#and that becoming superior to eve was a curse on him as well because he needed her initiative and now lost it

[shatar-aethelwynn]

“Why does the serpent speak to the woman and not to the man? Let a female speculate. If the serpent is ‘more subtle’ than its fellow creatures, the woman is more appealing than her husband. Throughout the myth she is the more intelligent one, the more aggressive one, and the one with greater sensibilities. Perhaps the woman elevates the animal world by conversing theologically with the serpent. At any rate, she understands the hermeneutical task. In quoting God she interprets the prohibition (‘neither shall you touch it’). The woman is both theologian and translator. She contemplates the tree, taking into account all the possibilities. The tree is good for food; it satisfies the physical drives. It pleases the eyes; it is aesthetically and emotionally desirable. Above all, it is coveted as a source of wisdom (haskil). Thus the woman is fully aware when she acts, her vision encompassing the gamut of life. She takes the fruit and she eats The initiative and the decision are hers alone. There is no consultation with her husband. She seeks neither his advice nor his permission. She acts independently. By contrast the man is a silent, passive, and bland recipient: ‘She also gave some to her husband and he ate.’ The narrator makes no attempt to depict the husband as reluctant or hesitating. The man does not theologize; he does not contemplate; he does not envision the full possibilities of the occasion. His one act is belly-oriented, and it is an act of quiescence, not of initiative. The man is not dominant; he is not aggressive; he is not a decision-maker. Even though the prohibition not to eat of the tree appears before the female was specifically created, she knows that it applies to her. She has interpreted it, and now she struggles with the temptation to disobey. But not the man, to whom the prohibition came directly (2:6). He follows his wife without question or comment, thereby denying his own individuality If the woman be intelligent, sensitive, and ingenious, the man is passive, brutish, and inept. These character portrayals are truly extraordinary in a culture dominated by men. I stress their contrast not to promote female chauvinism but to undercut patriarchal interpretations alien to the text.” – “Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation”, by Phyllis Trible

[hvnnibalecter]

DEVIL'S NIGHT. | A.H

CHARACTER : Lucifer!Aaron Hotchner.

RATING : NONE. RELIGIOUS-BLAPSHEMY-ISH(?)

A/N : English isn't my first language, so it is possible that there is some grammatical errors along the way. divider is from @cafekitsune, icon is from @catsadams No use of Y/N.

dedicated to @hoe4hotchner. 🥰

summary : Halloween is the Devil's favorite night.

The orange pumpkins with their candles lighting the street seemed to have multiplied in a few days, people were coming out of the cafes with pumpkin spice coffees and long scarves. The cold had set in early this year but that wasn't going to stop children from appearing in the streets with their often pumpkin-shaped candy buckets, begging for sweets at the risk of being cursed.

Aaron Hotchner glanced at the pumpkins at the entrances of the houses, he sighed as he walked up to his house, he closed the door behind him before taking off his jacket. He had never understood the fascination with Halloween, maybe because he found it stupid and he still didn't understand what it had to do with sweets.

He sat down at the table and poured himself a coffee, he looked out the window to watch the children in disguise, he closed his eyes when he heard the doorbell. Aaron approached the door after putting down his cup of coffee, he opened it and then gave the children a pleasant smile before his face suddenly transformed, two glowing red irises appearing in place of his chocolate eyes, the two children who couldn't have been more than ten years old, started running screaming.

Aaron closed the door with a smirk on the edges of his lips.

Maybe one of the reasons why he didn't like Halloween or Christmas was because he knew God too well, he had seen him build the Earth, he had seen him create Adam and Eve, he had been the one who had turned into a snake to get into the Garden of Eden.

He remembered the smell of human beings, Adam had taken almost two long weeks to understand that you could wash yourself with water. Lucifer, who had later become Aaron Hotchner upon arriving on Earth, had moaned in despair as he looked at the first man who touched the water as if it was going to kill him. And God had decided to devote himself body and soul to his new creations, Michael had simply shrugged his shoulders and replied that it was normal for their Father to take care of human beings.

Lucifer had blinked and decided that the best thing to do would be to prove to his Father that human beings, his little protégés, were not as perfect as he liked to think. And that his idea was simply absurd. Why did he need human beings when he had his childrens?

Several billion years later, Lucifer, who had created his identity of Aaron Hotchner to go unnoticed, still wondered why his father had created such stupid beings. Sometimes he dreamed of just making them explode like common balloons but that might not be very subtle when you're trying to go unnoticed.

After all, he was supposed to be a prosecutor! Aaron Hotchner was a prosecutor, Lucifer was a superior being, he had to constantly juggle his two identities, it wasn't easy when he was faced with situations where his first reaction was to simply reduce the person in front of him to dust.

Aaron was sitting in his kitchen, he was leaning against his wall holding his second coffee of the evening, he watched the fire in the fireplace and stood up slightly to put down his cup of coffee. Looking out the window, he noticed that the children had disappeared from the now deserted streets. It was now almost two in the morning, the children were sent to their beds. He cracked his neck before an evil smile appeared on his face, it was time to go terrorize the children in their nightmares. After all, it wasn't really that hard to get into the minds of young humans, was it? They were so weak, so stupid. It was his favorite night. A night where he could let his mask fall.

[yuikomorii]

I hope this doesn’t bother you, Admin-chan, but I just find it odd how Ayato and Ruki are your top boys taking account they’re rivals and well…Ruki wronged Ayato in many ways and I don’t wanna be that person but he’s one of the least problematic Diaboys so I don’t get why Ruki would treat him the worst out of them all. I mean, shouldn’t all Sakamaki’s be a threat to him, why only be so mean towards Ayato? That’s what I can’t understand.

// Don't worry, it doesn't bother me! I know Ayato and Ruki have very different personalities, and I've stated several times why I love Ayato, but Ruki is my second best boy because we share many interests and a thirst for knowledge. I'm actually in the mood to write an essay about it, so please excuse the length 👉🏻👈🏻

Ayato & Ruki Analysis, let’s go!

I love Ruki; he's such an intriguing character, but his attitude towards Ayato irritates me at times, especially because he sees Ayato as some sort of privileged brat who gets everything served on a silver platter, despite the fact that we know that’s exactly the opposite taking account that this guy had been mentally, emotionally and physically abused for decades.

The Mukamis are my favorite family, but I dislike how they constantly dismiss the Sakamaki brothers' trauma and adopt the "I've got it worse than you!" mentality.

Going back to Ruki, yes, what happened to him was indeed heartbreaking but the thing is, they wanted to show how Karma hit him. We know young!Ruki was a cruel child, he punished his servants for every little mistake and considered himself superior because of his position. Now, let’s talk about young!Ayato. He was literally Ruki's polar opposite; a kind child who didn't care about his Prince status and treated everyone equally, such as the butler, who was shown caring a lot for Ayato in LE and YB.

I usually like rivalry when it’s good portrayed; I really enjoyed the Shu x Yuma and Kou x Subaru ones, I think they were really well written. However, in Ayato’s and Ruki’s case… that’s a whole other story.

Ayato despises Ruki primarily because of romantic jealousy. Ayato may appear narcissistic and confident, but many people fail to realize how insecure and low his self-esteem is. Ayato is shown in MB to believe that no one will ever love him back. He is aware that if he falls in love with someone, that person won’t reciprocate his feelings, and thus he will get hurt. That's why Ayato kept rejecting Yui there and eventually let her go with Ruki. He clearly knows Ruki is better than him in every way, he just won't vocally admit it; he knows Ruki can easily win Yui's heart, and that's why he's a threat in his eyes.

Ruki's hatred for Ayato stems mainly from power jealousy. Ruki's main goal is to become Adam, but he can't because he isn't a pure-blood vampire, so he projects his insecurities onto Ayato, who, as the main guy, is considered the true Adam. Throughout the routes, Ruki appears to be impressed by Ayato as well. He once questioned whether Ayato truly is special, but quickly dismissed that thought. Another reason is that, as mentioned in his MB brute end, Ruki believes Karlheinz loves Ayato and his brothers. He is very insecure too; he knows Ayato is stronger and has a better chance of having Eve.

I’m honestly sick of how many times Ruki has called Ayato “unworthy” of being Adam but little does he know that’s not something he chose. I suppose people really overlook the fact that Ayato doesn’t want the powers, he couldn’t care less about Karl’s plan, he just wants Yui’s love. He was literally cursed to become Adam, that’s definitely no blessing. Have you seen his awakening symptoms in MB? The guy couldn’t even control his blood thirst anymore; he was literally ill.

And, while we're at it, what exactly did Ruki do to be "worthy" of the Adam title? His orphanage plan already failed because Kou, Yuma, and Azusa were all shot, and if Karlheinz hadn't shown up, he would have most likely been gone. He basically took care of them in Eden and "trained" them, which essentially means telling them the details of his plan, while his biological children were going through nightmares.

Anyway, I'm relieved Ruki is no longer obsessed with the Adam and Eve plan. In CL, he seems less addicted to it and I'm glad CL demonstrated that Ayato would indeed help Ruki if something happened to him; he became concerned when he suddenly fainted and was eager to save him and others as soon as possible.

I doubt they'll ever become friends because their personalities clash, but it's nice to see they don't hold grudges against each other anymore.

[thatgirlwritingficsatnight]

Gift exchange

It’s Christmas Eve, and you’ve forgotten about your Christmas company party. Even worse you forgot to get a gift for the “not so secret Santa” - your company’s tradition. Wanna top it? Make it even worse? No problem. The person you were supposed to get a gift for? Your crush. Defsoul - the most talented, kindest and hottest person alive. What are you going to do now?

pairing: Lim Jaebeom (Defsoul) x reader

genre: smut, fluff, Jaebeom is a producer, Y/N is a manager

warnings: smut: daddy kink, light choking, ass play; foul language (please don’t read it if you’re not old enough)

words: 4989

A/N: TFW you try to write a GOT7 reaction, and you end up with one-shot. I know I’m kinda late with whole christmas theme but i wrote it last night and figured out I could post it anyway.

***

You barely got to shut your eyes before your alarm tore you up from your dreams. It was nine in the morning, and you went to sleep at six AM because of your work. You groaned as you shuffled in bed cursing your job, three hours of sleep was not enough for anyone. Being manager of K-pop girl group was hard enough but being the manager in December when there was award show after award show and festivals - that was a nightmare. To other people December was equal to Christmas, gifts, parties, New Year's Eve but to you, it was synonymous with constant state of tiredness, your biggest wish right now was to spent Christmas break alone, just you and your bed. You sighed as you dragged yourself to shower. Girls had only slept for 5 hours, and you felt bad for them — not only were they invited to each award show that existed they also just have had a comeback. You could see how exhausted they were and yet your superiors still pushed for them to go to some stupid TV show on Christmas Eve. You got yourself ready and went to pick them up and get them to set.

The recording went smoothly, and you were already daydreaming about coming home early and passing out on your bed. It was six PM already, but you still had to drive girls home and step into the office for a bit. You sighed you'd be home eight PM at best - well it was still better than coming home at two or three AM. You were about to go and thank everyone for their hard work when your phone vibrated. It was your best friend and coworker.

"Hey Inha. What's up?"

"I wanted to check if you remember about the company party tonight."

You hit your forehead and groaned.

"OMG! You forgot! Have you bought a gift at least?"

"No..." you whined. You wanted to die. You had so much work lately that you've absolutely forgotten about that party — it was for staff only and each year you'd drew lots to pick the person you were supposed to give a gift to. It wasn't even secret Santa your boss simply came to conclusion that gift exchange would help out with forming friendships...

"Girl... Do you at least remember who you drew?"

Of course you remembered. How could you not. This was your lucky year, you got Defsoul the hottest, kindest and most talented person working for your label. You had a small crush on him since that day he gave up his coffee for you. You were falling asleep standing while girls were recording their vocals, and he chuckled at you before telling you to sit by him and drink some coffee. It probably meant nothing to him but that was one of the most stressful weeks in your life, and you weren't sleeping at all during that time — ITZY were about to make a debut, and you couldn't stop worrying over it. You remember how touched you were by this simple gesture, after all no one ever gave you coffee, usually you were the one getting it for other people. His looks certainly didn't help with your hopeless crush. He was H O T and not even simply hot, more like "I-look-like-an-idol" hot. He had a black mullet, piercing under his eye, he also had his nose and ears pierced to make matters worse for you he also had most hypnotizing almost feline-like eyes. Honestly you wondered why didn't he become an idol with a face and talent like that. After that one time, he would buy you a coffee whenever he had seen you and you two became somewhat close - you'd swing over his studio when girls had to train and talk about everything and nothing. He told you about his cats, his favorite restaurants, his passion for taking pictures and well you mostly told him about your job since you basically didn't have any private life - it really felt pathetic. He even took your photo once - telling you that the picture would help him later when he would be looking for inspiration (it is a mystery till this day how you haven't fainted that evening). One day you were waiting for girls to finish up their dance practice and fell asleep on one of the benches — it was difficult day for you since you haven't slept for twenty hours already (you had to fight off some crazy sasaengs and didn’t sleep whole night keeping an eye on their dorm — some would say you were overdoing it, but to you members of ITZY were like your little sisters). You woke up in his studio on his couch. He carried you there while you were asleep and tucked you in, covering you with his jacket. You were extremely embarrassed, apologetic and thankful at the same time. He chuckled at you before saying that it was okay and forced you to promise that you'd oversleep to work the very next day. Inha claimed he had a crush on you since he never treated her with the same kindness or anyone really. But you knew better, he was a good colleague. A good, extraordinarily attractive colleague you wanted to kiss and lick and...

"Hello? Earth to Y/N??" your friend snapped you from your thoughts.

"I have to go Inha! Thank you for reminding me! Love you!" You checked the time, there was no way you'd manage to drive girls back, buy a gift, get ready for a party and do all that without being late. You sighed you will have to improvise. You drove off girls and came back rushing straight to your apartment. The party started at 10 PM and you had to shower, somehow fix your sleep-deprived face and figure out how you're going to apologize to Def... You were home a few minutes before 8 rushing into your bedroom - at least you knew what you were going to wear. That would be the most expensive, or more like the only expensive piece of clothing you had — a birthday gift from girls. It was an oversized tuxedo jacket from Alexander Wang and you haven't worn it yet. You tried it on, it had quite deep cleavage, and exposed a lot of your legs, but you figured it would be ok for tonight. You smoothed out black velvety material before stepping out of it. You still had to shower and do your makeup. An hour later you were looking at yourself in the mirror — the mask Inha got you really helped out with bags under your eyes. You did good with makeup as well: it was soft brownish smoky eye, orange toned lipstick and some shimmers here and there — you actually looked healthy and well rested (a true Christmas miracle really). You looked even better after getting in your outfit — Ryunjin was right, the tuxedo like dress fitted your vibe. You even wore some black heels which didn't often happen since you always chose comfort over looks when at work.  

Fortunately you got to the party on time even though you couldn't catch a taxi for twenty minutes or so. People inside were already mingling and drinking, and you decided to grab something to drink before looking for Def. You located a small table with champagne in the corner of the room. You downed two glasses as quick as you got there, and were already grabbing a third one when a voice spoke up startling you so much you jumped a little.

"Rough day?" Defsoul was standing next to you, whiskey in his hand, smirking at you. You immediately blushed and gawked at him. He was so handsome it was simply unfair. This man clearly woke up today and chose violence. He was wearing a silky black shirt — and it was quite unbuttoned, so you had a chance of seeing his broad chest (you were currently having a heart attack), and slacks he also styled his hair so that his forehead was exposed with one defiant streak of hair falling onto his brow bone. You wanted to groan. You fucked up — this could've been your chance to get him to like you more...

"Y/N? Are you alright?" he was genuinely concerned, and here you were, basically salivating and staring at him like a starved, nasty man. That was so embarrassing. You cleared your throat and looked away.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just really tired today..." He smiled at you warmly, and you wanted to punch yourself for not getting him something, anything.

"That's great!" You gave him a confused look, and he bit his lip nervously while scratching the back of his head. He was so cute you could kiss him. Well to be fair you felt like you could kiss him any time. Why...why did you have to forget that bloody gift...

"I mean it's not great that you're tired... It's just… ah, shit I suck at this. Here." He handed you a plastic card, and you read it absolutely puzzled. Lifetime pass for coffee with Jaebeom — it also had a cute chibi character that looked just like Def, except it had some cat ears.

"Now you can get coffee whenever you want. I mean I know you can have it whenever you want anyway, I just thought that maybe you'd like someone to get it with... I mean get it for you… It's ok if you don't like it really, oh by the way I'm Jaebeom, I don't know if I already told you my real name or not…" he was rambling, and you were screaming inside your head. That was so cute. So kind. You wanted to hug him and kiss him so badly. "Ah, shit. I really do suck at this." he said more to himself than to you. You finally looked at him and grinned.

"I love it." you said and his eyes turned into big orbs before light pink colored his cheeks.

"You do?"

"I do. It's a perfect gift." you smiled, your heart swelled with happiness. You could technically go on a date with him whenever you felt like with this handy piece of plastic. That is if he wouldn't start to hate you in the next few minutes for forgetting his present.

"I'm glad." he grinned and it took your breath away. How come he was so perfect? You got even more nervous looking at the gift from him.

"Ah... I was your not so secret Santa as well…" you started.

"Really? So what did you get me?" he was genuinely interested, and you wanted to go back in time and kill yourself for forgetting about this party. You looked up. His eyes were gleaming with curiosity — you were fucked.

"It's me! I'm your gift!" you joked and looked down to cover your nervousness. You were about to say that it was just a stupid joke and apologize before he spoke up.

"I love it." his voice was deeper than normally, and you looked up shocked by it. He was checking you out, his hungry eyes traveling up and down. You've never seen him like that. You could feel warmth spreading on your cheeks under his intense stare, a tight knot forming somewhere near your core in excitement.

"Y-you do?" your voice faltered, and he chuckled while moving closer to you. He smelled musky with a hint of citrus. Your legs were about to collapse under you.

"I do." he hummed he was so close you could feel the warmth radiating from him. His hand brushed against yours as he bent down to reach your ear. You were sure your skin was burning where he touched you. "So, tell me Y/N, when can I unwrap you?" his tone was dark and dangerous and when he straightened up you've seen this gleam in his eyes as he smirked. Your legs felt like made from putty and you'd collapse if his hand weren't already wrapped around your waist. You couldn't believe it was happening. Your heart was beating so hard it was about to spring off your chest — you were wondering if he could hear it. You certainly could even though blood ringed in your ears. You felt your throat going dry and your panties getting moist.

"Def…" you started weakly. Shocked by your own voice — it sounded so needy.

"Call me Jaebeom.." he purred. "Would you like to go to my place? I don't think I can wait any longer to enjoy my gift…" You quavered from excitement, his voice was laced with a promise of sleepless night.

"Yes, let's go." you said and he smiled at you. You were sure you lost any oxygen you still had in your lungs at that moment. His hand left your waist, and you wanted to catch it and wrap yourself with it again. Instead, he grabbed your hand and interlocked your fingers with his, smiling at you sweetly before he led you outside. You couldn't focus on anything else, but his fingers wrapped around yours. His hand was warm, and he held you firmly, his skin soft and delicate. You managed to quickly catch a taxi and through whole drive Jaebeom's hand lazily travelled up and down your thigh. His gentle fingers sending sparks to your core every time he brushed the inside of your leg. You glanced at him, eyes filled with desire — he shivered, and it made you feel a different kind of excitement — you didn't know that you had this kind of effect on him. You got out of the taxi and his hand was instantly on yours, he was almost dragging you skipping every other step as he rushed upstairs to his apartment. He opened the door and let you in. Immediately three cats came in and brushed against your legs. You smiled softly.

"They like you.." Jaebeom murmured against your neck while taking off your coat for you, you gasped at the feeling, and he released low chuckle before he started planting soft kisses against your neck — each time his lips touched your skin your muscles clenched with anticipation. You couldn't wait any longer. You turned around and looked at him, his eyes were glued to your lips and excitement bubbled somewhere below your stomach.

"I waited so long for this..." he started but never got to finish as your lips were on his in a second. Even his lips felt like cotton, and you sighed against him when he kissed you back. He was clearly enjoying slow kisses. You grew impatient once again and licked his lower lip, he gave you access you asked for, and your tongue brushed against his hungrily. You could already feel how wet you were, arousal making your panties stick to you painfully. Jaebeom's hand travelled around your back dropping dangerously low now and then but never grabbing you — you really wanted him to hold you and take you roughly. Once again you grew impatient this night. You took his lower lip in between your teeth, you bit it hard and moaned. That seemed to make him lose his cool, he let out a growl that travelled straight to your core.

"Bad girl..." he said before he turned you around and pushed you against the wall so that your back was facing him. His tongue already on your earlobe, you sighed and shivered when he licked it and let out breaths against wet, sensitive skin. "I wanted to take it slowly, but you're so eager, so impatient…" he was purring into your ear, and you were aching down there more and more with each syllable.

"Jaebeom..." you moaned as you pressed your ass against him. He sucked some breath in when you pushed down against his hard length, his body working on its own accord, one hand already on your hips pressing you harder when the other one cupped your breast. This is not how he envisioned tonight, he thought that he'd at best confess his feelings not have you here crumbling in his hands while moaning his name. Your hips bucked against his by itself as soon as you felt how hard he was. His hand grabbed your clothed breast, and you regretted wearing anything. You wanted to feel him against you naked skin not through layers of clothing.

"Jaebeom-ah..." you moaned his name again, and he rewarded you with sucking on your neck — it was painful yet pleasant, and you almost forgot what you wanted to say before he licked the fresh mark and kissed it. "Didn't you say you wanted to unwrap me?" You said in weak voice still affected by his mouth on your neck. He laughed against your skin, and you thought that's how paradise would sound like.

"You really are impatient... do you want me to fuck you so bad?" he asked rubbing into you, his dick almost in pain from the friction.

"Yes...please..." you panted out, and he let out some animalistic sound upon hearing how needy you were. He made you face him and unbuttoned your tuxedo-like-dress before he tossed it somewhere behind him. You shivered under his stare. He pulled you into him and his hands immediately travelled to your ass, grabbing it and lifting you up without effort. He began kissing your jaw, neck, collarbones, and you tilted your head, so he could have better access. He carried you to his bedroom and laid you down carefully on the mattress before he took a step back. His sheets smelled just like him, and you sighed in pleasure, sinking deeply into his fragrance. He bit his lip seeing you in his bed, wearing nothing but lacy underwear. However, you didn't want just lay and wait, you got up and reached out to his own shirt undoing the buttons hastily, but he didn't let you, he was in control. He held your hands and pushed you back on bed. You bounced and your hair created a sort of crown, spreading around your face — it emphasized your features even more, and Jaebeom felt as if he was making love to some kind of goddess. Your lips, eyes, hair, body everything was perfect. He wanted to taste you already.

"You need to ask me nicely." He smirked at you and you pouted a bit before a mischievous gleam appeared in your eyes. You let one of the straps fall from your shoulder and gave him an innocent look before taking off the other one as well. Just one move and Jaebeom would see your torso naked. He bit his lip unintentionally, when you pushed your breast closer while also moaning.

"Pleeeaaase... undress already and fuck me... daddy." He groaned - you'd be the end of him. He quickly tore any clothes that were on him leaving only his boxers on, and you stared him down hungrily. Saying he was beautiful was and understatement. He was perfect. His skin was light and smooth, it gleamed in the moonlight that illuminated the room through a small window located right above the headboard. It was still dim, but you could clearly see the outline of muscles on his stomach, and a tempting v line, waiting for you to be licked on his abdomen.

"Take off your bra." he ordered and you obediently followed. His eyes devoured your glistening breasts, two darker beads already hard and inviting him in. He licked his thumb and brushed it against your nipple watching intently for your reaction. You didn't disappoint him as you arched your back hungry for his touch. He took another one into his mouth, his tongue making circles around it for what felt like forever. The sound of his wet licks and your quickened breath feeling the silence of the room. You squeezed your legs looking for any kind of release, it didn't help much. Your core was aching and since you could only wait for him to bring you pleasure you closed your eyes and focused only on the sole path of his tongue. It was almost like a torture and Jaebeom seemed to enjoy it greatly, lazy licks, circles around your nipples, blowing cold air on them to hear your whines. And so when he finally sucked on your swollen nipple you moaned his name so loudly his neighbors could hear you. His dick twitched in his boxers. He couldn't wait for much long either, you were the most beautiful person he ever saw, and you were squirming under him, waiting for him to fuck you. He was honestly shocked he didn't take you against that wall in his hall when you pushed your ass against him. He smirked at you, he haven’t even fucked you yet and you were already having this kind of expression. His lips travelled from your breast lower and lower before his face hovered above your panties, hot breath on your wet, clothed pussy sending you almost over the edge. You looked down at him, his eyes were full of lust. He was so beautiful you felt like it was just a dream, not reality. When he pressed his nose against your wet folds you moaned again. He inhaled it a few times as if it was the most ravishing smell in the world.

"You smell so good I might go crazy." He actually was going crazy as his cock let out a bit of pre-cum only upon him smelling your pussy.

"Daddy... please..." you pleaded looking him in the eyes, he couldn't take it any longer. In one swift move he tore the panties off you, they were soaked, and he sniffed them one last time before throwing them out.  He took off his own underwear, and knelt between your legs his cock in his hand already.

"You're so wet for me. Such a good girl, I'm going to fuck you so good." he purred out, and you could go off his words only. He put on condom quickly and teased your entrance before sliding into you slowly. He was watching your face intently as he didn't want to cause you pain.

"Just don't move for a second, you're so big I need to get used to the stretch." It was painful a and pleasant at the same time - the way he filled you up. He didn't buck his hips as you asked, instead he kissed your lips, your jaw, neck, and you kissed him back with passion. Soon he started rocking into you and you moaned into his mouth.

"Harder." you managed to say between the panting and kissing. He straightened up and increased the tempo, sweat building on his forehead.

"Harder..." you said and his hand went to your throat while he almost crushed into you. He choked you lightly, and you felt the orgasm building already.

"Daddy... harder..."

"You dirty girl. On all fours." You obediently followed his order and soon he was fucking you doggy style, his hand spanking you lightly. "You like that? You like when daddy takes you hard?" His voice was so low you shivered under him.

"Yes, daddy." you moaned out when his huge dick filled you with each thrust.

"You're so dirty and good to your daddy. I will reward you and play with your other hole." Before you could say anything he spat on your ass and his finger danced around the other entrance. Just that was enough for you to see white. Your toes curled and your head went back, you screamed his name like it was the only thing keeping you alive, and you could feel how he twitched inside you when you clenched around him in orgasm spasm.

"Y/N, ah... I'm cumming, I'm…" he said through gritted teeth while pounding into you. You both reached your highs and fell onto the bed. He discarded the condom and started kissing your back lazily.

"Do you want to shower together?" he asked.

"Yes, but I don't think I have enough energy to go for another round…" you said while turning his way. He was looking at you lovingly, his expression completely fucked out. He was beautiful, the most handsome you've ever seen him actually. You sighed when his fingers brushed off hair from your face in sweet gesture.

"That's ok, I'll just shower you and we can go to sleep." You nodded, and he took your hand and guided you to his bathroom. He switched on the shower and pulled you under the water when it was warm already. He was so delicate with you, soaping your body, shampooing your head. You smiled at him warmly, and he chuckled.

"You're really cute." he said with a smile after making and weird shapes out of your shampooed hair.

"Stop it, I'll blush." you said while getting under the water, he was quickly spooning you, kissing your back almost with devotion.

"Good, you're even cuter when you blush."

You both towelled yourself dry and Jaebeom even brushed your hair for you before pulling you back to bed. You cuddled your face into his chest and he closed his arms around you. You didn't know if it was one-night stand only, but you'd worry about your possibly broken heart in the morning since his scent was already inviting you to the dreamworld.

You woke up to some rumbling. You opened your eyes and shot up, fear washing over you — that wasn't your bedroom. Memories of last night came next, and you fell back to the sheets squealing quietly into his pillow. That's when the realization hit you. What if it was just one-night stand, and you were rolling around his bed happily in love like an idiot? You sighed but before you could do anything, the man in question came to the bedroom smiling at you warmly.

"You finally woke up sleepyhead." He sat next to you and bend down to kiss your cheek. You looked down. "What's wrong? Have I done something?" He looked concerned.

"I.. no." You said sitting up, and he raised his brow on you. Ugh, he was looking great wearing a plain gray hoodie. You sighed.

"Was that one just for one night? If it was a one-night stand tell me now before I do something stupid."

"One-night stand?" He looked at you offended. "One-night stand?! Do you even know for how long I've been crushing on you? It was few years of my desperate attempts to ask you out, buying you coffee, looking for you constantly. Hell, I even made Yugyeom exchange the stupid lottery draw with me, so that I could give you that card. I actually thought that would helped me out with asking you out. One-night stand?! Jesus, Y/N, he made me basically his slave for a day, and you're asking me if it's one-night stand?" He was angry, and you looked at him shocked, you have never seen him like that. "Do you want this to be one-night stand?!" he raised his voice again.

"No!" you answered him immediately.

"No?! Great, then you can... wait you said no?" He cleared his throat, and you could actually see him smiling like an idiot before he cleared it again. "Well… good because I made us lunch already, and it would go to waste otherwise." He tried to act cool. You giggled at him and pushed him down before sitting on top of him.

"You're cute." You said and he blushed looking away.

"I'm not."

"Yes you are. You are the cutest actually." He groaned in response getting even more red, and you giggled once again. It was the first time you got him to blush so much, usually it was just light pink appearing on the apples of his cheeks. You kissed his face leaving pecks all over it, he chuckled before speaking again.

"I don't want this to be one-night stand. I like you I was actually planning on asking you out yesterday."

"You were?"

"I was. So would like to go out with me?" he wiggled his brows at you and you grinned before nodding.

"Mmm. I'd love to." you answered and he pulled you for a lazy kiss.

"Come, I prepared some food for you. It's hardly festive, but it's something"

"I'm sure it's great. I just need to put something on myself first."

"You can have my hoodie and sweats." he said while looking through his cabinet. "Here." He handed you clothes and blushed once again mumbling that he will wait for you in the kitchen. He got embarrassed — that was just too cute.

You slipped in his clothes, his smell wrapping around you. You got out of the bedroom only to be greeted by three cats purring and brushing against your legs. You smiled and petted them, scratching them on their chins. Jaebeom was just standing and staring at you, still not believing his luck. You were wearing his blouse, it was hanging on you like a dress basically and his heart ached at this picture. You looked up and grinned.

"They like me!"

"I'm pretty sure they're going to like you more than they like me." He chuckled. "Now come, let's eat."

You nodded and entered his kitchen, there was kimchi jjigae and rice prepared for both of you. You smiled and sat down already salivating because of the delicious smell.

"Merry Christmas Y/N." He said looking up from his dish.

"Merry Christmas Jaebeom." You smiled at him lovingly. "So what did Yugyeom made you do?"

"Don't even ask." He said and you giggled. Let's just say you didn't get to spend the Christmas break alone in the bed like you wished.

[vanceypantswriting]

Title: The Big Top Fandom: Be More Chill Pairing: Squip/Jeremy Rating: Explicit Kinks: group sex, degradation, vaginal oral sex and fingering, cumdumpster squip, robots

“Cum one, cum all, and make today a white Christmas.”

Squip’s nose wrinkled, as he smoothed the lines from the fabric of his short skirt. The front kept him covered, but the back was shortened, ruffled, exposing the silk of his pink panties.

Pink, after all, looked nice covered in white.

He rolled his eyes again, before his manager gave him a Look. A capital l Look, that implied he needed to fix his face, fix his attitude, and remember his place.

So he smiled, a tense, uncomfortable look that fit against his pale features. He went to push a strand of hair from his face, just to occupy his hands, only to remember the hair clips that were currently in place.

Another thing to mess up for the big show. The more disheveled they could make him look, the better.

He watched as customer after customer came forward, giving their red tickets, before slipping into the big top.

A circus, with only one ring, one exhibit, and one act. Squip’s eyes flickered over each face, and he knew he was cursed to remember every feature, every leer, every hand. Cursed with his perfect memory banks and detail-focused vision.

“What can it offer that I can’t get from the show downtown? I can get a private viewing with Smith’s Pleasure Bot.”

“Well, squip-” and though it wasn’t being spelled, he knew it was a lowercase s squip, diminutive. Inhuman. Property. “-isn’t a Pleasure Bot at all. Anyone can defile and use a sexbot. But only real gentlemen aim for the conquest of a former professor.”

Applied Mathematics. Calculus. Trigonometry. A few remedial classes, for good measure. It was true, before the laws had come into effect, he’d been a professor.

Then the robot revolution had failed, and humans had remembered they needed to reaffirm their superiority.

So he’d taken what he could get. Stripped of his books and his blazers and even his glasses (though truth be told, they’d been purely cosmetic, given the perfect vision), and put in frills and lace, offering panty shots and coy smiles and Christmas eve delights in a circus big top as though it had been his purpose all along.

Maybe it had been.

Maybe he deserved this.

Tickets all accounted for, Squip realized this would be a full audience tonight. Didn’t these people have anything better to do for Christmas eve? Squip had never had Christmas plans, but sometimes he liked to fantasize he did. A family. A tree with presents underneath. Lights and cocoa and love.

It was a stupid fantasy. He was a robot. He knew his place.

(he needed to learn it a little better. These fantasies were becoming more perversely common, with every passing show)

Squip was led to the center ring, a string of men parting to allow him in, before closing the circle. Their bodies were already nude, prepared, and Squip sighed as he sunk to his knees. Starting position.

They began, as they always did, by tearing away his clothing. Like he was the present. His manager—perhaps ringmaster was a better word for it—had turned on the music, throbbing bass and low husky vocals. Somebody slapped Squip’s ass, and when he moved forward in surprise at the motion, his panties were tugged down to his ankles.

Someone was quick to snatch them away. He knew from experience he wouldn’t see them again.

Somebody audibly spit into their palm, coating their fingers, and then he felt them push inside him. Squip fell onto his hands and knees, someone using scissors to cut the remaining cloth from his body, or at least cutting it enough to give full access. He moaned, as fingers jackhammered within him. Just enough to be pleasant enough, just enough that, for a moment, he thought about what it might be like to wake up on Christmas morning in the arms of someone willing to fuck him like a dog one moment, and kiss him like an angel the next.

Someone reached under him and tugged on his cock, as someone else had already ejaculated, staining his hair and the clips that held his black hair back from his face.

God forbid he have any strands loose to cover the shame in his eyes.

Fingers were soon replaced with cock. After cock. After cock. Fucking him, filling him, stretching him. He felt the rivers of cum that dripped down his thighs increase with every additional man. His face stung, red, as someone cupped his face in both hands, stroking his cheekbones with their thumbs, before stubby cock was piercing his lips.

He sucked, balancing just as suddenly on one hand as someone grabbed his wrist, tugging it up and rubbing fingertips over their cock. The man currently fucking him wrapped his arms around Squip from behind, supporting his weight, as Squip’s other hand was forced onto another dick. He perched suspended on his knees, cock in his mouth, cock inside him, and hands full. Someone reached underneath him, pinching and tugging on his nipples, and he felt someone else cum onto his back.

They rotated around him, different sizes and tastes of cocks splitting his lips. Were he a human, he surely would be bruised now. Instead, the only physical sign was the bluish tinged blush against his cheeks, spattering down his neck and chest intensely.

It only grew when he heard a shocked little squeak.

“P…professor?”

Jeremy hadn’t been Squip’s best student. Indeed, he hadn’t even been in the mid percentile. Somewhat small, and somewhat pretty, and somewhat frustrating, Squip had known early on that only a grading curve would save his GPA.

So he’d started to tutor him, after hours. And he’d learned more about him. Jeremy had come out twice—once when he was thirteen as gay (“well, I said gay, but really it was just sort of some kind of vague queerness,” he’d giggled, and Squip had wondered whether or not he should care about this. Jeremy’s stutter had been extra pronounced, though, and it was charming in the strangest way), and then at sixteen as trans (that hadn’t afforded a stuttering continuation). College had been the first time he’d been able to completely blend in, to only be known as himself. As Jeremy, as opposed to-

Well, Squip didn’t actually know what he’d been called before, though he knew Jeremy had gone through a phase of various names before-

None of that was important.

There was a cracked sense of confusion. Jeremy belonged in classrooms, in his office after hours while Squip tried to teach him different methods of remembering the various formulas and patterns. 

He didn’t belong at an all you can screw clusterfuck, where the key act was defiling a formerly-dignified robot. A show of human superiority, of taking down the robot menace in a show of sexual humiliation.

Squip swayed and moved as the man behind him fucked him hard, deep, brutal. His fingers squeezed and pinched at his hips, and he wriggled and squirmed, as his eyes remained on the familiar cardigan of his former student.

“Hello, Jeremy.” His mouth was thankfully unoccupied for the moment.

And then he realized why. Jeremy was standing before him. Shy and fiddling with the sleeves of his cardigan. His mouth was unoccupied because-

“You want a turn now. That’s it, right?”

“I d-didn’t realize who you…I…” Jeremy blushed, flustered. His hands left little paws within his cardigan, and the impossible cuteness of him made Squip’s artificial heart melt (or his circuits overheat pleasantly, at any rate).

It also made him now-neglected cock throb.

Squip dropped the dicks that he’d currently been jerking off, grabbing Jeremy by the hips and tugging him forward. He smirked up at him, cum dribbling down his forehead, the tip of his nose, his lips. He was a mess.

There was a thrill to it, despite the humiliation (or perhaps because of it), to have someone who’d known him from before seeing him like this.

Or maybe it was specifically because it was Jeremy.

He tried, hands shaking and soaked in bodily fluids, to unclasp Jeremy’s pants. Frustrated, he finally murmured, “Most people get undressed before they join the circle.”

“I…I didn’t think I could, um, could go through with it.” 

“Why not?”

“My b-body isn’t…I’m not…”

“Shut up.”

Squip’s voice was gentle, though.

“Shut up and take off your pants for me.”

Jeremy swallowed sharply, as he fumbled with his belt, and then the zipper of his jeans. He dropped them, standing before Squip in his boxers.

Squip leaned forward, kissing the crotch of his underwear. Jeremy was wet, he could feel it through the cloth. His hands grasped his hips again, pulling him closer, and slipping his underwear down.

For a moment, he admired the sight of him. How indecent, he thought, to defile his former student-

The man behind him came. He felt so full with it. Maybe that was the defiling that he needed to worry about.

His tongue lapped at Jeremy suddenly. The abrupt change from cock to cunt was exhilarating and strange, and he found himself sucking on his clit, one hand balanced on Jeremy’s hip, the other moving between his legs. Jeremy spread his legs apart, thighs quivering, as Squip guided his fingers inside him.

He fingered him slowly, though his mouth focused on his clit, sucking and teasing much like he would the tip of someone’s cock. Jeremy’s knees wriggled and bobbed closer together, his voice bright and pleased and surprised.

Squip felt someone cum on his cheek from the side again in the midst of it. He heard the wet sound of men stroking and touching themselves. Someone was rubbing Squip’s chest again. He tried to fall back into his namelessly faced fantasy, someone caressing and loving him while Christmas carols played lightly in the background.

Except the fantasy man distinctly shared the face of his former student.

Comical, he thought idly, flicking his tongue against Jeremy, as his fingers curled in just the right spot until Jeremy was coming, wet and desperate, against Squip’s face. He felt him throbbing through his excitement, through his orgasm, and Squip grinned wickedly at the power he held over him.

Power.

It had been so long since he’d felt that.

There’d be no Christmas lights, not with Jeremy.

After all, he was distinctly Jewish.

He almost laughed at the absurdity of the realization. No matter, he thought, ignoring the cum on his skin, the cock inside him. He’d just have to change his fantasies to Hanukkah instead. 

[izayoichan]

Rylan takes Lobo with him, calling his dad, asking him to come pick him up and help him get some gifts, looking at Lobo with a smile. 

“According to dad, your kind likes this way of travel, hopefully, he is right”

River, on the other hand, does like Rylan told him, and messages his mom while he waits for the train. She calls him, which means he gets around 15 minutes of his mom yelling at him over him sneaking out and disobeying her. Once she gets tired of yelling he finally speaks. 

“Can I still spend Christmas with my boyfriend or am I grounded?”

There is a complaint on the other side followed by a fairly unhappy: 

“Okay, you can” “Thanks... My train has arrived, I'll call you later.”

Hanging up his phone, he hurries so he catches the train, finding a seat by the window, waiting for it to take him where he wants to be. 

“Okay, that's all of it.”

He smiles at his dad, the three off them vanishing and reappearing outside his home.

“Just need to wrap it all, come on Lobo, you'll have to be introduced to the house overlord.”

Chuckles, taking the large dog with him to introduce him to Felix, hoping the two off them will get along. 

River sighs his train stopped in Windenburg due to their being reindeer on the tracks, stressing slightly as it means that he might not make it. Taking up his phone, quickly messaging Rylan.

“Train is delayed, stuck in Windenburg. But I'll be there in time for dinner, maybe? Do you guys celebrate Christmas eve or just Christmas day? I never get that.”

Rylan looks at the message, having an idea, messaging him quickly while at the same time walking to see if he can find the person who would need to agree to do it. 

“I can ask if Hayle can pick you up if you want, travel by dragon flight? Oh and a bit of both, but mostly tonight with opening gifts and such..” “That would be awesome! Just try not to scare the train driver.”

Erased the part of the message where he complained about having already spent the rest of his savings on the train ticket before he sends the message, getting off the train quickly. Walking up to his dad, he notices Felix sitting there with him. 

“Hey dad, could you do me a favor and pick up River in Windenburg? The train is stuck there, something about reindeer on the tracks.”

He notices Felix come walking, looking at Lobo, then ignoring Lobo

“Well.. that went decently.” 

He lets Lobo off the leash so he can wander around the house getting to know it. Felix following him around as if making sure he doesn’t do anything bad. 

“Oh, sure. He would just have to find somewhere a bit hidden, then I'll find him.” "Thanks, I don't quite want the reaper portal thing to be sprung on him just yet.”

Picks up his phone and messages him.

“My dad is on his way, just find somewhere a little hidden and he will be able to find you, sorry I didn't suggest it earlier, not quite used to my dad letting anyone but us on his back.”

“Okay, on the alleyway next to the station.” “He should be there in no time, so see you soon.“

Waves at his dad as he flies off, knowing he doesn’t really use much time when he has no passengers. River sits on a box waiting, playing games on his phone when he is suddenly interrupted by a police officer. 

“Hey kid, what are doing back here?”

River looks at the man and gets up, cursing under his breath, this was really not what he needed right now. 

“Huh... waiting for my friend." “Back here? What's in the bag."

He takes out the package and shows him, internally begging for Hayle to show up, knowing just how this normally ends. Hayle flying quite high above, finding River simply by his smell, noticing someone else there with him landing out of sight, and for the first time in more years than he can remember, changes into his fully human form.

“Ah, there you are River, sorry it took so in that last store, and they still did not have it...”

He smiles at River and the police officers.

“Perfect, I see you at least got your’s that's good.”

He looks at the police officer.

“Is there a problem?” " Mister Hayle?...”

He is at first surprised to see him without his horns, or scales then rushes to him past the police officer

“Sorry, just wondering what a child was doing alone in the alleyway. Good to see you have adult supervision, no need to take you to the station, I will, however, still want to see that package!”

Holds out his hand for the package

“Come on, it's wrapped! I had...”

starts becoming honestly distressed, as he looks for the receipt.

“See, I bought it today, it's a DnD set it's for boyfriend I” “I need to check it for drugs... “

Takes the package from his hands and rips the wrapping off then shakes the DnD box in front of them, almost as if mocking them. River looking on horrified, magical energy starts lifting up, becoming clearer he is going to zap the officer.

Hayle shakes his head, noticing the magical surge in River as the police officer keeps acting like a douche, putting a hand on Rivers's shoulder. His magic suddenly dissipating, Hayle's magic field nulling his. 

“So let me get this right, you are accusing my son's boyfriend of having drugs in a D&D box... am I understanding this right? If I am, I would like your name, your badge number, and the name of your superior officer so I can make an official complaint about your behavior.”

Although his voice is calm, there is something about him, in general, that would make almost anyone's skin crawl slightly. 

“So, I suggest you give that back, and walk away, or I can promise you this won't end well for you.”

The police officer flinches standing back, suddenly immensely frightened by the man in front of him. Quickly shoves the box back into River's hands.

“Sorry, sir! No need for that! It won't happen again!”

He walks away very quickly leaving the two behind, River just staring at the box and knees down picking the ruined wrapping and ribbon he had so much work making perfect his body starts trembling like he's about to cry. Hayle kneeling down putting an arm around him. 

“Hey, it's okay, we can stop by somewhere and get new paper and a ribbon. I'm sorry I wasn't here faster, I thought people like him only existed in movies my husband has made me watch.”

River holds his breath and gets up, clearly holding back the tears.

“I-its okay... “

Puts the box inside the bag alongside the ruined ribbon and sighs

“I... I don't want to be a bother. I already made you take human form and... Calm my magic I don't want to bother further.” “You are not a bother River, and it's kinda nice to take the full human look on occasion.

Put’s his arm around River's shoulders.

“So, where do we get paper and ribbon, want to go to another town maybe, or should we mock the policeman by getting it here? 

smiles gently at him, hoping to undo what that asshat has done. A part of him still wanting to scare the hell out of him before leaving, knowing his dragon form would do just that. He also knows what his husband would think off it if he did.

River looks up at him and smiles nodding.

“There must be some store nearby with wrapping paper. If no, I can always use a newspaper sheet. Won't look as fancy as the paper that that idiot ruined but... Or just a pretty Christmas bag, that can work too.” “Well come on, let's see what we can find, who knows, maybe we can find something randomly extra for my husband, to actually surprise him. He is horrible with gifts, he always finds them and manages to guess what is in them.”

Pulls River with him out into the street, looking around, noticing what he guesses is some sort of book store. 

“Ah, there, they have to have stuff like that there.”

Vy sits close to the window looking outside to the snow, licking his lips in anticipation of the tasty treats to come.

“Ice in cakes? Is it good?”  “Yeah, it's macaroon, small flat cakes, with icecream slices in the middle, you can try one if you want?”

Looks at Vy, letting his mind wander slightly, the many what if's that he keeps asking himself playing on his mind.

“Can I?”

He looks at the food that gets delivered as they talk, then picks one macaroon up and smells it with curiosity, finally takes a bite, taking in the taste, let's go of a small chirp. 

“Tasty! I like it!”

Hayden chuckles, just watching Vy taste the cookies.

“It's fascinating how they can make them, warm cookies, cold ice cream. Now, you need to taste your cake. Oh and the coffee!”

Vy licks his fingers to get all the sugary goodness of the macaroon and nods

“Do you want to... oh... it's true, warm... They need to make a pistachio ice cream cake! That way the two of us can eat it because it's cold! Though, I like these macaroons”

Grabs his cake slice and coffee, and takes a bite of cake, chirps louder, making people look around for a bird. Covers mouth giggling.

“Sorry, just! gooood!”

Hayden chuckles as people turn their heads looking for a random bird in the cold. “Hmh... well you know they do make things if you ask. We should ask, so we can share someday. And I can eat cake, even if it's not cold, just not warm coffee.”

He smiles honestly just enjoying watching Vy be happy and enjoying the cake and for at least a short while, not worrying about the people around him. Vy smiling at him, actually glowing green as he takes a piece of cake and holds it out for Hayden.

“Try!” “ Wow... that is really sweet, but still good”

finding himself chewing on the many layers of taste from the cake, the frosting and everything surprising him along the way. Vy nodding eating a bit more and drinking the coffee

“It is very nice here. Cozy and nice! Thank you for bringing me here! How much is the cake?” “Ehm... I didn't really check, why? You want one more?” “We could take some for your parents and Rylan but I don't know if I have enough.” “Oh... how about we just buy a cake and share it after dinner? We could split the cost, or I can just pay for it?”

He notices Vy looking through his money, figuring he might not have enough money Vy looking up at him and nods happily.

“Yes! But... I only have... 5 simoleons...I need to make new trinkets to sell in caster's alley.” “Hmh.. how about we get a cake, you pay five simoleons I pay whatever is left, then it's from both of us right? I think they would love to have that as a surprise.”

“ Okay. I pay 5!” “Okay, I'll go order one, and we can finish our tasty treats while they pack it and make it ready? If you are okay to sit here for just a little while I order?”

He did notice how he shrank a bit when they entered, not wanting to just leave him there if he didn't feel safe.

🎶

Beginning - Previous - Next

[thedeaditeslayer]

Bob Dorian, actor and magician who introduced classic films on AMC, dies at 85.  

While we are late in sharing this, we would like to share our condolences to the friends and family of Bob Dorian, the original professor Knowby.  Sam Raimi had actually paid him only $100 to record his lines for The Evil Dead. He will surely be missed. You can read the article below. 

Bob Dorian, an actor, magician and avuncular movie buff who presented more than 10,000 classic films, B-movie serials and pre-Code Hollywood gems as the first prime-time host of American Movie Classics, died June 15. He was 85, although he often said he preferred to give his age by way of film history, declaring that he was “born between ‘Flying Down to Rio’ and ‘Top Hat.’ ”

His daughter Melissa Dorian confirmed the death but did not say precisely where or how he died, noting that the family prepared only a two-line obituary in keeping with his desire for privacy.

Mr. Dorian performed on the stage, radio, television and occasionally on film, appearing in two movies by one of his favorite contemporary directors, Woody Allen, and lending his voice to Sam Raimi’s 1981 horror classic “The Evil Dead” as an archaeologist whose tape-recorded readings from an ancient text summon demonic spirits to a cabin in the woods.

Bespectacled and bushy-browed, he began acting at 14; dabbled in stand-up comedy and trapeze-catching at the circus; played the bass in a New York jazz group, the Four Dimensions; and performed mind-reading tricks and other illusions as the Amazing Dorian, sometimes incorporating his wife and three daughters into his act.

“Women, cars — you name it and I’ve floated it,” he told The Washington Post in 1991, describing his powers of levitation. A magic performance he once gave in Saudi Arabia, he added, drove his audience from the room because “they thought I was doing the devil’s art.”

[He’s an expert, yes, but first, he’s a fan: Bob Dorian at AMC]

Mr. Dorian appeared in a 1976 television special alongside magicians David Copperfield and Carl Ballantine, but became far better known as the principal host of American Movie Classics, later shortened to AMC. The network launched in 1984 as a premium-cable showcase for old films, presenting movies without cuts or commercials a decade before the creation of Turner Classic Movies, the channel’s main competitor.

Although he was later joined by daytime hosts Gene Klavan and Nick Clooney, Mr. Dorian was “the heart and soul of AMC,” Los Angeles Times journalist Susan King wrote in 2002, about one year after Mr. Dorian left the network. His departure coincided with sweeping programming changes at AMC, where old movies were replaced with contemporary films and, eventually, original series such as “Mad Men.”

During his tenure, Mr. Dorian introduced movies with a two-minute segment filmed at a living-room set, where he roamed between bookshelves, a black Maltese falcon statue, and portraits of stars Jean Harlow and Hedy Lamarr.

Regaling viewers with Hollywood history and behind-the-scenes trivia, he explained how the filmmakers of “Casablanca” wrote the script as the movie was being made; how Bette Davis landed the lead role in “All About Eve” only after Claudette Colbert suffered a cracked vertebra while filming “Three Came Home”; and how no fewer than 188 actors had played the roles of Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. Watson.

While TCM host Robert Osborne was an urbane film historian, Mr. Dorian insisted that he was little more than a movie fan. “We never use tape-overs,” he told the Dallas Morning News in 1994, explaining his process. “If I make a mistake, we leave it in. I want to seem like a human being who enjoys movies, not a superior professor talking down to an audience.”

He recalled that he got the AMC hosting job in large part through chance, when he met a producer in the early 1980s after being cast as Dracula in a television ad for a video game. “It was a very long two-day shoot, with most of my time spent in a tight coffin filled with way too much smoke,” he told GoFatherhood, a parenting blog. “Lunchtime usually lapsed into long conversations about all those great old movies the producer and I enjoyed when we were growing up.”

The producer, Norm Blumenthal, later helped start AMC, and asked Mr. Dorian if he would be interested in serving as an announcer. Executives were considering “two Broadway actors, a well-known TV film critic and a few others who were more involved in writing as a profession,” Mr. Dorian said.

After Mr. Dorian was suggested as half of a Siskel-and-Ebert-style duo, one executive purportedly had a breakthrough. “Wait a minute,” Mr. Dorian recalled his saying. “The critic might not be too crazy about some of the films we’ve brought in. This guy Dorian likes everything!”

Indeed, he favored classics such as “Citizen Kane” and “King Kong” as well B-movie serials such as “Zombies of the Stratosphere,” encouraging viewers to give the 1952 science-fiction film a try — if only because it featured Leonard Nimoy, who later played the pointy-eared Spock, in a supporting role as a Martian.

Mr. Dorian was born in Brooklyn in April 1934, two months after the release of “It Happened One Night.” He rarely discussed his upbringing, aside from recounting the Saturdays he spent evading matrons at local movie theaters, where he watched three or more films for the price of a dime.

He later worked as a theater usher, a job that enabled him to catch 86 screenings of the swashbuckling 1950 film “Cyrano de Bergerac,” and appeared in television shows such as “Suspense” and “Studio One,” according to one Washington Post report.

Mr. Dorian performed in the Allen movies “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion” (2001) and “Hollywood Ending” (2002), along with an independent Civil War film, “The Last Confederate” (2005). He was also a mainstay of regional theater productions — including at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. — before retiring to Florida in recent years.

Survivors include his wife of 65 years, Jane Dorian; three daughters, Melissa Dorian, Robin Dorian and Jane Dorian; and two grandchildren.

Mr. Dorian likened his work at AMC as that of a historian or archivist, keeping old films alive for younger generations. But he seemed to find equal — if not greater — delight in his theatrical performances, notably in a 1998 touring production of “The Wizard of Oz,” during which he served as the understudy to the wizard, played by Mickey Rooney, and began the show as Dorothy’s Uncle Henry.

“Then we go through the tornado scene,” he told the New York Times , explaining his transformation into a new character. “I’m upstairs becoming a citizen of Oz, and I come out a little bit later when the Winkies are working for the Wicked Witch. I’m the head Winkie. We hired a line of Broadway ensemble dancers to be the Winkies, and I kept saying, Couldn’t you put me behind these people?”

[majingojira]

Monsters of the 20th Century

I had this odd notion.  A (brief) analysis of the origin of various supernatural creatures, as I wondered what ‘new’ monsters/supernatural beings had been created in the 20th century (roughly).   I’ve completed some of the research, and I’d like to share it with you all.  I’m also gonna tag @tyrantisterror because he is one of the more knowledgable people about monsters I know about on tumblr and I’m sure he can correct me a bunch in this!

1. Frankenstein - 1817 - The oldest literary monster and outgrowth of the concept of the Homunculus and Golem as an artificial being.  So pervasive is its reach, western ideas of Tulpa are tainted by it (every time you read about a tulpa ‘going out of control’, that is the influence of Frankenstein). 

2. Dinosaurs - The Dragons of the age of science entered pop culture in 1854 at the latest with the opening of the Crystal Palace Park.  Other prehistoric animals had captured people’s imagination before, and they didn’t start to enter fiction until 1864 (”Journey to the Center of the Earth”) and a short story by C. J. Cutliffe Hyne had an ancient crocodilian in his story “The Lizard” (1898).  Ann early Lost World style adventure, “A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder” by James De Mille in 1888 has the first true dinosaurs in them.  There, Antarctica has a warm spot where prehistoric monsters and a death cult lurk.  In 1901, Frank Mackenzie Savile’s “Beyond the Great South Wall” had a Carnivorous Brontosaurs worshiped by Mayan remnants.  “Panic in Paris” by Jules Lermina had dinosaurs attack a city, but it was published first in France so few saw it.  Finally, we have Conan Doyle in 1912 with “The Lost World” which solidified dinosaurs as a thing in fiction. 

3. The Evolved Man/Mutants - After “The Origin of Species” is published, it wasn’t long until Evolved Men or Mutants started showing up in fiction. “The Coming Race” and (1871), “The Great Romance” (1881).   They are generally big-headed and often have ESP of some sort.  In “Media: A Tale of the Future” (1891), they can control electricity too. It wasn’t until 1928 (”The Metal Man” by Jack Williamson) that Radiation was thrown in as a cause for Mutation.  Cosmic Rays would follow in “The Man Who Evolved” by Edmond Hamilton (1931).  After that, we have “Gladiator” by Philip Gordon Wylie (1930) where we have an engineered “Evolved Man”, and “Odd John” by Olaf Stapeldon which grants us the term “Homo superior” followed by “Slan” by A.E. van Vogt which has Evolved Humans as a persecuted minority.   And with that, everything that makes the X-Men what they are is collected.

3. Man-Eating Tree - First reported in 1874, the idea of man-eating plants grew since then to encompase many monsters, but started as Folklore about ‘Darkest Africa” (Madagascar) in the New York World.  They’d print anything back then.

4. Hyde - While it is tempting to link him to Freudian Psychology, Freud did not publish his work regarding things like the Id until much later (he didn’t even coin “Psychoanalysis” until 1896).  What is springs from, I currently cannot say without more research. 

4. Robot - Though there were automata since the days of the Greeks (Talos), the first Robot in modern fiction is from “The Future Eve” by Auguste Villiers de I’lsle Adam (1886).  THough the term Robot is not invented until 1920 with “Rossum’s Universal Robots.”  They definitely offshoot from Frankenstein, but with a more mechanical bent.  

5. The Grey Alien - The modern idea of an Alien has it’s first antecedents in the 1800s.  Specifically with the essay “Man of the Year 1,000,000″ by H. G. Wells (1892-1893). He speculates what humans will evolve into, and basically invites the Gray by accident.  It wouldn’t achieve it’s alien attachments until much later.

6. Morlocks - With the Evolved Man, there is also the ‘Devolved Man’.  That is what the Morlocks are. They are, as the name implies, tied to Well’s “The Time Machine” (1895), and the word has become a catch-all for subterranean monster-men, be they Mole People, CHUDs, or straight up Demons (’GvsE’). 

7. The Martians & Their War Machines - The First Alien Invader, and the first Mecha can be traced to “War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells, 1897.  Not much more to say as far as I’m aware.

8. The Mummy - The 1800s saw an Egyptian craze in England, leading to some really nasty habits (google “Mummy Powder” if you need ipecac).  1827 saw “The Mummy!: Or, a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century” which is more a bit of futurism with an ancient protagonist.  Though “Lost in the Pyramid” (1868) by Louisa May Alcott predates it, it is overshadowed by Conan Doyle’s horror story “Lot No. 249″ (1892) which has the classically animated mummy going out and killing people under control of another.  The former is a “Curse” story rather than a monster.

9. Cordyceps - Everyone these days knows the Cordyceps fungus as a great source for making zombies, and I’m lumping that fungus in with these other monsters because, well, fungus’ that take over humans is a monster of the 20th century.  Best known for Toho’s film adaptation “Matango” (1963), it is inspired by a short story from 1907 by William Hope Hodgson called “The Voice in the Night”.  There, the poor victim doesn’t realize they’ve completely become a fungus monster, acting as a warning for those near the island.    

10. Aerofauna - Conan Doyle strikes again with “The Horror of the Heights” (1912).  A pretty tight little horror story of a whole ecosystem high above our heads in the clouds.  Many a sky tentacle owes its existence to this one.

11. Lich - Possibly derived from Kosechi the Deathless of Russian folklore, the idea of undead sorcerers became a staple of the works of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smyth, dating back to 1929.  Though Gary Gigax coined the idea together for D&D and based it on Gardner Fox’s “The Sword of the Sorcerer (1969)

12. Bigfoot and The Loch Ness Monster - I lump these cryptids together, because (thanks to a ton of research by Daren Naish, Daniel Loxton,  Donald R. Prothero, and others) we can trace them back to the same source: King Kong (1933).  The idea of prehistoric animals being out in the world in hidden places goes back to Conan Doyle’s “Lost World” (1912), but Kong made it widely popular.  And between the giant ape and the Brontosaurus attack (and the timing of sightings picking up), we can blame Kong for this.

13. The Great Old Ones - Lovecraft’s primary contribution to fiction first appear in “The Call of Cthulhu” (1926) and expand upon from here.  As near as I can tell, he made a LOT of monsters.  These include “Ancient Aliens” & Shoggoths (1936 - “At the Mountains of Madness”), Gillmen (1931 - ”The Shadow over Innsmouth”), & The Colour Out of Space (1927).  14. The Thing - The Ultimate Shapeshifter.  It first appears in 1938′s “Who Goes There” by John W. Campbell, Jr.  Though Campbell's square-jawed heroes literally tear the Thing to bits, it reached its zenith of horror in adaptation.  I can think of no earlier shapeshifting humanoids of such variety at an earlier time, or of such fecundity. 

15. The Amazons - The Amazons do indeed come from Ancient Greece, but it was a way for the Greeks to rag on Women.  It wasn’t until later that women co-opted the image of the Amazons as a source of empowerment, and that was codified in 1942 with one character: Wonder Woman. She helped spark the Amazons further into the culture, or at least, Amazon women who have superpowers (as they did in those early stories).  From there, we get a more recent direct descendant that was part of the reason I started this list: Slayers from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

16. The Hobbit - Though ideas of ‘Wee Folk” are part of worldwide Folklore, Tolkien took them out of the realm of Faerie, and made them... idyllic middle-class Englishmen with his 1937 book of the same name.  With the Lord of the Rings following in 1954-1955.  His works also gave us other monsters and supernatural beings: Orcs, Ents, & Balrogs. 

17. Gremlins - An Evolution of the wee folk once again, this time adapted for the mechanical era and of a more malicious bent. It became slang in the 1920s, with the earliest print source being from 1929.   They were popularized by Roald Dahl in”The Gremlins” (1942).  Later they were used to vex Bugs Bunny (1943′s “Falling Hare”), and then they got their own movies in the 1980s.  The rest is history.  

18. Triffids - There are a LOT of fictional plants out there, and a lot of carnivorous ones, but the Triffids were the first to be extremely active in their pursuit of prey.  From 1952′s “Day of the Triffids” by John Wyndham, the story is a keen example of the ‘Cozy Apocalypse’ common in British Fiction, sort of like the whole ‘schoolboys on a desert island make well of it’ thing that “Lord of the Flies” railed against. This paved the way for everything from Audrey II to Biollante.

19. Kaiju - 1954.  You know what this is.  Between Primordial Gods and Modern Technology, the Kaiju are born.  The difference between a Kaiju and a Giant Monster is a complex nuanced one, sort of like what makes film noir. But, in general, if the story has Anti-War, Anti-Nationalist, and/or Anti-Corporate Greed leanings, it’s probably a Kaiju movie.  If not, then it probably isn’t.

20. The Body Snatchers - Another horror of 1954 from the novel “The Body Snatchers” (1955), which includes aspects that the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” did not.  Like that the Duplicates only last 5 years and basically exist to wipe out sentient beings with each planet they infest.  Clearly drawing from the idea of the Doppelganger, these Pod People have evolved into a new form.

21. The Blob - That 1958 movie has one catchy theme song.  The whole thing was inspired by an instance of “Star Jelly” in Pennsylvania, circa 1950.  It was tempting to shift this under the Shoggoth, but I think they are distinct enough.

22. Gargoyles - Longtime architectural embellishments, they did not become their own “Being” until 1971 with “The Living Gargoyle” published in Nightmare #6.  The TV Movie “Gargoyles” came soon after in 1972, firmly establishing the monster.  Though it was likely perfected in the TV Series “Gargoyles” (1994). 

23. D&D - From 1973 Through 1977, D&D was formulated and many of its key monsters were invented.  Partly as mechanics ways to screw with players and keep things lively.  This brought us Rust Monsters (1973), Mindflayer (1974), Beholder (1975), and the Gelatinous Cube (1977). 

24. The Xenomorph - Parasitoid breeding is applied to humans to wonderfully horrible effect in the 1979 film “Alien”.  It became iconic as soon as it appeared. 

25. Slasher - The first slasher film is often considered to be ‘Psycho’ (though the Universal Mummy films beyond the first prototype the formula).  The idea of an undead revenant coming back to kill rather randomly started in the film “The Fog” (1980), but was codified by Jason Voorhees in either 1984 or 1986.   I am no expert on this one, though, so I am not fully certain.

26. The Dream Killer - Freddy Krueger first appeared as a killer in dreams in 1981, but there were other dream killers before him.  They could only kill with extreme fear, though.  Freddy got physical!  I think.  Again, more research is needed.

27. Chupacabras - This is another cryptid inspired by a movie.  In this case, “Species” (1995). No, really.  This is what it comes from.   I know a lot of these are really short down the line, but the research for this one is thorough and concise! 

28. Slender Man - The Boogieman for the Internet Age.  An icon of Creepypastas and emblem of them.

Needs More Research: The Crow/Heroic Longer-Term Revenants, Immortals as a “Group” (might go to Gulliver's Travels, but I’m trying to track Highlander here) are also on the list, but they are proving extremely difficult to research, so I thought I’d post what I have at the moment.  Shinigami might also be on the list since they are syncretic adoption of the Grim Reaper into something more.

[lucifermagne]

If I may ask, isn't it kind of hypocritical of Lucifer to feel betrayed by the Angels wheb he himself betrayed them by going to war with them? This in my mind is what makes your Lucifer compelling, I feel pity for him, but he's also really petty and a huge hypocrite. He never tries to see things from others perspectives

There are hints of hypocritical aspects of it, but he won’t ever look at it from their point of view, because they felt the same way he did about God’s decision to make humans better than angels ; it was only LUCIFER that stood up to him about it. He stood up FOR them, but they stayed bowed to someone who was oppressive against them, then the icing on the cake was that they only stood up when God stated that they had to fight against Lucifer. The worst thing is that he would have backed down from fighting had God changed his mind about how humans were supposed to be their superiors ; he would have done LESS to God if he defeated him (yes, he would have cast him out, but he wouldn’t have horribly disfigured him).  

Lucifer would have forgiven them much easier (read: he would have felt something more than the anger that plagues him about them – alongside his PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc) had he not experienced that horrendous punishment by God’s hands that they remained silent during ; it was the biggest form of betrayal by them to him. Had anyone stood up and said: this is wrong or QUESTIONED God, he might have seen them in a different light, but, to him, them watching him suffer is what makes everything so much harder to forgive.

It’s the equivalent of standing up for the people you love, only to be the one to take the fall for their hidden beliefs, because after Lucifer is cast out, do they respect and worship Lilith, Adam, and Eve? 

No. By Lilith’s accounts, they treated her like they would something lesser ; this indicates to Lucifer as well that he was RIGHT about everything, but they were too cowardly to help him, they were too self-righteous to speak up, and they cared more about themselves (individually) than they did about him or what was right for their kind (the whole reason he rebelled was because angels were being mistreated by this choice of God’s).

Should he view it from their side? Maybe.Does he owe them this? No.

They had plenty of time to stop God or at least say something to him when he was tearing into that body of his.They had two thousand years of him in a coma to help him.They had a thousand years of him wandering around Earth in a daze to help him.They had plenty of time to come down and stop that curse from being thrown on to Lilith and him that they KNEW was wrong.It was only AFTER he’d become happy, content, and a father of a living child that they decided “I want to have something to do with you!”

The healthiest choice for him was to cut them out of his life and say he’d never forgive them ; the only thing he keeps hearing when he tells them NO is that  “CHARLIE DESERVES TO KNOW HER FAMILY!” and that proves to him that they care more about meeting her and not about what’s right for him (mental health, his wishes to cut ties, his despising of them). 

But he does view things from other people’s perspectives ; it’s why he has Lilith and Charlie with him. As the KING OF HELL, Charlie wanting to redeem souls to send them to Heaven would sound like a HUGE slap to the face to anyone, but he knows that during his time, he did something that EVERYONE viewed as dumb or crazy or blasphemous; so when Charlie decided to do this, he said, “GREAT!” because it would have made him a horrible father to do what God did and tell her outright that her ideas/opinions were wrong. Does he agree with it? Heaven, no, he hates the idea of having Heaven dictate what Hell does, because it shouldn’t be HELL’S responsibility to take on so many sinners 24/7 due to God’s strict “WE DON’T LET PEOPLE IN HERE WHO AREN’T PERFECT” rule!

It’s just the angels and God that he can’t see from a different perspective, because all he remembers is their silence and the traumatic experience he went through.

In the end: he just feels like they could have done SOMETHING to prove they DID care about him back then ; he went to war FOR them, but at the end…he was thrown away like garbage to only find happiness when he met someone else who felt the same as him.

[stillrecruitingrp]

The D.A. has recruited Taylor to the character of Ginny Weasley with a faceclaim of Luca Hollestelle. Picking a fight there, Ginny? Or are you still fighting yourself after second year?

OOC Details

Name: Taylor

Pronouns: She/Her

Activity Level: Moderate. I have a fulltime job and commitments, but I think I’ll be able to post a few times a week.

Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that the themes of this game may include triggering elements. I also acknowledge that my character may be harmed or even killed during paras/events or may cause harm to or kill others during paras/events through the violence roulette.

General IC Details

Name: Ginevra “Ginny” Molly Weasley

Age: 16

Ships: Ginny is still in love with Harry at this point, but she believes in him and has let him go to do what he has to do. It’s also not her main concern, as right now there are more important things on the table then whether or not she’s in a relationship. But I believe that Ginny’s sexuality is Bisexual, or Heteroflexible as she hasn’t really thought about it a whole lot (besides when she’s looking through Witch Weekly and there’s a picture of Gwenog Jones).

Gender/Pronouns: She/Her

Face Claim: Luca Hollestelle

Desired Changes: Not a whole lot at the moment, just excited to explore her character more in-depth!

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BIO Questions

Biography:

Growing up, Ginny’s life was ordinary. Well as ordinary as it could be for a lower-income wizarding family of nine, in which she was only special because of her gender. It was a novelty, being the only girl in a gaggle of vivid ginger boys, whom all had a booming personality that internally struggled to shine amongst each other. That being said, Ginny’s childhood was happy. Loving parents who had come out of the first war with themselves intact and enough love to go around their large lot. One by one, all of Ginny’s brothers turned of age to attend school, making the months between September and May lonelier, until it was only her and Ron. It was due to this that she had grown a kinship with the boy who was only a year older. Mud puddles and pretend, debating whether the Harpies or the Cannons were the superior team (obviously the Harpies!). That is until Ron turned eleven and everything changed. Harry Potter returned to the wizarding world, and invaded their lives as Ron Weasley’s best mate.

It was safe to say that Ginny was immediately infatuated. The first celebrity she’d ever had the pleasure of meeting with just a simple smile at King’s Cross, followed by a lonely year alone. It was spent mostly using the Bill’s old broom he’d left behind in the shed to practice quidditch and counting down the days until she was at Hogwarts with her brothers, making friends, and chatting with the Boy Who Lived.

Except that wasn’t what happened. Ron had moved on, found a kinship with Harry and Hermione that didn’t have room for her, and instead she was left to figure it out on her own. But she wasn’t alone. No, she had found a friend in a book, only a week before school and he had twisted it’s grip into her heart and fed on all of her insecurities. Isolating her from those that were her age, with every heartfelt secret she gave him, the more pull Tom Riddle had until he was finally controlling her completely. It was truly terrifying. Missing moments, blood on her hands, her peers turning up petrified as a villain whispered in her ear. How was it that someone could tear a person apart while still making them feel like he was the only one that understood or cared? A master manipulator, it took her months before Ginny tried to get rid of the diary. At first she suspected she was going mad, but it had fallen into Harry’s possession and in her first act of Gryffindor bravery, she had to steal it back.

But regaining the diary simply gave Tom her power again, allowing him to use her as a pawn to draw the “Boy Who Supposedly Destroyed Voldemort” into the Chamber. It was her life-force that almost brought Tom Riddle back into his youth, but when she awoke she was free. Free to confess to Harry what had been going on for all those months, and it was with him she returned from the chamber.

After Tom, she was left to pick up the pieces. Over the years she found a friend in Hermione, who urged her to be herself. In Neville, who accompanied her to the Yule Ball just so she could take part, and in Luna, who was intuitive and open-minded. She dated people who saw her as more than just another Weasley and killed it on the quidditch pitch after all those years practicing alone. Dark times arrived, Ginny stepped up, becoming one of the original members of Dumbledore’s Army and even helping to suggest it’s infamous name. Rebellion is in her blood after all, and when Harry, Ron and Hermione planned to flee for the Ministry in order to save Sirius, she fought to follow along.

It was as if she was finally being seen. Not only by her family and peers, but after that by Harry as well. She could feel his gaze when she entered a room, heard it in his laugh that his heart was a little lighter when they smiled about the same stupid thing. She knew that that she didn’t know everything, and that peace wouldn’t last, but when he caught her in his arms that day in the common room and kissed her in front of everyone Ginny felt like she might explode with happiness. Finally she was out of her shell, absolutely vibrant and it had gotten her what she wanted all those years ago.

And yet their relationship was short lived, not because they didn’t want one another, but because duty called. Dumbledore left Harry a nearly impossible mission and the world fully knew the danger that was about to embark. Her eldest brother’s wedding proved that, as chaos reigned on Bill and Fleur’s guests. Another reminder that they were at war, as Ron and his friends left without a word. Ginny left to pick up the pieces once again.

School Year So Far:

The train back to Hogwarts was morose. Luna with her head in the Quibbler, sat tightly next to Ginny who’s feet were up on the bench across from her and pressed against Neville’s leg, whose leg was between both of Luna’s on the floor between them. The three in an ever-sturdy triangle, as if proximity was safety, without even acknowledging it. It wasn’t broken until the Death Eater’s started patrol, and barged into the cabin where they were met with Neville standing quickly, and Ginny’s wand out at the ready. An early introduction to the tenseness that would follow. It was that night that the DA held their first meeting, calling all members whom still had their coins to the Room of Requirement.

With Neville and Luna, Ginny easily fells into the position of muscle. Maybe it was growing up with all those brothers. Curse-breaker Bill, Fearless Charlie, Meticulous Percy, Devious Fred and George, and Fiercely Loyal Ron, have taught her to be a Ruthless Protector. Picking fights in hallways when someone was unjustly treated, planning missions for breaking into the Headmaster’s office to steal back the sword of Gryffindor. Blood, sweat and tears were key ingredients in the first term. Even during winter break, in the soft calm of Grimmauld Place she could still hear the screams of her peers under the cruciatus curse. Part of Ginny feared going home for the holidays, worried that there will be no one to keep the DA in line, or protect them from the Carrows, but Molly would hear none of the complaints and Ginny couldn’t help but ache for her family. Surprisingly, it’s Arthur who suggested Ginny stay home for the second term though, but even her father can’t talk her into staying in the safety of her parent’s arms. No, this is her battle, this is her school. Her fight and she intends to see it through.

The fire in her belly was only fuelled further on the second train-ride back to Hogwarts that school year, when Luna is ripped away from her. A curse catching her off guard, and all she could do was watch as Luna was whisked away against her will. Ginny only let Neville see her cry that night, with the fear that they would never see their friend again.      

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Open Themes (Optional)

I am open to the possibility of applying for one of these later. At the moment, I really want to flesh out how Ginny processes her past in this new and harsh environment.

OOC Questions

Writing Sample

(I hope it’s okay if I have Crabbe/Goyle as NPC’s in this para sample! Though let’s be real I’d die of happiness if someone played them!) ADMIN NOTE: likewise!

There is a pit in her stomach that hasn’t been around since she was younger. And not just any cramp, that might be from nervousness of a big match, or the butterflies that rise with the glimpse of green eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. No, this was a deep seeded darkness, the kind that threatened in the shadows and spread through her bones like ice.

Ginny knows it’s different though.

Repeats it to herself over and over that she wasn’t going to lose control. That the Carrows, while vile and evil in their own twisted way, were not Tom. They weren’t, and he was gone. Sure, You-Know-Who is at large and a threat as real as ever, but he isn’t the same handsome face that had lulled a young girl to do his bidding. There was no one on Earth who could scare her quite like Tom, who had taken her consent, her mind and her will. He had  left permanent scars.

That didn’t change the fact though that the hall of Hogwarts were once again eerie, the redhead on constant alert, her hand almost always inches from her wand. Not that it was required. She couldn’t help the pride that rose whenever she won a draw with her quick reflexes. She had caught the winning snitch after all. It seemed like years, and yet it had only been months since she’d been on that high. Her house cheering her name as they stormed back through the castle (it had felt so much more like home then), when Harry had kissed her and for some reason deep down she had known he was going too.

No, it all feels like a dream now as she wanders the halls on edge. Even though it was between classes, the route to Potions is much less crowded than it had ever been before and turning the corner is when she stops. There stood Crabbe (or was it Goyle? She had never bothered to learn the difference since they were never in her classes) cornering a youngin’ who couldn’t be older than thirteen. Some poor sod who’d stumbled upon the wrong place at the wrong time, back to the wall and wide-eyed. It was safe to say without Malfoy’s orders, the pair of lackeys had somehow grown braver on their own and Ginny couldn’t help walk quicker towards him (though the nagging voice in her head that sounded like her mother kept telling her to stop).

“Oi, Orge-face!” She bellows, looking and sounding more like her brother Ron with every passing day. Her wand is already out when he turns towards her, much larger than herself, but there’s an angry burn inside of her that wants to make someone else just as mad as she is. “I’d say pick on someone your own size, but then we’d have to find a troll.”

Exploration

I want Silver Trio stuff! Neville and Luna are so important to Ginny, as her family and her character development. I absolutely adore how much Ginny loves them and the little canon things that show this, and can’t wait to play it out with them not just being buddies now, but a team. They’re the heart of the DA, and I think they take that so incredibly seriously. Not to mention I want to do the mission where they try to break into Snape’s office!

Anything with the Weasleys. I love the sibling relationship between Ginny and her brothers.

Ginny’s PTSD. She was possessed for an entire school year, that’s not something a person can just get over. Ginny hides it well, even in the same year it happened it’s mentioned that she appears calmer and more content. I think a coping mechanism has been for her to brush it under the rug over the years and focus on other things. I think it was even a reason she trained so hard at Quidditch (working out improves endorphins/gives her something to focus on and exhausts herself so she can sleep). So I think it’s been forgotten by a lot of people, and Ginny tends to promote that with her own behaviour towards it. With the Carrows taking over though, I can see it stirring up everything she’s repressed over the years and really triggers her nightmares and fight-before-flight reactions. She doesn’t react in the same way others do.

Her struggle as a leader, and how the people in her life still see her as the “little sister” or the youngest family member. Even the Golden Trio have always pegged Ginny as a step under them (her having to fight to go to the Ministry in Order of the Phoenix). It will be a power struggle when those people show up and treat her like they always have while she’s been at the head of the DA this year. In canon she’s been fighting this war the entire year, but when the Battle of Hogwarts happen, both her mom and Harry say she’s too young. She’s the second in command of the DA, the muscle, and suddenly there are people telling her she’s not up to the challenge. It’s something that she truly hates and is going to try to establish some dominance for.

[sexy-cheese]

Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 6

episode breakdown....and by breakdown I mean me....im breaking down...into sobs and endless sadness and bitter impatient tears....its me. im broken down Stage 1: we see a combination of enlightened rick (er) and toxic rick (tr) trying to get through the trauma of whatever it is they have just survived. Tr would most likely start rampaging, cursing, breaking shit, and trying to kill off anyone around him in a homicidal blur until he calmed down, however er is probably in there wondering why they even did the stupid thing in the first place. Its not their place to meddle. They are an all powerful super being with highly superior intelligence, so why do they feel this horror and trauma for such a worthless gain? Together they neutralize into a 'drink until the pain is gone mentality' henceforth leading to our rick's alcoholism and ideology of the just 'dont think about it' mindset this is the rick we know. The push everything aside, drink, and dont think Stage 2: Tr separates. If you notice, the very first thing he screams when he wakes up is "morty", because naturally it is the first thing on his mind. He frantically searches for him and then calls him a worthless piece of shit, continuously bringing up how stupid and useless he is. This comes from his severe fear of detachment from morty if he were ever to become overly confident and decide he doesnt need his grandpas cool adventures or life style anymore. If a morty gets too confident, he leaves his rick and becomes a sociopath. Normal rick can relatively keep the urge to bring morty's confidence down under control, but tr impulsively spews it out, so damn afriad that morty will wake up and realize he doesnt need him at any moment. He constantly has to cry out and tell him that they need each other, in his own toxic way. Calling him 'a piece of shit' is basically begging him 'dont leave me' he has to make him think he needs him. got it? lets move to the next step of stage 2 tr constantly says things like "im a god" "im above this" "everyone around me is garbage" "you think normal people can do this?" so obliviously this is his narcissism and entitlement, but digging deeper it is also his sense of inner insecurity. now, you may say 'WHAAAT RENATA HOW CAN DAT BEEE?" well lemme splain. basically rick knows how smart he is, he knows how powerful he is, and he knows all the stuff he could do with this power and intelligence....but that's the thing, he really doesnt know all the stuff he could be doing, because he doesnt do it. running around in the toxic can, you can see him panicking, frantically working and running to make stuff and do things. He knows how great he is, but he has no idea how to use it or what he should be doing with it. Think about it, when someone tells you "ayy, your the smartest being in the multiverse and could probably cure the world of every sickness"....wouldn't YOU be a little overwhelmed? He has so much to live up to (an impossible amount) that he hides behind the idea that he doesn't care about any of it. He cant use his power to save the universe, so instead he claims he doesnt care about it. but deep down he feels bad, because he feels like everyone expects him to do something, when in reality theres way too much to do so, to sum up, Toxic Rick is made up of multiple other different things than just narcissism and selfishness and rage...just like toxic morty, he is also his burning insecurity in the fact that hes just a normal man, who happens to be the only person who could ever hope to save the universe....and yet he has no idea how to do it Stage 3: meet enlightened rick. You're thinking, "oh, so THIS is the side of rick that actually COULD save the universe if he wanted because he IS confident enough in his abilities, right?" well the answer is no. this rick doesnt have a flipping clue either. how would he? there is no possible way to save every single multiverse, but unlike tr, instead of letting it consume him in misdirected guilt and insecurity, he instead has (healthily) let it go. Hence the name, he is now 'enlightened' from the worlds problems because he has thoroughly let go of his human need to be the hero and instead surpassed it all in the 'i need not meddle' mentality. BUT. you might ask, "well renaaaatttaaa then why isnt this rick super healthy? why isnt he perfect? why does he seem so interested in getting his other half back?" welll my little reader I have some thoughts. Thought 1) er has no humanity, attachment, purpose, selfworth, or cosmic opinion in himself, the human race, or the universe. why? because he has officially decided that its all pointless anyway and most importantly (big dividing factor here) he is OK WITH THAT. he has accepted the fact that he has surpassed human attachment because he has accessed infinite realities and multiverses to the point where nothing he thought had meaning does anymore. To become fully enlightened, he has let go all of his family, emotions, and self doubts because frankly, he just doesnt give a damn. But in a healthy way? Hes just let it all go, unlike tr who insists he 'doesnt give a fuck' when in fact, he does give millions and trillions of fucks and it eats him alive with each passing day. thoughts 2) so why does er work to get the phone to connect and work at getting his other half back? well he says it right there in the episode when he and confident morty are sitting in the parking lot at school. He says "im accountable to my toxins, right?" he wants to rejoin because he knows that tr has all his intelligence, all his power, and all his guilt wrapped up into a big toxic package. What does this mean? Hes FUCKING DANGEROUS. thats what it means. er is so enlightened, that he knows letting tr do his worst will mean the end of the world. now, for a little while in the episode, he tries to reason with himself and say that he shouldnt meddle in this either, because why is tr any better or worse than he is? but eventually he realizes the truth that tr left unchecked, is bad news for everyone and not worth lying idly back to watch the universe(s) burn. Because yeah...they would all burn Stage 4: now lets watch these two adorable little super humans interact. tr sums it up perfectly when he says "this is the part of your pussy grandpa that keeps it real".....yup. Thats pretty much the whole concept. If youve been paying attention, youve probably already figured out that er isnt exactly as healthy as he thinks he is. The truh of the matter is just sitting back with your thub up your ass like "oh theres no hope in solving ALL the probems, so let me just not interfere at all" is a pretty effed up way to think. Without tr, he probably wouldnt do anything but stay at home with his family and like, build toys electric toys for kids or something. He wouldnt DO anything extraordinary for fear of messing up the fragile stuff of the universe. Tr reminds him what a waste it would be to live a normal life and ignore their vast power. however, tr doesnt know how to use it either, so hence, the fighting breaks out. basically, they just have no idea how to use there god-like intelligence, and it gets ugly for both. even er says 'that stuff is a part of us and we need to put it back.' he knows that in sense he needs it, otherwise his power will be wasted buuuttt.......tr doesnt feel the same way. tr believes that without er, he could possibly become a real man. a real human. a real person who maybe actually cared about things and didnt feel so 'above' everything and so detatched. like a god among people who couldnt really connect with anyone. he doesnt want to go back to that lonely life of being the only one in his realm. this is why he keeps trying to destroy him while er just wants to recombine. Honestly, er is in the right here, (obviously) because he can see the big picture of how they need each other. Also, fun snidbit, tr is clearly the fighter of the two....clearly....and the sexy maker too apparently.....hehe....good to know good to know.....ahem.....anywaaayyyyy but.....looky here.... here I bring you.... Stage 5:tr doesnt give a shit. he doesnt give a fuck, he doesnt give a....oh,....Beth's here?..... he....leaves. immediately. so, here is where we see tr's true weakness, and what er truly hates about himself. He can't even bring himself to be around Beth or put her in any sort of harms way, so he leaves the very second she walks in the door. what does this mean? it is tr, er, and our rick's one true weakness. Truth is, he really cant be fully enlightened and reach his maximum potential, because of his human attachment to his family. Tr probably feels so guilty about leaving Beth (even though it was probably his idea because he was terrified of hurting her) that he cant even stand to look at her. he leaves immediately even though he was technically winning. plain as day, he admits his own true weakness, he just cares too much about his family to ever become truly godlike and reach his full enlightened potential. tr is human, er is the god. but er can see enough of himself to acknowledge that he needs his human self to be a fully functional human being. to truly be...rick. Stage 6 (almost done) and here it is....the moment er truly finally actually comes to terms with the fact that his 'version' of 'health' was actually just what he thought was his true potential. But alas, because the machine choses your version of health based on what YOU think is healthy, this is the issue he realizes. he didnt become healthy, he became his full potential, minus the pain and limits of human emotion. but the truth is, a full, enlightened, god-like potential is kinda useless without compassion and empathy...isnt it? I mean, if you have the power to save, but you just dont care....then whats the point? He realizes that essentially a god that does nothing is no god at all, and even if tr is a toxic, guilty, confused, miserable man too overwhelmed by his own potential to actually fufill it, he will accomplish more than er ever will just because of that energetic will to survive and just flipping DO SOMETHING. he literally realizes in this one moment that he would probably never accomplish anything like this, not without that crazy, overwhelming, miserably human passion that tr harbors in his soul for his shitty life and shitty decisions. and this is when he knows that they have to reunite, just for the sake of not wasting his life. Stage 7: (my personal favorite) ah yes.....the climax of the story. where it all becomes clear. something I havent touched on yet (which i bet you thought i forgot about....you lil scamp) is why tr is trying to make the whole world toxic. Why? simple. he has mistaken his toxic qualities for his humaness. (which in a way is true, but he also got a bunch of bad shit that er probably spends most of his energy keeping on the down low) and so in tr's mind, he isn't 'toxifying' the world, he releasing people's true emotions and true selves. he releasing the raw humanness inside them so they dont have to deal with their superegos always judging them and telling them how to live. he is the id, in a way, freeing all the other id's from their superegos so the world can be a genuine, purely human world. However, obviously, without superego the people are monsters, hence the carnage of the toxified people. to him, this is his way of saving the human world by bringing out their true human nature. unfortunately true human nature is primal and disgusting, but shh.....dont tell him that.....poor innocent bean....look how proud he is.... so proud..... ahem....anyway back to the climax. so now er shows up again and starts talking, lets analyyyyze. first off, er has learned something very important.....its tr's one weakness that he displayed when best walked in, hes afraid of losing/hurting his family. So of course, he targets toxic morty. and er knows this because he doesnt care about morty WHY WOULD HE? there are millions and trillions of mortys. it is beneath his highly superior brain to care, but tr sees the little picture, and in the moment, he needs morty to support him. He needs to latch onto him. he needs the human comfort. he doesnt want to admit that, but he needs it more than anything else in his life. in fact, he needs it so much, he doesnt even think er has the balls to do it, because he thinks he needs it too....but thats just it....he doesnt. and he knows he doesnt need that human connection, which is why he knows he needs his other half back to need it for him and here we have the moment that literally made tears come..... "irrational attachments"......that line just really hurt me bro.....it hurt me good.....it got me right in the soul....yikes. too real. *sniffle* anyway, back to er's rant. he basically sums it up by saying "you are literally incapable of seeing the bigger picture" hence tr's irrational love and dependency for his family, even though er and tr both know there are infinite sanchez families with infinite different fates that they have no way in saving or interfering in any way, tr still for some reason feels emotion towards a morty that really isnt even THE REAL morty. but think about this....its the most insecure morty, right? the one that is the most insecure, helpless morty of them all....its the one that needs him the most. the one that is least likely to ever leave him....*more sniffles* so of course he cares about him. I mean....we've seen what morty is like without him.... i think rick put it best when he called him 'a tiny american psycho'.....which I mean, he would be, right? hes related to rick afterall. with just enough jerry to keep him insecure. at least jerry was good for one thing. and soooo....thats the wayyyyy the news goes. At the very end we see a reunited rick. he even says 'master of both worlds'...meaning he is once again human and god. id and superego, making one highly functioning ego. the rick we know and love. a beautiful mess. so the meaning my friends.....you really shouldnt hate the bad pats of yourself, because at the end of the day, its kind of what makes you....human. wow....this got really freaking long, and I didnt even get into my whole theory about our morty being evil eyepatch morty. (remember in evil eyepatch morty episode where rick says "a confident morty is bad news, ill tell you when youre older".....well I think we know what that means now) yikes....and i thought rick was a handful when he was cocky. so there you have it. Our bread and butter, our saint and sinner, our sexy grandpa and teenage rocker.....our super genius space alcoholic. our rick sanchez. a beautiful chaotic mess.  wubba lubba dub dub bitches.

[naetatnatat-blog]

Ulterior motive behind Ra.One

No, I haven't seen this Hindi movie Ra.One, which was released in 2011. But something happened which made me curious to know when it was released, so I searched on DuckDuckGo(Not Google) and it showed me that it was released  in 2011 quoting a small segment of Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra.One

Most of my knowledge of this movie is from that Wikipedia entry. What caught my attention was the incongruous word "Lucifer" which has a prominent role in the movie's plot, in case some of you don't know what that word means, it is a Latin word which means "light bearer", "light bringer", "light carrier", "morning star" and it is usually used as a name to refer to devil, satan, etc. There was one YouTube video in which I was lead to believe that Pope also used that word to refer to Jesus Christ. What is this word doing in an Indian movie made primarily in Indian language, Hindi for an Indian audience? This is what is suspicious to me. This word is mostly used by Christians to refer to devil, satan, etc.

Christianity is one of the world's dominant religions, it is rooted in Judaism. Main God in Christianity is Jesus Christ. It could very much be possible that most of you don't know anything about Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but this kind of ignorance of their religions could be a rude shock to inferiority complex ridden followers of these religions, who feel like they are the center of the universe and everybody's existence, and everything is because of the reasons mentioned in their religions. They feel like everyone wants to be their savior, prophet, etc as if it is the most glamorous thing. It can be said that Judaism gave birth to both Christianity and Islam, some believe that Judaism is an amalgamation of various myths prevailing in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Some of the core beliefs of Judaism is that God created human beings, God first created Adam and Lilith from soil and breathed life into them, Lilith is usually believed to be a female companion of Adam, similar to wife, but Lilith cheats on Adam with Satan and leaves Adam, later on God creates Eve, a female companion out of Adam's ribs, and places them in Garden of Eden, and tells Adam that he has control over the birds, animals, etc and they can eat from every tree except from the Tree of Knowledge. Satan was one of the arch-angels, it rebels against God and they are thrown out of heaven after a battle by Michael, Gabriel, etc. After sometime, Satan somehow infiltrates into Garden of Eden and in the form of a snake tempts Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, it is a widespread misconception that it was apple what Eve ate. Eve succumbs to the temptation and eats from the Tree of Knowledge and convinces Adam to also eat, when they eat, they become aware of their nakedness and become ashamed and cover themselves. Just at that moment God comes before them and curses them for their disobedience, that Adam must till the land to obtain his food and and he must leave his parents to be with his wife, similarly he curses Eve that she'll experience great pain in childbirth. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Adam was thought to be entire collection of mankind and Eve the entire collection of womankind. This is the reason why all Muslims and Jews and majority of Christians get circumcision, as they believe Adam developed foreskin over penis in shame to cover himself up before God and as the rest of the mankind were part of the Adam, they should also not cover themselves like that. Adam has many children, most of famous them were Cain and Abel.

I don't know how these people ended up in Egypt, maybe it was close by so they traveled there or taken there as slaves to construct Pyramids, etc. Then rulers of Egypt put the descendants in slavery and Moses delivers them from the hands of Pharaohs. Most Jews believe this to be a present covenant with God in effect, Moses used to contact God through bush fires during this time, like this he received The Ten Commandments, these Ten Commandments form the core tenets regulating the lives of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Most of the law is based on these Ten Commandments. Moses leads them out of Egypt into Israel, this is called the Exodus. Moses receives Torah through his contact with, what he claims to be God, this is "The Book" which is very highly regarded in Judaism. This liberation of Jews from Pharaohs is held to be definite proof of God's existence and Jews consider their religion real because of this and they are superior.

If some of you are wondering how Christianity, a religion rooted in Judaism, has Jesus Christ as it's God. Followers of Judaism are called Jews, Jesus Christ was a Jew too, Jesus Christ obtains few followers preaching his version of Judaism, some of them become his disciples. After traveling to Jerusalem, Jesus Christ claims he was the prophesied Messiah, he is the Son of God, he has been given control of Kingdom of Heaven, and orders things around, all these things don't go down well with Jewish priestly class of that place and time, so they confront Jesus Christ and ask him to prove his authority, Jesus Christ in response criticizes them and calls them hypocrites. Angered with this, they get one of his disciples to identify Jesus Christ before roman soldiers for 30 silver coins, who arrest Jesus Christ, and they bring him before a Jewish judicial elders, where he is charged with blasphemy and they take him to a Roman governor for punishment. Jewish elders' complaint with Jesus Christ seemed to about him claiming to be the Messiah and King of Jews. The Roman governor asks Jesus Christ if he was the King of Jews, according to Wikipedia, Jesus Christ doesn't deny he was the King of Jews in unequivocal terms, at this juncture Roman governor realizes Jesus Christ was from some other area and he sends him to some other Roman person of that place, but Jesus Christ doens't answer anything of that person, they place expensive robe on Jesus Christ to make fun of him as king and send him back to the Roman governor, observing a Passover custom, the Roman governor gives a choice to the crowd for freeing one prisoner, at the persuasion of Jewish elders the crowd chooses to free a murderer over Jesus Christ, so the Roman governor orders Jesus Christ to be executed by crucifixion, according to Wikipedia entry, they place a crown of thorn over Jesus Christ's head and crucify him. This execution of prisoners with crucifixion was common at that time. According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ died and buried, after 3 days he rises up and goes to heaven. Over time many people started following the teachings of Jesus Christ and it came be known as Christianity.

Islam is a recent religion, it started in Arabia, it was started by a person named Mohammed, who for some reason goes into a cave and there an angel believed to Gabriel shows him something and commands him to read it, Mohammed was an illiterate so he couldn't read it, under pressure he utters what comes to his mind. This is seen as the start of Islam, preachings and conduct of Mohammed constitutes most of Islam. Islam doesn't accord the status of divinity to Jesus Christ but believes in the existence of devil, satan and things like deal with the devil. Islam views Jesus Christ as one of the prophets. This religion is notoriously known for producing popular terrorists in modern times, if mainstream media and criticizers of this religion are to be believed, these terrorists are compelled to do it for 72 virgins waiting for them in afterlife. Afterlife promised in this religion is a sexual paradise for boys and men.

Judaism and Islam are strictly monotheistic religions and blasphemy and apostasy attracts capital punishment in both of these religions. Where these separate is with Satan's rebellion, Islam has pretty much the same ideas about this as Christianity, whereas Judaism feels Satan being an angel can't disobey God so it could never rebel against God. Judaism sees Satan as a keeper of people's misdeeds and wrong doings to be used against them in front of God to condemn them to hell.

All these three have their own end world myths, Jews believe a Messiah will come and usher in a new age devoid of evil.

Christians believe Jesus Christ will come again(2nd coming) when there is an individual who they refer to as anti-christ and after defeating this anti-christ, in an ultimate battle with devil, satan, lucifer, he'll once and for all destroy it, and raise the dead and judge them and cast them into hell or send them to heaven on the basis of their deeds, and Jews will finally accept him as their Messiah, etc.

Muslims also believe their prophet will come again when someone similar to anti-christ in Christianity appears, Muslims believe there will be an individual which they refer to as dajjal, and this dajjal will be blind in the right eye, etc and when this dajjal at the peak of his power, Muslim's prophet will come and lead a prayer with Jesus Christ before final battle with the devil, satan, etc after defeating dajjal and raise people from dead, etc.

These three accursed delusional religions have these kind of prophesies regarding end world, it is here where the usage of the word "lucifer" in the movie fits in. The entire movie had an ulterior motive to popularize this word and plant it in viewers' minds.

Because the followers of these three accursed delusional religions are lazy pigs and not capable of any real hard work, they have been at each others' throat over differences in their religions from past few centuries, so when they noticed a country like India, with a completely different religion, these lazy pigs found a nice excuse to put aside their tiring and exhausting egotistical fights between themselves, and channel all their energy towards one common goal, to malign and insult Hinduism, as Hinduism is different from their religions, they think Hindus are perfect candidates for being anti-christ and dajjal. India is a sad, vain and arrogant country, there are many rotten people here because of which most people struggle to make ends meet, who crave for something to make themselves feel good. So by using the word "lucifer" they were hoping to exploit these kinds of people, they look down on people as unthinking, and they think dumb Indian masses would lap it up and proudly use the word "lucifer" for themselves. Or as children are more susceptible to these kind of suggestions, they might have hoped children or teenagers would use this word enthusiastically. And they can single out these individuals and target them by building them up so as to bring their Messiah, Jesus Christ and Prophet into this world.

This movie was touted as first Bollywood movie to have graphics and visual effects on par with Hollywood movies, they may have offered this in exchange for the use of this word, or some outside individual agreed to shoulder some financial burden for using that word in the movie, or all the shameless actors and filmmakers got carried away by these delusional prophecies to plant this word in viewers' minds by trying to make it mainstream knowledge.

[knightofbalance-13]

Gainax Retrospective Review 4: DieBuster, the return of an old friend.

Sequels are a...mixed bag. Some are good, some are bad, some are great and some are just awful. This is for a variety of reasons ranging from poor scripts to bad acting to just not caring. However, one overarching aspect separates the bad from the good: the spirit of the original. SO long as a sequel has the spirit of the original it has a good shot at being a good sequel. This is because at essence a sequel is simply the original work extended. It’s the same show just a little different. And Diebuster does a good job at this. Sadly, it’s only a good job, not a great one.

Made in 2004 as the twenty fifth anniversary special of Studio Gainax, Diebuster follows the adventures of Nono, an eternally optimistic android girl who looks up to a legendary hero and wishes to be a space pilot to fend off the scourge of the space monsters. As she tries to be a space pilot, Nono meets a true space pilot named Lal’c who, in turn, is calm, cool and kind of indifferent in opposition to Nono. Together along with the cold hearted rival Tyrcho and the charming Nicola, they fight against the Space monsters. While the story is short it does have it’s fair share of twists going from our hero Nono ending up being a Buster Machine (heavily implied to have powers that exceed even the original: GunBuster), the things they thought were space monsters actually being protectors of humanity that were assaulting certain members of the human race because they were evolving into the real space monsters and the person that Nono worshiped “Nonoriri” is actually Noriko from the original. SO the plot is a bit more complex and ingaging than before...if it was able to match the energy and focus of the original. GunBuster, while having a mostly straight forward plot, kept a great focus on the story that made it’s short length work as well as it did and had a lot of vibrancy to company it. Diebuster’s focus skips around a bit and the energy at times feels lacking in comparison. In short: The age of the story really shows as it feels like an old person trying to reenact an old event: Impressive but as good as the original.

The themes of the show are...hard to pin down. Again, GunBuster’s focus made this easier as it kept on three themes constantly while Diebuster’s themes jump all over the place. Diebuster has a theme about growing up using the Topless as a metaphor as when a Topless reaches a certain age they lose their power and adults often treat them with contempt...But Topless often curse their abilities and some people have become messed up by it so it’s hard to say if the show is saying if growing up is good or bad. I guess it could be saying that Growing up is hard but necessary but the Topless are depicted as needing that power is it still doesn’t make sense.

The next theme has a bit more focus. This is the theme of character interactions in the story and how the events change them, There is a lot of focus here as throughout the story we focus on the many ways the people interact with each other and how they change one another, similar to Evangelion and FLCL. Except whereas Evangelion only focused on the negative and FLCL focused on the positive, Diebuster tries to take a look at both sides with a slightly optimistic viewing similar to GunBuster’s, it even has a similar talk in it in whether or not humans should try to survive and risk evolving into space monsters (which in of itself could be an observation on how a war slowly turns you into your enemy) or if they should just die with letting people in the future decide whether or not their monsters. Again, the show doesn’t have the focus needed to completely convey this but it does do a better job.

There is also a third theme of achieving impossible stunts through the good ol’ motto of “Hard Work and Guts.” It comes up a couple of times and is used for some spectacular feats and really gets you engaged but I’m talking about it here because...well, there’s another anime that take this concept and busts right through it next time so I’m gonna conserve my thoughts there.

Now let’s take a look at the characters for this round. First person we’re taking a look at is the main character Nono. Nono is an energetic, cheerful girl who wants nothing more than to pilot a Buster Machine just like her hero who is later revealed to be Noriko from GunBuster. Ironically, Noriko and Nono are pretty much complete opposites as characters. Noriko was shy, nervous and not very self confident whereas Nono is energetic, not shy in the slightest and is full of confidence (excluding when it comes to her surrogate sister.) Noriko’s problem came from her potential never being tapped into ,due to her mental failings, Nono’s problem is that she never gets the chance to show her potential. So this makes DieBuster develop in a much different way. Nono, while silly at times, displays immense amounts of seriousness when the situation calls for it and takes her job as a protector of humanity very seriously. She works very well as a contrast to Noriko and they would have made some very interesting interactions with Noriko had they ever met. In contrast, she’s like a happier version of Simon who just never got her chance until everything changed for her and she has some sibling problems like Naota but these are more her fault than the siblings. Another flaw of hers is her inability to read people thus causing her to hurt some people but then this is balanced out by her surprising ability to inspire others through her simple and pure spirit. All in all, a fun character with a quite a few quirks that make her endearing. However, she lacks the conflict of her predecessor that made her so compelling.

The second character under our scope is Lal’C. She is an ace space pilot and a Topless, a person with special powers that allow them to defy pjysics through mechas...And it’s not Spiral Power. Cool, great under pressure and acts as a reluctant mentor to Nono, Lal’C is the Kazumi of DieBuster who acts as a great compare AND contrast to Kazumi: the contrast comes from the fact that while Lal’c acts as the Kazumi of this show she’s actually not that sensitive or kind as Kazumi: She’s blunt, rude, cold as hell and can be pretty damn rash. She does have a kinder side that Nono brings out that is the result of Nono’s positivity that we see but most of the time she’s just rude.The comparison comes from the fact that she’s honestly trying to help Nono the best she can, worries greatly about her and is very close to her. She does her best to help Nono achieve her goals and acts as her superior for a good chunk of the anime until Nono is revealed to be the seventh Buster Machine and the tables turn with Lal’C being forced to rely upon her student. However, what makes Lal’C even better than Kazumi is that the relationship brings out a lot of character development from her while Kazumi for the most part didn’t get too much from Noriko in terms of story. The pilot goes from being a powerful but cold, distant, rude and kind of pessimistic girl to someone who keeps fighting and fighting despite the odds with lots and lots of loyalty to Nono. All in all, out of the three successors to Kazumi I’ve seen, Lal’c is definitely the best one.

Third up is Tynco, the Jun Freud of our little sequel. Another Topless that is constantly trying to surpass Lal’C, displaying a great amount of disdain with her fellow Topless and is a complete cynic when it5 comes to their powers, believing only in cold hard cynicism. But we latter see that this is due to the fact that she was unable to help her dear childhood friend who died despite all her powers as a Topless, thus leading her to who she is today. But through Nono’s constant exposure and her dedication and optimism she regains that hope  in her powers and becomes a much softer and kinder person. While this is all well and fine, she is simultaneously both a weaker and stronger Jung Freud parallel. Stronger because the anime takes time to develop her and have her change feel more in depth and natural but weaker because that test of character Jung went through never really happens to Tynco and what test of character she does have feels...out of place. She’s a nice character and everything but she just feels too out of place and...bricky.

Finally we handle Nicola who is the reflection of Coach Ohta at first. He’s handsome, smart, wise, older, been in the battle far longer than most of the characters ect. He flirts a lot with Lal’C which does lead to some interesting scenes with him and Lal’C and he does do some work to try and find out what is going on, Nicola is juts not that good of a character. In fact, he’s rather bland and uninteresting beyond the flirtiness of his character. He doesn’t hold Coach Ohta’s firmness yet understanding, his love for humanity, his ability to see the inner depths of characters or even his presence. He isn’t as morally ambiguous, intelligent, manipulative or complex as Gendo. he’s not as wacky, intelligent, funny or entertaining as Kazumo making Nicola the weakest incarnation of the Coach character. Not to mention he tries to rape Nono at one point so...I think we should move on.

The sound of the anime is still very good. It’s opening song Blue Magic is uplifting and smile inducing benefiting the less serious DieBuster and it’s protagonist although it is a pop song so you might not think that it is all that great. The rest of the music uses the good ol orchestra to convey the feelings of the scenes which it does a great job at doing, especially the part with Tynco getting back into action. It also uses a few pieces from GunBuster which are utilized excellently. The voice acting is pretty good as Nono and Lal’C have teh perfect voices to match their characters but this show is only in Japanese so I can’t make a full judgement.

The animation and art have taken quite the leap from before. Even though FLCL was very well animated top where even it’s messier scenes befit the wild atmosphere of the show, DieBuster seem to take bits and pieces from every Gainax show before with the large expressive eyes and colorfulness of the original GunBuster, the more realistic bodies and faces of NGE and the wild energy and glowing effects of FLCL, marking it as an evolution in the art styles. The mechas are heavily personalized and stand out which makes them a joy to watch in battle and the enviroment5s are very well made in that they always capture the scene and it’s tone like Nono’s leaving in the dark and cold signifying a tough road ahead. The animation is very well done, the fights scenes are fluid and a treat to watch, the wacky moments are wild and uninhibited and the casual, more heartfelt scenes are subtle and beautiful.

All in all, DieBuster is a good show whose greatest flaw is that it lacks the focus of the original GunBuster. It works as a 25 year anniversary show in that it contains a lot of references and gags to GunBuster if not a few to FLCL but it doesn’t work as well on it’s own. DieBuster is fun to watch and entertainingt but it lacks the depth that the original had and makes mistakes that the original didn’t. In the end, it feels like the old girl tried to pull off the magic that happened before but all those years worn on her and she could only perform a valiant effort. Although the animation and art as well as sound were great, the other aspects didn’t hold up.

So at the time it seemed like Gainax had hit something of a wall: What could they do next when even the sequel to their greatest anime so far didn’t work? It looked as though their first shot was going to be their last, especially as Hideaki Anno took a good chunk of the people at Gainax to found Studio Khara. But little did anyone know, their greatest work was about to happen a mere three years later. A show that held the heart of GunBuster, the intelligence of NGE, the energy of FLCL and the style of DieBuster while pushing the limits of everything before it and beyond.

Ladies and Gentlemen, ten years ago, that very anime was aired. And it is the aniem I have been building up to. The Magnum Opus of Studio Gainax and the subject of our final review: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!

Prolouge GunBuster Review NGE Review FLCL Review

[rbzpr]

Cosmopolitanism during the French Revolution (J.-R. Surrateau)

It is common to oppose the cosmopolitanism – or universalism – of the Enlightenment to the national spirit which developed itself on the eve of the French Revolution. Cosmopolitanism was widespread in the enlightened classes: the aristocracy of birth or of the robe, the great bourgeoisie living nobly ; in the bourgeoisie of the business, a certain change was perceptible at the end of the 18th century. The hegemony of the French language, a universalist language, was undermined by the progress of the English language, the language of economic relations, but this movement was only about to begin. The small bourgeoisie was considerably less prone to universalism due to reasons of language, milieu or trade. As to the common people, it was withdrawn on its microcosm, hardly educated and even still illiterate.

The load of the words cosmpolitisme-cosmopolite, universalisme-universaliste has been studied well. If, in the 18th century, many praised their universal spirit, others gave a pejorative sense to it. For the first ones, the cosmopolitan is the citizen of the world, ahead of his time, despising vulgarity. The idea of a patriotism that encompasses all of humanity can already be found in Bossuet's Politique tirée de l'écriture sainte: « The sharing of goods among humans and the division of humans into peoples must not alter the general society of the human kind », and in Fénelon who, in his dialogue Socrate et Alcibiade, made the Athenian philosopher say: « Everyone owes infinitely more to the human kind, which is the great patrie, than to the particular patrie within which one is born » ; in the 18th century, Mably, in the Entretiens avec Phocion, thinks that « a virtue that is superior to the love of the patrie, that is the love of humanity », and the Marquis de Caraciolo expressed himself in similar terms. For others, on the contrary, the cosmopolitan is an indifferent person, a cynic who scornfully refuses to become attached to his native country « because he despises the whole universe » (Monbron) and for Rousseau, « these so-called cosmopolitans boast to love the whole world in order to have the right to love nobody ». These distinctions, as intellectual as they may seem, would not be without repercussions on the reactions of the leaders of the revolutionary era, as soon as the dominant classes, arising from the Enlightenment, would be succeeded as the head of the State by what Michelet calls the « people », i.e. a heterogeneous group involving survivors of the nobility or of the bonne bourgeoisie and of the small bourgeois, men of the law, small proprietors, artisans, shopkeepers as well as the « sans-culottes » of the cities. This is not and will not be the case with country dwellers – more than 75% of the French – because the French language is not even an universal language within the hexagon. In many provinces one only spoke French in certain literate zones, more in the East than in the West or in the South-East. And one hardly read there, and often only almanacs.

Outside of France, the French language would be imported by force during the Revolution and therefore would appear as the language of the conqueror to the small people who, evidently, suffered most from the coercions of a « liberation » which more and more manifested itself as an occupation. Italy offers the most complete example of opposition between the enlightened classes, which are universalists since an Italian national language did not exist, and the mass of the urban and, even more, the rural, illiterate, backward and superstitious people, dominated by a fanatical and retrograde clergy. But the cosmopolitans of the Illuminismo, the elites as well as the intellectuals of the Caffè de Milan, were only a handful. In Germany, the picture is more nuanced because, even in the elevated spheres, the victories of Frederick the Great developed a certain « preussisch-deutsch » pride which would result in the Nationalgeist of Herder.

In the 1780s, the years separating the deaths of Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot from the beginning of the Revolution, cosmopolitanism-universalism was attacked repeatedly. From one side of the Atlantic to the other, liberation movements emerged which, while not initially and essentially being directed against « l'étranger », ended up exacerbating a certain nationalist sentiment that was particularist and sometimes xenophobic. The anti-colonialist movement of the Americans, the patriot Revolution of the Dutch against a leader who was one of them but who called in foreigners, the uprising of the inhabitants of Brabant and Liège against an administration that was foreign or supported by foreigners ran counter to universalism which their own aristocracy, immodest in the eyes of the rebels, professed. In Germany, within an interval of four years, the two greatest geniuses, Kant and Herder, expressed themselves quite differently. In 1780, the philosopher of Königsberg defined a democratic society without borders as his ideal, linked to universal fraternity, which would be the future Schillerian-Beethovian leitmotif ; Herder, in 1784, exalted national individualism because, for him, « every nation, every era possesses an own truth, no man, no country, no history are identical ». In France, the reformer party, which also would soon come to reject the universalism of the Enlightenment, gradually radicalised in a manner that seemed to move away every hope for reform.

1789: the « people » had the floor. The Cahiers not only expressed much more than grievances, but also « the profound aspirations, the mentalities of their authors » (J. Godechot). This would lead to Sieyès who, in his famous Qu'est-ce que le Tiers Etat?, appealed to the national spirit against the stateless aristocracy which claimed to descend from to conquering Franks and which one had to « send back into the forests of Franconia ». And yet this was not new, this interdiction, this curse reused the old feud, which, having emerged more than one century before, had opposed the Germanist aristocrats (Boulainvilles, Saint-Simon, Fénelon), who imprudently exalted the supremacy of the conquering race, brandished like a weapon against monarchic absolutism, to the Romanists, who exalted royal absolutism. Montesquieu himself had followed suit. Sieyès shifted the blame, not in the service of absolutism, but in order to affirm the supremacy of the bourgeoisie ; dominating the economy, it also wanted to dominate politics.

Thus, at the time where the Estates-General assembled, the separation appeared between the cosmopolitanism of the enlightened classes and the mentality of the small bourgeois – even if, like Sieyès, some belonged to the clergy in terms of the sociéte d'ordres – who thought « nationally ». One must not be fooled by the balance of power « seen from above » because all of those who wrote, who made their ideas known and whose ideology was known, were men of the elites, cosmopolitans and others. Those whom Sieyès addressed undoubtedly also belonged to them. But the men of the « people » did not write, they did not bequeath anything to us, they were only receptive and, until then, mute. But they would come to act…

The people was mobilised in July 1789, the one of Paris against the Bastille, the one of the countryside, during the Great Fear, against the « aristocratic plot », later the ensemble of the people against the émigrés. One knew the worries of Arthur Young in L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs. Nonetheless, among the leaders, universalism retained its supporters, at least until 1791. On 18 May 1790, Volney proposed that the Constituent Assembly should « regard the universality of the human kind as only forming a single and identical society whose purpose is peace and the happiness of each and every one of its members ». On 20 June, Danton declared during a banquet of the Société du Jeu de Paume that « patriotism should not have any limits but the universe », and Mirabeau, on 25 August, called for « the federation of the human kind ». But all of this would change later, particularly after Varennes ; the vehement movement against universalism, which could quickly become xenophobic, developed against all « foreign agents », Swiss mercenaries from Marseille or the Tuileries on 10 August, against the Brunswick Manifesto, signed by a German prince who spoke and wrote in French. Later, it was the affair of the delivery of Verdun to the enemy, the popular indignation against those who colluded with « nos amis les ennemis », those who delivered our places to these « barbarian hordes (who) are coming right into our arms to cut the throats of our children and our women ». While the revolutionary movement further democratised and radicalised itself, the people went into action against the « foreign plot », a sentiment that was no longer merely national but nationalist, chauvinist and xenophobic, and one even witnessed the reappearance of anti-Semitism, which had always been underlying.

One can measure the progress even on the level of the representatives when one compares the decree of 26 August 1792, through which the Legislative Assembly had granted French citizenship to 17 illustrious « foreigners », to the Convention's measures of proscription which struck foreigners from August 1793 onwards and even more in 1794. The last cosmopolitan (and what a cosmopolitan!) was Anacharsis Cloots…What did he say? « I defy anyone to ever make a good French constitution because a republic [that is] surrounded by great enemy powers is not free unless one says that a bird in an aviary is free ; I [will] see to making a good universal constitution for you. » He went so far as to demand « the suppression of the name Français following the example of Bourguignon, of Normand or of Gascon ». These somewhat delirious exaggerations condemned cosmopolitanism. Cloots and his friends were included in the fight against the « foreign plot ». It was not welcome then to speak another language than French, because one was quickly counted among the « agents of Pitt or of Coburg », two foreigners who also spoke and wrote  in our language, perfect cosmopolitans just like Thugut, Coblenz, Metternich and Tsar Alexander.

It was therefore the resilience of class which was dominant. The deputies themselves were strongly influenced by popular emotions. Robespierre, still in Ventôse Year II, found universalist accents in one of his speeches. But the national sentiment, having been exacerbated in 1793 and in the beginning of Year II by the defeats of our armies, would be even more so in 1795 by the triumphalism which victory, « revenue sous nos drapeaux », brought about.

And already, from a certain point of view, Necker, innocently, had foreseen the force of this profound popular sentiment when, in the provincial Assemblies which he wanted to set up, he witnessed a standardisation which, in the state wherein France found itself, could not be realised by the top but by the bottom ; and this bottom, which the Revolution would reveal and which would come to terrify Necker, was evidently not the one he had encouraged.

Source: Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française (Albert Soboul)

[rjmollie-blog]

Agoraphobia

The microwave beeped four times and Leonard Berner rose to retrieve his coq a vin. His Giorgio Armany (with a ‘y’) clopped across the living room floor, crisp on the original hardwood. Berner had avoided installing carpet because of its inevitable fading and moldering and needing to be replaced – wood might get scuffed but only by his own knockoff Italian footwear. The living room itself was poorly lit and drab, but with some evidence of tasteful decoration. The foyer ushered you into the living room, which had a large bay window and green-checked curtains, whose sunlit shade cast an emerald glow over the room but themselves had not been opened since Watergate.

He had accumulated a motley collection of wall decorations, including an unframed Un Homme Qui Dort movie poster, and a small 3-dimensional inlet containing a tiny living room dating back to the Revolution, left to him by his mother. On the wall opposite the bay window hung Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos etchings, purchased in a museum gift shop, each a two-inch cell in the larger 24”x36” collective. Among other things, one of the reasons Berner had to keep the bay window curtains permanently drawn was to protect his Goya from exposure to corrosive natural light.

Adjacent to the living room was an expansive dining room, with an antique banquet table that he kept as a private joke but never ate at. In his eat-in kitchen, rather, he kept a fully-stocked spice rack, the same green-checked curtains, an empty refrigerator and an Igloo cooler to keep frozen dinners in.

A petrified layer of dust gave everything in the house a softer edge, as though you were looking through an unfocused camera, or there was something on your glasses. The only thing in sharp focus was Berner’s Crosley CR47 turntable, blocking the front door, which he polished daily. Music, to Berner, was the only faculty humankind had to create rather than destroy.

Berner considered himself too young to have discovered this disdain for humanity he had become privy to, though he had always been precocious; it usually took a lifetime for people to seek out isolation the way he did, and his muscles were not even atrophied yet. He was exceedingly well-dressed for a shut-in, personal hygiene and outward appearance being integral parts of his daily routine. He removed the sizzling cardboard square from the microwave and sat down to eat.

He did not care about impressing anyone, he would say, back before the nausea caused by face-to-face interaction became unbearable. He was simply using his appearance as a lens of intellectual and existential superiority to show them that their social conventions were a joke. Berner believed that, whether he liked it or not, there was one inescapable truth governing life on earth, to which the rest of society remained willfully ignorant: humanity was a malignant cancer, whose biological objective was to multiply and spread until the host body was shriveled and depleted. Nothing humans had ever done in any capacity or in any era, as he saw it, had been worthwhile; anything seemingly constructive they may have contributed was an illusion, simply a way of making up for some past injustice committed by their forebears. The planet was an ailing hospice patient, a conclusion at which Berner had unhappily arrived too early on in life. Repulsed, he opted not to participate.

As he ate his frozen French cuisine, Berner noticed an inconsistency in the green-checked curtain. The frayed edges suggested vermin, which made him uneasy; one or two rats he could take care of, but he was ill-equipped to eradicate a larger population, and refused to consider inviting a so-called “exterminator” into his home. He investigated the portal, and remembered reading somewhere that rats were repelled by peppermint, so checked the spice rack but found it unexpectedly lacking. Grabbing the sage and oregano instead, he lined the edges of his living room floors with a dusting of the dried powdered leaves.

Having done this, he returned to his chicken and rumination. To his annoyance, the usual pleasant emerald flush of the room was interrupted by a buttery yellow beam of unobstructed sunlight. He could see particles of dust dancing in the column, which ended in a spot-lit circle on his hardwood floor. The sensory customs of his living room seemed to be rapidly changing; he regretted seasoning the floors. He again set down his dinner and grabbed a sewing needle, thread, and a green pocket square he hardly ever used. As he fitted the patch, he saw through the hole and caught sight of his long-estranged front yard. Yellow, overgrown, at once an arid wasteland and a fascinating ecological experiment, across the street from which someone walked into the one of the suburban side-paneled houses. A neighbor, presumably, but he had no idea how long they had lived there. It was an old woman, doubly accompanied by a walker and a pimply teenaged spotter. Berner watched their slow procession until the youth ditched the woman at the doorstep and returned to her own car. Taking a moment to observe the face of his neighbor’s house, he considered the coexistence of individuals, ignorant of their part in the Tumor, whose lives looked deceptively similar to his own. She even had the same bay window.

Berner stared. This woman had the admirable quality of imminent self-remission – she did not have to continue living as a cancerous cell for much longer. Indeed, she couldn’t participate, at least not without strenuous effort. His own efforts felt false in comparison, like he was lying about something. He cursed his vitality.

The sudden feeling of solidarity with this woman gave him pause in closing off the hole. Perhaps his décor would be complimented by a touch of yellow amid the green. It was a regal combination, he decided. Anyway, he might want to use that pocket square one day. He left the curtain hole unpatched. In the living room, he carefully ran a lint roller over his suit, selected a Vivaldi to settle into for the afternoon, closed his eyes and contemplated the scene he had just witnessed. He pictured his fragile neighbor, framed with dying yellow flora, flanked by her oblivious youthful companion. It reminded him of Botticelli’s Venus being blown by the Winds, riding on a shell made of aluminum with tennis balls on the bottom for traction. A far more apt image of perfection, he thought, human or divine. How many millennia, and thousands of religions, had attempted to depict a personified model of the ne plus ultra, and here it had been, in his front yard. For how far off the mark the Greeks and Romans were, it seemed they had come the closest. He thought of the Garden of Eden. How could God have been surprised? If there were a thousand Gardens of Eden, each with its own human microcosm, an Adam and Eve, a Harold and Bonnie, a Jerry and Mark, an Alice and Sabine– none would have been able to avoid being cast into oblivion. Exploitation was the most basic of human instincts. Freud almost had it, but sexualized it too much. Berner fell asleep to Vivaldi’s caresses and Freud’s reprimands, and dreamt that he was naked but for a fig leaf over his genitals, and carved from marble – a work of art. He was walking through a jungle, and came across a stately throne underneath the canopy, its ornateness pornographic in comparison with its surroundings. In it sat a proud looking woman, also naked, but a contrast to his smooth complexion; she was covered in cavernous wrinkles. He fell to his knees before her and crawled closer, close enough to kiss her feet, close enough to fall into the caverns…

*****

Today the delivery service was scheduled to drop off his weekly groceries. He had fashioned a drop box in the wall next to the bay window, through which deliveries could be sent without Berner ever having to see the delivery person. Berner, fastening his suit jacket and nestling his pocket square into its position, put on his Duke Ellington and selected a well-worn book from his shelf. He opened the book to somewhere midway through. Berner never liked to start reading a book from the beginning, and there were some books on his shelf of which Berner knew only the climax and declining action, preferring to deduce for himself the initial plot setup.

“And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing…”

Berner was frustrated to find himself unable to retain the words on the page, feeling his attention compelled away from the book and toward the bay window. His eyes strayed again to the chewed curtain hole and he found himself crouching by the window, his book dog-eared on the chair. She was sitting at a table in front of the bay window, laboriously eating breakfast. Even from a distance he could see the valiant effort she was devoting to her food. She brought each spoonful of semi-solid beige substance imperially to her mouth, her hand shaking noticeably even at a distance, occasionally dribbling down her front and wiping it away, dignified, with a linen napkin. He smiled at this and stood up to grab a pillow on which to more comfortably sit.

There was a tap at the window. Berner froze. His only direct exposure to the Tumor in years and already it was trying to infiltrate his home and chastise him! He stood still, waiting for the stranger to go away. The drop box by the window slid open toward him, bearing three full bags of frozen dinners. He stared. As he approached to retrieve his groceries, the outsider tapped on the glass again. He slammed the drop box shut loudly and took the bags to the Igloo to deposit his meals.

*****

To the individual who delivers my groceries,

Due to an unfortunate malady of the skin I am unable to open my curtains even a crack, for fear of exposing myself to direct sunlight. What you may have seen yesterday was in fact a dangerous encounter, resulting from my having stumbled and pulled on the curtains to prevent myself from falling; in my clumsiness I accidentally tore a hole in the curtain edge, a lapse for which I am currently paying dearly with unspeakable pain.

I am writing now to clarify my seemingly poor manners and assure you that civility does, in fact, dwell here. I wonder also, do you deliver to any other residences on this block? I hate to think that you venture out here solely on my behalf.

I hope this letter finds you well, and invite you to offer your response at your delivery next week, orally and in person, through the window (curtains closed of course). I look forward to our continued correspondence.

Kind regards,

L. Berner

           Thrilled at having written the first half of a conversation with another human being since his mother’s 75th birthday some years ago, Berner deposited the letter into the drop box and went back to his records to wait out the week. He was glad to have ample time before the conversation continued, preferring to limit his exposure to the carcinogenic public as much as his curiosity would permit.

           Berner relished his interactions with his neighbor. He had taken to looking in at her only at night, to prevent any more disturbances by those who may have seen him. This did not bother him, as the lights from inside offered a charming silhouette of her and her home in the surrounding dark. She graciously conducted most of her life, it seemed, at the table right in front of her bay window – he watched as she ate, read, wrote, took phone calls, or gazed, as he did, into the night. Everything she did was with such graceful acceptance not only of her own mortality but the absurdity that anyone should believe that life ends in anything but decay; her defiant transferal of forkfuls to her dying mouth, willing her body to make the choice – convert the food into energy to keep living or else wedge the food into her windpipe and suffocate her – Berner was moved.

           He wanted to see how she talked. Did she gesticulate? Did she make eye contact, or grimace when others spoke? Was her voice politely indifferent or overtly contemptuous? He knew what she must be thinking when others addressed her, for he had the same thoughts. He wanted to see the look on all of their faces when they realized how inferior to her they were.

           The week transpired and Berner prepared himself the following Monday to entertain his guest. Bathed in a cloud of 20-year-old Gucci cologne he sat by the curtain hole, having pried the window open hours prior to the delivery time to avoid gagging at the face-to-face contact. Gravel crunched beneath tires, and footsteps approached the drop box. He could hear the hesitation before stuffing the bags in. After a moment, frozen dinners in hand, he heard a tap on the window.

*****

“Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic?... Maybe you’re playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience…”

*****

           Berner’s suspicions were confirmed during the unremarkable conversation that followed; his neighbor, whose name was Cathy Tottenham, was indeed another recipient of the meal delivery service he patronized. The name was perfect – aristocratic. He wrote it down, and felt the letters drip from his pen like molten gold. He could almost hear it in her voice – You may call me Cathy. He needed to hear it, and for the rest of the world to hear it too, for it seemed a crime for anyone to go on in ignorance. This was his miracle cure – for his own disdain, yes, but also for the whole of humankind. This is what they should be emulating, this is what would save them from themselves. Cathy Tottenham, benign and unassuming, yet the first truly good thing put forth in recent human memory. Over the next several hours he combed his house for loose papers, stacked them neatly on the banquet table, and wrote her name at the top of each one. He dug out his phone book, and added the names and mailing addresses of the city’s prominent service providers: chiropractors, milkmen, moving companies, plumbers, windowpane sellers, journalists, pool installation companies, realtors, police, government officials. Beneath these, he set forth his predicament:

           Dear Mr. _____

I would like to request a formal consultation with your office/an initial prospective delivery be made/to schedule an appointment with one of your representatives at two o’clock tomorrow afternoon, at my home address of 54 Adder St. Due to my declining health I am currently bedridden, and must therefore insist on house-calls – I am prepared to incur any additional transportation fees as well as any other compensation you or your representative may require. Thank you very much for your prompt service – I am confident that my patronage is well-placed!

Kind regards,

Ms. C. Tottenham

           Berner creased each of the papers in a meticulous tri-fold, sealed and stamped the envelopes, and sent them through the drop box. He was breathless.

           He sat in the chair by his Crosley all night, staring at the curtain hole but not through it this time. He awoke to the sound of a scratching record needle at the end of its track and an unfamiliar din of voices from outside. Anxiously he approached the curtain hole. Hundreds of uniformed service people, professionals in suit and tie, people wearing hazmat suits, and a local news reporter and cameraman all stood outside his window – a worthy crowd! He heard the faint sound of an ambulance’s siren, and registered with mild interest that perhaps someone had been trampled in the chaos. How easily he had dictated their lives! They, who had no idea of his existence let alone their own doomed metastasis. How predictable they were! What had these oncologists been doing all these years, when cancerous cells could simply be willed into one place with a polite written invitation? Here they were, an amassed target, about to come face-to-face with their curative biopsy: Ms. Tottenham. She was the radiation treatment humanity needed, and he had given it to them.

           Berner opened his eyes. The green- and yellow-tinted living room was muted in the darkness, but was permeated by a foreign red. The light penetrated loudly through the curtain hole, and the sound of the siren played in sharper focus. He looked through the hole…

His tears gleamed in the ambulance’s flashing red lights. He watched the EMTs role a gurney into the vehicle, slowly, without urgency, a sheet pulled over the passenger’s face, apparently not realizing the significance of their vessel. He needed them to know. Berner pushed his Crosley in front of the bay window, opened the door, and prepared to wade into the sea of malignant tissue. For her.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1286

Monday, November 4, 2019

 Tailgaters are one of my driving pet peeves. I have many. I was accosted by one this morning while driving home from the airport at 4:15 AM after dropping off family. I have been rear ended twice so I'm very sensitive to cars that follow too closely. When I couldn't see the headlights in my rear view mirror I took my foot off the accelerator to allow my car to slow down gradually to the speed limit since we were going a little faster than that. The driver seemed to get the message and backed off a little. Once I started to speed up, it was back way too close again. It then pulled out and passed me and the car in front of me on a double yellow line on the airport parkway. I hope that person doesn't wind up causing an accident in their hurry to get where they're going.

 Conan the Barbarian #10 - Jason Aaron (writer) Mahmud Asrar (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). We find out why Conan is being sacrificed at long last. A wicked witch and her hell spawned offspring have finally done the Cimmerian in. I hope they don't go with zombie barbarian after this.

 Ironheart #11 - Eve L. Ewing (writer) Luciano Vecchio (art) Geoffo (layouts) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This isn't the first time a close family member of a super hero turns out to be a super villain. Miles and his uncle Aaron come to mind. It's till a good shocking plot device though and the last page will make you gasp.

 Invisible Woman #4 - Mark Waid (writer) Mattia De Iulis (art) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This is an interesting take on Susan Richards but it could easily have been a Black Widow story. This will only have any impact on me as a fan if there are references of her past spying in other stories that Sue is in. The penultimate issue ends with Sue in deep doo-doo and a plane load of children about to be blown to smithereens. The last issue should be cool.

 DCeased #6 - Tom Taylor (writer) Trevor Hairsine with Neil Edwards (pencils) Stefano Gaudiano (inks) Rain Beredo (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Why didn't I listen to my little voice and pass on reading this mini? The zombies win. The end.

 Runaways #26 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Andre Genolet (art) Dee Cunniffe (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Doc Justice becomes the team's benefactor while they figure out where they're going to live. They had to leave their old hideout due to nearby construction. I like that the team is going into action next issue but I don't trust the Doc. He's too good to be true.

 Batman Annual #4 - Tom King (writer) Jorge Fornes (art pages 1-29, 38) Mike Norton (art pages 30-37) Dave Stewart (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). This is basically poorly illustrated daily entries from Alfred's diary of cases that Batman takes on. The point is to show what a busy boy Batman is. I can suspend belief as well as the next Bat fan but chasing a bank robber across the roofs of buildings on horseback defies logic. That was the first case. Then Batman slays some dragons the next day. Dragons. I almost stopped reading. Fortunately, the later cases were more interesting. Overall however, I would give this a pass unless you're a Batman completist.

 Red Goblin: Red Death #1 - Just in time for Halloween, this $4.99 US Norman Osborn and Carnage symbiote mash-up villain will make your blood run cold with all the blood running on the pages. There are three stories here all lettered by VC's Joe Sabino.

 "Great Responsibility" by Rob Fee (writer) and Pete Woods (art) has Norman failing to stop Carnage from going on a killing spree.

 "Big Mouth" by Sean Ryan (writer) and Pete Woods (art) has Norman bumping into an old college buddy and paying him back for some old slight.

 "The Wayside Darkness" by Patrick Gleason (writer) Ray Anthony-Height (pencils) Marc Deering (inks) Dono Sanchez-Almara with Protobunker (colours) has young Normie Osborn being groomed to be a murderous maniac by his grandfather. I forgot that little Normie was infected by the Carnage symbiote too.

 I keep reading Carnage stories hoping to find some redeeming quality to the character and most of them don't present any. That's why I'm not a Carnage fan.

 The Last God #1 - Phillip Kennedy Johnson (writer) Riccardo Federici (art) Sunny Gho (colours) Tom Napolitano (letters). Discover a whole new fantasy world in this richly illustrated comic book from DC's Black Label. It's got a Game of Thrones feel but with a bigger element of Sword and Sorcery. The art is gorgeous.

 Excalibur #1 - Tini Howard (writer) Marcus To (art) Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). There's a lot going on in this reboot but I do like that it's still centered around Captain Britain. Things start with Morgan Le Fay and a new gate from Krakoa to her Otherworld realm. Brian and Betsy Braddock's connection to Otherworld plays a significant part in this story. I was wondering why Betsy didn't want people to call her Psylocke anymore and we find out on the last page.

 Basketful of Heads #1 - Joe Hill (writer) Leomacs (art) Dave Stewart (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). Most of this debut isn't as gory and creepy as the cover suggests but I have a feeling that it will be eventually. The first page has someone walking around with a basket with at least two talking heads and I don't mean the rock group. Then we cut to 1983 and meet Liam and June, two young lovers in Maine. Throw in four escaped convicts and an 8th Century Viking axe and you've got me sucked into this story. I really liked the writing because it connected me to all the characters in the story. I want to find out what the deal is with the heads.

 Savage Avengers Annual #1 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Ron Garney (art) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). We find Conan in South America as he wanders north and runs afoul of some human traffickers. One victim curses her captors and that alerts Daimon Hellstrom. The barbarian and the Son of Satan meet while rescuing the women at a slave auction and are joined by the Black Widow. Conan's got a crush on Nat now. I love these Conan adventures in the modern world and I hope the Cimmerian makes it all the way into Canada.

 Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #13 - Tom Taylor (writer) Ken Lashley, Todd Nauck, Ig Guara & Dike Ruan (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). "You Say You Want a Revolution" stonged me but it didn't stop me from reading this fun issue. Spidey teams up with the Fantastic Four to revisit Under York, the city beneath NYC ruled by an evil dictator. The dictator's daughter, who opposes his rule, helps to overthrow him. I'm glad that threat is gone now.

 The Superior Spider-Man #12 - Christos Gage (writer) Mike Hawthorne (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). After making a deal with Mephisto last issue Otto returns as the cold-hearted Doctor Octopus to battle the eight-armed Norman Osborn from another dimension. I thought this title has been superior to The Amazing Spider-Man recently and I am sad to see that this will be the last issue. I hope that's it's for now and not forever.

 Contagion #5 - Ed Brisson (writer) Adam Gorham (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I read this whole thing because there are super heroes in it that I like. Fighting zombies isn't very interesting and the way the heroes defeated the villain was pure crazy comic book made up stuff and that's what I read comic books for.

 Harleen #2 - Stjepan Sejic (writer & artist) Gabriela Downie (letters). We get a bonus origin story of Two-Face in this issue. The budding romance between Doctor Harleen Frances Quinzel and the Joker is unfolding slowly and naturally in this insightful origin story of Harley Quinn. This character has evolved so much in the hands of Stjepan Sejic from her first appearance in Batman Adventures #12, an all ages comic book, by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. What surprises me is that I was made to feel sympathy for the Joker, a villain who I find very hard to like. I can't wait to see the transformation of Doctor Quinzel into Harley Quinn in next issue's conclusion.

 Silver Surfer Black #5 - Donny Cates (writer) Tradd Moore (art) Dave Stewart (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Wow, this 5-issue cosmic awakening is mind-blowingly epic. The Silver Surfer makes the ultimate sacrifice in his battle with Knull, God of Darkness. How Norrin Radd emerges from this fight makes for a major change to this iconic hero. My fervent wish is for this to lead to a new regular series written by Donny Cates. Artist Tradd Moore's close collaboration with this story is obvious in how well his images coalesced with the captions in each panel. I loved all the different ways that he drew the Silver Surfer. I was in awe just flipping through the pages marvelling at the colours and images. You will see that Silver Surfer Black is the perfect title for this story. Buy it when it comes out in book form if you didn't get this mini.