#roughly placed somewhere in season 2

[terresdebrume]

I think I want to point at the elephant in the room today

The problem when we have the ever more frequent conversation of how to keep a fandom alive after the show it's based on stops airing is that we tend talk about it in a way that ignores the very real differences between the juggernauts of old fandoms like Star Trek and newer shows like Dead Boy Detectives, namely:

1. The difference in amount of material

2. The accessibility of said material

Part of the reason why Star Trek or The X-Files still have active fans so long after they aired is because those shows had multiple seasons with an average of 20 episodes each. For the X-Files' 11 seasons that's about 200 episodes each with their own storylines, themes, interesting ideas and frustrating mistakes right there to inspire Fanart, fic, meta, and any number of fanwork. I'm not even going to do the math on Star Trek: this show got about a bazillion shows

Dead Boy Detectives, and a lot of genre shows nowadays have like... Eight episodes. Ten, if we're lucky. Fandoms for procedurals or more broadly appealing shows fare better (Lone Star comes to mind, or sitcoms for example) because networks tend to keep them online longer, but genre series get ever shorter with ever fewer opportunities to really grow an audience... Think of all the shows that got popular on Tumblr in the past few years and tell me how many got a proper season? Shadow and Bones was cancelled. My Lady Jane: one season. Gentleman Jack, two (three?). Good Omens: maybe 3, depending on how the network handle the Gaiman situation. The Umbrella Academy got four seasons. Stranger Things, with 5 seasons and 42 episodes managed to equate roughly 2 seasons of the X-Files (probably not even that if you account for episode length). The Witcher currently has 3 seasons for 24 episodes.

Contrast this to shows like Dead Boy Detectives with, again, eight episodes. Maybe 16 if we get really lucky, but I'm not holding my breath. This is just materially WAY LESS soil for a fandom to grow in. It's not that people aren't motivated, it's that as much as you want to keep it going, there's only so much to say about 8 episodes! George Rexstrew, who plays one of the leads, even recently admitted that he's running out of things to say about his performance, and who can blame him? So after a while, you gotta turn to AU which by definition are always going to be potential hits and misses, since they diverge from what brought people to the show in the first place.

I know we're all real good at spinning yarn but sometimes it gets really hard not to run out of fiber.

As for accessibility: the Big Olds benefitted from two things. One, they were broadcast on much wider-reaching channels, if not from the start, then when they eventually made it on public networks. They had a regular play time, and you could stumble onto them by accident, this getting interested and picking it up. And two: the popular shows had a decent chance of getting tape or DVD sets, which made them easier to own and show to your friends so they could binge the story and join you in the fandom

By comparison, look at the barrier of access for Dead Boy Detectives:

Need to have a Netflix account

Need to see it somewhere in your recommendation (good luck if you come in more than a month after it released)

Need to see people talk about it as they binge (need to be in the right place at the right time, and by that I mean where fandom happens since Netflix has a habit of doing zero advertising for new shows)

Need to keep paying for a Netflix account if you wanna rewatch, or figure out how to do a piracy, which is getting more difficult and riskier every year

Need to be willing to get invested in a forever unfinished story

And when on top of that the writing in the first episode is, let's say it frankly, far from the best, that is a LOT of obstacle to overcome for a pretty small sandbox

So like, yeah, sure, we should be willing to keep making a fandom happen after a show ends, but at some point we can't ignore that the effort it takes to keep fandoms alive is getting way more intense than it used to be

[jaemified]

last christmas | part 2

“this year, to save me from tears ; ill give it to someone special.”

❆ pairing ; strangers to ?? park gunwook x fem reader

❆ genre ; fluff, slight drama +(ft taesan/jaehyun of bnd and yunjin of lsrfm ^^)

❆ warnings ; swearing, and kinda toxic relationships

❆ wordcount ; 2.4k

❆ synopsis ; beginning your second year of college and you feel youve hit rock bottom. on your own after your ex kicked you out, and taking on a seasonal job at a christmas shop to pay off student loans? everythings gone to shit. but then, you see him for the first time. and you realize there really was a little light in the darkness — your someone special.

♡ kona speaks ! - vaguely follows the plot of the film last christmas (2 part story)

read below the cut !

you cant say you were all to proud of yourself now.

sure, you were a pretty incredible student by high school graduation, with a 3.9 gpa and all (not to mention making it to seoul national university with your beloved boyfriend).

but, that was a year ago.

who wouldve thought it was possible for your life to go so far downhill, in just a span of roughly over 12 months?

your parents had found a better job opportunity in london, but your mom wanted you and your brother to be nearby.

meaning doing so without running it by you of course, which led to her enrolling you into imperial college as a foreign transfer student.

your boyfriend was pretty upset, but nevertheless, followed you despite your best efforts telling him not to (which meant him forfeiting his scholarship at snu).

once your family first heard he would follow suit to london, they gave you an ultimatum. and stupidly, you chose love over family.

they never approved of him anyway.

it was fine for the meanwhile.

at least until you broke up, and he decided to place the blame on you.

it was your flat you bought with your own money anyway. what did he ever do for you? how dare he kick you out of your own home!

-

you watched while gyuvin pulled your luggage out the closet, pushing it towards you.

“what the hell are you doing!” you exclaimed as he began to pull your clothes off hangers and throw them towards your direction.

“helping you leave.” he muttered.

“what did i even do? you just wake up one day and decide its my fault you followed me to another continent despite me saying you shouldnt? i told you not to leave your dreams behind, and you chose to ignore me!”

“well maybe you didnt try hard enough! i just know that i dont feel the same about you now as i did then.”

“so thats it?” you scoffed. “you realize this is my apartment? i pay the rent. you just practically live here for free. you cant just kick me out of my own home!”

he only ignored you and shoved piles upon piles of clothing into 2 separate suitcases, before gently escorting you to the door.

“gyuvin. gyuv! kim gyuvin! you cant just leave me here!” you begged.

“im sorry y/n. but its over. maybe if you hadnt taken all that mattered to me we couldve worked out.” gyuvin spoke before slowly closing the door, leaving you out in the cold wearing only pajamas.

“what the fuck am i supposed to do now..” you whispered to yourself, thinking of the only possible places to go.

sure your number of options was minimal, but you began with the only person you thought you could count on anyway.

“what the hell are you doing here?” taesan expressed in shock while he stared at you standing at his front door.

“need somewhere to crash.. surprise?” you shrugged jokingly, trying to lighten the mood as you and your brother werent on the brightest terms.

“goodbye y/n.” he sighed as he turned to lock you out.

“han taesan you let me in this instant! you cant just leave me to die in the middle winter!” you exclaimed, stepping through the door frame so it couldnt close.

“wheres gyuvin?” he scoffed. “i mean, youre the one who left me with mom and dad to buy a house for him anyway.”

“we broke up. blamed me and said i was the reason he lost everything in seoul or whatever. and he still kicked me out of MY home.”

taesan let out a heavy breath, looking around before pushing the door out more for you to walk through.

“..you mean it?” you pondered hesitantly.

“i suppose. i know we warned you about him and all, but youre still my baby sister.” he half heartedly grinned, pointing his head in the direction of his hallway as a gesture for you to come in.

you knew he was still mad at you despite not showing it, but knowing your brother, hes still someone who you could rely on in any situation.

“yeah. and uh- just a heads up, i still live with jaehyun and leehan, plus we dont have an extra room so.. we’ll just figure it out later.”

“thank you.”

-

a week later and you were doing better than before. though it wasnt easy to forget the incident, you still managed with the new living situation and all.

you woke up bright and early the following morning for work, ready to sell christmas ornaments for the rest of your life under your boss, huh yunjin, as you were now on break from school.

considering jaehyuns bed wasnt all too comfortable, you still slept pretty well. youre grateful he took the couch for you during that first week. ‘maybe ill get him something as a thank you.’

“what are you doing up so early?” taesan asked, holding off on the toast he was about to eat as he watched you rush downstairs.

“got work. not like dads willing to pay student loans anymore right?”

“the christmas shop, still?” jaehyun asked from his seat on the couch.”

“cant have a full time job as a full time student. it just worked out while im on christmas break.”

your brother nudged you in your stomach, motioning for you to thank his friend for his deed.

“-oh and thanks for taking the couch. i owe you. if you want food or anything ill cover the cost and pick it up in return.” you continued.

“its fine. i get it, the last few days were rough. dont worry about it.” he smiled.

-

after a quick 10ish (or so) minute walk to the street side store you worked at, you realized you were about 5 minutes past the time you were meant to clock in for your shift.

walking into the store, it was no surprise it was already crowded by 8:36am seeing as christmas was 2 weeks away now.

“y/n! y/n get over here! where is your uniform?” yunjin questioned as more of a whisper yell.

before you got the chance to reply, she quickly cut you off and said, “nevermind that. just please hurry to change and come help me with all these people!”

you wave off her dismissive behavior, and speed walk to the bathroom, making sure to pass the lockers to grab your uniform on the way.

“i forgot how itchy this was..” you grumble as you slip on the ugly elf costume yet again before leaving to the front desk.

“welcome in! please let us know if theres anything you need help with!” yunjin smiled as another person walks through the door, putting on her customer service voice.

“guess you dont need me anymore?” you asked jokingly, noticing there was no one within a 10 foot distance of the check out line.

“why must you take so long to change? i only had enough time to help half those people. the other half left after mr smith came in to return all the ornaments he broke again. he really knows how to hold up a line.” she sighed, moving in the direction of a huge box of broken material.

“you cant keep letting them return damaged product. we are losing enough money as is, santa.” you gestured to her new character change yet again as you realize where a good chunk of the budget went. “what was wrong with the reindeer costume?”

“it didnt make it clear that im the owner. the shop is called santas workshop dont you know? cant call it santas workshop if theres no santa.”

you laughed brightly at yunjin while she picked up the box to bring it to the back, just as another person walked in.

“welcome in!-” you call out, before cutting yourself off as you caught a glimpse of his face.

he was pretty gorgeous, you couldnt lie. from what you noticed, he had shortish black hair and big eyes to compliment his soft lips (not to mention his build was pretty insane too. he definitely works out).

the very same guy who caught your attention came to you shortly after, seeking some assistance on picking a gift, so you were happy to comply.

“im not sure what she’d like. its hard shopping for a 14 year old.” he said.

“what’s your relation to her? just like so i know how close you are so its easier to help.”

“my younger cousin. we arent that close, but its our first family gathering in a while and my mom wants me to get something for everyone. but shes always been.. far from an open book. so im lost”

you thought long and hard about what your cousins around that age like, before coming to a final decision.

you attempt to reach for the legos, but you almost fall over as it was just barely out of reach, sitting on one of the higher shelves.

carefully, he steadies you by holding your arm and reaches to grab the item you were aiming at.

“this?” the guy questions as he hands you the orchid lego set.

“yeah! im not sure if it suites her or anything but you cant go wrong with legos. the price isnt too bad and its suitable for anyone at any age for the most part.” you shrugged.

“that actually.. makes perfect sense. youre really good at your job, no? thank you.”

“no worries. if theres anything else i could help you with, weve got a new selection of stuffed animals your girlfriend might like.” you spoke like it was nothing, acting as if you werent just trying to get information.

“i actually.. dont..i don’t have a girlfriend.” he chuckled awkwardly as he brought up a hand to rub the back of his neck.

“oh really? im surprised someone like you doesnt have a pretty girl on your arm.” you said nonchalantly while you attempted to hide your smile (as if you were going to make a move).

“oh stop!” he waved off when you pointed out how red his ears were getting, assuming you only were trying to boast his ego (hes so unaware)((please get the hint)).

you walk back with him to the register so he could pay after realizing there wasnt much more he needed. “that’ll be 45 charged to your card.” you smiled.

“thank you, ms..?” trailing off as he notices he never actually got your name.

“han. y/n han. glad to be of assistance.”

“oh and- one more thing?”

“sure, what else?”

“what time does the store close?”

“10 at night. extended business hours every saturday.”

“surely youre joking? theres no one else here but you and the owner! thats in like 13 hours. youre working a 14 hour shift?”

“yeah but i get paid way extra so its fine, i really do need it. and yeah we are beyond understaffed but its alright.” you laugh, masking your exhaustion and dread with a bit of your lighthearted energy.

“really? i could never, must be so tiring.”

“it is, beyond imagination. but we do what we can.”

“get home safely then alright? its scary leaving that late especially considering the predators go after pretty ladies.”

“youre a tricky one arent you! how dare you mask that as an attempt to flirt.” you gasp playfully, “ill be fine, its not that far of a walk.”

“walk? youre not really walking home are you?” “well yeah, its not like i can drive when i dont have a car myself.”

“by any chance, might you need-”

“y/n! leave the poor man alone! i need you to stock the shelves in the ornaments section!” yunjin calls out from the storage room and interrupting the conversation.

“ill get to it.” you call back.

“well, i should get going then. it really was lovely meeting you.” he smiles.

“thank you, take care!” you reply, waving as he leaves.

it only hit you many hours later (quite literally an hour before you clock out) that you never got his name, and you regret it oh so much!

even yunjin felt pity for you, multitasking and listening to you ramble about the mysterious man despite all the work she had going on whilst you both sat in her office seeing as there were no customers beyond 9:30pm.

“why cant we close early if theres no one coming past a certain time? its not like anyone needs to be christmas shopping at.. 9:49 at night.”

“its just in case theres anyone who needs something, we cant miss a chance to make more money when we’re low on rent money.” she reminded.

“its only 11 minutes though.”

“and where do you have to be in 11 minutes? you live with your brother and his two roommates with no boyfriend and instead worry about a man you just met.”

“ouch, you need to go out more.”

“y/n you know i love you but i have no time for that nonsense. i need to have fun, yes, but money is essential. clubbing and drinking does not get you there, we both know that.”

-

finally, the dreaded 11 minutes were up and it was time to lock up after a crazy long shift. though, you cant say you were looking forward to walking home after standing in heels all day.

it was all most as if your prayers were answered (or just by a really strange coincidence(?)) that someone on a motorcycle stopped in front of you as you crossing the street.

“heard you needed a ride?” the guy from earlier said as he took off his helmet.

“what are you doing here? its late out.” you replied, acting calm as if your heart wasn’t beating out of your chest.

“cant leave you to walk alone in the dark, can i, pretty lady?”

“youre smart, ill give you that.” you smile when you feel your cheeks go hot.

“ill take you home. come on.”

-

maybe it wasnt the best idea to give a stranger your address, but he seemed nice enough, and pretty trustworthy to say the least.

you sat behind him as he drove through the streets, with your arms wrapped around his waist, your chest flush against his back as you wore the helmet he let you borrow.

he was so naturally warm you felt his body heat through the sweater he wore, thankfully keeping you from being to cold.

soon enough you were home, and he was walking you up to the front door.

“thank you for today even if it wasnt all that much, i had a lot of fun. you made my work day more.. bearable.” you smiled.

“of course, you can always call if you need a ride or anything. dont want you getting sick when its storm season.” he reminded before slipping you a postcard with his number on it.

“id love to get to know you more, but i just broke up with my boyfriend last week.. give me some time?”

sure you technically were the one who found him attractive first but, you never actually thought about initiating something more.

he smiled without a second thought, nodding his head slightly. “of course, i understand. just know ill be here, waiting.”

“wait! i never got your name?”

“ill see you later y/n!” he called out as he left, driving off in the opposite direction.

you sighed and unlocked the door with the spare key leehan gave you, and notice him sitting next to jaehyun when you walked in.

“you have a boyfriend and you didnt tell me? how could you! i thought we were friends.” leehan expressed dramatically from the couch as you took off your shoes at the door.

“not a boyfriend, just a friend. why were you even- whatever. wheres taesan?”

“in the bathroom.”

“thanks. uh- jaehyun is it okay if i change in your room since i left my clothes there?”

“go ahead.” he reassured. “oh! also, by the time you come back the pizza we ordered should be here too.”

you close the door behind you and pull out the index card from earlier to save the number as a contact. however, you couldnt help but smile as you read what it said below.

“your personal uber when you need it! +44 28xxx0xx29 -xoxo gunwook park :)”

[getvalentined]

Hold my hand, friends, and experience the joy that has been my day. And by joy I mean the opposite of that. Warning for long stories, trypophobia, and wasps.

I discovered that, for some reason, I have no hot water. This is bad enough, but at least it's summer so the cold tap is warm enough to shower. The water heater is housed in a little sort of outdoor closet off the back of the house. I can't fix it, but I can at least see if there's anything visibly wrong, like a leak or a bad connection. So, for the first time this year, the closet gets opened.

And it's full of wasps.

Not packed full of wasps, mind you, but they are crawling all around the place. There is no surface that does not have multiple wasps on it. I can't see a nest, but there must be one somewhere.

The water heater is seemingly intact, albeit covered in danger ladies, so the closet gets sealed back up for the time being while a course of action is planned.

...I wonder, fleetingly, if the danger ladies are somehow responsible for this. This is incredibly stupid, as these are little paper wasps (specifically Polistes arizonensis) and there is literally nothing they could have done to damage a metal 30 gallon water heater. But I wonder nonetheless.

My parents own the house I live in, so the eventual decision is to reluctantly call my mom. (I will explain the reluctance in a minute.)

I tell her that the hot water is out ("Oh no!") and that I went to check the water heater ("All right...") and that the closet is full of wasps ("WHAT?") so I couldn't get a good look ("Let me put you on speaker so Dad can hear this.") but it seems to be intact.

My mom has a prior engagement at 1:30 that will take roughly an hour, after which my dad can come check it out. I should expect him in the 2:30-3:00PM range. It's about 11:30AM, but I'm not dying without hot water so it's fine.

Also, to explain that reluctance mentioned earlier, I haven't cleaned my house in a month.

For the unfamiliar, I'm chronically ill and disabled, so stretches of low physical function and action are normal; I'm just pulling up out of one recently, and fell back down into it hard a couple days ago. I have been chipping away at chores this week, but not nearly enough for my living conditions to be parent-approved.

I have three hours.

I spend those three hours cleaning as much as I can as well as I can without hot water, breaking down empty boxes, throwing away wrappers, taking out trash, putting things away. I focus on the living room and the kitchen—the front of the house, which is all my dad should see.

An important point to make here is that I spend a lot of this time out on the front patio shaking out rugs and breaking down boxes to put out for recycling collection; it's fairly humid and extremely hot, over 100F. It's partly cloudy, but not enough to help.

I clean until my right leg stops taking weight without severe—but not extreme—pain. I could probably keep going, but it's almost 3:00PM, and I don't want to be caught in the middle of something when my dad shows up. The living room and kitchen look messy, but passable. It'll do.

Around 3:15PM, that handful of clouds overhead drops a little bit of rain, really just a sprinkling, which is a surprise. The neighborhood experiences a brownout, which is more of a surprise.

At 3:25PM, I get a text from my mother letting me know they're finished with their prior engagement, which I assume means Dad will be here within a half hour. It's 10 minutes back to their place from where they were, and then a little under 15 minutes to my place from theirs.

My dad arrives three minutes later, because my mom texted me only after she'd gotten home and settled and he'd already left. She did not tell me he'd already left, but that's fine. He's here, it's fine. On the front patio, he asks me for my wasp spray, and I go to grab it—it's in the bedroom at the back of the house, because we found a danger lady in there a couple weeks ago. (It's wasp season, if you couldn't tell.)

When I come back out, my dad is standing at my bedroom door, and says he needs to pass through there to get out into the back yard. He does not, as there are three additional access points to the back yard, one on either side of the house and one from the side of my siblings' house next door. I tell him the room is a mess and I don't want him to judge me for it. He says it doesn't matter, he's passing straight through. I say it's bad. He says he needs to pass through.

So I worked myself to the physical injury for literally nothing. Illusion shattered. Judgment and disappointment and disgust incoming, no matter what I do. I don't know why I bothered.

He passes through. It's bad.

(He does not pass through again for the rest of the time he's here, by the way, opting to use those other access points I mentioned earlier in spite of that adamant refusal on arrival. So that feels great.)

In the back yard, he opens up the little closet to look at the water heater—and wow, it really is full of wasps. I tell him there's a nest in there somewhere but I didn't see it. He sticks his head in and looks around until he finds it, takes a step back to make sure he can keep it in his sights, and then hits it with the wasp spray.

A cloud of danger ladies rolls out of the little closet. We both move back, he swings at a couple (why?), and we remove ourselves from the area by a wider margin. I start counting as we watch the wasps vacate the premises from a couple yards away rather than a couple feet.

That sprinkling of rain starts up again. I lose count of the number of wasps fleeing the little closet in the high thirties.

As we wait, the sprinkling turns into a proper rain. I ask my dad if he wants an umbrella, he says it's fine. Eventually, he heads around the house back to the front to retrieve a poncho from the truck; I get an umbrella from inside, although it's a little late at this point.

Upon his return, deciding it's safe enough, we move back in to check out the water heater. There are still wasps. We both accept this. Dad kneels to try to check the pilot light, and has to flick a wasp out of the way.

It starts to rain harder.

Dad, clearly getting aggravated, pulls on the work gloves he brought with him as he stands back up, reaches into the little closet over the heater and above his head; I can't see what is going on, but he has apparently grabbed the nest with his hand, because he pulls it free from the interior of the closet and I get to see it for the first time. It's a wide disc of paper cells, several capped off to contain brood, with a large gold wasp still clinging to it. It's too big for him to fit his hands around, almost too big to get the tips of his fingers around the circumference of its longest side.

The rain starts to pour.

Dad throws the wasp nest across the back yard.

"Mom wants one of those," I say as it sails past me, because I know she does. I don't remember why. It bounces twice before stopping with a splash, seemingly intact, five or six yards away.

Dad makes an incredulous noise and returns to the water heater. I stare at the nest for several seconds before letting him know I'm going to go take a photo of the nest to show everyone. He makes another noise, and I take the can with me to set it in-frame for scale.

I do not achieve the sense of scale I was hoping for, but I share the photo in the family chat nonetheless.

Me: There were wasps in there. Mom: Holy cow! I need that! Wow! Me: It's in my back yard. I'll set it aside for you. Mom: Thank you!

I go inside to get a gallon freezer bag, because it won't fit in anything smaller. I return to the nest and discover that it has two levels, which I've never seen before in a wasp nest. Despite those two levels being connected by only a couple cells in the middle and the entire structure having bounced twice on concrete and then sat in the rain for several minutes while I shared the photo and chatted and got supplies to store it, the nest is fully intact. Terrifying.

I pick it up with my bare hands and put it in the bag. It's very wet, like everything in the back yard, because it's pouring. I'm soaked through in spite of the umbrella.

Returning to the water heater, I find my dad kneeling down again trying to figure out what's wrong. It seems to be the pilot light, so asks if I have a longneck lighter; I do, so I hand him my umbrella and go inside to retrieve it. It takes me a few minutes to find, but I eventually return.

Everything is going great.

I give him the lighter and he gives me back my umbrella before getting down on all fours to access the pilot. He switches the heater's front switch to "pilot," tests the lighter, then sticks it into the lower panel and clicks the lighter several times. It doesn't light.

Not the pilot. The lighter.

He pulls it back out, clicks it several times, and eventually gets a flame. He repeats the previous process. The lighter doesn't light. Again, he withdraws the lighter and clicks it to test, and this time it won't light at all. He holds it up to his ear and shakes it, and his face flattens.

"Out of fuel," he says. He passes it to me. "Do you have another one?"

"I might, let me check." I give him my umbrella again and go inside. I find a miniature blowtorch and a pocket version of the lighter that is now useless; I bring the pocket lighter out with me, although the stem on it is only about the length of my middle finger.

Dad regards it with uncertainty. "Well. We'll try it." He takes it and gets back down. Click. Click click. Click.

He sighs and stands up. "Would've been nice if this happened earlier."

"Earlier in the day?"

He pauses. "I guess you called earlier. We were busy."

"Yeah."

He looks at the water heater like it's even more of a disappointment than I am, then shakes his head and hands me back the lighter.

"Too short?"

"Too short. I gotta go get a new one. This heater's twelve or fifteen years old, so it might not even be that, but the pilot's definitely out so we gotta try it first." I understand this and nod, he claps me on the shoulder and goes around the house to get back to his truck, again, and head out to buy a lighter so we can see if he needs to buy a water heater.

It is now just shy of 4:00PM.

As I'm standing there, soaking wet with an umbrella and a lighter, a wasp flies past me and lands on the outer wall of the little closet. I watch her climb up and down for a little bit, then fly away. I feel bad for ruining her house.

I go back inside and sit on the coffee table in the living room (so as not to get the couch or any chairs wet) while I wait for Dad to get back. I update everyone in the family chat; about 15 minutes later, my brother pipes up in the family chat to ask if Dad needs a longneck lighter. He is slightly late, but I appreciate the offer. Dad isn't back yet, so it doesn't matter either way. Mom replies that Dad bought a new one. I wonder how she knows that.

It's still pouring outside. I watch Seem, the youngest of the cats, entertain herself with raindrops on the window.

I notice that the rubber lining on one window has, at some point between me washing the windows earlier and this moment, fallen off. I do not fix it.

Dad gets back just before 4:30PM and, with me holding my umbrella over him as he gets down on the ground like a large, determined lizard, he succeeds at last in lighting the pilot under the water heater. It makes a noise I can only describe as FWOOMPH and then starts making that very low sort of womwomwom sound you hear when you first turn on an electric kettle. That seems like a good sign, so he closes the little closet back up.

As he does so, he notes that the door is slightly bowed, probably from exposure to the elements. He posits that a gust of wind blew through yesterday, got in through the bowing of the door, and put the pilot light out, which is entirely possible with our recent weather.

I posit that it was the wasps, and he pauses for a moment before saying, "Actually, we'll go with that."

He moves some unused paving stones up against the base of the door to straighten it out, hoping that the bow will ease slightly as the wood dries back out.

"Y'know, your mom said she remembers this happening a couple times while we were living here, before you moved back."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, when it gets gusty. That's why we've got the rocks by the closet, if I'm remembering right."

I nod, understanding his logic perfectly. "I'll update you in about a half hour to see if it's heating right."

He nods back. "You saw how I lit the pilot?" He walks me through the process, removing the safety plate, checking for a flame, resetting the dial and using the primer switch with the lighter. I commit it to memory to the best of my ability. "So it's pretty easy," he finishes, "but I don't want you girls doing that so lemme know if it happens again."

I will allow the information to leave my memory. "Right."

He hands me the lighter. "You need this more than I do," he says seriously. Then he adds, "You just hold the switch down and it goes. The flame starts off blue, 'til it starts burning oxygen and it turns orange. It's really cool."

I try it. It is really cool.

I hand him a freezer bag with a two-level wasp nest in it. "Mom wants this." He takes it and looks at it with a mix of bewilderment and acceptance. "Make sure not to accidentally leave it in the truck when you get home—it's really wet and it'll rot if it's left in the heat in a sealed container like that, and then she can't use it."

He nods. He tilts the bag to one side and lets a bit of the water drain, then looks at it again, contemplative. "Did she say what she wants it for?"

"I dunno, but she asked me for the one we knocked out of the laundry shed a couple months back and I forgot. It's gone now, but this one's way bigger anyway."

He nods again. "I'll get it to her."

I thank him, we hug, he goes around the side of the house to the truck, I lock that gate behind him.

I discover that I've somehow locked myself out from the back, so I have to unlock the gate and go around the side of the house to get in through the front with my keys. On the patio, I shake out my umbrella and hang it off one of the eaves to dry.

Dad waves at me from the driveway and heads out in his truck.

The sound of rain on the tin roof overhead stops all at once.

I'm pretty sure it was the wasps.

[earlgreyandanime]

Bridgerton/Queen Charlotte Timeline and Daphne's Pregnancy

I've seen several people say that it's impossible for Daphne to have had a second child given that the present-day timeline of Queen Charlotte takes place during Kate and Anthony's honeymoon and I do agree it is unlikely but I've also thought of a way it could make sense.

Violet tells Lady Danbury that Anthony is on his honeymoon, and during the epilogue scene in season 2, we find out that their honeymoon was 6 months long. Violet never specifies how long Kate and Anthony have been gone though, but considering that the season 2 pall mall epilogue scene seems to take place in summer, and it's just getting to be spring in Queen Charlotte, we can assume they've been away for awhile and will most likely be returning soon. So, that puts us roughly around the 4-6 month mark, and Daphne could very well have been several months pregnant in season 2, and we just weren't told about it. That would give her a chance to give birth at full term or a month or so off from full term somewhere during Queen Charlotte.

Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I'm making it make sense in my head.

[tsuneomccormick69]

So these 5 girls as a team or group. Some details I share.

-Sasha is the leader of this group.

-Sasha is based off her Season 1-2 version, so she's manipulative & arrogant.

-Star and Marcy are on the low autism spectrum.

-Star is into kidcore.

-Ryuko is Cuban.

-Tomoko is way more unhinged than her canon counterparts.

-Tomoko got disowned by her family.

-Beginning of my fic takes places around 2-5 years after the Amphibia series finale, the pilot episode of Star vs when Star moves to earth, either somewhere in the middle or series finale of KLK, & roughly after where the Watamote anime left off.

[rachel-zx]

Some Yunshi Work – Analysis and Little Study of Die Society

(Originally written in Chinese and roughly translated. There could be some translation differences regarding the quoted source such as the Holy Bible, or some tense errors.)

First of all, this article started on Sunday, 28 July, 2024, and ended on Monday, 16 September, 2024, and there was a month in between when I didn't touch it at all for personal reasons, so for something I don't remember much about the details I wanted to write. Secondly, the title of this combination(Yunshi is a person’s other name who wrote a sequel for the unfinished A Dream of Red Mansions) expresses the purpose of my writing this thing: DS, Die Society, since you can see this article, probably have seen DS? I guess? However, I would like to briefly mention to those who have not seen this series: DS is a self-made drama series that I have been watching, the producer is called Jim, and the protagonist is audience "played" (so the gender is uncertain, because I am a straight female, so the following default protagonist is a straight female), and the theme has strong religious and cult elements. The first season has ended, and the second season is in a hiatus. The story is outlined below.

The total time extend of the DS update has been nearly four years, and it has been a year since the last update, and there is still no news of the next episode. In the meantime, he's been updating other videos, and I almost think he's given up on the series. So, really impatient, I decided to do my own large-scale combing and analysis, to do a little of the work, that is, "Yunshi Work" - although the original author is still alive and well (A Dream of Red Mansions is unfinished because the author was dead.), and I have always wished him to live to the age of 140.

One. Season 1 story summary, clue collection and brief analysis

(The following "we" is the protagonist)

1. SIE1 - Ricardo's spin class

Synopsis:

The story takes place in California, and we come to a gym for a spin class with a trainer named Ricardo. He stopps us after class and tells us that the place is owned by Hugo Hoffman, a wealthy man whose house often hosts parties. Ricardo is going to hire a part-time job for the boss Hugo, the salary is very good, if we are interested, we should go to a Valencia woman for makeup, and then go to Ricardo's girlfriend Erisa to take a photo to Hugo for his approvement to go. In addition, Ricardo mentions that if we could go, there is a bad-tempered bodyguard at the door of Hugo's mansion, he can’t remember the name, and we need to tell him a password, called "hilarious". After that, Ricardo wishs us luck.

Clues:

a. " I can't get over this feeling that I've seen you somewhere before." - Ricardo

A short analysis:

The first episode is basically a setting, not a lot of information, just introducing five characters, including Ricardo, and a "feel like I've seen you somewhere before," but it's clearly not flirting, but creating a bit of a suspicious atmosphere.

2. S1E2 - Make-up by Valencia's Pool

Synopsis:

We find Valencia, who is wearing a necklace with the Hebrew symbol for Chai (meaning ‘alive’), and she begins to do our make-up. As she does the make-up, she tells us things. Mainly the relationships of several characters, such as the fact that Ricardo and Erisa are not really boyfriend and girlfriend, but just wishful thinking on Ricardo's part; that she herself was penniless in the beginning, and was taken in and rehabilitated by Hugo; and that Hugo is a man who is very tolerant of all lifestyles, and takes care of his own people out of starvation, and so on. She also mentions for us to be ourselves, to be a fire that would light the world on fire. After that she mentios that we are advised to keep a clear head before the party. Finally, she compliments us and tells us to stay out of trouble with the goon at the door, she says his name is Gabe, an Antipodean, and doesn't mention anything else.

Clues:

a. “Little Cherub.”- Valencia

b. Valencia mentioned that we have a hidden ‘purity’. (Too long to quote. Same below.)

c. “You are something very special.” - Valencia

A short analysis:

Valencia doesn't have much information in this episode, even though she talks all the time, mainly mentioning some interpersonal relationships between characters and character traits, as well as spouting off about Ricardo. It's worth noticing that here she calls us ‘cherub’, a type of angel, but our names remain unknown or undetermined until episode five, when our names (or codenames) are confirmed.

The second appearance of the ‘guy at the door’. (The vocabulary used is Antipodean, the first time I know this word to represent Australians.)

3. S1E3 - Elisa's social media photo taking

Synopsis:

After getting our makeup done with Valencia, we came to Erisa. Erisa was a goth beauty, said Hugo knew everyone. After a brief conversation, she began to take pictures of us. And then she said, we should relax at the party, and it's easy money, and she's done it before, and then Hugo gave her a real chancet, and she became part of the family. Finally, she said, before the party starts, eat and drink.

Clues:

a. "It's like a family. Beautiful beautiful family. And once you are in, he'll look after you, forever. " - Erisa

A short analysis:

There is even less information in this episode than in the first two, and the only contradiction is the name of Elisa the name, whether it is Elisa or Erisa. Till now, the characters have called her "Erisa", which is what she calls herself, but the title says "Eisa". She'll explain that later.

In addition, she mentions that "we are like a family, Hugo will always take care of you", which corresponds to the words of Valencia in the second episode, and also corresponds to the rest of the plot.

The first three episodes are basically background laying, the DS religious elements are basically absent, and the next episode is the official start of the story.

4. S1E4 - Hugo's Bloody Dinner Party

Synopsis:

We arrive at Hugo's front door and see the bodyguard who has been mentioned twice. He stopped us and we reported the "hilarious" password, which he said was incorrect and had to call Hugo to confirm our identities. He did a routine check on us and collected our lighter and mobile phone. Suddenly he said, if we do not want to come, we can go now, see we do not want to go, he says, if there is something wrong, or we drink too much, use the com in each room to call him in, and he will get us out. And he also says that we don't look like anyone who had worked for Hugo before. After that, he told us the password was not hilarious, but "Hail Eris."

After a burst of party music, all the previous bad omens were fulfilled - we have been kidnapped. Hugo, Ricardo, Valencia, Elisa are all here. They are dressed in fancy clothes, but Elisa refuses to wear a mask and is more rebellious. Hugo says that they worship Eris, and that we must sacrifice our blood and combine it with gold to give them eternal life.

Clues:

a. " You look a little different to the people who usually work for Mr. H. " - Bodyguard

b. "Hail Eris"

c. "This is Eris's habitat, and we are all propagators of chaos." - Hugo (This is the haunt of Eris. We are demagogues for chaos.)

d. " Your lifeblood. Combine it with monotonical gold. Super conductive property which allows our bodies to regenerate over time, and allows us to live forever. " - Hugo ()

A short analysis:

First of all, the bodyguard who appeared twice in the line appeared, and the words were madly implying that we had a problem with this party and we could leave. But at the same time, he said, "You look different," and that's part of the problem - where are we different?

Regarding this password, we can see that Eris is similar to Erisa, which makes it suspicious of Elisa's identity. Eris was the mythical goddess of chaos, and specific questions about theology and pagan rituals are discussed further below. Anyway, the main story finally begins in this episode.

5. S1E5 - Gabriel's rescue

Synopsis:

We were taken blood by Hugo, weak and dying, Ricardo was wearing headphones, listening to music, dancing in front of us, suddenly the front door bodyguard rushed in, shot Ricardo, grabbed us who was gradually falling into coma out. The next time we woke up, we were in his car. It was a rainy night outside. He said his name was Gabriel and he was going to take us to the hospital, but Hugo would send his goons Doom and Gloom to hunt us down. He saw that we had lost so much blood that he had to stop the car and bandage us up, explaining that he was with the Vatican Guard, an undercover agent sent to Hugo's house. He wasn't doing anything, and his superiors wouldn't let him, until us, he finally decided to defy his superiors and save us. After apologizing and explaining, he returned to the driver's seat, but by this time, the two killers had overtaken him, shot Gabriel, and stunned us.

Clues:

a. " Hey, Angel, Angel, stay with me, okay? " - Gabriel

b. "I'm on a mission from God." - Gabriel

c. "I'm in Swiss Guard." - Gabriel

A short analysis:

Gabriel's name officially came out, and he called us "Angel", which officially became our names/codename in the DS (I always suspected that we actually had real name and told Gabriel, we'll get to that when I write S2E3), but how did we become Angel? How did Gabriel know we were an angel?

Gabriel was one of the common "rescue characters" in the early era of Jim's videos (2018-2020), saving us from trouble and sometimes getting hurt themselves (I can count at least four of them anyway: Gabriel, Dimi, Hamer, John the Black Eye, and, if you consider the open-ended ending to be bad ending, Malenkee too).

By doing God's work, which he'll say again later, does that mean literally? Or is there some deeper meaning?

Swiss Guard - It's confusing here, the Swiss Guard has to be Swiss. Gabriel, how does an Australian get into the Swiss Guard? He'll explain later. We will come back to this later.

In addition, it is well known that the name "Gabriel" is an angel's name, and is the only character in the entire series to be named after an angel, which may or may not have a special purpose. He'll mention the name himself later.

6. S1E6 - Doom and Gloom's Torment

Synopsis:

Doom and Gloom are a couple. Doom's a mute. Gloom talks to us. First he took the phrase "Your boyfriend is kicking" to let us know that Gabriel was still alive. And then they started torturing us brutally to punish us for escaping. At one point he mentions a cousin named Eletta or Regretta (doubt it doesn't matter). He hurt us badly, and he ended up saying Ricardo was Hugo's son, and he got shot, so Hugo wanted a revenge. When it comes to revenge and "God as my..."as he spoke, a holy light shone on Gloom, who started to burn with smoke and died. Doom gets up in anger, only to hear sirens, and he has to leave.

Clues:

a. "God as my..." - Gloom

A short analysis:

This episode got little important, mainly shipping the couples(the line), and the final Holy Light. Why did the Light kill Gloom? Is this about us? Or did we call upon the Light?

7. S1E7 - Brennen's trial

Synopsis:

We were taken to the police station. One of the officers, Brennen, who was covered in bandages, approached us. He was kind to us and opened our handcuffs, saying that he was covered in bandages because he had been in a fire. Then he said the D.A. wants to see us later, his daughter's missing, he's in a bad mood, and we're accused of killing a federal agent and a federal marshal." We described the incident in detail, and Brennen was shocked that Hugo was the D.A., that his daughter was Erisa, and that we had killed his son Ricardo. Hugo started the fire in which his cat, Bootsy, died. Ricardo was a federal agent, he told us, and Grom was a federal marshal, also known as Ozymandias. We didn't cover for Gabriel, either, but Brennen doesn't believe an Australian can get into the Swiss Guard. Brennen, though, took pity on us, and he said he'd worked on human trafficking cases before, and when he found Hugo, he was called off by superiors. And then he decided to help us, but we had to see Hugo first. Brennen left.

Hugo started swearing as soon as he sat down, asking us where his daughter was, saying that it didn't matter that they were adopted. After scolding us for a while, he said, don't think he doesn't know what we are and what we can do. Then he threatened to kill us, swore and left. And Brennen managed to get in touch with Gabriel before Hugo could find us again, and he took us to the motel where Gabriel was staying.

At the Vatican, a masked killer priest gets word that Gabriel killed Ricardo. He said things like "Death to Satan," "Death to all," and fired machine guns into the air and laughed.

Clues:

a. "They call him Ozymandias." - Brennen mentioned Gloom

b. Hugo says he knows what we are, but we ourselves don't, and he knows how to use us and kill us. If we run away again, we'll be plunged into a cold hell.

A short analysis:

The main new character in this episode is Brennen, another of Hugo's victims who finally decides to help us. As for how he was able to contact Gabriel, I consider it as a minor plot flaw. He was burned by Hugo, and the name Brennen is also German for "burn." Fire seems to be a very important image, our lighter appears in almost every episode (later as well), and Valencia also mentions fire. But in all, it seems like a coincidence?

Ricardo and Gloom's identities are bit of exaggerated, but it doesn't affect the plot, so they're probably indeed dead. Ozymandias is an important image that actually refers to the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, known by the Greek name Ozymandias. Hugo has been using the words "bimbo" and "boy toy" to describe Gabriel, which is also funny to hear.

The words of the masked killer at the end and the information he received were in Italian, I can only figure out the general, hopefully not important information. So far, this is proof that Gabriel really belongs to the Church - he is about to be hunted down by the Church for disobedience. Or there is another possibility - Ricardo is an Italian name, is he connected to the Church? The Church is angry about his death? But that's very unlikely, and Riccardo is completely out of the picture, so he's probably indeed dead.

8. S1E8 - Psymon's treatment

Synopsis:

(This episode is one-hour long, and it's also very information-dense, so this part is going to be long.)

A new character appears in the opening credits, identified as Lucifuge Rofocale, from a book called Grand Grimoire, in which he is the Prime Minister of the great demon.

Brennen dropped us off at the motel and left, and Gabriel thanked him and turned to us and made a mean joke about how he looked like a mummy but the department was pretty inclusive. He started to get very close to us, and he called us Angel honey, in addition to calling us Angel. He said he thought he'd never see us again, but he survived by being a movie hero. He tried and failed to find us, and then Brennen got in touch. Gabriel was dressed as a priest, but with a gun. He explained that he was not a priest, that it was a cover. About the Swiss Guard - his mother was Swiss, he had served in the Swiss army, but he grew up mainly in Australia. Then he told us not to be angry, went inside, and wheeled out the missing Elisa, and it turned out that he had kidnapped Elisa.

As soon as Elisa sat down, she said we were demons, the exact opposite of Gabriel's angels. Gabriel, too, looked suspicious, and told himself that his boss was right, but immediately added that his task remained the same, that he would protect us. Then a phone call takes Gabriel away. Elisa took the opportunity to move closer and say that we were a demon, not an angel, that Hugo had always wanted demon blood, that we could trust her, that she was the federal informant and Ricardo wasn't, that she could contact the FBI and get us out, because Gabriel was insane and out of control, and why was he pretending to be a priest? And what would a priest do to a demon? Ricardo was bad, but he didn't deserve to die, and yet he died. Elisa said we can't trust Gabriel, not even the Swiss Guard thing since he's not even Swiss. About Ricardo and her and Valencia, Elisa said that Ricardo and she was adopted, her real name is Elisa, called Erisa because it sounds like Eris, the goddess of chaos. As for Valencia, she's dead. She's the one who called the cops to get us out of Doom and Gloom. And Brennen's cat Bootsy isn't a cat, it's his wife, and he has PTSD and thinks it's his cat. Anyway, Elisa really wants us to side with her, not trust Gabriel. But then Gabriel came back and said that the Vatican had excommunicated him and had sent men after him, but the good news is, he knows a shaman who can help us, and he knows about angels and demons. He left Elisa at the hotel and took us there.

Gabriel was waiting at the door, and we met Psymon alone. Psymon's name sounds like Simon and he says he's going to explain it to us, but we can't laugh or we're leaving with our boyfriend (shipping again). He said he changed his name from Simon to Psymon in the '90s. Then Psymon put the name thing on hold and told us first that we were not a demon but an angel. Then he dispensed a capsule of mercury to us, told us to take one immediately, and then went on to tell our story. He said that he had seen a real angel in Cape Town, and that he could hear a loud chorus, and that many people had seen them, and they had seen different things. His friend took a video, and it was a seraph, but it wasn't the same as what Psymon saw, either, so after that, Psymon went from pharmacist to shaman, believing in the supernatural. He said that when angels come to earth, they rarely remember their identity, only have beautiful qualities, and only know how to do good, but when demons come to earth, they remember their identity, know their purpose, and strive to do evil. Then he took out a notebook full of alchemical stuff, incantations, symbols and rituals, and mentioned that angels were made of mercury, sodium, and sulfur, and pointed to a symbol and said this is our symbol, the angel symbol. Then he made sodium and sulfur capsules, saying that mercury corresponds to our nerves, sodium to our blood, and sulfur to our bones. He says if we can remember who we are, we can go back to heaven. Finally, he gave us a capsule called the "Heaven’s Gate". If we or others took it, we or people who took it would immediately leave our bodies and ascend to heaven. He also told us that if we die on earth, we must obey the rules of mortals, and not necessarily go back to heaven, but possibly to hell. Finally, he wished us and Gabriel good luck.

Back at the motel, Gabriel discovers that Elisa has run away. He said Psymon had confirmed his belief that we were an angel and not a demon. Meanwhile, Gabriel says he is not an angel, but has come to do the mission of God. But at that moment, there were machine-gun shots outside the door, and Gabriel immediately realized that it was a masked killer sent by the Holy See and took us into hiding.

Clues:

a. " And it is- Father Gabriel, he has got a good ring to it huh? " - Gabriel

b. " I was in the military and my mother is Swiss, French-Swiss. They have national service there. " - Gabriel

c. " So my boss was right... the mission stands, I'm here to protect you. " - Gabriel

d. " He's insane." - Elisa mentions Gabriel

e. " Hugo owned all the orphanages. " - Elisa

f. " He calls me Erisa because it sounds like the god he worships, the god of chaos. " - Elisa

g. "Y You are the first one that's real. " - Elisa

h. " You should always look your best. You never know if today's your last. " - Gabriel

i. " You are not a demon. You are an angel. " - Psymon

j. "This angel, she descended onto the street." - Psymon

k. " When an angel dies, they come to earth... you have not descended from heaven with a chorus of angelic song. You are here because for whatever reason, in heaven, you died. " - Psymon

l. " When the angels come back to earth, they don't know what they were. But when the demon comes to earth, they remember. " - Psymon

m. " That means that if you die and you have done something questionable, or standing poor faith or judgment with the lord, you could go to hell. But it also means that anyone who you're associating with could go there too. " - Psymon

n. " I'm not an angel. But I am here to do the work of God." - Gabriel

A short analysis:

It's a long, information-dense episode. But Jim likes to play unreliable narration, and Gabriel and Elisa are at odds with each other, so can Psymon be trusted? Although at present I think Psymon's credibility is relatively large, he gives too much information, DS does not seem to be enough to carry such a large volume of unreliable narration, unless it is written as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but at present it seems that Psymon is not like it. And combined with Psymon's ending, he doesn't seem to be lying, at least he's giving the truth from his perspective. Or maybe, Psymon's not on our side, but he's probably giving us all the right information, or nothing wrong.

And first, Gabriel's appearance in this episode is my favourite appearance of Jim's character. Secondly, the editing of this episode is also very smooth and the production level is very high, but Jim's equipment was not quite up to date at that time, and the white balance is constantly changing. But the cons do not obscure the pros.

Now let's see the plots. I kind of feel like Gabriel's suddenly so close to us, but maybe it's just a sudden plot development. Does he really like us? Or is there a purpose to it (I'm shipping them anyway)? At least the first season is still very confusing (in the second season, Gabriel's character seems to have changed and become less complicated, but since it's not finished, I'm not sure about the second season). It's a pretty far-fetched explanation of the Swiss Guard, and if that's the case, then he'd have to be a Swiss citizen, but a guy who grew up in Australia, did his national service in Switzerland at 18, and then ended up in the Swiss Guard, which is kind of cool, and it sounds crazy but it can be done anyway.

Elisa came out and told us a big information that we were demons. At this point Gabriel's "So my boss is right" line is worth thinking about - who is his boss? The Pope? The Pope thinks we're demon, or Hugo's looking for demons, so why does Gabriel immediately identify us as angel? The mission remains the same, so what was the mission of the Pope before? Is it "protecting the demon"? Or is that Gabriel's way of saying he won't change and will still disobey the Holy See? The first season, if anything, left Gabriel's identity and purpose as a big mystery (again, Season 2 seems a little more prosaic, which is a pity). Then Gabriel gets on the phone, and Elisa gives us more information. According to the rest of the story, Elisa's claim that she was a federal informant is almost credible. And the resemblance between her name and Eris is a clue. The roles of Ricardo and Valencia are officially closed. Plus, Elisa doesn't believe Gabriel will actually help us, which is quite a contrast to Season 2 (which, of course, has a completely different storyline from Season 1, so it's hard to say). Gabriel's "never know if it's the last" is a little bit "If Psymon says you're a demon..." The detail is kind of interesting.

What Psymon says, which we assume to be true information, then becomes the principle of DS: On earth, angels do not know their identity, demons do. It is through this that Psymon confirms that we are angels, otherwise we would not have been killed this way. But again, is there a unreliable narration here? After all, the main character is the audience, and we can't talk. What if we actually remember who we are? Or remember a little? Let's just go with what Psymon said. Psymon mentioned that we died in heaven, so we lost our memories and came to earth, and if we die again, we may go to heaven or hell. That piece of heaven's gate also seems to be a foreshadowing, but so far, the main story doesn't mention it.

Finally at the motel, Gabriel says again that he is on a mission from God and that he is not an angel. So what is God's task? After all, he had disobeyed the Church, which had excommunicated him. Besides, is it possible that he was also an angel, one who had lost his previous memory? Being the only character to be named after an angel has denied it twice. But there is no other evidence for this either. And according to the following plot, Gabriel's number of murders is not small, not like Psymon said what an angel would be like.

In addition, there is a symbol in Psymon's notes that he says is our angel symbol - which, according to the search, is actually the symbol of Lucifer. It is well known that Lucifer was an archangel who fell into the form of Satan. So in this episode, we can pretty much confirm our angel-demon duality. Episode 8 is important.

9. S1E9 - Masked Killers and monsters

Synopsis:

Thanks to the ytb comments section, I saw something new at the beginning that I skipped - a few more symbols in the opening credits, the mercury symbol, the Demiurge (we'll talk about this later), and the Philosopher's Stone (Psymon mentions it).

The first half of the show is us hiding in a closet with Gabriel. The plots are shipping they two too still. And Gabriel says our hair smells good, needs to borrow our conditioner, goes on and on about how scary this masked killer is. The masked killer came in and said Gabriel's name, that he had betrayed the church, that he had betrayed him, that he would find him and kill him. In the middle of the tension, Gabriel gave us a kiss, didn't feel comfortable for a moment, and then started apologizing. Finally, the killer leaves without finding anyone, and Gabriel and we get out of the locker. He said nervously that it was a machine gun, fortunately the killer left. And then he asked us to forgive the inappropriate kiss. That's when a woman, claiming to be the FBI, pulled a gun on Gabriel and took us both away.

In the second half of the episode, we come to Venice Beach. The place is called Venice California, and a man with sunglasses paces irritably in a mansion, saying something about dino or dinner and cursing. He received a phone call from Hugo, and scolded Hugo, saying that he would go over to Hugo to solve the problem of the demon, and bring the demon to him. Then he ordered his men to prepare the plane and brought two men on board. There's a voice in the background, which could also be pagan or criminal human trafficking, which makes him seem to be Hugo's superior.

The camera then cuts to Psymon's lab, where a cold-eyed man is reading Psymon's notes and becomes intrigued when he sees the Lucifer symbol. Psymon's voice drifted off and said it’s you Sam, that if he'd known it was him, he wouldn't... But without letting him finish, Sam shot him. Sam said he was looking for the love of his life.

Clues:

a. "You betrayed the church, you betrayed me." - the masked killer

b. "If I'd known it was you, I wouldn't..." - Psymon

c. "I'm looking for the love of my life." - Sam

A short analysis:

This episode of Gabriel's scene is not too much, mainly on the road to shipping them two further. Hugo's sunglasses boss calls himself "Hermon," but I'm not sure if that's the name, consider it as it is. What he said was so vague that I couldn't make out what it was, whether it was dino or dinner, whatever it was, we didn't know what it meant. And Sam and Psymon seem to have known each other before, and Psymon seems to be trying to say something, but he's killed before he finished. Sam is officially introduced here, a mysterious character who has appeared in only two episodes of DS. If the "love of his life" is us, then who is he? Who are we? Why does Psymon know him? What is Psymon regretting now? Jim's cat comes out at the end, but I think Jim was just loving his cat here, so I won't mention it about the plots.

As for the name "Hermon," I'm not sure I heard it right. There is a mountain called Mount Hermon on the border between Syria and Lebanon. In some myths, the palace of Baal was located here. In other texts (the Book of Enoch), fallen angels descend on Mount Hermon.

10. S1E10 - Tikvah and recruiting informants

Synopsis:

The female FBI agent with the name tag Naomi Tikvah uncuffed us. Tikva, Hebrew for "hope." She said we weren't in trouble, we didn't kill anyone, we were victims of a criminal organization that trafficked people. Gloom died of an aneurysm. He said Gabriel killed a lot of people, that he was unhinged. And even more so with the man in the mask, a war criminal. She pointed out that what Gabriel seemed to be saying was true, that he did work for the Vatican, that we had become somewhat close to Gabriel, that Elisa was an FBI informant, and that Hermon's name was William, and that he and Hugo were using their power to run a criminal business. And now that Elisa is in Hugo's control again, Tikvah wants us to help her and Elisa in exchange for Gabriel's reduced sentence, which is fine if we stay out of it, but Gabriel will go to jail. She hopes we can help, get to Hugo, save lives. When we said yes, she gave us a microphone and told us to say the password "Ozymandias" (yes, the same as Gloom's nickname) if things got out of hand.

Clues:

a. "The code word is Ozymandias." - Tikvah.

A short analysis:

This issue is not very informative, but with a few puzzles, one of which is the cause of Gloom's death. We saw the light with our own eyes. But Tikvah said he died of an aneurysm; The other is the code. Why Ozymandias, too? Because Gloom is a federal marshal? And from her we learn that the Hugo’s business was a cult and crime syndicate, and next time we face Hugo again in order to save Elisa and Gabriel.

11. Gunfight in Hell

Synopsis:

The opening of the episode is a big difference from previous episodes, using a similar format with a cast list, with each character appearing, but the arrangement is a little strange. The characters are Bill (William), Doom, the masked killer priest, Sam, Valencia, Hugo, Elisa, and Ricardo. Can't find any pattern, not based on life or death or appearance in this episode, I don't know if it's intentional or not.

Tikvah checked with us at mic that the signal was clear, and we went inside, where we were met by a sad Doom at the door, who saw that we were angry, but received orders to let us in anyway.

Hugo was even more angry when he saw us, saying that his life had been a mess since he met me, and how we could cause him so much trouble. At this point, Tikvah prompts us to come in another man, it is Bill, still swearing, and asks Hugo who Elisa and we are, Hugo says Elisa is his daughter and we are the demon, Bill is very angry, and says why Hugo pointed a gun at his daughter, and the demon is already here, so why bring him here, he ate a whole person on the plane (depending on the tone, Maybe they actually ate them). At this point, Tikvah again suggested that there was a person at the door who seemed to pop out from nowhere. It was Sam. He came in and said we were the love of his life and didn't belong to anyone. Bill started teasing again about how it was like a restaurant. And to make matters worse, the masked killer showed up. All hell broke loose. Sam started shooting. Tikvah asked us what was going on, and if necessary, gave out the code. Hugo and Bill hide behind the couch, Elisa goes down, and Sam shoots Doom. The man in the mask shot Sam in the cheek. Bill and Hugo are scared, and Bill keeps cursing and telling Hugo to shoot the man in the mask. Hugo, as if afraid to shoot, shoots the masked man, the masked man shoots back but doesn't seem to hit anyone, and Hugo shoots again, knocking the masked man down. Sam got up again and began to say a strange spell. Bill shoots Sam, the picture shakes, Bill falls, and we are plunged into darkness. Tikvah called off the operation.

In the darkness, a mysterious voice said it was coming to clean things up. Several characters appear separately. First Bill says something nice, then dino/dinner and repeats it, then Hugo says something about us being his children and loving us; Then there was Sam, who still called us lovers, and asked us if we wanted apples, if we wanted them cut; And finally, Elisa, she said she just wanted to be loved, and she thought she'd get it with us.

The camera goes to hell, and there's Baal the demon. He gave us a good lecture, told us we screwed up, and we thought we were angels. Big D is disappointed in our father, and he is disappointed in Hermon (not sure here), Sam is perhaps the most like Lord, and Eris is not here. And we are the devil traitor. He also confiscated our lighters.

Clues:

A. "A demon who has been sowing the seeds of chaos around town." - Hugo mentions us.

b. "Neo-Nazi prick"- Bill mentions Sam

c. "Minimal blood, a living body... Long live Satan. (Sanguis minimus. Corpus animus... Satani.Ave.)" – Part of Sam’s spell. Originally Latin, can only figure out part of it. Imcomplete.

A short analysis:

This episode is more or less informative. There's not much new. The first question is, what is the masked man doing here? Shouldn't he be looking for Gabriel at the FBI? Or does he think we're easier to find? But it seems like he's not just trying to kill us, which means he's really crazy. And then there's Sam's incantation, which is actually a black mass, but it's a celebration of the devil. Next thing, I don’t know if it was because Bill killed Sam, or because of the black mass, we went into a dark place with Bill. Four characters appear in turn, which I understand as a kind of spiritual communication in limbo. In hell, Baal's words are worth investigating, it seems that Bill, Sam, and Elisa are all related to hell. I didn't quite catch that part either. It was a bit of a trouble. It's like we're a demon who've forgotten who we are. The first season came to an abrupt end.

12. A brief description of the Season 1 Recap video

At the end of 2021, Jim released a recap video of the first season of the DS, briefly introducing the contents of the first season and preparing for the second season. There's something interesting about Jim's wording here.

In the first place, speaking of Valencia and Elisa, it is said that they both showed sympathy for us, perhaps because they felt sympathy for the fate we were about to face.

Second, the phrase "spurious tales" is used to describe Gabriel's claim that he worked for the Church.

Third, that Glom was killed by holy light, not an aneurysm.

Fourth, that Psymon healed our wounds by feeding us mercury. (Because the original plot says mercury corresponds to nerves, it seems that there is just a bit of a difference in the setting here. But well, tt's not a short time since Jim has a chaotic memory or remembers the plots but doesn't care about corresponding them.)

Fifth, Jim himself summed up Psymon's words as - demons do not tend to live on earth, but angels who die in heaven will be reborn on earth and start a new life, because they are on earth, so if they are guilty, they may also go to hell.

Sixth, and more importantly, Jim called us "Astarte." We'll talk more about that later.

Two. Season 1 story summary, clue collection and brief analysis

Only three episodes have been updated for the second season, reportedly cutting the original six episodes to four. I don't know how Jim is going to wrap up so much threads of clues in the next finale episode... The overall style of the second season is also completely different from the first season.

1. S2E1 - The Hellhound

Synopsis:

The opening credits of the second season are great, and the music is great. Notably, the opening credits feature a woman wearing a star crown, which will be mentioned later.

Malcomb House, Los Angeles, December 22, 12:32 p.m., we, as a rookie constable, followed Detective Charles Holmes to investigate a homicide in which the victim was Dr. Malcomb, and we are now at his home questioning Mrs. Malcomb. The detective had an arm in a cast, which was a little inconvenient to record, and we were new, so we had to record. The detective and Mrs. Malcomb went over some of the details of the case.

That day, Mrs. Malcomb is taking the kids to school, and Dr. Malcomb is doing his daily routine before going to work. He has a memory problem. He remembers the big things, but forgets the little things easily, so there are stickers all over the house. The doctor showered that morning, brushed his teeth, made sandwiches, then took his medicine, blood anticoagulants, drank coffee, read the newspaper, and about to feed the dog. When he was about to feed the dog, the attacker burst in, shot him, and let the dog go.

The detective finished his review and asked Mrs. Malcomb if anyone would have thought to let the dog go. It is also mentioned that the FBI may be involved because this case is similar to another random killing spree they have on hand (same person, different locations, close timing). But if she wanted to contact him, she can contact him still and give her his card. Finally he wished the wife a merry Christmas.

The camera came to the car, we were driving, the detective sat in the passenger seat, took the child's toy gun/lighter to lit a cigarette, joked about why he loved to say merry Christmas inappropriately, and then began to analyse the case with us. He first said the woman was lying. And then he asked us if we noticed that dog cage, big and gorgeous. This case is about a kid doctor with a perfect family, and all of a sudden a maniac kills him, and then the dog is let go. Very strange. And there was no sign of forced entry at the house, similar to a recent case. The detective figured the FBI would take over, but he wanted to find out for himself. Finally, he asked us if we remembered D.A. Hoffman's disappearance many years ago. Then there was a crash, and in the darkness we heard a strange sound. End of episode one.

Clues:

a. "What you mean about the victim's wife? Yeah, she's lying." - Holmes

b. "Did you see the dog cage?" - Holmes

c. "Do you remember the disappearance of D.A. Hoffman?" - Holmes

A short analysis:

Looking at this episode alone, except for the last sentence, there is really no connection to the first season. Malcomb's memory problems, I don't really know if they're important, and why would Mrs. Malcomb lie? Where did she lie? I don't know. And the episode is about the dog. Malcomb's death was probably all about releasing the dog. So, what kind of dog is it? The title says Hellhound. What about the specifics? What's the role? Unknown. The episode also buried two clues: the recent killing spree, and the absence of a forced entry.

2. S2E2 - The Bwytawrdrwg

Synopsis:

The title of this episode is in Welsh, and it's actually two words without a space between. At that time, I estimated that many people were confused by the title, and this episode did a narrating all the way, resulting in a very poor amount of views, which directly led to the hiatus of DS. See below for a detailed explanation of this title.

The episode begins in a hospital, where a doctor is banging on about how our pupils don't respond, our brain looking good in MRI, and how we somehow look dead. There was nothing they could do but let nature take its course.

Southern California Hospital On December 22, at 6:45 p.m., the story officially began. The detective was stopped by the doctor for smoking, and he wished the doctor a Merry Christmas and turned to us. The detective said the accident wasn't our fault. The important thing is we're okay. During the afternoon, he looked into some more clues. He told us about a man named Richard Hart, who appeared to be a big charity man, but was actually a Nazi, a big war criminal, whose real name was Carl Reinhardt. This guy's been dead for 20 or 30 years, but just recently, someone dug up his body, burned the remains, and one of the things they dug up at the excavation site was Dr. Malcomb's. So the killer got from Malcomb's house to the cemetery within 12 hours of doing all of this. And in the exhumation scene, there was a priest, and he was the one who dug up the body. While having a priest in the cemetery is no big deal, the detective also mentioned that Malcomb's house was secured, but the killer didn't force his way in, so there was no sign of it. In addition to family members, salespeople, and public servants such as the police, the most likely to open the door, is the priest. So what we're looking for here is a murderer priest.

Then, the detective mentioned that D.A. Hoffman went missing all those years ago. It was an FBI operation, Hoffman engaged in criminal activity, the detective was a junior officer at the time, and an old colleague of his, Brennan, was involved. The prosecutor's daughter was involved, and his son was killed by a priest. Hoffman, his daughter, a murderous psychopath from nowhere, a masked maniac, and a Hollywood producer all disappeared, leaving the scene in chaos. There were a lot of bodies, one of them a priest, wearing a mask. The Vatican then covered it up with the FBI, and the female agent in charge of the operation was relegated to clerical work.

The detective said that he thought there was a connection between the current case and the Hoffman case, and that he planned to find Brennan, who had left the service, and that he knew the priest. Finally, he said there was something strange about the recording at Malcomb's house, and he played it back for us, and it was the voice we heard at the end of the first episode. We're having trouble staying awake. We're unconscious again. In the darkness we saw a figure that seemed to be a vicious hound.

At the end of the second episode, Gabriel is praying, and his voice is extremely vague, and I only managed to record part of it by asking questions in the YTB comments section. Anyway, it was Gabriel praying to Erisa saying he can't do this anymore, help him, she knows why he's here. A woman who appears to be Erisa says someone is approaching and someone is dead. Gabriel didn't understand, Erisa went on, please don't leave them, "he" was satisfied. Finally, Erisa said, Gabriel, someone is watching you. The scene ends immediately.

Finally, at the end, a book was opened, in which a number of names were recorded, some of which were crossed out, and the rest of which were written, respectively, Moloch (the evil god associated with fire and human sacrifice for Baal, and the literary image of war mania), death (the important religious concept, gave birth to the hell-hound with Sin in Paradise Lost), Abdiades (mentioned in the Book of Chronicles, with a literary representation of an fallen angel), Dragol (seems to be spelled that way, but no reference is found), and Methuselah (an extremely long-lived person mentioned in the Bible). One hand scratched out Moloch's name with a pen. End of episode two.

Clues:

a. "Someone dug up the corpse of this Nazi and burned the remains." - Holmes

b. "What about priests? You trust them, right?" - Holmes on no sign of break-in.

c. If we are right, then the missing persons in the "Hoffman case" mentioned by Holmes are Hoffman, Elisa, Sam, Doom, and Bill, in that order, and the dead priest is the masked man.

d. "Brennan, he knew the priest." - Holmes

e. The whole conversation between Gabriel and Erisa is obviously important, but I couldn't figure it out completely, but it's what it says in the synopsis.

A short analysis:

The initial views number of this episode was very poor. It was also after this episode that Jim began to procrastinate DS, dragging out the third episode after a year and a half. But it's a very informative episode, and it's starting to connect to the first season. A lot of clues really can only wait for Jim to explain, even if I analyse again and again, such as this Carl Reinhart in the end and what is the identity? I don't know. The only war criminal mentioned in the first season was the masked man, but first, if he was a Nazi, he "must be a hundred years old" (so said Gabriel), and Reinhart has been dead for decades, and the man in the mask died at the Hoffman murder scene. But then again, there is no clear time between the second season and the first season, maybe it has really passed 20 or 30 years?

A bunch of characters disappeared for unknown reasons. Sam's Black Mass? Besides, why is the masked guy the only one who hasn't disappeared? Because he's a priest?

In addition, the detective speaks about the Masked man as if he and Gabriel are the same person (because the masked man and Gabriel are both dressed as priests, and the detective refers to them as "priests"), but they have been in one picture together before S1E9, and from the point of view of Season 1 as a whole, this is not possible.

That strange sound and the image of the hound were obviously important too, but there was no clue as to what they were.

How did Gabriel and Elisa end up together again? Didn't they fight each other before? It's weird what happened between them. They seem to be asking each other, Gabriel asking Elisa for help, Elisa asking Gabriel not to give up on them. Besides, who is this "he" that Elisa is talking about? And who was that looking at Gabriel?

That last list seems to have a lot to do with the Bible and Paradise Lost. At this point, the religious concept of DS has become more and more extensive, from the gods of primitive religions to the religious culture of modern times. The religious element is mostly over in this episode, and the next one is just as confusing and exciting.

3. S2E3 - Vatican City Karaoke Night

Synopsis:

Adelaide, Australia, a few years ago. This time we were a bartender, looking at a gaunt priest with long hair and a beard standing on the stage, trying to sing but unable to sing, being booed off the stage for the second time. He came to us, and asked for cigarettes and wine. We gave it to him, and he asked if we'd met before, and immediately explained that he wasn't hitting on us, that he was a priest. Besides, his heart already belonged to another, and it's not God. It's just that we remind him of someone a long time ago who was a lot like us. He said his name was Gabriel, but first, we weren't allowed to call him "Father," which sounded too old, and second, he was adamant that we weren't allowed to call him "Gabe," only Gabriel. He asked again if we had met and said we were just like the person. The person has been gone a long time, and he was very close to the person, but the person is not dead, only missing. Gabriel asked if we'd ever seen a person disappear into nowhere, and then he again asked for a drink. He said something about tithes, and then about how he had worked in the Vatican for a long time, and how the Swiss Guard had karaoke nights – sing Hail Mary before a mission. Then he said that even if he was drinking now and wanted to throw up, he always felt that we had met him before, and he had met that person in the United States when he was on a mission. So he's here to sing and drink because he's here to work. Then he went to the loo. Meanwhile, the hound vision that appeared in the first two episodes flashes again.

When Gabriel came back, he asked us for more cigarettes and started talking. He said he had met the Pope once, another Pope, smoking a cigar, in the Vatican (Vat, or VC). He gave a terrible example, he said that when he met the person, it was like having a pet, he didn't care before, but as soon as he saw the person, he felt unconditional love in his heart, unconditional to be able to kill. So he defied the Vatican's confidential orders and went to protect that person. He was always there to protect that person, but in the end, he wasn't there when that person needed him most, and he failed. And when a man loses something, he has to go to the last place to find it, and that's what he came for, to the last place, to find his angel. He said he was an invisible priest on a mission and knew that the angel was alive and that he would find the angel and that he would never give up.

Later, Gabriel mentions Psymon's rule from Season 1 - angels don't know who they are on earth, and demons do. It was up to mortals like him to help the angels. And Gabriel sounded like an angel, but it hasn’t any relation, and then he asked us what our names were, and when he got the answer, he said, "Funny then. Coincidence.”

Finally, he decided to go on stage for the third time, and before that, he asked us if we were sure we hadn't met before. On stage, Gabriel sang a Hail Mary, and all of a sudden he pulled out a gun and shot us. Before the scene turned completely black, we heard Gabriel say, "I found you/I'll find you, Angel, I found you/I'll find you." (24. 9. 24 edit: it was "I found you".) The third episode ends. DS updated to this, once again entered the indefinite hiatus, has been a year.

Clues:

(There really isn't much to dig into this episdoe... Because it's basically a recap of Gabriel's experiences from Season 1, and then a follow-up to shipping Gabriel and Angel. A few notes briefly below.)

a. "I'm not coming on you. I'm a fxcking priest. Besides, my heart belongs to another. No, not God." - Gabriel

b. "Not Gabe, don't call me that. Gabriel." - Gabriel.

c. "VC, some call it." - Gabriel

d. "Go to the last place. That's where I need to be. That's where my Angel is." - Gabriel

e. "It’s up to us mortals to shine a light on that grace, and let them know what they are." - Gabriel mentions angels don’t know who they are

f. "Gabriel, yeah like the angel, no relation. What’s your name? Really? Funny then. Coincidence." - Gabriel

d. "Oh I'll ask one more time just in case- are you sure that we haven't met before? Alright, if you say so, if you say so." - Gabriel

A short analysis:

I still remember the mood and the scene I was in when the trailer and video came out... Now the ending is so far away, it's excruciating...

As we can see, this episode is Gabriel's solo, and it's mainly about what happened between season 1 and season 2, and the new plot is the shot that was fired at the end. People who don't like Gabriel are definitely not interested in this episode, and fortunately or unfortunately, I'm a huge fan of Gabriel. So waiting for the sequel is also very anxious.

In this episode, Gabriel's lines are all about finding someone until he finally says "my Angel", and the lines are great. Clue a and b seems to imply that Angel is the person, and only she can call herself "Gabe" Anyway, Angel is missing, and Gabriel is desperate to find her.

If there's anything in this episode - first of all, Vatican City is a VC, just like Venice, California, so let's hope Gabriel doesn't have anything to do with Bill. That would be crazy. Second, does Angel have a name? From the line "coincidence" we can see that the Angel seems to have a real name and told Gabriel, she or the bartendeer can't be called just "Angel" right?

The main problem in this episode is one line - is the last line "I found you" or "I'll find you"? I have asked several native English speakers about this word and they are not sure what it is (the moderator too but till now she hasn’t replied) (24. 9. 24 edit: Em replied that it was I found you.). But the line is uncertain, and Gabriel's motive for shooting the bartender is uncertain. If it's the former, then the "Have we met before" and the "coincidence" lines all make sense, but the shooting doesn't make sense, because Gabriel is looking for Angel, and if the person in front of him is Angel or an resurrection or something, and it's so hard to find, why shoot her? If it is the latter, then the reason for shooting could be some unknown preparation to find Angel or something, maybe we are demons (after all, there is the hound in the middle of the video), but the lines at the front thinking we are familiar do not make sense. All in all, the plot is tantalizing.

With that, the synopsis and brief analysis of the first and second seasons concludes.

Three. Try to collection the theological background

Next is the most difficult part, and very awkward – one of Jim’s mods Em majored in theology. Here I am to write these, maybe it will be what they learn. For those they didn’t, they can directly ask Jim himself, the final explanation.

There were no Jstor papers or whatnot for reference, and I didn't have a university network, just wiki. So the following are basically wikis.

I really don't know where to start.

1. The Malenkee Saga, The Origin of all Things

You can't talk about Jim's creation without mentioning the TMS mentioned above. Of course, TMS does not have an official Chinese translation name, it is simply TMS. It was Jim's first long series, running for a staggering 23 episodes, and the only finished long series. The theological and pagan ideas it has are likely to have been carried over to DS, after all, the first season of DS was released immediately after TMS.

In TMS, the protagonist Malenkee experiences a series of dangerous events (actually, these events are the main story, but we're talking about paganism and theology here), gradually awakening to various abilities, including time travel, and finally discovering that she is Astarte, so she confronts demons and saves two people who saved her in the past. During her time travel, she met a man named Aleister Crowley. This person is historically real and is one of the purposes of my mention of TMS. This man lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and founded a pagan religion called Thelema. This concept is probably important. First, because Thelema is actually similar to Gnosticism. Gnosticism is very complex, I understand it as an unorthodox dualism, and a lot of mysticism is affected by Gnosticism; Second - because Jim had the Thelema logo tattooed on his arm... (Right arm bend, left arm bend is the star of the octagon, Sumerian "heaven" "god/goddess", also used as a symbol of the goddess Inanna. And this Inana is basically equal to Ishtar, which is equal to Astarte.)

2. The trailer picture for the season 2

Jim posted a trailer picture for Season 2 on both Patreon and Ytb, featuring a framed photo of Hugo and Elisa together.

Clues include: Jupiter's mark; The ancient Greek word for hope; Two codes, translated as "No Revelations" and "No Salvation"; Two Bible passages, "The Beast of the Sea" and "the whore of the Beast"; The apple of chaos; "Demiurge"; Father Gabriel's reflection in the framed glass.

OK… So let's start with these clues. Then look at the elements in the film.

a. Mark of Jupiter: Speaking of Jupiter, the first thing that comes to mind is that "Jupiter represents Zeus", but the impression is that the DS series is not much related to Greek mythology, most of it is upstream Greek mythology, such as Canaanite mythology such as the older, and downstream such as Christianity (and Satan) such. Where have we seen similar symbols in two seasons? S1E8, in Simon's notes. He supplied us with mercury, sodium, and sulfur. mercury is not compatible with Jupiter or tin (if you must say, Mercury is Jupiter's son?) . And Astarte? Astarte's representative planet is Venus, representing the god Aphrodite/Venus (Astarte developed into Greek mythology as Venus), representing the metal is copper, and it does not match.

Later sections on Astaroth and Baal also mention Jupiter. See below.

b. Ancient Greek "Hope" : In the feature film, only Naomi's surname is "Tikvah/Hope"; in Greek, hope is "Elpis", which is also the name of hope in Greek mythology, and "Spes" in Roman mythology. The last thing left in Pandora's box was hope.

c&d. No Revelations. No Salvation: Revelation is a book in the Bible, the book of Revelation. Salvation is not, and the only thing I can find about no salvation is the phrase "Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus," which translates to "there is no salvation outside the church," and the biblical phrase "there is no salvation except him." These two lines are written under Elisa and Hugo. I'll talk about Elisa later. What does Hugo have to do with the phrase "no redemption"? Or is the placement of these two lines just a coincidence? In the feature film, the only thing I can think of "outside the church" is Gabriel's excommunication.

e&f. "Beast of the Sea" and "Beast's Whore" : The original text is two pairs of numbers, and it is easy to see that this is a format for recording Bible passages, but which book? There's only one revelation in this whole picture. So you see the corresponding sections of Revelation, the original text respectively (excerpted from the combined text) (translated from Chinese so it can be different from KJV) :

"When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit will make war against them and overcome them and kill them."

"The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the Kings of the earth."

Revelation is the last book of the Bible. It talks about the end of the world, the rebirth and the battle between heaven and hell. The original text of Jim is 11:7 and 17:18, but the original text of 11:7 is "the beast of the bottomless pit." "Beasts of the Sea" comes from 13:1-10. But there is a view that these two beasts are one, both "antichrists," who receive their power from the "dragon," Satan. At the same time, the beast in 17:18 also came out of the bottomless pit, and can generally be regarded as the same beast in 11:7.

The term "whore of the beast" refers to the "whore of Babylon" in 17:18, as explained below.

g. Chaotic Apple: The story is well known - a golden apple sparked a dispute between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite that eventually led to the Trojan War. And this apple was left by Eris, the goddess of chaos. The original image shows Hugo wearing a necklace of golden apples, indicating his worship of the God of chaos.

h. Demiurge: The word "demiurge" has been mentioned before, and it appears in different philosophical schools, but here we look at the Gnostic Demiurge. Why? Because the image of the Demiurge that emerges from the opening of S1E9 is a Gnostic art. In Gnosticism, the physical world is created by the Demiurge and the spiritual world is created by God. The Demiurge was seen as inferior and malevolent.

In some Gnostic texts, the Demiurge is called "Yaldabaoth", meaning "son of chaos". It also has a name, Samael - a name that reminds me of Sam. Combined with Sam's mystery and his black Mass, he could really be the embodiment of some kind of evil power.

Besides, could the Big D that Baal was talking about be the Demiurge? Quite possibly. But in that case, would Sam be such a high-level figure? He's good and mysterious, yes, but Sam's in charge of Baal? Doubt it.

But in fact, the logo in the original image is a Chi-ro symbol, representing Christ.

The Demiurge concept is so complicated, it makes me dizzy. Sort these out first. I feel that if I want to study the A Dream of Red Mansions, I must be in Figurist school...

i. Gabriel's reflection: This is nothing important, presumably indicating that Gabriel is also looking for Hugo and Elisa, and that he is important in Season 2, after all, he also appeared in the season 2 opening credits (Gabriel is in the DS, I think is definitely the male lead right...). .

Gabriel in the reflection is very young still.

3. Season 2's Opening Women & Babylon Whores (and Dino speculation)

The second season opens with a woman wearing a crown of twelve stars, a woman also seen in Revelation, who is described as being clothed in the sun, under the moon, and wearing a crown of twelve stars, and being attacked by dragons who want to eat her soon-to-be-born child. It is widely believed that this woman refers to the Virgin Mary (the child is, of course, Jesus). So is there an image of the Virgin in the feature film? The only surviving female in the feature film is Elisa, and we can basically identify as female (although Jim has been using neutral words to refer to us, after all, the audience has all genders, but according to my observation, in Jim's only two big series (The Malenkee Saga and DS), the main character is still more regarded as female). And which of these two characters can match Maria? Honestly, I don't really see it. It's possible that Jim just added this image to enrich the picture, or it could have a different purpose.

The Babylonian prostitute mentioned above needs to be supplemented. She is "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth", It is the symbol of "the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth". One of the things about this woman in the book of Revelation has something to do with the film, "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus". It corresponds to S1E4's blood-taking scene, although I'm not sure if that scene was some other pagan ritual. With more vivid thiking: Bill had called Elisa "whore." I don't know if that's a hint.

Crowley appeared in TMS founded Thelema, she is called Babalon, is marked by the Holy Grail (and the blood in it), and the mate is Chaos. A Mass in Thelema refers to "faith in Chaos, the father of our life, created by fire," "Faith in Babalon, the mother of all," and "faith in the serpent and the lion of Baphomet" (in fact, the serpent and the lion are also figures of the Demiurge, and the Baphomet is traditionally the head of a goat).

About Babalon and Thelema - Thelema has sex magic associated with her, and in the synopsis, Bill repeats "dino" or "dinner," according to a hearsay (hearsay because I heard it from another subscriber in early 2021), someone asked Jim about this but got no answer; Another hearsay said that the dino was a ritual food associated with sex magic. Well, that fits Bill's profile, and it has to do with Thelema, and it fits the tone of the story. As for whether it's true or not, I can't be sure. I've been looking for a long time but I can't find anything about "dino". Maybe it is just a random name Jim gave.

To add to some Crowley's interpretation of sex magic - according to Kenneth Grant, the mixture of female bodily fluids and semen produced during sex with a scarlet woman or Babalon is known as the elixir of life. Another form of this Elixir is the Elixir Rubeus (abbreviated by Crowley in his magical diary as El.Rub.) composed of menstrual blood and semen, known as effluvium of Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, which is the menstruum of the lunar current.

I'm often not creepy enough to fit in you magical guys.

4. Astarte and Lucifer

I've already mentioned it, so here's a quick summary - Astarte = Ishtar = Inanna = Venus the Planet = Venus = Aphrodite.

Interestingly, Lucifer also means "morning star" or "Venus". Lucifer is relatively widely believed to be the fallen angel Satan, combined with the "angel-demon duality" of the main character mentioned above, can we say that we are a character with Astarte, or Lucifer's characteristics? Or is it one or the other, or a combination of the two?

In the Sumerian myth Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, Inanna was able to descend to the underworld and return to heaven.

(The above is written on the third night, and here is written from the fourth day, did not sleep well in the morning, dreamed of a good theory about Sam and the Demiurge, and forgot after waking up...)

5. Astaroth

Although this guy only appeared in TMS, but talking about DS still have to talk about him...

As mentioned earlier, his name is derived from Astarte, but he is not a naturally occurring figure of evil in history, but was created by medieval demonology. In demonology, he may rank alongside Beelzebub and Lucifer as the first Grand Duke of Hell, and possibly as "one of the sixteen Princes of Hell", among other versions. He is powerful and "appears in the form of an evil angel, riding on a hell dragon and holding a serpent in his left hand". In some demonology schools, he rules over the evil forces of Jupiter (" Some demonology schools, "meaning" Kabbalistic texts, "I see at least two sources that say" in the Kabbalistic texts, Astaroth rules over the adverse forces of Jupiter, "but the Kabbalistic texts, I didn't go into what that was. Isn't Kabbalah Jewish philosophy? But it's not the first time demonology has been developed from the philosophy of religion.)

Here's an excerpt from a Tumblr post explaining it:

"What is a qliphoth? Well… In the Kabbalistic cosmogony, between our human world/mortal existence and God the eternal and almighty, there are several… “steps/passages/points”. Key points, metaphysical doors and thresholds, powerful cosmic crossroads – each one associated with a given planet of the Solar system. Together, they form the “Tree of Life”, the structure that ties together the universe. Each of these points has a positive and negative side: the positive side is the Sefirot, a holy manifestation of an aspect of the world as prepared, planned and desired by God, as well as of a major virtue. We are talking kindness, wisdom, discipline, glory, victory, etc… The negative side is the Qliphoth, an impure spiritual realm, a manifestation of an aspect of evil, the polar opposite of the Sefirot. Each sefira has its angel, and each qlipha its demon. Astaroth is usually considered the archdemon ruler of the Gamchicoth, the demons of the qlipha of Jupiter: this qlipha opposes “chesed”, the sephirot of righteousness and mercy manifesting the unlimited benevolence and kindness of god. As a result, Astaroth can be considered to be the demon manifesting the inverse of kindness, or the opposite of love between people, an entity of hate and hostility that destroys all mercy."

Let’s say thank you to this online theologist.

6. Baal

The word "Baal" originally meant "Lord" and was later denounced as a false god in Christianity and Islam. The name Beelzebub, the king of Flies, can be split into Beel/Baal and Zebub/Flies. In demonology, Baal has the image of a human head, a cat's head, and a toad's head, which is probably the source of the cat ears worn in Jim's two Baal videos.

There are different myths about Baal's spouse, but one is that he was married to Astarte. Another theory is that Baal's spouse was his sister Anat, although there are similarities between Anat and Astarte.

Baal also practiced invisibility in The Lesser Key of Solomon, mentioned below. Reminds me of Sam who "came out of nowhere" (Naomi) "I'm looking for the love of my life"... But this book says that Astaroth can also make you invisible...

7. The Lesser Key of Solomon

This is a very famous witchcraft book, which contains a list of seventy-two demons, the first being King Baal, and the twenty-ninth being Duke Astaroth.

8. The Grand Grimoire

The new opening image mentioned above at S1E9 is from the" Grand Grimoire ". Much of the material in this book comes from The Lesser Key of Solomon. The first part contains summon demons and let them to obey, the second part contains signing a contract with demon. There are also some soul talk, to be loved by girls, winning the lottery and spells to make yourself invisible. (Why does it feel like Sam's identity adds another layer of possibility, that he might not be a great demon, just a practitioner of the dark arts? who really likes the protagonist or the angel/demon that the protagonist represents?) The book also mentioned the three big demons, Emperor Lucifer, Prince Beelzebub, and Archduke Astaroth. Baal is listed under Astaroth.

9. Gabriel

(Ah, definitely my favourite character...)

Gabriel in the canon Christianity is undoubtedly a very positive image, first of all, the name means "man of God", and as the angel of the Annunciation, he is also the angel who reports to Mary about the conception of the Holy Spirit, the overall image is not so full of strength as in the DS. In the Book of Enoch (a non-canonical text) mentioned above, Gabriel is depicted as "in charge of all power." In short, Gabriel is a very benevolent and positive figure in the Abrahamic Canon and related Gnosticism (occasionally fights in the Book of Revelation, though not mentioned by name, but he is definitely present. It is Armageddon, no one can sleep in...).

In addition, Gabriel is the guardian angel of messengers, radio and telecommunications workers such as radio and television, postal workers, clergy, diplomats, and stamp collectors (in this way, Gabriel is somewhat similar to Mercury).

I tried looking for Gabriel in demonology, etc., but no, he's basically a messenger angel and a powerful protective angel.

10. Cold Hell and Dante's Divine Comedy

Hugo had previously mentioned a cold hell in the DS, and this was mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy - the last layer of hell is cold and dark.

11. The title of Paradise Lost and DS2

Not Paradise Lost by Junichi Watanabe.

Some of the scenes in the DS bear some resemblance to Milton's Paradise Lost. Like fallen angels. The season 2 episodes are titled "The Hellhound" and "The Bwytawrdrwg", meaning "Hellhound" and "Evil Eater/Sin Eater" respectively. The title of the second episode is spelled Bwytawr drwg and translated as "Bad eater" or "Sin eater". The sin-eater appears to have originated in Welsh culture and refers to a person who eats a ritual meal at a funeral to take the sins of the deceased. Or - in Paradise Lost, death and sin give birth to hounds of hell, which in turn eat the insides of sin and can be considered sin-eaters. So the titles of these two episodes have something to do with Paradise Lost, although I still don't know why they were written in Welsh.

12. Material entity three elements

A famous medieval alchemists Paracelsus put forward a claim, the three elements of material is "sulfur for sou, mercury for spirit, salt for body". That's what Psymon was talking about.

13. Gnostic sundry

Add some possible both Gnostic and DS related content

Sophia is a character of gnostic texts, she represents the sacred feminine principle, but for some reason "fall", and "Demiurge" was born.

Gnostics believe that they are "divine spark", needs to be recalled and inspire from the material world.

Gnostics believe in reincarnation.

Gnostic is related with karbarra and alchemy.

Gnostic doctrine has affected the poetry of William Blake. As a student of romantic poetry in English literature, Jim has done a video about William Blake.

Four. To conclude

In fact, I originally planned to write a "possible outcome of the finale", but finally found that it is too difficult. I really can not analyse it, or have to wait for the author to wrap it up. Of course, I can do this “Yunshi”, but the quality of his sequel compared with the original text is obvious to all.

And, God damn it, isn't that the kind of work you're supposed to do when the author dies? Jim is very much alive. Why am I writing this? - But he won't continue, I am just waiting...

Anyway, here's a list of the characters that have appeared, and the ones that I personally think might correspond:

We/Angel - We were definitely called Astarte by Jim, but according to the previous article, we are also very likely Lucifer. Also, there are similarities to the Gnostic Sophia. Therefore, let us just consider her to be a high goddess (or angel) with both divine and demonic qualities.

Gabriel - There are all sorts of possibilities for Gabriel's identity, but here I'm leaning towards Occam's Razor and thinking that he is indeed a mortal. While there are questions about who his boss is, his original "mission from God," and so on, for now, let's just say he's an excommunicated mortal who's going to find us anyway.

Doom and Gloom – consider them mortal. Gloom's death by the light reflects our divinity.

Sam - This guy is harder to guess than Gabriel. Here's an exaggerated guess- Sam is the Gnostic Demiurge, or something like that, like an angel named Samael.

Psymon - consider him mortal, but what he says matters.

Brennen - consider him mortal.

Bill and Hugo - it's hard to say, I'm inclined to think of them as pagan mortals, but the hierarchical relationship between them in the original film is a bit of a concern.

Valencia - consider them mortal.

Elisa - the Goddess of chaos? There are not many references to the Goddess of Chaos in the whole DS, and if she is considered to be the goddess of Chaos, it is more difficult to relate to the whole DS. Elisa's appearance at the end of S2E2 is very noticeable.

Ricardo - consider him mortal.

Naomi - consider her mortal.

Mask Man/Mask Priest - consider him mortal. Maybe war criminal mentioned in season two?

Detective Holmes – consider him mortal.

Mr. And Mrs. Malcolm - although doubtful, they only appear in the lines, and there are very few clues.

Bartender - Depends on what Gabriel's last words are, whether they're "found you" or "I'll find you."

New cop - almost certainly the reincarnation of Angel.

...So, with so many lists, the ending is actually still no clue. How do we remember being an "angel" in our past live? Will Gabriel remain outside the Christian Church, or will he turn to paganism to save Angel? Who the hell is Sam? Is he gonna show up? When will Elisa's identity be revealed? How to solve the mystery of two seasons? What would Brennen tell Holmes? Will it end with another war between characters?

There are many more questions than are listed here. At the beginning, I added that it has been actually more than a month since I began to write this, most of which I have dealt with personal things, and this article is also very messy, and it is not a reference. There are a lot of things that come to mind because of memory confusion, probably not written down. And there are too many religious backgrounds involved, so if I didn't finish writing at that time, my energy would go a little weak later... In short, a thousand words add up to a sentence - update the sequel, Jim...!!

[gameguy20100]

ML Theory: This class is Caline’s first one.

So I’ve been rewatching old seasons to prepare myself for the finale and want to talk about something I’ve noticed. 

Many people have dunked on Caline for being a poor teacher. Calling her naïve and too soft on Chloe and Lila while expecting Marinette to be the stand up “Good girl”

While I do agree with both these takes, I think it makes much more sense for her to behave this way if we consider that she has very little real experience as a teacher. 

Point 1) She wasn’t in Derision: 

We saw in Reflekta that she has been working at the school for roughly a year. But we never saw her in Derision. Despite the flash back being only a year prior. So I believe she was finishing her training as a student teacher in that year. And was just filling in for their real teacher in that photo.

Point 2) Age.

Caline is clearly the youngest of the faculty in this school. From her appearance and mannerisms I’d place her somewhere in her late twenties to early thirties. I’d say roughly thirty.

Point 3) Her attitude towards Marinette. 

I find it interesting that Caline seems to consider Marinette a stand up, kind-hearted and reliable girl when she has a reputation for being a terrible student thanks to Chloe. 

I think Caline’s naïve and weak performance as a teacher makes a lot more sense if you consider this. She’s completely out of her depth, and has little real experience as a teacher. But she’s learning, and I’m sure she will take the lessons she’s learned to heart.

You never forget your first, right?

[mtdthoughts]

(Rough) Script of Migi & Dali Sequel Manga

Harta, the magazine that serialized Migi & Dali, released in its 110th issue (Dec 2023) a short booklet containing some artwork from Migi & Dali as well as a short 4-page sequel manga that takes place after the final chapter of the manga or final episode of the anime.

I won't be putting up the manga in this post, but if you look hard enough I'm sure you'll be able to find it somewhere. It was a fun read, and here I'll put a translated script of what happens and what is said, which includes some of my own observations and notes.

Of course, *spoiler warning* below.

PAGE 1

Migi is at his desk writing a letter to Dali, and is struggling as he has already trashed several drafts. He has the same haircut at the end of the story and is wearing a hoodie. Also, some of his artwork is on display. The window is open, and it is a bit windy, and leaves can be seen falling. It's likely that this manga takes place during the fall/autumn.

First letter: To Dali: Dear Dali, How are you doing in this season when potatoes are delicious? (*Note: This might be a mistranslation as Migi likely introduced grammatical errors. Regardless, this can be roughly interpreted as a "How are you doing?" to Dali. The potato remark is consistent with the earlier observation that the manga takes place during autumn.)

Second letter: To the arrogant jerk: Hey! Why haven't you written to me in half a year!? (*Note: This manga likely takes place roughly six months after Dali left in March 1993, which is consistent with the earlier observation that it takes place in autumn.)

Third letter(?): I'm lonely. (*Note: He writes "さびしい" or "sabishii" which could be interpreted as "I miss you" or "I'm lonely because you're not here." It's pretty sweet that despite being confident that their hearts were always connected, Migi still wants to see Dali and misses him, even though Migi was the one who stayed behind with his friends and family. I guess Dali was more confident than Migi about the claim they've made.)

Migi is visibly frustrated with his tongue out, leaning back while ripping up the letter. Migi: "Agh I can't get it out!!" (*Note: It's funny how surprisingly shy Migi is when it comes to just writing a letter to his brother)

Migi notices something. Migi: "Huh?"

PAGE 2

Sardine is at the door. Migi: "What is it Beast? There aren't any sardines here."

Migi has an idea. Migi: "Ah."

Cuts to Dali's dormitory. His roommate(?) comes in with a letter in his hand. Dali is reading a book which seems to be titled "ふたりの証拠" (roughly translated as "The Proof of Two People") Roommate: "Dali, there's a letter for you." Dali: "!"

Dali has the letter in his hand. Dali has the same hairstyle at the end of the story and is wearing glasses and his school uniform. Dali: "Huh?"

The envelope says: "From: Golden Beast"

PAGE 3

Dali reads the letter with a warm smile on his face, knowing it's from Migi and is able to read Migi's feelings through this coded language. The letter says: Dear sir: It's the season for delicious sardines right now! That's right, it's me, Sardine! Are you doing well? My hair is still soft and fluffy! Well, now that you're gone, the house is a bit emptier now… (*Note: There is a wet spot and is labeled by Migi as dog drool. I wonder if it's actually dog drool.)

Cuts back to the Sonoyama house. The phone rings. Youko: "Hello?"

Youko answers the phone. Youko: "Oh, Dali!? How have you been!? Uh huh… uh huh. How about I put Migi on the phone for now… huh?"

Youko looks surprised. Youko: "You want to talk to Sardine!?"

PAGE 4

Youko puts the phone over Sardine. Dali: "How have you been, Beast?" (*Note: It's funny and heartwarming to see Dali indulging Migi's silliness by playing along with his Sardine act)

Migi suddenly appears, kneeling and with his hand over Sardine's mouth, and pretends to be Sardine. He is now wearing a sweater and has a playful look on his face. Migi: "Woof!" (*My interpretation: "Great!")

Dali responds. Dali: "I see, I see. You aren't causing any trouble for Mom and Dad, are you?" (*Note: it's heartwarming to see Dali acknowledge the Sonoyamas as his parents)

Migi answers, with another playful look on his face. Migi: "Ahnn!" (*My interpretation: "No!")

Dali answers, and Migi continues to answer like a dog. Dali: "I see, I see." Migi: *More dog noises and panting* (*Note: I have no idea how to interpret this. I guess Migi's conveying his joy and excitement at talking to Dali)

Dali, who clearly knows he's talking to Migi, reciprocates Migi's feelings by saying that he misses Migi too. Migi is surprised, and his eyes are wide open. Dali: "I miss you too, Migi." (*Note: He uses "会いたい" which can be translated to, "I REALLY miss you" or "I want to meet/see you." Given his use of "too," Dali knows that the feeling is mutual. Migi seems to be surprised that Dali not only has completely read his feelings but also stated his own feelings directly over the phone. This isn't surprising to me since Dali was always perceptive, especially to Migi, and this shows that Dali has always been and still is the big bro)

The whole Sonoyama family is here, including Osamu and Fidelite. Osamu smiles and Youko chuckles, while Migi is frozen, visibly flustered and blushing. Sardine: "Woof!" (*Note: It's pretty cute that Migi gets bashful when it comes to his brother, like he was with Sali. This goes to show that Migi has always been and still is the little bro.)

Final thoughts: It was very heartwarming to see that even though the twins were confident that they would remain connected even when apart, they still craved interaction and company from each other, which shows that their love hasn't waned one bit.

It was interesting to see the differences in how the twins conveyed their feelings, and it really highlights the older/younger brother dynamic. Migi is the first to convey these emotions, albeit in a bit of an awkward and indirect way by pretending to be Sardine. He also chose a letter maybe because he felt a bit insecure or awkward about saying "I miss you" to Dali and perhaps was afraid of being seen as a baby. Meanwhile, Dali is more reserved but clearly feels the same way as Migi given his reaction to the letter, and is able to return these feelings directly to him via phone. Unlike Migi, Dali has no fear or shame whatsoever and is far more confident in conveying his feelings to him.

Hopefully, Dali will actually come home sometime, maybe during Christmas for example. That'd be something that I would love to see written, drawn, and/or animated.

[lunalillyhbhb]

Lea's home

Chapter 8 pt.1

With test season coming up, I request Lea's mom if I can take some time off and focus more on my material and practice questions. This time of is much needed, I need to really remove myself from creating more situations that could potentially eat into my study time, and at Lea's place, those possibilities are everywhere. Lea, Mrs. Nicole, Mirin, Khushi and Roxanne too, I see them too often, and one thing always leads to another and I end up spending.... "quality" time with them. I can't have that now, I need to distance myself from them and my work and really get into preparations.

I miss Lea. Bad. Really bad. I want to suddle up on her chest and listen to her heart beat for me.

To make up for my absence, Lea's mom opened up a few spots and Lea recommended some of her juniors who she's close with, and asked me to meet up with them and give them a general gist of their duties before they agree to an interview. I plan on meeting them after 3, roughly at the time their classes should get over with.

Three o'clock rolls around too soon and I leave my things behind in my spot in the library and make my way to the gym where the meetup was planned.... let's see, if I remember correctly, their names should be Arielle and Arianna? In their 2nd year I'm guessing, should be around 20 years old.

I wait by the bench outside with a small note in my hand with the general duties of a maid and what's expected in their household. For 10 mins I see no one nearing the bench. This is bad, it doesn't reflect well on their character. Being tardy on the first meeting doesn't show them as reliable people. Or maybe they just got the meeting place wrong and are waiting somewhere inside the gym...... I decide to check before assuming the worst and dropping a message to Lea.

The gym is usually empty during this time, most students prefer working out in the morning or after 6 pm. Looking around, the place is clean and the equipment is shiny and inviting, but empty, save for a trainer sitting by the front desk. I walk up to her and inquire if she's seen 2 girls walk in and she replies that she did in-fact, see 2 girls walk into the women's locker room 20 mins ago and assumed they left already. I thank her and continue to the locker room just to check.

I open the door quietly and step inside. I hear the hushed sounds of heavy breaths and small moans. Of course, there's nothing suspicious about this, if anything this happening in the gym makes most sense.

"Arielle and Arianna? You guys in here?" I call out as I turn the corner. I'm met with 2 red head identical twins, tousled together in what I assume is some stretch position looking hot and bothered, panting slightly with their cheeks flushed, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights as they stare at me. I guess I must've interrupted these twins' private stretch routine.

"Sorry I was looking for someone, please don't mind me!" I turn back to head outside. "Wait!" one of the redheads call out. "I'm so sorry, we should've paid attention to the time."

"-We thought we'd squeeze in a quick workout-"

"-and didn't realize we overshot our meetup time!"

Wow. I always thought the whole twin completing each other's thoughts was a made-up thing, guess not.

"I'm Arielle"

"-and I'm Arianna!"

Ooh! They're Lea's juniors!

Arielle and Arianna dressed in their workout gear look cute but also very sexy, their thin shirts hugging their large breast quickly rising up and down with their breathing, their slim waists accentuated by high tights and thick thighs. I remember them now. These two are quite popular on our campus, the sexy twins who are very smart and studious and extremely shy, only ever seen with each other and no one else. Many have tried to get in their pants to no avail, so there's no point in me trying either..... I mean, it's totally not like I want to steth them right now and see if their heartbeats are beating equally fast at the same time.

"Just give us a minute-"

"-we'll pack up our things and be with you in a bit!"

"Sure!" I reply, stepping out quickly before I let them see my thoughts running wild..... just a simple glance at them in their workout gear has me quite riled up. I start thinking, just how far does their identical part go? Do they make the same expressions, have the same emotions, react the same way? Do they have....the same sensitive zones....do they squirm the same way when stimulated, do their moans sound the same, do their hearts beat in sync-

"We're ready!" They say in unison, as if taunting my train of thoughts. Today is going to be rough, but I'll power through this somehow, and try my best to keep that image out of my head.

I go over their duties for the time being and how they can manage their time alongside work, getting to know a bit of them in the process. Contrary to the rumors circulating around, they don't seem shy.... in fact, they were very friendly and nice to be around. I wonder why they don't hang out with their classmates more often.

I walk with them to Lea's house, determined to finish this as quick as possible to return to the library and continue my study session. For now, I just need to get them acquainted with the house and the rooms. While walking, they kept chatting about various things but somehow, they seemed distant, as if their mind was elsewhere, as if they too wanted to finish this soon, probably due to other plans. They kept fidgeting with their hair and fingers, trying to be as calm as possible.

Lea's house is quiet, no one seems to be home at the moment. Nice, no need to stop for pleasantries. I walk through the place quickly, guiding them through the important rooms and their quarters. As the tour continues, they abruptly stop.

"Any doubts/questions for me so far?" They shake their heads no, and look at each other, silently communicating something desperate with their eyes.

"Do you mind.... if we use the restroom?"

"We'll be back quick, promise!"

"Sure!" I reply. "We'll meet back in 10 mins? I'll be waiting in the maid's quarters." They nod at me and then walk away quickly. Their strange behavior is starting to worry me.....maybe their classmates have seen this side of them and that's why they find it hard to approach them?

Ten minutes pass by quickly yet there's no sign of them. Late again. This habit of theirs is very concerning, maybe I really should warn Lea and ask her to find someone else-

No. Let me give them a fair chance before making up my mind. I walk around the house looking through each room. As I pass by the storage room I hear the same noises like back in the gym locker room- muffled breathy moans. This time, coming from the storage room.

I quickly pull the doors apart and find the twins.....entangled in each other's arms, making out with such intensity and passion, eyes tightly closed. I am unable to pull my eyes away from them, while they are so engrossed in each other they still haven't noticed me. I watch them as their tongues intertwine, wet sloppy moans escaping, hard to differentiate who it's coming from. Their hands roam each other's bodies and I notice each of them has firmly placed her hand under the other's left breast, as if firmly holding the other's heart in place. My mind instantly remembers what it was thinking and before I lose myself, I clear my throat loud enough to be heard over their moans.

Their heads snap back so quickly it almost gives me whiplash. Again, the same deer caught in the headlights look.....so this was their private stretch session. Mortified faces, as if their dirty ugly secret was exposed for the whole world to see and yet....their palms never left the other's heart. As if even in that moment when their shameful secret was out, they still couldn't let go of that sensation, and I know beneath the mortification they are secretly enjoying the way their hearts are beating out of control.

I have something to use against them. The corner of my lips curl up slightly. "Make yourselves presentable and meet me downstairs. Now." I order and walk away.

Time to put my thoughts to the test. Let's see just how far their identical features really go.

[10piecechickenmcnugget]

BESTIE DROP THE WORLDBUILDING (OR THE DISCORD) I WANNA HEAR ALL ABOUT IT CAN WE BE ADHD ABOUT OUR OLI-CENTRIC WORLDBUILDING TOGETHERGJFHGD- *is dragged away*

i don’t have discord so i’ll just have to talk about it here

you’re making me procrastinate my x life oli drawing but that’s ok he’s the king of procrastination it’s what he would’ve wanted

so. *insane person voice* from my limited empires season 2 knowledge i’ve decided that server is what happens when multiple separate timelines are all forced together. (crickets)

“sage. what the fuck are you on about” well i’ll tell ya. so. the entire premise of c!oli is that he is the Same Fucking Guy no matter what server he’s in- most of the time- and that he just keeps getting isekaid into different dimensions like the freak that he is.

so in afterlife, he returned to an Empty Server that was supposed to be shut down by fucking God or something idk. but they can’t shut it down while there’s still a living breathing player there. aka oli. so when oli reached his final life and went to heaven ig they were like Fucking Finally please get that guy out of here. so pearls like yeah ok ^_^ you can stay here and oli said fuck that so she said fuck you and kicked him out. but he can’t go back to afterlife cause that’s not a thing anymore so he just ended up in the middle of fucking nowhere and was like guess this is my life now. and that effectively Broke the Motherfucking World (good job king)

so oli fucked around, found out, and accidentally banished himself to limbo for a long fucking time but that’s not relevant right now. so the world in the meantime was like Ok we got that guy out of here let’s try and fix the very essence of space time or whatever. but then it Didn’t which resulted in roughly 13 different timelines all converging in one place, which is why all the emperors are such different species and from such different backgrounds (joel being an Actual God, lizzie being from somewhere where anthro animals are a normal thing, whatever the fuck falses deal was, etc)

after that all happened the World was like oh shit. we fucked that up. i guess that’s enough time in The Void for oli so they let him out and that’s how he ended up in a world full of multiple alternate universe versions of his friends and also falsesymmetry

that being said, the world is a broken story that wants to at the very least be a slightly fixed story with an ending. so it keeps trying to fix itself, however it is Massively Fucked and instead the Rift happens, which was also slightly olis fault cause again, he broke the world

so then enters hermitcraft, which is also a world full of colliding timelines but 100x more stable if you don’t count the apocalypse. and that happens but it wasn’t supposed to and like i said the world just wants to fix itself so eventually the rift closes and all the hermits go home 👍

things are fairly calm after that, and tbh the esmp2 ending was kinda mid imo but i do have some very canon divergent ideas about what happened when Oli “broke the world” Orionsound goes BACK THROUGH WHATS LEFT OF THE RIFT and ends up somewhere else but this has already gotten too long so. there’s that

[atherix]

What is the current year the fic is set in? I know it’s been 10,000 years since the last Warden appearance, but I’m assuming it’s some time after that for society to pick itself up enough to start counting years ago, and I’m curious how long that was. Is the year like 8217, or like 5742, or even as recent as 3108??

Also what’s the calendar like? Is it basically similar to Earth with 12 months of about 30 days each or like. Is it different??

And back to the years thing again - do we get to know how long ago/how long after the Warden was it when Grian and Jimmy (and Gem 👀👀) parted for the last time? I’m assuming it’s somewhere between 3000-7000 years ago/years after the Warden but I’m curious to hear if we get a more specific time frame.

Thanks so much!!

I need you to know I have a whole ramble on this in my drafts where I'm trying to figure everything out. I shot myself in the foot by making everything super vague hgfhjjk SO BEAR WITH ME AS I RAMBLE ABOUT THIS

So Mumbo was born in 3998 and it's been ALMOST five hundred years since he was born, but not quite. I did a lot of math that is incomprehensible now and both Belle and I landed at the current year being roughly 4487 at the start of Midnight in which Tubbo is still 17; he turns 18 during Midnight Lies, still in 4487 a few months after Grian meets Mumbo, and 20 during Midnight Alley, which means a little more than 2 years has passed, so the current year is placed in ~4489. (this also means at least one year has passed between Midnight Lies and Midnight Visit, since Tubbo was 19 in Visit lol). This means they started counting years again nearly 5,000 years after the Warden happened.

So, remember; Boatem was founded 2,000 years ago (roughly 2400's), and the Hermetian kingdom was founded four hundred years later, around the 2800's. Yet Scar describes Boatem as being one of the oldest settlements on the continent, with the people from Boatem having come from across the sea. Yet they've been counting years for nearly 5,000 years, and we know the Ancients were settled on this continent 10,000+ years ago, and there were people who survived the Wardens...

So what happened to the survivors' settlements? Why is it that in 10,000 years, one of the oldest settlements on the entire continent is only two thousand years old? Well...

Strongholds are above Ancient Cities. Desert temples, jungle temples, ocean monuments, the ruins Drowned are often found around... well, where did they come from? They're all younger than the Ancient Cities, yet older than current society. These were all once marks of civilizations that no longer exist

Something happened in those ten thousand years that reset society again :) And whatever that was is what people are counting from. It wasn't as big as the Warden, ofc, but it was bad enough that few cities or villages or settlements from before it survived, and those that did were often abandoned for the even older, bigger, stronger cities that would prove to withstand time.

ANYWAY I GOT SIDETRACKED BY SOMETHING THAT ISN'T EVEN IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT um-

So I know while they age the same way we do in line with their years (for example an 80 year old Hermetian looks like an 80 year old person from Earth) their years are longer than ours, and their seasons are fucked because their world doesn't work like ours (for example, their moon moves just like the sun, always opposite of it. Makes you wonder where the moonlight comes from *coughGodsarerealcough*) so they can't even judge the years by the seasons. The only thing that changes, besides the phases of the moon, are the stars, so they have to judge their years on the stars (is Midnight heavy in star imagery? Yes, yes it is). Where is this constellation now? and that sort of thing.

NOW HERE'S THE REAL PROBLEM. I basically already established that their days run on a 24 hour clock. So there's 24 hours in a day. How many days are in a week? How many weeks in a month? How many months in a year?

... These are things that I never established, even to myself. I know I want their years to be longer than ours, but not significantly. I just need to figure out where the extra time comes from, and how it's broken down into smaller units. Like we know Scar's rounds took him 2 weeks when he was still delivering blood, and he would deliver to Mumbo once every three months. I already established once every three months is roughly 4 times a year, so the extra time can't have more than ~14 months in it or much less than 12, but we don't know how months are broken into days and weeks and stuff so. I need to. Figure that out. I'm leaning towards a 13 month system just because I think it's funny to use 13 but I could just stick with twelve with each month being longer, base ten is a very common... well, base, so maybe a system of 10 days per week, which if we kept at 4 weeks in a month would be ~40 days and if we add a week ~50 which at 12 months a year would be 480-600 days in a year bUT-

As for how long after the Warden it was when Jimmy and Grian and Gem left the Alley, well 👀 That will actually be revealed in the next chapter.

[indigosunsetao3]

WIP Wednesday

I need to be better about my tracker. But I thought I would share what I've been up to since my posting has been slower.

A Reason to Try

Working on Chapter 14. I am at a small...impasse. The major plot point is coming, which is literally what started the whole story for me. But the question is, do I do it in this chapter or next. Basically, I want to write more smut, I am not even going to lie about that, but I also want to get to this moment. Smut OR the pivotal moment would both work in this chapter...choices choices. I may end up writing it both ways and seeing what flows best. Or both could end up in this chapter and make it a huuuuuge mess.

Older CIA Alex

About halfway through the newest update. You and Alex are stuck in an overly warm apartment with only a few fans and a half working AC to fight against the heatwave. Both of you are sweaty and doing your best not to acknowledge the lack of clothes either of you have on. And when his calloused hands somehow find your sore feet and bare legs, you definitely don't pay attention to that. Not to the way his fingers nearly make you moan out loud as they massage out the weariness. You certainly aren't zeroed on how he has your feet resting right atop of him. Definitely not. And he for sure is not smirking watching you squirm.

Lifeline

Started writing the first chapter. I settled on the place. Ullswater in the Lake District of England. I wanted somewhere with defined seasons, touristy but also locals that live there, small-town feel (as far as the locals are concerned), with a historical background. A place to escape but not too far from reality either. It's very similar to where I grew up in the US so I could easily put myself there (it's still an OC story but will still be an exercise of dealing with my own things). I'm glad I went with the Poly idea because I have outlined what each guy brings to the table. How that progresses and how they also figure things between themselves.

Severance AU

This has progressed to more than just a thought. I've started roughly outlining plots.

Best Laid Plans

Working on part 2. Sometimes we just need some pure smut to get us through the day. This is that. It's a nice break when I don't want to do much plot work, but I want to write. Most complicated part is figuring out what who is going in where.

Some drabble I started to write when the insomnia got me last week

“Johnny,” you whine quietly, the sleep still thick in your voice. “I’m here, bonnie,” he answers, shifting so his length slides between your legs and through your folds. You groan a bit at the feel and rock back into him as he slowly teases you. He keeps his movements soft and gentle as he ruts against you, his lips catching any bit of skin he can find. The sheets rustle with each adjustment as you push back, silently, asking for more. He doesn’t give it to you yet, taking his time to savor the push and pull of your body as he works you up.

Lentamente

Stay tuned for this one.

[lover-of-mine]

Re: the timeline - I think everything pre-season 4 is supposed to be counted as "present day" (at the time of airing), so 3x18 should be (roughly) taking place in spring 2020 (sans pandemic) and then, yea things get a little weird after that with the beginning of S4 being set in Sept 2020, but airing in Jan 2021. But I think you can solidly consider everything pre-season 4 to take place similarly along the date it aired.

I remember there being some timeline confusion this season in 6x11 (March 2023) when Bobby tells the hospital staff that Buck is a 30 y/o male. Which, if each season is roughly set against the time it's airing, I think is hard to figure when Maddie says Buck is 28 in 3x01 (Sept 2019).

But I do think the writers screw up their own timelines sometimes - ex: I think Buck should have been 31 if not 32 in 6x11, I also don't think Eddie and Buck are meant to be the same age even though the glimpse of Shannon's headstone in S6 would indicate they are closer in age than what's been implied in several previous eps/seasons. So, TLDR; Idk if the writers/producers keep as close of a watch on little timeline details as we do to know when they're contradicting themselves lol.

Yeah, I think s4 screwed up their time line plans and they kinda said fuck it by season 6 because to give us a definitive date for Shannon's birthday and death really messes with things there, they put a definitive date on the s2 finale, they defined Eddie's age, when they haven't really defined it for anyone except for the occasional mention to Buck's age and the general Bobby is in his 50s along with Athena. And like, Buck being 28 before the tsunami, 29 when he finds out about Daniel and 30 by the lightning really compresses the timeline there, even if we assume he had just turned 28 in s3 and is about to turn 31 during the lightning (which doesn't make a lot of sense in regards of when Buck's birthday would be, not that I actually think they have a set birthday for any of the characters) that's still a lot things happening in the middle, because there's also Jee being born, so if they really pushed s3 back, like, how old is Jee supposed to be at the end of season 6? Because she's walking and toddler talking by the end of 6a, so she has to be close to 2 around there? With her being born end 2020/beginning 2021, it has to be 2023, but Maddie left a few months after she was born and she was way for 6 months, so Jee is pushing 1 by the time Boston happens, which kinda adds up considering the time jumps that are established around the shooting, but also with Buck being 29 while Maddie is pregnant, how can he still be 30 and Jee be almost 2? And there's also the way another whole baby is created and born during 6b. Because eve. considering the way the baby is born early, it has to be what? 8 months from cursed to the finale? The more I think about the more knots are created in my brain.

And even more so considering the injuries at the bridge and the way the season ends with Chim coming back and Eddie already there, when the recovery time for broken ribs is close to 2 months in real world but maybe not in 911 world because Lena broke her ribs during the tsunami but she's perfectly fine the next episode. So, like, what's the truth?

I feel like the whole time line I created is around Buck's age and I'm starting to believe Buck may need to be even younger than we assume, because if he's 26 in s1, 28 in s3 and he's still just 30 in s6, the math stops mathing somewhere along s5. Because, like, either things are happening real quick during 5b or the time line is just wrong. But I agree, I don't think they've been all that careful with the dates there, and they didn't think about the implications of giving us the Shannon related dates.

[chibeast]

One of the things I'm making for xmas is "Garbage Bag Crackers" - so called because you traditionally mix the ingredients in a garbage bag.

I should note that I do NOT do this, that's not food safe.

But they turn out amazing, and if you're looking for an easy no bake treat, here's my take:

Trash Crackies

Ingredients:

-Roughly 5 boxes/bags assorted Crackers or cereal*

-1 tablespoon each of**:

-Ranch Seasoning (like the dressing packets)

-Creole Seasoning

-Onion Powder

-Garlic Powder

-16 Oz bottle of Butteroil, sometimes called "popcorn topping" - the fake butter flavored oil by the popcorn in the store

Equipment:

-2 Large FOOD SAFE plastic bags, I use crock pot liners because they're easy to find, but whatever works!

-Optional: A big Tupperware with a lid, or even a disposable aluminum pan with a domed plastic lid - big enough to hold all ingredients with some room!

Method:

Mix all your Crackers in one of the bags. Add all seasonings to the dry Crackers, and gently shake the bag to distribute. Add the bottle of butteroil. Yes, the whole thing. You'll live. Tie or seal the bag, place the whole thing in second bag, then in the lidded container, if using.

Toss, rotate, and flip the cracker container to coat everything evenly. Place container in a cool, dry place, preferably in a high traffic area of your home, like a kitchen counter. Why? The crackers need to marinate for at least three days. During this time, you will need to shake and rotate the container every few hours. If you place it somewhere you walk by often, it will be easy to just give it a quick flip and shake as you pass.

After 3 days, the crackers are ready to eat!

*This is a good way to clear your pantry. It's best to use things with a more neutral, 'plain' flavor - Ritz, Saltines, Chex, Pretzels, etc. You don't want flavors that clash. They also need to be able to stand up to a bit of jostling. Mixed nuts are good here, too. My mix for this batch is Ritz, Cheez-its (Extra Toasty), Mini Pretzels, Ritz Toasted Chips, and Chicken in a Biskit.

**You honestly can add any seasonings you'd like! Be careful of seasoning mixes containing salt, though, since the crackers are already salty. Something fun to try: mix some hot sauce in with the butteroil!

[jezabatlovesbats]

Jezabat’s AU Masterlist

I’m reposting this for the second time because the link to it isn’t working.

Unikitty

- Unikitty: Big Bright World

My biggest and most developed AU project. The fanfiction series set in this alternate universe takes place roughly three years after the show. In this AU, The Birthday to End All Birthdays didn't happen. It’s like, “What if Unikitty was more like Minecraft: Story Mode?”

- Unikitty: Cuckoo Land Pals

This AU is where the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movies are reenacted with the cast of the show. There is another world where the gang are human Lego figurines, and they attend a school called Cuckoo Land High. Unikitty travels to this world to get back a miniature version of the Smiles Sphere, which will be awarded as a prize at a dance. A teenage human version of her attends another school called Frowntown Prep.

Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart

- The Lunar AU

This is a universe in which there is an area in Pure Heart Valley called Forest County. It is mostly populated by Lunar Sweetypies, which are Sweetypies with crescent moon markings somewhere on their body. They have low energy, droopy eyelids, dark fur/skin colors, very high sensitivity to the sun, and deeper voices than most Sweetypies. Eugene has been friends with a Lunar Sweetypie named Edgar Cresselion, and their daughters, Adorabat and Annette, were friends once. Also, in this AU, Mao Mao's mother has a chronic illness.

- Mao Mao: Dancers of Pure Heart

Each character specializes in a certain type of dance instead of fighting. Each Sweetypie specializes in their own kind of dance, as do the heroes and Sky Pirates. Mao Mao does jazz, Badgerclops does hip-hop and Adorabat does ballet.

Trolls

- Seven Tribes

Everything is the same except there are seven troll tribes instead of six. The seventh tribe is the swing music trolls, and they live on Mt. Big Band. Their homes and their fashion sense are 1930s and 1940s-inspired. There are also musical theater trolls.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

- Monster Children

This AU gives more plot to Halloween Town’s trick-or-treaters. It also adds Birthday Land, New Year City and Earth Day Town to the holiday forest. Plus, there’s Tooth Town, where the Tooth Fairy lives, and Time Land, where Father Time lives.

Minecraft: Story Mode

- Minecraft: Story Mode- The Next Chapters

This is an inverse AU to Unikitty: Big Bright World. It’s like, “What if Minecraft: Story Mode was more like Unikitty?” The fanfiction series set in this alternate universe takes place roughly five or six years after Season 2. New protagonists are introduced in this one.

- Minecraft: Music Mode

Almost everybody specializes in a certain kind of music, and they use musical powers to fight monsters.

Mario franchise

- Mario & Luigi Rewritten

The Mario & Luigi series rewritten by yours truly in the style of a TV show. It includes Daisy and Rosalina, as well as elements from Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Princess Peach, and Princess Peach: Showtime.

[mamasanctuary]

Today I have a wonderful recipe for you that will only take you about 45 hours to make! Kidding🤗 

Before I jump into the recipe I wanted to be a typical plant mom and show off my little sprout-lings in that last picture! It’s a mixture of herbs and some veggies (mostly tomatoes and cucumbers) since I wasn’t successful getting to my garden last year. I’m hoping to have more success this year but any plant parents out there with tips? All advice is welcome!

Receta... ⬇

I’ve been obsessed with quiche since my first pregnancy. I know there’s an “original” out there somewhere but the kind I make is certainly far from it. It takes a total of 50 minutes to make, but the time can be cut in half if you prep somewhat before.  I always get praised for how “well” my kids eat and I think a large portion it has to do with the variety I present them with. I’ve never had the mindset to cook different things for different kids because what parent has time for that! No, instead what I do is introduce good, seasoned food from the start of their food introduction (around 6-8 months) and three kids later, I have no idea what it’s like to have a picky eater. 

This can typically last for two breakfasts as I usually pair it with a some fruit and toast. It’s also reallllllly good with French toast and maple syrup!

Ingredients I used:

- 10 eggs; I like a denser quiche but you can use less if you don’t + there’s five of us eating this

. 1 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese

- 1 cup of whole fat milk

- 2/3 cup of roughly chopped onion

- 2/3 cup of mushrooms

- 1/3 of yellow peppers

- 1 Tbsp of salt

- 1/2 tbsp of cayenne pepper (we like spicy)

- 1 tsp of black pepper

- 1 tsp of onion and garlic powder

- A pinch of ginger powder

Optional: More protein!

I add turkey links in diced chunks; I don't always add it in, but I did for this quiche. Directions: Before prepping, set you oven to 360 degrees. Remove all your pots and pans from there first 🤪

Wisk eggs with milk.

Chop veggies into chunks(sizable but not bulky) and add them in to the mixture being sure to fold it into the eggs.

Add in all spices and mix for a full minute to coat everything in mixture.

Pour half of mixture  into a 9″ circular, oven safe pan (could also be a square pan too) and add a 1/2 of mozzarella. Add rest of mixture and cheese to top it off.

Place in oven and leave for approx. 30 minutes.

I usually let mine cool for about 10 minutes before cutting into it, ust to make sure everything is settled inside. Personally, my children like ketchup with their eggs (🤢) but I enjoy a bit of strawberry jam with mine, so I can’t talk. 

I hope you enjoy and give this a try! If you do, be sure to comment how you liked it below.