#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

[revelboo]

Queen Revel i am ON MY KNEES begging for the next part of point of extinction because HOLY SHIT DUDE HE JUST WHIPS IT OUT????

He’s just trying to help in his awkward, unsettling way. 18+

Point of Extinction Pt 13

Shockwave x Reader

• You’re averting your eyes still, face reddening. “You find my lack of experience undesirable?” He’s always been quick to pick up new skills. This will be no different. And he can’t deny some purely unscientific curiosity about it. “I would be amenable to allowing you to take the lead while I gather experience.” How would those soft hands feel on him? Tracing ridges and dipping into seams. Wants to know. This is supposed to be about you, tending to your needs, not his. Wanting this isn’t logical, but that doesn’t change that he does.

• And he just keeps making this worse somehow. Risking a look and finding him just staring at you, his one hand gripping that weapon of mass destruction between his thighs and idly touching himself. The shape’s familiar enough, if the ridges and nodes are a bit Giger-esque and pulsing with ruddy biolights that draw your eyes against your will. Forcing yourself to look anywhere but at that, he’s still doing his creepy stare, antenna back. And stroking himself. “That’s a really… flattering offer,” you manage. Stop looking at it. Stop. Dammit. “Could you not do that?” It’s too distracting.

• Letting go of his spike he approaches you and your eyes dip to his bobbing spike then pointedly back up to his single optic. “Might I suggest mutual exploration to ease Thirteen’s uncertainty?” Gently catching your hand and you allow him to guide it to his spike. And your face somehow goes even redder. Shuddering at the feel of your soft palm on him. Lifting his hand and pleased when you don’t immediately snatch yours back when he cups your cheek, servos sliding against you. Thumb sliding over your bottom lip. Another mech would kiss you, but he can’t. “You can have control of this encounter.”

• Know you should get some space between you. Definitely not stroke your fingers along the ridges of his spike, thumb sliding over the head, feeling a bead of slick there. Startling when his helm gently bumps your forehead, that optic bathing your face in red light. It’s not exactly romantic, but you’re pretty sure you’d be worried if he was trying to be romantic. He’s awkward and creepy and more than a little bit messed up. “How much control?” You ask despite yourself.

• Optic brightening, his hips rock when you slide your thumb over the tip of his spike again. It’s difficult to ease himself down without just falling, but he manages and growls when your fingers slip free of him. “Familiarize yourself as necessary. I’m open to instruction.” Holding out a hand to you and waiting while you stare down at him and for a moment that dissonance swamps him. A memory of someone else standing over him, staring down at him with cold calculation. Smiling. A stranger’s memory.

• You’re not doing this. Right? He’s just staring at you, helm tipped up and his hand outstretched. Trying your damnedest to not look at his spike. Mutual pleasure. “You’re not going to lay eggs in me or anything right?” And those antenna go back in offense. You’ll take that as a no. Maybe you’re a tiny bit tempted and he’d mentioned being inexperienced. Popping his alien cherry shouldn’t be appealing. “And you’re not going to move unless I say you can?”

• “If that’s what you require.” Head tipping he waits. And you’re so small even with him mass displaced. Maybe that’s the issue? His size? And he freezes as it sinks in how illogical this all is. That he shouldn’t actually want this. Shouldn’t care about your well being. That he’s made a series of illogical decisions since he’d first interacted with you. And those phantom memories are worse since he began interacting with you, lifting through him suddenly to leave him disoriented. The logical thing to do would be to rid himself of you, but he knows that he won’t. He can’t.

• Something’s very wrong with you for even considering this. Is this just a new experiment to him? A test to see what you’ll do? Or does he actually think he’s taking care of your needs? And you’re not actually considering it, are you? Can admit you’re a tiny bit curious, but it’s the sort of horrified curiosity you’d have for a bit of particularly awful gossip. “Why do you want to take care of me?” Resisting the urge to make air quotes as you focus on his optic since it’s safer than the intimidating jut of his spike. Unable to ask why you’d been spared ending up like the deer. And those antenna go back again.

• Staring up at you, he can’t answer, because he isn’t sure. Doesn’t know why he’d culled you from his experiments. Why the idea of harming you makes him so uncomfortable. Is it only loneliness? That you’re someone to talk to even if the conversations are stilted? Fixating on you now even when he’s working in his lab. Experiments that never bothered him before now making him hesitate simply because you wouldn’t like them. Because they’d upset you. “I’m responsible for your well-being and health,” he says, watching your expression twist. Unhappy with that answer. “And because I desire to be the one to tend to you.” He shouldn’t, but he does. Maybe your illogical, emotional humanity is rubbing off on him. Infecting him.

• There’s something perverse about even considering this. This whole time you’ve been powerless to his whims and he’s giving you permission to take control. To give him orders that he claims he’ll listen to. Yeah, there’s something very wrong with you. “Can I touch you wherever?” He’s closer to your size this way and you doubt you’re going to get another opportunity like this. Want to take advantage before your common sense and survival instincts kick back in. Not waiting for his answer as you reach to cup his head in your hands, biting your bottom lip as you toy with his bunny ears as you think of them. Watching those antenna flick at your touch. And he allows it, keeping still as you gently run your fingertips over the plating of his helm, smiling when bits lift or shift at your touch like they’re sensitive.

Previous

Next

[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).

[kurumeuruki]

Thinking about Julie in the philosophy au...

Julie knew Ben and Gwen since high-school but then she went away across the world for her tennis tournaments and only came back to Bellwood cuz she got a game there. She knew Ben and Gwen were still around since she messaged Gwen she's coming back, but during this time, she didn't know Ben's a Celestialsapien and Albedo is currently filling in for him.

So Julie encountered Albedo thinking he was Ben when he happened to pass by the tennis courtyard she was practicing in. She tried making conversation about what happened in the year she was gone but Albedo kept dismissing her cuz he was busy trying to reach an S.O.S signal he was receiving and similar events that happened in Pier Pressure happened here, only that it wasn't a date and it only got even more confusing for Julie since it was her first time seeing aliens (cuz she was abroad) and holy shit, Ben transformed with a book??

So wild theories flew in her head like "oh no, Ben finally found the witchcraft books" "Magic's real???" "Is Ben a wizard now?" "He didn't get possessed did he?" until Gwen and Albedo explained about his situation and wow, space wizards.

Been thinking she appeared like... a month after Albedo's stay and during that time, Albedo and Gwen had a fight prior to her arrival about Gwen being a bit too 'over-protective' and not seeing him as Albedo instead of Ben. So Julie, who just came back to see how different everything is, saw him as a separate person from Ben and does give him a different pov of what the Philo Trio were like, which Albedo does appreciate despite her fascination with calling his science "magic".

With Gwen being busy in studies and Kevin being busy with his jobs, Albedo & Julie are gonna be great friends with how much free time they have.

I'd like to imagine Julie showing Albedo around Bellwood, showing him the beauty of humanity while also revisiting old places she used to go to and seeing how much they changed. Probably also gonna have him try out other foods other than having his diet consist of only chicken nuggets.

They do compete in tennis for fun and they ended up being really competitive during it.

Y'know... once Albedo tells her that he's hunting for parts to get his galvan form back, she'd probably help him, while facing some trouble in the way. Did it work? Dunno, probably not since he's still stuck in human form even after Ben de-transformed. Oh well, guess he's gonna make the most of his human life.

so anyways, to end my yap session, I present to you my shitposts

[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.

[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.

[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.

[queerprayers]

Is it okay for a Christian to practice yoga? I feel extremely conflicted because my faith in God is so important to me, and I’ve read so many opinions all disapproving. It feels blasphemous to say, but I feel so close to and loved by God when I practice it, it feels like a prayer to the God who has always known me. It makes me more patient and loving to others and to the body He gave me. Do you have any thoughts on this? Is it a betrayal?

Hi, beloved!

I do not consider myself an expert by any means (and am a white US-American who has never trained in genuine yoga), but as someone who's practiced yoga for years, while I don't particularly see it as part of my religious practice, it inevitably has spiritual connotations because it involves caring for myself, balancing my emotions, and reconnecting with the world around me.

There are so many kinds and traditions of yoga, and of course many (like worship of Hindu deities) are incompatible with Christianity. Aspects like Buddhist meditation do not come from or embody Christianity, but are not completely alien and can be (in my opinion) learned about/incorporated. There is no one yoga, and so to practice it (in the more general sense that most non-Buddhist/Hindus/etc. do) is not devoting yourself to all its tenets.

Honestly, I think it's a good thing that you're aware of its non-Christianity, because if you were to just take the practice without thinking and rebrand it as Christian, that would be deceptive and appropriative. There's not a clear line between what's appropriation and what's not, and yoga has been so secularized already, but I think it's good to live in the tension of understanding that what you (and I) are calling yoga is very different from classical yoga, and that it is from (if you're not Indian--I don't know your background) a different culture and framework. Be curious about the origins of yoga, the ways "Western" culture has secularized and commercialized it, and the ways you connect with it.

I think there's a lot of boring opinions out there about how Christians shouldn't do anything even associated with "paganism," and anything spiritual without a picture of Jesus on it is evil. There is no Christianity without other religions, and throughout history Christianity has been heavily influenced and enriched by its connection to other traditions and its existence in diverse cultures. There is no pure Christianity, is what I'm saying. It's all mixed up in what humans are and the different ways we try to look at God. We may (and Christians do) believe that there is one Truth, but add any more information to that belief and none of us agree. And there is no practice or ritual that someone else hasn't done to a different God.

What's more interesting to me is investigating specific teachings of kinds of yoga, and how they relate to Christian philosophy. It is useless to call something pagan or heretical without understanding specifically how it contradicts the faith. There are criticisms that I think actually matter--inner knowledge/elevating yourself through spiritual practice/uniting with the divine is very gnostic, which you could totally be down with or agree with its being labeled as heresy. Christian understandings of the body differ widely--certain bodily states/experiences being equated with mysticism is not something I go for, but you can find that in some traditions. I don't find detachment (as found in Buddhist meditation) Christian at all, nor the idea of practices to escape suffering (we are in fact called to suffer).

Whatever your Christian tradition is, and whatever kinds of yoga philosophies you've encountered in your practice, hold them up to the light together. They may have no contradictions at all, be different ways of approaching the same thing, or be completely opposed to each other. Come from Christianity, be tied to it, use it as your lens--and, solid on that foundation, move. Check out Barbara Brown Taylor's Holy Envy if you find teachings that aren't your own that you kinda wish were.

Ultimately, caring for the body, nonviolence, mindfulness, cultivating discipline, creating peace and balance--these are things that should be present in every Christian's spirituality. Whatever my specific critiques of different yoga philosophies, I understand why they exist, and can see how they would fulfill. Yoga has helped me immensely with my extreme emotions and struggles with transition, as well as chronic pain. I am thankful for this ritual that gets me moving and thinking, keeping me from either being completely disconnected from the world or too stagnant and grounded.

It is not for me to say whether yoga is enriching your Christianity, but you've already said it, I think. You've named the good fruit that has grown. Don't make it your Christianity--but it sounds like it's a beautiful part of your life, and makes you more able to live out Christianity. Most of our lives have "pagan" origins. We do not betray God by living--we betray God when we are not curious, when we forget what we were made for, when our bodies become more important to us than others', when we make an idol out of "self-improvement," when we curl inwards and try to find truth there, when we pursue bodily pleasure or a lack of suffering instead of Love. Live in the tension of participating in a world where we are but pilgrims.

Do not worship the self that God gave you, but do not betray it for worldly voices--whether they're devoted to other gods, or they're devoted to Jesus in a way that costs them community. Receive your self as a gift, a creation still warm from God's fingertips. A creation that can learn how to touch your toes, if you work at it. A creation that moves on and off the yoga mat, using whatever fulfillment was found to serve the world we live in, for now.

<3 Johanna

[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.