#outside of the specific context of when he uses them to say he can’t possibly be Iron Man

[daydreamerdrew]

Iron Man (1968) #50

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Things that are true at the same time

1) Romantic relationships are presented as the be all and end all of human relatonships, especially to women.

2) Given how other animals pair up, there is probably also a biological drive to find a mate.

3) Humans have proven time and time again that they will risk anything to have a chance at a romantic relationship, including external violence (for interracial relationships, homosexual relationships, relationships outside of marriage, any other relationship not approved of by family or the state) or internal violence (thousands of women are killed by their current or former husbands or boyfriends each year).

4) However, it is entirely possible for a human to have a fulfilling life without a romantic partner, and plenty of people have done so--women are at their happiest in their mid 80s, which is after the life expectancy of men.

5) Danger due to external violence and internal violence is not the same.

6) There is no social pressure to specifically be in a homosexual relationship while plenty exists specifically for a heterosexual relationship.

7) Opposite-sex-attracted women will often be shamed for their choice in relationships but it’s not to do with their opposite sex attraction.

8) Same-sex-attracted women will often be shamed specifically for their same sex attraction.

9) Even though OSA women are often shamed for having sex with men that people in their lives disapprove of, they are also shamed for not having sex with men, and lesbian women are shamed for not wanting to have sex with men at all.

10) When the risk is of external violence, it is the society that must change to accept relationships that are not inherently harmful (homosexual, interracial, etc.).

11) When the risk is of internal violence, the options are limited: A. have high standards and watch for red flags and hope you get lucky, or B. just don’t date.

12) Telling people to just not date regardless of the reason is not likely to be listened to.

13) That doesn’t mean it should never be said.

14) A small group of people on the internet telling you not to date someone with whom there’s a risk of internal violence is not the same as being threatened with external violence if you date someone.

15) The external societal pressure on women to date men far exceeds any “pressure” in radfem circles not to do so.

16) Telling you not to get a pet bear isn’t the same as telling you not to get a pet cat or dog. The latter might make it more difficult to find a place to rent (external). The former will literally be the one to destroy your home (internal).

17) Using misogynistic language isn’t cool, no matter who’s saying it to whom.

18) It’s also not nearly as commonly used in radblr as people are saying.

19) It doesn’t excuse homophobia or more misogyny as a response.

20) It is okay to take a break from this site sometimes. A lot of people here who are at odds would have a perfectly civil and productive discussion in person (not everyone, but a lot). Please take a walk outside, and put what you see here into context. No one on this website has any control of your life decisions.

Full disclosure: I am a heterosexual woman, I had sex with a man over the winter holidays. He is very likely the last man I will have any such relations with, but I trust him with my life and I will continue to have a handful of such encounters with him each year unless I feel I can’t trust him or he wants to stop. Nothing I read on radblr is going to change that. I had sex with him on Thanksgiving weekend too. And on the week I took off in the summer. I’ll probably have sex with him some time this spring. What radblr has done is validated my not feeling safe dating anymore men after my rape several years ago. My standards have raised considerably and I feel no shame for having them. I accept that I may never find a romantic life partner or have any children but realize a fulfilling life is still possible.

Take radblr as a balancing act: liberal men tell you to have sex with lots of men (and some women too as long as the men can watch) and that you’re a prude if you don’t, conservative men tell you to have sex with one man only and that you’re a slut if you have sex with more than one. Both tell you it’s wrong not to have sex with men at all (even nuns are called brides of Christ). Radblr simply says, hey, whether it’s one or it’s many, men are dangerous and it’s safer to not have anything to do with them. Difference is women in radblr have no power, external or internal, to enforce what they think you should do. Men do, both external and internal, and they use it frequently.

You can have sex with men if you want to have sex with men! You can date men and hope to find your unicorn, I hope you do too! But it’s no bad thing to hear, in what is a small space on the internet, “Hey, consider not doing this risky thing” in a sea of “Do this risky thing this way or else” and “No, do this risky thing this way or else”. It’s okay. It’s literally okay to be told “We don’t think you should do this” and still do it. And if the day comes where you don’t want to anymore, at least you know you have a--again--small place where people won’t shame you for that decision.

[m1xieup]

Hey, i wanted to say that i follow your thoughts and theories about Nevermore for a week now and i have the feeling that your questions are quite perceptive !

SPOIL FAST PASS EP 80 (i think)

[[MORE]]

On the topic of Will, i cannot forget the conversation between Lenore and Annabel in 🌟 the closet 🌟 and more precisly the part about currency. Every time i see a character now it just pops in my head : What do they trade ? What do they expect to receive ? What are their character mental traits for them to think like that ? Why ?

I exposed this because it would be so cool to hear your thought on Will and Montrashor !

Spoilers for Nevermore (specifically 76+), read at your own risk!!!

Hi! Let me say first of all I’m flattered, and I’m glad you’ve been enjoying my thoughts/theories! Now this is quite the interesting question and one I need to give some thought, so I'm sorry it took so long! I hope you enjoy my interpretation though! (strap in though this is long)

What does “Currency” stand for?

What this character wants to receive/how they desire to be treated/ what they desire to be given (and by whom)

What they prioritize when it comes to gain → what do they risk/give things up for (what do they give up?)

Questions to be answered

What do they trade (what is their currency?)

What do they expect to receive (also for consideration; what are they willing to give in order to receive this)?

What are their character/mental traits for them to think like that? Why? (How could their personalities/experiences influence their currency and actions [their motivation]?)

Will

Ok Will. I’ll start with him as he’ll most likely be a focal character for the next few

episodes, and we’ll probably learn more about him. A quick reminder! I am not an expert and these theories/opinions are all based on my personal reading. Now, to the best of my understanding Will’s primary ‘currencies’ are security, and companionship. Will is indecisive, and a bit of a pushover. While his actions could be described as cowardly, I think that is simplifying it to a certain accent. He seems to face significant distress at the thought of Monty not being around to tell him what to do, and implies that he needs someone to control/decide what he does. I personally think this comes from indecisiveness, fear, and low self-esteem. Will consistently gravitates towards strong personalities-- people who will tell him exactly what to do so he can’t mess up, and so he can’t make the “wrong” decision. So what he desires from a relationship is security. A person to provide a sense of safety and comfort. He staunchly believes that Monty has a plan, and has complete faith in him. Now when understanding the meaning of ‘currency’ in this context it’s important to understand that this is what someone wants/needs, and is specifically a tool for manipulation. Will also seems to put a lot of stock in the fact that he and Monty are friends, and that they are companions. Will has been shown to be largely ignored/lonely outside of Montresor, and if my reading of him is correct, he is not someone used to kindness. He seems to be a fairly isolated person, so it seems that Will, in addition to security in the face of his fears and low self-esteem, desires friendship greatly. He states that Montresor is his friend so of course he’ll help Will when he needs it. Not only is he very loyal, in a desire to protect the security and companionship he gets, but he is willing to excuse a lot of mistreatment- both towards himself and others. Because if his friend is threatened, his stability is threatened. This obviously makes Will a very dependent person, which does align with his spectre.

Will’s spectre is interesting to analyze for a couple reasons assuming spectres represent the person in some way. Will is a doppelganger, which already means his entire thing is that he becomes like someone else. This implies that Will may not have a very stable identity, and possibly may act very differently depending on who it is he’s following. Secondly he does not have a face, just a circle of drama-style masks around his head. These masks display his emotions, and even become disorderly when he is drunk. These masks most likely indicate a facade, or the fact Will may be hiding some of his true emotions. His limbs are also surrounded by ribbons. Now, this may not be intentional, but we also know that ribbons are important symbols in Nevermore. They indicate restraint, entanglement, and expectations. They also could function somewhat as strings, so it’s possible they could also indicate manipulation and control. Another interesting detail is that Will is a neutral type spectre- the only other neutral spectre we’ve seen is Pluto, which makes him stand out. If it’s true that spectres correlate with either the circumstances of one’s death, or what they were feeling, this puts Will in a fairly unique place. I feel like his spectre also stands out due to its abilities: duplication. mimicry, and entanglement. Mimicry may be a representation of how he models himself after those that admires.

Now that I’ve discussed what I think his currency is, as well as talked a little about my thoughts on Will’s spectre, I figured I could talk a little more about what I think could lead him to act this way. Now in my explanation of why I chose ‘security and companionship’ I did already talk about my thoughts a little, but I figured I’d talk a little more before moving on to Monty. So I already mentioned that I believe that Will has fairly low self-esteem, and this makes him seek out someone to take the responsibility for his actions, give him validation, and treat him the way he feels he should be treated. Will, at least during the Mystery Manor Arc, blamed himself for the treatment he received from Monty. Now his friendship with Monty involving some part seeking validations may seem counterintuitive, as Monty rarely offers Will any validation, but this may be because he blames Will for it. Will, already thinking he is stupid, and generally negatively of himself, believes this. He constantly asks Monty for validation, and Monty keeps him around with the promise of his friendship and the eventual benefits that would come with that. Will believes in Monty, desperately, I mean he has to. He is so paralyzed by fear about making his own decisions, that Monty seems like a safe-haven. Will seems to be deeply lonely, and may even feel ignored or shunned by his peers. He’s sweet, and yet his peers just do not seem to care-- he’s a background character in his own story! Now this may just be a byproduct of him literally being a side character, but I believe that in episode 80 it was shown that even when the story is being told by him, he’s still treated this way. This would most likely make Will feel deeply lonely. So he seeks companionship, and is willing to give pretty much anything for it. This combined with his dependance, and willingness to put up with mistreatment, makes him the perfect target for Monty. Monty is shown time and time again to be a manipulator, and Will is both willing to be hurt and hurt others for the things Monty will offer him (even if he doesn’t actually end up receiving it). Now what could have made Will into this sort of person outside of just his personality? Sadly, we don’t really know (though we could be finding out soon), but we can theorize! My guess is that growing up Will had an extremely close bond; one upon which he was dependant, one that would have normalized the hostility he faces from Monty, and one that might have made Will into the person he is right now. It’s possible (depending on how closely they follow the source material, which I definitely have thoughts about but I’m waiting to learn more about him) that Will might have lost his parents at a young age, and this might have also influenced him greatly. In summary, Will may not be used to kindness, or to friendships that don’t expect him to fulfill this kind of role. It may be that this is simply what Will is used to and expects, which is sad! I definitely think that Will, alongside Morella, is the most likely to switch sides. In fact I think he’ll have to (see my episode 80 theories). Now I hope this has thoroughly explained my perspective on your questions!

Montresor

Ok, so part of the reason this analysis took so long was that I was having a lot of trouble with Monty. I just couldn’t seem to figure him out- I’d think one thing then think of something that contradicts it a minute later. So after much thought I’ve come to the conclusion that Montresor’s currency may be respect. Now I originally wrote this off as impossible, as in his relationship with Lenore he’s interested specifically because she does not show him respect- in fact she antagonizes him. However, he also states that a large portion of his interest in her is ‘taming’ her (yuck). This may mean that what he desires from this relationship is respect, it's the respect she’ll give him once he breaks her. Monty specifically has a very dog-eat-dog world view, and thinks there are two types of people; winners and losers. He says he himself is a winner, and that the losers are just there to populate their games. Monty may actually be a dark foil to Annabel. Monty views life as a game, and one that is inherently competitive. He also treats others as pawns like Annabel, manipulating and using them to his advantage. He was also the one to first peg Lenore as a true threat in episode 32, where he made Annabel and Lenore compete over Morella. He knew to look out for Lenore, and I think part of what draws him to her is part of what draws Annabel to Lenore- she doesn’t play by the rules of the game. She is a challenge to Montresor, and one he is determined to beat. Another thing I noticed is that while Monty may be reckless, he’s not stupid. He most definitely does have a plan. He is able to compete with big players like Annabel, Lenore, and Prospero and you’ve got to have some sort of strategic ability to do so. He also is very good at picking people. Specifically people that help serve his larger goal- in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he even has a goal outside of getting that second chance at a life. Monty is a manipulator at his core, and that is part of why it was so hard to understand his currency (I’m still not 100% on the one I chose). Monty often uses different tactics with different people, and acts according to the bounds of that relationship. However, I do feel that what Monty wants ultimately is respect. Annabel gets the best responses from him when challenging his reputation (possibly lowering the respect he receives from others) and when she respects him. He reacts negatively when she disrespects or tells him what to do (such as in the hallway). There is also his track record with insults. He hates them, and takes them extremely personally. He is also very vindictive, and it seems the easiest way to get on his bad side is to disrespect/insult him. He also is one to hold a grudge it seems based on his comments on ‘keeping a ledger’ in the Mystery Manor arc. However, yet again this circles back to Lenore. Why does he keep interacting with her, and is fascinated by her, if he hates disrespect? He wants to prove her wrong. He knows both Annabel and Lenore look down on him, but Lenore does so openly and he is allowed to take out his frustrations on her because she is on the opposite team. Lenore’s respect means more because he had to earn it. In my opinion Montresor suffers from the ever-so-common in toxic men cocktail of an inflated yet fragile ego, ruthless world view, and a deeply buried kernel of self-hatred. Montresor isn’t just fun to hate because he’s evil- but because there is an element of realism to his characterization.

  Now we get on to the ‘why are they like this’ portion of the analysis (I would analyze Monty’s spectre but it has less to do with this than Will’s and I’ve already been working on this a few days and I’m tired). The reason I feel Monty wants respect (as well as control) so badly in his relationships, is that there was a period of time where he did not get it. Monty was a cowboy in the wild west, and as much as the image of a cowboy may be glorious, it really was just another working-class job with a ton of physical labor. In fact during the time period (we think) Monty was alive, he’d be in the same category as coal-miners. He would have moved a lot, and had to do some very dangerous jobs. He also would have been fairly poor, as stated before, being a cowboy was not particularly lucrative. He also would have to have regularly come into contact with rich ranchers, who may not have been particularly respectful. This may contribute to why Monty acts with such particular vitriol towards Duke, who epitomizes the idea of  east coast/foreigner who disrespects him and his background (particularly by calling him a ‘stupid, backwoods hick’) This most likely was a sore spot for Monty during his life- also side note I noticed that people tend to act in accordance to their lives and experiences in them despite not remembering them fully, which is interesting. The point is that as a cowboy Monty would not have gotten the respect he felt he deserved, and that may have influenced what he looks for in relationships aka his ‘currency’. The reason he wants to gain Lenore’s respect and ‘tame’ her is in order to prove himself. Montresor has been underestimated by almost everyone he’s come into contact with. They assume, due to his personality and hot-headed nature, that he is much less intelligent than he is. I think this even applies to the audience- I mean I underestimated him at first! It’s easy to see that Annabel is intelligent; she is cold, calculated, and a strategist at heart. But Monty? No. The thing is I think this was a common theme in his relationships in life, and he resents people underestimating him due to his background. So, he seeks to earn and take respect from the people he thinks are a threat/look down on him. He also has a very ruthless view of the world, one that usually comes from a harsh life, and seeing as we knew he was a cowboy it's very possible that he had a couple bad experiences that made him think this way. It could also be that someone taught him this was true (such as a mentor, or a combination of the two- someone he cared about betrayed him while expressing this sentiment). This could just be how he is, but I find this unlikely. Something caused him to think in this manner. I personally think that the betrayal angle is very interesting, and plausible. So, we know that Monty believes there are two types of people: winners and losers. He thinks of himself, Lenore, and most likely Annabel as winners. He thinks of both Ada and Will as losers most likely- useful to further his chances. He uses them to advance his plans, but I’m not sure he really cares (I do think it's possible he does care and just doesn’t show it, but based on his behavior… it's not likely.) about them. He keeps them around him for their skills, and possibly to boost his ego, but would sacrifice them in a heartbeat. They give him respect, but it's not the same because he didn't have to earn it. They have a blind faith in him. He wants to prove those he thinks sees themself as above him wrong, and he wants their respect more than anything. This makes Monty a very compelling villain, and a fun character to analyze! His unique combination of a high/fragile ego, and possibly some self hatred in there, makes him hard to predict, and even harder to control.

[queenofthursday6599-blog]

I am a “Gregory was never involved with Ruin” truther to be completely honest.

He wasn’t the one who sent Cassie the distress call message in the first place. He’s been missing for a while from what the missing posters of him imply and just how destroyed the Pizzaplex is. Considering he almost certainly went missing in whatever shut down the Pizzaplex, and just how thoroughly destroyed and graffitied the building is and how much worse the animatronics have gotten in condition.

And to be perfectly blunt I don’t think it’d be possible for him to be the one contacting Cassie in any of the endings, on the radio or in the elevator.

Radios don’t work underground unless it’s from very short range because rock blocks radio waves. So who ever was talking to her over the radio always had to be pretty close by in order for her walky-talky to be able to receive the signal.

And when “the real Gregory” starts talking the first thing he says is that he’s not in the building, but that message itself is coming from the walky-talky. Basically contradicting itself. That can’t be the real Gregory on the radio if he isn’t close by, because radios have basically no range while underground. Because it also insists that “Gregory” isn’t in the building, and hasn’t been there all night.

Not to mention "Gregory” somehow being able to track where Cassie is and direct her when he’s not in the building. Implying he somehow managed to remotely hack into the Pizzaplex’s systems, in order to get access to the cameras to see where Cassie is.

I 100% think someone other than Gregory dropped the elevator, because it just flat out doesn’t make sense for Gregory to have done it. Or have the ability to do it from outside the Pizzaplex

My current running theory is that this was all planned out by either the Mimic, GlitchTrap, and/or BurnTrap, depending on if they’re connected or flat out the same entity. In order to try and turn Cassie into the new Vanny.

I am just going to treat them all like the same thing, and call them MimicTrap, because even if they aren’t the exact same thing, I still think they’re all rooted in the same goal of being the new William Afton.

You see MimicTrap’s last successful minion, Vanessa, got deprogrammed and freed by Gregory, meaning the eternal work of Afton killing children in Pizza restaurants could no longer continue.

And that’s not something MimicTrap is alright with no matter what exactly the basis and context of his existence is. Afton’s digitized ghost returned from hell by way of Fazbear Ent’s penny pinching, a Mimic program that inadvertently got trained up on Afton’s serial killing ways either by observing Afton directly, or the Mimic getting fed information about Afton’s crimes by Fazbear Ent in order to create Help Wanted.

All of that is irrelevant to what the thing’s goal is: Continue William Afton’s serial killing legacy, which is easiest to do with a human puppet to do so.

Animatronics are big, clunky, obvious, and only permitted to be in specific locations, humans don’t have those kinds of draw backs. Humans blend in with the populous, and roam free without restrictions be they mechanical or by human expectation.

[Animatronics can’t leave their designated pizzerias, that would weird out and alert everyone that something weird was going on.]

Now why would MimicTrap choose Cassie as his new minion/victim? Because she’s the ideal new Vanny.

She’s familiar with FazTech and the Pizzaplex due to her dad working as a technician there, and Cassie herself spending a lot of time there. Cassie was a daycare kid, and had her previous birthday party there.

Cassie is a lonely but loyal child who’s only [human] friend, who MimicTrap has accumulated enough data to convincingly replicate, has gone missing. So MimicTrap has something to lure Cassie deep into the Pizzaplex with, it has leverage.

[Just like the Fruity Maze girl and her dog, he’s using a child’s close attachment to something to lure them away to a secluded location, by pretending to be the child’s friend.]

So she has skills/knowledge that would be useful for MimicTrap’s minion/puppet to have (being able to mess with/manipulate the Animations just like how Vanessa herself could).

MimicTrap also has something that he can use to lure her into position, and leverage against her in order to get himself free. Along with trick her into interfacing with the V.A.N.N.I. mask and get her the ocular implant that ties her directly into the network.

Gregory, or at least the promise of rescuing Gregory. Cassie’s only human friend, who is, as far as she knows, missing.

All that to say, I think MimicTrap faked “the Real Gregory” betraying Cassie at the end of the game, in order to get Cassie to hate Gregory or at least not trust him any more. Meaning that if Cassie ever encountered Gregory again after this, which is pretty likely if he’s still running around with Freddy’s head, Vanessa, and looking into Fazbear stuff, she wouldn’t trust him.

She wouldn’t trust the only person, to have ever gotten one over, on any form of William Afton, and Survived. The one who escaped, the one who took out the corrupted animatronics, the one who freed MimicTrap’s previous minion and shut down it’s hunting grounds for who knows how long.

This combined with Cassie’s attachment to Roxy, who already hates Gregory for taking her eyes and wrecking the Pizzaplex, means she almost certainly wouldn’t believe anything Gregory said or tried to do to help free her in the event of them meeting again.

Which also plays into MimicTrap’s plans, which I think changed when Roxy intervened. Originally I think MimicTrap was just going to go fully Vanny on Cassie and just take over her brain/body the way he did Vanessa by using the V.A.N.N.I. mask. This changed when Roxy tried to fight the endo MimicTrap was inhabiting.

This girl had Roxy’s loyalty, even after she’d shut the animatronic down. And MimicTrap had already altered Roxy (and the other animatronics) programming once, back when he had Vanny under his thrall. Now that he was free and had access to the network once more, and was no longer being stone walled by M.X.E.S. he could do so again.

So what does he do? He ensures she’s trapped in the Pizzaplex with him and Roxy, while also ensuring to poison Cassie’s friendship and bond with Gregory.

Roxy becomes the good guy by being her only remaining friend and “protecting her” from MimicTrap (who’s not trying to attack her anymore), along with affirming her new hatred/dislike of Gregory. MimicTrap starts slyly altering Roxy’s code and Cassie’s perception of reality via the V.A.N.N.I. mask to mold her into his new minion, and Cassie falls even deeper down the rabbit hole.

So yeah those are my thoughts.

[princeofgod-2021]

LIGHT OF LIFE 563

John 1:4

DIVINE ORDER 128: WORKING ORDER 23

Joh 15:26 And when the Comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH WHO PROCEEDS FROM THE FATHER, HE SHALL TESTIFY OF ME. MKJV

THE HOLY GHOST IS WORKING 12 - HIS PURPOSE 7

The Holy Spirit does not only Work the changes in us through the Word of God but also through our experiences as we practically apply those words in the “field”.

Jas 1:23-24 IF SOMEONE LISTENS TO GOD'S WORD BUT DOESN'T DO WHAT IT SAYS, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. GW

We must deliberate rise up from the Bible, go out and practice what we read, or else, we won’t change in character.

Our Faith in those words are subjected to Trials in the field, and that is what builds those Christian values in us as we resiliently persevere.

It’s the same as when a farmer, who doesn’t know how the plant grows (Mk4:27) but weeds and tends it.

Rom 5:3-5 But that's not all! WE GLADLY SUFFER, BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT SUFFERING HELPS US TO ENDURE. AND ENDURANCE BUILDS CHARACTER, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. ALL OF THIS HAPPENS BECAUSE GOD HAS GIVEN US THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHO FILLS OUR HEARTS WITH HIS LOVE. CEV

Sometimes, the word rebukes you, and sometimes, you experience a divinely organized but painful rebuke for your shortcomings, but it works solid changes into you by the Spirit.

Heb 12:11Now all discipline seems to be more pain than pleasure at the time, YET LATER IT WILL PRODUCE A TRANSFORMATION OF CHARACTER, BRINGING A HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS and peace to those who yield to it. TPT

When Christians complain so much about the trials and tribulations that are meant to shape us, which actually are initiated as modes of corrections for our errors, we indirectly displace ourselves from God and discard possible changes that should be imprinted into us.

Heb 12:7-8 Endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; YOUR SUFFERING SHOWS THAT GOD IS TREATING YOU AS HIS CHILDREN. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? IF YOU ARE NOT PUNISHED, AS ALL HIS CHILDREN ARE, IT MEANS YOU ARE NOT REAL CHILDREN, BUT BASTARDS. GNB

Before we move on from these points, I want us to summarize a few more functions of the Spirit to individuals.

One [more] of them is helping us to Pray Correctly and presenting us to God.

Rom 8:26 LIKEWISE THE SPIRIT ALSO HELPS OUR INFIRMITIES. FOR WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD PRAY FOR AS WE OUGHT, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. MKJV

Many Christians, not understanding contexts of scriptures, have argued over this verses:

Joh 14:13-14 I WILL DO ANYTHING YOU ASK the Father IN MY NAME so that the Father will be given glory because of the Son. IF YOU ASK ME TO DO SOMETHING, I WILL DO IT. GW

IN MY NAME means in my INTEGRITY: You can’t ask for anything you know I don’t give people, or anything outside my essence.

If we “don’t know what we should pray for”, then there are things we can’t pray for. Do you understand?

Let’s read Passion Translation.

Rom 8:26 And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, AT TIMES WE DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO PRAY, OR KNOW THE BEST THINGS TO ASK FOR. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words. TPT

There are specific things that Disciples should be asking for, which must be in line with God’s purpose and their Destiny. Only the Spirit knows the details and helps us pray for it.

Rom 8:27 God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny. TPT

Are we seeing the depth of duty carried out by the Spirit?

Now, Rm8:26 started with: “…the Spirit also…”, meaning there is something He does in us even before this. Let’s see.

Rom 8:23 Not only this, but we ourselves also, WHO HAVE THE FIRSTFRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, GROAN INWARDLY AS WE EAGERLY AWAIT OUR ADOPTION, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODIES. NET

There’s a divine yearning that the Spirit sets in our hearts once we’re in Christ and have been filled with Him. Paul spoke often about this and we should inspect it.

It’s very crucial.

May our Lives depict all the fullness of Christ-life by the Holy Ghost, IN JESUS NAME.

See you on Wednesday, as we proceed with this interesting Subtopic.

Brother Prince

Monday, September 16, 2024

08055125517; 08023904307

[bibblelevi]

For context, this is a snippet from a chapter I’m working on from a multi-chapter fic about Professor! Levi and a grad school student Reader. In this specific part, she doesn’t want him to actually “touch” her, so he uses another method lol

Warnings for edgeplay/orgasm denial, first times, fem! Reader lowkey romanticizing Levi, implied age difference, Levi is a Professor and Reader is a grad student (but they are in completely separate departments)

“It wouldn’t be fun if you came thirty seconds in now would it?” Warm breath brushes your ear and tunnels through to your brain, drenching all your thoughts in an airy heat. You’re at such a loss for words that you can only shake your head; but Levi gives a satisfied huff at your pitiful response nonetheless.

He flicks the switch, and the vibrations return, this time at a slower, gentler pace. The pleasant sensation ripples up and down your sex, the round head nuzzled perfectly against your clit. Your breath quickens, then just as you move to close your legs around the toy, he’s grabbing the outside of your thigh and nudging it open.

“Behave yourself,” he tells you. As a punishment, he takes away the toy, forcing you to sit in your own arousal, untouched.

You swallow and nod. After some time, he moves his hand back into position, pleased that you were capable of following through with such a simple request.

“That’s good. I want them spread like that. No hiding from me. Do you understand?”

You nod again. “Y-yeah, I understand.” The answer comes out sounding breathy, your eyes squeezed shut and knuckles paling from how tightly your fingers are curled against your own chest—like you’re scared of reaching out to him more than you already have; like touching him is asking for too much.

You can’t help the gasp that leaves your gaped mouth when the vibrations hit you. Wetness soaks through your panties and causes them to cling to your folds, leaving behind a sticky and embarrassing mess. You have half a brain left to feel grateful he won’t touch you—not truly—so he can’t see the effect all this is having on you. The furthest his fingers go is to the crease of your thigh, where the elastic band of your panties leaves a barely-there indent.

The next time he turns off the toy when you’re getting close, you finally squirm. All the noises you’ve successfully bitten back threaten to spill forth, a silent one working itself free. It turns wispy and fizzles into nothing, and you think that you see the corner of Levi’s mouth tweak when it reaches him.

“You don’t have to hold them back, you know,” he says. “Unless you want to make things harder on yourself.”

Before you can answer, he shocks another quiet moan out of you by turning the toy back on. As he runs it around your clit, the pressure builds until your hips are instinctively twitching forwards for more. It seems he knows your body well, or he’s at least done this plenty of times to notice an impending climax. Because he fucking stops. Again.

You can’t help but reach down, your fingers brushing his wrist. A frustrated huff leaves your lips when he gives your hands a gentle shove.

You’re so wet you can’t stand yourself, the throbbing in your clit more like a hard ramming than anything else. You don’t know how it’s possible, but you feel it everywhere, right down to your bones. It’s the sweetest sort of torment and impossible to decide whether you want it to end or continue.

He does it again. Then again. The last edge he brings you to is hard. Tears prick your eyes, and a whine grates roughly in your throat. You know better than to touch yourself, but your hands dive downwards anyway. Levi’s quick to cover your knuckles with his own palm.

“If your hands continue to be pesky, I’ll tie them behind your back,” he warns. It’s not a threat. His voice isn’t low or grating enough to scare you, but God does it turn you on. You imagine him to be the kind of man who doesn’t make threats but promises; and part of you is itching to know if he’ll stay true to his word.

You know next to nothing about him that it’s so damn easy to make him up in your head.

“No, ‘m sorry,” you slur, shifting on his lap. His knee bounces under your bottom, accommodating to whatever position you want to sit in. “I-I won’t touch you.”

He turns the toy off, which pulls a frown down on your lips. But he doesn’t say anything. He just grabs your bound wrists and places them on his chest. You’re ridden breathless, unfamiliar with the specific warmth ebbing through the soft fabric of his collared shirt.

“That’s not what I meant,” he says. When you look at him, his eyes are suddenly half-lidded, and you dare to consider he’s a little turned on himself. “You can hold onto me.”

You give a meek nod and sink your fingers into his shirt, mildly claiming him, pulling down hard enough to reveal a plot of pale skin. When you breath over it, his shoulders rise before falling back into place; then he wedges the toy back against your panties, flicking the switch up to the highest notch. Your body jolts, and you cling to his shirt, nearly choking him with his own collar.

You’re too caught up in your own arousal to notice the sharp intake of air come from Levi, his fingers digging bruisingly into your thigh, easing the hem of your skirt higher and higher until—

Just as your body tenses, hinting at your incoming climax, he reduces the vibrations and reels you back.

“Professor,” you choke out. “Please.”

He’s silent, jaw flexing as he glimpses at you through his lower lashes.

“You must really like being teased,” he says, like it’s some mindless observation. “How wet are you right now, hm?” A hand cups the back of your head, his fingers gently mousing your hair.

You’re panting, your body thrumming from how many times he’s left you dangling from the brink. Every nerve in your body burns for some stimulation—begs you to rub your thighs together and feel your own slick rub off on the soft skin. But Levi’s voice echoes in the back of your mind, reminding you to behave, so you do. What that says about you, you don’t know. You don’t care.

“T-touch me and see,” you say, surprised by the sound of your own voice.

His brows raise, gray eyes raking over your features. Something swells inside of you at the thought that maybe he’s impressed. Maybe he admires you for those few words you could choke out, half drunk on arousal you can hardly say they were actually, truly from you.

But quietly, he murmurs, “I’ll take your word for it,” then turns the vibrator back on.

[irelandseyeonmythology]

I think that...you’re not off-base, necessarily, but this is getting into some very, very shaky territory given the nature of the Irish materials we have. I haven’t met any scholar currently in the field who believes there is any hint of a creation story in LGE or the Táin (I have spoken to one who believed that the remscél involving the two bulls was a reflection of the Gundestrup cauldron and had something to do with the constellations, but that was very much much an outlier experience.) These days, I’m lucky to find a scholar who is willing to call the mythological material “mythological.” LGE is overwhelmingly a product of a drive to understand Ireland’s place in the world, starting in about the 9th century with Historia Brittonum and continuing onwards into the 11th/12th centuries (and onwards, given, for example, Geoffrey Keating’s reliance on it). Again, it doesn’t mean that there’s NOTHING mythological in it or the Táin at all, but it means we have to be very careful as far as the context, that I don’t believe any of us are currently looking into them for a creation myth, and there are many, many scholars in the field at the moment who are inclined to disagree with us even on that. (Elizabeth Boyle of Maynooth being one, who is very well respected in the field.) I have gotten into borderline shouting matches with colleagues even in my own department (which didn’t descend *into* shouting matches but some very, very catty comments and death glares) about the validity of applying mythography to myth. This is not to say that I believe that those scholars are incompetent, don’t understand the study of mythology, or are even necessarily WRONG, they are all supremely intelligent and capable in what they do; it’s to say that this is something that is a hotbed in the field and most current scholars will not agree with you on it. As a mythographer currently working in the field, I *have* to be careful with how I discuss these things, because if I go a step too far, people will use it as a way of getting rid of my entire field. 

For an example of Indo-European elements in LGE, specifically relating to Donn and Amairgen, where he points out the Indo-European parallels to figures such as Ymir, Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus, etc., I recommend John Carey’s article, “Donn, Amairgen, Íth, and the Pre-History of Irish Pseudohistory”, but he does not necessarily even call it a creation story as such, rather a foundation story that might have some roots in the Indo-European creation myth. Something that myself and my colleague and friend @ad-ciu​ have discussed quite a bit when we’ve discussed the mythology and potential Indo-European connections, and something that Mark Williams brings up, brilliantly, in my opinion, in his book, Ireland’s Immortals, is that...many times, these figures appear to have been regional. Or several regional figures in a trenchcoat. Figures like the Morrígan, the Dagda...potentially did not exist as we know them now. That is to say, as John Carey suggests in that same article, the character of Íth appears as an ancestor to the Erainn people of Ireland, but he possibly (likely?) didn’t have any significance to anyone outside of those groups. The story of Donn and Amairgen, despite everything else...might be an origin story, with pan-Celtic implications (Carey points out some Gaulish cognates), but only for the Gaels. We’re inclined to see “Irish” deities or “Gaelic” deities running around...and they were Irish and they were Gaelic, but they might not have been uniform, and some figures might have fallen together or fallen apart in ways we can’t always account for. (It’s very troubling to look at the Ogham stones, which sometimes do maintain traces of theonyms, and see relatively few recognizable names, very likely regional deities who were either forgotten or merged in with the “big names” that might, in some cases, only reflect who was lucky enough to have some Christian literati living in their region.) All this is to say that caution is vitally important when doing this kind of reconstructive work -- we cannot account for all the variants that likely existed when Ireland was so incredibly regionalized (even moreso than it is now). (Like at least people in Cork and people in Limerick now can agree “fuck Dublin.”) (And at least you HAVE those massive urban centers now instead of túatha of various sizes and ranges of power.)

Do I think that there was an Irish creation myth at all? ...I don’t know, honestly. I don’t think it existed in any single form if it did. But also, at times, I think that we might be chasing after something that...if it did exist, it wasn’t important enough for it to be preserved. The Irish monks were meticulous about staying as true to what they believed the facts were as much as possible, even if those facts jarred with orthodox Christian values (see: The Tuatha Dé as “half fallen angels”, which nearly gave at least one English monk studying the Voyage of St. Brendan a heart attack) -- if they had knowledge of a pagan variation of the creation of the world...I think we’d have stronger evidence for it. We certainly do for the Scandinavian, which was also recorded post-Christianization. Do I think that everyone in pre-Christian Ireland believed the world came from nothing? Not necessarily, but I think that...it might not have been the priority for them that we think it was. Twins might have played a role in it, absolutely. Sometimes, I think that there are too many stories about cities buried beneath the waves across the Celtic literatures for it to be a total coincidence, that there might have been a flood story at some point. It might have involved big name figures like the Dagda, if the Dagda existed in that form. But I think that the Irish view of the creation of the landscape, from what we generally see...it wasn’t in a whole package, it was bit by bit, overtime. The rivers were generally feminine, associated with goddesses, but a rock might be something thrown by a hero (these stories are all over Ireland and Scotland). It feels like the landscape is constantly being invented and re-invented, as oppposed to any uniform creation. (And even with the Dindshenchas tradition, which I definitely believe contains mythological traces for the origins of landscapes...as Marie-Luise Theuerkauf discusses in her book on the Dindshenchas, they do also reflect an interest in the work of Isidore of Seville.) But I don’t think it’s really possible to know, even if I also don’t think it’s inherently unproductive to guess.

I’ll leave it on this note by John Carey on that article I referenced:

“After all of this, what are we left with? A handful of names, a few attributes and sketchy narrative associations, and no certain conclusions. We are, and will almost certainly remain, a long way from being able to reconstruct an archetypal myth of Gaelic origins - even assuming, and this seems to me unlikely, that some single definitive doctrine on this subject ever existed.”

Current brainworm, none of the Celtic cultures' creation myths have survived, even though they almost certainly had one. The closest we have is the Lebor Gabala Erenn from Irish mythology, but it isn't a creation story, it records the various settlements of Ireland, ending in the Gaels. However, it is thought that there are reflections of an earlier creation myth in the LGE and in the Tain, and there are similar themes that validate that the Gaels at least viewed the creation of the landscape in this way from various other stories. Additionally, we can compare other Indo-European creation myths to figure out what elements the Gaelic creation myth almost certainly would have had. These include:

Before creation, there is a void of some kind

In that void, fire interacts with water/ice to create the first life

A primordial bovine, most likely a cow (bulls were more common in IE cultures that emphasized pastoralism over crops. The Romans had a she-wolf, because they had to be edge lords)

One primordial being or possibly a set of twins who are sustained by the milk of the cow

One of the twins/the primordial being is dismembered to create the physical world

So already we have the makings of a general creation story, and if you're familiar with Norse mythologies, you might recognize it. In fact, it's thought that the Norse creation myth has retained the most elements of the original IE myth

However, scholars point out that the primordial being that is killed is called *Yemo, meaning "twin", which means there was likely originally two first beings. In the one sacrificing the other, the act renders the brother doing the sacrificing as the First Priest, who creates the concept of death, but in doing so turns that death into the living world. The sacrificed brother is then typically rendered as the First King and Ruler of the Land of the Dead. By setting up this order for the world, the First Priest establishes that life cannot exist without death (whether it be harvesting crops or butchering livestock), and typically, these myths continue and establish the role of the priests in society, who's job it is to ensure the continuity of the original sacrifice and maintain the living world

Now, here's where we get into my speculation;

I think it's likely that the Irish creation myth involved a set of twins. Off the top of my head, I think that possible reflections of this can be found in the brothers Amergin and Donn and in the Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach from the Táin. With Amergin and Donn, Donn insults the goddess of the land and is drowned. In doing so, Donn becomes a god of the dead and all the souls of the dead have to gather at or pass through Tech Duinn. Amergin however, secures the support of these goddesses and is able to go on and give order to the Gaelic rule of Ireland by deciding who will rule what and serves as the Chief Ollam (bard) of Ireland. In the Táin, after the main Plot has gone down, the Donn Cuailnge and Finnbhennach fight and the the Donn Cuailnge ends up killing Finnbhennach. As the Donn Cuailnge passes through the landscape, pieces of Finnbhennach drop off his horns and form/name part of the landscape. I think it's also interesting how in both these stories, one of the duo is explicitly associated with the color white (Amergin is called "white knees") and the other one is dark, but the opposite one dies first in the stories

Also, if we look at myths like the creation of the Shannon and the Boyne rivers, where in the goddesses Sionnan and Boann, respectively, die in the rivers' creations, we further see that the death of one figure to create an element of the landscape is a relatively common one, so a creation story similar to the one I hypothesize the Irish had wouldn't have been outside of pagan Irish belief

Additionally, if we look at the duíle, kind of like the Irish elements/natural features, we see that the nine elements/features are each explicitly associated with body parts. Stone is associated with bones, the sea with blood, the face with the sun, ect. I think this could be a call back to that earlier creation myth

Off the top of my head, that's what I've been mulling over. Idk, I might be completely off the mark, but if anyone wants give their thoughts, I'd love to hear them. I'm certainly not an expert in Irish mythology and there may be some key factor that completely sinks this idea

[sepublic]

Belos’ Day of Unity

            This episode confirmed a HUGE detail for us, and it’s that the Day of Unity involves merging the human and Demon Realms together! This better explains why Belos wants the Portal… If he just wanted to access the human world, he could do that with regular Titan’s Blood alone, but he needs something on a level that can maintain a lasting, open connection between the two! Not only that…

         But as Boscha so ‘kindly’ reminds us later this episode, Luz’s glyphs don’t work in the human world! Magic is a gift from the isles… And with the association of wild magic as ‘elemental’, how Luz’s glyphs take an elemental form… How they were the first form of magic, learned from observing the isles themselves and whatnot-

         It seems wild magic, at least as how Belos defines and hates it, takes a lot of cues and even draws power from the Boiling Isles! From the Demon Realm itself… Which, is interesting because;

         Belos clearly wants to control magic. He sees it as something witches have to more or less earn back… But ideally, they have to earn it from him entirely! Bile magic is something Belos can control, it’s confined to people’s bodies and he has the coven bindings to do so- Belos can control bodies, he can override that autonomy, and it comes from a source he can regulate. You can even see it with staffs, especially the one that Hunter has!

         Staffs can be taken away, they can be broken and drained. They’re external, but in a way that Belos can easily separate a witch from… And with Hunter, this takes on a whole new twisted meaning, because Hunter’s staff is (or rather was) his ONLY source and means of magic… 

        And as someone who created that staff no doubt, Belos can easily tamper with and restrict the spells that Hunter can access with it, no doubt- I wouldn’t be surprised if Belos could turn off Hunter’s staff at will! It’s his to give and take as he pleases, and given Belos’ unwillingness to create more Palismen, we still see plenty of carefulness with staffs as an external source of magic as well. Belos might intend to replace magical staffs with his own version that he can control!

         But wild magic and glyphs? They come from the isles, they come from the very land itself… And Belos CAN’T restrict the very fabric of the reality he lives in. Glyphs are an outside-context problem, you don’t need a bile sac to wield them; And they completely bypass the issues of coven bindings. You can’t restrict glyphs, the way you can’t restrict knowledge- It’s always bound to slip through Belos’ grasp, no matter how hard he tries. And once a secret is out, it tends to spread like wildfire…

         Belos can’t just apply some massive coven binding to the Demon Realm entirely… Can he?

         That’s of course where the Day of Unity comes in. Where OUR world comes in… If magic, specifically the wild magic that fuels glyphs, is sourced directly from the Demon Realm itself… And our world has no magic, glyphs are useless there? 

        Belos might intend to neutralize the Demon Realm’s magic entirely, by fusing it with the human world! And/or, with how the human world seems more vast than the Demon Realm (the Boiling Isles is only the size of Vermont), the magic inherent to it will be spread so thin that it’ll be too weak to utilize.

         And that’s… As Luz might put it, fiendishly clever! Belos recognizes his limits. He knows he can’t control the knowledge of glyphs, the memory of them- And even if he could, people can still learn directly from the isles itself, from the Demon Realm itself- The Light Glyph can be found in the stars! So long as the original source exists to learn from, nothing is truly stopping someone from paying attention and finding it on their own, potentially by accident!

         If Belos can’t truly, physically control this magic and restrain it- Then it’s a liability, especially since it can grant coven-bound witches access to full magic again, and allow them to turn the tides. It makes Belos and his system redundant… So he has to remove the original source of wild magic, WITHOUT destroying his own world and of course himself in the process!

         In comes our world. With the Demon Realm’s magic neutralized and/or diffused, the only source will come from the bile in witch’s bodies, which Belos CAN restrict. Sure, some witches might escape here or there, slip through the cracks and have unbound children… But that’s nothing compared to the threat of glyphs, which anyone can learn at any time!

         And if Belos plans to somewhat conquer the human world, at least to defend and maintain his own utopia- It works out again! Because our technology is based on knowledge, nothing is stopping the witches of Belos’ society from learning and adapting to our own technology, repurposing it for themselves. We already see technology exist to some degree anyway, such as in the Abomitons, and Belos’ own creations! It’d be easy for witches to repurpose our own technology for themselves.

         But humans? We can’t cast magic. We have no bile sacs… And even glyphs, the one form of magic we COULD wield, would be rendered powerless by our own world! Sure, there might be a few witches here or there that would come to our side, that would oppose Belos’ conquest and imperialism… 

        But those select few wouldn’t make up for the vast differences in numbers, nor could they have kids who’d grow up at a fast enough rate. Magic can replicate technology’s uses in its own way –scrolls can access a magical version of the internet- and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Day of Unity will also empower Belos as some kind of all-powerful, magical god who could easily handle what us puny humans throw at him, anyway.

         Aside from a much smaller population… Again, it seems magic is a good way for Belos to ensure his own power and conquest over our world, too- Or at least to keep us out of his own borders. Perhaps Belos only intends to rule his select portion of the Demon Realm within Connecticut, and bar out everyone else to their own devices, occasionally checking in to make sure we don’t ‘invade’ his own bubble.

         Maybe Belos doesn’t even intend to transport the entire Demon Realm, just the Boiling Isles itself, to the human world… Which of course isolates witches from that source of wild magic even more.

         There is an issue of course- And that gets down to how witches create magical bile. With how magic is a gift from the isles, it’s possible witches are simply able to convert the innate magic of the atoms and molecules around them in their digestive system, and turn that into bile- Meaning without this ‘magical radiation’, eventually a witch will run out of magic bile and be depleted, should they stay in the human world without any access to the Demon Realm.

         Does Belos know, or even care? Maybe this is his way of also removing magic entirely… Or as I said, with how magic will be spread thin when our worlds fuse; Perhaps it will exist in enough of a capacity in this fused realm, that biological witches can still harvest this magical radiation and produce bile. 

        Or, based on how King described it in The Unauthorized History of the Boiling Isles, witches just naturally produce their own magical radiation in the form of bile- They don’t need to be connected to the Demon Realm to do, they are their own sustainable source!

         Either way, Belos’ plan makes a disturbing amount of sense… It’s the final nail in the coffin as a way for him to physically control magic, and it’s the outright death and eradication of wild magic as well! He has no interest in conquering our world, not necessarily- Just in bringing his over so he can kill off the final source of magic that manages to elude his control.

         Any imperialism may come as a natural byproduct of this type of crossover, but it’s not what Belos specifically intends from the fusion- So in a way, he wasn’t lying when he said that it wasn’t his plan to conquer the human world. 

        Belos didn’t say it’d NEVER be his plan… Just that this specific goal doesn’t involve that, not necessarily. Plus, he’d argue that any conquest would come fully as a means of self-defense, which… Would not be wrong either, because there’d definitely be humans who’d reject the society that Belos would bring in, and seek to eradicate and/or control it for themselves too!

         Once the Day of Unity’s crossover ensues, it seems the only magical liability that Belos would have to worry about is… Unbound biological witches, witches who DO have a bile sac, but aren’t under Belos’ control! Hence why he stresses to his coven heads;

         “The larger your covens grow, the more power we have to unite our realms, where the worthy shall inherit a utopia free of wild magic.”

         It’s possible Belos plans to use his coven bindings as a means of powering whatever magic he needs to pull this crossover off- I’ve speculated before on the demon realm’s solar system forming a glyph combo to do this, but it’s not out of the question that Belos would need a little extra power for such a massive event. 

        Perhaps Belos intends to drain the unused magic of every bound witch- After all, about 8/9ths of every bound witch’s magic is sealed away, presumably unused… So to Belos and his coven heads, they’re not really depriving anyone of anything by draining that unused magic?

         Especially if witches’ magic can still replenish over time anyway (unless you’re cursed), plus spreading the individual cost that each witch will have to fork over for the Day of Unity, across more witches, is arguably the moral thing to do anyway! 

        Hence why coven bindings are necessary, not just to fuel the Day of Unity, but to also remove the final liability that Belos would need to deal with. Ideally, Belos wants every witch bound before the Day of Unity, so he won’t have to worry about any biological witch when the crossover occurs…

         But at the same time, I doubt it’s strictly necessary- So even if it’s ideal, Belos is obviously going to go ahead with his crossover if there are still unbound witches. He can still deal with them later… They might have a bigger world to escape out into, which is why he stresses this be done sooner, rather than later, when witches are more confined to a smaller space and easier to find- But Belos still ultimately wins, one way or the other.

         Belos’ plan and Day of Unity is unimaginably grandiose, horrifying, and worst of all… Makes so much sense, it connects everything together in a reasonable way! Though it only makes sense from a viewer’s speculative perspective, and in-universe from the perspective of Belos, for the kinds of goals he’s looking for of course. 

        From a general and moral perspective this plan is completely nuts and terrible, but in terms of what Belos is actually trying to accomplish, a society where magical is truly bound… (Albeit not an actual ‘utopia’ like he claims), I hate to say it but this works perfectly, and that’s terrifying! Unfortunately, it seems this fucker does know EXACTLY what he’s doing, very much! And Belos is batshit nuts.

        And there’s a good chance that somebody in this meeting is very understandably not enthused with Belos’ plan, even outright intimidated, and determined to stop it as a result...

[relaxxattack]

hi im asking u this bc u seem to be bee duo enthusiast so

ive been calling c! beeduos relationship platonic because i thought that was what their cc’s said, and i thought they had said that they were uncomfortable with ppl shipping the characters. But ive seen a lot of posts that say their relationship is canonically romantic? and i absolutely do not want to come across as homophobic by watering down a mlm relationship to just friends because that happens so much in media so.

what is the canon state of their relationship / ur opinions on the platonic thibg

dont worry abt answering if u dont want to!! i see a lot of differing opinions and i trust yours :)

aw it’s totally fine, im flattered you asked me about this!

let me put it simply: it’s a whole mess, lol.

first im going to talk about what’s happened fandom-wide that caused differing opinions, and then i’ll explain my own opinion/interpretation. :]

(this got really fucking long im so sorry)

ranboo and tubbo initially proclaimed the relationship was romantic, specifically in argument with the wiki editors who had set it as platonic by default. (you can see this in the vod where they decide they’re canonically married— it’s very funny. chat tells them the marriage is already on the wiki, they check, tubbo is jokingly offended that it says platonic and asks if he needs to up the romance).

tubbo also makes jokes about adultry, which sort of implies the relationship is not necessarily a platonic one.

(theres definetly more in that stream alone but it’s been a long time since i watched it so i don’t remember a lot of it.)

the wiki, because of this, suffers from going back and forth on platonic and romantic, seemingly unsure where the joke ends and the canon begins, or if its canonically a joke! a mess, as you can already tell.

this gets more complicated as the marriage bit goes on: outsiders, such as phil and scott, both at one point say “platonic marriage”, which then ranboo and tubbo agree with. however, when chat asks them if they’re platonic, they say the opposite. so there is a lot of confusion there.

there’s also the difficulty of being able to tell streamers and characters apart. ranboo and tubbo both don’t like being shipped irl, and that’s their boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed. (they’re also minors, but tbh when they’re 18 in a year i will still be following their boundaries regardless of their legal age).

due to people not wanting to be accused of minor shipping, they started adding the platonic tone indicator to most of their drawings— basically a way of saying “no homo”. meanwhile, tubbo frequently on stream flirts with ranboo and makes quite a bit of nsfw comments towards him that are frankly hilarious.

this goes on for a while with nobody really sure what’s canon, but a lot of people assuming it’s probably platonic, until: the drama of the mods night. a few mods dmed all the wiki editors telling them ranboo wanted his canon character relationship officially set to platonic.

unfortunately for those mods; the very same day, a few hours later, ranboo on stream makes fun of puffy delivering him and tubbo “friendship flowers”. because, and i quote, “bruh. we’re literally married. this must be how the ancient greeks felt.”

in case you don’t know, the internet often jokes about how historians will call ancient greeks ‘very good friends’ when they are quite obviously gay. so in this context, ranboo is joking that people will call him and c!tubbo, who are married, “close friends”, when he doesn’t think they are.

basically, ranboo canonized romantic bee duo, the very same day the mods told everyone he’d wanted a platonic one.

chaos and drama immediately erupted everywhere. on tumblr, we were talking about how weird it was of his mods to do something like that without asking him first. we ALSO talked about how weird it was of them to assume that ranboo can’t make his own decisions, or assume teenagers cannot be in relationships without it being sexual. twitter did the same thing but in the opposite direction: called ranboo mods homophobic, or said they were mad ranboo felt pressured into making a romantic relationship canon ‘just so people could have mlm rep.’

i dont want to go into detail about the drama that happened that night because apparently official people follow me and i dont want to stir it up or have them come “clarify” things. im just saying what we talked about.

ranboo in typical ranboo fashion apologized quickly and seriously. he was deeply sorry for possibly offending anyone with how he’d portrayed his rp relationship with tubbo, and he also assured everyone the mod thing was just a miscommunication.

he said he would talk to tubbo and they’d decide once and for all whether it was platonic or romantic, and then announce so everyone would know.

it’s now been a few months and we've had no word from them on that development. we still have no clue.

-

now, here’s my opinion:

i want to take ranboos word for it that it was a miscommunication with his mods, but... we had it on good authority from people on the wiki team and people in the discord with the mods that (while it was happening) they were really going after the wiki admins, and also made some weird comments about it. that combined with the way ranboo seemingly had no clue (considering he canonized their romance that very same day).... it’s very. sus of the mods.

then there’s the canon we’ve got since then. although occasionally adults in the room have called it a “platonic marriage” and tubbo once (back when it first started) called it a “plankton tectonic” marriage, in roleplay it’s been... kind of not that. tubbo and ranboo make nsfw jokes about each other in character, and their characters also share a master bedroom and bed in the mansion. there's also the way c!tommy really thinks it’s a romance between them as well, and they agree with and play off that— for instance confirming that they “fell in love” when he asked, or ranboo confirming that they “make out on occasion”.

people will still put platonic on their art and posts, imo, because they’re worried about breaking ranboo and tubbo’s irl boundaries by looking like they ship them. or even just being accused of shipping real life minors. and that’s a valid fear to have.

the thing is though: c!bee duo are not cc!bee duo. they’re roleplay characters. cc!bee duo are not okay with being shipped, but they made their characters get canonically married, and call each other “husbands”. so it’s okay to write the word “husband” in your comic without adding “platonic” to it, i promise.

telling the ccs that their characters have to be platonic is... weird. it comes off as not only babying them, but also as saying teens can’t date without it being gross. which isn’t true.

(this is why seeing people overuse “platonic husband” so much bothers me. like, they ARE husbands. you can just say it. what are you trying to hide...?)

-

do i think they’re canonically romantic? ehh, its likely. it’s still okay to interpret them as platonic, because again, it’s hard to tell where jokes end and roleplay begins. like, maybe it’s jokes in the rp too, and c!bee duo are just friends. friends can and should be allowed to make jokes like that with each other! aro & ace marriages exist!

or, maybe it’s actually part of the rp, and they’re very much romantic. we don’t know!

some people say they could be a qpr (queerplatonic romance), which i could see. (a qpr is a relationship that fluctuates between, or can’t quite be sorted into, “romantic” and “platonic”. people in a qpr can do romantic things while having platonic feelings for each other). in my opinion this is a very valid interpretation as well!

-

CONCLUSION (sorry this got so long omfg):

are c!bee duo romantic?

its likely, but you can still interpret them however you like!

should i put /p on bee duo content?

ehhh? i find it annoying when it’s overused (as do others), but if you’re worried you can. its up to preference. putting it too much is weird though

should i put /p on things cc! bee duo do?

no. you’re not the one saying it so you can’t decide the tone tags for that. imagine you said something to your friend and a random stranger came up and was like “haha but that was /p right...?”

can i ship c!bee duo?

mmm. i’m not sure on this one. they are canonically married and very flirtatious, but the ccs don’t like being shipped and they’re close enough to being the ccs that actively shipping might be against boundaries.

can i treat c!bee duo as romantic?

yes. literally just don’t be weird about it. it’s not that hard! you can understand that two characters are husbands without making it weird

here’s the most important thing: boundaries. cc bee duo still haven’t told us what their preferences and canon is about this whole thing.

right now, i am assuming based on what they already show us they’re comfortable with, but! the second they give us any more info! all these opinions will change!

i am only going off what they do. i would never want to cross boundaries at all. i just wish they would make theirs a little more clear.

..... i hope that helped anon, i went way off the rails... i need to go to sleep.

[inkdemonapologist]

[BatIM Call of Cthulhu Masterpost]

nEW SESSION (summary here!), where there’s been an unexpected development to the music issue and its time to [checks my notes] taLK TO THE PROPHET AND BREAK INTO SUSIE’S APARTMENT??? Also, the Prophet and Joey have made.... a truce(???), Prophet is concerned Sammy isn’t going to stay on task now that music is returning and has left him a sort of alarming note, and Jack is uh, trying to hold, too many things, maybe some things he shouldn’t be holding, Jack please put those things back,

anyway heres a stack of out-of-context quotes from our session under the readmore:

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Jack] My favourite thing is, there are so many reasons that Henry could've avoided things that I have no idea WHY Henry isn't affected. [Jack] Like, is he not affected because his art isn't a performance? Is he not affected because he warded his house? Is he not affected because he'S FILLED WITH GLOWING BLOOD?!?

[Jack] He got as far as feeding his cat, and I feel like feeding cat isn't a performance-- [Sammy] Not usually, not unless you sing a song to your cat, which-- [Jack] Awww! [Sammy] -- which, now that I've said that, sounds like something Jack would do actually,

[Sammy] Ohhhh, that's right, Joey just heard some people play some bad notes and start panicking, and then he stood up and passed out, [Jack] Which is probably how Sammy feels every time he hears people mess up music!

[GM] He finds news on the radio, but they’re not talking about that right now. [Joey] What are they talking about? [GM] Something mundane; business or sports or something. [Jack] The, the sportsball team, got a…..uh….. a, a point. Congratulations, sportsball,

[Joey] If the sportscasters sound normal, then Joey is instantly VERY ANGRY.

[Henry] Henry’s not very musically inclined, but he knows some songs, [Sammy] Like, can you hum Twinkle Twinkle Little Star -- [Jack] “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.”

[Jack] Jack has made a vague list of the kinds of people who seem to be affected. [Jack] There’s also “NOT HENRY?????” with a bunch of question marks in this list.

[GM] He’s told that Peter is out of town for a week. [Jack] Hmm. [Sammy] PETER WHERE ARE YOU GOING? [Jack] Hmmmmmm. [Sammy] Jack, is Peter coming here, to check on you, [Jack] HMMMMMMMMMMMMM,

[Sammy] *exasperated* NPCs Stop Getting Involved In The Occult Challenge [Henry] Stop Getting Involved In The Occult Or Draw 25

[Joey] Peter had never seen a Bendy cartoon, and this needed to be fixed. [Joey] The premier is this weekend, and he sent tickets to Pete to correct this, error, in his ways. [Jack] ...I think it is very slowly dawning on Jack, that this means that Pete has been pulled directly into yet another… supernatural nonsense... [Sammy] WE DIDNT DO THIS ONE!!

[Sammy] I CAN’T BELIEVE PHONES ARE THE ANTAGONIST OF THIS ADVENTURE

[Henry] Oh wait--! oh, no, nevermind, I forgot he and Allison probably aren’t together yet. [Sammy] Yeah, I think they just met; they had a meet-cute where they found out they both like Frankenstein and that’s it. [Jack] They actually got married today, since nothing else was happening at the Studio, [Sammy] That’s why Allison hasn’t shown up, she was busy getting married!

[GM] Bendy might’ve been keeping tabs on Henry, but it depends I guess on how distressed Joey is seeming. [Joey] Joey is probably just going to bury his sorrow in studying magic. [GM] Okay! That’s fine and normal Joey behaviour!

[Sammy] Sammy will note that nothing got done in the music department, because he has good priorities.

[Jack] I like the idea that it’s just like, when the teacher isn’t in, and nobody does the work the substitute teacher gave you, [Jack] Everyone’s just playing pokemon in the back, [GM] I thought you were going to say “poker,” but I like the way you ended the sentence better.

[Jack] HMMMMMM. I wonder if we know, any suspicious women, who were around on that specific day, who are known to have, skill and interest in magical things,  [Joey] And also were aware of the cutouts, [Sammy] *cheerfully* Yeah, weird! Anyway!!!!

[Jack] Sammy was acting weird about Allison. Far too agreeable for a Sammy!

[Sammy] *talking about Prophet* If you want to lock him in somewhere, or restrain him, I’ll cooperate. [Jack] Just handcuff him to Jack! [Sammy] SAMMY IS UNEASY WITH THAT PLAN, [Jack] *laughing* What could go wrong! It’s not like Jack is significantly less strong or anything!!

[Jack] Not everyone makes up their entire self, Joey!!! (Affectionate)!!

[Sammy] I give my word, my sheep! [Henry] How good is your word? [Sammy] I mean. It’s pretty good.

[Henry] Henry’s trying to decide if it would be rude to doodle during this very serious conversation. [Jack] I mean, Jack is taking notes, so I feel like-- [Joey] --you can get away with fake note-ing. [GM] No one will know! [GM] Well, Bendy will know, because he’s up high. [GM] Ceiling Bendy

[Sammy] He’s not gonna give you a grade afterwards, like, this isn’t a lecture, [Jack] Time for Prophet Pop Quiz!

[GM] What’s Prophet writing? [Sammy] Um, I gotta think about this... [Jack] “Dear Frightened Shepherd, that Allison person sure is nice, isn’t she?” [GM] “What’s up with everyone ragging on her?” [Joey] “I think I have finally found a way to bridge the gap between us!” [Jack] “I think you need to replace your sheep, they seem kind of suspicious for no reason,” [Jack] “To Do List: Get Better Sheep”

[Sammy] Does this feel like something that’s trying to take his focus, like, very compelling creative ideas? [GM] Yes. [Sammy] ...Prophet will write “don’t get distracted” five more times.

[GM] His mind is abuzz with thoughts of dancing and actoring, [GM] Ideas to be the best Joey ever! [Jack] Oh no.

[Joey] He will wave at the cutout and make a “come here” motion. [Joey] Though also, he’s looking at the cutout like, I’m not quite sure how this works, but I’m going to trust you that it works! So I’m going to do this and see if Bendy shows up! [Jack] Like someone trying to learn how to do phone video calls for the first time, [Joey] YES. Joey’s actually like really close to the cutout, and the motions -- you can make them out, but it’s really awkward,

[Sammy] They’re in no danger. I will take care of the Shepherd’s sheep. [Jack] ...JACK’S BEEN DOWNGRADED!! He’s no longer PROPHET’S sheep!

[Joey] I like how everything Prophet says really just feels like, Knife Cat face.

[GM] You could probably make a Mythos roll to figure it out. [Joey] *rolls* Oh! Extreme success! [GM] Joey’s back!

[GM] Bendy will lead Joey back to the room, where hopefully there are three alive, non-fighting boys!

[Jack] Part of me was like, “What if Jack DOES turn into a cat…?! It’d be pretty hard to write things!” [GM] *laughs* We’ll keep that in our back pocket, in case Jack ever fails a Mythos check. [Jack] Meowthos check…

[Henry] I’m going to have Henry look, look with his Special Eyes.

[Sammy] *failing a roll* Prophet is just, NOT on the ball today, in any way shape or form. [GM] Really hard not to think about music. : ) [Sammy] Ohhhhhh boy, [Jack] Prophet just writes a note to Sammy that says “HOW do you LIVE like this???”

[Henry] Henry’s gonna try to scribble what he remembers of the symbol!  [Sammy] Didn’t we learn, from the last scenario, about reproducing weird symbols, [Henry] No.

[Joey] Did Joey get burnt? [GM] Make a dexterity roll! : ) [Henry] *mumbling* Y’all this entire building is made of wood. *Joey fails* [GM] 1 point of damage, you singe your hand -- on the plus side, you kind of were holding it as it burned up, so it doesn’t fall on the wooden floor. [Sammy] OH GOOD, we’re not LOCKED IN A CLOSET that’s about to burn down? GREAT!

[Joey] We could head over to the infirmary -- [Jack] Jack is already pulling the burn ointment out of his bag. [Jack] He’s prepared this time! [Jack] He’s been practicing, he knows what you’re all like,

[Joey] Joey will give him a smile that’s most recognisable as the “I know you will do good!” smile. [Sammy] Prophet will also smile! It is not a friendly smile. [Jack] It’s a “smile” in quotation marks, but it’s like, baring your teeth as an act of aggression. 

[Jack] Jack lets him go to do the call, but just before he picks up the phone, he says, “Don’t call him Petey.”

[GM] The phone rings, and is not answered. [Joey] Okay! Joey hangs up, says Peter checked into his room, but is not answering. Most likely asleep. [Jack] Half of my brain is going, “what if he’s just stood outside Jack’s house?” The other half of my brain is concerned about manias. I hope he’s not decided that now is a really great time to do more writing, and now he can’t stop, and this could go wrong-- [Jack] This is what Jack’s mind is doing, thinking of all the terrible possibilities. [Joey] While humming. [Jack] ...yes. He’s writing some very troubling lyrics.

[Sammy] *talking about Jack’s compulsive humming* Like Cornifer, [Jack] *starts humming Cornifer’s theme* Dangit, now it’s in my head, why would you do this to me? [Sammy] It’s in character! [Sammy] Method acting. : )

[Joey] Joey’s going to grab supplies to make sure Bendy can… hang around with them! [Joey] Sleepover supplies! Let’s grab your sleepover bag! :D

[Sammy] I don’t know why the idea of a wild Bendy running around across the rooftops is so cute to me… [GM] Probably on all fours, [Jack] Scampering,

[Jack] It’s a good thing Henry’s around because I don’t think Jack can… carry??? An entire Sammy??? [Jack] Like he’s good at holding but he’s not strong at holding.

[Joey] We’ve all been acting terrible for the last 24 hours… [Joey] WAIT. We’ve all been acting terrible for the last 24 hours!!!

[GM] Bendy hides under a blanket or something. [Jack] Comfey… [GM] Cozy boy, [Joey] Bendyrito. [Sammy] BENDYRITO,…….. [GM] Rolled up… snug...

[GM] Is everybody coming into the apartment, or just the two? [Jack] Hmmm….. Jack isn’t fond of either of these options. Going in is suspicious and weird; staying outside makes it look even more like they’re breaking in, to steal things, as opposed to, y’know, breaking in, for,,, “good” reasons(???) [Sammy] We’re not breaking in, we’re just walking into this apartment! What’s so weird about that?! [Jack] That’s breaking in. That’s what breaking in is, Sammy. [Sammy] They don’t have to know that we don’t belong here, maybe Susie gave us a key! [Jack] ...they heard us knocking. [Sammy] [Sammy] We’re BEING POLITE!! SHUT UP!!

[Henry] Jack, did you pick up kleptomania.. [Joey] I thought Jack picked up Being Prepared! [Jack] H-he’s just hoarding a little bit!! It’s fine!!! It’s very, useful, see, already Joey got injured!! It was useful to bring lots of things with him okay!!!!!!!!!

[GM] They do not have the police called on them, so that’s nice. [Sammy] Oh good! [Jack] Thank GOODNESS. [Henry] Love when that happens! [GM] If you guys got arrested, the Lurker’s just out in the car all night, [Henry] oh NO, [Jack] Worse punishment than jail… [Joey] Lurker learns how to drive for fun. [GM] *laughs* Gets curious, [Joey] “I said I wouldn’t leave the car, but--”

[Joey] WAIT. There’s a very important factor that we just decided but didn’t say. [GM] Oh? [Joey] If we have Henry heading home, and everyone else sleep over at Jack’s…. [Joey] ...the Lurker finally gets to meet a cat. *everyone gasps* [Jack] Oh that’s SO important

[Henry] And Henry will probably look at these, while in the car, to make sure they don’t have any gold writing on them-- [Sammy] Isn’t Henry driving??? [Henry] ……Henry is not going to look at them in the car,

[Sammy] We’re all going to bed, Sammy, you don’t need a banjo to sleep! [Joey] You might sleep worse if you have a banjo, actually. You might not stop.

[Sammy] Jack you wanna join us? We’re gonna just jam all night! [Jack] It really is Jammy… [Sammy] *laughs* TRUE Jammy!! Real Jammy Hours… [GM] That makes it a pyJAMa party… a real jammy jam…

[aspd-culture]

The obsession with how people work is pretty frequent in ASPD (we tend to like psychology and sociology bc it’s much more interesting when your brain processes it from a more outside perspective rather than “of course yeah everyone does that” but that goes for autism too probably), but the others are possible special interests? But I question the autism personally because his issue is never in understanding social constructs, social rules, etc. the way that autistic people often do, even in this scene he’s upset that this kid can avoid all the social dances he despises because of not understanding them while House is forced to follow them because he doesn’t have that kind of excuse. Also he doesn’t appear to have any sensory issues at all during the show that I recall. That wipes out two pretty big diagnostic blocks. If he’s autistic it’s definitely a different end of the spectrum than I’m used to.

I’d have to dig for the exact episode but it happens within the arc (spoilers!!!!) where he is sent to the psychiatric facility and then to mandatory therapy. During that at some point he is referred to as “antisocial” and I think having “antisocial traits” specifically. These are medical terms that especially in a specialized psychiatric facility, they wouldn’t use callously where they mean cruel or asocial, so we can safely assume they mean ASPD.

His own colleagues definitely call him a sociopath at least a time or two, and they are also very well trained in recognizing psychiatric issues due to their line of work requiring frequent differentials of psych disorders (which you know if you’ve seen the show but this also gives context to readers who may not have). It’s unlikely - especially given that they do a mediocre “sociopath” episode (except she wasn’t really bc it’s never Lupus so to speak) - that they’d have misused that term for him when they clearly know what it means. He even struggles in that episode with wondering if he’s more like her than he’d want to admit. In general I don’t recall illnesses being used erroneously as insults anywhere in the show unless the person they’re speaking about has those things except by Dr. House himself.

And then there’s the big two things that say ASPD vs Autism for me - firstly that House is seen heavily researching what’s “wrong” with him in little bits and pieces if you’re looking for it. These are often written off as one liners or in the background but it’s there. He actively wants to know what is causing him to behave in ways he doesn’t like and can’t seem to control. If he was autistic, he’d likely have found that out by now. He even considers it himself with the boy who gives him the (PSP I think? Maybe Vita?? That thing) which might be this episode, but turns back on it deciding it didn’t fit quite right. You could definitely read this as him not wanting to admit it to himself, but if he truly felt it fit then I’d assume over the course of the series when he clearly wants to get better, he’d have taken that knowledge and either tried to treat it or very possibly even used it as an excuse for his behavior.

And secondly returns to his time in the psychiatric facility. They would, in my opinion, absolutely have diagnosed him as autistic if that were the case. It would have been equally “good TV” to watch House go through ABA as it would have been for him to go through therapy and antidepressants, so there was no reason for him not to. This would have given him access to the “insanity defense” later on as well, which he doesn’t get and is not something pwASPD can use despite having a severe mental disorder that causes our symptoms which is what that is supposed to be for. It just doesn’t work for us bc of the stigma. I believe it does have precedent to work for some autistic people though.

I have another post that goes in depth on this somewhere I think. I’ll see if I can find it and tag you if I can. It’s super interesting (me, a special interest in “abnormal” and disordered psychology?? Prove it!/j) imo to see how a very possibly unintentional at first well written pwASPD was shown to the masses but truly it might also have been the intention the entire time. There have been a couple papers published I’ve found on the internet discussing House’s evident ASPD but they are pay to read and I can smell the risk of ableism with the last two seasons all the way over here so I refuse to touch those until I’m ready for them.

"house isint autistic" WHATS THIS THEN????

[tom-holland-parker]

Secrets

Summary: Tom is terrified about you finding out his job but when he brings you to his house he has no choice but to tell you

Pairing: Mob!tom x reader

Warning: SMALL mention of murder but nothing bad

Word count: 2374

Masterlist

"This is your house" you said in shock as Tom helped you out of the car. It was the largest house you'd ever seen and it was crazy to think that it belonged to the man you're dating. He chuckled grabbing your hand as he guided you through the front door, "it one of my houses"

You rolled your eyes looking around the fancy living room. You kept your hands to yourself, afraid that you would break something that cost more than you could imagine. "You're telling me that we've been spending weekends in my tiny studio apartment when you have a living room that size of my building"

Tom smiled watching you explore every part of the large room. "I like your small apartment. It's very cute" You stared at him with suspicious eyes, "what exactly did you say you do for a living?" 

He took a deep breath trying to remain calm as he remembered the lie he told you, "I'm CEO of a waste management company". It wasn't a complete lie, if you changed waste to people and management to murder. The truth is that Tom was too afraid to tell you that he ran one of the largest mobs in London. He was afraid you'd react badly and never want to see him again. Even though he’d only been dating you for 7 months he was completely whipped and would do anything for you.  Lying was his way of protecting you and buying time so he could find the right way to tell you what he does for a living.

You tilted your head in confusion but didn't push for detail. Instead you nodded and grabbed his hand, "so am I going to get the grand tour or are we spending the whole day in your living room". He smiled, guiding you into the other rooms. 

///

“And this is the library” Tom said as he opened the door to the large room covered floor to ceiling in bookshelves. You looked around, fascinated by all the books in the room. “Don’t get too excited, they're all history and law books” Tom said, chuckling as you sighed in disappointment. 

“You have a library in your house and you decide to fill it with boring books” You crossed your arms, “I’m convinced you’re a psychopath”. He chuckled as he stood in front of you, grabbing your chin to gently push your head up. He placed a kiss on your forehead before sighing, “I’ll clear off an entire bookshelf so you can put whatever books you want” 

“Well there's the classics, ” You began to list off all the books you could think of, “oh and there obviously-”

“Boss we got a problem” You were interrupted by a tall muscular man. Tom’s lips went thin and his jaw tightened, it didn’t take a genius to show he was annoyed. You stared in confusion but remained quiet. “Deal with it” Tom said, you flinched at the violence in his voice, “I don’t want to be bothered unless it’s an emergency” 

The man nodded his head leaving the room silently. “Your workers just hang around your house?” You questioned as Tom’s face softened again. He chuckled nervously, “I prefer to have them close to me in case anything goes wrong” 

“Interesting tactic” You joked, “It must be fun to be your employee”. He shrugged, “They still find ways to annoy me��

“But it’s waste management, how hard is it to keep track of garbage?” You asked. He laughed in amusement, as if you were telling a joke, “You’d be surprised”

“Seriously though all you have to do is pick up that trash and-” Tom interrupted holding his finger to your lips. “Enough about my job, it’s for me to worry about” He bopped your nose gently before smiling, “How’d you like to see the green house?” 

You gasped, “Why wasn’t that the first thing you showed me? Let’s go”. Tom sighed in relief, happy that you stopped asking questions, “This way Love” 

He grabbed your hand guiding you out the library to the stairs, “No one ever really uses it because no one here gardens” He explained as you got closer to the backyard, “But I saw all those plants in your apartment and figured you could find some use for it” 

It was a complete lie actually. Tom had seen the way you covered your apartment with various plants, he loved the way you took care of them as if they were real children. When he returned home that night he bought a greenhouse for his backyard, knowing that it would be a place that can make you happy whenever you came to his house. 

“This is so cool” Your eyes lit up as you walked in, hands grazing along the tables and large piles of dirt bags. You were mentally mapping out where you were going to put different plants when you heard a knock on the glass door. Another man, still tall but this time less muscular, entered whispering to Tom. You watched as Tom's eyes filled with a mixture of anger and annoyance. The man quickly left as Tom turned to you, "Darling I'm sorry I have business to handle real quick, how about you go to the living room and pick a movie for us to watch and I'll get to you as soon as possible" 

Your eyes widened nervously, "you're leaving me in the house alone?"

He chuckled grabbing your hands to lead you out the greenhouse. "No I'll be in my office in the west wing" he pointed towards the tall man from before who stood waiting outside the door, "if you need me for any reason just tell Charlie and he'll get me right away" 

You nodded your head as Tom let go of your hand, "Charlie will take you back to the living room, I'll be done as soon as possible". Tom quickly kissed your forehead before walking back into the house. You turned to Charlie, giving him an awkward smile as he began walking you to the living room. 

After an hour of sitting on the couch and staring at the television you started to get bored. You couldn't stop the little voice inside your head telling you to start exploring the house. You sighed, turning off the TV. Charlie, who had remained silent the entire time, stared at you in confusion trying to figure out exactly what you were going to do. "Where's Tom's office?" You asked, standing up from the couch. Charlie stood silent for a moment before taking a deep breath, "do you need him?"

You shook your head, "No but I'm bored and since you're not going to talk to me I might as well find something to do?"

"As much as I'd love to help you" he said sarcastically, "Tom gave me specific instructions to make sure you don't wander off"  

You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms, throwing yourself back on the couch as you tried to think of a way past him. You knew trying to physically overpower him wouldn't work. Trying to seduce him was useless because you sucked at flirting, something Tom loved about you. You smiled, decided to do the only thing you knew best, catch them off guard. 

"Can we at least play a game or something. I'm sure there's playing cards around here somewhere" you said looking around the room for the deck of cards. You remembered Tom telling you how he hosted poker night every Friday with his brothers. Charlie sighed grabbing the pack from the poker set on top of the large mantle. 

You took them from his hand motioning for him to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table as you shuffled and divided the cards. "Have you ever played spit?" You asked setting the game up

He shrugged, "I've played a game or two" 

"Great get ready to lose" you joked as you grabbed your cards and started the game. It only took 4 rounds for Charlie to start getting comfortable and if you weren't set on finding Tom you would've played this game with him all day. "Where's the bathroom?" You asked as he shuffled the cards for another around. He pointed towards the hallway not giving much thought about it, "its down the hall to your left. Gold doorknob"

You nodded getting up from the table and walking out the room. As quietly as you could you walked up the stairs. You didn't know exactly where Tom's office was located but you knew that the Library was in the West wing so it had to be close by. 

You slowed your pace once you reached the library doors, listening for any sort of noise that would point out the office. It didn't take long for you to hear a muffled voice shouting. You took a deep breath following the voice to the door at the end of the hall. The shouts were louder but you could tell it wasn't Tom's voice. 

You hesitantly placed your ear on the door listening for some sort of context. "This is the second time him and his gang have done this. I want him dead" the voice shouted. You imagine it belonged to a stressed middle aged man and laughed at the idea of the man's face turning red with anger. 

"You can't just kill him. You still have deals with him that need to end first" You heard Tom's surprisingly calm voice. It shocked you how nonchalant he was about the topic of murder. The man began to shout again but you were distracted by the large hand that grasped your shoulder. You turned slowly not surprised to see Charlie standing in front of you, his face disappointed. "You must want me to get fired" he whispered 

You smiled at him as your hand grabbed the doorknob. He moved to grasp your wrist but wasn't quick enough. The door was open and you both were stumbling in the large room. You watched as all eyes turned to you and Charlie, everyone clearly confused by your entrance. Well everyone but Tom, who had a mixture of worry and anger on his face.

It was that very moment that Tom knew he wouldn't be able to hide this from you. He watched as you looked around the room, embarrassment taking over your body, obviously unaware of what was being discussed. 

"I'm sorry" you said, your voice was small and you could feel your face heating up in embarrassment. Tom sighed, looking like he was having a small moral debate with himself. He lifted his hand motioning for you to come over. You slowly walked past the others in the room who were still staring at you in confusion. 

Tom pat his lap, signaling for you to sit. You did as you were told feeling more confident now that his arm was wrapped around your waist. "Listen Jimmy, it's not going to happen until you close all business ends with him. End of story now get out" Tom demanded. 

The man, who was actually younger than you'd imagined, sighed in acceptance and he nodded his head and quickly left with two men trailing behind him. "I'll deal with you later Charlie get out" Tom said with a tired voice as he rubbed his eyes.

You stared at him awkwardly not sure if you wanted to bring up the conversation you overheard. "Wandering around a large house like this can be dangerous" Tom said as he stared at you.

You bit your lip nervously not sure how to respond, "I'm sorry" you whispered staring tm down at the chain around him neck, "don't be mad at Charlie its not his fault"

"I'm not mad" Tom's fingers fiddled with the hem of your dress, "just happy you're safe". You chuckled, "you say that like there was some sort of danger in the house"

His lips went thin as he let out a deep breath. He looked at you, one hand rubbing you back the other gripping your chin, pulling you closer to him as he gave you a kiss. "I have to tell you something"��

"What's wrong?" He bit his lip nervously, "I've been lying about my job. I'm the leader of the biggest mafia in London" 

Your body froze with shock, not sure how to respond to that. "Um" you hesitated, "like Scarface?" He couldn't hide the smile forming on his face, he found your obliviousness adorable, "yes just like Scarface" 

You knew that the reasonable response would've been to run away and never speak to Tom again, but some part of you knew that Tom was still the man you loved no matter what he did. You just had to accept that you loved a dangerous and powerful man. You sighed, "well if we're telling secrets I'm a hard core criminal"

Tom stared at you in confusion, "what?" You chuckled, "yeah in high school I went through a hardcore shoplifting stage I can pretty much steal anything” You smiled as Tom’s laughter filled the room. “But seriously I don’t get why you lied, Mafia boss sounds kinda hot” 

“Sounds hot until you're dead because someone doesn’t like you” He said as he absentmindedly drew traced shapes on your thigh with his fingers. You rolled your eyes, “Don’t try and scare me away because it’s not gonna work”

“I’m just saying I don’t want you to get into something you regret” He whispered. You sighed, “Tom will it calm you down if I told you I love you and I’m not going anywhere?” His eyes shot towards you, shock filling them. 

“Are you serious?” He asked. You chuckled, “yes now say it back before I start overthinking”. He let out a deep breath, moving you so you straddle his legs, “I love you” he whispered as he kissed your neck, “I love you so much”

“Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” You joked as your hips grinded against his. He paused reaching down to pull out the handgun from his waist, you laughed as he placed it on the table, “oh a gun” 

[plinkcat-gif]

📓 expose our dms go go go

yeah ok.

cw: talk of sex. not in any detail except kakashi’s experience with it.

tw: dubcon/noncon but also not really because virtually nothing happens because it ends so early because obirin know kakashi is a liar <3 also more angst like in the soulwords au

notes: kakashi is in a bad mental headspace because he’s been recently discharged from anbu at this point and minato won’t let him train because he knows how kakashi uses training as an excuse to. well. self harm. and so he is Miserable without an outlet and also not actively searching one out because he thinks he deserves to be miserable. it is a mess he is awful i want to punch him. i love to make him miserable.

“post first time—the worst part abt kks by the way is that he so desperately wants to relate and be understood by people but hes so ashamed of his own existence that he cant reach out, he cant share secrets unless theyre violently ripped from him, and even that hurts him because it takes away his choice”

so basically you made me insane and i think ab this all the time.

for context for people who aren’t lev and the worms in my head: kakashi’s only experience with sex is honeypot missions and shortly after he’s discharged with anbu, himself (clones). and again his only experience is with honeypots where it’s not rlly consensual and so it’s still not good even w himself and he does throw up after. and i think he’s very sex-averse and doesn’t have a healthy rship with sex at all, plus his awful headspace he’s in.

but. he wants to be involved w obirin. because he is in fact jealous of them even tho he’s both denying their offers for him to join and thinks/deludes himself into “knowing” he can’t have it. but that doesn’t stop him.

and so he asks them one day, and they are obviously thrilled and totally want to help him!!! kakashi does not make his knowledge/comforts/boundaries/etc clear, and even lies about some of them because he thinks it will make obirin happy. (which, it does, because they think he is consenting.)

it is Awful. it is the worst ever. they don’t even make it through anything because there’s no flow, no dynamic, and it feels. stale. it is obviously kakashi who is doing this, and they stop but he doesn’t want to because he feels this knot of guilt and shame tying itself inside him and if he could go a little more, he could ignore it. obirin do not let him. and he has such a nervous breakdown about it, because he’s not being good for them!!! and so he should just leave and never come back. because he’s the worst and should rightfully hate him after this because he can’t even do what they want or participate with them :/

obirin are frustrated, confused, and mostly just. feeling the most amount of pity for him because it’s obvious he doesn’t know what he’s doing past like. the most technical sense and acting, because he is acting for them. it is not genuine.

they calm him down enough to talk even though the shame is eating him alive, redress him a little, and explain.

it was not good of him to lie. it was not good of him to force himself when he didn’t want to. it made everybody uncomfortable and it didn’t make obirin happy. and he understands this (something something bad dog etc)

they don’t try again all three for a while. there are more walls that need to be broken down before that’s possible, specifically with kakashi because they thought they knew him well and it’s obvious they don’t. they manage though, because of course they do <33

additional:

- kakashi does the thing where he thinks obirin will understand his thoughts even when he’s saying the exact opposite thing out loud. he hopes so badly that he will let a tell slip and they will notice and say, “hey are you really okay with doing this?” and then say “no, i saw you go pale. you’re not okay with this. can we talk about it?” as he confirms everything outside of his comfort zone as an activity with them that he is comfortable with. kakashi is too good of a shinobi to let a tell slip in a situation as serious as this.

- kakashi doesn’t talk to them for a couple days afterwards. sorry he’s made out of shame obirin u rlly chose the worst boyfriend 🧡 but he does eventually come around again and obirin pretend that nothing ever happened to make it easier for him. they do eventually come back to the topic again when they’re all comfortable with it, and have an honest discussion about what’s okay, what’s not, what needs to be tried, and anything else that might come up. things are MUCH smoother from there on out

[writingwithcolor]

Jurassic period alien interacting with key cultures and historical figures in Middle East & Asia throughout history

@ketchupmaster400​ said:

Hello, so my question is for a character I’ve been working on for quite a while but wasn’t sure about a few things. So basically at the beginning of the universe there was this for less being made up of dark matter and dark energy. Long story short it ends up on earth during the Jurassic Period. It has the ability to adapt and assimilate into other life animals except it’s hair is always black and it’s skin is always white and it’s eyes are always red. It lives like this going from animal to animal until it finally becomes human and gains true sentience and self awareness. As a human it lives within the Middle East and Asia wondering around trying to figure out its purpose and meaning. So what I initially wanted to do with it was have small interactions with the dark matter human and other native humans that kinda helped push humanity into the direction it is now. For example, Mehndhi came about when the dark matter human was drawing on their skin because it felt insecure about having such white skin compared to other people. And ancient Indians saw it and thought it was cool so they adopted it and developed it into Mehndi. Minor and small interactions though early history leading to grander events. Like they would be protecting Jerusalem and it’s people agains the Crusaders later on. I also had the idea of the the dark matter human later on interacting with the prophets Jesus Christ and Muhammad. With Jesus they couldn’t understand why he would sacrifice himself even though the people weren’t deserving. And then Jesus taught them that you have to put other before yourself and protecting people is life’s greatest reward. And then with the prophet Muhammad, I had the idea that their interaction was a simple conversation that mirrors the one he had with the angel Jibril, that lead to the principles of Islam. Now with these ideas I understand the great importance of how not to convey Islam and I’ve been doing reasearch, but I am white and I can understand how that may look trying to write about a different religion than my own. So I guess ultimate my question is, is this ok to do? Is it ok to have an alien creature interact with religious people and historical events as important as they were? Like I said I would try to be as accurate and as respectable as possible but I know that Islam can be a touchy subject and the last thing I would want is to disrespect anyone. The main reason I wanted the dark matter being in the Middle East was because I wanted to do something different because so much has been done with European and American stuff I wanted to explore the eastern side of the world because it’s very beau and very rich with so many cultures that I want to try and represent. I’m sorry for the long post but I wanted you guys to fully understand what my idea was. Thank you for your time and hope you stay safe.

Disclaimer:

The consensus from the moderators was that the proposed character and story is disrespectful from multiple cultural perspectives. However, we can’t ignore the reality that this is a commonly deployed trope in many popular science fiction/ thriller narratives. Stories that seek to take religious descriptions of events at face value from an areligious perspective particularly favor this approach. Thus, we have two responses:

Where we explain why we don’t believe this should be attempted.

Where we accept the possibility of our advice being ignored.

1) No - Why You Shouldn’t Do This:

Hi! I’ll give you the short answer first, and then the extended one.

Short answer: no, this is not okay.

Extended answer. I’ll divide it into three parts.

1) Prophet Muhammad as a character:

Almost every aspect of Islam, particularly Allah (and the Qur’an), the Prophet(s) and the companions at the time of Muhammad ﷺ, are strictly kept within the boundaries of real life/reality. I’ll assume this comes from a good place, and I can understand that from one side, but seriously, just avoid it. It is extremely disrespectful and something that is not even up to debate for Muslims to do, let alone for non-Muslims. Using Prophet Muhammad as a character will only bring you problems. There is no issue with mentioning the Prophet during his lifetime when talking about his attributes, personality, sayings or teachings, but in no way, we introduce fictional aspects in a domain that Muslims worked, and still work, hard to keep free from any doubtful event or incident. Let’s call it a closed period: we don’t add anything that was not actually there.

Reiterating then, don’t do this. There is a good reason why Muslims don’t have any pictures of Prophet Muhammad. We know nothing besides what history conveyed from him. 

After this being said, there is another factor you missed – Jesus is also an important figure in Islam and his story from the Islamic perspective differs (a lot) from that of the Christian perspective. And given what you said in your ask, you would be taking the Christian narrative of Jesus. If it was okay to use Prophet Muhammad as a character (reminder: it’s not) and you have had your dark matter human interacting with the biblical Jesus, it will result in a complete mess; you would be conflating two religions.

2) Crusaders and Jerusalem:

You said this dark matter human will be defending Jerusalem against the Crusaders. At first, there is really no problem with this. However, ask yourself: is this interaction a result of your character meeting with both Jesus and Prophet Muhammed? If yes, please refer to the previous point. If not, or even if you just want to maintain this part of the story, your dark matter human can interact with the important historical figures of the time. For example, if you want a Muslim in your story, you can use Salah-Ad-Din Al-Ayoubi (Saladin in the latinized version) that took back Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. Particularly, this crusade has plenty of potential characters. 

Also, featuring Muslim characters post Prophet Muhammad and his companions’ time, is completely fine, just do a thorough research.

 3) Middle Eastern/South Asian settings and Orientalism:

The last point I want to remark is with the setting you chose for your story. Many times, when we explore the SWANA or South Asian regions it’s done through an orientalist lens. Nobody is really safe from falling into orientalism, not even the people from those regions. My suggestion is educating yourself in what orientalism is and how it’s still prevalent in today’s narrative. Research orientalism in entertainment, history... and every other area you can think of. Edward Said coined this term for the first time in history, so he is a good start. There are multiple articles online that touch this subject too. For further information, I defer to middle eastern mods. 

- Asmaa

Racism and Pseudo-Archaeology:

A gigantic, unequivocal and absolute no to all of it, lmao. 

I will stick to the bit about the proposed origin of mehendi in your WIP, it’s the arc I feel I’m qualified to speak on, Asmaa has pretty much touched upon the religious and orientalism complications. 

Let me throw out one more word: pseudoarchaeology. That is, taking the cultural/spiritual/historical legacies of ancient civilizations, primarily when it involves people of colour, and crediting said legacies to be the handiwork of not just your average Outsider/White Saviour but aliens. I’ll need you to think carefully about this: why is it that in so much of media and literature pertaining to the so-called “conspiracy theories” dealing with any kind of extraterrestrial life, it’s always Non-Western civilizations like the Aztec, the ancient Egyptians, the Harappans etc who are targeted? Why is it that the achievements of the non West are so unbelievable that it’s more feasible to construct an idea of non-human, magical beings from another planet who just conveniently swooped in to build our monuments and teach us how to dress and what to believe in? If the answer makes you uncomfortable, it’s because it should: denying the Non-West agency of their own feats is not an innocent exercise in sci-fi worldbuilding, it comes loaded with implications of racial superiority and condescension towards the intellect and prowess of Non-European cultures. 

Now, turning to specifics:

Contrary to what Sarah J. Maas might believe- mehendi designs are neither mundane, purely aesthetic tattoos nor can they be co-opted by random Western fantasy characters. While henna has existed as an art form in various cultures, I’m limiting my answer to the Indian context, (specifying since you mention ancient India). Mehendi is considered one of the tenets of the Solah Shringar- sixteen ceremonial adornments for Hindu brides, one for each phase of the moon, as sanctioned by the Vedic texts. The shade of the mehendi is a signifier for the strength of the matrimonial bond: the darker the former, the stronger the latter. Each of the adornments carries significant cosmological/religious symbolism for Hindus. To put it bluntly, when you claim this to be an invention of the aliens, you are basically taking a very sacred cultural and artistic motif of our religion and going “Well actually….extraterrestrials taught them all this.”

In terms of Ayurveda (Traditional holistic South Asian medicine)  , mehendi was used for its medicinal properties. It works as a cooling agent on the skin and helps to alleviate stress, particularly for the bride-to-be. Not really nice to think that aliens lent us the secrets of Ayurvedic science (pseudoarchaeology all over again). 

I’m just not feeling this arc at all. The closest possible alternative I could see to this is the ancient Indian characters incorporating some specific stylistic motifs in their mehendi in acknowledgement to this entity, in the same vein of characters incorporating motifs of tribute into their armour or house insignia, but even so, I’m not sure how well that would play out. If you do go ahead with this idea, I cannot affirm that it will not receive backlash.

-Mimi

These articles might help:

 Pseudoarchaeology and the Racism Behind Ancient Aliens

A History of Indian Henna (this studies mehendi origins mostly with reference to Mughal history)

Solah Shringar

2) Not Yes, But If Ignoring the Above:

I will be the dissenting voice of “Not No, But Here Are The Big Caveats.” Given that there is no way to make the story you want to tell palatable to certain interpretations of Islam and Christianity, here is my advice if the above arguments did not sufficiently deter you.

1. Admiration ≠ Research: It is not enough to just admire cultures for their richness and beauty. You need to actually do the research and learn about them to determine if the story you want to tell is a good fit for the values and principles these cultures prioritize. You need to understand the significance of historical figures and events to understand the issues with attributing the genesis of certain cultural accomplishments to an otherworldly influence. 1.

2. Give Less Offense When Possible and Think Empathetically: You should try to imagine the mindsets of those you will offend and think about to what degree you can soften or ameliorate certain aspects of your plot, the creature’s characteristics, and the creature’s interactions with historical figures to make your narrative more compatible. There is no point pretending that much of areligious science fiction is incompatible with monotheist, particularly non-henotheistic, religious interpretations as well as the cultural items and rituals derived from those religious interpretations. One can’t take “There is no god, just a lonely alien” and make that compatible with “There is god, and only in this particular circumstance.” Thus:

As stated above by Asmaa and Mimi, there is no escaping the reality the story you propose is offensive to some. Expect their outcry to be directed towards you. Can you tolerate that?

Think about how you would feel if someone made a story where key components of your interpretation of reality are singled out as false. How does this make you feel? Are you comfortable doing that to others?

3. Is Pseudoarchaeology Appropriate Here?: Mimi makes a good point about the racial biases of pseudoarchaeology. Pseudoarchaeology is a particular weakness of Western-centric atheist sci-fi. Your proposed story is the equivalent of a vaguely non-descript Maya/Aztec/Egyptian pyramid or Hindu/ Buddhist-esque statue being the source for a Resident Evil bio weapon/ Predator nest/ Assassin’s Creed Isu relic.

Is this how you wish to draw attention to these cultures you admire? While there is no denying their ubiquity in pop-culture, such plots trivialize broad swathes of non-white history and diminish the accomplishments of associated ethnic groups. The series listed above all lean heavily into these tropes either because the authors couldn’t bother to figure out something more creative or because they are intentionally telling a story the audience isn’t supposed to take seriously.*

More importantly, I detect a lot of sincerity in your ask, so I imagine such trivialization runs counter to your expressed desire to depict Eastern cultures in a positive and accurate manner.

4. Freedom to Write ≠ Freedom from Consequence: Once again, as a reminder, it’s not our job to reassure you as to whether or not what you are proposing is ok. Asmaa and Mimi have put a lot of effort into explaining who you will offend and why.  We are here to provide context, but the person who bears the ultimate responsibility for how you choose to shape this narrative, particularly if you share this story with a wide audience, is you. Speaking as one writer to another, I personally do not have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I think it is important to be face reality head-on.

- Marika.

* This is likely why the AC series always includes that disclaimer stating the games are a product of a multicultural, inter-religious team and why they undermine Western cultures and Western religious interpretations as often (if not moreso) than those for their non-Western counterparts.

Note: Most WWC asks see ~ 5 hours of work from moderators before they go live. Even then, this ask took an unusually long amount of time in terms of research, emotional labor and discussion. If you found this ask (and others) useful, please consider tipping the moderators (link here), Asmaa (coming eventually) and Mimi (here). I also like money - Marika.

[ganymedesclock]

Ooh ooh ooh, how about your version of Sonic for the powers thing?

You see, Sonic is fast, because if he doesn't keep ahead of his problems, he'll have to actually think about them, and then he'll have a crisis.

This is partially a fun opener joke and it's also not. I'll let you decide how much of each it is. In the meantime, I'm going to talk about what my reads of various canons inspire in me, and how that informs Worlds AU, a bit more than talking about Worlds AU itself.

So Sonic in the initial game canon, started out with an extremely simple conceit. You can see this mirrored across all of the non-Amy classic characters: Sonic runs, that's his thing; Tails flies, Knuckles punches, Eggman makes robots and also problems, which sort of condenses into one thing considering the role robots have in the classic games.

(that damn caterkiller has cost me SO many attempts at a chaos emerald...)

This sort of got to be a problem as the games advanced. In particular, the Sonic game I started on was Sonic Adventure 2, which pitted Sonic very prominently off of Shadow. At this point, character concepts are no longer about simple capabilities, and every other member of the cast has grown up. (even Amy... though not too much. sorry Amy). Tails is now building robots to go with how his flight allows him to reach unconventional 'tricky' routes; Knuckles is now more of an adventurer, explorer, and even a mystic given his history and relationship with the emeralds. This earthly pugilist sense grounds him in a more versatile skill-set.

Sonic... basically his gimmick was remaining true to the classic formula- he was still the one going fast, popping those shuttle loops, and tumbling through a chaotic universe. Yes, they absolutely polished this and put flourishes on it- now he's grinding rails and flipping on poles, this sense of street-smart parkour that carries him cheekily through any environment...

But he's played off Shadow, where the thing about Shadow, especially in the first game, is Shadow is a person who suppresses most of his personality for his context. Not in an inorganic or badly written sense, mind- but he outright says to Rouge at one point that it doesn't matter if anything he remembers is fake- in essence, that it's more real than he is, and a dead person's wish is more important than his life.

Shadow is a soldier, is an alien, is a bioweapon, is a teleporter and he shoots lasers. We are beyond the days of simple conceits; if he was conceived in the classic era, he'd have probably been either only a jet-skater or a teleporter, and that one conceit about how he moved through the world would've been through everything.

Sonic picks up the chaos control from Shadow- in direct reaction to Shadow- and this is commented on. In this scene, Sonic not only rejects Shadow's unhealthy obsession with context- that where he came from was everything- but mirrors it with an attitude that, frankly, to me, rings just as unbalanced- Sonic basically denies having a backstory whatsoever.

"What you see is what you get!" he says.

And that flew in the classic era. We didn't really have a consistent or strongly-drawn backstory over why Sonic was fast. Most continuities around that era point it to either an accident or a happenstance synergy with an outside force. But we didn't really need a story over why Tails can fly or why Knuckles had spurs on his fists.

But in the modern era... there's context. Many characters have superpowers. And more and more, there was a sense that those superpowers had context and history, whether the outright spelled, like Shadow (he was engineered to be capable of this; if you look at him, he has most of the abilities you'd expect of a boss fight in Resident Evil, minus the squelchy, infectious sorts and the Black Arms imply he could well have those and just not use them)

...or the simply alluded, such as Blaze's ominous comment that her flames are the reason she was always alone.

Sonic... clearly has powers. He's been reframed to keep up with he setting as it changes. But that exchange between him and Shadow- where Shadow looks at what Sonic is capable of, looks at him, and asks, verbatim, "what are you," and Sonic delivers a non-answer so naked and so certain that there's not really anything to say to that.

To this end, while I think it's highly intuitive that they picked the wind as the motif to spice Sonic up to- with its sense of freedom, and with its association with speed- I think there's also something about air in general that connects to Sonic.

Air is... omnipresent. It has an extremely complex seething system high overhead. Enormous paths and belts and spirals of wind curl over us all the time, pushing clouds the size of entire states around like it's nothing. When you look at the sky, it looks stationary. But wait, squint- it's actually moving. It's actually moving really fast.

One of my absolute favorite characterizing moments of Sonic is in Archie Comics, specifically the post-reboot series. To keep context minimal, Tails confides in Sonic that he's losing his memory of a certain incident that affected both of them, and he's worried; Sonic reassures him, typical hero big brother best friend, and gives him a big hug. The scene is warmly lit.

The very next panel is literally in the shadows, over Tails' shoulder and behind his back. And Sonic's expression is... troubled. Telling. We immediately understand from that alone he just lied, and has no ability to 'just remember for Tails'.

Sonic is not a vacuous person. He's not empty, he's not innocent, and he's certainly not just your same good nostalgic friend who never changed or got complicated so you don't have to reevaluate all of those things- the guy you can always count on, just like the sky is always there- but he sure pretends to be all of those things, and tries to keep the stormy weather as far away from other people as possible.

This is given another heroic-sounding-but-actually-concerning context in Sonic Unleashed, one of several games in which Sonic shows a maybe suspicious but profound aptitude for darkness where he guzzles and serves as a very powerful conduit for the energy of Dark Gaia, who is strongly connoted with rage, despair, denial, and other states considered bad for your health.

Sonic asks Chip- who he's just found out is Dark Gaia's counterpart- if it was his protection that kept him from losing his mind the entire time. Chip denies this, and states instead it's that "you never let the darkness win."

The thing is... anger and sadness are actually pretty important to feel. And it's actually not true that Sonic as a character doesn't feel anger- there's a few rather notable scenes in which he really loses his cool, some of them within Sonic Unleashed itself (he actually scares Eggman at the culmination of the Egg Dragoon fight) and in the game Sonic and the Secret Rings he actually achieves a super form powered by negative emotions- and that game also ends on a surprisingly melancholy note, where Shahra, when leaving Sonic, specifically gives him a bunch of tissues, a nod to how they met, and specifically "So you can cry as much as you need to."

Sonic is a good person. But Sonic is also... kind of a liar. He has this powerful connection to these highly destructive and dangerous entities- Dark Gaia, Chaos- and this is a thing he, pointedly, doesn't wonder about. And it's not arrogance, or an inability to consider the possibilities- in Sonic Colors he is very real with himself that he can't outrun a black hole, but only admits that once Tails is out of earshot on the one safe ride away from it- and while gearing up to try to do so anyway.

Wind is a contradictory thing. In the sky, we consider the possibility of ultimate freedom; flight and wings are often depicted as symbols of enormous power and efficacy because the very notion of being able to go wherever you want to captivates us.

On the other hand, though, a state of freefall is terrifying. In the unparalleled freedom of the sky, absolutely nothing can catch you if you fall.

(you know, except Tails, if you're fighting Eggman in Marble Garden- I'll leave)

We can talk about a bolt from the blue, a sudden storm or a just-as-sudden clear blue sky... the mechanisms of the air around us are often very hard to perceive for their superficial simplicity. And on sunny days when the wind lazes slowly through the leaves, it's hard to think of it as capable of hurricane forces.

I guess the note I want to leave this on is, it's pretty interesting how Sonic genuinely likes running, but he also tends to either outrun or fight anything that stresses him out- and "what he is" and "what he's capable of" is something he really doesn't like talking about even if he's happy to show or compete it.

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 2x8 thoughts

I am so lucky that the creators of Ted Lasso decided to make this entire show specifically for me. #blessed

If last week felt like a bit of breathing room (albeit tense, poignant, character-progressing breathing room) with distinct narrative lines, this week’s episode was a chaotic yet tightly-written swirl of pain and hope and sadness! No neat subject headers for this one, y’all. Just my brain and heart in the inadequate form of a bulleted list. It is the medium available to me at this time.

I am going to remember the moment when Ted calls Sharon and tells her his father killed himself for the rest of my life.

(I could say a bunch of stuff about his face and what he says and how he tries to hide his tears from Beard right after and how insanely much I adore this character and ahhhhhhhh but I’m just going to leave that scene there in our collective memories.)

Jamie. JAMIE. Higgins has given some great advice about love on this show, but his musings about his up-and-down relationship with his own father were not helpful in the context of Jamie’s dad, who is an abusive piece of shit. I really adore that all of the main AFC Richmond staff members are realistically a bit hit-or-miss with their advice and life philosophies (some are mostly miss this season, of course).

And I am completely in awe of the moment when Jamie punches his father. The way he just stands there after Beard kicks his dad out of the locker room. The way you can hear a pin drop. And Roy—Roy who is learning in so many areas of his life about his influence on people, learning that the things he needs aren’t necessarily the same as the things other people need—is the one to cross the room and hug him. Hold him, really, with the tenderness Ted used when he hugged Rebecca outside the gala in 1x4. God.

I’ve thought a lot about how s1 was about giving people a soft place to land. There’s always an angel there when you need one. There’s always an opportunity to be kind. If you look for someone, you find them. If you look for the good in someone, you find the good. And as everyone works through their individual journeys in s2, that can’t always be the case anymore. But there are still so many moments of angels on this show, and it’s not about chance and serendipity and fate [not that it was about that in s1] but about the effort it takes to become someone who can be there for someone else. Or who can be there for yourself. I’m so proud of Jamie for physically fighting back against his father. I’m so proud of Roy for being the one who recognized what Jamie needed.

I have every feeling in the world about how Ted is almost totally frozen both times (s1 and s2) he witnesses Jamie’s father abusing him. In s1, he was still there for Jamie after, and I have every reason to believe he’ll be there for Jamie after this incident as well, but that frozen stance HURTS. He’s in so deep with his pain about his own father that it’s like he physically cannot snap out of it to act in the moment. It seems entirely outside of his control, and it breaks my heart, because Ted wants so badly to be a good father, a good coach, a good friend, a good partner, a good patient. He’s there for people in all kinds of ways, even in his current less-than-capable state. He takes care of Sharon post-concussion and even gets her a new bike! During the disastrous match at Wembley his coaching is ineffectual and everything is chaos but he’s the last one standing on the pitch! But this really awful thing keeps happening to Jamie and Ted is just…frozen in the face of it. Like one of those nightmares where you’re running in place.

The frozen-in-place nightmare also kind of applies to the way the total separation between Ted and Rebecca feels, too. I have never for a moment doubted the writers’ intentions in setting these characters up as soulmates on parallel journeys, and I’m actually really digging (on a story level) how disconnected they are right now. It is IMPRESSIVE that their absence in each other’s lives feels like such a glaring loss, one we cannot forget even as there are so many other things happening onscreen. It is 100% not just shipper goggles making me process information about Ted while thinking about Rebecca and information about Rebecca while thinking about Ted. I know there are a lot of really angry and frustrated people in the fandom right now (both T/R shippers and T/R antis and non-shipping fans who don’t get why s2 is different from s1) and while I understand being frustrated by choices characters make, and frustrated by the feelings the show makes us feel that we just want to feel more of or less of, I continue to agree with pretty much every narrative choice happening right now.

Agreeing with the narrative like this?! This is such a unique experience for me as a viewer—to feel like I’m on a ride that is at once absolutely wild and incredibly sensible and well-crafted, and to feel simultaneously completely invested and anticipatory and speculative but also totally willing to trust where it goes. I long for Ted and Beard to really talk. I long for Ted and Rebecca to stop missing each other. I long for Roy to have a serious conversation with Ted about what’s happening with him. I long for Keeley to find a vocation, something that drives her beyond her projects. I long for so many things! But I wouldn’t long for them if this show was less good. If the show was less good, I wouldn’t have a wish list a mile long because I wouldn’t be so attuned to the details and potential lurking in every scene. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SHOW, I CANNOT HANDLE IT, I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

(To that end, a great deal of the Ted Lasso tag and so many Twitter reactions reactions to the show feel super stressful right now and I am kind of just trying not to look?! I love this fandom so much because of the amazing conversations that happen and because of brilliant fic and because there are some awesome people I never would have encountered were it not for this show. That little bubble is wonderful and I’d stay in this fandom no matter what in order to keep experiencing those things. But fans’ catastrophic reactions to every little thing that happens, every little choice a character makes that isn’t the “perfect” choice? The takeaway that the writers—on this show of all shows—wake up in the morning ready for another day of torturing shippers rather than another day of writing a beautiful story they genuinely want to write? I do not enjoy those parts at all. I would like to opt out of those parts. I’m having such a magical experience watching this show and talking about this show and listening about this show and writing about this show with a variety of people who feel all kinds of ways. I truly wish I could somehow transfer the energy of this experience onto all the people who are hating it right now. I don’t mind at all that people are having vastly different reactions to this show and are sharing their honest feelings, including the really angry ones (I can appreciate something and disagree with it!), and I get that sometimes the language of fannish reactions is intentionally, ironically hyperbolic. But there feels like this very serious trend of people legitimately thinking writers on this show are targeting shippers and have lost respect for their characters, and I just feel like an alien from another planet when I see that stuff. I guess I just feel like people make art because they want their art to be visible to other people and to themselves, but that doesn’t typically involve specifically catering to or torturing a subset of that audience?)

I am more fascinated by Sharon Fieldstone than ever before. I have been running through every single action with her and Ted so many times. The confirmation that she’s living in club-provided housing (that could not look more different from Ted’s club-provided flat). Ted clearly noticing the many bottles. Sharon’s face while she tries to casually recycle them. (Sharon could legitimately have a more problematic relationship with alcohol than Ted does, and I find that extremely interesting and am very curious to find out what happens there.) Sharon leaving him voice notes while she’s concussed, probably because she’d been thinking about him shortly before the accident. The way Ted calls her and does all the funny voices and it’s not frustrating like all the times he uses his silliness and allusions to deflect during their prior conversations because this time, those behaviors are just a part of him showing care for another person. The way they stretch each other, and Ted is still wrong about the things he’s been wrong about, but they both grow all the same.

While it is pretty much impossible for me to imagine that this show would include an actual romantic relationship between Ted and Sharon (it would be beyond unethical even if they could write it well, and Sharon in particular is so professional and committed to her work, and it would erase so much of the powerful message about the importance of seeking therapy from a professional who is not your friend or partner, and I would totally hate it), watching this episode was the first moment I had this queasy little feeling that it’s possible that Ted could end up developing really complicated feelings about Sharon since, at this point, he’s been honest with her about things he’s hardly spoken about before and you can really form an attachment to people you feel safe with in a new way. (I mean, I’m sure Michelle knows what happened with Ted’s father, but I’m not even certain if Beard does.) He’s so broken right now, and Sharon is such a great person and so different from anyone else in his life (even though Rebecca is also different, and Beard is also different, and Roy is also different, and so on), that I could see things getting really fuzzy for him. I continue to have faith in the way the storylines on this show are handled. I’m just. Putting this here.

(In saying that, though, I also wanna make it really clear that I don’t just automatically assume anytime a new female character is introduced that they’re going to end up becoming a romantic complication. Like, Phoebe is allowed to have a teacher who is an attractive woman and AFC Richmond is allowed to have a sports psychologist who is an attractive woman and Keeley is allowed to talk to Jamie Tartt without it threatening what she has with Roy and all these people can exist as human beings without the introduction of romantic drama.)

Isaac gives every player one haircut per season, OH MY GOD. The JOY during the haircut scene. YES.

KEELEY AND REBECCA. Their text thread. The affirming video call right before Rebecca goes into the restaurant. The way Keeley sits all snuggled up against Rebecca in her office.

I was pretty thoroughly spoiled for the Sam and Rebecca plot through 2x8, and I was bracing for something far more problematic and tortured than what happens in this episode. The words I would use to describe their scenes: awkward, cute, cringy, and understandable. There are a million reasons why this relationship isn’t sustainable, but I felt completely understanding of both their choices here. This show has a lot of thesis statements, but I keep going back to the idea from 2x1 that there are people who enter your life to help you get to the next point, and I think it’s entirely possible that Sam and Rebecca will mutually be that for each other.

I find comparisons between Rupert and Rebecca super upsetting. There are absolutely meaningful things to say about the irony of ending up in a situation with an uncomfortable resemblance to certain taboo elements of an ex’s situation. But that ex is abusive and manipulative and cruel and Rebecca has exhibited NONE of those behaviors, and it makes me really sad to think that people feel that the writers on this show have betrayed Rebecca in giving her this storyline.

As always, I reserve the right to keep blathering about this show. I’ve had a headache for a couple of days, but my head is also so full of 2x8 thoughts that I couldn’t keep them in even if the circumstances for writing this were not ideal. I kind of hate that I’ve included frustrated fandom thoughts within the analysis of what I felt was an absolutely gorgeous, complicated, heartbreaking, near-perfect episode of television, but if ya can’t be a little dramatic on your own tumblr while you’re feeling raw and under the weather, where can ya?