#serious note: don’t join cults

[serrennedyanonwriter]

My friend, proofreading something: Wow, you write Luis getting persuaded into the cult so well, it’s almost like you seen it firsthand.

Me: Oh thank you.

Also me: They don’t know, do they?

[callipraxia]

A Very Partial Annotation of The Book of Bill

The Axolotl, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains a mysterious figure even after his second-ever canonical appearance. Luckily (?) for us, though, nothing in Bill's ramblings directly contradicts the existence of Ax's metaphysically unstable and perpetually irritated brother the Olm, and he had a few things to say about Bill's latest escapades....

Disclaimer: This post should in no way be taken seriously. This is just me reacting to the book in only slightly delayed real-time, transcribing the sticky notes full of first impressions which cover my copy and elaborating them into dialogues both in and out of character because it amused me. This is about as serious as the Weirdmageddon: The Musical! incident. Also, Olly’s customary underlining has been replaced by a different font because tumblr doesn’t have an ‘underline text’ button for some reason.

Calli: Interesting cover...that's clearly meant to be an adaptation of an ankh in the corners of the book, and that's the same shape as the Emperor's scepter in the traditional tarot, and Ford takes the place of the Emperor in the Mystery Tarot....

Olm: Yes, because Stanford is so well-known for how well he embodies the concepts of authority and structure and the Idealized Father and Administrator. I somehow doubt young Bill made the association. It's more likely a reference to how the book allows him to behave as if he was still alive, to whatever extent.

Calli: I mean, you're probably right, but that's no reason to ruin my fun, is it?

Olm: ....

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Olm: You spent hours reading the alchemical symbols in different directions and making wild guesses about what they were supposed to be. Those sticky notes will make your family think you have either joined a cult or have become a serial killer if you ever lose track of two of them at once. These are the reasons why I ruin your fun.

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Calli: ...Yep, Ford definitely doesn't have any ongoing anger issues or PTSD-like psychological phenomena associated with Bill. Shooting the trashcan with a shotgun is totally normal, healthy behavior and definitely not something that would make it...concerning...if teenagers with no taste ever did pull such a prank....

Olm: I presume the loss of a perfectly serviceable trash can took place in the name of that piece of theater. Shooting the book would have sufficed. Or at least not failed any more miserably than the attempt where he did shoot the trash can failed anyway.

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Calli: ...Ford, you can't just tell me that books can be infected by the contents of other books and not explain what that means. What does that even mean?!

Olm: As usual, he never thinks of the consequences of his actions. Just dump dangerous artifacts in everyone else's realities, why don't you, wash your own hands of it, it's quite impossible that it will ever come back to haunt you after that…

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Calli: Luckily, this image doesn't pull off the jump scare nearly as well the second time around. Hopefully, this means I won't see this monstrosity in my dreams....

Olm: ...you've written things more disturbing than that, but a simple visual makes you uneasy? How quaint.

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Calli: Gotta love a children’s book that personifies rivers while offering step-by-step instructions for murder!

Olm: See those text boxes? Those text boxes are why you stay in school, children. One trillion years old and still can't spell...or, for that matter, apparently operate a decent word processor.

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Calli: ….puppets don’t have neurons. And that ‘chapter you won’t find’ business - what’s that about? Is it a reference to the Barnes and Noble version, or just an attempt to make us all waste a lot of time, or…?

Olm: Yes.

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Olm: As much as I hate to give him credit, that tangle of symbols probably is the closest thing to the correct answer that you all could process. Not the most poetic expression, but we’ve already discussed young Bill’s conflicted relationship with the written language…

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Calli: …isn’t that just a description of a normal potato?

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Olm: …somewhere, amidst all the glories of the multiverse, there is a human who will attempt to fit samples of every item on the Cheesecake Factory’s menu into a blender. It cannot be otherwise. There is at least one human who is doing that right now, in fact, and who will not believe me when I tell them that they will accomplish nothing more impressive than developing a severe case of indigestion at the end of that ill-advised quest. In light of that, I hardly see what the point is to informing you all that drinking fear will also probably give you indigestion, but take my word for it: there are much finer emotion-beverages out there. I’m rather partial to flow states, myself.

Calli: …welp, guess that explains why I’ve been struggling to write for the past two years. Also, Goliath is not gonna be happy about Bill’s picture there….

Olm: And I also look perfectly presentable in a bow tie, thank you very much. If I want to. It tells you a lot about an entity when he does something like claim allegiance to a style of formalwear so recently developed by one species that it might as well be a single particle in one atom in the shortest, thinnest thread of the Great Tapestry of reality…and do let me know if you ever make plans to tell Cthulhu that last bit to his face, Billy-boy. I’ll make popcorn.

Calli: …what use do you have for popcorn? Your most common form is a salamander, and I'm told the next most common one has four faces, two of which are always screaming.

Olm: That still leaves me two faces which can be put to better uses even on days when I can’t be bothered to take a stable form that has teeth. Next question.

**************************************

Olm: Finally! Some reading material that doesn’t aggravate my cosmic migrai -

[Eldritch profanity ensues]

**************************************

Calli: …ok, I can’t lie, that last line...that one kiiiiiinda hurt. Was that really necessary, Ford?

**************************************

Calli: I hate the source, as you all know too well…but man’s got a point about the relative importance of magic tricks and who’s crushing on you in the vast majority of cases.

Olm: Ultimately, they both sink into the nothingness from which they came, never having accomplished anything important enough to be remembered more than a few centuries at the most...but if I must pick one, magic has certainly proven more useful than any of my assorted ex-spouses.

**************************************

Olm: I’ll grant my lying, backstabbing excuse for a sister this much - she never made anyone pretend to be happy about being in any of the afterlives she's presided over. That’s more our brother’s style… Of course, my sister also used keratin deposits from the corpses of her subjects to construct vehicles for one of Father’s schemes, so I suppose allowing the wretched creatures to look miserable really was the least that she could do...but Bill really is too annoying for any self-respecting hell. Perhaps they could deserve each other, but even I don't hate her enough to subject her to that.

**************************************

Calli: …why was the second page so much harder to read than the first one was in my hand mirror?

Olm: The mirror also reflects what it reverses.

**************************************

Calli: ...Ok, I already said it, but this book *really* needs to stop hitting so close to home...

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Olm: Ah, yes. That incident. Someone remind me to thrash him again sometime for that one. Such a mess to clean up, and Huitzilopochtli is still screaming....

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Olm: Ah...self-sabotage! Let me sprinkle a bit of that onto my popcorn.

Calli: Am I the only one way too excited to see Powers' agency's card here? To find out they knew about Bill? To find out that the U.S. government once physically captured Bill and took a blood sample??

Pity about the "Bureau of..." bit, though. It took forever to think up the DFSI and now I'm going to have to adjust to it being the BFSI, I guess, and that doesn't roll off the tongue nearly as well.

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Olm: Oh, of course he'd be tasteless enough to include a photograph of his chess set, mortals aren't even supposed to know that those exist....

Calli: I've written about your brother's. You also used chess metaphors to drop hints in Part III.

Olm: Neither of us is semi-canonical!

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Olm: I would call that an unusually flattering sketch of my brother, if not for Stanford's unawareness his existence and for his proximity to what appears to be some sort of...aardvark?

**************************************

Calli: Interesting that everything after the first one is dangerously close to some aspect of the truth...I'm gonna take this as a point of support for my theory that Ford really contacted Fiddleford about the Portal less because he needed the technical expertise than because he knew on some level that he was in deep trouble and was practically screaming for help without even realizing it.

Also, I love the fact that Ford is trying to solve potentially prophetic dreams with fridge magnets.

**************************************

Calli: Fun fact! I spent so long looking at charts of alchemical symbols in an attempt to make sense of that row of them inside the front cover that I was actually able to recognize those two in the center of Nightmare Bill's pupil there. They mean..."Vinegar" and "Distilled Vinegar II." No idea why they're there, but that's what they mean.

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Calli: ...well, at least I've never been arrested for public intoxication and/or committing indecent exposure at a Mexican restaurant. Whenever I feel bad about myself, I guess that I'll always at least have that now.

Olm: He probably hasn't, either. You'd have to ask Zozo to be sure, as I was asleep at the time, but I very much suspect that he is lying. Do you really think something with a bounty like his on its head could just stroll into a multidimensional bar? Or, for that matter, that any even semi-mortal authority could hold him for six hours against his will?

Calli: ...Ok, fair. Especially since the blood in the milkshake machine makes it seem pretty unlikely that he somehow forgot his powers when the cops showed up.

**************************************

Olm: He'd be welcome to my uncle, but he's been dead long enough that I don't think he's coming back.

Calli: I thought you said that you didn't cross the line between hating your family and hating your family enough to subject them to Bill?

Olm: I said that I don't hate my sister enough to subject her to Bill. My uncle, on the other hand...he wasn't nearly as bright as his reputation might lead you to think, my uncle. If he had been, I imagine he would have been more familiar with the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy….

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Olm: ...He's perfectly capable of speaking normally, you know. The rhyming couplets are just to obfuscate and frustrate and confuse. Though I don't think I can blame all of these on him...'Upstairs' is not a concept that makes much sense in his domain, and the rhymes themselves acknowledge that he…no longer exists inside of space.

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Olm: And so a god is reduced to a mental patient. A sad old story, that one, but inevitable from time to time....

Calli: ...yeah, yeah, great, but what's this 'Puppet Hour' thing? Why is it in all-caps like that demented "show" Bill made for Ford? And why's the doctor apparently part of the Axolotl cult? This is all a bit unnerving and has a lot of story potential!

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[teecupangel]

An idea I have but don't want to write - Minerva sees Desmond sacrifice himself and feeling somewhat guilty, she broadcasts who desmond is and what he has done into the minds of every human on earth - in doing so also spilling the beans on the Isu and the Juno, and also assassins and Templars. Every single human being now knows that Desmond Miles died to save the world. A stereo is panicking. The assassins are freaking out. JUNO is freaking out. Religions are freaking out. And also new ones featuring Desmond start being made.

Minerva just going:

I get it. I have a lot of ideas I don’t wanna write too. We write what we want and what makes us happy. Sometimes, the ideas we have are just ‘hey, you know what would be awesome/fucked up’ but at the same time we’re like ‘hhhmm… yeah.. not gonna write that…’ Sometimes, ideas just remain ideas in the end and that’s okay.

Okay, but on a more serious note, this has soooo many things that could go wrong. Like, Minerva’s pretty much going “fuck it, I’m already dead by this point, it’s no longer my problem!” and screwed up everybody in the process.

Let’s not even focus on Desmond yet.

By blowing the lid on what the Isus were, Minerva had effectively hit a deadly blow to every religious organization in the world. Not only that, the scientific world would be scrambling as everything they know to be true about the world must be scrutinized now that they know that there was an ancient civilization before them.

Then there are those drenched in power and those who desire power.

Politicians, terrorists, CEOs of corporations that control the world, etc…

They would be scrambling to get ahold of these POEs because they would be a source of power that they do not have but crave.

And now we get to the shit that comes to light because of Desmond…

The Templars and Assassins.

The Templars have it harder. Soooo much harder.

They’re Abstergo. Their deeds have been broadcast which included Desmond’s abduction, forcing him to relive his ancestors’ life, toying with his feelings using Lucy Stillman and…

Oh yeah.

The Great Purge gets uncovered too because Desmond hears about it and there are journalists and conspiracy theorists that smelled blood in the water and they’re definitely eating everything they can.

The Assassins are panicking but they’re fine, all things considered. They’re used to hiding. Rebecca, Shaun, and Bill are the only ones whose faces everyone knows right now (also Desmond’s mom, I guess?). But the rest can still stay in the shadow.

And now…

The world is shifting.

Religions featuring Desmond as a messiah and even a god (the one true god, the god of humans, not the false gods of the Isus) are popping up and they’re making things... actually easier for the Assassins.

Because they all have the same thing in common.

They wear white hoods.

Some wear hoodies.

Others go for the whole white robes that are pretty much monk robes.

So now the Assassins have an easy way to blend in.

It’s like they’re retreading the path walked by the Levantine Brotherhood during the Third Crusades.

But this time, it is the cults and religions worshipping Desmond Miles that are sweeping the world.

Shaun, Rebecca, and Bill knew that Desmond would have hated this.

He had sacrificed himself so that the world would not treat him as a god.

So that his deeds and words wouldn’t be twisted into fanaticism.

But, in the end, that was what was happening.

The religion and cults are joining together, creating a large religious organization that places Desmond as the one true god (although some say that he is a human turned god, others say he is a reincarnated god). Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton are even getting added to the 'doctrines', being called prophets and saints. Some sect even consider them Desmond the god taken human form. Haytham, if he is even added, is more divisive with many sects calling him a false Prophet while others call him a Fallen Prophet.

This religious organization marks every other religion as worshipping false gods and it doesn’t help that Juno has shown herself, protected by her own cult or whatever bullshit those nutbags call themselves (the Instruments of the First Bitch or whatever). Juno is showing a very bad image of the old gods and that’s only making everything so much worse.

And that is how…

The Holy Wars begin anew.

[mulling-over-milgram]

Many asks for the character ask game-

Kotoko 2, 3, 6, 8, 12

Amane 1, 8, 20, 25

Muu 1, 3, 7, 8, 12

Yuno 4, 8, 14, 20, 25

You don’t have to answer all of them because there are a lot 😂

-Favourite canon thing about this character? 

Just one? Oh this is difficult. I'm not sure if I can choose an absolute favourite canon thing but I like how she has so much jewellery. Her rings and earrings are so cool!

-Least favourite canon thing about this character?

Probably the fact that she likes to give non-answers in the QnA’s like I think it makes sense for her character and is a good writing choice. It's just also kinda annoying because I want to know more about her!

-What's something you have in common with this character? A couple things but to keep my answer brief I really relate to how kotoko feels in Harrow around justice. I’ve had a very similar feelings when I started to be become more aware of social injustice even wanted to be a lawyered to try and do something about it so even though I never went anywhere near as far as kotoko did and I’ve come to view things less as bad people use the system to do bad things to weaker people and more as our current social climate/systems create an environment that creates people that then go on to maintain the toxic cycles I still relate a lot to her feelings. 

-What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? I get the two rapist Kotoko fanfics are low hanging fruit but I despise them with every fiber of my being just knowing what the second one is and that it exists makes me die a little inside.

What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I strongly head canon her as being on the ace spectrum :>

Why do you like or dislike this character? I love how layered Amanes symbolism is. I think her MV’s are some of the best when it comes to visuals that’ll drive you insane once you start really thinking about them. I feel like I always notice something new on a rewatch but I also think the reason I’m so attached to Amane is because she’s a character that have thought about a lot due to when I joined the fandom purge march was my first mv and I was around for pretty much all of Amane’s voting so there was a lot of Amane discussion when I first joined the fandom and my friends are all fans of her so any Milgram discussion quickly turned to her so I think she’s one of the first characters I really dug into the layers of because of that.

She’s also silly

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? This is less of a problem in the fandom now but the whole “we need to punish her so she won’t hurt shidou” or “we need to punish her and then she’ll leave the cult” because one that's not how cults work if you punish her your just giving her more reason to cling onto her region and proving the cult right but it's also just a mindset around children I see often and it kinda disgusts me that they should be punished or that punishment is the only option and if they aren’t punished how will they learn things are bad.

Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter? 

The ideal best friend? A good night's sleep. Have you seen her eye bags?

But on a more serious note even though with the latest minigram I’ve been thinking more about Kotoko Amane and even though Fuuta’s and Amane’s relationship is certainly not going to be healthy in t3 I’m going to say them. I think their friendship is cute and I want them to be besties!

What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

I didn’t watch purge with the English sub’s on the first time so I was like oh what a cool custom design look how happy she is then as it went on-oh -OH

OH SHE’S A LITTLE FUCKED UP ACTUALLY. 

Now I think Amane is an incredibly layered character and an especially well written child character. She's great. I love her. I hope she ends up alright in the end! 

Why do you like or dislike this character? I love her design SO MUCH!  but I think what I like about her the most is her relationship with her self image. I’ve seen a few people bring this up that muu portrays herself as a bug in it’s not my fault but portrays other like Rei as a human and this really really fascinates me because it shows us that Muu on some level idealize rei and villainesses/dehumanizes herself. 

Least favorite canon thing about this character? Her Crow symbolism doesn't show up in T2 :( it wouldn’t fit but it still makes me sad.

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like? I love how people draw her bug design! It's so cool to see how different people stylise it! Pretty everyone has a unique take on it even if it's just they simplify it down.

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? Something I love about milgram is how an mv will show you one side of the character and then different side in another and then when you put them together it gives up a better look of the character but people forget to do this with muu and just act like its not my fault is canon and like after pain doesn’t exist or was all a lie but no your supposed to look at them together! I think this is what leads to such simplified portrayals of muu people not taking into account her prior characterisation. This is also a problem I have with how the fandom treats harrow and deep cover.

What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Les-bee-ain 

If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Okay a big part of me wants to say Persona because I think her character would be super interesting in that world with how she views herself and other people and her mental health but a another part knows the person writers would not treat her well and they would probably just ruin her if ann and rise are anything to go off :( I’d like to think she’d be a navigator or a wild card. 

What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

My beef is more with the fandom in my local area than Milgramblr or the greater online fandom. Whenever I hear discussion of yuno she’s also simplified to girl boss and yes she is girl boss but also girl failure , girl hypocrite, girl self destructive coping mechanism , girl out of water , girl who needs a hug and so on I feel like people simplify her down too much because of her crime :(

Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

I don’t know alot about Lolita but that's the best fit I can think of. I don’t know fashion aesthetic :’)

Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter? Yuno and Muu's friendship fascinates me but mappi and yuno’s friendship is so sweet so I gotta say them. 

What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Oh this mv is so pretty! I love her so much! I can’t wait to learn more about her- oh…abortion….

It took me a long time to come around on Yuno because I was too distracted by her crime to see her interesting character depths. I love her now but I don’t consider myself a Yuno scholar. She’s one of my fav’s to draw!

No! No! thank you for sending in alot! :>

[gopped]

so… remember when I said I wanted to create the most 2015 out of character most cringe fanfic about durgetash and I had that pole asking if I should actually write it (as well as some actual serious durgetash which I will.) well…. I did it. Any bad use of grammar/ spelling are 100% on purpose, this is not a serious fic aka please don’t think this is how I actually write.

enjoy 984 words of pure torture.

Hey my name is The Dark Urge but everyone calls me Durge for short. I’m really poggers and epic because I was born from the blood of Bhaal, yeah Bhaals my dad, suck on that posers. I have ivory-white scales and eyes the color of blood being splashed on the deepest of rubies. And I’m a storm sorcerer, studying to do magic is for losers! Plus I have this super cool slayer form that literally makes me so badass. As the true spawn of Bhaal you could say I have it all, I have a whole cult at my beck and call, all the different corpses I can eat… but there’s one thing I don’t have yet. There’s this one guy….. The chosen of Bane, we made like this pact thing that says I can’t harm him but it never said I couldn’t fuck him. And by the gods I will. I want him to be my shmoopie snuggluffagus cutie pookie patootie pudding muffin, but my dad is like a total buzz kill so I have to apologize for even thinking about putting a ring on that. Anyways his names Enver Gortash but he prefers for me to call him Enver because we’re close like that and I’m special and all that fun stuff. Plus I’m so much better that the depressed pile of dust and bones we also have to work with, ugh he’s such a boomer.

So here I am walking into Moonrise Towers so we can start discussing our super foolproof evil plans for how to take over the world. My super platform docs stomp against the stone steps to enter the tower, I glare at a few of the various subjects of other cults, idk which ones though, all I know is they’re not as cool as I am. Their probably posers and preps for all I know. But again, I don’t care. I make my grand entrance into the throne like room, doves flying behind me as light shines behind me, I’m just that important to like the world and stuff. I whip off my super cool angular anime sunglasses and I look around the room I see my pookie schmookie goth fantasy man boo-boo bear sugar goober standing off to the side and I see the old decaying grandpa corpse sitting on the big chair at the end of the room. Ugh, he’s the worst, and not even in a fun way, he won’t shut up about how his daughter doesn’t want to talk to him anymore and how he’s literally only here because of her, like how boring can a backstory get? He begins to speak. “Ah how nice of you to finally join us, you’re over an hour late.” He grumbles out, I swear theres like a moth living where his brain should be doesn’t he know that you have to be fashionably late? “Umm yeah.” I say, “that’s the point, what kind of nerd actually shows up on time.” I say rolling my perfect blood red eyes, making sure I show my sharp teeth as I scoff at him for extra effect. “Whatever, let’s just start the meeting already.” The reanimated corpse groans out, bones cracking as he repositions himself in his high chair. I cross my arms over my chest because I’m mysterious and awesome as the guy begins to speak, I don’t pay attention my sister is probably around here somewhere I’ll just ask her for the spark notes version. Gods I want to kill someone. Like I don’t have to, but I’m bored and it’s something I enjoy doing. Then I notice something in the corner of the room, while the old man goes on and on I go and investigate, the something I noticed was a cultist, not one of mine of course, they knew better. Upon further inspection, they don’t even seem to be a cultist, their robes look homemade with no reference to what they’re even supposed to be wearing. And they seem to be snooping around too, ugh it’s probably some Harper spy or something. Well, might as well get my kill count up while I’m here I guess… I approach them and before they could even begin to utter an excuse I shove my dagger in their mouth, dragging it against the roof of their mouth and tongue and pushing it down their throat. I watch with glee as the fear in their eyes gets worse as they start to choke on their own blood. I wiggle my blade, making the gashes in their mouth wider as I do so. I could stop there, but where’s the fun in that? I pull my dagger out to watch them cough and sputter out their own blood, uselessly clawing at their throat. Ugh, what a poser, I bet that even before I did that they wouldn’t be able to name 3 MCR songs.. I shove the spy onto the ground as they look up at me almost pleading with their eyes. Ugh it’s disgusting. So I take my dagger and I begin to hit them, it’s at this point I notice that the boring guy stopped speaking and the room was silent except for the occasional blood gurgle. I pull out the persons intestines and that’s when Gorts and my eyes meet across the room. It’s like so romantic like I swear someone casted like stop time or something… him and his pepsi dark eyes… I tuck some of the blood around my tympanum, gods he’s like so hot. Like the hottest I’ve seen in my 40 years of dreadful existence. Then he walks over to me and my heart goes doki doki he knees beside me on the other side of the now corpse and we start making out. No lips no tongue, all teeth. And then we took control of the netherbrain and got married.

The end.

[lulu2992]

Do you think John knows that everyone is less afraid of him compared to his siblings? My dude already seems to suffer from an inferiority complex, and is already aware that he keeps disappointing Joseph, the main person he strives to impress. So how would he feel knowing that even the civilians take him less serious? Would he mind being seen as more human by the NPCs or would it bother him that he's not as feared as Faith or Jacob?

I don’t think John minds being seen as a human because, on the contrary, it’s precisely what he wants. He’s the face of the Project, the communicator, and he needs to look reassuring and approachable so people want to join the cult. What he means when he says that “we’re all sinners” is that we’re all human, and he’s no exception. It’s also what he says in the note he wrote to a cultist named Terry:

Everyone's human, and that's why I don't want to put myself on a pedestal. I don't ever want to get back up there again. I'd rather be here with all of you and the new souls in this bunker.

I love this letter because, while John has the reputation of being conceited, evidence shows that it’s most likely just a facade and he doesn’t have such a high opinion of himself. Here, he acknowledges he’s not perfect and that, unlike what many people say, he doesn’t really think he’s more important than other cultists. He’s just a human and, as such, would rather live in a bunker surrounded by his “brothers and sisters” than alone in his luxurious ranch.

But being more humanized, in John’s case, also means looking less scary than his siblings. I’d say that, if he’s aware that people are less afraid of him, he’s probably a bit upset, especially since I agree that he very likely has an inferiority complex. That said, I don’t think he’s the type of person who wallows in self-pity, so when he feels he’s not doing good enough, he just works harder. Whenever someone disrespects him, he just gets more “aggressive” until they don’t feel like disrespecting him anymore. Most of the time, I suppose he doesn’t even need to actually get angry because, since he knows how to read people, he’s also very good at effectively threatening them (we’ve seen that with Nick), and I think that can make up for his not-so-scary aura a bit.

But in the end, what he truly cares about, as you’ve mentioned, is Joseph’s opinion. It seems that John’s ego is pretty fragile and that he mostly bases his value on what he believes his brother thinks of him; other people don’t really matter (except Jacob). Unfortunately, we know that, despite his efforts, he’s still not doing a perfect job, and Joseph isn’t as happy about him as John wishes he were. I think that, from his point of view, this is way worse and hurtful than “sinners” not being afraid of him, even though that probably doesn’t help him feel better about himself.

So although being seen as a human is what he wants, I believe John is easily affected by other people’s opinions of him and hates not being taken seriously. When you try so hard to be perfect, to look strong and confident, and it doesn’t work, it’s disheartening, especially when the one person you truly want to impress isn’t happy! The saddest part is that it’s precisely because he tried too hard to fix the situation that he lost control and eventually allowed his sin to consume him… and kill him.

[cdyssey]

Yellowjackets 2.07 Reactions

CW: Baby Death Discussion/Grief; Suicide Mentions/Attempts; Cannibalism; Cancer

I couldn’t make it thirty effing seconds into this episode without tearing up at these girls staring awake into the darkness, all shattered with grief. Taissa’s right next to Shauna. Of course she is. And Lottie’s right there too.

Oh, my God. She’s still holding the baby.

Her absolute silence. The way she refuses water. Her shrugging off every attempt that Tai makes to comfort her. My heart fucking aches for her.

And she has to bury that wrenchingly small bundle under rocks because the ground isn’t thawed enough for a proper burial. I wanna note here that it was so respectful of the show not to show the baby’s body. We didn’t have to see it to know how tiny and tragic that it was.

“It’s you and me against the whole world.” Goddammit. Because she died with the baby. Literally.

Oh??? A very muted version of the title song?

“I’m sorry, have you two joined a cult since we last saw you, or… / “We are an intentional community. / “What is the intention exactly?” KQQMKQOQJEDIDJSJDJ.

The fucking euphoria I feel at seeing all six adults together.

Nat admitting to the suicide attempt. Shauna’s horrified, “Oh, my God.” Taissa’s broken expression. They love her.

Tai, crying: “I really thought he was going to make it.” I’m so fucked up about these girls.

“But even if the baby made it… for a while… it wouldn’t change the fact that his mother is starving. We all are. I just think it’s time we woke up.” Heartbreaking and so correct. Heartbreaking because its correct.

“That doesn’t sound like you.” And it doesn’t. Van has always been a believer between her and Tai, and even in the group as a whole, but now she’s lost that faith.

“You helped me hear… see… sleep… and I would be dead without you. I need you, Van.” I’m so fucked up. Like, not even five minutes into this episode, I have teared up multiple times.

Natalie being all in for her girlfriend’s wellness remedies AMDMFJSNSNSN.

“All my rational instincts are just kind of, uh, screaming.” SNDNWND. Babygirl chooses self-care. <3 She needs it. She’s been doing hard work this season threatening to skin people and covering up murders.

BABY GOAT!!!

SHAUNA JUST IMMEDIATELY CONVINCED SHE HAS TO SACRIFICE THE GOAT. HELP ME

Bruce, the goat, ily. And it has not escaped my notice that the goat is a boy, and he’s brown, the same color as that horribly small bundle.

Ben is goddamn losing it. The hallucination of Paul is voicing Ben’s greatest insecurity—that he no longer has a place in the cabin. “It’s just time. We all love you, Ben.”

“Um, I would hate for my bladder to guide me into peeing in that thing.” NADIFNSNDNS. Misty’s reluctance to engage with therapies is notable.

LMAO @ HER SNEAKING AWAY. She said, “Nope. Ur not making me confront my deepest traumas today, bestie.”

Misty overhears the girls praising her, and it’s an echo of that moment before she smashes the black box.

MARI ACCUSING HER OF KILLING CRYSTAL. GIRL, MISTY IS GONNA MAKE SURE YOU’RE PITTED.

Misty putting on a performance about looking for “Crystal,” and here’s another parallel—some of Kristen’s last words to Misty were denigrating her for being a bad actor.

“It gave us what we wanted. Shauna lived.” And Lottie’s right here. When Mari prayed to the wilderness last week, she prayed for Shauna alone.

The shot of the girls and Travis holding hands is reminiscent of a team huddle up. 😭

HELP ME WKDNDNDNSND. The girls are, like, well, if she is dead, that, uh, doesn’t entirely suck for us. <3 (I’m sorry. I don’t know which one is Gen and which one is Melissa yet.)

But on a more serious note, this is an interesting beat because it shows that cannibalism in the cabin is not just a “trance-like survival tactic” anymore. It’s something that can be indirectly alluded to when everyone is fully aware of themselves. (We got an inkling of this earlier when Misty and Kristen were discussing Jackie bone broth.)

All that fucking blood. Shauna’s blood.

This Lottie and Tai conversation is so fascinating to me. They’re the two individuals who have had the most interaction with the supernatural—which makes them peers—but the ways they approach their abilities are drastically different. Embrace versus repression. And it’s something we see in their adult selves too.

Adult Tai actually going to Lottie for help about her sleepwalking.

“I need help.” Taissa Turner admitting this is so huge.

“She just doesn’t want to be suppressed. She’s still a part of you, Tai. She will always be a part of you.” Hhhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhhh.

Shauna nearly on the verge of crying in the woods, disassociating and lost.

SHE LOST HER GOAT.

SHAUNAMISTY RISE!!!!

Misty hoarding food is such a good detail. It makes sense after the woods.

“Why did I give one single shit about this goat when Lottie’s goons are just gonna make me kill him?” 😭 MY POOR LITTLE MEOW MEOW IS SO CONVINCED THAT SHE HAS TO KILL THIS GOAT.

have you guys clocked that I’m insane about shauna yet

“Hey, newsflash. I am the only person who took your killing with the seriousness that it required.” YEAH, TELL HER, MISTY!! AND SHE DIDN’T EVEN LISTEN TO YOUR COOKIE ADVICE QOWKDJDNS

“Well, you’re not that innocent either.” / “I know that, Misty. Do you think I don’t know that?” Shauna utterly hates herself, but listen, yeah? They all fucking do. Each and every one of the Yellowjackets.

Shauna is mothering this goat.

“If you think I’m gonna carry you all day, you are delusional, as well as dumb.” ANWKQNDNESN, Melanie Lynskey, I fucking love you.

“I’m not gonna let them eat you, Kristen.” OH, I FUCKING LOVE THIS. YEAH. Sure, Misty may have 100% caused her death, lmao, but she’ll be damned if she lets Kristen be eaten. And I love that she calls Kristen by her real name too, keeping that knowledge alive, even within herself.

The contrast between Shauna/Jackie and Misty/Kristen is big here. Shauna desperately needing to consume Jackie and granting the others the permission to do so too vs. Misty actually kinda being normal for once about what is owed to a body.

Shauna is back in the Jackie shed, and she’s staring at the corner where her body used to be. OH, GOD. SHE’S CALLING OUT FOR JACKIE.

“Jackie, I really need you right now. Please?” SHE’S SO ALONE, AND LOSING THAT BABY IS TIED UP WITH LOSING JACKIE, AND I’M FUCKING UPSET. Those sobs are guttural.

And Jackie won’t come back and haunt her when Shauna calls. Goddamn.

“The kid’s care is entwined with your own.” That’s such a triggering phrase for Shauna and you can see it in her eyes.

“Because it is one thing if I stab this goat later, but there’s no fucking way that it’s dying while I’m supposed to be watching it. So someone is going to make sure this goat is okay. Right now.” She couldn’t save her baby in the woods, but goddamn, she can save this goat.

The tears in Shauna’s eyes as she talks to Lottie. This is all about motherhood to her. This entire season, from the past to the present, has been.

“I’m not gonna kill this fucking goat, okay? Fuck you!” EKWMDNEND

“Wait. Really? I really don’t?” The fucking break in her voice, all the spiraling cracks. Melanie Lynskey is making me cry over a GOAT.

“Oh, Bruce.” AND SHE SOBS.

“I find it gives a person clarity to have to care for something so innocent.” God, God, God, and Lottie knows the significance of that to Shauna specifically.

“I’m not crying about the goat. I don’t really know, um, what’s happening right now. Um, I think it’s just that I’ve always kept my daughter, you know, Callie, like, at arm’s length. I think just out of fear that she would… die, I guess. Or maybe that she was never even real to begin with. I don’t know. I try to tell myself it’s okay. That I’m safe to… to think of her as-as mine, you know, and to just be her mom. But I think something is broken, Lottie. I just can’t do it.”

I’m so fucking unwell about this. I think I’m gonna do a fuller write-up on this moment later, so for now, God, Melanie Fucking Lynskey. And also, that she has this breakdown to Lottie is powerful. In the past, she’s hated Lottie, hated her for trying to encroach on her baby, hated her for becoming their shaman, but here, she confides in her with this terrible pain about motherhood that she’s been keeping inside.

Ahhhh, just a little bit of self-promotion here, but in my Shauna + Callie fic, I was thinking a lot about Shauna’s relationship with motherhood: “But goodness has never come naturally to Shauna, and motherhood is a gaping wound that won’t ever stop bleeding. (A placenta on the dirty floor. So much red, streaming out of her, simply pouring. Don’t you hear him cry? Why can’t you hear him?)” And I think the crux of that, which holds true in this scene, is the fundamental idea that motherhood continually hurts Shauna, and it always goes back to those woods.

CALIGULA AWNIQOWJWKWKWIDJWJDJS.

“OF ANY MOTHERFUCKER WHO GETS IN YOUR WAY.”

THIS IS FUCKING SUBLIME.

GOD, THIS IS WKWKEJWNSJEJKEJD. HELP ME????

“Caligula, when people look at me, do they just see someone desperate for love? Just some murderer?” GOD, THESE TWO QUESTIONS PAIRED NEXT TO EACH OTHER. Desperate love and murder being synonymous with each other.

“How many times did you get the ball over the goal line? Take it from a bird named after a Roman emperor who was also unjustly accused of heinous acts.” SOBBING WKWKKSNWOQOWIEJD

“You are not a murderer, Misty!” HELP ME WOWKWKWKDJWIIEKDJSNSJDJDJD

MISTY’S SUBCONSCIOUS IS REALLY LIKE, “Haha, bestie. You’re soooooo well!! There’s nothing wrong with you at all!!”

Elijah Wood is having the time of his goddamn life aawkdjdjdnwj.

That was so fucking funny. I have no words.

MISTY, THIS VOICEMAIL DKWNDNEN. IT CAN BE TAKEN AS A MURDER CONFESSION.

The human manifestation of her bird named after a Roman emperor was so right. She. Is. Perfectly. Okay. <3

Misty can’t find Kristen’s fucking body. Hhhhh. It isn’t at the bottom of shit cliff anymore. 😭

God. Ben.

He’s been so isolated all season; he feels like that this is his way out.

“Could you just push me off?” So fucking fucked up, but it tracks with what has been going on in his psyche, as well as in the flashbacks with Paul. Ben’s defined by his emotional paralysis and fear. So he’s not acted and just accepted the consequences that come from that. And this is another way of doing that. If he jumps, that’s making an active decision, and that’s fundamentally not what this man does. But if Misty pushes him, it’s just another action that he’s the recipient of and not the doer.

“… if you kill yourself right now, we will eat you.” Jesus fucking Christ. She states it as a fact. It is a fact. The cabin has reached this point.

MISTY TRYING TO FUCKING BLACKMAIL HIM TO KEEP HIM ALIVE. GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD

“I tried so hard to keep the baby alive. I really did.” I’M SO FUCKING UPSET. THE SAME CLIFF WHERE KRISTEN DIED.

Oh, thank GOD, he stepped back. I could not handle losing Coach Ben today.

Tai taking off her wedding ring. Girl ANJQNDNQNWNDNWNSNWNW, you’re such a fail wife.

“I just can’t believe I’m back here again.” / “Making offerings to the dirt.” Man, the wedding ring as an offering.

TAIVAN KISS YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

But then they both pull back, Tai apologizing profusely.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

NO

FUCK OFF SHOW NO

NO

NOT MY VAN

NOT MY FUCKING CONSUMMATE SURVIVOR, WHO LIVED THROUGH A PLANE BURNING AND A WOLF ATTACK AND THE WILDERNESS.

NO

I have actual goddamn tears running down my face again. What the fuck is wrong with this show

“Van, what are you telling me?” Van has told her every which way but directly. Taissa can’t accept it unless she hears it.

“I have… months.” I’m sick actually. I’m so sick.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Van. You’re just deciding to tell me now?” Taissa’s first reaction is anger. She lashes out, so goddamn terrified.

And between this and her breaking down to Van a few episodes ago, this is the most emotionally invested we’ve seen Taissa. Her life with Simone and Sammy aren’t real to her—as she’d explained to Shauna last season.

But this is real to her.

Van is real to her.

“This is what it wants—us to be together.” Yeah, me too, Lottie.

“We hurt each other. People died.” God, God, God. They hurt each other. They loved each other. They ate each other. They loved each other.

THE FUCKING ANTLER QUEEN. THIS IS SO FREAKY.

“Does a hunt that has no violence feed anyone?” OH MY FUCKING GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD??????

OH THE THERAPIST ISN’T FUCKING REAL

OH MY GOD

DOES A HUNT THAT HAS NO VIOLENCE FEED ANYONE???????

Van tapping Misty with the bottle. Misty’s being included in the girl circle 😭

TNENFNEND, Shauna taking a huge, ‘ole swig and Taissa smirking at her.

“From Van.” / “Oh, you narc.” AKKQWKJERN

Oh, God. The women are being utterly careless with Nat. Shauna telling her that they should just hang out. Van offering the bottle.

“I lost my goat, but I found him again.” MAQMQKKWKQJEJRNRNEJEJFIEEFEIE

FLORENCE FLORENCE FLORENCW

“I think you should all go home.” Lottie has realized that it’s dangerous that they’re together again.

And the women are like FUCK YOU!! WE BELONG TOGETHER. I LOVE THESE WOMEN

Every time I look at Van now, I wanna cry.

“I think it might be time for you to stop resisting.” This line just made it into 20 new fanfics. <33

LOOK AT MY FAIL WOMEN BEING HAPPY. I KNOW IT’S NOT GONNA END WELL, BUT THEY ALL LOVE EACH OTHER SM. THEY’RE HOME.

THIS FLORENCE SONG.

THEY’RE FREE.

LOTTIENAT GODDAMN CHEEK KISS.

Now they’re having girl talk. 😭

“Does he know?” AAaWjejfuwjjwsj

“He doesn’t have a job, job. He’s dedicated to his passionate pursuit of knowledge.” / “Nice, so where does he go to prison?” ANqKQKWIWWOWJDJS. Van and Tai making little asshole asides is so good, lmao. They do that in the cabin too.

“Well, he wasn’t goth when we fucked.” HELP MEEEEEEEEE. HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“Was she watching some parts?” WKNWWNQKMWDNWJNEND

I could watch 60 minutes of these women talking like this, lovingly taking the piss out of each other and ignoring all their extensive trauma. <3

Most of the women don’t want to revisit the woods. It’s too hard of a wound for them.

… all of the girls having hazy memories. They know they’ve fucked up; it’s harrowing that they don’t remember the specifics of how.

“Well, if I’m, um repressing things I don’t know about, I am very okay with never figuring it out.” Jesus fucking Christ, that delivery was so sad.

“I mean, compulsive behavior, addiction, disease.” And Van stands up and walks away. She’s more than familiar with what Lottie is saying.

LOTTIE CALLING NAT MADAMMMMMM!!!!!

“Lightning crashes, a new mother cries…” GOD, WHAT A LINE.

VANSHAUNA DANCING!!!

SHAUNA IS FUCKING WEARING JACKIE’S BUTTERFLY SHIRT. I’M SICK. THAT IS SO SICK.

SHAUNA THROWING A PUNCH.

THE GIRLS EXCITED AT SNOW.

“YOU KILLED MY FUCKING BABY.” / GOD GOD GOD.

AND IT’S LIKE, YOU HAVE TO PAIR THAT WITH MISTY’S BREAKDOWN WITH BEN. SHE TRIED EVERYTHING TO SAVE THAT BABY.

“You all fucking ate my baby!” / Shauna can no longer discern reality from a dream. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK.

LOTTIE STEPPING IN.

LETTING HERSELF BE THE MARTYR.

THE WOMEN HOWLING. THEY’RE PRIMAL. THEY’RE A PACK. THEY’RE WILD. THEY’RE TOGETHER.

“Travis, take Javi to the bedroom.” 😭😭😭😭😭

LETTING HERSELF BE THE WILLING MARTYR.

“Shauna, we need you. Let it out.” MY FUCKING GOD

IT GOES BACK TO THE STEEL MAGNOLIA MONOLOGUE. SHAUNA WANTS TO MAKE SOMEONE FEEL AS BAD AS SHE DOES.

ALL THE GIRLS JUST FUCKING STANDING THERE AND LETTING IT HAPPEN. THEY WON’T INTERFERE. THIS IS RITUAL VIOLENCE.

THE CUTS BETWEEN THE WOMEN BEING SO HAPPY AND THIS SCENE.

LOTTIENAT HOMOEROTIC DANCING.

LOTTIESHAUNA DANCING TOGETHER IN THE PRESENT, AND SHAUNA JUST FUCKING KILLING HER IN THE PAST!!!

LOTTIE IS BARELY RECOGNIZABLE

LOTTIE SHAUNA ADULT HUG. I CAN’T I CAN’T I CAN’T

“Is Callie okay?” Shauna’s immediate goddamn fear when she hears urgent is that her daughter is hurt.

THE FUCKING TORSO.

GODDAMN IT. YES THE TORSO WAS IMPORTANT

MORE FLORENCE YEAH!!

THAT PROMO. WHAT THE FUCK

MARI BACKING AWAY IN FEAR?????

[arianatheangel-girl]

Agent Elvis Bloopers, Part 2

Author’s note: So...I couldn’t resist making another one lol! I think maybe I could turn this into a series or something lol.

Ep. 1 (Part 2)

SCENE: The gallows. Elvis, Cece, and the others are tied up and being forced to listen to Manson’s ramblings. Suddenly, in the middle of Manson’s speech, Elvis starts twisting and turning in his chair in obvious discomfort.

M (in the middle of his monologue): Actually, pretty much everyone else gets drugs. Don’t forget to get drugs, everybody! Now, I know what you’re thinking, you’re worried you might not--

E (keeps twisting in discomfort): Stop this! Please, you gotta untie me!

M (confused, as he knows that’s not part of the script, but thinking Elvis is ad-libbing, he tries to go with it and starts to redo the line): Like I said, dude, you gotta join the family first. Now, I know what you’re thinking, you’re worried--

E (beginning to sweat, almost yelling): Dude, I’m fuckin’ serious here! I ain’t acting! Hurry up and untie me!

M: Uh...okay, sure dude.

After Manson finishes untying him, Elvis runs off the set like a maniac, with everybody giving confused looks. After a little while, the sound of a toilet flushing is heard offscreen and Elvis returns, smoothing his clothes and his hair in the process before he sits down again.

E: Ugh. Sorry, guys. I had way too much coffee and it started fighting those three fried PB& banana sandwiches I had for lunch. Okay, I’m all right now. Sorry!

C: Wait, did you say fried PB& banana sandwiches? Eeew.

E: Hey, don’t knock ‘em until you try ‘em.

Director (sighs before pinching the bridge of his nose): CUT! Okay, guys, I’m only gonna say this once: go to the bathroom before shooting, got it?!

****

SCENE: The big fight. Elvis, Cece and the others (minus Bobby Ray) have managed to escape and are now hacking away at Manson’s “family”. They then notice that despite their attacks, many of the cult members are still standing.

E: Huh. Well, that’s new.

C: They’re not going down! They’re like...hippie zombies--!

M: Even better! They’re so high they can’t feel a thing! It’s beautiful, man!

Cece reaches for her knife to stab one of the “zombies” behind her, but instead suddenly pulls out what looks like a large rubber chicken.

C: Huh? Wait, this isn’t mine!

She begins to laugh, followed by Elvis and the others.

Director: CUT! Alright, who replaced Cece’s knife with a rubber chicken?

Scatter begins laughing maniacally in the background.

Director: Ugh, Scatter! Really?! We don’t have time for practical jokes! All right, let’s reset! Wipe off the blood and let’s go again!

****

SCENE: Graceland. Elvis and Priscilla are sitting and watching his comeback special, with Priscilla cuddled up to Elvis on the couch. Priscilla’s supposed to lean over to kiss Elvis, but after the “action” call, nothing happens.

E: Uh...honey? You okay?

Elvis gently pokes Cilla’s shoulder and her cheek, before hearing a soft snore; he realizes she’s fallen asleep on him. 

E (laughs softly): Uh, maybe we should try this tomorrow.

****

SCENE: The bar. Cece’s enjoying a drink and talking with the Commander in the shadows.

C: He’s a big boy, he’ll be fine.

Co (speaking a little more slowly than usual): Well, not exactly. Maybe I’m underselling this a bit. The monkey--

The bartender interrupts

B: Hey, Don Corleone! Your Manhattan’s ready!

The Commander turns around and steps out of the shadows, already looking like he’s had a few drinks before unsteadily reaching for the next one.

Director: CUT! Look, save the alcohol for the end of the day, please!

Ep. 2 coming soon! Thanks for reading! Sorry this is a shorter one; I just didn’t want to make this part too long.

[maxverstepponme]

She moved in within weeks after brainwashing him with a long vacation at the cult compound with her family.// their whole relationship moved so fast, from Kelly leaking they were seeing eachother to making it ig official (which max had never done before so why now??) in the space of like a month and then moving yourself and a toddler into a 22 years old apartment in weeks (obviously he agreed but if she told him she had no where to stay it’s not like he couldn’t offer). Like they never took it slow and figured each other out or left the honeymoon stage before moving in together and saw if they still liked each other to do that. Kelly pushed for the whole relationship to be public, she leaked the first pictures of them when no one suspected, Lando and Luisa had been dating around 9 months before making it ig official, and someone as private as max I thought would have done the same. Comparing pics and videos from a year ago to now they just seemed to have lost that chemistry, their body language to each other is always awkward and uncomfortable (look at Japan where he pushed her away, or in the documentary). His family (Victoria and Sophie) obviously liked her (or at least publicly) liking photos, commenting but since new years that seemed to have stopped or at least not as much as before. Kelly also hasn’t commented on any Victoria or Sophie’s posts either. They didn’t join them on their Easter ski family holiday. I think the relationship has just run it’s course but cause of all that’s involved (sharing a apartment, a kid, the relationship being so public) splitting up isn’t as easier as normal, so unless either of them is really unhappy it won’t end yet. Kelly won’t end it cause she benefits from it too much, the exposure and the brand deals she gets are due to her connection with him, she wasn’t getting them before dating him so. I don’t know if they’re on the same page about marriage and kids but from their interviews it doesn’t seem to be, max is ‘not until I’ve retired’ and she wants a ‘big family’. He also always seems to be on the sim and she’s flying to different places when he comes back from a race, so how much do they actually see each other (obviously they live together but still). Kelly’s obviously pushing the influencer route more than before, the makeup tutorial (although old) and the Paige brand deals are more that route. So maybes she’s making money and stable income cause the end is near and she can’t live off max anymore?? Plus the weird pretty little thing ads she does when she wants to pay the daily mail to in it. I do think when the break up she’ll go to Miami and she’ll continue the influence route. I think they could have been a cute lockdown/winter fling and should of just stayed at that, obviously they liked eachother at the start. She would of got clout from dating him and he got a fling, noting serious but I feel like her going so public with it pressured both of them to keep up with the relationship and the image of it (more so from her). Things between them have been weird since new years and I don’t think people were far off about it being to do with the paparazzi situation. Obviously I don’t know them and they could be very much in love but sometimes a pictures speaks a thousand words. So take this with a pinch of salt 🧂

.

[eledritch]

hi ele!

i’m a fan of your writing, mostly your voltron fics but i’ve also read your dragon age, critical role, and captive prince stories, they are all so fucking good. where do i go to join your cult? /j

you’re insanely creative in your AUs or plot ideas, from plant porn to beauty in the beast with vampires but also magic schools with magic goddesses and incubi and cambions!

i was just wondering what inspires you when you’re coming up with ideas for fics and what normally comes first to you, the setting or plot or something else? plus, how did you develop such a strong sense of characterization? because across alternate universes and in every different life, your characters are so consistent and recognizable.

another way your creativity shines is the world building in your fics, it is always so fascinating and effortless, it’s a tantalizing background that really hooks me into the world of your stories. i don’t know if you have more notes on world building that didn’t make it into your fics but please know i would sell my soul for a napkin of extra notes for your fics. do you world build as you write or plan it in advance? and do some things you consider fic-canon not make it into the final edit or do you try to work everything you have in?

i know this is a lot, i’m very interested in your writing methods and how you develop so many amazing stories sorry! thanks for your many years of amazing writing and the time it took you to read this ask XD

Hi wow this is all so kind of you to say!! I'm so glad you enjoy my writing <3

so, I would say that usually when I am starting on a new story, I start with the characters and think about what kinds of situations, settings, conflicts, genres, themes, etc I want to write them in. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres because in many ways it feels the most flexible -- I am probably halfway between a pantser and a plotter in terms of story-planning, so I enjoy having space in my plots for them to change if I feel like they need to. I usually know the ending early on in the process tho.

Worldbuilding is one of my favorite aspects of writing and partly why I am so partial to writing AUs. I tend to do more planning for the worldbuilding up front than I do with the plot: my story worlds are scaffolds on which I can build the plot, if that makes sense. I've loved worldbuilding since I was a kid, and I think the best advice I can give for how to build story worlds is to read a lot of books. Books I read as a kid still influence how I worldbuild today (a few that come to mind are the Redwall, Series of Unfortunate Events, Narnia, & May Bird books), as well as videogames (Dragon Age always), places I've actually been, and honestly my academic reading/writing also definitely influences my creative writing, i.e., when thinking about how to write about social conflicts and cultural norms and especially colonization/empire in the worlds I write stories about.

For writing both characters and worldbuilding, I think it's really key to figure out how to suspend your readers' disbelief, and this starts with suspending your own disbelief. You have to believe in the worlds and characters you create. This means being comfortable with writing your characters in all kinds of situations, because people only show a lot of aspects of themselves (and therefore seem like real people, because people & their personalities & motives & backgrounds are complex) if they experience a lot of things. This may be why I gravitate towards writing stories with more dramatic tones and plots, because I find it much more fun to figure out characters by stressing them out. Seriously, I think characters solidify when they're placed in wild situations lol! And these don't necessarily need to be really serious perilous situations, but rather events and conflicts that fundamentally challenge the characters and force you to imagine how they might react in ways that feel true to how you've written them.

For example, one of my favorite character types to write is "kind of a bitch but like, a complicated bitch and kind of justified in their bitchiness because they're going through some stuff." Laurent from Captive Prince definitely falls under this; Keith from VLD, Essek from CR, and Astarion from BG3 also fit into this category (albeit all in really different ways and shades of bitchiness haha). I find these characters fun to write because they're characters who should probably change -- they also have clearly defined flaws and desires, which is great when you have to create a conflict and keep readers engaged/make readers get attached to these characters.

It's tough to root for a character who is consistently a bitch, never feels bad about it, has no reason for being that way, is never critiqued by other characters about it, and is not influenced to change by the narrative at all. It's a lot easier to root for a character who has some kind of inner conflict going on which is complemented by the outer conflict/s of the story. I'm especially fond of characters who have trust issues, because this is a flaw that obviously lends itself well to romance plots, but also can have some very interesting backstory implications and lead to really dynamic yet believable character development, as trust can be built incrementally and also wax and wane in a way that feels natural and builds narrative tension in a compelling way. It also allows you to work on other characters, since trust requires at least two people :)

Thank you for your questions!! I'm sure this is all over the place (it's finals week and dear god grad school finals week is actually hell) but best of luck in your own writing and I hope to share more fic soon~

[modernmoviereviews]

Red Lights - A Modern Movie Review (Spoilers)

Rodrigo Cortés 2012 film Red Lights is fantastically done. Obviously Sigourney Weaver steals the show in the role of Dr. Margaret Matheson, a psychology professor who debunks famous psychics. The character is reminiscent of Harry Houdini, who along with being the most famous escape artist took time to debunk psychics that used tricks Houdini could recognize easier than most scientists due to his training. 

In this film, psychics are less of the “Long Island Medium” and more of the Arthur Harrow of Moon Knight variety. Psychics walking around telling people that their deceased relatives are proud of them, even if they are lying, are clearly doing less damage than those who are claiming to heal people of their serious medical conditions. Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) acts more as a cult leader than a psychic. Maybe it’s a tad predictable, or maybe I deserve some bragging rights, but I took one look at Simon Silver and said, “yeah no chance that guy’s actually blind”. Then again maybe I don’t, because I didn’t realize the card reading trick in the reflection of Dr. Paul Shackleton’s (Toby Jones) glasses. 

Of my complaints for the movie, I would say Elizabeth Olsen as Sally Owen deserved more plot relevance. She serves more as a figure for Cillian Murphy (as Dr. Tom Buckley) to bounce his acting off than a real character. I know this is several years before she would join the MCU, and it’s only her second film ever, but she is so good!! Give her screen time!!! Of course I would be remiss to not at least note that Cillian Murphy is perfect as always, what else is there to say about him? If he was given a co-star simply to act at, I can’t be that mad, I just wish it wasn’t the incredible Elizabeth Olsen. 

It’s a nice suspense movie with some fun twists; if nothing else watch this just to see some great acting. 

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For our next movie, I rolled 88/280, which is Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 film, The Great Dictator.

[mariacallous]

Decades ago, Western political scientists began asking a question that has never been fully resolved but has also never seemed more urgent. They noted that since World War II, extremely few countries had joined the ranks of the globe’s truly wealthy nations and almost all that had were already democracies or were in the midst of political transitions that would lead to systems that gave citizens a choice in the selection of leaders. So, they wondered: Could China, the world’s largest country—and, since the Soviet Union’s demise, the most powerful and, in aggregate terms, richest authoritarian society—buck the trend?

If it failed to do so, China would be said, in the jargon of experts, to have succumbed to the middle-income trap: a theoretical snare awaiting countries that failed to liberalize their political systems no matter how successful they had appeared during an early phase of economic takeoff.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been mindful of this challenge and at times has even boasted about his country’s ability not only to break this mold of notional constraints but also to prove the superiority of his version of authoritarian rule. Now, no sooner than Xi has engineered changes in China’s leadership succession rules so that he can preside over his country for life, a crisis that may come to be seen as an ideal test of the middle-income trap theory is upon him.

Its proximate cause appears to have been an apartment block fire in the far western Chinese city of Urumqi that killed 10 people. It reportedly took firefighters more than three hours to put out the blaze, which local officials said was caused by a faulty power strip, causing many on social media to speculate that the city’s ongoing strict COVID-19 lockdown measures may have hampered the response and prevented residents from evacuating. Chinese authorities have denied this and even suggested that blame lay with the apartment dwellers for being slow to flee.

The shocking news of this incident has set off the most serious political protests in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crisis, with Chinese people in a rapidly growing number of cities—including the place where Xi himself studied in Beijing, Tsinghua University—coming out in the streets by the thousands to hold up blank sheets of paper, symbolizing censorship, and braving arrest as they chant recently unimaginable slogans such as “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” and “Don’t want dictatorship, [we] want democracy!”

Yet as tempting as it will be for many, it is wrong to see this crisis as solely the result of a spark from Urumqi. This challenge to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the state has been building for some time. The country’s unusually strict and prolonged campaign to contain the COVID-19 pandemic has been a source of deep discontent for many months, leaving many Chinese people feeling disenchanted with Xi, who seems more obsessed with control than any leader since Mao Zedong.

After a previous incident in September involving the crash of a bus carrying people from the locked-down city of Guiyang to a quarantine camp, which killed 27 people, the number of messages I began receiving from friends in China that spoke of wanting to leave the country or mentioned stories of others who had already escaped skyrocketed. That may seem merely anecdotal, but what happened next was anything but.

On Oct. 13, on the eve of the Party Congress in Beijing where Xi effectively coronated himself—and amid high, citywide security—a man hung large protest banners on Sitong Bridge, which passes over a major central thoroughfare, denouncing not just the country’s zero-COVID policy but also Xi’s dictatorship, censorship, personality cult, and suppression of human rights. The banners read:

We don’t want nucleic acid testing, we want food to eat; We don’t want lockdowns, we want freedom; We don’t want lies, we want dignity; We don’t want Cultural Revolution, we want reform; We don’t want [dictatorial] leaders, we want elections; We don’t want to be slaves, we want to be citizens.

In an echo of the famous Tank Man of Tiananmen, the man was arrested and reportedly has not been seen or heard from since. State censors made furious attempts to remove mention of the protest from webpages and social media, but the intensity of interest overwhelmed them.

The next highly unusual occurrence happened during the Party Congress itself, when Xi’s predecessor as CCP general secretary, Hu Jintao, was ushered off the main dais at a critical moment during the proceedings. Hu had just reached for a folder that is thought to have contained the final list of the members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest instance of power in the country after the general secretary. One theory is that Hu suspected that Xi had not respected commitments to allow people other than his closest personal allies to sit on the body, erasing past practices of relatively collective rule. Another leader prevented Hu from opening the folder, and then Xi gave the signal for him to be unceremoniously led out.

While it may be impossible to know exactly what transpired, many people in China responded with shock, as if they had finally realized how deep the country had descended into a new stage of despotism. Again, many friends in China wrote to me, asking what I had heard and writing that they could not afford to say anything, except to deplore the overall situation in the country.

Although the details of these recent events are unique, some of their contours bear strong resemblance to previous crises in the country. Take, for instance, the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. Although Deng Xiaoping, as paramount leader, eventually approved the murderous crackdown on the student and worker demonstrators who filled the square, he later said privately that it was “very unhealthy” for “the destiny of a country to be built on the prestige of one or two people.” Not since Mao has China been so dominated by a single figure as Xi.

Even worse, under Xi, at each hint of crisis, whether economic—as with the pandemic-induced slowdown or a real estate bubble—or now political, instead of the liberalizing reforms his country and its broad middle classes need and hope for, Xi has reflexively become even more sternly top-down and authoritarian in his response. This ominously echoes his famous comment about the end of Soviet rule under Mikhail Gorbachev in which Xi said the Soviet Union’s Communist rulers lost their nerve, meaning that they failed to rule without flinching and to crack down on opposition mercilessly when necessary.

No one knows what is in Xi’s mind, but he is surely aware of the example of Zhao Ziyang, his predecessor decades ago as CCP general secretary during the Tiananmen crisis (a position under Deng). Zhao, in that much simpler and poorer time, had warned that “reform includes reform of the economic system and reform of the political system. These two aspects affect one another. … If [political reform] lags too far behind, continuing with the reform of the economic system will be very difficult, and various social and political contradictions will ensue.”

Zhao had envisioned clear separations between the role and authority of the party and the government; much more independence for the country’s courts; an end to the purely rubber-stamp function of the country’s parliament; increased freedom of speech and of the press; and even a greater role for the country’s tiny, authorized alternative political parties. He and his allies argued that if the people were not granted freer expression, society would have no pressure valve, practically guaranteeing explosive crises in the future. Xi seems to have never thought well of any change that might reduce the CCP’s power, but it seems likely that even he knows that at some point China’s political system will have to adapt for the country to continue to modernize and escape the theoretical middle-income trap.

His problem, like that of so many leaders who concentrate immense power in their own hands, is that no moment ever quite looks like a good one to make serious, substantive change. The difference between Xi and Deng, who had previously long been considered the country’s most powerful ruler since Mao, is that Deng always took care to have high-profile politicians executing decisions and implementing policy in the foreground. Under Xi, who seems to utterly dominate every important committee and instance of power himself, there is no one but the great leader himself. When the Tiananmen crisis broke, Deng could blame Zhao—and did. Xi, however, has no meaningful deputy or surrogate and therefore has no one else to blame.

This places him in the teeth of an altogether different trap. If he orders his troops and police to execute a heavy-handed crackdown on a fed-up and networked citizenry, things could get bloody quickly, as with Tiananmen—with grave consequences not just for his relationship with his people but also for China’s place in the world. It is even possible that some of his commanders could refuse to execute his orders, as at least one principled general named Xu Qinxian did during Tiananmen.

On the other hand, if Xi abruptly changes strategy and puts on the garb of a supple moderate, people both within his system and without may decide that he is weak and vulnerable and become emboldened to mount bigger challenges to his authority.

One way or another, China is poised on an uncomfortable fulcrum right now, and it will have to choose a course.

[aj-artjunkyard]

I posted 950 times in 2022

That's 335 more posts than 2021!

22 posts created (2%)

928 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@husborth

@penny-anna

@galahadwilder

@calledcosmic

@suspiciousbluejay

I tagged 938 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#dc comics - 397 posts

#star wars - 309 posts

#green lantern - 260 posts

#hal jordan - 246 posts

#anakin skywalker - 227 posts

#tcw - 124 posts

#the clone wars - 124 posts

#batman - 98 posts

#bruce wayne - 95 posts

#obi wan kenobi - 91 posts

Longest Tag: 144 characters

#the clones showing up at the council’s doors at 2am like 👉🏻👈🏻 um. we have something to tell you but first you have to promise not to get mad

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

How much senate gossip do you think Anakin was privy to. Two of his most trusted people were politicians and he spent enough time around them to want to betray his entire religion for them he had to know some dirty secrets

I like to think some of his ‘meetings’ with Palpatine were just straight up gossip sessions bc Palps wanted to prove that he was the only person Anakin should trust bc he noticed this awful behaviour and was renouncing it

Imagine Bail going over to Padmé’s to drop something off and going “oh btw,,,” and spilling the tea on some opposing Senator who did something scandalous and Anakin’s listening in while shirtless and stuffed in the wardrobe like 👀

When confronted about it he’ll be all “Jedi don’t believe in gossip” or whatever but he’s a terrible Jedi and knowing more than other people/being let in on secrets is like crack to him

The senate wasn’t completely dissolved until 0BBY do you think there were times when an officer would hand Darth Vader a report from Senator Whats-His-Face and Vader would pause and think “was that the guy who cheated on his wife with one of the cleaning staff”

318 notes - Posted October 8, 2022

#4

Shout out to all the other DC fans who were drawn in to DC comics for the Batfam, but who are now are getting sick of the bats bc all their other favourite DC characters are being constantly overshadowed by them

365 notes - Posted April 20, 2022

#3

SPOILERS FOR THE VOX MACHINA ORIGIN COMICS BELOW just a warning for any new critical role fans like me who were brought in by the show ALSO don’t spoil me either I’m not finished them yet

The only thing I was knew before I started reading the comics was that the party met Percy when they freed him from a cage

Since Percy’s a whiny one-percenter who was embarrassed to be seen with VM, I assumed the situation would be more along the lines of

“Vox Machina, who are in the middle of a badly-paying jailbreak job that’s rapidly going south, free a strange white-haired man who claims to have a weapon that can help them. After completing the mission, Percy, though put off by the rude, rag-tag group, is truly grateful for their help and feels he owes them debt. They suggest he uses that neat weapon in their favour for a while and he hesitantly agrees to join them ‘temporarily’”

When in actual fact it was closer to:

Vox Machina: hEY TAKE US TO YOUR NIGHTMARE CULT

Percy: excuse you all I’m guilty of is a little light-hearted assassination attempt

VM: oh nvm our bad

Percy: I was trying to murder one of the cultists tho so I can take you to them if you let me out

VM: k

*jailbreak*

Percy: hey so why do you want to fight a demon horse

VM: we need its’ skull

Percy: that’s so goth I love it

*they fight a demon horse*

VM: now perhaps we can save our friend from death’s door

Percy: you guys sound like an absolute riot can I join you

426 notes - Posted March 17, 2022

#2

I feel like when the Earth GLs need to address each other in a situation where secret identities need protecting, they’ll refer to each other as one of three things:

1) their city names, Hal being called “Coast” and Kyle “LA”, etc. This idea was suggested by John, and even though he, Simon and Guy have public identities, they might still be referred to in this way. This method is usually used in serious situations in which people such as government agents or civil servants also need to differentiate between each lantern.

2) Increasingly vague nicknames. Usually for lower-stakes missions (which still might include planet-wide threats), these nicknames have been forged from years of going through wild DnD-esque alien shenanigans together. Hal and Guy will have the most saved up, since they’ve been around the longest. This is what the first option usually devolves into as soon as the government ppl/civil servants leave

3) just variations of the name green lantern. One of them is ‘GL’, one is ‘Lantern’, one is ‘Anti-Batman’. No one knows who is who including the lanterns themselves. This is not in any way a deterrent

531 notes - Posted March 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

My favourite thing is the ‘Humans are Space Orcs’ theory in the context of Green Lantern

Literally half the plot of ‘Green Lantern: The Animated Series’ happens because a human officer couldn’t go 10 seconds in a new environment (the Interceptor spaceship) without immediately pack bonding with the disembodied voice of a Navigation AI

639 notes - Posted June 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[anthurak]

Something I’m really intrigued by for the Vacuo arc is the prospect of Mercury being super out of his depth and in over his head. I mean, he and Emerald were shown to be fairly in over their heads being part of Salem’s whole Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum Death Cult as early as Volume 6, and things only got worse for them in Volume 8.

And while Emerald was smart/lucky enough to get out and join the heroes, Mercury was neither so lucky or smart to have done the same. And now he’s stuck at the bottom of this death-cult totem-pole working under Tyrian of all people. Plus he’s going to be having to fight a group of heroes who are increasingly desperate and likely to have zero patience for any possible redemption arc with Emerald as pretty much the ONE exception. Basically, I can imagine that Mercury is going to be stuck between one hell of a rock and a hard place. Plus that nice, convenient anonymity that kept him under the radar at Beacon and Haven? TOTALLY out the window now that Emerald switched sides and probably straight up told the heroes that Mercury and Tyrian are headed for Vacuo.

And that’s not even getting into what insane escalation shit Team RWBY might be bringing back with them from the Ever After. Note that we could very well be seeing Team RWBY dropping the ‘Hey, so Salem isn’t our biggest problem anymore’ and ‘Turns out the real big bads are the Gods themselves’ revelations. Our heroines may very well be gearing up to take the fight to Salem herself while figuring out how to take on something even stronger, and that’s who Mercury might have to fight.

I mean, imagine a hypothetical rematch between Mercury and a Post-Volume 9 Yang, who’s unlocked/received/awakened strange and crazy otherworldly powers in her time beyond Remnant. A Yang who’s maybe swapped out her boring metal prosthetic arm for some crazy astral or magic-based draconic claw prosthetic and might just be able to transform into some giant phoenix/dragon hybrid that can channel the fires of the sun itself. A Yang who could now be scaled to reliably take down Maidens in a one on one fight and is part of a team who has a good chance of taking down SALEM.

And then there’s Mercury. With his metal gun-feet. Somehow I don’t see that fight lasting very long.

I think this is what makes Mercury’s character particularly interesting going forward. He represents an exploration of the ‘Villain Forgot to Level-Grind’ trope. Here we have this guy who was a serious threat in the early days of the story, but by this point things have escalated so much as to leave him in the dust. With villains of far greater power being revealed and the heroines being forced to grow to match that power, someone like Mercury is left feeling very small indeed.

[writing-ca-ira]

NIGHT CHANGES

Dick Grayson x Reader

Yes, this is based off of that One Direction song. It’s kind of long, so I apologize.

The reader is gender neutral.

Contains: team-member reader, possibly a platonic or romantic relationship, mentions of an injury.

“Robin?”

Dick snapped out of his trance, turning to face you. “Uh… yeah? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” you answered with an awkward smile. “You just seemed… a bit spaced out, is all.”

He took note of how stiff you looked, rubbing your arm as you stood a few feet away from him. It was obvious you were still a bit nervous around him. Well, not just him, actually. You were brand new to the team, and this was your first ever mission with them. He honestly didn’t blame you for still being shy, even after helping him take down a few Cult of the Kobra members.

“… Oh,” he simply said, returning his attention back to night sky above his head. “I was just looking at the stars, is all.”

You hummed in understanding, deciding to take a gander as well. There was a beat of silence between the two before you finally spoke up again. “It’s a beautiful night.”

It was Dick’s turn to hum as he decided to sit down on the grass. “Yeah…” he softly responded, flipping his cape out of the way so he wouldn’t sit on it. “You should probably make yourself comfortable, since it might take a bit for Miss M to swing by with the Bioship.”

“Ah,” you awkwardly voiced, taking this as your cue to join him on the grass. He noticed how you still kept your distance, but decided not to say anything about it. There was another beat of silence before he asked, “so, how was your first ever mission?”

“Uh… pretty good,” you answered while picking a blade of grass from the ground. “I actually had fun, I guess. I mean, as much fun as you can have while fighting a cult, anyway.” You snorted at your own words before continuing. “I was kind of scared of messing up in front of everyone, if I’m being honest.”

“Don’t worry about that,” reassured Dick. Despite knowing you couldn’t see it underneath his domino mask, he spared you a glance. “You’re still new to the whole hero thing, so no one’s gonna get on your case about anything. Not yet, at least.” He paused for a moment before fully turning his head towards you. “Besides… you did really good tonight.”

He could’ve sworn you seemed a bit taken aback by his words. Your brows were slightly raised and your eyes face abundant with curiosity. “You really think so?”

“Of course,” he affirmed. “I would never let you hear the end of it if you majorly screwed up the mission, so be glad that you didn’t.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” you chuckled, eyes crinkling with amusement. A smile graced his own lips as he noticed your body physically relaxing next to him. His eyes went back up to the sky above him, allowing a comfortable moment of silence to settle between you two.

M’gann was taking longer than expected to show up with the Bioship, but Dick didn’t mind at all. The night was quiet, save for the sounds of night creatures and the distant grumbling of hogtied Cult of the Kobra members (say, he totally forgot about them). Oddly enough, it made himself feel at peace. There was a sense of tranquility that always followed the end of a mission. And tonight — a night under the twinkling specks in the sky — was definitely no exception. With a whimsical sigh, he laid back on the ground and put his hands behind his head for comfort, his eyes still on the sky.

A few minutes passed before he could hear rustling next to him. He slightly turned his head to see that you’ve decided to follow suite, your hands resting on your abdomen as you seemed to be in a trance with the stars. You looked much more relax than a ten minutes ago with your soft expression and lazy gaze. There was barely any tension left in your body, at least from what Dick could see. Perhaps the small conversation you two had helped you feel a bit at ease. He hoped that was the case, anyway.

Or maybe you were just tired after kicking some serious Cult of The Kobra butt.

When the thought entered his mind, he couldn’t help but give out a small chortle. You seemed to snap out of your trance when you heard it, your head turning to face him. He could feel your faze on him, an unvoiced question evident.

All he could do was give you a small smile and say, “it’s a beautiful night.”

You returned the smile.

“Yeah. A beautiful night.”

The quick conversation was dropped in favor of looking at the stars above.

“Have you ever been to the Flash Museum?”

“A couple of times,” Dick answered, not taking his eyes off of the moonlit water. “It pretty much ticks all of the boxes of a superhero tourist trap. Big statues, useless items put on display, overpriced merch, you name it.”

“Sounds like the Hall of Justice,” you said with an amused tone. You lifted up your binoculars to survey the area. “Does Batman have some sort of Bat Museum in Gotham?”

Dick offered you a shrug, then realized you couldn’t see it. “Eh, something like that. In the Batcave, at least. He has this giant penny and dinosaur and—”

You cut him off as you lowered your binoculars. “A giant penny?”

“Yup,” Dick responded, popping the p.

“… And a dinosaur?”

“And a dinosaur.”

He watched as you furrowed your brows. “Okay… uh… why?”

“Think of them as souvenirs,” Dick answered. “Like how Wally collects them after every mission.”

“I would’ve never guessed the Batman collects souvenirs,” you muttered while hesitantly returning to your binoculars. “Speaking of which, what do you think KF’s gonna bring back to the cave this time?”

Dick looked up at the stars as though he was admiring them for a moment, then gave an answer. “Hm… don’t know. I just hope it isn’t anything with mystic powers or gorilla lice.”

“Or needs to be taken out three times a day or else it’ll leave a little present for everyone all over the cave floors?”

“That’s technically Supey’s souvenir,” Dick laughed. “… Speaking of which, I believe it is your turn to take him for a walk this weekend.”

He watched you groan out the corner of his eye, not faltering with the binoculars. “Don’t remind me. Though I don’t understand why we began taking turns…”

“Guess mutant wolves are a team responsibility,” mused the black-haired teen. He heard you chuckle at his statement, though no follow-up comment came from you. That’s what made him decide to lean against the dock below him, getting a full view of the stars. All he could hear was the sounds of the water below you two lapping against the shore, almost like a lullaby.

“Hey, Boy Wonder.”

He hummed.

“Don’t go falling asleep on me,” he heard you tease. Not bothering to get up, he gave his arms a quick stretch. “I’m not gonna, don’t worry. Just providing a bit of sky surveillance.”

“Sky surveillance. Right.” There was a small pause before you spoke again. “How long are we gonna be out here for?”

“Beats me. Aqualad and Miss M have been down there for a while,” Dick answered as he sat up again to look at the ocean. “Wonder if they’re alright… wish the mindlink was up so we could be sure.”

You groaned. “Gotta love psychic enemies…”

A ghost of a headache twinged in Dick’s mind just thinking about past psychic encounters. “Believe me, you don’t know the half of it.”

The air was once again filled with silence. Nothing has happened on land since you and him were told your positions, and he figured it was going to stay that way till the end of this mission. Really, there was no need to keep watch of the horizon, so both of your roles were a bit useless. Not that Dick minded, however. The ocean breeze felt different during the night, not to mention there wasn’t a single boat on the water. He was getting a bit tired of constant action-packed nights, so this moment of downtime was nice for him.

Your voice interrupted the silence once more. “It’s a beautiful night.”

Dick looked over to see that you were no longer using the binoculars to survey the horizon, but to look up at the stars. He turned his head back up towards the sky and admired the twinkling lights.

“Yeah,” he finally agreed. “A beautiful night.”

“Tell me, doctor, will I live?”

Dick let out a dry laugh as he fished around for some sort of disinfectant in his utility belt. “Don’t joke around, (Y/N).”

“(Y/N) and not (H/N),” you dramatically gasped. “That totally means I’m not making it out alive…”

“It does not,” countered Dick, his more stern yet a humored smirk evident on his face. He finally found a small bottle of Bactine and uncapped it. “Now hold still before it gets infected from your nonsense blabbering.”

“Okay, I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works,” you retorted, holding out your scraped up arm so your companion could treat it.

The Boy Wonder immediately got to work. He gently held the underside of your forearm in one hand and held up the bottle of Bactine in the other. “This is gonna sting,” he warned you. It seemed as if you were going to say something, but he immediately poured some of the Bactine on your wound, causing the words to turn into a drawn out wince. He stopped pouring the liquid onto the wound and gave you a worried look. “Traught?”

“Never been traughter,” you spat out between clenched teeth.

He could feel his shoulders relax when it seemed as though you were alright. He went back into his utility belt to see if he could find a gauze of some sort. “Sorry, but you never know what icky stuff could be crawling around on Sportsmaster’s gear.” He grimaced at his own thoughts. “I bet he doesn’t even clean it.”

“Ew, Rob,” you gagged as you retreated your arm. “That is not what I want to hear right now!” You stuck out your tongue and looked at the rough abrasions on your arm. “Not after I almost got my arm taken off by his swinging… ball thingie.”

“I think it’s called a flail. And give me back your arm,” he said, finally pulling out an unused gauze (the last one in his belt, he mentally noted).

“I don’t think I want you to treat me anymore,” you sneered, though complying anyway and extending your arm to him once more.

“Thanks for your cooperation,” Dick snorted.

And with that, the black-haired teen carefully began to wrap the gauze around your arm. He made sure the entire area was wrapped to prevent anything nasty from getting into the wound. There wasn’t too much to worry about— you were lucky enough to only be not-so-gently grazed by Sportsmaster’s ball and chain — but getting a portion of your skin ripped away wasn’t exactly the best condition to be in, and he knew it was a smart idea to get it checked out post-mission.

“I hope everyone else is doing alright,” you voiced, watching Dick finish up his crude medicinal work.

“Wally radioed me a bit ago.” The caped male took a second to make sure the gauze was fastened correctly. “He said Sportsmaster managed to get his copter in the air, but they got the other guys.”

He watched you heave a sigh as you gently moved your patched up arm in circles. “Of course Sportsmaster got away. We can’t seem to catch a break with that guy, huh.” You then flopped down on the ground so suddenly that Dick feared you passed out for a moment. It seemed that you were alright, however, as your gaze was locked with the sky. “Think we’ll be able to see his copter fly above us?”

“He went East,” Dick answered in a somber tone, laying down next to you on the ground. “So… that’s a no.” His eyes found the moon pretty quickly. “But, hey. On the bright side, clear skies as far as the eye can see.”

“Thanks,” you sarcastically scoffed. He recognized the humor in your tone as you continued. “Does that mean you can point out the Big Dipper?”

“Duh,” he cackled. It suddenly dawned upon him that, no, he couldn’t point out the Big Dipper. But he was willing to bluff. “It’s…” his eyes darted around for a random cluster of stars. “Right there.”

Your eyes followed where his finger was pointing. He watched in silence as you squinted skeptically before you sheepishly said, “I honestly don’t know where the Big Dipper is, so I can’t fact check you.”

Ah. Of course. You were bluffing as well.

Laughter bubbled out of his chest at your response. It seemed to be contagious, because you were soon laughing right beside him. What was once a tranquil night was now filled with the sounds of your voices bouncing off the trees. It took a while for your laughter to die down, the forest returning to its once peaceful state.

“… I hope they know where to get us,” Dick randomly admitted.

You crooked a brow at him. “You mean to say you didn’t tell them where we were?”

“Well…” Dick scratched his cheek. “I told them we were in an area with trees.”

“That’s 75% of the area, Rob,” you deadpanned.

“Which rules out the other 25%,” he reasoned. Before you got a chance to open your mouth, he made sure to speak first. “Besides, it’s not the worst night to be stranded in.”

He watched as you gave him an unamused look, but turned your head to the sky nonetheless. “Yeah, I guess so…”

His own head turned back towards the sky while looking at the stars above. The conversation died from there, though he didn’t mind. It’s not like he was lying before; it wasn’t the worst night ever. Not too humid, probably because of all the trees, and the night birds provided a nice background noise.

“It’s a beautiful night,” he heard you utter next to him.

All Dick could do was agree.

“Yeah. Definitely a beautiful night.”

“What are you doing here?”

Dick didn’t even look behind him, his gaze still on the stars. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“I mean still at the cave,” you pressed. He could hear your footsteps get closer as you sat down next to him on the sand. Once you were settled, your gaze was on him. “Did… something happen?”

“No,” Dick quickly answered. After a pause, he let out a soft sigh. “No, nothing happened.”

He still felt your gaze on him, the sand shifting underneath of you as you changed your sitting position. “But you’re still not talking to Batman?”

Just the mere mention of his name — well, his pseudonym, rather — made Dick grimace. It was still weird to him that you knew about his problems (even though he was the one that told you about them). He still kept his and Bruce’s identities a secret, but he let you know that Batman and Robin were a bit more closely related than just being crime fighting partners. With Wally being more involved with Artemis, he needed someone who was willing to listen.

And that someone was you.

“Not exactly,” he answered with a saddened tone. His eyes lowered to watch the distant waves dance under the moonlight. “He threatened to fire me as Robin again. Said I was being too reckless, or something like that. I don’t really pay attention anymore. It’s the same lecture every night, just for different reasons.” Admitting this all to you seemed to zap the tension from his shoulders. How long was he bottling that in for? He honestly wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Batman sucks,” you huffed.

Dick let a humorless chuckle escape from his throat. “Yeah, you’re telling me.” He leaned his head against the palm of his hand. “And, on top of that, I’m thinking me and Zee should break up.”

He couldn’t ignore the way your body jolted at his statement. “Seriously? How come?”

“We’re… just not meant to be,” the black-haired teen answered. “Don’t get me wrong, we have amazing chemistry, but we make better partners on the field than partners in romance.” A sad smile crossed his face. “And I can tell she’s probably thinking the same thing.”

“… I’m sorry to hear that, Rob,” you whispered, voice as soft as the crashing waves. “But I’m sure it’s for the best. No hard feelings, right?”

“No hard feelings,” he echoed. Even if it left a bittersweet feeling in his chest, he knew you were right. “So, why are you out here?”

He finally turned his gaze towards you, taking in your unreadable expression. It took a bit before you answered. “Felt like I needed a moment to get away.”

Dick cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Life’s kind of… hectic,” you shrugged. “I just needed to get away.”

“… I get that,” he remarked. If anything, getting away was exactly what he was doing. His eyes turned away from you in favor of looking at the stars. “Guess the night’s a good getaway, huh.”

You nodded. “Ironic, since that’s when most of our missions happen.”

A hum came from him at your statement. He used to think of the team as a getaway — a getaway from Gotham and a chance to be his own hero — but now… he wasn’t so sure. The more involved he was with the team, the more of a burden it became. And with Aqualad’s promise hanging over his head… the promise of being the team’s leader one day… it doesn’t make him all giddy like it used to.

Maybe he was finally old enough to understand what it meant to be a leader.

He was no longer that naive 13 year old, after all.

“Sometimes, it’s good to have a break from missions,” he sighed. “I mean, half of the team’s set for college. And I don’t even know where I want to go…” he trailed off, his frown growing deeper on his face. “If it’s not saving lives, it’s wondering what we’re gonna do with our own lives.”

“We’ve still got time,” you assured him, bumping his side with your elbow. “No need to be in such a rush just yet, y’know?”

All he could do was give a short nod. “I guess so…”

You gave a whimsical sigh next to him, arms crossing over your knees. “We’re still teenagers, man. Barely even started our junior year of high school. And while everyone else’s legal taxpayers, they’re still the same weirdos that still goof around Happy Harbor with us.” Your expression had a hint of nostalgia on it as you thought about past memories. “Don’t feel like we have to grow up so fast, ‘kay, Rob?”

“It’s Dick.”

He immediately sealed his mouth closed after he exposed his real name. Despite being older now, he still followed Batman’s identity rule and felt sketchy revealing it to anyone.

But… you weren’t just anyone, we’re you?

His eyes darted towards you, heart picking up a bit. You two have known each other for a while now. Surely, he could trust you with his real name. And it’s not like Batman necessarily forced that identity rule, anyway.

“I’m sorry.” You blinked dumbly. “What?”

After taking a deep breath, the Boy Wonder elaborated. “Dick Grayson. That’s my name. Well, Richard Grayson, but I go by Dick.”

Your brows rose. “Oh.” There was a quick pause before a small grin pulled at the corners of your mouth. “Dick… Dick Grayson… you look more like a Shawn, honestly.”

He couldn’t help but scoff at that. “I do not.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” You put a finger on your chin. “Maybe a Simon.”

“No way.”

“A Thomas.”

“Not a chance.”

“A Jason?”

“Now you’re just insulting me.”

You both erupted in fits of laughter, needing a few moments to calm down. When it was quiet once more, you offered him a relaxed expression.

“We’re both young, Dick,” you told him, then waved your hand towards the stars. “So let’s just enjoy the night.”

Dick shrugged next to you with a content smile. “I guess it is a beautiful night.”

“It is, Dick Grayson. It certainly is.”

“This place looks familiar.”

Dick stopped tossing his Escrima stick in the air to get a good look at the area. “Does it?”

“Yeah,” you confirmed, scratching your cheek as you looked at the grass. “Maybe we’ve had a mission here before.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged. “B used to send us all over the place, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t send us all the way to Bialya just a few days ago, Mister.”

“It’s all for the greater good, (H/N),” Dick teased.

You shook your head, hands placed on your hips. “Guess I can’t argue with that.” Your gaze went up to the moon. It took a moment before you said what was on your mind. “This new team’s doing pretty well.”

“What can I say?” The former Boy Wonder shot you a smirk. “Trained by the best.”

“Only because you were trained by the best,” you mumbled.

“Who, Batman?”

“No, me.”

Dick snorted. “You?”

“Wow. I’m hurt, Grayson.” To further accentuate your feigned sorrow, you put a dainty hand over your heart. “Even after all we’ve been through, you choose to insult me?”

“I do it out of love, my dearest (L/N),” declared Dick with an outstretched arm. He retracted it and dawned a more serious expression. “But… in all seriousness, I guess there is something…”

He trailed off. No, he didn’t want to ruin the mood with his sappy feelings. Besides, they were technically on this mission too and should be ready at the drop of a hat in case something went wrong for one of the newbies.

You, however, weren’t going to let him drop it that easily. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” he immediately blurted, though he saw the look in your eyes and realized there wasn’t anyway around this. He knows better than to keep secrets from you. “Just… you remember that one mission several years ago? I guess it would’ve been one of your first ones.”

He watched as you furrowed your brows. “Depends, what was it?”

“Cult of the Kobra,” he explained. “Rounding up the last of them after our joyride in Santa Prisca. You weren’t there for the Santa Prisca mission, but…” he quickly realized he was about to ramble, so he let a sigh interrupt his sentence. “Point is, I remember us waiting for the Bioship to pick us up after we split up with the team… and… we were just sitting there under the stars.”

“Oh. That’s right.” Your eyes lit up at the memory. “I think that was my very first mission, too. But… what about it?”

Dick didn’t answer your questions and asked one of his own instead. “Do you also remember that night we covered for Kaldur and M’gann while they were dealing with Black Manta in the water?”

“Uh…” you scratched your head. “Was that the one in Florida?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “And there was also another night when you got hurt facing Sportsmaster, and we were waiting for the others to meet up with us while I patched you up?”

“And that was a night mission,” you confirmed with him.

“We talked under the stars,” he wistfully added, a feint smile at the memory. “Just like the night when I revealed my real identity.”

“How could I forget that night,” you assured him. “I can’t believe that was two years ago.”

A nostalgic sigh came from his lips at all of the memories. Had it really been two years since he revealed his identity, four since Florida and the Sportsmaster incident, and five since your very first mission? It all felt like it was only a few months ago; maybe even weeks. But, shooting a quick glance at the blue bird on his chest, he realized a lot of time has passed since those memories. A lot of change has happened since then, but at least one thing stated constant.

Nights like this.

“I… wanted to thank you,” he finally got out. “For all of those nights.”

“But I didn’t do anything,” you reasoned. “I was just… there.”

“And that’s all I could ask for, honestly,” explained Dick. He glanced up at the sky before returning his gaze to you. “Those nights were really special to me. Sitting there under the stars, reminding me that there’s more than just missions…” he shifted his weight from one leg to another. “I know that we’re no longer kids, and we barely have the time sit back and do nothing like we used to during those nights…” he smiled when he heard your humorous chortle, then continued, “but I have no regrets slacking off with you, and I would give anything to go back to those days.”

“Dick…”

Both of you stood in silence for a little bit, enjoying each other’s presence. When was the last time you guys had the privilege of being under the stars, in the presence of no one but the other? It’s been forever since you were even on a mission together… guess that’s one of the many burdens of being a senior team member.

But, even so, here you two were, next to each other during the night sky like so many times before. Dick couldn’t fight the bittersweet feeling that rested in his chest at the thought.

He was snapped out of this thoughts when you plopped yourself down on the ground and tugged at his wrist to join him. It was a big enough surprise to knock him off center and send him careening towards the ground next you you. “Hey,” he yelped. “What are you..?”

“You should probably make yourself comfortable,” you said with a teasing tone. “The freshmen might take a bit to finish the mission.”

Dick was taken aback. He stared at you with an unsure expression, changing his sitting position to a more comfortable one. “We’re supposed to be monitoring them, (Y/N).”

“They’re big kids,” you reasoned, laying down on the grass. “And they know they should radio us if they get into any trouble.”

“So we have to be ready if they—”

“C’mon, Grayson,” you said in a drawn out whine. “They’ll be fine. And besides, we’ve always been prepared for anything, even while goofing off.”

Dick gave your proposal a moment of thought, still unsure about it. He secretly knew he should be attentive should anything go wrong, but… the offer was too enticing to pass up.

“We only goofed off because the older kids had it all covered,” he challenged, though still joining you on the grass and putting his hands behind his head. “And we’re technically the older kids on this mission.”

“We don’t have to be the older kids right now,” you mused, eyes trained on the twinkling display in the sky. He looked up just in time to see a shooting star that passed over both of your heads, which seemed to elicit a content sigh from you. “We’re just two kids admiring the night.”

His smile grew back on his face. “Yeah… just two kids.”

A familiar silence settled between you two. It was then that he noticed the soothing noises of the night, like chirping bugs and hooting owls. The cool breeze rustled some distant branches and felt refreshing against his skin. All of the tension seemed to leave his body in an instant.

“Hey, Dick?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a beautiful night.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah… a beautiful night.”

[samwisethewitch]

Cults? In my life? It’s more likely than you think.

In my last post, I talked about how the Law of Attraction and Christian prosperity gospel both use the same thought control techniques as cults. I’ve received several public and private replies to that post: some expressing contempt for “sheeple” who can be lead astray by cults, and others who say my post made them scared that they might be part of a cult without knowing it.

I want to address both of those types of replies in this post. I want to talk about what a cult really looks like, and how you can know if you’re dealing with one.

If you type the word “cult” into Google Images, it will bring up lots of photos of people with long hair, wearing all white, with their hands raised in an expression of ecstasy.

Most modern cults do not look anything like this.

Modern cultists look a lot like everyone else. One of the primary goals of most cults is recruitment, and it’s hard to get people to join your cause if they think you and your group are all Kool-Aid-drinking weirdos. The cults that last are the ones that manage to convince people that they’re just like everyone else — a little weird maybe, but certainly not dangerous.

In the book The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, author Jeff Guinn says, “In years to come, Jim Jones would frequently be compared to murderous demagogues such as Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson. These comparisons completely misinterpret, and historically misrepresent, the initial appeal of Jim Jones to members of Peoples Temple. Jones attracted followers by appealing to their better instincts.”

You might not know Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple by name, but you’ve probably heard their story. They’re the Kool-Aid drinkers I mentioned earlier. Jones and over 900 of his followers, including children, committed mass suicide by drinking Flavor Aid mixed with cyanide.

In a way, the cartoonish image of cults in popular media has helped real-life cults to stay under the radar and slip through people’s defenses.

In her book Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control, Luna Lindsey says: “These groups use a legion of persuasive techniques in unison, techniques that strip away the personality to build up a new group pseudopersonality. New members know very little about the group’s purpose, and most expectations remain unrevealed. People become deeply involved, sacrificing vast amounts of time and money, and investing emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, and socially.”

Let’s address some more common myths about cults:

Myth #1: All cults are Satanic or occult in nature. This mostly comes from conservative Christians, who may believe that all non-Christian religions are inherently cultish in nature and are in league with the Devil. This is not the case — most non-Christians don’t even believe in the Devil, much less want to sign away their souls to him. Many cults use Christian theology to recruit members, and some of these groups (Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.) have become popular enough to be recognized as legitimate religions. Most cults have nothing to do with magic or the occult.

Myth #2: All cults are religious. This is also false. While some cults do use religion to recruit members or push an agenda, many cults have no religious or spiritual element. Political cults are those founded around a specific political ideology. Author and cult researcher Janja Lalich is a former member of an American political cult founded on the principles of Marxism. There are also “cults of personality” built around political figures and celebrities, such as Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, and Donald Trump. In these cases, the cult is built around hero worship of the leader — it doesn’t really matter what the leader believes or does.

Myth #3: All cults are small fringe groups. Cults can be any size. Some cults have only a handful of members — it’s even possible for parents to use thought control techniques on their children, essentially creating a cult that consists of a single family.  There are some cults that have millions of members (see previous note about Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses).

Myth #4: All cults live on isolated compounds away from mainstream society. While it is true that all cults isolate their members from the outside world, very few modern cults use physical isolation. Many cults employ social isolation, which makes members feel separate from mainstream society. Some cults do this by encouraging their followers to be “In the world but not of the world,” or encouraging them to keep themselves “pure.”

Myth #5: Only stupid, gullible, and/or mentally ill people join cults. Actually, according to Luna Lindsey, the average cult member is of above-average intelligence. As cult expert Steven Hassan points out, “Cults intentionally recruit ‘valuable’ people—they go after those who are intelligent, caring, and motivated. Most cults do not want to be burdened by unintelligent people with serious emotional or physical problems.” The idea that only stupid or gullible people fall for thought control is very dangerous, because it reinforces the idea that “it could never happen to me.” This actually prevents intelligent people from thinking critically about the information they’re consuming and the groups they’re associating with, which makes them easier targets for cult recruitment.

So, now that we have a better idea of what a cult actually looks like, how do you know if you or someone you know is in one?

A good rule of thumb is to compare the group’s actions and teachings to Steven Hassan’s BITE Model. Steven Hassan is an expert on cult psychology, and most cult researchers stand by this model. From Hassan’s website, freedomofmind.com: “Based on research and theory by Robert Jay Lifton, Margaret Singer, Edgar Schein, Louis Jolyon West, and others who studied brainwashing in Maoist China as well as cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger, Steven Hassan developed the BITE Model to describe the specific methods that cults use to recruit and maintain control over people. ‘BITE’ stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control.”

Behavior Control may include…

Telling you how to behave, and enforcing behavior with rewards and punishments. (Rewards may be nonphysical concepts like “salvation” or “enlightenment,” or social rewards like group acceptance or an elevated status within the group. Punishments may also be nonphysical, like “damnation,” or may be social punishments like judgement from peers or removal from the group.)

Dictating where and with whom you live. (This includes pressure to move closer to other group members, even if you will be living separately.)

Controlling or restricting your sexuality. (Includes enforcing chastity or abstinence and/or coercion into non-consensual sex acts.)

Controlling your clothing or hairstyle. (Even if no one explicitly tells you, you may feel subtle pressure to look like the rest of the group.)

Restricting leisure time and activities. (This includes both demanding participation in frequent group activities and telling you how you should spend your free time.)

Requiring you to seek permission for major decisions. (Again, even if you don’t “need” permission, you may feel pressure to make decisions that will be accepted by the group.)

And more.

Information Control may include…

Withholding or distorting information. (This may manifest as levels of initiation, with only the “inner circle” or upper initiates being taught certain information.)

Forbidding members from speaking with ex-members or other critics.

Discouraging members from trusting any source of information that isn’t approved by the group’s leadership.

Forbidding members from sharing certain details of the group’s beliefs or practice with outsiders.

Using propaganda. (This includes “feel good” media that exists only to enforce the group’s message.)

Using information gained in confession or private conversation against you.

Gaslighting to make members doubt their own memory. (“I never said that,” “You’re remembering that wrong,” “You’re confused,” etc.)

Requiring you to report your thoughts, feelings, and activities to group leaders or superiors.

Encouraging you to spy on other group members and report their “misconduct.”

And more.

Thought Control may include…

Black and White, Us vs. Them, or Good vs. Evil thinking.

Requiring you to change part of your identity or take on a new name. (This includes only using last names, as well as titles like “Brother,” “Sister,” and “Elder.”)

Using loaded languages and cliches to stop complex thought. (This is the difference between calling someone a “former member” and calling the same person an “apostate” or “covenant breaker.”)

Inducing hypnotic or trance states including prayer, meditation, singing hymns, etc.

Using thought-stopping techniques to prevent critical thinking. (“If you ever find yourself doubting, say a prayer to distract yourself!”)

Allowing only positive thoughts or speech.

Rejecting rational analysis and criticism both from members and from those outside the group.

And more.

Emotional Control may include…

Inducing irrational fears and phobias, especially in connection with leaving the group. (This includes fear of damnation, fear of losing personal value, fear of persecution, etc.)

Labeling some emotions as evil, worldly, sinful, low-vibrational, or wrong.

Teaching techniques to keep yourself from feeling certain emotions like anger or sadness.

Promoting feelings of guilt, shame, and unworthiness. (This is often done by holding group members to impossible standards, such as being spiritually “pure” or being 100% happy all the time.)

Showering members and new recruits with positive attention — this is called “love bombing.” (This can be anything from expensive gifts to sexual favors to simply being really nice to newcomers.)

Shunning members who disobey orders or disbelieve the group’s teachings.

Teaching members that there is no happiness, peace, comfort, etc. outside of the group.

And more.

If a group ticks most or all of the boxes in any one of these categories, you need to do some serious thinking about whether or not that group is good for your mental health. If a group is doing all four of these, you’re definitely dealing with a cult and need to get out as soon as possible.

These techniques can also be used by individual people in one-on-one relationships. A relationship or friendship where someone tries to control your behavior, thoughts, or emotions is not healthy and, again, you need to get out as soon as possible.

Obviously, not all of these things are inherently bad. Meditation and prayer can be helpful on their own, and being nice to new people is common courtesy. The problem is when these acts become part of a bigger pattern, which enforces someone else’s control over your life.

A group that tries to tell you how to think or who to be is bad for your mental health, your personal relationships, and your sense of self. When in doubt, do what you think is best for you — and always be suspicious of people or groups who refuse to be criticized.