#I too am obsessed with Eliot

[adreamthatsworthkeeping]

ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU WHOEVER I AM FOLLOWING WHO STARTED POSTING ABOUT LEVERAGE. YOU CONVINCED ME TO FINALLY START WATCHING AND IT IS THE GREATEST THING EVER.

[werewolfsmile]

Giving Parker and Sophie some love!

Bonus: Hardison being pathetic.

[yardsards]

i have no room to insult people's food preferences because i HAVE drank condiments for enjoyment on multiple occasions

[riverofrainbows]

Eliot Spencer. Listen to me i am obsessed with the man. He is so incredibly stereotypically masculine, and hardcore so, yet at the same time really isn't in ways that would be damning for the 2000s and early 2010s. Long hair, not unusually tall, the most emotionally aware one and most in tune with his emotions on the whole team. (Not that the others don't also have points in that area, but they're all terrible at it in some way and Eliot scores by far the most points.) He has a hobby that's not James Bond like (cooking), and he gets to be goofy while being unquestioned as the most badass guy in the room. And yes he makes inappropriate jokes about lesbians and goes all no homo at physical affection from other men, and younger people probably don't find him quite as monumental as i do in terms of masculinity. But his behaviour never reflects those jokes or the no homo, and he was the red blooded american former military guy character on a big network tv show in the year 2009. For which he was a severely mild case. He treats the other characters as people and not stereotypes, in the way the whole show does, and he has long hair he puts up in ponytails and half buns that have his side bangs falling out (you need to understand what big of a deal the manbun was in like 2013, so much so that they had to invent a word). He's emotional and doesn't actually mean his gruffness most of the time, and doesn't thinks himself above certain tasks or people. He wears ridiculous little outfits without putting up a show about his threatened masculinity, and he's the most emotionally intelligent one outside of cons. He wears little jewellery in his hair sometimes, and little braids even (yes braided hair was a no go), he plays guitar and sings earnest love songs not just to try to get laid (love songs would only be permissible in the immediate context of romance), and whenever they have a young woman as a client, that reminds him of home i presume, he works with so much effort and respect for them as the one he's in service to, and respects their opinion strongly. He wears glasses, and reads books and is way too nerdy for an action hero type of the 2010s. He is great with kids, and unironically so (there were multiple big shows and movies about the topic of "men needing to deal with children on their own" with the entire premise of that being ridiculous and them being naturally bad at it). He's the most stereotypically action hero type masculine guy on the show, and he does get strive or posture for power or dominance in their team, is content with a contributing role and trusting on the expertise of the others, and he is not portrayed as the most valuable one or as that behaviour being beneath him. He undresses so he and the woman he's fighting with are on equal ground reading undress. He is shorter than the others and continuously portrayed as the most dangerous one in any room, and height differences afe never deemphasised via cinematography (seriously, to be regarded as sufficiently masculine in western films they either get really tall actors or employ a variety of camera angles and boxes to give that impression. But just think of Eliot in the pilot when rescuing Hardison in the first break in, standing behind the group of security guys who all look way taller than him and more physically impressive with weapons and all. And then Eliot just in a t-shirt with no weapon but himself.) He has long hair (again, mainstream sufficiently masculine guys didn't do that back then, or now if we think of it (not that long at least)).

The show and all it's characters were a goddamn marvel back in 2009, and sadly in many ways still are today, 15 years later.

And he heals my little broken heart regarding gender stereotypes and masculinity, my heart that grew up in the 2000s and has so much difficulty accepting that my gender is valid. Bless him for it.

[glass--beach]

is there any reason why it's called "c" or is just silly because j. c.?

named after the default hard drive on windows & also the programming language

i have issues with memory & as such i am an obsessive archivist of my own life. my data collection is just where a lot of my history exists today & that album came from a time where i’d recovered a lot of pictures and videos etc that i didn’t remember taking.

“a heap of broken jpegs” refers to that too and is based on this bit from ts eliot’s the waste land

[lynrasa]

To Dust You Shall Return: Phantom/Secret

Why is there not more of this? She's basically canonically a halfa.

(I know the answer is because Young Justice is vastly underappreciated. Shh.)

Some notes on Greta Hayes | Secret as a halfa. 

Based on her described power set, she is absolutely a halfa and would fit right in to Danny Phantom without any real adjustment. 

Given the specific variety and format of her powers, she is a halfa almost exactly as OP as Danny. 

The only part of her story that doesn't fit the 'halfa' thing is the simplicity of her death. There doesn't seem to be a portal involved in her death, and Danny doesn't appear to be a psychopomp. That's fairly easy to fix: the tape deck that Billy | Harm used to kill her was chanting a summoning spell / portal opening spell. It's clear that she and / or Billy had some magical ability before their respective deaths, so that might have affected things as well.

Alternatively, Greta was mostly just an extremely powerful ghost until Darkseid (Side note: the fact that Greta called Darkseid Doug Side [and he let her] is not played up nearly enough) returned her to life, at which point she becomes a halfa or maybe some other flavor of undead since she doesn't seem to have access to her powers anymore.

If she is a full halfa and possibly just as a ghost- Greta has a Smoke Core. Also, I like the idea that, like Danny, she has Ancient potential from the beginning. She can literally be the Ancient of Secrets, which would neatly explain both her Core (Smoke and Mirrors) and The Abyss. On the other hand, The Abyss can just be the jacked up version of Danny storing shit in his chest. 

Her Obsession would be her greatest weakness because Greta is basically obsessed with Normality / Life. I like the idea that Obsession loss- Secret starting to give up on the idea of Normality helped lead to her insane jealousy over Robin. She briefly fixated on him from an Obsession point of view- the secondary obsession (which could also fit into the larger obsession- CompAllo) helped shore her up. Also, I generally see Tim as a late-bloomer in the whole Romance thing. He does stuff more because it's expected of him not because he actually feels things. I am also heaadcanoning him as on the younger end of the Young Justice group. I don't know if I'll put Secret on the higher end, but even so, girl puberty generally starts before boy puberty.

Also, Tim is very much a product of CompHet 90s masculinity, honestly as bad as Kon. So he did not grow up reading romances, he did not watch romcoms, etc. Greta did. So she takes it as a love declaration, but Tim was thinking more of emotional support / backup. He meant it; he was sincere, but he doesn't really understand overpromising (he never will). It's part of his problem with Spoiler, too and Jack Drake. Tim's emotional priority is Batman Gotham. In the words of Eliot Spencer "You can't make that promise to more than one person."

I really like the idea that Greta is a halfa and the one Secret eluding her is transforming on her own. First, she can't find the secret to being human, then she can't find the secret to being a ghost. Given Doug Side's involvement, I expect her transformation is paradoxical, something like the moment she stops wanting to be alive she can be returned to life or the moment she stops wanting powers she can be a ghost again? No, that doesn't seem to fit.

Something about the Anti-Life equation though. And she is a psychopomp, she is a portal? The anti-life equation incites a death wish in people right? Or a wish to cause death? Harm may have been an early devotee of the Anti-Life equation, which means it could have been involved in Secret's death. Why did Secret make a good sacrifice for Buzz / for the Anti-Life equation? Was she already a paradox? Someone filled to the brim with vitality, but with a dark / death-seeking place inside them? Or was it about potential? The most life converted to death? Something like that. 

Regardlesss, I really really want to write something with Greta and Danny. Do I want to write them together? I mean, that feels cutesy and too perfect and Mary Sue-ish, but honestly it would be reasonably true to both their characters. Maybe this could be college shenanigans.

Actually, I really like the idea that Greta's 'secret' nature means that her ectoplasm is completely undetectable if she's not in Ghost form. So Danny has no clue that she was ever Secret, was ever a ghost, and they're dating.

At some point Danny comes clean about he was to Greta and she blows up, something on the order of "NO! NO! NO! I GOT AWAY FROM DEATH. IT CAN'T HOLD ME ANYMORE. I WAS FREE!" I think the key word there is 'was'. Her emotional distress forces her back into her ghost form. At which point, she, somewhat understandably, blames Danny and attacks him, "YOU DID THIS TO ME! TURN ME BACK! LET ME GOOOOOO!"

Danny had absolutely no idea that Greta was a halfa before she transformed, and is confused by her apparently out of nowhere halfa transformation, especially the bit where he couldn't sense her until she transformed. He can sense Dan, Ellie, and Vlad. And even Val and Jazz and Sam and Tucker (high level liminals). Also, she's really strong. Like really strong. Like, if she actually knew how to fight other ghosts at all, she'd probably be the most dangerous person he'd faced since [either Pariah Dark or one of the Ancients]. She's only used to fighting the living though and she's busy having a mental breakdown, oh, and there's the bit where Danny is King. So, he's able to soup her and take her to Frostbite, since he's really worried about her. [Also, ship name is now Dry Ice]. Absolutely going for Ghost Emote Communication, so the entire time, Danny is apologizing to her in Ghost. 

Shit. I was thinking about playing this for laughs, but now I've accidentally had Danny repeat one of her major traumas. Fuck. Okay, There will be lots of Greta learning about her biology- not her powers, she knows how to use those, she just needs to figure out how to transform. She will not figure it out immediately, but Danny is able to help her transform back by transforming with her. (Very shoujo, I know, whatever, she's a 90's character and by making her a halfa I gave her a magical girl transformation. Also, ectoplasm follows Green lantern rules, so when she first masters transforming on her own, Greta absolutely has a Sailor Moon style transformation sequence, though she gets to skip the pose at the end, and her halfa outfit is always her Young Justice character design.)

Actually, I really like the idea that- while this is a forced to remain in contact scenario- Danny leaves everything for Greta to choose. Also, while he didn't tell the specifics until the start of this story, she did know he wasn't standard human. He was open about that, just not that he was dead instead of meta. When she first transforms out of anger she goes straight to Secret's outfit. The first time she means to transform from human to ghost, she appears "in the outfit she died in". Greta died in the bath, so she's naked. Danny immediately closes his eyes (despite having seen her naked while they were dating- I don't know that they actually had sex- that might have been skinny dipping or an "almost" or just a changing situation [Anita has no body modesty; I suspect this rubbed off on the rest of YJ after they knew Tim's identity].) and talks her through how to change her outfit as a ghost.

At first, her transformations happen due to extreme emotional distress. She's always furious when she finds Danny to help her transform back. She manages to stay out of sight- she's good at stealth, but she hasn't figured out invisibility. Danny earns back a little bit of goodwill by teaching her to go invisible immediately. Especially because Danny does not treat her as stupid for not knowing. He keeps up a running commentary about all the trouble he had when he first encountered his powers and how shit a teacher he is. (This is actually true.) It also helps that he treats invisibility as a basic safety precaution rather than a 'cool power'. So, for future transforms, if she transforms, she immediately goes invisible.

She also appreciates (once she notices) that Danny stopped assuming she was his girlfriend as soon as the fight happened, but did not stop being available for emotional support. She also appreciates that he's never asked about her death. [She didn't get the cultural stuff any more than he did. She doesn't know that asking is severely taboo in ghost culture.] Danny, for his part, desperately wants to give her the culture stuff he didn't get, particularly the stuff that caused him so much trouble, but has noticed Secret's particular aversion to discussing her powers or ghostliness. Jazz or maybe someone else warns him to let Greta set the pace, and he takes the advice. 

Things start to turn around when a Young Justice fight- ooh, no, better. Cissie is taken hostage / kidnapped by a particularly crazed fan. This has happened before. I think her identity is public (need to check), so normally this is solved by Cissie shouting for Kon. Or better, she shouts for Cassie whose identity is also public, but usually Kon shows up. They set this up specifically- lots of people think to shout for Superboy; no one shouts for the Wonders; they're not known to have superhearing.

Except this time: the core four are in space. All of Young Justice is still in a group chat, so Cissie knows shouting won't do her any good and Greta knows that Kon and the rest can't help Cissie when she sees the breaking news alert. She has contact info for the Justice League, but her justified experience as a member of Young Justice is that the Justice League will not listen to them and can not be counted on. She makes a mental note to bug [Red] Robin into giving her the information for the Titans and the Outlaws. Then she hunts Danny down in their human forms so he can switch them to ghost and she can go save Cissie.

She isn't the only Young Justice reservist who shows up. Anita can teleport. Also, Danny follows her, but when he sees Secret and Empress flawlessly fall into fighting together, he wisely decides to stay well out of it, except at one point he turns Cissie intangible to prevent the crazed fan hurting her. Cissie and Anita assume Secret did it (No they don't, but they aren't going to press Greta about it. Headcanon: Young Justice rules of order state that the person gets three strikes or until it reaches WTF level before there's an intervention to demand an explanation. There are levels to acting on a Young Justice league WTF by the way. Level 1) Bart is told. Level 2) Tim is told Level 3) Cassie is told Nuclear option: Tell Kon and ask him to keep it from Tim and Cassie.) 

Once Cissie is free, Anita and Cissie's main concern is figuring out if Secret is dead again. They're really upset about that idea which makes her happy. She assures them it's only sorta and tells them she can change back. She ducks out of sight. Danny helps her change back without a word- he can manage invisibility in human form, but mostly just stays hidden. Cissie and Anita are desperately happy Greta's not dead, but also concerned. They know Greta wasn't really interested in her powers. All she wanted was to be normal.

Greta assures Cissie that Cissie's safety is worth more than Greta's normality. Anita's a little tactless about it, but that's Anita. Greta and Cissie get it; Anita loves heroing and wants to get back to it full time. Anita heads home. Greta ducks back into hiding so Danny can help her transform back, then carries Cissie to the police station. Cissie lies and says she was saved by Superboy and Empress, but they had to rush off to some other disaster. Greta and Danny fly back to campus and Greta quietly and more than a little grudgingly- she doesn't want to forgive him yet- thanks him for helping her save Cissie. She also thanks him for staying out of the way. Danny admits a little about his own vigilante past and they fly back in silence. 

Sometime after Greta has started to figure out transforming on her own, someone on the campus dies. Greta feels the pull towards her duties as psychopomp. When she gets there, Danny is also there, pulled by something he doesn't know to the spot. Greta starts to do the psychopomp thing, but something about her appearance specifically sets the soul off. She sighs and tells Danny to try. Danny does not know what she's talking about.

Uno Reverse Card. Greta hadn't known they were halfas; Danny hadn't known they were psychopomps. He freaks out- less violently- but otherwise a lot like hers. Danny is surprised he's never had to do it before. Much later, they find out he actually has. Greta is a psychopomp for those who will move on, Danny for those who will remain. She is Mercy and Judgement and the End. He is Compassion and Memory and the Beginning. Some souls, like the one on the campus, are undecided, so they both get pulled to them. They don't meet everybody who dies, just those who need a little help.

Also, like with Kathy, sometimes they can lead the person back to Life instead of to Death and the Afterlife. When Greta does this, the result is no more than a little liminal. When Danny does it, it makes undead of some sort or another, or at the very least, high level liminals. This is due to the excess of ectoplasm in Danny and the difference in their roles as Psychopomps- she's Death / The Abyss, he's Afterlife / The Infinite Realms. Or, in their role as dualities, She's Life or else Death he's Life and Death.

I may end up altering their uniforms so she has a ⊻ and he has a ∧ as part of their costumes (Logic symbols: Either Or for her, And for him). Possibly on capes. Maybe capes which only appear when they're being formal. This amuses me immensely, because I'm a dork. Also, I'm adding notes: On his cape, the shape is basically made out of galaxy- matching the representation of the milky way. On hers, it's curls of smoke and / or whitewater. (Because I will absolutely reference Abhorsen whenever I can. Always. Continuously.) 

[ruminiscence]

Paris: A Year Abroad in a short film

Audio: "Burnt Norton" by Lana Del Rey, a rendition of the original poem "Burnt Norton" by T.S. Eliot.

Where do I even start? Paris has wholly shaped me in ways I never imagined. We refer to Paris as the city of love, but I'm now more inclined to call it the city of art - which only leaves more room for love in your heart. There is so much to contemplate and appreciate in frequenting the vast array of art museums here - from the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Musée de l’Orangerie, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and many more. Not only has my perspective on art expanded, but so has my worldview. That’s because art is truly everywhere in this city; art can be found in the walkable streets amidst the rich architecture, the fashionable outfits seen in daily life, and even the exquisite decor in stores and when you cheekily peek into Parisian appartments!

There's always something new to discover in Paris, I'm almost saddened at the thought of the things I've yet to discover or missed. The treasures to unveil in Paris move far beyond the typical tourist hotspots we all know and love. I am obsessed with Parisian boutiques; they are chic and unique (that unintentionally rhymed) in the best way possible. One of my favourites is La Tonkinoise à Paris, located in the 11th arrondissement. This particular arrondissmenet is the best in Paris to be honest, it holds a special place in my heart as I had the wonderful opportunity of living there, so perhaps you can say that I am somewhat biased. Still, I can confidently say that this animated, hip and creative neighbourhood is one everyone should have the chance to explore.

La Tonkinoise à Paris, owned by the lovely Chantal, is my favourite hidden gem in Paris. I had the pleasure of befriending Chantal as I ended up frequenting her store one too many times; I've garnered quite a collection over time. This boutique offers a wide range of eccentric and sustainable jewellery, with her earring creations being the show stoppers, in my opinion. Her jewellery is composed of rings, pearls, brooches, charms, and watches, all unearthed in flea markets and recycled. I love that every piece of jewellery indeed is a unique piece. The decor changes based on the season and theme of her new collections, making it an ever-changing and exciting shopping experience. This is honestly the best jewellery store I have ever been to in my life! I wish the pictures I took could do the jewellery and the boutique's decor justice, but it simply won't, I'm afraid.

Now, onto food, I genuinely need to figure out where to start here. My favourite authentic French restaurant would have to be 'Le Potager du Père Thierry', located in Montmartre. Although it's incredibly small, I love the cosy vibe; I feel like I can enjoy delicious food with friends without feeling surrounded by strangers. Surprisingly, it's also very quiet (yet packed) - I guess the food is just too distracting.

As of late, my favourite non-french restaurant has to be 'Big Black Cook' (let's ignore how inappropriate that pun is, though funny). It's located in the 2nd arrondissement and serves Caribbean food, my friend claims that it was the best meat she's had!

For brunch, I recommend Café Méricourt in the 11th arrondissement. Their green Eggs & Feta are absolutely incredible and quite innovative as far as brunch places go.

As for a boulangerie - seriously, anywhere, literally anywhere in Paris, go to your nearest bakery; there need not be a big fuss - you're in for a scrumptious baked treat regardless!

I'm ever so grateful for the chance to have lived in Paris for an extended period; you cannot appreciate Paris in its entire splendour from a mere short-term visit. The city is an actual work of art; art is everywhere in the city, from the street performers and musicians, the light filters through the trees, the city's many architecturally rich bridges, the picturesque cafés and boulangeries, the beautifully presented food, the way that the city's many different neighbourhoods each have their own distinct character and vibe. In Paris, art is everywhere.

[loisfreakinglane]

@queenofattolia OOOOH MY FAVORITE THROUPLES!!!!!!!!! SMASH THAT READ MORE BUTTON

ben/maddie/ryn ~ siren (never forgive never forget that breakup, they were PERFECT. that show ended with season 2 and i will NEVER EVER EVER forgive season 3's crimes)

kala/rajan/wolfgang ~ sense8 (we were denied a full series arc of them getting together, but frankly i didn't feel it was rushed in the finale. it still felt organic TO ME, largely bc the chemistry between rajan and wolfgang was impeccable immediately)

eliot/hardison/parker ~ leverage (can you believe there's people who watch leverage that don't ship this?!!?!?! there are human beings out there who ship eliot/parker with zero hardison involvement. BAFFLED, FRIENDS)

angel/buffy/cordy ~ btvs/ats (i'm sorry this is based on my own brain falling into the depths of madness when s6/s3 were airing and i was banned from watching buffy so i was reading the transcripts on buffyworld and left to stew over how much i wanted buffy and dawn and tara to flee to la and never look back, while also falling in love with cangel and thinking about how much those three would fit perfectly together, buffy and cordy as two sides of the same coin, just always out of step with the others parallel heroic journey, how much bangel would work so much more for me when it's damaged adults coming together and also raising their impossible blue eyed kids together also connors never kidnapped also also faith moves into the hyperion too and gunn and fred never break up the end okay i'll stop now)

the princess, the prince, and the mermaid ~ the little mermaid (i was infected by the novel mermaid: a twist on the classic tail (heh) in my youth- christopher, lenia, and margrethe had a fascinating relationship i fell in love with. and now!!!!!!!! watching older adaptations of tlm, seeing the interactions between the three of them always intrigue me so hard. pre-disney the princess is allowed to be sweet and kind to the mermaid, if somewhat patronizing to the mute young girl. and when the mermaid fades away, her body in foam and her soul off to heaven, she lays a kiss on the grieving princess's head AND I DIE)

elizabeth/neal/peter ~ white collar (IT WAS SUCH A FUN TRIO I STAND BY THIS CHOICE! also at the time it was extraordinarily refreshing of fandom to not immediately despise and vilify the woman standing between their slash ship. and i adored the canon and the fanon so tbh! this will always stick out as a classique ot3 to me!)

irma/marion/miranda ~ picnic at hanging rock (why aren't we frolicking in oz, wearing white gowns and eating picnic treats RIGHT NOW? anyway they're in love, they're so in love they fell into an alternate dimension)

ann/ben/leslie ~ parks and recreation (am I the only person who was tearing my hair out during ann's search for a sperm donor bc why did leslie never offer up ben's specimen!?!?! she is OBSESSED with ann and way too invasive and beyond controlling and I think way too much about that episode where ben and ann are fighting over the wafflemaker for one of leslie's insane random holidays, then end it off by coming together to make leslie STOP with the incessant celebrations and presents? anyway they should have all wound up together. and not just bc chris was terrible)

huoxin/jing/xiaowei ~ painted skin the resurrection (the lady demon, the princess, and the bodyguard. this trio was EVERYTHING. the demon fixated on the princess and her heart, the princess desperately in love with her bodyguard turned general but clinging to shame over her facial scars, the general who runs from his failure to protect her. ADD IN BODYSWAP SHENANIGANS AND I LOSE MY MIND EVERY TIME.)

ezra/jules/richie ~ imposters (possibly partially queerplatonic bc i'm not exactly sure where jules lies on ye olde kinsey scale, but even if it's platonic on her part i'm incredibly in love with this trio and i SO see it as a working throuple LEAVE ME ALONE)

elizabeth/olive/william ~ professor marston and the wonder women (whether you believe the historical accuracy of this movie or not, this throuple is fucking awesome and i adooooooore them)

gwen/mj/peter ~ marvel comics (i'm so sick of thinking about spider-man rn bc *waves hand at mcu* HOWEVER it would feel disingenous to leave this off my list. i love these three, i love them together so much.)

alex/hal/tom ~ being human uk (the way these characters brought new life to this era of bhuk. these three are in LOVE)

chel/miguel/tulio ~ the road to el dorado (baby's first ot3)

kirk/spock/uhura ~ star trek (THE KELVIN TIMELINE!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE SO MUCH. still mourning a fic that was deleted off ao3....... sad bean bear city)

art/patrick/tashi ~ challengers (THEEEEEEEEEEEE PINNACLE! there are ppl who cast tashi as the villain of the story and think art and patrick will flee her when the credits roll, and i am so glad i am not surrounded by those types. this is a love story where every person is desperately needed to complete the triad. they just don't work without all 3 of them)

clark/lana/lex ~ smallville (LOOK LOOK LOOK. SHUT UP. anyway i rewatched this show with my father at the height of the pandemic and lana/lex hit hard in a way it never had before, so now i'm p equally obsessed with every side of this triangle and now i want to smash them all together so bad. THIS IS HOW TO FIX EVERYTHING.)

gaby/ilya/napoleon ~ the man from uncle (ready made ot3, i can't be mad)

mylene/shaolin/zeke ~ the get down (did mylene and shaolin hate each other? uhhhhhhh yep. HOWEVER. THAT ALLOWED FOR SOME FUCKING GREAT TENSION. and they were both equally in love with zeke so like............ i wanted it so bad

i'm SURE i'm missing very important ones, but these are my broad strokes 💗💗💗

ALSO LOOK AT THEM!!!!!!!!! TELL ME YOU DON'T SHIP THEM IMMEDIATELY

[iobsessoverfictionalmen]

Dark Chandler Manning x Reader x Eliot Deacon

Is this a self indulgent blurb? Yes. Am I ashamed? Not in the slightest. I blame @writingkitten for my obsession with dark Molina characters especially dark! Chandler Manning. Go check out her superb work!

Warnings: betrayal, Avengers spoilers, and mention of past kidnappings.

“I don’t have to look at her file,” Sharon Carter said coldly as she shouldered past the two men and stared at the many monitors on the desk. Her eyes raked across the screens searching for any hint of your form in the forest, “(Name) was one of the best agents that SHIELD ever had as I was constantly reminded.”

A heavy scowl appeared on Detective Chandler Manning’s face, “The bitterness in your tone is hard to miss.”

Sharon snorted derisively, still not taking her eyes off the screens, “After Thanos, governments across the world were lining up to offer the remaining Avengers anything they could possibly want. I guess it was too much effort to ask for my name to be cleared so I could return home. Steve certainly wasn’t going to do that for me.”

“Your reason for betraying her was personal when she had nothing to do with your circumstances?” The other man, Eliot Deacon, the mortician questioned.

“She could have had my name cleared but she chose not to,” Sharon shrugged. Her eyes caught the tiniest flicker of movement on the screens. Before she could open her mouth to point the movement out, Eliot spoke again.

“You’re wrong.” The mortician stated, “She did fight to have your name cleared when you were in hiding.”

That got Sharon’s attention, “She did?”

“We interfered with the process.”

Sharon’s eyes widened and with dread bubbling in her stomach she slowly turned to face the two men, “Why?”

“Because she went into hiding after she tried to clear your name and it was proving difficult to locate her.”

Sharon took a step backward and the backs of her thighs hit the desk. Her breaths became ragged as she realised she was trapped.

“You used me to draw her out.” Sharon accused with a trembling voice.

“(Name) escaped both of us in the past and we find ourselves enjoying the chase.”

[trickster-shi]

Five Fandoms and Five Ships

Tagged by @sparklytimetraveler forever ago, I kept reminding myself to go make a post and never did >_< BUT. Better late than never.

Sterek

What can I say? I love the Grumpy/Sunshine dynamic to bits and these two sarcastic assholes just hit all the right buttons for me. They had such great chemistry on screen and there are so many good fics written about them that I'm always finding new faves to hoard. Still my current obsession and probably will be for a while, I never get tired of reading this pairing. Or writing it.

2. Zukka

I never watched ATLA as a kid, I only discovered it during Covid when Netflix added it, triggering the renaissance explosion on my Tumblr dashboard. I fell in love with all the characters and multiple ships, but this remains my absolute favorite. Sokka had my heart from the beginning and Zuko stole it during the Pouhai Stronghold episode, and I spent way too long binge reading their tag.

3. Cougar/Jensen

No one was more surprised than I was when I just latched onto The Losers, and these two assholes in particular just completely ruined my life for a while. I've lost count of how many times I watched the movie and I even went out and bought the graphic novels the movie was based on, and I am completely content to ignore how those ended in favor of the cute as shit ending the movie had. Also, I can't hear Don't Stop Believin' and not smile like an idiot anymore.

4. Tony Stark/Steve Rogers

...you know, I'm starting to sense a theme here. Hmm. Yeah, we're gonna ignore that for now. ANYWAY. I got hooked hard on these two after The Avengers movie came out and happily read all the team fics where everyone lived in Stark Tower and these two danced around each other before finally getting together. They aren't my only ships in this fandom but they are my top one out of them all.

5. Sam/Dean & J2

Supernatural has probably been my biggest fandom due to just how long I was in it while it was airing and because I participated in the fandom during it's hay day on Live Journal. Which was so wild, eye opening, and amazing. I even managed to save up and go to a convention and meet them, which I still regard as the best weekend of my life. I love both these pairings for different reasons and can't really separate them so they get their own spot together. Even though I haven't read any or rewatched the show in a long time, this fandom will always be my first home.

Honorable Mentions:

Merthur, BBC's Merlin

Parker/Hardison/Eliot, Leverage

Zoe/Wash, Firefly

Charlie Spring/Nick Nelson, Heartstopper

Eddie Diaz/Evan Buckley, 911

Low-key tagging anyone that wants to do it, just tag me back so I can read your post, too! :D

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Crush (1993)

The Crush makes a bad movie out of a worse premise. Granted, writer/director Alan Shapiro did base this story on an incident he experienced but I doubt anyone alive could be as stupid as this film’s protagonist unless they were some kind of creep. Speaking of which, this film threatens to turn you into one with its loving shots of Alicia Silverstone playing a 14-year-old.

Twenty-eight-year-old writer Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes) moves into the guest house of Cliff and Liv Forrester (Gwynyth Walsh and Kurtwood Smith) and meets their daughter, Darian* (Silverstone). The girl soon becomes obsessed with Nick and when he rebukes her advances, she won’t take “no” for an answer.

*Please note that in some versions of the film, Darian’s name has been changed to Adrian. I watched the film on VHS where the original spoken language remains.

This is a pretty standard thriller cut from the same cloth as Fatal Attraction. The “twist” is that there is no affair. Nick has done nothing wrong but Darian still becomes obsessed with him. At least in theory. To anyone watching, it’s clear that although the film wants to paint Nick as someone who definitely didn’t ask for this, he might’ve been asking for this… at least a little. Maybe times have just changed that much (I wouldn’t be surprised) but Nick's behavior is uncomfortable way too often. First, he tells her “if you were ten years older…”. Then, he looks at her lovingly when she’s sunbathing. Finally, he agrees to drive her out to a remote location in the middle of the night - without her parent’s permission - and when she kisses him, he says nothing about the inappropriate behavior to anyone. I say three strikes, you’re out.

Then again, it might not be that Nick is secretly attracted to Darian - which is too bad because that might’ve made the film more morally ambiguous and interesting - it could be that he’s just a moron. When he submits his first assignment to his new boss, he doesn’t realize Darian has snuck into his computer and edited it - improving the article significantly in the process - until Michael (Matthew Walker) compliments him on his writing. Damn. I knew she was smart but this fourteen-year-old is good enough to write for a magazine? Really? Anyway, after one of his prized photos goes missing, you’d think Nick might… I dunno, lock his door? Change his computer password? Tell someone? Even after Darian literally leaves 99 messages on his answering machine and builds him a secret shrine (complete with those magical candles that never go out and emit no heat), he doesn’t say anything to anyone. Come on, man. At that point, this has gone beyond a simple crush. I know you could take out a teenager with just one punch no matter how manipulative she may be, but there’s still cause for concern, particularly since…

Then, the film gets REALLY creepy. Darian beats herself up, grabs a used condom from Nick’s trash can and puts the sperm inside her body so she can convincingly accuse him of rape. If I may quote Promising Young Woman: “It's every man's worst nightmare, getting accused of something like that.” ”Can you guess what every woman's worst nightmare is?” I don’t want to throw this film’s premise into the fireplace completely. I’ve seen all sorts of wild concepts work with the proper execution. The problem with this “he said, she said” thriller is that the camera shoots Alicia Silverstone, who was 26 at the time but is playing a minor, with all of these shots that tell us we should be attracted to her. We see her undress while Nick is hiding in her closet and see her in several bikinis. At one point, she’s on a swing and her crotch keeps coming towards us over and over. If Nick isn’t attracted to her, why is the camera? I’m not accusing anyone involved in the making of this film of being a predator. What I am saying is that it’s completely tone-deaf and pretty obvious that no woman was ever consulted during the filmmaking process.

With all this out of the way, let me praise Alicia Silverstone in this role. She does this thing where in one scene, she is completely believable as an innocent teenager whose parents would never believe is insane. In the next, she’s demented and disturbingly flirty. The movie is bad. She is not.

If someone had the guts to push the envelope, The Crush might have been provocative and memorable instead of generic. It’s not worth seeing for multiple reasons and I certainly wouldn’t call it “Scary, stylish and very sexy. A top-notch thriller.” unlike Jim Svejda, whose quote is featured on the back of the VHS cover. Yuck! (On VHS, August 11, 2022)

[werewolfsmile]

HI! Hi hi hi hi hi, it's @scotchiegirl

So I've been distracted by an Eliot-adopting-Molly-Connell fic idea that's coming together scarily smoothly but I also wrote some wolfy playdate and thought you might want to read a snippet

---

Quinn raised his hands in surrender–or at least one hand, the one that wasn’t hauling a dufflebag–and ducked his head, dipping it to the side almost automatically. 

“I’m not here to cause any problems,” Quinn soothed, voice measured and calm and light all at once. “I was in town and decided to stop by for the full moon. Didn’t realize there’d be quite such a party, but I guess it makes sense.” 

“The full- wha'd'ya mean you stopped by for the full moon,” Hardison asked, brow furrowing and glancing between Quinn and Eliot. Eliot shot Hardison a glance and the younger man’s face dropped. “O-oh… you’re…? Too? Oh. Well. That’s… great. Great. Fun. Woulda been nice to know. You do this often, then? Drop in on random ‘wolves on the full moon?” 

“Hardison,” Eliot sighed, moving forward into Parker’s space to get her to back down and shooting Hardison a glance. “It’s okay. But seriously, Quinn, what are you doing here?” 

Quinn’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. 

“...I repeat,” he said, just a hair more slowly than usual, as if talking to a rather slow child. “It’s… the full moon? Don’t worry,” he tacked on at normal speed, “I’m a good guest, I brought my own food to supplement breakfast.” 

---

(I love writing Quinn so frickin much XD)

I. am. SCREAMING OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS THIS IS INCREDIBLE???? I LOVE IT SO DAMN MUCH???!?!?

The way Quinn shows wolf submission immediately, the way he's like, oh there's more people here than I would have expected but that's cool that's fine I can roll with this and hey I'm connecting dots here too ahh yes makes perfect sense.

Hardison being all defensive and already low-key jealous. That one line about Parker!! She's so ready to throw hands in defence of her Sparky and I love it!!!

And then of course Eliot has no idea what Quinn is doing there, because why would he? They didn't discuss this. It has never happened to him before. Why does Quinn think this is normal? There is nothing normal about this!!

I am obsessed. Please send me more. I am frothing at the mouth, this is so freaking good aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.

AND I'M SORRY WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE WRITING AN ELIOT-ADOPTS-MOLLY FIC???? BESTIE SHARE THE DEETS!!!

this ask reminded me i've drafted a reply to one of your previous asks/reblogs but i forgot to posttttt! going to do that now too!

[hammity-hammer]

hehehehe i was tagged by @cheatghost to post 6 characters i relate to so here we go!

1. nandor the relentless from what we do in the shadows - i too am a giant himbo

2. holland march from the nice guys - biggest idiot that just coincidentally is good at his job-- also i too make references to things im obsessed with constantly (he referenced hitler at least 5 times in the movie--- for no good reason)

3. will graham from hannibal (nbc) - delusional autistic mess that WOULD fall in love with a cannibal murderer given the chance

4. eliot waugh from the magicians - sarcastic gayboy with too many emotional problems-- also i would spend an entire lifetime falling in love and living with my best friend (and then come back to the current timeline and our bond would be unbreakable)

5. eddie munson from stranger things - apparently i have big ole cow eyes too (i dont know that i agree but @a-little-unsteddie thinks so and i have it on good authority that they know a lot about me) also; i would have flunked hs twice if this was the 80s too, and i am loud, autistic, and gay

6. charlie spring from heartstopper - so gay and full of love for my people----- sweet lil dork too i think (and i wanna play the drums so bad but i have no space for it)

SORRY THIS IS SO LATE IT'S BEEN SITTING IN MY DRAFTS FOR FOREVER BUT I WAS WAITING TO BE ABLE TO FINISH IT ON MY COMPUTER ------- thank you for the tag lou <3333

im gonna tagggggg.....

@a-little-unsteddie @rhaenyyras @riality-check @someforeignband @sailing-through-hawkins @highkingpenny @corrodedcorpses & anyone else who wants to do this !!

[zombimanos]

I've been tagged by the one & only @sh1mm3r4nd0ut thank you i love doing these! (and it's not spotify! which i use only for podcasts really, and never use a shuffler feature, ect) Last song: The Ex - Catch My Shoe

Favorite color: dark blue

Last movie/show: Bob's Burgers (i am very late to it)

Next on my watchlist: probably Fargo season 3 on up

Last book you finished: Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert (memoir)

Last game: Into The Breach (it's like...mech chess lol)

Sweet/savory/spicy: like choosing children(?) If I had to pick, Spicy.

Relationship status: single

Last thing I searched online: What this author's real name is in one of the upcoming questions lol

Current obsession: The show Succession

Greatest flaw: Come on, i'm making these one sentence, not a paragraph (i'm too intuitive for my own liking, is one).

Fic i'm currently reading: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (real name Mary Ann Evans), and Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind. I tag everyone cause i just can't choose between you all amazing folks

[ruminativerabbi]

Can the Center Hold?

As we move forward through these strange times, I find myself careening these days back and forth between my native pessimism about the world and the occasional flash of uncharacteristic optimism. On the whole, things are probably no worse than they have been in the course of these last few months. And in some ways, things are actually looking up. (For one thing, I keep hearing rumors about some sort of imminent deal that will bring at least some of the hostages home. So that sounds hopeful.) I know both those things. But another part of me feels that the gyre is widening and that, at least in the end, the center will not hold. I write this week not to scare or depress, but to share my ill ease and to find comfort in inviting you to join me in hoping together for better times to come.

Yeats (that is, William Butler Yeats, 1865—1939) was one of the world’s greatest English-language poets, a Nobel laureate, eventually a senator in the Irish government. He was a strong Irish nationalist and he definitely flirted—and probably even more than just flirted— with the rising fascist movements of the 1930s. Not an anti-Semite in same sense as Ezra Pound or T. S. Eliot, he was nonetheless part of a world that held anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism to be part of a normal, educated person’s worldview. (For a brief but trenchant review of Irish anti-Semitism over the ages that appeared in the Irish Times a few years ago and that specifically mentions Yeats, click here.) There’s a lot of evidence to review, but I don’t wish to sort it all out here. Nor do I want to comment—not now, at any rate—about the set of bizarre reasons that have led Ireland to be the most consistently anti-Israel nation in Europe. (For a recent essay published in the U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle on that precise topic, click here.) Instead, I’d like to use one of Yeats’ most famous poems, “The Second Coming,” to frame my thoughts about the world we are all living in.

Yeats begins his poem with a stunning image:

            Turning and turning in the widening gyre

            The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

A gyre is a gigantic circular oceanic surface current. Before the poet starts to write, he looks out at the sea and finds it calm, placid, and peaceful. And then the churning begins. At first, it is barely perceptible, hardly even noticeable. And then, slowly, the motion picks up speed. What was tranquil and serene just a moment earlier is suddenly unsteady and unfixed in place. And as the speed of the water picks up, the pleasurable expectation of swimming peacefully in calm waters is replaced by the fear of drowning in those same waters. Nothing, suddenly, is as it should be. The tightest personal connections—Yeats uses the intimate relationship of the falcon and the falconer—become attenuated, then ruined entirely by the deafening gyre as it picks up speed and grows louder and stronger. In the world the poet is comparing to the sea, then, things that are normally each other’s natural complement—butter and toast, coffee and cream, pillow and pillowcase, socks and feet—these normal connections too weaken. And, in the end, the center itself around which life revolves—the family, the house, the workplace, the church, the shul, the park, the grocery—the center doesn’t hold and what was once normal, even pedestrian, now seems unpredictable and in a state of permanent, debilitating flux. And then, just like that, nothing at all seems fixed in place. Or safe.

I’ve lost track of the news even though I read obsessively. I subscribe to a dozen daily news bulletins, peruse half a dozen on-line newspapers, have an inbox that is constantly overflowing. My junk file has its own junk file. I am, I think, as up-to-date on the world’s goings-on as anyone who has a day job could possibly be. Mostly, I deal with it all by compartmentalizing the data, thus storing it in manageable chunks for later degustation (which I occasionally even get to). In that way, my center can hold. But just lately the center is not holding. And the gyre feels more than ever as though it is ominously large and ever-widening.

Let’s consider one single week’s worth of news. A man was arrested last Monday in London and charged with having attacked several employees in a kosher supermarket with a knife. In Haifa, a terrorist drove his car into a crowd of civilians just yards from the front entrance to the Haifa Naval Base. A Chabad rabbi in Washington was pushed out of a Lyft cab by the driver, who then violently attacked him. A terror cell about to perpetrate an “October 7-like attack” was identified and neutralized in Jenin. A would-be terrorist was shot and killed as he tried to murder soldiers standing guard at the entrance to Tekoa, a peaceful town in the Gush Etzion bloc that Joan and I visited just last summer. The International Court of Justice considered seriously a charge of attempted genocide made by South Africa against Israel, then rendered its decision almost without reference at all to the October 7 pogrom that took the lives of well over twelve hundred innocent Israeli civilians, some of whom were beheaded and others of whom were raped. The speaker of the French National Assembly commented the other day that the steep resurgence of violent anti-Semitism in France had reached the level at which it poses “a threat to the foundations of [the French] republic.” Federal agents in Massachusetts arrested a man who was making credible threats of mass violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in his state. Undeniable proof was adduced that UNRWA, the branch of the United Nations charged with supplying humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, is so suffused with actual Hamas-affiliated terrorists and sympathizers that it wouldn’t be that unreasonable for UNRWA itself to be considered a terrorist organization. (If you have access to the on-line version of the Wall St. Journal, click here for a truly shocking account of the whole UNRWA scandal.) The top civil rights officer at the U.S. Department of Education, who has spent her entire professional life as a civil rights attorney, declared herself “astounded” at the level of anti-Semitic aggression the characterizes our nation’s college campuses. To offer one single example, students at Stanford University, once a school I would have characterized as one of our nation’s finest, were chased just last week from a campus forum on anti-Semitism by a crowd of haters threatening to hunt them down in their homes and, at least by implication, to murder them there. (Click here for the horrific details. They’d have to pay me to send a kid of mine to Stanford. But I wouldn’t anyway.)

Is the center holding? More or less. So far.

The poet continues with reference to anarchy being “loosed upon the world” and goes on to imagine innocence itself drowning as the “blood-dimmed” tide rises. And the problem is not only the brutal barbarism of the aggressor; it’s also the fecklessness of the aggressed-against: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / are full of passionate intensity.” Oy. And so ends the first half of the poet’s poem.

Being a Christian, Yeats imagines the salvation of the world in Christian terms. No problem with that for me: in what language should the man speak if not his own? And so the Christian man looks to the horizon for salvation and expects Jesus. But Jesus does not appear at all. The poet is ready for the Second Coming, for the messianic moment, for redemption. But on the horizon he suddenly espies something else entirely:

…somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare…

The savior cometh not and instead cometh the “rough beast, its hour come round at last.” The poet expects to be saved, but his hopes are dashed as his faith turns out to have been misplaced entirely because all the distant horizon can deliver up is a monster. All the promises of modern society—prosperity, human dignity, security—turn out to be hollow,  misshapen fantasies; none will help much. Or at all. The much-awaited Second Coming yields only an ogre, a fiend, a “rough beast.” There is no hope.

And where does that leave us? I too look to the horizon and wait for redemption. I also fear the “rough beasts” of anti-Semitism, anti-Israelism, anti-humanism, and anti-Americanism, the four horsemen (to wander back into Christian terms) of my personal most-feared apocalypse. And yet, despite it all, I don’t find myself entirely drained of hope. I keep perusing the headlines with all the doom they presage for the world and all the terribleness they recount, but somehow find myself able to retain hope in the future. Where that comes from, I have no idea. Maybe it has to do with relativity. Hamas is Amalek, but we’ve faced worse. Our American college campuses are minefields for Jewish students, but things will surely improve as the problem is dragged out into the light and the world can see the haters for what they are and respond accordingly. Israel’s set of tasks in Gaza is beyond daunting, but the tide seems slowly to be turning. I continue to harbor the real hope that the hostages are all still alive and that the rumors of a deal to release them will turn into reality. And even though the streets of our cities seem clogged with villains whose hatred for Israel feels visceral rather than rational, I still have confidence that the American people will never embrace anti-Judaism and that the republic, the indivisible one featuring liberty and justice for all, will never turn on its own citizens. Do I sound Pollyanna-ish or rationally hopeful? Like an ostrich with its head in the sand or a Jew with his head held high? Even I am not sure. But I continue to believe in the future, in our future in this place and in the future of Israel. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

[denimbex1986]

'Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's sweeping new biographical thriller about the "father of the atomic bomb", has opened to a glowing reception around the world. In India, it's been a hit too but some have protested against a scene depicting the scientist reading the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism's holiest books, after sex. Oppenheimer learnt the ancient Sanskrit language and counted the book as one of his favourites.

In July 1945, two days before the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert, Robert Oppenheimer recited a stanza from the Bhagavad Gita, or The Lord's Song.

Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist, had been introduced to Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, and subsequently the Gita, as a teacher in Berkeley years before. More than 2,000-year-old, Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharata - one of Hinduism's greatest epics - and at 700 verses, the world's longest poem.

Now, hours before an event that would change history, the "father of the atomic bomb" relieved his tension by reciting a stanza he had translated from Sanskrit:

In battle, in forest, at the precipice of the mountains

On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows,

In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame,

The good deeds a man has done before defend him

As Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin write in their authoritative 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer, a young Oppenheimer was introduced to Sanskrit by Arthur W Ryder, a professor of Sanskrit at the University of California, Berkeley. The precocious physicist had arrived there as a 25-year-old assistant professor. Over the next few decades, he helped build one of the "greatest schools of theoretical physics" in the US.

Ryder, a Republican and a "sharp tongued iconoclast", was fascinated by Oppenheimer. For his part, Oppenheimer regarded Ryder as a "quintessential intellectual", a scholar who "felt and thought and talked as a stoic". The young scientist's textile importer father agreed, saying Ryder was a "remarkable combination of austereness through which peeps the gentlest soul".

Oppenheimer - played by actor Cillian Murphy in the biopic - also regarded Ryder as a rare person who had "a tragic sense of life, in that they attribute to human actions the completely decisive role in the difference between salvation and damnation".

Soon, Ryder was giving Oppenheimer private lessons in Sanskrit on Thursday evenings. "I am learning Sanskrit," the scientist wrote to his brother Frank, "enjoying it very much and enjoying again the sweet luxury of being taught".

Many of his friends found his new obsession with an Indian language odd, Oppenheimer's biographers noted. One of them, Harold F Cherniss, who introduced the scientist to the scholar, thought it made "perfect sense" because Oppenheimer had a "taste of the mystical and the cryptic".

So Oppenheimer's knowledge of Sanskrit and the Gita is clearly germane to telling his story. But some right wing Hindus have complained - particularly about the sex scene with lover Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh - saying the film is an attack on their religion and demanding cuts.

But India's film censors found no problem with it and at the box office it's the Hollywood hit of the year in India, faring better than Barbie since the two blockbusters opened on Friday.

There's no doubt Oppenheimer was a widely well-read man - he took courses in philosophy, French literature, English, history, and briefly considered studying architecture, and even becoming a classicist, poet or painter. He wrote poems on "themes of sadness and loneliness", and identified with TS Eliot's "sparse existentialism" in The Waste Land.

"He liked things that were difficult. And since almost everything was easy for him, the things that really would attract his attention were essentially the difficult," Cherniss said.

With his facility for languages - Oppenheimer had studied Greek, Latin, French and German and learned Dutch in six weeks - it "wasn't really long before" he was reading the Bhagavad Gita. He found it "very easy and quite marvellous" and told friends that it was the "most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue". In his bookshelf was a pink-covered copy of the book that Ryder had gifted him; and Oppenheimer himself gifted copies to his friends.

The biographers write that the scientist was so "enraptured by his Sanskrit studies" that in 1933 when his father brought him a Chrysler, he named it Garuda, after the giant bird God in Hindu mythology.

In spring of that year, Oppenheimer had written a rather florid letter to his brother explaining why discipline and work had always been his guiding principles. It pointed to the fact that he was enthralled by eastern philosophy.

He wrote: "through discipline, though not through discipline alone, we can achieve serenity, and a certain small but precious measure of freedom from the accidents of incarnation… and that detachment which preserves the world it renounces". Only through discipline, he added, is it possible to "see the world without the gross distraction of personal desire, and in seeing so, accept more easily our earthly privation and its earthly horror".

"In the late twenties, Oppenheimer seemed to be searching for an earthly detachment; he wished, in other words to be engaged as a scientist with the physical world, and yet detached from it," his biographers write.

"He was not seeking to escape to a purely spiritual realm. He was not seeking religion. What he sought was peace of mind. The Gita seemed to provide precisely the right philosophy for an intellectual keenly attuned to the affairs of men and the pleasures of the senses."

One of his favourite Sanskrit texts was the Meghaduta, a lyric poem written by Kalidasa, one of the greatest poets in the language. "The Meghaduta I read with Ryder, with delight, some ease and great enchantment," he wrote to his brother, Frank.

Why did Oppenheimer turn to Gita and its notions of karma, destiny and earthly duty so fervently? His biographers hazard a guess: "Perhaps the attraction Robert felt to the fatalism of the Gita was at least stimulated by a late blooming rebellion against what he had been taught as a youth", alluding to his early association with the Ethical Culture Society, an "uniquely American offshoot of Judaism that celebrated rationalism and a progressive brand of secular humanism".

To be sure, Oppenheimer was not alone in admiring the Hindu text. Henry David Thoreau wrote about immersing himself in the "stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial". Heinrich Himmler was an admirer. Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent follower. And WB Yeats and TS Eliot, two poets Oppenheimer admired, had read the Mahabharata.

The sight of the giant orange mushroom cloud rising in the skies after the first atomic bomb test had led Oppenheimer to return to the Gita again. The bombs that were eventually dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II had killed tens of thousands of people.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent," he told NBC in a 1965 documentary.

"I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu [a principal Hindu deity] is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I have become death, the destroyer of the worlds'. I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

A friend of the scientist said the quote sounded like one of Oppenheimer's "priestly exaggerations".

Yet, the enigmatic scientist remained profoundly influenced by it.

When the editors of The Christian Century asked the scientist once to share the books that most profoundly influenced his philosophical outlook, Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal held the top spot. And the Bhagavad Gita took the second position.'