#firm on the gender role complex though

[princelylove]

same anon that asked about the platonic/familial thing!

aahh that's good to hear, your highness! ^^/ I hope it's alright to ask for Yoshikage Kira with a quiet and//or shy child!reader,,, specifically when he's part of the Kawajiri fam!

maybe they're in Hayato's place or his younger sibling, but the thought of them being curious of Kira because woah their dad changed… his kid gets abnormally clingy to him within time. kinda really curious about the "fluff"//"comfort" with them but also… knowing Kira whatever fluff//comfort is going to be. very. questionable and damning- but in the end even if he hurts them… his kid still somehow trusts him and seeks comfort from him and listens to him much more than anyone else

ahh i hope this is alright! sorry if i rambled a lot or if it's too much ><;; you can change things up a bit if you'd like and go ham with it if you'd like !!

When it comes to Mr. Kira, you should generally be quiet and stay out of his way. Oh, sorry, I misspoke. I mean Mr. Kawajiri. 

Warning for discussion of gender roles/conforming to gender stereotypes, it’s gender neutral until I go on my “Yoshikage is a freak who cannot stand anything non mainstream” tangent but I talk about both masc and fem. I cut this short because I got a little too interested in the entire family's dynamic rather than just Kira, hope you still like it. ♡

I’m fond of Yoshikage, if I may be so informal, for his taste in fashion, he cares quite a bit about how he presents himself, and by extension cares how you do. He makes sure you dress appropriately for your age, and in a gender conforming way. He sighs every time you come home with pants on under your uniform’s skirt, or with your tie abandoned. God forbid you’re a part of a subculture that doesn’t conform- being a delinquent isn’t going to get you anywhere in life. Charms on your bag aren’t allowed until you’re older, and pushing your socks down like that makes you look ridiculous.

While Daddy is rather strict and loveless, Shinobu isn’t. She spoils you a little too much- especially considering she thinks she didn’t show Hayato the love he needed, and that’s why he acts Like That. She’s thankful he doesn’t bother you too much, but would it kill him to come downstairs and eat dinner with us? Oh, Mommy’s sorry, she doesn’t mean to vent, she loves girls nights with you too! Girls night isn’t a gender thing, you can have girls night with mother and be a young man! Sigh. Shinobu’s sorry. She’s just desperate for someone to hang out with her. That woman is so neglected. She loves to take you shopping and hear about your interests! Oh, you want to be alone? That’s fine too! Mommy will be right here when you need her! Waiting patiently! …. Are you sure you don’t want to watch some tv, maybe?

Yoshikage has assimilated well into a fatherly role, he accepts it as “being a man,” and therefore, part of his role in being normal. The only issue is he’s used to his father, who has very old and traditional views on what a man does, with absolutely zero chance of becoming open minded. He's more fond of his mother, really. Neither of your parents tell you no if you ask for something- it’s a bit different if you’re masc or fem, he has an idea of what you’re supposed to be from very early on and failing to meet those expectations means not getting the care you deserve. At least from Yoshikage, Shinobu will always love you. ♡

If you’re a girl, Yoshikage is fine with you being a daddy’s girl, as he was sort of himself, in a sense (Don't mention his relationship with his actual father). He’ll humor you asking him to buy you things, as long as it isn’t every week or terribly expensive. You mustn't become a brat. He isn’t really one for excessive materialism, but nine times out of ten he’ll humor you if it means you’re opening up to him. He’ll rent books and different types of media from the library for you if you ask (That he approves of), and he takes you to the park for some fresh air weekly, even if you’re older. He encourages taking care of yourself, but you shouldn’t be trashy about it. Do your nails, but not bright colors. Style your hair, but not in a tacky way, and leave it natural or, if you MUST dye it, dye it a natural color. He tends to nag you more if you’re fem- no boyfriends, come home by a certain time, etc. Typical overprotective girldad. He uses a softer voice when he speaks with his daughter- he knows he’s supposed to be gentle with you, and he’s not going to risk giving you a complex where you grow up to be like the women he murders and doesn’t keep. 

If you’re a boy, he’s less expressive with you, and you likely get most of your affection from Shinobu. He’s fine emotionally neglecting you because he doesn’t view you as something soft. You must be like him. Your brother’s already a failure, are you going to follow in his footsteps? He would still take his son to the park and get him a library card (Note: Doesn’t rent books for you, only gets you the card) and whatnot, but it’s obvious he’s doing it out of obligation (Shinobu lightly suggested it) rather than real love. Bummer! You get nice clothes, though. Being quiet as a boy is fine as long as you aren’t struggling academically. Which has its advantages! If you’re failing, he’ll tutor you, and that means more attention! That also means getting locked in your room and getting berated because “Men are supposed to be better than this, who will have you when you’re older if you’re stupid?” but hey. At least you can get out of hanging out with him by saying you need to study, but you can’t get out of his life lesson lectures. 

While Hayato is the weird child, you’ve taken on the role of what Yoshikage intended his future children to be like, hopefully. Well behaved, well mannered, you don’t have any disturbing hobbies (Which is bold coming from him), you don’t get in his way. For that, he rewards you. Gifts, quality time, letting you be alone, etc. Anything he can think of that will reinforce this good behavior.  Hayato has mixed feelings about you. He also has a bit of a complex when it comes to gender considering his canon dynamic with his mother of “I”m gonna be the new man of the house and take care of mom,” so your relationship depends heavily on a few things. Who’s older, if you’re closer with Yoshikage or Shinobu, if you’re a girl or a boy (Hayato hasn’t figured out there’s a third option yet, give him a couple years), etc. If you’re a girl, you get pushed in the same box as Shinobu. This creep is pretending to be dad, I have to protect mom and my baby sister! If you’re a guy, he’ll expect you to help him, but cuts you some slack if you fail because you’re younger. Hayato likely dismisses an older sibling entirely, they’re just getting in the way and not helping mom at all, regardless of if they help her or not.

[darkforestfae-tea]

Dancing with Fire: Exploring the Fire Elemental

In the realm of common teachings about fire, a key lesson is to listen attentively and avoid over-reliance on seeking messages. According to many myths, fire communicates once during each session, and once it extinguishes, the message concludes. Fire imparts lessons on confidence in our endeavors, aspirations, and achievements. It challenges us with various situations, fostering adaptability and emphasizing the importance of striving for excellence. From a tiny flame, one can glean valuable insights.

Ways to Embrace these Lessons:

Embrace Confidence

Engage in Glamour Magic

Stand Firm/Assert Boundaries

Cultivate Unusual Friendships

Organize Bonfires/Care for a Hearth Fire

Explore Candle Magic

Different Types of Fire Based Divination:

Fire Scrying

Candle and Wax Reading

Interpreting Flame Shapes

Knife Casting

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Fire represents willpower and intent. It embodies your determination and what you aim to achieve. Your intention's essence can influence a spell's effectiveness, even if not expressed in precise words.

Fire embodies various elements like destruction, control, warmth, light, and more. From torches aiding in studies, to the sun revered as a fiery sphere, or the burning of a city during war, fire balances between chaos and control, offering assistance. Just like the other elements, fire doesn't possess a gender, making the reverence of this divine energy a complex and exquisite notion.

By considering these two perspectives, we can acknowledge fire as a force with dual qualities – both destructive and creative.

Fire embodies a delicate equilibrium, capable of causing destruction while also facilitating new beginnings.

For example, forest fires play a crucial role in enabling certain trees and plants to thrive. The devastation paves the way for fresh growth.

The sun's fiery presence shares a similar duality.

The sun possesses the power to bring about drought-induced destruction, yet it also nurtures life through its energy and warmth.

Fire is often viewed as primal in its wild and untamed state, but its contemporary meanings have been shaped by its interactions with humanity. Its gentler and affectionate characteristics are influenced by human experiences. Examples like bonfires, forest fires, magma, lava, and torches have all held a certain level of reverence.

Some lessons are learned through direct interaction with fire. Whether in forest fires or amidst devastation, there is a concept of renewal and unity emerging from the ashes. The phoenix symbolizes this beautifully, embodying a vibrant bird rising anew from the ashes. Fire symbolizes managing anger and exercising control, akin to a torch's influence. It imparts wisdom on regulating actions to foster a powerful and benevolent spirit, akin to the lessons drawn from a lively bonfire.

Some important points to remember are that fire's personality is flexible, ranging from nurturing and affectionate to manipulative and confrontational, covering a wide spectrum of emotions. The elements, though not all-powerful or ever-present, have a physical presence, making it more practical to light a fire or keep a dagger symbolizing the flame. If you struggle with anger, manipulation, or deep-seated shadow qualities, you may find a connection to the fire element. In a collaborative setting, you might be tasked with tasks involving fire, such as cooking, bonfires, candle and knife rituals, controlled burns, and embracing new experiences. Remember, in the eyes of the elements, we are akin to animals like bears, birds, or lions! Fire typically exhibits a more straightforward nature compared to other elements.

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Placing a Fire Altar at Home

Many individuals choose to set up a fire altar in their bedroom, kitchen, or at the hearth of their home. Bedrooms provide a cozy and intimate setting, kitchens often radiate warmth and occasionally fire, while historically, the hearth was the heart of the home, keeping everyone warm. Fire appreciates carefully selected items but also values a space to simply exist. Consider incorporating candles, warmth, and other cozy elements to create a harmonious environment.

The focus is not solely on taking action, but on igniting the fire itself through spellcasting and offerings. This includes rituals like burning herbs in flames, allowing food to char slightly while cooking, and organizing bonfires and outdoor gatherings to enhance the spiritual connection.

Ensure comprehensive attention to fire safety! Have a fire-safe altar with ceramic bases, fire-resistant fabric, and other necessary precautions. Avoid leaving a flame unattended or any other potential hazards.

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Correspondence:

This is just a glimpse of the many possibilities!

Crystals - Red Jasper, Carnelian, Fire Agate, Sunstone, Citrine, Red Opal, Orange Calcite, Amber, Aragonite, Lava Stone, Mahogany Obsidian, Mookite, Pyrite.

Herbs - Rosemary, Palm, Sunflower, Cinnamon, Chili, Pepper, Cloves, Ginger, Wormwood, Asfoetida, Marigold, Amaranth, Snapdragon, Dragon's Blood, Calendula, Sagebrush, Stinging Nettle, Holly, Cedar, Mace.

Colors - Red, Orange, Blue, Yellow, Gold

Energy Centers - Sacral, Root

Zodiacs - Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius

Representing passionate and adventurous traits, these signs are constantly engaged in new and thrilling activities.

Fire signs are characterized by a strong yearning for autonomy and liberty. They typically value independence and resist being given instructions. Despite their stubbornness in defending their viewpoints, even when incorrect, they exhibit high creativity and thrive on project-based work. Their strong passion is evident in all their pursuits.

Tools - Daggers, Swords, candles, fire starters, tarot cards

Scents - Woody, Smokey, Spicy, Musky

Animals: Lions, tigers, reptiles, bees, ladybugs, scorpions

Lions, tigers, and many reptiles are linked to the fire element in animal symbolism.

These creatures are known for their fierceness, strength, and are often symbolic of leadership and royalty.

Within Chinese culture, lions represent power, strength, courage, and nobility.

Tigers are symbols of good fortune and wealth.

Reptiles are commonly linked to longevity and wisdom.

Animals with these qualities are more likely to be associated with the fire element.

There are numerous compelling reasons for this connection, and these legendary creatures provide insights into the dual nature of the fire element.

Mythical:

Dragons use their fiery breath to fend off humans attempting to take their treasures. They are commonly described as having snake-like scales and spewing flames from their mouths.

The phoenix symbolizes renewal and rebirth by rising from the ashes after death.

It represents the sun's daily death and rebirth, as well as a bird that lived for 500 years before dying in flames.

The myth illustrates the concept of regeneration and rejuvenation, showcasing the human spirit's resilience to overcome challenges and endure in the face of mortality.

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Activities & Spells

Create wax figurines to symbolize a person or thing you wish to remove or control. Ignite it with your focused intention.

Cook with fire using a campfire, grill or stove top.

Practice scrying by gazing into a flame and observing the shapes that manifest in the fire.

Boost your energy by lighting a bonfire and dancing and singing around it, either alone or with your loved ones.

Practice candle magic.

Practice sex magic.

Inscribe sigils, names, words, runes, etc., on paper and then burn it.

This technique can be utilized for either manifestation or banishing based on the intention.

(Remember to dispose of the ashes properly).

Pen your wishes on bay leaves and burn them on incense coal. This ritual can also be utilized for protective spells or banishing negativity.

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Align Yourself with Fire

Go outside and take a walk on a sunny day.

Take a moment to appreciate the warmth of the sunshine on you and observe how the light shines through the leaves. Consider the contrast between sunlight and shade.

Explore alternative manifestations of fire, like: electricity, the sparkle in someone's eye, the comfort of a cuddling body, an enthusiastic speaker, and more.

Seize the opportunity to complete unfinished projects with a passionate drive, experience the energy surging through your veins as you tackle what has been holding you back.

Switch off the lights in your home. Enjoy the evening by candlelight or relax by a glowing fireplace.

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Thank you for Reading! I absolutely love sharing my knowledge & learnings with others. I try to make posts a few times a week! & they are all organized on my profile 🍂🐦‍⬛

Until we cross paths once more! Best wishes to all you wonderful witches! Warm regards, Tea.

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Sources: Fire Magic (Josephine Winter) (z-lib.org).pdf Elemental Magic: A Complete Guide to Fire Folklore & Correspondences Elemental Magic: Tools of Fire The Magic and Folklore of Fire Hold a Fire Scrying Ritual for Divination Fire Magick: How to Tap into it's Powerful Natural Energy Fire Magick for Courage, Strength, & Passion Fire Element: Astonishing Uses And Magickal Correspondences

Photos: From Pinterest

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

The thing that surprised me when I first got into the fandom side of Shameless is that Fiona and Debbie will very rarely receive a nuanced reception for their actions (thinking about the things they do that are wrong and thinking about intent) whereas Lip's actions will always be handwaved away, even when he's 100% in the wrong. I still love Lip but it's led to me sometimes eye rolling at some of his scenes. Really the one's where he's screaming at someone about how wrong they are.

yeah… i love shameless and i love the fandom but they are both incredibly misogynistic, unfortunately.

*cue the man by taylor swift*

lip’s actions will always be defended because people think that he’s cool. debbie and fiona’s actions won’t, because people think that they’re bitches.

and there are so many pieces of evidence that the reason people (men) love lip and hate debbie and fiona is because of gender.

debbie or fiona could (and have) do the same fucked up thing that lip did and people react so differently.

for example:

lip trying to convince karen to keep her baby, wanting desperately to parent the child despite the fact that fiona warns him it’s a shitty decision because they can’t afford it, and for that, he’s stepping up. he’s mature. he’s brave.

debbie lies about being on birth control to purposefully have a kid and refuses to abort it despite fiona’s pleas because they can’t afford it, and she actually raises the kid all on her own, for that, she’s dumb. she’s a brat. she’s a bitch.

both of them were wrong. lip was wrong for telling karen what to do with her body and risking everything for his family for a child he wasn’t even 100% was his. debbie was wrong for lying to have a baby at fifteen (she was not wrong for not aborting franny, though. a lot of people think that she was, but i’m a firm believer in my body my choice, so it’s her absolute right to not abort her child).

debbie drops franny because of sleep deprivation and she’s suddenly the worst. fiona’s a drunk and suddenly she’s a bad character and a shitty person (she is a shitty person, but they all are). lip dropped his kid and is an alcoholic but he’s given the benefit of the doubt.

lip treats the women in his life like shit. probably because of monica. debbie and fiona get screamed at by him for honest mistakes (mostly fiona), mandy, amanda, sierra, and tami all got treated like shit by him when they were dating (tami doesn’t put up with it as much, though). and i’m not even necessarily saying he’s a misogynist, but he generally treats men better than women. and people are a little too okay with that.

all of lip’s actions are defended by how hard he had it, fiona and debbie’s aren’t. people will get really deep with lip, and explain how his every move is okay because his childhood was shitty. debbie and fiona are so complex also, and they literally had the same parents as lip, but people don’t like to get as deep and explain their every move with them (i do tho😉). every shameless character is complex. even the characters that aren’t as big. they all are complex and they have layers and if you look into them you can find a lot. people will do that with characters like lip, but with debbie and fiona they just kind of shrug it off. personally i find debbie much more interesting than lip but that’s just me.

if you’re going to defend lip because of how he was raised, you should defend all of the siblings. they literally grew up together.

and i love lip. i’m not trying to say i hate him, but if people are going to shit on fiona and debbie, then people should shit on lip, too.

i’ve said this before, but all of the characters resemble a role. they all have trauma and they all have different trauma responses. but just because they deal with it differently doesn’t mean that they aren’t traumatized.

i’m getting off topic as always lol.

but i wish that lip would get held accountable more. and i wish that people would go easier on fiona and debbie.

the show is called shameless. all of the characters are massive pieces of shit. to call any character except for like, liam, a good person is stupid because that’s missing the entire point. just because you like a character doesn’t mean that they’re an angel. one of my favorite characters is debbie and she’s a piece of shit. like she sucks ass but i also love her.

i’m unhappy with this post i might just redo it😭

[cucumbiejerbiegalope]

How I Met My Husband

By Alice Munros

INTRODUCTION

About the Author

Alice Munro is a beloved Canadian novelist and short story writer who has captivated readers around the world with her captivating and nuanced literary style. Born in 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, Munro grew up in a turbulent family environment before going on to study English Literature at the University of Western Ontario. Throughout her life, she has published numerous collections of short stories that explore complex themes such as love, loss, and the struggle to find one's place in the world. Her work has been praised for its honesty and emotional depth, which often draws upon her own experiences growing up in rural Canada. Despite facing significant challenges throughout her personal life, Munro continues to be an inspiration to many aspiring writers today.

About the Novel

Alice Munro's "How I Met My Husband" is a classic short story that explores the theme of social mobility and the power dynamics between men and women in rural Ontario during the 1950s. The protagonist, a young maid named Edie, develops a crush on the handsome pilot Chris Watters, who charms her with his stories of travel and adventure. However, when she learns that he is engaged to the wealthy Alice Kelling, Edie becomes disillusioned and decides to move on with her life.

Statement of the author

"How I Met My Husband"? It's a pretty fascinating story with an even more interesting thesis statement that speaks to the complexities and contradictions of love and romance. Munro argues, in essence, that we tend to fall in love with people because they represent something that is missing from our own lives - a kind of fantasy or idealized version of ourselves.

My own statement

But for me those fantasies can be shattered by the reality of the person we're actually involved with, leading to disappointment and disillusionment. The protagonist of the story learns this lesson firsthand as she falls in love with a man who seems to embody all her hopes and desires, only to realize that he is not what she thought he was. It's a poignant reminder that love is never quite as simple as we want it to be - but it can still be beautiful nonetheless.

Summary

Romantic relationship begins with an unexpected incident, leading to a never-ending journey of love.innocent girl who is visiting relatives in rural Ontario. She is captivated by the stunning view of the farm, and decides to climb up the steps of a strange house that she spots to get a better view. By this chance encounter with Chris Watters, a pilot, who flies over her head, the series of events that unfold bring him in, as her eventual husband as well. As fate would have it, Edie falls in love with Chris, thanks to his charming personality, and his sophisticated demeanor. It is as though they both are meant to be together, as Edie, initially, had not considered him as a romantic prospect, she had even taken a firm stance of steering clear of romance. But alas, destiny had other plans for her. In some ways, it depicts how our choices and decisions in life can alter our fate in ways that we cannot predict or expect.

Analysis

Alice Munro's "How I Met My Husband" is a short story that is widely regarded as a masterpiece of modern literature. However, like any work of art, it is not without its flaws. The story takes place in a predominantly white, rural community, and there is no representation of diverse cultural backgrounds or experiences.

Conclusion

The story presents traditional gender roles. This reinforces gender stereotypes and fails to challenge them. It is important to note that these criticisms are not meant to diminish the value of the story or the skill of the author. Instead, they are intended to encourage critical thinking and discussion about the themes and messages conveyed in the story.

[nerdkiller]

The Kains being identified as “feudal lords” by Dankovsky/an NPC remains funny to me, bc by all accounts it seems they actually are part of the landed gentry through some sort of tie to the Emperor (P2), or being of an old lineage (Classic) or a mix of the two, with hints in both games that Simon was the original colonizer of the Town... so them thinking Simon was *murdered* (threatening peasant revolt) and also having rites all obsessed with halting decay/preservation and immortality are interesting in that light... especially considering the time period Pathologic harkens to. And while I think Georgiy and Victor somewhat accept both a real and existential death, Maria and Khan have interesting takes. Like we know Capella and Vlad Jr are both rebelling against their bourgeoisie parents’ order of domination in complex but also hypocritical ways but the Kains do this as well in the same hypocritical and complex way.

Khan is obvious in the sense that he associates with far more than just those in the Stone Yard; being friends with Notkin and Sticky and other Town urchin kids, and ruling generally over the class of children which includes the Kin teens & children as well. Key is that his marriage to Capella represents a strategic alliance between the bourgeoisie & gentry, something reflected in early modern history as power began to shift!

But Maria chooses to extend beyond her class too: I’m thinking specifically of Maria talking about handing power to the lowest echelons of society and upturning it in Classic, her statement about utopias needing dirt to be more than a child's dream... I think she envisions a future for herself that ultimately cannot exist, but in the sort of paradox she describes: one where her class can keep their prestige & control while utopian conditions and modern views on self actualization can also exist for everyone else. I wouldn't say she feels *guilty* about the conditions of the working classes, but I wouldn't say she's wholly unsympathetic/totally ignorant/uninterested; I think both Victor but moreso Maria have philanthropic intentions for this reason, but that only goes so far.

Patriarchy definitely has a play here though in defining the difference, because it has a role in inheritance in power, including in a spiritual sense: the division of duties of a Ruler/Mistress are very firm (though Saburov's comments in early Changeling route shows Clara's status blurs these gendered divisions, at least until she comes into her fate as a Mistress). Capella in P2 describes not even being considered for inheritance over the Bull Project in a way that feels gendered, and she identifies Khan as the main heir despite being him second born and not even favored.

This being true points to the issue in Maria's plan: her identifying as the "head" of the family in her Classic ending is as much of a fantasy as the Utopian ending is overall. Like I don't think the Bachelor ever appears in the ending sequence because it's not *real*, at least for us as players. Her dreams are just not possible even though they might be alluring, but the Polyhedron actualizes them in her ending.

Most important though is that regardless of how realistic/pragmatic Khan's position is versus Maria's, both suggest a decay for the social order the Kains signified in the Town, the old medieval-era magic and power: Khan marries down a class and his role shifts from that of Simon's and his father's to something more akin to Saburov's, and Maria's lineage ends with her own death.

[lordascapelion]

Systems of oppression are basically never abolished. They just pivot and power is redistributed to new loci. The only way to get rid of them is to destroy the complexity they were created to manage and that typically has the effect of mass death, so no thanks.

Gender, as defined as the social elements surrounding biological sex, is indeed socially constructed, but that doesn’t mean it’s fake or meaningless. It’s there to communicate biological realities required to facilitate reproduction. Women will take steps to make themselves look more attractive to acquire a good man to mate with and men will hunt down accomplishments to make themselves good mates. You can isolate and criticize one element or another but the holistic system is pretty firm. There will be people that fall outside these norms and I don’t think they should be ostracized or abused, but you cannot maintain reproductive capacity with an entire population of deviants.

And freaking Citation Needed for Christianity leading to oppression. Christianity’s main rivals in the early centuries AD were things like Mithraism which was almost hilariously misogynistic in it’s over the top chauvinism. Paganism was often very macho as well (though it did vary depending on the culture and environment.)

Christianity specifically gave roles to women and outcasts. There are entire sermons where Jesus calls people to not reject the unfortunate. It promotes high levels of social trust and openness. It calls people to ignore or overlook other differences and to see people as children of God. Christian proselytization was more often peaceful than it was violent and the historical record backs this up (and there are records of both peaceful and violent conversions so you know that it wasn’t all just doctored history.) Christianity flourished because it encouraged many different types of people to cooperate in spite of their differences and to see each other as worthy human beings with inherent value. If it were not for Christianity, you would not have received the cultural background to have been inspired to make this post to begin with. Without Christianity you might not even have a computer to make this post with.

Bigots don't realize how far I want society to go in terms of acceptance. I want to see a world where an eighteen year old getting bottom surgery that leaves them entirely without genitals, or with both sets of sex organs, to be commonplace. I want to see a world where the hotboy singer all the straight girles are fawning over to be an underweight pre T trans guy. I want there to be public theistic luciferian pagan churches, that were converted from catholic churches, and have church school attached to them. I want fathers to be proud of their daughters becoming sex workers. I want the title of ceo to seem as ancient as the title of duke. I want it to be considered normal that some psychotic people carry weapons for self defense. I want it to be normalized for people to be on puberty blockers deep into adulthood. I want...

[callistolivia]

Asteroids Part 6; Sisterhood of Pallas Athena, Symbolism of the Asteroid Pallas Athene

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

The long overdue sixth part of my asteroid series is finally here. 

 The asteroid Pallas Athene is one of the more prominent asteroids covered in the astrological community thanks to Demetra George’s “Asteroids Goddesses; The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-emerging Feminine.” In this part, I will cover the asteroid’s symbolism and interpretation based on mythology, gathered research from authors such as Demetra George, and my own knowledge.

 The ancient Greek goddess Athena may have been synonymous with the Egyptian goddess Neith and possibly other earlier known goddesses. Throughout this asteroid series ( and just in general for my astrological interpretations) I’ve tried to peel back further from Greek origins and more toward Kemetic or Sumerian origins for a pure and truly ancient understanding of asteroids named after Greek deities. However, I’ve accepted that for Pallas Athene, the Greek mythologies derive important symbolism that just isn’t clearly depicted from what we know of Neith or other earlier goddesses synonymous with Athena.

The Mythologies of Athena

 Athena is the goddess of war and wisdom. She was revered by gods alike and those who worshipped her for her remarkable strength, courage, wit, and creativity. Her birth story begins with Zeus swallowing the titan Metis who was carrying the unborn Athena. After some time had passed, Zeus develops a headache that would only be cured by Hephaestus’ splitting open his skull. Out from Zeus’ skull Athena is born as a fully grown woman encompassing all of her remarkable traits. Athena was Zeus’ favourite child, for she was his creation; so purely in his image of goodness, power, and wisdom.  Like Vesta (or Hestia), she is a virgin goddess, she serves herself and is whole with herself. Though, she had a friend who she quite possibly could have been in love with and she did love; Pallas.

Athena and Pallas  Pallas was the daughter of Triton. She was equal to Athena in wisdom and the art of war. They were partners in battle and one day the gods were disputing which of the two goddesses were stronger. So the two goddesses sparred and Zeus interfered allowing Athena to have the upperhand. Unfortunately this ended up fatally wounding Pallas. Athena was so heartbroken that she added Pallas’ name to her own to honour her. While it is never mentioned in the myth between these two goddesses, I speculate the possibility that their relationship may have been more, possibly as lovers in war. In ancient Greek and Roman times, it was a known practice that soldiers would often become romantically involved with one of their peers, even if they had a partner back at home. This was because they believed you would fight better for someone you love, especially if it was to avenge the death of a lover. 

Athena and Medusa  While there are several interpretations of this particular myth, the one that I find significance with is the one that describes Athena aiding Medusa.   Medusa was said to once be a very beautiful woman who made a vow for herself to remain virginal. However, her beauty drew on the male gaze and she was preyed upon against her will. The ocean god Poseidon tried to have his way with Medusa, but Athena stepped in and transformed Medusa into an ugly creature with snakes for a head of hair, and anyone who looked into Medusa’s eyes would turn stone.   This myth often depicts Athena as jealous of Medusa’s beauty, but in truth, this would be extremely out of character for Athena who’s not concerned with how others perceive her, particularly men. Athena cloaks Medusa with ugliness as a defense– as a way to protect Medusa from unwanted attention. This myth parallels greatly with the internal struggle many people have, particularly women, with the threats and vulnerability that coincide with embracing beauty and femininity. 

Helper to Heroes  Athena often makes appearances in myths about a hero’s journey and aids the hero in some way. She often has some sort of valuable foresight or tool to give the hero. Mortals look to her for her strength, wit, and strategy.   The story with Medusa continues as Athena actually aids Perseus upon hearing he needs to take Medusa’s head. She gives him a reflective shield so he can see Medusa without looking into her eyes and turning to stone. Many of the common interpretations of this myth state that Athena hated Medusa which is why she was so willing to help Perseus on this quest. However, following the interpretation I mentioned where Athena turned Medusa into a gorgon for her protection, Athena would have been the only one to understand the circumstances of Medusa. In addition to this, in the myth itself Medusa plays more-so as a symbolic prop instead of a character. Particularly because Medusa as a gorgon is described as having snakes for hair– snakes in myths can (but not exclusively) symbolize treachery and bad spirits needing to be expelled. We see this in stories like Inanna and the Huluppu tree where people often confuse “lilītu” with the actual archetype or character Lilith; there was no Lilith in that story, just spirits needing to be expelled from a tree.

The Seer  Athena is often described by poets as being “grey-eyed” and there is symbolism behind this. According to Wikipedia the choice to describe her this way is quite deliberate; “In Homer's epic works, Athena's most common epithet is Glaukopis (γλαυκῶπις), which usually is translated as, "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes". The word is a combination of glaukós (γλαυκός, meaning "gleaming, silvery", and later, "bluish-green" or "gray") and ṓps (ὤψ, "eye, face"). It is interesting to note that glaúx (γλαύξ, "little owl") is from the same root, presumably according to some, because of the bird's own distinctive eyes.” Athena is also often depicted as or with an owl which is all deliberate symbolism of her wisdom, keen perception, and foresight. There is a seer quality about Athena that is tuned into aiding justice and heroism.

Themes of the Asteroid Pallas Athene

Fear or repulsion of feminine expression in oneself

Deconstructing heteronormativity

Equality, democracy

Psychic vision, foresight

Companionship, sisterhood, brotherhood

Same-sex experiences, perceptions, and empathy

Creative vision

Justice

Intellectual power

Maternal absence

 Pallas Athene being an asteroid, only with prominence in the birth chart will her themes and the complexes arising out of those themes be noticeable. Otherwise, Pallas Athene in one’s birth chart demonstrates where one tends to have strategic foresight/vision, where one meets Pallas Athene-like characters, and where one is called to serve justice.

Aspects to Pallas Athene

Sun-Pallas Athene In hard aspects, such as a square or opposition, this contact can be quite troublesome and makes for complexes the individual will have to fight to overcome. The difficult aspects signify negative experiences with the paternal figure in their life which translates over into adulthood as having distrust in and difficulty with men. As most societies are patriarchal, these aspects tend to be harder for feminine identifying individuals. These individuals are keenly aware of the violence that can coincide with objectification, particularly the objectification of feminine expression. When this type’s innate identity is objectified, defences are put up and they reject and conceal their expression. Being viewed in a sexual nature in an unwarranted way kills the confidence in these individuals; it conflicts with how they view themselves as an entire being and their purpose. Being comfortable with one’s sexuality can be an issue in the more difficult aspects with this contact as well; there may be shame, repulsion, or rejection of one’s sexuality. To aid these complexes, therapy as well as companionship and empathy from people who share the same experiences or trauma is beneficial.   In positive aspects, such as a trine or sextile, we see the opposite of the crippling experiences in the negative ones. These individuals tend to be comfortable and even celebratory in either binary expression; they are often quite androgynous. They are also quite comfortable in their sexuality as well as they are firm believers in dismantling gender roles and heteronormativity. These individuals are fighters for people with Pallas Athene complexes and injustice in general. They have a tremendous amount of strength, empathy, and willingness to understand gendered, sexual, and political issues. These individuals can find their life’s purpose, fulfillment, and accomplishments through their intellectual creativity.  The conjunction brings out Pallas Athenian archetype within one’s character. These individuals will be very Pallas Athenian in that they will see within themselves the complexes that arise from both the positive and negative aspects. They often have quite a strong presence, cunning intellect, and the foresight vision.

Moon-Pallas Athene  In positive contacts, these aspects bring out the psychic nature of Pallas Athene– Pallas Athene’s foresight and the wisdom in part with that. These individuals are empaths and healers. In the positive aspects, this is Pallas Athene reconciled with the fact that she never knew her mother; in individuals, it is a deep connection with the maternal expression within them (through a Pallas Athenian lens) or a deep connection with the maternal figure in their life. The maternal figure in their life may have been very Pallas Athene-like or could have been a contributor to giving the individual the strength, wit, and wisdom that matches Pallas Athene’s archetype. Creative vision is evoked by emotional exploration  In negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, there can be an absence of a maternal figure. Just like Pallas Athena herself, this individual may have been raised by their father with their father’s interests on the forefront. As a result, feminine expression is often null or even despised or feared. These individuals may repress their emotions surrounding their own gender or sexuality issues. They can be quite defensive and unless the Sun has prominence in the chart, they can also disguise their expression and true identity. These individuals can be quite masculine, over-functioning, and independent; they fear depending on others and self incompetence. To aid these complexes, they need to surround themselves with people that can bring out the softer nature hiding within them; they need to see that being nurtured and loved does not diminish their strength and ability.  The conjunction brings out complexes that resemble both the positive and negative aspects, though the maternal figure is most often present like in the positive contacts. Psychic vision is very potent with the conjunction and there is an urge to serve justice with it.

Mercury-Pallas Athene  In positive aspects and the conjunction, we see individuals with immense creative intellect. These people are often leaders in the fields of science, art,  politics, and law. People look to these individuals for their ability to strategize and look at the whole picture. As Pallas Athene touches the planet of communication, these individuals will often have a powerful voice, especially for those who don’t and are in need of justice. They can make for great advocates for gender and sexuality issues.  In the negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, we see individuals who struggles to have a voice on gender and sexuality issues, or just in general. These people can find their voice by making connections with others who share similar issues and by being part of a group setting.

Venus-Pallas Athene  The Venus contacts to Pallas Athene can be quite similar to the Sun contacts in that the complexes surrounding feminine expression tend to be the same. In the negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, there is the same repulsion towards feminine expression in oneself. It stems from fears developed from observing a patriarchal society’s perception of women and sometimes trauma. There may even be internalized misogyny present as these individuals have a tendency to reject traits that could be perceived as feminine, as they equate femininity to weakness and incompetence. These individuals present themselves as tough, rigid, unlike the others, and often androgynous or hyper masculine. They fear being taken advantage of and avoid any sign of weakness at all costs. Their inability to let their guard down can hinder close relationships; these people often deny themselves of romantic connections and keep everyone at arm's length. To cope, these individuals will put all of their focus into creative outlets and put their accomplishments on a pedestal over relationships. To aid rigidity and to reconnect with feminine expression, these individuals need to surround themselves with strong figures who are very confident in their feminine expression; they need role models and will find strength in numbers (being part of a support system). Re-education may need to be involved in the healing process as well. Exploring further with where ever Venus is in the individual’s chart and honing in on Venusian activities can really benefit this individual’s self acceptance, inner beauty, and sexuality.  In the positive aspects, such as the trine or sextile, there is radiating confidence, beauty, strength, creativity and merging of masculine and feminine energies. In these aspects is where Aphrodite and Athena meet eye to eye. These individuals are often very comfortable in their sexual expression; they tend to be drawn to feminine energies. As Pallas Athene aspects tend to make for, these individuals also tend to be express themselves androgynously, but are comfortable with feminine expression. They are very celebratory over it, similar to the Sun aspects. These individuals tend to be quite independent, but definitely not closed off. There is often an urge to utilize their strength and confidence in advocating for women’s right and issues, and it should be encouraged as these individuals are often the perfect candidate to advocate on  these issues. These individuals possess some healing abilities as well and heal others through empathy. Empathy for same-sex experiences is a prominent theme for both the positive and negative aspects; the natural connectivity or alliance with one’s gender makes them feel protected and valid.   With the conjunction, many of the themes found in the Venus-Pallas Athene aspects are intensified. Pallas Athene is somewhat personified in the individual and there is a much more radical need to demonstrate their autonomy over how they choose to express themselves. Expressing themselves through creative means is often very important and almost always contains a very Pallas Athenian message.

Mars-Pallas Athene  In positive contacts, such as a trine or sextile, Mars emphasizes that accomplishments and success can be found through Pallas Athene. Individuals with these aspects make excellent leaders, people want to nominate this type of individual to be in control and make the decisions. These individuals have a lot of drive, strength, and prestige, as well as empathy and compassion that does not diminish those qualities. There’s a keen awareness for underdogs and an urge to aid those beneath them. In feminine identifying individuals, utilizing masculine traits yields success, and in masculine identifying individuals, utilizing feminine traits yields success. Strong, lifelong companionship with the opposite sex is a common theme with these aspects as well.   With negative aspects, such as a square or opposition, there can be intense strife with the opposite sex. Additionally, strife with one’s own gendered expression; either hyper masculine or hyper feminine to conceal one side of the binary. Much of the repulsion towards one specific expression is due to societal conditioning as well as upbringing; it’s a defense mechanism to protect themselves from being perceived as either too weak or too harsh. There can be a lot of anger within the negative aspects as well; it would be best to redirect this anger towards a cause, such as advocating for women’s rights, men’s mental health support, protecting children (particularly if the 5th house is involved), environmentalism, sexual freedom, religious freedom, and so on. Therapy and support groups can aid self resentment and resentment towards the opposite sex.   With the conjunction, Pallas Athene is personified in the individual when they are challenged or angry. They may be quite radical, independent, and domineering; they are always in charge. They despise being perceived as incompetent or submissive. Pallas Athene’s strategic and cunning qualities are apparent in the conjunction as well; these individuals are not people you can fool or surpass, especially when a goal is on the line.

Jupiter-Pallas Athene  In all Jupiter contacts, Pallas Athene’s psychic foresight is present. Individuals with these aspects are blessed with intuition and wisdom. They hold valuable advice and counsel to others as well as themselves. They tend to be respected by many; their companionships and kinships are their armies.  Particularly in the positive aspects and the conjunction, these individuals would do well in politics, law, and creative arts. Serving justice is particularly important to this asteroid when in contact with Jupiter. Symbolically Jupiter is Zeus, Athena’s father, who loved and praised Athena the most out of all of his children. This may translate as an individual who had a similar positive relationship with their father; a father who is particularly proud of the individual, who may also could have been quite Jupiter-like. It also signifies the urge to be the same type of parental figure to their own children.

Saturn-Pallas Athene  With positive aspects, such as a trine or sextile, there is creative focus and prestige. The hard work from these individuals doesn’t go unnoticed. Saturn amps up Pallas Athene’s urge to serve justice; there’s often feelings of responsibility over something as big as society. These individuals would do well in law, politics, or any position of leadership. Reconstruction of societal values is a common theme with these aspects. These individuals seek change for how society perceives gender expression, sexuality, and politics. On a different side of the same coin, these individuals may have a bit of rigidity within themselves when it comes to true self expression, particularly with expressing femininity. Though, the negative aspects are considerably more stark than the positive.  With negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, there is almost always issues with the paternal figure or one of the individual’s parental figures (particularly if one parent is a stern, overfunctioner). The individual may have had high expectations held against them at a young age or there may have been a preconceived notion from a parental figure that the individual is incompetent due to how the individual expresses themselves or based on the individual’s values. The individual will feel inadequate to their peers, especially to a specific sex. There is rigidity in their expression, as mentioned earlier. These individuals may overcompensate for gendered stereotypes inflicted upon them. These individuals need to redirect their purpose for themselves and not for others. Therapy may aid them in relearning that they are not put on this planet to meet someone else’s expectations. Once confidence is regained, they can reign the creative focus, prestige, and leadership qualities that the positive aspects signify.  The conjunction can demonstrate qualities from both the positive and negative aspects and is much more potent and noticeable out of all of the Saturn aspects.

Uranus-Pallas Athene  In all Uranus-Pallas Athene contacts, there is an urge to come together with people to make change. Here is where Athena builds her army and strategically conquers and destroys harmful constructs. The aspects with Uranus are all about world betterment, particularly with issues dealing with gender and sexuality.  In positive aspects and the conjunction, Pallas Athene’s geniusness is very apparent. Individuals with these aspects often find success in sciences or anything that utilizes creative intellect. 

Neptune-Pallas Athene  In all Neptune-Pallas Athene contacts, individuals can find access to psychic power and strong intuition. These individuals have dreams of prophecy and can see far into the future. These individuals also tend to have a knack for arts that require a lot of technicalities and vision such as music and film.   People with the conjunction may find their psychic powers to be particularly potent and these people are often very spiritually aligned. Their binary expression has special importance to their spirituality. Spiritual devotion is merged with their self expression; whether that be the type of spirituality they practice or perhaps a special relatability to specific deities or energies. 

Pluto-Pallas Athene  These aspects are most apparent when it’s the conjunction or accompanied with a personal planet. These aspects give an individual the urge to really explore the psychology behind Pallas Athene complexes. There is dedication to understanding difficult constructs, particularly gender, sexual, social, political constructs. This urge is accompanied with the desire to transform the world’s beliefs, similar to the Uranus aspects.    In negative contacts, these aspects can signify this urge stemming from a place of trauma and wanting to heal and rebuild the self. 

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Ascendant  Athena is personified in the individual. These are people of strength, prestige, wit, and beauty. They possess the creative vision this world needs. These people break societal norms through their self expression and defy gender and sexual stereotypes. 

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Imum Coeli  Here the asteroid is quite concealed as it is furthest away from the spotlight (midheaven) and squares the ascendant. These people tend to not outwardly express Pallas Athenian qualities unless certain aspects demonstrate otherwise. Pallas Athene’s psychic qualities are more awoken here as the individual identifies Pallas Athene inwardly.   There may be a very Pallas Athenian person in this individual’s family or they are somewhat of a Athena-archetype themselves to their family (most loved child, most outspoken, known for creative intellect, etc.)

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Descendent  These individuals encounter or even draw in many Pallas Athenian-like people. Either that because they are drawn to these types of people or their projection out into the world brings them about as a way of balancing the individual or teaching them something they don’t see within themselves. These individuals tend to have a particularly fondness (platonic, romantic, or sexual) to their own gender.

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Midheaven  Here the asteroid is furthest away from home (Imum Coeli) and squares the ascendant. These individuals may possess some of the complexes Pallas Athene signifies on gender and sexual expression. There may be maternal absence and there is almost always a hyperfixation on career and success over relationships. These individuals are often the leaders in their workplace, if not, they still walk to the beat of their own drum and tend to be well respected. They may confuse the respect they earn by how they express themselves rather than their actual accomplishments. This can cause some difficulty around being true to oneself in terms of self expression. They need to seperate who they are being a factor in what they can accomplish and be known for.

© - @star-astrology 2021 / All rights reserved.

[straye]

CHARACTER SHEET.

tagging.   anyone stumbling across this!

basics.

full name.   kogami shinya. known as.   shepherd 2, hound 3. nickname(s).    ko, ko-chan, gami, shinya-kun, doggy. gender.   cis man. age.   depends on the verse; as of current canon point, 36. 20 as a fresh inspector, 28 as an enforcer, and 32(?) as a guerrilla fighter. zodiac.  leo sun, aquarius moon, sagittarius rising. spoken languages.   Japanese (primary), Lao (Primary), english, Latin, French, German, Thai, Viet, Khmer, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetic, Tagalong. All in order of fluency.

physical characteristics.

hair color.   black eye color.   gray; appears blue in some lighting, but it’s undoubtedly gray. body type.   mesomorphic; incredibly muscular and built. Slimmer at the waist and somewhat above average in height compared to other Japanese men, though incredibly tall for a Lao man. voice.   deep, naturally gravelly, spoken with a bit of a growl at his lowest, a sigh at his highest. perpetually serious sounding. being a smoker doesn’t help much. dominant hand.   right, has ambidextrous capabilities. tattoos.   none. birthmarks.   none.

childhood.

place of birth.   sagamihara / kanagawa / japan. hometown.   see above. sibling(s).   none. parents.    keo souvannakham / kogami, kogami tomoyo. both alive.

adult life.

occupation.  current canon point, tactical advisor for the ministry of foreign affairs’s suppressing action division; formerly an inspector and enforcer for the ministry of welfare and public safety, a tactical advisor for resistance fighters in Southeast Asia, and nomadic mercenary. close friends.   ginoza nobuchika, best friend since they met high school. akane tsunemori, formerly junior supervisor and now confidante. kagari shuusei, coworker and best friend. masaoka tomomi, father figure, former subordinate turned coworker, close friend. sasayama mitsuru; maintained a very strange relationship which may otherwise be perceived as friendship. relationship status.   single. financial status.   working class growing up, then lower middle class in adulthood. does heavy saving for luxuries and vices. driver’s license.   has three: one for regular vehicles (ie, cars), two wheeled vehicles (ie, motorcycles) and one for large special vehicles (ie construction vehicles, tractors) criminal record.   up to age 28, his only crime was his mental health spiraling, though after that, first degree/capital murder and international terrorism (cases of inciting civil disorder, participating in guerrilla warfare that may otherwise be considered domestic terrorism) and other counts of first degree murder.

sex and romance.

romantic orientation.   biromantic / panromantic. sexual orientation.  bisexual / pansexual. preferred emotional role.   he’s in his comfort zone when providing the supporter role rather than being the supported since he’s firm in his boundaries of opening up himself. preferred sexual role.   verse/switch with equal preference for either penetrating / penetrated role, though he more often than not he takes the penetrating role and doesn’t mind it. In the conversation of submissive / dominating, he prefers a dominant partner. libido.   it’s there, but inconsequential on most days. doesn’t pass up the opportunity to get laid, if that helps the answer. turn-ons.   intelligence, openness, independence, boldness. kindness, compassion, wit, and a bit of an attitude. turn-offs.   single-mindedness, cruelty, evil, tyrannical behavior, someone trying to pry into him, someone disrespecting his boundaries, presumptuous characters, and assumptions. love language.   quality time, acts of service. relationship tendencies.   has had a few relationships and has dated around, but never anything too serious or long term.

miscellaneous.

hobbies to pass time.   Reading, rope work, exercising / training, video-games, hiking, sports. mental illness(es).   complex post-traumatic stress disorder,  instances of sleep paralysis and night terrors, OCD, ADHD, bipolar ii disorder, depression, anxiety, some instances of visual and auditory hallucinations. left or right-brained. phobia(s).   none. self-confidence level.   self assured, but humble. while he won’t go out of his way to put himself down, he very clearly has some issues with his self-image in the way he dehumanizes himself, but he never makes this known.

[jamestrmtx]

Fairytale Complex - [Undertale | Sans x Reader]

[Gender Neutral, Frisk's Parent Reader | Slow Burn]

Chapter Nineteen | Temmie Village (Part 2 of 2)

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

The air conditioner paired up with the sound of the rain against the windshield and the wheels against the wet road quell and soothe both your stress and nausea alike; drowsiness replaces them and allows you to relax with a sigh. It feels odd to have someone driving while you're resting at the back, though there's not much you can do about it. The drag of your steps as you tried to climb into the car even with the help of your co-workers had been sufficient for Papyrus to insist you laid down and for Sans to agree with him. The latter's driving remains slow and careful throughout, strikingly different compared to how he usually was when handling his own vehicle. You assume he's doing it for your sake, until a faint melody you once believed to be coming from the radio turns loud enough to make the car's windows boom and vibrate.

A cheery beat floods your ears, and -- when you sit up straight -- you can see there's what looks like a parade taking place right in the middle of the street. Large tents, plastic ponchos, and colourful umbrellas help shield against the ongoing rain. There's a flower float with Frisk's face on it, along with a cat-dog hybrid standing on top of it, clad in a student uniform and waving a flag with a presumably newly-opened school's logo stamped on it. You recognize the monster from one of the few unbelievable tales -- now facts -- Frisk had told you about, though you can't exactly bring yourself to take in the oddity of that sight. Seeing Temmies walking around and near the float isn't the strange thing, but -- rather -- the fact that there's an entire choir of them marching forward along the streets, singing almost effortlessly to the complex tune of the song. Not only that, but there's another float following behind them, this one promoting free education and advertised by a college graduate -- also a Temmie, with the only noticeable difference from the rest being she's wearing a teacher's suit jacket and a pair of glasses.

Just as you hear the car's signal click left, you spot Frisk amongst the small crowd surrounding the second float. They're sporting a bright yellow raincoat, smiling wide, and with their hand held tight by Toriel's, who stays behind while they wave back at all the Temmies and passerby waving at them. Some drivers stop to take in the scenery while others drive by quickly; what sends alarms off in your head is realizing how exposed Frisk is to the public and how little protection you notice around them.

"Wait," you call out, word blurted. "What's…" Your eyes fix on them and how calm, happy, and carefree they seem regardless of those dangers. A pang of jealousy makes its way to your chest when you see they encourage Toriel to join them, bringing her out of the shadows and into the spotlight. "What's going on?" You try to shake those feelings aside, yet you can't help the persistent and bitter emotion that comes with knowing Toriel had played a major, supportive role in one of Frisk's biggest journeys. She'd been their aid for almost two entire months -- a time when you could only work yourself down to the bone, and stress and cry over your loss, neither of which helped much at the end of it all.

"That was supposed to be one of the surprises, but well…" His voice sounds tense -- as if he's read right through you. "But with what happened, well-"

"It's… It's okay."

You try to calm yourself down.

He didn't need to say anything else.

It wasn't his fault, just as it wasn't Toriel's or anybody else's. You'd refused to take the medicine specifically prescribed for you, and that resulted in you having to occupy a busy friend for no reason other than purposely neglecting something you were supposed to adhere to for the betterment of your health. Toriel was watching over Frisk as she so promised. On a similar note, Papyrus had been more than kind enough to offer you the back seat of his car for you to rest in while you made it somewhere to eat after dropping him off where he needed to be. He accepted the risks of running late simply to agree with Sans on picking you up from work, and he even rejected using your own vehicle to keep it protected from the rain.

What you didn't comprehend was why none of the monsters informed you about this earlier than today.

"I understand this was meant to be a surprise, but…" Your tone falters, though you clear your throat to regain strength. "But why didn't you ask for my permission first -- before letting Frisk take part in something like this?" You stop for a moment. "I- I'm not against it, but after what happened at the bus, I…" 

You grab your knees and squeeze them, preventing yourself from getting emotional. 

"I fear for their safety." You swallow hard, feeling nausea returning. "If things were different, I wouldn't mind, but they're not. The Surface is too dangerous for them now." Reluctance makes your chest hurt. "I'm not seen as a good parent by many, and then there's that whole thing with CPS and Frisk's custody, and... And now my health, too." You huff and take a breather. "There's just so many things I'm afraid will go wrong, that I… I-"

A familiar warmth covers your face; two hands slip around your waist.

"Easy now," the eldest of the two says. "Else you're gonna end up faintin' again," he adds, well-mannered humour tracing his sentence.

You hold on tight and shudder at the feeling of his face pressing against your collarbones. His head stays there while you settle down; his hands -- conversely -- run up and down your back, attempting to further calm your stress. No other words are said as he remains that way.

At that, you continue with, "I'm afraid of them being this out in the open, a- and even more when I can't be there for them." 

You let him go and stare right at him, eager to set things straight. 

"It's amazing you're celebrating Frisk's achievements in such a wonderful way, b- but..." A smile shows on your face, conflicted with reluctance you can't avoid and a bitterness you try to shake off. "But I'm their parent, Sans," you add, words strained. "I… I've only known you for a few months, and yet," you say, hesitating, "and yet… You're like this with me. I don't understand how you and others can be this way, s- so quick to trust and befriend, but… I can't be that way. Everything's going too fast, and I need a little more time -- until I figure out what actions I should take as a parent." You grab his hand and squeeze firm at it, smiling again afterwards, a bit more honest than before. "I'm eternally grateful for everything so far, but… Please don't forget I'm still Frisk's main guardian, e- even after all that." Notwithstanding, your smile doesn't last long. "Maybe I'm bitter, or maybe I really do have the right to feel angry about this, but either way... I need to be careful." A pause and a breath. "And I acknowledge I'm not the best parent, but… But I still need to prioritize Frisk's safety before everything else."

Sans nods and squeezes your hand back. "I'll let others know about this too, then -- If that's alright with you, 'course."

Your smile returns. "That would be nice."

"Would you feel better knowing there's a protective barrier surrounding the parade?" Papyrus intervenes, helping ease out the mood. 

He's now sitting behind the wheel, replacing Sans while he stays with you by the back seat. His driving is much more careful, yet his speed is quicker now that the parade's left more space for him to pass through. "We haven't turned a blind eye to this situation either, (L/N)," he says, looking at you from the rear-view mirror. "Frisk's safety is just as important as their happiness!"

You look to his side and later at the parade, staring more closely to notice the reason for Frisk's raincoat still being intact is a barrier similar to Sans's magic, though of a different colour compared to his.

"We were going to inform you after you clocked out of work, but…"

You let out a chuckle -- more defeated than anything else. "I apologize for that, then." You bring a hand to the back of your neck and rub at it. "I've been... reckless, as of late."

"Why's that?" he asks, sounding just as intrigued as Sans looks.

"I haven't been taking care of myself like I should. If I were, things wouldn't be like this. I... I would've been healthy, and Sans would've told me about this. I was irresponsible with my health, and now I'm bothering others to help me with something that could've been avoided."

Your confession is followed up by a sharp inhale and a shudder as you then add, "I haven't done anything to change how many hours and days I work every week, now that I don't need to do that as much, and…" You hesitate. "And I haven't been taking the doctor's orders that seriously, either." Your hands return to your knees, where you squeeze tight enough to almost hurt yourself in the process. "I don't want to grow dependent on them -- the medicines prescribed to me. I'm… I'm afraid of them changing who I am, and… And I just don't want to risk the possibility of affecting Frisk because of this, either."

Sans grabs your attention by holding your hand again, more careful than when you went to squeeze at his. "You should let the doctor know, then. If you're scared of what that stuff'll do to you, the best you can do's ask her about it." He lets go, giving you space to breathe. "She could keep your doubts in mind, and maybe tell you to visit her if that new treatment does you more harm than good with time."

You don't acknowledge you've made it to Papyrus's stop until you see him set the shift on parking. The cheery music's now fainter, and the parade can still be seen when you look back. The only difference is the change in scenery, as you now stand in front of what looks like a culinary university, large, tacky, and colourful banners promoting the acceptance of the monster population into their campus. "I need to go now, but…" He smiles, almost as bright as the sun shining behind the rain clouds. "We can discuss more later, if you'd like!"

You smile back and wave goodbye; he steps outside after that and walks off, leaving Sans to give you one final glance before going back to the front seat.

While he adjusts, you observe Papyrus from a distance, who's now making his way to the line at the entrance gates of the university.

"So…"

At that sound, you face the mirror and meet Sans's gaze.

"Where to?" he asks. "And don't say home, 'cuz I know you ain't eaten yet."

"What's easiest for you," you reply, fixing your posture. "You've already done enough."

He stays parked to turn to your side. 

"Doesn't mean we can't talk more about it," he says, "It's your right as a parent to set boundaries and all that, but you really do need to take better care of yourself, (Y/N). Not just for Frisk's benefit, but for yourself, too." He sighs, turns back to the wheel, and grasps it tighter, continuing after with, "And I acknowledge I also failed to do my part, 'cuz -- like you said it yourself -- you shoulda known about this stuff sooner than today. Surprise or not, I coulda hinted at it. I promised I'd keep you informed, after all." Recognition flashes in his irises, and he stops for a minute. "That being said, we've gotta finish up the rest of that tour soon -- It's been a while."

"Don't remind me, teddy bear." You grin and slump on your seat, huffing afterwards. "There's so much stuff to do, I don't even know where to start."

"Tell me about it." He lets a broad smile show through and spares a quick glance at the mirror to wink at you. "Wouldn't really complain over another day like the one at the hotel."

You look away and hide your grin, feeling it widen. "...I'll keep that in mind, then."

• • •

“So,” the skeleton says, hands slipping under the table. An awkward stiffness overcomes his shoulders, and his gaze takes a while to meet with yours. “You heard about it from her first, huh?”

You gulp some water, needing to cool off. 

“Yes,” you reply, grabbing the medicine out of your belongings. The headache’s still going strong, even after having ended work an hour ago. “Are you really working an office job now? ...What about your other job?” Catching on to how invasive you’re being, you take another sip to bring the pills down and breathe in deep. “Sorry if it seems like I’m being nosy, but… I just want to know if you quit selling hot dogs because of me.” It’s a strange sentence no matter how you look at it, and even more so when you consider the on and off romantic relationship you share with the monster; or to put it bluntly: a friend with benefits -- or a man-friend, as your godmother had so accused him of. “I… I feel like I’m responsible for this, so I’d really like to know.”

Sans grins, takes his drink, and swirls it around. “And that’s exactly why I didn’t wanna tell you yet.” He sets it down and breaks eye contact with you to retrieve something from his suitcase. When he finds the item, he places it on the table, revealing a yellow folder about as thick as the menu left beside you, open to display an array of desserts, one you'd tried the evening before you stayed with him at the hotel, and the other you had today as a way to make an impromptu meeting with him about what happened earlier with Brenda's own fair share of invasiveness. “I know it seems way too coincidental, but I really am workin’ in an office now.”

You pick up the folder, set it in front of you, and keep a hand over it.

“It’s about that thing Tori wants to talk about with you.” He tugs at his jacket’s sleeve; that sight makes you take in the oddity of his looks right now: wearing a suit and tie. He’s like a whole other person today. The main two things that remind you he’s still the same as before are his low voice and mellow personality. Even his posture and body language are different, as if to match with the formality of his attire. “Open it,” he adds, facing your eyes again. “It’ll kinda spoil the surprise she has for you, but I think I owe you a better explanation after what happened today."

You consider his words and eye him for a moment. While he has a more proper posture, the monster’s the same one you met months ago. He’s still himself -- formal wear or not. “It’s… It's alright,” you say, smiling. “I’ll wait until Saturday.”

Tension seems to let him go, yet he still replies with, “You can open it, really. Tori said it was fine, and that she could use the extra time this saves up to take you somewhere with her.”

“...Is it really okay?” You pull your hand back from the folder, emphasizing your words.

Sans nods, sighing the rest of his rigidity away. “Go ahead.”

Doing as told, you tear it open as carefully as you’re capable of, preventing potential damage to the documents waiting inside. From there, you retrieve a single sheet of paper first, its texture rough and giving out at being far more important than all the other files found under it. You turn it around. The words ‘Frisk (L/N)’ and ‘student’ instantly pair up and click into your mind. There’s a school under Toriel’s name written down, along with a print of its logo and motto -- the former you recognize from the parade. 

“I…”

You can’t find the proper words to say to him. It worsens when you decide to take a peek at another document, seeing your name right in the middle. It's not as thick as the previous paper, but it still holds potential for a new future. Besides Toriel's stamp of approval and a small paragraph stating the terms, a single, empty line waits for you at the bottom. Your signature's the only thing missing for the agreement to be made.

“This is…” You shudder out a gasp, almost forgetting to breathe.

The skeleton breaks the ice, saying, “Tori’s school finally got approved, and she was thinking of havin' you and Frisk in it.” You face to his side, holding back a flinch when you notice he’s moved closer to you; the table helps keep some distance between you, fortunately. “Whaddya say, (Y/N)?” he asks. “You don’t have to answer right away, but… Just know the offer’s up, and that we see you guys as a family.”

You hoist yourself over the table and reach out for a hug, using that to replace any words you could possibly direct to the monster in front of you. He returns it, maintaining his hold on you until you break it apart -- a bit complicated to do when you notice you’re letting yourself get sentimental again. That allows your mind to drift back to the past and the more recent memory of Brenda’s visit.

“Thank you...” Your words come off in a murmur, lacking anything to say even now. 

You sniffle to restrain the emotions forming up inside, from disbelief and contentment, to melancholy and excitement. Were this a movie and were you on closer terms with the monsters, you would’ve imagined kissing the one in front of you in the sheer spur of the moment. Unresolved tension and personal limitations team up to delay any progress of that kind with him. “So you... I take it you’re in charge of keeping finances in order while her school finally opens?” you ask, changing the topic. You need time to think -- just like he’d mentioned. Having Frisk study in Toriel’s school didn’t seem like a bad choice if you were going to be paying for it, and if it would help bring more word out about her school. You working there was a wholly different story, finding the offer a bit too good to be true. It wasn't because of the goat lady, but rather due to it feeling like you were straight-up taking advantage of her and all the other monsters’ kindness. 

“Precisely,” he replies, grinning. 

His expression freezes up, and it’s only when he sits back down that it loosens. The proximity left between you after the hug's kept itself present without you acknowledging it by full. “I can work the numbers fast, so that way Alphys can focus more on plannin' out the structure and how science class will be laid out, since we all wanna leave things runnin' well before we can start employin' any other monsters.” He meets your eyes again and winks. “And of course, any cute human who’s willing to help us out.”

You glance away, feeling your face turn warm. “I'll… I’ll think about it.” Then, you look back to him; a question pops into your thoughts. “But what service could I provide you with? I've only got an Associate's in Business with what, well... happened in the past.”

“You say that like it’s nothing," he replies, chuckling. “You could easily take up three different positions with those preparations you've got.” Then, he sits back and takes the check when a bunny waitress arrives with it. “You’ll see what I mean when you talk with Tori this Saturday. Can’t really keep spoilin’ the surprise for you anymore.”

Beat to it, you put your wallet away and shift on your seat. “Alright,” you say, taking the folder with you. “But could I still make it up to you somehow? I know Brenda can be a bit, well... tough to handle, so it's only fair for me to do this."

“I’m perfectly fine meeting up like this. And she came by right as I was about to clock out, so I’d tell you it’s no big deal, but…" He trails off to stare at you, done with paying up. "If this's a crafty excuse for us to keep on hangin' out, then I'm all on board with it, puddin'."

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[lightdancer1]

ATLA AUs worldbuilding, The Air Nomads/Sangha:

While the Air Nomads' role is usually indirect, outside of the Fire and Water and Earth and Air and Dragon-verses in two different forms, their old culture was directly modeled on Tibet and specifically upon Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan/Vajrayana Buddhism is not like the more standard Theravada and even Hinayana Buddhism of the southern and northern parts of Asia, respectively.

This Tibetan basis is especially important for a factor of the Air Nomads that explains the Buddhist monastic aspects but their uh, self-sustaining aspects. Specifically the Tantric elements and the use of everything that goes with that. And I do mean *Everything.* Aang, at the age of 12, had next to no real chance to learn any of it and it's a very embarrassing realization for him when he reads the full extent of his people's culture he (along with the other kids of the youngest generation) was not allowed to know overmuch about due to the Air Nomads having firm rules on squick and refusing to sanction any of the more unsavory elements of IRL cultures that unfortunately are....much less restrictive on this.

Merit of fiction is that the fictional societies can avert this!

As with Tibetan Buddhism there was also an idea of the Bodhisattva, those who attained freedom from the reincarnation cycle but sought to work their way in the material world.

Unlike with Tibetan Buddhism there is a veneration of all Avatars as the equivalent of a Pantheon, though living Air Nomad Avatars are only venerated this way posthumously, to avoid the problem of giving the most powerful person in the world even more of a god complex than they'd already be predisposed to have.

As with the canon the Air Nomads do not have any real leadership, though the Dalai Lama is the singular spokesman for the people elected in councils (and if the current Avatar is an Airbender when that Avatar is fully realized and the situation calls for it, they're the Dalai Lama by default).

Each of the four major temples followed its own path, though the Eastern and Western tended to be more gender-segregated and the Northern and Southern were not. Each of them was led by a sui generis council of monks and nuns, with the most venerable and spiritual forming the core of the councils that could and did meet on a more permanent basis.

Given the spiritual elements of the Air Nomads, they were in practical terms a theocracy that was highly conservative, which could and did lead to the rise of occasional Shunned Ones who were just as pure and spiritual as the other Airbenders....pure evil, that is! Many of these people started off as heretics who slowly went down the slippery slope from isolation from their own people and not really knowing how to fit into the other nations.

The result of a sufficiently malevolent set of Airbenders, as Zaheer showed in canon, is......not pleasant, not for anyone involved. In the time of Aang and until the Harmonic Convergence in the time of Korra this is a purely academic exercise. After the Convergence it becomes an all too real point as Zaheer, who discovers the power of flight and represents a completely malevolent type of Airbender and is the first Shunned One in 500 years, makes a bloody point of illustrating.

The more Tantric aspects of Airbender culture and the pattern whereby parents would see their children fostered by the more elderly monks to ensure they got spiritual training (and then at the age of around 10 they would return to live their next 10 years until majority with their parents unless the Avatar is an Airbender in any given Avatar cycle) saw an older set of libels even before the Sozin Genocide that Airbenders were child-stealers, among other things.

[goldencorecrunches]

so, reading the novel, and I’ve been thinking about the scene where the Jiangs discuss the Wen Sect’s demand to send disciples to Qishan, and Jiang Yanli: Somehow from the show, I got the impression that the Wens demanded specifically Clan sons. But that’s not the case: 

Now! I’d expect there to follow a discussion of which of them should go (considering they’ve dismissed the possibility of refusing). Points I’d expect to be brought up include:

This seems a pretty obvious trap, and Jiang Cheng is the heir

Wen Chao has a history of creeping on women, so Jiang Yanli would be uncomfortable/in particular danger

However, maybe she could use that to her advantage, to get information

On the other hand: trap, and Jiang Cheng is the stronger cultivator and warrior

etc. etc: It seems like a pretty complex decision. INSTEAD what we get (after Jiang Cheng immediately volunteers, because when have either of the Yunmeng brothers given up a chance to sacrifice themselves) is:

(continued under the cut)

It never seemed a real consideration in Madam Yu’s mind that Yanli would go-- and nobody argues against her.  During this whole conversation (which, by the way, takes place when there are only the five main family members in the room), Jiang Yanli is not included. She is the whole time instead peeling lotus seeds to give to her two very upset brothers. 

pretty much the only thing that Jiang Yanli is allowed to do in this story is perform this small act of service, preparing food for someone else

and her mother here berates her for it

it’s worthy to mention that peeling lotus seeds is a somewhat involved affair-- Yanli is not simply dropping them into a bowl

This (aside from making me want to football punt a refrigerator) is a decent example of how Yanli and her efforts are treated throughout the series: she puts in a lot of work, and she doesn’t get appreciated or rewarded, even when those efforts do make a difference (in this scene, she comforts her brothers and ensures they’re getting enough food, which it’s mentioned they won’t necessarily get in Qishan. And they don’t). It makes me think of one of the other skills we’ve seen Jiang Yanli display, which is Conflict De-Escalation (and sometimes Resolution):

she can get her brothers to stop fighting, which is, famously and violently, impossible

she’s her mother’s, eldest and only, daughter. By which I mean: Madame Yu blames her family for her emotions, and makes discussions All About Her. I take a lot of how I interpret Jiang Yanli’s character  from what I know of adult children of narcissitic parents, and skill in effective-diplomacy-under-fire is a common thread, especially when the child in question is expected to take a caretaking role in the family*

(at least in the show) Jin Zixuan’s mother thinks her an excellent match for her son, which as the current Madame of the Sneaky Politics sect, is a pretty big deal

that whole “don’t call him a son of a servant” thing in the woods, which was civil, well-spoken, and firm

She really honestly thinks that she can convince murderous-rampage WWX to stop that shit, which-- I mean, she’s not thinking clearly at this point probably, but the fact that she’s so sure it’s possible stood out to me

This kind of personal and political acumen is often un-noticed or dismissed and yet is supremely valuable, and necessary for the functioning of any collaborative unit, small family size or huge sect size. I really, really would have liked to see how she and JGY and NHS got along while she was living in Koi Tower. I super extra incredibl-really would have liked to see her take this compassion and interpersonal skill set and grow them for use in the cultivation world.  *this might, in my particular society, be described shorthand as “Eldest Daughter Syndrome,” though once we get into gender shenanigans and differences both cultural and individual, it’s not entirely accurate. For example, even within the same text, I’d argue that Lan Xichen has one of the strongest cases of this syndrome I’ve ever read** **consider for your pleasure: trans Zewu-Jun

[catubarca]

Harry Potter Next Generation Headcanons

im bored. im full of emotions, and am rly missing the HP world... i just want to write down my headcannons for the next gen kiddos tbh.

please remember these are just my opinions? its okay if yours are different. im just bored and want to share my thoughts,,

Teddy Lupin

his name is Theodore Remus “Teddy” Lupin. it’s just what it is

I don’t care what JKR says, to me his name will always be Theodore

i can’t do this “Edward” stuff im so sorry,,,

h u f f l e p u f f

proper school uniform? never heard of it

messy hair, messy clothes

punk rock child

we’re talking like,,,at least two (2) lip piercings ok

absolutely terrible in herbology. do not leave this child alone in a greenhouse, bad things happen

fuckin hoards chocolate

its a problem

dating Victorie Weasley

random bursts of dancing

keeps a lock of hair pink for his mother

lives with the Potters, enjoys pretending to be Ginny to ground his siblings

“Lily, why aren’t you coming out of your room? Dinner’s ready?” “You said I’m grounded! You tell me!” “What? Oh, for the- THEODORE REMUS LUPIN-“

s m i r k s

effortlessly cool,,, but so so dorky,,, in a cool way

Victorie Weasley

ravenclaw!

looks a lot like her mother, Fleur, but inherited those Weasley freckles

a little confused a lot of the time

absolute sweet tooth (teddy abuses this fact a lot)

Mom Friend™

will help you with your homework

always got a book on her

super beautiful and like,,,, the absolute nicest person,,, but

cannot dance

like at all

adores Charms class

a softie you don’t want to cross

“I’m the oldest”

Dominique Weasley

inherited the Classic Weasley Red Hair™

idolises her Uncle Charlie

“I wanna save animals and work with cool dragons, just like Uncle Charlie does!”

Bill almost has a heart attack

always bringing stray animals home

(“is that a lizard in your pocket, Dominique?” “Yes! His name is Blob.” “You know how your father’s afraid of reptiles, sweetheart, you can’t bring it inside.”)

Gryffindor child

favourite class is definitely Care of Magical Creatures, she and Hagrid like to talk about proper care methods for rare creatures

perpetual dirt stains

BIG middle child vibes

doesn’t really label her sexuality… just kinda does what she wants rly

all the pets in Hogwarts love her

rumours are she’s got an innate, natural magical ability to make them all love her

(she feeds them under the table)

it’s a mystery

big advocate for animal rights

f e m i n i s t

willing to throw hands at all times

usually all smiles though

one of those people who use their whole bodies to laugh

kind of an accidental heartthrob

romcoms

Louis Weasley

looks the most like his mother

ravenclaw

absolutely filled with curiosity. always reading or talking or learning

random facts

(how do you even find that sort of information?

you don’t want to know)

coffee boy

sort of musically talented?

he and James Sirius preach the importance of skincare to all who will listen

secretly full of sass and dry wit

vry graceful and fluid

e y e r o l l

awkward smiles? can never smile properly in photos

on the ravenclaw quidditch team

Ravenclaw Prefect

(“You might be older, but I’m taller.” “Fuck off!”)

only watches High Quality™ tv shows/media

kind of a disaster, despite the gracefulness

Molly Weasley

Classic red hair

comes across as a bit uptight, like her father

I don’t care what you think. (She really cares what you think.)

E y e b r o w s

death glares

drinks like 5 cups of coffee in the morning

studies,,, like a lot

definitely a Gryffindor though

mom jeans

always ready to debate a topic. will destroy opponents.

has been trying to start a successful Debate Club for like 4 years now

naturally falls into the position of a group leader

would be a teacher’s pet, if she wasn’t ready At All Times™ to debate the relevancy of the course syllabus or outdated teaching methods

got into a fight with Severus Snape’s portrait in Headmistress McGonagall’s office.

(Dumbledore’s portrait was laughing, until she turned and ragged on him for a bit. Minerva thought it was absolutely hilarious, so she just let Molly go at it for a while).

full of rage towards everything, but wears a very careful mask of aloofness

to calm down, she likes painting her nails

she’s very good at it

she’s also very good at painting and art in general, weirdly enough

Lucy Weasley

G R Y F F I N D O R

adores shitty puns and has a terrible sense of humour

brown hair, not red

loves to prank people, which makes her Uncle George very proud

Percy complains about her behaviour, but makes sure he knows he’s proud too

(charming all the cauldrons in the potions classroom to scream whenever they’re stirred takes a more complex understanding of spell work than one would expect).

a pit of a punk streak

rly loves hip hop

high key drama queen

does she ever stop yelling? we’re yet to find out

average grades in terms of theory, but she’s the best in terms of applying information

especially for her pranks

has allies throughout the castle, from the portraits to the students

the bigger the prank, the better

but is a firm believer in “confuse, don’t abuse”

all her pranks are mostly harmless

is a surprising lover of older literature, like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, an influence of her sister

a bit rebellious

Fred Weasley II

name isn’t officially “the second”, but it sounds cooler

James Potter, Lucy Weasley, Molly Weasley and Fred Weasley are like the Marauders 2.0

says “squad” and “lit” unironically

niche humour

hipster vibes

avid music lover

smiley sunshine child

takes after his mother the most in looks, just like his sister

a chill type of gryffindor

plays quidditch, and is an excellent chaser, just like his mother

the absolute undisputed King™ of puppy-dog eyes

just,,,, beautiful

the True teacher’s pet

hands in his work on time,, asks lots of questions,,, likes helping students understand their work,, what a boy

can hella nyoom

runs so fast

look at him go

as you might expect, loves a good prank. always down for a laugh

Roxanne Weasley

Gryffindor and pROUD

absolute Queen tbh

was definitely Head Prefect or Gryffindor Prefect at some point

loved by the school

absolute legend

G I R L   P O W E R

infectious laughter

has a soft spot for Louis Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy

these poor disaster children,,,, they need a Mother

M O M

big mom vibes

mothers the hell out of all the first years

a feminist through and through

can be found nodding aggressively to Molly Weasley’s semi-deranged, furious ranting

YAAAASS

loves slang. uses so much slang. always up to date with trends and memes

has all the gossip

becomes a mess around pretty girls

absolute blushing, stuttering disaster around cute girls oh my god

her eye make-up game is killer

sparkly

Distinguished Lesbian

Rosie Weasley

did someone say Weasley™?

red hair and freckles and curls oh my

on the autism spectrum, has trouble socialising sometimes

hella passionate about stuff

hangs out with Scorpius and Albus, the Golden Trio 2.0

f em ini st

her jokes are the best. high quality sense of humour.

Ravenclaw

likes to read. it’s quiet in the school library, which is nice.

abysmal at herbology

surprisingly good at Care of Magical Creatures though? Animals are just,,, so much easier to deal with

overall, really good grades though

bit of a silent type, but she’s actually a riot to hang out with

actually pretty good at quidditch? She’s not on the team, and she’s not super interested in playing, but?? She’s not bad??

She can land a solid hit with a beater’s bat

(eyes you judgementally over the top of a book)

dry wit humour

will throw hands over chess

Hugo Weasley

hufflepuff

unbeatable at chess, like his dad

a lost puppy

someone please help this child

softie

kind of low-key emotional

so supportive!! and loyal!! high-key best friend material

foodie. loves food. please feed him.

takes a bit more after his dad appearance wise

loves to cook. spends lots of time with grandma Molly and his dad in the kitchen

Professor Longbottom is his favourite professor, because he’s more chilled and laidback.

other professors and classes fill him with Distress™

loves astronomy too

maths whizz, so good at arithmancy

(“uh, actually-“)

a little bossy, like his mother

is trying so hard

maybe a little too hard

a bit insecure and nervous, but so soft

please treat this child carefully and with love

James Sirius Potter

Gryffindor

L O U D

a fucking disaster child

what’d you expect, putting “James” and “Sirius” together?

DRAMATIC GASPING

flails his hands around when he talks

s t r u t s

bisexual mess, had a crush on both the Longbottom children at some point

is better than you at everything

including being a different gender

fuck you that’s why

so pretty

he’s so pretty

is thIS CHILD EVER NOT LAUGHING AT SOMETHING OH My god

laughs at everything

all the time

always

high-key emotional

badly timed finger guns

looks like a model in photos? wtf?

gets invited to Girls Nights™

wears nail polish and makeup

loves to yell at people about gender roles and defying stereotypes

TEA SIS

not on the quidditch team surprisingly enough, even though he’s pretty good

prefers to be in the stands, doing A+ commentary on the games

if he can get Fred to stop mid-air due to unbearable, suffocating laughter at least once a game it’s a win in his books

has it OUT for the hufflepuff quidditch team and no one knows why??

definitely makes puns on his name

it drives everyone insane

harry always replies he’s just making his namesake proud

that also drives everyone insane

smug lil shit

Albus Severus Potter

“It’s just Al.”

S L Y T H E R I N

will always find a way to get what he wants, eventually

“dad, why did you name me this way?”

unimpressed

sigh

hella smart. is topping at least five classes

Aunt Hermione is his favourite. She’s the fucking Mistress of Magic! All that power, the ability to make change and improve the Magical World as a whole-

sass master

the reason headmistress mcgonagall keeps a bottle of scotch under her desk at all times

the only potter child to inherit The Eyes™

absolute insomniac

kind of emo, but turns into a fucking softie around Scorpius Malfoy it’s hilarious

adverse to violence. prefers a verbal beatdown method

really tall? despite having shorties for parents??? no one saw it coming

(especially not Teddy. He’s always scared of losing his last few inches of height)

Functional Gay

he’s on the slytherin quidditch team, as a seeker

Lily Luna Potter

Gryffindor

FEMINIST

do not mess with lily luna potter

she may seem cute and sweet, but she will destroy you

inherited her father’s black hair

disaster lesbian

transfiguration is her favourite subject, by far

has no idea what she wants to do with the rest of her life.

Existential Crisis Father-Daughter Bonding Time™

do you ever sleep?

takes after Ginny the most in personality

also, kind of the most like James Fleamont Potter in personality, too?

Loves to help her brother out with pranks, laughs at him when he gets caught and she gets away with it

The only one of the Potter Children who hasn’t got into a fight with Severus Snape’s portrait

because she just ignores him instead

loves talking to the portraits around the castle

Super good at Quidditch, is on the team as a Chaser

Quidditch Captain at some point

adores Hagrid, but who out of the Potter children doesn’t?

Idolises Minerva McGonagall

just as oblivious as her father

Scorpius Malfoy

Actually in Ravenclaw, not Slytherin, much to many people’s surprise

abSOLUTE DADDY’S BOY

super close with his dad

Draco is just so supportive of like everything he does (unlike his father)

classic blonde malfoy looks

actually really funny?

a cuddler. loves hugs. always leeching warmth off of someone

he and Rosie sometimes finger-tip-touch which is their version of a hug, because he know’s she’s not super comfortable with touch

was basically adopted by the Weasley’s and Potter’s

James Sirius will murder for this child

booknerd, always rambling to Al and Rosie about new books coming out he’s interested in reading.

has had a crush on Albus Potter since like 1st year

always worried about making his dad proud, and keeping up the Malfoy name

sweet tooth

he’s just,, soft. just a warm, happy child. he wants love, and affection. someone tell him he’s doing okay, please.

needs,,, validation,,,

he’ll tell you out loud that he has no favourite aunts or uncles, but he secretly really likes spending time with his Uncle Ron

they had a talk, once, in like the middle of the night at a sleepover with Rosie and Al, about feeling insecure in comparison to others, and learning to be proud of yourself for your achievements

there were a few tears, but it was nice

Ron was actually the third person he told, besides his dad and Rosie, about having a crush on Al

openly a disaster romantic. trash taste in romance novels.

always welcome in the Potter-Weasley households

[casmoments]

Beyond Worship

Prompt: many requests for a sequel to priest!cas with the roles switched. father castiel “punishes” the sinful reader.   Reader Gender: female Word Count: 5900 Warnings:  alternate universe.  similar warnings as before; castiel is a catholic priest so there is obviously much breaking of vows.  inappropriate use of scripture, sexual acts on church property. d/s (dom!cas, sub!reader).  light bondage, orgasm denial, swearing, spanking, reader is momentarily naked outside (not really exhibitionism as it’s an empty space but still, warning).

you can read part one here.

-

Honestly, respect was important in your relationship—if that’s what this was.  What backward classification fell upon such an illicit thing?  Was there a name for “the other woman” when the betrayed bride was God?  A mistress of heaven, of the divine itself.   Whatever name be given, it was the most passionate and torrid love affair you had ever been in.   Weeks later and a glance could still soak your panties or unglue the seams of your sanity.   And as an individual human, you had an affection and respect for Castiel.   But Father Cas had his own unique magnetism, an allure that never faded.   And though you fought very hard to maintain the drawn boundaries…

…he was so much fun to torment.

His initial vows were long since shattered but he made some vague, half-hearted attempt at salvation.    But the provisos hardly mattered, the details irrelevant, his efforts to beautify decadence useless—a fact you regularly made clear, most often when he was on his knees in front of you, his hands bound behind his back, his skin flushed and broken with sweat, eyes wide, chest heaving, lips swollen and wet.  

“Call it what you want,” you would say, that character you became in these moments seizing your mouth, your hand under his chin and holding firm.   He swallowed and you felt the bob of his adam’s apple, your nails raking down his throat.    “We can do this anywhere, Father,” you purred, “but a whore’s a whore even if you bathe him in holy water.”  

And he would just moan, bow his head forward, his cock hard and raised and bouncing against him, and he would tremble at your feet, begging and praying for forgiveness—not from the icons which decorated the walls but you and you alone.   And you were always merciful, giving him just what he needed.   And the second he was unbound and on his feet, he sought to convey every unspoken thought with a bruising kiss.  You relished in those small moments where his submission flipped and his drive turned feral.    

“You’re so good to me,” you would hum against his lips, his hands smoothing over your body, mapping every curve and contour.

And those moments were divine.   But he inevitably returned to his occupation, not that you complained.   You were allowed to visit his personal lodgings whenever you wanted, a small complex adjacent to the church, joined by a bridge between balconies.   His abode was the definition of humble, bearing only the necessities, but his bed was perfectly big enough for two—honestly, it was like the universe wanted and expected Father Castiel to break—and you made yourself more than comfortable there.    However, while you had a personal key rattling around in your purse, he had refused your presence in other places.   It never took long to break him down in the sacristy or church basement, but he wouldn’t let you anywhere near a confessional, nor were you permitted to attend any more masses.

“You are incorrigible,” he grumbled, adjusting his clerical collar in the bedroom mirror.   He had dressed himself but you were content to sprawl out naked on the bed, lazing about.   “Why do you want to attend the service?” he asked, then frowned at you through the mirror.   “Beyond your desire to see me undone before my congregation.”

“That’s reason enough, Father,” you teased, batting your eyelashes.   You lay on your stomach, twirling hair around your finger.    Castiel finally turned around, looked down at you as he went retrieve his binder, one which contained his sermons.  

“Stay here,” he said, and though your body was sated and relaxed not moments ago, his rough, demanding tone sparked a fire low in your body.  

“Is that an order?” you asked, breath catching as he tipped your head back, rolling you over.   He held you there and kissed you, looking down before releasing you and stepping back.

“Yes,” he said, and he was gone shortly after that.  

Most days you obeyed, accepting the line drawn between his personal life and professional one.    Heaven only knew what concessions he had made.  But damn it all if the temptation did not overcome you as well.  

It was a late night mass and you did not attend, as per his wishes, but you did don one of his long black coats and wander into a crying room at the back of the church, just as the service was ending.  You leaned against the window as he walked past with the procession.   He looked at you and though Father Castiel was very good at playing a stern, stoic, unaffected character, you could always recognize when the chassis cracked.    His frustrated glance had nowhere near enough fire.   He would be exactly where you wanted him.

And he was.   The church cleared out, stragglers in after-mass prayer taking their sweet time but finally disappearing.   You sat in a middle pew with your legs hooked over the row in front of you.    The back doors slammed and you heard footsteps in the main hall, the heavy locks secured and superfluous lights doused.  Then you heard footsteps behind you, purposeful and quick.  A heavy hand landed on the seat in front of you, gripping the back brace, a second hand on the back of your own seat.   You turned your head and saw Castiel staring down at you, looking none too pleased.   He had dressed down already, black shirt and pants, clerical collar in perfect order.   You could not wait to truss him up, even with the contemptuous look he threw you now.

“I expressly forbade your presence here, Y/N,” he said, gravelly voice dropping decibels in frustration.   You bit your bottom lip, rolled it under your teeth, touched the tip of your tongue against it.   His blue gaze seemed to further darken.   “Y/N,” your name was little more than a growl, “you cannot flirt your way out of every conflict.”  

“Flirt,” you repeated, cocking an eyebrow.   You dropped your feet to the floor and faced forward, sitting upright.  “Father, I’m offended.   I don’t flirt.”   Your hands went to the belt of the coat, unknotting it.   Out of the corner of your eye, you saw his head tip as your hands unhooked every last button.   “I know a little flirting won’t do much to sway you.   If I’m going to debase myself, I’ll do it properly.”   You opened the coat to reveal everything.   You had obviously not worn any clothes beneath his coat, and you rolled the material down your shoulders before daintily crossing your leg.

“Y/N,” your name was a warning.   You licked your lips, a small action, glancing over at him.

“Do we have a problem, Father?” you asked.   He looked away from you, retracting his hands from their perch.   He rubbed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes in a measuring moment.   You regarded him innocently.   Even if he did not know, you knew he would relent.   Sure enough, his next glance was alight with a different energy.   You slid down the pew and he followed, grabbing the coat and tossing it behind him.   For a moment, you sat side-by-side, and you teased him with almost-kisses, rubbing your nose against his cheek, lips brushing his jawline.  

Then his hands went around your waist and tugged.   Before long, you were sitting in his lap, knees cradling his hips, kissing with unabashed fervour.

“Now you can think about me when I’m not here,” you teased, nipping his throat, hands unbuckling his belt.   He looked down, breathing hard, each exhale running across your lips.  “You can look out and remember how we fucked right here.”   He groaned.  You opened his pants, tugged them down his hips enough to lower his boxers.   He was already stiff and you wet your hand, careful and purposefully slow, but eventually stroked him to a perfect hardness.   His hands remained on your waist, his gaze attempting to rest on your face but inevitably falling aside.   His eyes closed a bit, head tipping back as you worked him in your hand.   You couldn’t help but kiss the exposed line of his throat.    “You’re so beautiful,” you whispered.  “I love when you let go.  Love when you let me use you like this.”   Though you were on reliable protection, condoms had been used occasionally, less so these days.   You thus led him to you, your own hand preparing your already wet sex, and he was inside of you before his own gasp could finish.

“Just like that,” you rasped, hands sliding up his chest.   You swivelled your hips, lifting them a bit, and he made a low noise, his eyes opening again.   He stared up at you, meeting your next thrust.   You groaned and kissed the side of his face.   “You broke quickly today,” you said, your own hand circling your clit as your bodies worked in tandem.   “Honestly, Father, your submission is hardly a challenge anymore.”    You made a strange noise, choked and foreign when he all but slammed you onto him, hitting you deeper than before.   You wriggled a bit, gasping when his hands moved up your sides, palms sliding over your breasts before he encircled your arms.   His hands slid down your wrists, gripping them tight.  

“You should know better,” he grunted, pulling your hand away from you.   You yelped as he thrust upward again, and your heart began to race with great anticipation as he pushed your arms back, locking your hands behind you in a steady grip.   “After our time together, I expected you to understand submission when it’s presented.”   You breathed much harder, your chest rising and falling quickly.   He held your hands in one of his, his other hand returned to your chest, thumb circling a nipple.   He leaned towards you to speak directly, that scraping voice now growling obscenely in your ear.   “Do you think you do not already occupy my thoughts?  That you’re not what consumes me when I lecture the flock on weakness and sin?”   You moaned, his hand sliding low to rub you where you needed.   “Where we fuck has little consequence on where I will think about it.”   You moaned again when he swore, such depravity on his lips always affecting you.  

You were slowly building towards that magnificent crest when he stopped touching you, hand likewise releasing your wrists.   You had tipped your head back and closed your eyes, but you now looked at him with obvious confusion and equal desperation.

“Get down,”  Castiel said, nodding his head to the side.   “And get on your knees.”

It took a moment because you were reeling, physically toiling with that last endurance and mentally calculating this sudden switch.   You always adored when Castiel assumed control but he rarely acted of his own volition during sex.  It was always an after-thought or second moment.   But this—this you could get used to.  This was the very fantasy you had conjured all that time ago.   You so enjoyed breaking him down and tying him up, teasing him until he begged, until he fucked you in a needy haze.   But you had long anticipated this volta and took a moment to accept its reality.  

When he pinched your inner thigh, it snapped you to attention.   You managed to lift yourself off of him, groaning and whimpering as he slowly slid out of you.   You stood on shaky legs and stepped out of the pew, into the aisle.   He turned around and looked at you expectantly.  You lowered yourself onto your knees, using the discarded coat as something of a cushion.   You had a tentative fantasy of being fucked against that rough carpeting, but those scrapes and burns would be saved for another day.  

You were fully prepared to lean forward and give him the blow job of a lifetime, but he suddenly stood and stepped out of the pew.   You turned your head, looking up at him in confusion, but he grabbed you by your hair and turned you forward again.   Your heart skipped a beat, breath catching again.   You were aroused and confused, though your questions were answered when you heard the whistle of leather and fabric, belt slipping out of its loops.   He crouched behind you and gathered your hands again, securing them as you had done to him a hundred times.   Once they were fastened, he sat himself on the edge of the pew again, facing you.  

“Open your mouth,” he said without hesitation, speaking as any warrior of heaven might, “and see if your obedience might save you in retrospection.”    You nodded submissively, tried not to smile while playing your new character.   Your stomach had knotted with slight nerves, but excitedly.  You and Castiel had been intimate time and again.  You trusted him, every safe word and boundary long since established.

You shuffled towards him, the coat ruffling beneath your knees, and you leaned over to lick the underside of his cock as you usually did.   But he reached out, sliding his fingers into your hair and cupping the back of your head.  “Properly,” he growled, a spike of heat pooling low in your body.   You took him in your mouth, relished in the sound he made as you worked your mouth over him.   You were accustomed to having your hands for aid, stroking him where your mouth did not, holding onto his knees or thighs or hips.   You could only lean against him and bob your head, taking him as far as you could.   It was a bit sloppier than usual but he did not seem to mind one bit.  

This continued for a bit, his grip tightening in your hair.  Given the sudden way he was pitching his hips and the uneven rumble of breath, you knew he was close.   You were happy to swallow him down, expecting that much as his fingers curled tight behind your head.   But then he pulled your head back and you panted, looking at him confusion.    He opened his eyes and looked at you, gaze falling purposefully down.   Your eyes opened a little wider and you felt an actual thrum below, hot and needy.   You nodded, understanding his silent query.   He stroked himself once and that was all it took before he was coming on your chest.   You shuddered as if the orgasm was your own, remaining on your knees as that substance rolled across your breasts.

You both struggled to catch your breath.   He eased himself to complacency while you waited, thighs somewhat quivering, a drop of cum trickling between your breasts.   He readjusted his clothes with no great hurry, buttoning his pants before rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.   You weren’t sure what was going to happen next, your arousal feeding off the surprise and anticipation.   Castiel leaned forward and seemed to consider you, then he ran his hand across your chest and gathered some of the mess on his fingers.   You looked down as he brought his hand to your face, and you parted your lips in a wordless wonder when you realized what he was asking.    You knew you could safe word at any moment but oh god, you wanted to do this—

You leaned forward and licked his hand clean, looking up at him as your tongue circled each finger and swiped his knuckles.   He turned his hand and cupped your chin, squeezing it gently.   Then he nudged you backward and you shuffled as best you could.  He pried the coat out from under you and used it to clean off the rest of you.  

“Come with me,” he then said, standing, draping the coat over his arm.   He took a few steps away then looked back at you.  “Y/N.”    You tried standing but it was a little difficult.   He took hold of your arm and hoisted you to your feet.   You felt a little more aware of your nakedness somehow, more so when he started to walk to the door beyond the altar.  

“Uh, Cas—”

“Father Castiel, insolent child,” he grumbled, turning to you.  You stifled a reaction to that, blinking and breathing before looking pointedly down yourself.

“Father,” you said, “I’m not wearing anything.”

“Yes,” he said.  “I can see that.”   There was a brief pause and then he turned away again, continuing like nothing had happened.   “Come with me.”    You swallowed, hands still very much bound behind you, but you trailed after him nonetheless.   You walked a familiar path, crossing the sacristy to the back door.   It led to his personal rooms just beside the church… but you had to walk outside to reach it.   There would be no one loitering on that strip of property but all the same, you paused by the door, heat coiling below.  

“Father,” you said.  “What if someone sees?  What would they say about you?”   He threw you a withering glance, opening the door.

“They will rightly assume I am distributing penance unto a sinner,” he said.  “Now follow.”   You took a breath and did so, gasping as the cool night air rolled over your naked body.   He closed the door behind you and locked it, crossing the small bridge to his own door.   You followed after him, looking around even though there was no one nearby.   You shivered in the cold, however, goosebumps rising over every inch of skin, nipples hardening almost painfully.   Castiel fumbled with his keys, aiming to press the appropriate key into the lock when he dropped them.   They clattered to the floor and you looked at each other.   His expression clearly told of his expectations.  

“I don’t have hands at the moment,” you said dryly, shivering again.  It was a wickedly delightful contradiction to the heat still running below your waist.   God, you must have been soaking down there, especially with those looks he kept throwing you, and that voice—

“You are very intelligent, Y/N,” Castiel said, “find a way.”

You stared at him for a moment, unable to help the rebellious regard, but you eventually lowered yourself onto your knees.   The ground was cold and rough and you were careful leaning over, grabbing the keys with your teeth and lifting your head back up.   He reached down and took them from your mouth, smiling at you.

“Good,” he said, the word more of a grunt as he finally unlocked the door.   He grabbed you and helped you up again, guiding you inside.   You shivered again, not for the cold but the sudden change of temperature, warmth embracing you all at once.   “Bedroom,” Castiel said, one word with such promise and fire that you stumbled in your quick approach.   He followed behind you, tossing the coat somewhere, and you stood at the foot of the bed in wait.    He stepped up behind you, leaning down to kiss the side of your face.   You hummed contently, tipping your head, and he kindly pressed a few more kisses down your face, neck, shoulder.   He undid the belt meanwhile.   You stretched your hands once free, twisting your wrists to test them.   You returned them in front of you and rubbed them, though the sensation sent tingles elsewhere.  

“Retrieve that bible,” he said, tossing the belt aside.   You went to the bedside table, glancing at him out of the corner of your eye.   He was rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, though it remained fully buttoned and collared—just how you liked.  You grabbed a bible out its usual compartment  and returned to him, looking him in the eye as you handed it over.   He took it, folding it under his arm before grabbing your chin and drawing you close.   Your mouths almost touched, his lips brushing yours as he spoke.  “It’s not the place of a sinner to meet their judge’s eye.”

“I thought only God could judge us,” you replied, rebellious nature not so easily quelled.   You stumbled when he suddenly redirected you, nudging you towards the bed.  

“God,” he said as you tumbled forward, catching yourself on the edge of the bed.   He kicked your legs apart and moved between them, bending you over the curve of the bed’s foot.   “And me,” he said, tone sharp, voice deep.   You said nothing, did nothing, just remained where you were, listening to the flip of pages as he skimmed his text.    All of a sudden, the book was in front of you, open on the bed.   “Read this,” he said, pointing to a verse, pushing your head closer to the book.   You were fully bent over, feet firmly planted, spread too far to press your thighs together and alleviate the tension between your legs.  

“What are you going to do?” you asked, licking your lips.   You didn’t look at him but you didn’t have to, his hand sliding over your backside in the next second.   It was a gentle caress, rubbing the skin, but you knew exactly what was coming.

“I’ll see your punishment administered,” he said, lightly slapping your rear.  Your knees already felt weak and he had hardly begun.   You swallowed, turning your eyes down to the open text.

“Slaves,” you began, yelping when he smacked your ass, much harder than that first teasing slap.  

“Read,” he demanded.  You gathered breath and focussed again.

“Slaves,” you repeated, “obey your earthly masters—”  You fought a reaction when he smacked you again, the same exact place, skin singing, “—with respect and fear.”   He hit the other cheek, your fingers curling into the bedspread.   “And with sincerity of heart—ahh—”   You lowered yourself, dropping to your elbows instead of your hands.   He kept your hips where they were, backside now curving obscenely, exposing a bit more than before.   His hand returned to the same place, though, and you wished you could see if it had reddened, how much and how fast, like his skin did beneath your own palm.   “Just as you would obey Christ,” you finished the line.

“Keep going,” he said, hand diving between your thighs, earning a squeak as he stroked you.   “Y/N.”  

“Obey them,” you continued, breath catching when he smacked your ass again, leaving you pitifully wet and wanting, “not only to win their favour…”

It was four lines altogether, barely a paragraph in the text and somehow the longest reading you ever endured—and by the end of it you were writhing, your own wetness streaking your thighs, either by his teasing ministrations or your own dripping arousal.   Your backside was positively singing, though he had occasionally rubbed and soothed the skin between slaps.   Either way, once you reached the end of the final line and he released you, you all but collapsed against the bed, bible open beneath your cheek.  

He broke character for a moment, tending your abused backside and letting you settle.   You could have continued but he was not used to a dominating position, so it served as a respite for both of you.   Once matters had been tended and the moment eased, his hands returned to your tender flesh and gently stroked.   He helped you up until you were kneeling in the center of the bed, facing him.  

He was such a softie under everything.   You were already picturing all the things you were going to do to him once you were back in command.  But for now you blinked up at him, wore your best submissive face and licked your lips.  

“What now?” you asked.   “Are you ready to fuck me again?”   You dropped your gaze to his crotch and saw there was a faint bulge there, growing with steady interest.   He just looked at you like you were the most innocent flower in existence—patronizingly so, character returned.      He leaned down towards you, fingers running down your sensitive backside.

“There are better ways to pay penance,” he said, lightly scratching the tender skin.  You arched your back, your chest brushing against his.   His hands slipped low very quickly, under your thighs and knocking you off balance.   You flopped onto your back and his hands moved under your knees, spreading you wide.    He held you like that then tipped his head, staring intently.   “Touch yourself,” he said, dark voice moving right through you.   You obeyed happily, hand moving to that desperate, wet heat and administering the attention it needed.   It was so easy with him looking at you like that, his thumbs circling the inside of your knees, the growing strain in his pants.   You were almost there, head thrown back and whispers of his name on your lips.   Then he grabbed your hands and pulled them away.  He once more gripped your knees when you tried to snap them closed.  

“Castiel,” you whined, humping the air.   He pinned your hips down and crawled over you, and damnit no one who was wearing a clerical collar should ever be giving that look to anyone.  And you were so needy and wanting and none of this was fair—

“I told you to stay here,” he said, kissing the side of your face lovingly despite his dark tones.   “You should have listened to me.”

“I…I want…”

“I know.”   He kissed below your jawline, down your neck to your shoulder.   “Not tonight.”

“What?”  Maybe he wasn’t such a merciful softie under everything.   You would rather go another round with the bible.

“You won’t come tonight,” he said again, continuing to pepper affectionate kisses.   “And when you think on your desires,” his hand reached between your bodies and pat your cunt, causing your hips to buck, “then maybe next time you will heed my instructions.”

“Castiel—”  You began when he grunted in protest.   You sighed, a broken, jagged sound.   “Father, please.”  

“The penance is for your soul,” he said, and you whimpered as he licked below your ear, easing a finger inside your wet, sensitive sex.   “The will of God, broken child.”  You moaned at that, and he was fucking you with two fingers before long.   You thrust against him even though he offered no stimulation to your swollen, needy clit.   But he slid a third finger inside you, his other hand pushing your hair out of your face as he looked down at you.   You scrunched up your features, made a little noise with each quick thrust.    He slowly pulled his hand away and you moaned again, attempting to follow with your hips.   He held you down before climbing off.   “Touch yourself again,” he said.  “And don’t finish.”   You weren’t sure you could manage but you tried, gently touching your sensitive clit and rubbing a circle over it.   You made a strangled sound, continuing to slowly circle it while he undressed.   Then he grabbed your hands again, pressing them above your head.   “I trust bindings are unnecessary.”

“Y-yes, Father,” you said, yelping when his hands dropped to your hips and suddenly flipped you over.   You grabbed the headboard, locking your fingers around the bars as he lifted your hips.   You groaned in agony as he bent behind you and started kissing and licking your outer lips, teasingly dipping forward and flicking that over-sensitized nub.   You thrust your hips back but he pulled away, holding you steady as he aligned himself to your entrance.    This wasn’t a usual position of yours but you were already pressing against him as he eased inside of you.   You moaned, long and low, as he filled you and leaned over you.   He pulled your hair back and dropped his lips to your ear.

“You seem to enjoy your own immorality,” he said, rocking his hips and thrusting forward again.  You yelped, shoving your face into the pillows.   Your head turned slightly as he continued to speak into your ear, all the while riding you with a ruthless intensity.   “You want to be fucked?” he asked, nipping your shoulder.  “It’s a depraved word… suited to demons and whores…. who take each other like animals.”   He spread your legs a bit further, panting against your ear as he hit you deep.   You made a sound at every thrust, breathing hard in-between noises.   “If you insist on that behaviour, you will be punished accordingly, girl.”

“Father,” you moaned, almost sobbing into the blankets and pillows.

“Yes,” he rasped, “I am your priest, your path to heaven.”   The headboard of the bed was repeatedly hitting the wall.   With all the racket, you could only be grateful he was the only resident priest.   You were not quiet, yourself, panting and moaning and whimpering, whispering his name as he bit your shoulder.   “You will do as I say,” he rumbled, “make your body mine so its spirit might be saved.”

“Yes,” you managed, “yours.  Yes.”    You groaned as he moved off of you, pulling out and sitting back.

“Come here,” he said.   Your shaky arms somehow lifted you and you turned around.   He held out a hand and sat waiting.   You gripped his arm as you moved closer, climbing onto his lap.  He was inside you quickly and you shuddered, gripping his shoulders, this vantage filling you much differently.    He pinched a nipple and you squeaked, rocking your hips.  “Show me,” he growled, “show me what good this body is.”  With another faint tremor, you fucked him how he asked, trying to fight the way this position affected you, managing to provoke your clit on each thrust.  

“Oh, Father—”

“Don’t finish,” he said, almost too kindly.   You released a choked noise, a cry caught in your throat as you tried to reign your body under control.   He must have taken pity (or grown impatient) because you were on your back in the next moment and he was driving into you.   You wrapped your arms around him and held tight, eyes closing as his thrusts turned erratic.  He pulled out of you before coming, making a bit of a mess between your thighs before he practically collapsed on top of you.   You clutched him, your legs still loosely hooked around his waist, his hands running soothingly up your hips and sides.   You still teetered on that brink, sweat sliding over your skin from every exertion.   You just lay there breathing hard until Castiel leaned over you and kissed you tenderly.  

“Do you want to finish?” he asked, mouth barely parted from yours.    Your body screamed yes but your mind calculated everything as a collective, and you imagined finally coming after a prolonged wait—and you thought about all the plans you had for him and you smiled, shaking your head before kissing him.

“I’ll wait, Father,” you whispered, “just like you said.”

He groaned, deepening the kiss before finally separating.

“Let me care for you,” he said, kissing your temple then moving away.   “Let me clean your body.”   You lay there, watching him gather the usual supplies before he made good on his promise.   You rested in his arms as he minded everything, and it was a nice change of pace.   He cleaned your inner thighs and you bit your lip as he gently wiped at your sex.  

“Oh god,” you whispered.  “I won’t last the night.”   He kissed your cheek, cradling you in his arms.

“You will,” he said with certainty.  “And you will be rewarded.”   Oh, you could sign up for that.

You made sure he was okay as well, sharing weak little kisses through it all.  Once everything was cleaned, your bodies included, you were lulled to a pleased, hazy stupor.   You snuggled under the covers and allowed sleep to overcome you.   He stroked your arm as you drifted off, and you might have murmured a hazy, “love… you…” before sleeping.    Had you been fully conscious, you would have panicked at such an admission.  The ridiculous sex was one thing—and you called it a love affair because that just rolled off the tongue—but surely this added unnecessary complications, even as it rippled through every muscle and nerve.   You thought back to the lack of classification for your so-called relationship… but it was all pushed aside to a distant morning.  

You had fallen asleep with the tickle between your legs receding, but you awoke right on the cusp of an orgasm.    Heart already beating quickly, you opened your eyes to a blurry white ceiling before blinking down.   You moaned brokenly, morning voice weak, all the blankets pushed aside and Castiel’s face buried between your thighs.   You plucked at the bedsheets beneath you before coming, crying out and shaking.   He slowly, gently ate you out as you fell from that height, murmuring nonsense as he still slowly swiped and licked and sucked.   Your chest heaving, you gripped the bedsheets and pressed your head back, his name falling from your lips as he brought you over a second orgasm.    You collapsed against the bed, panting, sated, as he kissed your inner thigh before returning to your side.   You flopped against him, kissing him messily.   He pulled back minutely, speaking into the kiss.

“Your feelings are reciprocated,” he rumbled, “for better or worse.”

“Oh, Father,” you teased, smiling up at him.   You reached down and found he was delightfully hard, and you took him in hand and squeezed gently.   His features fluttered with the appropriate expressions and you kissed him again.   “We’re just a couple of sinners beyond hope, aren’t we?”

“Beyond hope,” he repeated, “yes.   That sounds correct.  The revelation I prayed for has been delivered; there’s nothing to hope for anymore.”    You made a surprised noise when he rolled you onto your back, your legs spreading and wrapping around him.   He pushed inside of you and your fingers laced, your fucking turned to a sort of lazy lovemaking as he kissed you, mouth then resting against your shoulder.

“What revelation is that,” you finally asked, rocking your hips against his.

“I anticipated God’s word,” he said, speaking into your ear, “a calling from beyond—confirmation I was on the right path.   And I received you.”   He kissed below your ear and you turned your head, granting him all the access he desired.  

“I’m a match for God’s word, am I?” you teased.  He kissed your throat and sighed against the skin there.

“Yes,” he then groaned, hips moving faster so your own breath stuttered.   “You are every glimpse into the glory of earth.  Heaven takes what it will, its bindings not easily severed, but there is nothing to stop the well-deserved worship of humanity.”

“Castiel,” you sighed, tightening your legs around him.

“Y/N,” he returned.   “I recognize one named sin between us—to love something more than God is a… profound offense.”

You laughed lightly, squeezing his hands in yours.  

“He’ll have a hell of a time stopping me,” you said, and Castiel likewise smiled against your skin.

“Hell could not stop it either,” he said, finally pulling his hands from yours so he could move one between your bodies.   You wrapped your arms around his neck and panted with the building sensations.  

“Guess that leaves just you and me,” you said, pressing your fingers into his skin as you came apart with a shake and breathless moan, Castiel moving harder.

“Enough,” he said, “that would be… enough.”

And there wasn’t any real sense of direction, even as he came inside of you, but you held each other for a long moment after that.   And the future never seemed all that clear, and the details forever evaded you, but there was an honest truth in his smile and you were not unnerved or uncertain or scared.  

You kissed him and swore you tasted heaven.

castiel x reader masterpost

[arcticdementor]

In The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite (2020), building on my argument in The Next American Nation (1995), I offered an answer. I proposed that, while the proletariat is still the proletariat, James Burnham, Bruno Rizzi, John Kenneth Galbraith and other thinkers were correct that by the mid-twentieth century power had passed from individual bourgeois business owners to a new ruling class of technocrats or bureaucrats, whose income, wealth, and status is linked to their positions in large, hierarchical organizations, (i.e. nonprofits, government agencies, industrial and financial firms, and so on).

I use the term “overclass” to describe this group. A similar though not identical concept is what is known, after Barbara Ehrenreich, as the “professional-managerial class” (PMC). Whatever terminology you prefer to use, generalizations about all Western elites need to be accompanied by more granular analysis at the level of each country. Referring only to the U.S., I think it is helpful to go beyond the basic distinction between the overclass and the working class and identify distinct groups within each.

…

But the American elite includes three other groups, in addition to these bureaucratic managers. One consists of hereditary rentiers—heirs and heiresses, born into rich families. Old money types should be distinguished from tycoons like Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, who tend to be products of upper-middle-class or modestly rich families who happened to become incredibly rich. Only the most primitive Marxists believe that a tiny group of individual capitalists—to the manor born or self-made—controls modern societies from behind the scenes. I will not pay further attention to old money in this essay.

In German a distinction has long been made between the Besitzbürgertum (propertied bourgeoisie) and the Bildungsbürgertum (educated bourgeoisie). The equivalents of these two groups exist in the U.S. today. They are distinct from the big-organization managers and important in American politics out of all proportion to their numbers. Lumping them together as “PMC” confuses matters. Let us call them the professional bourgeoisie and the small business bourgeoisie.

The professional bourgeoisie—made up of lawyers, doctors, professors, K-12 teachers, journalists, nonprofit workers, and many of the clergy—is concentrated in the teaching, helping, and research sectors. Their jobs often pay modestly but provide both status and a degree of personal autonomy that the frequently better-paid managerial functionaries in more hierarchical occupations do not possess.

The small business bourgeoisie consists of the owner-operators of small businesses and franchises, along with genuine contractors (as opposed to proletarian “gig workers”), both those who are self-employed and those who employ others.

…

The working class in the U.S. is divided as well. First, there is the heartland working class—those who work in the industries located in the low-density exurban heartland. These industries include manufacturing, agriculture, energy, retail distribution and warehousing.

And then there is the hub-city working class. This class of workers can be found in metropolises like New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Houston. Many of these members work directly for the urban overclass as maids, nannies and other domestic staff, or otherwise indirectly in luxury services that cater to the affluent elite.

(A note: by the “heartland working class” I do not mean the stereotypical “white working class.” Most African-Americans and Hispanics are high-school-educated workers who live and work in suburbs and exurbs. Those areas also contain many foreign-born workers, though first-generation immigrants make up a greater share of the populations of hub cities.)

To the distinct hub and heartland working classes can be added a third non-elite group, often described as the lumpenproletariat—or, perhaps more clearly, the “underclass.” (In the 1990s the speech police of the politically-correct left banned the use of “underclass” from academic and journalistic usage in the U.S., but the term is neither racist nor an insult.) This refers to members of often-broken families caught in multigenerational poverty, particularly those trapped in the grim carceral subculture of public housing, food stamps, petty crime, and the prison-industrial complex. Like the hub and heartland working classes, the multigenerational underclass is racially and ethnically diverse, and found in both urban and rural parts of the U.S.

…

Since this is all very abstract, an image might help. Visualize two horseshoes—a lower horseshoe whose two prongs point up, and an upper horseshoe whose two prongs point down. The lower horseshoe has the underclass at the bottom/midpoint and the hub city working class and the heartland working class as the points of its two opposing prongs. The upper horseshoe has the managerial elite proper as its midpoint/apex and the professional bourgeoisie and the small business bourgeoisie as the points of its two opposing prongs. Arranged in this way, the two horseshoes form a rough outline of a circle, with the managerial elite at the very top, the underclass at the very bottom, and the two working classes and the two bourgeoisies distributed in between.

…

American politics is little more than the internal politics of the overclass, now that the working-class majority has lost the grassroots, mass-membership institutions that once gave it collective bargaining power—private sector trade unions, influential religious organizations, and local political parties. Members of the working-class majority play no role except as occasional voters. They tend to be ignored, except during election seasons, when they are targeted by manipulative appeals based on race and gender in the case of the Democrats and religion and patriotism in the case of the Republicans.

…

At the risk of being overly schematic I would suggest that the “center,” “left” and “right” of America’s top-thirty-percent politics can be mapped imperfectly onto the managerial elite, the professional bourgeoisie and the small business bourgeoisie. In particular, both DSA progressivism and Tea Party conservatism can be understood as different strategies for enlisting the power of government to stave off the proletarianization of the constituents of the two bourgeoisies.

The goal of so-called progressivism in 2020s America is to expand employment opportunities for college-educated, center-left professionals, while adding new wings to the welfare state that are tailored to their personal needs. The slogan “Defund the police” is interpreted by the bourgeois professional left to mean transferring tax revenues from police officers, who are mostly unionized but not college-educated, to social service and nonprofit professionals, who are mostly college-educated but not unionized. The enactment of proposals for free college education and college debt forgiveness would disproportionately benefit the professional bourgeoisie, not the working-class majority whose education ends with high school. Likewise, public funding for universal day-care allows both parties in a two-earner professional couple to maximize their individual incomes and individual career achievements by outsourcing the care of their children to a mostly-female, less well-paid workforce at taxpayer expense.

It is no coincidence that many professionals in the sectors most dependent on their funding on donations from the capricious rich, like philanthropy, colleges and universities, and the media, hate billionaires with the passionate resentment that is reserved for benefactors. In their view, in a just society, the arts program or the NGO would be permanently funded by tax revenues, instead of annual fund-raising appeals to this or that plutocrat’s personal fortune or foundation.

Gore Vidal was known to say that America has socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor. Contemporary American progressivism can be succinctly described as social democracy for the professional class.

…

To avoid being squeezed out of existence between big business and organized labor, the small business bourgeoisie has fought for generations on two fronts, demanding subsidies and exemptions from government regulations, while insisting on anti-union and anti-labor legislation and a reliable supply of cheap labor (preferably guest workers or illegal immigrants who cannot vote). The lobbies for the small business sector naturally oppose any “decommodifying” social insurance reforms. Examples are longer periods for unemployment insurance or universal health care, each of which can increase the bargaining power even of non-unionized workers by allowing them to hold out longer until employers are forced to make better offers.

The upper horseshoe schema explains American political factions in terms of different combinations of its elements. When the professional bourgeoisie allies itself with the Managerial Elite, you get Clinton-Obama-Biden left-neoliberalism. When the small business bourgeoisie allies itself with the Managerial Elite, you get George W. Bush-Paul Ryan-Nikki Haley right-neoliberalism.

When the professional bourgeoisie and the small business bourgeoisie unite with each other against the oligopolies and monopolies that dominate modern industry and finance and the managers who run them, you get the neo-Brandeisian, small-is-beautiful antitrust school. Their anachronistic small-producerist ideal, in which everything big has been broken up by government antitrust litigation, is an economy of small shops, artisanal craft breweries and independent doctors and lawyers.

…

The protests associated with the first reopening were led during the early stages of the lockdown by conservative members of the small business bourgeoisie. Many of their undercapitalized storefront businesses, like hair salons, and restaurants, and car repair shops, were threatened or wiped out by city and state shut-down orders. The protests were dominated by petty-bourgeois business owners, and not their low-paid employees—some of whom might have been endangered by a premature return to their workplaces during the pandemic.

The initial response of the progressive professional bourgeoisie was to ridicule and denounce the right-wingers for endangering their own lives and those of others by ignoring the advice of credentialed public health experts.

Then, during the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, the same progressive professional bourgeoisie concluded that systemic racism was a greater threat to public health than COVID-19, which—mirabile dictu!—cannot be spread at left-wing demonstrations.

…

What does all of this mean for the neglected working-class majority on the sidelines of American politics? A century ago, trade unionists like Samuel Gompers and socialists like Eugene Debs criticized antitrust and praised large industrial combinations, on the sensible grounds that large, modern corporations are easier to unionize and/or socialize than lots of small businesses.

A case can be made that both the professional bourgeoisie and the small business bourgeoisie are relics of an earlier techno-economic paradigm. Each is a leftover pocket of technological backwardness and labor exploitation in an advanced industrial economy.

In American higher education, a dwindling minority of tenured academics, using pedagogical methods unchanged from the agrarian era, lords it over a mass of impoverished guild apprentices, the poorly-paid, insecure, non-unionized adjuncts who now teach most university students nationwide. At the same time, the business models of many small, owner-operated firms in the U.S. are made possible by poor-country levels of worker rights and social insurance—and much of the workforce consists of recent, desperate immigrants from actual poor countries. Because the backward professional and small business sectors have much lower productivity than the rationalized, capital-intensive parts of the economy like manufacturing and energy, they pay low wages to much of their workforces while charging high prices to consumers.

Needless to say, any new cross-class settlement would have to follow the recreation of powerful mass-membership working-class organizations in current and newly-rationalized, sectors, which would permit the transformation of the majority of Americans in the bottom horseshoe into subjects, not mere objects, of American politics. But that is a story for another day.

[ante--meridiem]

How do you see the wizarding world’s view of homosexuality back in the late 1800s when Albus was growing up? How do you think he handled it? Do you think the extreme homophobia and hate in the muggle world played a part other than what happened to Ariana in him wanting to change the muggle world? What do you think his experience with his sexuality was like? Do you see that experience leading to some of the decisions he made in life? Hope you don’t mind me asking :)

I definitely don't mind you asking, though there's a lot here and I don't quite feel qualified to do these questions justice.

So, regarding the wizarding world: I've seen it suggested that the wizarding world didn't have homophobia, but I don't really find that plausible. For one thing, the wizarding world and muggle world were never completely segregated, even if the Status of Secrecy was seemingly much stricter back then. You still have half-muggle half-magic towns like Godric's Hollow, so it's hard to imagine the cultures and prejudices staying completely separate. Even if the wizarding world was completely accepting there would be the problem of "what if the muggles see you being openly gay?". It's possible they would go to the other extreme and pride themselves on how much more accepting they are than the muggles, but the fact that Travers reacted to finding out that Albus and Gellert had been extremely close once with "such good friends" and didn't seem to even consider the possibility of romantic involvement isn't exactly suggestive of a society where same-gender relationships are completely normalised.

If I remember correctly, Word of Rowling is that pure-blood prejudice is the most significant kind of bigotry in the wizarding world. In fact I think she said in an interview that "the main concern for the Lucius Malfoys of the world is getting pure-blood children" (paraphrased). Now, this doesn't suggest to me that homophobia isn't an issue, since "but what about having biological children" is a fairly common motivation for it in the real world. But it does seem to suggest that it's less deeply rooted than in our world, and might be more of a side effect of cultural intersections or subconscious bias towards having children than something people hold as a firm social pillar. So. I think the late 1800s wizarding world would be significantly less homophobic than our late 1800s world, but also probably more homophobic than our current world. I could easily see it being a "don't ask don't tell" kind of situation.

As for whether Albus was affected by that my first reaction is "yes of course, some things are impossible not to be affected by." The quote (paraphrased again) from Aberforth about him being "raised on secrets and lies" may be referring primarily to hiding Ariana, but it does take on certain connotations when you realise we're talking about a gay man in 19th century England. I think it would make Albus more sensitive to noticing social injustices, and more skeptical of taking social attitudes at face value. I also kind of believe he could have some guilt around it, not so much because he's internalised other people's attitudes but because it's an extra secret that could make things harder for his family if it got out, and therefore another reason for him to feel selfish for wanting to pursue his own happiness. (I feel like being told things along the lines of "yeah we accept you, but what will other people think? What if this reflects badly on us?" or "this is an unnecessary complication that will just make your and other people around you's lives harder" by people close to us is a common experience among LGBTQ people, and not one that would play well with Albus' guilt complex.)

I don't think it led explicitly to any of his decisions except in as much as it was part of what formed his personality, and his personality shaped his decisions. I don't think it played an explicit role in any of his politics either, if nothing else because that would be a plot line that requires more sensitivity and attention than I think there's space for given everything else already going on. Like I said before: while I don't think it would be a catalyst it would make him more likely to notice other flaws in society, wizarding and muggle both. It would also partially help build his sympathy towards other marginalised people (since we know Albus draws in and sympathises with people who tend to consider themselves outsiders). Otherwise I absolutely think it plays a role in his private nature and emotional repression, because those tend to be traits developed by people who have been given reason their whole lives to feel they shouldn't openly express themselves.

Besides this, regarding his experience with sexuality... we're veering well into headcanon territory here because I have nothing solid to back up my claims with, but I do think he was well aware of his sexuality and tried dating other people before Gellert. Albus may be emotionally isolated but he doesn't like it that way; I would expect him to have been a bit of a romantic who was already searching for a life partner. However, in between the inherent difficulty of trying to find other gay men to date during that time period, the extra pressure from his family situation, and his own high standards for emotional connection, I can imagine him going into the summer of 1899 already resigned that he wouldn't be able to find a relationship that works. Which only makes it more painful when he thinks he has, and it crashes down spectacularly. I think he would find Gellert's blatant defiance to be a breath of fresh air after spending his life having to carefully consider what other people would say. I see Gellert as the kind of person who would be as open as he can get away with about their relationship (and push the limits of "what he can get away with") which would make Albus nervous, but also be a welcome change from potential past partners who might have been overly cautious or even acted ashamed to be with him. It can be... really really nice to be with someone who doesn't overthink the gender and sexuality aspects of their relationship with you and just treats it as a natural progression of feelings. But the consequence would be that Albus' gratitude for this aspect of Gellert's rebellious nature would make him more willing to turn a blind eye to the rest of it, and we all know how that ends.

So, yeah - I don't think his sexuality ever blatantly influences his choices but it does influence his personality in the "no-one's personality can be completely disentangled from their position relative to social structures" way.

[twatd]

Getting TWATD at the Wake, ii: The Eulogies

Every month, two writers returned to this blog. They did an essay each. For five years. And now it’s all over.

The Wicked + The Divine #45 came out a month ago, and we’re still at the metaphorical wake. In this part, we pick out two characters we haven’t written much about, consider the paths their lives ended up taking, and write their obituaries. It could get emotional.

Spoilers for... well, for the entirety of WicDiv, I guess, below the cut.

Tim: Endings are bittersweet things at the best of times, and for a series as preoccupied with death and heartbreak as The Wicked + The Divine, we were never going to reach a conclusion without shedding a few tears. Still, there are many ways in which #45 is a happy ending for several of the characters – and that’s truer for Aruna, the god formerly known as Tara, than possibly anyone else.

Looking across the span of the series as a whole, she is a character who has suffered abuse, indignity and manipulation. But here at the end, Aruna is free from many of the troubles that plagued her life both before and during her time as a god. I don’t know if the Aruna we see in 2055 is living her best life, but it seems infinitely better than we could have expected after #13, the issue which gave us a painful glimpse into a character who had remained a mystery up to that point.

Pre-Godhood, Aruna had been made to feel uncomfortable in her own body by sexism and misogyny. That feeling was amplified by her divine transformation and the increased celebrity that came with it, culminating in her begging Ananke for the mercy of death. But Ananke’s manipulation accidentally set up Aruna to transcend the cruelties inflicted upon her. As a miraculously preserved head, she was free from the burden of her body, and free to reinvent herself.

With the help of Jon, Aruna she was able to reject a new form when she wasn’t ready for one – and, once she was, to create one that existed beyond the constraints of traditional biology. Her story touches on themes of transhumanism, not an area that WicDiv has traditionally dabbled in, but one that has some interesting connections with the themes of people seeking immortality. As you might expect given the ideas of gender and bodily autonomy at play, it’s also easy to read through a queer lens.

I’m glad that, while it’s clear Jon and Aruna have developed a close partnership over the years, Gillen and McKelvie chose to leave the exact nature of their relationship open to interpretation.

Aruna’s previous discomfort with the spotlight, and Ananke’s subsequent exploitation of that fact, also ended up benefitting her in other ways. Her distance from the rest of the Pantheon meant she avoided jail time after the events of #44 (it probably helped that it’s hard to handcuff someone when they’re just a head).

You could also maybe draw a line between the sudden outpouring of appreciation following Tara’s death and the way she was able to successfully campaign for the Pantheon’s early release, performing benefit concerts and raising awareness. This goes some way to colouring the previously devastating ending of #13 in a new light, as the insincere chorus of Twitter observers become a platform Aruna is able to use for good.

There’s an important distinction, though – this time around, she was able to approach a musical career and fame on her own terms, as Aruna rather than Tara. Also, the fact that her ‘death’ wasn’t a permanent one doesn’t take away from the tragedy of it, or how the comic made us complicit in the culture that led to it.

Aruna’s story following her ‘death’ could be called WicDiv’s ultimate triumph. The old truism about suicide being a permanent solution to a temporary problem feels especially apt here. Ananke took someone who was miserable and vulnerable, and proceeded to place them in a situation that they couldn’t cope with. Ananke became Aruna’s sole source of ‘support’, isolating her from the other gods, amplifying her insecurities until Aruna felt the only solution was to take her own life.

Strip away some of the details, and the story starts to take on some truly dark parallels, but unlike so many real-life stories, there is a second act to Aruna’s tale.

Once the true nature of Ananke’s plans are revealed, Aruna is eventually able to escape her role in them, retake control of her life, and eventually thrive on her own terms. WicDiv may be a story that largely approaches death as a firm reality, but by giving Aruna a reprieve from her seeming demise, it allows us a glimpse of a real happy ending, in amongst the more complex feelings the final issue evokes.

Alex: Aruna’s story is a happy one because she escapes the cycles that life locked her into. But the god I want to talk about, I’m not sure they ever did. Which might not be a terrible thing – it was always a little different, with Dionysus.

We don’t get much time with Umar before he goes all Olympian, but the moments we do get suggest there’s less of a gap between his two identities than there is for most of the other gods. He’s the guy who drives his friends down to London so they can get wasted on the way, who asks sensitive questions of strangers.

When he becomes Dionysus, the difference is mainly a question of scale. The group of people he’s trying to do right by gets bigger and bigger, and that makes this behaviour unsustainable. That first time we meet him, in issue #8, we get pretty much the whole Dionysus story. Dude takes on everyone else’s troubles, exerts himself to make them feel better, and makes it look breezy – only occasionally cracking and showing the weight of it all.

I’m not sure that ever really changes for Umar. He keeps using his powers to make people happy for a night, even as it starts to take a toll. He waits in the darkness, lets The Morrigan attack him, just to be there for Baphomet. He has faith in the power of the crowd, even as they crush him. He just keeps giving and giving, and it lands him in a coma.

This is Dionysus’ hamartia – the fatal flaw built into every one of WicDiv’s gods, the thing that ensures their downfall. As these things go, it’s not a bad flaw to have.

It marks him apart from the other gods. Gillen has talked about the Pantheon all being aspects of himself, his own flaws built out into characters, people he’s trying not to be anymore. But Dionysus’ flaw actually makes him someone to aspire to.

A spare Gillen quote from my Polygon interview that didn’t make it into the final article: “Umar is someone I'd love to be now… But Umar's a fictional character. Therefore, it's easier for him to be Umar than for Kieron to not be a shithead.” Even in the comic, we see how Dio’s behaviour is unsustainable – but to try and live that way, all of the time, in real life? It’s impossible.

I say this with authority, because in many ways I spent my twenties trying to be a Dionsysus. I’m an Inanna by nature – a pleasure seeker who tries to be kind but can sometimes forget that having the best possible time can have consequences on the people around them. (And, sidenote, it’s a fascinating twist on the archetypes that the god with these traits isn’t the one who, y’know, gave us the word bacchanalian.)

But, to be uncharacteristically nice about myself for a second, my idea of having a good time does tend to include bringing as many people along with me as possible. The version of me I like is the one who always opens up the circle on the dancefloor to sweep up strangers and stragglers. Or spot someone who seems left out and work to change that. Or pour hours into a project that’ll be seen by just a handful of friends, or just one.

I kind of buried that person this year.

This wasn’t an active choice, or something I was even conscious of doing at the time, but looking back I can see the reasons behind it. Firstly, because it’s not always clear whether people actually want these things done for them, or if it’s an unwelcome overreach, and that thought makes me to want up curl into myself and just die. And second, because I’m not good at knowing how to apportion effort, meaning it can involve frankly life-damaging amounts of preparation for very little payoff.

It’s not a sustainable way to live. Dio might be the best possible version of the WicDiv god, but he’s still someone sacrificing his self to become an idea. It kills him, eventually, and #37 shows how he’s remembered for it by the public, the people he gave everything he had to: ‘that guy on drugs’.

But eventually he is repaid by one of the recipients of his kindness, as a little bit of that selflessness rubs off on Baphomet. And Umar joins the rest of the Pantheon as they step back from their defining flaw, allow themselves to become more than an archetype. “I thought it was my job to save everyone,” Dionysus says, and I cry my little eyes out.

Maybe that was the moment I started to realise I’d been stepping back from that version of myself. Or maybe it was talking with Tim (my other, non-fictional model for the sort of person I want to be) about issue #45, when he explained how he read the older Umar: someone in whom all that kindness turned a little bitter. Aged like vinegar, not wine.

My reading is more hopeful than that, I think. The final issue trades in hints and suggestions of lives, but with Umar more than most. And personally, I fill in that blank with a different story: someone who has tempered his need to always put others first, and become more judicious about when and how and to whom he gives himself. And that? That is someone I’d really like to be.