#crow bogeyman

[cornkernelle]

Since I've got an early morning post scheduled tomorrow, let's take a turn and show off something a little different before I run off to bed.

Here are my Welcome Home OCs!

Oscar Gogh and Crow Bogeyman are characters I made fresh into the fandom- and with the new upcoming return of the website, I feel the need to get back into the story and fandom again. Though, this time, at my own pace. God forbid I burn the candle again and need a complete hiatus from the series once more.

I'll share more about these two some other time- as I have a couple of posts planned. look forward to that!

[randybutternubber]

Thoughts on Little Nightmares Monster aus? (Alternate universes where one or more characters are mythological/folkloric monsters) (Not where the characters turn into Little Nightmares monsters thats something different) (Asking because I read a fanfic with Siren Six and now I'm hyperfixating)

I like them a lot. A lot of ln characters have roots in folklore/share key themes with mythological creatures, like the teacher being very similar to the yokai Rokurokubi. She’s not the only one too!

The granny shares some similarities with Ginny Greenteeth, grindlylows, and peg prowlers. She also is somewhat similar to baba yaga

The north wind is likely inspired from several folk tales and mythical creatures like The North Wind from old stories, venti from ancient Roman or Greek stories, Nachtkrapp which is a really fucked up crow bogeyman, valravn to a lesser extent, and general bogeyman stuff. Its story itself is super similar to the format of the north wind and the sun, in which the sun, or in this case the ferryman, prevails and wins a bet with the north wind by using deception/persuasion instead of brute force.

There are a ton of other ones but my brain is kind of mushy rn, I might write a follow up later.

[quasi-normalcy]

One thing that Adams does not lie about, it seems, is his love of Israel. Of course, it’s not unknown for New York politicians to work up an expedient enthusiasm for the Jewish state. But Adams seemed genuine when he said he planned to retire in Israel. Asked where, he said “the Golan Heights” (which, to be sure, is actually Syrian territory occupied by Israel). All the various strands of Adams’s political personality—his Zionism, his pro-cop stance, and his habit of lying—came together this week when he became the public face of the nationwide campus crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism. To be sure, this crackdown is supported by a dismayingly wide bipartisan consensus, headed by President Joe Biden. But Biden reserved his major pro-crackdown sentiment for a speech of less than four minutes, shameful but mercifully brief. By contrast, Adams has been rushing into the limelight to make arguments on behalf of a large sweep of Columbia University on Tuesday that led to more than 300 arrests. The campus crackdown, at both Columbia and schools across the nation, is indefensible. But when you are defending the indefensible, you need a spokesman like Adams, as prolific an inventor of fables as Scheherazade. At a press conference on Wednesday, Adams offered this strange rationale for the crackdown: “There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I’m not going to wait until it’s done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it. This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children, and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the City of New York.” This is a bizarre justification for a police action in a nation where free expression is constitutionally protected. After all, there is nothing illegal about “radicalizing” students, who are not, in any case, children. Adams is openly confessing to violating the First Amendment. The phrase “professionals” was much used by Adams and his administration, as was the even more nakedly authoritarian “outside agitators.” Even as he talked of “outside agitators” on Tuesday, Adams acknowledged that the concept had a disreputable past. The “outside agitator” trope was much used by racists in the Jim Crow South as a way to demonize the civil rights movement. It is, as Columbia historian Mae Ngai noted, a “bogeyman narrative.” But the toxic history of the phrase didn’t stop Adams from using it.

[heart-shaped-pupa]

hey wait did he seriously name the "revenge for settler colonialism" bogeyman JIM CROW

[gloryofdawn]

So like

Does anyone else think about the parallels between Dalinar and Mayalaran? Like a lot?

Because good God, I sure do.

The "You cannot have my pain" and "You cannot have my sacrifice" scenes almost run one to one against each other, honestly.

In each, the focus character is, until the most critical moment, at the mercy of an unjust ruler -- Odium for Dalinar, and arguably the entire upper echelon of Lasting Integrity for Maya. This ruler seeks to use the character to achieve their victory. Dalinar will be Odium's champion, Maya will be the tool that keeps any more Honorspren from leaving Lasting Integrity to become a deadeye (from their point of view, anyways). Amusingly, each scene also has one of the Kholin brothers watching on helplessly, though I don't know that the identity of the observing characters necessarily bears much literary weight. Anyways, the rulers are all but crowing their victory when the unthinkable happens. Dalinar refuses to reject the responsibility and guilt of his war crimes. A deadeye speaks. You cannot have my pain. You cannot have my sacrifice. I killed my wife. I chose my own fate. The balance of power immediately changes, with Dalinar spearheading a spanking so hard that Taravangian is probably feeling the aftereffects and Mayalaran causing a completely upset in the trial that doesn't just see Adolin victorious, but fucking unseats the Honorspren hierarchy.

We haven't seen much else of Maya, obviously, but I'm very curious and very excited to see how far these parallels go. Will the millennia spent as a deadeye prove similar to the experience of having memories suppressed by Cultivation? Will Maya and Adolin bring about a revival of the deadeyes like Dalinar and the Stormfather revived the Knights Radiant? What's Maya's place in Cultivationspren society, and will her time as a deadeye have her treated similarly to the bogeyman Dalinar was regarded as before he got his shit together? There are so many possibilities that I'm concerned that they won't fit in KoWT. I'm sure Sanderson has a plan and is going to treat this as the important plotline it obviously is, but Maya has rocketed up to like my second or third favorite character (partially because Dalinar is my favorite and these parallels are phenomenal) and I need this.

[tarushipping]

An updated reference. The improvement is incredible.

Taru “Dreameater” (One Piece selfinsert OC)

Real Name: Reiya Redstart Aliases: Dreameater, Summer Passport, Ironwatch, Inquisitor Tamuran, etc. Bounty: - “Dreameater” B110,000,000 Wanted Alive (no photo) (pre-timeskip) - “Dreameater” B320,000,000 Wanted Dead or Alive (photo, includes several aliases) (After Dressrosa)

Affiliation: Heart Pirates (unofficially), Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance

Relations: - Trafalgar D Water Law (partner in crime/romantic) - Heart Pirates (found family) - Smoker (repeat jailer/childhood friend) - Brook (close friend)

Secretive | Warm | Careful | Quick Thinking | Daydreamer

Taru is an underground information broker that operates under several aliases, her most notorious being “Dreameater”. So little information on her was available prior to the incident on Dressrosa that many believed her to be a sort of bogeyman. Now, however, she’s been credited for orchestrating several large events, earning her a very large bounty and many enemies.

Unknown to the public, Taru’s true name is Reiya Redstart, daughter of Marine Vice Admiral Hubert Redstart and sister to Rear Admiral Santi Redstart. There was an incident in Taru’s childhood where she was kidnapped and held for ransom by the Black Skull Pirates and the time spent with them inspired her to later defect from the Marines as an adult. She’s been secretly hunted by the Navy ever since.

(abilities under the cut)

Skills: - Has eaten the Haunt Haunt Devil Fruit - Has high Observation haki - Is a formidable underground information broker. Has a myriad of connections and secrets pertaining to prominent figures across the seas. - Information network includes a small flock of crows that act as couriers between agents and herself. They’re also transport if needed.

Haunt-Haunt Fruit This fruit gives the ability to physically enter and manipulate a person’s subconscious. Due to the nature of it, little is known about its full capability. Notable drawbacks are being unable to Haunt individuals with high willpower or Armament haki, and being “knocked out” of someone by a large enough shock.

Haunt - Taru can phase into someone’s subconscious and remain there undetected. While Haunting, she can sense everything the target is sensing.

Ghost Sighting - While Haunting, she can cause the target to see and interact with an illusion conjured from their subconscious. Only work on a small scale.

Dead Sleep - If Taru or anything on the user’s person (such as her scythe) phases through a target, their consciousness can be turned off and they fall asleep. Effectiveness depends on target’s willpower.

Dreamscape - When a target is sleeping, the she can Haunt them and then enter their dreams. Here, she can look through their memories and conjure up any images or sensations from these for the target.

Past Ghosts - Taru can bring up the target’s memories with crystal clear accuracy, often revealing details that the target themselves can’t fully remember when conscious.

Faded Memories She can “store” certain information in a person’s subconscious. The individual themselves may not be aware of the information, but with time, certain memories can seem real and be actively recalled. This can plant false memories and “sleeper agents”.

Using this same method, she can also enter her own subconscious while asleep but can only control a small portion of it. It normally takes the shape of a haunted house and inside she stores and recollects information that she wouldn’t regularly be able to recall while conscious. 

[thevaudevilledemon]

1001 Comics Project

This is just gonna be a post that I keep making sporadic edits to to update my progress of the 1001 Comics project I'm working on, which is my attempt to read every comic in the book "1001 Comics you must read before you die".

I have over a thousand comics to read and I've not even scratched the surface.

PROGRESS

Mickey Mouse Meets the Air Pirates Funnies

Spy vs Spy

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

300

The Adventures of Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet

The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152

Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography

Maus

Donald Duck and the Gilded Man

Donald Duck: A Christmas for Shacktown

Garfield

American Born Chinese

Laika

MAD

Squeak the Mouse

The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald

Asterix the Gladiator

Lucky Luke: Tortillas for the Daltons

Popeye

Little Nemo in Slumberland

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend

Fritz the Cat

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

Asterix in Britain

XIII: The Day of the Black Sun

The Fox and the Crow

The Yellow Kid

Max & Moritz

Mickey Mouse

Buck Rogers

Persepolis

Stuff and Nonsense

Uzumaki

Tales From the Crypt

Bogeyman Comics

The Tomb of Dracula

[sublimeobservationarcade]

The Real America Is A Moral Maelstrom

Rich people in the United States tell poor people, especially poor black people, that their poverty is their own fault. The American ethos celebrates the self-made man. The great American delusion is that every individual has the opportunity to make something of themselves. To achieve greatness by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. That this analogy represents something physically impossible and that it was originally coined as a joke is, perhaps, more telling about America than anything else. Especially as the white folk have rigged the game in their favour a long time back. The real America is a moral maelstrom. President Trump Congratulates Record Breaking Astronaut (NHQ201704240002) by NASA HQ PHOTO is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Roots Of America As Slaver Nation

America was a slaver nation with half the country set up around slavery as the economic model. The rest of the country benefitted from slavery through the banks and the financialization of slavery via bonds. There were some 6 million slaves with an average worth of a $1000 per slave – that was a lot of money back then. Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and the 13th Amendment put an end to chattel slavery in 1865. However, Reconstruction did not serve the black former slaves well, as the South got around it by their Black Codes and peonage slavery. Jim Crow laws would establish apartheid and keep African Americans repressed as second class citizens for a hundred years. It was not until the Civil Rights protest of the 1960’s that these onerous impositions would be lifted. Americans all over from east to west and north to south took advantage of the suppression of African Americans economically. Blacks were banned from buying property on white only housing estates post WW2. The FDR New Deal reflected the racist heart of the nation because the politics of the time demanded it. The Nazis had looked to America as a role model for their apartheid and eugenics policies in the 1930’s.  Indeed, the US would take in some 10, 000 Nazi party members as new migrants immediately after the war for scientific and security purposes. America remains a racist nation and you can see this evidenced in the health and education systems. Segregation still exists in schools and neighbourhoods across the country. Too few black doctors are a direct result of racist policies by the academic medical training institutions. The imbalance in funding levels between white and black schools and campuses is huge. Democracy in America has failed African Americans. This is not a place to look up to on that score. Photo by J SWING on Pexels.com America’s Identity Politics Greedy and exploitative behaviour hides behind identity politics and social issues. Voters are more motivated by emotive stuff like cultural values than just economics. Populist politicians like Trump and the new radical reactionary GOP clothe their campaigns in anti-woke stances on social issues. They champion socially conservative attitudes about LGBTQIA people and things like access to abortion and immigration. Critical Race Theory has been framed as a socially divisive bogeyman and banned in states like Florida. It seems that sensitive white folk do not want to be reminded of their history, slavery, apartheid, and the ongoing economic disparity between whites and African Americans. Better to ban all that bad news getting out to future generations of Americans. Nikki Hayley, one of the leading GOP candidates in the party’s primary race for the presidency cannot bring herself to mention what the Civil War was all about. The GOP want to whitewash American history in the 21C, as they have for a century or more in schools and colleges across the US. Nobody was taught about Wilmington, North Carolina or Tulsa, Oklahoma at school in America. These historical race massacres were conveniently left off the curriculum, it seems. The GOP & Neoliberal Economic Policies The GOP has led the charge via neoliberal economic policies to dismantle the New Deal over the last 30 plus years. Reagan began the removal of anti-trust laws to allow for the fleecing of middle America by big business. Americans get so blinded by distracting cultural issues that they miss the main game. The divide between rich and poor has never been greater in economic terms. Manufacturing jobs were outsourced offshore to make more money for investors and CEOs. Unions were gutted and their influence made redundant. Both sides of politics embraced the neoliberal way forward. Private equity takeovers have seen healthcare and higher education become unaffordable for most Americans. Money managers have taken over the economy and despite global crashes still rule the roost. Central bank bail outs to the tune of $29 trillion have cemented the power of the banks within the economy. Most Americans despise the system but are locked into it by the two party setup. Conservative voters stick with the GOP because of their socially conservative position, even though the GOP is the party of billionaires and big business. Stupid is as stupid does, I suppose. Photo by Aaron Kittredge on Pexels.com Gun Violence Plagues The US Gun violence continues to kill innocent Americans. “For God’s sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept? How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say enough is enough?” asked U.S. President Joe Biden in a nationally televised address in May — days after the deadliest U.S. school shooting incident in nearly a decade. Biden joined the nation in mourning after an 18-year-old gunman wielding a semi-automatic rifle killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. - (https://www.voanews.com/a/us-gun-violence-soars-in-2022/6876785.html) Photo by Clement Eastwood on Pexels.com Fox News Poisoning America With Lies & Mistruths The polarization of pollical views and increasing tribalism means that many people only consume news from within their own bubble. Fox News is a prime example of this. It was recently successfully sued for $700 million dollars for libelous false reporting about the 2020 presidential election. There appear to be no standards of reporting upheld in the American media by any agency overseeing this. Fake news amid the social media platforms is rife. Trump has been fact checked and found to have lied many thousands of times to his followers on social media. A compulsive liar being elected to the presidency has been a nadir for America. If any one thing can be considered emblematic of the decline of the US it must be this. The re-election of Trump would be terminal in its catastrophic ramifications, not only for the US but for the world. President Trump oversaw close to a million Americans die from the Covid-19 pandemic in one of the richest nations on earth. Many of these victims were African Americans poorly served by the racist health system and medical profession. #UNGA President Donald J. Trump by National Archives and Records Administration is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0 The real America is a moral maelstrom because as odious as Donald J Trump is – it is his supporters who define large parts of the country. The toxic nature of racism exploited by the politics of grievance propels conmen like Trump. Trump is primarily motivated by greed and grifts many millions of dollars from his supporters. They are paying his legal bills right now. Trump has been successfully sued for $83 million by E. Jean Carroll, a writer he sexually abused and then defamed. Trump is about to be fined a further $350 million by the New York state for business fraud. In addition, he is subject to multiple criminal indictments for election interference, the January 6th Insurrection, stealing top secret national security documents, and several other matters. His life and career is like a runaway train and right now it is leaving the rails for a date with his diabolical destiny. If Trump is the champion of America’s Christian Nationalists, white supremacists, and generally loathsome folk I hope his messy demise is a salutary lesson for this self-entitled bunch. “The louder they roar, The harder that they fall.” (The Harder They Fall, Song by Koffee) “Many explanations are proposed for the continued rise of Donald Trump, and the steadfastness of his support, even as the outrages and criminal charges pile up. Some of these explanations are powerful. But there is one I have seen mentioned nowhere, which could, I believe, be the most important: Trump is king of the extrinsics. Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in universal rights and equality, and protective of other people and the living world. People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in co-operation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour. Trump exemplifies extrinsic values. From the tower bearing his name in gold letters to his gross overstatements of his wealth; from his endless ranting about “winners” and “losers” to his reported habit of cheating at golf. Trump, perhaps more than any other public figure in recent history, is a walking, talking monument to extrinsic values.” - (George Monbiot, The Guardian, 1 Feb 2024) Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.  ©MidasWord Photo by Elena on Pexels.com Read the full article

[witch-hattery]

"Wage stagnation" is only a problem with constant inflation. If you do the same work, get the same money, and the money keeps the same value, it's fine. It's the deliberate inflation that's a problem.

"end stage capitalism" or "late stage capitalism" is based on the idea that capitalism has been left unchecked, and basically requires you to define capitalism as an all-purpose bogeyman and scapegoat. If you use a less biased definition of capitalism, it's easy to see that capitalism has already been getting dismantled for generations, though the term may make sense as "what happens when there's little to no capitalism left."

None of the the so-called "UBI experiments" actually test a UBI. Instead they give a selected group free money and then crow about the improved quality of life people gained when they were given free money taken from other people.

"Poorly regulated" can be appropriate, if you mean a corporation can sell salmonella tainted cereal nation wide and apparently not even get a slap on the wrist while a little girl trying to sell lemonade gets her family fined into poverty over paperwork.

"Why isn't food and housing a guaranteed right?"

They require the labor of others, which can never be guaranteed without forced labor (i.e. slavery).

"What do you mean I have to tie myself to wage slavery to house myself, etc?"

You don't. You are more than welcome to grow/gather/hunt your own food and build a house using your own materials. In contrast, what you are actually complaining about is that you do not feel it is fair that you must provide sufficient value to others to fulfill your needs and the only way that you perceive being able to do that is through what you describe as "wage slavery".

"The phrase "earn a living" says everything you need to know about end stage capitalism"

Yes, that capitalism believes people should have to earn the fruits of others' labors to fulfill their living needs, opposed to alternatives of taking the fruits of others' labors through force.

INB4: "Then why does my boss take the fruits of my labor?"

They don't. They "earn" it through providing you compensation. If it does not meet your own determined threshold, then you wouldn't continue providing your labor willingly.

[betelgeusing]

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who finds themselves in the position of reading Cr*oked K*ngdom for some reason like me so I’m putting this under a cut but

KAZ BREKKER TELLING THIS 5 YR OLD THAT HE'S THE MONSTER UNDER HER BED AND THAT HE'LL KILL HER PARENTS AND DOGS IF SHE TELLS ANYONE SHE SAW HIM

[lailoken]

"[A theme of sacrifice can] be found in folk traditions relating to the scarecrow as the spirit of the harvest or corn king. In several English counties the scarecrow was known as a mawkin, an old dialect name for a ghost or ghoul. In Yorkshire, Warwickshire and Devon it was called a mummet or mommet meaning a spirit that walks at night. In Old Cornish a bucca can refer to a scarecrow, ghost or goblin and in northern England and Scotland it was known as a tatty-bogle. Tatty means potato and bogle is derived from bogey meaning any evil spirit or malicious faery, hence the bogeyman used to scare naughty children.

In Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor the scarecrow is called a Jackalent or Jack of Lent. This refers to the old and rather curious custom of pelting any stranger visiting the area with sticks and stones. By the 19th century a puppet or scarecrow had replaced a human victim. It was beaten with sticks in a folk ritual to increase the fertility of the fields and ensure there was a good harvest. Originally the mawkin was the name for a bundle of rags on a stick used to clean out bakery ovens. After use it was placed in the fields to symbolically promote the growth of the grain used to bake the bread. When it was windy the rags fluttered in the breeze and were seen to scare off crows and other birds attacking the new crops.

Sometimes in the old days a man desperate for any work was hired to be a human scarecrow and stand all day in the field warding off the birds. Some folklorists trace this custom and indeed the origin of the scarecrow back to human sacrifices in pagan times to protect the crops and livestock from disease and bring a fertile harvest. In this respect it could be a more socially acceptable and civilised substitute for the divine king ritually murdered so his blood fertilised the land.

Dr Jacqueline Simpson of the Folklore Society believes the scarecrow may have originated in the ugly or aggressive effigies once placed in the fields to drive away evil spirits. She has linked them to the puppets in European folk customs that were destroyed in spring fertility rites as symbolic representations of winter and death. After the coming of Christianity, farmers in Brittany in northern France placed a life-sized wooden image of the crucified Jesus in the fields instead of these puppets, as they believed it would produce a good harvest.

Everywhere in folklore there is evidence of the association of scarecrows with the supernatural, ghosts and the spirits of the dead. In North America there was a folk belief that scarecrows came alive on the night of Hallowe'en (October 31st) and roamed the countryside. The popular American author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story based on this belief, which was common knowledge in his home village of Salem, famous for its witch-trials. In the story, which is similar to the Italian fairy tale of Pinocchio, an old witch called Mother Rigby made a scarecrow from a broomstick and used a spell and a tune played on a pipe to bring it alive."

Liber Nox:

A Traditional Witch's Gramarye

Chapter 9: 'Michaelmas'

by Michael Howard

[ask-a-gotham-mortician]

The mixture of hay and dust stirred up Emily's allergies, and she muted a sneeze into the crook of her elbow. Sniffling, her nose caught a whiff of the sharp, acrid odor of the chemicals, and her stomach twisted inside of her.

The door was opened, and the small woman peered up at the looming, spindly shadow with her pale blue eyes reflecting trepidation and something akin to awe. To her, it felt like standing in the presence of a real life bogeyman— someone seldomly seen in person, usually spoken about only in hushed whispers.

She had seen him in passing once before, but this time was different. Emily now understood who he was and a modicum of what he was capable of, and she now stood on the threshold of his territory.

Standing perfectly still but inwardly shaking like a leaf in the wind, she pondered the best way to properly address the figure in front of her. Any words that could be misconstrued as disrespectful or ill-intentioned could spell the end for her.

The mortician cleared her throat quietly and steeled her nerves before her lips parted to allow her soft voice to escape.

"Dr. Crane? I've kept my word and brought the corn for your crows."

Sensing the distrust in his deep red eyes, Emily slowly lowered the burlap sack from its place over her shoulder and onto the ground between them, opening it enough so that the ears of autumnal hued corn were visible in the moonlight.

There was a note on the mortician's desk. It said:

I found a place where we can meet. 38 Vincent St, Narrows. Come alone. I will be there. It's a safe place, no one will find us there.

The note was not signed, but on it lay a straw and a crow's feather.

A chill ran up Emily's spine at the sight of the unexpected note on her desk. The presence of this little sheet of paper meant that there was a hole somewhere in her defenses. Some window or door left unlocked long enough for someone to have crept in, unheard, unseen— unnoticed.

Upon reading the note, she noticed the calling card typically left behind by the Scarecrow, as she'd remembered reading in the newspaper he had typically left a strand of straw as a deliberate signal of his presence. The crow's feather was another obvious sign, like an omen.

A sense of dread crept into her stomach, feeling like ice water laying heavy in the bottom of her gut. The person who requested their meeting was dangerous, well known for his biological crimes. He has ended many lives and scarred many survivors, some mentally and some physically. Despite all of this, he had every opportunity to cause her harm, and he hadn't. This caused a nagging curiosity to join and intermingle with the dread. Why?

For now, the young woman swallowed her fear and threw on her black trenchcoat and boots, lacing them up with trembling fingers and fumbling with the buttons on her jacket. She had promised him corn for his crows, and she was a lady of her word.

Fetching the large burlap sack from her pantry, filled with several dozen ears of dried rainbow corn, she hoisted the bag over her shoulder, tucking a spare scalpel into her inner coat pocket and locking the door behind her before leaving her sanctuary and making her way to the requested meetup place.

The drive to the address written on the note was a short one, and Emily's eyes widened, her pulse quickening with anxiety, as she pulled up and parked her hearse next to an old, abandoned barn. It looked desolate, derelict, foreboding.

Exiting her vehicle, she treaded carefully toward the neglected, disused farm shed, sack of corn slung against her back. As she approached the rotting wood, she gave it three raps with her knuckles, heart pounding in her chest as she waited for a response from whatever may lie waiting within.

[derangedrhythms]

Do you have any quotes about being resentful towards God?

"...I hate You, God, I hate You as though You existed."

— Graham Greene, from 'The End of the Affair'

"Blame it on God perhaps? / He of the first opening / that pushed us all into our first mistakes?"

— Anne Sexton, The Awful Rowing Toward God; from 'The Earth Falls Down'

"And I said, / "To hell with God!"

— Anne Sexton, Words for Dr. Y.; from 'Letters to Dr. Y.'

"And, mad, he called his curses upon God,"

— Dylan Thomas, from The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: The New Centenary Edition; from ‘Within his head revolved a little world'

"And out there came ten thousand ghosts / All in their rotten bodies / Crying, You will never know / What a cruel bastard God is"

— Ted Hughes, Crow; from 'Song for a Phallus'

"Why is God so dull, so feeble, so inadequately picturesque? Why does He lack interest, vigor, actuality and resemble us so little? Is there any image less anthropomorphic and more gratuitously remote?"

"I am in a good mood: God is good; I am sullen: God is wicked; I am indifferent: He is neutral. My states confer upon Him corresponding attributes: when I love knowledge, He is omniscient, and when I worship power, omnipotent. When things seem to me to exist, He exists; when they seem illusory, He evaporates. A thousand arguments sustain Him, and a thousand destroy; if my enthusiasms animate Him, my sulks smother Him. We cannot form a more variable image: we fear Him as a monster and crush him like a worm; we idolize Him: He is Being; repel Him: He is Nothingness."

— E. M. Cioran, from 'A Short History of Decay', tr. Richard Howard

"How could anyone love Him? What did you just tell me yourself about the world? Don't you see, everybody hates God now. It's not that God is dead in the twentieth century. It's that everybody hates Him!"

— Anne Rice, from 'Memnoch the Devil'

"The gods never send us this invitation to delight so readily or so strongly as when they are preparing some new agony. We are their bubbles; they blow us big before they prick us."

"I say the gods deal very unrightly with us. For they will neither (which would be best of all) go away and leave us to live our own short days to ourselves, nor will they show themselves openly and tell us what they would have us do. For that too would be endurable. But to hint and hover, to draw near us in dreams and oracles, or in a waking vision that vanishes as soon as seen, to be dead silent when we question them and then glide back and whisper (words we cannot understand) in our ears when we most wish to be free of them, and to show to one what they hide from another; what is all this but cat-and-mouse play, blindman’s buff, and mere jugglery?"

"Now mark yet again the cruelty of the gods. There is no escape from them into sleep or madness, for they can pursue you into them with dreams. Indeed you are then most at their mercy. The nearest thing we have to a defence against them (but there is no real defence) is to be very wide awake and sober and hard at work, to hear no music, never to look at earth or sky, and (above all) to love no one."

"The gods are cleverer than we and can always think of some vileness it never entered our heads to fear."

— C. S. Lewis, from ‘Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold’

"…the accusing, never-satisfied gods who surround me like a crown of thorns."

— Sylvia Plath, from 'The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath'

"O ruthless Gods, too well you did my will!"

"Those cruel Gods for whom it is but play / To lead a feeble woman's heart astray."

— Jean Racine, from 'Phaedra, tr. Richard Wilbur

"Menacing gods. I feel outcast on a cold star…"

— Sylvia Plath, from 'The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath'

“You have deceived me, Lord,” he cried out in agony. “You are always crafty, always merciless; you do not pity mankind.”

“I sneered at God, called Him a bogeyman and scarecrow able to do nothing more than frighten away brainless sparrows and keep them from pecking in gardens.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis, from ‘Report to Greco’, tr. P. A. Bien

[mmmmalo]

I'm in Dave's intro again for an ask and it's standing out that there's a bunch of shuriken around the blender -- the euphemism "whirling blade pitcher" seems curtailed to apply to Dave, who pitches (throws) shuriken around... or rather, his sylladex does? If we designate the sylladex as a pitcher, the green puppet getting murdered by the blender is another iteration of the "abstration destroys reality" motif, more cats getting killed by (their sublimation into) text. On the other hand, Dave creates the "whirling blade pitcher" euphemism after looking into the reflective surface of the refrigerator and seeing Lil Cal, which bolsters the sense that self-reflection is at play. Plus I'm used to regarding asterisks as a marks of censorship/foul language, so Dave hurling ninja stars around would be a natural follow up to his hurling the "ninja sword" (slur) at a crow... interesting too that Dave is compelled to dodge the stars from his own sylladex?

I finally watched a Pesterquest playthrough recently (youtuber Brodemus, who also helped me through Friendsim) and there was a line (from Dave) about Dave being racially ambiguous in there, so the matter of Dave dodging (self-inflicted) racial slurs and seeing the race-mixed Lil Cal in the mirror (and seeing a GREEN (ie white?) figure destroyed by a BLENDER set to MIX) makes it seem like the miscegenation anxieties in Dave's section are self-directed, like he's aggressively avoiding collision with black signifiers? Which is weird, for a dude who is a rapper. A little late there homie...

That anxiety surfaces again when Tavros talks about making Dave 'soil the laundry enveloping his person' btw, the image of white garments browning applies to Dave's skin also. But the Lil Cal in the mirror is like... maybe it's a nightmare vision of the future or whatever, but it could also scan as an image of the present that Dave is avoiding? Like the writing on John and Rose's walls... I think we once broached the idea that Dave* might be akin to that old Dave Chappelle about the blind black guy (Clayton Bigsby), raised to believe he was white and raised as a white supremacist? Might be coming around to something like that, with the caveat that the audience is likewise lead to believe he's white, since our perception is filtered through Dave's perception (his sunglasses standing in for literal blindness)... or maybe more like if Michael Myers (who is white!) somehow became conscious of the fact that within Halloween he represents a black bogeyman, and the checkered knit of identity induces an existential crisis?

* edit: it was actually Eridan, but even so

[emmys-grimoire]

Lesson 57 analysis + 58 predictions

It's less exciting than anticipated, probably.

tl;dr Summary

We start asleep, but overhearing Satan + Belphegor plotting to prank us. You can choose how to surprise and foil them. They're just here to tell you breakfast is ready. Belphegor finally rewards you with the star of diligence: MC is one star away from completing the exam and earning their sorcerer's license.

Lucifer is eager to make MC a full-fledged sorcerer because he could use them to ward off Solomon's advances, which apparently he's still making. Asmo tells us that Solomon is very picky, and driven, when he's choosing who to pact with.

And he's apparently very adamant about getting Lucifer.

The others note that Mammon and Leviathan are acting unusual, and they clearly are very distracted. We decide to ignore the strangeness for now and answer Barbatos's summons to Hotel Corvo.

And guess who is also being summoned!

We arrive, and Diavolo informs us that there's an evil phantom now haunting the hotel. Not just any ol' phantom, though: a bogeyman.

Apparently they're pretty tough and might have the upperhand against demons. They take the form of what their victims' fear most. They put several hotel guests in the hospital.

We find out that the reason why Mammon and Leviathan are being so weird is because they know they're responsible for the bogeyman being in Hotel Corvo: they went wild with Crowe upgrades and summoned it accidentally, then ordered Crowe to teleport it to Hotel Corvo after it transformed into Lucifer and scared them out of their wits.

Obviously, Lucifer's not happy! Barbatos assigns him to "fix" the problem. The brothers want to leave Mammon and Leviathan to do it on their own, but of course we can't have that.

Diavolo also seems keen on joining, but Barbatos turns on the scary fake smile and Diavolo relents.

Then the others show up! It sounds like it wasn't a planned get-together, but Solomon is eager to make the best of it. He wants to make our quest to banish the bogeyman MC's final trial.

Simeon is initially reluctant, but MC convinces him to join.

And then we're off down a creepy hallway in the hotel. The lesson ends on a cliffhanger as the creature at the end of the hallway suddenly attacks us.

Don't worry, Lucy will save us, probably.

This is the start of the trial of humility.

Analysis

Barbatos's Plan

Probably the most noteworthy thing about this lesson is how clearly Barbatos is setting all this up, even though he has no visibly obvious motivation to do so. He's summoned everyone to the same location under different auspices and he's making sure Diavolo isn't around. We still didn't get any insight on what he and Lucifer talked about, but I think Lucifer's being deliberately steered by him in this direction, too.

Since this doesn't seem to be something he's coordinating with Solomon, it leads me to believe he's either doing something to foil Michael's plan or he's setting up some kind of trap for the guy. For whatever reason, he doesn't want anyone else to catch on just yet.

Simeon's reluctance to stick around and help us is also noteworthy: he probably has Michael plans on the brain, and his intuition is probably trying to warn him. Alas, he can't say no to you.

Also, the BG being a bunch of doors and keys probably means something. Barbatos's room has multiple doors which lead to multiple places, I think: can't remember if they're just portals to different parts of the three realms or different points in time, but if I was a betting gal, I'd put my money on the latter. It doesn't look like his room (it looks like an old hotel), but I wouldn't be surprised if these doors lead to "flashbacks" similar to the ones we ran into back in the fake House of Lamentation.

The Bogeyman and Lucy's fears

It's implied that the bogeyman has powers that may make it difficult for demons in particular to cull. It sounds something an angel might be effective against, though, because Solomon insists Simeon accompany the group just in case "things go south". Though Simeon seems unsure if he can actually be effective against it.

Who do you think is stronger than Simeon, who is an archangel who was once a seraphim? He could just be downplaying his power, too: he's less threatening that way.

The bogeyman also has the ability to take the form of whoever or whatever his victim fears the most: we discover that Mammon and Leviathan fear Lucifer the most when they initially summon it.

This trial is 100% going to involve Lucifer facing what he fears the most. My guesses: it'll be either Father or Michael. They can do the former if MC doesn't necessarily see the same form Lucifer sees (they likely fear something different)... but if whatever form the bogeyman takes is noticeable to everyone observing it, then it's going to be Michael because I don't think the devs are going to give God a tangible form for reasons.

Why Lucifer could fear Michael? Simple: not only was Michael the one capable of bringing him low during the Great Celestial War, but he may know Lucifer better than anyone. All his strengths, but more importantly, all his weaknesses. Lucifer fears being exposed as flawed and imperfect, particularly by those he considers his lessers. It's also not the first time he's expressed something akin to fear re: Michael.

Another possibility is Lilith. He could fear facing her after failed to protect her. That'd be difficult to manage on-screen, though, for obvious reasons. They haven't given Lilith a canon appearance yet and it's in their best interest not to because they've been using MC as the Lilith expy in the Celestial Realm flashbacks.

Whoever or whatever it is, it'll be fun.

Solomon and his pacts

Another thing this lesson did was remind us that Solomon really, really wants a pact with Lucifer. We found out a couple lessons ago that his whole motivation behind forging a pact with Asmo was his interest in Lucifer.

Up until this point, Solomon has been pretty upfront with his desires and usually backs down when they deny his request to make a pact. He asked Belphegor back in Season 1, and he hasn't brought it up again after he was rejected.

This doesn't seem to be the case with Lucifer, though. His rejections have been ignored.

He's being unusually cavalier about this whole situation so maybe he would try to manipulate the current situation to wring a pact out of Lucifer, since he hasn't been deterred yet and something needs to change in order for him to get what he wants.

I don't know. Lucifer might be his blind spot, and something he wants badly enough to step over the line, so to speak. Why he wants Lucifer so bad is another head scratcher, but it could very well be because just because the guy is incredibly powerful.

Or this is just another red herring meant to make us suspicious of Solomon again. I guess we'll see.

Predictions

We have only three lessons left, and they set this lesson up as the lead into the climax, which is going to be later than where it was in season 2. But it can't afford to happen much later. 58 will give us the first half of the climax at least, and I won't be surprised if it wraps it up entirely in one lesson so we can have both 59 and 60 to say our goodbyes. It'll feel pretty rushed otherwise.

Michael's showing up in some capacity. I'm much more willing to bet on a face reveal now than I was at the beginning of the season: we haven't heard anything from him directly since the first flashback -- not even another chat -- and he hasn't even officially introduced himself yet. But we've been hearing all about him this season, and they've made it a point to let us know he's working on something behind the scenes. It feels like most of this season was softening the ground for his arrival, and he'll drop in to get us hyped for the next season.

I think we're headed back to the Celestial Realm, baby!

Luke's not with us at the haunted hotel, so he'll likely remain oblivious about what happened during the Great Celestial War until next season. Simeon's not gonna fall because he'll probably need to be our tour guide, and we have a bunch to explore about his background, too.

I was hoping we'd get some kind of conflict with the Sorcerer's Society as a part of the completion of the exam but I'm not sure if they can fit all that in now. Kind of disappointing: trying to smooth things over with them sounds much more interesting than Mammon + Levi just letting out a literal boogeyman. I don't think they're using their story themes as effectively as they could be. It's just Levi's tech going awry again, like it always does.

How I'll rate this season will depend entirely on what the climax actually turns out to be, but so far I'd rank it higher than season 2 but lower than season 1 because of the re-used tropes. Stop teasing us and just give us meaty conflict already.

[morbidfantasy21]

Boogeymen – by Nicolas Petrimaux

tribute to a french comics called "Croquemitaine" published by Glénat Comics