#oh and they had an example of right wing extremism and the image was a huge 'h*il h*tler' banner across the whole computer screen

[catinfroghat]

I had to do mandatory training at work about spotting the signs of radicalisation/extremism and they wanted to add some racial variety in there (because let's be real this whole course is just about islamic terrorism even if they pretend it's not) so they had an example of an Irish guy who keeps mentioning bombs and is part of IRA facebook groups 💀💀💀 really not beating the allegations with that one

[theartsynoodle]

Luz is aware of Amity’s behavior

Ok, so I’m definitely sure people have done this before but it’s fun and I want to write about it so here I go.

I definitely think 2 things right now. 1.) Luz likes Amity, but doesn’t quite understand the feelings yet and 2.) Luz is aware of how Amity has been acting, but doesn’t know why she’s acting that way.

I’ll do point 1 first. What makes me thinks Luz likes Amity is that the girl has a tendency to stare, quite a bit I may add. I first noticed it in Enchanting Grom Fright within the first 5 minutes we get this.

On my first watch of this episode this immediately caught my eye. The way her eyes are wide and mouth slightly agape gives me a lost and fixated look. Not to mention that she looks at Amity like this for multiple seconds, while Amity looks only for a second and then at Willow and Gus. At first I thought, “Well she’s just surprised she ran into her.” but then it gets deeper.

In the woods they are close again, Luz’s hands grabbing Amity’s. Once more, Luz holds this wide eyed and longing look, and she looks unsure, confused. This time, Amity holds the look and it is once again, for multiple seconds before it breaks. I think that this is Luz feeling something, but not knowing at all what it is. She can feel it, but it’s very new to her and can’t quite identify it. At this point I was becoming very aware of what was happening, but the next scene really solidified it for me.

People are excited to see Luz’s big “Oh.” moment and I think we’ve actually seen a smaller “Oh.” moment already.

Amity approaches Luz at Grom and begins to say “You look...nice.” This top image is while she is saying “You look...” The below image is when she says “Nice.”

Look at Luz’s face, look at her eyes and body language. Upon Amity complimenting her, she stands up and back a little, wide-eyed again. She looks like this as soon as Amity says “Nice.” and I think this is where she goes “Oh.” a little in her head. She was not prepared to be complimented by Amity, she looks surprised and honestly, a little scared. It’s the stiffening of her back, the wide eyes and raised eyebrows, she feels something and it puts her off. Now this follows immediately by Amity putting her hands on her shoulder.

Once again, she backs up a little and straightens her back, not knowing what to do with her hands as Amity says “Thank you.” She was already uncertain seconds before and now she completely lost. Amity is someone who has done a complete 180 because of Luz, a wake up call. Their road to friendship was rocky and now they’re already close, but Luz feels strangely. I don’t think I remember seeing Luz this stiff before Amity showed up. It’s really evident in Adventures in the Elements.

I don’t have the screenshots, but Luz was acting very differently in that episode. She felt like she had to lie to Edric, Emira, and Amity about knowing powerful spells because she didn’t want to look weak in front of them, something Luz doesn’t usually do. She is also embarrassed when they’re all at the knee and when Eda eats snow in front of them. Luz is usually never embarrassed by Eda and King, but she was in that episode. She also fumbles around Amity when trying to act casual, like how she slides off that rock in the same episode, like in Lost in Language when she is striking poses to seem impressive to Edric and Emira, and how she knocks books over trying to lean in Lost in Language when Amity walks over to her.

Moving on to the actual content of this ramble, Luz’ staring carries on into the next episode, Wing it Like Witches.

When Amity is talking about her time on the Grudgby team, Luz gives her the same look from Enchanting Grom Fright, wide eyes and agape mouth. She is deeply invested in what Amity has to say, and while you could say its just that, look at how close she gets to her.

Luz scooted over and got really in Amity’s face. She was so lost in what she was saying she unknowingly got close and personal. Luz is feeling things again and is starting to put the pieces together, but gets lost in thought and stares without noticing. Another case of Luz staring is one I haven’t see too many people point out, mostly because it goes by so quickly, even I didn’t really notice it at first.

The reason Luz almost gets hit by this axe is because she’s staring behind her at Amity. Amity is distracting her, which is funny because if Amity wasn’t so focused on Luz not getting sliced in half by this damn thing, she would’ve noticed her and become a mess. The fact she doesn’t even notice the axe and is in a high stakes game and is just, getting easily distracted by her friend is really telling to me.

Don’t even get me started on the touching as well. I’m not getting all those screen caps so I’ll just use this one example that everyone has pointed out.

Luz absolutely did not have to pick up Amity. There are so many other possibilities. Call and wait for healers to come so Amity doesn’t have to move, have someone use magic to help float her or guide her to the office, the most likely of these being having Willow help Luz support Amity and walk her to the nurse’s office, but nope, Luz just picks her up. I’m sure this is Luz living up to her “fearless champion” role and wanting to show off her strength to Amity, but I don’t think she wants to actually admit to herself why she is doing it.

So that’s why I think Luz is interested in Amity, now point 2 is going to be a lot shorter and that is Luz is aware of how Amity has been acting, she just doesn’t understand what it is.

Now I have not personally seen anyone use this screenshot before, but I could be wrong. When Amity fumbles on her words Luz is once again giving her this tense and longing stare, holding her hands up again unsure of what to do with them like in Enchanting Grom Fright.

And after Amity stops talking it’s weirdly... tense.

They stare at each other for a second, and look at Luz’s face. Her eyes are squinted, her back straight and her hands laying slack at her side. you can see the “What?” floating inside her head. She see’s it, Amity see’s Luz seeing it, and it is a tense moment. Luz isn’t stupid, she’s actually extremely smart, there’s just been a lot going on in her life and she is seeing in this moment Amity is acting different. Amity never stumbles over her words and rambles, Luz knows she is precise and calculating, so having Amity act like this in front of her confuses the hell out of her.

She doesn’t think that Amity could have a crush on her, in her mind there’s no way anyone could. Luz comes from a world where she has no friends and is deemed weird and bullied by her classmate, so she doesn’t think anyone is capable of liking her. If Luz even had one confidant in her life, we would’ve heard about them by now, but no, the friends she’s made on the Boiling Isles are the first friends she’s ever had.

Last night, I read a post about how Luz may have Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD), something that often comes with ADHD (Which I and majority of the fan base believe her to have.) RSD is as quoted  “an intense emotional response caused by the perception that you have disappointed others in your life and that, because of that disappointment, they have withdrawn their love, approval, or respect.” In Understanding Willow, in a moment of feeling weak, Amity snaps at Luz and Luz immediately recoils. Luz is terrified of disappointing people, feeling at fault for all of Agony of a Witch when it was out of her control. Luz doesn’t think that someone could love her like that and it hurts to think about. Luz knows she feels differently about Amity, and notices how Amity acts different around her, but believes that it be narcissistic of her to assume Amity even likes her. It’s the self doubt and years of rejection on Earth that makes it difficult for her to really understand the magnitude of what is going on.

TLDR; 1.) Luz’ has many instances of staring longing at Amity in a confused way that is indicative of her feeling strangely around her.

2.) Because of a screenshot from Wing it Like Witches, Luz’ face tells us she is aware that Amity is acting strange around her, but doesn’t believe it could a crush because of years of bullying on earth and RSD.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression Ep 48 - Nike CM inundated with criticism.

K: Hi, this is Dir en grey's Kaoru, with this week's episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome. Ok, lets get started, Joe, if you please.

J: Yes, uh, last week's episode...the first episode of the year, we were talking about poo, haha. It shows what a wide scope this show has. This week I have some more serious news. This was quite a talking point back in December, I think many people will already be aware of it. Its the news about the Nike commercial which recieved an avalanche of complaints. The promotional video made by Nike Japan, 'Keep moving - yourself - the furure. The Future isn't Waiting' has taken a lot of criticism. The view count on youtube had reached a million views as of last December, but at the same has recieved a lot of negative comments thought to be from Japanese users. The majority of these seem to be from online right-wingers saying things like, 'Racist discrimination is extremely rare in Japan (This cm is outrageous)',  'There is no discrimination against Koreans in Japan, even if there was there would be a reason for it', 'Nike is anti-Japan, Im not buying from there any more', 'Are Nike aware that the Association of Korean residents in Japan (Chongryon) were involved in the abuductions of Japanese people?' etc. Incidentally, there are 3 young people who appear in the commercial mainly. One of them appears to be a Korean resident of Japan. She is shown walking the streets looking down, while wearing Chima jeogori, and also being bullied at school, likely due to her ethnicity. The online anti-Korean, right wing Japanese sphere are thought to dislike this depiction. To summarise, their reaction to this CM has been to say it shows contempt for Japan, by suggesting that Japan is following the same kind of trend as the West in terms of discrimination, even though Japan hardley has any discrimination compared to the West (they think)....

So I checked out this cm as soon as it became news, and the first thing I thought is that these kinds of comments have kinda missed the point. The second thing I thought was in regards to the claim that anti-Korean discrimination is extremely rare in Japan. I personally have quite a few Korean-Japanese friends, and they have said that since they were small, throughout school, they have faced discrimination. Well, discrimination isn't a uniquely Japanese thing, many countries also have discrimination. Im not saying we are the only ones who have it, but I am at least very aware that, even in Japan, discrimination does exist. Well, I mean, how should we interpret this CM?

T: As for the meaning, I get that it shows there is discrimination, but after that it must somehow be related to sports, being Nike?

J: Yeh, so when you see these young people in the CM suffering discrimination, they are each doing different sports. Its like, if you excell at your sport, you can change your own future, kinda. A message like, even though there is discrimination, if you find your calling, you can change the world with it.

T: I see.

J: Kaoru, what do you think?

K: Well, even with that, its definitely not wrong.  *1

J: Yeah, as for Nike, they must have made it this way deliberately. They made a Korean resident of Japan the protagonist on purpose, so they are trying to put out the message of 'lets stop this kind of discrimination'. And with sports, surely...well, its not limited to sports, if there is anything that someone really excells at, they can overcome discrimination with that, and create something new. I think thats the message of this CM. But..

K: Its a bit difficult to get that message across.

J: Well, yeah...

K: To get that across as the point.

T: Yeah.

J: Hmm, yeh. Another thing I was unsure about was the response from the mass media. When this kind of news appears, they use the phrase 'the cm is under fire/recieved a backlash'. But as far as I could see, I had a look at the comments, they seemed a lot more like false accusations, or like harassment. So if you use that to say the CM is under fire, it makes it seem like the fault lies with the CM. All I could see was harassment from the right-wing. And its probably not a lot of people writing this stuff. Its more likely to be a few people from one group doing it. So I thought it was a bit wrong of the media to present the issue as if the CM is under fire, as this makes it seem like the problem it the CM itself. It seemed to me like just a lot of false accusation.

K: Hm, well, they made this CM, knowing it would be an easy target for accusations. So, its kinda hard to see what their aim was with this.

J: Yeah, I see.

T: For example, if they had made the protagonist a really famous sports star, it might have been easier to get the point across..with their story. But because the CM features these 3 kinda abstract characters, the meaning gets a bit vague.

K: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Im not entirely sure what they are trying to say with this.

J: I see, yeh. You think there is room for criticism in that sense?

K: Im not sure about criticism, but for the CM itself, I wasn't sure what they were saying, although Im sure there are people who understand the meaning of it.

J: So as of now, the CM has not been shut down, so if anyone wants to watch it, they still can if they are interested. If any of the viewers have any thoughts on it, please leave a comment on this video.

T: Yeah, they are definitely not showing off their shoe performance with this CM. Though their specific goal isn't obvious, I reckon this is fine. If it starts debate, then its good.

K: Well, yeah, if it creates the opportunity for debate, then its good.

Kami: Um, there is a lot to debate about this cm, but Nike shoes are cool, right?

J: Ah, he joined us.

Kami: Do you guys all have Nike shoes?

T: Yeah, I do.

K: I do.

J: Ahh, I havn't bought any Nike shoes recently.

T: I've always worn Nike. The basketball one's, Jordans.

K: Oh, I have those too.

J: Are they like the low-tech ones?

K: What do you mean by low-tech?

J: Like, not the Air Max type.

T: Well, yeah, they don't have air in them.

J: Right.

Kami: No, the Air Max ones are good.

J: He likes Air Max, haha.

Kami: The Air Max ones are easy to get on, and you don't get tired. Is it different for you guys?

K: No, well, they're ok yeh. Haha. I can't deny that.

J: Right, yeh. Kami, you are a fan of the Air Max ones?

Kami: Yeah.

T: People used to go hunting for Air Maxes, do you remember?

J: Oh, yeah, they did.

T:...when they were really popular, in the 90s. Kami probably bought some of them then.

Kami: I did, I did.

J: You hunted for them?

Kami: No, I didn't hunt for them.

J: Imagine Kami going hunting for Air Maxes.

Kami: I didn't hunt for them. I just bought them normally.

J: Ah, ok. Haha, if you did you wouldn't be a god at all.

Kami: You can only get them through lottery these days, right?

K: Yeah.

J: Oh, really?

K: Yeah, the popular ones. Airmax, and other types like Jordans.

J: Oh, right.

Kami: I don't buy those types though.

J: Oh, you don't buy those?

Kami: No.

J: Ahh, you just buy the normal ones, without lining up or doing a lottery and stuff?

Kami: Yes.

T: There are some that cost a huge amount of money. Collaboration items and stuff.

J: Ehh.

Kami: I shop in Shibuya ABC Mart.

K: There was a collaboration with Dior.

J: Nike collaborated with Dior??

K: Yeah, they are about ¥1million yen.

J: Ehhh??

T: Yeah, they are.

J: Ehh? Its not even leather.

Kami: Shibuya ABC store is good!

J: Hahaha

K: Ahh, yeh, its good.

J: Of course, right? Kami, do you shop there?

Kami: Yeah, cause they have a lot in there.

K: Haha, yeah...ABC does.

J: It does, yeh.

Kami: You can buy whenever you like.

J: Well, yes, thats true. I havn't bought any sneakers recently though.

K: You don't have that kind of image.

J: Thats right, I don't. I usually buy leather shoes.

K: Dr Martens?

J: Yeah, Dr Martens. I worked with Dr Martens last year. Would love to again this year!

K: Should we all go out and buy some? haha

J: To ABC Mart? haha

Kami: I also buy them on Amazon.

J: Eh?!

K: I bought some on Amazon just earlier

J: Oh, you buy them on Amazon?

T: Aren't there a lot of rip offs on Amazon?

J: Hm, are there?

T: I had a look on there before to see if there were any Air Maxes, and there were complete rip off versions going for as cheap as ¥2000. When its normally ¥12000, thats cheap. When you look, its not actually Nike, but 'Ni-kay' or something.

J: There are rip offs of Dr Martens like that too. They look exactly the same but super cheap. I saw two pairs going for ¥5000. They were so cheap, I bought them, and when they arrived they were no good at all. They looked the same as the real thing, but they leather was artificial..I thought, 'Aghh!'.

K: These days even brands are making things like copycat products, aren't they?

J: Yeah, yeah. Like putting out fake versions as the real product. Thats also interesting, its like a totally different approach. It has an effective punch, 'Fake!'.

K: Well, anyway, is that about it?

J: Yep.

K: Thank you for watching this week too. Please subscribe.

*1 Not entirely sure I've got that right.

Back to top

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 30, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

At 3:29 ET on August 30, 2021—early on the morning of August 31 in Afghanistan—the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan ended. It was the longest war in American history.

Among the last to come home were the 13 Americans killed in an ISIS-K attack last Thursday. They arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Sunday morning from Germany. President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and 8 aides attended the dignified transfer between the plane and a waiting vehicle.

In the last 17 days in Afghanistan, U.S. troops evacuated more than 120,000 people, making up the largest airlift in our history. For comparison, as Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post pointed out, the U.S. evacuated no Americans from the civil war in Yemen in 2015, and only about 167 from Libya in 2011.

While critics have suggested that America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will hurt American credibility abroad, President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have called for combatting terrorism through financial sanctions, bombing, and drone strikes like the one they used to retaliate against ISIS-K for the attack on the Kabul airport that killed more than 160 Afghans and 13 Americans last Friday, and by strengthening democracy at home.

There is plenty of work to do on that last front.

Last week, Peter Wehner, who served in the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations, pointed out in The Atlantic that the right wing has moved to such extremism that former president Trump, whose behavior seemed so shocking in 2015 and 2016, is now being sidelined by lawmakers and pundits who are even more extreme.

Yesterday, in an event hosted by the Macon County Republican Party, Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) insisted that the January 6 rioters are “political hostages” and said he wanted to “bust them out.” When someone in the audience asked “When are you going to call us to Washington again?” he said, “We are actively working on that one…. We have a few plans in motion that I can’t make public right now.” He called for removing Biden from office under the 25th Amendment and added, “when Kamala Harris inevitably screws up, we will take them down, one at a time.” He concluded by saying: “The Second Amendment was not written so that we can go hunting or we can shoot sporting clays…. The Second Amendment was written so that we can fight against tyranny.”

Increasingly, right-wing agitators are calling for violent overthrow of the government.

Today in Pennsylvania, Steve Lynch, a candidate for Northampton County executive, said: “Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go into these school boards to remove them. I’m going in with 20 strong men and I’m gonna give them an option—they can leave or they can be removed.”

At a protest in Santa Monica yesterday before a vote on a mask mandate, a man held a sign with the names and home addresses of each Los Angeles City Council member and said protesters would go to the homes of anyone who voted for the mandate and, if it passed, “Civil War is coming! Get your guns!”

This sort of street-level violence is known for radicalizing individuals as they get swept up in it and then later embrace the larger political arguments behind it. It also forces more reasonable individuals out of government positions as they conclude that their position on a school board, for example,  is not worth threats against their families and their lives.

Far from trying to tamp down this violence, right-wing leaders are egging it on. Tonight, on the Fox News Channel, personality Tucker Carlson told his audience that no leader had apologized for “these terrible decisions” in Afghanistan. “This can’t go on,” he said. “When leaders refuse to hold themselves accountable, over time, people revolt…. We need to change course immediately… or else the consequences will be awful.”

The images on the screen behind Carlson were of President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Defense Secretary Austin, and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley. Carlson often tries to undermine the current leadership of the military, suggesting that he would welcome its replacement by officers he finds less objectionable.  

Republican offense may be an attempt at defense.

Today, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, announced that the committee has demanded that 35 major communications companies preserve their records from April 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021, for people involved in the January 5 and January 6 rallies in Washington, D.C., or “potentially involved with discussions” about stopping the electoral vote count on January 6 or otherwise  “potentially involved with discussions" in planning the January 6 insurrection. According to CNN, the companies affected include cell phone giants Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Sprint. Social media companies covered under the request include Apple, Google, Facebook, Signal, Slack, YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter.

CNN reports that members of the committee have requested preservation of the records of representatives Cawthorn, Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Jody Hice (R-GA), and Scott Perry (R-PA). They have also asked the companies to preserve the records of former president Trump; those of his children Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; and those of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Don Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who worked on the campaign.

Those determined to regain control of the country from the Democrats also have to contend with continuing good news from Biden’s policies. A new study from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University shows that the first child tax credit payment kept 3 million children from falling below the poverty line and that the child poverty rate dropped from 15.8% in June to 11.9% in July. Coronavirus relief measures kept another 3 million children from poverty. Families are using the money to buy food and pay off debt.

The administration is also coordinating aid to the states hit hard by Hurricane Ida, which brought up to 15 inches of rain to parts of Louisiana and knocked out the state’s power grid. The administration deployed more than 3,600 employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, who prepared more than 3.4 million meals, millions of liters of water, more than 35,700 tarps, and roughly 200 generators in the region before the storm hit. They have moved ambulances and search and rescue teams into the area and have opened shelters. The Army Corps of Engineers has mobilized personnel to remove debris and to provide temporary roofing and housing.

The administration is shifting its focus from unilateral military might to multilateral alliances to deal with common problems. Tomorrow, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will leave for Asia, where he will meet with leaders from Japan and then China to bolster international cooperation on climate change before the meeting of the 2021 U.N Climate Change Conference in early November.

—-

​​

Notes:

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1CENTCOM's Gen. McKenzie: In total, 123,000 civilians were evacuated from Afghanistan over the last 18 days.

869 Retweets3,334 Likes

August 30th 2021

Aaron Fritschner @FritschnerAt Macon County GOP event yesterday, Madison Cawthorn called January 6 rioters “political hostages,” and spoke of trying to “bust them out.” Then- Attendee: “When are you gonna call us to Washington again?" Cawthorn: “We are actively working on that one.”

4,235 Retweets7,587 Likes

August 30th 2021

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cawthorn-calls-jan-6-defendants-political-hostages-muses-about-trying-to-bust-them-out

Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNewsALERT:  House Select Jan 6th Committee asks 35 major communications companies (including major cell service providers, Twitter, Parler, etc) to preserve records  for "individuals  potentially involved with discussions" in planning Jan 6 Sweeping request (more)

1,408 Retweets3,875 Likes

August 30th 2021

/photo/2

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/30/statement-by-president-joe-biden/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/fact-check-biden-dover-afghanistan-kabul/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/28/world/asia/kabul-airport-attack-isis-us-strike.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/january-6-phone-records-members-of-congress/index.html

Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowskiAt protest in Santa Monica today before the vote on mask-mandate, Jason Lefkowitz has the home addresses of each LA City Council member on his sign. He says they are going to the homes of whoever votes for it, and if it passes, it’s “civil war, get your guns.” From @chadloder

3,407 Retweets5,941 Likes

August 30th 2021

Andrew Lawrence @ndrew_lawrencethe most watched cable news host in america justifies a coming "revolt" unless we "change course immediately"

261 Retweets957 Likes

August 31st 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/01/american-civilians-yemen-left-behind

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/30/1032615984/house-panel-investigating-the-capitol-attack-orders-35-companies-to-preserve-rec

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/30/how-evacuation-americans-is-going/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/radicalism-post-trump-gop/619891/

https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/monthly-poverty-july-2021

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/30/readout-of-president-bidens-briefing-with-gulf-coast-elected-officials-on-hurricane-ida/

https://www.businessinsider.com/child-tax-credit-expansion-reduce-child-poverty-rate-research-2021-8

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-ida-louisiana-new-orleans-c43c2c68946ceb6100c2239534c6c290

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[verobatto]

Destiel Chronicles

Vol. LV

It was a love story from the very beginning.

The Monster At Your Door

(10x04/10x09/10x10/10x11)

Hello my dear fandom! This is another meta from my Destiel Chronicles.

I want to say thank you to my friend @agusvedder , she made the gifs for this analysis, thank you girl!

And thanks to @destielle for editing this! 

This season doesn't have a lot of Destiel in it and was mostly Dean-centric.

So you will see me talking about how our hunter perceives himself as a monster.

Brothers and Sisters

In episode 10x04 ‘Paper Moon’ we saw Kate and her sister, two female werewolves, as mirrors of Sam and Dean.

Kate, the one who was trying to save her sister (Sam), and the little one Tasha, becoming a real monster (Dean).

After getting to know about Tasha and Kate's story, and Kate trying desperately to get her sister back, the Winchesters decide to help her. But there was a little piece of dialogue  between Sam and Dean that caught my attention…

SAM: Right, but how can you possibly blame Kate for fighting for her sister? We do it all the time.

DEAN: Well, yeah, and that's worked wonders for us.

The ultimate effort to save Dean Winchester at the end of the season will cause a huge cosmic consequence we all know: Amara. So, this quote here that could be read as very Winchester like is kind of a premonition of what is about to come next season.

And then, this scene… it points us at how Dean is really feeling inside.

KATE: But she can be saved!

DEAN: [blunt, but in despair] No. Tasha's in too deep. You don't ever come back from that, not ever.

How disturbingly painful it must be for Sam knowing his brother is losing faith in winning his battle against the mark.

There’s another interesting dialogue, now between the two sisters, where we can dissect the foreshadowing of Sam trying to get through to Dean in the last episode of this season.

KATE [pleading] T., I can help you get better.

TASHA [sneering evilly] Oh, I am better. And smarter and stronger… and awesome. I'm a freakin' superhero.

KATE Who kills innocent people? No, that's not you. You were a good kid.

So, Sam will try to save the innocent and good side of his brother, with all his power.

Because even if Dean perceives himself as a monster that can't be saved, Sam will always try to convince him otherwise. Just like Castiel…

You are a role model

Episode 10x09 ‘The Things We Left Behind’ is a beautiful episode that talks about GUILT. Not just Dean's guilt (we all know about that one, right?) But also Castiel's GUILT and his REGRETS.

Castiel visits Claire Novak, because he knows he hurt her a lot by possessing her father. So he tries to help her. But, because his PEOPLE TALKING SKILLS are ‘rusty’, he’s not able to communicate it the right way. So he helps her to escape instead.

In the middle of this episode we have this cute scene:

Dean watching TV, reflecting that innocent side I was talking about first, and Sam staring at him with sadness in his eyes, being worried about the mark. This situation points out their priorities.

Back to Castiel and Claire. There’s a very meaningful scene in which Cas talks about his experience as a human and what he has learned in that time…

CLAIRE: You’ve changed. The Castiel I met? He was crappy. Like super stuck-up and a dick and you just wanted to punch him in his stupid angel face.

CASTIEL: I don’t think I was THAT bad.

CLAIRE: You totally were. And now you’re just … I don’t know. Nicer. And kind of a doof. No offense.

CASTIEL: Yes, well, um… Before, I was very self-assured. I was convinced I was on this righteous path. Now I realize that there is no righteous path. It’s just people trying to do their best in a world where it’s far too easy to do your worst.

This is amazing because Castiel is shouting out the important insights he has gained from being a human. This is character development at it’s best. Cas is not the same Castiel that possessed Claire's dad. She says he is nicer. Castiel has changed, for good. But the guilt of taking her family away from this girl is eating him up inside.

And it’s the same thing that eats Dean up inside as well.

Dean sees an opportunity to stay alone with Castiel on kind of a date with him. Both of them sitting in front of their burgers. We know Cas doesn't have to eat. So the scene is very cute and comfy.

The question whether or not ketchup is a vegetable and Dean answering Hell yes is demonstrating that Claire and the hunter are very alike.

This date is also a chance to put back the dot on the I again. Because… remember Cas and his ‘female in the car’? Well… our hunter needed to reinforce his ownership over the angel. 

But mostly… the guilt needs to be put on the table:

DEAN: (...) All right, so spill. What’s with the family reunion?

CASTIEL: I don’t know. I’ve just been … thinking about people.

[Dean glances around, then switches their plates, taking Cas’ burger and setting his empty plate in front of Cas.]

Okay, pause here, sorry but this is extremely cute… and Dean looking around like an innocent kid, it’s such a beautiful scene that I adore.

CASTIEL: No problem. I’ve helped some, but I’ve … I’ve hurt some.

DEAN: So you’re having a midlife crisis.

CASTIEL: Well, I’m extremely old. I think I’m entitled.

It’s so amazing each time Castiel reminds us he is an ancient creature that decided to spend his days with us…

DEAN: Cas, listen to me. There’s some stuff you just got to let go. Okay? The people you let down, the ones you can’t save … You got to forget about them. For your own good.

CASTIEL: Is that what you do?

Okay, here Dean is sensing Cas is feeling guilty, a territory he knows very well, so he tries to help him and give him advice, an advice Dean doesn't follow himself. And Castiel knows that too well. Because he can read Dean Winchester like a book. And we all know he won't let go Charlie's death.

And then… this jewel…

Dean is not used to receiving compliments. But Castiel is always calling him nice things. Because Cas sees the good in him, he knows DEAN IS SPECIAL. So Dean, Cas’ TFW teacher, is a role model for him. Of course he is. 

Look at Dean's flustered face, he has to avoid Castiel's tender gaze because he is feeling awkward. It looks like a don't say things like that to me on our date, bro- face.

One of my fave scenes ever.

Let's go with another one…

As I said, Castiel reads Dean like a book. So he knows when Dean is lying. He just knows Dean is not feeling well. And again, Dean is… enraptured by this. By how well Cas knows him. Look at his face… if I was telepath, which I'm not (yet) I would say, Dean ponders whether kissing him or not in that moment. It’s like… stop flirting with me or I will kiss you, bro. He even checks out Cas and stares at his lips. Gah!

Then, coming back to reality… Dean needs to know if Cas will kill him bc he is terrified of becoming a monster again:

DEAN: If I do go dark side, you got to take me out.

CASTIEL: What do you mean?

DEAN: Knife me. Smite me. Throw me into the freakin’ sun, whatever. And don’t let Sam get in the way, because he’ll try. I can’t go down that road again, man. I can’t be that thing again.

Dean is asking something impossible for Cas to do. As we will find out in one of the last episodes from this season. Castiel would never hurt Dean, even if he goes dark side.

Two Faces

After Dean is losing control, turning into the monster he was so afraid of becoming, killing Randy and those gangsters… nothing will be the same anymore. This bloody scene is a premonition of the end of this season, when Dean will eliminate the whole Stein family.

Episode 10x10 starts with this image:

Cracks in the mirror which are reflecting how Dean is feeling inside: broken.

This is an episode where light and shadow play a big role in the visual narrative, we can see Dean's face divide in one half lit and the other half drowned in shadows. Those halfs represent his two faces, his inner fight between ‘our’ Dean and the monster brought by the mark.

This episode was directed by Misha, so when we see Cas telling Dean he’ll be sending emojis… that wasn't OOC, that was just Misha 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

Now, the important part of this episode is Claire trying to convince Dean to come by saying: ‘Castiel seemed to trust you, a lot’.

That was the signal for Dean. You drop Cas’ name, count Dean in!

But now let's jump to episode 10x11 because the game of the two faces is represented here again in the form of two Charlies, a good and an evil one. They are a metaphor for the way Dean feels inside, in fact the whole episode is a mirror of it.

The parallel between Dark!Charlie and Dean is blatant, because Dark!Charlie is seeking for revenge, just like Dean will after Charlie's death.

Charlie had to release her darkness to win a war, the same thing will happen to Dean. In order to win the war against a whole family (Stein) he will have to release the monster inside of him. At the end of the episode Dean and Dark!Charlie are having a fight, a fight between good friends as a foreshadowing of the Destiel fight in episode 10x22.

To conclude:

The monster inside Dean is on the threshold of being released. The episodes we were talking about showed us a lot of examples, mirrors of and parallels to that.

The symbolisms of two faces and broken mirrors were very interesting.

The synergy of light and darkness is also a foreshadowing for the next season with the appearance of God (light) and Amara (darkness).

The Destiel burger date was too cute, and Dean not knowing how to react to Castiel's compliments was even cuter. To Cas Dean will always be special and a role model, that's why he will be incapable of harming Dean in any way.

Hope you like this chronicle, see you in the next one!

Tagging @metafest @magnificent-winged-beast @emblue-sparks @weirddorkylittlediana @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @poorreputation @bre95611 @thewolfathedoor @charlottemanchmal @neii3n @deathswaywardson @followyourenergy @dean-is-bi-till-i-die @hekatelilith-blog @avidbkwrm @anarchiana @dickpuncher365 @vampyrosa @foxyroxe-art @authorsararayne @anonymoustitans @mybonsai1976 @love-neve-dies @wildligia @dustythewind @wayward-winchester67 @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @deeutdutdutdoh @destiel-is--endgame @destiel-shipper-11 @larrem88 @charmedbycastiel @ran-savant @little-crazy-misha-minion @samoosetheshipper

@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @nerditoutwithbooks @mikennacac73 @justmeand-myinsight @idontwantpeopletoknowmyname @tenshilover20 @teddybeardoctor @pepevons @helevetica @isthisdestiel @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester @horsez2 @qanelyytha @imjustkipping

If you want to be added or removed from this list just let me know.

If you want to read the previous metas From season 10, these are the links...

LI, LII, LIII and LIV

Buenos Aires March 31 2020 10:03 PM

[funkymbtifiction]

Hello, it is me again, the girl that can not figure out if she is an ESTJ, INFP, ENFP or ISTJ. Yes, coming to think of it, it was probably lazy of me to just say “Hey, here are these characters you have previously typed that behave and think just like me, so what is my type?” instead of actually explaining why do I identify with these functions. But I have to say you really made a point by referring to the lack of substantial, concrete information given to you by me and my habit of identifying with a lot of these characters as Fi traits, which is something I had not noticed before. Anyway, here it goes:

Si/Ne: I have always had a very unhealthy obsession with my past. I still have lots of things and toys from my childhood and, like what you pointed when you typed Blair, I am always watching the same movies that bring me a sense of comfort whenever I feel out of place. It is something paradoxal, but, even though sometimes I feel like longing for a big change in my life, I always feel very distressed when out of my routine. Whenever I am about to do something I have been wanting to do for a long time, like starting college and moving somewhere I have always dreamed of living, I get very anxious and hesitant for a moment, feeling a sudden urge to give up on everything and just stay where I feel comfortable, if the change is for good (usually, it is) and something, ironically, I have been vocal about wanting to do for a very, very long time. To illustrate it better, it reminds me of Rapunzel getting out of her tower: something she had spent her whole life desperately wanting to do, but she is suddenly afraid when the time comes for her to actually do it. About Ne, well, I consider myself a very excitable person with a lot of ideas all of the time. My best friend said days ago that my habit of easily taking life-changing decisions in a matter of seconds concerns her a lot. I have, from month to month, random, very specific obsessions, and I can get very passionate about the subject, but it just ends abruptly when, one day, I wake up no more interested in that and then, there I am, starting a new fascination.

Fi/Te: Like I said, even though the other two functions are great aspects of my personality, these ones are the most recognizable in my behavior. Bossing people around, not even thinking about harsh things I may be about to say, demanding from the others all the time and being, overall, very direct about what I want are things that come naturally to me. I am extremely pracical in my work and have clashed with other people because of this very method of just doing it instead of learning, learning, practising and pracitising before actually trying. Speaking of learning, I hate to do it in a subjective way when it comes to my work field. However, I am also extremely sentimental, to the point of not knowing if it is a sign of low or unhealthy Fi in action. I said I identify with Hermione Granger, for example, because outright insulting people and proceeding to go cry in the bathroom after hearing they say they don’t like me is totally something I can see myself doing. Nevertheless, ever since I was a child I have been living in my own world. I have my own pre-set expectations towards life that, according to some (well, actually, all the people I know) are ridiculously high and, for me, it is all a matter of all or nothing. Another personality trait, which I attribute to Fi, is being able to always have a clear, objective opinion over anything and anyone. I always know what I want and what I don’t want, what I like and what I don’t like, who I think is worth my time and who is not, and people are always commenting on that, because it can make me sound very blunt most of the time. Marianne Dashwood reminds me a lot of myself in that aspect (and so does your amazing typing of her), as much as Sarah from Labyrinth does. Mary Lennox would be more like the type of Fi-dom that comes across as very Te-ish, another reason for my identification with her.

Regarding my enneagram, yes, that is me, you got it totally right in your description of the 468 type, which makes me think even more that, contrary to what I used to think, I am actually a 4w3 and not a 3w4, even though the 3 wing is strong in me, making my behaviour seem very 3-ish (which, according to Beatrice Chestnut, is also due to the Sexual Four subtype), as “faking being more of a hard-ass than she is” basically describes my behavior. All of that makes me wonder: is it possible for someone to switch enneagram type and wing over the time? I could swear I am a 4w3 right now, in this very moment, and have been prior in my life, but I can also swear I used to be a 3w4 from high school until a year ago. It feels like I have neglected the 4 aspect of my personality for a long time, instead putting all of my effort into my social persona during high school and, in college, my schoolwork and internship. I wanted to have this “mean girl” image in high school, so I just did. It felt boring when it felt I had made it, so, when I went to college, I wanted to be the best academic and most ambitious professional in my work field. I came to the point of considering myself a workaholic and have had a very unhealthy mindset during all of that time, but since last year, I just said a big “fuck it” and started to develop my 4 side, to the point of coming go believe I had been much more of a 4 all along, desperately trying to sustain an image that, once I managed to finally feel I had, did not satisfy me at all. Could it be, instead, my 3 disintegrating into 9?

Thanks for everything.

Generally when someone has a large push-pull / over-reliance and confidence in two functions working well together, it’s in the middle of their stack. What you describe sounds like inferior Si – you have reduced Si down to “sentiment,” which is more an NP thing than an SJ thing. With an SJ, Si is what they live every day and breathe: the factual details of the outer world, being present and active in it, learning and growing at a steady rate as they absorb and file away new information, often becoming experts in a chosen field of personal interest. Not wanting to let go of childhood, clinging to the past, dreaming and then becoming anxious about abandoning “what you know” as soon as it’s about to become REAL is far more Ne/Si than Si/Ne. NPs tend to live in fantasies, chase after dreams, and then freak out sometimes when they realize it means… abandoning every single familiar, sensory thing they have ever known or experienced. They throw themselves, either mentally or physically, headlong into things only to realize they bit off more than they can chew and retreat, abandon the project, or chase after something new and exciting.

Your “just do it, let’s not learn it or practice it” it is a very NP way of doing – just throw yourself into it and figure it out as you go (Ne/Te). SJs are more practical, detailed, and hands on in the learning process, and usually want a clear agenda before they start important things.

Enneagram wise… I don’t know. Nothing you said about 4 shows me that you understand on a deep “UGH… why am I like this???” dumpster fire of being a 4. If you tried on identities in high school only to discard them, and focused on high levels of achievement instead of allowing crippling self-doubt, having to wait to be “in the right mood” to finish things, overreacting to perceived slights, and adopting an anti-society stance of “NOTHING IS ME IN THIS ROOM” etc., that’s malleable behaviors – so 3, 6, or 9. Over-working and then relaxing as you get older could be 6′s line to 3 and to 9 respectively. (Why are you not a counter-phobic core 6? Faking being a bad-ass is pure 6. 4s don’t fake anything except their entire identity, in the form of militant constant “That’s not me” adherence. They are pathologically afraid that they might be normal, ergo their problems are solvable and therefore their ego fears of separation are... fake. And you don’t have to convince me – you have to face yourself.)

You seem more focused on the sx4 description than on Nanjarano’s entire description in which he bluntly and brutally lays out the self-destructive nature of the 4 and outlines all their problems in-depth. Read it again. If it’s “not you” it won’t feel torturous. If it is you, you just might burst into tears, or get furious, because of how true it is. (One 468 I know who read his 4 said she wanted to punch him in the %$^# face – a total overreaction… just like a 468 would have to having to confront all the crap they do, but don’t want to admit to doing.)

Enneagram isn’t there to make us feel good about ourselves. It’s there to show us the box we climb into and lock ourselves into it by closing the lid. It’s there to show us our brand of dumpster fire and give us the keys to freedom by forcing us to look the hideous truth of ourselves in the face and then choose not to fall into auto-pilot. Until you feel like you’ve been punched in the face repeatedly by an Enneagram description, you either are in denial about your type (as one of the more positive types who “whitewashes over all the bad stuff about me” like 9, 7, or 3) or you’re focusing on the wrong one subconsciously to avoid the EWW NO OH MY GOD WHY of the real one.

One 9w8 I know said she loathes the 9 descriptions because of what “doormats they make 9s out to be.” She refused to consider herself a 9 for several weeks until she caught herself merging with other people – and then she felt a wash of disgust and shame at having found her true type. She has told me a few times that her 8 wing despises her 9 core. It’s true we often prefer to focus on and think about our wing than our core, because the wing is far less painful. It’s like squinting at your reflection instead of having your eyeballs bleed. ;)

- ENFP Mod

[littlepurinsesu]

V Watches MagiReco - Episode 9 Review

*Spoilers for Magia Record Anime Episode 9*

I... have mixed feelings about this episode O___O While some parts were definitely well-done (like, REALLY well-done), there were some others that left me a bit underwhelmed and wanting something more?

Don’t get me wrong, by no means was it not a good episode, because it was. But I’m gonna try my hardest to pinpoint why I felt that while some parts were amazing, others really could have been done better.

The phone conversation with Iroha and AI had some top-notch imagery going on in the background. As expected of a PMMM spin-off, every single frame probably has some deep and profound symbolism if you really wanted to pause and analyse each one. There’s never a dull moment on screen; even when all that’s happening is a phone conversation, they know how to hold your attention by giving your eyes a feast with that amazingly trippy and surreal kind of art style that PMMM is known for.

I, too, was a bit disappointed that Madoka and Homura didn’t show up, and by the looks of it, they probably won’t be making their appearance during Sana’s arc at all, which makes yet another major deviation the anime has made. But it’s not that huge of a deal to me because I know they’ll appear at some other point and I’m sure they had their reasons for making this change (hopefully for something better!). I’m happy to let the new characters take the spotlight; I actually think it’s a better choice than constantly relying on the Holy Quintet to build hype and satisfy the fans, which could actually draw attention and focus away from the main plot sometimes. This is how I personally feel, at least ^^;;

That being said, although I didn’t mind Madoka and Homura not being there, I did have some issues with Iroha’s entrance into the Rumour. It just happened... way too quickly and suddenly? I expected a bit more dialogue between the characters, especially since Yachiyo’s expression and comment about jumping off the tower not killing magical girls should have been a big indicator that she knows something (wink wink). I think that might have been a good chance to foreshadow the reveal that comes with Chapter 6, and maybe add a bit more mystery to Yachiyo’s unrevealed past. But the biggest problem I had with this scene was the way Iroha jumped lol. She just... jumped. Like it was no big deal. And it was even weirder because she technically “fell” while reaching out to catch Lil’ Kyubey, but there was hardly any reaction xD She also happened to be in the middle of a sentence while talking to Yachiyo LOL clearly that “jump” wasn’t a planned or prepared one xD I just really felt like the dialogue wasn’t finished or something was cut somewhere in there? They were talking and suddenly down she goes. I know I probably sound extremely nitpicky and this is just a minor detail that doesn’t really make much difference to the story (none at all, in fact), but I just found her apathy somewhat unrealistic and strange, which broke the immersion for me during what should have been a very crucial and heart-pounding moment. Unless Iroha’s just super brave and isn’t afraid of heights at all? Maybe? xD

Anyway, back to the positive stuff! Sana’s backstory was depicted really well. Again, absolutely amazing visuals (I especially liked the use of shoes and dinosaurs). And Sana’s bond with AI was portrayed even better than in the game, in my opinion. It was the most heartwarming and bittersweet relationship, and it’s amazing to see how AI slowly changes in Sana’s company. By the way, their chess game with little puppies and kittens was adorable omg x) I’d love to write more on Sana and AI, but I don’t really have anything specific to say except that I just really, really loved how their relationship was portrayed. Definitely the best part about this week’s episode.

And now comes my biggest complaint: Alina’s debut. As one of the most popular and interesting MagiReco characters, I’m sure the entire fandom was looking forward to how the anime would go about introducing her. I don’t know if I just set my expectations too high or anything, but her entrance was extremely underwhelming for me. And a lot of the reasons were exactly the same as my dissatisfaction with Iroha’s jump: too rushed and too many missed opportunities. She just kind of appeared out of nowhere, and while I do appreciate the “shock value”, what annoyed me was the lack of of a proper “introduction” she got. AI stated her name, and Iroha questioned if she was a member of the Wings of Magius, but we didn’t get any answers. There was no explanation on who she was or what she was doing there, how she got in and what her relationship with AI was. Game players would know, of course, but I’m concerned that anime-only viewers will have no idea what’s going on and probably also have no idea that they just met one of the most important and popular characters of the franchise right now. Essentially, they’re just gonna be seeing a very flamboyant and crazy girl enter and wreck havoc but with no explanation about why she was doing what she was doing or what her connection was with the current situation and the bigger picture of the plot thus far. She just comes in and steals the spotlight, and while game players know that she definitely deserves the spotlight given who she is, anime-only viewers are probably going to be left wondering why this random green girl just came in, who the heck she is, and why everything is about her all of a sudden.

Another crucial piece of information that got lost in that very rushed and chaotic introduction was the fact that Alina actually used the word “Doppel”, which is the first time the term has been dropped in the anime. But again, no one even responded or reacted in any way (at least do the cliche thing where the protagonist repeats “Doppel?” or something LOL), but no she just keeps rambling on and yet another crucial piece of information is lost in the shuffle. What makes it possibly even more confusing is that her Doppel really doesn’t look like the Doppels we’ve seen so far; it could pass as her shooting random bits of paint-like oozy stuff instead, so I’m really struggling to see how anime-only viewers are going to make that connection and put the pieces together.

And if her entrance was underwhelming, then her “exit” was probably even worse lol. She just... disappears xD It’s quite anticlimactic considering how it looked like we were gearing up for Sana vs. Alina, and then she just suddenly gets kicked out lmao. I get that she’ll be back really soon, but it still felt way too abrupt? I think my main gripe about everything to do with Alina’s debut can be summed up in two words: too rushed. There’s so much about her character that’s interesting and vital to the story, but everything either gets glossed over really quickly or just dropped here and there with no response from the other characters. Even if they didn’t want to get into details right away, which is also fine, they could still have slowed down and built up some mystery and tension so that we’ll want to find out more about her because we’re interested and curious, and not because we have no idea what’s going on. Her appearance should have brought some answers to the questions raised throughout the story thus far, but instead she just brought more confusion and chaos lol.

But her entrance wasn’t all negative! They absolutely nailed her mannerisms. Basically everything that makes her so infamously crazy was delivered flawlessly. Her expressions, her movements, her voice, her speech, her word choice... she definitely entered with a BANG and she’s no doubt going to leave a deep impression on viewers, whether they understand her deal or not lol. The voice-acting was also top-notch, as expected of her seiyuu. Alina’s one of those characters where you really need to hear her speaking and see her moving to experience the full extent of her "charm”, and I’d say the anime definitely delivered in that respect and portrayed her uniqueness in a strong and memorable way, so props to them for that :D

^ I really wanted to use this image for this week’s review, but it’s technically Sana’s episode so I stuck with Sana xD Oh, and another thing I definitely loved about her entrance was hearing her saying so many of her lines from the game battles ^^

... Wow I just rambled and ranted for four whole paragraphs about Alina’s introduction, sheesus... Onto some other stuff now, shall we? ^^;;

One of the most interesting things to me about AI was how her appearance changes to become more and more like Sana. This is another example where the anime is able to illustrate things that the game isn’t capable of, and while I’m not sure if it’s a change or I simply missed it in the game because of the static AI sprite, I definitely liked this little detail. It not only shows how AI slowly becomes more and more human, but also highlights the fact that her form resembling Sana implies the influence that Sana has had on her. Sana is all AI has really ever known about humans and the “real” world, and all the human feelings and emotions she gains are because of Sana. It makes perfect sense that when she takes on a more human-like appearance, it’s going to resemble Sana in some respect. The little detail with the crown near the end was also really sweet ;___;

I really do think “mixed feelings” is the best way to describe my overall impression of this week’s episode xD Sana’s backstory and her relationship with AI had me in tears, but Iroha’s jump and Alina’s debut definitely had me raising my eyebrows a few times. I can overlook the Iroha part as just me being nitpicky over a trivial detail, but I really do hope that they step up their game with Alina next week. They definitely did her justice on a surface level, but in terms of her significance and relevance to the plot, not so much. She’s such an important character and her appearance marks a major plot point, so I hope we get the explanations and clarifications needed soon.

I have even higher expectations for next week, since not only is the showdown with Alina something I’ve been looking forward to for a while, but I’m also hoping that they “rectify” some of the issues this week lol. Fingers crossed that Alina gets some better writing, and they continue doing the amazing job they’ve done so far with Sana’s story! ^^

Sorry I’m so much more “negative” this week compared to how I usually am with my reviews, but I was looking forward to Alina’s appearance so much and was really sad to feel any ounce of disappointment :( Hopefully next week’s review will be back to just me fangirling throughout hehe~

[zmediaoutlet]

in support of Black Lives Matter, @mystifiedgal donated $30, and requested Tony Stark/Stephen Strange pre-slash. Thank you for donating!

to get your own personalized fic, please see this post. (no longer taking prompts)

It’s a real busy month. The superfriends break out of supermax, with the help of a blond beefboy who flings frisbees at the security cameras and doesn’t care who sees his face; the UN goes ballistic and demands Tony help; Tony gets extremely, extremely drunk like he hasn’t in years and sends Ross a manip video of Tucker Maxx getting rawed by a donkey dressed as a colonel instead of responding; the superfriends crash back into America, and Natasha--traitor--lets them back in to the Avengers compound upstate; Tony, still drunk, decides to let them stay instead of incinerating the damn thing from space; Wanda gets kidnapped by a wizard; Tony and Steve have to go save her. Tony and Steve. No, Tony’s not bitter.

“I’m struggling to come up with a reason why I shouldn’t have my house nuke your house from orbit,” Tony says. Steve gives him a bitchy look. Yeah, what else is new. He lifts his chin, looks at the wizard through his green glasses. Everything’s better in green. “Anything? Mister Wizard?”

Said wizard gives him an unimpressed look. Tony doesn’t know why. His facial hair is even more ridiculous than Tony’s, and Tony cultivates this shit. “Strange.”

“Yes, you are,” Tony says, and Steve sighs and cuts his hand through the air before Tony can continue.

“Doctor,” he says, polite. Tony rolls his eyes. Wanda, in stasis halfway up to the skylight in this weird-ass mansion, pulsates in angry red, trapped in amber. “You have to understand that things were--different. The Avengers have no desire to go to war with the--Sanctum.”

“The Sanctum has no desire to go to war with the Avengers,” the wizard says--and, jesus, what is his name? Blue eyes, good hair, cape that seems to float in magic wind. Fancy Bastard isn’t something that should go on a birth certificate. “However, you are harboring a magic user who could cause extreme damage to the innocent people of this plane if left unchecked.”

Steve frowns. “Now, look--” he says, and the wizard’s eyebrow cocks and he waves a hand, and in the circle of amber that appears midair (how?) there’s a perfect 4k, 3D view of the deaths of innocents in Lagos, of the devastation of Johannesburg after the Hulk was enraged there, of a man with red light crawling up his neck and the terror filling his eyes before his neck snaps.

Above, Wanda’s silent fury goes quiet as the red dims. Steve looks constipated, which Tony can admit inside his own head actually means he looks grim and upset and heroic. The wizard looks between the two of them. “This is a problem. It would be wisest to transfer her to an alternate plane, or at least to have her abilities removed.”

“They’re part of her,” Steve says, immediately. Tony looks up. Hard to see, from down here, but he can see that Wanda’s eyes are closed, inside her amber prison, and her face--he looks away. “You can’t remove them without killing her.”

“Well,” the wizard says, and doesn’t look even remotely regretful--who is this guy?--and Steve’s shoulders square up in that muscular way that presages a truly stupid fucking fight that’s about to ensue, and Tony opens his mouth without a single iota of a plan and says, “Wait a minute,” and the wizard and Steve and Wanda all look at him, and oh, for fuck’s sake. That means--

*

Doctor Stephen Strange. Brilliant surgeon. Incredible asshole. Drama queen, and the worst kind of all because he pretends not to be. No one has that beard without wanting to cause drama. Tony would know. Unfortunately--Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, and Stephen Strange, super wizard, and Stephen Strange, taking over a wing of the compound, coming and going as he pleases in a whisk of amber light, and Stephen Strange, Tony’s lab companion for the foreseeable future.

He misses Bruce.

The compound isn’t comfy. The various wings are divided into factions. Steve and the superfriends, hiding out from the UN and all of the other dozens of countries that want to prosecute them, are on the east side where the sparring rooms are. Tony’s set up on the west side where the labs are, and he didn’t think to put a bedroom in the lab because he thought this place would be all kumbaya, superhero summer camp, and figured maybe they’d actually want to talk to each other when they were all here. More fool him. He sleeps on the couch in the lab most days, when he sleeps at all, and it means he’s got a great view every time there’s a swirling mind-bending circle of amber light and all of a sudden there’s a fucking wizard in his house, ready to work with Wanda on how not to accidentally kill thousands of people.

This morning, for example. Morning? Tony drags a hand over his face, smears drool and engine grease. “Good morning, Mr. Stark,” Strange says, and Tony mouths it back at him schoolyard style--what he assumes normal kids did in schoolyards--and Tony lets Friday speak the room into brightness, telling him the time and the weather and whether the world’s blown up, while he’s catnapped.

“How’s the scarlet terror?” Tony says, knuckling his eyes. Christ, this sucks. 69 degrees and he can’t even make a joke about it.

A pause. “Progressing,” Strange says. He’s still wearing that stupidass cosplay outfit. Cape and all.

Tony squints at him, slumped back on the couch. “You know, if you were a real wizard, you’d magic me up some coffee.”

Strange looks at him. He always looks stern. Like Tony’s failing some test. It’s tiring from the rest of the supercrew; it’s not better from some rando in a RenFaire uniform. Strange gestures, with his left hand, and unfurls the fist of his right at the lab table, which--abruptly becomes a coffee table, in that there’s a pot of steaming coffee and toast and what Tony thinks is--fucking lox?

“From that deli on 44th,” Strange says, matter-of-fact. “You know, when I’m not a sorcerer I’m a doctor. In my medical opinion, you could look less like shit.”

Tony staggers upright, fetches up against the table. His head gongs like a--like a fuckin’ gong. It’s too early for metaphor. He pours a cup of coffee and ignores that his hands are trembling. “In my layman opinion you can suck my dick,” he says, friendly, and Strange rolls his eyes but he--he smiles, too, and he--doesn’t look like nearly so much of a dickhead when he smiles. Cape or no. Tony holds the cup (finest porcelain, like Tony has drunk coffee at Buckingham Palace in less-nice china than this) and squints, brain still offline, and Strange shakes his head and says, “Good luck, Tony,” and whisks away to deal with their little magical terror, and leaves Tony to think of what the hell. Just--what the hell.

*

Turns out there’s a big difference between kinds of magic. And here was Tony, just thinking that physics were physics. “No, no,” Strange says, impatiently. “There is of course the physics of our plane, which follow their own laws. Then, naturally, there is the magic of Asgard, brought forth from Yggdrasil the world-tree and the belief therein, which is the sort that Loki and Odin may perform. Then there is the magic of the Infinity Stones, which perform their own miracles, and of course there is our problem with Miss Maximoff.”

He’s drawing a chart in the air with his hands as he talks, marked out in amber light. Tony says, “Friday, take that down,” and the house grabs the image of whatever magic Strange is doing and transmutes it into data, neatly transcribed in cells and manipulable forms for Tony to grab and hold and think about, and Tony grips Strange’s leatherette-and-cape shoulder and says, “Buddy, I could kiss you,” and Strange rolls his eyes but his cape swirls up and pats Tony on the hand in a brush of woolly affection, and Tony doesn’t really think about that because he’s locked into the possibilities and sees a lot of sleepless nights ahead, but that’s okay. He’s got time to think about it, later.

*

Strange won’t give up much info about the rest of his little magic crew. Numbers, attitudes, location. “I am the representative on Earth,” is all he’ll say, and--jeez-us, what a statement.

“I am the representative of the Avengers in Oneida County,” Tony says, in exactly the same tone, and then pauses, flicking armor designs from one ephemeral bin to another. “Shit. Am I? Maybe it’s Steve. Okay. I am the deposed representative of the Avengers in--”

“You’re the one I’m talking to,” Strange says. He’s still sitting in the antique armchair he magicked up for himself, sipping tea. Seriously. Like every single thing he does is for the hashtag-aesthetic. “Mr. Rogers is certainly impressive, but it’s you who has had every actionable idea on streamlining Ms. Maximoff’s abilities. Don’t undercut yourself.”

Tony raises his eyebrows, lowers his hands. “How dare you,” he says, lightly, even if his chest feels--some kind of way. “I have never, in my life, in my entire existence, undercut myself, and in fact I think I’m going to set the StarkTech legal team on you--Friday, call up Pepper, see if we can sue the entirety of the Sanctum Sanctorum and also magic itself, and throw David Bowie in there too--”

Yes, Mister Stark, Friday says from nowhere, lightly amused just like she should be--good girl--and Strange rolls his eyes. “Don’t bring Bowie into this,” he says, mild, and Tony grins and Friday cues up Fame without even needing to be asked.

“Oh, very good choice,” Strange says, looking up at the ceiling, and Tony waves the armor out of existence and says, “Okay, Mister Wizard--dinner, and we’re talking Bowie and we’re talking King Crimson and we’re talking Yes, and you’re putting in an opinion about those star-and-moon pants Page used to wear, let’s go--” and Strange says, “First, they’re incredible; second, only if we’re getting Thai,” and Tony--Tony could just--

*

A bad night. Tony lays on the couch in the lab and hugs a bottle of very good, very rare, very expensive scotch against his ribs, and doesn’t drink it, and wants to. Above he’s had Friday peel away the armor of the ceiling and the sky’s a patchwork quilt of stars. Enough sound baffling and he can’t hear whatever might be going on in the rest of the compound; if Steve and the others are training; if anyone’s even here, but him. It’s peaceful. It sucks.

A swirl of amber. “You look ridiculous.”

“Yeah, well.” Tony shrugs. “Sometimes you get sued by grieving parents for your technology being used in exactly the way you intended and you think, fuck, they sure have a point. And then you want a ham sandwich and no one will get you one. It’s tough.”

He thinks he maybe sounded more bitter than he needed to. He maybe should’ve tried harder. He watches a satellite track across the sky, feels his body. Even now, when he breathes deep, there’s still a twinge where the reactor should be. He wishes sometimes--but it’s stupid. The reactor didn’t make him him. It wasn’t any more accountability than any other pain could’ve been.

There’s a sinking sensation, by his feet. Strange, sitting on the couch. “I could get you a ham sandwich,” he says, quiet. “But I suspect it wouldn’t do the trick.”

“Clever man, Doctor,” Tony says, acid. He closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to be acid. He imagines--the armor--dissolving slowly, the facemask melting into a broken sizzle of empty gestures. He maybe should’ve had less to drink.

“We are making progress, Tony,” Strange says. “Every day. Time... isn’t always on our side. But we do what we can. That’s all there is. What we can.”

Tony stretches his legs out. His shins bump Strange’s back. He’s not wearing the whole ensemble--cape and leather and whatever the hell. He’s in a sweater, and jeans, and he looks like someone Tony can actually touch. Something that obeys the physics Tony understands. Something real.

He puts the bottle of scotch on the floor. “Maybe a ham sandwich wouldn’t hurt,” he says, finally.

Strange--Stephen--touches his knee, lightly. He smiles at Tony, in the dark. “Mustard?” he says. “I can do whatever you want.”

Tony breathes deep. Settles. He says, “And you better add a pickle, cheapskate,” and feels Stephen squeeze his knee, and feels--well. Some kind of way.

[nekoabiwrites]

Of Princes and Potions 2 - Chapter 7

This is just some soft Logince before jumping back into the plot. It is also something I’ve wanted to write since the beginning, since it was just cute as hell. (This is also my 100th post on my writing blog so yay!)

AU: Royal/Fantasy Pairing: Logince Words: 2826 Warnings: Deceit is here as Demitri. Anything else, please let me know!

Summary: Roman fulfils his promise to take Logan out to a very special place since he has been discharged from the infirmary.

--

A breeze ruffled the grass under the mage’s feet as he took the most direct path towards the castle’s stables, causing him to pull his robe tighter around himself as a shield against the chill. Logan silently cursed himself for giving in to Roman’s idea at such a time of year when the weather was turning cold. Hopefully what Roman wanted to show him wouldn’t involve being out for long.

Minutes passed as Logan stood at the stable doors, waiting for the crown prince. He watched the clouds slowly roll past in the sky, their edges tinted with oranges and pinks of the early evening sky. Logan wasn’t one for such frivolities as art or the like, but he did admit to himself that sights such as this one and the clear night sky did sometimes give him a yearning to capture the image on canvas. Logan was well aware he had very little skill in such areas, so he would just have to leave those kinds of things to his partner. Roman had invited Logan to visit his art room once. The pure chaos that was inside made Logan vow to never set foot in there again.

“Apologies for making you wait, Logan. I should have expected you to be so punctual.” Roman spoke softly as he seemed to appear next to the mage in the blink of an eye.

Logan started and turned sharply to face his partner. After the shock had subsided, his cheeks began to flush with embarrassment at being caught admiring the scenery, “I hope you endeavour to follow my example in the future, Roman. Were you not taught that being late to your own plans is quite rude?”

“I was most certainly not late.” Roman’s hands landed on his hips defensively, “I was here at the exact time I intended to be. You were just early.”

“Oh, so you are not aware of the phrase ‘Early is on time. On time is late.’? I would have thought someone of your theatrical interests would have known such a thing…” Logan side-eyed the prince, doing his best to hold in his smile as Roman puffed his chest up before retorting.

“If you have heard of such a phrase, you should be aware that it only applies to very specific circumstances, such as a place of work! It has no bearing here.” Roman said definitively, as if he’d somehow made the winning argument.

Logan snorted softly and went to respond, but a third voice cut in.

“I just love hearing you two bicker out here. Would you mind being louder? I’m not sure if the residents at the other end of town could quite catch those last few words.” Demitri stood in the doorway, staring directly at the couple.

Roman was quick to apologise to the animal handler, who made a noise that seemed to be acknowledgement before slipping back inside the building. The prince then turned his attention back to his partner. “How about we go in and I tell you my plan as we prepare?”

“Prepare what exactly?”

“Allegria, of course. Come.” Roman offered no further information before he turned and entered the stable, leaving Logan to catch up. As the mage entered the building, he saw just how many horses the royal family owned. He could easily spot Virgil’s horse, as well as the king’s, as he had seen them both riding them many times as they returned from business outside of the palace. Before Logan could ponder the idea of who owned which anonymous horse in the rest of the spaces, Roman called him over.

Logan approached, a little wary of what he was about to encounter. He had heard about Roman’s steed many times from Demitri, who had so eloquently described her as ‘a brat’ and ‘the most spoiled animal he’d ever had the displeasure of caring for’. However, the mage was not ready to come upon her space and see the pure white sheen of her coat nor the two folded wings sitting atop her sides. “Ah… so this is Allegria… the pegasus…” Logan muttered in a moment of realisation.

“Correct.” Roman responded, running his hand down the pegasus’ neck. “She’s going to take us to a very special place.”

Allegria seemed to understand immediately that it was not just Roman who she was going to be carrying this evening. In response, she looked directly in Logan’s eyes and seemed to.. scowl? Logan convinced himself he was seeing things.

“Where is this ‘special place’, Roman? Are you going to enlighten me as to your plan?” The mage asked, standing out of the way as Roman worked to fit Allegria with her riding gear.

“I did consider it, but I think that it will be far better to surprise you, my love.” The crown prince grinned as the mage’s eyes rolled on instinct at the pet name. “I will give you my word that it is something I am sure you will enjoy.”

Logan’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not sure if you are the authority on such matters… but I suppose I have nothing else to do but place my trust in you this time.”

“This time?!” Roman cried out, stopping dead in the middle of attaching the saddle.

“Must I ask again?” Demitri sighed, walking towards the couple. An odd quiet answered him, as both Logan and Roman avoided his gaze. He stopped next to Logan and looked between the two men expectantly, “Well? Must I?”

“No, you don’t.” Roman reluctantly responded sounding all-together like a petulant child being scolded. He began putting all of his focus into ensuring Allegria was properly fitted. It was most definitely for safety reasons and not because Demitri’s gaze was boring directly into his soul.

“Apologies, Demitri. I believe we’ll be leaving soon.” Logan added quickly.

The prince hurried along with his prep before leading Allegria out into the fresh air. She impatiently ruffled her wings and huffed as Roman helped Logan up onto her back, situating the mage properly before clambering up himself. He guided Logan’s arms to wrap around his waist, throwing a smile back at the man behind him, “Hold on tight. It might be a bit bumpy at first.”

Logan did as he was told, gripping onto Roman tightly. He thanked every deity he could name that Roman warned him as Allegria sped away at a full gallop almost immediately. Logan, overcome by some kind of overwhelming fear as the pegasus’ wings opened, buried his face into the crown prince’s back as they began to ascend into the sky. He mentally counted through a pattern, attempting to keep his breathing steady and his shaking body under control.

In front, Roman couldn’t help the grin that stretched across his face. He was experiencing so many of his favourite things; soaring up into the sky at a high speed, the beating of Allegria’s wings against his legs, the feeling of Logan’s arms wrapped tightly around him as though he were his only lifeline. The intermittent shaking of his partner and the face being pressed deeply into his back was putting a shred of worry into Roman’s mind, but he didn’t want to embarrass the mage by asking. At least, not until they were done climbing higher into the air.

They levelled out after a minute or two, though it did feel like an age to Logan. Shakily, he pulled his head back and glanced around. He wished he hadn’t the moment his gaze tracked downwards. Logan’s grip tightened and he instinctively shuffled forward to press himself against Roman.

“Everything alright?” Roman asked casually, as if he hadn’t noticed Logan’s sudden shift.

“We… we are extremely high up.” Logan stated, the wavering of his voice giving him away as much as his tight grip.

Roman smiled warmly, “Yes, we are, indeed. It’s precisely as high as we need to be, right?” Roman gently patted at Allegria’s neck, which prompted a responding noise. Logan twitched violently at the sound. Roman could hear an intake of breath, which meant Logan was about to apologise. He cut him off, “Do you trust me, Logan?”

That had the mage pausing for a moment. “Of course I do, Roman.”

“Then believe me, and trust me, when I say that you are safe with me, Logan. I trust Allegria with my life. I would not even entertain the thought of bringing you along with me if I did not.”

He would later tell Roman that it was the high altitude, but still Logan found himself almost unable to breathe at the sincerity of the prince’s words. He was sure that if Roman had been able to face him, his expression would have made Logan’s heart skip a beat – as impossible as that was. A few moments later, Logan’s grip relaxed a little and he was simply resting against Roman’s back, “Alright, Roman. I will… endeavour to remember that.”

Roman’s smile widened to a grin. He wanted to say something back, but he bit his lip to stop himself from ruining the moment.

They flew in a comfortable silence towards their destination. Logan began to stare at the passing clouds, watching them in fascination. He also observed the sky he’d been admiring previously slowly change shades; the pinks and oranges fading away to tones of reds and blues. The bright stars began to seemingly pop into existence in the sky and he had a full view of it all. Logan was enraptured by it all. So much so, that he missed when Roman alerted him to their descent. All of a sudden, Allegria headed towards the ground and Logan yelped in surprise. His grip tightened so harshly that Roman could feel the air being pushed out of him, as though he’d just been knocked back in training yet again. It was over in a matter of seconds, as the pegasus’ hooves landed gently upon the white snow.

Carefully, Roman pried Logan’s grip off and he dismounted. He helped the shaken mage down to solid ground before turning his attention to his animal companion, “Thank you, my sweet. Take a nice rest.” Allegria tossed her head slightly but allowed Roman to pet her softly before she wandered off to a patch nearby to take a rest.

As Roman was busy, Logan took a moment to place himself in his surroundings. It was clearly somewhere high, as they had taken far less time to come to solid ground that they had coming up from the castle courtyard. It was far colder than it had been on ground level, and the snow was but one indicator of such. He peered off around, trying to see what was nearby in the darkness, but could only make out vague shapes. He wracked his brain, thinking of a place that held all the characteristics that he had noticed.

“So, Logan, have you-” Roman began a dramatic-sounding speech, his arms held wide as he faced away towards the distance.

“The peak…”

“What?” Roman stopped mid-sentence, sharply turning around.

“You’ve taken us to the peak of the mountains. Carlecona’s Peak, to be exact, if I am not mistaken.”

Roman pouted, “You weren’t supposed to know where we are until I told you. Now my whole speech is ruined.”

Logan snorted softly and approached the prince, reaching out to rest a still slightly shaking hand upon his arm, “Many apologies for having functioning eyes.”

The prince scowled at his partner for a moment before sighing dramatically, “I suppose I can forgive you, as this was only the start of the surprise. Come.” Roman began trekking through the snow up a small incline. Logan followed as best he could, doing everything to not fall down and make a fool of himself. Once at the top, Logan’s mouth fell open.

The view was absolutely stunning from the mountain’s peak. Somehow, this one specific spot had just a perfectly clear look across the kingdom, all the way to the sea in fact. Clusters of dim lights illuminated the darkness, giving Logan a way to place himself as he noted which town would be which. Even through the darkness, he could see the farmland and forests, the ruins and the houses. It was all so… beautiful. And then, Roman gently tilted his head upwards towards the sky. The stars were all alight, all in their places, with the full moon bright and round. It was everything Logan had already been looking at back at his tower, but there was so much more for him to see here. He could turn and look in all directions and still be surrounded by the fascinating night sky.

As the mage looked awestruck at the view, Roman was content to stand beside and watch. The excitement and surprise in Logan’s eyes were as clear as the stars in the sky above and Roman couldn’t help but smile. He rarely saw this side of the stoic man, as he preferred to keep everything close to himself, but seeing him with his guard down just did something to Roman’s heart. The prince wanted to see Logan like this more. He took a seat in a rather well-worn nook of a boulder nearby and turned his gaze out towards the kingdom, “No one else has been up here, you know.”

“What?” Logan ripped his gaze away from the sky to look towards his pensive partner.

“Up here, on the peak.” Roman reemphasised, “At least, I have never brought anyone with me.”

“Is there a reason for that?” Logan took a seat beside Roman, looking out upon the same view.

“Because… I’ve never trusted anyone to know about this place.”

“What do you mean? Many know of it; it is the peak of the mountain. The fabled one that is said to be cursed if man stepped foot on it once more, lest they be haunted by the ghost of the hero who won the battle singlehandedly right here, or so the legends say.” Logan recalled with an underlying tone of distaste for the rumours.

Roman shook his head with a soft chuckle, “That is not what I meant. I mean, that I’ve never trusted anyone with the knowledge that I come here. It’s where I come to… escape whenever things become too much.”

“Ah… I see.”

The couple sat looking out towards the horizon for a moment before Logan suddenly realised the implications of Roman’s words.

“W-wait a moment, Roman. You said you have never brought anyone up here?”

“Yes.”

“No one, at all?”

“At all.”

Logan’s face bloomed red and he settled back into his spot, trying not to alert Roman too much to his sudden comprehension, “Well… I feel somewhat… honoured that you trust me with such… things…” The mage cringed as he couldn’t quite find the words he was looking for. It didn’t seem to matter much as the warmth of Roman’s hand covering his own had him turning to see such a loving gaze turned towards him. The view was forgotten as they stared into each other’s eyes for moments on end, almost daring each other to take the plunge.

When Roman finally did move forward to capture Logan’s lips, the mage was overwhelmed with the sensation. It was far different from all the other kisses they’d shared previously somehow. He thought he’d experienced them all, but Roman always managed to find a way to prove him wrong. It was utterly indescribable, the way it made him feel. The only thing Logan could think of doing to explain was to return the kiss with the intention of letting Roman know all of it through said action.

They parted soon after, as breathless as they normally were after far more involved kisses. Neither said a word, Roman simply turned his gaze back to the view and Logan instinctively rested his head against the prince’s shoulder and also stared.

“Why did you bring me out here?” Logan asked softly, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Roman smiled down at the man resting upon his shoulder, “After you mentioned wanting to see the stars, I remembered how many I could see out here at night. I thought you would enjoy seeing it. Also… I wanted to bring you here, to show you how much you mean to me.”

Logan’s cheeks flushed yet again, and he turned to bury his face into the prince’s firm chest, “How dare you?”

A gentle laugh pulsed through Roman’s body in response as his arms came up to hold Logan close, “I will not apologise.”

Logan’s lip twitched up into a smile. He was content to sit here in Roman’s arms just a while longer, before they had to return to their regular schedule. “I think I understand now…”

“Hmm?”

“Why you come here.”

“You do?”

“Yes. May I make a request?”

“Of course, you may. You know I can never turn you down.”

“Bring me along next time as well?”

---

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[waywardwhump]

;)) The higher one stands, the more brutal is the fall. Not necessary painful though. If it is from a place too big, it won't probably hurt, though. One just smacks the ground too fast to feel a thing... and shatters, shatters. But Lucifer is durable and it is not first Fall for him, right? Btw. Are there fallen factions anyways?

Oh, believe me, Lucifer is durable, and falling always, always hurts~

There are different groups of fallen, yes! 

A lot of the time, fractions form because different fallen have different opinions on humans. There are those that want to hunt, kill, and destroy every human soul on sight. These are the speciffic fallen that heaven projects on the fallen as a whole, the typical image that any angel will have in their mind when they hear the word.

There are fallen who think it’s okay to hurt humans in specific circumstances, and loathe those that hunt the ones they deem innocent.

There are fallen like Thariel, who cling to heaven’s rules of ‘harm no human, ever.’

And there are even fallen that don’t care about what the humans are doing one way or the other, they just want to live their life and not be dedicated to anyone’s side. They fell because they don’t want to be humanity’s guardians, but they hold no grudge. They just want to exist on their own terms.

Lucifer has had his hand in starting a good number of fractions. While he has encouraged the growth of ‘kill every human’ groups, Lucifer himself prefers the ‘only some humans are bad,’ variety.

This is because it’s easier to get angels to agree with him if he doesn’t stick to an extreme. Using Thariel as an example, she would sooner die- sooner be tortured by him- than lay a hand on someone who’s done nothing wrong. 

Theoretically, though…if he can convince her that it’s okay to target humans like Mother May, the woman who imprisoned her for twenty years and who burnt her wings off, then she’s still working toward his goals. She’d be allowed to protect Sam while still doing his will by hunting down souls and keeping them from heaven.

Hell, if Thariel joined him, he’d protect Sam and chase other fallen away from her to cement Thariel’s loyalty. 

[tropicoola]

Character backstory and explanation for one of my main inquisitors under the cut. Will feature images.

So I wanted to write about one of my main inquisitors, this is Levant Lavellan. She’s not really a Lavellan, because she was adopted into the clan when she was exiled from her home to the west. 

She’s a teenage inquisitor (16 when Inquisition starts and 20 when Trespasser ends) and a descendant of Ghilan’nain’s mutated slaves who escaped slavery before the fall of Arlathan/Elvhenan. It’s been referenced in the game that Ghilan’nain would create creatures and even experimented on her own followers/slaves so this was where I took the idea from, I suspected that there were at least some failed attempts. Anyways, eventually the slaves grew fed up  with how they were treated and attempted to flee. Fortunately (or unfortunately) Fen’harel had heard of this and wanted to help them, so he did but they were terrified. Having heard the terrifying stories of him. In addition, they were afraid they would no longer be treated as Elvhen for how beastly they looked and the fact that they were no longer immortal due to their mixed bloodline. So when Fen’harel was not looking, they escaped him and fled to the west over the Hunterhorn Mountains.

It was a mass exodus of grand peril, for the journey was filled with monsters, dark jungles, chilling mountains, scorching deserts, and, for the most part, uncharted territory. A normal Elvhen would have died, however they were no normal Elvhen. For they carried animalistic traits. For having the blood of animals and beasts, they had claws that could help them climb, some had wings, others had gills, others had fur that kept them warm, and most had unnatural colored skin (green, blue, silver, etc) that helped hide them from predators. Despite their different powers, there was one thing they all had in common - a deep tie to the nature that surrounded them. These people were almost entirely cut off from the Fade and instead they turned to the Earth beneath, but not to the Titans. They paid close attention to the sun, the stars, the winds, and all the creatures that crawled on the crust of the world. They did not talk to animals, but they understood that animals knew the way through these places the best and so they listened to them, followed them, and eventually found a clearing far from monsters and even farther from Elvhenan. It was here where they built their first settlement, living in peace with the animals. Eventually the settlement turned into an Empire and they dubbed it ‘Neo-Arlathan’ and closed its gates from foreigners for a very long time. Ever since, paying respects to natures and having beastly roots have become an intrinsic part of their culture.

I made art of what Neo-Arlathan would look like and although it is by no means as beautiful or intricate like Arlathan, it does have a charm of it’s own. Much of it and the people - I have taken inspiration from myths and legends of Faeries and their courts, their politics, and their appearances. Here are examples of the kind of aesthetic it would have: x, x, x, and x, x, x, x. The last four are mainly to point out how beastly they can look and yes, some do look exactly like that (also follow the artist!! they deserve a lot of love!! i admire them a lot).

(Pictured above, Levant with her claws coming out during Trespasser - a sign she is slowly maturing into whatever form she’ll be in as an adult)

In much of Faerie lore, the Fae are depicted as having pointed ears and dressed in clothes woven from insects (butterfly wings, moth wings, etc) and plants. They are known to be tricksters and volatile when even the slightest bit offended, their politics are commonly divided into two - the seelie and unseelie court. The first being filled with kinder Fae and the latter with more malevolent ones. Levant belongs to the latter, specifically the Autumn court. I won’t get into too much about this but if you think human politics is complicated, Fae politics is ten times more. Taking inspiration from this, the court Levant is in has a High Power (the king or queen) and needs an advisor because of how dangerous the politics are. Levant was studying to be the next advisor and was close to becoming one until a dispute between her and the High Power caused her to get exiled. 

In short, the High Powers (plural because the others in different courts were involved) wanted to 1) destroy any remnant of Arlathan/Elvhenan and 2) rename Neo-Arlathan under the basis of ‘why should we keep records of our abusers? let us burn it and move ahead’. Levant was extremely against this, especially because she was a scholar who was very interested in her people’s past. She even started a rebellion with her colleagues but that was stopped fast by the ones in charge, although her colleagues were allowed still in the Empire - because she was their leader she was sentenced to be exiled into Thedas under the basis of ‘if she loved Elvhenan so much, she can live there for the rest of her damn life’.

Distraught and alone in Thedas, she was surprised to find.... well... a lot of things (racist things, war things, apparently Elvhenan was dead things, and did you know about the Fade? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF THE FADE things). She literally did not understand anything, that was until she met the Dalish - until she met clan Lavellan. They were literally everything she could have hoped for. Unlike her people, they cared for what was left of Arlathan and Elvhenan. They also worshipped the Evanuris/Creators, unlike her people who saw them as slave keeping monsters (Levant is a rebel, at this point she’s everything against her people). This, in retrospect, is incredibly funny for me. Because she has been fed nothing but the truth since she was born, ‘Evanuris bad, they keep slaves’ ‘We have actual records of them being bad’ ‘Why do you think we look like this, Levant’ and Levant’s just ‘(in Dorian’s mocking voice) tRiTE pROPagANDA’. 

Anyways, although Levant wanted to share what she knew from her home she knew they wouldn’t believe (after meeting with other Dalish that didn’t really agree prior to clan Lavellan). She simply went along with the ‘City Elf who wants to be Dalish’ and she was in (reminder that she was 14 when she was exiled into Thedas)! She became a hunter and was much loved, and she loved everyone back just as much. Yet over time, it seemed like her secrets could not be kept for long. Eventually it got out, drama ensued, and after so much time trying to be Dalish - something she was not, Levant felt something in her broke.  She knew she would never be Dalish, never be like them, so she refused her Vallaslin and told them she had to leave - she needed to see Thedas and find out where she really belonged. Her clan forgave her over time and advised her to be careful, for an unmarked elf meant something - usually easier prey for slavers. Understanding this, Levant made it routine to draw her Vallaslin on every morning with a special ink and wash it off every night. She chose Mythal and clung to her religion of the Creators like a child to their mother’s skirts, praying she’d find her place.

She just never imagined it would be the inquisition. 

Now since we know how inquisition plays out, here are just a few tidbits:

Nobody believes her at first (typical)

Until they find her notes and books she took with her from the Empire (at which point Solas is ??????? ???????? SHE KNOWS ?????????)

Solas’ reactions are the funniest because while she sees him as a mentor and eventually a father figure he is almost constantly on the verge of ‘she has so much potential’ or ‘i need to get the fuck out of here’

Also it’s funny to see him going absolutely crazy at the fact she’s like ‘yeah my people said the evanuris were bad and they kept slaves and vallaslin r slave markings but they’re really not’ and he’s like (in a croaked voice) ‘oh??? who said so?’ ‘the dalish’ (in an even more croaked voice) ‘and you believe them?’ ‘i swear by the creators’ (cue solas’ inner monologue going absolute bonkers) IT’S LIKE SHE’S HITTING ALL THE MARKS BUT SHE KEEPS MISSING THEM AT THE SAME TIME???

‘oh but my people said fen’harel was bad’ ‘at least your people and the dalish have one thing in common’ ‘right?’ ‘.... yes’

which only makes the ending of inquisition and trespasser hurt even more

finding out that her people were right and Levant has been playing ‘know-it-all’ for the past 6 years of her life, that the creators really were bad, that mythal is in a form of a human woman, and that a man she considered her father figure and mentor was the dread wolf? who tried to help her people but they refused him? and now he wants to destroy the world?

her troubles with identity (inquisitor? levant? a lavellan? elvhen? an elf? a fae? a beast? a person? an imposter? a fool?), religion (who to believe, the maker? the creators? the earth and beasts, as her people do?), family issues, and culture.

culture because she suddenly finds it unfair that her people got off this train wreck of a history before the fall, how many lives were spared because they left early. how grateful and horrified she might have been when she saw the shattered library, heard the voices of the distant brethren of her ancestors.

standing before solas at the end and wondering if she should just go home, beg for a place in her court, wait for the world to end - what hope did thedas have? after having her heart shattered like that?

were her people right? was burning anything they had of arlathan/elvhenan justified? were her emotions just stupid, insensitive of the truth of it all? were her people being prideful and haughty as usual, or was there an act of kindness and progress in it? what if they were right? what if they really should just move on? should she move on as well?

god knows if she doesn’t, she might end up like Solas.

but like... despite that i feel like she’d still come to believe what the dalish believe. sort of caught in between her leaving thedas to go back home or just fully 100% acknowledging herself as a lavellan or just being a silent and distant protector of the dalish

yknow, like a wolf (considering she’ll grow to have a wolf and lion-like appearance)

like a neo-fen’harel.

O SHIT I LIKE THAT!!!!!

anyways sorry for all the word vomit but this is what i have on levant so far!

also cool tidbit: instead of Solas offering Abelas another place in the world, it’s Levant who offers him the secret to getting to the Empire in the west. After a lot of talking, he takes it and leaves.

[jeannereames]

Could you comment on kasta tomb? Is the excavation still ongoing? Has there been new discovery/hypothesis/debate? For a while it was all over the news then it fizzled out. Google searche only surfaces old articles. What's the academic consensus, if any, regarding whether it was a dedication to Hephaistion?

 Okay, so, for the TL;DR crowd:

1)    The excavation is more-or-less on hold due to lackof funding (like a lot of excavations in Greece).

2)    No new discoveries for reason 1, plus the usualquagmire in Greek archaeology of access to a site and turf wars. But, thesethings also take time.

3)    It wasn’t a dedication to Hephaistion. I don’tknow an academic (outside the excavator’s team) who genuinely believes it was. Attachingit to H. (or any other major figure at ATG’s court) is part of the usualattempt to get media attention (and funding).

Let’s start with #3, which will in turn answer #s 1 and 2.

First rule of archaeology: gold and famous names raise money.It doesn’t matter how important one’s discoveries actually are for the field,it matters how well the lead archaeologists can market what they’re finding topeople/gov’t with funds. Sometimes really good (non-gold) artwork also can beused for attention.

Witness how the archaeologists at Bethsaida (Israel) havehandled the finding of an iron-age stele w the image of the moon god in a “highplace” in the gate. This is *really cool*, given the date (900s?). But do theytalk about its rarity, etc.? Oh, hell, no. The email I got from Rami pointing to anarticle about the find from Israel’s Jerusalem Post announces, “Archaeologists identify citygate from time of King David.”

Famous name! Especially in Israel.

Now, compare: “Large Looted Tomb from Hellenistic Period Foundin Northern Greece,” or “Archaeologists Report they may have Found the Tomb ofAlexander the Great’s Mother/Best Friend/General…etc.” Now, which of those isgoing to get anybody to read the article? :-D

That’s how you get media attention (and hopefully, money tokeep digging, as archaeology is EXPENSIVE). Yet if the claim turns out to bebogus/unsupported, the media attention goes away or can even turn against theexcavator. If/when the first goes down, sometimes the team tries to come upwith other exaggerated explanations to maintain that spotlight, but this canjust dig the grave deeper.

So, why couldn’t this tomb be Hephaistion’s?

First, there are other burials in it—five people to be exact.Were it a monument for Hephaistion, it would be a cenotaph, not a tomb (hisbody was burned in Babylon), and it would be solo, not have other people there.Macedonian Tombs come in two basic types: solo and family. We do have otherfamily tombs (most famously, the Tomb of Lyson and Kallikles, excavated byStella Miller-Collett), and this appears to be similar to that. So attachingthis tomb to Hephaistion faces the immediate problem of, “Uh…other people?”

(Couldn’t they be his surviving family? Well, maybe, but it’sstill really weird. Trying to argue such a thing would be better called “reaching.”*grin*)

The presence of an older woman in (if I recall right) her60s, led some to propose it was Olympias in there—except, again, other people,plus we know (from ancient testimony) that Olympias was buried in Pydna (whereshe was murdered on Kassandros’s orders). So it’s also not Olympias. BothOlympias and Hephaistion are important enough that they’d have merited a solo,not family, tomb. (And most all of Olympias’s family were killed and buriedelsewhere.)

Another name put forward is Nearkhos, one of Alexander’sgenerals, who had land in the Amphipolis area. At least he is a possible candidate,although the tomb might be too late for him (but he sure as hell would have hadthe money for it). Like our Macedonian soldiers, Lyson and Kallikles, Nearkhosmight have sought to establish a family tomb. Again, it’s a reasonablepossibility, just a question of whether the tomb is too late.

Back to Hephaistion (and why it’s not him)…

The argument that it is rests on the presence of some graffiti on stones. First, the graffiti does NOT name Hephaistion (that’s an interpretationby Peristeri and her team). Second, if this were a tomb memorializing such animportant person, why on earth would it be indicated by graffiti?

The graffiti says “arelabon” followed by the letters Eta andPhi (and maybe a sigma?). Peristeri has turned that into “parelabon” and “Hephaistion”:received by Hephaistion. Problem: “arelabon” appears twice, missing thenecessary “pi” in both cases. While missing letters in inscriptions is hardlyunusual, missing the same one in two different places is odd. I’m not going toplay with that further, just leave it for true epigraphers. (I’m aprosopographer, so I deal with epigraphy only occasionally and largely withnames.) What I really want to kick to the curb is the idea that the letters area monogram for “our” Hephaistion.

My current research work involves epigraphical occurrences ofHephaistion, as well as other Hephais-based names in both their Attic-Ionic andDoric forms. Trust me, there are a LOT of names that start with Eta-Phi, evenbeyond Hephais-based names. But even if this meant “Hephaistion” the nature ofthe graffiti itself suggests somebody working on the tomb: an architect,mason, or other craftsman—not the person for whom it was made. We find suchcrafters marks on pottery, bronze, etc. (We also find such etched names on dedicationsin temples, but I don’t think that applies here.)

I think if this was really referencing Hephaistion Amyntoroshis full name would have been given (not a monogram), and it would be a lotmore prominent within in the tomb.

Furthermore—and one of our eternal problems with IDingMacedonian tombs—is that, unlike many figured tombstones (stele), Macedoniantombs usually DON’T name the dead person buried there, even when we suspect theymay portray the dead persons image (like the Tomb of Judgement at Lefkadia).The Tomb of Lyson and Kallikles is unusual. Instead, we get names like the Tombof Judgement, or the Tomb of the Palmettes. The Tomb of Eurydike was calledthat by later archaeologists; there’s absolutely no indication that it belongedto Philip’s mother. It’s almost certainly a woman’s tomb, but that’s about allwe know.

And oh dear, wouldn’t the whole Royal Tomb II at Verginadebate be SO much simpler if there was actually a flippin’ name on the tomb?!There’s not.

Identifying who’s buried in a tomb is REALLY HARD. Itdepends on dating, objects, and probabilities.

So yeah, some craftman’s graffito on the Kasta Tomb means zilch,except that he got his wish and has been spoken of by posterity.

So…trying to turn this into a cenotaph or tomb ofHephaistion is a pile of …wishful thinking. 😉  It’d be cool if it was…but it’s going to takea LOT more evidence to make that claim (not to mention explaining the 5 peoplein there).

Another problem is trying to DATE this sucker.

Those who want to tie it to Alexander more directly are desperateto make it early Hellenistic, despite clues to the contrary ranging fromarchitecture to the gown style of the Karatids. I’m not an art historian, so Iwon’t dig into that. I’ll simply point to one thing I found extremely curiousbut have not seen anyone (yet) address: the use of blue in the mosaic.

Now first, no silliness please about the Greeks not “seeing”blue; that was going around the internets for a while. Yes, they saw blue! Butthe color palette common to painters like Apelles in the late Classical period weremore earth tones. (Again, not an expert. I’m just gonna point to the word ofOlga Palagia, et al. Go and read Olga.) We find these colors in the pebblemosaics at Aegae (Aigai) and Pella, as well as Dion, et al. Even in thebeautiful Persephone painting in Tomb I and Aegae/Vergina.

The first time I saw that BLUE in the Kasta Tomb mosaic, itreally struck me. Unfortunately, art historians tend to catalogue mosaicsby how they’re made, not the colors in them, so I haven’t been able to track thisdown further, except to say that I, personally, have not seen an early Hellenisticpebble mosaic in Macedonia that used blue pebbles. Maybe there’s one hiding ina museum basement somewhere, but these mosaics are pretty spectacular and tendto be shown off. Blue as a color in mosaics is later, showing Egyptian influence.It’s also seen more in tessera mosaics than pebble, which were going out ofstyle by the Roman era. (I think the last datable pebble mosaic is from Delos,1st century BCE—again, Olga.)

So given the use of blue in that mosaic, I’d prefer to see adate that’s mid-Hellenstic at the earliest.

Ergo, we’re probably looking at the family tomb of animportant Hetairos during the Antigonid Dynasty. That’s my best guess.

Incidentally, pointing to the 4th century AmphipolisLion and saying, “Well, it was on top, so the tomb must be 4thcentury!” is horrible methodology. Something stuck on the top of thetomb (which may or may not have been there originally) does not date the tomb. Evenif the lion had been inside, that doesn’t help. Let me explain with an example:

Just because you want to be buried with your great-aunt Bertha’sWWII WAVE wings does not mean that *you* fought in WWII. 😉 It means you were buried with an antique. Sothe presence of the lion means only that the tomb probably can’t date BEFOREthe 4th century lion. That doesn’t mean it can’t date afterit. In fancy archaeologist-speak, the Amphipolis Lion provides only a “terminuspost quem” (earliest date for X), not a “terminus ante quem” (latest date for X).

[enneagramspam]

VERONICA SAWYER

6w7

“I wish you'd come with me-“

In response to a question asked over on r/enneafiction.

Veronica’s Six core is exploited at every turn throughout Heathers, the Musical and the clashing of her loyalty to her ideals with the desire to feel safe and secure ultimately results in an abrupt and extreme disintegration over the course of the show. 

Basic Fear:  Of being without support and guidance / Basic Desire: To have security and support

“I wanted someone strong who could protect me…”

Veronica wants, more than anything else, for someone to have her back in a world she perceives as dangerous and frightening. This is made abundantly clear in Fight For Me, the song where she falls in love with JD after seeing him defend himself. The repeated lyric; “I would fight for you // If you would fight for me,” is the most obvious example- the world itself might remain unsafe, but the potential security to be found in another person is a huge draw for her (“Could you carry me through no man's land?”).

This isn’t the first instance of Veronica’s safety seeking behaviour, however- it’s present as early as Beautiful, when she asks the Heathers; “Um. Let me sit at your table, at lunch. Just once. No talking necessary. If people think that you guys tolerate me, then they'll leave me alone…” Veronica isn’t interested in spending time with the Heathers for the sake of popularity or self-affirmation- it’s as a shield. Beautiful also sees her scrambling out of the way of anyone who might pose a threat (“Oh, sorry!” // “Aah, nothing!”), except, notably, when Martha is the one being threatened, where the first glimpse of a counterphobic Veronica emerges; “Pick that up right now … I wanna know what gives you the right to pick on my friend.” Sixes are loyal to their friends, but also to their beliefs- Veronica has a strong sense of justice and a conviction that things can become better again;

“But I know, I know...

Life can be beautiful

I pray, I pray

For a better way

We were kind before;

We can be kind once more

We can be beautiful..,”

Ultimately, it’s her loyalty to this ideal, and her ability to function counterphobically to defend and preserve it, that saves her and the school as a whole, allowing her to confront JD with the conviction that “his solution is a lie,” despite his repeated attempts to exploit her loyalty; “Please don’t leave me alone, // You were all I could trust.”

Everything comes to a head at the end of Act One. After the events of Blue leave Veronica feeling particularly defenseless, she does what a disintegrated Six is wont to, and latches onto her only source of security; JD. “You’re not alone,” he tells her, an offer of the security she is seeking, but can’t seem to find anywhere else. Veronica finds herself drawing strength from the relationship; “We’re what killed the dinosaurs, // We’re the asteroid that’s overdue,” and ultimately venerates it to religious significance, following JD’s lead; “Our love is God.” But the fantascism of these statements, and the undercurrent of violence present from the beginning of the song, betray her disintegration, and the brutality that is about to ensue. Veronica reacts with horror when she discovers that JD has in fact, murdered Kurt and Ram instead of just knocking them out as he promised, (“What the fuck have you done?”) but he remains her only source of safety, even in a world that he has just made a lot more dangerous- he is still completely loyal to her; “...I worship you // I'd trade my life for yours.” Veronica finds herself, more afraid than ever, but with no other source of potential safety, she continues to answer JD, “Our love is God,” despite the fear plain on her face, and doesn’t try to leave his embrace- letting go would mean facing her basic fear, and being without support and guidance.

Seventeen is her attempt to make their relationship into a true source of sanctuary for the pair of them, appealing to JD’s own strength of loyalty (“Can’t we be seventeen? // That’s all I want to do.”). As a Six, she is unable to make a convincing statement without acknowledging all their past pain; “Fine we’re damaged,” and the truth of more in their future, “People hurt us … And you’re right, that really blows.” The song exemplifies her Seven wing- she suggests shallow distractions from the pain, chilli fries, prom night, shopping for summer clothes- but ultimately what she is offering JD is her presence by his side; “Don’t stop looking in my eyes.” The song is filled with offers and promises of and appeals to both their senses of loyalty; “I wanna be with you,” “Your love’s too good to lose,” “Hold me tighter,” etc. Ultimately, the conclusion; “I’ll stay if I’m what you choose // If I am what you choose // ‘Cause you’re the one I choose.” sums up Veronica’s tendency towards loyalty, but also need for it, perfectly.

Disintegration to 3:

“Dreams are coming true // When people laugh but not at you!”

What drives many Sixes to disintegrate is a belief that they are not equipped to protect themselves. Veronica’s initial disintegration occurs when she joins the Heathers as a direct result of this belief- by Candy Store, she has become image-conscious enough to sabotage Martha’s popularity in order to maintain her own (and thus her own safety.) Big Fun makes it clear that this strategy, though unhealthy, is working for her, (“I'm not alone! I'm not afraid!”) and she spirals further into it.

When disintegrated, Sixes lash out- they divide the world into “them and us,” and can be driven to sabotage the “them,” in order to protect themselves. As she disintegrates further, Veronica briefly embodies an unhealthy Three’s arrogance- taken in by JD’s sweeping promises in Our Love is God- “We can start and finish wars…” and enthusiastic to play judge and jury to Kurt and Ram- but critically, not executioner. The murder is a shock to her system, and ironically, allows her to see the flaws in their previous arrogance; “We’re not “special”, we’re not “different” // We don’t choose who lives or dies.”

Integration to 9:

“Listen up folks, // War is over.”

There isn’t much opportunity for Veronica to integrate, but Seventeen (Reprise) offers us a glimpse- while as a Six, Veronica can’t put her fears aside completely; “We're all damaged, we're all frightened // We're all freaks but that's alright,” this song has a far more optimistic tone from Veronica than anything else in the whole show; “We’ll endure it, we’ll survive it.” Like a healthy Nine, she shows a willingness to let go of unproductive conflicts (“We are done with acting evil // We will lay our weapons down”,) and relationships alike,  (“If no one loves me now // Someday somebody will.”) Enneagram institute describes Nines at their best as; “indomitable and all-embracing, they are able to bring people together and heal conflicts,” and that’s a perfect description of what this song is all about; “Brand new sheriff’s come to town.”

Childhood Wound: They lost faith they would be protected.

““But the sky's gonna hurt when it falls, // So you better start building some walls…”

There’s an underlying pattern in Heathers, like in many teen dramas, of adults who are essentially untrustworthy- either helpless or unwilling to lend a hand to the kids they should be responsible for. This is arguably such a pervasive theme because it lends the teenagers more agency in the plot and gives their struggles more credibility, but in Heathers, this trope is in fact a depiction of a lack of empathy from adults who truly don’t take teenagers seriously, or are in fact outright abusive or neglectful.

In Beautiful, teachers objectify Veronica, or only recognise her once she is important enough to be seen with the Heathers. Outside of her, Kurt and Ram’s fathers’ are demonstrably abusive, and their sons perpetuate that cycle of abuse by taking it out on their schoolmates. They only repent only in My Dead Gay Son- too late. Ms Fleming is apathetic towards the students whose mental health she is supposed to prioritise from her first appearance- trying to impose a detention on Heather Duke even as she vomits from her eating disorder right in front of her. In Shine A Light, her advice to the students is facile, and her motivation is more about performing for the cameras than actually making a positive impact. Altogether, Veronica lives in a world where adults simply can’t be depended upon for help or sanctuary. Her verse in Dead Girl Walking (Reprise), directed at JD, encompasses all this;

“I wish your mom had been a little stronger

I wish she stayed around a little longer

I wish your dad were good!

I wish grown-ups understood!

I wish we’d met before

They convinced you life is war!”

From Yo Girl, we know the situation applies not just to Veronica’s schoolmates, but her, too. The intertwining of her parent’s empty reassurances; “Your problems seem like life and death! // I promise, they’re not!” with the chorus’ building, ominous reminder of the very real threat of JD drawing closer and closer, “Guess who’s climbing the stairs? // Guess who’s picking the lock?” shows that her parents aren’t equipped to protect her. Childhood wounds only have to be felt- a Six can perceive themselves as vulnerable when this isn’t the truth of the situation. It’s notable that despite the present danger, she simply answers, “You wouldn’t understand,” and works to protect herself (“Veronica’s trying to keep him out, now,”) and again, doesn’t ask anyone for help during Dead Girl Walking (Reprise). All of Veronica’s experiences have clearly built her into a Six who feels she has no-one left to trust.

w7:

“Let's be normal, see bad movies // Sneak a beer and watch tv,”

Veronica often deals with her issues by retreating, shutting her eyes to the unpleasant realities of what’s going on around her, with varying success; “Dream of ivy-covered walls and smoky French cafés // Fight the urge to strike a match and set this dump ablaze!” Her conflation of her own ideals of kindness and inner beauty with the physical beauty she achieves as a result of the Heathers’ makeover is arguably made easier by her Seven wing- “When you’re beautiful // It’s a beautiful frickin’ day!”- when she fakes Heather Chandler’s suicide note, she as much confesses this; “Believe it or not, I knew about fear ... I hid behind smiles and crazy hot clothes,” although she doesn’t admit this is partly confessional. This isn’t the only instance of Veronica’s unwillingness to confront unpleasant truths in favour of happier distractions- trying to undo what’s happened with JD with chilli fries and dancing seems another example, as does her behaviour in Dead Girl Walking, wherein she opts to distract herself from her anxieties not just by returning to her source of security, (“In here it’s beautiful,”) but with seeking baser pleasure to drown out any pain; “Make this whole town disappear!”

[alisterbittly]

Presenting Team RABW (Please don’t hate me)

Percival (R)edfield Alexander (A)shfur Lily (B)loomfield  Micheal Good(w)ill I was inspired to finally post these characters of mine after reading through all of my LGBTQ+ books. I was afraid that these characters might end up hurting/triggering people, but I realized that goes with every character out there. So after finally gaining the strength to actually finish these character’s back stories I think it’s finally time to post them. Bios: Name - Alexander Ashfur Age - 22 Race - Rabbir Faunus Gender Identity - Bisexual Male Preferred Pronouns - He/Him Associated Colour - Black Occupation - Casino Worker/ Full time Hunter (Beacon Alumni) Weapon/s - Jackpot!!! (Hand Cannon), 54 Lies (Razor Throwing Cards), Hand to Hand Combat Semblance - Stacked Deck (The ability to steal the luck of others and replace it with bad luck, kinda like Qrow’s but it trades in active control of the semblance with the intensity of how much bad luck is given in trade of the stolen good luck.) Personality - Calculating, a bit cold, Persuasive, Logical, has a soft spot for kids. Background - A total mystery, even to his teammates, he is almost always with a mask to fit the situation, he only ever takes it off when he’s with his teammates and just his teammates alone. The only thing they know for sure about him is that Alexander is not his real name, he stays away from anything pink as much as possible (except for Percival), he always looks so sad when he sees kids playing with toys, and that he’s their friend and they are his. Name - Percival Redfield Age - 21 Race - Lizard Faunus Gender Identity - Non Binary Preferred Pronouns - They/Them/Theirs Associated Colour - Pink Occupation - Part time Day Care Worker/ Full time Hunter (Beacon Alumni) Weapon/s - Lollipop Maul/Dust Buzz Saw A.K.A (Cutesy Culling) Semblance - Positive Energy Overload (Causes creatures minds’ to be overloaded with positive emotions, can either help cheer people up when used with good intentions, but can either leaded to mental breakdowns, madness, and worst case scenario brain death when used with lethal intent.) Personality - Caring, Optimistic, Brave, Protective of those under his care, Noble, A Demon in battle. Background - Came from a family that descended from a the King of Vale’s knights, Percy was forced to live as an perfect example of a knight, but when they denied them the right to be with their beloved simply because they were their older brother Reid’s rival, Percy took their belongings and walked out of the Estate flipping a middle finger to the family and staff that followed him.

Name – Lily Bloomfield Age - 21 Race – Dessert Fox Faunus Gender Identity – Pansexual Male Preferred Pronouns – He/him Associated Colour - White Occupation - Part time Dancer/ Full time Hunter (Beacon Alumni) Weapon/s - Aurora & Inferno (Twin Curved Swords with elemental dust in them aligning to their names.) Semblance – Mesmerizing Mirage (Illusion creation Semblance, mostly used by Lily to create mirror images to help him in battle, but can be used to distort the vision of enemies, making objects and terain appear different from what they truly are. When used in conjuction with Micheal’s semblance the illusionary world will also be more powerful, granting it the ability to actually hurt the enemies) Personality - Playful, Optimistic, Happy go lucky, Charming, Adventurous, Vicious. Background – A exotic dancer hailing from the desserts of Vacuo, Lily mostly spent his time singing, dancing, and making merry with his fellow townspeople of Mata Hari. All was well in Lily’s life, till soldiers came, they did not bear any insignia that Lily knew of, not White Fang, and definitely not from any of the kingdoms, but came they did anyways. They began dragging the people out of their homes and places of work, and they started interrogating, and when the people being questioned would not speak or if they gave the answers that the soldiers didn’t wanted they were shot. When a window of opportunity came the people of Mata Hari took it, they skillfully undid they bindings, grabbed the nearest weapon from a disarmed or surprised soldier and immediately began their counter attack mortally wounding all the soldiers and killing most of them who were lucky enough to die quickly. When the tables have turned the townspeople began their interrogation, but the soldiers would not talk, or rather they were too loyal to their cause or too afraid of the consequences for their betrayal. One by one the soldier either bled to death, were tortured to death, or were simply given the mercy of a quick death via beheading. As it turns out the town of Mata Hari was a hub for spies, spies who bear no allegiance except for the very town they live in, Mata Hari. The soldiers came knocking down their door for information, but instead they met their untimely demise. The question now is though what information did they want? And who ratted the town out. And it is for this reason Lily was sent to Vale to speak with one of their contacts Ozpin and his inner circle. Name – Micheal Goodwill Age - 16 Race – Dove Faunus Gender Identity – Asexual Male Preferred Pronouns – He/him Associated Colour - White Occupation - Full time Hunter (Beacon Alumni) Weapon/s - Forsakened Paradise (Dust infused flowers and pure Dust sewn-on his clothes and a carried bouquet of the flowers), Deus Iratus (His very wings and feathers imbummed with dust, he uses a special coating to prevent damagaing his wings with the elemental dust effects) Semblance – Bliss (Induces Hallucinations to those affected by this mind altering semblance, causes affected subjects to be drugged out of their minds, literally turning them to euphoria drunk zombies. The mind altering effects of this semblance is so powerful that imaginary worlds can be made for those under the influence of the Bliss for a good amount of time. Scary thing is the hallucinations will actually feel real, so death via neurological backlash is scarily real. This semblance can also be used in such a way to both brainwash people and to numb pain and all other stimuli) Personality – Kind, Caring, Loving, knows how to hold a grudge, dangerously misguided, has a twisted sense of mercy, loves cute things and hates eating bitter food. Background – Ever know what’s it like to be born into a cult? Well Micheal knows. Born to a cult dedicated to breeding the perfect vessels for the Two Brothers posses so that they may once again walk among their creations in Remnant, Micheal was part of this ceremonial process, of a pair of twins being born within the cult to be made into the ideal vessels, everything had to be perfect, the physiology, the aura strength, and the semblance. And just every cult in the movies, tv shows, and video games, this cult fucked up and they fucked up big time. Every other set of twins were failures, they were either fraternal or to weak, but then Micheal and his twin were born, and to the cult it looked like they finally succeeded, but oh boy they were in for a nasty surprise. The older twin, Micheal’s older sister who was supposed to be the vessel for the Elder Brother had the powers that were opposite to him and more aligned to the Younger Brother, this manifested early on when the two (Micheal and her) were separated from one another when the nurses tried to separate them from one another to clean them up. Well the twins didn’t like that, at all, baby Micheal immediately started crying when he was separated from his twin and said twin was saddened and angered by this, so her Semblance (for some reason was able to manifest from a newly born baby) activated and death and decay spread around the delivery room, people who didn’t have a strong enough aura died, leaving only a handful of the delivery team alive, including Micheal, their mother, and their father. Horrified and awed by the power of the baby, they decided to do away with her, too scared at what she could do, especially if she were to grow up and learn how to use said powers. Micheal as he grew older always felt that something was missing in his life, like there was a part of him missing from himself, it wasn’t that he had a bad childhood, besides the cult thing he had a very happy childhood, but then he found out about his twin sister and he was enraged, furious at the cult for leaving his sister to die and hiding the truth from him, the extreme emotional stress made way for his  Semblance to be activated/unlocked. At a great gathering of all the members of the cult, Micheal enacted his revenge, using his Semblance he filled the minds of everyone in the meeting with Bliss, turning them to brain-dead zombies, after which Micheal set the entire place down on fire, effectively killing everyone in the cult and covering his tracks. This left Micheal with a clean slate and the freedom to seek out his sister, armed with his wits, unorthodox weaponry, semblance, and what little information and clues he has, he set of to Vale to find his older twin sister. Lucifer

[janiedean]

Your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberries! Now submit or I shall taunt you again (Thunder road plz, it is my fave)

sure thing u hateful anon have some analysis u__u

SOOOO, Thunder Road is the opener of Bruce’s third record, 1975′s Born to Run, ie his breakthrough album, and sets the mood for the entire thing (more or less) and for about a good half of the themes we can find in his non-political songs (ie: finding love later in life, wanting to get out of a crappy small town, wanting something better in life), albeit in a more optimist way than his subsequent songs on the topic in Darkness (in The River it’s a healthier 50/50). It also has the peculiarity of not having a refrain - it’s rather one single, long rant that starts slow after a lovely harmonica introduction and then builds up in a crescendo up until the sax solo in the finale which can’t fail to leave the listener smiling until it hurts if they have followed, which made it both a perfect opener for his Live in ‘75-’85 record and a perfect closer for his concerts on his last couple tours, where he’d perform it solo/acoustic and while that version is slightly more bittersweet and not as full of joy it’s still amazing and a good update to the song which of course will sound different now that he’s nearing seventy than how it did when he was twenty-six.

So, without further ado, let’s go into it.

The screen door slams, Mary’s dress swaysLike a vision she dances across the porch as the radio playsRoy Orbison singing for the lonelyHey that’s me and I want you onlyDon’t turn me home againI just can’t face myself alone again

First thing: here we can notice how Bruce has a certain tendency to start songs slamming you right in the middle of the action in a kind of very cinematic way and this is a perfect example of it - the screen door slams, Mary’s dress sways gives you exactly the image of it, as in you can literally see a girl dancing like a vision across the porch while her dress sways and the screen door slams and you’re already put in the mood. Mind that we had the sweet slow harmonica introduction which tells us that this is a love song and that the dude is in love with a girl named Mary (like a good number of women in Bruce’s songs and we can go into the catholic imagery for a long time but next time).

But there’s more: with Roy Orbison singing for the lonely (Orbison is a direct influence on this song but also a singer that hadn’t been too famous at the time and had fallen out of the spotlight after a series of tragedies befalling on him so it already gives you the idea that Mary has old-fashioned tastes) we already know that Mary is a lonely person who’ll dance on the porch to a singer people already don’t know and who is for the lonely, which gives us the idea that Mary isn’t having a great time.

Then the narrator shows up with that’s me and I want you only, so *he* wants her, but we learn that Mary has turned him down once and he’s trying again because he can’t face himself alone again, so he’s also one of the lonely people Orbison sings for.

Summary: both Mary and the narrator are outcasts and not teenagers at their first rodeo.

Don’t run back inside, darling you know just what I’m here forSo you’re scared and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymoreShow a little faith, there’s magic in the nightYou ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alrightOh and that’s alright with me

That’s confirmed immediately in the next part where the narrator says that they aren’t that young anymore and she’s scared of a relationship with him rather than not wanting him, while he’s certainly sure of his feelings - he calls her darling and he wants her to stay and he’s more optimist than she is since he tells her show a little faith, there’s magic in the night which is an extremely sweet and romantic thing to say before dropping the bomb in the next two parts of the triplets, as in: you ain’t a beauty but hey, you’re all right (Mary isn’t beautiful but she’s all right and let me tell you if you don’t think of yourself as such that’s way better a pick up line than trying to convince people of how beautiful they are) and that’s all right with me, as in, the narrator can’t give two fucks about whether she’s beautiful or not - she’s all right and so he’s all right with her, and at this point we can assume that he has gotten her attention.

You can hide ‘neath your covers and study your painMake crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rainWaste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streetsWell now I’m no hero, that’s understoodAll the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hoodWith a chance to make it good somehowHey what else can we do now

At this point, if you listen to the song, you can notice that the beat picks up slightly as he presses on - he tells her that she can hide from life (hide ‘neath your covers) and think all over again about how much it sucks (study your pain) and analyze all her failed relationships (make crosses from your lovers) while thinking about her knight in shining armor (praying for a savior to rise from these streets) while he is right outside.

Now, our narrator is not a knight in shining armor - he can only offer some redemption (note the choice of a very religious-catholic themed theme which comes back and back except that differently from the washing of sins that dominates Darkness here we have redemption which is a way more optimist thing) beneath a dirty hood, so he just has most likely a dirty beat up car and no white horse and not much money, but still, he is there and he’s real while the prince charming most likely won’t show up. And still, he has one chance to ‘make it good somehow to offer her. And I broke it off because until what else can we do now the tempo is the same as above, but at:

Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hairWell the night’s bustin’ open, these two lanes will take us anywhereWe got one last chance to make it realTo trade in these wings on some wheelsClimb in back, heaven’s waiting down on the tracks

The tempo picks up again (told you it’s a crescendo) and as it picks up, he gets more heartfelt and tells her that hey, they can roll down the car’s window and let the wind blow back her hair (an image that suggests immediate freedom), and the free imagery is again brought back up in the next line - the night’s bustin’ open so it’s in front of them and those two lanes will take them anywhere so they can go wherever they want if they just take the leap of faith and trade the wings for wheels, and again, he offers redemption? Heaven’s at the end of the road.

Oh oh come take my handRiding out tonight to case the promised landOh oh oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder RoadLying out there like a killer in the sunHey I know it’s late, we can make it if we runOh oh oh oh Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road

Now he goes on blatantly asking Mary to take his hand - a gesture of trust - to ride to case the promised land/Heaven (again with the catholic-ish imagery) that surely waits for the two of them if they just get out of their crappy small town. Now this is probably the time to mention he took Thunder Road as a title from a noir flick with Robert Mitchum which immediately is obvious in the choice of terms here because ‘like a killer in the sun’ could be a title from a Chandler novel and gives the entire thing a certain sense of urgency reinforced by it’s late but we can make it if we run - so they’re not young, but there’s still time for them to change their lives.

Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talkAnd my car’s out back if you’re ready to take that long walkFrom your front porch to my front seatThe door’s open but the ride it ain’t freeAnd I know you’re lonely for words that I ain’t spokenTonight we’ll be free, all the promises will be broken

Here the tempo goes down a bit slightly when he tells her that he has a guitar and learned how to make it talk (so he’s a musician who’s most likely better at talking through music than through words even if he certainly has good pick up lines) and goes again with the proposal - his car’s out there if she’s ready to take the long walk ie the leap of faith and go with him. Of course from her front porch to his front seat the door’s open but the ride ain’t free because she has to leave her vulnerability behind and take a chance on him which is harder than just stay in your comfort zone, especially for someone lonely for words he hasn’t spoken (she’s most likely waiting for someone to tell her he loves her and he hasn’t yet) but in exchange, they’ll be free and all the promises will be broken, cementing a clear cut with their pasts.

There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent awayThey haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out ChevroletsThey scream your name at night in the streetYour graduation gown lies in rags at their feetAnd in the lonely cool before dawnYou hear their engines roaring onBut when you get to the porch they’re gone on the wind, so Mary climb inIt’s a town full of losers, I’m pulling out of here to win

And now finally the tempo picks up way faster as the song builds up to its climax - Mary has apparently turned down boys that are ghosts now, haunting the beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets, a very poetical but haunting way to say that Mary has sabotaged all her relationships because she couldn’t get out of her comfort zone and now all the Chevrolets (spoilers: GOOD cars, not dirty hoods) that she could have taken along with those boys are empty shells/skeletons gathering dust on the beach. They scream her name at night in the street reminding her of everything she’s given up/lost/didn’t manage to grasp when she could, along with a graduation gown lying in rags at her feet which suggests that her life post-graduation has been gone to shit same as the above suggests.

Mostly, in the lonely cool before down she hears their engines roaring on, except that how can they roar if they’re burned-out skeleton frames? Explanation: those people are actually out there in the world catching their chances, Mary is not and hearing them roar just reminds her of how much she failed in life.

But when she gets to the porch they’re gone on the wind, so she can’t hear them until she’s in her comfort zone - the porch…..

And then the narrator just cuts it all of with a direct so Mary, climb in cutting through all her problems and exquisitely ends up with the most liberating, cathartic line he could have.

As in: it’s a town full of losers (a small place that they both hate and that didn’t give them opportunities) which he hates and she hates and he doesn’t want anymore… and so he’s pulling out of there to win, which is like honestly the most han solo thing anyone could have said in that sense (or maybe han solo talks like the guy from thunder road? all is possible) but in all seriousness, coupled with the fact that it’s the peak of the song and that then it’s followed by that long, joyous sax solo gives you the idea that the guy and Mary did leave and got on their car and won and left all those losers behind them.

From Darkness we know that most likely it didn’t go like that or that there’s a high chance they failed but here we don’t know yet, and honestly, at this specific moment… who cares? You don’t want to know because you want to believe they succeeded, if you look at who sings it you know he left a town full of losers and pulled out of there to win and win he did and it gives all of us - both Marys and narrators - the idea that even if we feel like it might be too late one day we also will pull out of our small town full of losers and win as long as we have a little faith and follow the magic in the night and excuse me Monty Python-loving anon, but it’s honestly beautiful and a better love song than most people can say to have written and it’s such a gem I can’t even and did I say I love Springsteen because I do, thanks for coming to my ted talk.  

[gattmammon]

The whole "Christianisation of pagan deities" is a bit more complex an issue, but it's not entirely wrong.

Remember that Christianity starts out as an hidden persecuted religion in Rome, so in order to hide better they employed a system of symbols that were necessarily lifted from paganism. Even when Christianity became the majority religion many of those symbols stuck. A good examples are angels as winged humanoids - there's no mention of such in the Bible. I won't go into detail, but it's highly probable that representation is an adaptation of the images of the goddess Victory that littered Rome (think of the Nike of Samothrace that is now at the Louvre). It was a process like that - images and myths that were once referred to pagan gods got attached to saints or Christian imagery, but at the same time it was something of an oblique process, as the Christian authorities didn't really want their religion to get watered down to paganism lite, basically.

For example: there would be a spring that was said to be guarded by a nymph that would heal those who prayed to her and bathed in the water. Since this was a very deeply embedded belief in the locals, instead of fighting against it the Church would say "oh, the nymph was actually Saint Whatever, we will build a little church to her here and the healing properties of the water will now be miracles of the Saint". If there was a local Saint to attribute the miracles to, better.

This overtime leads to a very strange situation in which we are relatively certain that a few local Christian festivals have pagan origins and the church even tried to suffocate them at a point, but we can't truly trace them back to whatever pagan rituals they were about, as they were part of local oral pagan traditions. The "Taranta" rituals of Apulia for Saint Vitus for example have been traced back to ancient Bacchic rituals, but such an hypothesis is extremely hard to prove and also the Catholic church forbid such rituals for a long time and it's hard to prove if there was a continuity or not.

One of the Protestant most common accusations against Catholicism was exactly that, that their Saints were basically thinly veiled pagan gods. To counteract this claim during the Counter-Reformation many saints who had no historical basis were "erased from the calendar", even if in several places popular affection towards them remained. Another big calendar census with subsequent erasure of saints whose stories had no historical basis was done during the Second Vatican Council actually. Some people saw their local saint be "erased" during living memory, and again many people just went right on worshipping the "old" saint under the guise of worshipping one whose feast falls on the same day.

A very famous example of a "not saint" Saint is Saint Sarah the Black, who is still widely worshipped by the Rom and Sinti communities of all confessions, including Catholics, as their patron saint, with a feast and dedicated chapels and all, despite technically not being recognised by the Church at all. Her legend seems to be basically wholly made up but her symbolic role as protector of an oppressed population means that her cult can't be erased and is therefore tolerated by the church.

... am unable to look up references at the moment but I hope I have pointed you towards a few things you can look up?

If I remember right, the Catholic Church instituted a massive round of de-canonization of 'saints' that were thinly disguised pagan gods-- mostly during the counter-reformation. Many of these saints had been brought in centuries before to ease the transition of pagan populations into the Church.Unfortunately, when I try to google, the search results are poisoned by anti-Catholic evangelical results of the "Catholics aren't real Christian" variety. Can you point me toward any resources on it?

That era is a bit of a gap in my knowledge, but I can say that finding good information on it is fairly difficult.

Early Christianity post 4CE had to engage in a very careful dance of syncretizing with folk spiritualities while also maintaining a level of theological consistency (and not commiting outright heresy), so the relationship to each individual culture is going to be significantly different.

From my understanding, it was more common to christianize an existing mythology from the ground up than it was to slap a coat of saint on top of a mythology, similar to what happened with Norse mythology when Christians showed up. Though I haven't done enough research to be super confident in that claim.