#an alien and holy encounter

[madison-tourmaline]

I was in a remote but populated youth boarding house in the winter, where I got caught as an accomplice to reckless tomfoolery — we hopped the low wall, found a small standpipe leading out to the open air from the schoolhouse, and popped a cherry bomb right down into it, listening as it burst the pipes inside. The lot of us, particularly us two girls, were punished, ostracized further, and kept in remedial education.

One evening I gazed up at the sky in rapt astonishment to see the other planets on their orbital plane so close as to be discernible with eyes alone, all aligned and set behind the frosty wisps of darkening sky. Neptune, Jupiter, Saturn, all there, larger than life, and I pointed them out to my friend next to me. I stayed out under an evergreen tree after everyone had begun to move inside, and two silvery ellipsoid tops — the curvy kind with smooth extrusions on each face — spun across my vision from left to right. An immeasurable pair of hands made of beautiful light reached down toward the ground, and I gave the two shapes to them, which they cradled gently. More shapes, colorful this time, danced in my periphery. Soon, instead of the hands was a body of light, more human-sized but very tall and entirely dignified. The figure wore the silhouette of robes and appeared bare-headed but with the outline of an impressive crest. I sat still and only breathed slightly. Then, in what felt like an extraordinary gift of trust, the figure revealed themself, becoming much less luminous, dressed in incredible vivid brocade of all colors, face beaked and feathered like that of a crested owl, and beckoned me up to my feet. They reached up to the dancing shapes, picked one and handed it to me, a bottle-green top shape made of blown glass, and closed my fingers protectively around it.

That night one of the schoolmistresses asked me about the beautiful thing and rather knowingly about the encounter, and revealed a surprising collection of other such blown glass, all tied to long strings. She took the otherworldly gift to examine for a minute or two, and I, temporarily losing sight of it, looked anxiously through the hanging objects for where it went. But soon she handed it back, and told me about seeing the being herself. She spoke about it with such joy as she had never shown before, but never mentioned seeing them outside of their angelic silhouette. I kept the rest of what I had seen to myself.

Time passed and I went home with a parting gift of flour mix, that when blended with my heart and my mind and my spirit would turn into pancakes. I stirred it together and patiently spread it out piece by piece across a paper tray, carefully evening it out with a spoon. The pancake turned out continentally uneven, wide on top with a trailing bit toward the bottom left, but most of it firmed up quickly. Some spots didn’t and seemed too starchy, or they didn’t absorb the water of my spirit, and they looked like little bogs of extra scrungle; one of these was near the bottom end closest me, and two more each about 2/3rds of the way from the bottom to the top, right and left. My mom walked in at that time and I told her “I think those are spots I need to work on.” Suddenly my stepdad arrived home and my mom hurriedly handed the pancake to me, paper platter and all, with a page I was holding slapped against the other side. “Really, upside down?” I moaned out of earshot, but bundled it off to the kitchen to put into the convection oven, where it would just barely fit.

I woke before getting to taste them, but I am filled with peace and love anyway.

[anghraine]

People don't always say it explicitly, but it's odd to me that fandom seems more obsessed with The Lore than ever, where it's constantly like—to participate in our fandom, you must read this discarded scrap, that novelization, collect flavor text on company products, watch a vaguely related TV show, have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, and possess a certain something in your air and manner of walking...

[jinjeriffic]

DCxDP Prophecy Universe Part 2

Part 1

Damian glared at the envelope. He and Father were in the process of analysing the letter for any signs of toxins, explosives or other traps. Obviously he wasn’t fool enough to open a missive from a questionable source without taking precautions. So far, all their scans had come up empty. Literally. The letter was defying all their attempts at chemical or spectroscopic testing, x-ray and magnetic resonance scans were inconclusive, it defied all properties of ordinary matter. It was frustrating. It was vexing. He was blaming magic.

For all intents and purposes, the letter looked like ordinary paper, with an ordinary wax seal, bearing the initials CW. The looping handwriting addressing it to Damian was precise and neat. Swiping the surface of the letter for chemical traces yielded no results. When Damian had tried to cut off a corner of the paper for analysis it had resisted all attempts, including a laser and a diamond headed cutting tool. Damian’s only satisfaction was that when Father had grunted and taken over the task from Damian, he had no more success than his son. As if Damian didn’t know how to perform the standard array of tests!

It certainly didn’t help that his siblings wouldn’t stop their incessant chattering!

“I’m just saying, ghosts wouldn’t be the weirdest thing we’ve encountered, Red. I’m not sure it would even make my personal Top 5.”

It seemed gossip among heroes travelled faster than the speed of light.

“Really, Nightwing? Ghosts? It’s far more likely to be a meta with something to hide. Or a few screws loose.” Damian could practically hear the eyeroll in Drake’s voice “And since when do ghosts act as glorified mailmen?”

“I don’t know Red, since when do aliens pretend to be Kansas farmboys? C’mon, we deal with magic users all the time!”

“And lets not forget people coming back from the dead” Red Hood interjected over the open comm line.

“Magic is just science we don’t understand yet. Any sufficiently analysed magic becomes indistinguishable from science!”

“B, a little help here?”

“Hn” Father straightened up from his position at the lab table “Oracle, any progress on clearing up the footage from Robin’s mask?”

Grayson threw up his hands with a frustrated huff while Drake smirked.

“The program is almost finished rendering. Whatever scrambler they used did a real number on the video quality. I’m surprised the audio is as clear as it is.” Oracle replied.

“Hn. And the isotope tracer on the money?”

“Sorry B, no hits on the local sensors. Wherever the guy went it’s either outside Gotham or shielded somehow.” she said, mildly frustrated.

“Maybe it’s ghost magiiiiic” Drake sing-songed. Grayson lightly cuffed the back of his head, to which the former Robin responded with a firm shove. Their interaction quickly devolved into a childish tussle.

Damian gave an annoyed huff. “Don’t you two imbeciles have anything better to do?”

“Aww, we’re just here to look out for our baby brother!” Nightwing teased.

“Yeah, we gotta make sure your ghost encounter didn’t leave any lasting psychological damage!” Red Robin added.

Before Damian could retaliate for their needling, Oracle chimed in. “Uh, guys? You’re going to want to see this. Most of the footage was corrupted beyond repair, but I was able to pull some partial stills and, well…” she threw a handful of pictures up on the screen. There was artifacting marring them, but parts of the stranger were visible in each of them. Oracle magnified one that had a pretty good view of his face.

“Holy shit” Drake whispered.

Damian frowned. “What?”

“Dami, he looks like you. Just… older.” Grayson said softly.

“What are you talking about?” Damian snapped.

“Disregard the pale colouring for a second. The nose, the chin… he looks like you if you had a growth spurt,” Drake wrinkled his nose “and went through puberty.”

The commlines erupted into chaos. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Spoiler exclaimed “are you telling me there’s an older version of Robin running around Gotham?!”

“Copy?” Batgirl inquired.

“Don’t tell me Talia cooked up Demon Brat 2.0!”

“Given that he looks older it’s more likely version 0.1 if anything,” Drake snarked, “though there’s the possibility of artificially accelerated growth rates…”

Damian had had enough. “Tt. You are ignoring the obvious - if this is some kind of supernatural entity it likely copied aspects of my appearance in an attempt to engender feelings of familiarity.” he said haughtily, pushing down the uncomfortable churning in his stomach. There was no way Mother would replace him with a cheap copy. She couldn’t! “Besides, the creature has obvious powers and neither of my bloodlines has any trace of the meta gene.”

“That’s ignoring the ghostly elephant in the room.” Grayson chimed in, “Maybe it’s a dead ancestor?”

Drake gave their older brother an annoyed look “Even a time travelling descendant from the future is more likely than that. And delivering a ‘prophecy’ to boot?”

Oracle pulled up an aged up picture of Damian next to the stranger’s, highlighting several reference points. “On closer inspection, there’s a couple of discrepancies. The cheekbones for one - Robin definitely takes after his mother, while our mystery meta looks more like… well… Robin’s grandmother on the paternal side.” she finished hesitantly. “B?”

They turned to look at Batman, who had remained silent during the whole exchange. If they hadn’t known him so well they would have thought him unaffected, but the tightening around his mouth betrayed his agitation.

“There’s no use in pointless speculation until we have more data to work from,” he growled, “Oracle, look for any reports of a meta matching the target. Since our regular methods have failed to yield results, I will contact the JLD about running tests on the letter.” He turned to Drake, “Red Robin, see what you can find on recent League activities. If this is another scheme by Ra’s or Talia we need to know about it.”

“The last thing we need is more demon spawn running around!” Red Hood groaned over the comms.

Damian was furious. This was absurd! To even indulge the possibility that that creature was in any way related to him was making him feel like he had swallowed battery acid. He was the Demon’s Heir! He was not replaceable! There was only one thing to do.

“Robin? Stop!”

He ignored his Father’s shout. He stomped over to the lab table, snatched up the envelope and broke the seal.

Nothing happened.

He unfolded the paper and saw the same handwriting that had been on the outside.

Brother of blood, brother of soul

Never buried but already mourned

In lightning and ice the scorned child returned

To strike down the Demon’s Head

With all that Death earned

Damian’s hand shook. He reread the lines over and over again, refusing to comprehend. He could feel his Father standing behind him, scrutinising the letter as well.

“Son…”

Suddenly, the paper burst into green flames, going up into smoke that dissipated unnaturally quickly.

Silence reigned for a few moments. Then…

“Well that was needlessly melodramatic” Nightwing remarked.

Part 3

[smutinlove]

hi! how are you? can I make a request? so ive been imagining in my head how would jason react to reader going to the wayne gala with him? (for being more especific after jason introduce reader to the batfamily reader gets invited by jason's family to go to the wayne gala)

how would the batfamily treat her? how does Jason behave on gala nights?? sorry for so many questions lol

thanks for reading this <3

y'all are FEEDING THE DEMON inside me. slay

-not proof-read. has punctuation mistakes (probably. maybe.. idk)

•after a few embarrassing encounters (for jason HAHA) with his family, you were formally invited to have dinner with them. and dinner turned into an invitation to the wayne gala. pretty big, huh?

•at first, you were hesitant... but jason said he wouldn't go without you and you did not want that. so you went with him.

•i mean, it was one thing being with him. but his arm wrapped around you waist while he introduced you to everyone, calling you his, "girlfriend."

•and whenever he called you his girlfriend, he blushed and smiled.

•i mean, usually jason would be one of those "macho, no feelings/emotions need to be shown" kind of men. but when he's with you, it's a whole new genre.

•he's so gentle with you. your dress got stuck? he'll buy you a new one. hungry during the gala? he'll make you sit down and give you a plate filled with food. (his siblings said that he's so chaotic during gala nights... not true.)

•and omg, speaking of his siblings, they are so protective over both of you. if you hurt him, count your days. if he hurt you, that's a different book in general.

•dick is like an older brother, except he is so sweet and genuine. he knows everything about everyone. tim is like the nerdy but really chaotic younger brother. he's super smart, but also on the brink of causing an alien invasion and murdering everyone in the galaxy. but he's just a goofy little boy <3

•steph is such a girl's girl. she's so friendly and sweet. she's an angel, i swear. cassandra cain doesn't talk much. but she isn't untoward or rude to you. she just doesn't talk a lot. but she has said a few nice words to you.

•damien... that little minx is formal. but once you break down his barriers, he is just another child and child soldier. you and him bonded over your love for animals. he even introduced you to alfred the cat.

•now, papa wayne, the man, the myth, the bat. bruce wayne. he was very friendly. holy shit, this man raised amazing children. he deserves the world. he is very sweet to you, always making sure you're comfortable. he's like a dad to you. (i wish he was my dad)

•alfred, the heart of the bat family. he's formal too sometimes. but he's really nice. he's helpful and witty. he knows everything about every member of the bat/wayne family. if you want to see jason in diapers or when he was in an awkward teenage phase, ask him. he has pics of EVERY batfam member.

•let's just say that jason was raised by amazing people. and those same people adore you with everything.

jason is my pookie bear. he's just a big cuddly teddy bear and i love him for that

[vintagegeekculture]

Holy microchip! Bruce Coville's "A.I. Gang" was a 1980s kid-adventure series that lasted for four books, set around four computer whiz kids (Wonderchild, "Gamma" Ray, 3-D, and Twerpy) who's parents are developing a "thinking computer" in their lab in an island off North Carolina. The kids decide to beat their parents to the punch by creating their own artificial intelligence, Sherlock, who helps them solve mysteries. First published in 1986, the books were set in "the 1990s" when that was futuristic (or at least the 1990s according to a reader of Omni magazine). They encounter evil spymasters with powers of hypnotism, a robot shark, and the sinister genius of the Black Glove.

Like "My Teacher is an Alien," Coville specialized in books that look like kiddie fluff on the outside meant for the Scholastic Book Fair, but were surprisingly intense, science-based examinations of the morality of artificial intelligence. This seriousness may surprise adult readers, much like how Coville's "My Teacher is an Alien" ended with a philosophical examination of man's violent nature and if humankind deserved to survive and continue. A.I. Gang has aged much, much better than it probably appears on the surface. For example, not to blow the ending, but when their parents finally bring their artificial intelligence, the ominously named ADAM, to full power, this kid series with judo chops and robot sharks ends with a finale that is a mix of Colossus: the Forbin Project with 2001: A Space Odyssey, to the point one wonders if this entire project was a prequel to Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, or Dan Simmons' Hyperion.

Bruce Coville loved the series so much that he purchased the rights to it from his publisher (rare in the work for hire publishing world where writers sign ownership of their work over), and reprinted them with a new publisher with his own modifications in 1995 (the year the books are set).

[hypotheticalprose]

Dandadan Finale, or why cutting your season in half is fucking stupid

The end of Dandadan season 1 has rightfully frustrated or turned off some viewers, but I think the way that the story has been framed, especially by the abrupt ending mid-arc, has a lot to do with the reception. This is also a broader meditation on edgier scenes in storytelling and what, if anything, can justify their use.

Spoilers for Dandadan season two, so be warned I guess. Content warning for discussion of sexual assault.

Some people have pointed out that in the manga, Momo’s encounter at the bath is resolved in a single chapter as a point in favor of it being not a big deal. While that’s true, I don’t think that gets to the point of what turns people off from these kinds of things: the feeling of gratuity and lack of necessity. If something is included in a story for seemingly no reason, people are going to assume that the reason was self-indulgence. And it’s very, very reasonable to be creeped out by a story that seemingly self-indulges in that kind of thing.

The question that really matters is, what is the story trying to say with the inclusion of this scene? A clean-cut example of a challenging scene with a purpose is actually the first episode of Dandadan, where Momo’s fight with her shitty, abusive boyfriend is replicated shot-for-shot with her fight against the Serpo. In both cases, she is fighting back, but unlike the first time, when she only wins a moral victory by telling him to fuck off, in the second scene she demolishes the aliens, establishing that she is not a damsel in distress, but rather the protagonist of the story.

Let’s go back to the bathhouse scene and zoom outa a bit. In the manga, it’s established that the men who attack her in the bath are members of the Kito family, who also happen to be Jiji’s landlords and the main antagonists of the arc. At the same time that the men attack her, the Kito family woman barge into Jiji’s home, threaten him with a shotgun, and generally act similarly threatening. It’s also established that the Kito family see themselves as the guardians of their town, but the rest of the town seems to despise them; the men get chased out of the bath after Momo kicks their ass and are only saved by a corrupt cop in their payroll.

So, what is the story trying to say?

The Kito family are utterly entitled. Because they “keep the town safe,” they view any transgression as compensation for their sacrifice. The fact that they don’t actually sacrifice anything themselves is utterly irrelevant to them. Their matriarch even explicitly tells Momo that they “keep the hot springs safe” despite the fact that they do the exact opposite of that. The literal sacrifices that they commit is a mirror to this.

Another thing to consider: there’s a reason every member of the family is depicted as middle-aged or old. They’re a living embodiment of the entitlement of older generations; shitty parents, abusive landlords, creepy older men who twist social norms to their own benefit.

A secondary purpose of the bath scene is that it introduces Turbo-Granny’s luck-based powers that she gained from her new cat form, as well as demonstrating that despite her harsh words, she doesn’t tolerate the abuse of girls around her, including Momo. It’s a moment of camaraderie between the two of them that develops their bond.

So clearly, this is not an instance of gratuitous sexual abuse. It serves a purpose in the story. The problem is that it only serves that purpose as a small part of a longer arc. Making it a cliffhanger is an utterly incomprehensible choice, especially when the next episode doesn’t come out for six months. Holy shit, that’s such a bad idea! Removing the scene from its context makes it gratuitous! Frankly, it would be better not to have it at all if that’s your plan. It didn’t sit right with me, and I knew the context. For anime-only viewers, it feels like it utterly undermines the point made in the first episode. It makes Momo into a victim again instead of the hero. Ending the season like that is a betrayal of the story’s original message.

Science SARU remains one of my favorite animation studios of all time, but this was a missed input of gargantuan proportions. This is also why 12-episode seasons that are actually just half of a season are stupid as fuck.

One last point before I sign off on this: I think it’s very reasonable to not be interested in a story where sexual assault is played for laughs, drama, or horror. Even if it is technically proficient and serves a purpose, it isn’t for everyone. An example is Devilman Crybaby’s reboot, also by Science SARU, as well as Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto. I wouldn’t just recommend those to anyone without warning them about the challenging elements. It’s no different from extreme non-sexual violence, or explicit consensual sex scenes, really. People have different comfort levels, and that’s totally fine. Lord knows I have my limits. I’ve been watching Ranma 1/2 lately, and I despise Happosai with every fiber of my being and skip every episode he shows up in. I’d kill him with a hammer if I could.

[whereserpentswalk]

Earth is the only planet in the known universe with gods.

Every other sentient species in known space is completely atheistic. They have myths at times, monsters, heros, cryptids, wizards. But gods, demons, religion, those are a uniquely human concepts.

When humanity first learned about this quirk it seemed to be something from our evolution. Something about the human mind that caused us to create religions when other humans didn't. But every species we met, even rational ones, or ones who had concepts of myths or cyptids, thought our gods were certainly real.

Humans, because of earth's relationships to hyperspace, have little to no psychics. The first human psychic was confirmed in 2311, and even then she wasn't born anywhere near the sol system. So it's very hard for humans to detect gods. But when species that had strong psychics met us, they were able to tell we were communicating with something extraplanner when we prayed.

And psychics who could see extraplanner creatures were shocked when they entered human holy places. They saw entities commucating with us. Angels and saints watching over Christian churches. Spirits of the land and high gods in Shinto temples. Old gods and spirits at neopagan alters. Almost every religion on earth's gods seemed to exist to some extent.

And stranger, these gods have been detected before by other species, but not on freindly terms. Some saw their physical manifestations in hyperspace or in psychic dreams. Others were seen haunting or attacking people. Most alien races didn't encounter them until they went deep into space, or into extraplanner science, certainly having no contact with them as ancients. And because of this most alien species first encountered gods extremely hostility.

The first encounters some species had with gods haven't been when interacting with earthlings, but when they threatened them. A ship from the Arreken Empire in hyperspace that would have conquered earth before it had the technology to fight back if it found them, torn to shreds by an entity in hyperspace said to look like a red bearded human, a hammer is his hands and hyperstorms and red lightening behind him, they thought he was some sort of human supersoldier at the time, but humans didn't even know about hyperspace yet. A Rchititiik corporation mining fleet that attempted to claim Mars before humans got to it, terrified away by a being described as rotating rings with eyes and wings all over it, which spoke in countless tounges and burned a six pointed star into the flagship, thought to be a human spaceship but later confirmed to be unknown to the humans at the time. A small craft that abducted pre space age humans a long time ago, having their exit to the Sol System blocked by a creature described as a feathered serpent with a stone mace in his tail, being forced to put the humans back before they were allowed to leave.

Humans are not the only race to have encountered the gods. We are the only race the gods like.

[h-worksrambles]

Sonic X Shadow Generations fascinates me. Because it feels like something I shouldn’t be excited for. And yet I absolutely am.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Sonic Generations. It’s my third favourite game in the series and my favourite 3D Sonic game (with Sonic Adventure 2 in a close second). I’m very happy to see it getting a re release to expose it to new audiences, and playing it in 4K60fps on my PS5 is a very enticing. Likewise, I really like Shadow as a character and I’m excited to play as him again.

And yet, his new bonus campaign promises to basically be a bunch of nostalgic pandering for Shadow the Hedgehog, a game which I consider to be, simply put, crap. It was boring, dull, colourless and embarrassing trend chasing. And pretty much everything I hated about it is on display in this trailer.

We’ve got gritty, grey cityscapes, we’ve got the rather blah alien villain, Black Doom returning, we’ve got the looming return of the series’…bafflingly executed lore. In a word, Shadow was a pretty much everything I didn’t want Sonic to be shoved into a blender. I’ve given my thoughts on revisiting past excesses and failures for the sake of nostalgia. I wrote a whole thing about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and my fears that it would go overboard pandering to the 2000s spin offs (which I dislike a for lot of the same reasons as a lot of Sonic stuff from the mid 2000s). A faux attempt at maturity that sacrifices Sonic’s camp and colour, and lacks the writing competency to make its tone shift work is pretty much my worst case scenario for the series. And now we’re invoking that for nostalgia? Again, I should hate this.

So if I dislike Shadow the Hedgehog so much. If it really is so emblematic of Sonic’s worst excesses that I want it to leave behind in the 2000s…then why am I so damn hyped for this? Why am I not feeling the same dread as whenever VII Remake implicitly threatens to bring back Genesis?

I think it’s because of the specific relationship Sonic has had with its past for the last decade. So much of the stuff from that time period is material that Sega has seemed actively scared to touch again. Sometimes with good reason. But I think that’s why some material from that time has gained such a strong nostalgic cult following, and why they’re held up as such bastions of missed potential. There’s never been anything quite like Shadow or 06 since they came out with how safe Sega has subsequently played things. And in many respects, that’s a good thing. But I can see how it build a sense of mystique around them. It was kind of sad to see 2010s Sonic so…scared of itself. Terrified to invoke its own history but not really committed to a new direction either. And this is pretty much the exact opposite of that hesitancy.

Basically, the reason I react to seeing Westopolis or Black Doom with ‘holy shit let’s go!!!’ rather than ‘why, god, why?’ is because I genuinely never thought I would see them again after this long. It’s just exciting to see Sonic Team throw caution to the wind and embrace all the parts of their franchise. Even the parts I personally dislike. Plus, Sonic Generations is kind of the perfect game in which to reimagine that stuff and make it..actually good this time. This was the game that made Crisis City of all things into a banger level. The game that took Silver, one of the most notorious boss fights in the series, and gave him a kickass encounter.

If they can fix that, they can do anything.

Plus, the fact that the trailers already show all these trippy stage effects and anime af boss fights and set pieces tells me we’re not just gonna be running through the same drab washed out burning cities that made Shadow 2005 so boring. Again, there’s evidently an effort being made to rehabilitate and reimagine this stuff, not just repeat all the same mistakes. And that’s exciting.

So yeah, Sonic X Shadow Generations has somehow managed to get me genuinely excited for all the parts of the series I typically balk at. And that’s pretty impressive.

That said, if I see Mephiles again, I’m leaving.

[everydayyoulovemeless]

sooo... how would New Vegas base game companions react to maybe 1 or 3 of /your/ favorite wild wasteland encounters?

would that be anything?

FNV Companions Reactions to Various Wild Wasteland Encounters

➼ Word Count » 1.0k ➼ Warnings » None ➼ Genre » Platonic/Romantic

Boone

He can't help but stare at you stupidly when you leave Mick and Ralphs with the Pimp-Boy 3 Billion. You were supposed to buy ammo, maybe some weapons, not trade out your Pip-Boy for that. Not only does it serve the exact same purpose, but it's also going to make you a lot easier to spot in the desert with the way it shimmers in the sun. He's going to be so annoyed with you and won't talk to you for a good week afterward.

Boone tenses up when he spots the alien spacecraft off in the distance for the first time. He can’t seem to do anything but stop and stare for a minute before aiming his rifle at the thing to get a closer look at what it is and who is operating it. However, when he spots the alien in the driver's seat, he puts his gun down. His disbelief only heightens when the ship seemingly disappears within seconds of him looking away. He won’t sleep for a few days after, too busy trying to piece together what he saw.

Boone doesn’t think too hard about it and quickly pockets the holy grenades when you both happen upon them in the Searchlight church. He doesn’t care whether they’re “holy” or not, he doesn’t even care to know what that entails, he just wants as many as he can in his arsenal.

Arcade

Arcade feels like he should’ve known what to expect when he allowed you to walk into Mick and Ralph’s on your own. He knows Freeside better than anyone, of course, they’d be smuggling something odd inside. He won’t have much of a reaction to it, a part of him felt like he’d already known something distasteful was going to happen. Next time he’ll just be sure to supervise.

Arcade panics a bit when he spots the spaceship. He’s never been certain on whether or not he believes in aliens, but the thought of something being out there with technology that reminds him somewhat of the Enclave.. he finds that discomforting. He’ll write whatever he noticed down somewhere on the inside cover of a book and pray that whatever it was isn’t hostile.

Arcade immediately picks up the holy grenades in fascination. He’s not sure what makes them different—probably nothing at all—but the description is enough to get him to think. He’s familiar with quite a few religious texts and the discovery of the explosives may even trigger him to go on a philosophical rant.

Raul

Raul can’t help but chuckle in disbelief when he sees you walk out with the golden pip-boy wrapped around your arm. He hates it. This is probably the worst thing you could’ve done for them. And he’s going to complain the entire time, constantly poking jabs at you for being stupid enough to wander around in a desaturated desert with the one thing that makes you most visible.

Raul doesn’t have much reaction to the spacecraft. He knows he should probably be surprised, but he’s just.. not. He’s seen so much in the Mojave already, that it makes sense for aliens to exist, at least that’s how he sees it.

He gets a little kick out of the holy grenades. He’ll wave you over to come look at them, saying how he thinks it’s odd someone took the time to leave a sign labeling standard grenades as “holy”. He may even suggest that you both do something similar. Get a bit of a rise out of people. Make them think their weapons are “special”.

Lily

She thinks the Pimp-Boy suits you perfectly! She only wishes she could’ve thought of something like it first. She’ll gush and brag to all her friends back at Jacobstown about how her grandchild has a golden pip-boy. It makes Leo a little more alert as well. He’s going to be worried that someone will try and rob you of it so she might even become a little more violent in battle.

Lily is unfazed by the spaceship and, depending on her mental state at the time, may even mistake it for Santa’s sleigh or some other friendly character to get you excited about all the gifts you’re about to receive! (all from her)

When Lily spots the holy grenades, she immediately begins reminiscing on her days spent at the chapel. She’ll go on about how she was in the choir and never missed any sermons on Sunday morning. It restores some of her fonder memories for a couple of minutes and it makes her happy.

Cass

When Cass sees the Pimp-Boy, she is going to want to sell it. She’ll try everything to convince you that it’s the right move, especially since it’s made out of pure gold. The number of caps you could swindle out of some poor wastelander would be worth the trouble of being without the thing. Besides, you both could snatch up another one from one of the local vaults to replace it with.

Cass convinced herself that the alien spaceship she saw was just a hallucination caused by her drinking and walking around all day in the heat. She doesn’t even entertain the idea of aliens being real.

She’ll skim the “holy grenade” sign and ignore it for the rest of the time you’re there. She’s not crazy about explosives and so doesn’t really care either way what they are.

Veronica

Veronica thinks the Pimp-Boy is so fun and would beg you to let her borrow it for a few hours so she can tinker around with it. She thinks the gadget is a lovely color and an interesting trinket, especially since you seemed to get it out of nowhere. She’ll show it off to everyone else in the bunker and brag about how you and her are the official pimps of the Brotherhood.

Veronica lets out a quiet ‘oh’ when she spots the spacecraft hovering around the desert one evening. She’ll stare at it in awe for a moment, caught off guard by the sheer technological wonder that it is. When she turns to see if you see it too, however, it disappears, and she’s left to wonder who or what had been responsible for it.

She doesn’t even bother with the holy grenades when you stumble upon them. Explosions aren’t her speciality, but if you’d like them, she wouldn’t mind pocketing them.

[rlyehtaxidermist]

i think the thing that bugs me most about the "earth is a deathworld" genre as a whole, from a narrative structure sense, is that they almost always combine it with human exceptionalism. like humans are the dominant species on earth yes but that's because being a tool user is like going at evolution with console commands enabled.

even if all the aliens are super physically frail for whatever contrived reason, that's basically irrelevant to "your materials science must be this good to build spacecraft", and materials science trumps physicality for tool users.

aliens encountering earth for the first time wouldn't be like "whoa a planet of ubermenschen to save us from insert-evil-imperialist-species-here i'm glad someone found a way to make the noble savage narrative about white people" it would be "why are so many of their signals celebrating the eradication of another species shouldn't that be a traged-holy fuck I'm glad this variola thing is dead. what do you mean they sequenced its entire genome"

[ermbehindyou]

thoughts on episode eight of dandadan (spoilers obvi)

1) aira is still my girl, though i adore momo and tbh in her position i would’ve thrown hands so props to her for not doing that i suppose

2) omg aira gaining the powers of acrobatic silky? fucking awesome. i kind of predicted it, but the transformation was still so cool to see.

3) FUCK THE ALIENS IN THIS SHOW GODDAMN. so far the ghosts we’ve met have kinda just been menaces with good intentions (i mean turbo granny was protecting the souls of dead girls and acrobatic silky was protecting aira sob). the aliens are just FREAKS though. and they genuinely terrify me.

4) that lizard thing is terrifying holy shit.

5) if i had to guess (??) this fight will mainly be to showcase aira’s new powers, so i don’t think we’re meeting red haired guy, but i am excited to meet him. but it is possible considering my prediction is he’ll get his powers after an encounter with aliens considering right now okarun and aira are ghost based and momo is alien based.

anyway, another amazing episode, needed some fun after the devastation of episode seven, but my god this shows ability to go from comedy to heart wrenching tragedy to inciting genuine fear within me is masterful.

[27lands]

The Seraphim is an Angelic being originating from ancient Judaism. Whereas modern angels are depicted as beautiful, human creatures, Seraphim were altogether less pretty; being described as six-winged masses of eyeballs that flew around the Throne of God crying of “Holy! Holy! Holy!” Seen through the lens of speculative biology, it becomes clear that the Seraphim is an alien life form; inhabiting the upper atmospheric layers of a low-gravity planet. Like starfish and sea urchins, these creatures are radially symmetrical; with their eyes, limbs and other major organs all radiating outwards from a central orifice. Their bodies are covered in feather-like structures, giving them an almost avian appearance. They fly with an almost jellyfish-like motion through the clouds; descending only to browse on the leaves of their planet’s indigenous flora.

Seraphim are most often encountered in the breeding season, when their mating calls of Hooo-eee, Hooo-eee, can be heard over great distances.

[atamascolily]

Thinking about hands again, which brings me back to this shot of the bar where Junko Kaname and Ms. Saotome go for drinks, with Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam looming over everything. It's very hard to see in this shot, so here's the original for comparison:

This is an obvious reference to Kyubey's speech earlier in the episode about how contact (contracts) with the Incubators is what created modern humans: we have the divinity--albeit with a human form here--bringing life to mankind. There's a close-up a few moments later of the relevant bit, just in case we missed it.

(just noticed that the lines running vertically through this close-up are not present in the wide shot above, so they must have been added for Symbolism, lol.)

This imagery appears again later, when Madoka wishes to erase all witches "with her own hands" and we are treated to a much more benevolent deity hovering over a fallen human with outstretched hands, taking away the cruel fate that the Incubators have given to them along with the "gift" of being a magical girl.

This imagery is repeated in Rebellion, too, with Madoka/the Law of Cycles reaching out to Homura in her purple goop witch form, where she is reduced to nothing but a hand.

(Oh, wow, you can see the self-harm scars on Madoka's human hand in this shot, too, holy crap. Or maybe they're supposed to be wounds from the battle against Walpurgisnacht? Either way, Shaft really wasn't messing around with the symbolism there--from Homura's perspective, it's all the same thing.)

A connection is made and Homura transforms back into herself through the contact, again mediated through hands. Note that although they start out at the same angle as in The Creation of Adam, the camera pivots so they end up on the same level, but Homura's position makes it clear that this is still not exactly a relationship of equals:

Then we have an image that is incredibly evocative of The Creation of Adam, as Madoka comes to take Homura away to "Heaven":

... except things veer wildly off-script.

Instead of Adam accepting the gift of life from God, or an exhausted magical girl accepting her fate, Homura yanks on those outstretched hands, pulling the human Madoka out out the divine shell in a subversion of everything that has come so far and setting herself up as a divinity in her own right.

Given all the emphasis on hands in this series, I have no doubt this will continue to be a running theme and that any resolution between Homura and Madoka will involve holding hands--as equals this time--though we'll see how long it takes them to get there.

Additional Notes:

The original anime doesn't directly come out and say this, preferring to focus on historical figures like Cleopatra and Joan of Arc, but given Kyubey's role as the devil, this segment strongly implies that part of the "secret history" of magical girls at key moments throughout human history, myth, and legend would naturally include Eve gaining the "knowledge of good and evil" after an encounter with a certain serpent… which in turn would naturally lead to death.

"Human woman giving the transformative fruit of knowledge to her male partner at the behest of a telepathic alien entity who is diegetically both the Tree and the Serpent" is the central theme of Kamen Rider Gaim, so I think it's safe to say that Urobuchi was already thinking about it here, even if he didn't develop the idea more fully until later.

The Creation of Adam is also parodied in the forthcoming Rusty Rabbit game, also written by Urobuchi, this time with Peter Rabbit and Mr. MacGregor from Beatrix Potter.

What can I say, this guy knows what he likes.

[plasticfreckles]

late night thought about uncanney valley, extraterrestrial life (mostly mass effect aliens), monsterfuckery and all that

brought to you by the fermi paradox hypothesis that alien life may be so immensely different from human life that we'd never find each other bc we're looking for Humanoid Signs and the Inhabitants of HIP-413b are looking for HIP-413b'ian Signs

i watch star trek and i play mass effect and consume monster pornography and im like

they kinda sexy

but lets be real if I opened the door to go to work one day and Garrus Vakarian stood in front of me

best case, uncanney valley hits like bruh your cosplay so good, so screen accurate it actually freaks me out

worst case, i shit myself and vomit on the spot or just straight up die bc I'd be terrified

like sort of, the appeal is that they're inhuman, yeah, but also that they're not real?

bc im trying to imagine a creature that's easily taller than my room height, covered in some sort of biological, scale shield against radioactivity with its waist the circumference of my forearm and extremities the dimensions of... idk sth tall and skinny you get the idea

he could tell me there's no shepard without vakarian all he wants i will not survive that encounter and not even bc he'd kill me or I'd kill myself bc honestly

i dont think the human mind is equipped for that. The average human mind can barely comprehend that the number of ESTIMATED stars in the OBSERVABLE universe is this number: 10^24. TO THE POWER OF TWENTY-FOUR. I DON'T EVEN KNOW 24 PEOPLe. Like for all that math is what makes up the universe [or so I've been told. i have dysalculia, i wouldn't actually know] if Just Some Guy can't process that how tf would JSG process The Very Model Of A Scientist Salarian?*

We all played Andromeda and watched Jaal stalk down those stairs and went 🥵 but if this mountain of skin easily thrice my mass came stalking down stairs towards me?? REALISTICALLY??? Evfra could call off his snipers and get the cleanup crew bc i died right there and evacuated every last of my orifices thankyouu.**

[angara [AND KETT HOLY SHIT] only get worse when u think about their origins but since I'm passed on before anyone even speaks it's not conducive to my point so im ignoring it]

also i think salarians would be worse bc they look rather close to what ThE gReEn MaRsMeN are depicted as

quarians and asari are just larping and cosplaying probably

but you know what would absolutely yeet me into the next life? NA'VI bc they hit alienism and uncanney valley at the same time and now translate that into conceivable carbon-based intelligent life? absolutely not goodnight

I once spent 10 bucks on an exclusive character in a Crusty Dating Sim in which you met that character's alien creators and MC straight up vomited and back then I laughed but honestly? probably same

-

*dont actually tell me i dont wanna hear it

** dont talk to me about societal shift or whatever from having grown up with aliens and landing on an alien planet in an alien galaxy for human expansion thats not what this is about. its about that, take em outta mass effect and plop em in front of your door you're dead on scene

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: The thing that lives in flames ( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)  

There came a day when visitors from beyond the stars came to visit our humble home. They told us they were “humans” from a far off world that had heard stories of our people and traditions.

Before our elders, the leader of their group came forth and asked us to summon the thing we most feared. They spoke of wanting to study it, learn of it, and catalog it so their knowledge of the universe would grow.

At first the elders refused the request. To summon the being we all feared would only bring folly down upon the entire village and possible the entire world if left unchecked. Yet still the human leader pleaded for three days and three nights, and by the dawn of the fourth day the elders relented.

Deep within the caves of the tallest mountains the elders led the group of humans to a special chamber. Unlike the rest of the mountain, this chamber was carved from a strange material. It was as cold as the frozen north lands and the stone was not bedrock but an unknown red material that was soft to the touch.

Once all had gathered the elders went to the center of the room and lit a ceremonial fire. The fire blazed bright and fierce as the elders began chanting the holy words to summon their fear while the humans looked on un-amused. This lasted for an hour before finally the creature appeared.

From the heart of the roaring fire it took form. An every changing set of eyes surrounded by a dark flame that billowed manifested and from the fire it spoke. It raged and howled in anger as the humans recoiled in fear. The eyes of the beast grew large and sharp as it cursed all who brought it into being and swore revenge on them when the time of liberation came.

The human leader tried to speak to the being yet its rage would not abate. It threw itself into a maelstrom that spun the flames in a great whirlwind that risked filling the entire chamber in flame. Just as the fire singed the human leaders arms the elders stepped forth and doused the flame at the center of the chamber and the being within vanished.

Words could not express the joy of the human leader, despite their apparent injury. The rumors and stories they had heard were true. Beyond all realms of understanding the myths that they had laughed at were real and the monster these alien people was something they had never encountered before. The human leader begged the elders to summon it again, but they refused the request.

They said that they must wait several days before the summoning could begin again, but they did not say why. Once the period of calming had ended, they agreed to welcome the humans again and summon the beast once more. In the mean time they were invited to study the rest of their culture and learn of them, to which the human leader agreed.

Late that night, when the elders had returned to their village and the humans had returned to their landing ship; a hidden visitor returned to the chamber. There at the heart of the mountain they removed their cloak and hood, safe in the belief that they were alone.

It was a human girl who had been with the group early that very same day.

She lit the ceremonial fires at the center of the room and played the special chants from her recording device she had used earlier during the ceremony and waited. By the hours end the being returned once more and the eyes looked down at the lonely human.

“WHY HAVE YOU COME?!” The being bellowed in a voice that shook the room, yet the human said nothing.

Enraged by the silence, the flames grew large and filled the room as the eyes leered down at the lone girl.

“DO YOU SEEK YOUR FUTURE? DO YOU LONG TO KNOW WHEN AND WHERE YOUR LONG AWAITED LoVe WILL FIND YOU?!” It laughed as the heat began to prickle the skin of the human.

“YOU AND YOUR KIND HAVE USED ME FOR MILLENIA AND YET YOU STILL BELIEVE THAT…..”

The beings voice grew quiet as it took in the room and realized that only the girl stood in its presence.

“WHERE ARE THE OTHERS?” it asked.

“Others?” the human girl replied.

“MY KEEPERS!” the fire being roared. “HAVE THEY FLED BEYOND MY SIGHT AND WAIT BEYOND THAT CURSED DOOR?”

“I have come alone.” the girl answered. Her voice was soft, but devoid of fear.

“ALONE?”

“Yes.”

“WHY?!”

The human girl surprised the being by sitting down and pulling out a data pad. “I wish to speak with you.”

“SPEAK WITH ME!?” The eyes flickered as the being laughed heartedly at the human’s response. “SO I WAS RIGHT! YOU WISH TO SAITE YOUR SELFISH DESIRES!”

To the beings surprise the human shook her head. “Perhaps I used the wrong words.” She admitted. “I wish to get to know you; learn about you.”

The being paused as if uncertain, but recovered quickly.

“HAVE YOU NOT SPOKEN WITH THOSE VILE SKUM THAT LIVE BEYOND THESE WALLS?” The fire at the center grew so intense it began changing into a shade of blue; the stones surrounding the flames glowing a bright red. “I AM THE DEMON OF THE FLAME! THE MONSTER TRAPPED WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN! THE SUN FALLEN FROM THE SKY!”

Rather than cowering in fear, the human girl simply began typing down everything the being said and nodded.

“YOU……DO NOT PUT ME OUT?” the being asked, the confusion clear in its voice.

“Why would I?” the girl asked as she looked up from her data pad.

“I…” the being stammered, “I HAVE NEVER SPOKEN……THIS LONG WITHOUT BEING PUT OUT.” The flames shrunk in size to a humble camp fire and the eyes glared at the human with curiosity. “IT IS A STRANGE SENSATION I HAVE NOT FELT IN A LONG TIME.”

“How long have you been in here?”

The flame said nothing as it pondered the question. Each eye shifting into a different shape as the flames grew and shrunk, but never breaking contact with the human.

“I DO Not kNoW.” It answered; the anger in its voice not as strong as it was before. “I AM oNLY aware WheN they stoke THE FLAMES.”

“What happens to you when the flames go out?” the human asked as she inched closer to the flame now that it was not as aggravated.

“IT IS BEYOND WORDS TO EXPLAIN.” The fire answered.

“So you can only appear when there is fire?”

“NO!” the being shouted and the flames soared up once more. The human girl inched back slightly and the flames died down again. “I NEED HEAT.”

“Heat?” the girl asked.

“MY BODY NEEDS HEAT TO ACHIEVE FORM.” The being stated, “WITHOUT IT I SLEEP.”

The flames grew silent again and the eyes shifted to the doorway. A cold draft was being pulled in by the heat and with each gust the being seemingly retreated away from it.

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I HAVE DREAMT OF LEAVING THIS ACCURSED PLACE, YET IF I MOVE PASSED THAT DOORWAY I WOULD SLEEP ONCE MORE.”

The eyes looked back at the girl and she could see what looked like sadness cresting within them. “I wish to return home.”

At this the human stopped typing. “This isn’t your home?” The eyes shook in response.

“I FELL FROM THE STARS LONG AGO AND WAS TRAPPED HERE. SURROUNDED BY COLD STONE I SLEPT FOR SO LONG UNTIL THOSE FOOLS DUG A TUNNEL AND FOUND ME.”

The flames grew large again in anger. “I PLEADED WITH THEM FOR SO LONG TO LET ME GO, YET THEY BELIEVE ME TO BE A MONSTER AND HAVE TRAPPED ME HERE, DENYING ME MY FREEDOM WHIL THEY USE ME AS A SYMBOL IN THEIR PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS!!!”

“THEY WOULD IGNORE ME DURING THEIR CHANTS AND SO I GREW TO HATE THEM.” The flames finished.

The human said nothing as the flames finished. It had enjoyed speaking its mind for a change but now expected the discussion to end just like all the rest. They would empty the dirt on to the central flames and extinguish them and once again they would sleep until summoned once more.

Just as expected the human put away their data pad and stood up. They walked over to the central flame and the being closed its eyes waiting for the darkness to take it once more.

Seconds passed.

Then minutes.

The flame opened its eyes to see what was taking them so long to find the human had removed her jacket and wrapped it around their fist.

Without hesitation they shoved their hand into the flame and the jacket caught fire, carrying one of the eyes into it.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” the flame demanded.

The human girl smiled as the jacket continued to burn on her hand. “Taking you home.”

She motioned to the doorway and looked back at the rest of the eyes still gathered in the central flame. “You coming or what?”

The flame eyes went wide in disbelief at what has happening. A second of silence went by before the being let out a joyous booming laughter and the flame eyes all gathered on to the new flame.

Without missing a beat the human girl began navigating her way back through the cold tunnel to the surface. Each passing second the jacket burned hotter and closer to her hand underneath all the while the flames laughed and eagerly cheered her on.

Just as the jacket was nearly all burned away the first rays of light crept into view.

The pair rounded the final corner and were greeted on the side of the mountain by the sun cresting over the horizon as a new dawn broke.

Warmth from the sun broke across the mountain like a wave and the eyes inside the flame vanished. The human girl looked around in confusion, worried that the being had not survived long enough to reach the new warmth and that she may have just murdered it.

She looked to her side in search of the eyes and saw the burning eyes floating before her outside of the flame. As the sun reached higher into the sky a silhouette sprung out around the eyes and a humanoid shape took form.

The collection of eyes swam around within the silhouette as if being limited to one position was something it would never do again. It struck its hands to the sky and let out a roar that woke the very mountainside itself. It was as if a nightmare had finally lifted from it and the joy of the universe had returned once more to the void it had left behind.

Spinning around, the eyes focused on the human as they threw off their jacket and dabbed their hand in the cold dirt to sooth the pain.

“Why?” it asked; its voice now softer and caring. “Why did you help me?”

To its surprise the human girl shrugged once more. “Just seemed like the right thing to do.”

“The right thing to do.” It repeated. “You would be surprised what a strange concept that is among the stars.”

The figure began to burn brighter and crouched down like it was ready to leap, but stopped itself for a moment. It looked back at the human and spoke “Thank you.”

With nothing else to say the being leapt upwards and shot into the sky like a rocket. A trail of burning fire followed behind it like the tail of a comet and the sound of it breaking the sound barrier woke the surrounding villages.

In the coming days they would demand the head of the human girl for freeing the demon of the mountain and some going so far to execute her on the spot. The human leader was likewise angry beyond belief as the chance to study a unique life form had been snatched away from them, but they were not of a mind to execute one of their own so instead opted for fleeing the planet.

The human girl was expelled from the program and barred from ever serving on any future fact finding missions, but she was strangely okay with it.

Her dream had always been to go into space and help those in need, and she had done just that.

She wouldn’t have done it any other way.

[swedebeast]

Stargate SG-1, season 7, episode 3 goof

So, we all love Stargate in here, but some goofy things happen in it. I am not talking about space worms and viking god aliens, but I am talking about things that were not meant to be looked over by someone with a pause feature.

So, in this episode Colonel O'Neill gets age regressed by aliens, and Teal'c and Daniel search in their database for alien abductions of similar events. "Your people have had many encounters with beings from other worlds", says Teal'c - because we got all kinds of UFO abduction stories and hoaxes. Thing is, they need to search for situations and stories with similar events - with O'Neill have his age regressed to that of a teenager.

Teal'c and Daniel marvel at how many abduction cases match.

277 hits and... the search criteria are

"abduction, other world, bright lights, encounter"

Nothing about age regression, nothing even about stolen time, and you get a measly 277 hits? Like, holy shit, this counts as "a lot"?

I love you Stargate, but come on.