#Me: *on a level of human emotion previously unknown* You’re damn right it is.

[shitpostingkats]

Brennan Lee Mulligan will spend an entire season setting up a bunch of seemingly unconnected emotional beats, and then, in a single monologue, reveal it was is an elaborate rube goldberg contraption that slams a sledgehammer directly into the viewer’s stomach.

[bakugohoex]

chapter one ➺ auld rivals

pairing: pro hero katsuki bakugo x pro hero female reader

cw: language and angry boi

word count: 2000+

a/n: omfg sorry for positing this at midnight but hope you guys like chapter one i think it’s starting off good so far and this is defo a slow burn so don’t expect action until later on

summary: in which you and bakugo are rivals always competing against one another, you get called into the commission late at night, unbeknownst that bakugo is there you arrive expecting nothing important but instead are met face to face with the president herself

masterlist | chapter two 

↞ back to my hero academia masterlist

Blood dripped from the side of his face, his breathing heavy and resting on his lips was a smirk. The god damn cocky smile that you wanted to punch out of him. “Fucking hell Y/n only 10 people saved, someone’s doing shit.” You scowled how could he talk about saving people when you were the one who was making sure buildings stopped falling on him and the civilians.

All his quirk was bang bang explosions, nothing special. Yours on the other hand telepathy and psychokinesis one hundred times better than shitty Bakugo’s quirk. He would always prance around acting like a penguin with his ass on fire as if he had been the one saving people. All he did was carry them away, you on the other hand, stopping buildings and rubble fall off them with your mind. 

It was a lot harder than Bakugo thought, one wrong thought and everything would come crashing down. But what did you care? His opinion meant nothing and as long as the people were saved that’s all that really mattered. The  stars guided the darkness like a picture-perfect scene, the only torments being the blond beside you explosions in hand and the A rank villain in front of you. 

“Let me handle this.” You were going to have your glory if it was the last thing you’d do, you didn’t want the glory of praise and admiration. You wanted Katsuki Bakugo on his knees admitting that you were better than him. 

You activated your telepathy going into his head, “don’t you fucking dare.” He was unable to move and that’s all you wanted him to do, his silence and lack of movement confirmed he was obeying you before you turned to the villain, their quirk seemed to melt away things it touched. 

You ran up to it, the sweat falling down from your body. You had made a hero costume which suited you and had easy mobility allowing you to not only use your psychokinesis to trap the rubble around the villains arms but to easily run and jump onto objects to kick the villains down. Their arms became trapped as it had already begun to melt away the concrete that you latched onto it and before you could use your quirk you felt the melted away rubble hit your body. 

“Fuck.” A low whisper came as you could hear Bakugo’s thoughts, the hatred he had pent up to you but his inability to move suppressing him. Maybe it was selfish to let your own aspirations get in the way of a quick defeat, but where’s the fun in that. 

You used your quirk effectively getting inside the villain as you prevented it touching anything before grabbing the discarded metal from the destruction that had been caused prior. Metal surrounded your arms as you made it move along with your walking. Both your quirks in action before you pushed everything you had onto the villain. Their movement limited as they were trapped underneath, you heard nor saw no movement and the smirk you felt on your face rise made Bakugo’s blood boil. 

You stopped manipulating Bakugo as he ran towards you quirk raised, you could almost feel the explosions and burning sensation his pace quickening. “Bakugo don’t you dare, or I’ll get inside your head again and we both don’t want that.” 

Telepathy took a toll on you the majority of the times, hearing thoughts and emotions wasn’t something you were too fond of doing. The villain in question had transformed back into a human having previously been a sluggish type of creature, he was knocked unconsciousness, you both saw the police force come and arrest him. 

“Don’t you ever fucking do that shit again Y/n.” Bakugo raised his voice catching the attention of the police force and commission representatives. 

You crossed your arms raising an eyebrow, “I’m the one who defeated the villain.” He was furious, the rage that filled inside of him was more than he could ever imagine, and it was going towards a pipsqueak like you. 

“You got into my head and prevented me from doing my job you dumbass.” His knuckles had turned white at the clenched fist he was making. You had pissed him off and all you could give him was a shrug. 

“Shitty woman.” He could say all he wanted about you, but you didn’t care. 

You didn’t expect him to get on your knees for you, but you were doing your job, and logically you knew that if he used his quirk it would have no effect on this type of villain. You were able to suppress and defeat him and with both you and Bakugo fighting together the chances of risk increased. It wasn’t that you assumed the level of  risk would be high, you knew you had worked it out whilst preventing rubble from falling from civilians. And one of the likely outcomes that had the highest percentage was Bakugo melting away. 

You would never tell him you suppressed him to save him, you’d rather he be pissed with you then even consider that you two were more than rivals. He had left to go back to the agency, whilst you explained what happened to the police force knowing you’d be the one to have to do the paperwork. 

You signed walking back as well, it had reached pitch darkness by the time you arrived back, stripping the costume off, the long-sleeved black leotard covering most of your body, with exposed legs which were covered by thigh highs that went right up to your mid-thigh. 

Your quirk didn’t mean you necessarily needed any fancy costume but the one you wore made it easier to move especially the gloves on your hands which allowed for more materials to be controlled around your fingers. It was a benefit of some sorts; a black necklace went around your neck which allowed for a lack of nausea to occur. It was common for you to vomit up after controlling too many people back in your UA days but now it was less common, only a mild headache occurring. 

Wearing normal clothes, you grabbed your bags knowing your patrol was over and you could have a weekend of relaxation. Mina and Momo having invited the girls for a catchup, it had been months since you last saw them and to have a catchup on life events was a must. You all had been busy and as you all grew older the busier everybody got, even the boys seemed to have their own lives. You didn’t mind but working alongside Bakugo in the same agency was a pain, you never expected it once graduating together but now you and Bakugo were like auld rivals. 

You saw Bakugo at the front entrance he was on the phone as he paced back and forth. Probably one of his hook ups telling him he’s the father, you didn’t dare look into his thoughts, it was his private life and in honesty it made you uncomfortable. 

He saw you walking out, you easily passed him he was still pissed by how his voice raised even more. Someone had made him even angrier than before clearly; you didn’t bother to ask mainly due to not caring. 

A couple signs and vulgar swears came out of his mouth, you didn’t know if it was a friend, mother or even some from above but you stopped caring once you heard something from your bag. 

Your phone ringing loudly, you hated phone calls even from your own parents, the idea of talking to people wherever you were was disgusting. That didn’t mean you hated people you just liked your own space and liked hanging out with people on your own accord. You answered the unknown number you were met with someone you never expected. 

“This is Y/n Y/l/n.” They were almost unsure themselves, why call if you don’t know if you’re talking to the right person. 

“Ugh yeah.” You were hesitant not liking the weakness of not being able to hear or know the other person’s thoughts on the other side. 

You heard a sign of relief as they spoke again, “thank God, we thought you had been sent to the hospital, it’s the Hero Public Safety commission, I work under the president and we want to see you.” 

“You didn’t have to make it so dramatic” You mutter barely audible, “I’ll be there.” 

She says no more hanging up, you hated being called to the commission, they had no need to directly go to you when they could just go to someone who truly cared about the formalities, all you wanted to do was save people and piss Bakugo off, but no something always seemed to happen. 

You turned around walking back the way you came from, passing the agency, Bakugo had probably already gone home himself. Why the fuck did you have to go to the commission why couldn’t that shitty man get called in as well? 

You didn’t hate Bakugo you were just tired and hated how he could go home probably to a nice warm bed whilst you had to take detours for hells know what reasons. 

Finally arriving after your unrelieved feelings had become dull to bare, you walked inside a man already waiting for you. You followed trying to get some sort of vibe from the man, you couldn’t bare to read his thoughts knowing it’d be emotional with anxieties over work so tried to look at him seeing if he had anything to him that showed hope. 

He didn’t! He led you to the presidents office after a silent ride u the elevator, you didn’t mean to stare at the man, but you wanted to know if he had any clue of what was going on. And when you did finally get into his brain it was more worries about if his wife would let him in the house for being late. 

A bore as you had thought, the double doors enticed you to come forward, someone was already waiting in the chair as you walked in, what you hadn’t realised was a woman had been walking back out. You both crashed into each other and her papers fell everywhere, using your quirk you gathered the papers quickly preventing them for falling on the ground and getting muddled up, the papers rested back in her arms as you helped her up. 

“Sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going.” You hummed an its okay before seeing the president. It was a shock to see her the one leading this meeting but you didnt ask just wanting to get it over and done with.

“Agh Y/n so glad you could join us, take a seat.” At the sight of your name being spoken the man quickly turned his head, and it was someone you hadn’t expected. 

Bakugo sat on the chair, angry as always. You sat beside him, his glare on your body, he watched intentively as you tried to make him stop by glaring back. 

“What’s the stupid psychic doing here?” You continued to glare but at the word psychic you got pissed, you weren’t a stupid fake psychic and it irritated you when he said it.

The president watched you both glaring it was a sight to say the least, you were on the verge of pushing his chair over and you could already sense explosions about to appear before she finally cleared her throat before speaking. 

“We didn’t call you both here to fight we have a proposition for you two.” You both gave blank looks before Bakugo spoke. 

“If you want us to do some shitty work in other fields than I’m already out.” Bakugo was ready to leave. You nodded in agreement not wanting to be involved as some promoter for a shitty energy drink to be sold to the youth. Both ready to leave on your own accords, the president finally turned away looking out through the glass windows admiring the stars and the moon which shone throughout the blues and blacks of the sky. It was a river of opportunity that you had often admired whilst on patrols. 

She spoke again but this time the next words that came out of her mouth had stopped you both in your thoughts. “What do you two know about the Paranormal Liberation Front?”

i’d really appreciate if you guys could leave a like, reblog or comment, thanks x

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@samusimp @alaina-rose13 @crispychannie @underratedmage​ @jennammaee​ @cathy8taffy @sugacious​ @moonlightaangel

[anangelicday-mrwolf]

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 34 – Lost and Found

‘Didn’t think I’d find her here.’

Helga previously heard from 3rd Elder that Lunark is after her.

He shared with her that he was required to provide the list of potential person or people shutting down Crombel’s facilities, from which her name was omitted.

Yet he took care to print her profile picture on the insert from another agent’s dossier, as well as mixing up her actual information with that of the agent she will get to impersonate.

Thanks to him, Helga was positive that Lunark would have no idea who she really is.

After all, not even the right-hand man of the 1st Elder recognized her upon their encounter, due to her faint presence and importance within the Union.

And she was positive that she can make Lunark forever unaware of her true identity.

The Union agent was positive in more than one way; however, there was one thing she was negative on – defeating Lunark in a combat.

‘Of all the werewolves, why did it have to be her...?!’

Though she was not classified as the top fighter within Crombel’s assassin team, she did come with qualifications to dub herself an assassin agent.

However, she knew very well that she is much beneath the elders, and she happened to be looking at a warrior who used to be a single-digited elder.

Hence there was only one thing she could do in her currently standing: run.

Knowing that a battle is more than just blood and gore, Helga purposefully pretended she was all bold and confident.

That was feigned, of course; she knew too well that being truly bold and confident to Lunark would only reserve herself a virtual tombstone in this place.

Helga had no intention, nevertheless, to let Lunark notice she was more than upper-handed in this situation. She thus retorted back with a sneer.

“My, if it isn’t the 5th Elder. It’s been such a long time.”

“Since you know my face, I guess you’re not some janitor on a business trip. But I take it that you have no wish for a peaceful death, calling me with that title.”

“Oh, dear. My mistake – you forfeited your elder’s chair and left the Union long time ago. But I’d like to make a small amendment to what you just said. I have no wish for death in the first place.”

“I’ve never asked for your opinion, you rat.”

“Now that’s not very pleasant to my ears. The codename is Kespar. I hope you’d remember it.”

Right after Helga offered the name with a glare, Lunark’s face lit up with invisible fire.

‘Kespar...?’

She read it from the list 3rd Elder handed to her; at last she could see how come her party’s face was sort of familiar.

A bit annoyed that she now owes the 3rd Elder a debt, which was a very unusual case these days, Lunark tightened the grip she had upon Helga’s arm.

At the same time, she raised her voices and addressed the young warriors, too nervous to approach or shy away from her.

“Stand by the perimeter. Make sure not a single life form can leave or enter this place while I beat this rat.”

Helga’s face stiffened, upon realizing that her prediction came true: though Lunark pulled a show with her tongue about an upcoming death, she planned on capturing her alive.

‘I’m no match for her whatsoever. Which means I should give my all for my escape.’

At least the three werewolves accompanying Lunark were still rookies, judging by the way they could barely hide their anxiety, for which Helga was grateful.

‘But first I should take this mutt’s paw off from me.’

Helga very cautiously lifted her other hand and placed it upon the arm held by Lunark.

The pink-eyed werewolf did not stop her; she could not detect any hostility or aggressiveness from the motion.

Crack!

And with a noise very foul, Helga’s entire arm was crushed.

Lunark’s eyes oscillated furiously in alarm, and Helga did not miss her opportunity to shake off the werewolf’s hand and distance herself from the spot.

“...Why are you all still standing there?”

Lunark shaped her voice as serenely as possible and posed her irritated remark at the three werewolves, who had their torsos turned towards her in an awkward stance.

‘I can’t believe she took such vicious method to escape from my grip.’

Once the warriors tucked their senses back to their heads and disappeared, Lunark stared at how Helga’s arm was hanging from her shoulder. She was more than flabbergasted at what happened.

‘She sacrificed her own fighting capabilities. Which means there are two options at work here: either she can prove herself a fighter good enough despite lack of an arm, or her powers do not rely on her body. Or her arm, I should say. Whichever it is, I will not let her walk out of here in peace.’

Lunark grit her teeth before she ripped her cloak off from her shoulders, to yield a signature howl of a werewolf warrior, feeling her natural-born power rushing through her body.

Taking the hint that Lunark meant to go all out from the beginning, Helga tautly flexed her entire muscles.

And with a lashing sound, the werewolf warrior’s form stampeded towards Helga like a lightning.

The moment her fatally nailed fist was about to pummel Helga’s face, the Union agent somehow managed to evade the blow, earning a click of tongue from Lunark.

At the same time, Helga raised her leg with a forceful momentum to counter, which was so ridiculously and effortlessly blocked by her enemy with a light bump.

To top it off, Lunark merely employed her fingers for the job.

“So this is what you’ve been cocky about all this time?”

Lunark smirked; a single exchange was good enough to understand that the difference between their levels was as deep as the Grand Canyon.

Now assured that there is nothing more for her to mind, Lunark mercilessly fired an attack after an attack.

Although she was the conductor of the battle, her smirk did not last for long.

Because none of the attacks managed to turn effective.

‘Why...? Just how?!’

There was no denying that her opponent’s offensive skills or competence was nothing better than hers. Her physical qualities were not even on par with hers, either.

In spite of all the circumstances, she could not touch the blue-eyed assassin even once.

The only things she could leave on Helga were specks of dirt and tiny scratches on the latter’s face or attire, which were nothing but what used to consist their surroundings or aftermath of the impact from her punches or kicks.

In other words, none of her moves made a direct hit upon the orange-haired human.

‘Just what are her abilities? According to the profile 3rd Elder gave me, this one’s supposed to come with body transformation. And she did not even pull it out! How come that thing is dodging all of my attacks?!’

Lunark was no idiot; she had already figured chances are close to zero that the remnants of Union would have done nothing for all this time.

She has never ruled out the possibility that they might have committed themselves to researches and modifications, to provide their surviving forces with new abilities and powers.

‘That jerk did give me a warning not to rely too much on his list.’

Lunark recalled the face of a white-haired man probably continuing his life as an unwelcome guest on Frankenstein’s island; that was when she was hit by the image of him in a battle, which was tagged by a theory.

‘...Is she the type of modified human that exercises power with eyes or sight, like the 3rd Elder? Damn it, then that means in a large sense, she’s a ranged fighter, which gives me no advantage!’

Lunark did have a skill or two in a ranged melee, but she knew what would happen if she were to slap the air in a tiny, closed space, like she did when she first set her foot on Korea.

‘By doing that, I’ll turn every resource and file in this dispository into scrap. And there’s no way I’m doing that, after everything we’ve lost because of that rat.’

And more importantly, Union was the most probable one to be held responsible for the sabotage of the QuadraNet. Therefore, they were in dire need of something that will endow them with better comprehension of the said organization, no matter how big or small it is.

Notwithstanding, Lunark had no intention of letting Helga go.

‘Does this mean I have to give up on one of them?’

She started weighing the pros and cons of her choice, until a sound surged through the air to pierce her eardrums.

“Aaack!!!”

The voice definitely belonged to one of the warriors she had brought.

Lunark was baffled, for more than one reason.

This was no situation to hear one of the warriors screaming, and as if on a cue, Helga revealed her teeth in a grin.

Before Lunark could demand the Union agent to spill what she had done, the other warriors started screeching with not-at-all-charming noises as the background music.

Bam!

Crash!

“Ack!”

“W-watch out!”

The thing was that there was no doubt such array of clamor was products of a battle, which did not seem to be reaching its end.

“Well? What are you gonna do? Continue this game of tag with me? Or take your chance to scurry for your warriors?”

Helga began to poke the air with her nose as she beamed in a sly manner, nothing like a person who could only dance in evasion and attempt attacks that were not even close to an attack.

Lunark could not stifle her offense, though it was no time to relish it.

‘I couldn’t even lay my claw on her, and that thing just dared to...!’

Howbeit, Lunark was experienced; she did not let her emotions take over her.

She knew she was tasked with more than the mission.

It was her duty to safely shepherd the young warriors back to home; the only ground they could stand on in the unknown world outside their safe zone happened to be her.

And now was the time to faithfully live up to the latter of her duties, which meant there was only one choice she could make.

“...You’d better scram before I change my mind. And believe me – next time we meet, you won’t get away like this.”

“No need to remind me the obvious. So why don’t you run along instead of wasting your time for a threat that won’t even work?”

Helga did not miss her chance to add the last thorn she could afford to Lunark’s temper. Nonetheless, she could not be swifter in making herself scarce from the scene.

Lunark did not even wait to witness the Union agent dashing away in a flash and rapidly waded through the atmosphere in pursuit of the uproar.

“What in the...?!”

And she rolled her eyes upon seeing Union’s biological weapons outside, grounds completely tattered.

They were awfully familiar to her, reminiscent of weapons against heads of noble clans, built based on the 8th Elder.

Wondering for a split second if the Union had resources left to nurture these creatures, Lunark got to work immediately.

And even though the weapons were more than a dozen in number, they were so very easily destroyed, enough to win a bicker or two that they should not wear Union’s mark for their certificate of origin.

However, Lunark did not identify them as weak.

‘I wouldn’t say they were well-made, but their strategy was something. Well-furnished enough to fluster inexperienced young warriors. But anyways, how did they know what was going on here? How could they interrupt at that moment? Did that Kespar or whatever-her-name-was set us up?’

Lunark soon discarded her assumption.

‘If that were the case, she would have made these weapons buy some time for her until she could blow up this dispository. But since she ran away as soon as she was given a chance, it’s more likely that someone else who has the actual control over the weapons sent them right on time.’

After checking on the companions for her mission, Lunark could finally explore the dispository.

She was more than chagrined; the opportunity was right there in her hands, but she lost it due to an unbelievable turnout.

Her mood was flipped like a switch, from displeasure to astonishment, upon scavenging through and identifying a myriad of files and objects stored in a corner of the dispository, classified under a certain shared condition.

“Wait... These must be...!”

(next chapter)

Some of you might be wondering if there is an error in the timeline of events, regarding 3rd Elder’s submission of the fake list to Lunark and his betrayal. Yes, 3rd Elder gave Lunark fabricated list before he decided to turn away from Frankenstein. And this is intentional; I will fill you in regarding such timeline in future chapters. Hope you’d stay tuned until then!

[talkmagically]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Supernatural Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Lucifer (Supernatural), Michael (Supernatural), Nick (Supernatural), Gabriel (Supernatural), Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural), Meg Masters, Ruby (Supernatural) Additional Tags: Angst, Feels, Family Feels, Sibling Love, Lucifer is in a female vessel, It is a long story that will be explained in this series Series: Part 1 of Destiny, Interrupted Summary: Michael and Lucifer are finally clashing after their release from the Cage.

Lucifer and Michael landed hard, Lucifer straddling Michael’s chest to pin him down with her angel blade pointed at his throat.

“Is this what you want?!” Lucifer shrieked through tears, strands of hair floating around her face as they came loose from her ponytail. “Is this what you think Father wants?! For us to kill each other?!”

Michael silently stared up at Lucifer, his face betraying no emotion.

“But let’s talk about what we know Father wants! He wants us to love the humans! But look at what we both have done! Compare notes!” Lucifer continued. She used a free hand to motion towards Sam and Nick, who looked on in horror with everyone else at the scene in front of them all. “I promised Nick I would take care of him! I promised Sam that I would never lie to him, that I would never trick him! I kept my damn promises! I made sure Nick still had his life after me! I didn’t force Sam to say yes! But you! You stood by and did nothing when Zachariah and the others manipulated, tortured, and blackmailed Dean into giving consent! You did nothing! I know about everything the others have done! Uriel! Anna! Castiel! Gabriel! The whole lot of you!”

Lucifer began sobbing, the tip of her angel blade dancing tiny circles over Michael’s neck as her hand began to shake.

“None of you love the humans as Father told us to! We have all disobeyed Father’s orders! All of us! But I was the only one willing to admit it!” Lucifer ranted. Tears slipped off Lucifer’s face as she continued to look down at Michael, her pained expression turning into a disgusted one before she repeated, “I was the only one willing to admit it!”

Lucifer stared down at her brother for a few moments before leaning forward slightly to scream at his face in frustration. Everyone looked on silently as Lucifer sobbed. Michael continued to stare up at Lucifer, not willing to move an inch with Lucifer’s angel blade poised where it was.

“I’m done, Michael,” Lucifer moaned through her tears. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I’ve never wanted to do this. I’m done. Just finish it already.”

Lucifer used her left hand to pin down Michael’s right and she shoved the hilt of her angle blade into it, handing her weapon over to Michael. Letting out another sob, Lucifer stood up long enough to take a step away from Michael before she fell back to her knees and crawled a few more feet away. Lucifer curled herself into a ball in her kneeling position, hugging herself as her crying returned at full force.

“Lucifer,” Nick began in a panic. He attempted to rush forward towards Lucifer, but Gabriel grabbed him around the waist and held him back.

“Dude, no,” Gabriel hissed in Nick’s ear. Gabriel’s expression changed from horrified to dejected as he continued to watch his siblings in the middle of the field.

Michael slowly stood up, now that Lucifer was no longer pinning him down, and held Lucifer’s angel blade up to look at it closely. Michael slowly turned the weapon with a twist of his wrist as he took in the shine and sparkle of a blade that could only be suitable for the morning star. Lucifer had been in the Cage for multiple millennia, yet her blade was still brighter than any other weapon in the entirely of the Host. The constraints of physics on the human plane of existence couldn’t do it justice. Michael stood there, silently, for several moments as he continued to take in the sight of Lucifer’s blade.

The others started fidgeting in anticipation. They had expected Michael to lash out the moment he had his chance. But Lucifer’s crying continued to fill the air as Michael remained where he was, causing uneasiness in everyone else. Nick tried, and failed, to pull away from Gabriel again, and this time Sam put a hand on Nick’s shoulder in understanding to get the man to calm down.

“What is he doing?” Dean whispered to Ruby, figuring she would know what was going through Michael’s head. Meg and Cas, both, turned to look at Ruby when they heard Dean’s question.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Dean,” Ruby said, one of her hands reaching up to grab the gold St. Michael the Archangel pendant hanging from her neck.

Michael let out a sigh, causing the others to go silent again when it caught their attention. He closed his eyes and gripped the hilt of Lucifer’s blade tighter.

“To answer your question, Lucifer,” Michael began, forming each word carefully. “No.”

Lucifer’s crying stuttered when she registered Michael’s talking, and she lifted her head from its bowed position to look over her shoulder. Her arms tightened around her waist as she focused in on what Michael was saying.

“I don’t want to kill you. And I don’t think Father wants me to kill you. Because you’re right. We’ve all disobeyed him. You just happen to be the only one to admit it,” Michael continued. “Father has been testing us all, and so many of our siblings have died as a result.”

Michael turned to look at Lucifer for the first time since he stood up. He took in the hunched, emotional lump that was his younger sister with a sorrowful look. Memories of a small fledgling, crying because she had a tumbling crash during her first flying lesson, flooded Michael’s mind. A thorough wing grooming session, kisses, and cuddles wouldn’t fix anything this time.

Michael approached Lucifer, his eyes not leaving her, and stopped just short of looming over her. Lucifer’s face hinted at mild confusion behind her tears, but she remained silent as she looked at her brother standing over her. The hitched breaths of everyone else barely registered in her ears. Michael paused a moment more before flicking his wrist up, tossing Lucifer’s weapon up a few inches so he could catch it by the blade and spin it around to hand it back to Lucifer, hilt-side first.

“Your millennia in the Cage was your lesson, Lucifer. Being ordered to kill you was mine,” Michael said.

Lucifer stared up at Michael in disbelief, searching his face for any hint of this being a trick. Of it being a lie that was going to blow up in her face any second now. When Michael’s face continued to show expectation for her to take her blade, she knew.

Lucifer reached up, passing the hilt of her weapon, and grabbed Michael’s wrist to pull herself back up. As soon as she was standing, Lucifer threw her arms around Michael’s neck and continued to cry into the crook of his neck, murmuring his name over and over again. Michael let Lucifer’s blade drop to the ground, wrapping his own arms around Lucifer’s waist to hug her close. He reached up to hold a hand to the back of her head and pressed a kiss to her temple, closing his eyes again to focus on the experience of having Lucifer’s Grace so close to his own again.

“Lucifer, please stop crying,” Michael whispered, his arm around her waist tightening to say ‘I am here’. It prompted Lucifer to cry harder, which was the exact opposite of what Michael asked, but he simply hugged her even tighter. More memories of a crying, frustrated fledging filled Michael’s head.

Gabriel’s grip on Nick went slack, tears forming in his eyes, as he watched something he had previously considered impossible. Different levels of shock and awe made its way through everyone else, no one wanting to break the silence of the actual miracle in front of them. Destiny no longer existed and they all were now in unknown territory.

[thedailychalkboard]

Into the Unknown

Donald Rumsfeld, former United States Secretary of Defense made a statement on February 12th, 2002 during a news briefing. When asked a question about intelligence gathering he said; “… there are things we know we know. … there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns …if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries; it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.”   No kidding.

As ridiculous as this statement may seem at first glance it bears contemplation, especially given the vitriolic and seething politically charged climate that I consider the world to be in at present. Let’s be honest here. We are influenced by the events and voices surrounding us at all times. We each have opinions that we either choose to keep to our self, share within our circle of influence or display on a visual, written or verbal pedestal in hopes that the whole world will see and marvel at it.

It’s never been easier in the history of mankind for an individual to share their thoughts, actions or personal experience with a worldwide audience. Social media makes this possible in absolutely unprecedented ways. Who could have imagined a mere handful of decades ago that one person with a device small enough to fit in their pocket could so easily influence the thoughts and incite to action tens of millions of other people?  Today truly is a brave new world down on the farm and the day has dawned on one of humanity’s greatest unknown unknowns. What we do know, and what is widely accepted, is that this ability to share with the rest of the world in an instant is a double edged sword that has begun to cut deeply into the fabric of society.

At the risk of losing some readers to boredom let me give you a short rundown on my perception of the root cause of the current problem.  Humanity is voyeuristic by nature. We are hard wired at birth to watch and listen to what our environment is doing. Our powers of observation are absorbed through our senses of hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell.  This sensory input is then analyzed by our on board computer we call a brain. Then, through the process of deduction and reason, we make decisions about how to think about and respond to what we hear, see, feel, smell and taste.  Of these five senses the two most basic and influential are our hearing and sight which control the most rudimentary of our survival instincts. Do we run away or stand and fight? It’s that simple.

Our immediate response to outside stimuli is first and foremost influenced by what we see and hear even if not supported by truth or fact. How we choose to initially approach this outside stimuli is often pretty basic. Are we faced with friend, foe, happiness, comfort, fear, love, acceptance, ignorance, hate, belonging or isolation? The problem is as the level of social sophistication has increased over the ages our fight or flight reflexes have not always kept pace. We often open ourselves up to situations where our first impressions and reactions are incorrect and based on incomplete or faulty facts.  Given our present day technological ability to tune in and turn on to nearly anything we wish, whenever and wherever, and a voyeuristic infatuation spurred on by powerful marketing forces pushing immediate gratification, we find ourselves willing participants in emotional manipulation and group think. But don’t take my word for it.

 Go to any sporting event and observe the actions and reactions of the spectators in the stands as much as what happens on the sporting field of battle.  It’s fight or flight. It’s either human nature at its finest or its worst depending upon how you choose to view it. Our views will always be skewed towards what we know, what we fear, what we like and what we are willing to accept. It’s what we don’t know, but think we do, that muddies the waters and creates the problem. This is the ultimate “unknown unknown”.

Remember the movie King Kong? Actually, you might remember quite a few King Kong movies if you’ve been around as long as I have. Regardless, the story remains the same. The big bad, misunderstood monster is perceived as a threat to mankind. The first instinct is to run away. The second instinct is to dominate and eliminate the threat. Finally, it takes cooler heads and keener observation to finally understand that the monster, with all its negative qualities, just wants to be left alone and has as much right to exist as anyone or anything else. Critical thinking finally kicks in but it’s too late. The misunderstood monster dies in the end, but at least the allegory in the movie has shown us the ugly errors of prejudice and intolerance and the importance of coming together to fight and right a common wrong, right? Thus, we walk out of the theater or turn off our smart viewing device and settle back to contemplate how this newfound information can make us more understanding and tolerant humans, right? Ah that this were so.

The reason most of our first impressions and reactions are wrong is because more often than not in today’s world we are relying on our less than perfect, faulty, hearing and sight. It’s less than perfect and faulty not by nature, but instead, due to being filtered through the selective sieve of those whose goal is to manipulate us into thinking and feeling in a way that is beneficial to their cause, purpose or agenda, and we love it! In fact we just cannot get enough of it! We eat it up, day in and day out, not thinking for our self, or of specific and calculated consequences to ourselves or others.  We choose instead to let someone else do the thinking for us. It’s just easier, and more entertaining, that way. We don’t know what’s going to happen next and, yes, we are truly into the unknown. In fact the more unknown and unreliable the more we appear to enjoy it! Let’s prod the monster with our digital electronic stick and see what happens next. Let’s not think about consequences or reactions or whether it’s a good, honorable, respectful or right thing to do. Let’s just do it and see what happens next. We are the “unknown unknown” that Donald Rumsfeld spoke of nearly two decades ago. Indeed it is our very nature to predictably act this way. However we don’t have to be. We simply choose to be.

My instinct tells me that often when confronted with things we find objectionable and not to our liking we are shining the light in the wrong direction. The monster of the dark isn’t under the bed, hiding in the closet, on some fictional island, or in another part of town or the world at all. The monster dwells within each of us. Like the pod people of a B rated science fiction flick we’ve been consumed by a pervasive veil of darkness and therefore don’t recognize it as such. We fail to see it for what it is even when it’s literally staring back at us in the mirror, force fed to us on the nightly news or in the palm of our hand as we tap out tiny messages to people, sight unseen, who we hope to influence in 140 characters or less. We are the unrelenting and unforgiving unknown.

I used to hear and believe that one of the primary reasons for attending college or university was to learn how to exercise critical thinking. I’m not sure this is the case any longer. There appears to be a lack of desire to accept understanding, critical thinking, free speech or diverse opinion within many of our hallowed halls of higher education. Critical thinking seems to have been replaced instead with an emotionally charged response to critically manipulate and codify special interests and pit one against the other like some great universal spectator sporting event. I don’t know about you but the way I see it if one side is unceremoniously eliminated from attending this engagement then we all eventually suffer by losing the whole ballgame.

The good news is there are ways through this mess. In order to do so it’s going to take honest effort, genuine acceptance and a willingness to put aside pet prejudices and perceptions and truly listen to one another. This means taking an intellectual stance of critical thinking and admittance that we will really not know a damned thing about one another until we are ready and willing to accept the fact that each of us, individually, not as some group ethnically, physically, socially or spiritually, is as genuinely different and unique from one another as the scientific and social truth and facts point out we are. Agreement to this one fact alone will go a long way to helping begin to put so many of these hot button issues on a level playing field of understanding. Personally I won’t allow myself to be categorized or placed in anyone’s restrictive hypothetical box and neither should you.

The next time you sit at or pick up your “smart device” realize that the “smart” in that device starts with you. Don’t get sucked into divisive or negative conversations and lines of reasoning. Use some judgment and exercise that individuality you’ve been telling everyone else you have ever since you were telling everyone about it back in junior high school. You’re not required to accept what you see and hear just because it comes from a so called trusted source, even if that source is one you’ve previously found to be trustworthy or that you’ve appreciated, looked up to and admired in the past. Think for yourself. You are the unknown that makes life for the rest of us a beautiful mystery. So, let the rest of us get to truly know who you are in a constructive and meaningful way. Stand up, stand out and when you let your voice be heard, let it be a voice of reason, acceptance and understanding. You don’t have to run and you don’t have to fight.  You just have to be known as someone who cares not just for them self but someone who truly cares for all others as well. It’s only a battle if you choose to make it one. I care. No kidding.

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©2017 Michael D. Davis   All Rights Reserved

Michael D. Davis is a communicator by vocation, a mentor by avocation and a social media maven by choice. His work can be found on popular channels on the web and on his blog at http://thedailychalkboard.tumblr.com/   Michael welcomes your comments and invites you to join him. Just Google #michaelddavis or #thedailychalkboard to find him and request to connect.