#[child!lucid too pure for this world lol]

[helluva-hazbins]

@brokendreamscreation

There wasn't much that could crack the ol' gambler's hard-boiled exterior, but between the child's giggling and attempts at speaking while fluttering those itsy bitsy wings of his, something broke right on through. Watching the tiny kid in his arms with a hint of wonder, this was most definitely an angel but how'd it get here? Shouldn't someone have been looking after him?

Lost in thought, his nose gets a boop, the heart shape pressed like a button, making him scrunch up his features and wince a little.

He began to form a smile placing the mystery toddler down on the counter top so he could sit.

"Yeah, yeah, I got stuck lookin' like this when I ended up down here." He sounded grumpy but he was actually sarcasticly poking fun at himself.

"Eh, you're already smart for being such a small guy. You know anything about 5 card stud?" And that may have sounded like a joke but the avian-feline was reaching into his pocket ready to pull out his personal deck of playing cards. He laughed low and heavy. "Or maybe you're more of a black jack kinda man, hm?"

The little angel squeaked as he was scooped into the Sinner's arms, wiggling as he was far too excitable to sit still. Blinking those large, glowing blue eyes, the child tilted his head to the side as he observed his face, the halo following his movements. The six downy wings fluttered like a baby bird, smiling brightly with a childish giggle. Reaching out with a small hand, he boops the bartender on the noise.

"Kibby ca' burby~!"

[garbagegrimoire]

podcast notes week 1

Here are the notes I had going into the podcast recording for week 1. 

There are some spoilers in here & all of the doodle/synopsis posts have not yet dropped but the episode is recorded & here we gooooo...

Train to Busan

Starting out strong with a zombley deert (to speak in cursed rickyisms).

Giving his kid some yuppie bullshit talk & almost gets them clobbered in traffic, great dad.

Damn that escalated quickly. Why did it take so long for the first lady to turn but the others are like instantaneous?

The shots, effects, & choreography in this movie are crazy!

The grandma has lucid moments before changing which seems more than what the passengers got. & she used them to break hearts.

Ohhh he's a “fund manager,” ofc he's a dick.

Watching a zombie movie during a pandemic hits different.

I like that the bad ass in this movie is a soon to be dad with a dad bod & he's also a boomer who doesn't know how to change his ringtone.

Okay, they’re officially fit daddy & dad bod.

Okay legit tears at dad bod sacrificing himself even though I knew it was coming.

LOL young capitalist bastard fighting old capitalist bastard

This is capitalism & I hate it. OFC the motherfucker willing to screw over everyone else even if he doesn't need to prevails nearly to the end.

We need a zombie killing axe... Oh wait, nevermind, a shoe is good too.

Oh wow, that shit is poignant. The most ruthless capitalist of the group having a mama moment before he changes.

I'm sitting here yelling, get his nards, fit daddy! Do the nuts still have any effect?

Oh shit, fit daddy is infected. Human bites are gross.

This sucks, I hate it. :(

OH FUCK WHY DO THEY MAKE IT WORSE OMG!

& worse.

I didn't want to cry this much, not fair.

Re-Animator

Ooh, my German 101 skills are tingling.

Chaos nerd is everything in this scene. You wondrous ball of absolute cheese.

The security guard saying "Nobody wants in & ain't nobody getting out" is the Chekov's gun of this movie.

Fuckin’ nerd talk. Do either of you even lift? Why don't you duke this out in a tables, ladders, & chairs match?

I don't feel great about that transition between her playfully saying "no" & them full plowing. Greeeeeassy.

I'm with the cat on this one — scratch him!

"The world's last living puritan." LOL, come to eastern Washington tho.

How in the world is this lady's creep radar going off w nerdboy but not with the creepy old man trying to bang her?

They did a few things really well with this cat thing. Because usually I could not DEAL with violence against a pet. First the dead cat doesn't look anywhere near realistic, nonetheless once it's reanimated. Also, there's no like huge emotional connection between the character & the cat because the only experience the viewer has with it prior to it dying is it scratching his back after he's done banging, which I mean, solid choice there kitty.

"Because it's maaaad?" Best line in this mf movie.

I like how quick Halsey turns on nerdboy who he was stoked on like two days later. All because he insulted the creepy old man?

"Here's your meatball!" Writers were A+ obv.

"I know you're all by yourself now." Ew no. Again, she reacts to something other than the creepy old guy trying to bang her. PLEASE REACT, maybe punch him in the face or move to a different state without notifying anyone.

I’m dying, it looks like he's dribbling cherry applesauce out of his mouth.

This is the corniest, dumbest break up scene I've ever watched.

So once they're lobotomized they have like a mind link with the old guy head? Alright...?

Okay so we've arrive. This scene is fucking pure unadulterated cringe & makes me feel like I need to take several showers & drink bleach.

"Get a job & a sideshow." This entire movie is this nerd & that's what I'm here for.

How is there this seemingly endless supply of this green ooze? Also this reminds me of TMNT.

LOL the murderous colon strikes.

I'm very confused on the rules of what stays alive & how. Like the hand is still twitching but the guy in the hallway is dead?

Nothing gore-wise has bothered me so far but the chest compression sound is gross.

This guy is the worst. If he loved her he'd let her die.

Plan 9 From Outer Space

"Future events such as these will affect you in the future." You don’t say, friend.

Hillabilly gravediggers saying "sorta spooky like" is the mood here.

The scream is so good. 

A conspiracy theorist manifesto delivered on a suburban patio made entirely out of wicker.

The walking dead in this movie are so much more chill than the last two, just saying. Like if you're going to kill me, fine, but be chill about it.

"The earth people who can think are so frightened by those who cannot — the dead." Truuuuuuu. Thinking sucks, bro.

The pillow talk is all kinds of weird.

Hey, I know you're worried too, but because you're a child that can't care for herself, make sure you lock the doors because that's something a feeble woman wouldn't remember to do.

"You are on the verge of destroying the entire universe." Ooof this hits different now.

Yeah, it's old timey & corny but there are some seriously artsy scenes in this. I love the glowing trees.

Vampira is aesthetic goals if: I was more feminine, if I gave a fuck, if anyone ever looked at me, lol.

If some big dead dude was coming for you why in the hell would you just stand there or sit there & scream? Like these are the easiest monsters to escape from, you all are so gd slow.

That's it, I'm dressing up as one of these aliens for Halloween. All I need is some black pants, a belt, & a shiny purple shirt.

LOL little green men. Shoot first, ask questions later. Get all the tropes in there buck-o.

I just realized the dude alien is called Eros & I'm laughing. Total heartthrob. "You're always right, Eros." Fucking yuuuck. Miss me with all of this.

Holy trigger happy.

Explode the actual particles of sunlight. LOL, OMG "STRONGER NATION THAN NOW." These fucking nationalist trashbags.

Yes, of course aliens are religious too. & the're sexists. OH MY GOD IM GOING TO THROW THE MONITOR OUT THE WINDOW STAHP!

This was so much. I mean it's the old humans are dumb, violent animals & need to be gently led or annihilated. Okay, that can be true. But the aliens here needed to FOAD too.

Dead Birds

Is Mark Boone Jr in everything & will he die early? (yes)

Very aesthetic theme

Bank manager's whiskers are on point. 

The fuck? Oooh racist, niiiiice. I hate everyone all the time.

Yup this is how bank robbers would behave, wanting to kill of members of the gang to get a bigger share.

Gross, just listening into their friends banging, being creepy.

Is it turning into a bear? (Ohhh, the footprints)

Okay one of these dudes actually has something like a conscience, good to know, still hate him.

54 minutes in & I'm getting real bored.

Good jump scare w the little girl.

Okay the lady in the barn was too much for me. Gore was too much.

"There are worse things than dying" Best line.

Okay first I was like "that's not vomit, it's too white" & then I realized she'd been in bed with her dude earlier & yelled "ew, is she puking cum?" at my computer because that's where my dumpster fire of a brain goes.

Poor horses :(

He just disappeared? TF?

Nah, I’m not feeling this.

[novarasalas]

This is probably a difficult question to answer, but do you think Honerva's 'Haggar' personality (that is, the evil witch who conducts horrific experiments) was created purely from too much exposure to Quintessence over the years or did it already exist deep down and only came to the surface after working with Quintessence for so long?

Goodol’ Voltron quintessence, both spiritual and tangible. It’sanother one of those fantasy sci-fi things that’s powerful andwonderful, yet explained so vaguely so that it can serve the plothowever the writers need it too. 

Inour world, at least, quintessence as a concept is a real thing, withsome actual definitions. One of which being: theessenceofa thing in its purest and most concentratedform.

Puta pin in that; it’simportant.

To understand how Haggar came about,we need to look at others who were exposed to quintessence.

Emotions were running high in S6:E7as Voltron and Lotor battled it out.

The paladins had just learned of theterrible things that Lotor had been doing to the people of his Aleancolony.

Lotor, meanwhile, had just been foundout, been betrayed by the paladins (especially Kuron, who buddied upwith him enough to take him to the Kral Zera against everyone else��swishes), learned that his mother was thatwitch, found his lost generals who’d betrayed himtwice before, been attacked by the girl he loved, was betrayed hisgenerals for a third time, and was just really having a bad time.

Once Voltron chases Lotor into thequintessence field, however, the paladins’ anger at Lotor cranks upto 11 – you can hear Hunk scream out an uncharacteristic “Let’sdestroy that guy!”

And Lotor, in his grief anddesperation, just goes completely off they rails.

All those things they were feeling inthe quintessence field are what they were feeling outside of it. Asangry as any of them were feeling, though, they were still able tostay focused; they didn’t lose themselves to their rage. But oncethey were in the thick of it, they couldn’t help themselves,overwhelmed that they were.

The quintessence took those rawemotions and concentrated them. The paladins were understandablypissed, but you’d never expect Hunk to go as far as to suggestkilling someone. And for all of Lotor’s problems, he was notinsane, not like that.

So...back to Haggar. Or rather, backto Honerva.

In season 3, episode 7 “The Legend Begins”, Honerva had this to sayafter Alfor questioned her scientific methods:

Wemust always push into dangerous territory in pursuit of knowledge.

Now,at this point we’re not given much insight into how much she’sbeen working with quintessence. We know that there’s one experimentthat’s been running for a year and that she’s called a creaturefrom and alternate reality to theirs.

Thisline she gives, though, is pretty damning as concerns her overallcharacter, even if whatshe says isn’t too terribly out of place for someone like her – abrilliant scientist. She’snot wrong, either. All of the technology we have today came frompeople pushing the boundaries of safety, and even ethics. People havegiven up their lives for scientific pursuits. People have also givenup the lives of others, as well.

Withthat in mind, have a look at what Lotor says about her inS5:E5:

Thekinds of experiments she was conducting...she advanced science byeons.

Sowe know that Honerva was a scientist, possibly willing to doquestionable things in the name of progress.

Andwe also know, or at least it’s been heavily implied, that she wasin desperate want of a child.

Wesee that over time, her work with quintessence becomes an obsession.In the season 8 episode“Shadows”, we see her and Zarkon discussing the birth of theirson. During that conversation, they both seem lucid enough, withHonerva only seeming a bit unkempt as if she was possibly ill.

Ithink that’s where isstarted. She had already experimented on Kova, treating him withquintessence in order to save him. It’s not much of a stretch toassume that in her desperation, she began treating herself withquintessence as well, to save both her own life and her sons.

Also,Zarkon seems to be of sound mind throughout all of this. He’s a bitpower mad, yes, but he always had been. Certainly he hadn’t beenworking as closely with quintessence as Honerva was, but he wouldhave been close enough for it to have more noticeably affect him aswell.

Andafter all of that, they both enter the rift and become exposed toboth raw quintessence and the rift creatures.

So...therewas a question in here: Wasthe persona of Haggar, the torturous dark witch, purely a consequenceof prolonged quintessence exposure, or was the terrible potentialwithin Honerva all along?

Ithinkwhat we’re seeing with quintessence within the story canon is thatit acts as an amplifier. As the definition states at the beginning,it’s the essence of a thing in it’s most concentrated form.

Honerva’sdark potential had always been there, but it didn’t truly come tothe forefront until she, as I suspect, began to actually treatherself with quintessence. I’m not sure I can say that the exposureto it she had while studying it had any effect on her at all.

Ialsosuspectthat she had been envious of Alfor, who had managed to have adaughter. When he thanks her for the gift, she’s short with him tothe point of seeming cold. That doesn’t mean that at that point shewas under the quintessences influence – those sorts of feelingshappen all the time in the here and now.

Onceshe fell illduringher pregnancy and losing it became a real possibility, I think thather joy over it all gave way to that same desperation and bitternessshe had been feeling beforehand.

Thatdesperation and bitterness came with her when she entered the rift.The direct exposure to quintessence amplified those feelings. Add tothat the fact of her memories being stripped away, we’re left witha bitter, angry person with a scientific mind and the drive foradvancement at all costs.

Ithink it’s the loss of her memories that complicates things. Wouldshe have been so terrible if she’d remembered who she was?

Zarkonremembered, and he became the worst parts of himself. The 10,000years of quintessence infusions did him no favors, either. He alsohas a purple glow to his eyes after his revival, with may havesignaled that he was under the influence of a rift entity as well.

It’sa very “reap what you sow” thing with quintessence.

Notethat when Lotor and Allura enter the quintessence field, they sufferno ill effects – it’s a pleasant experience for them. The onlything it may have done is enhance the feelings they had for eachother, prompting them to share a kiss (or maybe they just liked eachother that much idk lol).

...ok.Let me sum up:

Ithink that Honerva already had that potential for dark and terriblethings. Certainly her exposure to quintessence eventually causedHaggar to come about, but it wasn’t from her years of studying it.Rather, it was a consequence of her own negative feelings combinedwith exposure to the raw, unfiltered quintessence in the rift.

Haggarwas the pure and concentrated essence Honerva as she was when sheentered the rift.

...

Soremember,kids: if you’re going to enter the realm between realities, checkyour attitude at the door.

- - - - - 

Thanksfor the question, anon! I’venow watched “The Legend Begins” more than any other episode atthis point. Netflix is hiding the show from me again. I think theymay have a few concerns.

[eyecicles]

I love that Virgo and Pisces are literally opposite signs in the zodiac (Near is a Virgo and Light is a Pisces)

Yes! I absolutely love this too. Astrology and DN both are among my special interests and it’s really nice that the characters mostly fit their zodiac signs, or at least the themes of their signs. I have no idea how much of this happened by accident, or how much Ohba (or people from SJ) know about astrology, but I’m going to 100% ignore this and the validity of astrology (because I don’t actually “believe” in it) for a moment. Please do the same if you want to read on.

Traditionally, the opposite signs are meant to be the “mirror” of each other. Pisces are associated with intuition, detachment, inspiration, unity, (self-)deception & delusion, seclusion, complexity, the subconscious, etc. While Virgos are associated with reality, the senses, lucidity, plainness, facts, the analytical, details, duty & responsibility, etc. (They do come together as the “healers” among the signs and via themes like austerity, spirituality and idealism, but that’s not really relevant here)

And while Near doesn’t exactly manage to rid Light of his… delusions, it’s still him who forces him to confess, to stop his lies and tell everyone (well, everyone who was at the warehouse) what he really thinks and feels. It’s quite beautiful. (And quite different from the Pisces & Scorpio interactions between Light and L, despite L’s and Near’s almost identical roles in the story.)

(more irrelevant ramblings about Pisces and Virgos under the cut - and with pictures too!:)

(Also, I’m Pisces myself, so don’t feel attacked if I say something bad about us. I know us. We are all locked in our ivory tower &very peculiar when it comes to our world views, but that’s not always a bad thing!)

(”Truly safe and ideal world” - that’s something that mainly exists in the head of Pisces, tbh)

(Pisces are also associated with selfishness, which, imo, is a weird thing to call Light with all his “God of the New World” talk, but I really do think that sees his “mission” as a form of self-sacrifice too)

(Harm “his world” is probably something he should have said - and what an extremely typical point of view this is for a Pisces, lol)

(Yeah, that’s pure manipulation, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t believe this himself) (Pisces are full of contradictions - did you know that the Pisces symbol ->♓ <- is meant to symbolise two shells (two souls/wishes/dreams/emotions swimming in two opposite directions)? - being incredible selfish and selfless at the same time basically is the most Pisces thing there is)

(I can be your angle….or yuor devil) (No, for me this symbolises his gradually divorce from reality too, which is very relatable, tbh)

(Classic Virgo here, not just what he says, or how he physically isolated himself from people while still being a team player - but also that he’s basically married to the ground)

(Bear with me, but Ryuk absolutely symbolises his detachment from reality here too, if you want to. *cough* (I admit that I mainly just like that some weird, supernatural being with wings, who can float and physically disappear/reappear, is the reason for everything that happens to him) Light tries so hard to change the world, the reality, with something that absolutely doesn’t belong in this world - with something spiritual. (And well, Pisces usually try really hard to be anywhere else but in the real world too) (And it’s also not unusual for us to use everything and - maybe - anyone which/who might not be from this world to “cope”)

(That’s just a joke, I know, but I still find this hilarious - the “flying” Pisces and the “I-want-to-become-one-with-the-earth-and-ground” Virgo - it’s just… perfect)

(Fun fact: Virgo is a Mercury sign and people strongly influenced by Mercury often stay child-like, or youthful longer than most people)

(Every Pisces needs a Virgo in their life to tell them how it is, tbh)

(Damn)

(Brutal, yeah, but a typical Virgo/Pisces interaction - just a bit extreme, usually it’s just something like my (Virgo) grandma telling me that I absolutely can’t walk home alone, with nothing more than a thin jacket, in the middle of winter and that, no, “just ignoring the cold” won’t help) (or that I need to face my problems & a very good therapist to help me deal with all of them) (bless you, grandma)

(<3 - My (Virgo) grandma said something similar, funnily enough - we like talking about spiritual stuff and she’s, in fact, very spiritual, but she doesn’t just “believe” in anything she reads, only in the things she’s experienced herself)

(If Pisces & Virgos do believe in something though - then very fiercely indeed)

(Yeah, crush him, Near)