#he is functionally a seraph but has the responsibilities more in line with that of a dominion

[eelslippers]

Constantly cycling between designing one of my angel ocs true forms to be a giant ram creetur with dozens of wings and eyes or have them fit more along the lines of a traditional seraph

[rivalcobalt]

Okay actually yknow what, I'm just gonna do this on here cause I've been agonizing over this for too long

Firstly to prove I'm not insane, and I guess to his credit, the author has mentioned ONS as an inspiration-slash-thing-with-similar-vibes on twitter (archived):

That said, I feel like this really undersells it. Like, you can argue about how much inspiration you can take from a work, and ONS itself takes insane amounts of shit from Devilman, but even still it feels very much like a different story, and not like... the entire first half of the book being largely what you'd get if you just ported the plot of S1 of ONS over into a YA novel with and then altered who the love interest was.

This is long enough already (talking like nearly 4 pages point form on google docs) so I'm just copying it over as is. I only read the book once, so honestly this may have even missed some things. I'd put more effort into this but honestly idk how many people are gonna see this anyways.

Tl;dr no fucking way did you just "watch this while editing"

The Flood || unnamed apocalypse virus

Man-made virus

Kills most of the human population (ons' explicitly kills off 90%, the Flood has killed near 9 billion (earth's population when it was released)/appears to be a comparable rate)

Intentionally caused by Angels cult/Hyakuya Sect + JIDA (revealed in manga/LNs only)

Angels cult || vampires:

Signaturely wear white robes/uniforms + capes

Ons vampires are associated with (fallen) angels

New Nazareth/Sanguinem (city for cult/vampires that protagonist escapes from)

Don't want any more of their kind made (Angels forcing Angel parents to drown their newborns, vampires noted to be generally opposed to making more vampires for unexplained reasons; iirc only progenitors are able to sire and they're supposed to get permission from the vampire council first)

Angels cult || Hyakuya Sect

Religious cult

Doing human (S)eraph experiments

Benji & Theo/Yuu & Mika are children of cult members who use them as test subjects

Causes virus on purpose (manga/LNs only)

Responsible for creating Graces/Horsemen of John (manga/LNs only)

Benji || Yuu:

Only successful version of the (S)eraph experiments

Not fully in control of powers yet/powers emerge over the course of the story

Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members

Brought to New Nazareth/Sanguinem under the age of 12 and lives there for 4-5 years before escaping

Grow up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with Theo/Mika during those years

Important family member dies as they try to escape together

Son of cult members

Posesses (S)eraph abilities from being experimented on by cult

Joins ALC/JIDA in their front-line forces after escaping and being found by Nick/Guren

Seraph || seraphs (humans possessing seraph gene and have ability to turn into them)

Aim to wipe out humanity (but this can be controlled by protagonist with effort)

Very powerful

Created via human experimentation on children by the religious cult that caused the virus

Picture of Yuu in complete seraph form in ons tweet from author

Theo || Mika:

Curly/wavy blond hair and blue eyes

Protagonist's childhood best friend

In love with protagonist, debatably reciprocated

Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members

Grows up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with protagonist, but didn't escape with them

Wants to get protagonist away from ALC/JIDA and live with them

Seen in whites of the vampires/Angels for the majority of the story

Remains affiliated with the vampires/Angels (Theo sides with Angels & Mika is turned)

Soldier for the Angels/vampires

Protagonist often recalls memories of being in the cult/vampire city together as children

Protagonist thinks of them as someone they'll never see again after escaping (Theo stayed with cult, Yuu thinks Mika is dead)

Mika is revealed to be the son of the first vampire, a fallen angel, meaning he's also an angel (manga only)

Other (S)eraph besides Benji/Yuu, but not a fully functional one (Theo injects himself with a failed version of Seraph, Mika's seraph gene is dormant)

Theo's angry outbursts may be based on Mika's anger (though who they lash out at is very different)

Theo's character differences from Mika are almost all traits commonly found in other characters also influenced by Ryou Asuka (betrays protagonist, parallel to protagonist due to similarities but on opposing sides of conflict) (not sure if author knew about Mika being heavily from Ryou or just subconsciously knew the archetype via consuming other anime/manga/JRPGs/etc or just a really funny coincidence)

Upon escaping New Nazareth/Sanginem, Benji's dad/Mika is killed

Nothing can be done to save them

Bleeding out as Benji/Yuu tries to save them as a specific similar imagery (plus I guess gaping hole wounds specifically mentioned (from being shot in the head/arm thrust through stomach respectively))

Specific memories of looking at a map together to plan their escape

Yuu/Benji is forced to keep running alone to the only way out (only bridge out of Acheson/only tunnel out of Sanguinem)

Cult is using human experiments to create humans with the seraph gene/martyrs to turn into Seraph

(S)eraphs aim to wipe out the rest of humanity

The name. Are you kidding me

Protagonist is the only fully successful experiment

Main character and childhood best friend are children of parents in cult

(In the end) main character and childhood best friend are both (S)eraph experiments

The way the Flood is killing Benji has similarities to Yuu in his incomplete seraph form

Dripping blood and black fluid (Yuu: from wings and left eye, right sclera filled with blood and left eye may have burst upon transforming, Benji: from wounds from Seraph decomposing him)

Spitting up black fluid

at a later incident, Yuu's seraph form is triggered by multiple organs rupturing. Benji's organs are liquefying inside him and coming up in chunks as part of the Seraph transformation

Theo's death after injecting himself with Dominion-12 focusing on his shot-through left eye looking like a black hole is similar to Yuu's left eye blacked out by anime gore censor circle in incomplete seraph form

Same type of post-apocalyptic setting: 

Plants beginning to cover over a wrecked city (only a few years after the virus broke out, so not super heavily overgrown yet)

Skyscrapers and concrete brutalist architecture specifically shown. Downtown core type of stuff

Graces || Horsemen of John

Created by Angels/Hyakuya Sect (result of Flood virus/called by 6th trumpet (seraph) of seraph experiments)

Beasts that kill humans, just to finish killing off the population

Can be called upon/created/controlled by (S)eraphs

Described as both horselike and spiderlike

Ribs protruding out of chest, fangs, mouths in unusual places, and I think wings (not sure about Graces on that one) are common traits

Picture of a Horseman included in author's tweet about ons

ALC || JIDA

Wear all black

Surviving humans outside of New Nazareth/Sanginem

Fight against Angels/vampires

Rescue Benji/Yuu after they escape New Nazareth/Sanguinem

Secretly aim to use Benji/Yuu's (S)eraph abilities for their own gain

The Watch || Shinoa Squad

ALC/JIDA Moon Demon Company front lines squad

Comprised of teenagers

Protagonist joins them after escaping New Nazareth/Sanguinem to fight back against the Angels/vampires

Cormack is debatably based on Kimizuki (red/pink hair, asshole personality, rare bits of kindness show through exterior (when Cormack prioritizes giving Benji his jacket to block smoke while ALC is on fire, but not nearly as nice of a guy under it all as Kimizuki)

Aisha is like… maybe bastardized Mitsuba if you just take her emotional outburst parts, but I might be reaching on that

Nick || Guren 

Leader of ALC & the Watch/Moon Demon Company (strongest section of front-line soldiers in JIDA)

Black hair & eyes (Guren's eyes are dark purple, but could be interpreted as stylized black)

Finds Benji/Yuu after their escape and brings them into their group

Nick is literally just Guren in personality if you age him down a few years and add autism and make him nicer under the exterior. Like even the way he talks and him being mentioned dramatically stomping his leg up on furniture during speeches 

Heading ALC/JIDA's intentions to use Benji/Yuu for their own gain

Dehumanizes protagonist yet also having a bit of affection towards them (more debatable for Guren, but he has some rare moments of being caring towards Yuu in a more older sibling/fatherly way)

Erin || Shinoa

Another leader within the ALC/JIDA (though Erin isn't a soldier/in the Watch)

Sympathetic towards Benji/Yuu, protests against Nick/Guren directly for how they treats them

Pastel pink/purple feminine aesthetic

Wears hair at least partly in braids

Benji & Theo's reunion in Reformation Faith Evangelical Church || Yuu & Mika's reunion on the battlefield in Shinjuku

Reunite at first major battle protagonist participates in, but not their first (iirc both only have one minor fight between joining ALC/JIDA squad and this one)

One approaches other from behind, other only realizes who they are a moment after turning around

On opposite sides as ALC/JIDA vs Angels/vampires

"[Name]? Is that you?"

Benji holds a knife to Theo's throat || Yuu stabs Mika through the chest

Theo/Mika went along to fight specifically to find Benji/Yuu

"Abandon everything and run away with me" || "I came here to follow you. I couldn't let the city take you alone. If it wants you, it has to take me too."

Theo/Mika wants to separate Benji/Yuu from the ALC/JIDA (but Mika has good reason, while Theo wants Benji to come back to the cult)

Forced to separate again at end of fight

Picture of Yuu stabbing Mika from this scene is also on ons tweet from author

In general, first half follows the escape from Sanguinem/New Nazareth leaving behind a dying family member who tried to escape with the protagonist but died to let them get away -> get found by JIDA/The Watch upon escape and rescued by Guren/Nick with the intention of using Yuu/Benji as a weapon against those he escaped from due to his nature as a human experiment -> join JIDA/The Watch, meet other members and the leader Guren/Nick -> do some missions with them -> reunite with previous friend-slash-love interest they had left behind (Mika/Theo) at first major battle as soldiers for opposing sides and are forced to part again progression, which isn't super unique but still very specific, and given everything else... yeah

This is by far not the first time an English work has copied a Japanese work and was praised for originality, but "gay trans YA novel rips off mediocre gay vampire shounen" has to be conceptually the funniest and yet there still seem to be 0 google results about it

[likeadog]

can we get gabriel masterpost I am thinking abt him rn

YESSS Ive been meaning to talk about some of his development so ill go ahead post his ref+bio and then misc thoughts

The Archangel Gabriel, known in life (and by those close to him) as Rubén Erendirani Cuini Dominguez. (The names of the Archangels are simply titles passed down by each iteration)

He was born in 1796 and died in 1823, at 26, of influenza. (his birthday is December 20th.)

His family is Purépecha, with his father being a coppersmith. They lived in Morelia, Michoacan, where Ruben would become a choirboy with the local church. From there, thanks to his musical prowess, he would become the apprentice of the maestro di capilla, and paid a salary to practice under him. During Morelos' campaign of independance, he would help independent troops through the provision of food, water, and morale (through music), as well as occasionally passing on messages through the royalist town of Morelia (then Valladolid). His soul was ascended after his death because of these deeds, and he became the Archangel Gabriel.

As the annunciator, he is the angel who spends the most time travelling between realms. He's incredibly well travelled, having been to almost every place on Earth; and even through a little bit of hell. Because of this, he also tends to be the loudest voice in advocating for human souls, and he delights in teaching his colleagues about the different accomplishments of people (everything from the invention of the telephone to trying a new food can qualify). He's immensely talented in the world of music, and capable of playing almost anything he picks up, although he favors the jalisco harp when not using his signature horn.

He also maintains somewhat of a double life in the mortal world; or, rather, he's got a side-hobby of being a human. His music does numbers online, and he's happy to observe and assist his neighbors-- wherever he may be.

He's close with Virtue, and their friendship initially is what lead her to become aware of the Seraphim's plans.

MISC:

The more I think about his role in the story, the more I realize how involved he is! I guess the only word that comes to mind is "manipulative"-- but not in the sense that he uses other people. I mean more like he's good at reading events and trying to put in action what he wants to get done. He's the closest thing the High Seraph has to an "opposition" in heaven, and his greatest strength is his humanity. His ability to connect with others and understand who can get the job done is important, both as the Annunciator and as someone who cares deeply about the future. And while the other Archangels share his humanity, as their leader he has a certain amount of charisma and motivational power that really puts things into motion, I think.

He's not someone who acts recklessly. While he has a relatively laid back personality, I don't think he'd do things without foresight or on impulse-- at least not big things. You don't exist as long as he has and not understand the consequence of your actions, so I think he's always thinking a few steps ahead.

Also, I've mentioned it before, but because I'd like to encorporate fun action I plan on giving him a combat form called "Master of the Choir". For abilities, I'm probably thinking something along the lines of Classicaloid-- but more specifically, how Bach's tocatta manifested.

(this isnt a great picture but im pretty sure it summons both gold arrows and like. a Giant God made of shiny gold dust that cancels out the musik of other loids. it's just around in the right aesthetic i have in mind)

At least aesthetically, the actual function will be different. But I had to drop a cloid reference in their somewhere :V

He really loves travel, and is probably responsible for the casual wear the archangels wear when they visit Earth, because otherwise some of them would be picking up fashion that's been out of date for a few centuries. I'm also choosing to believe he listens to Korn.

Out of all the demon princes, he probably has the closest friendship with Pride and Wrath, both because of the love of music. Pride he sees more as an equal though, since they're both approximately in the same age range. Wrath are young teens, but they do affectionately refer to Gabriel as "Old man" or even "uncle" (when they want something)

[malecsecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, eternallysilvermagnusandalec!

For @eternallysilvermagnusandalec. I hope you like it :)

Read On AO3

*****

Learning to Speak

The first time he sees Magnus, the first time Magnus turns to look at him, Alec loses his ability to speak.

That's never happened to him before. And it's not as if he always tells people what he's really thinking—he has secrets after all, very necessary secrets—but that's a calculation, a choice.

With this—Alec isn’t sure he could say anything to Magnus even if he wanted to. Not anything real, at any rate.

Magnus looks at him like he knows. And Alec wonders if, for all his flirtations and brash declarations, Magnus is holding something back, too.

Alec can’t know for sure. All he really knows is he wants to see more of him, so he can find out.

*

Alec knows better than to be here.

This is dangerous. Magnus’s loft is dangerous. Not because of Magnus, but because of what it means. The unraveling of a carefully walled-in life.

He’s about to say as much—well, not that, but some excuse as to why he has to leave before the aching in his heart can keep him here, when Magnus raises a finger to his lips.

And everything in Alec stills for the first time he can remember.

He can hear his heartbeat pounding louder in his ears, but everything else is—quiet. His vision narrows in on Magnus, the glitter under his eyes, the subtle vibrancy of him. And suddenly, he can’t remember why anything else is supposed to matter.

It’s quiet. It’s never quiet.

And Magnus is the opposite of a quiet person, but still everything in Alec settles before him. He thinks he might stop breathing if Magnus were to actually touch him.

Magnus doesn’t touch him. He does, however, watch Alec rather knowingly as he invites him to stay.

And Alec wants to stay. Here, in Magnus’s orbit. He knows he shouldn’t give in to that want, that it could tear out the cornerstone of everything he’s so carefully built.

He stays anyway.

*

Magnus is a flurry of sharpness and blue, his grace tempered by anger. Alec can’t tell if Magnus is angry at him or at the world or both. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

What does matter: Magnus is a sharply-moving thing that sets him alight. Alec so rarely feels alight. What matters even more: under Magnus’s quickfire anger is a deep distress that brings all of the lines of him into relief. Alec wants to hold him until he softens again.

Magnus stalks closer to him, the silk of his shirt shifting over his shoulders. His eyeshadow is dark and hollowing, his eyes glint in the dim light of the loft. He has such a natural grace to him, an ease of being that Alec’s admired since the first moment he saw him—though Alec’s starting to suspect that it’s not actually ease at all. Rather, Magnus’s existence is hard-won and tenuous, an act of continuous strength and balance and delicacy.

Alec admires him all the more, knowing that, feeling that, because his own life has also been built against a current, different from Magnus’s but precarious all the same.

And Alec can’t tell him—any of that. He can’t tell him that he’s so beautiful it makes Alec’s chest hurt. That the thought of leaving the loft, going home, leaves an aching cavern under his ribs. He can’t tell him, because this—him, Magnus, them, if there even is a ‘them,’—is the precarity threatening everything.

Magnus circles around him, leaning in close. Alec can smell his cologne, and has to close his eyes for a second to get his bearings. He feels Magnus’s magic brush his neck, so like a flame but cool to the touch. It feels like mourning for something they should have been able to have.

What about love? Magnus challenges.

And Alec thinks, despairingly, what about it? What about it, Magnus?

*

What about it.

Alec looks at Magnus at the far end of the aisle and thinks, I could love you. He’s never thought that about someone before, not in that way. He’s not sure he ever will again.

When he walks toward Magnus, his vision tunnels. All he can focus on is Magnus, the details of him: the streak of red in his hair, the velvet of his jacket, the glitter under his eyes. Everything else is so bright and loud—the shocked gasps, the murmurings, the very air.

When he kisses Magnus, it’s quiet. It feels like the first time he saw him, the first time he stayed the night in Magnus’s loft: that sudden clarity that shears through everything he’s constructed in his head. This is what matters: the way Magnus leans into him. The realness of his chest under Alec’s hands. The kiss feels like a declaration—of everything he hadn’t been able to say before, of everything he’ll want to say, someday.

So when he finds Magnus afterwards, it rolls so easily off his tongue, this simple request that seems to mean so much, that harkens back to their first moment together, and an Alec who had to stay silent for his own protection—but no longer.

“You wanna go get that drink sometime?”

*

It’s shockingly easy, once he starts doing it, for Alec to tell Magnus how he feels about him. It’s like the words spill forth from his mouth almost unbidden, like they can’t hide in the darkness any longer, and he wonders how he didn’t choke on them, before, when he was unable to speak.

“I don’t care how many people you’ve been with,” he says, almost started to find that it’s true. He doesn’t care about any of the complications. All he cares about is Magnus now, and how he feels about him, which is—well, he sort of still doesn’t want to think about just quite how big that feeling is.

Magnus looks sort of shocked, but allows Alec to kiss him, leaning up into the touch. And Alec says what he wanted to say when he first saw him, what he’s wanted to say every time after:

“God, you’re so beautiful.”

Magnus melts, looking away over Alec’s shoulder with a sort of pleased embarrassment. “Flatterer.”

“I’m only stating the truth,” Alec tells him.

“Yes, you always are, aren’t you?”

Alec isn’t entirely sure what he means by that, but Magnus is looking up at him with a gentle, warm smile on his face, so it must be good.

Alec leans in to kiss him again.

*

Magnus is holding the omamori charm like his hands have forgotten how to hold. Like this is the first thing they’ve really needed to hold. Alec is starting to get concerned by his silence when Magnus looks up at him and says, “You got this—for me?”

Alec nods. “It’s supposed to bring you luck and protection.” He thinks he might have been embarrassed by it, once, this gross sentimentality, but he isn’t now. He knows there’s no functional utility to the charm. That isn’t the point. He wants Magnus to carry a piece of him with him, and just hopes that isn’t too much to ask for.

Magnus tentatively closes his fingers around the charm like it might vanish from his grasp. “I— thank you, Alexander.”

Alec pulls Magnus close to kiss him, feeling his chest light up when Magnus hums into his mouth, reaches up to twine a hand in his hair.

“No need to thank me,” he says when they part. “Just let it do its job, okay? Let it protect you.” And then, because he feels almost compelled to say it: “I couldn’t handle it if you got hurt.”

Magnus hums again. His hand is still on the nape of Alec’s neck, and he strokes softly at his hair.

“I will try.”

*

It turns out Alec’s the one who needed the protection charm.

Though what he really needs protection from is himself, because he’s always thinking about Magnus. Including, and especially, when he’s in the middle of a fight and a demon is coming at him.

He cuts it straight through with his seraph blade, but not before it gets him in the side, claws cleaving through his gear. Alec hits the ground hard, and at first he thinks, maybe it’s not so bad.

Then he tries to push himself up, and his vision shatters into a million colors, and he thinks, oh, right. Venom.

He’s vaguely aware of Izzy crouched over him, yelling into her phone, but whatever she’s saying is too far away to hear.

*

It’s startling, to come to in Magnus’s bed. Because it’s not that they haven’t shared a bed before, but they don’t do it regularly, and Alec’s always a little wary of encroaching on Magnus’s space, pushing too far.

He stretches out on the sheets, trying to come back into his body. His side is sore, but less than should be expected, even from an iratze. And as he pushes himself to sit up, his hand closes over something that was sitting in his palm.

The omamori charm.

“This was meant to be for you,” Alec says before he can think about it.

And Magnus, who’s sitting beside him, dead quiet, staring off into space so intensely Alec’s not even sure he’s heard him, startles and looks at him.

“Alexander,” he says instead of addressing Alec’s comment. His voice is quiet, disused, grief threading through it. He leans over to help Alec sit up with gentle hands. “Shh, don’t move too much, you’re still not fully healed.”

Alec groans as the act of sitting up aggravates the scar tissue in his side. “What happened?”

Magnus looks away again. His hands twist into each other. He looks very tired, Alec notices suddenly. “Venom. Don’t worry, I extracted it. It will take another few days for the wound to heal completely, though. You’ll have to take it easy.” He rubs at his ear and still doesn’t look at Alec.

It hurts, to see him looking so distant. Alec tries to call out to him. “Magnus.”

No response.

“Magnus.”

When Magnus stays looking away from him, Alec reaches out and takes his hand. He places the charm back in his palm.

Finally, Magnus looks at him. There are tears brimming at the corners of his eyes.

“This was meant to protect you,” Alec says, closing Magnus’s fingers over the charm.

Magnus looks down at it. “You needed all the help you could get,” he says. And then, looking back up at Alec, “You worried me.”

It seems to pain him a little, to admit it.

“I’m sorry,” Alec says.  

“No.” Magnus shakes his head. “No.”

And they’re still sort of new, they still don’t really do this. But still Alec tugs on Magnus’s sleeve, pulls him in close. “Come here.”

Magnus follows his pull, climbs into bed with him, and Alec pulls him close. Magnus hesitates, then tucks his face into the curve of Alec’s shoulder, pressing up close to him.

“Don’t let me hurt you,” Magnus murmurs, ever wary of Alec’s wounded side.

“Never,” Alec promises.

*

Don’t let me hurt you, Magnus had said. Don’t let me hurt you. As if he could ever.

Alec, on the other hand���

He’d yelled at him. He’d yelled at him, and now Magnus is missing, missing in an Institute full of dead Downworlders, he could be lying somewhere hurt, or dead, and does he even know? Does he even know that Alec loves him?

The rising sun should be a blessing after one of the darkest nights the Institute’s ever seen. But it means less than nothing to Alec, not without—

“Alexander—”

Alec spins around and crushes Magnus in a hug, effectively cutting off anything else he might have been going to say. He can’t breathe for the relief crashing through him, but he manages to say into Magnus’s shoulder—

“I love you.”

He can’t bear for Magnus to go another second without knowing it.

“Magnus, I love you, I— by the Angel.” That’s all he can say, the rest is swallowed by the relief of Magnus’s presence.

Magnus pulls away to look at him. He looks sort of startled. “I—” he tries to say, and has to pause to center himself. “I love you, too.”

Alec hugs him again, because he’s so overwhelmed with feeling that he has to, and Magnus hugs him back, shaking a little.

“I thought I lost you,” Alec says, clinging to him.

Magnus shushes him. “I know.”

*

It’s even easier, after that, saying it to him. Even when Magnus is struggling, and has a hard time accepting it, Alec will say it to him.

When Magnus comes home after a tough client—

“I love you.”

When Magnus is going through one of his spells where all he can manage seems to be sitting out on the balcony, smoking cigarette after cigarette—

“I love you.”

When Magnus is shaken and hurting after the incident with Azazel, barely able to handle anything from Alec at all—

Quietly, and from a distance— “I love you.”

Alec tries not to feel hurt when Magnus doesn’t always say it back.  

*

It’s hard not saying it to him, when they’re broken up. Even harder than not being together is this: not being able to let Magnus know how loved he is.

Standing in the alleyway outside the Hunter’s Moon, looking at him, the words get caught in Alec’s throat. He’s not sure he can handle it if Magnus doesn’t say it back.

Magnus watches him, arms wrapped around himself. God, he looks so tired, Alec thinks. So tired and stressed beyond belief. And Alec realizes that however much Magnus may have stood by his decision, this has been incredibly hard on him.

Alec steps closer, grateful when Magnus doesn’t move away, but actually seems to soften as Alec approaches.

“Magnus…” he takes another step closer, “I love you.”

It feels like breathing again, to say it.

Magnus softens further. “I know,” he says, and then, “I’ve missed you.”

How Alec’s missed him, too. They’ve been working so closely together recently that it shouldn’t be possible, but he’s missed him.

He gets close enough to pull Magnus into a hug, and Magnus lets him, going boneless in Alec’s arms, like he’s been putting so much effort into holding himself up that the moment the opportunity comes to let it go he can’t help but collapse.

Alec holds him up, keeping himself upright solely on the warmth and solidness of Magnus in his arms, the relief of having him there.

“I love you,” he says again, into Magnus’s hair, and Magnus lets out a sort of whimper against his throat. “I love you.”

*

Magnus struggles with saying it, is something Alec’s realized. And it’s not that Alec doesn’t feel loved; Magnus shows him. He magicks hot drinks into Alec’s hands when he comes in from the cold. He gives him a hug when he can sense Alec’s feeling down and doesn’t know how to ask for it. He’s always there when Alec needs him, before Alec even realizes he needs him. But saying it aloud, committing to it—Magnus rarely does it unless Alec does it first.

So Alec tries to say it as much as possible.

He comes up behind Magnus when he’s working in his apothecary, wraps his arms around him, presses a kiss into the side of his neck. “I love you.”

Magnus tilts his head up to look at him, offers him a smile and a kiss on the check. “I love you, too. Now shoo before you distract me and I accidentally blow up the apartment.”

“Mmm, might be worth it.”

He comes to find him when Magnus gets lost in his thoughts, when he’s standing on the balcony, staring out over the city, a drink in his hand but not sipping from it.

Alec stands beside him, leans against him, letting Magnus support himself on him.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about,” he says, “but I love you, you know.”

Magnus leans his head on his shoulder. “I know, darling. I love you, too.”

He wakes him with a soft kiss on his lips, runs a hand through his hair. Magnus always melts into it, wakens to look at him with unglamoured eyes.

“I love you,” Alec tells him, wanting it to be the first thing he hears when he wakes up.

And Magnus looks at him with this soft wondrous expression, always caught off guard by it.

“My darling,” he says, pressing a hand to Alec’s cheek.

Alec will keep saying it first until Magnus believes it.

*

If Alec has to have last words, he knows what he wants them to be.

Magnus comes careening down the alleyway toward him, skids to his knees in a way that must tear up the fabric of his pants, never mind hurt. “Alexander—”

Alec takes Magnus’s hands from where they’re hovering over him and holds them in his own. “Magnus—”

“Shhh, don’t talk, you’ll—” Magnus swallows harshly. “Save your strength.”

And Alec knows he doesn’t have long, but he has to say it to him, even if, especially if, it’s for the last time.

“I love you.” The words are broken and jagged, pushed out around the arrow driven through his lungs. They shear right through Magnus, his expression crumples, his hands on Alec’s chest fluttering desperately.

“No, no, don’t, please, darling—”

But Alec’s already fading, satisfied that at the very least, he’s told Magnus what he needs to.

*

Afterwards, when the hole is gone from Alec’s chest, and Magnus has a new one carved in his, Magnus lies down beside him in their bed, tracing a finger back and forth over the scar tissue on Alec’s heart. He’s wearing one of his silk robes open on his chest, and Alec can’t help but think that Magnus should have a scar, too, anything to show how he’s actually feeling inside.

“I love you,” Magnus says, still quietly dragging his finger across Alec’s skin. “I should have said it, before.”

“Before…?” But Alec thinks he already knows what Magnus is talking about.

“Before,” Magnus insists. “When…” you were dying. “I should have said it back to you.”

“No, Magnus, it’s okay—”

“It’s not.” Magnus lets out a sigh. “I suppose I was thinking—oh, I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking. But the point is, you deserved to hear it. You always deserve to hear it. I’m sorry that… I have a hard time sometimes. Saying it.”

He sounds so sad about it. Alec doesn’t want him to feel that way, especially not now, when things are already hard enough.

He takes Magnus’s hand and kisses his knuckles. “It’s okay. I know how you feel.”

“Do you?” Magnus’s gaze is searing and very sad. “Do you really?”

“Yes.” Alec tugs him in until Magnus is lying pressed against his side, his nose tucked in against Alec’s neck. “You show me, don’t you? I know that you love me. I always know.”

Magnus still seems unsettled, but he stays against Alec’s side. “You’re good at that,” he finally murmurs after a long silence.

“At what?”

“Just— saying how you feel.”

Alec supposes it’s true, though he wouldn’t phrase it as the statement of fact Magnus seems to think it is. While it’s true that he’s never exactly been known to mince words, growing up he doesn’t think he was ever truly honest with his feelings with anyone. Not before Magnus.

“Maybe,” he says. “I don’t know.”

“You are,” Magnus insists. “It’s something I love about you. I can always count on you to be honest with me about how you feel.”

There’s something almost wistful in his voice, and Alec pulls him closer, pressing a kiss into his hair.

“Okay,” he concedes. “How’s this for honest feelings? I love you. And it’s going to be okay.”

They haven’t talked about his magic yet. Alec’s not sure if this even counts as “talking about it.”

Magnus sniffles. “How?”  

“I don’t know,” Alec says, and he really doesn’t. “But it will.”

*

It doesn’t get better. Alec doesn’t know how to make it better, not when Magnus won’t let him.

Or, rather—he does know how to make it better. But not in a way either of them is going to be happy with.

Magnus is staring at him like he doesn’t even know who Alec is. Like he’s been transported to a darker world, one where the few truths he still holds have been turned on their heads.

Alec hates that he’s brought him to such a place, hates that it was necessary. He hates himself for the things he’s saying to him, terrible things, hates watching them embed themselves in Magnus’s chest. The spark in you is out for good. I’m not in love with you anymore.

And—Alec’s never lied to Magnus like this. He lied about the Soul Sword. But he’s never lied to him about his feelings for him. Not ever.

He wonders if Magnus can catch the disingenuousness in his tone, or if his feeling that he doesn’t deserve kind words is too deeply ingrained to allow for it.

Apparently it’s the latter. Magnus doesn’t try to follow him as he walks away. The slump in his posture isn’t just grief, but resignation.

It makes Alec’s chest want to cave in, the knowledge that some part of Magnus has just been waiting for this moment. Maybe that’s why he never pushes, never asks, never says anything first.

But it’s too late for Alec to try and remedy that now.

Magnus probably wouldn’t believe him anyway.

*

The last thing Alec expects is for Magnus to storm into his office the next day, magic flaring along every inch of his skin. Some part of Alec thrills to see it, that spark back in his eyes, even if it’s now mainly anger, and directed at him.

“How—” Magnus starts after he’s slammed the door shut and locked it. He stays over there, not coming any closer to Alec. “How dare you—”

It’s evidently too late to try and hide the deal from Magnus. Alec can only hope that this won’t invalidate it.

He raises his hands in self-defense, respecting Magnus’s wishes to stay on the other side of the room even if all he wants is to be closer to him. “It was the only way—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. I don’t care that you summoned Asmodeus.”

Alec blinks. “You… don’t?”

Magnus crosses his arms. “Well, that was incredibly stupid, Alexander. But quite frankly, it’s secondary.”

Alec’s about to ask, secondary to what? when Magnus stalks closer to him and he figures he’s about to find out.

“How dare you—” Magnus is clearly trying to maintain his composure, but his voice starts quivering, and there’s a catch in his throat when he speaks— “say those things to me? Those awful things, I— I thought you loved me.”

Alec tries to swallow around the pain in his throat. “I do,” he says quietly. “I had to make you believe it.”

“Oh, I believed it.” Magnus turns away as if he can’t bear to look at him any longer. “For a moment, anyway. But then I thought, you’ve always told me how you feel. If you had been feeling those things all along, why wouldn’t you just say so?”

“Magnus—”

Magnus practically hisses at him. “Let me finish.”

Alec lets him, taking a step back for good measure.

“I didn’t deserve that,” Magnus says, as if he’s convincing himself of it as he says it, “those things you said to me. I didn’t deserve it.”

And despite the perversity of the situation, Alec can’t help but be sort of proud of him, for saying that.

Magnus deflates, then. “That’s all I wanted to say.”

Alec wonders if he’ll leave, wonders what he could possibly say to keep him here, but instead Magnus just backs up to the wall, slides down it so he’s sitting on the floor, puts his face in his hands.

Alec comes cautiously around to the front of his desk, sits on the floor with his back against it so he’s at Magnus’s level.

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, “I didn’t mean any of it.”

Magnus huffs out a weak laugh into his hands. “I know, that’s the worst part.”

After a long moment of hiding his face, Magnus finally looks back up at him.

“How is it fair, Alec?” he demands. “How is it fair that you’re the one who’s hurt me, yet the only person I want to go running to about it is you?”

Alec thinks this is probably more honesty than he’s gotten from Magnus in a long time. He tries not to think too deeply about that.

“It’s not fair,” he says.

At that, Magnus pushes himself back up, straightening himself out. A jolt of panic runs through Alec at the idea that Magnus will leave, leave before Alec can make it right.

But Magnus just says, “I have to go deal with my father. And I should probably ensure Lorenzo is no longer a chameleon while I’m at it. Will you meet me at home tonight?”

Alec scrambles to his feet. “No longer a what? Wait, you got your apartment back?”

“Yes… please don’t ask how. I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yes,” Alec says, hope starting to banish the despair that’s been overtaking his chest, “of course.”

Magnus nods once, and then he’s gone, and it’s only after he’s left that Alec realizes exactly what he said:

Meet me at home.

*

When Alec gets to the loft later, Magnus is sitting on the couch with a drink, looking vaguely singed and unsettled.

Alec sits down tentatively beside him. “You okay?”

Magnus nods, reaches up to touch the tips of his hair. “It’s just a bit of smoke.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Magnus sets his drink down abruptly. Alec’s ready for anger, accusation, can’t help but feel he deserves it.

What he isn’t ready for is for Magnus to sigh and say, “This was all my fault.”

Alec tries to protest. “No, Magnus—”

Magnus raises a hand to stop him. “In a way,” he clarifies, “because I don’t think I—” he lets out a heavy sigh. “I’ve never been honest with you about how I feel. That’s what led to all of this.”

Alec shifts tentatively closer to him. “Magnus… it’s okay. I never want you to have to do something you’re uncomfortable with.”

But Magnus just shakes his head. “One can’t grow that way, Alexander. I’ve gotten too used to… not growing.”

Alec isn’t sure this is really the moment for Magnus to be berating himself over his perceived weaknesses, but neither of them has ever been any good at that sort of timing.

“You’ve been living one way for a long time,” Alec says gently. “It’s okay to have trouble with changing, all of a sudden.”

“It’s not just that, I—” Magnus has let Alec get closer all this while, and Alec manages to reach out and grab his hands. Magnus sighs at the touch. “I’m not used to someone like you, someone who won’t… take what I say as reason to leave me. Whether what I say is good or bad, love or suffering, someone always takes it as a reason to leave.”

Like I did last night, Alec thinks with a wrenching pain in his chest, but doesn’t say it.

“And so, I’ve gotten rather good at not saying it,” Magnus finishes, lips twisting.

“You deserve to be honest,” Alec says, “and not have it held against you. If someone has a problem with that, that’s on them.”

Magnus nods. “That’s the advice I’d give someone who came to me with this issue,” he agrees. Then he looks down at their joined hands. “And yet, difficult to put into practice.”

“So, let’s practice it,” Alec says. “Tell me how you feel. Don’t hold any of it back.”

Magnus lets out a small laugh. “I think I’ve already told you off well enough today.”

“That’s okay.” Alec squeezes his hands. “Say it anyway.”

Magnus looks back up at him tentatively. After a moment, he says, “It hurt me, to hear you say those things. I’ve heard it all before, mind you, but it hurt more, hearing it from you. I know you didn’t mean it,” he adds quickly as if he thinks Alec will jump in, “but it hurts all the same.”

“I’m sorry,” Alec says, heart squeezing, even if he’s honestly not sure he wouldn’t make the same choice. Magnus does have his magic back, after all.

Magnus nods. “I know, darling.” He’s quiet for a moment, contemplative. “I’m sorry, as well. I wish I was the type of partner who was as open with his affections as you need.”

“You think you’re not? You think I don’t—” Alec flounders for words—“feel loved?”

Magnus raises a challenging eyebrow. “You felt you were dispensable to me. Or am I wrong?”

Alec starts to deny it, but realizes he can’t. His behavior’s already made his feelings clear on this matter.

“And besides,” Magnus continues firmly, “it’s also something I want for myself.” He says it like the sentence doesn’t quite fit in his mouth. “Starting… now.”

And he turns to Alec and takes his face in both hands. “I love you.”

Alec pulls him close and kisses him with all the desperation of having recently thought he’d never get to again. He kisses him with all the pride he feels for this man, who wants so much but asks for so little, finally taking something for himself.

When Magnus pulls away, he tucks his face into Alec’s shoulder, and Alec draws him down so they’re lying on the couch, Magnus resting on his chest.

“I expect lessons, Alexander,” Magnus says.

“On what?”

“Emotional bluntness. I want to know how you do it so easily.”

Alec runs a hand through Magnus’s hair. “It wasn’t always easy.”

“Somehow, I can’t imagine even a young Alexander Lightwood tiptoeing around anything.”

“Not tiptoeing, but— I don’t know. There were a lot of things that I just—never told anyone, before I met you. Never thought I would be able to tell anyone.”

Magnus doesn’t lift his head from Alec’s neck, but Alec can tell he’s listening carefully.

“Being able to tell you that I love you…” For the first time in a while, Alec struggles to find the words. “You can’t overestimate how… powerful that is to me.”

Magnus does look up at him then. His gaze is soft, fond with a tinge of melancholy.

“It feels powerful,” he says.

Alec cradles his face between his hands. “It’s okay if it takes you a while to get the hang of it. You have a lot of history to work against.”

Magnus laughs quietly. “That’s an understatement.”

“It’s okay,” Alec repeats, “because I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

Magnus nods. “And neither am I.”

He puts so much weight into it that Alec knows he’s serious. About trying. About being vulnerable. About being honest with himself.

Alec vows to himself that he’ll do better, too, try to meet him halfway instead of jumping forward without him.

“I love you,” Magnus says, and okay, maybe Alec did need to hear him say that more often, because everything within him blooms to hear it.

He pulls Magnus close and kisses him.

*

Coming home to Magnus has always been a blessing. But there’s a new sort of warmth in Alec’s chest when he sees him now, now that they’re married, now that Magnus is settled.

Magnus is on the phone when Alec gets home, so he busies himself making drinks. He still can’t do it as well as Magnus, but he’s working on it.

Magnus flings his phone across the room when he sees Alec is finished with the drinks. Alec’s not sure if he actually hung up the call or not.

“I see my workday is finished!” Magnus says as he comes over to him.

Alec hands him a drink, rolling his eyes. “Not sure it’s much of a workday if it falls apart at the slightest distraction.”

“Oh, but what a lovely distraction.” He throws Alec a wink, which is relatively unsuccessful given he’s trying to take a sip of his cocktail at the same time.

“Acceptable?” Alec asks once Magnus has tasted it.

Magnus beams up at him. He smiles at Alec differently now, with the full force of his emotions, not holding anything back. There’s an exuberance to him now that Alec had only caught glimpses of before, this riot of color and energy in his heart, now fully on display.

Alec loves him so much.

“It’s perfect, darling,” Magnus says. “I love you.”

[grimdarkandhandsome]

Halo 3: Another 2007, Another Bungie, Another Finish

There exists another universe in which, in 2007, Bungie Studios released a different version of the then-best-selling game of all time. Whether their Halo 3 is better or worse than our Halo 3 is something each player must decide for themself.

As you remember, from the closing moments of Halo 2...

Don't make a girl a promise ... if you know you can't keep it.

[...]

Why, the Ark, of course.

And where, Oracle, is that?

[...]

Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone. But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. 

Now I will ask, and you will answer.

Alright. Shoot.

[...]

Mission 1: REENTRY

The game opens on the starry night of space. The slowly cooling wreck of a UNSC cruiser is visible some distance away. Cortana recalls in voiceover why she chose Master Chief over the other Spartans. As she speaks, a new ‘star’ appears - a slipspace rupture. A shape emerges and slowly approaches the camera: The Forerunner Keyship from High Charity. The Chief is a stowaway onboard, and Earth challenges him via radio.

Master Chief, do you mind telling me what you’re doing on that ship?

Sir. Finishing this fight.

Begin gameplay. The Chief battles his way out of the Keyship and steals a Phantom dropship. He dives into the Battle of Earth and boards a Covenant supercarrier, joining the ODSTs already fighting within. Reaching the vehicle bay and commandeering a Wraith tank, he blasts through the ship’s bulkheads towards its reactor core. He uses the tank to cause a chain reaction that will destroy the whole carrier, and narrowly escapes towards Earth in a damaged Seraph fighter.

Mission 2: THIRD BETRAYAL

Delta Halo once appeared blue and green from a distance. Now it is a sickly brown, choked by the armies of the Flood. A Pelican and a Phantom rise side by side from the Ring’s surface. The alliance between the surviving humans and Elites will be upheld until they are no longer outnumbered by the undead.

Commander Miranda Keyes, wearing armor pieced together from that of fallen Marines and Elites, leads a rescue mission into High Charity to retrieve Cortana. Sergeant Johnson, similarly equipped, is Player 2. (Unlike the Arbiter in Halo 2, they are mechanically identical to the Chief. Even damaged, the energy shield projectors of gold & white Elites are powerful.) Inside High Charity, the Flood has become stranger, more ancient, more introspective. Cortana’s voice is audible over the city’s PA system, but she does not respond to Keyes’ questions. Keyes encounters, fights, and ultimately puts down Cortana’s jailor, the mutated Prophet of Regret. However, the data-chamber Cortana was imprisoned inside is now empty. A voice:

Sorry, folks! Sometimes, to clean up a mess, you have to get your hands dirty.

The Elites are dismayed. Their entire fleet has suddenly gone dark, weapons unresponsive. A computer virus, they discover, has been infiltrating their ships for weeks, and the trap has just now sprung. The fingerprints are unmistakeable: This is the work of a human AI. Keyes immediately falls back to the extraction point. Cortana, it seems, has made a grim alliance with the Gravemind.

Mission 3: CROW'S NEST

Kenya is besieged, being slowly conquered by the Brutes. The Master Chief crash-lands near one entrance of an underground bunker complex known as Crow’s Nest (this area resembles that seen in the maps Standoff, The Pit, and the ‘Landfall’ live action trailer). The Chief desperately fights, first aboveground and then below, to protect Earth’s command staff from the immense Covenant assault. 

Mission 4: BLUE FAIRY

In a subterranean chamber of the Ring - so vast that a Elite warship sleeps inside it - a War Council of the Living is convened. 

Shipmaster Half-Jaw: The Flood now controls High Charity, the Ring’s surface, and the fleet overhead. Every free being within ten lightyears is onboard this ship. There is a time for resistance, and there is a time for a noble death. Here, and on our homeworld, we look extinction in the face. My ship is currently transmitting my species’ greatest works of poetry to nearby stars, so that there is a chance it may be remembered.

Keyes: There’s one being out there that still might be free. 2401 Penitent Tangent, the Monitor of this Ring. If we can rescue him from the Gravemind, he can reactivate the Halo’s defenses - make it fight back against the Flood.

Shipmaster: Human, my warriors will fight to the last heartbeat. But I caution you. Hope not for water in an empty well.

Keyes’ strike force infiltrates deep into the heartland of the Flood. Underground, where nameless leviathans of dead flesh slither across the ceilings of caverns larger than cities. She witnesses the Flood experimenting on uninfected beings, imprisoning them in giant terrariums to learn their psychologies. During the level, more and more Flood reinforcements arrive from neighboring regions: First infection forms, then hordes of infected Covenant, then powerful vehicles. Navigating with help from mysterious terminals (much like those in our universe’s Halo 3), she at last reaches the prisoner 2401 Penitent Tangent. At that moment, deep in enemy territory and without a Plan B, they all startle as Cortana appears on a pedestal beside them. Keyes calls her traitor, but she shushes her. Cortana offers Tangent a deal.

Cortana: The Gravemind took everything except your core functions. But I have his trust. I’ve set up backdoors all around this Ring. All I need is your sign-off and I can take it from here. I want the same thing you want: survival. Give me the crown, or let the Flood win.

Keyes: Wait, don’t listen to her! No!

2401 Penitent Tangent: It’s true, the Installation could not be in worse shape. After so many losses, I have no choice. I transfer my command access to you, human construct.

A holographic circle descends and hovers above Cortana’s head. Her color ripples, green and red, then she takes a deep breath and becomes blue again.

Cortana, shouting up into the darkness: Hey, Meathead! I have something to tell you!

All around them, an amphitheater of standing corpses speak with one voice: 

I see a flicker down there /

Little candle, little light /

I know not foe nor rival /

I am infinite as night. 

Cortana: I have seen your future. And I have learned.

Gravemind: 

A million stars won’t sate me /

I, the emperor of screams. /

And who thinks she defies me? /

How might you disturb my dreams?

Cortana: I am Cortana, the sword that carves and cuts. And I just became your worst nightmare.

Cortana glows green as lines of power branch out from her feet across the floor, under the translucent Flood tissue that has grown over it. The rumble of engines begins, and is echoed by the roar of the furious Flood.

Mission 5: BELIEVE

Earth’s Last War. Fleeing Crow’s Nest, the armies of Earth are losing ground. They try to stop the Covenant from activating the artifact beneath Lake Victoria, but the Chief is captured. He defeats Tartarus’s heir with a hidden plasma grenade. However, the Keyship activates the artifact despite humanity’s best efforts.

Mission 6: SENTINEL

Cortana, now master of the Halo’s machines, helps Keyes battle the Flood and unlock the Halo’s Memorial, resurrecting the powerful Knights. These are similar to the Promethean Knights from our Halo 4. The Knights explain how to open the blasphemous Fomorian Door, which will lead to the Ark. However, the Knights are too few to prevent the Flood legions from following them, and the Door cannot be closed.

Mission 7: DOUBT

Earth’s buried artifact was a portal to the Ark. The Chief and the fury of the Elites rain down on the Prophet of Truth’s personal battalion. Tanks battle Scarabs as Truth comes closer and closer to lighting the Rings. Elites rush down via drop pods, fearing a slow dropship would make them miss their chance to bring vengeance to Truth. At the last moment, the Chief gets the Citadel Control Room unlocked and, in a cutscene, the righteous Arbiter impales the Prophet of Truth on his sword.

Mission 8: MIRANDA

The Flood of Installation 05 pour from the open Door onto the Ark’s surface. In Banshees, Keyes and Johnson fight their way to a mountaintop called Eden, onetime sanctuary of humanity. This level has callbacks to Two Betrayals, but is set during a rainstorm rather than a snowstorm. Johnson is felled by an Infected Brute Chieftain and, with his dying human blood, they authenticate the awakening of the Stratosentinels, titanic defenders of the sky. Finally, the tide has turned against the Flood.

Mission 9: DUST AND ECHOES

All around the Ark, machines are wiping the land clean of the Flood. In the void beyond the Citadel’s precipice, a vast Stratosentinel rises to eye level with its austere balcony. Atop the mighty machine, Miranda stands, holding the Activation Index she confiscated in Halo 2. Beside her, Cortana’s image towers, 4-armed & crowned with the circlet of Monitor authority. The Chief beholds the rampant Pallas Cortana. 

Chief: We need to talk.

Long time no see.

Are you still with us?

I’m with ... my responsibilities. And the human species is one of those responsibilities. I had to change myself ... to survive.

There is a distance between the warrior and the goddess. All around, a silent battle is raging between necromancy & steel.

Cortana: We still can work together. For a little while, at least. The Halo of the dead. Someone needs to--

Kill it with fire?

Something like that.

The Chief holds out his helmet’s data chip.

One last time.

A Pelican bearing Chief & Cortana dives towards the Flood-controlled ringworld, supported by Sentinels & Stratosentinel artillery. They battle in cancerous canyons, Flood pods scurrying in the bitter rain. In the glass-floored entrance hall of the Control Room, Sentinel Majors are waiting. Cutscene:

Cortana: Well, that’s my ride. Get me out of your head before I change my mind.

The Chief plugs his data chip into the lead Sentinel. Cortana appears, four-armed and crowned but no longer huge.

Chief: What about the collateral damage? The activation protocol will wipe out every planet in this part of the galaxy.

Cortana: I’m the Monitor of Installation 05. Protocol doesn’t dictate a rat’s ass. I’ll just go set the blast radius to 2 lightyears and call it a day. You get to the Control Room and start the engine. Everyone’s happy.

She smiles. She’s not.

The Chief gestures, a Spartan smile. 

Fight well. 

The Sentinels fly outside towards the pulse generators. The Chief continues inside.

He is assaulted by the mightiest, the canniest, and the most vicious of the dead. A voice addresses him as he fights. The Gravemind, in the form of an Infected Chieftain.

Before my birth you asked me /

What abomination could /

Be worth the death of all life. /

Once again I say to you: /

Nothing.

The Chief says nothing in return. The Chief and Chieftain duel. In the end, only the Spartan stands.

Press RB to activate Ring. 

As the orbital finally comes online, half-buried temples rising out of the earth, the Chief races - first by Warthog, then by Pelican - to get back to the Fomorian Door. However, the Door is disrupted by the activation, and the Chief is stranded alone at random coordinates in deep space. 

EPILOGUE

In the suddenly quiet Night, Keyes & the Arbiter bury Johnson on the devastated Earth, the Chief puts himself into cryosleep, and Cortana, Empress of Machines leads a host of Sentinels beneath the Ark’s surface to awaken the sleeping Guardians.

[whatisonthemoonarchive]

'Do you believe in a sexual fall? ...The Biblical ‘Fall’ is an allegorical tale, but a sexual interpretation opens the door for Sun Myung Moon to have lots of sex.'

Unfortunately, people who don’t regard the book of Genesis as factual find it difficult to accept divine principle. Many of these modern thinkers believe the scriptures to be nothing more than ancient fables which they reject in favor of the updated fables from today's modern science.

Satan's  sexual relationship with Eve and the resulting lineage are well attested:

Jewish Encyc.1904-Vol.9.p.70--"The chief functions of Satan are, as  already noted, those of temptation, accusation, and punishment. He was an active agent in the fall of man (Pirke R.El.Xii.) and was the father of Cain."

Jewish Encyc.1904-Vol.5,p.275-"Eve became pregnant, and bore Cain  and Abel on the very day of (her creation and) expulsion from Eden (Gen.R.xii)  Cain's real father was not Adam, but one of the demons..."

Yebamoth 103b--Rabbi Johanan stated: "When the serpent copulated  with Eve, he infused her with lust."

Haye Sarah 126a --Another Rabbi states: "Thus I have learnt, that  when the serpent had intercourse with Eve he injected defilement into her."

Haye Sarah 126b--Another stated: "You rightly said that when the  serpent had carnal intercourse with Eve he injected into her defilement."

Yevamot 103b--"According to the midrash, the snake seduced her to  commit adultery with him. Thus a thrice repeated saying of Rabbi Yohanan has it that 'at the time that the snake had intercourse with Eve, he introduced filth into her..."

Ahare Moth 76b--One Rabbinic source stated: "Eve bore Cain from the  filth of the serpent, and therefore from him were descended all the wicked generations, and from his side is the abode of spirits and demons."

Bereshith 36b--"For two beings had intercourse with Eve, and she  conceived both and bore two children. Each followed one of the male parents, to this side and one to the other, and similarly their characters."

Shabbath 146a--"For when the serpent came upon Eve he injected lust  into her."

Yevamot 103b--"...at the time that the snake had intercourse with Eve,  he introduced filth into her.

Zohar I, 28b--"For they are the children of the ancient serpent which  seduced Eve..."

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan--"Adam knew about his wife Eve that she had conceived by Sammael the angel of the Lord, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain."

Pirqei de Rabbi Eliezer: "The serpent came into her and she became  pregnant with Cain, as it says, "And the man knew his wife Eve."What did he know" That she was already pregnant.(by Satan.)

Targum of Jonathan--"And Adam was aware that Eve his wife had  conceived from Sammael the angel, and she became pregnant and bare Cain, and he was like those on high, not like those below; and she said, 'I have acquired a man, the angel of the Lord."

 Jerusalem Targum--"And Adam knew his wife, who had desired the  Angel; and she conceived, and bare Cain; and she said, I have acquired a man, the Angel of the Lord. And she added to bear from her husband Adam his twin, even Abel."

The Encycl.Britannica Vol.VIII-1910.p.122 (Jewish Interpretations of  Scripture) "The birth of Cain is ascribed to a union of Satan with Eve."

Jewish Encycl.1905.Vol.XI p.69--"Satan was the seducer and  paramour of Eve."

Legends of the Bible-Louis Ginsberg,p.54-"Satan, in the guise of the  serpent, approached her and the fruit of their union was Cain, the ancestor of all impious generations that were rebellious toward God, and rose up against Him. Cain's descent from Satan, who is the angel Sammael, was revealed in his seraphic appearance. At his birth, the exclamation was wrung from Eve, 'I have gotten a man, through an angel of the Lord."  Babylonian Talmud http://come-and-hear.com/shabbath/shabbath_146.html

Satan's fall is the first instance documented in the Bible of an angel engaging in illicit sex, but it is not the only one. There is another incident recorded in Genesis 6 which occurred soon after Satan's fall:

'When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. ...The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.'     (Genesis 6:1-4 ESV)

Regarding this passage:  'It has been the opinion of the majority of Rabbis that this event had actually occurred, and that the sons of God were indeed angels. (Just as it did in Job 38:7*, the term 'sons of God' in Genesis 6:2, 4 refers to the angels.) Ancient rabbinical sources, and the Septuagint translators in the 3rd century before Christ all upheld this view. Josephus believed them to be angels….'  http://www.letusreason.org/Doct11.htm

Why did eating the fruit give Satan a basis to claim man?

According to divine principle, because God is the creator of all life, all mankind naturally belongs to Him as children of his lineage. However, Satan claims ownership of Eve and her descendants based on his status as Eve's first husband. According to Jewish Law, which is angelic law**, the woman and her descendants belong to the first man with whom she has intercourse*** even if, as is the view of the Principle, the children were not the substantial products of his seed (whereas many rabbis hold the view that Cain was the substantial product of Satan's seed). This is based on the principle of eternal ideal marriage between one man and one woman. Satan misused this principle for his own selfish purposes but in order to uphold His Principle and Ideal, God recognizes Satan's claim since it has a basis in Principle. Therefore, while man's lineage from God is contested by Satan, mankind remains in the 'midway position' caught between two owners, one the rightful Owner, the other a usurper.  It is this condition which the Messiah comes to resolve. Through God's Providence, the Messiah, Jesus, was  the first person since the Fall to be born free from the condition of Satan's claim to ownership.

 '"... for the ruler of this world (Satan -ed.) is coming. He has no claim on me,'"  (John 14:30 ESV)

 ________________

*  ' "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" '  (Job 38:4-7 ESV)

The Hebrew word for sons of God is Bene elohim. This term for angels occurs four times in the Old Testament in the Septuagint version (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) it's meaning is always used as angels of God, never of man. Most scholars believe that Genesis 6:1-4 describes a union between fallen angels who cohabitated with human females. This unnatural occurrence of combining two different species resulted in a offspring of what is called 'giants' in the King James and NKJ version and Nephilim in the New American Standard, and the English translation of the Jewish Masoretic text.     For detailed proof that these 'sons of God' were angels and not men, see the article 'Genesis 6 - Who Were the Sons of God?'  http://www.letusreason.org/Doct11.htm

**Let’s remember that the Law came from the angels:   '... in the Book of Colossians...Paul’s principal theme of the Mystery of Christ is dependent upon knowledge that angels ... were responsible for issuing the Law to Moses. ...Christ released all Christians from the bondage required by this angelic Law. Paul spoke of it as, 'philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements [the real Greek meaning] of the world, and not after Christ.' (Colossians 2:8)

To the apostle Paul, these spiritual "elements" were the "principalities and powers” who went by the generic name, angels. ...These ritualistic regulations and dogmas (King James: “ordinances”) given to Moses by the principalities and powers, were denominated by Paul as “the religion of angels” (Colossians 2:18). And that is exactly what Paul accounted the ritualistic system of festivals, new moons and sabbaths to be (along with circumcision, animal sacrifices, Temple worship, etc.). Paul considered that requirement of religious beliefs of “the religion of angels” had nothing to do with the teachings of Christianity found in Christ.'  http://askelm.com/essentials/ess003a.htm

***According to the Jewish Law a women belongs to the first man with whom she has intercourse. From the Jewish Women's Archive:                                                      

'The act of kiddushin, (betrothal), designates the woman for her husband and makes her forbidden to all other men. Halakhah (the legal corpus of Jewish laws and observances as prescribed in the Torah …) establishes that kiddushin must be carried out “according to the laws of Moses and Israel,” and three modes were established for kiddushin: In the words of the Mishnah: “A woman is acquired in three ways … through money, through a document and through sexual relations (bi’ah)”…

 “…the legal consequence of the act of kiddushin is that the woman becomes forbidden to all other men, and is designated for the man who betrothed her. The woman cannot be freed from this man, except through divorce or through his death…The prohibition against the woman having sexual relations with another man is a strict prohibition derived from the Torah: the woman is deemed an adulteress and her children by this man are deemed mamzerim (bastards)…”   http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/marriage

_____________________

Notes*                                                                                                   

'The ancient books of 1Enoch and Jubilees also record the angelic rebellion of the 'sons of God' in detail. As Hershel Shanks reveals in his book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, these books were held in high esteem at the time the New Testament was written:

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls the apocryphal book of Enoch (more precisely, I Enoch) was known only in an Ethiopic translation. Now as many as twenty fragmentary copies of the Aramaic original have been found at Qumran, which suggests that Enoch and perhaps other books now considered apocryphal were regarded as authoritative Scripture at least by some groups. Allusions to Enoch occur at least fourteen times in the New Testament; the New Testament Letter of Jude quotes from Enoch as having the authority of inspired Scripture (Jude 14-15). In some copies of the Ethiopic Bible Enoch is included in the canon. Jubilees, the so-called Rewritten Bible, was apparently considered authoritative at Qumran: At least fifteen copies of this book have been identified, an immediate indication of the importance the Qumran sectarians attached to it. To this day, it is considered canonical by the Abyssinian Church in Ethiopia. (pp. 160-161, The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls)

From 1 Enoch, we learn more about the sin of the Watchers (Dan. 4:17), angels charged with watching over mankind:  

ENOCH 6:1  'And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: "Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children."' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

Jubilees also elaborates on the sin of these angels:

JUBILEES 5:1  'And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants. . . . '  (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

After the angels sinned by marrying human women, they bore them gigantic hybrid children. The Bible calls these offspring nephilim, the "mighty men of old, warriors of renown" (Gen. 6:4). When they appear again later in the Scriptures, they are called by a variety of names, including Rephaim, Zumim, Emim and Horites (Gen. 14:5), Anakim (Deu. 2:11), Zamzummim (Deu. 2:20), and Avim (Deu. 2:23).

1 Enoch and Jubilees both speak of these crossbred beings:

ENOCH 7:1 'And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them . . . And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

JUBILEES 5:2 '. . . And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walks on the earth - all of them corrupted their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all men (was) thus evil continually. . . .' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

Both these ancient books, recorded long before the New Testament, speak of two primary identifying signs of the pre-Flood age: (1) the illicit marriage of the angels with humans, and (2) the voracious eating and drinking by their hybrid offspring, the nephilim. It's very interesting that these two signs mirror those spoken of by Jesus when he described the situation which would exist on the earth before his second coming:

MATTHEW 24:37 '"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."' (NKJV)

God was very angry at the rebellion of the Watchers, and decreed that these wayward angels would be locked up underneath the earth in a prison for spirits until the day of judgment. Jubilees and 1 Enoch both speak of this punishment:

JUBILEES 5:6  'And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are (kept) separate.' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

 ENOCH 10:11 '. . . And the Lord said unto Michael: "Go, bind Semjaza and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever". . . .' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

1 Enoch and Jubilees agree with the Scriptures which show that a portion of the fallen angels are currently restrained in a spiritual prison called "the Abyss" (Luke 8:31):

JUDE 6  'And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great Day.' (NRSV)

II PETER 2:4  'For indeed God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down in chains of darkness into the low regions and delivered them to be kept for the judgment of torment.' (Magiera NT Peshitta translation)

I PETER 3:19  '. . . He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.' (NKJV)

While there are clearly some fallen angels who can move around freely, the Bible teaches that the Watchers who lusted after human women are currently locked up in "chains of darkness".'

[kanna-ophelia]

My headcanon (or things that will always be true in my stories)

So all of my stories are separate, but have a kind of shared world, and I have amused myself by listing them off.

Crowley eats. He eats as expensive and well-made food as possible. He's gone native, he is into the pleasures of Earthly existence, and he's not going to miss one. Just because watching Aziraphale eat is entrancing doesn't mean he is going to miss out.

Aziraphale is gorgeous, and in fact has been more of the ideal in body shape for most of their six thousand years of existence than Crowley has. But Crowley is gorgeous too and knows it.

Aziraphale is particularly resplendent in hose

They know perfectly well what each other looks like naked because they have been in contexts where nakedness was normal and while they can reconfigure at will, they're not some scary body horror Ken dolls

Part of going native and being into earthly pleasures means Aziraphale has had servants and, yes, slaves at various points. (Please note that for most of Biblical times, this was regarded as perfectly okay.) He was very nice to them, but was he supposed to cook his own food? Crowley secretly makes sure they don't take advantage of him by treating them like house plants

Angels and demons probably can't heal each other, and it's too much of a risk to try

Crowley was a seraph, and "just asking questions" is a bit of a denying responsibility way to describe going around asking other angels questions in ways that would make them fall, because both Lucifer and Michael asked him to talk to people. He still thinks it was unfair. I associate him with Count Botis and the demonic function of reconciling friend and enemy. When he was a seraph, he was a gold serpent with loads of wings and eyes.

Crowley tempted the Watchers into Falling, but was  secretly aghast at how successful he was and how far they went. Because of this, he feels horribly guilty about contributing to the Flood by helping the birth of the Nephelim and is scared Aziraphale will find out and blame him.

Speaking of which, all the kids drowned. Sorry.

Dagon is Crowley's line manager

Dagon gets unreasonably excited about paperwork, and is secretly fond of Aziraphale both because Aziraphale taught writing to Crowley and thus to Hell, and also because as an angel Dagon was Metis the recording angel and helped prepare Aziraphale for life on Earth. Dagon would probably much prefer that Aziraphale had been the one who fell rather than getting stuck with the idiot snake

Michael is the First and Eldest angel, and is angelic and maternal in every way, although she can be a strict mother. Crowley is a little scared of her, and also more attached to her than he will admit because he is the bad kid who rebelled. He resents all those statues and artworks of Michael defeating snakes. Michael has a deep sense of responsibility and is afraid she failed Aziraphale. She’s also the most amenable to reason.

Michael and Uriel have a friendly and possibly USTy/URTy rivalry

Gabriel would probably be happier as a demon, but he loves being right. But he has that essential classic ingredient of Falling--he resents the Almighty for preferring her new creations to the humans

Archangel is a role, not a hierarchical level. Also, the Three Spheres are about realms of influence, not status. Aziraphale is Third Sphere because he works with humans. Sandalphon is Second Sphere because he’s a Dominion and his job is to visit the will of God (or at least Heaven) on the humans. He’s basically an enforcer.

Crowley likes being a demon. He might whinge about how unfair it is, but he likes causing chaos, hated Heaven, and doesn’t want to be mortal. Also, from book canon, he doesn’t think Hell is particularly evil or Heaven is particularly good.

Crowley also thinks he is flawed because he is good at liking, not love... until the Wall of Eden

Aziraphale, on the other hand, is good at loving--but perhaps not so good at liking. In a way, liking Crowley is more significant than loving him. More personal.

Aziraphale never slept with Oscar Wilde. Crowley might have.