#also because of the Entity incident... he will always choose to give the card away to better hands

[sennenpharaoh]

Nice try anon, but his magician has that card now.

It's in better hands, and it will stay that way.

[blueyesandleatherjacket]

The Fallen, 8/17

Volume: 1.

Number of parts: 8/17.

Pairings: Nine x Rose.

A/N: Tagging @thebookster on her demand.

“We've all fallen, but at the same time we're not broken. There is the hint that we are going to get up again.” - Amy Lee.

CHAPTER 8:

“So, you’re fresh from the war. Damaged. Broken. Shattered. And you meet that girl. Rose Tyler. She’s showing you that life is worth fighting for. Traveling with her makes you feel alive again. Until her life is threatened. You sacrifice yourself for her to life.” “Don’t say that like it’s a bad thing.” Nash shrugged. She had to pretend that she couldn’t understand the beauty of such a sacrifice. The concept of giving a life to save another should have been unknown to her as an assassin. Giving a life to save the one of the persons you loved was out of her reach though. She never had the chance to meet her soulmate but she had people she would die for. “But it doesn’t go as planned. You feel something is wrong…” “No, that’s not how it went. I just realised I didn’t want to leave her or my ship.” “Your time machine.” “Oh, she’s so much more than a time machine.” “A space ship.” “You’re so far from the truth.” “Anyway, the Doctor was gonna change into another man…” “Yep. And I was gonna die. And I had that irrational and universal thought that I wasn’t ready to die, that there was more to live. I made the wish to be sent back on Earth to stay around the woman I love.” “Even unsure that she would follow you?” “She was left with a new man. She trusted me, my daft old face… He certainly was prettier and younger and funnier to make a perfect match with her but he still remained a stranger. What would you have done?” No response. “I wanted to stay in her life but I woke up in Manchester with that deep conviction that something was wrong.” “Because you sensed that you had half of that Bad Wolf left in your mind.” “And since I could feel the other half around, it meant Rose still had it in hers.” “Which could be fatal to both of you.” “You’ve got it.” “So that Bad Wolf has quite amazing abilities. Meaning you’re some kind of superhuman now. You’ve got the control of Time and you can change whatever you want to. You’re also a telepathic being and you can access people’s mind and create a real mess in there. Change someone’s history, create false memories or erase it all.” “That’s not exactly how it works. There are rules.” “Who cares for the rules when you’re that powerful?” “I have a consciousness. So does the Bad Wolf. You can’t use its power for personal or evil purposes. Time Lords made the rules. They engraved it in their genetic codes. Anyone meddling with Time would go mad.” “Time Lords are megalomaniac. How could they not go against the rules?” “Oh, some have tried. And they paid the price.” “What about you?” “I ran away from home as soon as I could. Their philosophy wasn’t for me. I had my own dreams.” “What now?” “I intend to leave this place, find my Rose and survive this almost human life. Quite boring, I know.” “And the Bad Wolf?” “I only possess a part of its power. I can’t do much. Need my other half to be able to really do something with that power. Unless…” The Doctor voluntarily chose to stop his sentence there, to show a hesitation. Nash would get more curious if he wasn’t giving her all the answers. Or pretending to giving her the answers. He couldn’t forget that she was manipulated by Jeremy Backfire and that his goals weren’t clear enough. No need to give him what he desired by mistake. Better not give them Rose and the other half of the Wolf. He would die protecting them. Dying was exactly the card he was gonna play. So far, the Wolf and him had worked together but he was always in charge, except for some incidents that had happened now and then. The Wolf was remaining hidden for its own safety. I t was just fixing the damages Nash was creating to its human shell when she was done. He would have died a long time ago without this power, which ironically was also killing him. “Unless what? Is there another card you wanna play? You think that talking all the way through that session will save your ass? We can’t even tell what’s true and what’s not.” “It’s up to you to believe me or not. But just so you know, I am fully human and humans can’t handle the power currently stuck in my head.” “Which means?” “I’m slowly dying. The power is burning everything in me and you’re speeding the process up with your methods.” Nash smirked. Maybe she believed him and was concerned for him deep down, but on the outside, she had to act like she didn’t. She had to pretend it was a trick when the doctor inside her wanted to check his words and save him. She couldn’t see it, the power burning his mind and causing rage fits and complete blackouts when he was alone in his cell. He was holding on pretty well so far but he didn’t have much time left. They would realise it soon enough. “Nice try, Doctor.” That new voice turned his blood to ice. Jeremy had been there all along the session and had witnessed their exchange. That explained why she was so tensed and acting like the Quiston Assassin she had once been. Well, you never ceased to be an assassin. You just learnt how to hide this part deep inside you. The Doctor was well placed to know that. Jeremy was done with these games. Now was the time for round two. If the Doctor didn’t want to say the truth, he was gonna talk to his other self, the one he was keeping hidden all the time, and there was only one way to force him out. He came in the room and dismissed Nash who obeyed wordlessly. He pushed the machine to the maximum. However, the Doctor was strong and he resisted. Him and his Wolf were a powerful team. Powerful enough for Jeremy to fly off the handle. The yellow room wasn’t enough. He had to hit harder. The Doctor was breathless. All his body was suffering from the electricity that had just gone through it. He laughed in Jeremy’s face instead of complaining and raging. He was rewarded with a punch in the face. It added more to his physical pain but didn’t affect his mood. He was determined not to let Jeremy win, no matter the cruel things he had in mind to torture him. It was certain that he wouldn’t like them at all. Jeremy was furious. He turned around, opened a drawer and pulled out a needle. He checked the label on it. They had invented a special mix for him. One that wouldn’t wear off in the minutes that followed the injection. One that would keep him awake but unable to move or speak or think. The fluid was injected straight in his jugular vein and slowly followed the course of blood to spread in his whole body until there was nothing of him that could react to Jeremy’s threats. When the Doctor was completely paralysed, Jeremy called a bunch of his subjects to transfer the patient in another room he had never seen before. It looked like an OR, with red walls. There was a metallic table in the centre where he was strapped down. He couldn’t move at all but they were taking no risk. His head was placed in a surgical vice? All around him, the walls and furniture were immaculate, sterilised. There was a whole collection of tools for surgery, all perfectly sterile and waiting to be used on a new Guinea pig. Behind the strong smell of bleach, there was the smell of terror, of blood, of urine. Many had been taken there before him and many had suffered from irremediable damages. Today, the Doctor was gonna get familiar with the red room. Here, they weren’t gonna flood his brain with electricity. They were gonna go further. They were gonna explore the brain itself, for real. Jeremy Backfire was nowhere close to being a neurologist. That was gonna be a disaster. “Well, Doctor, it’s about time we use brand new methods. Forget about the soft ones Nash was using on you. Now, I’m taking the control of your case.” Jeremy slipped a finger down the collection of tools, seemingly looking for the proper one to choose. His mind was already set on the scalpel but making the choice last was playing on the Doctor’s nerves. Everything to make the unwavering man drop his mask of confidence he was wearing so proudly. “See, Doctor, I want something from you and I’m ready to get it at any price.” Jeremy placed his cold hand on the Doctor’s face and folded his ear to clear the way. The scalpel stroked his skin, just above the ear, and cut the tender skin deeply. Blood flowed and ran down his neck. Jeremy put the scalpel down, grabbed a drill and tested it. He pressed the trigger a couple times to make sure it was working. Then he drilled a hole in the Doctor’s skull. The patient was conscious. He was feeling everything and couldn’t defend himself or scream. A brain surgery without anaesthetics. It was gonna push him beyond his limits and forced the Wolf to come out. Exactly what Jeremy was wishing for. He inserted a little sensor in the hole. The Doctor didn’t see it properly but he felt it. A sensor inside his brain. It could have been a sensor to monitor his brain’s activity but he sensed that it was for another purpose. Another method of torture that needed two holes and two sensors, one on each side of his head. He had been scared of death once. Right now, he surprised himself to think that it would be a relief. Jeremy wouldn’t give him that. “Oh, now, you’re scared, big ears,” commented Jeremy, amused. “Excellent. That’s the right attitude. It means you’re gonna give me what I want.” The Doctor did, and not because he chose to. Actually, he tried to resist as much as possible but being electrocuted straight in the brain was proved to be efficient as a torture method. The human abandoned the battle in less than ten minutes. The pain and death threat hanging above its host’s head compelled the Time Entity sleeping in his mind to come out and protect him. So far, it had been too weak to even show up but it had found out that feeding on the evil vibes and negative emotions that were filling this place was more satisfying than feeding on a Time rift like the TARDIS needed. Being in a human body didn’t only have drawbacks. It could now take control and show that damn man who was the real boss around here. The Doctor’s eyes turned gold and a loud growl came from his throat. In the second, all the restraints and sensors vanished in golden particles and the Doctor, possessed by the Wolf, was on his feet. The cuts healed themselves. Jeremy stepped back, a smirk on his lips. He was scared of course. He knew partly what the Wolf was capable of. It was better not to make it angrier. It was mad enough at the moment. “There you are.” “Oh, so I’m the one you expected to see? You happy? Good. Because that’s the last thing you will ever have done in your miserable little life.” The Wolf took another step toward Jeremy. It wanted to lay its hands on him and feel his body disintegrating as it erased him from time and space, as he reduced his whole existence to dust. It had been provoked, but it also had been given the strength to finally be in charge. Wiping Jeremy away would also wipe Maxence away and that wasn’t an option. It had to reduce Jeremy to nothing and yet, keep him alive. There was one simple way to have its revenge on him and run away from here to find the real Doctor. “You think we didn’t plan it all? That we didn’t take any measure for the day you would come out again?” “Oh, you’re getting clever.” “Always have been.” The Wolf snorted, “What do you want from me?” “Do you even have to ask?” “Pure politeness.” Because the Wolf was already in his head and looking for the information it desired. Which wasn’t complicated. Humans were open books. They didn’t have any lock or any barrier to protect their minds. If they knew what was living among them, what was coming for them in the future, they would protect themselves better. At the moment though, it was an opportunity. “Hm. Humans are predictable but you have the merit of being different. On some points at least.” That hospital was only a façade. They were using this asylum to hide their real activities. Their basement had been turned into a lab and a prison for non-terrestrial species. The place was protected by all the human technology available at this time and it was doubled with some alien technology. They were capturing every alien specimen they could find and experimenting on them to get as much information as they could get. Worse than Van Statten and Torchwood. Jeremy had even offered himself some upgrades with this data. And one day, he had heard about the Doctor. “You want me. You want my power to rewrite yourself. My power and my immortality. Basic.” “I want the Doctor and I can’t reach him without you.” “You want to use me to get him?” The Wolf scoffed. “The Doctor left me on Earth, stuck in the mind of his now human former self who didn’t want to die. Do you think he cares about the bomb I am? If he did care, he would have taken me out of here and you wouldn’t have known a thing about it.” “He hasn’t come because he doesn’t know. We caught you before you could do anything and this place intercepts most of the calls. Telepathic or not. You did call him but if he got the message, he never came around.” The Wolf clenched its fist and a golden glow travelled through his veins. The anger burnt in its hosts body and mind. If it had any limit, Jeremy would have crossed them. It was about time to break the man once and for all. “You can’t have me or my power. I won’t let you. And if you want the Doctor to come, draw his attention with something big. Big ball of troubles. He loves that.” “I don’t remember giving you the choice.” Jeremy wasn’t losing his impertinence. “I can’t do anything to neutralise you completely and force you to obey, but I can still break your human shell.” “Go on, try.” Jeremy smirked. The Wolf pressed a hand on his face to reduce his brain to a puddle of grey cells, to make a vegetable of him. It should have seen it coming but it was one of those grey zones. The moments always in flux. The ones where a decision needed to be made. And Jeremy had just taken his when the Wolf chose to attack instead of submitting. There was a whistle caused by a flying object and the Wolf felt a distinct sting in his thigh. A needle. “YOU THINK IT’LL STOP ME?” it roared. It was really mad now. It began the process of killing Jeremy from the inside. Its other hand grabbed his throat and lifted him from the ground. He was struggling against the hand strangling him, his feet dangling in the air, but his face showed a clear victorious expression. “I was just the distraction,” he panted. The door of the room flew open and someone shot five times. The Wolf roared louder as the five needles jabbed in its back. It let go of Jeremy to run to the person who had dared shooting it. But it found itself unable to move anymore. It was losing its power, its control and slowly being numbed by the drugs he had been given. The Doctor couldn’t take over for the moment so the Wolf fought. In vain. It fell to its knees, to Jeremy’s feet who was watching him with a victorious smile. “I always get what I want, Maxence. You should know that.” Those were the last words the Wolf could hear before it completely fell to the ground, beaten by the high dose of modified drugs they had shot him with. Nash would have a furious Wolf to deal with on their next appointment. It wasn’t gonna forget or forgive that. Jeremy would pay for that. Not from the cell. It wanted to face this asshole when it would get his revenge. Just for fun. It would carve it in its memories to never forget. It would laugh about it. However, it would have to wait until later. The nurses chained up the Doctor’s body again and dragged him to his room. Since he was deeply asleep, they didn’t even bother carrying him. Dragging him was less tiring. They threw him in his cell and took away the chains before they left and locked the door behind them.

To be continued...

The Fallen © | 2019 | Tous droits réservés.

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[voicesfromthelight]

The Story of “Abuela,” Simon, and Millicent: On Astral Party-Crashers (and How to Avoid Them)

Today, to celebrate the Halloween/Samhain season, I’d like to explore the somewhat spooky phenomenon of astral party-crashers.

Astral party-crashers are spiritual entities that sometimes pop up in mediumistic settings - or in your home! - who have no readily apparent association with any individual in the room, but are drawn to present themselves out of curiosity, benevolence, boredom, or, in some cases, energetic hunger stemming from unresolved issues that keep them hovering close to the physical plane.  Luckily, the intrusions of astral party-crashers have been fairly infrequent in my personal experience. However, when I have encountered them, the evidence has been strong enough in terms of physical manifestations of synchronicities, etc., that I think it’s important for students of mediumship to know that they exist, and plan for them without apprehension.

Much of the work of a competent medium consists of understanding how to attune oneself to the spirit world, and receive accurate, verifiable information from it. However, far from being one uniform field, the “other side” is a multifaceted realm: a spectrum of different frequencies. Different types of entities dwell in different “layers” of the spiritual plane, of varying densities, much like different colours of light occupy different ranges on a spectrum of wavelengths. Accordingly, the emotional, spiritual, physical and energetic qualities of a medium determine which frequencies they are able to attune themselves to most easily. This is why Lorna Byrne speaks to angels, Jessyka Winston works with her Lwa, Tyler Henry passes messages between people and their dead loved ones, and I communicate most easily with Salvador, Natalie and my other guides, who dwell in a layer of the spirit realm somewhat higher in frequency than the astral. The reason I refer specifically to astral party-crashers when talking of this subject, is that the entities in question will usually pop up because they dwell in the frequency band commonly known as the astral realm, which is closest in density to that of the physical plane. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the types of ghosts who would cause physical hauntings, but I do find that they seem to have an easy time firing off synchronicities that manifest in the physical realm. Although they are usually harmless, and easy to miss altogether if one is not psychically open, if you find yourself frequently bumping into astral party-crashers, it may be an indication that your baseline energy level and psychic protection measures could use a boost.

The first time I bumped into an astral party-crasher was a bit over a year ago. The incident started on the same day I spoke about in my piece on clairaudience, during a time when my mediumistic ability was going through a bit of a spike. I had been working on a film set in Harlem that day, and took the opportunity of being in a neighborhood with a large Latino population to visit a local botánica. Salvador and Natalie are quite protective of me, and have more than once shooed me away from dabbling in working with any spirits outside of my circle of personal guides. However, I was curious to see the place, and wanted to buy a candle.

The botánica was a large space, with hundreds of different candles of all colours to choose from, soperas, and a plethora of pre-packaged oils and incenses for every magical purpose, stacked on shelves that reached from the floor to the ceiling. The energy there felt a little scattered to me, but not uncomfortable. I chose a candle for myself, and went home happy with my purchase.

The next day, as I was tuning into a channeling session, an unfamiliar spirit popped up and greeted me. In Spanish. Which I barely speak. 

“¡Hola, Emily!” 

Somewhat taken aback, I asked whom I had the pleasure of speaking with. “Soy Abuela,” she replied. (“I am Grandmother.”) She then switched to English, and went on to give me specific instructions on how to burn my candle for best magical results, and which herbs would work best with it. (Damiana and vetiver, on an alternating basis, she said.)

My psychic protection practices always include specifying whom I wish to communicate with before my channeling sessions, so when “Abuela” declared her presence, I was a little suspicious, but also, I admit, somewhat intrigued. If she was who she claimed to be, it seemed someone’s magically savvy grandmother had followed me home from the botánica, wanting to teach me her craft. I wasn’t so sure it was something I should be getting involved in, but appreciated her attention. I thanked her for visiting me, and said goodbye.

Abuela turned up again intermittently in my sessions over the next couple of weeks, and I remained somewhat wary of her. Salvador told me that she was harmless, but there were other incidents not directly associated with her - not all of them pleasant - that had me a bit on edge. My energy around this time was running low due to working very long hours on film shoots, and once in a while, I would notice astral level spirits that needed to be crossed over tagging along with me from my excursions out into the city, or otherwise subtly tugging at my spiritual sleeve. A woman from a small Finnish village I had never heard of before wanted me to warn her relative about a fire hazard, giving me her full name and place of residence. A gay man from a few states over wanted me to take a message to his husband. After sending them home, I would usually end up googling their obituaries, and try to find clues as to how to address their various requests. I attempted to make the most of it and gather at least some kind of mediumistic evidence. However, I knew in my heart that working outside of designated “office hours,” and being vulnerable to astral interference, was neither smart nor sustainable.

Because of these incidents, I began working long-distance with a shamanic healer and psychic named Joy. Joy, who specializes in working with other practitioners, was helping me tune up my psychic self-care and patch up my energy field to stop uninvited energies from seeping in.

At the end of my first phone session with Joy, I described some of the latest incidents of tag-alongs I had been experiencing. I mentioned my encounters with Abuela. Joy said that it was probably fine, but if she hung around much longer, it might be a good idea to ask her if she needed some help to move on.

Right after we ended our call, I decided to check my Instagram account to wind down from the session. As I opened up the app, through a slip of my hand, I unintentionally ended up on a feed that was not my own - which is something I rarely explore. And there, one of the very first posts that popped up was not a photograph, but one that only showed a screen capture of this text, in bold letters:

“¡SOY ABUELA!”

I do not recall hearing from her since.*

Perhaps the strangest incident I ever experienced of astral party-crashing happened in connection with a séance I attended a while ago, which I briefly outlined in my recent post on “getting the wires crossed.”

At the time, I had been shopping around for a new psychic development circle to join up with, and visited one I had been to once before, a few months earlier. I had already had some misgivings about the way the circle had been conducted before, but publicly announced séances are surprisingly few and far between in New York City, so I decided to give it a second shot.

As in most message circles, the protocol at this one consisted of the leader of the circle taking us through a series of meditations and psychic protection practices before moving on to passing messages to those present. However, my alarm bells soon went off, when after our initial meditations, during a quick break, the somewhat grandiosely inclined leader started to explain that there were demons attracted by the spiritual light generated by our circle, attempting to interfere. As he began to give a graphic description of the “demons” he had seen, I covered my ears and walked out of the room. (For the record: If you ever see anything menacing during a mediumistic meditation, unless you are specifically doing some kind of shadow work or banishing, the last thing you want to do is to feed it with attention and anchor its energy down through verbally describing it.) I did not care for the man’s foolish attempts to impress the novices at the event, nor was I intimidated by what he had said, but decided to let go of my reservations to get my own mediumistic practice time in.

When the break ended, I returned to the circle, and we moved into the section of the séance where messages would be delivered. As I meditated, I became aware of a middle-aged, stocky man, wearing leather boots and a cap. I heard the name “Simon.” He seemed to be a farmer. I placed him to have been alive around the 1970s. I did not recognize him, but he reminded me a bit of a character I had seen bizarrely stomp through a precognitive dream, the previous summer, flashing a set of very unlucky Tarot cards at me before declaring, á propos of them: “Nobody wins!” - the night before my fiancé had broken up with me.  Then, in my mind’s eye, I saw a slender woman with long, brown hair. Her name was Millicent. She was wearing something that looked like a prairie dress. Perhaps a hippie. They seemed to belong together. I jotted down all the details, anticipating the end of the circle, when I could speak up and find out whose dead relatives I had brought through. They certainly weren’t mine.

The leader of the circle worked his way around the room, delivering messages to each attendee in turn. Then, he turned to me and said: “When I tune into your energy, I am aware of two spirits. There is an older man, whose name is either John or Simon. I’m not quite sure. And a woman with an M name. She comes across as a hillbilly. I think she’s Irish.” I concurred that I had picked on those exact two people, but my ancestral roots went back exclusively to Eastern Europe and Finland, and I definitely did not have any relatives from Ireland named Simon or Millicent. Surely they were there for someone else! However, nobody in the room recognized the rustic duo any better than I could.

The séance eventually trailed off, and I noticed that the leader never formally closed the circle. This worried me somewhat, but I told myself it wasn’t a big deal. I also wondered what exactly was going on with Simon and Millicent. Why would two such random characters show up for me, when we didn’t seem to have any direct connection? Still, for all my concerns, I was happy that the session had resulted in the information I had received on them being corroborated so closely by the other medium.

That night, as I was falling asleep, something very unusual happened. Right as I was dozing off, in a hypnagogic state, I heard a male voice loudly say my name in my right ear, almost as if it was physically coming from outside of my head. (Usually, when I receive clairaudient  information, the impression is one of simply having a verbally expressed thought, and it feels like it is situated more near my left ear. Furthermore, it almost never happens unbidden.) “Ugh.” I thought. “Here we go. Someone followed me home.”

Life went on as normal for a while. Salvador confirmed to me the next day that the problem had been that the séance had not been closed properly, and I should avoid that particular circle in the future. I tried to shake off the incident.

About a week later, I met up for coffee with a dear colleague, and as we were catching up on what had been going on in our lives, I shared with him the strange story of Simon and Millicent. By then, I was laughing about it, and my friend was also amused.

Towards the end of our visit, we stopped by a large bookstore to look for some inspiration for a project we were working on together. My friend took the opportunity to visit the restroom, and as I was waiting for him, my eyes wandered to a book sitting on a stand in the children’s section: “Dear Mili,” read the title. It was a book illustrated by the illustrious Maurice Sendak, author of “Where The Wild Things Are.” I had already had several other, sweet little synchronicities happen that day, and so, my first thought was “Hey! My spirit guides must have wanted me to see this, since they always call me Dear Emily.” As I leafed through it, I discovered it was a somewhat creepy little story, discovered in the early 1980s in a letter written by Wilhelm Grimm to a young girl in 1816. The story made me somewhat melancholy, but the pictures were beautiful. I texted a picture of the cover of the book to a friend of mine who not only had been one of my first mediumistic clients, and was quite familiar with the lingo my guides use, but had also been at the séance with me where Simon and Millicent had made an appearance. “Look what Natalie sent me!” I captioned my photo.

Then, I opened the book up to its dedication page, and my jaw dropped open.

“For my sister, Natalie.” - M.S.

M.S.  - Millicent and Simon?

Barely believing my eyes, I texted my friend a second photo of the page.

A moment later, she replied:

“Wait. Dear Mili - MILLICENT?!”

And that, as they say, was that.

These two incidents of astral party-crashing illustrate well some of elements that can contribute to being vulnerable to psychic interference. They can be summed up fairly simply:

Attempting mediumship when energetically run down either through physical tiredness, negative emotions, poor diet, illness, or while under the effects (or after-effects!) of mind-altering substances such as alcohol or drugs. (Yes, this includes cannabis for most people. CBD, however, is usually fine, as it isn’t psychoactive.)

Not practicing proper psychic self-care through meditation, energy-clearing, and psychic protection. This includes not only your personal energy, but your personal living space, as well.

Dabbling in practices that are not aligned with your spiritual integrity.

Spending time in places with negative energy, that attract low-vibration entities. These can be spaces associated with addiction, abuse, or violence. This doesn’t mean mediums need to avoid such spaces altogether, of course, but energetic clearing is doubly important after being exposed to that kind of energy.

Focusing on images, thoughts, or stories that invoke fear or unease. Don’t watch horror movies before doing a mediumistic session! At least give yourself a few days to detox.

Asking for trouble by intentionally invoking fear-based entities. (Duh.) Just don’t. It’s not worth it.

Being afraid of the spirit world, and of one’s own mediumistic tendencies.

Not properly opening and closing your mediumistic sessions.

On the other hand, my guides have a slightly different take on the matter. From their perspective, every experience is an opportunity to learn something new. So, here are some points that my guides conveyed through clairaudient dictation around the time that Abuela was visiting me. (Parts of this were cited in an early post on this blog about empathic vulnerability.)

Question: “Why are uninvited energies interfering with my mediumistic sessions? Am I not strong enough to keep them out?”

“Your guides know when an energy can be helpful even if you yourself have not set up the meeting. Even if you are being told something you think you do not want to hear, the energy itself may have something useful to tell you. Have no fear. You are in good hands. Wear an amulet if you think it will make you feel more safe, but this is not necessary or helpful if you do not trust your guides to help you. Call your guides to help you raise and strengthen your energies.  Allowing the information that comes through to reach you as just that, information, and not as an energetic intrusion, will give you the best access to knowledge of all stripes.

Allow your guides to act as informed gatekeepers and let in the spirits covered in your opening prayer. [Being very adamant about proactive,] careful vetting places an undue burden of self-protection on the practitioner. If you feel unsafe or drained, plan ahead and look to your sources of strength to hold you in a higher vibration. Ask the lower energies to step away. You are safe […] Do not succumb to the influence of fear. You are OK. Pay attention to any disturbances in the atmosphere of your home, Work to become a better arbiter of your own boundaries. Nobody can enter your awareness [unbidden] if you have placed high enough barriers on your consciousness.”

All of this can be summed up into the principle that the stronger your connection is with your personal team of guides, and the better care you take care of yourself as well as your environment, the less vulnerable you will be to interference. Lately, I almost never experience these kinds of incidents anymore, and when they are about to happen, Salvador and Natalie will quickly warn me and nip them in the bud. The bottom line is, these are not things to be feared. At the limit, I would use this information to encourage my readers to treat themselves with love, self-respect and kindness, stay true to themselves, and build a strong relationship with own protectors.

Have you ever experienced an astral party-crasher? How did they make themselves known?  How did you deal with it? How would you deal with it if it happened again? Let me know!

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* In case you are wondering if this was a result of an algorithm being triggered by my phone “spying” on my conversation with Joy, I can only say that it wasn’t the first time that Spirit had used social media for synchronicities. The first time my guides gave me a timeline for an event using astrological timing, citing only the symbols for Venus and Scorpio, I had no idea what it meant - until I opened up Instagram after the session. The very first post on my feed was captioned with a long piece on the astrological implications of Venus shortly moving into Scorpio. There was no technological record of my channeling session to feed into any algorithm at that time. I also had never had any interest in astrology until that moment.

[mittensmorgul]

Season 13 and the Big Bad

A defining characteristic of Supernatural in seasons past was the early identification and buildup of the Big Bad character of the season, to the degree that the cosmic escalation of big bads became a running joke. And then the show itself transcended the running joke with the whole “God’s SISTER!” thing, and honestly, where the heck do you even go from there.

Demons, Bigger and Scarier Demons, More Demons, Apocalypse-starting Demons with a side of Dick Angels, Lucifer and Michael, Raphael and Monsters, Leviathan, Demons and basically the Winchesters screwing with the natural order, Angels and Bigger and Badder Demons, MoC!Dean, God’s Sister the Darkness…

I mean who else was waiting for Fuckhands McMike to show up?

Once you hit that level, the whole IDEA of a single season Big Bad just… loses the power to engage. Almost everything after that point is gonna have a Been There Done That element to it.

That’s why the whole point of s12 wasn’t about a Big Bad Character, it was about the Winchesters finally having moved out beyond the plot far enough to look back at their legacy in a critical way. The BMoL weren’t there to act as the Big Bads, despite filling in part of that role. Same with Lucifer. Same with Mary. The real Big Bad of s12 was the Winchesters’ past, their legacy, their “destiny.” And finally beginning to find some sort of resolution and a fuller understanding of themselves. And that theme is continuing full-steam ahead in s13.

The real Big Bad is the friends we made along the way.

Nah, just kidding. The real Big Bad of s13 so far is Dramatic Irony. But let’s back up and examine the players on the board so far:

(under a cut because it’s like 3.6k words and this just seems practical, if annoying) :P

--There was much speculation that Wee Lil Nephilim Jack could “grow into his power” and become the season’s Big Bad, and 13.01 certainly tried hard to make us believe it… for about 15 minutes. He’s certainly got a terrifying amount of power at his disposal, but he’s such a lil marshmallow and just wants to be GOOD so badly. Just give him some nougat and watch him struggle to understand human morality with his Beyond God-like Abilities. So while he’s definitely a source of Major Cosmic Disruption, he can’t really fit the Big Bad bill.

--In 13.02 we met the Kentucky Fried Demon, the last yellow-eyed Prince of Hell, Asmodeus. Thanks to later retconning, we’ve tied yellow-eyed demons right back to the opening scene of the entire series, and the Inciting Incident of all the drama we’ve watched unfold over the last 12+ seasons. And the last one standing has now also been referred to by Lucifer as the “least” of his creations, yet Asmodeus has had a few surprises up his sleeve-- including his shapeshifting. But for all his inexplicable raw power to even confidently best Lucifer in a head to head fight, what are his actual goals? We know he’s long wanted to release the Shedim from Hell, but to what end? What does he even want? He talks a big game, but does he even have a Big Plan? Halfway through the season, we just don’t know, and as a result Asmodeus reads more like a cartoon than an actual threat, despite his “weirdly strong” powers.

--The Empty Entity, which after 13.04 I saw numerous posts speculating that maybe the Entity would grow weary of sleeping (or of being woken up by other angels and demons who somehow began awakening as a result of Cas’s disturbance to the force). But really, the essential nature of that force is… the opposite of interfering in reality. Much as God’s powers of creation held no power in the Empty, the Empty’s eternal stasis can’t hold power within Creation. Obviously Jack’s powers are somehow capable of bridging the gap between them, the same way he’s able to bridge the gap between alternate realities, but so far, the Empty Entity seems like a one-off.

--Billie as the New Death. I, for one, am SO GLAD she’s back, and that the mantle of Death has finally passed on to her. I’d been screaming about her being the New Death since 11.02, and she’s finally come full circle and stepped into that role. As such, she’s in a position to see the full scope of the Cosmic Circumstance, and her previous insistence on what amounts to a tiny cosmic imbalance of the Winchesters’ continued existence is more like a tiny grain of sand out of place while the problems the Winchesters’ continued existence SOLVES is like an entire beach crumbling away. As the linchpins holding the multiverse together, she’s counting on the Winchesters being ALIVE now. Hardly seems Big Bad-ish to have thrown her lot in with the protagonists of the piece, yes? She still has cards to play, especially after warning Dean about the cosmic house of cards and its current precarious state due to Jack’s interference with multidimensional affairs. Rather than having an agenda to do harm, like the Old Death, Billie serves more of a bellwether role. She’s a neutral force that’s acting within her powers to at least drop hints and warnings to the Winchesters.

--Lucifer has incredibly found his way back to the story AGAIN. Like, why won’t he just DIE already? *sighs heavily* At least now he’s been officially de-powered by AU Michael to the point where he’s become rather… ineffective. Poor thing and his little stick. So far, since he’s returned to the regular universe, his function has been running around Chicken Littling at everyone. Ironic since his main stumbling block so far has been his own personal Colonel Sanders impersonator. *cue all the chicken/egg metaphors* *something something chickens coming home to roost* *finger lickin’ good* It’s hard to take those sorts of parallels too seriously.

Just as Asmodeus is the “weakest” incarnation of a Yellow-Eyed Demon who has become “weirdly strong” mostly through the emotional significance that Yellow-Eyed Demons have held for the length of the entire series, Lucifer has become “weirdly weak” himself despite the effect his mere presence has just looming over the entire narrative since he was first mentioned way back in s3. His power is now largely symbolic through the psychological trauma he inflicted on Sam (and now as of 13.12, on Rowena). His Big Bad status seems far more weighty on a personal level for the Winchesters (and particularly on Sam), in finally confronting how their cosmic destiny has truly fucked with their lives.

Lucifer himself, meanwhile, has spent most of the season impotently locked in the AU, physically locked in AU Michael’s Iron Maiden, physically depowered by AU Michael’s rift-opening spell, and then tossed around by his “weakest” creation and locked in a cell for the last six episodes. Granted this gives him motivation for taking action, but his obsession with destroying Michael still seems to be his underlying motivation. Sure, he’s still interested in saving “the last perfect handiwork of God,” i.e. the natural world, but he still doesn’t give a damn about humanity. As of 13.12, the most danger he represents is the fact that the Winchesters have no idea he’s back in this world, and that he’s not the one holding Mary captive in the AU and torturing her. Which brings us tidily to…

--AU Michael. The Ultimate Big Bad of s5, at the end of the day, was Michael. He was the one who insisted on sticking inflexibly to his “destiny.” The “good and obedient son” who was prepared to carry out what he believed he had to, despite every opportunity to resolve the apocalypse peacefully and just choose not to fight. Even LUCIFER tried to make peace with him when they finally met at Stull Cemetery, and yet Michael regarded it as yet one more act of “disobedience” from his disobedient brother. And in the AU, their version of Michael actually won the big throwdown, and as a result left the entire planet a wasteland. Lucifer may have wanted humanity wiped off the planet, but witnessing the destruction of all of God’s creation was a shocking reminder that he never wanted to destroy nature… Michael didn’t even care, as long as he’d fulfilled his destiny. How… righteous (in the worst possible sense of that term, bordering on self-righteous). That has some Big Bad makings, no?

The problem with Michael so far this season is that he’s already succeeded in destroying his version of Lucifer, and destroying his own Earth in the process. It’s a fait accompli in his world, but as soon as he stumbled across the rift and learned of another world where he’d failed in the past, he’s been rejuvenated with fresh purpose. It seems almost compulsive for him-- Find World, Destroy World. It’s like his Prime Objective, and he’s incapable of NOT living up to that destiny. It doesn’t make him a Big Bad, just based on that alone, but it does give viewers the ol’ raised eyebrow of suspicion, just based on Michael’s past history.

Not to mention, Lucifer’s pointed out several times that like Asmodeus who seems “weirdly strong” (and yes I keep harping on that phrase because the Plum Sisters were also “weirdly strong” in 13.12, and for Yockey to write such terribly awkward dialogue there HAS to be a purpose, aside from gently mocking standard Bucklemming dialogue), AU Michael is more powerful than the version that the Winchesters (including Cas) helped defeat in 5.22.

The fact that Lucifer keeps insisting that Michael is so powerful, that Michael always gets his way, for those of us actually WATCHING the show, that’s just… blatantly false. The one thing Michael wanted most back in s5 was for Dean Winchester to say yes to him. It’s the one thing he never got. Because Dean’s will proved stronger than Michael’s sense of destiny and obedience. Back in 5.22, Michael rendered himself irrelevant when TFW “ripped up the ending.” The AU where this version of Michael is from never had the Winchesters to contend with, and so has never had to confront the true power of Free Will. Honestly? With TFW 2.0 resurrected from the ashes, how big of a threat does AU Michael truly pose? Because from OUTSIDE the story? No matter how “weirdly strong” that Michael is, it looks more like he and Lucifer are playing out the same pantomime they did back in s5, with just as much chance of actual success as they’d had back then.

What Michael and Lucifer DO bring to the story right now isn’t so much their power to be New Big Bads, but their power to bring the PERSONAL trauma that Sam and Dean (and Cas, by extension) went through as a result of the original setup and downfall of the Apocalypse, and an outlet for them to finally examine the emotional and psychological fallout of what they’ve suffered through and sacrificed to keep the universe from derailing itself over and over again. Which brings me to…

--The interdimensional rifts themselves. Billie had warned Dean about the cosmic house of cards that was dangerously close to toppling as the characters become more self-aware, and realize there are actually ways to cut through to other universes where they might find a way to give themselves a mulligan… where they might be able to “start all over again,” where they made different choices that led to different results. But the stability of the multiverse relies on individual realities maintaining internal continuity, and not bleeding over into one another at random. Which brings me back around to what Chuck told Dean when he left Dean in charge of the universe back in 11.23, and which Dean referenced in his anguished plea for help in 13.01, namely…

--Dean’s not only the “firewall between light and darkness,” but he’s been set in place as the figurehead for balance in the universe. He’s been appointed the guardian of creation by proxy, and hell he really doesn’t want the job. And yet who else is even going to try? Is that what Lucifer is trying to do, at least on the surface? Is that what Cas is attempting in trying to find Jack? Is that what Sam’s attempting in trying to help Jack learn what it means to be human versus a monster?

--Heaven and their Endangered Species Repopulation Project. It seems the angels are growing more desperate as their numbers dwindle. They’ve mostly ceased their interference on the mortal plane, aside from their desperate quest to find and use Jack’s powers to replenish their numbers. But considering Jack’s power level, it doesn’t really seem like much of a real threat to Jack himself. Considering the burst of power that came from Jack’s “power up” of Kaia, that seemed to make BOTH of them “weirdly powerful” enough to tear open another rift and simultaneously nuke six angels. Something tells me that if Jack wanted it enough, he’d have the power to snuff out pretty much any threat to himself. Sure, he’s trapped in the AU right now, but even that’s effectively removed him from the angels’ grasp anyway. It’s been a non-issue for the most part, and in the overall scheme of things, doesn’t seem like a top priority concern for anyone right this second...

--and finally, after 13.12, Rowena’s true nature and full powers have finally been unbound. What is she? What will she do with her powers? What are her goals now that she’s finally been restored to her full power? Will she retain reluctant Frenemy status with the Winchesters? Will she actively seek revenge against those who wronged her, primarily Lucifer? Will she make a play for power in revenge for Crowley’s demise? What does she even want now that she’s attained the personal freedom and safety she’d been seeking since her first introduction back in s10? Right now, she’s a wild card, but we do love her dearly, and I’m glad she’s back. :)

So… who’s really the big bad?

Between the season’s major themes of “things that look like other things,” and things not being what they seem on the surface, as Lizbob’s been saying all season, the Big Bad seems to be Dramatic Irony. The story ITSELF is its own worst enemy.

It’s the narrative structure screaming, “What you don’t know absolutely can and WILL hurt you.”

And all of this is being delivered through the resurfacing of old friends in slightly “off” ways. How many characters and cases and circumstances have directly pinged circumstances from the Winchesters’ past? Going right back to the opening scenes of 13.01, and the “vision” Dean had after Jack knocked him and Sam out-- the flashback to Mary burning on the ceiling overlaid against her being dragged through the rift by Lucifer in 12.23. The entire setup of that scene was rife with flashbacks to Sam losing Jess in the pilot episode, the woman in white played by Kelly Kline, the yellow-eyed monster in the nursery played by Jack, and Cas playing the role of the loved one who was burned and therefore was supposed to “stay dead.” But Mary had already defied that assumption, because she didn’t stay dead. Cas didn’t stay dead either. And now Rowena has also defied that particular truism...

Right from the start of the season we’ve been confronted with things from the past, but which only hint at the past because they’ve now either been applied to different things, or they’ve been transformed into something different, or encountered under entirely different context.

--The “Black Spur Bar,” which had previously been Demon!Dean’s hangout during his summer of love with Crowley was transformed into an entirely different bar where Dean mourned Crowley’s death and was unwittingly confronted by a new demonic adversary (dramatic irony!).

--Donatello the prophet, now purposeless in this post-prophecy, post-God world, left to live on without his soul, and yet still doing the best he could in the circumstances he was left with.

--Literal Alternate Universe versions of lost friends-- from Bobby to Kevin, to mentions of John and Mary and their existence in that other world. There’s no bigger metaphor for “Things that look like other things” than literal alternate versions of loved ones…

--Missouri Moseley, absent from the narrative for thirteen years, returned to pass on her legacy to her granddaughter, who’d been raised to doubt her own psychic powers and has now been forced to face what having those powers means for her.

--Not to mention Patience Turner’s last name dredges up questions about who the “Turner” who gave his name to James and Patience may have been, and as I sit here watching 11.16 I’m again reminded of the speculation that maybe it was actually Rufus Turner… we may never know, but heck, it’s definitely not wild to believe it might be true.

--Buddy the shapeshifter, in the sense that nobody is GIVEN the name “buddy.” It’s a nickname, and one that Dean has used many times in the past for Cas. But “Buddy” by his very nature… wasn’t. He impersonated Dean and attempted to shoot Sam. He wasn’t their “buddy” either.

--I mentioned her above, but Billie is no longer what she was before. She’s not a reaper, nor a dead reaper, but has been returned to the story as Death.

--The reaper who comes to collect Dean (and who Dean defies) in 13.05 is named JESSICA. That name is never spoken lightly in Supernatural. It’s a name nearly as loaded with personal baggage for the Winchesters as Mary or John, and again resonates straight back to the pilot episode of the series.

--Themes of monsters and the old west and cowboys and time travel (it was an antique pocket watch that even tipped Jack off to the case in Dodge City in the first place), with Cas now fully reintegrated with TFW, all call back to 6.18, even with the same musical cues, but the themes have all been twisted around sideways and reframed to new purpose. The fight’s no longer about external monsters and stopping the apocalypse, but internal monstrousness.

--We all thought Arthur Ketch was dead until he showed back up pretending to be his own “good twin.”

--We all also thought Rowena was dead.

--Nick’s Bar, where Lucifer chose as a convenient spot to have a chat with Cas about the potential Apocalyptic Situation they may be facing… while Lucifer’s now perma-trapped in the vessel formerly known as Nick…

--The new King of the Crossroads who survived less than the run of a single episode before being dethroned… He thought he could be the next Crowley, and Dean slapped him down with the truth, calling him “Some random demon.”

--Smash, aka Alice; the human dragged against her will into matters Supernatural, who pretty much everyone saw and immediately yelled OMG CHARLIE.

--The return of the Wayward crew, Jody, Donna, Claire, Alex… but now they’re no longer victims of the narrative. They’ve got their own entire spinoff. :P

--The Bad Place. Aka Purgatory Redux.

--Darth Kaia

--A monster auction that put the Winchesters on the chopping block, run by an FBI agent who literally served the monster population, in contrast to Human Authority Figures of the past, up to and including the BMoL who’ve fairly unilaterally wanted to destroy monsters in favor of protecting humanity.

--In that same episode, we finally see a bit of Donna’s personal life-- from her care for her niece to her relationship with Doug 2.0, and Doug’s ultimate rejection of the hunting life when he’s finally introduced to it.

--Jamie, aka Dean’s temporary “soul mate” in 13.12, was also the name of the bartender in 4.05 that was symbolically Dean’s “new first time” after having been “rehymenated” after his resurrection from Hell.

Not to mention Various and Sundry Villains, the theme this season being “Not what it appears to be,” as demonstrated at its most basic visual level with physical masks and hoods obscuring identity, monsters that take on different faces like shapeshifters and ghouls, or force their victims to PERCEIVE an altered version of reality such as the wraith.

Things are not what they seem on the surface, and the entire plot, the monsters of the week, and even ALL the potential “Big Bads,” and the narrative structure itself-- which is turning around and around this central point of Dramatic Irony-- is the fact that even us as the audience to this entire spectacle, with our added insight into SOME of the dramatic irony playing out week to week, even WE still do not see the bigger picture.

I'm cautiously optimistic that a lot of the Winchesters' problems regarding what they Don't Know will resolve when Cas joins up with them again. Cas holds a lot of Important Information that Sam and Dean need. They’ve been kept as much in the dark as a result of Cas’s imprisonment as Cas himself has. But even through the early part of the season, the validity of information they’ve worked off of has been suspect at best. The info they got from Jack's Vision Download in 13.09 wasn't the WHOLE truth about Mary’s imprisonment in the AU. They’ve made several rather large inaccurate assumptions based off that quick glimpse, though. Just like Patience's vision of Claire's death wasn't the WHOLE truth either, but it let to making several Big Choices that ended up having Massive Consequences.

Even when they think they're seeing the Big Picture Truth, there's still critical info missing from that picture.

The entire SEASON is the big bad wolf in sheep’s clothing.

That’s the entire POINT.

[willandlyra]

fall back into place

requested by anonymous: nico asking jason for relationship advice. warning: this went off in a completely random direction, but i hope u still enjoy!

::

Jason has a big, dumb grin, which suits him, as far as Nico is concerned, because he is a big, dumb guy.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Nico grumbles, but nope. The big dumb grin appears to be scowl proof.

“I just can’t believe you came to me!” Jason says, and he sounds genuinely excited and happy about it. It’s kind of weird.

Sometimes, the amount that his friends make him roll his eyes back into his skull makes him long for days of being alone with his thought and feared by the ghost of one thousand year old entities.

But those days were sad. These ones are much better.

Nico rolls his eyes. “Yes, okay, I finally took you up on the agony aunt offer. Are you happy now?”

“Ecstatic,” Jason says. Nico doesn’t doubt it. “Now, what can I help you with?”

“Okay, no, we are not doing this if you’re gonna act like this is some kind of therapy session. And don’t even think about asking me to lie down.”

Jason sighs. “Well, you’re no fun. But seriously, what do you need. It’s about Will, right?”

It’s ridiculous – Nico and Will have been dating for what feels like forever now. Everyone and their great aunt Agnes know that the two of them are together, and Apollo keeps dramatically declaring that he’s going to dedicate the two of them a sonnet. But still, when someone just puts it out there like that, Nico can’t help but flush red.

In part, he supposes it’s embarrassment, but mostly it just makes him think of Will. Even more ridiculously, after all this time, the kid can still make Nico blush without doing anything at all.

“Um, yeah,” Nico says. “Will. Me and Will.”

Jason gives him a big, dumb grin again. A very dopey smile. After he’d got himself over the whole, ‘I have unofficially adopted Nico as my tiny goth brother and if you hurt him I will condemn you to the skies’ thing, he’d very quickly become their number one fan.

“I just really love you two together,” he’d said once, and Nico had looked at him weirdly, and asked why. “I dunno,” Jason had told him. “It’s just, Will is a good guy, and you deserve a good guy. I mean it, Nico, you really, really deserve a good guy.”

That had made Nico blush a little too. Gods, he missed the days where his deathly complexion was unshakeable.

It had, however, affirmed Nico’s suspicions that if Will did turn out to be the world’s biggest asshole, Jason would keep pretty tightly to that condemn you to the skies promise.

“Thought so,” Jason continues, now in the moment. His eyes are still twinkling though, and Nico wishes he had the capability to be annoyed. He is so over this shit, but also, he kind of hopes nothing ever changes. “I can’t believe you came to be for relationship advice. Bite me, Piper.”

“Don’t tempt me,” comes her voice, singsong from… presumably elsewhere in the cabin. Honestly, Nico doesn’t even want to know.

Jason beams. “She’s definitely jealous. Anyway. What’s up, bro?”

Wincing but choosing to ignore Jason’s questionable choice of pet names, Nico decides to get on with it.

“I don’t know what to get him for his birthday.”

Jason blinks.

“Excuse me?”

Irritably, Nico repeats himself.

“…You’ve been together for-”

“Yeah, I know,” Nico says, rubbing at his neck a little awkwardly. “But on his last birthday we’d only just started dating, like, officially, so I panicked and got him a card and Shrek 2. The Deluxe Edition. He loves that movie. Anyway, the problem is, for my last birthday his present was so thoughtful and so now I have to do way better, don’t I?”

“I guess,” Jason says. He looks a little taken aback. “I mean, if he put a whole lot of thought and effort into your present, maybe don’t get him Shrek 3. Even if it is the Deluxe Edition.”

“He’s already got it,” Nico groans. “That was my original plan.”

“It’s Will though, Nico,” and that’s not Jason. That’s Piper again, from wherever the hell she’s hiding out. Nico is mildly concerned that her voice is coming through the ceiling. “He’s not going to care.”

“I know that,” Nico sighs. “I could get him, like, a sticker set. Or a colouring book. And he’d be loving it. He’s so annoying.”

Jason’s eyes twinkle, as if his brain has literally translated annoying to mean: delightful, majestic, the love of my life.

Nico means it, okay. Will Solace is a pain in the ass, and several other body parts. Especially if he’s giving you routine injections.

“Hmmm,” Jason contemplates for a moment. “I don’t think I can help you really, Nico. You don’t have to get him something extravagant, or especially fancy. Just put some thought into it. Like he did for you. So he knows that you love him.”

He’d know that with his eyes closed, Nico thinks. But that’s lame, so instead he says okay.

::

A couple of days later, Will Solace is blindfolded by his siblings and brought along, stumbling, to the campfire where the Hermes cabin proceed to make his life a misery with what apparently constitutes as Camp H-B tradition.

Nico could interfere, he supposes, but watching Will have 17 marshmallows stuffed into his mouth at an alarming pace is quite an incredible sight.

It’s a fairly normal night at the campfire, but with added additions in Will’s honour. They sing a dumb happy birthday song that makes his skin go scarlet, and Lou Ellen and Cecil and a couple of the others of his closer friends give him presents. Percy, seemingly unaware of the marshmallow incident, keeps shoving s’mores into Will’s mouth until he transforms from red to green. Jason gives him a bone crushing hug. Tyson also gives him a bone crushing hug.

Nico saves his present until a bit later. When the singing and the joking has died down a little, and it filters down to fewer and fewer demigods lounging around in the wooded area, Nico takes Will by the wrist and pulls him along deeper into the shadows and away from the others.

Not far away enough to miss the glow of the firelight though – it sparkles from a distance like stars.

“Hey,” Will says.

“Hey,” Nico says.

Then Will grins and splutters, laughing, and Nico is too even as he shakes his head like he’s not.

This boy has changed everything about his life. Nico considers this, sometimes. ‘Better’ was always the direction his life was going to go in, but he’s glad that it swerved into this particular story.

“What’s up?” Will asks. He waggles his eyebrows like an idiot. “Couldn’t wait any longer to kiss me?”

“No,” Nico says. “You’re an idiot.” It’s kind of true though. “I just wanted to give you your presents away from everyone else.”

Will raises his eyebrow. “Presents?”

“Duh,” Nico tells him. First of all, he hands him a CD – an album, pretty standard and probably nothing special, but he knows that Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins is one of the ones missing from Will’s collection.

He follows this with a postcard book full of an artist’s impression of Darth Vader as a devoted father to Luke Skywalker. Nico will never forget that gods-forsaken day that Will made him marathon each and every movie. To this day, Jar Jar Binks haunts him.

And finally, he drops a little card into the palm of Will’s hand.

Will shakes his head. “Too much, Nico,” he says. “You shouldn’t waste your money on me.”

Nico rolls his eyes. “Because I have so much else to spend it on. Shut up, Will. It’s your birthday, and I love you.”

“Even more than all the McDonalds breakfast you could’ve bought for this?” Will grins, wickedly, and Nico lets out a long-suffering sigh.

“I guess so,” he says. “I never said I have good judgement.”

But Will’s eyes flicker back down to the little card in his hand, and then he looks at Nico for a minute. Burning blue, strangely serious. And then he flings his arms around Nico’s head, and pulls him close, tight against his chest.

He mutters, voice muffled, against the fabric of Nico’s shirt, “I love you too. I love you a fucking lot, actually. Thank you.”

Nico feels oddly touched.

“Hey, that’s okay,” he says. “It’s nothing, really.”

“Yeah,” Will says. “But it made me happy.”

He removes his face from melting into Nico’s skin and black t-shirt, and he looks at Nico again, holding his gaze just for a few moments. And then he leans forward, meets his lips. He kisses him slowly and gently, and softer than anything.

The kiss deepens a little, and they fall into each other, and a small piece of paper falls out of the palm of Will’s warm hands. Flutters to the floor and lands in the shadowy grass, but if you squint, you could still read the scrawl written in messy handwriting:

Will Solace – IOU

3 more days in the infirmary.

fin

note: the postcard book will receives is real. it is called vader and son and is my favourite thing in the world also, ive had super bad writers block lately, so if this is a lil stiff or weirdly written, i do apologise

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: Stranger Things

I am super late to the Stranger Things… thing, and it took the premier of the second season and an unexpected stretch of free time to finally sit down and watch it. Even then, it took me a couple extra weeks.

I’ve been a critic of Netflix’s binge-focused release format. Not because I don’t enjoy a good binge watch from time to time, but because I like the freedom to choose when I take a break. When bingeing a show formatted for segmented release, each episode tends to be written in such a way as to let the audience comfortably wait a week, either because the narrative is one and done, or by carefully pacing the series to allow it to hold up with a time gap between episodes.

Also, everyone was raving about Stranger Things, which induced some hype poisoning, and I was born after the 80s died, so I don’t really have any nostalgia for the era. Besides Back to the Future and Ghostbusters, I never really watched much 80s media.

Plus everyone was so excited by how the show featured D&D. There are very few D&D-centered episodes that I like, as such depictions always fall short of my expectations.[1]

Besides one groan worthy aspect in season 2[2], I was actually pleasantly surprised by how the show handled the subject: by making it a casual part of the kids’ lives. Season One opens with a game, and closes with a game, and it’s sometimes used to color dialogue, but it’s never in focus, which is good. Hobbies should color characters, not define them.

The actual plot of season 1 was well written, and uses the only plausible excuse for characters not telling each other vital information: by segmenting the plot between three groups that have no reason to interact until the plot threads run together.

Sure, Chief Hopper maybe should’ve been keeping Joyce appraised a little more often, but he was also busy, so I can give that a pass.

Oddly, beside Eleven, I didn’t actually care about the Kids’ plotline. They’re well cast, don’t get me wrong, but the argument over what to do once El enters their lives just runs in circles until the other two plotlines convene, and I just wasn’t particularly invested in them.

And the teens are likewise dull until Nancy and Jon start proactively hunting the eldritch horror. And even then, it’s plagued by gross High School Romance drama. I don’t care who Nancy starts dating, I want to know what’s up with the supernatural weirdness and the effects that has on people.

Which, of course, leaves Hopper and Joyce to be the ones to pull me through. Also Eleven’s flashbacks. You know, the parts showcasing and developing the things that are strange.

The first season is, mercifully, a rare example of a well-executed secrets plot. The mystery’s set off by Will’s disappearance, a strong inciting incident that gets three different casts going down three different plotlines until convening at the end.

Because of the nature of who the characters are and the methods they use to accomplish their goals, they’re kept separate not because of tedious secrets kept to ‘protect’ others, but because they just don’t have any reason to interact.

Hopper and Joyce’s efforts to find Will lead to the Government Conspiracy, and they are unaware of Eleven’s existence for most of it. Eleven is (rightfully) afraid of the Energy Research place, and doesn’t trust adults because of it, making it reasonable the kids wouldn’t know. The teens (once they get past the dumb romance drama) are trying to find Barb, who no one else cares is missing.

The moment the three groups learn they’ve been pursuing different sides of the same puzzle, they work together and share information without fuss. Then they split again when their goals lead in different directions. Hopper and Joyce don’t want to put the kids in danger when they go to confront the big bad; the kids continue to protect Eleven; the teens seek revenge on the demogorgon.

And all three contribute to the resolution.

Then the second season opens, and Hopper, who I loved for being a reasonable protagonist, betrays my trust. Eleven’s hurting being separated from her friends and her friends are hurting not knowing her fate.

A problem easily solved if Hopper just told Mike “Hey, Eleven’s with me, she’s safe, but I’m keeping her out of the public eye. I’ll try to arrange some visits, but they can’t be frequent. Here’s a morse code info card, and a frequency. Don’t keep each other up too late, and don’t tell anyone who hasn’t already met her.”

There, Eleven’s got some social stimulation, no one’s pining, and everyone knows where things stand.

They all worked together for season one’s finale. Hopper’s actions are inexcusable.

Hopper went from my favorite character to one of the most annoying.

As a whole, the first season felt much more tightly written than the second. The first balanced the eldritch horror and psychic powers sufficiently well.

The second advanced and built upon the Upside Down in exciting ways, including a giant central intelligence to the whole place. Confirmation that, instead of just a decaying world to mirror our own, the entire place is a single malevolent entity, represented by an enormous, alien being. I love what is being done with the Upside Down.

Then there’s ‘The Lost Sister’. Which is… the episode literally doesn’t fit. Eleven leaves, seeking her mother. Okay, good development. This leads to some new exposition of what Eleven’s young life was like. That’s good! Slowly exploring that works for the show! Introducing another test subject in the form of ‘8’. Logical, since Eleven is, well, number Eleven.

Elle/Jane goes looking for this mystery girl. That’s where the show goes off the rails. Not that Eleven searching for others like her isn’t a fair plotline, but it literally takes the show away from Hawkins and all the endearing characters we’ve met.

It’s a filler episode, and it turns Eleven from ‘Oddity with connection to the Eldritch’ to ‘Blossoming superhero’ which… Stranger Things wasn’t a superhero show. It’s a mystery and thriller. It’s an episode so divorced from the other eight episodes, you can literally skip it and lose nothing.

Kali’s gang has no redeeming features. They’re criminals and murderers, plain and simple. Elle finds them, establishes a connection with Kali, and then it’s just a ‘Good Character is lead down a dark path before leaving’ plot. It adds nothing.

And Kali has a different power set from Eleven, deepening the Superhero aspect where each mutant has a different power. If, instead, Kali had the same (but weaker) Psionic powers I might take her inclusion better.

But, worse still, none of it has anything to do with the rest of the plot, even when it would’ve been easy to integrate, though that probably would require more time.

Kali’s gang, as mentioned, are bad people. Send them rocking into Hawkins in search of a place to lie low while the heat dies off, maybe induct Billy Hargrove… maybe they could find a space.

Actually, no, nevermind. They’d still be a distraction. It’s a series that works on the strength of it’s dynamic characters. Suddenly hamfisting in Kali and company would strain that.

In fact, I’m not sure searching out numbers 1 through 10 (maybe 12) will ever work, because that would imply a road trip season, which would suck because we’d see less Hawkins in favor of Scooby-Doo’ing up the series.

So keep the fates of the previous ten test subjects a mystery. They were experiments that failed. And considering how much hullabaloo Eleven’s escape caused in the first season, Eight getting away without any remark until now is ridiculous.

It… just doesn’t work. It’s too Kyle XY.

So, let’s take some metaphorical scissors, snip after episode 206, and before 208, remove the middle episode, and drop it out a window. It’s gone, hopefully never to return to hurt us.

Keeping Eleven separated from the rest of the cast for most of the season is the greatest sin of the second season.

Having strong characterization can only go so far if you limit who characters interact with. Segmenting the cast by age groups in the first season was fine as we were meeting the characters, so we need to learn about them in their preferred environment and when normality is interrupted. They come together at the end and cooperate to save the day, an experience shared by all. Mike and Nancy even have a heart-to-heart about how they won’t keep secrets from another. Real touching stuff.

For the second season, besides needing to flesh out the now present Will, we know the cast. So the fun should come from now intermingling the cast. Have Nancy consult Mike about getting hashtag Justice for Barb; Jonathan and Steve becoming romantic mentors to Lucas and Dustin;[3] Hopper becoming an unwilling paternal figure to the party; and show Eleven adjusting to the Real World.

Instead, Eleven only interacts with Hopper all season, and, yes, Daddy Hopper is adorable, though he should maybe try and remember he’s caring for a socially stunted psychic before he starts yelling. Maybe have him start yelling, Eleven gets mad, one bookshelf falls over, both stop to look at this reaction, then Hopper runs both of them through the deep breathing exercise from the end of Season One before talking it through.

Eleven and Hopper’s arc should’ve been about learning to trust in a scary world, instead of… whatever they were going for. And giving her limited interaction with her friends would’ve allowed for this growth, as the party would first have to coax her out of the cottage, and then she’d have firmer ground to question Hopper keeping her cooped up.

And I so love fish out of water stories. Learning what money is and asking Hopper for an allowance? Stumbling about and learning not to assault people who offend her?[4] Being the first kid to form a bond with Bob? All would’ve been nice to watch happen.

Also, Bob was… okay. He didn’t leave much of an impression on me for a generically nice man. They should’ve worked the ‘Bob founded the AV Club’ thing in way sooner, so it wasn’t an awkward line shoved in after his death to retcon in stakes for The Party. It was awkward.

Also, no one else wearing costumes is the least realistic thing. After my 13 years of public school, I know that would never happen.

It’s not all bad, let’s be clear. Upping the threat of the Upside Down and giving it a central intelligence was good, as was expanding on the Demogorgon lifecycle to bring in a nice Alien touch. The tunnels made the threat feel more immediate, and explained the pockets of Upside Down that broke out in season 1. Max is… promising. Hopefully she’ll get more of a concrete arc going forward, but she’s got a good start.

So, in summation, I liked Season 1, and 2 was as enjoyable with a few missteps that hopefully won’t be forced back in. My one fear is that they’re going to put the Mind Flayer on the back burner and spend the next season on the less interesting ‘Other Test Subjects’ plotline. We’re heading towards the end of the Superhero Media boom, while I can’t think of many properties that focus on themes of eldritch and inhuman intelligences that the Mind Flayer and Upside Down presents.

Still, when Stranger Things 3 arrives, I’ll watch as eagerly as anyone else.

If you enjoyed this review, may I suggest to trawl through my archive to see if you enjoy my other works? (The CanvasReviews tag should give you a good start). Also, feel free to send me messages and question. I also have a Patreon, if that’s your sort of thing.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Yes, even Community’s much beloved take. There was no passion in it and it was weighed down by the ‘One Character for all games’ and ‘Dice results dictate everything’ concepts that makes zero sense. [2] How can you forget about Rogues, you idiots? It’s literally the best class! [3] I will go on record: if you sit me through a tired love triangle, but follow it up by having two corners advise on a new love triangle, I will be on board for that absurdity. [4] For context, my ideal ending of the the show is the town just transitions into casually accepting that, sometimes, eldritch horrors pop up, and just deal with them casually.