#I have a lot of thoughts about hell

[medusas-rockin-tits]

Man sometimes I think about the demons and Hell and how they’re kinda allegorically a group of neglected kids living in a run down house and having to look after each other

Their clothes don’t fit right, they’re always grimy, the lights don’t always work, everything leaks (and they don’t know how to fix it), there’s no technology, they don’t know how to write, etc

Like it’s not exactly 1:1 but it’s very symbolic of a very very dysfunctional household, in a very different way from Heaven

[heartorbit]

happy halloween! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻🐇

[technically-human]

Part two of the reverse verse is here! The reverse boys meet the original boys. They're not really getting along as well as I had hoped...

Again, this was a commission for @i-am-as-normal-as-you-are and they asked for angst/funny vibes... I think it's mostly just angst though. Oh, well...

Part one

[allastoredeer]

Ya'll want to know the funniest shit?

I'm researching the era when Alastor was alive right now to get a better idea of both his character, the life he lived before Hell, and to hash out a backstory for him.

And so, apparently, Alastor lived through the Prohibition (which was basically the United States government illegalizing the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol because they thought it was the cause of a lot of domestic violence and child abandonment).

Alastor canonically died in 1933.

Do you know how long the Prohibition lasted?

From 1920-1933.

ALASTOR LITERALLY DIED THE SAME YEAR ALCOHOL BECAME LEGAL AGAIN. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW BITTER HE MUST'VE BEEN?

The Prohibition officially ended on December 5, 1933, and now my headcanon is that Alastor died December 6, 1933. Literally the day after he could legally drink all the booze he wanted.

I am learning a LOT about New Orleans and the era Alastor lived through (including the gay community in the city at the time) which has been a lot of fun, and I just wanted to share that tidbit because it is so fucking funny to me.

[transrevolutions]

While overall I felt like the tbosas movie was well done, there's one part that really bothered me. When Sejanus gets involved with the rebels in the book, he's fully on board, stealing them ammo and weapons from the base, and planning to hold guards at gunpoint to free the prisoners. In the movie, however, he just wants to run away and then is surprised and upset by the fact that the rebels were planning an act of violence.

This doesn't seem like a major change, but from a political standpoint (as tbosas is a very political book), it's a big one and one I very much do not like.

In the text, Sejanus plays the role of the moral compass. Whereas both Coriolanus and Lucy Gray having complex and subjective motivations, Sejanus is always driven by wanting to do the right thing, even if it costs him. He acts as a baseline, keeping the readers from getting lost in endless loops of justification for atrocities just because Coriolanus's internal narration is rhetorically persuasive.

So when Sejanus (who up until this point has been relatively pacifist) joins up with the rebels in the book and agrees to participate in an act of revolutionary violence, the text is pointing out that that act of rebellion is morally permissible. That even violence against the oppressor class can be an altruistic action. Sejanus planning to fight the guards with the rebels is not a sign of his corruption, it's a sign of the fact that his society has become so corrupt that not doing it would be morally worse than doing it. After all, someone's going to die either way, so why not have it be the oppressors?

If movie!Sejanus is still occupying the role of the moral compass (which he seems to be), then his dismay at the possibility of the rebels using violence acts as a narrative condemnation of the violence, when the opposite is true in the book. The movie tries to make a distinction between the "good" dissenters (pacifist, nonviolent, morally superior) and the "bad" dissenters (violent radicals/terrorists). In the current political climate, this idea and narrative is extremely unsettling. And I'm disappointed they did this, but not surprised. Like the other Hunger Games movies, it was produced by a large media company, and they can't follow the satire of the book too closely lest people realize the fundamental irony of it. People in positions of power do not want to tell a story where violent activism is portrayed as moral--at least when it's against a society that obviously mirrors our own. (The brutalist architecture style is another complaint that I have, but that can be discussed in another post.)

Changing that seemingly small detail about Sejanus's involvement with the rebels doesn't do much to change the continuity of the storyline, but it does a lot to change the underlying message of his character and the story. This was almost certainly intentional, because the same sort of thing was done in the original trilogy movies as well. Companies are scared of subversive media because it makes them look like the 'bad guys' too, so they wrap rebellion in a lens of fantasy and moderatism.

[alliekitaguchi]

do you ever think about the fact that essek is probably a million times nicer to verin now than he ever was before?? and that verin, for the first time, gets the really meet his brother???

do you think about the fact that the cold mantle of the shadowhand is gone and withered, replaced by the warmth of the nein and caleb's love, and verin, for the first time in his life, gets to have a real relationship with his big brother that's not a facsimile of den politics or social standards??

the scene where verin and essek (in disguise) meet with vox machina is SO important, because essek--the former shadowhand to the bright queen, traitor to the entire dynasty, fugitive to two nations--smacks his brother on the arm and chides him for being embarrassing in front of people of high station. he doesn't try to hide himself AT ALL. he's just... open. warm. at peace.

there's no more cold smiles, there's no more polite aloofness, no more haughty attitude or snide remarks... essek's just a big brother again. a big brother whose little brother came to work with him one day, walked up to the president of the country and asked her to sign his pamphlet with a shit-eating grin, while essek tried not to burst a blood vessel in the corner.

no matter what verin's opinions are on the dynasty and the beacons and essek's crimes, i'm willing to bet that there was a part of him that wouldn't have changed a goddamn thing. because without essek having stolen the beacons and handing them over to the empire, and without him meeting the nein, verin would've never gotten the chance to have his brother back.

[katabay]

”—ah. seems like mother goose has been playing around in your egg salad. if you won’t dance to that tune, I got others.”

honestly, the would you kindly scene is whatever to me*, code yellow is the more interesting violation/betrayal of the body because of how beautifully it escalates the Fontaine reveal/betrayal and shows how ugly some of those ‘locks and keys’ that Tenenbaum mentions are. not only have you been a tool in another man’s hand this entire time, it goes deeper. your body is not your own.

*there used to be a meandering thought here about the would you kindly scene, but it was really just talking around the fact that I spent way too many years seeing people discuss it in the most insufferable and reductive ways possible when it’s a combination of three or four other things that make that moment compelling lmao

collage credits: heart one/heart two

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / tip jar!

[thealatvs]

no more mirrors (the beginning of dante’s nightmares)

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Does

Does Barnaby

Does Barnaby tell the others to get off his lawn when he's angry

psh, who do you think he is, an old man? he'd Bark, like any lively young dog

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Track list for Fig and the Cig Figs independently published Junior Year album (officially named “Infaethable”)

Teenage Rebellion

Night Yorb (a heavy metal banger)

Summer Scaries

Devils Nectar

Time Quangle (a love song about Ayda)

Multiclass (Gorgug sings on this!)

The Ballad Of Lucy Frostblade (Kristen was the one who convinced Fig to write this)

So Late, So Tactical

Do You Have A Fucking Warrant

Cassandra (Can You Hear Me)

Hall Of Mirrors

President Applebees (written entirely in the night after Kristen gets elected by a drunk Fig with extremely drunk notes by Kristen)

Raging For Love (inspired by Gorgug, of course)

The Elven Oracle (Has A Day Job) (So Stop Bothering Her)

Maximum Legend

Fury Of The Ball

Cursed

Infaethable

The Bad Kids

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Eddie diaz isn’t going to actually move to Texas - oh he’ll probably get close - but he won’t actually go - because it’s running away again - which is what Eddie does when he’s faced with something life changing.

He ran to Shannon to escape his parents (especially his mom)

Then he ran to the army when Shannon got pregnant

Then he ran to the army once again when Chris was diagnosed

Then he ran to LA to escape his parents once more

Then he ran back to Shannon

Then he ran from his grief

He ran from his trauma

Ran from the 118

Ran from his feelings

And now he’s running again - he thinks he’s running towards Chris but he’s actually running away from himself - from joy and freedom - because he thinks it’s the only way to get Chris back - to go back to living under the toxic cloud that is his parents - to go back to being made to feel like a failure (because Helena is going to say I told you so at the first opportunity!)

Eddie is watching Chris and seeing him get the childhood with his parents he never had - one where he was loved and supported and allowed to be a child. Only that’s Eddie’s perspective and Eddie (like Buck) is a flawed narrator of his own life - Chris isn’t actually happy he’s basically getting the same treatment Eddie got from Helen and Ramon - he’s being stiffled - suffocated and he is not being given the right support - the support to work through his trauma and not let it fester.

But Eddie only sees Chris being taught chess by the man who was absent from Eddie’s own childhood, Chris being able to be involved in clubs and tournaments and getting to make friends and be a child.

Eddie doesn’t see that he was already providing all of that for Chris am more - providing him with the love and support and tools to deal with what life throws at him.

Eddie wants in on what he was already doing and doing much better so he’s going to probably go to Texas for a bit and open the dialoge and then reload moving back to Texas just keeps the cycle going (Eddie’s own version of the hamster wheel) and it would reinforce to Chris that running is the answer. That being unhappy is the answer

Ultimately Eddie needs to realise that he can fight to get Chris back without sacrificing all he has been working towards - without sacrificing all the progress he has made. That actually making the first move doesn’t mean abandoning the life he has been building for himself and his son.

Because Chris isn’t actually happy - he’s miserable and he wants his dad - he just isn’t able to admit that yet but they’re going to get to a point where he is - because Eddie has been doing the right things and they will have a conversation in Texas that will bring them both home to LA ;and Buck) and the family they have built.

[royalarchivist]

[A sad violin song plays over an image of a sad hamster]

Pac: This doesn't have anything to do with me – I wear a blue sweatshirt, you're crazy, this mouse doesn't even have a sweatshirt, this hamster! [Reading chat] Am I a depressed hamster?

[ Transcript continued ↓ ]*

–

Pac: Actually– that's fine! I embrace that idea – of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy? [He hits his desk, then starts counting off people on his fingers] Fit is gone, Richarlyson is gone, Ramon is gone, Bagi and Empanada who were always there when we were there are also gone, I haven't seen them! It's just me and Tubbo, and sometimes Philza shows up.

Pac: I lost Chume Labs, I lost the Favela, I lost Murder Mystery, I lost Ilha Chume Labs, it's crazy! Look at how much I've lost, and I've gained nothing! Of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy?! How am I supposed to be happy?!

Pac: [Reading chat] "You have us Pac," that's true, thank you. No, that's true, sorry.

* NOTE: Please note that this is an incomplete transcript, as I was primarily relying on Aypierre's translation mod at the time and if I am not confident of the translation, I do not include it. As always, please feel free to add on translations or message me corrections.

[humans-are-tasty]

[ssomepersonn]

many thoughts about these guys

[allastoredeer]

I've been thinking about the fact that of the two fallen Angels we see, Lucifer and Vaggie, neither really 'fell' - they were PUSHED. I.E, they were forced out. So what if there was an angel who wasn't forced out, but left of their own free will - and what if it was Alastor? If we go by Heaven thinking that yearly genocide is not just fine but GOOD, and the headcanon that Alastor chose his victims among rapists and child abusers and racists and so one like the butcher from the comic, what if when Alastor died he went to heaven, because heaven considered him killing those people not just not a sin, but a GOOD THING? Alastor thinks this is nonsense. He thinks heaven is awful and dull. So he says hi to his mother, maybe gives her a radio or something so they can keep in touch, and then goes down to hell. It's why he was so powerful as a newly born demon - he was actually an angel in disguise. Imagine when he's fighting Adam and his Microphone breaks - and so he just breaks out the wings and holy blasts Adam right back in his smug face.

Adam: What?

Vox: WHAT?

Lucifer: WHAT?!!!!!

(And imagine an appleradio relationship happening and Lucifer getting to be with another angel. Mutual wing preening! Alastor facing the fact that while he's a very powerful angel, Lucifer was the most powerful of the Seraphim, and still outclasses him! Alastor ending up moaning face down on a bed with his wings spread and his tail up, presenting for demon form Lucifer...)

Undercover Angel AU - Part 1

Part 2 ->

I have more pages for this, but I decided to split it up into parts because coloring takes a long time (who'da thunk?) so expect more in the future.

Also, @kitsunesongs, I see that last bit. I SEE it, and you better fucking believe that I'm going to draw that scene. Expect it. I don't draw smut often, but that is too good to pass up.

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

Sometimes i lay thinking about them