#during the story's original Apocalypse Event

[forgivenfolly]

me like three days ago: prem probably wouldn't get much out of this expac it's a good thing i didn't choose to play it as him

the expac:

[nimuetheseawitch]

SGA Summer Vacation Recs

So, a few weeks ago, a friend asked for longfic recommendations to read while on vacation, and I did not really realize how many I was recommending at the time. Seemed like a good idea to make a post about it.

Time in a Bottle by astolat, 14K (not originally on my list because it was too short, but it's too perfect for a summer reading list, so I added it), McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.

The Long Dark (series) by @logicgunn, 141K, McShep, Rated G-E but the first is M, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings An astronomical event causes two strangers to crash land on a remote island in the frozen Canadian north. Cue a fluffy slow burn in a survival setting.

Lord John Sheppard Versus Earth by LitGal, 61K, McShep, Rated M, Graphic Depictions of Violence Canon diverged before Jackson found Atlantis. The IOC stepped in and decided to make things more efficient. A gene testing program brought Major John Sheppard into the program earlier, but budget constraints and international treaties have kept Dr. Jackson out of the antarctic. So now John has to find his own team--and his own geek--or he's in danger of being stuck in the mountain forever as a light switch. However, as the universe changes, fate forces some things to return to proper form, and other things… they get wildly out of control. John isn't sure how he came to be Earth's enemy, but he's going to have to deal with the cards he's dealt.

Teamwork by onthewaters, 24K, McShep and others, Rated E, Graphic Depictions of Violence There is an Earth where things have turned out a little differently, and the people who go to Atlantis aren't quite the ones we know. AKA The one where Rodney is a Mountie.

The Doctor and the Sheppard by @hero-in-waiting, 70K, McShep, Rated E They've been in Pegasus for a year before Rodney is finally allowed to go off-world to meet with the mysterious leader of a group of allies against the wraith. The first meeting goes well, sending them down a path none of them could've foreseen, and leaving Rodney with thoughts of the mysterious leader with his bright eyes and dark hair.

The Hard Prayer by Rheanna, 30K, McShep, Rated M One year after the end of the world, John meets another survivor.

In Sickness and in Health by @a-storm-of-roses, 31K, McShep, Rated E "So I told a little lie, just to get you back to Atlantis. It was the only way, so try not to get too mad. I told them we were married.” When John suffers a major, life-changing injury on Earth, Rodney must pretend to be his husband to ensure his return to Atlantis. As he struggles to navigate recovery and accept his new reality, John must also come to terms with his new role as Rodney's husband and the new dynamics in their relationship. A story of healing, recovery, loss, love, and acceptance.

Enigma by sgamadison, McShep, 32K, McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings During an off-world mission, a piece of Ancient technology transports Rodney and John on a one-way trip to a deserted airfield. Working together to get back, it takes a vivid dream to make Rodney realize what's been in front of him all along.

Bridges by bussaiko, 52K, McShep, Rated E Engineer Rodney McKay went to North Carolina's Crystal Coast to help his sister design a series of bridges. He hoped to rebuild his career following a professional disaster; he didn't expect to be drawn into the small community of Athos Island, where he found friendship and perhaps something more with helicopter pilot John Sheppard. But when Rodney tries to learn more about John's past, what he discovers might tear them apart. (non-Stargate AU)

Apocalypse Rising by sian1359, 81K, McShep, Rated M, Graphic Depictions of Violence The Goa'uld are not the only ones who covet Earth.

Zen and the Art of Jumper Maintenance by Indybaggins, 39K, McShep, Rated M The one where Rodney gets sucked in and John… follows. Featuring a quirky John, Rodney in orange robes, crazy Ancient-worship, sheep milking and jumpers that aren't broken but need to be fixed anyway.

Black Helicopters (series) by whizzy, 141K, McShep, Rated T-E but the first is M, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Screw the bet. Rodney was going to prove the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Oh, and incidentally, he might just catch the United States Air Force with their pants around their ankles.

Pegasus Purgatorio by MrsHamill, 127K, McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings It is difficult to write a paradise when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse. It is obviously much easier to find inhabitants for an inferno or even a purgatorio. (Ezra Pound) Yeah, I'd say that about covers it, Ezra. John and Rodney are left behind when Atlantis (and, by extension, Pegasus) is evacuated. While returning to the Milky Way, they decide to bring a few friends along.

What A Wonderful Bunker You Would Make by ocdindeed, 50K, McShep, Rated M Summary in simple words: Rodney is recluse and John has a kid. Summary in not so simple words: Rodney McKay has given up on the world, living a simple life up on a mountain devoid of people. He likes it that way, at least he did until a kid with a full head of dark hair ambled up his dirt driveway and changed his sequestered life forever. (AU - Set during SG1 & Pre-SGA timeline.)

G******, Tramps, and Thieves* (series) by auburn, 372K, McShep and a whole lot more, Rated T-M, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, later fics Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Vala Mal Doran and her partners, renegades Jehan abd-Ba'al and Meredith McKay, hijack the Tau'ri ship Prometheus and leave the Milky Way behind in search of the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis.

*I censored this title due to a common racial slur

[thevulturesquadron]

Hello! 👋 Could you list some of the best comic books that explore the Rogue/ Magneto relationship?

Hey there!!! 👩‍🚀 Oh gosh! With pleasure! I might be a bit rusty because I haven’t gone through older Marvel comic books in a while and also because I am not up to date with the recent years of X-Men comics BUT there are still a couple of issues that are very dear to me when it comes to Rogue & Magneto, so happy to share:

It all started in the year 1981:

1. Uncanny X-Men #269 ; Uncanny X-Men #274 & Uncanny X-Men #275 (1981, Written by Chris Claremont) [The story is pretty self-contained to these 3 issues and it all starts with Rogue realising that her Ms. Marvel powers are gone and Carol Danvers somehow has her own body now. (a very simplified context of what was going on in that era with the X-Men) I absolutely love Rogue in these issues. She has sass and personality, and she still carries a lot of her energy from the 80s.]

2. X -Men Volume 2 (Issues #1 - #3) - (1991, Chris Claremont) [They meet again after the events in the Savage Land, now on opposite sides.]

3. Magneto Rex: Issues #1- #3 - (1999, Joe Pruett) [This miniseries… is a bit weird and needs some context. It’s at a time where Marvel really wanted to have Magneto return to his evil ways and be a villain for the X-Men (regardless if it made sense or not). Not one of my favourites and generally can live without but it’s a ‘next stop’ in their interactions, so adding it to the list.]

4. Then we have X-Men Legacy! ( 2008, Mike Carey) [This one is a chonker, and to make things worse it is connected with other series running at the same time. It has pieces of Rogue and Magneto through the entire run but all in all, the story sees them reunite under the same team in Utopia (starting with Legacy #231). The full run of Legacy can be difficult to follow up on but if you have the time, it’s really worth it. It’s also the first story in YEARS where Rogue is allowed to shine and do her own thing. If you need a more detailed list of what issues are really worth reading, in what order and what is happening in between them let me know and will be happy to write down a breakdown!]

5. Memorable mentions in the main series: There are quite a few tiny bits about them in the comic books but here’s a list of issues that give more context to how they interact and how they feel about each other:

a. Marvel Fanfare #33 - (1982, Chris Claremont. I love Rogue in this one and it’s such a nice example of what a good and powerful duo they can make. Something that is later explored in Legacy as well. b. Legacy #223 (during Rogue’s journey to control her powers) we have a glimpse of how she remembers and sees Magneto’s presence in her life. c. Magneto #10 (2014, Cullen Bunn) - Similarly, a glimpse into Magneto’s mind on how he remembers Rogue and the impact their connection in the Savage Land had on him. d. Mr & Mrs X #6 (2019) - there is a page between Rogue and Magneto where, in all that mess, at least Magneto’s honest feelings for her and his care for her happiness shine through.

And last but not least, Age of Apocalypse. [This is a completely separate timeline that the comic books liked to visit from time to time. In this universe Rogue and Magneto are pretty much in love and married but… it’s a very tragic universe. Original series started in 1995; then it got revisited in 2005 and again in 2015… I think? The series… is far from perfect, there are so many things that can be described as unhinged (dialogue included) but, there is so much love for these two characters and I absolutely recommend it if you are ok with investing some time into reading it, and most of all if you are ready for a real heart break (again and again).]

Hope this helps! Happy to go into more details or put aside a cleaner list if interested! 💜

There are a couple other mentions in the comics so in case I missed something important I will summon one of the gods of endless knowledge when it comes to X-Men to correct or add to the list: @maedelin

[aaronsrpgs]

"Ancient World Fantasy" Reading List

(A little context to start. If you just want book recs, scroll on down to the first image.)

As I’ve been getting into RuneQuest (Wikipedia link), one striking component of the culture and community surrounding the game is that they’re very into the lore of its fictional world, Glorantha. I’m saying this as a comparison to a game like D&D, where the game is spread across tons of settings with no real sense of obligation to keep things in line with earlier editions.

Glorantha’s canon and worldbuilding has been going on since it was published in 1978 without, as far as I can tell, any big reboots. Which means that, unlike D&D, where people are bringing in all kinds of influences and doing direct adaptions of Jane Austen books and whatever, the RuneQuest game remains pretty tightly tied to the original setting. (There have been some exceptions. But not many!)

But since I run games for people who have ADHD or aren’t interested in studying up, I’ve been looking at all kinds of inspiration to drop into the game. Here are 20 novels that are roughly “ancient world” or “Bronze Age” like RuneQuest and deal with people interacting with strange gods, tight communities, and a world without fast overland travel or transferal of information.

I’m presenting them alphabetically by author’s last name.

The Brazen Gambit, Cinnabar Shadows, The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King by Lynn Abbey

I'm sorry for starting this post off with licensed RPG novels, but these are good! And I don't mean "good for licensed RPG novels." I've read tons of them, and most are so bad! But these are actually fun. Good character development in a sword-and-sorcery world. It's also an ecological apocalypse world, with godlike beings oppressing common folks, leading to a lack of technological advancement and knowledge of the past.

The Long Ships by Frans G. Bentsson

Written in the 1940s as a series of novellas, these stories take you on a tour of the Viking-era world, from Europe to the Middle East and beyond. Like a bunch of books on this list, this places them post-Bronze Age, so they're not officially "ancient world." But it gives a big spread of cultures, from the more clan-based Vikings to the bustling metropolises of Turkey. And it doesn't place any of them on any kind of linear advancement scale or whatever other gross way people "rate" cultures.

Tales of Nevèrÿon and Neveryóna by Samuel R. Delany

The master of weird sci-fi and gay historical novels, Chip Delany also wrote a fantasy epic. And it rules! Set on pre-historical(ish) Earth, these books describe the stories that maybe inform the myths we tell today? Dragons and slave revolts! A sort of "What if Game of Thrones was good?" series. Lots of good stuff about how people learn and how understanding expands.

I'm not listing the third book only because it's also a historical look at New York during the AIDS epidemic. It's an amazing book! But it strays from the "ancient world" aesthetic.

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

Another novel expressly set after the Bronze Age (this one starts in the 12th century). BUT it's about Medieval people's interaction with the knowledge they inherited from the past, specifically the myth of Prester John and the works of Herodotus.

I think I keep putting books like this on the list because roleplaying in a fantastical ancient world is not too far off from how Medieval people might have worshipped and referenced works from ancient Rome and non-European places.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James

One of our best living writers! These are fantasy novels expressly set in a fantastical version of ancient/Medieval Africa. The books explore the same events from multiple points of view and are full of cool magic, awesome spirit combat, and a vast number of places and cultures that actively deconstructs most games's portrayal of fantasy Africa as a homogeneous place.

The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

I think Kingsnorth has been outted as a sort of eco-fascist? I totally believe it, so feel free to skip this one. It's a historical novel set in England in 1066, as the Normans invade from France. It's written in a faux Middle English language and focuses on the lower classes and how they try to resist the invasion. A good reminder that "Medieval culture" (and especially the Renaissance as a time that "culture advanced") is often based on certain classes of society, such as rich people and/or men.

Iceland's Bell by Halldór Laxness

Speaking of how class intersects with technological advancement, this book is set in the 18th century, but it focuses on Iceland at a time when it was ruled by Denmark, and the lower classes there were under an enforced poverty. It's a book about how a rich Icelander was trying to recover the stories of his people in order to create a sense of national identity and resistance. But it's also a story about how a destitute man acts like a total weirdo when he's not allowed to fish in his own waters and is cut off from understanding his place in history.

The Raven Tower by Anne Leckie

A big part of RuneQuest is people interacting with and enacting their gods. That's what this book is about! And it's about the strange vertigo that comes to people when they try to interact with the impossible timelines that gods exist on. Very good stuff.

Night's Master and Death's Master by Tanith Lee

Ostensibly set on Earth back when it was flat and demons roamed the world, which is basically RuneQuest. Sort of like a series of hornier, gay bibles? With lots of gender fuckery, fun sex, and cool monsters.

Circe by Madeline Miller

The story of the witch from The Odyssey, told from her point of view. Beautiful prose, tragic and beautiful characters, and a great share of mythical strangeness. Perfect if you want to learn how to run NPCs that are adversaries without being shallowly evil.

Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren

Semi-Medieval again, but low class and vague enough that it could exist throughout ancient history. The daughter of a robber grows up in a tower full of robbers and generally has a wonderful time. Lots of weird monsters live in the woods, and there's a great starcrossed romance with someone from a rival robber gang. Perfect inspiration if you're running some cattle-raiding runs in RuneQuest; this is how to make robbers fun and sympathetic.

Read the book, watch the 1984 Swedish movie (which includes a great comedic scene of full-frontal dudity), and then watch the Studio Ghibli series.

A Stranger in Olondria and The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

Set in a world of pepper farmers and religious fanatics who worship a mysterious inscribed stone, these books do a great job of showing how people might interact with religion, rival cults, and mystery rites. It also portrays literacy and learning to read in places where it's gated behind social gatekeeping. And once again, the prose is beautiful.

The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

The first African novel published in English outside of Africa, The Palm-Wine Drinkard is a funny, hallucinogenic story about getting drunk, stumbling through weird landscapes, and encountering fantastical spirits and people.

Tutuola also wrote My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the inspiration for the famous(?) David Byrne/Brian Eno album. I haven't read it yet, but I'm keeping an eye out!

The Green Pearl by Jack Vance

This is a sequel to Lyonesse, which I haven't read because I love staring in the middle of things. Set around a mythical British Isles when Atlantis was still above the sea and part of the group of islands. Some great wizard shit, warring clans, romance, and a wizard whose name is fucking Shimrod (in case you need more convincing).

Those are my 20 novel recommendations! I'm gonna come back to add some nonfiction, comics, and myth resources for running games in fantastical ancient worlds. You can read SpeedRune, my ancient fantasy game, here.

[stoat-party]

Evaluating Which Details Pose Continuity Issues (yeah, it’s long, sorry)

I’m being relentlessly annoyed by (some) people mad at the show and by (some) people mad at people mad at the show, so let’s clear up where the issues are and aren’t so we’re not just talking over each other here.

Destroying the Strip

Obviously not a retcon. Retcons refer to previously-established events. Some people might have their own problems with it (I definitely saw it cited as evidence of a coordinated attack on New Vegas), but it presents no continuity problems.

2. What exactly is a vial?

I don’t think this changed ghoul lore. They can still go 200+ years without turning, or they can start turning as soon as they get ghoulified. There’s just a new plot element where they can stave off the effects of going feral for awhile if they take this mysterious drug - without the drug, the rules are still the same. The story was NOT clear on this, and it confused me, but if ghouls need drugs to stay sane, Oswald, Dean, Billy, etc. could not exist even if there’s a massive industry in vials of goop that’s never been mentioned before.

3. It took Vault-Tec decades to build all the vaults.

This is something I worried about because there couldn’t have been much time between the boardroom scene and the bombs falling (Janey doesn't age). But I think it makes sense if you assume the vaults were already built and they filled them with experiments afterward. It does leave the problem that some vaults were unfinished but Vault-Tec also dropped the bombs - why would they do that before finishing their vaults? It’s possible that they planned to drop them but got beat to the punch, or any number of other explanations. Clear retcon but not a huge plot hole.

4. House is worse than Caesar all of a sudden?

This one’s a private gripe of mine because House and Sinclair were not originally written to be Actual Sadists Who Hate Humanity. There’s also House’s mastermind prepper attitude toward the apocalypse, which doesn’t indicate that he had a hand in orchestrating it. While the change doesn’t conflict with the text as far as I know, it really changes the flavor of the game, but not as much as:

5. The Fall of Shady Sands

Let’s say that this happened after the first battle of Hoover Dam, so no continuity issues with their ability to win that. (That’s probably why they set it in 2277, so the NCR would have almost four years to recover before NV. As if Caesar wouldn’t have taken half of their land by then, even with his armies crushed, but ok fine he’s going through a divorce, he’s busy right now.)

But are you telling me that a country can lose a massive city containing much of its infrastructure, most of its central government, and ~5% of its population and still be trying to manifest destiny four years later with no mention of it?

Losing the Divide as a travel route almost crippled the NCR in the Mojave for awhile. Now, not only have they lost the Divide and their capital city, but one of their other biggest cities, the Boneyard, is abandoned and inhabited by an apparently-unaffiliated town. (Yeah, Los Angeles is big, but we don’t see any NCR or Followers despite three main characters traveling through it.) Even if there were still people there during New Vegas, how is the NCR still conducting a campaign in the east?

Also, who is Muldover and what’s her position? Why does she have raiders at her disposal? Is that really supposed to be what remains of the government? I get that some of this will be resolved later, but short of complete societal collapse, there’s no explanation.

We don’t see any of this in New Vegas. The president (who was in office in 2277) is still alive. No one mentions losing family in the explosion. Caesar, Ulysses, and House, along with the many other characters who complain about the NCR’s weakness and instability, don’t bring it up. People even mention the politicians in Shady Sands specifically. PEOPLE ARE MAKING JOKES ABOUT WANTING A NUCLEAR WINTER-

Now there’s a saving interpretation going around that “the fall of Shady Sands - 2277” refers to a metaphorical fall, and the explosion was later. I’ll accept this if I have to, but don’t pretend it’s not a strained reading. Every entry on the board is dated. Why would you date an amorphous event and not date the city exploding?

The explosion was nineteen years ago, and it had to be that early because Lucy and Norm don’t remember living there. (Not clear how old they are but probably in their early-mid 20’s.) The earliest you could place the event without it making no sense is late 2282, because with the time skips in DLC, the events of New Vegas are about a year long. Maybe you could put a gap between Lucy returning to the vault and the actual destruction, but not a five-year one. And if it was in 2282, Max would still be a teenager.

There are legitimate concerns here. Between House and the NCR, the show changes a lot about the main conflict of New Vegas. It’s not just side details.

Not telling you how to feel! Just don’t pretend nothing poses any problems and people are crazy for being concerned. I think the vibe right now is to dismiss me as a hater, but I hope you can see I’ve tried to make it all work. Continuity is really important in a multi-decade story, especially to writers.

I will be appeased by a respectful and thought-out New Vegas remake that preserves as much of the original continuity as possible and is also really good and costs $4. Thanks in advance Bethesda.

Edit:

6. Tatoes in the vaults

TATOES IN THE VAULTSSSS? THIS IS MASSIVE DISRESPECT TO THE LORE. EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS DESTROYED. UNFORGIVABLE.

(but yeah there shouldn’t be tatoes in a vault that hasn’t opened)(maybe norm and lucy had seeds in their pockets when they came back, sure)

[shiny-gem-ocs]

Gem worldbuilding notes

Wanna make a Houseki no Kuni oc? Lucky you. I've been compiling notes on the manga's worldbuilding and this might help you if you wanna stay canon-compliant, disregard canon entirely, or even make your own lore!

Creating an OC is all about creativity, so I tried to include my ideas on how to meet canon in the middle too.

Notes are under the cut!

On the world:

After the Earth was destroyed by six comets, it was flooded, and the island where the story takes place is the only place where Gems - one of the three remaining sentient lifeforms on Earth - are born, on a place called Shore of Nascency.

There's very little animals, all which are invertebrate, such as bugs, jellyfish, and snails, the kind the Admirabilis mimic.

Lunarians always come out in the sun, so much that their ships were named Sunspots. Later it's revealed they can come out at night as well.

While on Earth, Lunarians cannot speak.

During all the time the Gems have been alive, maybe there were minor lifeform explosions or extinction events, if you want different animals or plants in your world. Maybe even the gems themselves cultivated or bred them.

Who knows if there are other islands, and what kind of post-apocalypse life is flourishing in them. Admirabilis live on the ocean, they might've been around other islands as well, and could tell stories. Gems might've travelled to other islands. You could ignore canon completely and say new Gems are being born on another island, completely cut off from the society Adamant raised, or that new sentient lifeforms are being born somewhere else in the world. Thought that would be the kinda canon-break that disregards the whole story.

On the Gems' formation:

Gems are born from a combination of microorganisms originating from the sea, that make their way through the cliffside on the Shore of Nascency in the island, in unspecified - but geological - ammounts of time. What makes them alive are those microorganisms, called inclusions. The cliffside is often producing bits and pieces of rocks, and sometimes, it produces "stillborn" gems that fully have humanoid shapes but no inclusions.

Gems don't necessarily have to all be see-through gemmy crystals like Phos, the cliffside spits out any type of naturally-formed rock, geography be damned, as seen by the existence of Lapis Lazuli and Obsidian. Rareness of the mineral doesn't seem to matter either. But given they are formed naturally, the existence of synthetic or organic gemstones are not canon. Think pearls, coral or amber, or think glass, aura quartz and goldstone. On that note, Gem society might lack the technology to make synthetic gems altogether.

I admit I don't really know how to circumvent it without fully ignoring canon, but I do have some thoughts. Maybe for organic gems, the animals or plants that produce said gems died near the cliffside on the Shore of Nascency, and were overcome with inclusions. For sythetic gems, maybe they're an experiment from the people on the Moons - though in canon they say they didn't have that technology. Maybe naturally formed gems were altered by chemical reactions. I don't know, I admit. But a creative fanbase as this one might find an answer.

On the Gems' biology:

The gems are immortal. They can't die of old age, and if they crack, they can be put back together. They're entirely homogenous, their body doesn't have organs, instead functioning as one. Their inclusions hold their memories, which means if they get a body part removed from the whole, they lose the memories in that body part.

Also, fun fact, the Gems don't have teeth! I supoose if you want your Gem to have teeth you can just ask Adamant to sculpt it on them. Maybe they get the idea from him having them.

If a Gem loses a body part, it can be replaced with new material. On that note, Gems can sometimes be born with imperfections such as missing body parts, as shown by Padparadscha.

Due to being able to break, gems with lower hardness must be more careful than gems with higher hardness.

They get their energy to move from the sun, so they lose their energy and sleep when it's dark. And come winter, when there's less sun, they prefer to hybernate.

Honestly, you can still give your gems different body types, it's not gonna hurt anyone. It doesn't stray from canon other than about their physical shape, so you can justify they can be formed with more body mass and still be the bones of humanity.

They all have the same height and same body type - those spindly things, all leg and arms and skinny torso with no boobs. This is explained in canon due to the fact they descend from humanity, specifically their bones, and so were reborn in that skeletal shape.

Sensei smooths them out in a mold, and gives them eyes made of simple rock with part of their gem as the iris, so they can see better.

Gems have feelings and emotions, which can manifest in their bodies if they are too stressed, as cracking and breaking.

Padparadscha shows us that some gems have weaker inclusions that don't take to new materials, therefore you can still make a canon-compliant disabled Gem. In fact, my own OC is one. On that note, Gems do have a concept of mental illness, as they can become mentally ill, so they can probably be born mentally disabled as well.

Gems sometimes have superpowers, which in canon always have to do with the properties and uses of their real life rocks.

On Gem society:

The gems are immortal, but they all have kind of a childlike personality. It's not like they are children, or teenagers, they're just somewhat innocent due to the world they live in - plus the constant state of war. But they can be mature and wise as well, especially older gems like Padparadscha or Yellow Diamond.

Usually only one gem stays in winter patrol duty as the other gems hybernate (usually). When the winter is warmer and has more sun, the gems, even though they are weaker, stay awake and patrol the island as normal.

Everything they have is in what the island produces. They use the plants found in there to make glue that restores cracked gems, to make the powder they wear on themselves to mimic skin, to make paper, clothes, furniture, everything. This means they have crops, agriculture, and animal breeding and handling.

On that note, due to the lack of resources, they have very little material to make anything. For exemple, fabric for clothes, which explains why they all wear the same uniforms, and only change into high fashion during hybernation once a year.

You could say there's eras when they have more material for clothes, if you want your Gems to have different fashion.

They wear a special powder on their bodies to mimic skin and to protect themselves from the elements. It became cultural in their society, with gems considering themselves ugly if they don't wear it. In canon they mimic specifically light skin because they want to look like Adamant.

Cairngorm is a Gem that couldn't care less about powder, so it's not wrong to want to have powderless gems - and even make it the new fashion in different eras of Gem society. On that note, if you want different "skin colors" for your Gems, just say the powder seeds come in variety of colors and shades, and let your Gems experiment with them.

Combining the lack of animals in the world and the fact all Gems are genderless and sexless, they don't really understand sex. They know how animals breed, but have no concept of sexuality. Culturally they have some sense of shame, since they wear clothes and don't like being seen without them, but that's about it.

Gems don't have the cultural act of kissing, but they have the concept of romance, in their own ways.

Okay fellas, as the resident asexual, I admit I have NO IDEA what the smut scene in this fandom is even like. I do like to ship gems, but if you want your gems to have gem sex, I leave that one to you. As for gender, who knows, maybe they can learn what it is from the Admirabilis or the Lunarians, decide they like it, and pick a gender for themselves. Maybe they can add boobs on their chest as a sort of transition. Adamant has never imposed gender on the gems, he will surely be supportive of his transgemder children. I'm not gonna get into Cairngorm or else we'll be here all day. (I don't consider either Cairngorn's gender nor sex scene to be consensual, that's all I'm gonna say on the matter.)

Lastly...

It's frowned upon to not have a designated job in Gem society. Due to the constant state of war, you must be useful. It can get ableist.

Phos was the only gem in canon to have so many parts of them replaced, to the point they became a new type of human and could pray away everyone.

Given that the first point motivated the entire story, and the second was the result of the entire story, I think ignoring canon in this instance indeed means, well, disregarding the whole story. But sometimes we just make OCs to play in the sandbox and that's okay.

[ashleyeveerson]

CANARIES, NIGHT SHIFT AND THE MAGNUS PROTOCOL (tma/tmagp/arg spoilers)

Along with everyone else in the fandom, I'm also going FERAL after these new ep so excuse this RANT (this is my way of coping with the brain worms, enjoy ;).

Statement begins.

So what's special about the RedCanary story?

Well, apart from it being a direct reference to the original Magnus Institute (at least the one in this new universe), it's also incredibly fascinating as a narrative tool.

For those who are unaware of their history, miners used to employ canaries in cages while they worked as safety systems. The bird's complexion made them specially sensible to gas leaks which killed them instantly. When a canary stoped singing in the middle of the shift, the workers knew that toxic gas was leaking and had enough time to get out of the mines alive before it got to them.

Now why is that relavant to us? Well, the theme of canaries in cages inside mines could be easily applied to the og tma characters. All of them were contained in cages (that is the Magnus Institute) and placed close enough to danger (in their case the paranormal) that only they were aware of its existence while the rest of humanity remained ignorant. That is until the events of the apocalypse when the gas metaphorically leaks everywhere and all humanity is doomed.

However, this proximity to the fears ALWAYS results in the death of the canaries that stayed inside the mines (no i will never get over my blorbos being killed). Everyone involved with the institution dies EXCEPT from Melanie, Georgie and Basira. That is, the only three canaries that actively escaped their cages before the toxic gas got to them.

Therefore, the use of this metaphor at the start of the ep (especially from none other than the voice of Jon Sims, the character who has walked down the path of learning about the entities) is a warning to Sam against investigating the paranormal.

The statement is encountered by Sam because he, above all other characters, is the one who is most likely to end up like Jon and the others. The species of Red Canaries is human breed, therefore Sam being a result of experimentation within The Magnus Institute means he was RAISED to be a canary. Thus, there is an inherent irony on the warning, for it is what PUSHES him to develop an interest on the statements and leads him closer to his tragic destiny.

Another proof that links canaries and the workers at O.I.A.R. is the nature of their habitat. I haven't seen a lot of people talking about it, but there are multiple references in the first and second ep of them working the nightshift. Now, why would a filing job be carried out exclusively at night? (THERE ARE SO MANY REFERENCES TO IT BEING A NIGHTSHIFT I AM NOT KIDDING)

This one is specially interesting because it's the first thing we hear in the podcast. Also Teddy metaphorically being the canary that leaves the mines and the darkness to escape into the outside world and the sun.

Multiple references to it being just the FIRST night of an eternity of nights. (cosmic horror much?)

In any case, there is a parallel between darkness of night and the darkness inside the mines. (or even the entity of the dark, one of the oldest alongside the hunt and the end). I see what you're doing Jonny Sims....

SO YEAH IN CONCLUSION

canaries = characters close to danger (AWARE OF THE ENTITIES)

the miners = the rest of humanity (UNAWARE OF THE ENTITIES)

cages = The Magnus institute/O.I.A.R (TRAPS the canaries)

the fears = toxic gas (HARMS the canaries and miners)

darkness in the mines = the night shift

Statement ends.

*stands in front of a white board with red string linking everything, and the dark scribbled in black marker in the center* I HOPED YOU ENJOYED THIS RANT *tries to fix my disheveled hair that i messed up during the presentation* I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT TMA AND TMAGP Please feel free to discuss in the comments, I NEED THEORIES, I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS WITH SOMEONE!!!

[thatmexisaurusrex]

My Current Table of Contents

Lol finally changed the banner into something better 😂 Anyways, reposting an updated Table of Contents for my AO3 works. Check it out here or on my AO3 😆 :

Canon Divergence:

The Bucky Quest Saga, which tells the behind the scenes story between Sam and Bucky post-Captain America: the Winter Soldier through to The Falcon and the Winters Soldier and beyond that

A Captain and His Bucky which is what if Bucky was the original Captain America, Sam has been Captain America since the events Avengers Movie, Steve Rogers is the Winter Soldier, and Sam found Bucky thawing from a chunk of ice in SHIELD headquarters during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and has now taken him in to help him navigate life in the future

My Aaron Davis/Peter B. Parker Fake Marriage Enemies to Lovers Fic You're a Sunflower (I Think Your Love Would Be Too Much)

My Heimdall/Sam Wilson Post-TFATWS Fic Series, Loving Are All-Seeing Men and Midgardian Captains

Sam Wilson finds himself in a very strange game show with some asshole named Bucky Barnes, The Marriage Game

Two clubbing feelings with porn SamBucky fics. One that happens post-TWS during Bucky's European Tour and one that happens during the black market art auction nightclub scene in TFATWS. The fics titles, as well as this collection title, are based on lines in the song hand crushed by a mallet by 100 gecs, I didn’t get to tell you goodbye

A story about Sam and Bucky finding out that Sam's dead husband Riley is a Winter Soldier, Captain America, The White Wolf, and the Winter Soldier

A story about Bucky hearing Sam truly laugh for the first and a bonus series of vignettes about Bucky's twenty-three goats and their pun names, Sam and Bucky's Cabin

Time After Time, or my Sorcerer Supreme Sam Canon Divergence Fic

Back in the Gulf, where Sam Wilson tries to figure out where he fits in the world post-blip and if he wants Bucky Barnes to be part of his life.

My All Caps fic, sometimes that's all we need, an Endgame Canon Divergence where everyone lived, no one went old and went to the past, and Steve and Bucky are competing for Captain America Sam Wilson's love and attention

Five Times Bucky Got Dirty and the One Time Bucky Got Sam Dirty, a two-part fic about five times Bucky got dirty around Sam and the one time Bucky got Sam dirty

My gay chicken, post-blip, accidental undercover fake married fic, Playing with Fire

My Valentine's Day Fic about Sam Not Knowing He's Actually Dating Bucky, You'll Never Be My Maybe.

Meanwhile... a short two-part fic about Sam and Bucky figuring out their love for each other while on a mission.

My Gideon Visits and Shenanigans Ensue two-parter, A Surprise Visit

My IWTV Season 1, Episode 2 Loustat fic, I don't think you realize (but you are in my insides)

The Beyoncé Trilogy, a series of three fics inspired by the Beyoncé songs "Blow", "Cuff It", and "Texas Hold 'Em" that take place during an alternate version of CATWS.

Fantasy AUs:

My Fantasy/Medieval/Arranged Marriage AU, Golden is the Sun

His Wingless Stranger, which is a "What if WWII Bucky fell off that train into a world that spliced Tomorrowland with Hiyao Miyazaki and Sam lived in a future society where everyone has wings?"

My Zombie AU, ESCAPE TO WAKANDA

My Apothecary Meets Prince Who Accidentally Becomes His Apprentice Fic Series, The White Wolf Apothecary

My Star Wars AU, Star Wars Episode IV.V: The Phantom Hookup

Fairytale AU, The Little White Wolf

A story about monster Hunter Joaquín meets Vampire Sam and Werewolf Bucky in a bar, Joaquín Torres Monster Hunter

The Two Strangers, A post-apocalyptic future western SamBucky AU on a different planet

My Practical Magic inspired AU, Impractical Magic

My matelotage Pirate!Sam, Merman!Bucky fic, Reaching Out For You

My Future Kid Fic, Pre-Vampire Apocalypse fic Canary in the Coal Mine

My Selkie and Pirate two-part love story, The Selkie and the Pirate Elect

My If You Were the Last AU, The Hypothetical

The Midnight Lover, my bittersweet Vampire AU

My Percy Jackson and the Olympians AU, Sam Wilson and the Olympians

No Powers AUs:

My Single All the Way AU, A No Snow Christmas

My Popstar AU, The Only Thing That I Refuse to Forget

My one fantastic impromptu date fic, A Night With You

My airport chase confession fic My Best Friend's Brother

My Bachelor AU, If I Take You Home

My Christmas Fake Relationship Fic, For the Holidays

From That Show, my Sitcom Actors!AU

My High School AU fic, Walking and Running to You 

My Anthologies:

The SamBucky Halloween 2021 Anthology I made for the SamBucky Halloween 2021 event the SamBucky Library is hosting

The WinterFalcon Week 2021 I participated in that's being hosted by the WinterFalcon Week tumble

The Nine Short Dates with Sam and Bucky ficlet series I made

The Sambtember Ficlets and Drabble Anthology I created for the Samtember event hosted by the Sam Wilson Fest tumblr

The Kinktober Collection 2021;

Water They Waiting For anthology series. It's 9 writers, 19 stories, and a lot of sexual tension involving water

My SarahBucky fics for Fleur de Louve Month2021

My SamBuckyTorres anthology, Captains and Falcons and White Wolves, Or My!

My collection of three fics for the MYSU Holiday Gift Exchange 2021!

My collection of fics based on the SamBucky Library's Candy Hearts Event 2022, SamBucky Library's Candy Hearts Event 2022 Fic Anthology

My collection of stories inspired by my the Daily SamBucky Fluff Diary on my tumblr, The Daily SamBucky Fluff Diary Auxiliary Stories

My collection of fics based on the 2 card of the MYSU Valentine's Day Bingo 2022, MYSU Valentine's Day Bingo 2022 Fic Anthology

My collection of fics based on the photos in post by hot-chocolates-world on tumblr, The Tush Collection

My collection for the SamBucky AU Week 2022, My SamBucky AU Week 2022 Collection

My collection of Drabbles and Ficlets for Samtember 2022

My collection of WinterFalcon Bingo Round Two 2022-2023 Bingo Fills 

My collection of fills for SamBucky Halloween Bingo 2022

My collection of fills for the Sam Wilson Bingo Round 2

My collection of fills for the SamBucky Festive Bingo 2022

My collection of fills for TFATWS Anniversary 2023 Fics

My collection of All Caps Bingo Round One 2023 Fills

My collection of SamBucky Summer Bingo 2023 Fills

My collection of Samtember 2023 Fills

My collection of SamBucky Halloween Bingo 2023 Fills

My collection of SamBucky Gift Event 2023 Fics

My collection of SamBucky Valentine's Day Bingo 2024 Fics

My SamBucky One-Shots!

My Other One-Shots!

[capcollector]

some art and concepts for my original fallout story that takes place post-fo3 but pre-fnv. part one of ?? very basic story and character info below the cut, if you want more in-depth stuff feel free to ask!

PLOT:

The story follows Leon on his first journey outside the Capital Wasteland—the remains of the gulf coast, centered mainly in what was once New Orleans.

Leon, now around 21-22 years old, is feeling more uncertain than ever. He’s cut all ties he had with the Brotherhood following the events of FO3 and wants out of the Capital Wasteland, at least for now. He’s officially begun his path of being a traveling doctor and ends up wandering south.

As the east coast Brotherhood begins to morph into what it becomes by FO4, at some point during FO3, a squad was sent down to do some scouting. Specifically they were looking for 1) salvageable tech in any former bases and 2) to see what the communities—if they weren’t all underwater—were like. To their surprise, there was a thriving coastal community of humans, ghouls, and tentative relations with the supermutant population as well (the supermutants being rightfully cautious but talks amongst groups seemingly going alright).

The leader of the Brotherhood squad, Buck, sees the opportunity to take things for himself and his crew. He begins falsifying reports to superiors so he can take his time and take what he wants for himself, as well as try to pick off anyone he doesn’t like. His group takes over the remains of a college campus and begins stirring things up almost immediately to assert their control. They ruin community relations, intimidate and kill people, hoard resources, etc. Their presence on the campus and behavior as earned them the nickname “The Frat” by locals.

Essentially this story really solidifies Leon’s opinion of the Brotherhood as he becomes close to the people and communities of the coast. It’s up to them to band together and take them out for good.

CHARACTERS:

Coco: A pre-war drag queen who keeps up a bar in heart of town. Acts as an information station and trader, as well as runs her own side business making and selling wigs to anyone who wants one. She’s had a few hundred years to master her craft, and given how common hair loss is in the post-apocalypse, she’s definitely made a decent chunk of caps. Charming and excitable, Coco can make anyone feel welcome, but she reads people very well and has no issue kicking you out if you cause trouble around her.

Booker: A regular at Coco’s. Sits at the edge of the bar always typing away at his typewriter, working on something. Paranoid and jumpy, Booker is cautious of anyone and everyone. Despite his weird behavior, Booker is harmless, and once you get to know him there is a very sweet man underneath that intense exterior.

Petula and Ed: A human and supermutant couple who are spearheading the talks between all the communities. They’d met many years ago in a fighting ring. Both had been drifters for as long as they could remember. Now in the present day the two are set on their new goals of making this place they love better for everyone around them.

Buck: Leader of The Frat, the Brotherhood group who’s taken over the college and just kinda ruined everything for everyone. Greedy and indulgent, Buck had joined the Brotherhood because he was enticed by the power trip. He does things because he can.

[denimbex1986]

'Good Omens creator and showrunner Neil Gaiman has provided a hilarious response to questions about Aziraphale's and Crowley’s fate in season 3. Based on the book of the same name Gaiman co-authored with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens season 2 followed an original story that picked up after the demon Crowley (David Tennant) and the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) successfully averted the apocalypse. In a shocking moment, the Good Omens season 2 finale saw Tennant’s character reveal his true feelings toward his angelic counterpart, only to have the pair torn apart by Aziraphale’s new role as Heaven’s supreme archangel.

Recently, one fan reached out to Gaiman via his Tumblr account to ask whether the show’s leads will end up together during Good Omens season 3.

Responding with wit, Gaiman joked that Crowley and Aziraphale “are barely in it” and are both killed off during the events of the show’s final season. Instead, he quipped the show would focus on a trio of rabbits “who go to the big city to open a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.”

Why Good Omens Season 3 May More Closely Mirror Season 1’s Tone

Originally conceived as a limited series, when Prime Video announced that Good Omens would be returning for season 2 in 2021, the renewal surprised viewers. With season 1 covering the entirety of the original Good Omens book, there were initially some questions about where Gaiman would take the story without the benefit of working alongside his original collaborator. Thankfully, however, Gaiman later revealed that both authors had originally planned a sequel to their bestselling novel in the 1990s, with that story intended to eventually serve as the basis for a potential season 3.

Instead of wanting to head straight into that story, Gaiman developed the plot for season 2 as a bridge between the two pre-existing tales he had worked on with Pratchett. Despite his dedication to remaining faithful to the late Discworld author’s voice, there were still several key departures throughout Good Omens season 2 to the format and tone that was established in season 1. Not only moving away from Frances McDormand’s God as the show’s narrative voice, season 2 also followed a much smaller story, allowing for a greater focus on the two leads.

However, with Pratchett having been directly involved in developing the story behind Good Omens season 3 and Gaiman confirming that it will feature another apocalypse, the show may also see a similar return to other major season elements. Whether that may also hint at a potential return of characters like Adria Arjona’s Anathema Device and Jack Whitehall’s Newton Pulsifer remains to be seen. Nonetheless, both Crowley and Aziraphale are still likely to be front and center of the unfolding drama, despite Gaiman’s hilarious suggestions to the contrary.'

[rubykgrant]

I'm TRYING to re-think the order of some of the events in my RVB story-line, so it flows a little better as an actual plot (to be fair, the actual series would often leave the end of a season sort of up in the air, and come back with a non sequitur after a lot of time passes, so. shame on me for trying so hard, I guess). I have a lot more little details involved (I'll ramble about those below), but these are the BIG PICTURE aspects that everything else is framed around

The Interviews involve the Reds, Blues, former Freelancers, Doc, Locus, and a few friends from Chorus talking about what they've been through (with some flash-backs thrown in, showing what they aren't all telling). During the Vacations, Donut goes on a big spa-spree, the Grif sibs go back to Hawaii (without a big fuss, Kai may like the attention, but Grif doesn't want people bothering him about being the Famous Orange Soldier), Simmons tries to track down his family (he can't find them), Sarge goes back to sulk in Blood Gulch alone, Wash goes looking for the Triplets, Doc spends some time with Dr Grey and thinks about trying for a medical degree again, Lopez is allowed to just be by himself (and he's honestly kinda bored), Caboose goes back to the Moon, Tucker searches for Junior, Carolina attempts to dig up info about how deep Charon/Project Freelancer really got into all the crime BS, Locus tries to turn himself into the authorities on Chorus (being all "I deserve to die" about it) but Kimball gives him a "life sentence" of community service. Everybody misses each other, and are drawn back together like a bunch of planets caught in the same gravitational pull

-Sarge is contacted by a UNSC group that wants to give soldiers who were Sim Troopers and members of the Flag Zealots "new training", and he doesn't hesitate. He has fun with it for a while, and this is where he meets Poppy... she is how he finds out a lot of the people here were given the option "join this training program or face prison time", which really isn't much of an option at all. He thinks about how the Red VS Blue war was a lie, he thinks about Project Freelancer manipulating the agents, he thinks about Wash having a villain moment to avoid being locked-up, he thinks about Locus believing soldiers are supposed to kill without ever asking questions... and Papa Warcrimes decides he actually hates the military (it's a sign of the apocalypse!). Meanwhile, Carolina has finally gotten some leads about Charon, and she meets Junonia, who helps her find out more regarding the past and what Hargrove is still up to. Gene has also been around, trying to be a solo villain, but he's BARELY a one-man Team Rocket. Finally, the insidious purpose for all this new training is exposed, and Red Team (with their new member, Poppy) gets to have the spot-light when they fight the villain

-Everybody finally goes back to Earth together, and this time, a big celebration is held for their return. They spend most of their time out of armor on Earth, so the general public leaves them alone. Some fun shenanigans with everybody finding ways to amuse themselves (Sarge doesn't like going outside, the sky is too BLUE). Now that she knows where they are (thanks to the welcoming celebration), Tex finally catches up with everybody, revealing that when Epsilon Deconstructed, the information from his memories transferred back to the original Beta unit, reviving her. The Director had this whole plan for eventually bringing Allison back with a synthetic human body made from her DNA sample, but he could never make it "perfect" (Tex isn't an identical clone, more like a genetic "sibling" to Allison). She isn't the only one who found them; the parents Simmons went looking for finally show up (now that their son is a famous space hero). He's more than happy to get their attention, and they have him join their work at a bio-tech company (everybody else immediately recognizes the parents as a-holes, and the business as shady, but try telling Simmons that). Tex was initially hesitant to reveal the other AI Fragments were also revived, what with some left-over sore feelings regarding Sigma and Omega (Wash is ironically more willing to forgive them for everything; he wishes he had been able to do that BEFORE, instead of fighting against them as the Meta, and the whole spiral from there). Carolina talks through emotions with Sigma, and Omega compliments both Doc and O'malley for finding their back-bone. Everybody else is happy to get to know the Fragments better. Some Drama happens with the Reds, but Simmons finally sees his parents don't really care about him, and they all figure out that the bio-tech company has the original Alpha Unit hidden away. They rescue Church, who has the chance to be in his own synthetic body based on the Directors DNA (again, not identical, just similar)

-Everybody gets to CATCH THEIR BREATH, Caboose and Tucker have Church back, Church and Tex get to do people things, hooray! A distress call out there in space tricks Tucker into thinking Junior is in trouble, so he heads out to find his kid (most of the others join him, but a few stay behind because of recovering injures, etc). This turns out to be a trick, Hargrove and Temple are both being jerks. The rest of the gang arrives for a rescue, and Church has each of the Fragments assist his friends for the escape; for Hargrove, this was his attempt to test out a "new version" of scanning a mind to make his own AI (his tech is wonky, and will definitely kill people it scans). For Temple, he's under the impression that if he helps, he can have his own mind scanned, thus giving him a "recreation" of Biff from his memories. Hargrove REALLY wants people who have interacted with the AI Fragments as experiments, since he thinks there is important data to be found from minds like that. Temple just wants to kill the main group because he hates their guts, and it isn't FAIR, why do they get their dead friend back? Also, everybody finds the AI file for Sheila! When things settle down, Grif and Simmons talk, and at last they are on the same freaking page

-After the rescue, Hargove escapes again, and the group hears a distress call from Chorus. Some old problems are going on again, so they swing by to help out. Hargrove has one last-ditch effort to get what he wants in terms of AI experiments... Felix didn't just come back wrong, he came back WORSE. Well, everybody has the chance to work through some unresolved negative emotions aimed at him (Kimball, Locus, Tucker- everybody gets a stab in!). Felix wants to use his sword again, but it recognizes him as "dead". He tries to use a temple that "revives echoes" for key holders, but this just gives him a ghost of Doyle ("It was mine before it was yours"). The Echo also brings back other AI like Santa, who have been programmed to make certain events happen... while everybody tries to deal with Felix AND finally catch Hargrove for good, the Echo creates a whole third problem. At last, a group of aliens arrive, alerted by the Echo, and in the group is- Junior!

-Some happy family reunion time for Tucker and his boy. Junior explains what he's been doing for so long; he wasn't trying to avoid his father, but there are dangerous groups out there trying to kill him, and he's been hiding while also trying to save others. The strange "prophecy" about him, as well as things involving a "Great Destroyer" is indeed true (Gary admits he kind of just made up what it was about, but it really WAS real!) have become more urgent. Somebody who wants to take over and wipe-out anybody who opposes them has been targeting Junior. There are also many other half human/aliens like him, an attempt to create as many potential "prophecy children" as possible, but all were rejected by their human parents and only seen as tools by the other aliens (except for Junior, who is actually loved by his dad... even though they haven't been able to spend much time together). Another temple out in space supposedly has the power to give "continuous life", and the villain intends to use that to win. Tucker and the others try to protect Junior, but the temple doesn't work the way they all think...

-Back on Earth again, life seems to give them all a break... but unusual things begin happening. It eventually becomes clear that there are "new AI gods" toying with them (some are just playful, a few are genuinely malicious). This involves somewhat amusing, if a little annoying, shenanigans (like Wash getting turned into a cat, and a tiny 7-year-old Sarge showing up), but also very dangerous situations. Alternate time-lines and realities collide, some arguably "worst-case scenarios"

-It finally becomes necessary to confront the cause of all this. The group gets pulled into a pocket dimension where a lot of realities intersect. One AI god demands people fight for their amusement, and the winner will get to return to the "reality they want". The group really just wants weird paradox stuff to STOP. Church, Tex, and the Fragments figure out a way to keep everybody from dying, even the enemies they have to fight, until they have the chance to take on the one trying to control everything. Just when it seems like that issue is solved... Donut throws up. Weird, cosmic throw-up, like if the big-bang was a liquid. Being the one who has been traveling through time and reality the most, he's kind of absorbed a LOT of cosmic energy, and he can't control it. A big monster-transformation happens, but everybody figures out how to fix it so they can save Donut. Are we done? Are we DONE now???

-Yes. Everybody has the chance to live their lives, whatever that means for each of them. They get to be happy. Sometimes, bad things still happen, it can be difficult and unpleasant to live- but they still LIVE. Eventually, they pass on too (and that also means different things for some of them). When all is said and done, they're mostly glad they all got to be here~

[mayadoesfandomstuff]

The Persona Series and the Generational Experience

Besides thinking about the ages of the protagonists recently, I had been greatly intrigued in the way that each persona game reflects the generation that would have come to the age that the main characters would have been as well as the social climate and environment that would have been present at the time.

The characters of the game would have grown up in a completely different age and environment from the previous generation, being Gen X in a world dominated by the post-war Baby Boomers, which causes them to struggle with what is expected of them and what they want to be. If not this, the characters are already labeled as outcasts due to their own individuality or personal histories they can't change. Yukino as a former delinquent and sapphic woman comes to mind and Reiji being a bastard and a delinquent himself too.

NOTE FROM OP AS OF 04/08/2024:

I feel like this wasn't the best worded post and I would rather rewrite a lot of this. I wrote this when I was fresh off of a serious personal event that led me to think a lot about Persona 1 considering I related heavily with Maki's experiences during the game. It sounds unrelated but uh, let's just say that's also the reason why the wording and research here is rather flimsy since I wasn't really in the most lucid or stable condition at the time. I don't think this post is that bad but I think some points aren't the best either and would rather not this post circulate but I don't really want to private it or to turn off reblogs so I'm just putting this note at the beginning. I'm going to try to read up more stuff and then I'll make a post about each game some other time. Sorry for the random note here but yeah. Feel free to read and still reblog the post though even if I don't really think it's my best worded one as of now.

Original Post:

Persona 1 (1996), besides being a game about how society leaves behind the disabled (Maki hating the world due to her inability to participate as a regular person in society due to her poor health), is primarily a story about the dangers of corporatization which was extremely relevant in Japan during the 90s especially coming from the economic boom of the 80s. The culture of this extreme progress also calls into question the traditional ideas of collectivism and how it could negatively affect the individual which is the core of the entirety of the Persona franchise.

This is more apparent in Persona 2 (IS: 1999; EP: 2000) which deals with a lot of discourse about rumors and propaganda and the early effects of the early internet on the community. There's also a sense of dread for the coming new age as such a possible reflection of the fears of things such as Y2K. An interesting thing to note about Persona 2 are the villains, mainly a serial killer and a terrorist bomber, which shows the communal fear of these events on a society-wide level as this calls back to how Japan just dealt with their own serial killer in the form of the infamous Otaku Killer in 1989 and the fresh from memory terrorist bombing of doomsday cult Aum Shrinrikyo in 1995.

The Persona 2 characters would have grown up in a similar environment as the Persona 1 characters as they are both within Generation X. Knowing my parents who had come from this generation as well, they had told me that there was a constant fear of the apocalypse. It was the height of the cold war when they were growing up and although we weren't directly affected by it, the sheer proximity of our country to large powers like China and our allegiance to their enemy America has created a constant panic. Japan falls in a similar position as a US Ally and a Chinese and Russian enemy that's extremely closely situated to them, so I could imagine that this sort of fear influenced the writing of the games as the writers most certainly had experienced this as well.

It's no wonder then that despite the characters coming from a post-cold war Japan, that these fears may continue in for them and everyone around them so rumors as ridiculous as Hitler literally coming back to attack Japan spread regardless of how realistic it could be.

Skip forward several years, and Atlus decides to brush off the dust of their shelved spin-off series and come back with Persona 3 (2006). The characters are now literally a completely new generation, a generation left behind by their elders and exposed to the harsh reality of the world at such an intensely young age - the millennials.

I know that a lot of people may see this as a stupid point to bring up, but I assure to you that as a non-American, that the war on terror still gripped and sensationalized my own country to such a degree that it did cause a level of apathy among the populace. I'm not sure if this is true of Japan as well, but I feel like tragic world events and the increased visibility of these stories due to the rise of the 24-hour news cycle certainly is a universal experience. It is not surprising that the members of S.E.E.S. needs to fight back against this desolation and desperation on a day-to-day basis when everyone is literally affected by this universal apathy.

An interesting thing to note about Persona 3 is how almost all the characters are either orphans, become orphans during the narrative, or have a complicated relationship with estranged family. I feel like this reflects the way that millennials may feel that they had been abandoned by their elders and now they're forced to navigate the world with little to no guidance or even possibly corrupted guidance from adults like Ikutski.

Technology is also an increased concern in this game, following the trends of the previous two. The progress of technology could lead to incredible and even helpful things such as the creation of Aigis as a fully-realized individual from an AI program or the creation of the evoker as a means to harness the ability of the persona which, in the lore of the franchise, needs to come more naturally but could now be summoned on command regardless of it all. No longer would the person with potential need to wait as long for their abilities to show, all they need is this macabre device in order to access it.

That's the thing though isn't it? This technology comes with a price and comes with disturbing progress as well. Aigis was created to kill shadows and the AI was just created to make her more effective. She was forced to destroy what were essentially her sisters in order to make her the perfect killing machine without any consideration about the possibility of her own humanity despite the fact that they programmed her to be as human as possible.

The evoker came about from years of research from the joint efforts of the Nanjo Conglomerate and the Kirijo group. The research involved in which abused children and destroyed the lives of those who opposed the research just to get where they want to go. There was no care for ethics nor humane treatment which resulted in these children to turn to crime in order to live as a consequence of the unethical research that harmed them.

The concerns of technology and the ethics of playing god were already prevalent before but the turn of the new century put it as a discussion front and center. Stories of cloned sheep or strange chimeras from experimentation had increased discourse of whether or not science had gone too far during this time. Vividly, I remember being s teenager in the 2010s reading these old articles and old Wikipedia entries about these oddities.

As Persona 3 discussed the increased societal apathy for the world, the struggles of the millennial generation navigating it by themselves, and the dangers of research that forego ethics, Persona 4 (2008) focuses on the world's obsession of media, the struggles of a small town in the center of fame, and how collectivism forces the individual to hide themselves to be accepted even moreso than the other three entries of the franchise.

Persona 3 focuses on the early to mid millennial experience in a pre-recession society, Persona 4 focused on the late millennial experience in a media-hungry, recession-era society. These characters would have grown up around the late 90s to the mid 2000s where things such as gossip and paparazzi culture was all the rage. People started to care more about their media presence and how they present themselves not only to the local community but the world.

Gone were the days where rumors only reached a handful of the informed gossipers and internet forum users, and here comes the rise of television! Found in every well-to-do middle-class home! The world is judgmental, unfeeling, and only cares about the hottest new headline and our Investigation Team needs to learn how to be true to who they are in a society that doesn't want them to be.

The setting of the story in a rural town in the brink of urbanization is such a relatable one as I also come from a similar background. The fears of the loss of the cultural and individual identity of the small town is a real one that I had the displeasure of experiencing recently. Progress is good, but it's destroying local businesses. Progress is good, but it's making everyone less personal. Progress is good, but it's making people lose who they are.

It's also not at all just a Japanese pandering situation for the themes of the game be centered on traditional Japanese culture such as the characters' personas being Japanese figures from history, literature, and religion, the main villain and basis of the grander narrative themes also coming from old Shinto mythologies, and the emphasis of tradition with the story even starting out in an old traditional Japanese inn.

Mass media is destroying culture and it's up to the younger generation to navigate these two worlds of preserving who you are and accepting the progress. As a child, I found some level of annoyance that the previous generation before me who acted as my teachers and seniors, both at school, at home, and on the internet, was too forceful on things such as local tradition to the point that some of them even shame people who aren't on the same page as them. In a way, this is them trying to deal with the grander pressures of what society is demanding of them and it's something that I myself grew to understand as I got older.

When I got older, I realized how these complicated systems had genuinely ruined too many lives and destroyed individuality and culture which I know for a fact is a definite almost universal experience for the next generation, Generation Z (colloquially now known as the Zoomers). A common experience for this generation is the shattering of wonderland and the intense exposure to horrible reality at such a young age which leads to such a desensitization that it's worrying.

Most often than not, this generation is told that they are responsible for the horrible state world around them, that they should be the ones to fix the problems of society, that they should do this themselves lest they want to die. This leads to a lot of youth activism and protests with people as young as 11 or 12 being so active in politics that it continues to permeate to this day. Think of those 16-year-olds in this website back at like 2015-2016 that rallied behind the discourse. This is that generation, and it's a universal experience among the group, not just in America, but globally.

I'm gonna be a bit salty and a bit cringy here and maybe a bit biased, but fuck it this is my generation after all.

Persona 5 (2016) is the persona game for the disgruntled Gen Z. As the previous persona games were criticisms of society that could be dismissed off as individual-motivational fluff by those that love ignoring the grander themes of the series, Persona 5 is a figurative punch in the face that's hard to ignore.

No longer are we in made up cities and towns, no longer are we just focused on finding our place in the world, we're in Tokyo, Japan, baby! And we're here to tell everyone in the world that the society that you pride yourselves in is a farce that actively oppresses the weirdos, the outcasts, and the miscreants! They've done fucked up and we're not sitting idly by no more! We're not just gonna defy you by being who we are, we're going to actively stop your shit before you continue hurting others!

As pompous and self-important and even stupid as that sounds, those words reflected the battle cry of the generation. Online slacktivism, exposés, cancellations, and borderline illegal activities that basically amount to doxxing and wiretapping are part of the gen z cultural identity whether we like it or not. The generation selects the shitty adult target and doesn't let off until they're gone and had paid for their crimes.

As how shitty these witch hunts could get, there is no denying that deplatforming dangerous individuals had garnered good results on the cases where it doesn't become a shit storm. In a way, the Phantom Thieves are the success stories that the copycats that we know about in-game try to emulate but just end up hurting innocent people.

As it stands, in the retrospect that we have more than half a decade later after the game's initial launch, Persona 5 interestingly also stands as not only a criticism of larger societal issues, but also to those who try to respond to it by force and how they don't help long-term and are simply contributing to society's oppressive systems. It's interesting to note here how the choice of taking Yaldabaoth's offer of keeping the Phantom Thieves a part of the grander influencers of Japanese society is considered a bad ending.

As much as you want to change society, you best be careful to not fall in the same trappings that would make you the villain that you so desperately fought against. Despite your good judgment before, you should not be the arbiter of right and wrong. You should be there to liberate people, not control them.

The games development in itself is interesting in that not only did it take a long time, but it's based on a lot of real-life events that led to the writing team to develop the game in this direction.

The original plan for the game was supposed to be a road trip with the characters possibly even going international. I speculate that it may be a story that would have supposedly tackled globalization and its effects on the individual which is also an equally poignant thing that Gen Z has experienced. This all changed, however, when Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 which launched the country into a national crisis. The team became more aware about their country's situation and the people within Japan that it made them change the focus back into Japanese-society.

This refocus seemed to have spurred the writing into a more rebellious direction than the previous concepts possibly owed to the rise of social awareness within the country. News stories had never been more front and center than they have with not only the rise of the internet but it's domination in daily life. In fact, Japanese players had pointed out that the first arc of the game, the lustful PE teacher Suguru Kamoshida, may be based on a real life case of Masato Uchishiba, an Olympic medalist judoka that was accused of sexual harassment and rape by the women's team that he coached which broke out into the news the same year this sudden shift of direction happened.

With news after news of this caliber, it's not surprising that the game had such a frustration with how society works and the failings of authority to protect and to serve the people.

With all of these in mind, as much as the series in itself is flawed, it's such a fascinating reflection of the times. Each of these games are, to a degree, timeless in the fact that they tackle constant pervasive issues that affects not only Japanese society but the grander global culture. Though besides this, the context of the time period and the setting gives such a raw view of what the issues most prevalent were at the time and the struggles of the generation that these games were released for.

I know that there is absolutely no indication that Atlus would be releasing Persona 6 in the near future, but I am assured of one thing. Persona 6 is going to be a reflection of the generation that will grow up with the main characters. It would be a criticism and an earnest look at society's ills that are important to the next generation. The series will continue to build up on previous themes and discussions of the previous games as each generation continues to build up on the discourse of the last. This is the intriguing relationship of the Persona series and the generational experience.

[artbyblastweave]

I just finished a reread of Jonathan Hickman's FF and Avengers runs, since before I'd only ever been reading one half and had missed a lot of context, and them plus Secret Wars form one of my favourite extended marvel arcs ever made. Any thoughts about the storyline, or general perceptions you know others have had of it? I'm kind of curious whether it was loved or hated by the broader fanbase.

I enjoyed what I read of it, which was mostly the tail end- Secret Wars Proper and some of the stuff immediately leading into that. One thing that I appreciated about it, in a general sense, was that it posited the chickens finally, finally coming home to roost; the nature of the Marvel Universe is that the center is always gonna hold, because otherwise they can't keep selling comic books, but the subtext of every Marvel comic I read through the early-to-mid oughts, and during the Bendis-era Avengers-Disassembled-through-Siege mega-arc in particular, was that the planet was living on borrowed time due to the sheer volume of these self-righteous superpowered yahoos running around doing basically whatever they wanted. I'm principally a Wormblogger, I love Worm, and the fact that Worm actually acknowledged and depicted that collapse, after a decade-and-change of Marvel dancing around the idea, is a big part of why it hooked me so deeply. And thus, when you have an event about how reality is finally collapsing under the accumulated weight of all these retcons and reality-shifts and time-jumps and what-have-you, a story where the superheroes finally can't outrun the consequences of their actions via editorial mandate- well, it was cathartic. And the Battleworld, conceptually, was great. I enjoyed a lot of those tie-ins immensely; it was the summer of Fun Little Romps (even though it was markedly part of the defanging of the Marvel Zombies brand- but that's another post.) The downside, of course, is that it derailed the storylines of a bunch of different smaller books I was following at the time- Cullen Bunn's Magneto solo, Duggan's Deadpool Run, Punisher, Silver Surfer, The original run of Ms. Marvel. Like, I can't stress enough how early in the original Ms. Marvel run this event happened, like maybe the third or fourth TPB? She'd barely gotten going when Secret Wars hit. Some of these just awkwardly wedged a couple issues about the apocalypse in, but not all of these came back afterwards either. It's fully possible that at least a couple of these were flagging and the apocalypse was just a graceful offramp, but it still bothered me. It was the most exaggerated instance of the common complaint about crisis crossovers stepping on the toes of the ongoing storylines that I've ever experienced in real time, and you know, fair, it was at least a bit about that phenomenon, but it's not not annoying just because it's also self-aware!

[fallloverfic]

I am legitimately confused by repeated comments that ORV's opening is slow or boring or uninteresting, especially people who say you need to read [insert some very large number of pages/chapters] to get to the "good" parts. I've seen this on multiple socials at this point and I originally wrote this post months ago, but recent potential news has brought back people saying this again, particularly in recommending it to other people/trying to get other people into it.

I would personally argue that ORV has a good opening. A very good opening. And the early part of it is very good, too.

ORV opens with a literal train of angst, attempted friendship, workplace harassment (Sangah getting harassed by her boss), some neat Korean folklore (dokkaebis hello), graphic violence (remember when Bihyung just kills the president on TV?), a group of people in a subway attempting to beat an old woman to death, Dokja winning a pissing contest with a teenage edgelord, a bunch of people getting murdered, bonding in times in despair over a really unique form of problem solving, a man breaking open subway doors with his bare arms, young love, and magic, fleeing onto a bridge that gets exploded to bits by an evil gremlin, a horde of zombies appearing, the protagonist getting new magic powers, and then his getting held by the neck over said broken bridge in a complex back and forth with the "true" story protagonist before getting dropped into the mouth of a giant sea monster.

It covers topics like the limits of human compassion in times of strife, the complicated presence of the military (Dokja hated his time being drafted v Hyunsung's military leadership doesn't save anyone), international relations (Sangah is learning Spanish), trope subversion (I mean it is and isn't the entire book and Dokja's character, but he's constantly trying to be 5-10 steps ahead of what's going on, including literally fleeing Joonghyuk until Joonghyuk grabs him by the collar), workplace harassment, bullying, and it's all taking place during multiple apocalypse scenarios.

This is the like first 11 chapters of the book. And it never stops. There are "slower" moments, moments where characters take a breather (like it takes a while for Dokja to negotiate his contract with Bihyung, which is slow if you ignore the fact Dokja is arguing with an interdimensional being/alien for the limits of his own life and autonomy in the most dangerous streaming event imaginable, knowing he may still die if he gambles wrong on his personal wikipedia brain), but it's still frequently confrontational, whether that confrontation is about what characters mean to each other, what lives are at stake, finding your purpose in life, adaptability to complex circumstances, overcoming trauma and self-doubt...

And it's more intense in a way in the manhwa adaptation because you can clearly see most of it visualized (e.g., how visually wrecked the characters get, how young the kids are, how terrifying the monsters are, how scary the odds are, and how dangerous Dokja's gambles can really get with a fickle streaming audience), and Sleepy-C's art is gorgeous.

I just have to wonder (though this is more of a rhetorical question), what on earth do people consider fast? Because I am quite honestly terrified of what the answer is.

Like I get that ORV is long. It can be hard to recommend very long books to folks (and as the manhwa keeps going, long comics). To each their own, everyone is different, what appeals to me won't appeal to others. But there's a difference between "it's hard to recommend a very long work to someone" and "it's hard to recommend something that's long and takes a while to get into", and maybe folks are just writing the former a bit weirdly. I completely understand having trouble recommending long series to people. Also ORV has a very complex plot and I don't blame folks having trouble recommending that. I'm writing fic for later parts of orv and other manhwa and I dread explaining all the context for all that to someone who hasn't read them.

That being said, ORV has a very good introduction. Both chapter 1 of the novel and episode 1 of the manhwa are very good. They're not perfect, I can't say I was hooked from the immediate moment I started reading the page, but both of them have good introductions and it doesn't stop, and there's stuff to love in just about every chapter/episode, and I was definitely hooked enough by the time I finished to keep going to chapter/episode 2. Chapter 1 of the novel has great angst and character building, and it's funny and sweet and tragic. When I first read Dokja trying, earnestly, to recommend TWSA and getting harassed about it and worrying it will hurt this art and artist he cares about, but not being able to do much else to give thanks for this experience because of his circumstances, I cried. The first page/episode of the manhwa has them delicious boys love vibes and gorgeous art (and cute baby Dokja, I die for him), and the promise of a fascinating story ahead, and then the following page/episode has more gorgeous art and angst and great characters (combining them cause the first page feels sort of more like a teaser than a first page, though Episode 0 ends with a spread of Kimcom that makes me tear up). We'll unfortunately never know if I'd have loved ORV as much if I'd read the novel first, but I like to think I would cause ORV's opening is just that good.

I just truly, truly do not understand the sentiment that idk the opening and the first [insert large number of pages/chapters] aren't good or interesting or engaging enough. Maybe I'm out of touch. To each their own on what appeals, maybe I'm built different (doubt it though) but it just feels kind of dismissive of ORV's opening, in both the novel and the manhwa, which are both really good. Will it win over everyone? No. It's fine if you weren't grabbed by the opening or the first [insert however many pages/chapters/arcs]. It's fine if you took a while, even a long while to get into it, or never really did, and maybe don't like the manhwa, which is a great gateway into the story, or don't like the novel for whatever reason and prefer the manhwa. And at the end of the day it's just random opinions online, we all have different ones. Make the posts that appeal to you on your blog, complain on your socmed, whatever. But the opening is good, it keeps you very engaged with a lot of difficult scenarios, the characters are great and fun and funny, in those parts especially, and idk why I'm supposed to pretend that's not the case.

Anyway I don't like writing complaint posts. The opening and general start are excellent and Imma go back and cry over Dokja again ty singNsong for my tears.

[dunefandomhub]

FIC REC FRIDAY! 2022 Mini Bang Edition!

Sorry for missing the fic rec list last week, life got in my way and I didn't have anything queued!

This week we are doing a special edition in honour of the 2024 Dune Mini Bang opening for sign ups!

Dune Mini Bang 2022 Collection

The Nazar in the Hamsa by @a-guide-to-imperial-planetology

Harah must help her sons to cope with the death of their father, Jamis. Stilgar must also grieve his friend Jamis, as well as the way of life in the sietch as he knows it. Could the two find respite in the only other member of the sietch who understands the confusing experience of Paul-Muad'Dib, called Usul? Rated T Harah/Stilgar

The Snake in the Sand by @magpiesmudpie

Princess Irulan is on the run. Taken in by Lady Jessica, she becomes a servant in Caladan Castle, where she has to hide her true identity from Paul. A 'Fix-It' which begins 6 months before the Atreides move to Arrakis, then follows events from the first book. Rated M Paul/Irulan

Tibiyya; or, the Apocalypse of Mustafa by Silverman

At the tail-end of Muad'Dib's Jihad, Mustafa Corrino lands on Tibiyya, a jungle planet discovered in the course of the war. She has come to enforce the faith. Rated M

"The Ceremony" by @curlyallie

On a day of celebration in Sietch Libr, emotions of joy were running high. But for Chani, the celebration stirred up equally powerful and increasingly disturbing emotions. She will have no choice but to confront them. And she may find herself experiencing them more deeply than she could have ever imagined. Rated E Multi

Our Future is my Past by @escharis

Time is a peculiar thing dependent on the perception of the individual. For some a lifetime passes in the dreams of a singular night. Paul wakes up, he is fifteen again and come morning his family will be going to Arrakis. Yet, Paul could swear he had been lost in the desert of that planet just yesterday…and what to make of the beyond his mind has touched upon? Rated T

Heaven Smiles Upon Him by @almostg

What if Duncan Idaho was the son of an important House and Paul Atreides was his swordmaster? The answer is: Duncan's world is turned upside down and Paul is irresistible! Rated E Paul/Duncan

Confessions of an Imperial Concubine by @imnotoverlyobsessive

When commoner Sera tries to assassinate the new emperor, she assumes she’ll be executed. The last thing she expects is to be made into a concubine for his harem. Little does she know she’s meant for so much more than that. Rated E Paul/F!OC

Freewomen of Arrakis by @primeideal

Chani learns what it means to be a Reverend Mother, and considers her relationship with Paul Muad'Dib. Not necessarily in that order. Rated T Paul/Chani

Our Roads Lead Into the Desert by @ava-anderson151

Who is Countess Thorvald? Where does Paul's struggle between love and power come from? How was Aoife's life before joining the House of Atreides? And what have we missed during the three year gap in the story? Rated M Paul/F!OC

Under His Spell by chocobun

Duncan finds himself drawn to a certain very unusual young man. However, honor and duty forbid him from acting on his feelings. When he leaves for a mission in the desert, he is made to confront some truths about Paul Atreides and the relationship the two of them have. Rated G Paul/Duncan

The Pourpre Conspiracy: A Dune Fan Story by @avripzhavar

The Pourpre Conspiracy it's an alternate universe of Dune based on events in the first book and the 2021 film, there are no spoilers for the other books. This story follows the adventures of an original character, in a fast-paced noir thriller with other secret ingredients… Rated M

that hugest whole creation may be less incalculable than a single kiss by disgracie

"Your one unbridled response," he'd called that chewing of the lip. 'It tells me that you're disturbed, and I must kiss those lips to still their fluttering." — Frank Herbert, Children of Dune or 5 times he does so (and 1 time he does not). Rated T Leto/Jessica

if you are interested in signing up for this years Mini Bang, links are found HERE

[shipposttt]

The Ship of the Day: The Ineffable Husbands

SPOILER WARNING for the Good Omens series, including season 2 :D

Names: Crowley and Aziraphale 

Ship name(s): The Ineffable husbands/ Aziraphale

Original Content: Good Omens book (1990) and the Good Omens series (2019 S1, 2023 S2)) and all subsequent world building done by our lord and saviour Neil Gaiman through Tumblr <3

Ship info: Firstly, while the book will be mentioned within this post, it is important to note that i myself have only ever watched the series- as such, if there is information from the books that is failed to be mentioned that you believe should’ve been, this is why; please feel free to add anything you would like in the notes! Secondly, I will be using multiple pronouns for both Aziraphale and Crowley within this post because, as stated by Neil himself in a Tumblr ask, we might as well see them as genderfluid because he does. Similarly, angels (and thus, demons) are defined as sexless beings within the book, who’s “size, and shape, and composition, are simply options”.

So, you may be wondering, “what’s with this bible fanfiction?”, well don’t you worry I will clear that right up!

Good Omens is a novel/book originally written as a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in 1990, exploring the roles of angels, demons and mortals during the apocalypse – Armageddon. This has in recent years been adapted into a series for Amazon Prime Video with the help of Neil our beloved to ensure it stayed true to their vision for this story, especially since the series goes beyond the canon timeline of the book.

In particular, it follows demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale, who, as the only non-mortals residing within the mortal world long term, formed an alliance over the centuries, though this alliance slowly but surely turned into a friendship and then progressed into even more. Now, this might sound like an enemies-to-lovers 400k slow-burn but it’s NOT. You see, Crowley was once an angel prior to his fall, with the fandom theorising that they were a rather high-ranking angel due to his actions and clearance levels depicted within scenes of season 2, so technically they didn’t start off as enemies, nor would I argue that they ever truly became enemies following Crowley becoming a demon. Anyway, the first series follows these two immortal beings as they attempt to prevent the coming of the Antichrist, Adam Young, together. The majority of season one focusses on how Armageddon is coming to fruition and how mortals and immortals alike were attempting to stop it. Despite this, there is still a large focus on Crowley and Aziraphale’s personal relationship throughout time.

Within season 1 episode 3, we take a short break from the ‘current’ canon of stopping Armageddon to explore Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship and how it grew throughout the centuries using flashbacks for the first portion of the episode, this past history between them before the canon of Armageddon is also explored further in season 2 through multiple extended flashbacks. In the canonical timeline of events, these flashbacks begin from before the beginning of the universe as we know it, with then-angel Crowley creating the universe (“let there be light” and all that) as Aziraphale watched him do so; then jumping to the Garden of Eden, where now-demon Crowley tempts Eve. These flashbacks are sporadic throughout time, gaining in frequency the closer to ‘now’ they get, showing the pairings meetings at: Noah’s Ark, during the testing of Job’s faith (where Crowley first tempts Aziraphale with food), at Jesus’ crucifixion, in a Roman tavern, in Arthurian Britain, and then much more frequently between 1793 in a Paris dungeon and 2019 at Armageddon. All of these flashbacks portray their relationship going from working against each other (in the garden 4004 BC) to working together (the Globe Theatre 1601 AD), though we don’t know the exact date “the arrangement” between the two beings began, it is alluded to within this scene in the Globe Theatre as they discuss the possibility of one of them doing both “the blessing and the tempting” (their respective jobs given to them by heaven and hell) in Edinburgh, as they had done so elsewhere previously, with Aziraphale showing fear for Crowley’s safety within this arrangement, saying “but if hell finds out, they wont just be angry, they’ll destroy you”, but eventually acquiescing, calling heads on the coin toss to decide who goes. These more frequent visits shown leading up to Armageddon show the change from just working together for ease to working together because they enjoyed their time together.

So now we are up to date with their relationship prior to Armageddon, from working together to working against one another all the way up to forming an alliance together and coming to care for one another. So, spoiler alert (I say as if the previous paragraph wasn’t full of spoilers); they stop Armageddon together (yay). Following them preventing Armageddon, hell and heaven attempted to fully discorporate the pair, using hellfire for Aziraphale and a holy water bath (sans rubber duck) for Crowley, the two predicted this move however and temporarily swapped bodies so as to ensure neither came to harm. They then nicely finished off the season with the pair dining in the Ritz, making a toast “to the world” as a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square (in reference to the popular love song published in 1940).  

So, all is well and good for the start of season 2, right? WRONG. Archangel Gabriel shows up at Aziraphale’s bookstore having lost all his memories, Crowley and Aziraphale perform a miracle together to hide Gabriel (now going by Jim) that is so strong heaven believes it could only be the will of an archangel, leading to them believing that Gabriel is hiding in Aziraphale’s bookshop. Now, this season evolves around hiding Gabriel and somehow restoring his memories but Aziraphale instead takes it upon himself to focus on trying to set up the owners of two nearby stores, drawing similarities between the two and himself and Crowley. So Aziraphale is trying to set these two up, Crowley is trying to keep Aziraphale safe and heaven and hell alike are both convinced they are hiding Gabriel. This all comes to a head as Gabriel’s memories get restored and it is revealed that he was demoted after refusing to support an attempt at a second Armageddon, conversations are had and offers are made and the elusive Metatron offers Aziraphale Gabriel’s old position, promising to restore Crowley’s status as an angel.

Now for the divorce. Yeah, you read that right, the ineffable divorce. The day I cried, the fandom cried, I think even the official Amazon Prime Twitter *ahem*, sorry, ‘X’ account admin cried. Aziraphale accepts the Metatron’s offer because they believe he and Crowley working together can make a difference, “we can be together, angels, doing good. I need you”. Crowley confesses to Aziraphale, saying how they can do the same as Gabriel and Beelzebub and leave heaven and hell behind to just be them, they disagree on working for heaven and Crowley points out that they can’t hear any nightingales (in reference to the end of season one), “you idiot, we could’ve been us”, before kissing Aziraphale once, finishing off this glorious season with “I forgive you” (A), “Don’t bother”.

Now, this is where we are left off with their relationship, and while there are a lot more scenes I’ve missed out here which allude to their building romance and many, many posts by Neil Gaiman which explore it further, this has already gotten way too long to include them all.

Type of Ship: Queer

Now, even outside of their relationship, these two are unequivocally queer.  As previously stated, they both do not conform to societal stereotypes surrounding gender, with them being angelic beings who simply choose to take on the traditionally more masculine forms we most associate with them, whilst other times choosing more traditionally feminine forms- like Crowley did in scenes of the crucifixion of Jesus, or when they were a nanny. While this isn’t explicitly spoken about within the series (because their gender presentation simply is there, an unquestioned part of them, it’s not a focal point of the plot), co-author and series writer Neil Gaiman has clarified that angels and demons alike do not have gender or sex and do not perceive gender in the same way as humans do.

How, as such, within the ship they are also queer, with the pair not bending to societal norms surrounding gender, sex and relations. And though they do kiss in the final episode of season two, Neil Gaiman has confirmed that their kiss was “about a lot of things but   its not to show they’re in love” alluding to the love being shown in other ways as their relationship isn’t inherently sexual- neither is it inherently asexual as he explained “they are an angel and a demon, not as male humans”. This portrays romance and love in away that is inherently queer and different to that of heteronormative ideals as they are not strictly male or female and don’t explore sexuality in the same way as is the norm.

Thank you for reading this! Admin 🦇 out!