#manifesting this energy for her in s5

[quitealotofsodapop]

This idea would probably be for soft Boiled and slow boiled, basically any au where Wukong is MK's teacher and not his sibling or parent. Kaiju forms.

I personally headcanon the kaiju forms and projections in the show (Mei's dragoon and Macaque's giant war form) are more... projections of one's soul/true self. So... for those who are not aware, Wukong does canonically have one on the book. It's a giant limbed monkey and with multiple heads and arms. It so is canonically so terrifying that it had frightened both his enemies and his own people so badly he had been utterly heartbroken by the event.

Sometime between s4 and s5, Wukong is working with MK to help him get used to his new monkey form and trying to help him control it. The kaiju form MK took dueint the battle with Azure comes up and MK asks about it. When Wukong explains what it was, MK gets super excited to learn and wants Wukong to teach him except...

Wukong: Sorry kid, I can't teach you how to control your kaiju. You'd actually be better off asking either Mei or, ugh, Macaque!

MK: WHAT!? Why not!?

Yesss

Wukong canonically does not like his War/Kaiju Form.

The clearest idea I could gt of how it might have looked was from a toy site, I imagine in LMK verse its lot more solid-coloured and vaguely shaped;

In Jttw he loses all interest in his victory against Heaven when his Kaiju Form scares his own people - and if we add in the Brotherhood, Macaque as well.

We discussed in dms how Wukong's anger under the mountain was likely a mixture of despair (they lost and couldn't save their bros from punishment), pain (fresh from the Furmace yo), and self-hatred.

This newly unlocked form of his - this manifestation of his inner self, was so terrifying that his own people, his allies, his own mate fled at the sight of it.

Macaque did "run off" that day, hence part of Wukong's anger. But afterwards, after the fight, Macaque had to admit to himself that while Wukong's kaiju-form was terrifying it had also been beautiful. Beautiful and sublime like a star going supernova.

Macaque's own Kaiju can be separated from him as a shadow of himself, but he's secretly ashamed of his reaction to Wukong's all those centuries ago. When he does let his Kaiju form take over his real body, it becomes primal, impulsive and brutally honest. Something that honestly helps with how quick he is to dodge confrontation.

Mei's (and by extension Ao Guang's) "dragons" are literal manifestations of what their true forms may be. Mei could have her own American-Dragon-style dragon form she could flaunt if she worked at it. That or the energy is literally Ao Lie's spirit coming in clutch as a power-up.

Ao Guang's dragon-energy meanwhile looks like his lego set colouration, suggesting homebody just a big lazy to waste his true massive form on them.

So when Wukong and the gang sees MK's own Kaiju/War-form for the first time during his fight with Azure....

Wukong is like "NOPE! Not my expertise!" cus he literally only used his War Form twice in the entirety of the book - the Battle of Flower Fruit Mountain, and when him and DBK had a Kaiju vs Kaiju battle together later in the Journey.

When MK prods him about it, Wukong becomes... kinda cold and closed off, telling MK that he's better off talking to Macaque about it.

Macaque is still barely in the "anti-hero" category, so MK is a little hesistant to ask him for help (especially since one of Macaque's teaching methods included a rom hack).

MK even tries going to DBK on the matter first, but the retired-demon king has a similar negative reaction. Seems that even he didn't like the Bull he became when him and Wukong truly fought. It's why he even refused to transform when he was under true duress from LBD or the Brotherhood.

DBK does give MK advice on what a "Kaiju/War form" is though. DBK's mind had been clouded with anger when he was a younger man, so his became a pure-white charging bull that destroyed all in it's path. Sun Wukong does not care for his War Form since it truly scares him to use.

MK thinks that impossible! Why would the Monkey King be afraid of his own super-cool power?

Until DBK asks him something important; "Aren't you afraid of yours?"

MK's complex over learning that he's a "Harbinger of Chaos" hits immediately, and he runs off to seek Macaque's guidance.

Macaque is amused, if not a little surprised that MK ultiamtely went to him for help with his Kaiju form.

MK: "Trust me bro, you're like my third choice. I can't ask Mei cus not even she knows how her's works." Macaque: "Eh. I'll take it. I am curious why yours is so much more taller than mine though."

Hint: it's a self worth thing Macaque developed whilst under the Brotherhood that he needed to "limit the space he took up", he's still working on that.

Some fun mentor-and-son-figure kaiju training occurs, and MK eventually asks a bombshell question;

MK: "Hey when Monkey King said you ran off, what did he mean?" Macaque, stiffens: "I didn't run from the celestial army if thats what you're wondering." MK, remembering what DBK said: "Were you afraid of Him?" Macaque, pauses and sighs: "At the time yes." MK: "At the time?" Macaque: "MK, in that moment, I hadn't known Wukong even had a War Form or even knew what they truly meant. All I saw was this... demon where my best friend once stood." MK: "OH... I mean... that sorta explains why you guys were fighting under the mountain." Macaque: "Yeah. You can see why I called him-" MK: "I mean, I wouldn't know how bad I'd feel if Mei ran away from me cus of my power up..." Macaque: "...what?" MK: "You ran away from your best friend. That's not cool. Scared or not, that was your buddy in there. And if he saw you running or I dunno shadow portal-ing away, I'd get why he was so salty when you popped up later with a peach like nothing had happened. From his view, he was going through something new and terrifying for him too and you abandoned him. Twice if you never came back to check in on him." Macaque: "... you're a smart kid MK. Way too smart for me." (*Macaque portals away to make a long overdue apology*)

Macaque himself seemed to be having a similar revelation when he saw the fight in 3rd person in the Memory Scroll. That his own reaction was more of a build-up of frustration from his treatment in the Brotherhood rather at Wukong specifically.

In Short; these bitches needed a relationship referee to call a yellow car when they tossed their unrelated anger at each other.

Bonus: I love the idea of Wukong's kaiju form being HUGE, and MK's being the medium between him and Macaque. Also, cuddly giant monkeys made of light and shadow.

[princess-of-the-corner]

So, speaking of Chloe songs, I keep imagining a sort of post S5 return of Chloe scene to a variation of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCES50brwjQ

The chorus would b e represented by her various Akuma forms projects as shades on the wall or reflections in mirrors. She'd be siphoning magical energy off a captured Akuma Butterfly into various bits of jeweler and clothing she's wearing or otherwise absorbing but clearly controlling its power.

She is becoming more and more overtly magical as the song reaches its crescendo. She may also be transforming a Bee Hive or manifesting her various old Akuma forms to act as her minions. Before bursting through the roof or ground of where she was hiding and unleashing her forces.

Also the subject of her ire shifts wildly through the song, Lila, the heroes, Gabriel & Nathalie, ETC. She gets a mention in for all her foes.

Lyrics, alterations bolded.

In the dark of the night I was tossing and turning, And the nightmare I had was as bad as can be. It scared me out of my wits! A girl fraying to bits! Then I opened my eyes and the nightmare was me!

I was once a Proud Parisian Partisan! (ooh ahh ooh) When the heroes betrayed me they made a mistake (ooh ahh ooh) His curse made each of us pay But this one girl got away, Gabriel beware for Chloe's awake!

In the dark of the night vengeance will find them In the dark of the night just before dawn Revenge will be sweet, When the purge is complete, In the dark of the night, she'll be mine!

I can feel that my powers are growing & surging Tie my sash & a dash of Panache for this spell! As the pieces fall into place, I'll see her crawl into place, Au revoir Lila your grace, farewell!

In the dark of the night, terror will strike her  In the dark of the night, vengeance will doom Soon she will feel, All her nightmares are real In the dark of the night, she'll be through

In the dark of the night my hatred will find them (find them) In the dark of the night, terror comes true  My dears, here's a sign, Its the end of your lie,

In the dark of the night (2x)

Come, my monsters/sisters Rise for your Meister, Let your fury shine Find them now, yes, fly ever faster In the dark of the night (3x) She'll be mine!

NOTES: I also thought of Flare my lash and a dash of perfume for that smell! But sashes actually really work given their history and vibe, plus the fact she likely imbued Akuma power into it.

Also had Tie my sash and don gems for that spell! &, Tie my sash & a dash of Panache for that sell!

& Let your power shine, Let your glory shine, Let your hatred shine, Let your malice shine, Let your cruelty shine, ETC

Also, Its the end of the line VS Its the end of his/your line, if its only focused on Gabriel.

Honestly this is a fantastic villain song that does deserve more attention 24/7. Both the cover and the original.

[consoledacup]

what storylines have you found to be the most interesting for each of the main characters?

Well, I love romance and I love stories that explore mental health. So to briefly pick out my faves...

For Billy, finding his way back to Laura. And then all of his stuff in s5, I actually really loved. Prob a hot take, but I loved his working on the article with Liv, and I loved his dilemma about coaching GAU. I was actually turned into a Billy fan right before he died.

For JJ, poor guy. Nothing. I love his energy in the group, but I was very frustrated where things went this season went with him. I was into 4x14, and I was into his brief musing of "do I even have a role?" in 4x06. How he was in 5x20 gives me hope for him next season.

For Patience, honestly... stay with me, but her laziness in s4. I could tell they were skirting the idea of her insecurity as a performer manifesting as laziness. And I found that really relatable. But then they never went anywhere with it. I would've loved to see that explored more.

For Coop, her law stuff is great. I love this for her. And I want to see how she is with Patience next season. I thought her complicated feelings for her this season was cool.

For Asher, anything with Jaymee is lovely. But I love his coaching path more. Big fan of Coach Mr. Montez mentoring him, and I think Asher was always meant for coaching, regardless of his health barriers. The seeds were planted early on.

For Spencer, any session he has with Dr. Spears. Every part of his story in 3A. The Spelivia angst in the early seasons, especially 3A. Anytime he delves deep, avoids, talks about his underlying hangups, I'm really, really into. His grieving Billy. And anything with Darnell.

For Olivia, her relapse in s3. Spelivia angst in s1-3. The start of her podcast and her involvement in Sola Muse. Her kickstart into journalism. Her grieving Billy.

For Jordan, anything that had him address his lack of confidence. Anything with jordayla. His leadership in every way in s5. His grieving Billy.

For Layla, her depression in s2 and her path to invulnerability in s4. Anything with jordayla.

[kitkatpancakestack]

I had this saved in my drafts for awhile and I wasn't sure whether or not it added anything new, but I am feeling such EMOTIONS for these two that I figure wth I might as well chuck it into the void:

So, I know the fandom is frought with S5 speculations and head cannons, but as I have only begun to digest S4 in its entirety, I'm still thinking about it. They just gave SO MUCH, and in an abbreviated season no less.

This time I been thinking about Buck's character arc as portrayed in S4, and I've been doing my rewatch, and maybe I'm late to the party and this has been discussed ad nauseam, but I really think Buck Begins and Survivors are the literal bookends of his plotline that season. The parallels alone seal the deal for me. Can't believe I'm about to make a post primarily dedicated to Evan Buckley and not Eddie Diaz but here we go:

What I found interesting is the comparisons bw where Buck's character is in the beginning of each episode, where he wants to be, where he thinks he's headed, and where he ultimately ends up.

Where he is at the beginning

In Buck Begins, we obviously get Buck like a raw and gaping wound with his parents, completely untethered to his sense of self. His whole thing is feeling like he's lost purchase on the possession of his forged identity (Buck) in the wake of his parents - and Maddie to an extent - who intentionally or inadvertently corner him into the identity he is always trying to escape from (Evan).

In Survivors, Buck has supposedly gained sufficient closure by this point in the season regarding his disparate identities, but we find out this is still not the case. There's something holding him back, but this lack of closure is more portrayed to the audience through the surrounding characters: "Buck's gonna Buck", Bobby's use of the word "Buck" during their kitchen argument, Taylor dragging him for acting invincible like he always does. He's obviously improved from his starting place in Buck Begins, and yet the vibes are still the same: him seeking the correct way to be "Buck" from everybody but himself.

Where he wants to be

I think this goes without saying that Buck is just constantly trying to live up to the expectations wittingly or unwittingly placed upon him by the people he respects the most. In Buck Begins this concept manifests as an absence of meaning, which is noticeably filled during the end scene when the team (interesting how they chose to leave Eddie out of this moment 👀) is telling him what it means to be Buck.

In Survivors, whatever shaky grasp Buck felt he had on his identity is obliterated by the very same people who previously defined "Buck" as something good and noble, and then freely manipulate that name and ascribe to it a meaning with negative connotations. I think it's especially telling in Buck's scene with Bobby, when Buck feels he's being complimented, but this is not Bobby's intention.

Where he thinks he's headed

Buck is just so dumb sometimes, I say affectionately of course. In Buck Begins (and beginning of Jinx), it seems Buck believe he has gained the closure he thought would "fix him" from his parents and Maddie, that it's a work in progress but he's got what he needed. Nevermind this is conveyed in an episode titled Jinx. But I think he truly believes he has filled whatever hole is inside him, that he can now face the future without baggage, and that is just *face palms* *laughs sadly*

In Survivors, I'm going to humor the writers on the Buck+Taylor scenes, bc it's so obvious he thinks he's about to get what he needs, what he deserves, which is someone who chases him, and this is absolutely correct thinking, just not the correct individual. Since his parents, Buck's whole thing was seeking a meaningful relationship (he equates this with a romantic relationship) which he thinks he's headed for with Taylor.

Where he ultimately ends up

This is just me screaming my hiatus crackheadery into the void here, but in Buck Begins I Do Not get the sense Buck has ended up in that much more of a meaningful place than where he started. Yes, he has answers. Yes, he has closure (?). What he does not have is solidified sense of self. Putting my buddie hat on, me thinks it's very interesting of the writers to separate Eddie from the previous scene of everyone telling Buck what his name means to them, that they give Eddie an entire scene with just Buck where Buck doesn't have to explain himself, doesn't actively seek meaning or definition, there's just an implied sense of being Seen and Known which is of course confirmed by Eddie's, "No, I know you did ❤️."

In Survivors, this hanging plotline is resolved through Eddie. Absolutely insane of the writers. The buddie scene at the end of Buck Begins and the one at the end of Survivors have the exact same energy. They're saying the same thing. Eddie knows Evan. And when he says his birth name, when he says his whole spiel, I known I've mentioned this before but it feels like a period to the sentence started in Buck Begins. All Buck wanted, more than a place to belong or a relationship, was just to be Known. It wasn't resolved through his parents bc they didn't really know him. It wasnt resolved through Maddie bc, even they are the closest, there's something about the shared trauma of their childhood that prevents her from knowing him fully, in the way he seeks. It obviously wasn't resolved through Taylor bc despite what we get upfront, she doesn't know him either.

Eddie does resolve this bc he knows him, sometimes I think better than Buck knows himself, and the show makes sure to double down on that, and I just think that shit is beautiful.

[misstrashchan]

So just as a heads up, this is a continuation of this post about which of Smirke's 14 Fears from the Magnus Archives team RWBY+Pyrrha would be aligned with and @im-the-king-of-the-ocean asking my thoughts on Winter, Ozpin and Oscar (sorry it took so long to get back to this! I've had it sitting in my drafts for a while)

Winter: The Slaughter

Winter as an Avatar of the Slaughter is something I hadn't thought of but it actually fits insanely well. The Slaughter does often bring up the question of whether anger and violence is just senseless and mindless, or following orders followed by rationalisation; or if we're entirely conscious of the choices we're making, and which is worse, which is something that Winter's arc has been dealing with A LOT. In how she follows Ironwood's orders and has to rationalise his actions to justify her own and her "choices", like how she explains to Weiss how she accepts her role as the Winter Maiden being her destiny, though it was something Ironwood groomed her into and how she tries to explain to Penny why they have to internalise however they might feel about abandoning Mantle and trust Ironwood.

There's the element of anger which you bring up, and Winter's relationship with anger is interesting to me to think about, because she seems very much afraid in indulging that emotion, or any emotion, and because of the military industrial complex and her abusive controlling upbringing, leads to a lot of emotional suppression and refusal to think on those feelings or deal with them in any healthy way. Which of course leads to everything boiling over, and there's this. Rage, an passionate fury that's boiling inside her. But I wouldn't say it's something she thinks she needs or enjoys right now, quite the opposite. (the idea of being afraid of being hurt, of needing to have control of her situation and to throw back her hurt of the world fits more with Cinder than Winter in my mind, and I think Melanie's relationship with anger and needing it reminds me a lot more of Yang. It justified her need for it and fed into it, and Melanie liked that, she wanted it, but for Winter her anger is something she's ashamed of, something to be locked away)

But I actually do think with where her arc is headed that thinks she will come to indulge in that feeling more. The one time we see her have an angry outburst expressing her true feelings is at Jaques at his dinner party, and she scolds and shames herself for allowing herself to get angry, that it was childish and immature. To which Penny disagrees, saying she thought she was just speaking from the heart. But Winter believes that to precisely be the problem. She cannot allow herself to think, or feel just for herself,  because that terrifies her. So she only allows herself to follow orders. Again, similar to a lot of the Slaughter statement givers who were soldiers in wars of some kind and become numb to the atrocities they are made to commit, the sensless violence of it all, but her choice to accept her lack of agency and self worth still makes her complicit and is still a conscious decision on her part. This sort of meandered and I'm not sure if it made any sense but yes, I hadn't thought of it but the Slaughter actually fits Winter really well for a lot of reasons. And I think we will see her Go Feral in the near future, the thing she's most afraid of, showing how she really feels, and oh boi all that confusion, emotional repression, the lingering bitterness and jealousy towards Penny being the Winter Maiden, and projected feelings of thinking of leaving or betraying Ironwood she's been having and her conflicted feelings pushed onto Weiss, who betrayed and left first, just a whole over boiling pot that's a mess of emotions manifesting as Big Feral Winter Feelings. 

Ozpin:

The Eye, Ceaseless Watcher, Beholding/The Vast, the Falling Titan, Awful Deep

Ohohohoho Ozpin. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to TMA 151 imagining Ozpin as Simon Fairchild or vice versa. Simon's VA was told that his character had to give off the impression that he might offer you a plate of cookies or fling you off a cliff and when I heard that my mind immediately jumped to Ozpin back in v1. And Ozpin's VA said that if he didn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders, he'd be a lot more chaotic and fun. And that's the thing with Ozpin though, is that he wants to be Simon Fairchild, so so badly. I think he wants people to see him as that kind of person too. But in reality, he's stuck being Jonathan Sims. (The Ceaseless Watcher's/God of Light's Special Little Boy assdkjhkk) Oz is 100% an Eye Avatar. Fair warning, like with Ruby and the End, I have a lot of Big Feelings with this one. 

I see where you're coming from, but the thing with being an Avatar of the Vast is being so overwhelmed by the expanse and eternity of everything that you just accept your own insignificance as well as everyone else's, hence why they rarely form attachments or work with others. It's a very nihilistic perspective that it's Avatars tend to be very hedonistic as a result, we're all insignificant, nothing matters, let's just do whatever we want and try to have a good time, who cares what happens. And I do think Oz is Vast aligned, since he encourages the people around him, and tries himself, to enjoy the little things and have fun when he can, since he knows Salem is unstoppable and everything could go to shit at any given moment. And yknow. Him enjoying flinging students off of cliffs during initiation a bit too much.

 But Ozpin cares so much about humanity. He desperately wants to believe, and tries to, in humanity, and tries for them. He's been fighting so hard for so long, and believes humanity is worth fighting for (even if he has trouble actually having faith and believing in them). Everything matters to him. He agonises over every choice he makes and impact that has, takes on so much responsibility on himself, is so guilt ridden that he admits to making "more mistakes than any man, woman or child on this planet" that he practically paralyses himself with indecision and guilt. He’s also someone who has been shown to be paranoid, (his reluctance to fully trust the people around him out of constant wariness that he may be betrayed) and afraid of being perceived for who he truly is and having his secrets exposed, which are all very Eye related fears. Ozpin’s very much in this position in which he is the one who knows everything, who passively watches and waits and knows, from up high in his tower. “Oh please, your god is nothing! The Eye, Beholding, Ceaseless Watcher, whatever you call it, that’s all it does, it watches and knows, sitting bulbous and comfortable in the ignorance of infinite knowledge.” (TMA 89) In the Lost Fable, he believed he needed to be the one to know everything (think to how he only trusted himself to hold onto the relic of knowledge, believing it to be “his burden to bear” and was desperate to take it back from Ruby) and as shown in his past lives, sought after Jinn’s knowledge in the belief that knowledge would help him in his cause, only for the ultimatum of the answer in “Salem can’t be killed” to break him and make him lose all hope of doing anything more than maintaining a perpetual stalemate. In the words of his speech in vol1, in which is a very good example of Ozpin desperately needing to practice what he preaches; 

 “I'll...keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge--to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step”  (RWBY 1x03) 

There’s also like. A lot of Eye statements, particularly those relating to Jonathan, that relate heavily to Ozpin and his character, including this one:

“And at last, the Archivist looks up. At last, he looks into the eye that sees all, and knows all, and clutches at the secret terrors of your heart. The Ceaseless Watcher of all that is, and all that was; the voracious, infinite hunger that tears at his soul, invoking him to discover, to observe, to experience all, and everything, and forever. It stares into him, and it stares out of him, and he is falling into the devouring eternity of its pupil. He wants to cry out in horror, but he cannot. 

He. Is. Whole. 

And still he does not wake. Wandering his slim collection of gifted nightmares, passing the grey and lifeless remains of severed dreams he can no longer watch, he waits- but not for long- before they can all begin again”

Like if that doesn’t describe Oz’s endless reincarnation and merging, becoming “whole”, and living all these lives is discovering, observing and “experiencing all and forever” then I don’t know what does. And then there’s the last statement we had before the s5 break, also an Eye one, revolving around the “Minister” which also gives off major Oz vibes:

God, the children. They won’t stop looking, won’t stop following him with their piteous, desperate gaze that speaks so loudly his knees feel like they will buckle. ‘Help us.’He will. Of course he will. He wants to. He hasn’t lied to them, he really hasn’t. He used to be one of them, he remembers what it can be like. He is there to speak for them. And if necessary, he will join them again. The minister grips his black leather briefcase closely to his chest, bile rising in his throat at the sudden jolt of fear that races through his veins. Where did that come from? Is he afraid of it, returning, of that sharp stab of hunger, the shivering of a cold you can’t escape? Or is he afraid that should it come to that, they will see him as a deceiver?” 

“On his side of the arena the shouts should be sharper, more angry, but their tone and pitch are such as to merge seamlessly with the others. There are no golden stakes on this side pinning down his would-be comrades. But the minister must be careful not to look too closely, or else he might see how many of his allies are fused to their own chairs, on which they have sat comfortable for so long"

"His eyes drift away, through the walls to the crowd outside. Their baying cries for justice cannot be heard in here. If any whisper should make it through, it is utterly destroyed in the deafening shouting that surrounds him. But he cannot forget their eyes, watching him, piercing him with their wounded humanity.” 

Another thing is that one of Ozpin’s allusions aside from the Wizard of Oz is Odin, and Raven and Qrow are meant to be his Huginn and Muninn, two Ravens that act as his “eyes” spying and gathering information for him. If you look at Raven and Qrow’s emblem, they have a left and right bird’s eye respectively, with Oz’s gear emblem inside the eye. In v4, Salem, upon hearing that Tyrian poisoned Qrow, says “the last eye is blinded” as in,the belief that with Raven having left Oz and Qrow now dying, Oz would have no more eyes to “see” with. You also have Jonah Magnus, whose corpse is missing his eyes, but is able to watch through the eyes of the Archive employees. That and the whole body hopping host thing is a little similar in concept (and Peter Lukas mentions near the end of s4 that if Elias died, Jonah would have chosen Jon as his new host which is just. Terrifying). There's a lot of other little things too, like Oz in the first three volumes is usually shown watching events like the iniitiation, the fight at the docks, and the vytal festival through his cameras in his office, a passive observer rather than someone who is actively involved. And Yang at the end of v6, when Oscar tells them about Oz saving him, says "so he's just been watching is that whole time?" The underlying tone suggesting that he could've come back at any tike but chose to watch them instead, through Oscar, and everyone looking at him like that's pretty weird or creepy (except Ruby tho, because she's Ruby)

I feel like I could go on, but this is probably waaaaay too long, so, in summary, Oz serves the Eye, is basically a perfect candidate for the Archivist, and is also Vast aligned, and in different circumstances would have totally been a great Vast Avatar. 

Oscar: The Spider, the Web, Mother of Puppets

Oscar. Was. HARD.

This lil shit is part of the reason it took so long to make this post. Because see, with other characters the most obvious indicators would be their semblances (which are often manifestations of coping mechanisms for their personal fears or trauma) or songs (which delve deeper into their characters), or have very specific fears that I can focus in on as to how that factors into their arc. But Oscar? He doesn't have a semblance. His whole THING is that he's scared. All the time. His song is called Fear for Pete's sake. Now, he is Oz's reincarnation, and Oscar does also share a fair few things in common with the Archivist and his character arc, (Elias's plan and the whole plot of the first four seasons was that he was trying to align Jon by having him touched by ALL the fears, aka, to fill Jon with fear of everything, so that he became a walking living record of fear) he persistently calls out people's BS and takes issue with people withholding information, also similar to Yang (who I firmly believe is Eye aligned). So like. Eye, right? But that just... doesn't properly fit Oscar. He's not Ozpin. The Stranger, then, becoming a stranger to yourself, perhaps? That is something Oscar's afraid of, right?

"Everything changes when you see a stranger, feel proud or betrayed" (Fear)

But Oscar is growing more confident in his own identity and figuring out who he is. He’s not becoming Oz, he's becoming his own person. And even if he was becoming Oz, Oz is hardly a Stranger to Oscar. The merge, from how it's described in the show, seems more similar to how the Distortion functioned, except Oscar and Oz don't fit into most of the Distortion's themes.

I was sort of uncertain, and I wanted to wait and see till I was more certain of where Oscar's arc was headed this volume, since he's being pushed to his limits and wanted to see how he acted and what choices he made. At the start, because of how he was regretting all the choices he'd made previously, and was telling Oz how badly he didn't want the merge to happen, I was speculating about the possibility of him being manipulated by Salem and Grimm!Oscar happening, which might fall him into the Corruption, but no.

Oscar is the Web.

It fits with his fear of being controlled, of his will not being his own, and like Jonathan, who was marked and scared for life by his encounter with the Web as a child, it is his greatest fear. Only, where Jon was so afraid of the Web he sought the Eye as his refuge, believing it would keep him safe, Oscar realises that can be used to his advantage. (Which actually makes him more like Anabella Cane, which is. Hilarious) He's trying to do what Salem does, focus in on people's weaknesses and fears and dig at them, manipulate and push them, divide them, only like, steering them into the opposite direction than Salem. He's trying to use the fact that people see him as Oz to his advantage and trying to manipulate their impression of him. He's just got this very sneaky, cunning and pragmatic streak in him that people overlook because he's also incredibly kind and just. Good. But those qualities very much scream "Web" to me the more I've dwelled on it.

[westzane]

Guzmán absolutely was supposed to the the Ted on Elite so wtf happened like seriously... as soon as they sunk his robin, he went all sucky and murdery....

honestly I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to give a real explanation (s/o to candyumbrella I know she would have been able to explain it well) but I've been thinking about it and I recently read this tweet which makes me think it might be a lot simpler than I originally thought. But I’d love to hear what everyone’s theories are on the sitch

The tweet basically said that murder mysteries only work until the original plot is finished, that elite started with marina’s death and should have ended with polo’s death (her murderer). And I think they’re right that the original cast should have all left together at the end of s3, that way the audience would have been sad but would have just had to suck it up and the people who were really interested would have still watched s4 and the new characters would have been given an actual chance versus the constant comparisons they get right now.

Anyways I’m thinking that’s Guzman's "hold" over the show, as a (weak)Ted, is based on the original cast and since Polo died, Nadia his robin was leaving, Marina's been dead for a year now, most of the original cast had left, his power had been severely diminished by the time s4 comes around. He was already a weak Ted from the start, to the point that in s1 I was questioning whether Nano might be/become the Ted with the way he was embarrassing him lol. But by s3, it really felt like he was losing a lot of his Ted energy, possibly from the combination of already being a weak Ted and the fact that it was the last season for a lot of the cast and they wanted to wrap all of their storylines up. Which btw is why Lu got the storyline she did in s3 because if he was still a strong Ted there was no way in hell she would have been able to reject him like she did lmao.

Ultimately I think the writers knew that since Miguel wasn't going to continue past s4, and that elite is popular and is gunna be around for more seasons, that they naturally needed a new Ted - who I'm thinking might be the s5 blonde guy who got called Miguel's mentee lol. The most interesting part to me is why they turned on him the way they did in s4 and I really think it's because they had a new cast and they write and film two seasons at once. So I'm guessing that as they were writing or brainstorming for s4 and 5 together, they were already not that convinced with Ted!Guzman (the tide was already turning), and they were writing s5 possible new Ted at the same time, so Guzman ended up reverting back to season 1 Guzman (the first half at that!) because the writers I guess  just lost interest in him. I think that’s also why the short story ended up like it did, a very transitional moment for Guzman where he still retains some Ted features but ultimately the big ending reconciliation scene gets cut because I’m assuming they edited all of them after writing s4 and 5 and at the point the writers were over him (vs when they wrote/shot it and let them have that big kiss scene at the end).

It is interesting that it manifested itself the way it did though, and maybe s5 will shed some light on the situation if the new blonde guy really is the new Ted, because it seemed like they really hated Guzman in s4. But maybe this is just what happens when you stop being a Ted and maybe it feels so intense because when you go from getting everything to getting nothing it feels like a very stark difference because his ending wasn't the worst thing in the world, at least he didn't go to jail - maybe that's what would have happened if they really did hate him because that would have been quite the full circle lmao. But it's like if you compare what he got in s3: a promise to get back together with his Robin essentially, at peace with the death of his sister and his friend who was her murderer, and reconciled with Samuel and Ander, versus s4 where he lost his Robin, he's getting cheated on (with Samu of all people), he murders a man randomly for a girl he's just met who doesn't even love him enough to choose him when he asks her to (!!! Guzman??? murdering someone ??? for a rando at that !!!), and ends up leaving in the middle of the school year without even getting any qualifications, it's just very .......... very unTed like behaviour lol.

[blaiddydbrokeit]

He has one of the strongest elements, and you can't create or destroy energy so he has to manifest it from his own energy!! That's why in S5 after he was released from possession he could barely fight back or even stand for a while!! He barely has energy to do more than just cling onto life!!

In the SoG trilogy!! When he almost died and then was powerless for like half of it!! His mind and body was so damaged it had to heal before he could even manifest that energy in a fight!!

His part oni and dragon heritage!! Dragons eat a lot!! And oni are ferocious hunters and conquerers!! They eat a lot!!

And the timeskip between S7 and S8 gave Lloyd another growth spurt!! So before that he was still a growing boy!! He has to eat!! And that he's constantly training and training in S2+ and being thrown in trouble!! He has a good reason to be a big eater!!

oH my god YES Tomorrow's Tea basically threw him through a whole growth spurt COMPRESSED INTO MOMENTS

He was already kinda average for a kid before but the growth spurt used so much more energy because of being so compressed that his body started roaring for that energy to be replaced!!

So one episode later when they confront Garmadon and he sees Lloyd he's concerned that Lloyd seems to have stretched out like a stringbean overnight!! but then soon after all the stone warriors happen, then the dark islands they had to ration because they're like 10 people and it's not like there's grocery shops there so Lloyd doesn't manage to regain his weight and energy!! And being so thin put so much strain on his bones with too little cushioning that he breaks his ankle being thrown across a sandy beach!!

And Garmadon being a great cook I'm SOFT for this

Garmadon went and studied under ol crackhead Chen. Chen is a control freak!! Likes to live like a king!! He would absolutely make Garmadon and Clouse cook rather than do it himself but when they don't do it exactly HIS way he gets mad and they have to learn HIS way which gives Garmadon a solid foundation!! BUT THEN Garm defects from Chen to rejoin the EMs during the war!! And he has his turns on cooking duty so he has to learn to cook in different ways to acommodate some of their dietary restrictions or needs!! And his skills improve a lot!! But he gets banished later after the war and doesn't have any means to so he gets rusty but never brings up any mention of it because the venom in him wants to conquer!! But after he's purified he was chill with moving so far into the forest because if he can grow his own foods and the rest Misako buys on her trips into the city he can just cook!! And he gets used to it again!! But S3 happens, and it forces him to take a break but he notices Lloyd's much higher nutritional needs and between S3 and 4 Lloyd moves in with him after the team split from their grief and that's when Garm feeds Lloyd way more which is why S4 begins with Lloyd having much sharper skills because he's properly nourished for once!!

S5:

Since Garm got banished Lloyd was still working through his grief even if he didn't show it a lot

But he wasn't eating as well as he should be

And he's trying so hard to settle things without a fight that he gets caught off guard when the Cursed Realm was mentioned and seemed to struggle with controlling his emotions and his focus which are paramount to using his powers!!

People will make fun of Cole, but the real black hole is Lloyd

Cole will eat all the cake

But Lloyd doesn't care what food it is, if it's food he will eat it

He doesn't like spicy food maybe, since in Darkley's they probably did pranks in all kind of shittt ways and attempted to spike his lunch with hot sauce one day when he wanted the ketchup

He's not a fan of vegetables either, but he WILL completely clean off a plate of food if you put it in front of him

He’ll say “aw veggies AGAIN” then consume every single one

AND CONSIDER THAT THE ONE SCENE IN THE CURSED REALM WHERE LLOYD SEES GOOD GARM FOR THE LAST TIME

After they hug!! You see that Garmadon is looking over his son!! And then lowers his head regretfully!! It's not just because he's hurting Lloyd's feelings being in such a pitiful state!! It's also because he feels hurt and regretful that he wasn't there for his son to be keeping him safe and warm and filling him with good food, that his son had gotten so traumatised and broken and starved thin and sick!!

ALSO LISTEN IN S1 BECAUSE THE OG4 CONSIDERED HIM A PAIN IN THE ASS THEY NEVER REALLY NOTICED HIM AND SINCE HE WAS "JUST A KID" THEN WITH UNAWAKENED POWERS HE DIDN'T REALLY GET TO EAT MUCH ON THE BOUNTY SO IT KIND OF MADE IT EVEN HARDER TO CATCH UP AFTER THE INTENSIVE TRAININGS STARTED

Consider... Garmadon being a bit too eager to finally be a proper dad for Lloyd, and cooks way too much even for the tiny black hole boi because Garmadon seems to understand the nonsense semantics of why Lloyd is always hungry for more

Garmadon absolutely doting over Lloyd, and letting him sleep in here and there, and napping wherever and whenever, but also constantly smothering him in snacks and food because that's how he expresses his love

@grungekitty-77 Here is the propaganda

[bubonickitten]

Summary: Jon goes back to before the world ended and tries to forge a different path.

Previous chapter: AO3 // tumblr

Chapter 13 full text & content warnings below the cut.

CWs for Chapter 13: all the usual Buried-related warnings apply (claustrophobia, inability to breathe, etc.); panic/anxiety symptoms; just a smidgen of internalized aphobia; brief mention of past passive suicidal ideation; internalized victim blaming; canon-typical trauma (including discussion of victims targeted by the Fears as children).SPOILERS through S5.

Chapter 13: Center

The darkness and overwhelming pressure of the Buried make it nigh impossible to orient oneself. The only conceivable directions are forward, down, into, deeper. Jon’s only choice, when he has one at all, is to keep moving – and so he does, digging and clawing his way through the muck, making a transient pathway for himself as best he can.

“Daisy?” It comes out as a rasp. He tries to swallow, but succeeds only in upsetting his already-sore throat. It feels as though the dirt and debris have taken up permanent residence there, clogging his airway just enough to leave him chronically short of breath without cutting off his oxygen supply entirely. “Daisy, can you reach me?”

“Jon,” comes the weak reply, “I’m – I don’t know where – I c-can’t – can’t see –”

“I hear you,” Jon says. “I’m here, I’m coming to you. Just – keep talking, and –”

As he talks, he inhales a cloud of dust, dissolving into wracking coughs.

“Jon? Jon, are you still there?” For a long moment, Jon cannot speak. Daisy’s next words are steeped in panic. “Where are you? I can’t… p-please be there, please –”

“I’m still here,” Jon forces out hoarsely, stretching his arm forward as far as it will go. “I’m not going anywhere. Follow my voice, I – I think I’m almost –”

Chill fingertips brush against his, and he throws his weight forward as much as possible. He hooks her fingers in his and pulls, and with a burst of energy he manages to clasp her clammy hand in his.

“There you are,” he says, smiling weakly.

“You’re real,” Daisy says in disbelief, crushing his hand in a bruising grip. “You’re real.”

“I am.” He intertwines their fingers, as grateful as she is for a hand to hold. “I’m here, Daisy.”

“Daisy,” she says dreamily. “Yeah. Daisy. That’s me.” A pause. “Just – just me.”

Jon closes his eyes with a relieved sigh. There are no signs that the Hunt still has its claws in her. He had no reason to think that reaching her a couple weeks earlier than before would change anything, but there was still that nagging doubt.

“J-just me,” she says again, but this time there’s a waver in her voice. “Just – alone –”

“No,” Jon says hurriedly, squeezing her hand several times in quick succession, “not – not alone. Not anymore.”

“Yeah.” She grasps his hand even more tightly, as if to reassure herself.

“I’m here.”

“Yeah,” she says again, and this time it sounds like she’s starting to believe it.

“How – how are you?” Jon cringes. It’s as stupid a question now as it was the last time. Moreso, seeing as he’s already heard the answer. “S-sorry. That’s – probably obvious.”

Daisy answers anyway, likely glad of the chance to talk to someone else after so long in isolation.

“I – I can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t…” She trails off, hesitating. “But it’s… it’s quiet here? I can’t…”

She seems to be struggling to find the words.

“You can’t feel the blood,” he supplies.

“Y-yeah. How did you…”

“I can’t feel the Eye, either. It’s… it’s just me. All me.”

“Where are we?”

“In the Coffin. The Buried. It’s… the powers don’t have much sway within one another’s domains. The Hunt, the Eye – they can’t reach us here.”

“The Hunt,” she echoes.

“Yes. You’re a Hunter.”

“I… I guess I was. But – not here.”

No, not here. But once they leave here…

Stop, he tells himself. One thing at a time. Escape the Buried, then worry about the Hunt.

“Come on.” He tugs on her hand. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“Can’t – can’t move, and – and even if I could, there’s no way out –”

“No, I – I can get us out. I have a plan.”

“Is this like all your other plans?”

Jon chuckles, but it comes out as a wheeze.

“Yes and no. But – but don’t worry, it’s – I can do this. I just – need to – to find it.”

But when he closes his eyes and concentrates, there’s… nothing there.

“Come on,” he says under his breath, keeping his voice deliberately calm. “Come on, where are you?”

There’s nothing there. Why is there nothing there?

“Just need to… need to focus. Just – focus, think of…”

Think of Martin. Martin is your anchor. Clever, brave, loyal, compassionate Martin.

He was kind to you even when you didn’t deserve it; he cared for you even though you did everything you could to push him away. He reached out to you through the Lonely when you were at your most monstrous to remind you of the humanity you’d thought you lost. He made you want to do better, to be the person that he saw when he looked at you.

You followed him into the Lonely because you love him and because he deserved to know it. You need to return to him now, because this version of him doesn’t yet know that he is loved. If you don’t get back to him, if you don’t reach out to him – he’ll get lost, and he –

Jon’s breath hitches. The fear is starting to move in as inexorably as the earth surrounding them, settling cold and heavy in his gut.

Stop that, he tells himself. Just think about Martin, not the worst case scenario.

Everyone underestimates him, because he spent his entire life striving for the perfect balance between useful and unobtrusive. But he’s not helpless; he’s not a pushover. He took master manipulator Jonah Magnus by surprise; he fooled Peter Lukas for months. Sometimes, you think that Martin Blackwood could outmaneuver the Web if he cared to. If anyone could, it would be him. You don’t think you’ll ever fully forgive yourself for taking so long to notice.

No, Jon tells himself once more, recognizing the warning signs of a guilt spiral. That won’t help. Redirect.

In those early days after the ritual, you briefly defaulted to your old habits, withdrawing and shutting him out. He stood up to your brooding, gave your self-loathing no refuge in which to thrive, because he saw right through your sharp tongue to the vulnerable parts of you that it was meant to hide.

He is intuitive, stubborn, and patient in the best of ways.

You have a tendency to stare. You always have; you typically don’t notice you’re doing it. After you became the Archivist, it went from being an awkward habit to evidence of your inhumanity: all eyes, always watching, always demanding more, more, more until every secret is exposed and any semblance of privacy has been demolished.

But it was never just the Eye urging you to record things. You know from experience that nothing lasts forever, that anyone and anything can disappear without a moment’s notice – sometimes leaving no trace, no memory that they ever existed. It only makes sense that you would develop a compulsion to document everything for posterity. The tape recorders were only the most recent manifestation of that preexisting obsession. Before that, you made lists, you took pictures, you wrote on your hands – and, of course, you stared.

During your first few days together at the safehouse, Martin called attention to the staring. You were mortified, launched into a rambling apology – but he shut it down, reassured you that he was only teasing, that he didn’t mind it, that it was… endearing, in a way. And once you were given permission, you began to consciously catalog every little detail.

He has thirty-six freckles on his face, seventeen on his hands, and constellations of them besides: on his back, on his shoulders, on his arms, on his belly. He blushes easily, and you love it, because you’ve never been good at reading body language, and you can always use a hint. His hair is soft, and the way he leans into it when you run your fingers through it – you think he would purr if he could. You were hesitant, at first, to spend too long looking at his eyes – but unlike most people, he showed no signs that he found eye contact with you unsettling.

You gave him permission to stare, too. And he did. He never shied away from your scars. He liked looking at you – and you knew he was genuine when he said so, even though you didn’t understand it.

Martin is self-conscious about his size, painfully aware of how others see him. He rarely stands to his full height, tending to curl his shoulders in, maintain a curve to his spine, keep his arms pulled tight to his body: anything to avoid towering over others, anything to take up as little space as possible. He saw his stretch marks as flaws to be tolerated; spent most of his life assuming that his weight and soft edges made him unattractive.

There are so many things he hates about himself. It broke your heart a little, to see how difficult it was for him to believe that you like looking at him, that your boundaries regarding physical intimacy weren’t a comment on his desirability. (Though he never voiced that last concern, never wanted his own insecurities to make you feel self-conscious about that part of you. Never made you feel guilty or lacking or… or broken.)

You regularly stole his jumpers; the first time you did it, he went speechless and flustered at the casual domesticity of it all. You took turns ambushing one another with affirmations and small acts of affection like that. It became something of a challenge, a game: springing a pet name on one another here, placing a soft kiss on a hand there, delighting in the reactions it got. It’s strange how easily you settled into that routine, how natural it felt to let down your guard.

At night, he would curl around you like he belonged there, like there was no place he’d rather be – and it made you feel like you belong, too. The first time he held you in his arms, you realized that you’d never truly known what it was to feel safe until that moment – and isn’t that its own special kind of vulnerability, isn’t it such a cliché? You still had nightmares, still jolted awake several times throughout the night frantic and disoriented – as did he – but it felt so much more endurable with someone to coax you back to reality.

When you first led him out of the Lonely, it was still clinging to him. He couldn’t understand what you saw in him, any more than you could understand what he saw in you. You made it your mission to make him understand. And eventually, he did. It wasn’t the first time you told him you loved him, but one morning when you said it, he looked at you and his lips parted ever so slightly, and you could practically see the epiphany dawn in his eyes, and he whispered that he believed you.

You still haven’t found a word that accurately describes what you felt then. You kissed him, and hoped that it would say what words could not.

You never gave up on each other, even when you’d given up on your own selves. He never stopped caring for you, even when you were at your most fearsome and fearful. Despite everything, you communicated, you compromised, you comforted one another. You never stopped loving one another.

You lost him once before. You cannot lose him again. You need to find him. Why – why can’t you find him? Why can’t you feel him?

Jon feels his breath quickening, terror needling at the edges of his mind. He jumps slightly when Daisy speaks.

“Jon?”

“It’s – it’s okay,” he says, his voice shaky. “I’ve – I’ve done this once before. I can do this.”

There’s no rule saying he can only have one anchor, right?

He thinks of Georgie.

She took you in when you had nowhere else to go, even though you hadn’t spoken in years, even though you hadn’t parted on the best of terms. Staying with her felt more like home than you’d experienced in… you don’t know how long. It made you realize how much you missed her – her humor, her ingenuity, her confidence, her tenacity, her generosity, and, yes, even her perceptiveness, daunting though it may be at times. She speaks her mind and you can take her at her word. You can appreciate that, as someone who has always had trouble parsing the implicit and unspoken aspects of social life.

You trust her judgment, and she believes in you, and it makes you want to believe in yourself. You want to be there for her in the same way that she’s chosen to be there for you.

He thinks of Melanie.

You disliked one another at first meeting, even though – or perhaps because – you have so much in common. Over the years, you saw more sides to her. She’s brave and resolute, not just when it comes to fighting back, but when it comes to making the conscious decision to heal. She’s capable of kindness to those who are receptive to it. You’ve seen how she is with Georgie, how her hard edges relax, how her devotion is as fierce as her anger can be – perhaps moreso.

You know that she never deserved to suffer like she has. You know she deserves a happy ending. You want to try to reconcile with her. In your future, she went so far as to suggest that you could be friends. You think you would like that.

He thinks of Basira.

She’s had no one but herself to rely on for months. She feels trapped and alone; she hasn’t had a moment to grieve; she’s forced herself to compartmentalize and detach because if she breaks down, she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to put herself back together again. She’s told herself that her own comfort and wellbeing don’t matter. She has a job to do and she’s the only one left who is willing and able to do it. The only solid thing left in her life, the only thing giving her purpose is the mission. The mission is her anchor, because she’s lost everything else.

When she found out that Daisy was alive, she was almost angry with you for making her dare to hope. You promised that you would bring Daisy home to her, and you mean to keep that promise.

And Jon has a job to do, too, doesn’t he?

You need to stop Jonah Magnus, you need to –

His stomach clenches as the dread grips him.

Okay, no. Don’t – don’t think of Jonah. Not helpful, not helpful, not –

He reaches further. He tries to think of Naomi, of the Admiral, of –

The faraway rumbling starts up again.

“Jon,” Daisy says again, urgently, perched on the edge of panic right along with him.

This is forever deep below creation, some self-sabotaging part of his brain reminds him. Where the weight of existence bears down. This is the Buried, and we are alive. There isn’t even an up –

“I just – I just – I just need to calm down,” he stammers. He can feel his pulse beating in his throat; would be hyperventilating if he could breathe at all. “I – I can’t think straight, and I just need to…”

He thinks back to the physical details of the world just outside the Coffin.

The arrangement of the tapes –

…CASE #0160919 sits 34.2 centimeters west of the Coffin, turned at a 45-degree angle. Approximately 20.6 centimeters south-southwest is CASE #0172904; the casing of its recorder is slightly cracked at the lower left corner. 2.4 centimeters to its right is CASE #0171302; the rewind button on the recorder housing it tends to stick…

– on the floor of his office –

…where fingernail scratches are still visible in the northwest corner of the room, left there by Enrique MacMillan on 4 November, 2003, after he gave his statement regarding his encounter with a Buried-touched Leitner…

– and the tape he left on his desk –

…on top of a softcover Moleskine notebook – black, 12.7 by 21 centimeters, ruled – belonging to Martin Blackwood; the Archivist knows every word written thus far on the 68 used out of 192 total pages within…

– and on that tape are pleas that went unanswered for far too long, laced with desperation and grief and rapidly dwindling hope –

…We really need you, Jon. We – I need you …

– but Jon cannot hear it anymore.

His mind wanders to the single folded sheet of paper tucked away in the top drawer of his desk. A second message for Martin, to be read only in the event that Jon doesn’t return. A transcript, to be precise.

On their way to the Panopticon, they had been separated when they traversed the Lonely’s domain. Jon had searched frantically, resisting the urge to simply Know because he had promised. As much as he wanted to, he didn’t feel right forcing Martin to See him the way he did before. It was Martin’s domain, and he had the right to decide for himself whether to leave it behind. Even if Jon had wanted to, though, he suspected that he wouldn’t have been able to actually find Martin this time unless he wanted to be found. And in the end, he did.

Just before Jon found him, he managed to catch the tail end of Martin’s statement. Naturally, the Archive memorized every word and dutifully filed it away without any conscious effort or consent on Jon’s part.

…I am Martin Blackwood, and I am not Lonely anymore; I am not Lonely anymore. I want to have friends. I – no, I have friends. I’m in love. I am in love, and I will not forget that; I will not forget…

Before he entered the Coffin, Jon copied it down and left it behind. Just in case. Just in case something goes wrong. If he goes missing in action for too long, he trusts that eventually someone will clear out his desk, find it, and hopefully pass it along to its intended recipient.

It was a last-ditch effort to impart the truth: that a future exists wherein Martin isn’t Lonely; that he can be and is and deserves to be cared for; that it isn’t just an unattainable fantasy. And, most importantly, Jon is not the only one who can provide that, nor is Jon alone enough to fulfill that need. In the end, Martin chose to turn his back on the Lonely. He can do it again.

There’s every chance that it was a meaningless gesture, but Jon doesn’t think he could live with himself if he didn’t at least try – and if he does get lost down here, he’ll be forced to live with himself for as long as the Buried itself exists.

But Jon doesn’t want to leave Martin alone with that inexplicable scrap of statement, hoping that it’s enough to get the point across. Jon has to get home. He has to; there’s no other choice –

“Jon?” Daisy says again. “You sound like you’re… what – what’s wrong?”

“Sorry, I’m – I’m just… I can’t – I can’t feel my anchor.”

“Anchor?”

“Y-yeah. Something to ground me, help me feel the way out. It’s – there’s a void where it should be, and…” His short exhale shudders on the way out. “I think – I think we might be here for awhile longer.”

“N-not alone, though,” Daisy says, almost questioningly.

“No. No, not alone. And – and I can still get us out, I think,” he adds hurriedly. “I just – I need to… I need to come down from the panic, and it’s hard to do that when I can’t – I can’t breathe –“

His breath catches and he closes his eyes. Stop, he tells himself, you’re – you’re spiraling, talking yourself into a panic. Just… listen – listen to the quiet.

“Jon?”

“Still – still here,” he says, squeezing her hand again. “I’m not going anywhere without you, I promise.”

“Do you – if you need a break from – from whatever you’re doing…” She falters for a moment before blurting out: “C-can we… can we talk? I haven’t – I just want someone to hear me.”

“Of course. I’m listening.” When Daisy doesn’t reply, he offers a gentle prompting. “Daisy?”

“I’m – it’s difficult. I can’t find the words.”

“Would it help if I… ask?” The last time, it did help her get her thoughts out.

“Y-yeah,” she says with only a slight delay. “Do your… thing.”

“Right,” he says. For a moment, he worries that he’ll have difficulty concentrating long enough to compel an answer, but his mind clears almost as soon as he opens his mouth. Of course. “How are you feeling?”

The question buzzes like static on his tongue on its way out.

“S-scared. I – I’m – I’m s-scared…”

Daisy’s words do not deviate from the last time he was here, but he does not interrupt her as she speaks. He latches onto her voice, focuses all of his attention on her story, and tries to ground himself in the present.

“Y-you know what I thought, when I woke up here? I thought this was hell. I – I was dead, and I was in hell. And I - I knew I deserved it.” Daisy stifles a sob as she nears the end of her statement. “I don’t want t-to b-be a s-sadistic predator again. I – I don’t want to hobble around like some – pathetic wounded prey here. I don’t know which would be worse. But I’m scared now – that I won’t ever get the choice.”

One thing I’ve learned, Daisy, is that we all get a choice, he told her last time. Even if it doesn’t feel like one.

Now, though, he’s not so sure. Or, rather, now he thinks it isn’t quite that simple.

“It’s… complicated,” Jon starts slowly. “Choice, I mean. We all have choices, but – but when all the alternatives are unendurable, or impossible to achieve, or – or even conceptualize, then… well, it’s not a fair choice, is it? Sometimes because that’s just – how it is, and sometimes by design. There – there are people, and – and things out there that will abuse their power to deceive you, keep you ignorant about things that would affect your decisions. Or – or convince you that you have no options, no autonomy – or even that you can’t trust your own judgment, your own senses. Some choices can hardly be called choices at all.”

He begins to grind his teeth as he considers his next words, but stops as soon as he feels the grit between his molars when he bites down. There are a lot of things to hate about the Buried, but its refusal to allow him to engage in any of his usual nervous habits definitely adds insult to injury.

“You say you deserve to be here, but – do you think you deserved to be marked by the Hunt in the first place? Because one thing I’ve learned is… most people who become Avatars – we don't necessarily do anything to deserve the attention of the things that take notice of us. To be put in these positions, to be given impossible choices about – about things we have no right to decide in the first place.”

“What do you mean?”

“It seems that a common thread is… well, um, I think Tim hit the nail on the head, actually? In his testament before the Unknowing, he – he said, ‘The only thing you need to have your life destroyed by this stuff is just bad luck. Talk to the wrong person, take the wrong train, open the wrong door, and that’s it.’”

“You remember that verbatim?”

“It’s – it’s an Archivist thing.” Well, technically. Jon can’t access the Archive right now, but some statements have looped so many times in his head that he has every word memorized by now. “But the point is that our transgressions, they… the punishment often doesn’t seem to fit the crime.”

Daisy is quiet, so Jon continues.

“Uh, Jane Prentiss, for instance – stumbled upon a wasps’ nest in her attic, and then the Corruption infested her. In her original statement, she was afraid of what was happening to her, she was asking for help, but it… it was slowly hollowing her out. Appealed to her insecurities, whispered to her that it was the only thing that could love her, that wouldn’t abandon her. Maybe eventually she embraced it on her own, but at that point, how much of her was left to make that choice?

“And – and Michael Crew. He was struck by lightning when he was eight. The Spiral never stopped stalking him after that. He spent his childhood in fear, obsessively sought out information about – lightning, and fractals, because understanding it felt like the only way to resist a thing that feeds on uncertainty.”

Jon can relate to that, can’t he? He was always curious, but his desire to know and understand things became more obsessive after he encountered his first monster – as if he could solve any problem if only he learned enough about it. But it was never enough, and that impulse never actually kept him safe. It only offered him a flimsy illusion of control, which was something he desperately needed after the Web showed him what it was like to have none. Still, an ineffective coping mechanism was better than not coping at all – or so he told himself then.

“When Mike realized that there was no escape from the supernatural once he’d been marked by it,” Jon continues, “he decided that the next best thing was choosing which Fear to submit to – to serve. Obsessively sought out Leitners until he found the Vast, and… it offered him safety. The most basic of human needs, something he hadn’t known since he was a child. The things he did to feed his patron were – indefensible, but I can’t help thinking about the person he might have been, if the Spiral hadn’t come into his life. He… he was only eight. How is a child supposed to process something that even an adult would have trouble coping with? I’m sure many children don’t even physically survive an encounter with one of the Fears, but even those that do… they never actually escape, do they?”

Daisy makes an indistinct little noise in her throat. Jon can’t Know for certain, but he imagines she’s thinking of her own first encounter with the Hunt. When enough time has passed that she doesn’t seem ready to say as much, Jon continues.

“And there’s – there’s Oliver Banks, he’s an Avatar of the End. He just started having dreams one day, became a death prophet. As far as I can tell, nothing provoked it. It just… happened. And early on, he tried to use that ability to help people, but… the powers granted us as Avatars, they aren’t for helping or saving anyone. When you realize that, after a long string of failures, you start to become… despondent – numb, even. Maybe some misstep along the way piqued the End’s interest in him, or maybe it was completely arbitrary. I don’t know. I don’t know that Oliver does, either.”

It’s difficult to speak at length here, and Jon’s speech is punctuated by frequent gasps and stops and starts, but he plows ahead. Granted, he’s always had a tendency toward intense, rapidfire speech whenever he gets invested in a topic of interest, but it’s also that he needs to cover as much ground as he can as quickly as possible. There’s no telling when the Buried will constrict again. Sometimes there are long intervals of relative peace; other times, the bouts of crushing pressure come one after the other in a barrage. The inconsistency makes the dread all the more potent: you can never predict when the walls will close in.

“And Helen,” he says, moving right along, “before she became the Distortion, she opened a door. That’s all. Most people would have probably done the same. A door that wasn’t there before, that can’t be there – of course the human mind wants to test its perceptions, make sense of the discrepancy. Which is exactly what the Distortion preys on. It let her escape its corridors, because it would make the fear that much more potent when it came for her again, when she realized that it had never actually let her go, that there was never any way to escape. It was… it was just playing with its food.”

Like with Benjamin Hatendi, Jon thinks. ‘The blanket never did anything.’

The Fears are never merciful. For an earthly predatory animal, the pain and fear of the prey are only relevant insofar as their utility in capturing it. Granted, the majority of animals may have no qualms about eating their prey alive so long as it’s incapacitated, no concept of putting their food out of its misery – but still, sustenance isn’t derived from the experience of the prey, only from its organic matter.

For the Powers, though… terror is the food source. If anything, the misery is deliberately drawn out. The suffering is primary to the meal.

“I still don’t know how much of Helen Richardson was left by the time she embraced her new existence and began feeding” – by the time she chose to stop feeling guilty, Jon notes privately – “but she never asked to be in that position to begin with. She just… opened a door.

“And you… all you did was trespass on a childhood dare, right? You and Calvin Benchley. I did hear the tape – of your interrogation with Elias. Maybe the Hunt chose the both of you, was deliberately waiting for you there. Or maybe you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, you… you did something that most children do at one point or another, exploring out bounds – I did plenty of that myself. And – and you’d done the same thing many times in the past, there was no reason to think that things would go any differently. But that time, that time you stumbled into something that most children – most people never do.”

Jon debates whether or not to share his own initiation into this world. He never told Daisy about it last time, but he knows – and Knows – about her childhood encounter. It seems only fair to include his own.

“Actually, I… I had a similar experience, when I was eight,” he admits, pushing through his habitual reservations. “Unlike Michael Crew, though, I was an active participant in my own fate. There’s no dodging a lightning strike, but me – I… I opened a book I shouldn’t have, knocked on a door I shouldn’t have. I could’ve just… not.”

“That’s a funny double standard,” Daisy says flatly.

“P-pardon?”

“Couldn’t you just as easily say that Crew could have chosen to not stand outside during a lightning storm?”

“He – he actually wanted to go inside, but his friend pressured him to keep playing,” Jon says, almost defensively. “By the time they decided to go in, it was too late.”

“Like I pressured Calvin.”

“That’s –” Jon gives an agitated little exhale. “It’s still different.”

“How?”

“Did you have a bad feeling about the dare, or was it just like any other day? You had no reason to think that things would go wrong. I… I knew that book was wrong, and I opened it anyway.” Daisy scoffs. “What?”

“Has anyone ever pointed out to you that you’re capable of some truly infuriating mental gymnastics?”

Jon puffs out another exasperated breath before muttering, “Yes.”

In fact, she said almost the exact same thing to him the last time around. And Georgie – she used to say so all the time, especially when they were dating.

“You always do this,” she’d pointed out once during an argument, hands on her hips and a shrewd look in her eye. “Any time a conversation gets a little too uncomfortable for you, you just – throw your hands up, say it’s your fault and shut down, and nothing ever gets resolved. Why are you so eager to take the blame for things? Is it that it’s better than admitting there are some things you can’t control, or is it just easier than actually talking about your feelings?”

The answer was yes on both counts, and he had been angry with her for putting it into words. He’d already known on some level, but he studiously avoided that sort of introspection. Now that it had been verbalized, the knowledge would always be there, floating around in his mind – yet another thing to overanalyze, to obsess over, to ambush him in moments of doubt.

Since then he’s gotten better at communicating in healthy ways, but the self-blame thing… well, Martin still had to periodically call him out on it, right up until the end. It became a common refrain: “It’s still victim blaming even if you’re the victim, Jon.” The reminder did help – at least some of the time – but it wasn’t enough to undo a worldview that he’d spent his entire life internalizing.

“Y-yes,” he says again, less sullenly now, “I – I see your point.”

“Good. So – evil book?”

“A Leitner, yes. The Web.” Jon has no desire to go into all the gruesome details, not when he’s – when they’re both already being suffocated by fear. “And I only escaped through… I don’t know, some combination of mundane human cruelty and luck – or… or someone else’s misfortune, more like.” He gives a tired sigh. “Or it could have been deliberate interference by the Web, taking someone else in my place because it had other plans for me. I’ll never know the exact reason why. If there even is a reason.”

He pauses, expecting the Beholding’s characteristic objection to the idea that he should accept not knowing anything, before remembering with grim satisfaction that the Eye can’t reach him here. Nor can the Web, for that matter. A small mercy, but he’ll take it.

“But the experience led to an obsession with the supernatural. I suppose I thought that if – if I could just understand it, I could conquer the fear. It didn’t work, but an obsession like that – it persists regardless of whether it’s successful or productive or – or healthy. Eventually it led me to the Institute. Which led me… here, ultimately.” He bites his lower lip as he considers his next words. “I’m sure many of my choices along the way were mine alone, and – and I’m responsible for my actions regardless. But that first domino… it was just a restless child ignoring gut instinct, all because he needed to know.”

“Jon,” Daisy says, the hint of a warning growl underlying her tone.

“I – okay, yes, I know, I know. Double standards.” He takes a shallow breath before continuing. “My point is, most of us are just… unlucky isn’t the right word, but it’s as close as I can get. Sometimes the Fears seem to seek out victims who are already uniquely susceptible to them – people with phobias, or specific traumas. Other times it seems… arbitrary. And sometimes it seems like the difference between an average victim and those who eventually become Avatars is… compatibility, or – or in some cases, a sense of kinship, even.

“I’ve always been too curious for my own good, a natural fit for the Beholding. Jane talked about being seen as toxic, and it was the Corruption that found her. Annabelle Cane said she was well-versed in manipulation as a young child, the sort of gift that the Web favors. Jared Hopworth always had a sadistic streak, but the difference between him and any other bully is that he found The Boneturner's Tale. I… don’t really know what to make of Jude Perry. The way she told it, she always had the disposition for the Desolation. She would likely have been a nightmare with or without supernatural help, but there are plenty of people like that in the world. She just happened to be one of the few who caught the attention of the Lightless Flame.

“But – but I also don’t think preexisting compatibility is a requirement to be an Avatar. Some people really do just – stumble into it, probably. Grow into it, maybe, after enough exposure. Especially if the same Power keeps coming back.”

Jon can’t help thinking of the Distortion and its tendency to dog its victims for years. Helen said once that she couldn’t just force her victims into her corridors, that they had to open the door on their own. But that was a lie, wasn’t it? Marcus MacKenzie refused to open the door every single time it appeared throughout his childhood and young adulthood. It started to take increasingly drastic measures: disguising itself as other things, at one point even opening up in the ground in front of him, hoping he wouldn’t notice until he already stepped over the ledge and gravity did its work. When that didn’t work, it took his father. And then, even after evading it for decades, Helen eventually took Marcus anyway. Choice didn’t come into it. It didn't matter how many times he walked away – it followed him wherever he went.

“Either way,” Jon continues, “whether it’s part of some grand plan or just happenstance, the Avatars… we catch the attention of something predatory, and it sinks its hooks into the vulnerabilities it finds. There are plenty of other people in the world who may have the same… flaws, or inclinations, or experiences, but most are lucky enough not to be drawn into this world. I’m not sure exactly what determines who is, but I don’t think it comes down to fairness, or deservedness, or – or some sort of cosmic punishment. I – I don’t think the universe works that way.

“And – and after we’ve been marked, maybe we can make choices along the way. But as far as I can tell, none of those choices ever lead to complete freedom from the Powers that lay claim to us. We’re still accountable for our actions; we can fight back, we can resist – but we’ll always be struggling against our natures. Sometimes it seems like there’s… there’s really no choice we can make where things actually turn out okay. Doesn’t mean we stop trying, or give up hope, but…” He pauses to gnaw on the inside of his cheek for a few seconds. “It can be hard to ignore the fear when it’s become such an intrinsic part of you, is all. When it makes its hunger your own, and hollows you out if you don’t feed it. It can make the concept of choice seem… empty.”

When he trails off, Daisy blows out a forceful exhale.

“That was… a lot.”

“Surprised the Buried let me get it all out,” Jon says, a bit sheepishly. “Sorry, I’ve… had a lot of time alone to ruminate.”

“I think I can rela-”

Daisy’s words are cut short when all at once the earth crashes down around them with a vengeance, as if exacting payment for the courtesy of staying its hand for so long. An indeterminate amount of time passes, weight pressing down on them from all sides, leaving no room for breath or words or thought. Jon focuses on their hands, still linked tightly together, the only anchor to be found here in the dark.

Eventually, the walls begin to withdraw in tiny increments. The sinister, sibilant shifting of soil is a constant, unknown variable – it sounds the same whether the earth is compacting or moving away, and often there is no way to tell until it’s already too close and pressing down. Jon can feel his pulse hammering in his throat, can hear Daisy’s gasping breaths overlapping his own.

“I was gonna kill you,” she blurts out eventually, breathless and rushed. “You know that?”

“Yes.”

“I – I don’t just mean that day in the woods,” she clarifies. “Af-after the mission, I was planning on killing you.”

“I know. You – you realized I wasn’t human. That I needed to die.”

“H-how did you –”

“I’ve been here once before. And – and I should apologize for the dreams, I –”

“Jon –”

“I know it’s not an excuse, but I never meant to compel you that time – didn’t even realize at the time that that was something I could do, and –”

“Jon –”

“I didn’t realize then that the dreams were real, and – and when I finally did, I still didn’t have any control over them, but I –”

“Jon! Shut up a minute.”

His mouth snaps shut a little too quickly and he winces as he bites down on the tip of his tongue. The metallic taste of blood just barely registers on his tongue in the few seconds it takes for the cut to heal.

“Just – back up,” Daisy says, toning down the intensity this time. “That thing you said about… you’ve ‘been here once before’? What is that supposed to mean?”

“It’s… a long story. And difficult to believe.”

“Well, it’s –” Daisy huffs. “It’s not like we don’t have the time?”

“I suppose,” Jon sighs. He’s already told this story to the tape recorder at length, but… the idea of telling it to another person, in his own words this time, feels both terrifying and cathartic at the same time. It’s just – difficult to talk about, no matter how many times he recaps it. “Where to begin… oh, I should probably preface this with ‘time travel is real.’”

Daisy sounds far too nonchalant when she says, “Okay.”

“O-okay? That’s… that’s it?”

“Sorry if it’s not the dramatic response you expected. Encounter enough – vampires, and people made of sawdust, and – and this, here, and… I don’t know that anything would surprise me anymore.”

“R-right,” Jon replies, still a bit incredulous. “Well, I’m – I’m from the future.” He pauses again, but she doesn’t interject. “And… and I came back to stop the apocalypse.”

His inflection pitches up into a near-question on the last word, certain that this will be the point at which Daisy calls bullshit. Instead, she just gives a dry chuckle.

“And how’s that going for you?”

“Well, uh, actually…” Jon’s laugh manages to sound slightly hysterical despite its brevity. “Being stuck here actually does – put it on hold indefinitely?”

“H-how’s that?”

“Because – because it can’t go forward without the Archivist.” He takes a shallow breath. “Just like the Stranger has the Unknowing, the Eye has its own Ritual. I was – I am a part of it. I – I didn’t want to, Elias – he orchestrated the whole thing, f-forced me to –” He nearly bites his tongue again when he cuts himself off. “But that – that doesn’t change anything,” he continues, almost viciously. “I’m the one who opened the door. It wouldn’t have happened if not for me, s-so it’s as good as my fault.”

“Don’t know about that,” Daisy says.

“What?”

“Don’t think I can see you making a choice to end the world, if you had any say. Doesn’t sound like you. You – Jon, you just went on about having choices taken away.” Jon is silent, teeth clenched; Daisy jostles his hand insistently. “So – so how’d it actually happen?”

“I, ah…” Why is this still so hard to talk about? “So you know how I – I… need the statements?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I – it – my appetite only got worse as time went on. Started craving live statements, and – and hunted for them. The others intervened eventually, and I stopped, but I still needed – need – statements, or else I’d… starve, for lack of a better word. So I made do with the old statements like before, but they were – less and less filling as time went on, and – and I needed more of them, and more frequently, even though I tried to – to spread them out, ration myself. And, uh, some things happened, and Martin and I went into hiding – used your safehouse, actually –”

“Which one?”

“Scotland.”

“Ah,” Daisy says softly. “I like that one.”

“So did we,” Jon says, smiling fondly. “I – we only had a couple weeks, before… b-but the time we did have, it was…”

He clears his throat.

“An-anyway, I went – hungry, for a bit, until a box of statements could be sent to us. And the first one I read, it was – a trap, by J- Elias.” He can explain about Jonah Magnus later. If he takes that detour now, he’ll never get through the rest of this. “The heading looked – just like any other statement. Statement giver’s name, date – but as soon as I started reading, it was Elias’ words. It was a, uh, statement about – about me. About what I am. I’m not just the Archivist, Daisy, I’m the Archive.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I – when I take or – or consume a statement, I, ah – experience it like I’m there, and it – it becomes a part of me. I’m like a – like a living record, a library of – of people’s worst fears, nightmares, moments that I have no right to witness, and – doesn’t matter. Elias needed a fully realized Archive for his ritual to work, so he – he created one, and he fed it a statement. And I – I tried to stop reading, but I couldn’t, even though I – I tried, I really did, I –” He laughs nervously. “Even tried to – to blind myself, but it just – healed. Then, at the end, there was an – an incantation. To open a door that could let all the Fears into the world. And when I read it… it did.”

“Wait – all of them?”

“Yes,” Jon says quietly. “Just before she died, Gertrude figured out that a ritual to bring one of the Fears into the world could never succeed on its own. The Powers can’t exist without minds to experience them, and our minds – they’re highly associative. The experience of fear is just… far more convoluted and subjective than any artificial taxonomy can capture. The Fears have overlap, and – and some of them are defined by their opposition to the others.

“A Vast ritual would collapse without the existence of the Buried, for instance. Or – the Stranger and the Spiral, they’re both tied to unreality, to not being able to trust your perceptions – which can feed into paranoia, which the Eye and the Web also thrive on. The Hunt and the Slaughter run together, and the Flesh can tag alongside. Both the Corruption and the Desolation are equally efficient and thorough in ravaging a home or a body or – or even the general concept of safety.

“Even here – we’re too far deep below creation for the Eye or the Hunt to reach us, but there’s still more than the Buried to fear. The Dark, for instance, or being Forsaken. Even the Vast can be found down here, if you start obsessing over your own insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe. The Powers are just – too interconnected, and their rituals never accounted for that.”

“So the Unknowing…”

“Would have failed even without our intervention,” Jon says bitterly. “Same goes for all of the rituals that Gertrude stopped, and all the others that have been sabotaged throughout the centuries. All of that sacrifice, and for nothing. Michael Shelley, and Jan Kilbride, and – and Tim, and you ending up here –”

“Tim?”

“He… he died during the mission,” Jon says quietly. He hears a sharp intake of breath from Daisy.

“And Basira?”

“Alive. She got out before the explosion.” He can just barely make out Daisy’s sigh of relief. “She… she told me to tell you that she’s waiting for you.”

“Oh,” Daisy says softly. “I’m s-”

Before she can say more, the Buried begins to writhe around them again, this time closing in molasses-slow. They both instinctively tighten their handhold on one another. As horrid as the crushing force is, this time it at least has the decency to press them closer together. Daisy’s free hand tentatively brushes against Jon’s free wrist. Understanding the unspoken request, Jon interlocks their fingers, and they wait.

“S-so,” Daisy wheezes when the earth finally relaxes and settles again, “about – about the rituals?”

“R-right.” Jon coughs lightly, still catching his breath. “Well, ah, Elias found out about Gertrude’s theory. Came up with a – ritual that would bring all the Powers through at once, but with the Eye ruling over the rest. It required an Archivist – Archive – directly marked by all the Powers. Elias – chose me. Made sure I’d encounter each of them, and… when I was ready, he laid one last trap and waited for me to wander in, because he knew from experience that I would.”

And it could happen again, Jon’s brain helpfully supplies.

“Huh.”

“Yeah. S-so it probably goes without saying, but if you thought I wasn’t human before, I, ah…” He gives an exhausted, humorless chuckle. “I’m definitely not now.”

Daisy is silent for a long moment before saying: “I take it you – you didn’t come here the first time.”

That wasn’t the comment that Jon had been expecting.

“No, I did.”

“Then… how –”

“I told you, there’s a way out. I just – I just have to find it. Last time I found you, and we escaped together. We can do it again.” She doesn’t respond to that, and he kneads the tops of her hands with his thumbs. “Daisy?”

“You’ve been here once before, and you escaped, and… and you came back?” She says it in such a small voice, it almost doesn’t even sound like her. “After – after seeing what it’s like, you still came back for me?”

“Yes…?”

“Why?” she whispers. “Why do that for me? I – I had a knife to your throat, I would’ve killed you if Basira hadn’t found us first, I saw the fear in your eyes and I enjoyed it – and you knew that I’d still planned on killing you the moment I got a chance, so – so why?”

“We’re –” Jon stops himself, rephrases. “In my future, we became friends.”

“What?”

“W-well, we – we were both Avatars trying to resist our darker natures. We went through this together. We just – we had a lot in common.”

Daisy offers no comment.

“I… don’t know what I would have done without you, honestly,” Jon continues, jiggling one foot nervously as best he can in the confined space. “You were… you were the only one I had, most days. The only one who knew what it was like, having the hunger consume you because you refuse to feed it. And – and you had Basira, but she… there were things she didn’t fully understand, couldn’t relate to. So you would come to me. We, uh… we helped each other. Trusted each other.” He adds, a bit timidly: “I… I’ve missed you.”

Still, Daisy says nothing. Jon is about to start rambling again – about what, he doesn’t know; he just needs to fill the awkward silence somehow – but Daisy speaks first.

“But – but what about before all that? Why did you come down here the first time around?”

“I was… in a bad place,” Jon admits. “Tim was dead, Sasha was dead, Melanie hated me, Basira saw me as a monster, Georgie wanted nothing to do with me, and Martin was… gone. I had no one, I wasn’t human anymore, I was afraid and ashamed and guilty and tired, and I… I was starting to doubt my decision to live. Not wanting to die had started to feel selfish, and I – I needed some way to justify living, some way to make myself useful.

“When we found out that you were alive, I – I just didn’t want to lose anyone else. If there was a chance of bringing you home, I had to try. And… there was nothing to lose. If I got stuck down here, it – it would be no great loss. The world would have even been safer for it – moreso than I even imagined at the time. I… honestly didn’t think that anyone would care if I didn’t come back.”

“That’s messed up,” Daisy says, a hint of wry amusement in her voice.

“Yeah,” Jon says with a self-deprecating laugh. “That’s what you said last time. Like I said, I was in a bad place. But – but in the end, we got out. I know I can get us out of here again. I promised Basira I would bring you home, and I – I – I will. I just… I need some time to find the way.”

“No pressure,” she deadpans.

Jon makes a strangled, exasperated noise in his throat.

“Seriously?”

If he could gesture at the tons of dirt pressing down on them, he would – but he can’t, because of the tons of dirt pressing down on them.

“Just trying to lighten the mood,” Daisy says, just the slightest hint of a self-satisfied smirk in her voice. Jon feels one corner of his mouth quirk in spite of himself.

God, he really had missed her.

The concept of time has no meaning within the Buried. Without any real way to observe or calculate its passing, things tend to feel stagnant. One long note of boredom and desperation and restriction. If not for the unpredictable tides of the soil around them, it might even feel as if time is at a standstill. In a way, it is: there is only one time here, and it is forever – or until the End of everything, at least. To make things worse, true sleep is impossible in the Buried. Sometimes, though, there is a lull in the movements of the earth, and within that liminal space, the mind may be allowed to drift.

Jon isn’t sure how long he’s been drifting when Daisy tugs on his hand.

“Jon.”

“Hm?”

“You’re muttering again.”

“Oh.” Jon clears his throat when he realizes how groggy he sounds. “Was I?”

“Care to share?”

“I’m just – I keep thinking about how Basira escaped the Unknowing,” he says, rousing himself. Out of habit, he tries to stretch, only to remember that he can barely move at all – which, of course, only intensifies the urge to fidget.

“Oh?” Daisy shakes both his hands in hers, prompting him to continue. Judging by the waver in her voice, the silence must be getting to her again. “How – how’s that?”

“She… thought her way out. Like a – an ‘I think therefore I am’ thought experiment.” Jon smiles to himself and shakes his head slightly. “She put Descartes to shame.”

“Not even a fair comparison,” Daisy scoffs.

“Agreed.”

“Were you thinking of trying that here?”

“I… don’t think it would work.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re not that level-headed.”

“That’s –” Jon’s indignation fizzles out just as quickly as it emerged. “That’s… okay, yes, that’s fair.”

Daisy snickers; Jon can’t help a small grin in return.

“But what I was actually trying to say is that it was a strategy uniquely tailored to the Stranger. The Unknowing was all about – unreality, about not being able to trust your senses, even your own identity. Basira figured out that the best way to anchor herself in that situation was to boil her entire reality down to simple logical premises: She existed. She existed in a place and time. The place was dangerous at that time, so she had to not exist in that place at that time. Places have ends, and if she kept moving, she could reach a different place.”

“Huh.”

“Straightforward. Elegant, even.”

“It’s Basira,” Daisy says, unmistakable fondness creeping into her tone. Jon snorts. “Shut up, Sims. You were saying?”

“The Buried doesn’t operate in the same way. Basira reasoned her way out of the Stranger’s domain by denying unreality. If we tried to do the same thing, we’d just be denying… well, reality. The earth, the pressure, the – the ‘too close I cannot breathe,’ it’s all real.”

“Good pep talk.”

“Sorry, that’s not what I –” Jon sighs. “I didn’t mean to sound… morose. I was just thinking about different kinds of anchors. Basira managed to center herself and use her own mind as an anchor, and I – I find that impressive, is all.”

“That’s one way to describe her,” Daisy says. “She’s… always been like that. Practical, reliable… centered.”

Wait, Jon thinks to himself, brow furrowed. What if…

“Daisy, tell me about Basira.”

“What?”

“I – she’s your anchor, right? And – and you’re hers.”

“I don’t know about –”

“She called you solid, a – a – a fixed point,” Jon says excitedly. “When you’re there, things make sense to her. You ground her. And now, without you, she’s… she has trouble knowing where she stands. She has no backup, no one to orient her. What she did during the Unknowing – it was impressive, but it isn’t sustainable over a long period of time. You can only go it alone for so long before you lose your bearings. She – she needs you. And you need her. Right?”

“She’s the fixed point,” Daisy murmurs, as if that explains everything – and maybe it does.

“Exactly, s-so – tell me about Basira. From your perspective.”

“Why?”

“Because this is the Buried, where we’re at the center and everything is weighing down on us,” Jon says, mind racing five steps ahead of him. “The dirt, the pressure, it’s all real, but – but the Fears are also about state of mind.”

Jon can feel his heart rate pick up, the way it does whenever he’s talking his way through a puzzle. If he could, he would be pacing right now, burning off that restless energy. Instead, he finds himself tapping his fingers rapidly against Daisy’s hands. She doesn’t stop him, though.

“I’m not saying that we can solve this with ‘mind over matter’ thinking, but it might – help, if we can both focus on an anchor – a different center point, that is, one outside of this place. Move from this center to that center. There’s a better chance of figuring out which way is up if we’re both feeling for the way out. We can orient each other. If we both feel a tug from the same direction, we know we’re going the right way.”

“I can’t feel anything, though,” Daisy says. “Or – I can, but it’s – it’s everywhere, pushing in one direction – pushing down –”

Jon grips her hands more tightly when he hears her breathing start to grow ragged.

“That’s why you need to tell me about Basira – until you do feel a pull. I could be way off, but it’s worth a try. And – and if nothing else, it might help clear my mind, so I can give finding the way out another shot.”

“A statement, then?” Daisy asks sardonically. “Recharge your battery?”

“I wish,” Jon says with a grim smile. “The Eye only likes horror stories. If any story would sate my appetite, I could just watch biopics any time I was feeling a bit peaky. Hell, imagine if a fictional story was enough. An episode of the Archers would be like an afternoon snack.”

“You like the Archers?” He doesn’t have to see her to know that her eyebrows are raised as high as they’ll go.

“You know, I said the exact same thing to you once. And no, I don’t, but you do, and you used to make me listen with you. We didn’t even make a dent in the back catalogue, but I’m an Avatar of terrible knowledge and the Beholding loves spoilers, so guess who Knows every episode now?” Daisy barks a laugh at that. “There are over nineteen thousand episodes, Daisy!”

“That sounds like a you problem.”

“Anyway,” Jon says, squeezing both of her hands in lieu of nudging her shoulder, “a story just… helps take me out of my own head sometimes. Always has. You’re humoring me, not the Eye. Besides, do you have anything better to do?”

“S’pose not.”

“I mean – you don’t have to, of course, if you’re uncomfortable. I don’t want to pressure you –” Jon cringes. “Bad choice of words. I –”

“Stop babbling, Sims.” He knows that tone of voice, knows that she’s rolling her eyes right now. “We only have so long before the walls close in again –”

Daisy cuts herself off with a strangled noise, which she tries to cover by clearing her throat. She was likely trying to lighten the mood again, but the inevitability of the Buried’s ebb and flow is still too real, too close.

“Do you, uh… do you want to hear a story or not?”

“Please.”

“Back again?”

Martin jolts at the sound of Georgie’s voice. He tosses a brief glare over his shoulder at her where she stands just outside the doorway to the office, a safe distance from the Coffin. Martin discovered quickly that the Coffin’s compulsion has no impact on him, likely muffled by his allegiance to the Lonely. Georgie, though, has no such protection.

Coincidentally, it also means that as long as Martin keeps close to the Coffin, Georgie has to keep her distance from him as well.

“It’s been a week,” Martin says in a quiet monotone, tearing his gaze away from her.

“Yeah.”

“He should have been back by now.”

“Well, he didn’t really give a timeframe –”

“But you said he implied that it wouldn’t take more than a week,” Martin says impatiently. “And knowing Jon, he exaggerated how long it would take, just so no one would worry if he was late.”

“I… yeah, I know,” Georgie sighs. “I was expecting him to be back by now, too.”

Martin nods in a clear ‘I told you so’ gesture – then immediately feels childish. Why is he acting vindicated by her admission?

“Does Peter know you’ve been coming down here?”

“Don’t care.”

“Oh?” Georgie says, her voice suspiciously bland – and only then does Martin register the significance of what he just said.

“I just meant – it’s –” Martin huffs. “It’s none of your business.”

“Of course.” Martin can hear the smirk in her tone.

“Why are you here?” he snaps, swiveling to look at her again.

“Same reason you are, I expect.”

Martin says nothing to that, simply turns his back on her. For a few minutes, the only sound is the low, indistinct chatter of the tape recorders, still spooling out their horror stories on a loop.

“Have you tried calling to him?” Georgie asks. Martin continues to ignore her, teeth clenched until they ache. “It could be worth a shot. He left all those tapes running – don’t know if he can hear them exactly, but they’re meant to call to him.”

Go away, Martin thinks, his hands curling into fists on his knees.

“Your voice might be better than a recording.”

Why is she so persistent?

“Just – think about it, okay?”

When Martin doesn’t respond, Georgie sighs, knocks twice on the door frame, and takes her leave. He doesn’t look back around until the sound of her footsteps fade away.

“Sure, just leave the door wide open,” he grumbles irritably, rising to his feet to remedy the issue.

He pulls the office door shut with more force than intended, practically slamming it. The lone tape recorder on Jon’s desk, previously standing on end, topples over with a light clatter. Martin exhales heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to suppress the static buzz of nervous energy simmering inside him.

“But we need you, Jon,” the tape recorder grinds out. “Jon, please, just – please.”

“Fuck,” Martin says, voice thick and strained. He takes several deep breaths – in through his nose, out through his mouth – trying to clear his thoughts. Eventually, his shoulders slump and he sighs. “Fine. You win.”

He settles himself on the floor in front of the Coffin again, closer this time.

“Jon,” he says, then falters, unsure of what to say. “I –” He lets out an agitated breath, then follows it up with a bitter chuckle. “This is stupid. You probably can’t even hear this, can you?”

There is an uncomfortable, stinging pressure in his eyes and he reflexively tries to swallow back the tears, only to realize how dry his mouth has become. He rubs his eyes instead, digging the heels of his palms into the sockets and applying pressure.

“I – if you – if you can hear me, I… I already lost you once. I can’t do this all over again, I just – I can’t. I’m – everyone is waiting for you, and I still…” Martin sniffles and clears his throat. “Just – come home, Jon. Please.”

“I think I’d forgotten what it was like to just be… present in the moment? A – a quiet moment, anyway.” Daisy sighs. “On a hunt, you always have to think a few steps ahead, anticipate the prey’s movements so you can get out in front of it. Even when you’re present-thinking, like during a fight, it’s – it’s instinct and reflex, quick movements and jagged edges. You can never just… be.”

“I think I understand,” Jon says. “Not the Hunt aspect, but – but the intolerance of stillness.”

“But in that moment – laying back in the grass, Basira going on about the stars – I was… I was just me. I was focused on her – she gets so excited, so animated whenever she has a chance to talk about something new she’s learned, and I – I let her go on for” – Daisy laughs – “going on forty minutes, probably, about – about the Wow! signal before she looked over and saw me staring. Got all embarrassed that I let her talk so long.”

Jon can feel himself grinning.

“In her defense, the Wow! signal is a fascinating topic.”

“I thought so,” Daisy says warmly. “I mean, I must’ve, right? The whole time she was talking, I never felt the blood calling to me. Afterwards, it felt wrong, somehow – unnatural – that I’d been ignoring it. Not even resisting it, just – tuning it out altogether. I didn’t notice until then how loud it was – like for my whole life there had been teeth at my throat and I just never noticed until that moment.” She pauses. “It’s strange, but I – I think I liked it. The quiet.”

“I don’t think it’s strange at all,” Jon says softly. “I think –”

Suddenly, there’s a distinct wrenching sensation within him – like having a hook yank upwards, painless but abrupt enough to make his breath catch in his throat.

“Jon?” Daisy says warily. “What’s wrong?”

There’s something there.

“Do – do you feel that?”

“No? What – what is it?”

“It’s – wait, just let me…”

Jon concentrates, holding his breath as he waits, and –

There. Another pull, like a fish tugging at a line. And another, gentler but just as insistent.

“Daisy, I –” Jon lets out a breathless little laugh. “I think I know the way. C-come on, follow me.”

End Notes:

tbh I was tempted to split this into two chapters but it felt like it wanted to be all one thing, and also I didn't want to end on an angsty cliffhanger because:

I know I was managing a loose every-7-to-10-days-ish update schedule for awhile there, but it miiiight start looking more like an every-two-weeks schedule going forward. I've been on split shifts at work but we're supposedly going back full time soon, so that might effect how much writing time I have each day. Just wanted to give a heads up in case it takes longer than usual before the next chapter is ready.

There are several snippets of dialogue borrowed/reworked from Jon & Daisy's conversation in the Buried in MAG 132 - they're scattered throughout the chapter. (The "This is forever deep below creation..." and "One thing I've learned..." internal dialogue bits are from 132 also.) Probably goes without saying, but Martin's Lonely statement is from MAG 170 and there's also a previously cited usage of his dialogue from the S4 trailer. The Tim quote is from MAG 117. "The blanket never did anything" (still one of the creepiest lines in the podcast i s2g) is from MAG 086.

[buddha-in-disguise]

So, I’m still ruminating over 5.17. I’m still equally grateful that Melissa directed in a truly wonderful way (although the Eve fight scene was great, I do get annoyed at an entire sink moving as a guys head hits it, as if it weighs nothing & isn’t attached to anything. I get it. It is for dramatic effect, & it’s the kind of thing that happens throughout TV & movies, but still..... However, I digress).

Melissa directed the episode fantastically well. The lighting, framing on shots, overall pace on scenes - brilliant.

Sadly though I’m coming away having watched it wanting to tear my hair out, as I have far too often this season.

‪It is more than the general thoughts I’ve already written about in my last post. It is details like Alex suddenly referring to her dad as Jeremiah. We know how angry, hurt & upset she was with the news of his death. Is this a manifestation of that? That she is so angry, she can’t bring herself to use such personal terms in calling him dad? We have no idea, because suddenly it occurred. This is the sort of detail Chyler herself usually picks up & asks to be changed, which makes me suspect it was addressed somehow in other dialogue, but was cut. Maybe that was the case, maybe it wasn’t. Who knows, but I’d love to ask Chyler about it.

I’ve said this before - season 4 ended on a high. Fans were really feeling positive in ways they hadn’t for a while. You just need to look back on SM at the time.

Listening to the premise of S5, & again people were energised. The SM energy from SDCC was the most positive I had seen since the series began!

I’m still trying to figure out how they are expecting to wrap up the convoluted mess this season has been in 2 more episodes. I am struggling to figure out how they could even do it in 3, if 5.20 was going ahead. Even if 5.19 is extended to let’s say 1.5 hours in the schedule, it still wouldn’t be enough in my opinion.

I said briefly in my last post, I get frustrated because so much filler has occurred this season. Seriously, why did we have those two Winn episodes? ‪Well, Lex got on his ship & grabbed the cube...... but nah. I got nothing! ‬

‪Oh a few references for Dreamer (but we barely see her, so ...) & reassuring Kara ref Lena (which also .... when?) ‬

‪So nope. Those could be mentioned in a hot minute elsewhere.

Oh & pushing Kara to date William (a whole other mess I hate, but that’s for a different time).

‪But hey. We got Winn back!‬ Now before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I really am not against having Winn hop back in on occasion. However, for 2 episodes that right now offer nothing to the plot beyond those I’ve mentioned? On an already shortened season, to having two full episodes taken up with filler? Use Winn in episodes that fully pertain to the season. Not this.

I want the Danvers sister couch scenes back. I want Alex & Kelly having the discussions they did in S4 (we got more about them in S4 before they were together, than anything so far in S5 as a couple). I want J’onn to do more than flop around his Private Eye firm & use The Tower with Alex. I want Alex to be a kick ass agent, girlfriend & sister. I want Kara & Lena to make up! I want Brainy and Nia to get together again. I want Brainy & Lena to have their friendship back. I want Alex & Lena get together in a lab, or just work on cases - anything other than this stalemate we are getting. I want Kelly to be able to show her friendship with Nia & Kara & to actually get to know Lena. I want to know does she know Kara is Supergirl properly, not conjecture, (I think she does as I said in an earlier post - see photo).

All these interpersonal relationships can still also have some conflict between them, if that’s the sort of thing they want. After all, no matter how great a relationship (I include friendship in this) is, it isn’t always perfect. I’m not saying it all has to be through rose tinted spectacles. But not to the level of destruction we have seen this season.

Give us meaningful villains (like Lex in S4, not rehashed Lex in S5 that give us episodes that mirror what we already know). It isn’t as if they don’t have, oh I don’t know, a load of comics they could reference for ideas if they need them. Stop with the constant push/pull on Lena as a character, & allow her to be accepted into the friends, flaws and all, just like everyone else - including Kara!

Now - now fans are feeling flat. The loss of viewers has been incredibly sad & worrying to watch. This weeks number was - pitiful, & yet my timeline was full of fans all saying to watch because of Melissa’s debut directing. Some argue it was because of yet another hiatus, yet Batwoman didn’t slide like that on its return. The Flash (which Supergirl used to regularly keep up with on viewers) was a solid 1.2 million viewers on Tuesday.

If it hurts me as a fan to see this decline. I can’t imagine how most of the cast & crew feel. They deserve so much better.

SuperCorp fans are either a delusional minority, or causing the loss of 300k viewers (& counting) according to some, which is causing a lot of hurt & upset. I’ve seen SC fans not wanting even post on their own timelines for fear of some fans coming in to attack them for it.

I’ve had it happen to me, if I mention I ship SuperCorp (while we are at it, I ship Dansen - which is my 1st ship, then SC) and Brainia, which is especially close to me as my husband is transgender & I want representation to show that being transgender doesn’t mean you can’t have a meaningful relationship with someone. I want a Black lesbian woman to be shown as successful in her private & professional live.

The thing is, these ratings drop aren’t because of a minority of fans (& truthfully, whether anyone likes it or not, SC fans are the biggest in terms of fandom size). But general fans are leaving the show. Now die hard fans are starting to leave. Media outlets are increasingly critical on aspects of the show.

With the hiatus due to Covid-19 & coupled with Melissa’s pregnancy, will Supergirl survive without further erosion on viewing figures before S6 resumes? I don’t see how it can on current viewing.

The CW (or WB, but since Robert Rovner’s wife is now one of two heading up WB, I’m afraid nepotism might well be playing a part here - but I add, I have no basis on this beyond just a worry it might be happening & I truly hope it isn’t. I don’t want to imply it is happening, just that I worry it ‘might be’), need to step in and do something to save this show, because it has crashed and is burning faster than Krypton.

Having minorities on the show achieves nothing if they’re not being used properly. If those who constantly berate others with racist, homophobic & misogynist posts, who feel emboldened and comfortable saying all those things, because of validation from someone on the show, then it is a problem.

This post could go on into reams of reasons why I feel so disappointed with the show as a whole at the moment.

I genuinely wish more for the actors and crew. I feel sad that Melissa’s debut as a director landed the worst ratings demo all season. I absolutely hate that occurred in fact. I genuinely don’t want to be writing posts like this. There have been good (occasional great episodes) this season, but simply not enough. Maybe 25% off the top of my head fall into that category for me, with the other 75% either entirely unforgettable or so frustrating as a viewer I want to scream; whereas it should be the other way around, & good enough that for the odd episodes you might not enjoy much or at all, you forgive them because the rest are good enough to compensate.

I’m hoping we get something exciting enough to keep interest for S6. Will we? We won’t have long to wait & find out.

[purple-splattered-soul]

Spop Jojo Stands/Jojo AU

She-Ra

User: Adora (current), Mara (former)

Suggestion: none

Shape: Humanoid

Abilities: Transformation—She-Ra’s user is able to transform the Sword of Protection into anything the user desires; Lineage—stored in the Sword of Protection, She-Ra awaits a worthy candidate to be its user; Battle Sense—To make up for She-Ra’s lack of speed when using a sword, its battle history gives it the ability to predict an enemy’s movements. This is used to block rush attacks and send attacks that can make it through another Stand’s rush attack; Channeling—She-Ra can channel the natural energy of Etheria in order to power up other Stands around them, heal the wounds of other users, or use the Heart of Etheria; True lineage—after being brought back to Adora through a Stand Arrow, She-Ra Van once again find new users on its own without requiring a weirder of the Sword of Protection

Notes: She-Ra’s user is, when She-Ra is active, granted an outfit similar to that of She-Ra’s but with a jumpsuit bottom instead of a skirt and shorts

Queen of Mean

User: Catra

Suggestion: “Queen of Mean” by Sarah Jeffery

Shape: Humanoid

Abilities: Claw rush—Queen of Mean unleashes a flurry of slashes with its claws; Venom—Queen of Mean’s claws are tipped with a venom that slowly saps the target’s strength over time. The more driven Catra is in her objective, the faster the venom acts; Circle of despair—Queen of Mean can send out an aura that immediately saps the strength of a target caught in its radius

Notes: Queen of Mean’s hair styles itself inversely to that of its user. If Catra’s hair is neat, QOM’s will be messy. If Catra’s hair is short, QOM’s will get longer, and so on

Unleash the Magic

User: Glimmer

Suggestion: “Unleash the Magic” by Rebecca Shiochet and Iris Quinn

Shape: Humanoid

Abilities: Energy blast—Unleash the Magic can throw sparkling energy balls from its hands, either in a rush or as a larger blast; Teleportation—Unleash the Magic can transport its user any place the user desires; Shaman Circle—after receiving training from Shadow Weaver, Unleash the Magic can draw spell circles and use them against its targets

Best Friend

User: Bow

Suggestion: “You’re My Best Friend” by Queen

Shape: Object—bow and quiver

Abilities: Holding—Best Friend can hold an incredible amount of arrows, defying physics. Though it cannot create arrows, meaning it’s user must use pre-made arrows. Arrows can be stored in the quiver when the Stand is not in use; Guiding hand— Best Friend’s user is able to grab the exact type of arrow they want when they reach for it. But again, all arrows must be made beforehand.

Twisted Imagination

User: Entrapta

Suggestion: “Twisted Imagination” by NerdOut!

Shape: Body part—hair

Abilities: Prehensile—every hair on Entrapta’s body has full flexibility and can even act as limbs much stronger than her own; Fiber Optic—Entrapta’s hair can act as a flash drive, able to store digital information and interact with computer ports. This info tends to be stored near the roots to avoid any code being cut off with a hair in a laboratory accident

Partner in Crime

User: Scorpia

Suggestion: “Partners in Crime (feat. ash Costello)” by Set it Off

Shape: body part—pincers and tail

Abilities: Armored pincers—Partner in Crime armors its user’s pincers for more eefective combat use; Paralyzing projectile—using Partner in Crime, Scorpia can Fire a paralyzing projectile from her stinger, paralyzing any muscle it comes into contact with. The duration depends on Scorpia’s emotions at the time of the stabbing

Partner in Crime Requiem

User: Scorpia

Suggestion: “Partners in Crime (feat. ash Costello)” by Set it Off

Shape: Humanoid

Abilities: Pincer rush—Partner in Crime is slower than most Stands, but the armor of its pincers enable it to partake in rush duels just the same; Paralyzing projectile—functions the same as Partner in Crime’s previous state, but is now fired from the Stand’s pincers; Energy absorption—any energy-based Stand attack (such as Unleash the Magic’s blasts) can be absorbed by Partner in Crime; Lightning—Partner in Crime is able to channel lightning, and while they can  focus it in a direction, it tends to simply be a source with little control over where the lightning goes. Any absorbed energy can be repurposed as lightning 

Night Hunter

User: Shadow Weaver

Suggestion: “Night of the Hunter” by 30 Seconds to Mars

Shape: indefinite

Abilities: Memories—if a target has bad memories of Shadow Weaver, Night Hunter will turn them into power for itself. The more numerous and intense the memories are, the more power they give Night Hunter. Target experiences need not be firsthand; Dark power—memories can be manifested as a shadowy power that can be used to attack and restrain targets; Pain—Night Hunter can use Memory power as lightening that can restrain or torture targets; Black Garnet—Shadow Weaver must draw power from the Black garnet, lest she lose the ability to use her Stand; Dual Tech—Night Hunter can use another Stand’s energy-based powers to fuel itself in the absence of the Black Garnet

Notes: In the off chance that her opponent has never heard of her, Shadow Weaver will reveal her face to create a bad memory in the Target right off the bat

=============================================================

I may modify the Stands after s5 comes out. Hordak doesn’t get a Stand and that’s a bonus defect. Horde Prime will get one after s5 probably, but it might have something to do with cloning and genetics. I would have written more but it’d be a boring hassle just to write up everybody’s powers as Stands. The AU part will come later, along with a one-shot (maybe).

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

one day i will be a cool chill person who watches tv and then forgets about it, but since today is not that day, here i am with more thoughts about g&f season five! specifically, grace and frankie’s relationship and where i hope it might go after this, if not to romantic canon town (which, obviously some part of me is always crying about that. whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!).

i think the thing that s5 restored that s4 really pulled us away from is the sense (which was overwhelming in s3) of “there is no script for this” re: grace and frankie’s relationship. like, what do you do if the person you love the most, are the most fulfilled by, and want to spend the rest of your life with is your female best friend rather than your boyfriend? frankie was put in that position in s3 and grace is in it now, but grace is much more conventional than frankie, so it makes a bitter kind of sense that she’d also swing further in the opposite direction in an attempt to course correct when she finds herself in a place where her relationship with frankie seems to have failed.

i will be extremely shocked if the show takes grace/frankie to a canon girlfriends place. (let me pause for a moment to stress, again, that babe saying “you’ve been in love with frankie all along” was pretty much the greatest fandom heart attack i have ever known. oh, the giddy hope i knew in those milliseconds! oh, how my brain almost exploded, but in a fun way! that was hella mean, SHOW.)

i just feel like that is so off the writers’ radar as a serious possibility, even though it’s obviously more on their radar than it was before due to fandom, which manifested in a lot of those “hey guys, hey! we know grace and frankie have kissed on the mouth in 500 fanfics!!” moments in s5. which i truly think were meant affectionately @ us, but landed weird because -- as telanu explained really well in a post earlier today -- this show’s writing of LGBTQ life is really limited and pretty shallow/stereotypical, and kind of seems to have gotten more so as it’s wandered away from portraying robert and sol’s relationship thoughtfully.

but!

i think we could potentially see grace and frankie throwing the script away and deciding to be each other’s #1, and that maybe that is what this emotional tension is building toward. grace might have laughed off the idea that she’s in love with frankie, but it was immediately followed up with the very solemn epiphany that frankie is the best part of her.

i have heard pretty frequently, both in life and via the internet, that women who are married to men for a long time in an unsatisfying relationship often have this perspective of “if i wasn’t married anymore, then i wouldn’t get married again or be interested in men anymore, i’d want to do all these other things with my life in order for it to be fulfilling; serious relationships with with men wouldn’t even be on my radar, let alone a priority.” like, just the relief at the thought of not having to be in the traditional role of wife anymore is in and of itself this hugely liberating, amazing possibility. and while the writing team for g&f doesn’t seem attuned to portraying grace/frankie as a canon romance, i think that this perspective -- which is not a new one -- is something that could be in their wheelhouse and on their radar. this is also, i realize now that i’m typing this, something that jane fonda herself has expressed a lot!

so, like, based on where we were left in s5, i can see s6 exploring this dynamic of, “i know that happily ever after for me should be a romantic relationship with a man who i live with and start over with, but that’s not what happily after is for me. you are. this life we’ve built together is. i love you enough to prioritize you and us more than anything else, even if it’s off-script.” it is definitely frustrating -- ruinously frustrating!!! -- that the show is so blind to an opportunity for such a gorgeous and complex canon f/f romance, but i have hope that the energy that has inspired that desire for them to be endgame will still be honored to the best of this show’s abilities.

one thing i really like about their Last Scene of Pain in 5.13 is that grace specifically articulates that they came out of hell together rather than just going through hell together; it really shows love for the flowers that grew out of the crack-in-the-sidewalk that was robert and sol’s adultery, and frankie later saying “let’s go home” just cements that. something about that makes it feel like not choosing each other in the future just isn’t an option.

also, i’m a big ol’ boy meets world nerd because of course i am (who among us did not once live for TGIF in the 90s? ... er, young people, i guess), and for some reason this keeps making me think of when topanga has her big speech about how she can’t date Some New Dude because even though she and cory are broken up, she’s realized cory is for sure her true love. she cries, “i’m taken!” and the audience erupts into riotous, ecstatic applause, and all i can think is, that moment already seems written into the fabric of season six, whenever it may find us. nicholas, i’m sorry! she’s taken.

[shadowcipher17]

Friendship is Magic Tier List: High Level (Part 2)

So continuing on with the high tier level, we have just the unicorns left. I already went over, Tempest, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Filly Twilight, and Inspiration Manifestation Rarity, which leaves us with Alicorn Amulet Trixie, Unicorn Twilight, Starlight (S6-S9), Starlight (S5 Finale), and Starlight (S5 Premiere) and to make it fair I have rules, so lets get started.

1. Starlight Glimmer (S6-S9)

Starlight Glimmer could be considered one the most powerful unicorns in the MLP verse...as much as the plot demands. Some of her notable feats include:

Bottling up her negative emotions (S7)

Being able to switch cutie marks and in turn magical abilities

Magical Mind Control (S6, thanks to some spells in Twilight’s library)

Banishment Spell (S8)

Expand magical energy outward (S9)

Feats of Magical Strength for Scale

Was able to blast a Bell Empowered Chrysalis

Was able to banish Discord’s physical form (although Discord didn’t put up a fight and wanted her to get mad...going back on it, that episode is bad on all fronts)

Was able to magically bottle up her emotions

Turn invisible

Went 1 v 1 against an empowered Alicorn Cozy Glow (but lost)

So yes, she could be considered the highest level unicorn, but not Alicorn Level tier, she went up against Alicorn Cozy Glow (who recently got her alicorn powers earlier) and lost, and even though being the only magic user against the Legion of Doom, she still lost and was imprisoned. So she’s the highest tier unicorn in a base form.

2. Starlight Glimmer (S5 Finale)

So next, is Starlight from the S5 finale, and oddly we don’t see her use magic all that much. Her and Twilight only had one fight and she showcased:

Self-Levitation

Cloud- Walking

Teleportation

Energy Beams

Barriers

Petrification (via Crystal)

Time Travel (via the spell that she stole and augmented by the map)

So aside from the Time Travel spell which she needed the map and the time spell for, her main abilities equate to that of a basic unicorn. In regards to the Twilight and Starlight fight, the only reason she kept advancing on Twilight was because they were at the race, if Twilight would’ve teleported herself and Starlight anywhere else in Equestria, then not only could they have a proper fight, all Twilight needed to do was keep Starlight away from the race long enough so that the rainboom could happen, but she’s second.

3. Starlight Glimmer (Season 5 Premiere)

So, here’s where we’re first introduced to Starlight and to keep up the illusion that she has an equal sign, she doesn’t use her magic that much but like in the finale aside from her Cutie Mark spell, she has basic unicorn magic. She admits to Spike, that she was only able to do the spell and go against Twilight is because she was mad and her magic is tied to her emotions. Now her Cutie Mark spell is effective for those only with cutie marks which is an advantage but also has a few drawbacks:

Anypony without a cutie mark obviously would be fine and not affected like Sombra

Any creature, like the majority of non-pony villains are also safe

She can only use the spell if she has something to put it in

If said item breaks, the cutie mark goes back to it’s owner

Starlight would have to have a clear shot

Intagibility and Phasing or Elemental Shapeshifting (i.e. Nightmare Moon, Windigos, Sombra) won’t work

4. Trixie (Alicorn Amulet)

Trixie with the Alicorn Amulet, although stated by  Twilight herself that she couldn’t take on Trixie with the amulet...she didn’t do that much with the amulet on to begin with. Twilight was able to counter everything Trixie threw at her except for the age spell and the barrier but I’m going to stack up Trixie and Twilight’s spells to see.

Round 1: Trixie uses magic to blast a cart full of apples that NEARLY KILLS A PONY vs. Twilight who counters with levitating the cart and apples safely next to the pony that almost got hurt. Twilight wins.

Round 2: Trixie conjures up pies and throws them at Twilight using levitation vs. Twilight who summons a Parasprite that eats the pies and starts to multiply but she makes them disappear. Twilight wins.

Round 3: Trixie creates a large blanket of snow covering Twilight and most of Ponyville vs. Twilight who counters with a magical heatwave that melted away the snow. Twilight impressively wins.

Round 4: Twilight starts off by blasting Trixie in the face, giving her a mustache vs. Trixie who just conjures a pair of scissors and cuts it off. Trixie wins.

Final Round: Trixie manages to do an age spell on Snips and Snails turning them into an older stallion and a foal vs. Twilight who couldn’t. Trixie wins.

Bonus: Trixie uses magic to take away Pinkie’s mouth vs. Twilight using her magic to BREAK THE FOURTH WALL and giving her magic back at the end of the episode. Twilight CLEARLY wins.

But as far as Trixie’s feats with the Alicorn Amulet there’s:

Putting a dress on Rarity

Enlarging one of Rainbow’s wings and conjoining Snips and Snails by the horns and turning Spike into a ball

Magic Blast

Age Spell

Dome Barrier

Levitation

Forcing Pinkie to dance via magic

Creating a chariot from a wooden one

So, even with the Alicorn Amulet, she’s leagues below Starlight, and only is over Unicorn Twilight because of the age spell, every other spell Twilight countered easily.

5. Unicorn Twilight (S1-S3)

The only reason why she’s not higher is because of the age spell otherwise with Twilight’s magical skills as a unicorn alone, would rival if not surpass S5 Finale Starlight in terms of magic. For clarification, I’m going to list S1-S3 spells she did only. Twilight as a unicorn as a bunch of different spells in her arsenal such as:

Dark Magic (S3)

Self-Levitation/Gravity Manipulation (S3)

Want it- Need-it Spell (S2)

Levitation- if not one of the best at levitation considering her feat of levitating an Ursa Minor. (S1)

Teleportation (S1)

Barriers (negated even Discord’s reality warping) (S2)

Fail-Safe Spell (only didn’t work because of Discord) (S2)

Memory Spell (that negated Discord’s corruption) (S2)

Magical beams (S2)

Identity Reveal Spell (reveal the identity of a changeling...which never gets used again for some reason) (S2)

Power Negation (removed the dark magic on Sombra’s door to reveal the stairs in The Crystal Empire) (S3)

Transmutation (S1)

Wind Magic (used the wind to lull the Ursa Minor to sleep) (S1)

Time Travel (via Starswirl’s spell but only could be used once) (S2)

I can honestly say, that if she didn’t become an alicorn and have princess duties, she’d be studying more magic but that isn’t to say that she’s a slouch as a princess either. But once again only because of the age spell is she at the bottom.

And with that this list is over. With Starlight (S6-S9) being the superior unicorn and because of one age spell has Unicorn Twilight at the bottom of the list. Next up is the Alicorn Tier list which considering how many characters are on it...might have to be split into three or four parts.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Sometimes I think about how much Will Roland’s mom loves Billions solely because her son is in it and she’s proud of him

naturally immediately reminds me of this iconic wynnstannery occasion in late 2019 where we knew billions s5 production had begun but there were no signs will was filming as winston and so we were getting increasingly concerned about the potential to write the character out between seasons if they felt like it, until in december ms beth roland was in line for the joe iconis xmas extravaganza ft. your son will roland as this year's xmas antagonist cyril von miserthorpe, and she struck up a conversation with a fan also in line and because she was hype she shared the information that will had signed on for 7 episodes already (aka all the episodes in that first round of production, little did we know) and essentially the fan passed that information along to us, which was a delight and a relief

and more generally yeah truly classic energy that his parents are Out Here being that hyped and notably proud about everything and you inevitably run into this whether through secondhand reference to it or seeing it manifesting in a virtual space or live and in person b/c you're standing in line with his mom.....there's will in one interview like "my parents are incredibly supportive...i could go onto the stage, i could take a dump, and they would just...just never stop clapping" and in another about how his mom's definitely going to be watching it later (although seems she might've been watching it live) and how when the bmc cast got the bway run news he first got in the crying bathtub to call his mom and gave that answer abt What Are You Most Looking Forward To re: the bway run like "i'm excited for my parents to see it" which was also a q&a wherein it's like yeah everyone knows his parents and they're supportive to everybody, just like they were Known at the music box theatre, go back to the never have i ever video with kristolyn like finishing the second half of a classic bill roland quote as she and will simultaneously do that impression of him lmao....the way that especially during the 2020 plethora of livestreamed virtual interviews and the like, you could occasionally find ms beth roland dropping in the livechat, or how just sometimes she'd appear in video comments, she was a big fan of the late Will Roland In Billions compilation video....the fact that when i dug around for some unproducible smackdown lore, i found this account from an attendee in 2012 or 2013 saying "i meet the parents and grandmother of upcoming actor will roland. they're very proud of will...they are all lovely people and will's father has the best laugh in the audience."

also naturally Handshake with her wherein, maybe unlike will's dad, we were not already watching billions when will showed up in it, but got into it b/c he did. the wynnstannery expertise she has....Would talk about my winston hc's with her, Would discuss themes, Would hype up her son's acting choices and the energy his performances have, only the number one appreciator who gave us the gift of "oh thank god he's not only going to be in season 5 at all and we don't have to wait for the trailer to drop after like another month and a half of anxiety to have this presence confirmed, but his being signed for At Least 7 out of the season's 12 episodes already equals the number of episode appearances he had in seasons 3 and 4 combined" like what a gift. also thanks for the entire thing since that's your son

[ourhaileydavies]

Juniper Publishers-Open Access Journal of Head Neck & Spine Surgery

Delayed Progressive Cauda Equina Syndrome after Transverse Sacral Fracture: A Case Report

Authored by Meni Mundama

Abstract

Transverse sacral fractures are infrequent injuries that often cause neurological impairment referred to as cauda equine syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, the onset of neurological symptoms can be delayed up to 2 months. We report a case of isolated transverse sacral fracture through S2-S3 which caused minor symptoms after 6 days. Major neurological disability appeared with a 3 months delay. A limited laminectomy was performed with good clinical results. The 3 months delay appeared to be the longest compared to available literature.

Keywords:Transverse sacral fracture; Laminectomy; Cauda equina syndrome; Delay

Introduction

Transverse sacral fractures are rare. They occur after low or high energy trauma, with clinical manifestations that include neurological dysfunctions. According to the literature, these symptoms can be delayed [1-4]. To our knowledge, the literature reports only 2 cases with neurological signs that became significant as late as 2 months after trauma [1]. There is no clear consensus on how to manage these fractures [4-6]. We report a case of isolated transverse sacral fracture through S2-S3 which caused significant neurological symptoms 3 months after trauma. We compare our observation to the available literature.

Case Report

A 50-year-old woman presented to our emergency department with pain in lumbo-sacral region two days after falling in the stairs (approximately 3 meters) with impact on her lower back. She had no relevant medical history. The pain increased in seated and supine position. Bowel, bladder, sphincters and lower limbs were clear of any symptom. Perineal sensation was normal. X-rays and CT scan images revealed a transverse sacral fracture through S2-S3 junction with no vertical extension. The distal fragment was flexed and anteriorly displaced of 5mm. The canal was enchroached by fragments from the anterior and posterior aspect of the sacral canal (Figure 1-3). She was discharged with painkillers and followed in outpatient clinic.

At day 6 after trauma, she had an additional symptom of saddle hypo-esthesia. Bladder, sphincters and lower limbs were still normal. The conservative management was continued and surgical treatment was to be considered only in case of neurological deterioration. At 6 weeks, pain had decreased but saddle numbness persisted with no aggravation nor additional symptom.

Urinary incontinence appeared at 3 months post trauma and was complete within 2 weeks. CT scan imaging was repeated and showed advanced consolidation with a callus that was slightly larger than on previous workups. This suggested increased canal compression (Figure 4). The patient underwent S2-S3 laminectomy. Urinary dysfunction was almost back to normal on the day after surgery. All neurological symptoms recovered within two weeks following surgery.

At last follow up (12 months after initial trauma), the patient’s neurological status was normal. She had resumed regular jogging and swimming with no discomfort. Final CT scan showed full fusion of the fracture and post laminectomy status in S2-S3 (Figure 5).

Discussion

Several classifications have been proposed for sacral fractures but none of them encompasses all the fractures’ patterns encountered in clinical practice. Roy-Camille et al. [7] described suicidal jumper’s fractures that occurred at S1-S2 level comprising transverse and vertical orientations (H, U patterns). Their study classified 3 types of fractures.

a) Type 1: Anterior flexion fracture.

b) Type 2: Anterior flexion fracture with posterior displacement of proximal fragment.

c) Type 3: Extension fracture with anterior displacement of proximal fragment.

Denis et al. [8] classified sacral fractures in 3 vertical zones: zone 1 lateral to the foramina, zone 2 involving the foramina and zone 3 the sacral canal [4,5,8]. Zone 3 lesions can be subclassified into vertical or transverse fractures [5].

Shmidek et al. [9] divided transverse sacral fractures according to the level: high (through S1-S2) versus low (through S3-S5) [5,9]. High fractures are caused by indirect high energy forces (motor vehicle accident, suicidal jump) and are usually unstable due to a three-dimensional configuration (H,U or Ttypes), whereas low fractures result from direct trauma (fall onto buttocks) and are likely to be stable [2,5]. Given the sacroiliac weight transmission, these fractures are stable if sacrum and sacroiliac joint above S1 foramen are intact [5].

Our patient fell onto her buttocks and presented an isolated transverse fracture through S2-S3 that can be classified as a low transverse Zone 1-2-3 fracture. It has been observed that neurologic injury is most frequent in fractures involving Denis Zone 3 (60%) [4,5,10]. Denis et al. [8] found the risk to be greater in transverse fractures than in vertical ones [2,8]. Usual clinical repercussions are bowel and bladder dysfunction, sphincters incontinence, L5/S1 deficits and saddle anaesthesia resulting in cauda equina syndrome [2,4,5]. According to the literature, these neurological signs are often variable and delayed [1,3], while local pain is always noted from the beginning [11]. The delays for neurological symptoms range from a few days to 2 months as reported by Lee et al. [1], with most neurologic deficits appearing at the same time. Aresti et al. [4] report a case with progressive symptoms starting with isolated S1 radicular symptoms at day 10 after trauma followed by urinary dysfunction and saddle anaesthesia 6 weeks later. In the present case, saddle hypoesthesia appeared at day 6 and remained stable until urinary incontinence appeared at 3 months post trauma.

After physical examination, transverse sacral fractures can be confirmed and evaluated on plain X-rays. However, CT scan imaging is the best way to avoid misdiagnosis and allow for thorough description and classification [2,11].

The literature does not provide precise treatment guidelines. In the case of transverse sacral fracture with neurological impairment, there is controversy between surgical and conservative management. Both approaches do result in recovery rates as high as 80% [6]. Surgery has been advocated in case of high energy trauma, neurologic deficit, displacement exceeding 1cm, canal encroachment and fracture instability [2,5,6]. Timing of surgery is still debated and there’s no clear evidence whether early or late intervention is best [2,4]. As to the surgical technique, decompression alone by wide laminectomy has been proposed in case of neurological impairment with canal stenosis [1,2,4-6]. Internal fixation is recommended in case of instability or major displacement [2,4,6].

In the present case, the early neurologic impairment was considered as moderate and priority was given to conservative treatment. Surgery was indicated by the appearance of incontinence. Laminectomy was performed considering the canal encroachment while stabilization was unnecessary: fusion was already obtained, especially in the anterior column. Anatomical and clinical results were satisfying at final follow up.

Conclusion

Isolated transverse sacral fracture is rare and likely to occur after low energy direct trauma. Clinical manifestations include local pain and cauda equine signs that are variable in time and severity. Mild neurological deficits can deteriorate even 3 months later. Management should be adapted to each patient, according to the fracture pattern and neurological impairment. Sacral decompression can still result in good improvement, even at a delayed state.

For more articles in Open access Journal of Head Neck & Spine Surgery | Juniper Publishers please click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/jhnss/index.php

[ourhaileydavies]

Delayed Progressive Cauda Equina Syndrome after Transverse Sacral Fracture: A Case Report-Juniper publishers

Abstract

Transverse sacral fractures are infrequent injuries that often cause neurological impairment referred to as cauda equine syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, the onset of neurological symptoms can be delayed up to 2 months. We report a case of isolated transverse sacral fracture through S2-S3 which caused minor symptoms after 6 days. Major neurological disability appeared with a 3 months delay. A limited laminectomy was performed with good clinical results. The 3 months delay appeared to be the longest compared to available literature.

Keywords:Transverse sacral fracture; Laminectomy; Caudaequina syndrome; Delay

Introduction

Transverse sacral fractures are rare. They occur after low or high energy trauma, with clinical manifestations that include neurological dysfunctions. According to the literature, these symptoms can be delayed [1-4]. To our knowledge, the literature reports only 2 cases with neurological signs that became significant as late as 2 months after trauma [1]. There is no clear consensus on how to manage these fractures [4-6]. We report a case of isolated transverse sacral fracture through S2-S3 which caused significant neurological symptoms 3 months after trauma. We compare our observation to the available literature.

Case Report

A 50-year-old woman presented to our emergency department with pain in lumbo-sacral region two days after falling in the stairs (approximately 3 meters) with impact on her lower back. She had no relevant medical history. The pain increased in seated and supine position. Bowel, bladder, sphincters and lower limbs were clear of any symptom. Perineal sensation was normal. X-rays and CT scan images revealed a transverse sacral fracture through S2-S3 junction with no vertical extension. The distal fragment was flexed and anteriorly displaced of 5mm. The canal was enchroached by fragments from the anterior and posterior aspect of the sacral canal (Figure 1-3). She was discharged with painkillers and followed in outpatient clinic.

At day 6 after trauma, she had an additional symptom of saddle hypo-esthesia. Bladder, sphincters and lower limbs were still normal. The conservative management was continued and surgical treatment was to be considered only in case of neurological deterioration. At 6 weeks, pain had decreased but saddle numbness persisted with no aggravation nor additional symptom.

Urinary incontinence appeared at 3 months post trauma and was complete within 2 weeks. CT scan imaging was repeated and showed advanced consolidation with a callus that was slightly larger than on previous workups. This suggested increased canal compression (Figure 4). The patient underwent S2-S3 laminectomy. Urinary dysfunction was almost back to normal on the day after surgery. All neurological symptoms recovered within two weeks following surgery.

At last follow up (12 months after initial trauma), the patient’s neurological status was normal. She had resumed regular jogging and swimming with no discomfort. Final CT scan showed full fusion of the fracture and post laminectomy status in S2-S3 (Figure 5).

Discussion

Several classifications have been proposed for sacral fractures but none of them encompasses all the fractures’ patterns encountered in clinical practice. Roy-Camille et al. [7] described suicidal jumper’s fractures that occurred at S1-S2 level comprising transverse and vertical orientations (H, U patterns). Their study classified 3 types of fractures.

a) Type 1: Anterior flexion fracture.

b) Type 2: Anterior flexion fracture with posterior displacement of proximal fragment.

c) Type 3: Extension fracture with anterior displacement of proximal fragment.

Denis et al. [8] classified sacral fractures in 3 vertical zones: zone 1 lateral to the foramina, zone 2 involving the foramina and zone 3 the sacral canal [4,5,8]. Zone 3 lesions can be subclassified into vertical or transverse fractures [5].

Shmidek et al. [9] divided transverse sacral fractures according to the level: high (through S1-S2) versus low (through S3-S5) [5,9]. High fractures are caused by indirect high energy forces (motor vehicle accident, suicidal jump) and are usually unstable due to a three-dimensional configuration (H,U or Ttypes), whereas low fractures result from direct trauma (fall onto buttocks) and are likely to be stable [2,5]. Given the sacroiliac weight transmission, these fractures are stable if sacrum and sacroiliac joint above S1 foramen are intact [5].

Our patient fell onto her buttocks and presented an isolated transverse fracture through S2-S3 that can be classified as a low transverse Zone 1-2-3 fracture. It has been observed that neurologic injury is most frequent in fractures involving Denis Zone 3 (60%) [4,5,10]. Denis et al. [8] found the risk to be greater in transverse fractures than in vertical ones [2,8]. Usual clinical repercussions are bowel and bladder dysfunction, sphincters incontinence, L5/S1 deficits and saddle anaesthesia resulting in cauda equina syndrome [2,4,5]. According to the literature, these neurological signs are often variable and delayed [1,3], while local pain is always noted from the beginning [11]. The delays for neurological symptoms range from a few days to 2 months as reported by Lee et al. [1], with most neurologic deficits appearing at the same time. Aresti et al. [4] report a case with progressive symptoms starting with isolated S1 radicular symptoms at day 10 after trauma followed by urinary dysfunction and saddle anaesthesia 6 weeks later. In the present case, saddle hypoesthesia appeared at day 6 and remained stable until urinary incontinence appeared at 3 months post trauma.

After physical examination, transverse sacral fractures can be confirmed and evaluated on plain X-rays. However, CT scan imaging is the best way to avoid misdiagnosis and allow for thorough description and classification [2,11].

The literature does not provide precise treatment guidelines. In the case of transverse sacral fracture with neurological impairment, there is controversy between surgical and conservative management. Both approaches do result in recovery rates as high as 80% [6]. Surgery has been advocated in case of high energy trauma, neurologic deficit, displacement exceeding 1cm, canal encroachment and fracture instability [2,5,6]. Timing of surgery is still debated and there’s no clear evidence whether early or late intervention is best [2,4]. As to the surgical technique, decompression alone by wide laminectomy has been proposed in case of neurological impairment with canal stenosis [1,2,4-6]. Internal fixation is recommended in case of instability or major displacement [2,4,6].

In the present case, the early neurologic impairment was considered as moderate and priority was given to conservative treatment. Surgery was indicated by the appearance of incontinence. Laminectomy was performed considering the canal encroachment while stabilization was unnecessary: fusion was already obtained, especially in the anterior column. Anatomical and clinical results were satisfying at final follow up.

Conclusion

Isolated transverse sacral fracture is rare and likely to occur after low energy direct trauma. Clinical manifestations include local pain and cauda equine signs that are variable in time and severity. Mild neurological deficits can deteriorate even 3 months later. Management should be adapted to each patient, according to the fracture pattern and neurological impairment. Sacral decompression can still result in good improvement, even at a delayed state.

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