#It's not a theory it's just me trying to understand what deep magic is

[kilfeur]

Avant je pensais que le sort d'Infantis Sanguine était de la magie noire mais apparemment ça fait partie de la magie profonde. Et je me dis que le sort de possession pour Callum est peut être de la magie profonde bien que je pense que ça peut provenir de la magie des étoiles. Vu que le seul sort qu'on apprend de cette magie, c'est qu'elle peut réunir l'esprit et un corps séparé. Donc je vois une similitude entre ces deux sorts. Ce que je remarque c'est que la magie profonde et la magie noire peuvent être semblables sur certains points. Déjà la première chose qu'on remarque avec Infantis Sanguine c'est qu'il requiert des ingrédients tout comme la magie noire. Pour Infantis Sanguine, l'ingrédient est Monsieur Bavetout et l'exécution du sort passait par l'acte de le tuer ! Mais comme je l'avais dit dans un précédent post, ce n'était qu'une étape du sort pour pouvoir le réaliser.

Du coup ça me fait penser qu'Aaravos a donné la magie noire en guise de "cadeau" pour l'humanité. Bien qu'on se rend compte que ceux qui l'utilisent sont vulnérable à sa possession ! Mais il a dû créer cette magie noire non ? Elle doit venir de quelque part ? Est ce que la magie noire puise ses origines à travers la magie profonde ? Est ce qu'Aaravos comptait utiliser l'humanité comme une expérience grâce à la magie noire ? En pensant que peut être les mages noires pourront toucher cette fameuse magie profonde à force de l'utiliser ? Puisqu'il voulait que Viren exécute le sort d'Infantis Sanguine avant que celui ne refuse. Et vu que Viren a échoué c'est pas grave ! Après tout il y a un autre cobaye dont il peut se servir pour atteindre cette magie profonde !

Callum t'es tellement dans la merde, si c'est vrai !

I used to think that the Infantis Sanguine spell was part of dark magic but apparently it's part of deep magic. And I'm thinking that the possession spell for Callum might be deep magic, although I think it might come from star magic. Given that the only spell we learn from this magic is that it can unite the mind and a separate body. So I see a similarity between these two spells. What I notice is that deep magic and dark magic are similar on certain points. The first thing you notice with Infantis Sanguine is that it requires ingredients, just like dark magic. For Infantis Sanguine, the ingredient is Sir Sparklepuff, and the spell's execution requires the act of killing him! But as I said in a previous post, this was only one step in the spell's execution.

It makes me think that Aaravos gave dark magic as a "gift" to mankind. Although we realize that those who use it are vulnerable to its possession! But he had to create this dark magic, didn't he? It must have come from somewhere? Does dark magic have its origins in deep magic? Did Aaravos intend to use humanity as an experiment in dark magic? Thinking that maybe the dark mages would be able to touch this famous deep magic by using it so much? Since he wanted Viren to perform the Infantis Sanguine spell before he refused. And since Viren failed, it doesn't matter! After all, there's another guinea pig he can use to reach that deep magic!

Callum, you're in so much trouble, if it's true!

[fischyplier]

Misfits and Magic Season 2 Episode 2 "Magma and Mingle": My Thoughts and Analysis

So here are my thoughts on Evan and Sam. Am I the only one that doesn’t see their relationship progressing into romance? I can understand that in this season Brennan and Danielle are having more scenes together. At this point, Evan and Sam's relationship feels platonic to me, but who knows what could happen in the next few episodes. I prefer platonic relationships because they feel more interesting than just romance. Also want to take the time to say, I love and appreciate all the hard work that went into this and every season of D20. Thank you to the crew, the players and Aabria cause misfits and magic has become very near and dear to my heart!

Click below to read more, warning long post:

Anyways, Evan has gone through a LOT of traumatic experiences since childhood and continues to till this day. Evan's body is riddled with scars, broken bones that healed wonky, etc. He got stabbed on a bus at night trying to retrieve a talisman for Boodle 10 months ago. And I would not be surprised if he's been through more but hasn't had the opportunity to tell his friends or elected to say nothing. I can't help but to read too deeply into the quote "dream small". Is it cause I feel that Evan has learned to dream small in order to not get his hopes and expectations too high? Just a theory... A game theory! I'm sorry.

After 3 years of no contact the pilot project are back! But they haven't really had the time to sit down and catch up. In the video below, Sam says "I feel like there's a lot of things that when we talk you don't tell me." Which kinda leads me to believe, Evan doesn't want to worry his friends so he bottles up his feelings and doesn't open up. And when he does it's always with a smile and jokes to mask the hurt. He isn't just sad, he feels like a burden and tries to not take up space. I can really relate to this.

Even Brennan says Evan is in deep pain. The breakup he went through didn't help but there is more under the surface we as the audience still don't truly know. The experiences of being a lonely unhoused teen is the reason why Brennan chose "belonging" as Evan's ideal track. Because that is the one thing he's been deprived off, humans are social creatures and need to interact with others. What happens to a developing brain when that is taken away? When all you know is your shadow, loneliness and hunger? So when his friend says we can talk, he takes that as a serious invitation. Evan now surrounded by friends wants to do everything in his power to protect those he loves. He doesn't expect it to be reciprocal. You can see that when he says "if I've ever done a bad job about being here for you, I'm always here for you" after Sam says we can talk. When Brennan tears up with that incredible delivery of "I missed you"... I keep rewatching that part! Evan is always on the go, needs to be prepared, needs to be ready when shit hits the fan. Sam has created a safe place where he doesn't need to be hypervigilant and can relax, maybe open up and be a little vulnerable.

Sam is rightfully concerned that something deeper and terrible is going on with Evan.

When Evan continues kicking a half dead Salamander that isn't a threat to any of his friends, a darkness in him wants to kick it mercilessly for pure enjoyment. That even his eyes turns black. The first thing Sam does when she sees this is to attempt to drench it in water like Jammer did. Cause she said that this has become "unnecessarily dark" and that "this is freaking her out". That she'll even resort to spitting on the creature if it means that Evan will stop kicking that crap out of it. The water cools and stops the creature. Sam is a great friend that sees Evan do something twisted and wants to help so desperately. You do not have to be falling in love with someone to do the right thing! I still think they should just be friends.

I love that in this season we can really see their friendship blossom and not just be surface level chit chat. As they get closer hopefully they can help each other in ways they really need. In the preview for the next episode Evan says, "I don't see you the way you are afraid people see you." Sometimes it takes someone outside of your point of view to see aspects of yourself you are too close to see. And I think that's beautiful.

That leads into my next point, no I don't think the progressing of their relationship means that romance is in the air. I can't remember where I read it but another person said it best, intimacy doesn't mean romance. You can get close to someone, be a shoulder to cry on and depend on without developing feelings. You can love and respect your friend and keep it at that level but develop on that intimacy of a great friendship. I feel like it made the most sense for these two to get closer in this season because they have more in common now. Before it was just the fact that they were students learning magic at Gowpenny and being NAMPS (non magical person or let's be serious MUGGLES!). But now Evan and Sam have both underwent break ups and that's something they can really connect on. I really hope they don't get together right after cause that sounds like a rebound and to me, story wise pretty boring. And in my honest opinion, jumping into another relationship right after being with K is a little too soon. Evan needs a friend not a lover, at least for the time being. He needs to keep his inner darkness and insecurities in check. That or a therapist.

Hopefully this doesn't age like milk, and if they do get together I guess I'm wrong! :3

Thank you if you read till the very end, here is a gif of Brennan giving you a thumbs up!

Why? Cause you are pretty cool!

Please consider liking or reblogging this post if you liked what you read. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode and if I should continue!

[good-soupmens]

Apply this to Aziraphale how you will, but as an autistic person, I REALLY fell for Metatron's kind old man act. I didn't notice the subtle manipulation, like giving Aziraphale coffee and saying "I've ingested things in my time" to show that he's different from the food-hating, earth-hating angels. I didn't notice him taking on Aziraphale's speech mannerisms before turning away and scowling. It was only after reading meta and rewatching twice that I was like WOAH I didn't even see that.

I can see that heaven's system is screwed up, but I literally thought "Metatron's not like the other angels." I trusted his kindness, especially given that he wanted Aziraphale to run heaven, obviously the best angel for the job. I didn't consider that he wanted to appoint him because he knows Aziraphale is powerful and has stopped heaven and hell before.

I was right along with Aziraphale when all of this went down, agreeing with him when he didn't want the job ("where would I get my coffee?") and then seeing the appeal when Metatron said he could run heaven from earth WITH Crowley. They get to keep living the life they carved out for each other AND Aziraphale can fix the corruption in heaven? I love seeing kind-hearted characters fixing broken things, and I wanted him to fix the system.

As for Crowley becoming an angel again, I didn't really think of it as changing him. He's just Crowley, and he'd keep being Crowley. He's good already. I saw it as heaven offering to right their wrong because he never deserved to fall in the first place, and they wouldn't let someone they believed is evil back in, right? I trusted their judgment of Aziraphale and Crowley. I didn't consider that of COURSE Crowley wouldn't want to go back there. Why would he??

So when Aziraphale finally told him about the offer, I was hoping he would agree. It's important, they could change things! Metatron is claiming to give Aziraphale the reins. Crowley and Aziraphale for once are allowed to be together, and Aziraphale was so ready to not hold back in their relationship. There'd be no reason to deny it or go slow, it's obvious that their love is mutual.

It wasn't a surprise that Crowley said no, and deep down, Aziraphale knew why, but he didn't understand. Crowley and Aziraphale weren't seeing how the other saw it (that Aziraphale WANTS to be together. He wants to make heaven a better place, but Crowley believes it'll never happen, and heaven means to manipulate him). They truly would be the perfect team if they were in charge.

But the problem: that's not what Metatron or heaven intends. "Give me coffee or give me death" meant that if Aziraphale didn't accept the offer, he would've been destroyed. Metatron knew he'd accept, and based on the glare he gave Crowley, I don't think Crowley was ever really in his plan. Metatron will try to use Aziraphale and his power to end the world, and he has no idea he's a pawn. He fell for Metatron's apparent kindness and got swept away with the idea that he and Crowley wouldn't have to hide.

It's heartbreaking because I AM frustrated with Aziraphale, but I know why he chose heaven. There's trauma underlying his actions as well, and he didn't need MAGIC coffee (sorry, I'm mean about coffee theory) to fall hook, line, and sinker for what Metatron was selling. He loves Crowley so much, but if his plans to change heaven worked, he'd be saving the entire world from destruction.

People are still like "NO NO NO, how could he leave Crowley? He must've been hypnotized" when he is putting the WORLD first. That's not to say he won't regret it immediately, miss Crowley the entire time, or even change his mind, but it all happened so fast, and Crowley seemingly gave out on him. He refused, said "good luck", and started to leave. They didn't communicate with each other. I don't think Aziraphale was leaving him forever, but he thought "I HAVE to do this". Crowley is right, but Aziraphale can't see it another way.

Now he has to try his best to change heaven. In the end, he'll see the mistake he made and owe an apology to Crowley, but he has to figure it out on his own. After it's all said and done, it could be the last time they hold back from each other. Going through an angst arc of THIS magnitude would be worth it, and Neil Gaiman is a genius

[yuurei20]

This is a little bit of a weird long question lol

I'm more asking your opinion about it haha

I'm trying to think on it - is Idia an Otaku because that's the setting the game is for (Japanese audience) and those are the signifiers that a Japanese audience would recognize as "nerd", or is he just an Otaku in general and would still be a "Weeb/Anime nerd" if the original audience was American/otherwise western.

Like - what I mean is in American pop culture, the "Weeb/Anime fan" is kind of a subset of nerd. Like none of the characters from "the big bang theory" (to my knowledge) are "weebs", they aren't our most generic image of a nerd. If a character/person is a "Weeb" it usually means they have a specific interest in Japanese media, and this doesn't necessarily correlate to other "nerdy" things.

Because in America/Western settings, Japanese fandom culture is foreign (thus me using Weeb instead of Otaku though plenty of people call themselves Otaku rather than weeb), so the implications of Idia being a Weeb is somewhat different - he's no longer a "generic nerdy character", but something a tad more specific.

So like - how there's beansfest or the use of honorifics or how the unique magic works with pronunciation - that usage of Japanese culture and language to express what Yana is trying to do, but it isn't necessarily meant to be Japanese in universe, because NRC is distinctly not set in Japan or even the Twst equivalent of Japan

Basically to sum up my rambly question - do you think Idia is supposed to be a "Nerd" in general or is he supposed to be an "Otaku"?

Tldr, would Idia be buying "comic books" in the EN localization or would it still be "Manga"

How exactly is our dear Idia the Nerdy foil to Hercules's Jock lmao

Hello hello!! Thank you for this question! ^^

Is there a word that can encompass both, in English? 👀

I think this connects to how the word "otaku" in Japanese seems to be different from the word "otaku" as it has been adopted by English, so this might be confusing 💦 But I will do my best!

I found an excerpt from a book called "Otaku Marketing" that provides an explanation of "otaku"'s original meaning, summarized here:

The basic definition of an 'otaku' is someone with a particular obsession who devotes an extreme amount of time and money to that interest and possesses deep knowledge and imagination regarding it. The term can be viewed negatively, describing a person who is immersed in subcultures that are difficult for the general public to understand, and who lacks communication skills. These days it has become more generally accepted with a meaning similar to "enthusiast" or "fan", and its usage has diversified, including terms like "health otaku" that contrast with the negative connotation, but the original image of otaku as being obsessively dedicated, introverted, and intense remains. Examples of otaku include military enthusiasts, railway enthusiasts, Johnny's Entertainment enthusiasts, Gundam enthusiasts, Hanshin Tiger enthusiasts, etc.

This is very much Idia ^^ There are many traits associated with otaku that we see in him, from his stutter to how quickly he speaks when excited, self depreciation combined with contradictory pride, net slang--even the manner in which he laughs and the personal pronoun that he uses.

In English it seems that, as you say, the Japanese-language concept of "otaku" has been separated into "nerd" and "weeb."

Idia is interested in things like puzzles, board games, horror movies with practical effects and Halloween, which might not be the first thing that comes to mind when an English-speaker hears the word "otaku" and may push him more into the "nerd" category.

Idia mentions reading manga and watching anime, but is this just because the game is being developed in the same country that produces those things?

Is this a case of Idia not being fully localized, and an American-developed Twst would have made him interested in American comic books and cartoons to suit its home audience, as you say?

I agree that NRC does not seem to be set in Japan or even a Twst-Japan-equivalent, but that might be exactly the point: Idia is interested in media from another country, and that is where things get interesting!

It seems that a Twst-Japan equivalent exists, and Idia is a big fan of their pop culture 👀

Sam mentions branches of his Mystery shop that exist in the "East," introducing things from real-world-Japan culture in the New Years events.

How canonical the New Year's events are meant to be is a little vague, especially because everyone (except Azul, Jade, Floyd and Scarabia) go home for New Year's in the main story--a point that is integral to the plot of Book 4.

But even if New Years is meant to be a fun little spin-off with no real connection to the culture of the actual universe, we also have a vignette where Idia explains what ninja are to Silver, saying that "they live in a far eastern country," and mentioning things like "shuriken," "fireball jutsu" and "samurai."

If there is another word in English that encompasses both "weeb" and "nerd" together, then I think that might be it! If it must be one or the other...I am not sure!

I have seen EN players who missed the Harveston event insisting that Idia doesn't actually like anime, just movies and video games, so it seems to be a divisive subject on EN.

Idia's interest in the pop culture from this unnamed country in the East is definitely not his defining personality trait, being only one of the many facets of who he is ^^

How to express this in English seems more complex than one may think!

Is it inaccurate to describe Idia as a "weeb" because of the depth of his interest in locally-produced board games and movies that have nothing to do with Twst-Japan-equivalent-media? If he is referred to as a "nerd," will there be friction because of lines like, "an anime can be so good it's literally life-changing"? Are the two groups mutually exclusive in English?

I am not sure I have an answer :> Would be most grateful for any opinions and ideas!

[yukis-tasks]

The Vignette Theory

The vignettes and event stories are all part of the dream world Malleus created and here's proof!

First off when Malleus first used his - what I believe to be- unique magic "Fae of Maleficent", thorns went inward just like when a card is groovified.

They are the exact same. This is incredibly important because it reveals a direct connection between the cards and Malleus's magic. Moreover, there has been a lot of discussion about the wonky timelines of the cards which I won't be going too deep into.

My argument is that ALL of the vignettes and events were dreams or memories. They all took place inside Malleus's realm. Even the ones where Ortho, Idia, and Silver were the main characters. Although it might seem strange, there is no other way it could work. I think that when the dream started their memories or as described by the Shroud family, their "servers" got connected to Malleus, and all their memories were uploaded. Even though Malleus is not sure of all their memories and probably can't assess all that information, those memories are a part of his realm and that's the backstory to why we have a lot of the vignettes in the game.

The Conundrum With Those Who Are Awake

According to my theory, it's technically impossible for Ortho and Silver to have any dreams. Therefore they shouldn't have so many vignettes....and they don't. First, take Ortho- he has very few vignettes completely about him. Most of them could be from other people's memories like his gym uniform could be the Leech brothers, the White Rabbit Festival could be Duece's dream, and so forth. Even the vignettes where no one should be aware of everything going on with Ortho are easily explained. Ruggie knows about Ortho's actions in the Wish Upon a Star event and other characters might have their own understanding of Ortho's personality. From what we've seen so far, the dreams are fairly realistic. Even the Dawn Knight in Lilia's dream seems to have his own past. Especially when he refers to the origin of his 'ring'.

Silver also tends not to be a main character for most of the vignettes. In the Halloween Soiree, Jamil and Silver get to know each other as they travel around the afterworld/ghost realm. This is one of the few times where Silver acts open and reveals a lot about himself. How does Jamil or whoever is dreaming up that vignette have this information. Well- as previously explained, all the characters' memories are now part of Maleeus's dream realm. The short time Silver was not awake and the information Sebek and Lilia -importantly Malleus- had about Silver allowed Jamil to learn about it in his dream.

It's also possible that Silver was already open about his stories and life so everyone can predict what he might say.

Thank you all for reading my ramblings, let me know if I missed something and I'll try to get to it in another post!

Extra:

Also-CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS BEAUTIFUL LADYYY????

Ngl, when I first imagined Idia's parents I imagined them as abusive and neglectful, but they were a shock to meet. In the main story, they are the first parents of a character we get to see. I was incredibly surprised by her voice and personality but after it dawned on me that she was Persephone, I was beyond taken away! I've always disliked the characterization of Hades in the animated Hercules series. It felt like he was just a cartoon satan (Persephone’s exclusion from the cartoon was also disappointing) but to see Disney include her here-even a twisted version- is exciting. I'm glad that they didn't end up being terrible people, if they were then the Idia angst would have flooded us all up.

[spaceyaceface]

A Black Walnut Wand

Ominis Gaunt x Reader/MC

Word Count: 3.4k

Summary: A wand made of Black Walnut can be a finicky thing---if the wielder isn't truthful, whether with themselves or with others, it's power diminishes.

So it's just absolutely perfect when her wand starts acting up right before N.E.W.T.S., isn't it?

Warnings: Little angst I guess

A/N: I was researching wand lore and came across this info and couldn't stop thinking about it's potential to be used in the classic "suddenly she realized she was in love this whole time" so here you go :)

At first she thought it was just stress making her magic go awry. That would have made sense—N.E.W.T.s were fast approaching, and what seventh year wouldn’t be going through hell with exams that would literally define their lives in the not-so-far-off future. But even when she went to Nurse Blainey and got a Calming Draught to try to get a little spellwork practiced, she was still getting nothing. 

It was then she came to the conclusion that something must be wrong with her wand. It had served her perfectly well for over two years—never had she had a single issue with it. Something had changed, and she had no idea what. She couldn’t remember dropping it or damaging it in any way, and a close inspection revealed it looked as good as new. But it had to be her wand—there was no other explanation. 

She tried to hide it for a bit, but it was hard with all of her friends constantly asking to study together. Poppy wanted help with Charms. Sebastian with Transfiguration. And Ominis simply insisted he couldn’t do any studying on Defense Against the Dark Arts without her. Spells she had mastered years ago were suddenly nothing but a sad shower of sparks, shocking each of her friends when they saw it. 

“What on earth was that?” Sebastian said. She had just tried to transform a rat into a tea kettle, but nothing happened besides a small red flash. She buried her face in her hands. 

Ominis sat across from her, his face set in a deep frown. “I still hear squeaking… You said the incantation right, perhaps the wand movement?”

“It’s my wand,” she bemoaned. “I think there’s something wrong with it.”

Sebastian lunged forward, taking the wand from her hand and performing the same inspections she had at least a dozen times over. “It looks just fine,” he concluded. 

She groaned. “I know it does. But I’ve tried everything else I can think of. I must have hit it or something, or… I don’t know.”

“Have you taken it in to Ollivander’s?” Ominis asked. 

“No, I haven’t. What if he tells me I need a new wand?” She frowned at the idea. “I don’t want a new one. I like this one. Or at least I did when it was working.” 

“I don’t really see how you have much of a choice,” Ominis said, resting his hand on her arm. “Not with N.E.W.T.s coming up.” 

Her heart skipped a beat at his reminder. “Don’t say that. It’s just going to make me feel worse.”

Ominis chuckled a bit. “I’m not trying to make you feel worse. I’m trying to talk some sense into you.”

“I hate it when you’re logical.” 

Sebastian rolled his eyes at the two of them. “Get a room, would you?”

She shot him a glare. “I’ll get it figured out soon enough. In the meantime, we can brush up on some theory.”

The three of them kept studying together, and she couldn’t help but notice that Ominis kept his attention at least partially on her the whole time. He kept tilting his head toward her, brows furrowing. She tried not to let it get to her. 

By the time they decided to call it quits, the common room was mostly cleared out. Her head was spinning with all the terms and definitions she was struggling to memorize as she packed up her books. Before she left for her dorm, Ominis caught her arm. 

“Wait,” he said as she turned back to him. 

“What is it?” she asked. 

“Go to Ollivander’s tomorrow, will you?” he said. “I know how much you love your wand. I completely understand the feeling. But… but I wouldn’t want you to fail your exams because of it.” 

She let out a sigh, hearing his concern in his voice. “I know,” she said softly. “It’s silly. He might even be able to fix it. I’ll go tomorrow.”

His shoulders lost a bit of their tension. “Good. If I can help at all, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Her stomach flipped at his kindness. “I’ll let you know.”

He nodded a bit. “Goodnight, then.” 

“Goodnight.” 

They parted ways, and soon she flopped down on her bed with a sigh, the place where he’d held her arm still burning like fire. 

-

She bit her lip as she stood outside the shop, holding her wand and tapping it against her other palm. After a moment, she walked inside, bell dinging as the door opened. 

It was cluttered in there, as usual. Wand boxes filled the cubbies in the walls from floor to ceiling. The front desk was vacant for only a moment before Mr. Ollivander came from the back. 

“Hello, Miss,” he greeted, glancing between her nervous face and the wand in her hands. “I take someone is having some troubles with their wand?”

She nodded. “Yes, sir. N.E.W.T.S. are coming up, and it’s just not working like usual. It’s hardly working at all, I’m afraid.”

“Care to give me a quick demonstration?”

She lifted her wand, pointing it to one of the wand boxes on his desk. “Wingardium Leviosa!” 

The box did not levitate. All that happened was a small trail of smoke leaving the tip of her wand. She sighed. 

“I see,” Mr. Ollivander said, reaching out a hand toward her. “May I?” 

She handed him her wand, and soon he was carefully looking it over. 

“Dragon heartstring,” he said softly. “Nine and a quarter inches, brittle, and… ah.”

She frowned. Was there some crack or something she had missed?

He met her eyes. “The wood is Black Walnut.” 

“Yes,” she said slowly, not understanding why this should have been significant to her. 

“Black Walnut wands are a little picky,” Mr. Ollivander said. “They are very careful about who they choose to align themselves with. They are very attuned to inner conflict.”

A small sense of dread started trickling down her spine. “What does that mean, exactly?”

“It means the power of the wand diminishes when its wielder practices any form of self-deception,” he continued. “And if the owner is not honest with themself—or others—for an extended period of time, it may not work at all.” 

Her heart dropped. “I didn’t—I’m not trying to—there’s… there’s nothing I’m lying about.” 

“Perhaps you simply don’t recognize it as such yet.” 

She frowned, not able to meet his eyes. “Does that mean I need a new wand?”

“Not yet, at least,” he answered. “I sense this wand’s allegiance still lies with you. But be careful—much longer and it might not favor you anymore.” 

He held my wand back out to her, and she took it with a moment of hesitation. All he said had left her head spinning all the way back to the castle. What on earth had she been lying about? A thought nagged at the back of her mind, but she pushed it away out of habit. No. Not that. It couldn’t be that. 

She felt like she had no more of a solution than she had left with as she sat down in the library, pulling out her books. Might as well study some of the material that didn’t use wandwork, she figured. But she couldn’t concentrate on the words, thoughts still back in the wand shop. Well, they were until a figure plopped down in the seat across from her. 

“Have you gone to Hogsmeade yet?” Sebastian asked. 

She nodded, closing her textbook with a sigh. 

Her friend waited for a moment, expecting her to explain. “...Well?” 

She gave a frustrated shrug. “He told me it’s my wand. It’s made of Black Walnut, apparently, which is a tricky sort of wood I guess.” She frowned. “He said… well he said it doesn’t like to work if someone is… not being truthful.”

Sebastian leaned forward on the table, brows furrowed. “Are you saying your lying about something?”

“Not exactly. I mean, maybe not to you. Or maybe it is. I haven’t got a clue.” She laid her head down on the desk in defeat. “I could be lying to myself. I haven’t got the faintest idea.” 

Sebastian couldn’t help but chuckle at her frustration. “Are you sure you haven’t got any idea?”

“Yes,” she answered. She peeked up a bit, looking at him. “Why? Do you think you know something?” 

“I have some… suspicions,” he said slowly. 

“What are they?” she asked, sitting up fully once more. “Come on, if you think you might know something, you’ve got to help me!”

“I’m not so sure you’ll like my answer,” he said, a smirk on his face. 

“I don’t care if I like it or not. My entire future sort of depends on this.”

“Promise you won’t be mad at me?” he asked.

“I promise,” she said quickly. 

He leaned back in his chair, arms folded. “I think it has something to do with you being in love with Ominis.” 

Her jaw dropped. “I’m not—”

“Don’t you lie now,” Sebastian said teasingly. “That hasn’t really worked out well for you so far, has it?” He nodded down to your wand sitting on the table.

“I’m not lying!” she fired back. “I don’t know why you would say that, I’m not…” 

But even then, she couldn’t force the denial out of her mouth. 

“Right,” Sebastian said, grinning. “Seems like you’re lying to all of us. Yourself most of all.” 

She stood up quickly, the chair she was on making a loud noise as it fell back. “You’re delusional.” 

“Am not.” 

Her hands rushed to pack up her books, shoving them angrily into her bag, glaring at Sebastian all the while. “Yes you are. Whatever you think you see, you don’t. So shut up about it.” She threw the bag over her shoulder, walking away. 

“Good luck with your wand,” he called after her, a slight taunt in his voice. 

She couldn’t get out of there soon enough. 

-

“Confringo!” 

No flames leapt from her wand. Just a couple pathetic sparks, and she let out a frustrated grown. The brazier on the far side of the Undercroft remained stubbornly unlit, despite her repeated attempts to set it ablaze. 

“I take it your trip wasn’t as successful as we hoped?”

She whirled around, seeing Ominis entering the space. After the initial shock, sighed. “No,” she said softly. 

He hummed softly in disappointment, sitting down on one of the crates against the wall. He patted the spot beside him, and she hesitated for only a moment before taking the spot. Her mind was still racing from the conversation she’d just had with Sebastian. It made her feel strange sitting next to Ominis. Which was ridiculous, because she wasn’t…

“I’m sorry you haven’t figured it out yet,” he said softly. She was confused for a moment, wondering if he had read her thoughts, then realized he was talking about her wand.

“It’ll be fine, I’m sure,” she said softly. The tone of her voice gave her nerves away. 

“It will be,” he said, his tone much more reassuring than her own. He tilted his head toward her, and offered a small smile. “You’ve gotten through much worse.” 

“Only because you’ve been there for me,” she said. And she realized it was true. Each time things came crumbling down, he’d been there to lift her back up, even if he did it with sarcastic words and exasperated sighs. It was even better that way, she thought. 

His smile widened a bit. “You’d be helpless without me, wouldn’t you?” 

She could only chuckle, because it was true. 

His expression softened a bit. “I’ll always be there for you.”

And as he said those words, as her eyes traced over the lines of his face she had long since memorized, it hit her. 

She loved him. 

She wanted to look away from him, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t do anything but stare into those blue eyes, wanting nothing more to drown in them—realizing that she’d wanted that for a while now. She wanted to be wrapped in his arms. To feel his lips brush over hers. To spill every last bit of her heart out to him, to fall apart and let her broken pieces get tangled with his. 

“Thank you, Ominis,” was all she could say, voice softer than she had ever heard it. If he thought it was odd, he made no comment.

He changed the topic, bringing up Herbology studies, and she listened to him with a hazy mind. She’d lied for herself long enough. But now the truth might eat her alive. 

-

Sebastian was leaning back in his chair the next morning when she found him in the library. 

“You were right,” she said. 

He nearly fell back, just barely catching himself. “And you’re admitting that? Freely?”

“Don’t make a big deal out of it or I’ll hex you.” 

He grinned. “So is your wand working again?” 

“Not quite,” she admitted. “But I’ll steal yours off of you and use that instead if I’ll have to.” 

He chuckled lightly. “I get it, I’m threatened. See? You and Ominis are a perfect match.”

She blushed, but continued frowning down at him. “Shut up.”

“You need to tell him.” 

Her eyes widened, her stomach churning at the thought. “What?”

“You said your wand still isn’t working,” he pointed out. “If you tell him, it’ll probably fix it.” 

“I–I can’t do that,” she said quickly, panic building up inside her chest. “I’m not going to ruin our friendship over my stupid wand.”

“I don’t think it’ll ruin it,” Sebastian said, smirking a bit. 

“You don’t know that,” she said. 

“I was right about you being in love with him, wasn’t I?” 

“And wrong about just about everything else in life.” 

He crossed his arms, smug look on his face. “Trust me, I’m right this time.”

Her mind raced. Did that mean Ominis would understand? That’d these feelings would ruin what they had? Or was it even possible that he felt… that he felt the same…

She snapped out of it. She couldn’t entertain that thought. It would hurt too much when it was proven untrue. But she knew Sebastian was right. If she wanted even a chance of passing a single one of her exams…

“I’ll tell him,” she said softly, defeated. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

The next few days passed in a blur. Suddenly, exams weren’t a couple weeks away—they were days away. And she was still trying to prepare with a bum wand. 

Because every time she found herself alone with Ominis, her breath caught in her throat. Everytime she opened her mouth to finally say the words, they fled, leaving her mouth empty and her heart aching. 

It didn’t help that Ominis had seemed to want to spend more time with her. He worried more and more about her wand, having absolutely no clue he was the cause of its malfunction. 

It was now five days before the first exam, and Ominis was pacing in the Undercroft as she sat on the ground watching him. She felt horrible having him worry like this when she held the solution on the tip of her tongue, but the task given to her felt impossible. 

“Maybe we should just go get you a new wand,” he said. “There might be a bit of a learning curve, but you’ll be able to overcome it.”

She had to tell him. It was driving both of them mad. “Ominis.”

“It’s pretty late tonight, I’m not sure Ollivander’s is open at this hour. We’ll have to go in the morning.”

“Ominis.”

“I’m sure there’ll be another wand there for you, I’ve never heard of anyone not finding one, but—”

“Ominis.”

He finally stopped his pacing, head tilting to the side as he stood in place. 

She took a deep, shuddering breath. “Could… could you come over here? I need to talk to you.”

He tensed up immediately, but did as she asked, coming down to the floor beside her. “What is it?” 

Her knees came up to tuck against her chest. “I haven’t been completely honest with you,” she started. “I… I think I know how to fix my wand.”

His brows furrowed. “You… what?” 

“I know how to fix it. I just don’t know how to do it.”

He frowned. “You know how, but you don’t know how?”

“No! I mean—Merlin, why is this so hard—I know what I need to do to fix it, I just don’t know how I’m supposed to do the thing that fixes it.” 

“I’m lost.” 

She let out a loud groan, burying her face in her hands. “Just… let me start over.”

Ominis sat beside her, patiently waiting for her to gather her thoughts. 

“I went to Ollivander’s a while back, right?” she started.

“Right,” Ominis said slowly. “But he didn’t have much to say, didn’t he?”

“That’s… not entirely true,” she admitted. “He told me my wand is Black Walnut. That it doesn’t work if the wielder is lying, to themselves or others. He couldn’t tell me what I was being untruthful about, of course, which made it pretty useless seeing as I didn’t have a clue what it was about at the time.”

“But you know now?” Ominis asked. 

She was quiet for a moment. “Yes. I figured it out.” 

She looked at him, taking him in in case this was the last time she got to do it. She took in the slight unevenness of his nose, the curve of his full bottom lip. The beauty marks laid out on his cheeks. The one strand of hair that fell away from the rest, begging her to brush it back. 

“I need to tell you,” she said softly. “I can’t lie about it anymore. To myself. To you.” 

He was clearly nervous, no doubt having a million thoughts of what it could be running through his head. She wondered if any came close to the truth. 

“I love you, Ominis.” 

Just like that, she saw all those racing thoughts cease. Her heart pounded in her chest, trying to read every part of his expression, waiting for anger, disgust, betrayal. But it morphed into the last thing she expected—a grin, one of his rare ones that stretched across his whole face. 

And even more surprising, he began to laugh. 

She couldn’t help but be hurt, deciding she rather have had him yell at her instead of laugh at her. She got to her feet, starting toward the door. 

“Wait!” he called out, standing and grabbing her wrist with frightening precision for a blind man. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at what you said. It’s just I’ve been worried sick about your wand this whole time, and the problem happened to be the thing I’ve wanted the most.”

“The thing you wanted the most,” she echoed, turning back to him. He was still smiling, but it had softened. “You… you wanted me to love you?”

“Of course,” he said, stepping closer. His grip on her wrist slipped down to take her hand. “Seeing how I love you, too.”

Her stomach flipped as she took in his face, closer to hers than it had ever been. Ominis brought up his other hand, letting it rest on her cheek. “I’ve loved you for some time now,” he said softly. 

“Me, too,” she said, voice no more than a whisper. “Though I was a bit of an idiot in realizing it.”

“Good thing I love idiots. You and Sebastian prove that plenty.”

She chuckled a bit, but it died on her lips as he leaned his face toward hers. He was only a breath away. 

“May I…”

She didn’t let him finish his question, cutting him off by pressing her lips to his. He’d been caught off guard, but it didn’t stop him from returning the kiss immediately. The hand on her face brought her closer, and his fingers tangled themselves in her hair. Her hands rested on his shoulders, trying to remind herself how to stand properly. Each brush of his lips felt like coming undone. Every touch of his fingertips set her world aflame. 

And when they pulled away, trying in vain to catch their breath, she felt alive for the first time. 

Then a thought crossed her mind, and she groaned, burying her head in Ominis’s shoulder. “What’s that about, love?”

“I’m going to have to tell Sebastian he was right. Again.”

She felt his chuckle rise up from his chest. “A hefty price to pay. But I think it was worth it.” 

He lifted her face to kiss her once again, and she couldn’t help but agree.

[yanderes-galore]

Could you write a yandere concept for Karin (f&h 2: termina)?

Sure! I researched her wiki so I hope things are in character :) Here's some HCs for her. I really have to play the game for myself but I just... hate the idea of dying over and over again and relying on luck to have a good run.

Yandere! Karin Sauer Concept

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Stalking, Manipulation, Jealousy, Overprotective behavior, Violence, Secret picture taking, Threats, Murder, Blood, Forced relationship/companionship.

Karin is a reporter and assertive woman who refuses to believe in the occult no matter what anyone says.

She always tries to take a rational route to understand things... but she still remains cautious during the festival.

Armed with a knife and handgun, she went on the train to research the Kaiser and "New Gods" for a paper and answers about her father's death.

She's determined, impulsive, short tempered, and dismissive of others.

Even in her first meeting with her potential obsession, she's dismissive of their help and goes off to find answers herself.

In a lot of her dialogue, she us hostile towards people like Daan and doesn't like to consider the idea of magic or religion.

The only time she decides to be cooperative and take help from others is later on when she realizes there's more danger than she can handle.

I imagine Karin comes off as hostile towards you at times.

She acts like she doesn't want your help... but deep down she really does appreciate it.

Karin enjoys discussing theories on what could've happened in the Termina Festival as long as you don't try to say it's occult related (it is, but she's in denial)

Karin's skills are routed in persuasion, lockpicking, handguns, and knives.

She wants to talk things out with others before turning to violence.

You could also argue she'd be charismatic, especially with her obsession to get them on her side most of the time.

If Karin antagonizes other contestants, her obsession may actually be able to break the fight up.

Her temper does not help when she's jealous or... any part of her obsession.

She tries not to be violent for both you and her... but she can be so mean towards other contestants near you.

She isn't new to violence, if tempted she'll no doubt use it.

But she does try to listen to her obsession and holds herself back.

Despite her hostility, Karin shows cares for her darling.

When she isn't taking pictures or trying to rationalize with herself... she checks in with you.

Even if you believed in the occult, she may tolerate that when it comes to you.

Everyone needs some way to rationalize with themselves.

Karin, in terms of rivalry, may be the most volatile with Daan or O'saa.

She has the most hostile experiences with them, so if her obsession was close with any of them she may be more irritable.

If she snapped at her obsession, she'd immediately regret it and apologize once she's attached.

If you two had to separate for any reason, Karin probably couldn't stay away from you.

Even if you told her to stay at the train for a bit, she'll follow you secretly.

She worries about your survival skills and thinks she's just... protecting you.

Karin seems like a yandere who would take pictures of her obsession and hide them away in her jacket.

It's all done in secret... and if she's ever caught she'll threaten others to keep it secret or just straight up deny it.

Karin, even though she tries to prevent it, could kill.

Maybe she sees a contestant too close to you... and plans to kill them.

When you catch her with her knife bloody or her gun smoking... she has her excuses.

"They were going to hurt you! After all, isn't this a killing game? You can't trust anyone here... except for each other, right?"

She then steps closer, a smile on her face as she puts away her weapons.

"You can trust me, love... I'm protecting you from this foul city."

The moment she starts trying to convince you the other contestants are going to harm you is when things go downhill.

As the timer ticks down, Karin slowly starts to take those out around you.

Party members aren't safe as Karin monitors them to see what their intentions with you are.

They'll still fall by her hand.

Karin can try threats... but if that doesn't work it isn't like she hasn't killed before.

She soon gives up persuasion.

Just words won't work for her... she needs to know she'll have you safe and beside her.

Like most contestants, I can see her locking you in a room until you both Moonscorch.

Her attempts to rationalize her behavior and the events happening make her go crazy.

By the time she locks you away, her clothes are covered in blood and she's holding you still.

"You aren't going to die like an animal out there..."

Karin whispers in your ear, crazed eyes never leaving yours.

"I'll keep you here... with me... safe and sound..."

Her mind is corrupted due to the timer ticking down... Moonscorch approaching both of you.

Of course... deep down she probably knows you aren't safe anywhere.

However... that doesn't stop her from clinging to you, caressing your cheek lovingly as she presses a kiss to your forehead.

The blood coats your skin as she hugs you tighter.

You jolt for a moment when the photos she took of you fall out of her pocket... you try to squirm, but she silences you.

"Just relax... I won't hurt you. No one can hurt you now...."

Escape was always a distant dream.

As the timer ends... Moonscorch occurs.

You become a lost soul meant for the Valkyrie to guide and care for... forever meant to roam the decaying lands of this hell.

[nadas-dirthalen]

Were those just theories in the Titan/ Lyrium War post?! I need to know all the things!!

Half theories! I've seen a few codices that I've been thinking on for a long time. So here's my reason behind why I used the tags I did on that post.

This is very, very long. But it's the best collection I can cobble together of all the reasons I think these things.

Beware: HORROR OF HORMAK story spoilers at the bottom of this post!

"Mythal and Elgar'nan are both cited as mining/carving slain titans for their lyrium."

In the light of the veilfire, the runes seem to shift, coiling and uncoiling like snakes. A thunderous voice shatters the stillness, shouting: "Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!" For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast. A voice whispers: "What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all."

The Titans are referred to as "the pillars of the earth" often enough that it's made it onto the Dragon Age wiki. Mythal slew at least one Titan and then gave that Titan's demesme (lands or domain) to the People (the ancient elves). The ending text of this codex makes it sound like this was later something regretted, if not by Mythal, then by the other elves of the time.

You can also see PLENTY of Mythal statues in the Deep Roads, particularly during Trespasser — curiously, with wolves always guarding the doors.

Ghilan'nain's statues feature almost as prominently in these places.

The pages of this book—memory?—describe a monument made in a single afternoon by a thousand-thousand toiling servants swarming over a lump of fallen stone as large as a collapsed mountain. By the end of the day, the stern figure of Elgar'nan stares down into a valley, carved out from the foothills of the rock. The slaves have disappeared. Light radiates from the eidolon's narrowed eyes and its open, snarling mouth. "Hail Elgar'nan, first among the gods! Mark his victory eternal!"

I take this to mean Titans/lyrium because of how widespread it is that Elgar'nan threw the sun into the earth and then brought it back out. In ancient elvhen, the words for sun (elgara) and spirit (elgar) are almost the exact same. This could mean bringing spirits (or bringing spirits against their will) into the Earth (the Titans' domain).

"It is very possible the evanuris made their own bodies out of lyrium."

This one is more theorycrafting than anything, and I'll direct you to this video where a lot of things started clicking into place for me.

But I want to add this codex to the discussion as well.

Many of these pages are filled with sketches of elven statues matching the ones found in the area, along with notes and what look like attempts to practice Qunlat: Trying to remember that old bedtime song about Mythal. My mother sang it the night before the darkspawn came for my clan. It's the last time I ever heard her voice. Ir sa tel'nal, Mythal las ma theneras. Ir san'a emma. Him solas evanuris. Da'durgen'lin, Banal malas elgara. Bellanaris, bellanaris.

Now, for the purposes of this discussion, we're going to ignore the provided translation, because we know that translation is wrong in a few spots. From my best understanding, this is as close as I can translate it.

I am [one] [not/never] [nal], Mythal grants [you/me] dreams, I [am/was] [here] [within], [Becomes/Became] Solas evanuris. Little stone [boy], Nothing [given/granted] to [the sun], Forever, forever.

Everything [in brackets] is an educated guess, the best as I can make it.

If I've gotten the translation close to right, this describes Solas, a spirit that is called to take the shape of a "little stone boy," becoming one of the Evanuris at Mythal's behest.

"They made unliving champions with no need to breathe to fight on their behalf."

A codex entry!

The pages of this book—memory?—show a narrow plateau on top of a mountain, Two armored figures—one in gold, one in black—are fighting in the snow. Steel flickers so fast the air hums. Blood dots the ground. They do not stop for breath. The one in black makes no sound as a blade parts his throat. "Mythal, in her wisdom, interceded in an argument between Elgar'nan and Falon'Din. With clever words, she convinced them to settle their grievance through a battle of their champions. Elgar'nan and Falon'Din agreed, and set their champions against each other rather than declare war among the gods. May those knights long be remembered, and Mythal's wisdom be praised."

Worth noting, this codex is titled "Duel of a Hundred Years."

These things aren't human! They bleed, but don't breathe. They never stop fighting. This duel lasts 100 years.

"Ghilan'nain's lab is fueled by lyrium that causes those awful mutations."

I don't have screencaps to pull quotes from, but it's yellow-green lyrium at the center of the part of Ghilan'nain's lab in Horror of Hormak that monsters are coming out of, and this lyrium is what's exploded to destroy the lab and all its creatures.

Honorable Mentions:

• Andruil's entire story with her trips to the Void make me think of the abyss being the deep underground (and the endless sky very deep underground), and Mythal sapping Andruil's strength and storing her memories makes me think of lyrium.

• Solas talking about Falon'din in the Temple of Mythal makes me think that amassing more worshippers may well have meant creating them from Mythal's lyrium stores.

INQUISITOR: Do you know any legends? SOLAS: It is said Falon’Din’s appetite for adulation was so great, he began wars to amass more worshippers. The blood of those who wouldn’t bow low filled lakes as wide as oceans. Mythal rallied the gods, once the shadow of Falon’Din’s hunger stretched across her own people. It was almost too late. Falon’Din only surrendered when his brethren bloodied him in his own temple. INQUISITOR: Did ancient elves believe all their gods so terrifying? SOLAS: Yes. I believe they did.

SO YEAH!! Lyrium war! Lyrium war, I say!!! It's on my Veilguard bingo card for sure—either as an explanation of what came before, something that will begin in Veilguard, or both.

[andreal831]

I've been wondering about Hope's sire bonds and specifically Hayley's because they never address it in-show. we know Hope's sire bonds work like Klaus' (ie they dont require love/obsession like vampire/vampire ones ex - Damon/Elena) in that whoever her blood turns is immediately loyal to her until they break it. during the gap between s1 and s2 of TO, it's said that hayley spent a lot of time as wolf roaming around the bayou grieving and i like to think with Hayley's previous work breaking hybrids' sire bonds with Klaus, she knew how to break her own and that's when it happened.

on the topic of Hayley and werewolf transitions, it's such a shame they'd killed her already when they had Hope transition as Hayley being the one to talk her through it would make so much more sense than Klaus (also i wanted to see Klaus' wolf form with wolf!Hope, would've been cute) as we'd seen Hayley with the girl in s3 during the road trip and she was always much more in touch with her wolf side than Klaus was. Klaus never seemed like he cared about being a wolf, just what it represented (the power that was stolen from him by Esther & Mikael).

totally random but Legacies deciding that post tribrid transition, Hope could magic herself clothes after turning human from wolf form was so funny to me. it just felt so dumb.

I like your theory about Hayley breaking the sirebond. I think she definitely would have needed to break it being so far away from Hope. She was already missing her the normal amount a mother would be after sending her newborn child away. But with the sirebond on top of it, it would have driven her mad. It would make sense that was what she was doing in the bayou. But I fear you have spent more time thinking about it than the writers. Much like the Damon/Elena sirebond. They wrote it in for a very specific purpose and then just pretended it didn't exist anymore.

I also hated how the writers changed the different bonds to fit the plot. Why would Klaus' sirebond operate any differently than a typical sirebond which requires preexisting feelings. Purely for plot device.

I absolutely hated that they centered Hope transitioning for the first time around Klaus. The man didn't even transition once after he broke the curse. He felt nearly no connection to wolves and didn't understand or try to understand pack life. It should have been Hayley with Hope. Hayley understood being a wolf on a deep level, and as you pointed out, helped people in the past. It was such an unnecessary dig at Hayley to kill her as a vampire. They stripped her of the thing that made her feel most her and then killed her.

I also agree that Klaus didn't care about being a wolf. He cared about power. He needed to be the most powerful, including next to his siblings. TO Season 1 kind of teases Klaus being interested in his wolf side but then it is completely dropped. Except for Klaus shouting about being a hybrid every five seconds.

I feel like all of Legacies was just one big joke honestly. They twisted the rules and laws of the world they spent nearly a decade establishing because they were lazy.

Thanks for the ask!

[1moremilgram-enjoyer]

Deep Cover Partial Analysis

Updated Murder Theory, "Lucky" & Kotoko's Relationship, T2 Verdict

Hello there, members of the jury! Deep Cover, huh? There's a decent bit to talk about in this MV, more than I really want to cover in just this post. So to put down my initial thoughts somewhere, I'm writing this! An update on my old theory from HARROW, my thoughts on Kotoko's relationship with the girl with the "Lucky" hat (which I'll just call Lucky for convenience), and my verdict for Trial 2!

CW Violent murder and blood, vigilantism, child kidnapping

Me trying to figure out what's going on in this video

Updated Murder Theory

What IS Kotoko's murder?

In the aftermath of the video, there have been a few different ideas about why exactly Kotoko ended up in Milgram, what her “Milgram murder” actually is. And while there are certainly many very interesting ideas going around, and I always love seeing different interpretations of what these videos show, I feel a lot of them are overcomplicating things.

This is Kotoko's killshot from Undercover. This is the most concrete confirmation we have of why Kotoko is in Milgram. Kotoko's murder involves her kicking someone to death. And given how much focus is put on her killing the white hoodie guy, both in HARROW and in Deep Cover, I feel the simplest explanation is that Kotoko's "Milgram murder" is the murder of the white hoodie guy.

That last point is important btw. The white hoodie guy death is the only one that actually is referenced in both HARROW and Deep Cover. Every MV to date has at least included an allusion to the murder, even if really abstract like Magic and Tear Drop. If Kotoko's "Milgram murder" involves Oshii, then Deep Cover is the only MV not to reference the murder. If her "Milgram murder" involves Lucky, the HARROW is the only MV not to reference the murder. This is inconsistent with all other MVs, which would be strange. You get what I'm saying?

Plus, let’s not forget what Kotoko says in TASK.

[TASK]

Kotoko: I did kill someone

Someone, singular. Unless there’s some ambiguity that’s lost on translation, Kotoko only killed one person, and her Milgram murder is kicking someone to death. She killed the white hoodie guy by kicking him, so he’s sorta the only option as to who her Milgram murder is.

And yes, Kotoko could have lied in her MV, but she has no reason to. She also says this:

[TASK]

Kotoko: After all, Es, you can access my heart, right? Through songs and videos..

Es: That is correct.

Kotoko: Then there's no problem. People who understand will automatically do so

So Kotoko believes the videos will reveal her murder, meaning she’d likely get caught in a lie once the extraction process began. Given she’s trying to team up with Es in TASK, being seen as a liar by them is counter-productive. In other words, Kotoko shouldn’t be lying here. Unless she somehow forgot another murder, she’s only killed the white hoodie guy.

The reason it's considered an "indirect" murder (if you don't know what that means, uh, don't worry about it) is that under Japanese law, it wasn't judged as actual murder, but rather legitimate defense, as revealed in Deep Cover. Now, I fully believe Kotoko did want to kill the guy and it wasn't entirely defense, but that's the ultimate ruling. Thus, I believe an "indirect" murder in Milgram's eyes is "an act which led to someone's death, but wouldn't be judged as murder in a court of law." Which is the definition I was always working with anyways lol.

All this to say, I don't think Lucky ever died, since as far as I can tell there is no solid evidence for it. It’s a nice theory, I like reading about it, I just don’t subscribe to it.

Now, I do want to be clear. There are still inconsistencies with this being the Milgram murder. The alley in Kotoko’s prisoner card is very strange, and while there are alternatives as to what those images could represent, they’re not very strong. Indeed, the card is very weird.

Additionally, her Trial 2 Voice Trailer distorted line doesn’t fit perfectly either. The lines in that trailer are generally understood to be from before the murder, but Kotoko’s seems to be directed at Lucky, which would place it after the warehouse incident. It could be directed at a different character, but it would have to be someone we’ve never seen before.

That said, no current theory about Kotoko’s murder is perfect. At some point you have to accept some inconsistencies somewhere, and I feel like the white hoodie guy murder being the Milgram murder is the least inconsistent of the answers. Occam’s razor; the simplest explanation, the one which makes the least assumptions, is usually the most accurate.

The Article and New Details

In Deep Cover, Kotoko is seen reading an article about her murder.

I'll leave two translations: Translation 1 and Translation 2. I recommend reading both for a full picture of what the text seems to say.

Now, this article gives us a few more details than we had in HARROW. First, white hoodie guy's name is Kaneshiro Tsugumichi (or Michi for short) and his father's name is Kaneshiro Isamu. Second, we also learn that Kotoko actually faced trial for her murder, but as she vaguely implied in TASK, the case was ruled as "justifiable defense", despite later investigations going against that idea. And of course they did, Kotoko tracked this guy down and went in fully intending to kill him. The ruling is at best a technicality and at worst a complete mistake. Still enough to qualify as "indirect" murder in my eyes though.

Kotoko's testimony of justifiable defense was corroborated by Lucky, although Lucky later retracted her statement. We'll get there.

Finally, the article ends by revealing that the case had become a bit of an internet meme. People claimed there were "multiple murderers" (referring to Michi and Kotoko) and that Kotoko was a hero. Or, rather, a "female university student." Given the wording in the article, I believe it's possible Kotoko's identity was never revealed to the public, as there would be no point in hiding her name if that weren't the case. I don't know enough about Japanese law to know if this makes sense or not, but I feel it's at least a possibility.

The article doesn't add much to what we already knew, but it's nice to get some extra details.

The Shots for the Updated Theory

Given how little this murder is actually referenced in the MV, you'd think there isn't much we can learn here, but there are two moments that I feel can help build on my previous (pretty outdated) theory.

What do we learn from these shots? Well, the main thing is that Lucky was actually in the room when the murder happened. Because while it's true the lighting and Lucky's position are slightly inconsistent, the water in the dark floor combined with Kotoko's kneeling position heavily implies these two shots happen one after the other.

More importantly, though, we actually see the restraints she had in the room she was being kept in in the floor.

This would imply she didn't go there on her own, and wasn't moved by Kotoko, who would have naturally removed the restraints before moving her. That means Michi moved her from the small room to the death room. And this fixes one of the biggest issues with HARROW's depiction of the murder: the switching rooms.

(Yes the shot in Deep Cover is flipped. No I don't know why)

As you can see, the walls are slightly different. And of course, they're way more open than the room the girl was being kept in. My original explanation for why this happens was more complicated than necessary, but now we have a bit more context.

First, the difference in the warehouse walls can just be explained by assuming these are two different sections of the warehouse, or even two warehouses which are connected somehow. This is somewhat consistent with the outside appearance of the warehouse:

You see how there's two buildings that share a wall? If that wall has a door, it would be possible to go from one to the other. And if they have different walls for some reason, it's possible the wall change simply happens because they enter one and end up in the other.

And why did they move? Well, because of the discarded restraints in Deep Cover, we can assume that perhaps Michi attempted to escape from Kotoko with Lucky in tow. He could have stunned Kotoko somehow (hammer maybe?), and ran away to the death room. Here's a diagram!

Pretty simple, right?

The Time Skip Confirmation

This is also a continuation of my previous theory. If you're not aware, Kotoko sees Michi kidnapping Lucky while she's wearing her blue and yellow hoodie, but attacks with her red hoodie.

I believed this, among other things, implied there was actually a period of time between when Kotoko spots the kidnapping and when she actually steps in. And the shot of Lucky on the floor corroborates this, as she's already bruised as if she had spent a decent amount of time under Michi's grasp.

As to why Kotoko didn't step in immediately, while I originally believed she was disheartened in some way, I now think it may have more to do with trying to hide her identity as she did when she attacked Oshii. Men's sneakers, red hoodie, etc. Except this time there was a witness, and since she apparently forgot her face covering at home, she couldn’t avoid being recognized and had to go to court. Perhaps that's why she seems so distressed when Lucky hugs her? She didn't want the attention, she didn't want to be recognized, because it would mean having to deal with the law.

Anyways, what does this mean? Well, not much, really. But it’s important because it means Kotoko wasn’t prepared to see a kidnapping that day, which in my eyes throws out some theories I’ve seen around about her possibly setting up Lucky as bait for Michi. If she had done that, surely she would have already been wearing the correct outfit, wouldn’t she?

And speaking of Lucky…

On Kotoko and Lucky's Relationship

This has almost become the main point of discussion around the MV, so I feel compelled to talk about it. Here’s what we know:

-Lucky originally testified to corroborate Kotoko’s testimony in court, but later, apparently while speaking to Isamu, retracted it. We don’t know what, if anything, Kotoko told her after the murder, but we can assume Kotoko lied to her the same way she lied to everyone else; “killing Michi was the only way to stop him, it was legitimate defense.” We also don’t know why she retracted her statement, but I’ll get to it in a moment.

By the way, Isamu claims Lucky may have been threatened, but I just don’t believe him. Lucky doesn’t seem scared of Kotoko until the very end (after the retraction), and Isamu has been involved in cover-ups of his son’s crimes before, as implied in HARROW. It’s in his best interest to defend his family name if he can cast doubt on Lucky’s testimony (more on this later).

-After the retraction of the statement, Kotoko is sitting on a park bench reading an article about it when Lucky comes up to her to show her the matching hat. Kotoko distractedly pats her head, but mostly ignores her in favor of the article. We don’t know if this meeting was arranged, or if Lucky just stumbled into Kotoko randomly and wanted to show off her cool hat. I’m leaning on the latter, personally. We also don’t know if they interacted further, or if Lucky just left immediately after. There’s no way to tell.

-After the park scene (note that Lucky already has the hat on her head, unlike when she first shows it off), Lucky waits outside a book store, mimicking Kotoko’s wall lean from HARROW. Lucky sees Kotoko and walks up to her, but becomes horrified when she sees the look in Kotoko’s eyes. Kotoko is wearing her murder outfit, and looks very angry. She ignores Lucky for the most part, only giving her a spare glance as she walks past. This means the meeting was not arranged, as Kotoko clearly wasn’t in the mood for it.

We don’t know why Lucky was waiting in front of the book store (was she waiting for Kotoko? did she know where Kotoko would be? Or was she waiting for something/someone else and just happened to recognize Kotoko walking by?). We don’t know if they met in more occasions, or if we’re shown the full extent of their interactions after meeting in court (did Lucky start mimicking Kotoko after hanging out a lot? or did she pick up the habit almost instantly, having seen Kotoko do the wall lean after the murder/during court procedure?).

I repeat that we don’t know much because, well, that’s the main problem here. We just don’t know, and we can’t know based just on the events of Deep Cover what their deal is. The only info we definitely have is:

-Lucky likes Kotoko, even after retracting her statement, though she’s scared of her meaner side.

-Kotoko appears dismissive of Lucky, at least from what we saw.

And that’s it! The only way we can further try to infer what their relationship is like is by looking at Kotoko’s character and speculating on what she would act like around this child. Thankfully, Kotoko’s actions are very straightforwardly informed by her overly simplistic worldview.

According to Kotoko, there are essentially three types of people. The Evil People who oppress and hurt those weaker than them:

(T1) Q20: What do you think is evil?

K: Oppressing innocent weaklings.

The Hero who will protect the Weaklings by destroying the Evil People:

[Deep Cover]

Come on, rely on me, go on

I became your fangs

As the long-awaited hero I engraved the answer

Tell me why you tell me, “Stop”

Don’t you dare stop now

I want a reason for judgment execution, I want it

Give me the next target

(I hate mobile formatting I hate mobile formatting I hate-)

And the Weaklings, who need to stay out of the way.

[Trial 2 Voice Trailer]

Kotoko: From the beginning I've never asked for your understanding! My actions, one by one, are bringing earth closer to peace. Useless weaklings should just shut up and let me protect them!

Weaklings shouldn’t meddle with the actions of the Hero, because the Hero knows best. If a decision or course of action is too difficult for a Weakling, they have to sit back and let the Hero choose for them.

[YONAH]

Kotoko: Weak... You're too weak. With that fragile body of yours, you can't stop anyone. You can't protect anyone. You can't even do your justice. All imperfect.

[…]

K: You're unable to do it yourself, that's why you need me. The fangs to do your will.

This fits with Kotoko, the Hero, being so dismissive towards Lucky, a Weakling. She probably wouldn’t want someone like Lucky to mimick her, because Lucky is Weak and should just rely on Kotoko for protection. It’s what gives Kotoko’s life meaning, after all.

[Deep Cover]

I want a reason for judgment execution, I want it

Give me the next target

This is what makes me believe that Kotoko and Lucky may have never really hung out outside of what we’re shown in Deep Cover. Because simply put, there’s no reason for Kotoko to be hanging out with her after the court case. Even back then, the only thing Kotoko had to tell her was that her murder was legitimate defense, which again is just what she was telling everyone else. Kotoko most likely had no reason to believe Lucky would retract her statement, and she doesn’t seem interested in hanging out with her for any other reason.

To be clear, I do think Kotoko cares about Lucky to some extent. She did show up in the magic subconscious video, after all. Kotoko is most likely glad to see Lucky happy, at least. I’m just saying that I don’t think their relationship really extended beyond “it’s nice to bump into each other in the street occasionally.” Of course, that’s only my interpretation, it’s perfectly fine if you interpret it in some other way.

Temporary CW Grooming

No, I don’t think Kotoko groomed Lucky. Unless you count lying to her about how legitimate the defense was, which again is more of a lie Kotoko told everyone than anything Lucky specific. I can definitely see the angle, the few scenes we have are pretty damn sketchy if you look at them a certain way, but I don’t think we have to assume the worst. Again, there is no reason for Kotoko to even groom her in the first place. She wouldn’t want Lucky to follow in her footsteps; she has no reason to be worried about the testimony, at least up until the retraction; and there’s not many other reasons she would have to do it. And Kotoko is decently pragmatic, she doesn’t usually bother doing things she doesn’t need.

To be clear, I absolutely believe Kotoko would have groomed Lucky, if it had been convenient for her. She does it to Es in YONAH, the lines I already used.

[YONAH]

Kotoko: Weak... You're too weak. With that fragile body of yours, you can't stop anyone. You can't protect anyone. You can't even do your justice. All imperfect.

[…]

K: You're unable to do it yourself, that's why you need me. The fangs to do your will.

That’s grooming. That’s what’s happening there. I’m not trying to defend this or even Kotoko, she absolutely is a groomer and this is Very Horrible. This deserves discussion, but it’s not what this post is about.

However, in YONAH, Kotoko has a reason to be doing it. She needs Es to hand out the Guilty judgements she wants. That doesn’t make it better, it just makes it in line with her character. She has no reason to manipulate Lucky, and again, she’s always shown to be dismissive of her.

Again, I do see where the concern comes from, and I wouldn’t be 100% surprised if it turned out to be true. I just don’t like to jump to conclusions on this sort of thing on principle, not when we have so little context for what we’re seeing, and especially not when it’s somewhat contradictory to Kotoko’s character and the central themes of her story.

Temporary CW Over

The Withdrawal of the Statement

This is one of the weirdest details of the MV, so I feel I should address it before signing off. Here’s what we know:

-Lucky testified in court that she was saved by “a female university student” according to the article (read: saved by Kotoko), and corroborated Kotoko’s testimony. Which was likely: she was being kidnapped (true), Kotoko caught the kidnapper red-handed (basically true, Lucky was tied up and on the floor with Michi beside her), Kotoko and Michi got into a fight over it (true), and Kotoko had to kill Michi to stop him (debatable, but Lucky likely believed it true).

-After the trial, Kaneshiro Isamu, the CEO of a big newspaper company, launches a private investigation that concludes Kotoko used excessive force.

-After that, it’s mentioned Isamu claims that Lucky retracted her statement.

-Isamu also claims some other stuff, trying to muddy up whether or not his son really was a kidnapper or not, but being The Guy That Covered Up a Bunch of Child Murders, I’m not inclined to believe him.

When I lay it all out like this, it seems like there’s a pretty simple explanation for what happened here. There is only one part of Lucky’s statement that could have needed retracting, the “legitimate defense” part, and that’s exactly what Isamu’s investigation contradicted. Given it’s Isamu, a newspaper company CEO of all things, the one who reveals the withdrawal, it’s assumed Lucky retracted it in his presence or in the presence of someone working for him. Meaning they could have told Lucky there was evidence of excessive force.

With that in mind, I believe it’s possible Lucky was told Kotoko may have used excessive force, and decided just in case to go back on the whole “legitimate defense” thing. Which of course Isamu spins into “she retracted the entire statement” because that’s what’s most convenient for him, who is likely trying to protect the family name from accusations of kidnapping.

I feel this is the most straightforward answer as to what could have happened. It’s consistent with Lucky still wanting to hang out with Kotoko and getting matching hats, it fits with her being scared of Kotoko later as she fully realizes Isamu and his people may have had a point, it fits Isamu’s known behavior, and it fits the context of the article.

It could even vaguely fit Lucky’s design choices. You know how her outfit looks like a prisoner’s outfit? Well, she sure is trapped in a weird situation between the kidnapping, Kotoko lying, Isamu trying to get her to retract the statement… I don’t know if this makes sense or not but I’m saying it anyways!

Is it the only possibility? Hell no. We have way too little context about the withdrawal to say anything definitive, so I’m perfectly open to hearing different reasons for why it could have happened. At the moment, though, I believe this to be one of the more solid possibilities.

This idea could also indicate who Kotoko wants to kill at the end, given she is wearing her murder outfit and all. She could take this as Isamu and his people manipulating a “weakling”, and we know she doesn’t take kindly to that kind of thing. That’s complete speculation, though, so don’t take it very seriously. I still think she only killed one person anyways, because of the whole “killed someone (singular)” thing.

Verdict

With all of it laid out, what am I voting her this Trial?

To what I imagine is no one’s surprise, Guilty.

I know this post has been kinder to her than a lot of other posts going around, but that doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the awful things Kotoko has done, and would continue to do if Forgiven this Trial. Already, she is stuck in a cycle of violence where the only way she can find fulfillment is by attacking those she considers worthy of punishment, a problem she’s had since Trial 1. While I don’t think regret is necessary for forgiveness (I’m the “Local Amane Momose Apologist” for a reason), it is important for forgiveness that I can believe they won’t continue to do the same bad thing in the future, which is not the case with Kotoko. At least from what we know, it seems she would absolutely kill someone else if fully Forgiven.

And that’s without the very obvious meta aspect. There are quite a few prisoners who could be in real danger if she’s Forgiven. The most obvious ones being Muu and Haruka (even if Haruka does have other stuff to worry about too), but Amane and Mikoto could also be targets because Kotoko didn’t manage to get to them in Trial 1. Oh, and Es. She would probably try manipulating them further if she sees them as an ally, which is what a Forgiven verdict would cause.

Mind you, an Unforgiven verdict isn’t perfect, either. She will certainly become antagonistic towards Es if she’s Unforgiven, so I doubt she’d actually listen to the verdict. She’ll likely close herself off and become isolated, which is the worst thing that can happen to someone with a mindset like hers.

Hell, it’s not even perfect for prison safety purposes. A restrained Kotoko is still probably stronger than a restrained Muu, a restrained Haruka and even an unrestrained Amane. Just, hopefully not strong enough to cause serious damage.

More pressingly, though, Kotoko herself is a massive target, given she’s antagonized basically the entire prison. Fuuta has a vendetta and a strong sense of justice, and while I’d hope he’s learnt the lesson that he shouldn’t take justice into his own hands, Amane’s religion (which is clearly starting to influence him) also places a lot of value on punishing those who go against destiny, so. Then there’s the fact Kotoko’s clearly shown herself as a threat to Mikoto, and while violence landed them into the Milgram mess in the first place, John might decide Kotoko’s dangerous enough to warrant becoming a “savior” again.

And God forbid she does get hurt and Shidou doesn’t have enough time or resources to treat all the injured people around. Because Mr “someone’s value cannot be the same as another” Kirisaki is not going to help Kotoko at anyone else’s expense.

But ultimately, we have to pick the lesser of two evils. From a meta sense, I’m more worried about what Kotoko could do to Muu/Amane than what Fuuta/John/whoever else could do to Kotoko. More importantly, from a mindset sense, I’m more worried about enabling and encouraging her current behavior (which at this point would be practically irreversible, given there’s only one Trial left) than antagonizing her and causing her to isolate. Both are bad, but one of them has a chance of getting the personification of the death penalty (death penalty without trial, no less) to change her ways.

See, what I’m hoping is that (depending of what happens from this point on) we can try to make amends and Forgive on Trial 3, with the hope she understands we believe she’s in the wrong, but that we won’t abandon her and she deserves a chance to better herself. That compassion could be enough for her to start working towards improvement… maybe.

I’m definitely being way too optimistic, but when we’re working with The Worst System in History, all that’s left is to try our best and hope things turn out alright, even when we lack good tools to try and make that happen.

I sincerely hope she can break the toxic mindset she’s stuck in and gets to a place where I can vote her Forgiven in Trial 3, but as of right now, a Trial 2 Forgiven is just not on the table for me. Sorry Kotoko, I do feel kinda bad for you still, Milgram’s punishment for the Unforgiven is awful :(

Conclusion

That’s it for now! I’ll maybe make some other posts discussing other stuff in this MV, since there’s surprisingly quite a bit in it, but for now I’ve said what I needed to say. Take care!

[prodigaldaughteralice]

Man, you know what hit me while watching For the Future, and I didn’t say anything about it at the time but it’s been circulating in my head since then?

Amity saying to Boscha “This is a bit much, even for you!”, in comparison to her father a few episodes back saying “this is too much— even for you.” The similarity in structure, the difference in delivery, you know.

And I keep thinking about the theory that Alador and Odalia were pushed to marry by their parents, and about how Amity was pushed to be friends with Boscha, and imagining a bad future where Luz didn’t show up and they ended up in a similar position.

It’s not going to be that bad, right? Sure, Amity never really *liked* Boscha, but you don’t have to like someone to be their friend, you just have to be around them, do things with them, listen when they talk. Having a wife will be like that, right? She’ll just… do the things she’s supposed to do, and live alongside her. It’ll be fine.

The wedding is just another formal event her parents throw, with the complication of Boscha’s parents being part of it too, and constantly trying to one-up hers. In her final act of rebellion, Amity sends Willow an invitation. She doesn’t come. Amity closes a door.

Odalia lightens up on urging Amity to join the Emperor’s Coven when she realizes that as the only one of their kids who follows in Alador’s footsteps magic-wise, it’d be better for her to train to take over the factory someday. She can’t say she exactly enjoys working under her father, since he only ever talks about work, and not even with the spark of interest in his eyes she remembers him having when she was little. Her mother spends most of her time sniping at her mothers-in-law and asking when grandkids are coming, though, and the twins are gadding about through high society and making fun of her whenever they can, so he’s kind of the family member she’s closest to by default.

Things don’t really go well. Boscha thinks the way their mothers constantly fight is hilarious, and she definitely enjoys the status that comes along with the Blight name, but she definitely doesn’t love the way her new in-laws expect her to wind potions skills into the family business or else just stay out of the way. She wants to win trophies, not be one. She’s also not stupid, and she knows Amity doesn’t love her— knew since long before the wedding, but she hoped that would change over time, and as it continues not to she’s building up an intense resentment. They were meant for each other, why can’t Amity see it? She’s being the queen of Bonesborough society, they’re on top together just like it was in high school only better, but Amity still doesn’t love her, and it’s not fair.

Some years on, they have a daughter. She’s the absolute light of Amity’s life, but by the time she’s toddling Boscha is already starting to take out some of her resentment on her. She pushes her too hard, she makes fun of the way she garbles words. The baby’s  just being a baby, and Amity tries to get Boscha to lighten up, but Boscha says she’s just having fun and being a mom, which Amity isn’t because she’s working all day, and she doesn’t have a comeback for that.  

Amity’s trying to calm Boscha down, taking her to matches when she has a rare night off and they can get a sitter, but it just prickles at her more— she wants to be on the field, not watching; she wants to be on a real date with her wife, not an awkward attempt at appeasement.

It’s all eating away at Amity. She looks into her daughter’s three beautiful gold eyes and she’s terrified her little girl will feel like this, someday.

She’s sleepwalking through her days, she feels like one of her mother’s ghosts. She’s working, because it’s the only thing she really understands anymore. She’s elbow-deep in the beta design for the 3.6, and she nearly jumps out of her skin when her father puts a hand on her shoulder.

He has a bottle of hard apple blood. They go sit on the roof, and they talk.

She can’t say she sees a way through to happiness, but at least she’s not alone. That’s something, isn’t it?

[imsickofpasswords]

GOS2 analysis: A New Hope (or… Guys, I think I cracked the ending !!!😳🤯)

SPOILER ALERT!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!SPOILER ALERT!!! (Even for those who watched both seasons several times!!!)

Hi! You are about to read a mixture between a theory and a revelation. Both could be figments of my mind making things up by dint of overthinking and overwatching (...is there such a thing as overwatching GO?) Anyway, I must warn you that if you DO see what I think I saw, the agony you endured for months (maybe you got used to it, maybe you befriended it, maybe you don’t want it to go), the excruciating pain that led you here, will come to an end NOW. For me, Good Omens is a work-of-art and NOTHING will take the passion/obsession away, trauma or no trauma. If you're like me, then read on! 

Before I dive into the thick of the matter, allow me to stress a couple of things. I know you know, but this is still very important. Please, bear with me…

Aziraphale and Crowley KNOW each other. 

They share a 6000 year-old friendship. Surely you experienced that, at least once in your life, with a long-time friend or partner: you finish each other’s sentences, you glance at each other and burst out laughing when nobody else understands why, you speak the same coded language that doesn’t even require words. That’s how close Aziraphale and Crowley are. Aziraphale can predict Crowley's every reaction. He knows how to manipulate him with just a pout or a frown. Crowley knows what makes Aziraphale tick. He knows what the angel holds dearest. He can figure out Aziraphale's state of mind just by listening to the TONE of his voice. He knows how Aziraphale SMELLS! 

They also know WHO the other one is, I mean deep down, what they want and what they’re capable of… 

Aziraphale and Crowley TRUST each other. 

‘I could always rely on you, you could always rely on me.’ 

And

'You could have walked away'

'You said trust me'

'And you did.'

So on… you know all those lines by heart and I'm sure you could come up with oodles of examples. 

Walls have ears(floors too).

Someone wrote somewhere (was that on Youtube?) that the 25 lazari miracle could have been performed by the Metratron, since the magic circle was once used to contact him and was probably never turned off properly afterwards. That's an interesting theory. 

Personally, I don't believe the Metatron was involved in the miracle. I already elaborated about this in my first theory https://www.tumblr.com/imsickofpasswords/732879204359847936/a-theory-of-the-ineffable-plan-by and sort of got confirmation when Uriel asked what the miracle was and Aziraphale answered 'love, it was love!' 

I nonetheless realized that the Metratron could indeed be using this channel to spy on Aziraphale. If so, since when? I don’t think it could be from the first time Aziraphale drew the circle, because Adam reset reality after that. Adam would have closed the portal, wouldn't he? Idk. My bet is the snooping began after the miracle, and the magnitude of the miracle is what scared the Metratron into trying to separate Aziraphale and Crowley.  

Such considerations had me wonder if what feels like altered memories isn't actually the Metratron prying into Aziraphale's mind (indigovigilance from Tumblr pointed out that ALL the flashbacks seem to emanate from Aziraphale). Or maybe the Metatron has been reading… Aziraphale’s diary. (Btw, does anyone know what happened to that diary?) The Metratron does brag about looking back over Aziraphale's "exploits" (translation: infringements). Plural. So, not just stopping Armageddon? What else? Saving Job's children? Helping out Elspeth? 

What's more, the Metatron compliments Muriel, the "dim one", on reading books. 'What a splendid thing to do!' and then he glares at the bookshop. 

Aziraphale is not always Aziraphale

I don’t know about you, but I shriveled in horror when Aziraphale promised to give away a book. Had I just slipped into another dimension?

One perfectly acceptable explanation is that love is more important to Aziraphale than books. Fine. Why then does he only offer to LEND a book after Crowley pointed out how IMPOSSIBLE it is for the angel to even THINK of selling a book? In the novel, people who insist on buying books from Aziraphale’s shop go missing FOREVER…

It feels like the usurper realized they made a mistake and tried not to make it twice. Also, what's with the French? Aziraphale spoke French when he was in prison, and he certainly wasn't struggling like that. Last but not least, he does move his hands a lot, but not in the same fashion as he usually does. This was NOT Aziraphale (I think).

We saw how supernatural beings can change their appearance without swapping bodies. Shax changed her face whilst hitchhiking when she HAD NO REASON TO (Aziraphale had never met her before). 

I believe the Metatron is the one who turned into Aziraphale. But just for a moment ( I burnt my eyes checking Michael Sheen's every facial expression and gesture and tone of voice throughout the entire season and I couldn't spot anything amiss outside that moment, let me know if I'm wrong). Just a short period of time, then. Why? To see if Crowley would fall for it. I don't know if our beloved demon did. 

The obvious objection to this theory is: surely the real Aziraphale would realize that some of his guests had already been invited by… HIMSELF? Well, Nina kept Crowley for a moment. We don't know that the Metatron didn't go around erasing people's memory of him. 

Ok, okay, admittedly,  it is far-fetched, probably complete bullshit. But I needed to mention this because it's also a part of how I interpret the ending. Nope! I'm not saying the Metatron is the one who got kissed by Crowley!!! That would be… OMG, 🤮

The bullet trick…

Aziraphale is a magician. And his magic seems to always work when he needs it most, providing he uses this formula:"banana, fish, gorilla, shoelace with a dash of nutmeg” the magic words that Mark Gatiss as a zombie reads from the angel's lips. 

And there it comes, the showstopper. Actually the "REHEARSAL of the showstopper", as I call it, and you’ll find out why very soon. Please, pause here and go fetch the scene, you’ll need to watch CAREFULLY. See how scared Crowley is when Aziraphale hands over the gun? Crowley is maybe wondering why the miracles aren't working and if he is not about to actually kill his only friend. Then, Crowley mutters something. No idea what, but something like, I can't do it. And Aziraphale, reading his lips, replies in the same fashion, lipspeaking. Whatever the angel says then, Crowley understands it, and it's enough for him to overcome his fear. 

The ACTUAL showstopper.

I think you got it by now: what I thought when I saw that, and what I wanted to do next. I didn't rush to the last episode although I was dying to. I didn't want to miss anything and I couldn't believe what I expected would actually happen. But it DID. 

The Metatron knows that people are predictable and that nobody ever chooses death over coffee. We don't see his entire conversation with Aziraphale but even if the Metatron doesn't flat out threaten to erase Crowley's name from the Book Of Life, Aziraphale is very aware that this is an option as Michael already said she was given permission to do so. Check Aziraphale's face the minute the Metatron mentions Crowley. Aziraphale hears the threat loud and clear. His face goes grim. He knows he doesn't have a choice but to play along if he's going to save Crowley. 

"Go tell your friend the good news!" 

Aziraphale smiles, but he is distraught and terrified. The ineffable husbands KNOW each other, remember? There’s no way Aziraphale thinks Crowley will follow him to heaven. Besides, Aziraphale is INTELLIGENT. He knows The Metadick (whoever invented that name, I love you) doesn’t want Crowley back. So all the pleading, come with me, to the light, we'll be doing good, yada yada… is FAKE. All Aziraphale wants when he enters the bookshop is to let Crowley know about the situation without raising suspicions from the Metatron who is watching from outside. That's why the angel keeps glancing at the window whilst using his "something is wrong voice". Now, dear reader, fellow victim who cried your eyes out for months, if you still have eyes, LOOK AGAIN. 

When Aziraphale starts to talk about the offer, Crowley frowns, not in disbelief or in anger but in intense focus on… Aziraphale's lips. Can you see them? The SILENT words at the end of the sentences? Tell me you see them too. Please. You do, right? Or do I need to seek help? 

Everything after that, every line, is a smoke screen meant for the Metatron (and poor us…) The Metatron is to believe that two lovers got into a fight and got torn apart. Even angels and demons are predictable! 

The kiss, of course, is a mean to conceal the moment when Crowley extracts himself from the timeline, taking Aziraphale with him so they can discuss away from prying eyes and ears. Hence the missing fifteen minutes on the clock. 🙂

I think Crowley's confession was genuine. But it was also there to make the fight more convincing. And no one here will say it wasn't convincing… My guess is there must have been another confession, maybe another kiss? A real, tender, passionate, romantic, heart-wrenching kiss that left Aziraphale pressing hard on his lips, aching for more. “Do it again.” But the Metatron would notice… so… "I…forgive you", you foul fiend who thought you could tempt me with such a lowly, dirty and pathetic trick (translation, I love you… and I don't want to leave you, go before I burst into tears, I don't have sunglasses…)

So. They didn't fight!!!!  They are still a team, a group of two, a couple, and more than ever!! 

Not done yet. There is one last thing that you saw. When the Metatron reveals his plans about the Second Coming, Aziraphale pauses before entering the elevator. And it may last less than a split second, but I can swear that his lips moved again as he was staring at Crowley. Someone crossed the street right after, but Aziraphale kept looking at Crowley although the camera was too far for us to see the lips. However, there was enough time to convey a lot of information. 

Now, did they swap? Aziraphale doesn't gesture much after the kiss. Crowley drives under the speed limit and for the first time while Crowley is driving, Queen isn't playing. But. Aziraphale is walking away from his friend-now-lover, not knowing if he actually saved him, or… knowing that he did NOT save him. Crowley is crushed, and probably worried sick about Aziraphale walking alone into an obvious trap. The demon can remember only too vividly how Heaven wanted to end Aziraphale. 

The Bentley is sad too, and not just because her master is. She (Yes, she!) grew feelings for Aziraphale, who allowed her to wear fancy yellow and took her to an exciting trip and managed to have her play something new… She likes him so much that she tries to follow him, like a puppy, remember? I think she's the one who played the Nightingale song, to comfort Crowley and herself. As Sendaraya predicted in one of her YouTube videos, we may find out later that this was the Ineffable Husbands' song, ever since 1941, when their relationship started to drift towards romance. 

Last but not least, the main reason why I don't think they swapped. I firmly believe the Metatron is planning to wear Aziraphale's face again. Metasick has unresolved issues with Crowley who, annoyingly, still retains some of his memories. Memories that may have become indelible because of Aziraphale's presence. But of course, to impersonate Aziraphale, Crowley's soft spot and only weakness, the Metatron needs to keep Aziraphale out of the picture…

To be continued… (Season 3!!! And for the record, great pustulent mangled bollocks to the ones who delayed it, and I'm NOT talking about the writers and actors…🤬)

Thanks for reading^^

[melpomenelamusa]

Something magical - Chimeras

~Original story~

Previous

CW: Mention of past kidnapping.

Warrick threw down the newspaper he had been reading to pass the time when he heard screams coming from the patio. He got up and ran, and his blood ran cold when he saw Elafi writhing on the grass, screaming and holding his head as if he feared an alien would break his skull and be born from it.

"What the hell happened here?!"

Lupita, a few feet away, watched him, stupefied and tense. There was confusion, and one could even say fear, in her gaze. She saw Warrick with his eyes wide open, not responding.

That wasn't a good sign at all.

"Elafi!"

Warrick threw himself to the ground, next to the deer boy. The latter squeezed his eyes shut and let out whimpers and gasps, as if he were in terrible pain.

"Elafi, can you hear me?"

The teenager let out another scream. His back arched and his eyes suddenly opened.

"Elafi!" Warrick called, shaking his shoulder and waiting for some kind of reaction; but the boy just stared up with his unfocused gaze, as if he were in some kind of trance. "Elafi, answer! Lupita, what did you do to him?!"

"Nothing!" the woman exclaimed. Her voice trembled with indignation but also with frustration.

Warrick figured that would be a talk for later. He looked back at Elafi, only to find the teen's eyes rolling back in his head and laying motionless on the ground. The man took a deep breath to try to control the emotions swirling inside him. As much as it hurt, he began to think that coming here had been a bad idea.

"You can lay him down on the couch," Lupita said cautiously, seeing the man carrying the unconscious boy in his arms.

"I think we're leaving now," Warrick said. His voice came out harsher than he would have liked.

"Please don't," the woman added. She put a hand to her chest and nervously twirled the beads on one of her necklaces. "I think I have a theory. We need to talk."

"I don't know if he wants to talk to you..."

"Warrick!"

At the woman's shout, Warrick turned completely to face her. She stood firm, frowning, arms at her sides. When she spoke, she pronounced each word loud and clear, as if she were taking an oath:

"I would never hurt a chimera child. I would cut off both my hands before I would voluntarily harm them, and you know that very well."

Warrick couldn't help but feel bad suddenly, as if he had been reprimanded.

"You´re right, I'm sorry," he said, embarrassed, as he entered the living room and settled Elafi on the couch.

He dropped onto the opposite armchair, letting out a long sigh. Lupita's hand caressed his shoulder affectionately.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. He felt very tired. "It's just that Elafi´s been through a lot of shit, you know? And thinking that he could continue to suffer drives me crazy…”

"I know, I understand," Lupita said.

"I still need you to give me an explanation."

"I know.

~

When Elafi regained consciousness, he found himself lying on a couch in a room he didn't know. For a moment, he thought he was back at his grandmother's house, whom he visited a lot during his early teens and whom he hadn't seen for a few years. He remembered that her house was also full of trinkets on the shelves of the walls, but he didn't remember his grandmother specifically having so many ornaments of... Wolves?

The memories slowly came back to his mind: the witch's house, the meditation, that strange dream... More than upset or scared, he just felt very confused.

As he sat up, he saw that Warrick was sitting on the armchair opposite him, with his arms on his knees, one of them bouncing anxiously against the tiled floor. Seeing that the boy was already awake, the man immediately stood up to help him up.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Elafi put a hand to his temple. There was still an uncomfortable pressure behind his eyeballs, but it was almost gone now.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Warrick closed his eyes in relief, before opening them again. There was sadness in his gaze. Lupita suddenly appeared from the kitchen. She looked tired and melancholy, and Elafi thought she almost seemed like a different person than the mysterious, charming woman who greeted them.

“We need to talk,” she said, disappearing behind the beaded curtain into the dining room. The other two followed her.

They found themselves sitting at the table again, in the same positions as before, except that now there was no tea or cookies and the atmosphere was tense.

“First of all, I wanted to apologize,” Lupita said. She placed both hands on the wooden surface and focused her gaze between her two guests. “I didn't imagine that my experiment would have such... strong consequences. I'm sorry you had a bad time, Elafi. I'm also sorry to worry you, Warrick.”

Elafi knew that those words were spoken with sincerity. The aura surrounding the woman was still not hostile at any time.

"It's okay," Elafi replied. "I didn't imagine something like that would happen either."

"I just want to know what it means," Warrick commented. His tone had a certain severity. He crossed his arms. "I need an explanation."

Lupita raised her eyebrows and tapped her acrylic nails once, without looking at his face.

"I don't have the definitive answers, so don't expect too much; but I can deduce this with certainty: Elafi has a very strong connection with nature, one that could be considered magical. The trees speak to him and he listens to them, although he doesn't always seem to understand them; but they do understand him and are even willing to protect him when he needs it.

At those words, Elafi remembered being upside down, hanging from a branch; he remembered the fear he felt when he thought Cazador had stabbed Warrick. His emotions exploded inside him at that moment. And the trees responded to them.

“How is that possible?” the teen asked. “I have never been able to do something like that.”

“Not all talents develop at the same time,” the woman explained.

“Is this something… chimera children do?” Elafi asked. “I have heard some of the most popular theories. There are those who say we are demons, monsters, genetic mutations. I have never met other chimera children, so I don’t know if this is normal…”

Lupita thought for a few seconds before answering.

"No, I don't think this is a chimera child thing. I think it's something about you. It must be related to your birth."

Elafi couldn't help but suddenly feel very exposed. He didn't even know the details of his birth, or why he was born a chimera child and didn't transform during adolescence, like everyone else; all he knew was that he was always like that and that his parents always loved him no matter what. He also knew that his birth and even his very existence had always been a secret.

"Elafi, don't be scared," Warrick said, in a soft voice. "I trust Lupita with my life, so don't worry. Any secrets will be safe with her."

Elafi settled back in his chair. His left ear twitched nervously.

"I'm sorry, I don't even know what to tell you, because I don't know anything either. My parents never told me anything particular about my birth, other than that I was born like this and that I wasn't born in the hospital.

"I've never heard of a chimera child who was born already a chimera child," Lupita said. "If this were common knowledge, Elafi's name would already be in scientific articles and on extremist fan forums. I don't want to even imagine those consequences. But my point is that it's clear that you're not a normal chimera child. The fact that you were born this way is related to your strong bond with nature. Was your mother a witch?"

Elafi shook his head. His mother always loved nature. She had a green thumb and grew a variety of flowers. She was a sensitive and sweet woman, an art lover; but there was nothing that Elafi could consider witch-like. At least, not that he knew of. He never saw her perform magic or any strange ritual in his presence. Doubt sowed in his heart and a wave of sadness overcame him when he remembered that he would never be able to ask his parents anything again, that he would never be able to get to know them again.

His eyes became moist and after a while he felt Lupita's hand gently squeeze his arm, in a comforting gesture.

"If you're interested in going deeper into this subject, we can continue investigating, little by little. You know you can come see me whenever you want."

Warrick looked at Elafi again. It was clear that he was going to let him decide. The teen wiped his eyes with his fingers, before adding:

"I do want to know. I want to know what I really am, what I can do and what all this means.”

"Okay, then we'll see each other soon." The woman stood up. "For now, rest, I think you need it. As homework I'll give you ten minutes a day of meditation. Try to feel the nature around you, feel the forest. And if the forest tries to talk to you, listen to it, it might tell you something interesting.”

Before Warrick and Elafi got into the pickup to return to the cabin, Lupita added: 

"By the way, Elafi, you said you'd never met other chimera children before."

The boy nodded.

"Have you ever 'dreamed' about them? Or had any recurring dreams?"

Elafi tried to remember. There was a time when he had a lot of nightmares, related to the death of his parents or his first capture. He also often dreamed about Roach. He saw him standing in the middle of a white room, motionless, with his back to him. The room became darker and darker, until he could barely see anything. And suddenly Roach would turn around, almost as if he could see him directly through his black goggles. Elafi always woke up at that point.

"I'll try to keep an eye out," was the only thing he said. A few seconds later, they were already on the road heading back home.

Elafi couldn't get all those thoughts out of his mind. The ideas moved like a carousel inside his memory, and although his head had stopped hurting, he felt that the discomfort would return soon if he didn't manage to stop all his thoughts.

Warrick kept his opinions to himself, and the deer boy couldn't guess what the man was thinking.

Am I so different from other chimera children?, he wondered. He had never been lucky enough to meet others like him... Well, not exactly like him. Never like him. Apparently, he was an anomaly in the anomaly.

If people found out, that would make me very valuable, he told himself. They're going to want to capture me...

The horrible sensation of his arms and legs tied, of the gag in his mouth, of complete vulnerability, came back to him vividly, causing him to shiver. He brought both hands up to hold his antlers, a gesture he made when he was frustrated, and felt his heart sink as his right hand closed in midair, forgetting that the space his antler once occupied was now an empty space.

It still amazed him to think that just forty-eight hours ago, an evil hunter had held him captive in his workshop. If he hadn't been able to use that strange "talent," as Lupita called it, related to nature and all that... No, Elafi didn't want to imagine what would have become of him and Warrick.

The man didn't comment on it either. He too seemed to be immersed in his own thoughts and worries.

After dinner, Elafi decided to go straight to sleep. Maybe Lupita was right and he could discover something in his dreams. He just hoped they weren't more nightmares.

He put on his pajamas and lay down, and it wasn't long before he was fast asleep.

That night, Elafi dreamed of a snake.

A snake trapped in a glass cage.

Next

Taglist: @scoundrelwithboba@morning-star-whump@lancedoncrimsonwings

And we've reached the end of Part 1! Thank you very much in advance to the people who have read this far, you've earned a star ⭐

Starting with the next chapter, "Chimeras" will take a very different direction. This story was planned to be a series of different experiences of different chimera children. Although in the end I decided to make Elafi the protagonist, there will be many other characters that I will also explore, with their own situations and traumas.

Next chapter we will meet our new main character.

[outeremissary]

The Hierophant, Strength and the Hanged Man for Carmen?

Thanks for the ask! For once, there is something resembling brevity to my answers.

(also reordered to obscure some aeon spoilers for anyone for whom those are a concern)

[tarot asks]

Strength: On what issue is your character persistent?

The abomination thing. It’s the abomination thing. It’s most certainly that, the abomination thing. Carmen has developed a fringe theory of the cosmos in which the pristine world of Golarion has been corrupted by the unnatural incursions of creatures and forces not meant to exist on it. History is full of hubristic supernatural overreaches, evil wizard tyrants, and wicked gods and demons sowing destruction. Fey tricksters run rampant in the wilds, the self-righteous so-called good gods leave doctrines of discord for their followers while turning their backs on disaster, the unquiet dead have so infested the earth that a whole disgusting nation of them has taken root. People turn to religion for salvation and the gods feed on their fears and their hopes and all their beautiful, rich lives like parasites. And hardly anyone can see the connection, that there’s not good and bad types of abomination, but that it’s rotten all the way down. That you need to purge it all: the angels and the demons and everything else. The Worldwound is but one corner of a far greater crusade, one that mortals fight endlessly every day just to survive. She’s absolutely miserable to discuss religion with.

(From a meta perspective, this was an adaptation of her impractical and logic resistant tabletop philosophy that every arcane magic user ever born was, deep down, evil, because magic is inherently evil and corrupts everything it touches.)

The Hanged Man: When has your character needed to step back and look at things from a different perspective?

Honestly, just being appointed Knight Commander was a major moment for this. Carmen has never thought of herself as a leader. She knows she doesn’t have a lot of social savvy or patience for trying to parse issues outside of her skillset. Her skills in compromise are generally poor. She doesn’t like delegating tasks. She’s most comfortable receiving orders, not giving them. And grand strategy? She’s a soldier, she doesn’t know what it is that generals do. It’s hard to understand what she’s being asked when Galfrey makes her intentions clear, and it took some processing to come to terms with and accept. Trying to push outside of her usual narrow view of the present and to consider Galfrey’s reasoning, Galfrey’s character, and the state of the crusade did help. As much as the symbolic reasons or the reason of blessings she knew she hadn’t received and disliked being associated with didn’t resonate with her, she could see logic to the crusade needing new blood and fresh morale. The disaster of Kenabres made that much clear. And some morally superior part of her could also be swayed by the logic that she was the right choice for being more upright, for being more clear-headed, for being willing to do what others wouldn’t, just like when she purged the Wardstone.

I suppose in the end it would up less the empathetic understanding of others and more a roundabout way of reaching her own warped perspective there though. Common Carmen L. She does respect Galfrey though, mostly. She has very complicated feelings about Galfrey. All part of the toxic yuri love triangle.

AEON SPOILER ZONE

The Hierophant: Who has served as a mentor to your character?

Carmen has had effectively zero people in her life in the recent past she would consider mentors, especially in the crusade. To “mentor” her would require demonstration of shared values, valuable skills superior to her own, and a temperament she finds agreeable and worthy of respect. Let me just say that there are no characters in the game who meet these standards. She respects some, like Greybor or Galfrey, as equals or near equals. But there’s no one who can put her in a position where she feels that she is a student. The closest that you could probably come is the aeon in the mirror (it’s always that damn aeon in the mirror), and that’s because to her, it is very much not a separate being. It’s just her. She’s just spending time clearing her head and thinking- that’s normal, everyone does that! And she easily internalizes insights she picks up from there. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.

Would love to see a dynamic of mentor and penitent disciple between her and Hal if she ever halfway shaped up her act though, that would be fun. I thought about that periodically in 2021.

[bookofmirth]

A mating bond for Az, something that is big and important, would not happen off-pay especially in a book that isn’t ACOTAR. SJM develops relationship on paper. Some people have no comprehension.

On a upbeat note, I heard that Ember and Randall were cute!

Nope! My headcanon is that Az has felt the bond, he just doesn't recognize it for what it is because he's got his head up his ass. We saw Rhys recognize his and Feyre's in acotar, we saw Feyre learn about hers in acomaf, Lucien and Elain learned about theirs in acomaf, and Nesta and Cassian talk about when they realized they had one in acosf. Why in hell would we think that Azriel has a mating bond and he learns about it off page, and we are told about it in another series that a lot of acotar fans have zero interest in reading??

If you take away the Nesta/Az/Bryce chapter, take away Hofas, take away the Az chapter from acosf, people still have very good reason to think Az and Gwyn will be together; at the very least, they have interacted in ways that he doesn't interact with other women that he has an unhealthy attachment to. For me, just that tiny bit is a win for gwynriel.

I try to understand other people's perspectives and how they come to the conclusions they do, and the only thing I could think was that, if they are okay with their ship happening off page then they must assume that other people are also okay with their ship happening off page? They are just working with a completely different set of standards than gwynriels I guess.

Some of these theories are trying to go so deep into the page that they just blast straight through the paper and are seeing things that cannot be contained by mere cardboard, glue, and tree pulp, I guess. When actually, it's not that deep? Of course Azriel would say no.

It's far, far more damning to e*riel that he said he has no mating bond and no partner considering some people were so convinced that he and Elain were living together and pregnant at this point in the story. RIP that theory. Meanwhile, gwynriels are just sitting here twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their story to start on the actual page of the book.

Ember and Randall are cute! And I know that we have a lot of character who are 200, 400, 500 years old, but what I actually want are people who are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s being whole ass adults and not magically saving the world through pure will and gumption.

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Good Omens season 2 ending and Crowley's (probable) Time Stop

When it comes to the Good Omens season 2 ending, I'm firmly on Team Time Stop, which is to say that I think Crowley has this spectacularly useful skill for moments of extreme duress, when there's intense pressure and huge stakes and no time to think or privacy to talk. He used that power to great effect towards the end of season 1 when he and Aziraphale stepped out of time in the middle of the panic of Armageddon to take some deep breaths and help Adam prepare to confront His Father.

So, in the emotionally fraught bookshop scene at the end of season 2, when Aziraphale is acting strange and trying to communicate something unspoken and urgent, and they're each full of strong emotions and feeling like there's no time to listen to one another or process what's happening, and there's no privacy (hello, Metatron and Muriel at the window), and maybe they're splitting up for who knows how long to take on very dangerous tasks, and they're angry and hurt and frustrated with one another, and they both have SO MUCH they want to say, how could Crowley NOT use his power to stop time so they can breathe, talk, think, and plan?!

When did it happen? Right after Crowley says "no nightingales" seems like the most likely time. I think Michael Sheen responds to "no nightingales" by doing something with his face - his expression and his jaw - that reflects something extra but unknown to us has just happened. It might only be that "no nightingales" has extra meaning to them that we don't know about yet, but I do think a time stop here is very likely.

Still not sure? Here's what convinced me that a time stop was likely: First, there's all the symmetry, or repetition, between seasons 1 and 2. From small things like ducks and "have a gold star", to big things like magic and the 1941 minisode and Aziracrow sheltering one another with their wings and holding hands with someone who is between them. Gifs of some parallels are here, thanks to @mizgnomer. It seems very possible that Crowley stopped time again as another kind of symmetry/repetition.

And if you need more? The movie poster for Stairway to Heaven features in the s2 opening credits and in Maggie's store, and that movie uses a lot of time stopping so characters can talk, out of the moment.

And the promo "poster" for season 2 features the main bookshop clock, prominently watching over Aziraphale and Crowley.

And there's this: the "Life After Death" leitmotif plays in s1 ("we're on our own side", moments before they swap appearances), and again in s2 ("I don't think you understand what I'm offering you" … moments before a body swap? Or maybe a time stop.) That conversation, "I don't think you understand / I understand a whole lot better than you" could have been the catalyst for Crowley to realize they need to TALK and have time to LISTEN. Maybe Crowley finally tells Aziraphale what he learned in heaven, and maybe Aziraphale tells Crowley the truth about his conversation with The Metatron. And then they will both actually understand more than they did before...

And, one final Clue: the TWO clocks in the bookshop, which both display the SAME "continuity error" during the Aziracrow conversation and kiss, where 15 minutes seems to pass unaccounted for. Maybe it's an in-universe character's continuity error, and not an accident of the production team.

Details for the two clocks including screenshots, and info about Stairway to Heaven as it relates to GO, are here in the reblog comments.

(And there are lots of other interesting links to support this and other theories in my collection of Clues and metas.)

So while there's some question about what happened when they stopped time (more on that in a bit), I'm definitely on Team Time Stop as part of the ending of season 2!