#actually i think this is like the third scene?

[incorrect-green-lantern-quotes]

Taking the context of Parallax out of the story is why I think Tower of Babel is near impossible to adapt as a standalone story without losing key aspects of Batman's characterization.

Case in point: Justice League: Doom. It's supposed to be an adaptation of Tower of Babel, and it does get the broad strokes of the story right insofar as that the villain is trying to take over the world and adapts Batman's contingency plans to take out the Justice League. But that's really about as close as it gets. I'm not going to go over all the differences between the movie and comic, just the ones that I think are most crucial.

Firstly, the Green Lantern in Justice League: Doom is Hal Jordan, as opposed to Kyle Rayner in Tower of Babel. This isn't the only character change (Barry is the Flash, and both Aquaman and Plastic Man are switched for Cyborg), but it's the most significant because Hal Jordan isn't a ghost haunting the narrative. He's just another superhero, with no indication that he was ever Parallax. Ironically, this actually makes Batman's actions even worse, since there's less justification for his paranoia

Second, a lot of the contingency plans in the movie are significantly tamer than those in the comics. In the movie, Superman is shot with a Kryptonite bullet, Flash gets a bomb planted in his wrist, and Green Lantern takes a huge dose of fear gas.

In the comic, Clark's cells are overloaded by Red Kryptonite that Batman specifically created. Wally is shot in the neck with a vibrating bullet, causing him to suffer epileptic seizures at light speed. Kyle gets blinded by a hypnotic suggestion, which is especially horrifying because the comic shows that Batman got the idea from Kyle talking about how important his sight was to him as an artist.

Both the comic and movie indicate that Batman made his contingencies to be nonlethal, but the former really pulls no punches with just how cruel the plans were to their victims.

Third, the movie tries to end on a more positive note by having Batman quit before the League has to vote on whether he is allowed to remain, and Superman goes after him to talk. That's where we get this scene, where Bruce tells Clark that his contingency plan for himself is the Justice League, implying that he does have some measure of trust in them.

The original comic does not have this scene. It does not have any version of it, and Superman is actually the tiebreaker vote to kick Batman out of the League, though Bruce is already gone by then because he knew Clark would never allow him to stay after violating everyone's trust so badly.

In fact, the trade paperback of Tower of Babel shows that Batman's actions have consequences far beyond the Justice League. Both the Titans and Young Justice are suspicious of Nightwing and Robin because of their association with Batman, and the Justice League are reluctant to call upon Oracle for any information.

The original version of events makes it clear. Batman's contingency plans were not a good thing. They were rooted in paranoia, and his secrecy was costly for everyone.

Justice League: Doom is fun to watch, but it's also limited by the nature of being a standalone movie. It loses the context of Batman being driven by fear to make plans to hurt his friends while keeping, and the difficult process of regaining trust afterward.

which makes it all the more ironic when batstans point to the contingencies as "proof" that Batman is the only sane and rational man on the Justice League and could take them out if he wanted to. like, way to miss the point guys

The real tragedy of the whole “Batman contingency plans” thing escaping containment into the wider cultural zeitgeist is that it’s become completely divorced from the original context of, you know, the Tower of Babel story-line happening after a beloved member of the Justice League did in fact go mad, become all-powerful, and destroy all of reality.

Which is devastating because it loses so much when you take Hal Jordan out of it! In both adaptations and fan discussions!

Despite only being mentioned by name once in the story, Hal haunts the whole narrative in how unspoken he is. The whole theme of the story is the failure to communicate and how it destroys trust, and an essential part of that is how the whole League won't (and can't) talk about Hal.

When Kyle finally tries to bring him up, Wally shoots him down. He is the forbidden topic at the heart of the League's breakdown of trust!

When the contingency plans plot is removed from the context of Hal's fall from grace, isn't proceeded by a JLA founding member doing what was supposed to be unthinkable, Bruce's actions lose their emotional core. It becomes just "Batman is the coolest and smartest and also a huge untrusting asshole" instead of "Bruce was already on the knife-edge of crippling paranoia regarding his powerful allies, and then one of those same allies started slaughtering people and he couldn't do a thing to stop it, confirming all his worst fears and sending him right over the edge"

You take Bruce's feelings of very personal betrayal out of the equation. He's not operating on just hypotheticals, but fears that were heartrendingly justified!

Bruce claims the reason for his plans on some past mind-control incident, but Clark calls Bruce out on it being an excuse.

Maybe that's how it started, but there's a reason the fail-safes aren't against mind-control and possession. The fail-safes are ways to permanently stop your friends should they willingly or unwillingly become a threat.

And they both know it. They've argued about Hal several times before.

Bruce has a lot of unresolved feelings about Hal. He's still hurting.

The contingency plans are not some cold, clinical necessity. They are the product of pain.

I think all readings and tellings of the Tower of Babel should be followed by the JLA/Spectre story.

It provides the necessary emotional conclusion to the unspoken conflict! Because they finally have to talk about it! They heal the broken trust! Bruce admits how much Hal's betrayal hurt him and his faith in heroes, and gets past it! Instead of letting a former and potential future threat be eliminated as his fail-safes say he should, he invites the threat back, even if he can't guarantee it won't happen again, because he chooses to believe in his friend!

The contingency plans are a cool and interesting concept, but again, you can't just...take Hal out of it. You can't make it about some evil alternate versions, or about Clark. By doing that, you lose the most heartbreaking part of the story. Batman isn't in the right or the wrong, but he's not heartless. He's brokenhearted.

[fangbanger3000]

we need to talk about The Silence and The Song

as per my last post, i have received a lot of encouragement to go public with this, and the more disappointed people i have in my dms, the angrier i get. so i will.

the silence and the song is an ancient arlathan au DA fic on ao3 by luxannaslut, and it is partly, if not entirely, written by an ai. i have no wish to be involved in any kind of fandom drama or witch hunting or bullying, but as a writer myself there are few things that piss me off more than watching people steal the work of others because they can't be fucked to write. it's disrespectful to your fellow writers, it's disrespectful to your readers, and it's disrespectful to the authors of the works the ai is stealing from.

ai is a plague that has no business being in creative spaces and you must do better.

the writing pattern

there was something very odd and monotone about the sentence structure of tsats that i couldn't quite place, so i fed chatgpt a prompt along the lines of "two people in a fantasy novel hate each other, but they secretly desire one another, and they kiss", and the screenshots above are the results. the third one is an excerpt from chapter 40 of tsats. the writing pattern is identical and it doesn't seem like the "writer" has even bothered to pretend they wrote it. if you're going to use ai, at least be sneaky about it. you know, paraphrase a little.

nonsense descriptions

"her nimble fingers worked with quiet precision" (ct. 1), "his grip firm but tender" (ct. 33), "her gown pooling around her like embers" (ct. 1).

fingers don't make sound, so what does quiet precision mean? as opposed to what? her joints cracking with every movement? how is a grip firm but tender? what does that mean? since when do embers pool?

the entire fic is littered with these adjectives that contradict each other or just straight up do not make sense, because all an ai does is generate descriptive language with no understanding of what the words it's spitting out actually mean. i could spend hours picking out examples from the seven billion pages worth of text, but i quite frankly have better things to do and would simply challenge you to try getting through a chapter or two without noticing the pattern.

repetition at structure-level

all the scenes in this fic are described in pretty much the same way. they open with purple prose vomit of the surroundings; solas is standing somewhere looking "unreadable as ever"; ellana's fiery golden molten fire copper ember ginger red hair is flowing this and that way; there's some dialogue with whoever is present and it leaves ellana feeling different variations of "something she couldn't name". this is, once again, a blatantly obvious sign of ai. below is the result of me feeding chatgpt the line "write me a scene from a fantasy novel where a woman with red hair is sitting on the ground in a magical garden at night", and side by side with that is the opening scene of the fic. make your own judgement.

repetition at word-level

this one speaks for itself. we fucking get it. her dress is orange, her hair is red, mythal's presence is heavy in the room, solas looks unreadable, compassion is sitting on her head like a crown, solas' ears are betraying him and ellana's move with every thought she thinks. we get it. the issue here is that an ai remembers the info you feed it, but not necessarily the info it shits out. if it's being told to write scene after scene of an elven woman with a gown that looks like fire doing xyz, it's going to do so with no regard for how many times the reader has already been informed of these details.

lastly: the breakneck speed

359,6k words in four weeks by a person who allegedly is employed and married and hasn't pre-written anything? no. any writer will tell you that this simply isn't possible. it absolutely infuriates me to see how much praise this "writer" gets for posting up to three full chapters in a day without anyone calling bullshit. i am pulling out my hair, you guys.

why i'm not going to live and let live this one

perhaps i would be less angry if the fic was some silly bullshit court intrigue Y/A stuff, but this is a text that handles very heavy and triggering topics such as SA, coercion, domestic abuse, and other things of the same vein. to sit back and put your feet up while having a robot write these extremely sensitive and very real human experiences with words it has stolen from texts written by actual persons is fucking heinous. the "writer" should be deeply ashamed of themselves and i'm sick and tired of watching people eat up their bs.

and on that note: the amount of people in my dm's telling me that they feel stupid and naive for not clocking this has infuriated me more than anything else. you're not foolish for this. being fed ai-generated bullshit is not what is supposed to happen on any creative platform and much less a fandom-centred one, so of course no one approaches a fic through that lens. fandom and fic writing is supposed to be about passion and the only person in this situation who needs to do better and change their behaviour is luxannaslut. polluting our creative spaces, wasting the time of your readers, and minimising the effort of actual writers who are working hard to provide content for us all to share and enjoy is vile and so, so lazy. i beg of you: do better.

[aswisp]

I want to connect two specific points I noticed in the film: Herr Knock’s blind loyalty as a vampire familiar, and what Orlok’s particular flavour of villainy reveals about our current societal fears. I’ll link this back to Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s 1996 essay "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)"

Herr Knocks – Providence and Deliverance

Knock is closely associated with the word providence, which he exclaims at least half a dozen times throughout the film. Providence means preparations for future eventualities, and Knock embodies this concept.

As Orlok’s familiar, Knock is the linchpin for everything that leads to Orlok’s arrival and the chaos he brings to Wisborg. Yet, Knock’s last word is “deliverance.” To be set free… In my opinion, this marks his moment of emancipation from Orlok’s control. In his final moments, seeing the stake driven into his heart, Knock seems to experience an untethering from the Orlok’s hypnosis, freeing him from his unpaid labor and misplaced loyalty. It is really quite sad that loyal followers of a leader like orlok sometimes are royally mucked around, their blind loyalty to an uncaring leader makes them think they will be the exception to the cruelty inacted by those leaders, and they often come to realise to late that they are equal victims to everyone else

Through Knock’s scenes, we see why he is so deeply invested in serving Orlok. He believes the hospital attendants who imprison him will suffer under Orlok’s wrath because Knock sees his loyalty and labour as deserving of vengeance by the Count “I relinquish him [Orlok] my soul”. He truly thought he would be rewarded—made an immortal “king of rats,” as he puts it. Yet, when Thomas drives the stake into Knock’s heart that’s when he realizes his efforts were all for nothing. His despair is palpable as he declares, “He [Orlok] broke our covenant… for he cares only for his pretty bride.”

This is fascinating because, up until this moment, Orlok comes across as someone who is so anal about bureaucracy and formal agreements. He meticulously follows the process of purchasing a home, ensuring both Thomas and Ellen “consent” to her marriage to him and getting that in writing. This obsession with bureaucracy makes sense—it serves noblemen and landowners exceptionally well. Deeds and contracts outlive people, and being skilled in navigating bureaucracy consolidates power. That’s important to keep in mind because bureaucracy is intentionally designed to be inaccessible to most of us.

However, Orlok’s betrayal of the covenant he made with Knock reveals something critical: Orlok doesn’t actually respect oaths or agreements. His motivations are purely self-serving—he’s driven by the desire to consume, to spread chaos and disease, and to feed from Ellen. He doesn’t even want Ellen to be immortal or to make her his eternal companion. Other creators on this app have pointed out that Orlok, as a vampire, isn’t interested in creating legions of vampire followers or taking over the world. The rats carrying the plague is but a by-product of his presence, not his end goal. He’s singularly focused on consumption, especially Ellen.

“Like every plague, it’s only desire is to consume all life on earth, it is a force more powerful than evil. It is death itself”

This obsessive focus becomes his downfall. After feeding on Ellen all night, Orlok becomes so consumed by his desire that he literally cannot pry himself away from her to escape the sunrise. Orlok had his self-preservation functions on airplane mode!!!!

Count Orlok’s ulterior motive… pure chaos demon.

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s Monster Theory breaks down into seven theses, and one that really sticks with me is the third: the monster is a harbinger of crisis. To me, the best adaptations of old films or stories are the ones that actually have something new to say about the world we’re living in now. So if we look at Nosferatu as a harbinger of crisis, the question is—what crisis does it reflect today?

We’ve gotten used to villains who are calculated, objective geniuses with whole manifestos about why they do what they do. Sure, they’re crazy and wrong, but they’ve thought about it. They’re engaged in some twisted version of logic, and there’s something almost reassuring about that.

But the crisis we’re facing now? It’s different. Over the past two decades, we’ve seen the rise of malignant right-wing populist leaders, but what’s scarier is how unhinged and chaotic they’ve become. They don’t have a plan, they’re not following any kind of strategy—they don’t even seem to know what they want. They’re just out to cause as much destruction as possible, purely for their own amusement.

Honestly, it’s way scarier to have my life in the hands of a clueless buffoon running on chaos than a malicious, calculated villain. At least with the latter, you can predict their next move, even if it’s terrible. With the former, there’s no logic, no plan—just pure, unpredictable chaos. That kind of crisis feels uncontainable, and it hits a nerve in a way a traditional, mastermind villain doesn’t.

This is where monsters like Nosferatu come back into play. They’re not just relics of the past—they take on new meaning depending on the crises we’re dealing with now. And right now, the kind of chaos and destruction we’re seeing in the real world feels exactly like the kind of horror a monster like Nosferatu could represent.

Nosferatu is a chaos demon, completely overtaken by his insatiable hunger—a bottomless pit of desire to consume. His obsession with a woman he’s desperate to devour comes at the expense of his own life and countless others. And honestly, I could be describing a number of right-wing populist leaders right now! We might convince ourselves that blind loyalty will protect us from their cruelty, but we have to remember—we have far more in common with their prey than with those ravenous predators.

[endiness]

"Epic fantasy has responded poorly to too much oversight from above. I think that was The Witcher’s problem. You had that visionary: It was Henry Cavill. And they didn’t want to listen to him. So, well, there you go." — Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, anyway, just a friendly reminder that Henry Cavill massively over-exaggerated how much of a fan he was of the franchise and how much he knew about it as he hadn't even read the books when he first sought out the role because he thought that the books were based off the games (and for some reason despite proclaiming himself to be such a lorebuff, he ~curiously never bothered to check them out; he can't have ever googled or wiki'd the series, either, despite finding out that Netflix was making the show from the internet, because if he had, then surely he would've learned that the games were actually based on the books and would've read them; and somehow he also ~curiously never noticed that the first thing credited in the games is Sapkowski and the books.) He only read the books after Lauren told him about them and even then, he only read the series once right before he was cast in 2018. He also only ever really played the third game and even then, he never played the DLC for it.

By his own admission, he also didn't actually do any research or preparation for the role because, as established above, he hadn't read the books when he first sought out the role, he only read the series once after Lauren told him about the books, and he's really only played the third game.

"I asked my agent to put me on the spot and wanted to meet Lauren as soon as possible. I didn’t even need to prepare specially for the role. Because I breathe, I experience this universe every day. I’ve already had many opportunities to think about this character when I was playing the game. My preparation was already done before the casting even began!"

Henry Cavill was also directly responsible for a lot of the show's deviations from the books, or he at least had a hand in them, and the idea the he was such an advocate for the source material is actually just a massive pr campaign he ran against Lauren, the writers, and the show to deflect from his own responsibility for those changes and because he was mad about how he was co-lead with two women and the general prominence of women on the show.

He fucked up Geralt's characterization in S1 and made it inaccurate to the books by cutting his lines and either saying nothing or just grunting instead — often leaving his scene partners in the position of not knowing what was going on and if he was going to say his lines and even having to take his lines just in order to move the plot along. (Half of Geralt's dialogue was cut in the S1 finale, btw.)

"Henry tends to cut his lines, say less, which means I have to say more. So I had to improvise quite often." — Joey

Then in the press for S2, Henry Cavill started heavily pushing the narrative about how important adhering to the source material is to him and how much he advocated for a more book accurate, verbose Geralt — and not only did he virtually never take any responsibility for how it was due to his acting choices that happened in the first place, but he also lied about the whole thing and tried to act like Geralt was never originally written as being verbose and blamed Geralt's lack of dialogue on Yennefer and Cir's prominence — which can't be true as confirmed by Lauren. (Yennefer and Ciri's scenes were actually the ones cut in S1, btw.)

He tried to act like he was inspired by Doug Cockle's performance to make up for the lack of Geralt's dialogue — which can't be true because he only decided to use his "Geralt" voice in January 2019 but filming for the show started late October/early November 2018 and meanwhile he started cutting Geralt's lines from the pilot episode.

And he tried to act like the lines he was cutting weren't even really that important anyway so it didn't really matter that he was cutting them — which can't be true as confirmed by Joey.

Whenever Henry Cavill went on about how important adhering to the source material is to him in the press for S2 as if Lauren's vision of the show was somehow contradictory to that and the books, he was actually just mad about the prominence of women on the show. (Ciri is the main character of the main book series, btw, and women move the plot forward in the books in massive ways and are absolutely integral to the story.)

(In the press for S2, he also went on about how important men being three dimensional characters is to him as if women being three dimensional characters on the show somehow came at the expense of the male characters.) (Also, here's a quote from him during the press for S2: "I believe that real men are very sensitive. They are very capable of doing things which can be violent, if possible, or necessary. But at the same time, they are incredibly capable of love and caring amongst men and towards children and family and all sorts." Weird that he doesn't specifically list women as people that real sensitive, violent men can be loving and caring towards and reduces them to just being part of "all sorts." 🤔)

Henry Cavill also fucked up Geralt and Jaskier's friendship — beyond, y'know, just cutting Geralt's dialogue in scenes with Jaskier. (Imo given everything he's said, I think it's likely a lot of the dialogue he was cutting in their scenes was any, all, or most affirmation on Geralt's side of things that he cares about Jaskier and that they're friends and, in general, just any positivity toward Jaskier and their friendship .)

"In the books, they are very, very close friends. That is so obvious. They speak to each other fondly. The opportunity is different in this story because Jaskier turns up and he’s not an immediate player straight away. We sort of had to show that essence of Geralt and Joey playing the complete opposite, which creates a wonderful dynamic. If I were to play it more directly like the books, it wouldn’t quite have the same sense of two fated friends. They’d just be like, “Hey, buddy!” Instead, Geralt cares deeply for Jaskier, whether he wants to admit it or not."

He cut a sex scene between Geralt and Yennefer in S2 because he didn't understand Geralt and Yennefer's characters and their relationship dynamic as it absolutely would've been in character of them to have sex after reuniting.

"We wanted it to be emotional rather than sexual. It was really, really important and we had to lean away from what was originally on the page. […] That's not how they behave. How they behave is they just want to be with the person and emotionally recognize their existence again in that shared space."

He nixed even the idea of Geralt and Triss just platonically finding comfort with each other — which is what happens in the books.

"The thing that was important to me, which we took directly from the books, is that Triss asks Geralt to spend the night with her and, in the books, he actually says yes once she says just basically lay with me, nothing is going to happen. Henry felt very, very strongly that when we were playing this scene he still believed that his one true love, Yennefer of Vengerberg, was dead. He was still mourning her. So he didn't actually want to go that extra step and have them have any intimacy whatsoever." — Lauren

He didn't want to play Geralt struggling with fatherhood in any way in S2 nor with any character flaws and only positive character traits (because he was overcompensating for how he fucked up Geralt's characterization in S1 and was embarrassed that redditors were dunking on him for it and that even the show was completely harmlessly making fun of Geralt's "grumpy snowman" characterization) — all of which resulted in the domino effect of Yennefer's betrayal, Eskel's death (which in itself led to Vesemir trying to create new witchers and Lambert's harsher attitude toward Ciri), and Voleth Meir being the big bad of the season.

So yeah, anyway, a friendly reminder that the conspiracy theory that Henry Cavill ragequit the show because he just cares about the source material oh so much and he's the only one in the cast and crew to know anything about it and he's the only reason why the show followed the books in any way whatsoever is, actually, just a conspiracy theory based off nothing more than Henry Cavill saying that he cares about the source material while all of his actions and everything else he's said, as established above, proves otherwise. 👍

[maxdibert]

Now w the Sirius date headcanon thing and so, I wonder what do you have about other characters as well. Like weighing the pros and cons of dating (or being close friends with) M era characters, like James, Sirius, Lily, Snape, Remus; actually according more canonly and not the POVs I read that might not make sense at all 😔☹️

James is the kind of guy who spends the entire first date talking about sports, specifically the sport he plays, and probably sold you the idea that he’s interesting because he’s into political causes and social inequalities. But when you check his Instagram, you realize he went on a “volunteering” trip to some remote village in a third-world country, and his biggest contribution was taking photos with the locals and handing out things like European football team caps or sunglasses. His captions are cliché lines like “they’re so happy with so little” or “despite not having enough to eat, they always have a smile on their face.” He’ll also tell you he’s a huge fan of women and considers himself a feminist, but not the “radical and victim-playing” feminism that’s around now—he supports “real feminism,” which basically doesn’t challenge his fragile masculinity.

Remus is the soft boy who gives you good vibes at first because he seems like an intelligent guy with an interest in cultural stuff and has a friendly demeanor. But after four or five dates, you realize he’s a pushover who only talks about how unlucky he is, how miserable he feels, and how hard it is for “good guys” like him to find a girlfriend because “girls only go for bad boys.” A textbook nice guy who thinks all his misfortunes are others’ fault and that he’s just unlucky but has the emotional responsibility of a brick. He’ll probably bail at the first sign of conflict and make you feel guilty when you call him out. Very prone to ghosting you at any moment.

Lily is the type of girl who plays humble but deep down thinks you hit the jackpot just because she agreed to a date. She’ll downplay herself and her obvious qualities because she constantly needs validation and for you to tell her how wonderful she is. She likes getting involved in social causes but only to post about it on Instagram so everyone thinks she’s a saint. If she can’t document the moment, she won’t lift a finger. If you don’t agree with everything she says, she’ll cause a scene at the pub and leave without paying the bill, expecting you to cover it. She pretends she’s not superficial at all, but there probably won’t be a second date unless you have a promising future—and by promising, she means not ending up broke.

Severus is the guy with literally zero self-esteem who probably won’t ask you out because it wouldn’t even cross his mind that you might like him. If you ask him out, he’ll think you’re making fun of him. You’ll have to carry the entire conversation because he won’t share anything about himself. He’ll complain about every little annoyance, like, “How can they charge seven pounds for this crap half-pint? Do I look like a millionaire or what?” He’ll switch from being a block of ice to pure hysteria in a second and has the emotional reactions of a 12-year-old. You probably won’t tolerate him unless you’re just as traumatized and used to constant fights.

Peter is basically the kind of guy you start dating, and one day you find out you’ve got 12 bodies buried in the basement because he turns out to be the serial killer the police have been hunting for years. But until then, he’s always been super nice. A calm, formal boyfriend. The neighbors will say he always greeted them politely.

I’m feeling a bit uninspired, but I have no doubts about any of these descriptions, sorry not sorry.

[etrevil]

Case number 27198262991 of Bones making a normal sigzai panel gayer

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Laios's three Boy Best Friends. And yes, they hate him.

[deliriousblue]

THE HEART KILLERS (2024) episode three

[voiceofthesilly]

Tfw you accidentally project your mid 2000-s querbaait homoerotic obsession right to the wizards mind

i am romancing the wizardagain this time to make him worse with my knowledge cleric of mystra and his beef with anyone who can actually command the weave

[saintmalosunsets]

BAND OF BROTHERS | EP. 6 + 9 + 10

Doc Roe in the background of scenes (bonus gifs)

[transmascutena]

these lines hit different when you read utena as transmasc

[ultimateinferno]

I don't care about Moash, just Stormlight's writing, which by proxy means I must care about Moash.

[love-3-crimes]

felt a little silly,,,a little goofy even (context is that i have baby hotline stuck in my head and am procrastinating this essay)(send help)

[vaguely-concerned]

first of all rye 'hello fellow kids' ingellvar there is nothing in this world or any other I wouldn't do for you. second of all, considering where this story ends... I'm going to die. this conversation -- and how much he genuinely believes what he's saying at this point -- held up against the fact that in a couple of months max he's going to get her killed (well. that's how he feels anyway) and then go against everything she believed in and stood for as a person in the end and have to live forever with knowing that's how he honoured her sacrifice. (and live with how easy it is to live with, the way he doesn't regret what he did at all. she'll haunt him from time to time, that's fine, he's a watcher he's loved many a ghost before and will again. but that won't.) 'no one is beyond help? oh lace I'm so so sorry, wherever you are now please forgive me for who I am, but after what he pulled and by the time I'm done with him on my watcher's oath he will be beyond help. I'll hold every hand in this world that reaches back but his'. and she'll still be gone.

'or none of this matters'. im so fucking sad I feel sick *through tears* this is great I love fiction I love this game (embarrassingly genuine as is my wont)

[buttercupshands]

just a sudden redraw practice of Mr. Compress without a mask

[scalproie]

ALSO I have been tagged... last week (I'm so sorry) by @kazamajun for wip wednesday and I finally have smth I'm comfortable sharing so. there we go.

Also I would like to tag... idk who currently has wips. @eldragon-x I think you do. @kazooyah you too (if you want to ofc). Anyone else tell me so I can tag you and also you are tagged anyway.

OK LET'S GO

---

The fight was as fast as it was intense.

The King of Hell made the first move, absolute in might as ever, doubtless eager to finish it quickly, but his powerful strike never came into contact with the goddess' body: her palm met his fist halfway and she used his momentum against him, redirecting the blow and gracefully dodging out of the way, before grabbing his arm, dealing him a swift chop to his neck, bringing him to his knee with a well-placed kick, and slamming her elbow to the back of his head. Unrelenting, she then concluded the throw by tossing him overhead.

But as expected, it did nothing to keep Kazuya down for more than a second. A kick to get her away, and he got back up with a dangerous red gleam in his eyes.

She mainly focused on evasion and redirection, turning his strength back on him all while doing her best to avoid his attacks, as it was evident that he had immense destructive power on his side, and knew how to utilize it at his very core.

She could not espace every of his moves however, and the punch that followed an axe-kick of his hurt her more than from anything she ever faced before. It unfortunately wouldn't be the last blow that would breach her defenses.

The first electrically charged attack that hit her thorax had her stopped breathing momentarily, and at one point he got back at her by grabbing her leg and slamming the goddess to the ground.

She did not spend the whole fight evading or trying to, however, her fighting techniques were as refined as his were perfected. To hit her, he would need to reach her first, but she would hit her mark almost everytime, forcing him to block her blows.

He found no luck falling back on his other abilities either: pure white bird-shaped energy crashed into and nullified flying purple laser-shooting crystals more than once. Her light was on par with his demonic electricity, and she had him panting as much as he did her.

It was clear still that neither of them has ever faced such an fierce opponent before.

She knocked him out of his devil form eventually. A single contact of her light was usually all it took to purge all demonic energy of those from below; he, on the other hand, endured the full force of it fifteen times before a light-infused fist send him flying and purple scales dissipated from the King of Hell to reveal a humanoid form much more similar to her own.

That did not made him any weaker, or any less determined.

Eventually, they each dealt each other a killing blow.

True purifying light from her hand obliterated his demonic insides from behind his chest, while highly concentrated infernal electricity fired at point blank from his remaining third eye tore right through her stomach. Neither knew who delivered which first.

Both fell to the ground the same, in opposite directions, across of each other.

Both also knew that they would be dead soon. Well, as temporary as being dead was to a god.

The physical part of the fight ended, but the battle still wasn't over: the winner of this encounter would be decided by which of the two would see the other die first.

Everything was silent in the clearing save for the two gods' ragged breathing.

Already the woods were giving back to She who made them: small orbs of light emerging out of the spring, the trees, the plants and the grass, were making their way over to her, envelopping Jun's wounds in a warm embrace.

She forced her eyes to stay open to see the god on the other side, being reclaimed by the depths of the earth, tendrils of blood creeping up and dragging him down. With his last bout of strength he was clawing at the ground toward her, still glaring at her.

But was he? Jun looked deeper at the red eyes fixated on her before realizing they were in fact looking past her, pleading past her.

Not yet, not yet, not yet. Not again.

She was no longer the enemy he was fighting.

Without knowing why, on pure instinct perhaps, her hand extanded with the intent to reach him: in her exausted state, maybe her eyes no longer saw an adversary to defeat, but someone in need of help.

Her eyes closed on their own before they could meet his lifeless ones.