#i wanted to draw spectrum actually being threatening for once

[rhapsoddity]

Y'all seem to love the Head Empty AU of VSau, so have a what-if Sheriff managed to break out of the hypnosis... but Spectrum caught him

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Do you think Hitler is one of the few people who truly deserves eternal Hellfire? Not trying to lay some devious trap or anything, just genuinely curious.

I've actively thought about this while contemplating the concept and implications of hell.

It's tempting to say, yep, he's the exception who deserves eternal hellfire.

But once you do that, it leaves open the justification for his lieutenants. And their subordinates. And their subordinates.

Where and with whom are we going to draw the line? How far down the rabbit hole are we going to go?

There's a video by TheraminTrees that comes to mind:

I realised the idea of hell was moronic.

Dividing the entire human population into just two groups — one going to hell, the other going to heaven — on the basis of what gods they believed in? So all those who’d dedicated their lives tirelessly to humanitarian pursuits but had been raised to believe in Hindu gods deserved eternal torture?

That was plainly immoral. Any just system should judge everyone fairly on their individual deeds.

But that was incompatible with a binary system like heaven and hell. You couldn’t divide people into either good or bad. Human morality was a spectrum, with folk stretching across every part it. I imagined everyone who’d ever existed standing in a row from good to bad with the person on the right marginally more good; the person on the left fractionally more bad. How could you draw a dividing line — a cut-off point between the two sides, where one side went to hell, the other to heaven? It was absurd.

Wherever you drew the line it would be between two people with a virtually identical moral score. The difference between them might be a single deed. And yet one would be destined for eternal torture and the other eternal paradise.

The irony was that many of my fellow Christians had spoken of hell as the ultimate justice for those who escaped it in the Earthly life. But hell was about the most pathetic parody of justice imaginable. Yahweh should’ve been a moral genius. But the dichotomy of hell and heaven displayed the black-and-white thinking of an infant.

In this hypothetical, where I've been given the authority and ability to send Hitler there, he would certainly be on the extreme end of the "bad" side, destined for eternal torment.

But of course, there's no Xianly basis for this. He was acting out of Xian faith, certain that his god wanted this, and he would be rewarded. Whether salvation by faith - he was devout, rejecting blasphemy and sacrilege (per Matthew 12:31-32) - or salvation by works - he spoke extensively about how “the movement’s goal was to translate the ideals of Christ into deeds," and “the movement would complete the work which Christ had begun but could not finish.”

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

Hitler's god would welcome him into paradise with open arms.

The reality is that I do regard this entire system as being astonishingly immoral. I prefer to take a consistent position on that, and be consistent with my ethics.

I also remember that Xians who threaten me with hell, or say stupid things like "you'll find out when you die and come face to face with your maker" are actually gleeful about the prospect of another human suffering excruciating agony forever. Even though it’s complete nonsense. I don't like the thought of myself being of the same stripe as them, no matter the justification.

So, even though it's tempting to make an exception, I'm more inclined to stick with my principles and reject and repudiate the entire thing outright. Not for his benefit, but for mine.

He's dead. With no afterlife, no heaven or hell, he never got the glory his Xian faith promised him, nor the punishment that flies in the face of the doctrine of that faith.

Let him be wormfood, as we remember what he did so that it never happens again.

[fenristheorem]

Hi! First of all... You are a LEGEND🤩! Your head cons are sooooooo good. When I read theme I really get into the story and can feel the emotion you put on the characters, 💖its amazing! Not that long ago you did a head con of Erika being ok with Leiftan being a Demon. So I was wondering... Could you do a head con of Lance accepting to take Erika with him, were she becomes a demon and enters the plot with Lance against the guard🤔? It would be very interesting to se that.😊 Hope u have a good day, evening or night!

Oh thank you so much! 😄 That’s so kind of you to say, I don’t think you truly know how much I value your compliment! You’re so kind! 😊

I originally considered nearly completely re-writing the plot from episode 15 (I believe that’s when she asks him to take her) for this ask, but then realized I would be re-writing half the plot of Origins lol. That would take way too long to write (while including different emotions and perspectives and requiring knowledge that’s too hard to hunt down or doesn’t exist) so I decided to write this with a very broad spectrum of headcanons, including some major alternative events (usually not including the guard since she’ll be holed up in a secret place so Lance doesn’t need to watch out for her every second of every day) and Lance and Guardienne’s overall compatibility.

This is probably my most bizarre ask yet, in the manner of how I’ve responded, so brace yourself because there’s a few crazy moments in this lol. Also, there’s a bit of swearing in this - I have a tendency to write stories / headcanons in a pretty crude style sometimes.

~Under the cut~

Guardienne joins Lance against the guard:

To start off with, when Guardienne asked Lance to take her with him, she didn’t know his identity. He was still Ashkore to her. That changed somewhat quickly.

I theorize Lance did actually have some sort of “home base” deep within a forest or the mountains somewhat near the guard. He did have to sleep and eat after all. And where do you think he was taking all those supplies on the night Guardienne asked him to take her with him? Where do you think he stored that frying pan so dear to him? Buried it in the ground? Hung it on a tree branch for a Sabali to find later? Sure, he moved around a lot, but he had to keep his stolen resources somewhere, so he must have had a main cabin or cave or something that no one knew about that he made a temporary home of sorts.

Assuming that; that’s probably where he kept Guardienne most of the time after she came with him. Of course, he would be sure to restrict her movements for a while - after all, she could have asked to come merely to find out what a day in the life of Ashkore is like and then tell that to the guard - but once he realizes that she truly was compliant and happy to be there, even helping him by providing information he didn’t know already and taking care of basic chores like cooking and such so he can spend more time screwing with the guard, he loosened up and let her roam around his domain.

He kept personal things well hidden; any old drawings, weapons, and clothing. Basically anything he didn’t want her to touch... which was most of his stuff... but he was reasonable and didn’t restrain her too much. Just as long as she didn’t bother him and continued to help he didn’t mind her presence... too much anyways.

But again, it wasn’t too long before Guardienne found out his true identity. In reference to the existing plot-line, I imagine her finding out his identity in this AU long before she found out in the existing plot-line. After all - they’re living together now, and he needs to take off his mask and armor sometimes. Do you think he always sleeps in his mask? And armor for that case? What about when he eats or bathes? Certainly he can do most of those things in private, but I don’t see Lance demanding she turn her back every time he removes his mask and armor. I can see him doing that to begin with - when she’s restricted - but once he realizes she truly wants to help, he’ll find it to be inconvenient to always hide himself whenever he wants to do anything without his mask and armor. He’ll probably still want her to call him Ashkore, though... and that’ll be the case until she realizes his identity and refuses to call him anything but Lance.

Now I forget if she knew about Lance’s existence at the time of asking to leave with him (I believe she did), but since she never got a description I imagine it would take her a small while to connect the dots once she's living with him. She would certainly have theories that Ashkore is Lance, and she would certainly irritate the utter crap out of him with countless questions regarding possible confirmation or hints to back up her theory, but she wouldn’t get many answers. Either he would ignore her, or turn to level his icy stare on her. She would quickly understand that he’s not interested in answering questions about his identity and past. He eventually threatened to cut her tongue out a few times if she kept asking nonsensical questions, but she didn't seem to care much and he eventually let it be; perhaps he realized that she would be even more irritating then. She wouldn't be able to speak easily without her tongue, but her resolve is steady, so she'd still try to find some way to speak with him - and then he'd still need to deal with her questions in whatever way she deemed fit, which included investing time to learn this new way of communication. Threatening her friends wouldn't work as she doesn't consider the guard her friends, so Lance came to recognize that's it better to just deal with her questions and ignore her.

However, he would answer general questions that couldn’t be used heavily against him if she were captured and questioned; why is he trying to destroy the crystal, what’s with his grudge against Eldarya, what does he know about the Blue Sacrifice? From his answers she can put a few logical pieces together. The Eldaryans don’t deserve to live? They’re disrespecting the kind gift of life the dragons gave them? They were apparently forced to sacrifice? Then hunted down after the sacrifice despite their generous gesture? Well he must be a dragon, since angels didn’t end up sacrificing and he speaks so passionately about them. And Valk said he was faelien, so either he lied and does know or Ashkore (being Lance in her theory) somehow found out their genetics while Valk remained clueless to it. And they look so similar, they would have to be brothers. Ashkore’s story started around the same time that Lance apparently died? Lance apparently fought valiantly and passionately for the things he believed in, like what she’s seen with Ashkore? Goodness are the pieces adding up now.

Guardienne would eventually approach him about her theory and he would respond with a cold hiss.

“What, you want a reward? A pat on the back and a ‘well done’? Why does my identity matter to you?”

He never said a direct yes - he was basically incapable of responding calmly or reasonably with touchy subjects - but she would know she has it right. 

You would think them being on different sides of the war would mean they’d be more likely to try and kill each other, right? Wrong. Them being around each other all the time, I believe, leads them to be more likely to kill each other. Why? Recall episode 26 - their overall chemistry. Regardless of if choices made increased the LOM or decreased it, bizarre, entertaining conversation between the two still ensued. The main thing with that episode was that Lance became emotionally vulnerable as time went on, so actual tender...-ish moments came about where both of them were taken seriously but gently. Now imagine both of them - neither of them in vulnerable moments - being around the other constantly, both working together but still stepping on each other’s toes. Guardienne wants to make a meal; where’s this ingredient? What’s the ingredient compatibility? What do these things taste like? That’s not a food, that’s an alchemy ingredient? AND WHERE IS THE GODDAMN FRYING PAN!? (*cue Lance in the background clutching the pan and hissing at Guardienne*). Now Lance - who’s holed himself up in a private room - needs to plan his next attack on the guard; he needs this map of the layout, and this item to help him plan. He can use this pathway to- “Hey Lance?” ... Silence - if he pretends he’s not in there she’ll surely leave... Anyways, this pathway will probably be the safest, and his destination is there. Leiftan can- “Lance, I know you’re there, don’t ignore me!” ... Leiftan can- “Where’s the corn!?” Oh by the Oracle! But what the hell is corn? He’ll go to the door and crack it open only enough to give her an odd look. “Small, yellow, hard grain but smooth? About the size of a fingernail?” ... “Back right, lower pantry.” He’ll slam the door and hover over the map again. Ok, Leiftan... yes, that’s what he was going to do. Then he’ll have access to- “Oh - where’s the big pot?” *SLAM* Pain will shoot up his arm from his fist as the table shakes and he turns his head to seethe at the woman through the door. “You’ve lived here for weeks, you know where it is!” “Well you seem to have an obsession with hiding things, so actually I don’t because everything is always moved around!” He’ll rush to the door and fling it open to glare down at her. The door and it’s frame creak unsteadily at his tight grip as he looms over her. “Find. It. Yourself.”  He’ll go to recede back into the room but she’ll grab his shirt and pull him into the room she’s in - he’ll snarl at her in response. “I’ve tried looking for it, it’s impossible to find.” She’ll hiss back at him with folded arms. “I’m busy planning.” He growls at her. “Well take a break then.” She snaps as they stare each other down... Silence again... “You make me want to kill myself.” “Don’t. You need to destroy the guard first.” He throws his hand back towards the door he was stolen from with a wild look in his scathing eyes; what did she think he was planning for in there!? “You gonna help me or what?” She speaks as if this is completely alright. He nearly shouts in rage as he slams his fist against the wall - pain shooting up his arm a second time - before pacing and clutching his head, eventually resigning to stomping towards the makeshift kitchen - not caring about whether she follows - and tearing through his stores to find the pot. He’ll throw it on the counter and cast a livid glare at her as he passes to head back to planning. “Well goodness, you didn’t need to throw a tantrum over it.” He whirls around and nearly leaps on her - she’s helping to destroy the crystal, she’s helping to destroy the crystal, she’s helping to destroy the crystal, WHY DOES A POT MATTER RIGHT NOW!?

So yes, they’re more likely to attempt to kill each other when on the same side; only because they’re alone and around each other more so they can chew on each other's nerves more.

However, as time carries on and they spend more time together, they actually begin to... enjoy each other's presence sometimes - not even sometimes; a good portion of the time. Sure they have moments where they argue and are a breath away from stabbing each other, but there are also moments where they aren’t treading on the other, by accident or purposeful. In these moments, they see a different side of each other - a good side of each other.

Guardienne quickly picks up on how passionate, resolute, and intelligent Lance is, noting that he’ll spend hours on end studying texts he’s found and maps of the areas the guard will be around next. He’ll carry these texts and maps around with him as he ghosts around their make-shift home, spending most of his days off curled up next to a small indoor fireplace and moving only for a few moments to take a quick break. Ironically, Guardienne leaves him alone to study more when he studies within her presence rather than when he locks himself alone in a separate area for hours, so in time Lance realizes he’s less likely to be interrupted if he studies in their living room/common area. As he begins to study more within her sight, Guardienne begins to see what he studies - and many of those things provide great insight for her regarding knowing Lance better. These things can range from different languages, histories and cultures, maps, geography, alchemy, mission reports (stolen from the guard of course) and even a few books touching on warfare, philosophy and psychology - what little of those latter texts exists in their world, at least. Guardienne begins to realize that, while Lance is very set on destroying the guard and the crystal, he’s also much more than just a man who wishes to exact revenge. He studies these texts to learn how to use it to his advantage, sure, but he also seems to have a genuine interest in these subjects. She even interrupted him one day - finding that he was oddly patient with answering this specific question - to ask if he perhaps ever grows bored of learning about these things, stressing that it’s a good idea to take a break from working constantly all the time - only for him to respond that he doesn’t view all of it as work. Some subjects he’s less interested in but are necessary to know for his agenda of revenge, but in the case where he’s feeling drained from that he’ll turn to reading another subject that he’s more interested in and go back to it later. She sometimes resigns to observing him as he studies - and she knows that Lance knows she watches him by the way his gaze will flick over to her every once and a while - but eventually she’ll begin to ask exactly what’s written in the books or what he’s thinking regarding the maps, asking to try to get to know his thought process better or just having nothing better to do at the moment. This is how Guardienne learns to grow closer to him; he doesn’t snap at her half as much when he explains what he’s studying, and he explains things in such a way that she doesn’t need to interrupt him to ask him to explain it better. In turn, she also begins to learn a bit about what he’s studying and can provide a bit of her own interesting input. Occasionally they debate these topics with one another, and Lance is actually very temperate when debating these things - he can speak in beautiful, grand tones about certain subjects, clearly showing just how much he’s interested in it. His eyes will glow with a warmth and passion that seems to dull even the indoor fire that burns with an eternal energy. These moments of enthusiasm actually entertain her greatly, and she begins to realize that she truly enjoys being around him in these moments. However, this also leads to minor conversations about his past, usually sparked from conversing about past experiences in these fields, and Guardienne witnesses firsthand the icing over of his personality from the reminder of his past. She’ll mention anything about his past; the village he lived in, his brother, his time in the guard, any memories he has, and the lively shimmer in his eyes will dull. His shoulders will drop and gaze will be cast to the floor as he bows his head slightly, a weight seeming to settle on him as he stares into a void for just a few mere moments. Then his facial features will harden, a stone cold look will invade his eyes and he’ll straighten again despite the clear effort it takes for him to stand tall. His formerly lively, sonorous tone will harden into cold, scathing words that are nearly spat out as he closes himself off, snapping and growling at her if she attempts to connect with him again. It’s from these continuous experiences that she recognizes something important; he's not truly as evil as he seems - he's wounded and aches for his reality to not be what it is now, and he seeks every day to ease that torturous pain, believing that that pain can only be eased by hurting others, by showing them just how much he’s hurt from his knowledge. Nobody is born evil, she realizes - he’s cruel only because he feels this is the only way he can deal with the pain of reality.

In turn, she tries her best to be understanding and comforting when she can. She understands, in some ways, his pain of knowing about the guard and sacrifice - she’s against the guard as well for her own reasons not too different than his - and seeing just how much Lance has broken because of the guard - just like her - only makes her want to burn it to the ground more. Lance notices this in time; where she once always pushed him to tell her more about his past and identity and reasoning, she’s now willing to drop the subject for a while or ask in a manner that’s more... considerate or empathetic. She begins to overlook his snapping and huffing at her, and instead focuses more on what he says and his reaction to those words instead of his irritation at her persistence. As Guardienne comes to understand Lance more, she realizes that he actually enjoys her company as well, even if he won’t admit it. He’ll jump at the chance to explain and debate his studies with her, and when she backs off of a sensitive topic she accidentally tread on for a while, he’ll be more temperate if she returns in a few hours and touches at the topic again, provided she approaches it in a neutral, tactful way. After all, the topic she wishes to speak about is a reminder of or is the exact reason he went from honorable and righteous to cruel and destructive - in his perception, if she doesn’t know how to approach it in a cautious, gentle manner then she doesn’t deserve to know exactly what happened and why it bothers him so much. However, she does learn this in in time, and he eventually allows her to listen to his most personal thoughts on... well, nearly everything. As they grow to understand each other better, she begins to provide a bit of support for him. He’s been alone for so long that sometimes he wonders if he’s truly losing his mind, but her presence reminds him that he’s not as lost as he thinks sometimes. Guardienne becomes a grounding force for him. She willingly - happily - listens to his rants and stories of his past if he agrees to talk about it, even if he’s fuming and raging the whole time, and eventually she can actually calm him down a bit. As much as he wishes to maintain a distance between them, in time he can’t help but grow a bit protective over her for personal reasons; her perspectives agree with his, she readily and willingly - even humorously, sometimes - puts up with his temperamental outbursts, eagerly speaks with him about basically anything, and wants to do something about what she feels is right or wrong. He refuses to fully acknowledge the hold she has on him - he’s not supposed to be attached to anyone in any way if his mission is to succeed- but when he stares at her as she nestles next to a stream, eyes bright and curious with innocence as she watches shimmering native fish glide by and turns to him to ask why they’re swimming up-stream instead of down, he can’t help but forget his past and feel normal with her.

She’ll eventually be made aware of Leiftan and Chrome as well. Not at first, but when Lance drags her half-way across Eldarya with him because he needs to fuck with the guard in foreign lands she’ll be dragged into their late-night-hang-out-meetings.

Leiftan quickly takes to her, Lance notices, and this is also how - in this version of the story - Guardienne finds out about her genetics. They need her strength in the war, so Leiftan will enlighten her and encourage her to train her abilities, even helping her in the few moments he can.

Lance quickly snaps at him, making sure he knows he can’t jeopardize his fake role within the guard to train her late in the night. He comes up with all sorts of excuses and aggressively reminds Leif that he can’t spend too much time around her. She’s supposed to not exist anymore and Leiftan needs to pretend like nothing is going on.

Really, though, Lance is just feeling threatened. He doesn’t want his personal source of information, good food, and entertainment to be wooed and stolen away. Good luck getting him to admit that, though.

Lance believes she’s safest with him; he’s the one outside the guard and his location and activities are unknown most of the time. All he needs to do is keep her veiled in that shroud of mysterious unknown to the guard and she’ll be impossible to find. Of course, she won’t want to just sit around forever. She’ll eventually want to be more proactive in helping him destroy the guard, and he’ll argue it at first until she becomes just so annoying that he can’t possibly stand it anymore! It’s either she helps or he kills her because she won’t shut up, so he trains her; hard and brutally. He’ll train her in how to master her demon abilities, how to gain the upper hand in any fight with any enemy, the most lethal points of different creatures, the most lethal tactics she could use, how to improve her strength, stamina, speed and stealth. He was once Chief of the Obsidian Guard; he knows how to turn a weak, scraggly runt into a masterful, fearsome warrior. When he finally sees fit, he’ll gift her with personalized equipment - bought or made specifically by him - so she can slink around the guard late at night with him. Of course, he’ll demand that she call him Ashkore on premises - or anywhere except home, really - but she’ll follow his lead in that case; she knows how important it is to remain unknown.

So how exactly do these restock or attack missions go? Well, she’s usually brought along for restock missions - where no one is supposed to know they were there in the first place - in which case her role is to stay quiet and help him throw stuff into the bag. She’ll typically be left to carrying the bags unless there’s one that’s too heavy for her to remain quiet - he’ll take the heavier bags. Lance will usually be busy designing their path out and planning their timing correctly while she focuses on following him. He doesn’t really take her on attack missions, though. He wants her to remain unknown. If a feminine figure is suddenly working with him not too long after Guardienne’s disappearance, especially since it was clear there was a rift between her and the guard, then suspicions will rise, and unfortunately those questions could then begin trace further back to reflect on Lance’s death and Ashkore’s appearance due to the similar time-frame of events. Basically, their stories and disappearance/death to villain appearance time-frame would begin to mirror each other. If she was to remain unknown then she can’t directly fight the guard, so no attack missions for her. However, Lance isn’t against turning a restock mission into a restock-attack mission if he sees the chance - he’ll just make sure she’s basically safe the rest of the way back home before enacting on it, even going as far as retracing his steps back to the guard to cause trouble.

In the original plot-line, it seems that most of the time when Lance, Leiftan and Guardienne are fighting each other it’s due mainly to the fact that Leiftan abandons the plans against the guard because he's in love with Guardienne, Lance wants Leiftan to continue against the guard, and then he realizes he needs Guardienne out of the picture so Leiftan forgets about her and so he can gain some other information he needs/use her as leverage against the guard. Since in this AU, she's happily on their side (so Leiftan isn't abandoning his plans against the guard and Lance has all access to her power/information) I can see a bit less of a rift among their team as their plans harmonize together. Instead of Leiftan and Lance fighting, Lance kidnapping Guardienne, Lance becoming reckless by putting off breaking the crystal, and many other things happening caused by the rift between them, they’d most likely collaborate and work together better, and they’d be more coordinated in attacks and better at getting to the crystal. Of course, it’s possible that Leiftan may have wanted Eldarya to be saved at some point so he could spend his life with Guardienne, but seeing how Leiftan would do nearly anything for her throughout the original plot-line, I wouldn’t be surprised if he continued his efforts against the guard knowing that she’d want him to in this AU. It would also help knowing that the guard hurt her many times in many ways, so he’d be seeking revenge for that as well.

Dragging Guardienne around Eldarya with Lance, however, has risks and consequences that could come down on top of them if not careful. One such issue is the fact that, while Lance is very good at evading the guard, occasionally he’s caught and is sent on a wild-goose chase trying to flee from them. This occasionally can put Guardienne at risk of being found out, as she’s nearly always close to him, but Lance has considered this possibility a long time ago and has already devised a plan during these times to avoid from any heavy repercussions falling back on them. He’s just fine with fleeing with her - he knows how to keep her out of sight and her equipment is lightweight enough so that she has no trouble moving swiftly and flexibly if needed - but he’s realized that it may not be the smartest idea to have her fleeing with him while clearly seeming to be working with him. Instead, Lance realized, it would be a good idea for her to act as though she’s a hostage if she’s about to be revealed. That way, if she’s captured at any point in the future, she can play the innocent victim who knows nothing, and the guard - while persistent in finding out anything she may know, no matter how little the information may be- certainly won’t hurt their precious Guardienne who has already been through so much while in the clutches of the evil Ashkore. If she’s seen as a hostage, she can use excuses like “I’m sorry, it just so hard to talk about so soon... can we continue this later”, “I honestly don’t remember much, I was so busy focusing on a possible way of escaping that I didn’t pay much attention to that detail”, and “He kept me locked away in a certain area, I don’t know if there were any landmarks around that could point to his location” to deter their questioning and buy time before she needs to reveal anything actually important, else she look like she’s protecting him. Acting as a hostage will also assure that she won’t be thrown in the prison and guarded the whole time; so being free to roam around the guard while buying time to keep important information a secret will allow Lance the time to plan a rescue mission - disguised as another easy kidnapping since she won’t be guarded - to return her to their side. This is merely a backup plan if they know she’ll likely be captured at some point, and it will only work if the guard is unaware of a female figure helping him out, but provided that everything goes smoothly it should be a solid plan with little negative effects. However, this can’t happen more than once or twice; the first time will be easily accepted by the guard, the second time she plays the innocent, panicking fool she’ll be walking the line between seeming suspicious or if she’s truly that foolish, and for her sake the second time she will need to reveal some important information. A third time and the guard would know that something is up.

These hostage situations can get quite amusing for Guardienne - despite how fragile the situation is - and, frankly, Lance would snap at her every time she snickers about this, except he finds these situations absolutely hilarious as well. They’ll be running around Eldarya, the guard occasionally cornering them before they flee, and Guardienne will do her best to attack Lance in ways that are weak enough to not actually effect anything, but are strong enough to make it look like she’s truly trying to escape. Is the guard within ear-shot and they know they’ll be found out eventually? Great, Lance has an escape plan to get out of there already, so Guardienne can throw a screeching hissy-fit at him to make it seem like she’s trying to escape. Sometimes this can aid them as well, as they can set up a maze that the guard will certainly come running through to find Guardienne, following the sound of her struggle, only to then be trapped somewhere because Lance has traps set up that Guardienne certainly couldn’t have known about since she’s a hostage. Other times she’ll do her best to attack Lance - but let’s face it, even if he did train her she would still have a hard time bringing him down if their fight was serious - and he’ll quickly disarm her in front of the guard before finding a way to gain distance from them again. This is all just to reconfirm the illusion that she’s a hostage to the guard, and of course they panic every time and believe it, but it’s knowing that they’re running circles around the guard - bringing them here and having her bait them to this location so Lance can attack them, or leading them to discover a certain fact at some point so they think they have a useful piece of information on Lance when in fact Lance is using that to draw them out in confidence so he can crush them - that they find truly amusing. The guard is being played this whole time and they keep falling for it. Even Lance can’t help but laugh at a few moments of running the guard around with Guardienne later, when they’re no longer in danger.

Of course, this all leads up to the grand finale; the final shattering of the crystal. I imagine this happening much sooner than in the original plot-line because Guardienne isn’t a hindering factor anymore, and I can see it happening with much more ease than how it originally played out. Perhaps they’ll lure the important members of the guard to another land - letting them think that they’ve caught Guardienne’s trail over there - and launch their final attack when no one who can stop them is around. They might decide to fuck with the guard one last time, running them around within the guard while Lance infiltrates the crystal room. Perhaps they decide to go out with a bang and capture the important members of the guard, binding them and closing off the crystal room so they can reveal their identities and the guard can watch as the people that were once held dear to them destroy their world while they’re helpless to do anything. It doesn’t matter much how it happens, though, at this point - with an angered dragon and two powerful demons - there’s nothing that the guard can do to stop them. In some ways it will hurt, knowing that this is the end of their beautiful story of revenge, but - no matter what happens after this - they’ll know they succeeded, and that will be the last truth Eldarya will ever know.

I think this may be one of the longer headcanons that I’ve written so far, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out! Also, Tumblr ate this ask while it was a draft once or twice (it was in the 3-draft radius of asks that were at risk of being eaten so it disappeared a few times) so it did take a bit longer to write than I’d hoped, but fortunately no progress had been deleted so I’m just fine with that.

Thank you for asking!

Have a request? Ask them here!

But first, please read the rules list for asks!

[missmonsters2]

About You || Part VIII

Gif by: giuliacommissions (please check her out if you’d like to commission her for gifs and other work 💞)

PAIRING: Wanda Maximoff x Fem!Reader/OFC

Summary: Wanda had never known loss like she has until she lost Pietro. It’s debilitating. She can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t even leave her house. Life is fading fast, and she’s not sure if she even wants to hang on. Enter you, a stranger that reconnects her to the daily things that makes life beautiful.

Warnings: Deals with loss & grief and the spectrum of emotions and depression that comes with it. Please note there is no glorification in any of this. Loss, grief, and depression are nothing beautiful. Also, please don’t hesitate or reach out for help if you are in a dark place. Love you, lovelies 💘

Genre: Angst & Romance

NOTE: Okay two more chapters and you finna be shook.

PART I || PART II || PART III || PART IV || PART V || PART VI || PART VII

PART VIII of X

Count: 1520

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

"So, you're dating now?"

Wanda smiles as Steve asks the question again, but this time, she won't lie.

"Yes," she tells him and watches him smile widely.

"Exclusivity is beautiful, isn't it?" Steve laughs while Wanda tries to not roll her eyes at his veiled words of 'I told you so.'

"She is beautiful, and she's mine," Wanda softly smiles.

"Are you scared?" He asked.

"Absolutely petrified," she admits, "but I want her more."

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

"How was your day?"

The days have been coming to a quiet end, and the evenings after dinner are becoming Wanda's favorite. 

There's something about being full of a warm homecooked meal, and settling on the couch with a fuzzy blanket that excites Wanda.

There's cuddling, hands sneaking under their shirts, and quiet kisses.

"I've got a commission for a painting," Wanda shares the good news which has you smiling.

"That's amazing considering you've been inactive for a year," you rub her back.

"I am amazing," she nods.

"And so humble," you laugh, pressing a kiss to her brow.

Wanda hums, sighing against the gesture of affections.

It's quiet, nothing but the TV playing mindlessly in the background as you enjoy each other's company.

"Do you ever miss your brother? Or the other guy?" Wanda asks, playing with the ends of your shirt.

"I think about them often, but I don't always miss them," you explain to her. 

It was something Wanda feared. All she had left of Pietro were memories, and if she didn't miss him all the time, then what becomes of the memories?

You trace a line down Wanda's back, eliciting a shiver.

"We are not always grieving, and we are not forgetting. Growing means we can appreciate the past in the new light."

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

"Where is she?" Natasha asks, digging into her salad while Wanda is painting.

"She's back at work," Wanda replies as she dips her brush into more water.

"And you're painting again," Natasha notes.

"Inspiration hits at the oddest times," Wanda smiles.

Natasha had seen Wanda shift many times. The hardest was seeing the girl grieve. There was nothing that could describe how she felt watching the life fade from her friend's eyes, the weight she has lost, and the trashed canvases. 

But she had seen Wanda shift again when you came. It was slow, and Natasha is sure Wanda was barely tolerating your presence at first. But it was small and steady. The eating, the curiosity, and the waiting Natasha saw were wonderous. 

"Do you still think about Pietro?" Natasha asks softly.

"Yes," Wanda admits, "All the time."

"Does it still hurt?"

"No," Wanda slowly answers.

She doesn't say much else, but Wanda can tell that Natasha wants to ask her why. 

It was only something that Wanda had discovered over the last few days. 

Wanda dips her brush in more water.

"Have you ever read the Children's Book, 'The Invisible String'?" Wanda asks, hearing Natasha hum in return.

"Pietro read to me all the time as a kid, especially after our parents died," Wanda dipped her brush in some blue paint. "I thought my string with Pietro was cut because I kept tugging on it, and I didn't know if Pietro could feel it."

"And?" Natasha asked.

"I think the string got so tangled with me constantly pulling on it that I forgot that the string still exists because I still feel the tug of it," Wanda stares at her painting. "You know what I think?"

"What?" Natasha asks with a smile.

"I think the string exists as long as I exist."

Natasha is happy with Wanda's answer. She finishes her salad before she watches her friend finish painting.

"You like watercolor?"

Wanda dipped her brush in water, looking at the lines that she drew underneath the paint.

"Yeah, it's truly a work of art."

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

The sheets shuffled around as you felt Wanda get out of bed. 

It turns out, Wanda gets the best hit of motivation and inspiration just as the sun comes up. She leaves to go to her studio to start painting but always makes sure to come back to wake you up with a kiss and tea.

You feel a tug on your left hand, and something cool being pressed across, before a rush of cool air being blow. But for the sake of Wanda, you keep your eyes closed.

When you wake up, you see a thin, red, squabbly circle painted around your wrist.

Then across your forearm, there was a scribbled message.

Your string leads to mine, should I show you?

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

"How do you know mine leads to yours?" 

You're sitting together at the counter with Wanda, tea, and coffee in hand before going to work.

"Because when you miss me, I feel it tugging on my heart," Wanda smiles sleepily.

"And when you miss me?" You ask with a tilt of your head and a grin.

"Then, I'm vigorously sending my love through the string until it tugs on your heart."

You can't help but smile wider because Wanda has such a way with words, and she's so honest and endearing. 

Wanda sets her cup down, opening her arms until you come to settle into her arms, leaning on her.

You kiss the crown of her head, running your fingers through her unruly hair, laughing when it doesn't quite make a difference.

"I love the mornings with you," Wanda mumbles.

"You didn't before?"

"I couldn't stop thinking about how it was all temporary before, that eventually, you would leave and I would be alone."

"We're not always together, though," you remind her, brushing her hair slightly to the side.

"Even when we're apart, I think about how you'll come home to me," Wanda licks her lip.

You swallow, your heart feeling a little too full, and the only way to manage it is to press your lips to Wanda's. 

They're in the privacy of their own home, but it felt scandalous to feel your hand underneath Wanda's shirt, your warm palm pressing between her bare shoulder blades.

You watch as Wanda's eyes flutter.

"What are you thinking about?" You ask against Wanda's lips.

"I'm thinking about how I'm in love with you."

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

Days off were rare, but Wanda loved every time she got to laze around with you at 2PM on a Thursday.

You were currently on the couch, hoarding her right hand, grinning as you saw the same painted thin, red, squabbly circle. 

There have been talks about tattooing it, but for now, Wanda diligently draws them on every day.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't move," you whine.

Wanda watches you with a slow smile as she feels scribbling on her arm.

When you finish, you give her a kiss right smack on her lips before going to grab late lunch. Or early dinner.

Wanda looks to see what you've written.

наша любовь это произведение искусства.

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

Steve watched with happiness as Wanda chopped the vegetables. 

"How's the painting going?"

"It's going," Wanda shrugs. Inspiration comes and goes, but she's close to finishing it.

"You should open your own gallery," Steve says. "I'll threaten people to come to opening night."

Wanda lets out a laugh knowing Steve would actually be politely handing out flyers. Steve closes his eyes, a joy from being about to hear such a sound from his friend again.

"How are things with her?" Steve asks, watching the way Wanda's eyes light up ever so subtly.

"She wants to find a new place with me," Wanda smiles.

"Why doesn't she move here?" Steve asks.

Wanda tilts her head, looking down at her vegetables.

"It takes her forever to get work. I want to be able to give her something too for all that she's done."

Steve settles into a soft smile, his eye catching something on Wanda's forearm. 

"Is that Russian?" He asks.

Wanda catches him staring at her arm and flushes slightly.

"Yes," she tells him.

"What's it mean?"

"It means our love is a work of art."

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

"Wanda...Wanda..."

Wanda wakes up groggily to see you hovering over her with a frown.

"What's wrong?" She asks as you lie your head back down on the pillow facing her.

"What if...what if our string gets tangled or breaks?"

Wanda can tell you've had a bad dream. 

And for once, she's the courageous one, ready to offer you reassurances.

She rolls over, pushing you on your back, hovering over you with her body pressed to yours as her fingers slide against your jaw.

"Our string can get tangled, it can be pulled on, it can even get lost," Wanda says, her breath on your lips. "But it will never break because as long as we exist, we will always find a way to each other."

Tears spill over your eyes as Wanda kisses you deep and slow.

That morning when you wake up, surprised to have slept through Wanda waking up. 

You see the diligently painted red thin circle around your wrist, and the words this morning makes you cry.

If anyone could show me life is worth living, it is you.

PART IX

[cesraeborgia]

Hey! This is a cool thing you're doing and thought I'd ask something!

I feel like ur gonna get asked this a lot but, realistically, what do you think is going to happen with keenler in the upcoming eps? Like obviously we'd love them to happily get together, but this is the Blacklist, and nothing is ever that simple.

Thoughts?

Hey!!! I’m happy to say your my first ask :)) !!!  If you want to chat with me about keenler, my fics, send me prompts, or just say hello!! feel free to drop me an ask here

I had a lot to say so I did a keep reading thing haha. Also, warning, spoilers for the last two eps. 

Personally, I think there’s an extremely interesting dynamic at play here that is similar to when Liz was on the run the first time. I can’t help but draw parallels between Ressler’s interactions with Liz in season 3 and his interactions with her now, and I think that Liz’s plot line this season is going to put her at odds with Ressler both professionally and personally. The fact of the matter is (and this might be a rogue opinion) that in the long run, I don’t see this causing issues for them romantically. The thing about Ressler is that he’s already crossed that line for Liz in the past - when pitted against his job and Liz, the choices he makes always boil down to one thing: whether or not the decision he makes keeps Liz safe. Because Ressler is always acting with Liz’s safety in mind, This might prove to be a problem for Liz, who is used to those who love her (Tom, Reddington) dropping everything on a dime to help her in any situation no matter the cost to her personal safety. This is partially why Ressler was at a crossroads in the last episode: he knew that the path Liz was going down was dangerous, and he was unwilling to help her if it affected her safety in a negative way, or if it contributed to her continued progression down a darkened path, which Ressler does not view to be her destiny, like Reddington does. In keeping with this characterization of Ressler (which, Lord knows if the show will actually do that; they are pretty consistent when it comes to him but still not great) I could see them continuing to work together, even if its not to the result that Liz wants. 

I think that Ressler brings out the best of Liz’s humanity (this is why I always use day/sun imagery when writing Ressler, and night/moon imagery when writing Liz) and that eventually Liz is going to be faced with deciding between embracing Reddington’s idea of her ‘destiny’ or embracing what she wanted her life to be like in the pilot. Obviously, going to war with Reddington posits one end of that spectrum, with exploring her relationship with Ressler being on the other side. 

(Real quick sidebar: I don’t like to describe female characters in relation to male characters; I’m not trying to say that Liz has to decide between the two men, I’m just saying that they symbolically represent the decision she’s going to have to make. If I were less tired I would go on a poststructural feminist rant that would make my dear sweet Judith Butler proud, but, alas, I’m exhausted)

I think that there’s three key things that SHOULD (key word being should, seeing as the writers are who the writers are) be factors in keenler’s progression this season. 

1.) Liz is alone on the run this time. This means that she’s most likely going to turn to Ressler for support, seeing as her sister is gone for the moment being, Tom is dead, her mother is dead, Reddington is pretty much dead to her, and the only person left in her life who she really trusts is Ressler. Now, there could be an interesting plot twist here. (this has been marinating in the back of my mind for the last couple of seasons.) Remember in like season 6 (I want to say??) when Liz let that one blacklister go and was starting to collect names for her own blacklist... let’s just say I wouldn’t be shocked if that plot line was unceremoniously picked up again sometime this season. That might be the only real shot she has at having allies besides Ressler or people who want to see Reddington dead. Ask me more on this later, once I watch the next episode in January haha.

2.) The issue of the taskforce and Reddington. As we can all see, Reddington has no qualms using Ressler as a pawn in his scheme to get to Liz, and I can envision Ressler acting in the role of messenger between the two warring sides during the rest of this season, which would allow for Liz and Ressler to continue to explore their developing relationship within this paradigm. I could also see =, however, Reddington using Ressler to gain an audience with Liz, and or threatening Ressler in order to get Liz to comply. 

In this category there is also the issue of the taskforce itself. As we all know, Cooper was pissed that Ressler had been running off without his knowledge to see Liz, and I can assure you that this is going to cause some problems between the rest of the taskforce and Ressler. (Aram may be a sleeper cell, because it’s Aram, but other than that I can see this getting to be extremely painful for Ressler, Cooper, and Park). I can see Cooper either sidelining Ressler, monitoring his phone, or pairing him off with Park so that she can keep an eye on him, or a combination of all three. I think that this dynamic is where we’re going to see the biggest obstacle to their relationship. 

3.) Finally, the trust issues. I can’t say I’m shocked that the blacklist has never confronted the fact that Ressler is blatantly in love with a woman who continuously lies to him (I love both of them to death, I mean this from a good place) and who has never really shown any signs of remorse about it. Now, while its a good thing that Liz opened up to Ressler later last season, it’s still problematic that she won’t share her cards with him when she knows he won’t be happy about what she’s doing. I personally would love to see Ressler confront her about this (I hope to god he does), but again, this will probably get swept under the rug. I have a lot of problems with this, which is why when I write them, I always try to address the imbalance of power between them and try to put them on a more equal playing field. I would be curious to see how the writers do this (if they decide to). 

I’m sorry that this has turned into a novella-length response, but also I’m not because I have had a lot of this stuff simmering in my brain for the last couple of years. I must also apologize for the random rants in the middle of this - that would be due to my raging ADHD and exhaustion. In conclusion, I would say that I can see keenler happening, however, it is not going to be all sunshine and rainbows, but, rather, a game which may involve using Ressler as bait. 

I hope that answers your question :))

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #405

“today i went to therapy, told him the embarrassing issues that i���m having with my life  /  he told me that i need to change; life is not a video game, so stop playing & open up your eyes”

What was your favourite sweet as a child? Things like Baby Bottle Pops, Ring Pops, Airheads, etc. Do you like to wear socks to bed? NOOOOOOO. I don't wear socks unless I have to. What’s your favourite berry? Strawberries. If you have a job, how long is your shift? I don't. Do you like sunflowers? Well yeah. Are you counting down for anything? No. Are you watching TV? What’s on? No. Do you have make-up on? No. I haven't worn makeup since last October. Are you any good with kids? People have told me I am, but I beg to differ. What if you had a baby with the last person you kissed? We're both cisgender women, we physically couldn't. Do you think you’ll be married in 5 years time? It'd be nice honestly, but I kinda doubt I will be. What is your favorite card game? Magic: The Gathering. What is the weirdest thing you’ve done in public? Ha, probably the times I've gotten down on the ground beside the road to photograph roadkill... More than once has someone stopped and asked if I was okay, haha. Favorite sleeping position? Twisted half on my side and stomach with my legs just sorta splayed out. What is your dad’s name? Ken. Have you ever been on a diet? Multiple times. Do you own any jersey shirts? No. Are you proud to be of the nationality you are? There are two moods I have on this: I'm either neutral or embarrassed. Can you remember what you last clapped for? Omg the woman who facilitates my TMS treatment was telling Mom and me about this one time a tiny snake got in the lobby and I did a lil squeal and clapped a bit because I was just excited to hear about a little snake, haha. What is the geekiest part of your music collection? *shrug* Maybe game soundtrack music. What do you eat when you raid the fridge late at night? Well, not really the fridge, but w/e. I'll usually get a granola bar or something of the sort. What is the little physical habit that gives away you're insecure moment? Kneading/wringing my hands together is a dead giveaway. Do you have too many love interests? No. How much money would it take to get you to give up the Internet for one year? If you want honesty... probably no amount would lmao. I rely way too heavily on the Internet for so many things. Do you talk a lot? It depends on my mood and who I'm around. Do transient, homeless, or starving people sometimes annoy you? What a fucking awful question. They don't annoy me. It can be awkward driving past them, but they're in no way annoying. Do you consider yourself to be a nice person? I definitely try to be. What is your ideal marriage location? Either a gothic-looking mansion or something of the sort or a wooded area in the fall. Do you tell your friends about your sex life? I don't have one to talk about. Would you ever admit to having done plastic surgery of any kind if confronted? Yeah? No shame. What kind of watch(es) do you wear? I don't wear watches. What do you cook the best? My family likes my scrambled cheesy eggs... basic as that is, haha. When my sisters would go to Taco Bell all the time and save the hot sauces for later use, I would use some packets in the eggs I cooked. Honestly amazing. What's one car you will never buy? "Anything that is two door, or low to the ground." <<<< This right here. On the other end of the spectrum, I also won't ever buy a car that's high up. I need a good medium so I can actually get in with ease. What's one thing you're a sore loser at? Hm, I dunno. What kind of first impression do you think you give to people? "Wow, she's awkward." What's one thing you like to do alone? Draw. When's the last time you cried? Not long ago at all because I was just so exasperated over my weight gain. Do you think you're cute? God no. Do you have problems changing clothes in front of friends? I don't change in front of anyone if I can avoid it. Did you like kissing the last person you kissed or the one before that more? The last person. I gotta say I was not a fan of kissing Girt because for whatever reason his lips were ALWAYS wetter than lips naturally should be and I just didn't dig it, man. That and every kiss with him was awkward. Whose bed other than yours did you last lay on? My mom's. What turns you off immediately? Acting sexist, to name one. Which city do you particularly enjoy visiting and for what reasons? I don't like going into cities. Do you often take pictures with the camera on your phone? No. I don't like the camera on my phone. In the past year, have you lost weight or gained weight? How much? Gained. You don't need to know. What year was the last car you rode in/drove? I have zero clue. What’s your worst/funniest experience with one of your neighbors? "Worst" and "funniest" are very different... but I can tell you the worst easily. At my childhood home, our next-door neighbors had a pair of Rottweilers in their back yard within a chain-link fence, and we had a LOT of outdoor cats at the time. (I will emphasize every time I bring it up to NOT keep cats outside.) Somehow the dogs got loose and went on a rampage trying to kill our cats; one young one was killed, while our fearless mother cat, Chance, literally fought them off to defend her new kittens. More were maybe killed, I honestly can't remember. My mom was hysterical and threatened to call animal control if it ever happened again. I was absolutely, utterly heartbroken. The last time you burned your tongue or mouth, what were you eating? Ummm I want to say it was some sort of pasta that I didn't let cool long enough. Honestly, are you shallow? Far from it, honestly. Can/could your parents tell when you were lying? Not always. Besides clothes, shoes, and accessories, what’s your favorite thing to shop for? I love window-shopping at Morph Market, haha. AAAAAAAAAALL those ball python morphs, man... *drools* Does/did your parents ever go through your computer or cell phone? When I was younger, Mom was very intent on figuring out why I was always so secretive about what I did on the computer (mostly RP-related things) that ohhhh yeah, she'd do some digging. The night she finally snapped, demanding I tell her my passwords to everything, and she ultimately found out about me being a forum RPer, was literally almost traumatic to me, I think. I know, that sounds INCREDIBLY overdramatic, but I'm not fucking joking. I was in my room SOBBING on my best friend's shoulder, who was spending the night. I was just so embarrassed, and I *still* am when I share that fact with people I know, even though I have no reason to be. Like I don't do any weird or kinky RP shit, it's just genuine, artistic writing with actual, well thought-out plots, but I still feel like people would think it dumb, childish, and just weird. What song reminds you the most of a particular day in your life? Why is that? "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. I've talked about it a few times before and really don't feel like doing it again. Do you have any close friends that were adopted? I don't think so. Who, in your opinion, is the best thriller writer? I don't know. Does your mom eat meat? Yeah. Was your dad ever on a sports team? Lots in high school, I believe. Do you prefer thick or thin crusted pizza? Thick, by a long shot. What do you have in your fruit salads? Not a fan of fruit salads. Have you ever spent more than two weeks in a wheelchair? I've only needed a wheelchair once in my life, and that was just to get inside and maneuver around the doctor's office when I tore a ligament in my foot. So no. What are your favorite word? Serendipity, tranquility, lucid, etc.; pretty, peaceful words like those. Is there a lot of drama in your life? Nope. I don't do enough or have enough people in my life for there to be. What are you listening to? An extended version of "Nightsong" from WoW. Do you hear any animals right now? No. I'm sure I'd hear birds if I didn't have my earplugs in, though. Have you ever played fetch with a dog? Yes. Have you ever pet a stingray? No. Who is the last baby you held? Emerson, my youngest niece. Do you have any scars from an animal? Yeah; I've got looooots from my cat playing too rough. Have you ever seen an Igloo? I don't believe so. Do you like Korn? They're high on my list of faves. Are you more afraid of tornadoes or hurricanes? Absolutely tornadoes. Do you like mushrooms? Ugh, NO. Have you ever been on Omegle? No. So do you have a favorite M&M? Just the regular ones. Have you ever snuck out? No. Do you currently feel like you have pretty stable career goals/a pretty stable life plan? Have you ever felt this way? I don't know, man. I know what I WANT to do, I just don't know if I'm ever going to get there. Or if what I want will be financially supportive enough, now that I'm really losing interest in photographing people. I might just have to if I want to be financially stable with photography, which would be okay, but bleh. I'd much rather just work with nature. If you could buy an android that was was convincingly human and could be tailored to be your perfect partner, would you want one? No. I don't want to build my own partner, nor do I want my romantic partner to be an android. I want life to just introduce me to a person who is uniquely themselves, who have built themselves from their own life experiences, and not just have a perfect spouse tailored to everything I like. If you do not identify as being “straight,” can you remember back to your childhood some things you did that were, in hindsight, possible indicators of your future sexuality? Yes, especially in middle school. I thought women were prettier than probably a straight kid would, and looking back, I definitely found the natural curves of the female figure to be attractive. When you consume media (movies, books, etc.) with a romantic element, what sort of romance scenarios interest you most? Hm. I know I prefer serious ones over silly; like I'm a sucker for Nicholas Sparks' style, if that says anything. If you are female, do you feel connected to other women as a class? What sort of things make you feel a strong sense of sisterhood or female empowerment? This is too big of a question for me to feel like delving into right now, haha. But I can say it more so depends on the individual than the gender when it comes to feeling connection over anything.

[hannidae]

The Value of Forgiveness

Why Reylo is one of the most valuable elements of Star Wars Mythology

And why Disney should not let Reylo end with The Rise of Skywalker if it wants to take the moral high ground.

As an American, I’d like to suggest that Americans have a lot to learn from Rey and Ben. Forgiveness, hope, and redemption, while recognized as nice ideas, are so often not given the deference they deserve. Instead, we’re so much more focused on the pursuit of justice and power, which reflected in film leads to resolutions like Kylo Ren’s/Ben Solo’s death. Or, in real life, leads to paradigms like those present in American criminal justice.

We are doing an unarguably terrible job with criminal justice and reform. We are not forgiving or empathetic as a society. Our justice systems cling to our grudges and desire for punishment when nothing good can come of it. I can only hope that we can recognize our faults, learn, and grow--with a little help from film and story-telling.

As does all good mythology, Star Wars presents morals. The intentions in the sequel trilogy are *ahem* perhaps less thoughtfully crafted than the previous trilogies, but there’s still something to be learned. In TRoS specifically, moral guidance is best sought in critically analyzing the filmmaker’s choices and identifying the fallacies presented. 

Enter Reylo, the age-old enemies-to-lovers archetype where a heroine and anti-hero restore justice and find happiness. TRoS did it, then killed Ben. Why? Because in the American mindset Ben did ‘horrible’ things, and he should recognize his failures and welcome his own death in order to preserve the ‘pure’ deserving soul, Rey. Criminals don’t deserve a redeemed life of happiness, according to the American creators.

I object.

Now, before I get into how wrong this is, here’s a shout out to all of the incredible works out there that have analyzed Reylo and all its glory and value. Here’s a wonderful masterpost by raven-maiden. 

The impact of Reylo in analyzing criminal justice

Our current criminal justice system, at least within the American cultural setting where Star Wars has been developed, is a self-defeating, myopic mess.

There is the profit-driven corporatization of its structures that ignore best treatment practices opportunities for convicts within the system. There is the systemic discrimination that plagues fair treatment of both individuals and groups in the criminal justice and judicial systems from beginning to end. There is the unwillingness and/or lack of resources in our criminal justice system to address and improve the mental health concerns and socio-economic disadvantages of its prisoners and, as a result, cultivate reformed behaviors and improved opportunities among people who have committed crimes. There is also the hypocritical tendency of the criminal justice system to bolster the privileged and penalize the disadvantaged.

Regardless of a person’s place in society, our criminal justice system is focused almost entirely on punishment and removal of people within society who have been convicted of crimes. This doesn’t fix anything. It either maintains or worsens the causes that encourage people to commit crimes. Additionally, our criminal justice system does very little to promote actual justice in the forms of restorative justice.  Generally, people who have committed crimes are not provided avenues that offer meaningful opportunities for reparation, or counseling to recognize and alleviate the social, economic, or physical issues that caused people to commit crimes in the first place. No one is born bad, or wants to be evil, except for perhaps psychopaths.  And it’s clear that Ben/Kylo is not a psychopath, despite of and evidenced by the crimes he has committed.

The Problem with Shunning Reylo or shunning criminals

Those who are Anti-Reylo are generally concerned about abuse, imbalances of power, and toxic behavior and relationships, which they associate with Kylo. I get it. None of those things should ever be tolerated, much less promoted. All people, including Antis, can be assumed to condemn at least most criminal behavior, like Kylo’s. However, the hitch is when people are not willing to tolerate and accept individuals who commit crimes into their communities or relationships ever again—like permitting Kylo to repent, atone, and have a romantic relationship with Rey.

Here’s my issue, many people, for the most part, are sufficiently intolerant to be willing to forgive a person who has committed certain crimes. Clearly, some crimes are beyond redemption. In the spectrum of the severity of crimes, what role does a line in the sand have in story telling? Where does society draw that line? Typically, once crossed the criminal cannot be redeemed. In this way of thinking, reformed behavior, with or without atonement or restitution, would be not be sufficient for welcoming a person who has committed certain crimes back into a community. Like Kylo. Now, it’s not that there shouldn’t be a line. But sometimes we draw that line sooner than we should, and we’re not helping anyone (ourselves included) when we do if forgiveness is never an option.

Just Kylo’s association with the First Order, who as an organization murdered multiple world populations, is past the line for a lot of people. For some, it might be his order to kill the villagers at the beginning of The Force Awakens. Or kidnapping Rey and pushing into her mind during the interrogation scene. Or calling her ‘nothing’ on the Supremacy. Whichever.

I’m not going further into that because for my argument I don’t consider him to have crossed the line, and most Reylos don’t either. Here’s why, and why it matters.

First, Star Wars is mythology. It’s about a god Force and space wizards with laser swords. It teaches values and morals through fantasy and fictional dramatization. It is meant to serve as symbolic guidelines, not hard rules for interpersonal relationships in daily life.

Second, someone argues that Kylo Ren/Ben Solo has irrevocably crossed that line, there is very little to learn or gain from his attributes, his experiences, or his sacrifices. There should always be something to learn. Some *may* be willing to forgive Ben. That forgiveness would have qualifications for the redemption such as certain acts of restorative justice or a sacrifice. But empathy here is limited, if not lacking. And to function as a healthy society, we need lots of empathy.

Third, while Kylo’s representation in the trilogy films is less dimensional that in the extended comics and novelizations, one can not argue that he was abused, neglected, and manipulated into the circumstances of his portrayal. He also was never given an opportunity to truly explain his justification for his actions or the conditions that led to his choices. 

Overall, I’m not interested in where that unredeemable line is for people who support his death, or what redemption might entail. It’s likely they would never be willing to support his reintegration into society/the light side or consider him an appropriate love interest for Rey. Thus, what matters about him only matters in how it reflects on the heroes to whom he is an enemy. That would make him a black hole. But he is an anti-hero, and an amazing opportunity for self-reflective growth. We all make mistakes; he is just an extreme example from whose mistakes we can learn from.

Why Rey’s forgiveness is a necessary component of functional criminal justice

I am interested in the value of forgiveness, and the role mythology has in teaching that value. I’m fascinated by Rey’s willingness to forgive Ben Solo, especially since he turns and supports her once he knows she would forgive and welcome him if he renounced the characteristics that make him a villain.

Society is never going to improve if we lock up our criminals and throw away the key. Or execute them.

Now, I’m not expertly qualified to summarize the fields of criminal psychology or criminology in relation to Kylo Ren. However, I do hope to take a stab at why his criminal behavior is relevant in a tale of forgiveness.

Crime is cyclical. There will always be more people committing more crimes, and people committing crimes over and over. Also, most people who commit crimes, if released, will not be persuaded by punishment alone to stop doing whatever they’re doing that is criminal. This is because, for the most part, people with a history of delinquency have already experienced enough suffering in some form to create the impression that criminal acts will help them avoid the suffering they fear. The most commonly imposed societal threats of repercussions to their behavior, such as imprisonment, would be less severe to them than the punishment though suffering they’re attempting to avoid.

Kylo was abandoned by his family and betrayed, almost murdered, by the Jedi. The supposed crime of associating with Snoke/the First Order initially provided him shelter from those who wronged him. Then, a means of recuperating the power he needed to survive. However, he continued to be abused, manipulated, and neglected. Thus, his crimes continued though which he sought escape of fear and suffering through the pursuit of power in order to provide the needs he was lacking.

The motivations that cause one to commit a crime are generally recognized as related to the absence of any of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow, A.H. (1943). "A theory of human motivation". Psychological Review.

Maslow’s Pyramid 

Kylo suffered from an absence of up to four of those five levels of the pyramid.

Now, society will never improve if we believe all criminals are evil and will always be evil unless we scare them into being good. People who commit criminal acts typically act through fear due to lack of a need. Threatening people into behaving well is not going to take their initial fear away; threats don’t provide missing needs. However, it may foster in delinquents a sense of desperate hopelessness, which would only cyclically perpetuate the conditions cultivating their criminality.

For most of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, no one criticizing Kylo’s esteemed role in the First Order is going to convince him to abandon the people who have welcomed, protected, and admired him in order to return to the ‘murderers, traitors, and thieves [Rey] calls friends.’ Not until Rey offers him a place by her side and an opportunity to make things right.

Trust, counseling, and pathways that allow people to meaningfully reenter society into a safe place through proof of intention by reparation, are the conditions through which criminals most effectively break out of the cycle.

We should be providing people who have committed a criminal act with:

1) the security of a route to acquiring their missing needs; 2) the confidence and recovery to be gained through restorative justice; and 3) a safe place to re-enter society. If we want delinquents to go from inclined to commit a crime, to not, then society must give people with criminal pasts a means to reform. To redemption.

That requires forgiveness.

Rey offered these things to Ben. She wasn’t willing to take him as he was in The Last Jedi as Kylo Ren. But she was willing to help him meet the needs he was missing: safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. And if he turned, which provided him a pathway to meeting those needs when the dark side and First Order would not (despite his hopes), then she would take his hand. Ben’s hand.

Rey’s forgiveness of Kylo would provide a necessary step in the path to him becoming a better person. To reform. To become a hero that the galaxy desperately needed.

In the Rise of Skywalker, perhaps Rey didn’t need him to defeat the Emperor. She might have done it on her own. But she likely wouldn’t have survived if she did. And then the Jedi, the light side, peacekeepers who attempt to maintain balance in the world where the dark doesn’t over take the light, would have disappeared.

Ben’s turn, his choice to change, is what all people who have committed crimes should be permitted. But Rey’s forgiveness, and empathy before that, is a necessary part of Ben’s redemption. Why change criminal behavior, if it is somehow necessary to survive meaningfully, for nothing? Because it’s the right thing to do? That’s not how we work, fundamentally. We’re not angels.

It’s time to say it:

To err is human, to forgive, divine. -Alexander Pope

Rey’s compassion and empathy for Kylo, and her subsequent forgiveness, to me, is the most important thing to come out of Star Wars. Her willingness to respect and admire a person for who they are, despite a dichotomy, despite a criminal history, is a lesson we urgently need today.

Rey learned this herself, which is perhaps the best story telling choice in TRoS. After she stabbed then healed Ben on Ker Bir, she never again chose to engage in attack. She only saved what she loved. She never again used her lightsaber for assault, only deflection. With her potential for mercy, she convinced Kylo to turn. With only self-defense, she defeated the true threat to the Galaxy, the Emperor. The psychopath.

Retaliatory violence would have only made her become part of the cycle of evil. As our criminal justice system does.

Rey and Kylo teach us empathy. They teach us to be better.

Ancestral archetypes embodied through Reylo, and how they’re wasted

If Ben had lived to atone fully, apart from helping Rey free the galaxy of the true source of evil in fascist totalitarianism, Palpatine, he would have lived to cherish and reward Rey for her empathy through their relationship. The ‘dyad in the Force’ that connects Rey and Ben is related to the long-standing concept of dyads representing two parts of one soul, or soulmates that come together to protect humanity.

Dyads have been seen throughout the history of Western philosophy and literature and have played a role in archetypes as discussed by well-recognized voices including Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Plato. These archetypes, dyads included, have ­­been seen as ‘universal, archaic patterns and images that derive from the collective unconsciousness and are the physic counterpart of instinct.’ They serve to inform and instruct, to help us digest our psychologies and nurture our societies. We’ve seen this dyad in many forms, including that described by Carl Jung as the anima and the animus, and reflected around the world in various cultures and spiritualities including Adam and Eve, Yin and Yang, etc. Essentially, a dyad represents balance. Through Ben and Rey’s archetypal dyad, we can learn so much on why to reform our criminal justice system and mindset. And this is not a new thing.

Behold, Plato’s Androgyne.

"The man was originally the child of the Sun, and the man-woman of the Moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and moved round and round like their parents. Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they dared to scale the heavens, and they made an attack on the Gods.”

Connecting this to Star Wars, as perhaps (we could only hope the writers considered, or through the pervasiveness of Jungian’s theories of archetypes we can assume was inadvertently manifested) we see representations as both Rey and the light side (or also the Sith due to her parentage being of the darkness/the Moon), and Kylo, as the dark side (but also of the Rebellion/Resistance due to his parentage). Either way, there’s so many ways to relate this. Regardless, Rey’s and Kylo’s ancestral battles are embodied through the balancing of the light and dark sides of the Force. "The Gods took council and Zeus discovered a way to humble their pride and improve their manners. They would continue to exist, but he cut them in two like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling.”

Assuming the Gods and Zeus are expressed in the Force, here is where Rey and Kylo are separated from their families and tread their separate ways into the light and dark respectively. The same can be said for the Jedi and the Sith. "After the division, the two parts of man (the Androgyne), each desiring his other half, came together and throwing their arms around one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one; they were on the point of dying from hunger and self-neglect because they did not like to do anything apart; and when one of the halves died and the other survived, the survivor sought another mate, man or woman, as we call them--being the sections of entire men or women--and clung to that. “

Now, because it’s clear that Kylo and Rey are obvs meant to be together, I’m going to connect the Androgyne to the Sith and the Jedi. "They were being destroyed when Zeus, in pity of them, invented a new plan. He turned the parts of generation round to the front, for this had not always been their position, and they sowed the seed no longer as hitherto like grasshoppers, in the ground, but in one another; and after the transposition the male generated in the female in order that by mutual embraces of man and woman they might breed and the race might continue; or if man came to man they might be satisfied, and rest, and go their ways to the business of life: so ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted within us, reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of man.

Here the Force is Zeus, and the “seed [that is the] male generated in the female” is the birth of Rey. And through ‘the mutual embraces of man and woman’ Rey and Kylo, turned Ben, they ‘breed and the race might continue…reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of man.”

Plato. "The Symposium". Benjamin Jowet, trans., Great Books of the Western World

Thus, the value of Reylo.

Through recognition of: 1) the unintended flaws in our humanity need-based motivations for crime; 2) the cyclical nature of crime within our psychology and society; 3) the requirement for forgiveness, support, and acceptance to stop that cycle; 4) and the requirement for man and woman to come together to create new life;

we find that the pairing of our Heroine and our Anti-hero, and the forgiveness and compassion of Rey, serves to restore the balance and heal the wounds in our story.

However, the filmmaking choice to kill Ben, even if in self-sacrifice, is characteristic of society’s unwillingness to tolerate a criminal’s reintegration into society. Despite this, even I started out after the film thinking, “they couldn’t let Ben live. Not for Rey to reach her full potential as a Jedi. He’d drag her down.” Would that necessarily be the case? No. End of discussion.

Thus, Rey’s forgiveness and compassion are devalued and defeated with Ben’s death. There is no hope for those who have been neglected, manipulated, and abused into committing crimes, and our Heroine is left without her soulmate amidst a society that cannot relate to her. With our need for ostracism and retribution, despite the inherent suffering of our repentant villains, we only subtract from the light in society, not add to it. And we’re back where we started.

So. In conclusion, Rey and Ben’s story cannot stop here. Looking at you, DLF. Fix it.

[thecuriouskit]

Where and how do I fit in?

To whom it may concern.

As I get older, I’m starting to realise the limitations caused by my autism, and I’m struggling to accept that because of facing a society that does not like it when adults are not self-sufficient, or when they have to deal with a “man-child”.  Economically, I am a net loss - I take more than I give financially, and that makes me selfish, both in the eyes of the person on the street as well as bankers and politicians.  I struggle to keep my flat clean and make ends meet financially.  “Get a job”, “earn a f***ing living” I hear a lot, and I have tried, but my ‘design’ is just terrible because I’m very introverted (and people try to force me into very social situations to be a 'healthy introvert’… in other words, an extravert) and don’t do well in open-plan office environments, which are really the only options today because it allows managers to keep an eye on everyone and, from a practical perspective, is easier when it comes to laying network cables and power conduits, for example.  But I get very anxious whenever people are walking around behind me and there’s so much uncontained noise.

Truthfully, I’ve found in the UK, and maybe other countries, that many people really don’t like those who are more intelligent than them.  They may say the opposite, but behind their backs (or sometimes in plain sight), they mock specialist interests.  Once I was even threatened with outright violence by a so-called friend if I talked about mathematics in front of her, and my own mother agrees that i keep my mouth shut to preserve the status quo and not make people 'uncomfortable’.  My father says those on the spectrum are the future, but are we really?  To reach our full potential we need the right environment and support group, but who would want to be our caretakers?  It’s not fair on them, and I would not want someone to sacrifice their life to look after me like they were a housewife, valet or a servant.

I’m ashamed to say that I generally don’t get on with others on the spectrum because we all have our different interests and quirks, but also our feelings and how we react to things, and what may be fine or beneficial for one person is sensual overload for another.  I unfortunately have also experienced situations where the other party doesn’t realise and doesn’t understand that they might have hurt my feelings with something they’ve said or done, and either 'congratulate’ me for identifying past trauma as the reason (which I find incredibly patronising as well as the implication that it invalidates my feelings) or criticise me because, in their eyes, there’s no logical reason for me to feel that way.  One person even, in a monotone voice, said “You’re having a panic attack; do you want a beta blocker?” (which was actually illegally obtained).  I of course sceamed “no”, which only worsened the situation because now they felt attacked.

As painful as it is, what I once saw as a curse, then saw as a gift, I now see as a curse again.  I cannot survive by myself in this modern world, but I’m not friendship nor relationship material because, put simply, I make people uncomfortable and I’m not healthy for them (those were the words one person used).  Facebook and other social media tell people to cut out the negativity in their lives, and I fall into that definition.  My interests, my quirks… they are abnormal.  The whole thing of “be yourself” and “don’t worry about what others think” is a complete farce, because you do that, and you get sectioned, fired, ostracised or just plain ridiculed.

Part of me needs a regimented structure and a person who can be an emotional anchor for me, but even today, emotion is seen as weakness and attention-seeking, but I don’t need so much structure to the point that my very feelings are dictated and I can’t practise being creative (one person I know cannot build Lego without instructions… even when it comes to making their own things, they have to draw plans first and cannot do anything on the fly, which can cause a conflict if I want to experiment, for example).

In a way, I need to be treated like a child, or at least allowed to be a child, but I say that and that will just encourage condescending attitudes towards me and infantilisation like the in-your-face sing-song “hello” or a high-pitched voice that people do with babies all too frequently.

I don’t konw where I’m going with this.  I’m just ranting and splurging, spilling out everything that’s on my mind.  On Monday I was actually close to suicide because I was asked to drive to my father, who lives about 45 minutes away, and even though I gave myself 70 minutes, I was very late anyway (which meant I couldn’t see a representitive at an insurance company since I’m being ripped off by my current provider) bnecause of three separate traffic jams, one of which was caused by a horserace that crosses a main road (which is closed during that time).  I just feel I’m unreliable and poor at planning and organiseation because whenever someone asks me to do something, I either forget something (if not the appointment itself) or fate works against me.  My father has taken the view of “it is what it is”, but I cannot abide by that because while accepting there are some things in life you can’t control or predict, just accepting things as they are is what allows corruption to run rampant, whether it’s a manager or director denying the employees promised bonuses during a good company year while buying themselves a new Porsche with the profits, to insurance companies happily charging you three times what you should be paying because they know most people won’t shop around for other quotes or want to go through the hassle of changing (and I easily freak out on the telephone because it’s just a dismembered voice to me) to simply lying and manipulating people for their own benefit.  It’s worse with me because I can’t see deceit unless it’s a claim that’s easily disproven.  I briefly wanted to end it all because I am a net loss to the economy, I’m friendless and I can’t be relied on.  If I die, I’ll be forgotten in a few years as the world goes on like I never existed.  It begs the question… what’s the point?  I’m not allowed to just live because of monetary concerns and 'considering other people’.  Right now, I just survive.

I’m not sure what I need and what I should change about myself.  All I know is that trying to fight against my true self just ends up destroying me.  I may want to be neurotypical and more extraverted, but I can’t just become those, and “not wanting it enough” doesn’t work in this case because you’re constantly fighting yourself, draining yourself of energy and spoons, and sooner or later, you’ll melt down, and then the police get called and you’re taken to hospital, while neighbours or whoever witnesses the meltdown will ensure you can’t bother them again by collaborating to get you evicted, dismissed from work because you’re creating a 'hostile work environment’ or 'threatening violence’ (I was sacked for that once when I tried to warn people not to manhandle me during a particularly triggering confrontation because then I don’t know what I’ll do… and this was from a company that was meant to specialise in autism).

Where’s the line drawn? When should those on the spectrum learn to adapt to and tolerate, and when should society change for them? When should I be expected to meet the standards and when should the standards change?  I don’t have the answer, and through a mixture of my own actions and those of others, I am very much alone where I live… no true friends, no emotional anchor, no personal interaction, nothing (even if I’m in a city around many people, I still feel alone).  I’m scared of joining clubs because of past experience with meltdowns and expecting to meet up at set times when my own sleep cycle is chaotic, or I may just not have the energy to go but I’m expected to.  Also, one club became psychologically abusive for me, but once again, past trauma that invalidates how I feel.

Speaking of how I feel, I do wish I was more like Mr. Spock where everything is pure logic and I don’t feel anything, but then again, Vulcans and half-Vulcans DO feel, and I just don’t have the strength to suppress my emotions=.  Where does that leave me?  A group home with no freedom or autonomy? Evidently I can’t hold down a job, and I’ve been out of work forso long that I’ve had employment agents pretty much tell me to stop wasting their time, becaase no company is going to risk paying a finder’s fee for me no matter how good my skills are (albeit very niche nowadays).

The thing is, when somoene enters my house to offer help cleaning it or go through my financial statements to identify unnecessary expenditures, or just go through my stuff in general, I feel violated and incredibly anxious, but I feel I have no right to protest or resist.  Besides, as my mother keeps saying… if you’re doing nothing wrong, what have you got to hide?  The fear of being judged (and the consequences of that) or the right to privacy don’t seem to be valid answers.

What do I need? I don’t know… sometimes I just want a mother figure, but my actual mother is not an option.  What do I want?  I want to be useful.  I want to belong.  I want to be myself.  I want to be… free.

[schraubd]

This Jew is Tired

It's been a rough week (he says, on a Thursday). It began with President Trump once again dipping back into the antisemitism well in a speech before the Israeli American Council -- repeatedly treating American Jews as if we were Israelis and not American, calling us "not nice people" who would nonetheless vote for him because our great "wealth" was at stake. It continued when Jewish communal representatives -- typified by the AJC -- could only issue the most mealy-mouthed half-condemnations (couched in lots of insulating rhetoric about how wonderful Trump has been as a friend of the Jews). One could see American Jews start to steam in frustration that, once again, antisemitism on the right would be given a pass (it already feels like forever since I wrote this, but it was actually just released on JTA a few hours ago). Then a few days later, the New York Times put out what appeared to be a bombshell story contending that the Trump administration was going to issue an Executive Order reclassifying Jews as a separate "nationality". Already raw from the IAC speech, and mistrustful of our communal representatives who seemed to discount the threatening subtext of that speech, Jews boiled over -- furious at the prospect that American Jews should be viewed as being of any nation but America. A few of us familiar with the civil rights context -- in particular, that Title VI only covers "race, color, and national origin", but not religion -- suspected that the EO was really just going to reiterate a policy interpretation dating back to the Obama and Bush administrations: that when antisemitism targets Jews on basis of actual or perceived ethnicity or ancestry, it is covered under the statute. But we found ourselves shouting into a void as people worked themselves into a greater and greater frenzy. Jews who a few days ago were singing the praises of neo-Bundism were now emphatic that Jewishness was "just" a religion -- a position which would, if adopted, remove Jews from the ambit of Title VI protections altogether. I could see decades worth of civil rights progress unraveling in the face of an ever-increasing frenzy. Reflexive opposition based on incomplete information was making otherwise sensible people start putting out ideas that would virtually dynamite huge swaths of the legal apparatus standing against antisemitism -- and they were doing so under the banner of fighting antisemitism. And on a personal level, after spending literally years trying to draw attention to the mainstreaming of antisemitism on the political right, this is what gets the Jewish community to finally blow its top? This is what we rebel against? I was actually getting nauseous. Thankfully, things died down a little today as the EO's text was actually released and people realized it was not redefining "Jew" out of "American". Attention now has shifted to the EO's implementation of the IHRA antisemitism definition -- a non-legal definition that was not designed for use in legal enforcement actions and whose vagueness and imprecision risks, if not managed carefully, chilling protected First Amendment activity. But I scarcely have the bandwidth to dive into that issue (and boy does it ever need diving into), because while all of this was happening there was a shoot-out at a Jewish grocery store in New Jersey, killing five. At first, police said they didn't think it was "terrorism-related". Then the story shifted -- maybe the store had been specifically targeted. Now we've learned that at least one of the perpetrators was a Black Hebrew Israelite -- portions of which have long been associated with radical antisemitic activity. And that, in turn, has brought out some of the ugliest iterations of the Twitterati, who are just transparently delighted that this shooter was Black and are eager to let actual Black Jews know it. It's despicable. It's despicable that Black Jews aren't even allowed to mourn antisemitic violence without someone insisting they take responsibility for it. Want to know one difference between being a White Jew and a Black Jew? When a White guy shoots up a synagogue, I don't worry that the next time I show up people at my shul will look at me and question whether I'm one of them. But what we should really be focusing on is that this appears to be an antisemitic shooting, and it confirms what -- contra a particular sort of grievance-monger would have you believe -- is in fact very well-known and very-well attended to in the Jewish community: that there is a branch of radical antisemitism in other minority communities that can and has turned violent against Jews. Black Hebrew Israelites do not fall neatly on a left-right spectrum (you should read this entire Emma Green column, and not just because it makes this point), and it's crude and debased to think that just because Black therefore Left. But regardless of where one situates it ideologically, it is certainly a distinct form of antisemitism that needs to be taken seriously as distinctive. Not that anyone needed to tell us that. But by golly you can bet people will tell us that, over and over again, as if we didn't already know, as if we needed the lecture while we grieved. What a week. What a terrible, tiring week. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/34fHLvw

[deadly-cipher]

Dear Alternative Community Gatekeepers, Stop

Alternative is not a label which you can give to one 'group' of people. alternatives are non conformists who have no social group. you cant recognise an alternative person by what they wear or look like, so dont try to. they dont all wear the same clothes (like moshers, chavs, goths, indies or any other group of people who try to be individual but all seem to like the same stuff, wear the same clothes and only listen to music which their friends like). alternative people enjoy listening to whatever the hell they like, because they dont just like one type of music, they may just enjoy music on a whole, or it may just depend what kind of a mood they are in to what kind of music they listen too at that time. although this term is based around mysic it also applys to clothes as i said above many groups try to all wear the same stuff in order to fit in, alternatives wear whatever they like, if its designer, and they like it, they will wear it. if its got the name of a band on, and they like it, they will wear it. if there is a song which is by slipnot, and they like it, they will listen to it. if there is a song, which is by eminem, they will listen too it. Punk is not about a certain hair colour, style, or music, although music does take a large part in most punks lives.  Punk is about liking what you like, being yourself, saying what you think and FUCK ALL THE REST.  You don't need a two foot high red mohawk to be a punk, although that is wicked cool. You don't need sleeves, a backpiece, or any tattoos at all to be punk. You don't need a Misfits, Casualties, Sex Pistols or any band like that jacket to be punk. You don't need anything to be punk except for awareness, self respect, respect for others and an open mind. A Goth is someone who sees beauty in the dark side of life. Today's society is focused on negating darkness because it is associated with evil. Think about it - in almost every fairy tale, who is the antagonist? The brunette. Who is the protagonist? The blonde. Dark is evil, evil is bad, and therefore we should wipe all trace of it from our lives. Unfortunately, that's simply not possible. No matter how hard society tries, people still die. Day turns into night. Love becomes loss. It's a fact of life. So while everyone else is denying an entire half of life, the Goths embrace ALL of life, good and bad. Goths understand that the best and most lasting joy is tinged with a little sadness, and that all love is bittersweet. Goths understand that not everybody has to be happy 24/7, and that the way to succeed is not by pretending you are. Sunlit skies are beautiful, yes, but so are dark cloudy ones. What is white without black? What is a rose without thorns? Thus, by embracing the shadows as well as the sun, Goths are, in many cases, actually more emotionally healthy than those in mainstream society.  Emo is an emotional person. They are not depressed all the time and some are acually very happy at times. They do smile, they don't sit in a corner crying all day. Some are actually quite popular and laugh and joke around lots. NB: Emo does not mean the person cuts themselves, they might but that is not why they're emo. The word "scene" coves a large spectrum throughout recent history, but its most modern definition is used to describe certian subcultures and movements. The most notoriously famous and targeted is the alternative music scene, or more specifically, branches of the alternative music scene such as hardcore, indie, fashoionxcore, etc. A breed of scenesters (people on the scene) has begun to come to the forefront. These scenesters are usually very music-savvy and loyal to a few specific genres (typically hardcore, metal, indie, retro, 80's new wave, classic rock, etc. to name a few), of which they dress to exemplify. It is hard to pin down a style for a scene male or female, considering the trends amongst them vary from coast to coast, and certian fads come in and out within their ranks. Typically, though, many scene kids will have facial piercings, tattoos, and longer hair. It is not unusual to see teased hair with long bangs on males, or short fauxhawks (a mohawk without the sides shaved, a fashion-friendly version) on females. It is almost a throwback to the revolution of Britian's glam era, very androgynous and fresh. Scenesters take a lot of pride in their overall image, and often they appreciate shock value. Oftentimes they are thrifty, employing their abilities as bargian-hunters and do-it-yourself gurus to do something unique with their style. Large vintage sunglasses, retro patterns, tight jeans, classic metal/band tees, plastic jewelry, and heavy eye makeup are just some of the incorperations into scene style for either sex. This style and showmanship is at its height during shows (concerts), where often scene kids will meet their friends and size up strangers who visit their turf. There indeed is competition among scenesters...sometimes friendly, sometimes not. Shows are in fact not just concerts, but often a means of socialization for those on the scene. Those people who partake in scene lifestyle often choose to date/socialize only with those like them, which can cause bitterness or rejection to outsiders. The music scene is often associated with other areas that scenesters are interested in, which is liekely, art, photography, creative writing, poetry, tattoos & piercings, civil rights, animal rights, etc. Many scene kids have strong beliefs about these things and consider those who do not to be "posers." They feel that their scene style is not only a fashion statement, but an all-encompassing lifestyle. Many scene kids incorperate their future plans into their lifestyle, going into careers such as journalism, photography, artistry, piercing, tattooing, working for magazines, being musicians, hairstylists, running venues and/or coffee shops, etc. This tends to cause scene kids to congregate, visit, or even move to big cities to find opportunities to meet other scenesters, find jobs that suit them, or to live where they have a plethora of activities that they enjoy readily at their disposal. Recently internet revolutions like myspace.com have provided a new means for the ideas of scene culture to be spead, for scenesters to find new friends, bands, and activities. Scensters design stylish and graphic profile pages to both draw attention to themselves and to find others like them, and many people have joined up with the scene fad due to internet advertising. The downside of many scene atmospheres is that some scene kids tend to develop a superior mentality. Some who are especially popular and affluent can make it harder for the younger, yet-aspiring scenesters to join in with the subculture. This is not always the case, however. Different areas breed different demographics of scene kids. Perhaps part of their attitude comes from the problem that scenesters have begun to feel threatened about their culture being jeopardized because of a sort of trickle down effect. The internet is permitting easy access for anyone who would want to don scene-esque style and jump right in to a culture that scenesters feel they have built from the ground up and developed into a complex lifestyle. However, this lends many to get caught up in popularity contests in local areas as well as on the world wide web. Unfortunately, this can also lead to rifts in scenes. Groups of hardcore scenesters start "crews," often characterized by fierce brotherhood to the point of violence against others who are unlike them or who are in other crews. The scene is dividing amongst itself, due to purists who feel the scene is about music only, and those who have taken the scene fashion to be almost, if not equally, as important as the music itself. Some of the fashionable scenesters stick to their musical roots, but often due to the aforementioned trickle-down effect, there are people joining the scene who are not interested in the music, but are only in it for the attention. Thus, the scene will continue to divide. Whether they will admit it or not, kids interested in this lifestyle of excitement, concerts, body modification, fashion, and overall alluringly unusual aesthetics will continually be labeled as "scene." They chose an alternative path because they wanted to find acceptance elsewhere. Now, they face a community just like any other: one of all different types of people, who have different opinions and standards. It has its pros and cons, ups and downs, just like any lifestyle does. A metalhead is somebody who loves heavy metal. Don't always have the "look". And it's not even necessary to listen to just the classic metal bands, you can listen to the subgenres. You just have to appreciate the genre as a whole. The term: Short for independent rock. In terms of music it would be independent of major labels/mainstream stuff. History: grew out from 60s garage, 70s punk, and 80s post punk it started in the mid 80s as alternative/college radio music. Once nirvana hit big the alternative genre split: the popular side was just alternative(Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, No Doubt, etc.) and the other half that wasn't mainstream(by choice or not) became indie rock(Pavement, Sebadoh, Built To Spill, etc). Some bands have signed to major labels but are still considered indie(Modest Mouse, etc.). Go figure. Sound: In the begining indie sounded like alternative(because it was) but it grew more experimental and weird. In Britain indie has more of a typical sound like Radiohead, Muse, etc. rather than a definition based on 'the scene.'  The scene: if you really think all indie kids do is try to be cooler than other people then... well.. you're mostly right.

[foxyninjabear]

HermitCraft Headcanons: Creeper Anatomy and Biology (Part 2!)

*slams this post on the table and gives you crazy eyes* I'M BACK WITH MORE

Anyway, rabidness aside, welcome everyone! Some of you might already know, but awhile ago I made a post for creepers and their anatomy (linked here). And today, my fellow peeps, I've decided to build onto my original post with more headcanons! But before we start, I want to say something that I feel is important;

I AM NOT A SCIENTIST.

I'm not qualified in any stretch of the imagination to confirm that these headcanons are 100% accurate. Please keep that in mind when you read this. I'm not a professional at all; I'm literally just a big HermitCraft nerd that will go on Internet splurges to quench my thirst for knowledge xD

Anyway, announcement over! Put on your labcoats and grab those calculators and clipboards, people, cuz we're about to dive into some nerdy friggin science! And feel absolutely free to debate about these or add onto them! I'd love to see people get involved with this kind of thing! :D Also, if you have any questions about these headcanons, or have any ideas for future headcanons to dive into, leave me an ask! :)

___________________________________

They still have the potential to explode

Although they cannot do it voluntary, like their monstrous ancestors, creepers still have the ability to detonate. They still have gunpowder in their bodies, but the amount is much less than what it used to be in hostile creepers (let's say about 10% of what it originally was, to keep it simple). I know there's not exactly any evidence proving that but just trust me, I'm going somewhere with this. Get your hands off of that keyboard! xD 

Anyway, lemme tell you what I'm getting at. I bet a lot of you are familiar with what appendicitis is, but for people who don't know, here's the gist; appendicitis is when your appendix (an organ in the human body that's pretty much useless... nobody really knows what it does lol) becomes infected and inflamed, and if not given immediate medical attention, can possibly burst and become life-threatening. So, if there were an organ in a hostile creeper's body that stores gunpowder for self-detonation, that organ could carry onto the non-threatening generations (and possibly become smaller, due to its lack of use). If it were to become infected, inflamed, or receive some sort of trauma, it could possibly ignite all of the gunpowder and cause an explosion powerful enough to kill the creeper it resides in.

They shed their skin

All creatures with scales shed (or molt) their skin and scales periodically. I stated in my last post that creepers most likely have scales (due to their ability to conduct electricity [Like being struck by lightning]; if they had fur or humanlike skin, they'd most likely combust and explode... and nobody wants that to happen to them lol xD), so it would only be logical to have creepers shed their skin every now and then (I also got inspired by this one post by @goopyshell , so check them out! [btw, if you're reading this, I LOVE your Python design. Best snek boi!]). Lizards molt about 2 to 4 times a year, give or take some key factors (such as how much they're growing), but since that's a baseline, we're going to stick with that for simplicity's sake as to how often a full grown creeper would shed their scales. It'd also most likely come off in patches, instead of the whole skin at once, due to creepers having humanoid figures.

They see colors much differently than humans

Since creepers are very reptile like, especially with their scales, it would make sense that they have many other reptilian characteristics, including their vision. In my last post, I mentioned creepers having night vision due to their nocturnal ancestors, but then after I saw this awesome drawing by @bedrock-to-buildheight with how different Hermits see things, I decided to do some digging into how a reptile actually sees the world. Turns out in addition to having night vision, many of those scaly little critters have the ability to see not just the entire visible spectrum of light that a human can see, but also ultraviolet light (a wavelength of light that a human CAN'T see) due to a special type of cone photoreceptor in their eyes (just so you're not confused, a 'cone' is a type of photoreceptor [aka: light detector] in an eye that detects color). As a result, a creeper could (theoretically) be able to see a MUCH wider range of colors than a human can.

They're much shorter than humans

I've seen lots of designs of humanoid creepers (*cough* PYTHON IS A GREMLIN *cough cough*), and quite a few of have them being quite short. So I thought that I'd explore around the Minecraft Wiki a bit to see if there was anything to support that. And wouldn't you know it, there is! According to the game files, creepers are 1.7 blocks tall (or 1.7 meters, since 1 block in the game is equal to 1 cubic meter) compared to a player, who is 1.8 blocks tall. 

Now, at first I thought that I was done, but then I realized that it wouldn't exactly make sense for every single human to be the same height, as well as creepers. Cuz if that were the case, how could we have a tall German cyborg or a smol ice queen in HermitCraft fandom lore and headcanons? xD So did two things; 1, I decided to have the creeper/player height be a ratio (in other words, I'll have the average height of creepers be about 95% of the average height of humans, since 1.7 meters [a creeper's height in the game] divided by 1.8 meters [a player's in-game height] would equal that percent. Maths people xD). And 2, I dove back into the depths of the Interbubs and did tons of research on human height, and eventually found the global average for male and female heights. For humans, males average out at about 171 centimeters tall (a little over 5 feet 7 inches), and females 159.5 centimeters (almost 5 feet 3 inches). If we apply our 95% to those numbers, we can get our average creeper heights! And those numbers calculate to have males be about 161.5 centimeters tall (about 5 feet 4 inches), and females at 150.6 centimeters (4 feet 11 inches).

[scarlett-olivier]

Writing Tip #9

Constructing great villains;

Expanding on "Every villian is the hero of their own story" can be a bit difficult to put to words, and can be misunderstood quite easily. A lot of people may see that sentence and feel like their villian has to have some kind of tragic backstory that makes the character sympathetic to the reader.

That's not entirely true.

What this sentence actually means, is that your villians are people too. They're not, nor should they be, cardboard cutouts of some one-sided stereotype. They should have their own goals and motivations. They should have desires and wants, same as any other individual. At the end of the day, they all have to shit and eat, just like everyone else. Granted, sometimes people are just bad, but they still have basics. They have reasons for doing things, even if we don't understand those reasons. The majority of them feel justified in their reasoning.

"Because I felt like it." Is a valid reason. Imagine not being able to feel anything. No emotion. No happiness, joy, love, hate, envy, satisfaction. Nothing. Then you discover that by doing this one thing, you can FEEL. It's heady. It's intoxicating. It's a fucking rush. Adrenaline pumps in your veins for that first time, and you can feel excitement. It's so strong you become aroused by it. Suddenly, the need to take the same action again, just to feel,something, becomes inescapable. Over and over, you seek out those feelings. However, like any drug, you eventually become numb to the dose. It requires taking bigger, more extreme actions just to get that same rush from before.

"I don't know why." Is also a valid reason. This time imagine that you once were able to feel emotions. You experienced the whole spectrum of human emotion, but, over time, those feelings started to fade away. You can no longer empathize, or sympathize with anyone. You're numb and there's nothing that can fix it. You start doing reckless and dangerous things, just because none of it seems to matter anymore. You hurt yourself, you hurt others, you destroy everything you touch. Why? Because nothing feels real anymore. Nothing matters. It's pointless. No matter what you do, everything will keep going on just the same. Day after day, after day, after day.

The above examples are extreme cases, but they do show that everyone has motivations. Whether it be just to feel something, or just to prove something to yourself.

Your villian can think that they're in the right. This is a valid villain as well. They believe that whatever the means, they're justified so long as they can reach their end goal. That's what makes them so dangerous to your protagonist. Both of these characters think they're in the right. They will fight tooth and nail against each other just to try and prove their point. This can cause your characters to become very morally ambiguous. Especially if the villain causes your protagonist to throw all of their beliefs into question. The villain can use their own past experiences, draw upon their own private pain, and use it to manipulate, twist around, and torture your protagonist.

There are many different types of villain, and they can all be very real threats to your hero. To construct the best villain for your story, it really comes down to a few basic questions.

What message are you trying to convey with your story?

· Construct a villain that is the antithesis to your overall message/theme. However, remember to keep them human. Give them flaws. Just like your protagonist. (Like the Borg were to STNG. They were driven to assimilate as many species as they could,in effort of achieving perfection, but they also had flaws that could be exploited. They were also the antithesis to The Federations Primary Objective.)

At what point did your villain become evil?

·There's a turning point for everyone. A moment that triggers them to act a certain way. It can even be a series of events, known as stressors, that eventually cause you villain to embrace the darkness within them. (Seymour from Final Fantasy is a good example of a tragic backstory if you need one.)

What are your villains ethics, or moral values?

· Villains are complicated, just like your protagonist. They can have codes of honor and ethics. They might be vile, but they never harm children, for example. They might make families a no touch zone. Or they might tale the rule of law to the extreme, and take it upon themselves to act as Judge, Jury, and Executioner. (Example; Alexander Pierce from the Marvel Universe. In an effort to create a Utopia, he killed, maimed, and tortured indiscriminately to try and reach that goal. Or, Light Yagami from Death Note, for you anime fans out there. )

What are your villain's positive attributes?

· Just like your protagonist, they have both flaws and good wrapped up into one. This makes them relatable to the reader. Maybe they love animals, and fly off the handle when they see one hurt. Maybe they despise bullies and will step in to defend a kid against one. Maybe they volunteer at a homeless shelter. The choices are limitless.

Do you want your villain to be redeemable?

· Decide if you eventually want your villain character to become a good guy. If you do want them to be a good guy, don't let them do things that are unforgivable. Like killing, or otherwise hurting kids. Or genocide. There are somethings that no matter what that character does to try and redeem themselves, they'll never be able to come back from. (Strangely enough, killing a few adults seems to be forgivable. Looking at you Arrow.) If not, Umbridge away.

These are just a few things to ask yourself and think about when crafting your villain. This is not, by any means, a definitive guide. Hopefully, however, it will get you started on creating a realistic, and truly threatening villain for your story.

[hope-for-olicity]

Fabulous Olicity Fanfic Friday - November 23rd, 2018

Happy Friday! So this is my attempt to both thank awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and offer my recommendations to anyone who is interested. Here are the fantastic fanfic stories I read this week! They are posted in the order I read them. 

seemingly impossible (but not untrue) multi-chapter WIP by @alexiablackbriar13 - Young genius historian Dr Felicity Smoak unknowingly and accidentally calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript within the Oxford Bodleian Libraries - a book that has been lost for centuries. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Felicity wants nothing to do with magic, despite her unruly and powerful abilities. But her discovery of Ashmole 782 sets the world of creatures stirring; with a mystery afoot and new, dangerous magical abilities manifesting for her to navigate, she is approached by the enigmatic vampire biochemist Professor Oliver Queen, who seems to have a deep interest in both the manuscript… and her. Based on A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16224353/chapters/37923743

Angel multi-chapter Complete by @it-was-a-red-heeler - Oliver encounters a stripper by the name of Angel and is blown away. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15961898/chapters/37227686#workskin

The Predator multi-chapter WIP by @supersillyanddorky06 - Oliver Queen is the one anomaly in the Chicago Outfit. He is the only non-blooded member to be a part of the high circle in the family. His reputation precedes him and he is their best hunter. Felicity Smoak, daughter of the Starling boss, infiltrates his house, intent on killing him. But a startling encounter tips the scales. He goes on the prowl and she escapes. Hate, heat, and friction. Sparks. But something bigger is happening in their world. And despite their disagreements, only they can fight it down. Mob AU. Not Bratva. Enemies-lovers. http://archiveofourown.org/works/5077885/chapters/21891689

Love and Little Cupcakes multi-chapter WIP by @christinabeggs - Felicity loved sweets so much that she paid no attention to her lovelife. Until Thea Queen came into her store wanting fabulous cupcakes for her sixteenth birthday. SO ADORABLE! http://archiveofourown.org/works/12400539/chapters/28216053

Dobblegangers by @lostolicityscenes - I don’t know what this is. Just thinking about doppelgangers and this popped into my head. I picked blue-grey hair because honestly I can’t think of a color that hasn’t been used by another female hero or villain and I wanted it to be different. There might be a part 2 to this at some point. https://lostolicityscenes.tumblr.com/post/180150292851/doppelgangers-an-when-you-should-be-writing-the

The Strong Do Not Always End Up On Top multi-chapter WIP  by @godswritingfool - Having passed as a Beta all her life, Felicity Smoak had desired normalcy with a little taste of thrill every once in a while. IT girl by day, hacker by night. Or maybe weekends. Was that too much to ask? Turns out the Bratva Captain, overbearing CEO of Queen Consolidated Oliver Queen, is her Alpha Matched Mate! If that wasn't bad enough, Felicity's revenge against the Triad left a power vacuum in the criminal underworld of Starling City. When the turf war ends, the dust settles, and the new mob takes control, sick and bizarre events and even more disturbing and crazy crimes escalate in Starling City. Can the Bratva and remaining criminal organizations get a handle on the newcomers who are spreading chaos in the streets? Underneath it all, while dodging the Triad, Stalkers, Jealousy, the new Mob, Possessiveness, and Outside Forces, can Reluctant Omega Felicity Smoak and Territorial Alpha Oliver Queen get over their issues and stubborn pride and finally accept their soul deep connection? http://archiveofourown.org/works/7701490/chapters/17547565

In a Perfect World multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - Based on a prompt: "What if Oliver (being cut off from Queens billions) follows his true passion - photography, meets Felicity and they become THE internet famous family of the world?" Oliver fell in love with photography after he received his first camera at sixteen years old. Now, he spends his time alone, traveling around the world and capturing breathtaking moments- like the beautiful woman he meets on a beach one night. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15758463/chapters/36651615

With the Speed of an Arrow multi-chapter WIP by @academyofshipping - Oliver Queen’s elite and silver-spoon life has taken some blows in the past few years, but he is still the carefree billionaire everyone knows of and loves. When his role in the family business is in jeopardy and he is introduced to a motley of new people, his status quo is threatened. With a changed perspective, Oliver realizes his feeling for his best friend and anchor-in-life, Felicity Smoak, may be more than just platonic. OR A modern adaption of Jane Austen’s Emma with a gender swap* and no island. *Knowing that gender is not binary https://archiveofourown.org/works/16559846/chapters/38799857

There's a Hole in My Soul multi-chapter WIP by @dianasmatthew - Felicity Smoak is the daughter of a powerful and dangerous mob boss. Oliver Queen, who had been an associate until recently being promoted to bodyguard, was given the job of protecting Felicity. Neither of them are very happy about the arrangement. https://archiveofourown.org/works/5827837/chapters/13431532

Vampire Oliver multi-chapter WIP by @tdgal1 - Vampire series, more fall out from Oliver's failed attempt to woo Felicity https://tdgal1.tumblr.com/post/180184554795/vampire-oliver

| ONE | (Oliver the Footballer) multi-chapter WIP @someonesaidcake - Felicity Smoak had a plan; to save enough money to kick her monotonous job and start up the company of her dreams. She made good plans, solid plans, attainable plans. He was never part of her plan. His name was Oliver Queen, the reclusive Brazilian football star with a broken smile and a story to tell. He'd never planned on her either. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15005402/chapters/34779542

The Wine Tasting by @quiveringbunny - Spending the afternoon doing something she thoroughly enjoys may change Felicity Smoak's life. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16637105

The Queen's Mage multi-chapter WIP by @the-shy-and-anxious-fangirl - Words have power, and mages, those with the aptitude to draw on that power, are few in number. Thus, their services are highly sought after by anyone who has exhausted all mundane means of solving whatever problem is plaguing them. Felicity is reminded of this fact the hard way when she is hired by Moira Queen, the Lady Starling, to find and return to her son Oliver, who fled his family home five years ago following the death of his father. With a threat hanging over her should she return without Robert Queen's heir, Felicity begins her search. When she finds Oliver, and ends up joining his vigilante crusade while she waits for him to decide whether to return home, the last thing she expects to do is fall in love with him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14617068/chapters/33781269

Charmed I'm Sure! multi-chapter WIP by @christinabeggs - What happens when three witchy sisters take on the evil in the world? https://archiveofourown.org/works/15852249/chapters/36922482

Knight in Dented Armor multi-chapter WIP by Serendipity16 - 10. That's the message that was left on Felicity Smoak's car that started the downward spiral that has become her life. Sure, she has her amazingly gorgeous-I mean muscular- I mean supportive best friend and CEO, Oliver Queen to help her through this strange time. But will Felicity's past finally catch up to her? And what happens when the countdown runs out? https://archiveofourown.org/works/11156415/chapters/24895272

And So The Adventure Begins multi-chapter WIP by @mindramblingsfics - Felicity spent her first year of college focused solely on her studies. In year two, with the convincing of her best friends Iris and Sara, she lets her hair down a bit. Oliver spent his first year partying with his wingman Tommy and living up to the status that came with his last name. He realizes he should buckle down focus on the most important part: actual school. Oliver and Felicity meet, and even though they are on different ends of the spectrum, they don't realize that they can each bring out hidden parts of one another. https://archiveofourown.org/works/15800025/chapters/36771018

Caught in the Rapture multi-chapter WIP by @bindy417 - AU. Being the daughter of a ruthless and notorious crime lord, Felicity Smoak didn't think her life could get any worse. When her father unexpectedly sells her in marriage as a peace offering to his enemy, she quickly learns it'll take more than just her sharp intellect to survive. But what starts out as a sentence worse than death may actually be her only shot at freedom. http://archiveofourown.org/works/7931917/chapters/18128824

From Somewhere Within multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow - Their connection has always felt natural to them, safe and secure. But others tend to fear what they don’t understand, and as far as their enemies are concerned, the world isn’t ready to accept two people who can know each other the way that Oliver and Felicity do. https://archiveofourown.org/works/16009244/chapters/37356257

Life's All About Changes multi-chapter WIP by Crazyreader2468 - After agreeing to plead guilty to being the Green Arrow in order to get FBI assistance in capturing Diaz, Oliver finds himself in a supermax, a maximum security federal prison, serving a life sentence. As he struggles to become accustomed to life in prison, his family, friends, and teammates struggle to live without him, as well as continually attempting to find a way to get him pardoned. Will they succeed in obtaining a pardon and will Oliver survive until they do? Mostly AU from right before the ending of episode 6 x 22 and after most of 6 x 23. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14936172

Pieces of Always multi-chapter WIP by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34 - Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows. Ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8220479/chapters/18840356

Arrow Out of Context multi-chapter WIP by @smoaking-greenarrow -  "Well if it's you asking, I'll do it" https://archiveofourown.org/works/14957309/chapters/39043306

// @emmaamelia95 // @mel-loves-all // @oliverfel4 // @green-arrows-of-karamel // @coal000 // @miriam1779 // @memcjo// @captainolicitysbedroom // @tdgal1 // @spaztronautwriter // @lalawo1// @quiveringbunny // @wrongshipper // @thebookjumper // @vaelisamaza // @myhauntedblacksoul // @lovelycssefan // @laurabelle2930 // 

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Mazmezz, the Creeping Queen

Chaotic Evil Demon Lord of Bindings, Driders, and Vermin

Domains: Animal, Chaos, Destruction, Evil Subdomains: Catastrophe, Demon, Rage, Venom

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 72~73

Obedience: Bind a living creature so that only a few key portions of its anatomy (such as the belly, eyes, or mouth) remain exposed, and torment your victim with needles, small knives, or poisonous vermin. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus to combat maneuver checks to grapple, and to your CMD.

A Sack Of Rats deals with this Obedience rather nicely, but also note that this can be completed if you use it consensually, thus avoiding the lengthy and annoying job of thoroughly binding a living creature. Get a Kuthite (or just a regular masochist) in your party and make it a romantic morning ritual!

Also note that technically, your victim doesn’t have to be conscious for this Obedience. That makes both wrapping them up and torturing them much easier! If you go with a Sack Of Rats, dealing nonlethal damage to knock them out (I recommend unarmed strikes) makes this whole process go smoothly. If you have bigger prey in mind, Drow Poison knocks its victim unconscious for up to 2d4 hours and costs around 30 or so gold to make in a lab at home, though nonlethal damage works well in that case, too. Grab a fallen enemy or some peasant off the street if you need to.

Of course, in addition to the price and conspicuousness of all the binds you’re carrying, the nature of this ritual makes it nearly impossible to keep hidden from Good folk. While most Evil-aligned rituals can be awkward if stumbled upon, if someone walks in on you torturing a tied up rat or dropping live scorpions into some poor schmuck’s mouth, there’s likely not going to be enough time for you to explain before they draw their sword/wand/axe and start attacking. It’ll take some seriously fancy wordsmithery to convince anyone on the Good end of the spectrum that what you’re doing is Fine, Actually, and not many people can do that.

Unless, you know, you’re just regularly tying up the party’s masochist and masquerading your worship as funtimes.

The benefit is pretty nice. Being grappled becomes more dangerous as the enemy’s CR rises, so some extra defense against it is welcomed. The fact it also lets you grapple better puts it above “OK” and into “Pretty Good,” though a caster likely won’t get as much use out of it.

Boons are acquired slowly: the first once you reach 12 hit dice, the second at 16, and the third at 20. However, the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel Prestige Classes can be entered as early as level 7; doing so grants you the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Servants of demons may also take the Demoniac Prestige Class; you don’t get the Boons any faster than E/E/S, but you may select which set you want, and you get cool demon-related powers!

----------

EVANGELIST

---------- 

Boon 1: Webspinner. Gain Web Bolt 3/day, Web Shelter 2/day, or Vermin Shape I 1/day.

Web Shelter is too pitiful for me to really ever consider useful; it creates a small, watertight shelter of sticky webbing that only has enough room for a single occupant. It’s not supernaturally resilient or even particularly sticky, with the spell’s description noting that only diminutive creatures like common insects are threatened by it, while literally anything else can pull themselves off with no loss of action. I can’t really think of a situation in which this spell would be useful except, as noted, for defense against swarms... But with a casting time of 1 minute, you can’t use it if you’ve been ambushed.

Vermin Shape I is a cute ability. Like I mentioned back in Apollyon’s article, its true usefulness is limited, as vermin aren’t typically known for their incredible combat abilities unless they’re in swarms, and the primary threat of using poison isn’t available in this version. You can’t even truly use it as a stealth option, since you can only become Small instead of Tiny.

Web Bolt, though? It’s completely negated by a Reflex save, but otherwise it’s a single-target Web spell, potentially entangling and stunning whatever you hit with it until they manage to break the thing or worm their way out. Knock flying enemies out of the air, bind the noodle-armed casters, stop enemy bruisers for at least a round or two, glue fleeing enemies to the floor and there’s no size limit to the enemies that can be affected by this ability, unlike with normal Web.

One stinker, one niche, and one actually-useful spell. Just like a normal Boon!

Boon 2: Blessing of the Creeping Queen. For 24 hours* after completing your Obedience, your lower half swells and mutates into a monstrous spider form, complete with eight legs and spinneret. You become one size category larger, though your reach and the size of weapons you’re able to wield do not change. You gain the Web universal monster ability (7/day), a climb speed of 20ft, and a darkvision radius of 60ft (or, if you already had darkvision, your radius extends by 30ft). Each time you perform your Obedience and undergo this transformation, you may choose one physical ability score; you gain a +2 to this score.

The thought of being transformed into a drider is utterly terrifying for most of the haughty and proud drow. It’s a mark of shame and slavery for those who’ve undergone the fleshwarping process. To worshipers of Mazmezz, though? It’s the highest honor one can be afforded, to be blessed with the shape of their god without needing to make the horrific physical and mental sacrifice.

For you, personally? A very huge warning sign to any Good folk who may see you to stay the hell away. There is no option for Evangelists to avoid this body-warping affliction, making subtlety impossible for them without the aid of powerful shape-changing magic. Though it’s SEEN as a blessing, there’s numerous terrible downsides for anyone becoming a drider; they become more vulnerable due to the loss of AC from their size in addition to just being a bigger target, they don’t gain an increase in movespeed which would let them escape from enemies (though climb is nice, I suppose), and the Web monster ability is... Alright, it’s a pretty good ability.

It still doesn’t justify everything you lose. Casters get shafted by it, and even martial characters don’t get to enjoy the full benefits of their new Large size due to the transformation not increasing their reach or weapon size. Free stats are always nice, but these stats aren’t free.

Also, this ability very pointedly doesn’t explain what happens to any gear you had on you before you transformed. And, to explain the *, the * is that the book doesn’t say that this power only lasts for 24 hours, but since most Boons fade 24 hours after you’ve last done your Obedience, I assume that this transformation must regress, as well. Depending on what your DM rules happens to your gear, this means you’ll end up pantsless every day.

Boon 3: Arachnidal Rebirth. 1/day as a standard action, you may target a foe within 30ft of you with an altered version of the Forced Reincarnation Witch Hex. If the victim fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Charisma modifier; HOWEVER, if you have the Hex or Hex Arcana class features, you may use the DC for those abilities instead), their body explodes messily and they are instantly reborn as a monstrous spider with the same size category as their original form, their new shape tearing its way from the old one. They retain their head during this transformation. This transformation can only be undone by Miracle or Wish.

I do not like 1/day capstone abilities that are entirely negated by a save, unless their use completely changes a battle... Which is exactly what this does.

Being transformed into a spider overrides all of the creature’s original racial abilities. Dragons become spiders. Trolls become spiders. Demons and angels become spiders. Demigods become spiders. This ability bypasses all forms of immunity and resistance; it’s not a curse, death, or polymorph effect, and so protection against such abilities doesn’t work. This technically works on the unkillable Spawn of Rovagug, or even Great Old Ones, though good luck A) getting past their saves, and B) having the DM stick with it and not just have them regenerate out of their new form.

Though, note that being reincarnated makes them lose access to all of their racial abilities.

Against typical mortal foes? They DO keep their class levels, but a spider body cannot wield a weapon, or use somatic components, play an instrument, or do basically anything that someone with opposable thumbs can. They don’t even get to use the spider’s bite and poison, because they keep their own heads! A Druid and Monks might be ok, but everyone else? Sorry, buddy! You’re a spider now!

AND they get slapped with two negative levels!

Just... be careful when using this on mostly martial characters. Who knows, maybe they’ll figure out a way to use four or so legs to make a flurry of weapon attacks. I mean, if you don’t squish them first.

---------- 

EXALTED

----------

Boon 1: Mazmezz’s Embrace. Gain Animate Rope 3/day, Web 2/day, or Snare 1/day.

One stinker, one niche, one generally useful one, again. In this case, the order is Snare, Animate Rope, and Web, though I’ll admit the honor of ‘stinker’ and ‘niche’ can be swapped around depending on the terrain you find yourselves in. Snare creates a decent trap that can be used to tug some poor sap right off their feet and leave them dangling, but unless you happen to be nearby, it’s likely just an inconvenience for them.

Animate Rope has a bit of utility to it, causing ropes and chains to bend to your will. You can also hurl the mass of animated rope at an enemy to tangle them up and have it knot itself to entangle them.

Web, of course, is just a real good battlefield control spell. Seal off a whole section of the room with sticky webbing, either trapping foes or just holding them back long enough for you to recuperate. Would not advise trying on fire monsters.

Boon 2: Spider’s Blessing. You may cast Poison and Vermin Shape II as spell-like abilities, 1/day each. 

:\

Remember how I said I don’t like... you know the spiel by now. Poison is one of those things. Sure, if it HITS, it’s going to SUCK for whoever you slapped it on, but it’s A) a touch attack, B) extremely slow, and C) has no real out-of-combat utility. If you want someone dead, it’s easier to just stab someone instead of patting them on the shoulder and hoping they drop dead before they can turn around and stab you. Poison can optimistically shave 18 Constitution off its victim, but in reality it will likely only pop 2 or 3 off before it’s cured, resisted, or the battle ends some other way.

Plus, against beefier monsters, it’s either useless (via immunity to poison or stat damage) or ineffectual (a startling number of foes have more than 18 Con). 

Vermin Shape II, on the other hand, has lots of uses. It’s more than double the power level of Vermin Shape I, allowing you to take on Tiny or Huge vermin forms and make full use of abilities like Blood Drain, Web, and Grab, while also giving you access to the vermin’s various poisons. Setting aside the scouting potential of turning into an unusually large fly, the combat potential alone is pretty powerful.

Might I recommend such creatures as the Empress Bore Worm (a very painful bite attack with a 15ft reach), the Giant Slug (strong bite and a ranged touch attack that deals 10d6 damage), or the Deadfall Scorpion (powerful grapples and a Str-damaging poison)... Or perhaps you’d like to get a bit more unusual with creatures like the Shipwrecker Crab (powerful claws with Grab and Constrict) or the Xenopterid (Blood Drain alongside a Dexterity-damaging poison and the ability to pass for human)? Remember that polymorph effects like Vermin Shape cause all supernatural and extraordinary abilities--such as poison--to use your spell’s save DC (15+Cha) instead of the DC listed in the creature’s stat block.

It’s certainly much more useful than Vermin Shape I, to be sure, though HOW useful is entirely up to how many Vermin stat blocks you’ve memorized.

Boon 3: Temporal Web. 1/day, you may use Temporal Stasis as a spell-like ability, heightened to 9th level (making its save DC 19+Cha mod). Victims of the spell become encased in spiderwebs. You can maintain only three stasis victims at once; if you encase a fourth, you must immediately choose one of your victims to be released.

A 1/day negated by a save. It doesn’t even so much end an encounter as put a lengthy timer on it; your target isn’t dead, and all of their gear becomes fixed on their person. I’m not 100% sure on how Temporal Stasis works, but I don’t believe anyone targeted by the spell can actually be moved, either, due to them being fixed in time (and presumably space). I’ll operate under the assumption that they can’t be moved, but talk with your DM about it.

Also, it’s a touch attack. Eeeehhhh.

I do like the touch that the victim gets completely wrapped up, though. And that you can just hold up to three at once is good, too, in case you wanted to make some kind of macabre collection. 

I’d consider this a more practical version of Imprisonment, to be honest. It’s everything Imprisonment does but without the need for a level 9 spell to undo it, saving your party time and effort when it comes to getting them back and rifling through their pockets... though this also means any underlings in the area can try and free the boss you just webbed up the moment you aren’t looking. The fact Temporal Stasis is so easy (relatively) to undo is a blessing and a curse when you manage to land it on an important target.

The fact it’s easier to undo means it’s also helpful for freezing allies who’re about to suffer from some extreme Consequences or NPCs that need guarding, holding them in an invincible pod until you can solve the situation or cure what ails them.

----------

SENTINEL

----------

Boon 1: Adhesive Arcana. Gain Adhesive Spittle 3/day, Spider Climb 2/day, or Slow 1/day.

First of all, I LOVE this ability’s name! Alliteration’s always a weakness of mine.

Second of all, Adhesive Spittle and Slow both serve a similar purpose: Debuffing an enemy. Slow’s power shines if you fight multiple enemies at once--it’s more likely at least one foe in the group will fail their save--while Adhesive Spittle is better if you face only one enemy at a time, gumming them up in much the same way I said Web Bolt could. In general, I would say take Slow unless you plan on delving into a lengthy mission, as the power to potentially rob a whole group of enemies of their full-attack actions puts it in the category of 1-A-Day-Abilities-I-Approve-Of.

Spider Climb falls into the ‘niche’ category here. It’s VERY handy when you need it, but the situations in which you DO need it are fairly rare. ... Unless you’ve got a sneaky Rogue or a bowman who could use the extra height in your party, I suppose.

Boon 2: Caught in the Web. You may cast Quickened Web 3/day.

Man I love the Web spell, I’m really sad we get a nerfed version in Pathfinder. You need to anchor the 20ft spray of webbing to two solid points, such as two opposite walls, two pillars, two trees, two enemies (living creatures count as ‘solid point,’ right?) or two structures, or the spell simply fizzles and fails. Those fancypants 5e players can just spray it over a floor and create difficult terrain, but anyone in Pathfinder will have to scrabble to find or create terrain they can anchor their web to.

For those who don’t really know, Web creates a 20ft spattering of thick, sticky webbing. People can move through the web, but not only does it count as difficult terrain, but anyone trying to move through must make a CMD or Escape Artist check versus the spell’s save DC (12+Cha mod) or be grappled by the webbing and lose their action. In addition, people in and beyond the webbing have cover from each other. It’s basically one of the best spells in the game for area control, because the only real way to use it is to spray it on some sort of chokepoint; anyone chasing you will be slowed to a halt by it, and anyone running away from you has to either take a detour or pray that they succeed their save. Because it’s 20ft thick, that means anyone trying to get through will need to have a movement speed of at least 50 if they want to get all the way through with a single move action.

But, note: You have it three times a day... and it’s Quickened.

Suddenly that 20ft patch can become a 40ft rectangle of “you’re not leaving.” The fact it’s Quickened makes a powerful control spell even more powerful, because even if an enemy escapes (or destroys) the first patch, you have another waiting in the wings that will basically cost you nothing. Perhaps the biggest downsides of this ability is that you’re not immune to your own web and can’t make the Web NOT stick to your allies (Freedom of Movement helps), and using it to hold someone in place to pick them off can be difficult because the web provides cover for anyone inside or beyond it.

Boon 3: Trapped Like Flies. Anyone that begins their turn entangled in a web you create must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha mod) or take 1d6 points of Strength drain. This is a Poison effect.

Strength drain isn’t as big of a deal in the hands of a player, as most enemies will either be dispatched once they’re encountered, or have a means of curing their own drain at the level you finally get this power... But Greater Restoration costs 5,000gp to use and, more importantly, has a 3-round cast time. Unfeasible in combat! Which means your victims are not only trapped in your webs for a good, long while, but the longer they’re stuck, the less of a chance of escaping they actually have.

While a great many enemies have immunity to poison at high levels, most humanoid targets will not, and very few creatures are immune to being entangled by webbing (make sure the party caster has Dispel Magic in case they use Freedom of Movement). However, as good as this ability looks on paper, in practice it’s a very large Win-More power. An enemy entangled in webbing long enough for all their Strength to drain away has likely been helpless for long enough for someone to deliver a coup de grace, or for a caster to set up a powerful spell, or for the martial fighters to get into proper formation, etc. This ability is more of icing on a cake than anything else, something to solidify a victory that was already assured.

There ARE interesting cases where this ability IS useful, though. Note that this ability not only affects your Web spells (and possibly Adhesive Spittle? Something to discuss with your DM), but any other web-generation you may have. While the ability to spin webs isn’t super common among player races, there’s a few ways to give yourself that power for a short time; namely, Vermin Shape II, which lets you assume the form of giant silk-spinning spiders for minutes at a time.

Just using this ability in tandem with your own Quickened Web spell can non-lethally restrain entire groups of foes at once while pinging their Strength into the single digits, but it gets a lot more useful once you realize that this ability has no expiration date; any web you create retains this paralytic poison as long as there’s enough of it to entangle someone. Have someone shape you into a monstrous spider (or turn into one yourself if you’re a Diabolist) and use up all of your daily web allotment just spinning huge masses of toxic silk before balling it all up and flinging it at enemies.

Depending on your DM, though, you may very well be able to even further with this: Spinning out all your toxic webs and then Fabricate them into nets, whips, or rope. Being snared counts as being entangled (tied up is technically “helpless,” but I’d argue it counts as entangled), so lassoing some poor fool can see their Strength being knocked down every round they fail to break free. That’s DEFINITELY a fun use for this power, though it relies a bit on DM fiat.

I’d allow it, though. Just saying.

You can read more about her here.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of April 24th, 2019

Best of this Week: Avengers #18 (Legacy #718) - Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Justin Ponsor and Cory Petit

I love the Squadron Supreme.

I loved their original appearances as the Squadron Sinister, the later Squadron Supreme series, the Supreme Power series from Marvel Max, it’s sequel and the 2016 Squadron Supreme series that I felt ended way too early with so many good stories to tell.

I understand that these characters aren’t necessarily the most popular,  but they are still Marvels best DC analogue and the fact that they keep trying to trot them out means that they have some semblance of faith in these guys, especially as antagonists to The Avengers

The book begins with short introductions to the Squadron. Mark Milton is a mild mannered American History Teacher excited about teaching his students about the country he loves so much before rushing off to face the danger brought on by the War of the Realms as Hyperion. Kyle Richmond is a Congressman in Washington DC but when the Frost Giants attack he becomes the cowled hero, Nighthawk. Zarda Shelton is an MMA fighter that wears a necklace given to her by her people on the Utopian Isle that dampens her powers, but won’t need it as she becomes Power Princess. Stanley Stewart is your everyman American with many a blue collar job thanks to his speedy powers as The Blur and Joseph Ledger is an astronaut who found a colored prism that gave him amazing abilities as Doctor Spectrum!

What I loved best about this is that throughout the book here’s this unsettling feeling of American patriotism from each member of the team and it’s not until we see short vignettes about the  Squadron, as they fight and kill invading Frost Giants on American soil, that we get a glimpse into what this team is about.

They seem to have been manufactured by some secret project that Thunderbolt Ross used to run, now manned by a resurrected Phil Coulson. Both Hyperion and Power Princess seem to have had their love for America planted into their minds as well as some small modifications to their personalities. Mark appears to be the golden boy American and Power Princess is just a sexy badass that loves him. Nighthawk is as distrustful of his bosses and Coulson as any Batman analogue should be and that's the way they want him to be, saying he’s best when he’s brooding.

Quite honestly though, I love their characterizations as uber American superheroes, not even venturing into Canada once they run the Frost Giants out of the American Border. It reeks of Making America Great Again as Coulson remarks that it “isn’t their job to keep the world safe, just the best little part of it” to his mysterious and heinous benefactor who I won’t spoil.

This does make me wonder what happened to most of the other versions of the Squadron members that are still in the 616 Universe, however. I know Nighthawk died and Deadly Nightshade wears the costume now, but what happened to trucker Mark Milton, Inhuman Doctor Spectrum and Blur who became a SHIELD agent? I'm sure we'll get answers, but this team still more than satiated my desire for more Squadron Supreme.

Not only is this little side story great, but Ed McGuinness’ art is superb. These are the most imposing Hyperion and Nighthawk have ever been, even back in the days of King Hyperion. Power Princess looks both sexy and threatening as all hell. Blur looks delightfully insane and Doctor Spectrum is a colorful mess of crazy. Facial expressions are devious and full of certainty in regards to the mission and the violence they display against the Frost Giants is absolutely brutal. This Squadron is not afraid to get their hands dirty in the name of freedom and I’m excited for their eventual clash with the Avengers.

---------------------------------------------------

Blob is one of the worst Mutants.

Runner Up: X-Tremists #3 - Leah Williams, Georges Jeanty, Roberto Poggi, Jim Charalampidis and Clayton Cowles

He’s a crass, unfunny, douchebag who most commonly serves as a heavier, dumber and less cool Juggernaut. So, imagine my surprise when this series presents him as a well mannered, well-read man with a sense of gentleness and honor to him. I love Blob this way and it is going to hurt when he inevitably change back.

In X-Man’s world, love is discouraged and any action towards those feelings warrants arrest and memory wiping from the X-Men’s Black Team/Secret Police, Department X. In the last issue Blob revealed that he had feelings towards his co-worker, Psylocke aka Betsy Braddock. This causes him to leave his job briefly until she shows up to his house and explores her own feelings towards him, crawling across his table all sexy like and saying she’d see him tomorrow.

He returns to his job and spends most of the day distracted by the slight gazes he gets from Betsy and the irritation from Moneta, a junior member of Department X. She far too eager to stomp out any retrogrades, a slur for people who express loving feelings, and prove the existence of a Resistance, especially after a call about a wild party some teenagers are throwing.

After a long day he tries to get to bed but is woken up by Betsy knocking on his door. Acting as some sort of date, she asks to read some of his favorite books, mostly books that arouse different feelings, mostly of anxiety and interestingly enough, judgement and philosophy in regards to The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot of which Age of X-Man shares some thematic elements with.

Betsy tells him of her former struggles with her body image and how she enjoyed being in Kwannon’s Asian body because she is beautiful, but not her own. Blob assures her, much in his old crass way that he’d “sell out any member of Department X for a chance to %&%# her forever.” In a way, this is weirdly adorable as they both laugh and genuinely seem to enjoy each others company, especially making fun of Moneta at the end.

The team later investigate the party talked about earlier and fight a bunch of teenagers who refer to them as The X-Tremists. Soon after defeating them and rationalizing that they didn’t actually break any laws, Moneta reveals that she was the one who made the call to get rid of the “dangerous” retrogrades. This, combined with Moneta’s treatment of a pregnant prisoner, draws the ire of Blob who fires her in anger, earning the respect and adoration of Betsy.

Age of X-Man continues to toy with the idea of an imperfect utopia whose ideals are so flawed that even those whose entire duty is to erase memories and quell uprisings are starting to see the cracks in the walls. Though Blob isn't the most central character, this is definitely the most interesting he's been in years and I really hope that he remembers his time here once all returns to the way it was. He hasn't been a good or great villain in a long time, so maybe like Toad, it's finally time for him to switch sides and continue macking on Betsy.

[frighthouseofalighthouse]

I know it's a lot! But all of the 65 questions you aren't used to!! I love getting to know the blogs I follow!

Okay love! The last one was a freebie so I guess I’ll just leave that one out haha.

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you?

Na, usually it’s the opposite for me. I don’t feel important enough to be real.

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?

Maybe a 3? I don’t mind the dark as long as my imagination isn’t getting the best of me, which it usually is. I always have my little touch-activated lamp in my room left on at the dimmest setting at night.

3. The person you would never want to meet?

Donald Trump.

4. What is your favorite word?

Drumonios. It’s an Ancient Greek epithet of Artemis, and it means “haunting the woods.” (hey, no one said English word)

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be?

*in Monty Python voice* THE LARCH

No, but in all seriousness, I’d be a willow. So gentle and comforting, like the tree leaning over to hug you and give you shade.

6. When you looked in the mirror this morning what was the first thing you thought?

Yikes.

7. What shirt are you wearing?

A black shirt with images of moon phases that says “to the moon and back”

8. What do you label yourself as?

Is this a gender/sexual identity question??? Cuz if not I could label myself as anything. But genderwise I’m a cis female and orientation-wise I’m lesbian, biromantic, possibly somewhere on the ace spectrum?

9. Bright room or dark room?

Dark room. Or mostly dark. Dim with a yellowish lamp because I hate white lights.

10. What were you doing at midnight last night?

Talking to my gf on the phone.

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far?

tbh this year, 19. My anxiety’s been better than it ever was. I haven’t been actively suicidal at all this year. I’m just in a better place all around.

12. Who told you they loved you last?

Probably my mom?

13. Your worst enemy?

Myself

14. What is your current desktop picture?

15. Do you like someone?

Romantically? My girlfriend. In general? Everyone who hasn’t crossed me.

16. The last song you listened to?

Right now I���m listening to LA Devotee by Panic! At The Disco :)

17. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?

Donald Trump, while he’s in a cabinet meeting so it blows up everyone else there too

18. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?

Donald Trump or my ex

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do?

I don’t really want a slave? Kinda against the whole idea? But ig Thomas Jefferson bc he needs to know what it feels like (Hamilton pettiness coming out oops)

20. What is your best physical attribute? (showing said attribute is optional)

My eyes! Idk if I have a picture that shows them really well? But you can check my selfies tag. They’re deep hazel green with gold flecks.

21. If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do?

I would look like historical Alexander Hamilton and I would hang out in history museums freaking people out.

22. Do you have a secret talent? If yes, what is it?

Wouldn’t be a secret if I told you. ;) But seriously, I’m not very private about my talents because I’m proud of them. I write, read, make up codes, solve puzzles, sing, do calligraphy. Sometimes my eyeshadow looks decent.

23. What is one unique thing you’re afraid of?

Most of the unique things are PTSD triggers. The rest of my fears are just normal.

24. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your disposal.

Grilled mac and cheese sandwich.

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it?

Put it towards saving up for a Switch so I can get the new Pokemon game when it comes out this fall.

26. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, but you have to leave immediately. Where are you going to go?

The British Isles, where I will do historical tours and live in the Highlands for a year.

27. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. “Be brand-specific” it says. Man! What are you gonna say about that? Even if you don’t drink booze there’s something you can figure out… so what’s it gonna be?

I don’t drink, I’m pretty against it in part because my uncle’s a recovering alcoholic, but I’d say strawberry daquiris? Idk brands, man.

28. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?

Socialism and if you’re gonna mess up the process and turn it into communism then you’re off the island.

29. What is your favorite expletive?

Fuckweasel. Thanks, Raven Cycle.

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno?

My phone I guess?

31. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

Nothing. As much as I hate what I’ve been through (assault by my ex, manipulation by my dad) it’s taught me so much strength and made me who I am. I know red flags. I came out of my shell. I know how to say no, how to cut out toxic family.

32. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit… you can move to anywhere else in the world!

Scotland.

33. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn’t think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?

FDR. We have a polio vaccine and he was my favorite president.

34. What was your last dream about?

I was doing a crossword puzzle but, like, it never ended. And the clues kept changing every time I started to write the answer. It sucked.

35. Are you a good….[insert anything you’d like here]?

Nothing was inserted haha so yes. I am a good.

36. Have you ever been admitted to the hospital?

Twice. Once as a baby for my open heart surgery, and once when I was 4 for severe dehydration from the flu.

37. Have you ever built a snowman?

Yes but it’s been like 13 years.

38. What is the color of your socks?

Light blue and white stripes.

39. What type of music do you like?

Pop, rock, folk, Celtic, classical, old country, like, Woodie Guthrie, and some new country like Kelsea Ballerini.

40. Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?

SUNSETS

41. What is your favorite milkshake flavor?

Cherry!

42. What football team do you support? (I will answer in terms of American football as well as soccer)

Um, I guess the OSU Buckeyes cuz that’s where I live and I hate pro football.

43. Do you have any scars?

I have a huge scar down my chest from my heart surgery, a few self harm scars left, and quite a few from old cat scratches. Also my left knee is covered with scars from being a clumsy child. And I have small birthmarks which correlate to past life injuries which is fun

44. What do you want to be when you graduate?

A librarian/history or English teacher

45. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

My weight.

46. Are you reliable?

Sometimes I flake on plans bc of mental illness, but yes. I am a strong shoulder to lean on, and I will always be there for you.

47. If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?

Am I trying for the right things?

48. Do you hold grudges?

Not consciously. But there are certain things I haven’t been able to forgive just yet.

49. If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature, what new animal would you create?

Sloth dragon. Sloth with little back scales and wings who flies very slowly and breathes fire when threatened.

50. What is the most unusual conversation you’ve ever had?

My mom and I have the funniest conversations. I couldn’t pick one. Every day between us is just hysterical.

51. Are you a good liar?

Yes. But I don’t lie anymore except when I have to.

52. How long could you go without talking?

Probably forever as long as I could write or text.

53. What has been you worst haircut/style?

When I was 9 I decided to get a shoulder length bob. My hair did not approve. Constant white-fro. I don’t have a picture of it full glory, but this is after having it styled, at age 11, as flat as it would go.

54. Have you ever baked your own cake?

Noooo I suck at baking. I’ve made cookies though.

55. Can you do any accents other than your own?

British, I guess? I do a good Hermione.

56. What do you like on your toast?

Butter lmao I’m classic

57. What is the last thing you drew a picture of?

Uhhh I sketched a flower on my church bulletin last week? Nothing fancy. I don’t draw.

58. What would be you dream car?

‘67 Impala baby.

59. Do you sing in the shower? Or do anything unusual in the shower? Explain.

I, uh give political speeches to the showerhead? It’s the Hamilton mood.

60. Do you believe in aliens?

I definitely believe we can’t live in a universe infinitely big all by ourselves.

61. Do you often read your horoscope?

I don’t read my actual horoscope, but I look at those zodiac posts a lot, and I know my full birth chart.

62. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet?

A and S.

63. Which is cooler: dinosaurs or dragons?

Both. Dinsoaurs could have been dragons, we don’t know.

64. What do you think about babies?

They’re okay til they cry or poop or throw up lmao.

Thanks bb!