what he believed and what he cleaved to, and beyond that it was the foundation of the entire system the universe operated on. and he had preeminence in it. he was an archangel, beloved in heaven and the one who announced the coming of christ. yes, there are many flaws in retrospect, in the life he had to lead in heaven and what he had to do, but gabriel existed in eternal light and paradise, he carried out some of the highest of god's will. and that's hard to part from, no matter what he's come to realize.
so there are many times gabriel is angry, hateful, despondent and regretful of his choices and what they've come to. gabriel, at least for quite some time, continues to actually be religious, he continues to pray and to practice as he always has but not simply out of routine. he still needs god, still speaks to him and asks him why, asks for comfort, asks still if this was the right thing for him to do. he reads scripture when he can, though it becomes increasingly difficult as he turns into a fully fallen angel - the words begin to blur in his vision, they begin to burn in his throat, they eventually make him so nauseous he can't bear to see them. and it causes a deep, aching rage in him. his comfort is in service and that is stripped of him, it's just hell in a new body and a new life that he can't navigate when he's never even considered an identity apart from heaven. he doesn't know who gabriel is. he doesn't know what he wants. he can't fix anything, so many now dead even in hell and he without anything to offer even if he could. he can't turn back time, he can't right what was done wrong, and he lives now with some constant pain, a deep set cold that could freeze him into place. his halo has crumbled, his wings have withered away so that he can never fly again. it's devastation, it's loss. a loss of everything. part of him, knowing it's not true at all times, prays this is a nightmare he might wake from. his love for v1 is true, his convictions and morals remain, yet this could never be taken graciously.
it's why he descends into a full demonic identity for a time, why, once his transformation is complete, he refuses to adhere to rules or any code of ethics. he is angry to his core, with himself, with v1, with the council and with god. with the whole world. some of it too is in rebellion for how he had to live, but so much of it is to release his pain lest the pressure destroy him from the inside. there must be something salvageable, some identity for him in this, and so he becomes the stereotype of a demon, bloody, crass, ruthless. he does begin to work through it during this phase (surprisingly) but it's not a quick process, and gabriel carries his regret for a long, long time. so much of him is happy in finding who he really is, adores v1 and the life he builds with it in the depths of fraud, yet his soul seems forever rent, at least in part, for what it cost. he begins more to wish not that he had made some other choice or even had stayed ignorant, but wishes instead it had all been different, from the very start. it stays in him like a rot he can't work out, knowing he did right, knowing he has gotten a chance to live as himself, but forever burdened with losing paradise. there is some envy reconnecting with his brothers, particularly irritable at times with michael who should be sharing his place in hell yet remains prince of heaven. and he KNOWS it's ridiculous to feel any jealousy for mike's position, but in the back of his mind....he starts to wonder....if there's any truth in michael's words. did god save him in some way from falling? was gabriel not enough? (ironic really, considering mike is jealous of gabriel for parallel reasoning)
truly, i don't think there is a fully satisfying ending for gabriel's emotions here - he does arrive in a place where he is glad he did what he did, he accepts the burden he took on and believes it was necessary. not only that, but he's glad he was able to open his eyes to what he had done, glad he could love and carve a path no matter how terrible it may seem, and get the chance to do what he can in recompense though it is little. but discontentment remains in some small part of him and he wonders if that's just a part of god's awful design, for a fallen angel to never be happy. but, he supposes, he likewise would never have been happy knowing what he does now and doing nothing about it. he ate the fruit, though not by his own choice, and there is nothing to be done for it. by the time he gives his light over to v1, he has made the most of his peace, though there is something bittersweet in the donation. v1 revives with many of the powers he lost and there is an ache seeing it, but ultimately it's small considering what he's come from and worked through. the light feels like home still when he holds v1, it welcomes him back and it's good to know how in some way it's still his. in fact, i think it heals some little part of him to know the council or even god himself could not truly take his essence from it, and it had been waiting to see him again even after all this time.
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In order to convert more of you to my Chuuya Solar Eclipse Dazai Lunar Eclipse agenda, I have decided to simplify the essay in my mind about it and give you my reasonings 😎
1. First and foremost, in many beliefs, both Solar and Lunar Eclipses have been seen as negative omens or something to fear. Whether representing godly wrath like some interpreted Solar Eclipses to be, the various interpretations of the sun or a figure representing the sun being attacked or eaten during a Solar Eclipse or the various interpretations where a similar interpretation of some kind of creature or animal attacking the Moon hence the blood red color of it. So both the Solar Eclipse and the Lunar Eclipse (or the Blood Moon) have been greatly feared and markers of impending tragedy or calamity of some kind. May I remind you all the sheer amount to which Soukoku are feared as a duo? And how formidable they are? It only stands to make sense that two astronomical phenomenons so feared could represent the two of them.
Even more interesting is the distinction between how Solar and Lunar eclipses are seen as being bad omens, with the Solar Eclipse falling in line more with wrath or godly anger sometimes towards other gods sometimes interpreted towards the people themselves while the Lunar Eclipse is more associated with a more sinister yet less fiery intent behind it and what it represents. The different ways in which they are interpreted definitely serve to match Skk fairly well I think.
2. Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse fits the intensity of Chuuya and Dazai more than comparing them to Sun and Moon ever could. Now given that these eclipses are semi-rare phenomenons, often they are seen as very impactful events whether catching the eyes of people now and building excitement at their arrival, the aforementioned fear surrounding when they’d come around, or the meanings they carry in astrology. They are seen as major times of transformation and change, the ending of eras and the beginning of new ones. This intensity serves Skk as a dynamic so well, much better than Sun and Moon especially with the Sun in dynamics described with it having a more optimistic tint to it that doesn’t really fit either one of them. Even the Moon as represented commonly in the way people describe those kinds of dynamics has a soft spoken(-ish)ness to it that once again, doesn’t really fit either of them.
3. Speaking of the meaning of eclipses in astrology, as I said, Eclipses are viewed as times of transformations and they can bring news of big life events event. It’s a major turning point in some way or another. When it comes to the difference between the kinds of turning points signified by Solar Eclipses vs Lunar Eclipses, we are brought to the difference between something beginning or some ending. Generally, Solar Eclipses are viewed as tending to bring new opportunities and marking new beginnings. Though usually positive in this aspect, a person’s chart will determine if the eclipse is something completely friendly or not. Solar eclipses can also signify relinquishing certain behaviors that stand in the way of ambitions or that contribute to a fear of being powerless and vulnerable. Overall, Solar Eclipses are meant to bring a fresh start and new chapter. If the Solar Eclipse represents the beginning, then the Lunar Eclipse is a marker of the ending. They can represent the climax of cycles (especially emotionally related ones) that have run their course or generally final endings to periods in our life rather than signifying new ones. Given the function of the moon in astrology, Lunar Eclipses tend to be rather emotionally charged.
From here, it feels like there are aspects of the Solar Eclipse where Chuuya can be seen as fitting rather well given the spark of something new and the relation that it has with fear of powerlessness and vulnerability while the Lunar Eclipse works rather fitting with Dazai as it serves a much more as a closing and ending to bring forth moving forward and the sentimental, emotional nature behind it in a way that’s more subdued in nature than its counterpart.
4. There is a similarity in the Eclipses that match them far better than the differences between the Sun and Moon could. Because fundamentally, Soukoku are very similar at their cores when you actually inspect their characters. Though they project outer images into the world of themselves that seem so different they clash and they hold differences in their ideals, they are in fact similar when you peak deep enough. Two sides of the same coin you could say. Or perhaps, two different kinds of the same astronomical event ;D
Hence, that is why both of them being eclipses, just different kinds, feels more in line with them and their dynamic than the stark clear differences between Sun and Moon.
5. If I may add more onto my points, there is something in the way Solar Eclipses are described as beautiful occurrences and yet you cannot stare straight at their beauty lest you risk permanently damaging your eyes, that feels very Chuuya. Something about it feels very much like him, and it feels equally like Dazai to imagine him as a person risking the damage, not caring about all the warnings just to see Chuuya in his true splendor. That feels very much like them.
This is like a bit of a messy ranting post so my apologies for that, but its worth it if I can convince more people to join my bandwagon of Solar Eclipse Chuuya and Lunar Eclipse Dazai >:D
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