#shes also vaguely supernatural. her mother was a mythologic being. and so is she. still writing that

[dpurut]

thank god the patho server exists im bending over backwards writing oc lore rn. woman

[reversalsun]

Explaining Rainbow Drinkers

I’m a decade wiser and return to the Homestuck fandom with a degree in biology and a desire to use it for evil. Lets talk about Vampire Troll Girls.

We get very little from the actual canon of Homestuck about Rainbow Drinkers, just Kanaya, Porrim, and a few hints of lore scattered about. Still, they’re one of the most interesting parts of troll culture - rare and strange, feared but also obsessed over in fiction and mythology. They may be analogous with vampires in the pop culture fascination surrounding them, but I don’t believe that they’re all that similar in function. So let's speculate on how Rainbow Drinkers could function on a biological level and how they fit into greater troll society. 

Rainbow drinkers don’t seem to be literal undead, but rather a functional state that some Jadebloods have the potential to enter into. Yes, Kanaya only becomes a rainbow drinker after “dying”, but death isn’t strictly what made her a rainbow drinker. In fact, I’d argue that Kanaya never actually died - rather she reached a near death state. This state, I believe, did kickstart her transformation. 

The most important thing to zero in on here is rainbow drinker being an inborn trait. Contrast this with how vampirism in human mythos is treated like a pathogen - no one is born a vampire, you become one via infection. RD is hardwired into Jadeblood biology, but it isn’t expressed in their default state. This raises a question: what causes a Jadeblood to undergo transformation into a rainbow drinker? Answering this is a little difficult, as we have a pitiful data pool of one to draw from. Nevertheless, we can examine Kanaya (as well as some dubiously canon content) to extrapolate a bit more about sparkly troll vampirism. Kanaya undergoes transformation into a RD when she is blasted through the stomach and seemingly killed by Eridan’s science powers. Off screen she regains consciousness, begins glowing, gulps down some friend blood, then returns with a vengeance. How do we explain this without leaning on the supernatural? Let's start by drawing on real world bloodsuckers. 

Little may be known about Alternia, but planet Earth is abound with creatures that subsist on blood. Mainly the trait is seen in bugs and parasites - this lends itself to our cause, as trolls seem to be more insectoid than mammalian in nature. Hematophagy (blood drinking) is a trait that has convergently evolved in creatures across the planet - that is to say, hematophagic creatures aren’t genetically related. The trait crops up on its own because it's widely useful, not because of a shared ancestral nematode. Vital fluids, after all, are incredibly prevalent and are in sure supply wherever animals live. It’s not farfetched to say that hematophagy would appear on other planets - especially planets like Alternia that are host to carbon based lifeforms similar to Earth’s. 

We can safely assume that blood drinking would work in the same way on Alternia as it does on Earth. That means rainbow drinkers face the same difficulties that Earth’s vampires do. Blood is not only difficult to obtain, but it’s also difficult to digest. So how do rainbow drinkers solve these conundrums? 

First, the method. Most terrestrial bloodsuckers are nocturnal - and not just for the spooky aesthetic. Fluttering, crawling, and slithering in on a sleeping host lessens your chance of being swatted on impact. Almost all hematophagic creatures are stealth feeders, and Rainbow Drinkers are no different. Trolls are a nocturnal species, but Kanaya is stated to be diurnal upon introduction. It would make sense for her and other potential Rainbow Drinkers to have a natural proclivity for daywalking, as it's much easier to feed from a sleeping troll than a waking one. Kanaya is also able to withstand the fierce, burning Alternian sun - a force which is enough to blind Terezi, and leave any troll who walks out in it for too long with a scathing sunburn. Even Jadebloods that are not currently or will never be rainbow drinkers are likely to exhibit non standard troll sleeping patterns, as they live primarily in the brooding caverns - dark, underground caves where the sun cycle wouldn’t really matter to them. When they do leave their caves to hunt, the glowing, white skin of a Rainbow Drinker would likely be a large boon against the Alternian sun’s devastating rays. In Friendsim we’re told that Lusii’s bright white coats help to protect them from the sun. It’s likely the same for rainbow drinkers; the color white reflects all wavelengths of light far better than any other, thus their radiance and pale complexion provides them an extra level of defense when they’re out hunting. Friendsim also vaguely mentions Rainbow Drinker extract in Tagora’s route, where it’s used as a luxury skincare/beauty product that makes a troll’s skin look literally radiant. Very little is said about the product itself, so it may be a hormone or a secretion derived from Rainbow Drinkers. In the case of the latter… Kanaya and other Rainbow Drinkers might just be really greasy? 

Now, in canon Kanaya theorizes that Rainbow Drinkers glow because of their home in the near pitch black caverns. It’s true that even with trolls' natural night vision, more light sources would be a boon. Animals that thrive in the dark like cats and wolves can’t magically see without a light source, rather their eyes are specially adapted to reflect even scant amounts of light. Animals that live in true darkness, like those found in the depths of caves, are more commonly blind. If no light is present, even night vision fails. With the mother grub’s natural habitat being subterranean, her special attendants possessing an internal light source would make sense. 

We have to change gears now and reckon with the How of troll blood drinking and Kanaya surviving. First: how can a troll survive on blood? We know that all trolls - even Kanaya, subsist on diets of foods akin to what you and I eat. Is it even possible to suddenly switch to a blood diet? The answer is yes. Blood drinking comes in two forms: obligatory and facultative. Obligatory, as the name implies, refers to creatures like fleas and ticks who only consume blood, whereas facultative refers to creatures that have a mixed diet of blood and other foods. Mosquitos for example only drink blood when they need to produce eggs. Rainbow Drinkers are likely similar - mainly eating standard troll goodies, but being able to rely on blood if the going gets tough. Natural resources may be scant in the brooding caverns, and the ability to survive on blood would be incredibly advantageous for those living there. Blood would of course be in no short supply given the population and purpose of the caverns. The implication I’m getting at is well… not every grub survives the caverns trials, or even the caverns in general. Between imperial drones, hoards of lusii, and difficult terrain, the brooding caverns can be dangerous. It would make sense for the troll denizens living there to be exceptionally tough and capable of “recycling” the grubs that don’t make it. Horrible. I’m sorry. But that’s nature. 

The transformation into Rainbow Drinker could very well be triggered by shock or extreme physical duress. After undergoing the transformation and taking a nice sloppy drink from her friends, Kanaya begins to exhibit increased physical abilities. Natural durability and rainbow drinker abilities serve Jades well in their special role as mother grub attendants, and I think that’s in part how Kanaya was able to survive Eridan’s attack. That, and the noticeable difference in how she and Feferi were hit. Fef was hit in the chest while Kan was hit in the stomach. Assuming troll biology is comparable to our own, cleaving out the lungs and heart is a lot worse than cleaving out the stomach. Now don’t get me wrong, both are awful, But if one of the two was going to survive, it would be Kanaya - not only is she a durable Jade (see above), but as a facultative blood drinker, it could be possible for her to have a separate stomachs for blood and food. The digestion process of the two is completely different, so throwing all of it into one pouch might not be a good idea. Outside of durability and luck with the placement of the blast, this could be why Kanaya was able to get back on her feet. And she’s a Sylph, a natural healer class. But this isn’t a classpect analysis, so I’ll leave that discussion for people wiser than I. 

Jadebloods are stated to be the second rarest blood type out there, and those that are able to turn Rainbow Drinker exemplify how badass the whole caste is. It’s likely that they don’t possess these skills because they’re the chosen attendants of the mother grubs, but rather these traits are why the mother grubs chose Jades as their keepers in the first place. As much as I wish we’d gotten more info about Rainbow Drinkers from canon, it was fun to explore how they could potentially work, and it really cemented Jades as my favorite caste. Anyway, please excuse me while I go draw myself a Rainbow Drinker trollsona. 

[prairiedust]

Gimme Shelter livewatch under the cut.... I was on my phone when I wrote it so apologies for the typos

“Patchwork Community Center: Care Given to All” with a huge, lurid heart. Hmmm.... patchwork having two meanings here.....

Pastor (?) has 2 Timothy 2:22 tattooed on his arm! “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (NIV) Are we looking at growth and found family in this episode?!?

Oh that’s the alleyway!

Hitting mythology themes— Connor is an Anglicized version of an Irish name— Conchobar mac Nessa is maybe the most famous bearer of the name, from Irish mythology— he’s the king who lusted after Deirdre and had her locked up until she came of age, which is probably neither here nor there as far as this poor Connor is concerned...

That thing has a big lurid heart on his overalls better run lol— Oh shit it’s an evil Teddy Ruxpin!!!! Thanks Davy Perez!!!!

That’s the thing animal control uses to manage aggressive animals??? Is this saying something about the Patchwork people?

And that’s it for the cold open.

——

The uh, the mcfuckin what, the Camelot Palace Casino? Is this a tour of the legends of Ireland and Britain all of a sudden? What’s with hitting this theme so hard so fast?

Uh-oh the whole Highway to Heaven reference has me side-eyeing Dean’s suggestion for Cas snd Jack to leave the bunker... Dabb even “spoiled” that line in a tweet lol... in that show the cop and the angel got their (vague) assignments from the big guy.......

Oh SHIT “we’re standing in what I call ‘the trap zone’” Perez is coming for my whole life with this episode!!!! And they’re doing highkey “season one totally-normal Winchester investigation questions script” I love it!!!!

“Slasher flick” Oh we’re revisiting Mint Condition. This is fine.

AND TOMBSTONE THIS IS NOT FINE DAVY! We’re running the good times backwards what did I say about this being the flipside of Last Holiday!

H2H again but this time it’s sus... plus I’m with Zack, I totally want the cozy murder spinoff I imagined Adam and Michael doing plz

Oh the Cas and Jack dynamic here is so sweet.

Pastor just leaving his door open like there’s no such thing as a thief bless his heart. They must be torn up about Connor but Pastor was the last one to talk to him so he’s sus I don’t make the rules.

Oh no Red’s a THIEF!!! Who ever would have guessed. Okay I did NOT expect that jumpscare because of the way Connor’s murder primed me, that was masterfully done.

That’s vaguely an Ohio Star quilt square on the sign behind her except um I forget what that tilted square in the center turns it into? It’s chiming with something... I’ll have to look that up later.

“Divide and conquer�� no never split up in a slasher movie that’s how you get murders use the buddy system!

Gonna stop a sec because I just realized that Zack is two-faced. The British dandy was an act. The killer is wearing a Cinderella mask. Ok I’m gonna make a prediction that Zack is actually the killer, a la the demon in Repo Man...

Okay there was definitely a beat after Dean said “Glad soneone’s taking charge” [ofHell] and the focus shifted to Sam. Hm.

“We’ve got to set her up for her own death” so meta, these writers are gonna shred us.

I love being shown how much Castiel has changed throughe Jack not understanding the Kool-Aid reference. And the cats line lol. That’s both amazing and poignant.

That’s a log cabin pattern in the cafeteria. Home. Makes me think back on other quilts we’ve seen this season and if “weaving” is the right metaphor for writing lol. I mean, the action of “patching” is synonymous with “mending” or even healing, but patchwork is also a craft with a long, long history in America (idk if quiltmaking is called patchwork everywhere) of taking a few often mismatched fabrics and cutting and sewing into something beautiful. There are generally two kinds of quilt tops— patterns, like we’ve seen so far in this season, which are carefully planned and involve precise measurements, and “crazy quilts” which also require skill but are often more freeform and piecemeal. But both aspire to be beautiful. That’s an interesting way to conceptualize a serial text... as both creating and mending....

That prayer was sweet and not at all what I was expecting.

I get the finger-cutting for Valerie (stealing=sticky fingers) but not for Connor? Tenuous connection still betw lying and writing? It’s evocative of Se7en but the killer seems to have the same MO for all the killings (I attended CSI for a while.)

Snow White is making me uneasy. Oh she’s the preacher’s daughter... we’ve seen that in early days, too.... oh.... oh....

It’s not the AV guy despite having seen all the AV equipment around Valerie. That’s too easy.

“A saint is a sinner who keeps trying-“ no scroll back, the important part was “we all have to take care of each other.” That’s a theme in the series.

She’s all in pink....

dean and amara on the same wavelength about food lol

Ha ha inversion of “oh you’re a fan of religion? name all seven gods then.”

Castiel’s testimony just wrecked me.

“Members serve the gift of food” hmmm the signs in this episode are tip-top

Gonna just watch for a while.

Oh crap “each is a finger” oh it’s about the sins of the father— No Cas no, you’ve fallen for the misdirection!

Oh okay good, Chuck’s not done snuffing worlds. That had me REALLY WORKED UP ha ha because Amara has no reason to lie right?

That was a really good conversation.... and implying that Former Death bent the truth...

Oh fuck I’m gonna cry “I wanted younto see that your mother was just a person” YES! DISMANTLE THIS MYTHOLOGY AMARA!!! Name it!

THE MYTH THAT YOU’D HELD ON TO FOR SO LONG did they just— THEY DID

rigging the game— ftfoh with the casino metaphors already we know the house always wins except when it doesn’t

Lying, lying, lying,

Do we even know Snow White’s name yet? And why was Connor a liar? Because I think we can make a guess at this point.... ah ha ha her name is sylvia— “forest spirit” she’s Mrs Butters— and she’s after hypocrites— but the killing isn’t supernatural, just churchy?

Oh shit SHE IS A DEAN MIRROR IF SHE STABS JACK I’LL FLIP A DAMN TABLE

....

....

prairiedust.exe has encountered an error and must be restarted

....

....

Okay so “Dad” steps in and stops Sylvia’s attack on Jack...

Why is that Zack? What????

“I’ve been lying to you” oh here we go

Oh it would be death #3, remember what Dabb said about threes a long time ago, two attempts that are unsuccessful and one that satisfies the parameters— but no he’s a jack :((((

I have to stop watching for a while.

Okay I finished it. Holy cats do I have some Thoughts about this episode.

What I loved: Revisiting Dean’s anger, BUT the parental mirror here (in retrospect, at least for me) was a John mirror-- all the mothers (exc for Rowena) in this episode are dead. And Pastor Joe didn’t apparently embrace his wife’s faith until she had died, and then his vision was radically different than his wife’s was-- much like John’s reasons for becoming a hunter were vastly different from Mary’s... but much like “patching” this subtext was possibly even more “healing” than having John back in the 300th ep... This was... looking at a child’s anger when they’re in the middle of their own family mythology. Am I implying that Dean’s anger is immaturity? Eh, it’s... unripeness. I have an old meta in my drafts about the heroine’s journey and why Mary’s story conformed to it while feeling totally unfulfilling in her actual character arc and I’m so glad I sat down and examined that rather than finish it. I have a lot I want to say about Cas’ testimony too, but that has to sit a while. ALSO also, Cas has already thrown away his shot by making the Empty deal, right?....

LANGUAGE! Cas saying “I found myself lost” is a bonkers sentence, right? It’s like when people say someone “turned up missing”-- AND it does not have the same meaning as “I realized I was lost”-- you get a double whammy of the connotation “to search for.” I loved loved loved how language was such a big deal in Last Holiday and then again here, I need to rewatch while paying closer attention to Sylvia and things she says... but these two were sister episodes in so many ways, that when I said there was a “lack of narrative mirrors” in Last Holiday, that’s only because the lens for that kind of reading is Gimme Shelter. That is not the first time spn has played with a “coin” or paired structure-- I think the first time I noticed it was Fan Fiction/Ask Jeeves but I was a transfer student from another fandom at the time lol. But of course, we get a huge truth bomb at the end of the episode, and again that splashy cymbal all over lying...

What I got wrong-- Zack wasn’t the killer but he’s fishy as hell-- he stole Sylvia! Is this part of Rowena’s “people generally end up where they deserve to be” except she’s built in an express lane? “Do you need a driver” is that his actual job now? Taking unripe souls to Hell Orientation? What’s up with him being there... the other shoe did not drop. So there is a third episode out there somewhere where this might get wrapped up? The conversation between Dean and Cas can easily be something that happens offscreen, and I don’t think that it would be the first time we miss an “important” conversation, especially since we know roughly what will be said and how it will wrap up-- it’s an “open text” of a sort. Maybe a fanfiction gap lol, I can’t wait for the codas.

Also, the fingers thing being Sylvia’s father’s favorite analogy is where she got her MO, something that I definitely didn’t see, although it fits right in with her father’s slightly pithy character. I think it’s interesting again how we’re playing with threes and fours. Three fingers got cut off but it was apparent that Valerie (valorious one) wouldn’t die until finger #4.... Jack really seems to be our last hope.

[serendipitioussurvival]

Be Still Their Hearts

It was very likely that she was not conventionally ‘sane’, or so Peter Hale - an investigator for the California Supernatural Investigation Unit - surmised. He’d seen a lot of ‘insane’ suspects in his years but never one quite like this. She was small, almost pixie-like - though they had checked and rechecked the DNA pulled from her and found no traces of Fae or Supernatural DNA - and got along easily enough with the other detectives and scientists on his team. 

That, truly, had been the first clue that she wasn’t exactly sane. She seemed put together, too put together for someone they found knee-high in a literal silo of human corpses. 

‘Dad was a Sheriff,’ she explained with an enticing gleam to her whiskey amber eyes, ‘kind of got used to death when I was too young to form any other opinion on it.’ he guessed she was talking about the death of her mother, another case that was sitting on his desk back at the office. It reeked of Supernatural interference and a hasty cover-up, and if this clever girl - and oh, she was clever, there was no mistaking that - had figured that much out too it would make sense to have been the final, driving chip into her splintering sanity. 

No one started out as ‘insane’, he sure hadn’t, despite his sisters - Talia Hale, current Director of the California Branch of the SI - firm beliefs of the opposite. Still, she’d been completely honest and compliant throughout the majority of the process, another indication that she was either uncaring of the outcome or firmly sound in her decisions that she didn’t think she’d be caught. Peter never once questioned if she had killed those people, a tally of which he’d yet to receive on just how many had been killed, despite the wavering doubts of some of his team. 

“Hale,” he answered his phone before sliding his Bluetooth in. 

“It’s Erica, sir.” ah, his favorite science nerd turned to muscle. “We’ve gotten the official tally on the body count, as well as the background check we ran on our suspect.” she never beat around the bush and dropped potential suspects with her Kanima venom quicker than they could fire a gun or shift. He never regretted turning her, despite her questionable fight with her inner traumas, and because he hadn’t - because that bond was pure enough - she existed on a very rare, very fine line between Kanima and Werewolf, a hybrid with brains as well as brawn. She was easily his favorite. 

“Go ahead,” she always waited to see if he were in a position to hear the specific information too, something he greatly appreciated. Most of the others on his team rarely took a second to care if he were in the company of others and would blurt out details over the phone. 

“Twenty four have been identified as various missing persons through California, all different ethnicities, ages, and genders. The only thing they have in common is that they used to be Emissaries for various packs that are no longer active.” so she was killing emissaries? Why, and how come their departments hadn’t been made aware that many emissaries were missing?

“You said used to,” he mused, pulling into the parking lot. “I assume you mean that as before their deaths, and not after.” 

“Yes, sir. We’re still looking into the packs but so far eight out of the twenty-four never existed. Two of the associated addresses were county Police departments, one was a Walmart, and another belonged to the home of a Druid with protection wards that made my skin itch.” ouch indeed. 

“I enjoy a good bet so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the two that registered the police station as the Pack Center were mutilated heavily.” it would be an emotional reaction, after all, a crime of passion, and yet another link connected her to the case. 

“Yes sir, we had to run dentals on both. We’re suspecting that the four other bodies that were strung up on the sides of the Silo were also using police headquarters as a pack center, it would give us a pattern.” 

“Any insight on why our perp decided to make a pond of carcasses?” a thoughtful hum on her end and a loud PA for Boyd - her fiance and the other muscle on his team. 

“We thought Preta at first, they’re more East Asia oriented though.”

“Why Preta and why did cast it aside?” his shoulders dropped just slightly once he started down the familiar hall to his office. 

“Preta’s are beings of insatiable hunger,” she began, “mainly for something humiliating and/or unconventional. Cadavers, Feces, infection, you name it. It would’ve explained the body pile up and the literal pond of bodily fluids but no remaining tissue was found in her stomach or in her teeth. Most of the bodies were too decomposed to see if any organs had been taken out or for a legitimate cause of death to be ruled. Some were mutilated, some had their eyes and hearts gauged out, others had their heads twisted all the way around until they were decapitated.” and that required a strength that their current suspect didn’t seem to have. 

“Any word back on her DNA check?” another sigh, this one just a tad more honest than the last. Erica, despite her being his favorite, didn’t suspect the young woman any more than the rest of his team did - though Whittemore was on his side, strangely enough. 

“Yes, very faint traces of witch DNA, too few to grant her access to magic but just enough that she can see the resulting aura’s of the supernatural.” not uncommon in this day and age either, almost everyone had some traces of supernatural DNA, if they didn’t they were either part of the old Hunter clans or the Purists families. “Her background check confirmed her story as well. Mother died when she was six, Father was KIA when she was fourteen. Stanford graduate with a Bachelor's in Physiology, then a Major in Mythology and Supernatural societies from  Berkley.” 

“What information have you gathered about the father?” a slight pause on her end followed by shuffling papers. It gave him enough time to get his keys in the door before she absolutely floored him with her next words. 

“Jeorek Stilinski, former Sheriff of Beacon County. They caught his murderer but the name was stricken from the records.” a few clever taps onto her keyboard - no doubt overriding the clearance by using his - and then sucked in a sharp breath. “His murderer was Theo Raeken.” 

He broke his key off in his office door and stared at it for a solid minute. Theo Raeken was a notorious serial killer with a body count in the upper fifties, he had been six at the time of his first murder - his sister, she had been pushed, spine broken and-

And her heart had been gauged out. 

“Erica, pull up the file on Theo Raeken.” Theo Raeken who had been found strung up, split in two, with his eyes and heart gouged out. He barely heard her faint ‘got it’ before he twisted his doorknob and broke the lock, forcibly opening the damned thing. “Are there any schools listed under any of his aliases, I want colleges - community or otherwise.” 

“He had a year of being an undecided major at Beacon Hills community under his alias Theodore Cander,” a pause followed by a muttered curse, “two months before his death he attended the Supernatural societies course at Berkeley.” that connection, the one class they shared and the fact that he had killed her father was what had him in front of her cell not even seven hours later. 

“You look tired, Detective,” he rose a perfect brow at her otherwise well-rested appearance. No conscience and no worry for her current predicament - even more boxes checked against her innocence. “Though I’m not opposed to the eye candy you are in a tux and your confidence in it I’ve gotta ask, what brings you to visit me?” she batted her eyelashes and put her palm flat against her chin, posing. “Have I caught your heart?” 

“You killed Theo Raeken,” he expected her to trip up, freeze, or even show some hint that he was right in her gaze, her scent, her heartbeat. 

“I did? Wish I could’ve cherished it, he killed my dad after all.” she shrugged and plopped down on the floor of her cell, staring expectantly at him through the glass wall separating them. “How’d you draw that conclusion.” 

“Quite a few of your victims had their hearts and eyes gauged out, the same way Theo Raeken was killed.” he really shouldn’t find a suspect so intriguing and yet he did. She put herself literally below him - something that either indicated she didn’t see him or the situation as a threat - she was complacent and honest - to a point, certainly - but didn’t seem remorseful of the deaths she caused. She didn’t seem righteous or angry either, so that particular complex was thrown out the window. 

“I like your gut instincts,” she praised, moonglow skin looking particularly ethereal under the fluorescent glow of the overhead lights. “So you think, what, that I killed Theo Raeken, got a taste for it, went on a murder spree, and -?” she motioned with both palms up at her situation, “lead you to the bodies so you could catch me?” he hated and adored how careful she was with what she said. Always hypotheticals, always vague answers or clever half-truths. It’d been a long time since he had an actual challenge and this twenty-something young woman was proving the most enticing one yet. 

“I think you got bored,” that caused a warm glow to ignite behind her amber eyes, glossing them up attractively. “I think,” he began again, tamping down the desire to impress the darkness in her that called so temptingly to the darkness in him that he’d buried so long ago. “that you were trying to be normal, and then you saw Theo in your Supernatural Societies class in Berkeley, recognized him, and gave up on being normal for vengeance.” the smile that was curling at the edges of her lips made his blood sing, “After him you finished your degrees and sat out to get rid of people just like him. Not other serial killers, but people who were false to society while endangering others. It’s why they’re all former Emissaries to non-existent packs, and why those that used police stations for pack centers were strung up. They were a message,” 

“What’d they say?” her scent remained amused, her tone was husky and borderline wanton. 

“That they didn’t deserve any kind of afterlife, that they deserved to exist in agony.” maybe he said that with just a bit too much conviction, a little too much understanding because the moment the words left his mouth her scent bled a sliver of arousal that smelled like sandalwood. He couldn’t very well use that as a sign of her guilt when his own arousal had begun to answer back, he was just in control enough to not let it. 

“An interesting assessment,” her words were slow as her scent slowly righted once again, “one which I’m sure the killer would agree with.” 

“The killer, not-” before he could finish Erica was opening the door at the end of the hall and practically sprinting to him. Suspect forgotten in the face of Erica’s worry, something that hadn’t shown since-

“The Argent’s are here, Talia signed her release to them due to lack of convincing evidence.” he gave a singular glance backward, caught the vicious curl of her lips, and began marching down the hallway with his cellphone in hand.��

“Talia, I need you to negate that transfer-” his sister sighed heavily on the other end, patronizing even without words. 

“Peter, you’ve no concrete evidence that this very human girl has killed twenty-four Emissaries, most of which were bigger than her. There’s no suspected partner, and she’s been compliant with all our tests and questions. While I do not like Gerard nor do I trust the Argents it is now in their jurisdiction to clean everything up.” he glared darkly at the wall of the lab and pressed his thumb and pointer to the bridge of his nose.

“Talia, she’s guilty. I know she’s guilty, and she’s not just human she’s-” a pause, then a snort of derision from his sister over the line. 

“Exactly, you’ve no evidence for any of these accusations. My decision is final,” before he could question why the North American East Region head hunter Gerard Argent was here to pick up someone so plain and banal she hung up, ending their discussion. 

“Why do you think she’s guilty,” Isaac - his lead interrogator - asked, cherubic features pinched in confusion.

“You’re questioning my judgment too?” he raised his hands in mock surrender, drawing another irritated sigh from Peter. “I know she’s guilty because my gut tells me she is.” 

“Okay,” the relent was not what he had expected, he was so used to everyone - read sister, boss (also sister), her emissary, and a good portion of his family for the last couple years - second-guessing him or questioning him. “You’re a self-serving, sarcastic jackass most of the time,” his alarm must’ve shown because now Isaac was explaining, “you also have a terrible - if it costs me my life then why bother? Mentality, but whenever you tell us to follow a lead because it’s your gut instinct we always find a connection.” 

“Sarcastic, self-serving jackass?” Erica clapped him roughly on his shoulder with a burst of laughter. 

“The sassiest, kind of makes what she said a little more confusing. I’ll be waiting? Thought it meant she’d be waiting to be found innocent, makes things a little confusing.” that joy, that relief, it was all short-lived when they watched the Argent’s wheel - yes, wheel, because they apparently saw fit to have her in a straight jacket with a muzzle, tied to a wheelchair, with her ankles chained together - their suspect down the ramp into the back of their armored vehicle. It, as well as the fact that Gerard Argent himself got into the same van with her, told Peter all he needed to know. 

They knew her, they knew what she was, and they knew she was guilty. More than that they had specifically wanted her, but why?

“Talia, you’re not listening!” his shout shut his sister up, even if she did flash her alpha reds at him in annoyance. “You don’t restrain a human like that unless they’re not human!” 

“As much as I hate it, Alpha Hale, Peter may be on to something.” Lydia Martin, head of the forensics department of their building, groused. “I only met her twice. The first time to gather the DNA samples she had death coating her like a second skin. I thought it was just because she had been in that vat,” a shiver of disgust, “but just now, when I sedated her for the transfer, it was still there.” she tapped perfectly manicured blood-red nails against her throat and grimaced. “I’ve had a scream itching at the back of my throat all day but it’s slowly getting worse.” a glare his way followed by a softer smile to Talia - who was finally looking like she may have regretted her choice. “I’m a Banshee, I predict death, but I’m smart too, Alpha Hale.” She bowed her head slightly and cleared her throat. “There’s something off about her, if you don’t trust my intuition then trust my word as a Banshee.” 

“The tests came back negative of supernatural-” Talia began, shoulders slumping just so. 

“There are ways to fake them,” Lydia cut in, “But it could also be that whatever she is isn’t yet registered.” hazel green eyes narrowed on Peter, “Just like we had to do with Reyes, her hybridization was rare and hadn’t yet been recorded. Her DNA analysis came back regular with no known secondary strain. Since we have we’ve registered only two other Kanima Hybrids. Whatever Stilinski is we don’t have it registered, meaning she’s either rare-” she trailed off, head tilting to the side. 

“Or it’s not a DNA thing.” now both of them were looking at him, “Derek’s serial killer girlfriend, the one Deucalion had to put down, what was she again?” anger flashed across his sister expression before it was quickly replaced with horror. 

“A demon,” she cursed and sat back down to put her head in her hands. “She was a Demon.” With a sigh, she picked up her phone and dialed the one number he knew she really hated to call. 

“Alpha Hale,” Deucalion greeted, tone pleased. “To what do I owe this rare honor?”

“The Jennifer Blake, the Demon you put down, how did you know she was a Demon?” he hummed in thought before he, too, put her on speaker. 

“Because I could see her aura, back when I was blind.” when he had his eyes impaled by Gerard Argent’s arrows, he means. “I assume you’ve run into yet another one, is it yet another inspiring lover for the young Derek?”

“No. Can they pass DNA tests as human?” a deep sigh followed by a brief call for Kali - his head researcher. 

“Demons are human, essentially. They’re born, but a Demon is born in the human when an absolute corruption of their soul happens. It’s harder than stories and television makes it seem and it has to be completely willing on the human's end. They don’t die, they don’t become emotionally mute or psychotic, but they do have the abilities of whatever level Demon they become.” 

“It’s not a possession? What do you mean by the level of the demon, and how do you know all this?” a condescending chuckle in the background had Peter’s hackles rising. He didn’t like his sister at times, but she was his sister and only he could badmouth her to her face. 

“No, it’s like - ugh, human terms. It’s like when a Caterpillar forms a chrysalis and turns into a butterfly. It’s still the caterpillar, but it has a different name and a different form, only now it can fly. Same thing with Demons, they’re still mortal, but now they have extra abilities. So far only four Demons have been registered by our team. A level one is a basic grunt, they seem to come to the weaker willed ones, basic added strength but low intellect. Level two seems to frequently appear from average prey. They have the strength of a beta wolf and can see auras, they know at a glance whether you’re human or not and what kind of supernatural you are. Level three’s are not so common but not rare, they can tap into magic use and pass as a witch or Druid, have the strength and speed of a Beta wolf, but they’re highly susceptible to Iron. Level fours are… difficult. They have a strength that rivals an Alpha and all the abilities of a Darach. They don’t need any sacrifices but they hunt,” a pause then an ascending grunt from Deucalion. “We captured one who called themselves the Huntsmen, they’re the ones who take other damned souls. They don’t hunt other Demons but they will fight with them regularly. They don’t have a social structure or pack sense but they are loyal to a singular partner. The one we had wouldn’t talk until we threatened his mother, so it seems the partner can be platonic.” 

Okay, well she hadn’t expressed any abilities so he could almost rule out a level four except…

Except something about her still struck him. She wasn’t of basic intellect and she definitely was not average prey. If she had been able to see Auras then she would’ve reacted to seeing Erica for the first time, she hadn’t. ‘But they hunt,’ Kali had said, they hunt and they take other damned souls, souls like Emissaries who weren’t but were reaping the rewards. 

“Kali,” he was very aware that his sister was back to glaring at him, “The souls they take, what do they do with them?” the pleased rumble over the line made the predator inside him curl up in joy. 

“They burn them, apparently only a few of the damned souls make the cut to be an actual demon.” a pause, “You have a Demon you’re hunting, don’t you? I told Duke we had to go back to California when Theo Raeken showed up dead, but we were busy.” 

“Why do you say that?” there had been nothing - aside from the grisly remains of his corpse left behind - that signified supernatural occurrence. 

“Because it’s the first Demon on Demon killing I’ve ever seen, whatever predator you’re hunting is going to be a challenge.” she sounded wistful and wanting. It was no secret that Deucalion’s pack, who he made into his entire mobile branch of the SI, was of the brutal sort. Every one of his pack were fighters and THEN they were geniuses. Ennis, the main muscle, was also a former surgeon. Kali, his fiance, had a black belt in nine different martial arts with a masters in forensics and criminology - she was also a tad insane. Deucalion had been formerly blind, yet even then he retained his fighting capabilities and had extended the knowledge of werewolf senses tenfold. He, currently, had too many degrees to ever need worry about what he would do for the rest of his life - though he need not worry, as he currently was filthy rich thanks to proper investments. The twins could combine into a giant, invincible fucking werewolf and were currently getting their Doctorates. If they were saying that level fours could be difficult then perhaps he should bring Erica along when he followed the Argent Convoy. 

“-ause,” his sister had clearly asked how they knew it was Demon on Demon murder. “Xander, our level four we’ve got under quarantine, has been searching for the demon responsible for his death. The Demons were born at the same time, Raeken’s was stronger ‘cause of all his murders and yet this little fledgling Demon manages to kill him like that. I’d applaud the one responsible before gauging their-” anything else was cut off by an ashen Scott McCall, Talia’s secretary. 

“Ma’am, it’s the Argent convoy, it’s been attacked.” 

“What?!” she barked, angry and panicked - no doubt because Peter had been right. He’d rejoice and rub it in her face if his wolf weren’t currently prowling under his skin. 

“You had the Demon and let it go,” Deucalion mused from the phone, “do you need our assistance, Alpha Hale?”

“No.” Peter snapped, glaring at his sister. “You didn’t listen to me before, listen to me now.” his wolf, something he’d been so out of tune from, something that had been a part of him and then muted by his sister, was making itself known for some reason and it had all started with her. He needed to know why, he needed to catch her. 

“No, Alpha Blackwood, thank you for your information.” by the time the phone was hung up Scott already had a GPS signal blinking away on a map, almost as if it were waving. 

“Play the recording,” thank god for Peter’s suspicious ass for insisting that they record every Tip - anonymous or not - that was sent into their building. 

‘My name is Mieczysława Angelika Stilinski, but you can call me Stiles. It wasn’t very nice to sign me away, Talia, but thank you for the opportunity regardless. Gerard Argent met a gruesome, slow death that I took great pleasure in. His convoy is also dead, well, except for three of them. By now you have most likely called Deucalion and got the whole shebang about Demons, so you’ll know that these three were spared ‘cause they were pure. Good on them too, surrounded by so many dickbags.’ the clink of metal cufflinks told them all that she had gotten rid of the shackles around her legs. ‘I’m using one of their cell phones so you can pinpoint it and come save them.’ a muffled, female grunt followed by a slight pop, ‘Nice wallpaper, by the way, don’t worry I’m patient.’ a chuckle and then the line went dead. Peter wasn’t listening to whatever his sister had to say, too focused on trying to figure out what she had meant by that last line. 

‘Nice wallpaper, by the way, I’m patient?’ she was definitely a level four then, he’d known of a single Darach to be able to teleport. I’m patient, ‘I’ll be waiting’, Erica had said. She would be waiting for… for him? Why, more importantly, where-

‘Nice wallpaper,’ oh she was not ballsy enough to go to his house. She had sent that message for him, she wanted him to come to her and had set it up so they’d be alone. So he sent Erica and his team to the convoy knowing full well they wouldn’t find her. She could’ve collected his damned soul the first time she saw him, despite that something told him that she didn’t want to kill him. He wanted his own answers too. 

Such as why his wolf responded so savagely to wanting to be near her when Talia had nearly disconnected the connection between them after he went on a revenge killing spree on a purist family that had nearly burned Cora alive. She spent a year in a medically induced coma so her body could heal itself and Talia, her mother, had told him to calm down. Did Stiles know something about that night, did she know something about him that Talia might’ve made him forget? 

No, no he couldn’t be questioning his sister right now, not with a Demon present. 

So why wouldn’t the thought leave his mind until he was staring at his front door?

“You can come in, I promise I’ll only bite if you ask me too!~” she singsonged from inside his home, proving his thoughts true. He just wasn’t expecting to see her with a frilly bright orange apron on while moving around his kitchen, making some kind of delicious smelling stir fry. Even more was the fact that the Kate Argent sat at the head of his table, glaring heatedly at Stiles’s back, struggling against barbed wire that wrapped completely around her, tying her to the chair. “I brought you a present,” Stiles cooed, “Do you like it?” 

“Love it,” he replied immediately, confusion and agitation rising even as his wolf preened under his skin. “Why?”

“Because you don’t remember, I had to be sure that you didn’t and weren’t just yanking my chain.” she moved the pan off the heat and stepped directly in front of him, watching with warm amber eyes as he struggled with what he wanted to do. Crush her, kind of, against him or against the floor? He wasn’t sure. “Talia took from you,” her hand reached out to brush her fingertips against his breast pocket, the resounding slap of his hand encasing her wrist drowned out both their shocked gasps. 

Her skin lit him like fire, though not literally, it made every muscle up to his shoulder clench in heady anticipation. It felt familiar though he’d never touched her before. Talia took from him, how would she know? 

“Peter,” his gaze snapped to her eyes and watched in fascinated horror as her iris swirled like the milky way before the once amber was now cloudy white. “remember.”

And he did, god he did, and how he burned. Talia had taken his memories, his wolf, she had fabricated his very nature. He was not a nine to five guy, he was vengeful, protective, and by god he was hedonistic. What’s more is that this beautiful, bloodthirsty little thing had been his, just as he had been hers, they had hunted and slaughtered and enjoyed the finer things in life together. 

“Cora wasn’t almost killed by purists,” he mumbled, calloused fingers brushing ever so gently against her mole and freckle dotted cheek. “She was burned by you.” and then beta blues were blazing as they centered on Kate Argent. “I had killed all of your little accomplices and then my sister,” it was said as a curse, “My sister made me forget so she wouldn’t have to go to war with your family.” he couldn’t help the way his shoulders sagged in relief as her nimble fingers work to undo his tie and the first two buttons of his shirt. “She sent you to them,” he murmured, unknowing of when his arm wrapped around her waist to draw her near and uncaring because she was plastered against his side with a pliant hand resting over his heart. “knowing who you were.”

“No, your wolf protected me from his alpha.” more preening. That darkness that had rested at the back of his mind, the sudden connection of his wolf after near three years of silence -

Three years. She had waited three years for him. “You knew me, even when you didn’t.” he was able to profile her so easily because he had known her. “She would’ve killed me if she had known,” rough fingertips brushed over his cheekbones and his slicked-back hair, ruffling it just so that it was no longer slicked back. “You care about your family and you finally have that bond with them,” her thick brows furrowed, milky white bleeding back to expose the sad amber hues. “If you want to forget again, forget everything-”

He silenced her with a sound kiss, devouring the whimper she gave before she melded her body against his. He had forgotten what kissing her felt like, the fire that she was, the raw yearning she evoked with him. It had been that way since she came across him killing Kate’s henchmen and offered to join, wolf howling mate - then he had her screaming it all night. They’d been together a week - a single, blissful week of not having to hide their natures, of belonging - and in that week he found she was his true mate and he was her soul bonded, the one she’d be loyal to no matter what - out of choice. 

“This gift,” he breathed, uncaring for their current witness to their heated makeout. “Marks our new beginning.” his relationships with his team had been built on lies, his relationship with his sister was fabricated, none of them would want him how he was - and he honestly didn’t want them. “Care to go to war with the Argents with me, darling?” Her smile was absolutely savage and spoke to his wolf on levels the moment he saw her gleaming teeth. 

It took twenty-four hours, sixteen missed calls and nearly thirty unanswered texts before Talia went to her brother's listed address, fearing the worst. Whatever she had imagined did not prepare her for the reality of the situation. Kate Argent hung from an empty living room with gauges in her throat, stripes of skin under her fingernails, and the bottom half of her body in the fireplace, charred beyond recognition. 

‘JUST IN, ALPHA TALIA HALE OF HALE PACK WILL BE STEPPING DOWN AS DIRECTION OF THE CALIFORNIA SUPERNATURAL INVESTIGATION UNIT PENDING INVESTIGATIONS OF FRAUD, EMBEZZLEMENT, AND NEEDLESS ENDANGERMENT. NEXT UP; NEW SERIAL KILLERS ON THE LOOSE?! STAY TUNED FOR INFORMATION ON THE DEATHS OF OVER A DOZEN HUNTER’S ASSOCIATION HUNTERS AND HOW THE HUNTER’S ASSOCIATION ITSELF IS IMPROVING WITH THE LOSS! THIS IS AMELIA GADES WITH YOUR CNN NEWS,’

[postguiltypleasures]

EVIL articles

Considering that when I first saw an advertisement for it my reaction was “why now? Who asked for this?” it’s a little surprising that Evil is my favorite new show. As the advertisement first impression was of a version of The X-Files for our time where the skeptic and believer are divided over religion (specifically Catholicism) instead of alien abductions et al. (Yes, I watched enough of TXF to know that when it came to Catholicism, the skeptic/believer dynamic got flipped. No I don’t think that is relevant in discussing Evil.) I became interested when I realized that it was created by Robert and Michelle King, who created The Good Wife and its spin off The Good Fight.

Now that it’s aired eleven episodes I feel comfortable creating an analogy: Evil is to TXF as TGW/F franchise is to the Law and Order franchise. For starters both of the King’s series care about their protagonists’s domestic lives in ways that the earlier series’s just don’t. Another thing that is interesting about the comparison between the two shows that while TXF always implicitly agreed with the believer, Evil tends to find non demonic/supernatural explanations for most things, but always tends to make it more disturbing because of that. In that way it’s more like the argument from the original Twin Peaks after the reveal that Laura Palmer was murdered by her father Leland, after years of sexual abuse, but he may have been possessed by the demon Bob. But then the characters hate ask themselves which is more disturbing, if Leland did all that because he was possessed, or just being abusive? Evil seems to leave that question the answer to most of its mysteries.

The initial reviews were based on the first three episodes. I’m linking to their Metacritic page, but I don’t remember any standing out by being particularly insightful.

Over at Vox, Emily VanDerWerff chose to write about the fifth episode, the Halloween one, as the episode of television of the week. As I mentioned elsewhere, VanDerWerff co-wrote a book about TXF, so naturally she included a comparison to the earlier show, going to say that Evil is like if every episode of TXF was written by Darin Morgan. I feel a little weird about that analogy. On the one hand the both have a frequency of throwing on screen things where whether or not you find it scary or funny says something about you. But on the other hand several years ago I decided to revisit TXF but only watching Morgan’s episodes and one of the impressions I got was that they probably work better if the more average formula of an episode was fresher in you mind than it was for me.

VanDerWerff has also written about how the majority of CBS (the network that airs Evil) are TXF most successful knock offs. Evil is something of a break from the majority of CBS standbys, and I’d also kind of like to read about it more as a break from that.

While I mentioned choosing to watch the show because of the Kings, I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the Executive Producers/writers is Rockne S. O’Bannon, creator of the cult science fiction shows Farscape, Defiance and the short live Constantine tv show! I’m much more excited about figuring out how this fits into his oeuvre than a hypothetical Darin Morgan run TXF.

Emily Nussbaum wrote about the show in a column The New Yorker about the appeal of the network procedural. (She later put the show on her annual review, shortly before announcing that she’s leaving TNY.) I agree with the thesis and do think that the episodic structure has been underrated as an art form for too long. Nussbaum also mentions the show’s mythology being less in depth than some recent films, though I have to say, this far I like the show because its mythology is vague. When I saw the ads I worried it would do one of my least favorite kinds of supernatural procedurals, the kind that chooses Biblical literalism as its mythology. Biblical literalism is a big reason that I couldn’t get into Sleepy Hollow. I was greatly relieved when Fringe dropped its flirtation with Biblical literalism early in the second season. I completely expect that the mythology, especially surrounding what Leland Townsend is doing and who he could be, (my IRL friend who watches the shows thinks he’s The Devil). But I’m still hoping that the show sticks with “the answer” of “which possibility is more disturbing” as a guiding principle.

Finally I’m going to highlight a list from TVLine that named protagonist Kristen Brouchard’s daughters some of the “Scene Stealers of the Year”. Kristen’s daughters, whose names all start with the letter “L” and seem pretty close in age, are somewhat surprisingly more liked by critics than online commentators. I get feeling like kids are an annoying distraction. There are four of them and other than, Laura having a possibly fatal heart condition, nine really stand out as individuals. But, partially because of Laura’s condition, I’ve also gotten the feeling that they are doomed, and I really don’t want them to be! (While making TGW the King’s considered killing off one of Alicia’s children, but as the actor Josh Charles wanted to leave the show, they killed off his character instead. Also did you see the fourth episode?) I’m also interested in how already having children affects her story. Most of the time on these kinds of supernatural/science fiction procedurals with a female lead character her fertility and ability to start a family are a point of tension. On TXF, Scully’s ovum were stolen when she was abducted. Alias briefly knocked off this plot in its better off forgotten third season. Fringe found it focus with inter generational trauma, including a couple of characters starting the next generation. iZombie used Liv’s zombie to question what kind of future she could build, etc. Evil starting out with the young leading lady move the question from “will she ever find happiness and children?” to “does the traditional family unit actually work?” And it’s pretty clear that no one is fulfilled by this, especially Kristen’s mother who clearly wants to be the fun grandmother, but has much more responsibility for the girls than she’s actually interested in. Kristen and her husband’s actual passion, mountain climbing, is incompatible with raising kids, and the fact that her husband gets to do it professionally and is away for months at a time adds this, and probably contributes to Kristen lusting after her new colleague, David Acosta. (As a priest in training, whether or not he will ever have children or find romantic satisfaction is much more David’s story, and I’m here for the gender reversal.)

[merida-x-macguffin]

do you have any ideas for a Brave 2? i really want a sequel

I’m never sure if I really want a sequel to Brave or not, but if there was one and I had supreme godly powers over the narrative? Oh my god, hold onto your buttcheeks mate.

There are so many loose ends I want to see tied up and, erm, non-bear oriented Scottish mythology to be tackled.

First the major loose ends.

- You don’t fuck with the stones

In Scottish folklore, custom, and tradition you just don’t mess with old stones. Hell I’m not even that superstitious, but you wouldn’t catch me drawing so much as a handlebar moustache on an old standing stone (mind you, I am a coward). People are still superstitious about standing stones today. Not so long ago in the 1960s there was a building site in my town that caused a lot of anger in the neighbourhood because they had moved an ancient standing stone. They were eventually forced to move it back (right smack bam in front of the house they had built).

A great deal of mystery surrounds the purpose of these megaliths. Were they used in Bronze Age rituals? If so, what about the older sites, such as the Callanish Stones (the inspiration for the stone circle in Brave) which were erected in the Neolithic era? Were stone circles a kind of early lunar observatory? Did they align with surrounding mountain ranges? The explanations in folklore are just as numerous: the Grannie Stone in Irvine tells the story of a Goddess turned to stone. Sometimes the stones are said to be haunted by faeries or ancestors, or they were giants turned to stone after refusing to convert to Christianity. In other stories the stones are soldiers- private armies ready to be called upon by their master. In these tales bad things tend to happen to those who harm the stones.

The climax of Brave saw Mor'du being crushed by the stone Elinor had broken, thus symbolically breaking the cycle of violence. But if we’re to follow the logic of Scottish lore, not only has a stone been felled, but a sacred circle has been broken. There could be consequences to that. Can’t imagine the Bear Witch would be much chuffed with it either. Seriously, there are tons of stories you could pull from this. Get on it, Pixar!

- Elinor’s necklace

At first Elinor’s necklace seemed to be important to be the plot. After all, we see Elinor wearing it in the film’s very first scene. In the end its purpose was largely symbolic. But maybe there’s more to explore there? The witch was certainly quick to snap it up. Maybe there’s a reason why… The necklace bore a symbol of three bears chasing each other endlessly, much like the Ouroboros symbol, and the stone circle that features in the film. However, once Merida gives away her mother’s necklace to the witch we never hear nor see of it again. So Brave ends with the stone circle broken and the necklace bearing an infinity symbol lost. Definitely something to work with there! Add to that is Elinor’s crown. We never see her reclaim it (but I guess that’s also symbolic of her own personal journey and changing attitude to her role as Queen and mother).

- The Ex-Suitors

I really, REALLY hate Once Upon a Time’s portrayal of the suitors. It’s just too easy, too obvious and too insulting to portray the young lords as stupid, arrogant dudebros who disrespect Merida because she’s a woman. How about a story where Merida and the young heirs have to put aside their differences and work together, preparing the four of them as future leaders? There’s a ton of stuff you could work with here. When we last see them, Wee Dingwall is slobbering kisses up Merida’s arm, MacGuffin has struck up a strong friendship with MacIntosh, and if we’re to take the cut epilogue from the artbook as canon (which I do as it explains certain things in the movie), Merida sees something in Young MacGuffin. I wouldn’t want a sequel to be a romance, however. I like the idea of hinting at Merida and MacGuffin as a future couple, without their romance leading a sequel or even being a major sub-plot. 

I think one of the reasons Brave wasn’t so popular with audiences was its narrow focus on two characters: Merida and her mother. Now I personally love that. We rarely get mother/daughter stories that are adventurous and fun and genuine. But I wouldn’t want a sequel to have the same narrow focus. As Merida grows, her world should expand and a sequel should reflect this, developing relationships with people outside her family. Her ex-suitors are perfect for this. When we’re first introduced to them, they appear very one dimensional. MacIntosh is arrogant, MacGuffin is shy, and Dingwall is …uhm. Odd. By the end of the film, like Merida they are revealed to be more than first meets the eye: MacGuffin may be shy, but he’s also empathetic and kind, aware of the unfair situation the suitors and Merida have been forced into. MacIntosh may be arrogant, but he also cares deeply for his father and shows signs of great leadership. Dingwall is surprisingly lucid, even eloquent - despite his vague stares, he has strong views on his situation. They’re far from fully-fleshed out characters, but there’s enough there to build on. After all, if Brave is partly about not judging people by first appearances, then it would be good to explore and challenge audience expectations. Just because MacIntosh is arrogant and a bit of a git doesn’t mean he can’t have heart. Just because Dingwall is a bit of an oddball doesn’t mean he can’t be observant and clever. Just because MacGuffin is shy and fat doesn’t mean he can’t be brave or a romantic interest.

You’ve also got the makings of a cracking comedic set up with Merida and the young lords. Imagine Dingwall as this cunning Machiavellian strategist who also has a tendency of breaking into sonnet around Merida; MacGuffin trying desperately to keep the peace between MacIntosh and Merida who constantly pit their egos against each other; the occasional sweetly awkward moment between Merida and MacGuffin, with typical gender roles completely reversed (think MacGuffin damsel in distress XD); MacIntosh being the butt of every joke, but too enamoured with himself to realise. Each character should present some kind of challenge for Merida or support her in what she lacks. MacIntosh’s big ego presents a challenge to her own pride and ego. Where Merida tends to be a bit hot-blooded and quick to jump, Dingwall hangs back and observes. MacGuffin is humble and shy, where Merida is bold and brave. He is the antithesis to Merida’s stubbornness and opens up potential romantic feelings which are entirely new to her and take adjusting to.

Ultimately, I think the focus of a Brave sequel should take its lead from the first. Brave is largely a film about family, coming of age, and the connection we have to the rest of the world. The tapestry in Brave symbolises our interconnectedness - our decisions don’t just affect our own fates, but the fates of those around us (especially if you’re a privileged person with power). So a sequel should really be the next chapter in Merida and her kingdom’s story. What are the consequences of the first film’s ending? The stone circle is broken. Could that be symbolic of a threat to the unity of the four clans? After all, the Lords didn’t exactly intend their sons to stop competing for Merida’s hand.

Merida has had her first real taste of leadership and that should definitely be built upon. Will she be the future leader and Queen of Dunbroch, or will that title fall to one of her three brothers? Her relationship with her mother has changed, so how about exploring her relationship with her father? Fergus never believed in magic and his ignorance almost led to the death of his wife by his own hand. Would he blame the Bear witch? I can also totally see Fergus secretly preparing Merida to take his place when he’s gone, with or without Merida’s knowledge. How would the four Lords feel about that when it’s revealed?

I think if Brave was to get a sequel it should be part of a trilogy, with each film marking a new turning point and chapter in Merida’s life. This would tie in nicely with the recurring number 3 in the film: the symbol of the three bears on Elinor’s necklace, the triplets, Merida’s relationship with her parents, the three lords, the three clans, the three suitors. If this is Merida’s story, then her relationship with each of the aforementioned should be the focus of a trilogy. And I think at the forefront of that should be her relationship with the three young lords. The kingdom was forged in Fergus’s friendship with MacIntosh, MacGuffin and Dingwall. Therefore, if Merida is to lead then the second part of her story should be about challenging her (and the audiences’) first impressions of the young lords and forging a bond with them, strengthening the kingdom and thus symbolically repairing the broken stone circle. 

The second part of the trilogy should also introduce a major conflict which has its roots in the first film. Maybe there’s a looming threat on the horizon; a supernatural threat i.e. the broken stone circle (could be symbolic of the threat to the four clans unity?) or the threat of invaders? Maybe it’s both?

So yeah, I think there are a TON of things you could do with Brave. I know it’s not one of Disney Pixar’s more popular films, but that’s easy to fix. Merida continues to be a fan favourite, so expanding the scope of her story would be a risk worth taking. Definitely more so than Cars 3 or Toy Story 4. -_-

[perception-6]

(Photo Creds to Goodreads!!)

Review: Lament, by Maggie Stiefvater

Overall rating: 4/5 stars (it’d probably be higher if I’d been reading it more constantly but that’s true of pretty much any Stiefvater book that I rate below 4.5 stars lol)

No spoilers below!

Lament is the debut novel of Maggie Stiefvater. Stiefvater is one of Tumblr’s favorite authors, and one of mine as well (follow her at @maggie-stiefvater like even if you don’t read her books there’s so much valuable advice, laughs, car talk, etc. on her blog). Oddly, in my two-year relationship with her books, including Shiver, The Raven Boys, and The Scorpio Races, I’ve not seen extensive talk of this first book, or its sequel Ballad, really anywhere on the Internet- I mean, type “Lament” and “Stiefvater” into Tumblr’s search bar, and you do get a nice cluster of posts; both covers I’ve seen of this book do photograph quite nicely, and it’s got a ton of poignant quotes and phrases, the kind that people pass on to others through the web.

Soooo… going into this book? I’ve gotta say, I wasn’t certain what I should expect, given the lack of Internet preparations, but then again, I thought, some of my past favorite books have been way below the surface of mainstream Booklr, so why not give Lament that same chance? All things considered, this book was really well done and enjoyable, but it did take me a solid 4 weeks to finish because I took a pretty long break between the first and second halves of the book. Honestly, my biggest complaint about this book was that until I reached a certain point, the story didn’t keep me thinking about it outside of the pages for too long.

If I had any concerns over my putting too much pressure on Lament because of how much I love Stiefvater’s other books, those concerns were truly unnecessary. Lament doesn’t feel like a duplicate of the other books in any way, even if there are some aesthetic overlaps (all three characters have some pretty major differences but Deirdre’s attitude towards different people reminds me of Grace at some moments and of Blue at others). It has its own world and set of magical rules, actually taking on a slightly darker feel than anything I’ve read from Stiefvater before. The threatening nature of the supernatural world feels more direct and imminent than in the first book of any other of her series, and I don’t think any other of them builds up so much suspense so quickly.

My second-biggest complaint about Lament (which isn’t really a complaint it’s just an observation that I actually thought was executed pretty well) is that, character-wise and plot-wise, it starts out in an almost-formulaic Paranormal Romance style; Main character meets supernaturally-affiliated being, becomes swiftly captivated, has their new dream-like reality shattered by the introduction of life-threatening circumstances, etc. Regardless of the book’s slightly tropey appearance, Maggie does a phenomenal job of making every aspect of Lament her own in every respect; The main character Deirdre, her best friend James, the love interest Luke, her mother and aunt, the faeries (who have a delightful spectrum that goes from “mischievous and vaguely threatening” to “brutally sadistic, fun to watch”), all are well-rounded, never one-dimensional, fleshed-out and so effin easy to empathize with (or virulently hate depending on the circumstances).

Deirdre herself is super witty, plucky, and generally well-suited in terms of having a reader inside of her head for 300+ pages at a time. Her interactions with and feelings towards Luke don’t feel rushed, even though the book doesn’t take place over such a long period of time; when they aren’t fighting for dear life, they feel more or less like a normal teenage couple, and their affections and banter are, respectively, cute and hilarious. Deirdre’s best friend James is vigorously loyal through all the dangers their friendship puts him through, and I can honestly say that he’s too innocent and kind deserve to be a part of any of the situation (yes maybe this role is a trope but like the others MS takes it and makes it her own and anyway I’m not complaining because I freaking love it). There isn’t really a good-fitting place to mention this, but I’ll go ahead and say here that James’ and Deirdre’s experiences with music remind me of Jandy Nelson The Sky is Everywhere, which I read last year and loved.

Again, I really loved seeing Maggie’s version of the world of faerie; I’ve got a bit of a mixed history with the genre, and I can safely say that hers is one of the better takes on the mythology that I’ve seen. There just seems like so much to this world, way more than this book touches on, and it kind of makes me want to research more into it on my own. I could tell that Maggie drew a lot on Irish history and lore (a lot like how she uses Welsh lore in The Raven Cycle), and it made these supernatural elements feel oddly realistic, like there are traces of their existence in the real world. It also made the fey feel more archaic and powerful, which is always a nice aesthetic for antagonistic forces.

As for the writing, I think it’s been established that I love MS’ way with words, and Lament is no exception. If I hadn’t let myself fall out of step with this world and take a break from this book, I would have finished it pretty quickly because this world lends itself easily to the reader’s emotional investment. In the periods when I was in a nice groove with this book, a couple of times I put it down for too long, interacted with the world, then turned around and was like “WHERE THE FUCK IS DEIRDRE. IS SHE OKAY. I CAN’T RIGHT NOW I NEED TO CHECK ON THEM.” That being said, I can tell that Maggie grew as a writer between Lament and The Raven King. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. Writers grow from book to book, and often the debut can get lost among the later, more popular releases. Do I think TRC, etc. deserve the publicity they get? Hell, yes!! Again, it’s clear that Maggie learned a lot about writing from this book to the latest ones. Still, even if she says she’d write Lament differently now, I think that, based off Lament, MS had honed her writing skills pretty aggressively before becoming a published author. Lament was, overall, well-crafted with an intriguing plot and characters both bubbly and vicious.

[rnjmnster]

psyche

(cr. mine)

paring: hoseok x reader genre: fluff, vague suggestive ending? ayyyyy ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) word count: 2.1k (congrats hobi, you get the award of my longest fic so far lmao rip)

supernatural!bts // cupid; the story of the god himself and his beloved.

"When are you going to finally get a boyfriend or get married? Like how are you still single? You're literally the prettiest one out of the three of us."

"Seriously. Anyway, just ask dad and mom to set you up with someone if you're having trouble finding—"

____ pulled her phone away from her ear and glared at the phone call she was on with her sisters. She held back a scoff, hearing both her sister call out her name. She rolls her eyes before bringing the electronic device back to her ears.

"Did you hear us?"

She gets distracted again by the beep, beep of her pager, ignoring the mock worry she was getting from her two older sisters. Why should she also have to get hitched when both of them already have?

"Sorry, my pager is going off. Have to save lives. Bye." she tells them, ending the call before the two can spew anymore crap to her.

She stares at her phone momentarily again, scoffing loudly this time. She shoves the device into the pocket of her white coat, returning back to work. ____ didn't devote her whole life to be a doctor to make her family happy, then going to med school and now finally a successful doctor only for her to marry and having kids like her sisters. At least not yet.

Or so she thought...

////

The minute Hoseok heard that his mother, wanted to see him, he quickly left the apartment that he shared with his six friends, to see her. His mother, Venus, never summoned him unless there was a person she wanted to him to personally prick his arrows with.

When he arrives to his mother's throne room on Mount Olympus, the cherubs that roamed her part of the castle are flying everywhere, excitedly welcoming their prince Cupid back. Hoseok greets them with a bright, pure smile. The doors to his mother's room opens for him. Before he can even step into the room, the woman with the long strawberry blond hair is already throwing her arms around him, smothering him in the tightest hug she could give her son.

"Mother."

"I haven't see my beloved son in forever! Let me take this moment to hug you before you leave your mother for Earth again."

"Come on." Hoseok grumbles, trying to pull away from her. "You summoned me, so here I am."

The goddess frowns at him, "I wish you were a little boy again...you never wanted to leave me or Olympus. You're so much like your father now. Brooding and—"

Hoseok only sighs in response, rolling his eyes, "Why am I here, mother?"

She crosses her arms and pout this time, avoiding her own son's eyes. Hoseok shakes his head at his mother's childish behaviour, before turning around to leave without hearing why she summoned him.

"I don't have time for your childish—"

Two cherubs suddenly appeared in front of him, halting him. They held a photo of a girl on surveillance, giving it to him. His mother drapes her arms over his shoulders, pulling him back until he hits her chest to give him a back hug.

"Her name is ____ and I want you to shoot her with your golden arrow. Her parents and sisters have been begging for her to finally find someone for herself. You know how I'm such a sucker for pity stories like that. Anyway, I want it done as soon as you leave Olympus."

"Anything else, mother?"

Venus shakes her head, letting her son go, bidding him a farewell. Hoseok only waves at her, continuing on his way out of her throne room.

////

The bar music blasts around her, drowning out all the chatter around her. She rubs her temples to relieve the headache that she's had since leaving work five minutes ago. ____ stares at the shot of clear liquid in her hand before finally downing the contents. She decides that that all she'll be drinking for the night, paying for the shot and leaves for home.

It was five minutes into her walk that she picks up that someone is following her. She remains calm and continues on, as if she hasn't noticed the man following her. She sees an alleyway coming up, pivoting and running through the alleyway. The stranger followers her, shooting arrows at her.

"Are you fucking serious? Shooting me? With fucking arrows?!" ____ mumbles.

She abruptly stops, turning around and as she does, an arrow grazes her left shoulder but it doesn't cut her. The stranger scowls at her, reloading another golden arrow. But in his distraction, she goes into a sprint, running towards him and tackles him down.

"What the hell..." he groans out in pain.

____ grabs one of the gold arrows that had fallen out of his quiver. She straddles him, bringing the sharp, heart-shaped point to the man's neck. The man looks up at her and she too makes eye contact with him. She stared at him in awe, momentarily enamoured by his beauty and handsomeness. Seeing her up close and personal, his eyes widened in realisation of who she really was. She wasn't just a random girl his mother wanted him to shoot.

"...Psyche?"

She snapped out of her daze and scowled at him, her guard up again, "Why the hell were you shooting at me and with," she shakes the gold arrow in front of him, "fucking arrows? Are you parading as Robin Hood—"

While distracted with her questioning him, he closes the distance between the both of them, bringing his lips to her. Her eyes widened, bringing the arrow back to his throat, to try and keep him at bay. But he lets his own golden love arrow puncture his neck because the first person he would still be looking at after getting cut with his arrow would be her. His Psyche. He ignores the pain of the arrow cutting into his neck, kissing her with vigour and her strength was slowly leaving her as her struggling subsided. It comes to a complete stop with her laying on top of him, asleep. Hoseok finally sits up, holding her incapacitated form in his arms, brushing her hair out of her face. He smiles fondly at her before it disappears and is quickly replaced with anger. Anger at his mother, figuring out what her real motives were.

////

"So...was she drunk and you decided to be a nice guy and brought her to our place or...?" Yoongi started asking.

Seokjin was tending to the cut caused by his arrow. Jungkook and Taehyung were staring at ____'s sleeping form, admiring her beauty. The werewolf finally tells Hoseok he's all patched up and the god springs out of his seat, rushing over her, in case she was to wake up. Hoseok shoos the two admiring boys away before going back to watching her, brushing strays of hair out of her face.

"No. My mother ordered me to shoot her. So I was going to but then she tackled me—"

"Wait! She tackled you down?" Jimin butted in, holding back his laugh.

Hoseok squints his eyes at Jimin, "Look, she attacked when I was distracted on trying to reload one of my arrows."

His reason only causes the three younger boys to start chuckling. Hoseok to roll his eyes at their laughter.

"And what about your mother? She must've known about you not completing your order by now." Seokjin asks.

"She knew from the start that ____ was Psyche." Hoseok scoffs.

Namjoon suddenly stands up from where he was sitting. All six boys turned their attention to their vampire leader. He stretches his arms before giving them his dimpled smile.

"Well, the mythology of Cupid and Psyche goes that you two get a happy ending. So you shouldn't worry."

As Namjoon finishes, a strong gust of wind blows throughout the apartment of the seven boys. The vampire's attention turns to the window, seeing an older woman with long strawberry blond hair. Five other heads turned to see the goddess of love glaring at them all. Hoseok is the last one to meet eyes with his mother, standing up and glaring at her.

"If you're going to start a scuffle with us again, I'd suggest you go somewhere else, Venus." Namjoon spats.

She scoffs at the vampire in disdain. "I'm here for my son only. I specifically told him to shoot the girl so she could fall in love, yet he didn't."

The goddess turns to her son. Hoseok's nostril flared, his anger going through the roof. The audacity his own mother had to always separate him and his love. The goddess shakes her head before rubbing her temples in annoyance because her plan had failed.

"You wanted me to shoot her so she would fall in love with some else. You also used the pretence of her parents and siblings woes to cover up your real intent and motives, mother."

Venus frowned at her son's truthful accusations before exhaling the breath she was hold, "That is all true, I won't lie about that. And it may have been a cover up but her parents and siblings truly wished for her to find someone to love. Yes, my original plan was to keep that girl away from you and our lives so you could focus on your duties and of being a god. But fate would always have it that you'll still meet and fall for her."

"I want you to leave me and Psyche alone from now on. I also don't want you to summon me anymore." Hoseok ordered. His mother was about to protest before he continued again, "You brought this on yourself, mother. Until you finally accept her as my one and only, I want nothing to do with you anymore."

The goddess spits out a fine before disappearing with a gust of wind again. Everyone all breathed a sigh of relief. Hoseok picks up ____'s body and walks towards his room. He looks down at her sleeping form, smiling. He lays her down on his bed, whispering wake up Psyche before he presses his lips to hers again.

////

When ____ finally opens her eyes again, she's staring at the ceiling of a darkened room, illuminated with the light of a lamp. She looks to her right first, realising she wasn't in her own room or home. And when she turns to her left, seeing the sleeping face of the guy who was shooting arrows at her before. She screams, scrambling off the bed. At the sound of her scream, Hoseok awakens, seeing her scream again when he looks at her. She looks around the room, trying to find a weapon to defend herself from him.

"Hey! Calm down." he starts, trying to get closer to her only for her to scream again.

"Don't tell me to calm down, kidnapping creep!" she yells.

Hoseok groans. The two stopped to stare at the door of his room when there was a knock followed by a question of everything alright in there. Hoseok sees her try to make a dash for the door but he beats her to it. Just as he's about to answer, she opens her mouth to scream again but he clasp his hand over her mouth to stop her. They both do nothing, taking in each other's features. Everything begins to return to her, realising who he was to her. Her Cupid. She brings her hand up to his cheek, caressing it. She's suddenly aware of what she's doing and makes a movement to pull her hand away but he stops her before she could, putting his hand on top of hers.

"Would you accept my apology for forgetting you and not coming to you sooner, my Cupid?" ____ hesitantly asks.

"For you, my Psyche, I'll always forgive." Hoseok smiles, gaze never leaving hers.

She looks away from him, shy in his presence but he lifts her chin up so she's looking at him again. He let's go of her chin, closing his eyes and leans down to press his lips to hers. She closes her eyes, throwing her arms around his shoulders to deepen the kiss.

{{The two youngest of the seven boys watched Seokjin get no answer from Hoseok's room before walking away.

"What do you suppose those two are doing in there?" Jungkook asked.

Taehyung shrugged, "Well I mean we just heard her scream and now it's eerily quiet. Also they're two adults in love so...you know..."

The two looked at each other before screaming Hoseok's doing the nasty! around the apartment.}}

ϟ

a/n: I blame that one part of the bs&t mv where Hobi was shooting an arrow for the inspiration and birth of this fic. Loosely (when I say loosely, I mean really really loosely) based off of the mythology of Cupid and Psyche. Anyways, IMMA BE SEEING BTS AGAIN IN CHICAGO ON WEDNESDAY YALL~ DLJFKLJDSKFJDLKFJLS D EA TH IS G R E A T. Also sorry for the terrible proofreading cause I'm a turd. - lily

all rights reserved © rnjmnster. no translations, reposting and/or altering of the material is allowed without my consent or permission

[kendrixtermina]

Kenny Reacts to: Ramayana (& Hindu Mythology in General)

So, for those who don’t know, “Ramayana” is one of the big epics of Hindu Mythology, comparable to the Illiad or other legendary Kings such as David or Arthur, centering around Prince/King Ramchandr, one of the Avatars of Vishnu

My boyfriend (who happens to be Indian) introuced me to a TV show based on it, and I, being a mythology nerd, couldn’t resist...

Since a lot of people actually believe in this as a religion, first a disclaimer: I’m a complete atheist with no belief in the supernatural whatsover, but I’m a huge believer in the value of storytelling (and a writer - the more mythological references the better, at least if you’re aiming for as much of an ‘universal’ flavor as possible) and do hold that myth holds an important place in the human experience. I will be approaching this completely from a literature perspective. 

My boyfriend is not a believer either, though he used to be an actual Hindu growing up & still has it as a cultural background (I know myself that the stories you’re brought up on do influence you just by the archetypes and poetic shorthands they make available to you) - apparently he found it quite interesting to see me react to it & see it properly from start to finish. (though it has actually caused a resurgence in childhood song earworms)

So, with that out of the way, let’s get to the actual “review”

What did I watch

It’s a somewhat older show from the 80s or 90s so the special effects could have been better - but I say that only because with a concept like “Demons versus monkey people” and “battles with dark sorcery and vaguely described divine weapons” there is a lot of potential for creative visuals. 

In this implementation the style of costumes was more “historical” overall, but great care was taken nonetheless. 

Indeed, though childhood nostalgia filter my boyfriend likes this particular version because it was made by an 80 year old dude who dreamt all his life of making a TV show out of this story & worked hard to make everything ~just right~ - there have been never, fancier interpretations since but they tend to be more generic & plasticy in terms of the actual screenplay (my boyfriend, though biased by childhood exposure, says that “You don’t get the feeling that you’re looking at Ram, you’re looking at a supermodel”) whereas in this one, the director took great care to write all the songs & handpick the actors - 

Which, with those mythical, ‘archetypical’ characters is quite important, they have to have the right ‘aura’, ‘presence’ or ‘atmosphere’ around them to connect to the larger-than-life timeless ideas they’re intended to embody. They made sure to cast tall, wry dudes as the monkey people, had some really good acting, made sure supposed relatives actually look alike etc. 

This adaptation (at least insofar as I’ve watched it) seems to have gone with the “good ending”, that is, the version where the Prince & his wife live happily ever after returning to their home city (for a change, the original/older one... though it makes little sense to debate about the true version of a myth, it’s their very nature to be passed around & reinterpreted and for each listener & reteller to put their own spin on it) - there’s a second one that’s much more anal about social divisions, harder on the mysoginy and ends with him disowning her ass, though there’s some ring to the idea of the Princess returting to whence she came (mother Earth) in humiliation. It depends on what sort story you want though it doesn’t seem to fit with Ram’s characterization as the type who always looks to resolve things peacefully & reasonably & think before acting, & he may lose some of what makes him interesting if you take that away. 

Indeed the director saw the need to sanitize even the orginal “chastity test by fire” scene - more than I would have done even if I wanted the Prince to keep looking heroic, I suppose, a lot like how many Christians will explain away many inconsistencies in the bible (and pretty much everything in the book of Judges) because they need their headcanon to be consistent with what they associate with the deities. 

The Cosmology

One of the interesting parts about this particular ‘verse that got me more interested in it beyond my initial watching of that show is the rather complex makep of the world -

In most places religion has gone though certain discrete stages in accordance to the civilization that thought it up, with the various ideas (animism, polytheism, dualism, monotheistm etc.) all influecing each other subtly by the need to react to each other but in this case you had this evolution happening gradually without the previous being completely discarded.

So you have river spirits, sacret trees, elemental monsters, demons,  titan/jötnar like entities, your basic greek style deities,  a big head honcho lord of the universe, concepts of self-enlightenment and pantheist universal unity all coexisting in the same setting.

It’s basically a religion kitchen sink. (and I mean that in a good way, though I get why some may prefer the more ‘streamlined’ ideas of modern Christianity or Islam)

Impressions & Surprising things

Very interesting - because of my familiarity with mythic universals & certain shared cultural roots ( They even have their own wandering handsy thunder god! -  though he’s squarely in the middle of the cosmic hierarchy and seems to be the designated Worf Effect recipient) , I could count down all the tropes and see a lot comming but because of different cultural ideals there were many points where I REALLY didn’t know what was going to happen next

Also, it was a veritable soap opera and I did not expect the feels. The heroes were more adorable than I’d ever have thought. 

The level of “Honor Before Reason” and “Because Destiny Says so” is about comparable to the ancient greeks, but the “humble sinless all-loving hero come to earth for an ardurous mission” might remind one of Jesus, especially in the conception that “The Hero”, in the most archetypical sense, is to be not just badass but moral - though rather, Jesus resembles Ramayana because Ramayana came several centuries first; Just a sign IMHO that there myths come from the human mind and humans everywhere are more similar than different.

Funny thing is, since christian apologetics have this complex to prove how “special” their religion is (I mean it is unique in that no one has the exact same combination of traits but that’s true of every religion and the elements are universal), they spend a lot of time dismantling Islam (often with bonus racism) but usually completely dismiss Hinduism because “Well, they’re polytheists” when the two religions actually have a lot of ideas in common - indeed a lot of beievers will speak of the Hindu Trinity (or their favorite part thereof) or the Mother Godess much like the average dualist or monotheist would talk of their god, like, “O supreme being that dwells in all goodness” etc.

Unlike Jesus (who, despite his popular interpretation,  in the original bible had quite a temper) Rama’s patience & forgiveness is a bit less of an informed ability, though you do get the sense that this comes from a warrior culture as well as a very stratified society where living up to your given social role (including that of a wife) is everything - in a Western work Ram probably would’ve seized the city with the support of the citizens. XD

One could comment that Ram & his brothers are still royalty & that the focus is on that whereas Jesus deliberately took the shape of an ordinary dude, though Ram still gets to spend years as a hermit & Jesus is still convolutedly made to be descended from David - the Jesus myth being the way it is probably has more to do with the political circumstances of its origin (conquest by rome) than the nobler meanings ascribed to it later. 

Another, subtler/ less apparent aspect of the destiny trap thing is that if everyone has their fate, no one can be blamed all too badly. (Deathbed redemptions galore) Nonetheless, as the prover goes, “karma is a bitch” and these people invented it.

That said, tough still a simplistic story (that purtports there’s only one clear universal law everywhere and that the good guys always win - That’s an air castle if there ever was one, we need to work for that) I was actually surprised by the sophistication of morals & politics at times, it went into specific questions (hypocrite accusations, hypocratic oaths, how to charioteer, what a good king should be like etc. )

This is probably an artefact of being written from the PoV of royals & warriors, or just an indication of the great asian civilizations having existed so long & relatively unbroken compared to the many shifts in where things where going on in the nothwest. 

This is the first time in ANY mythical story that I’ve seen anyone raise the concern of preserving the innocent citizens of the enemy faction and how to stabilize the political situation afterwards (after dethroning the local evil overlord, they put in his turncoat brother who joined the good guys for damage control), something that I haven’t seen a SINGLE time in the Bible (and I’ve read the whole thing), though the heroes steer clear of the line to “simplistic stupid good” if you discount the “honor before reason” parts.

There’s 4 ways you can do ‘archetypical’ characters: Wholly & completely stick to the simple archetype, bring the archetype to full circle & detail while milking it for maximum symbolism, “not what they seem/contrast” and giving them depht without having them ever stop to be their archetype - it’s the latter that was done magnificiently here, especially in terms of 3Dimensional antagonists, they have enough redeeming qualities for it all to strike you as a tragic waste of life, but not enough to let go of their pride and avert the divine punishment. 

(The “wicked cultured” Dark Sorceror Evil Overlord being interesting is a given, but of all characters, the cocky big mouthed Demon Prince was the last one I expected to have hidden dephts)

[aion-rsa]

Evil Season 2 Review: (Sort of) Paranormal Procedural Still Thrills

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Evil review contains no spoilers.

Debunking crusaders Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), David Acosta (Mike Colter), and Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) are back to breach the boundaries of belief and delusion in Evil season 2. The premiere season ended begging answers to questions which befuddle some of the most studied theologians.

Of course, the biggest and most pressing question is whether Kristen took an ice axe to whack serial killer Orson LeRoux (Darren Pettie). The answer comes in the first episode, but you’re not going to get it here. For the purpose of the overview, it doesn’t matter what the audience knows. That’s the job of professional investigators, and their inquiries find their way to the former on-call forensic psychology expert for the District Attorney’s office at a disquietingly insidious pace. A dead serial killer is the least of Kristen’s problems anyway. Wait until you see her daughter’s teeth.

The move from CBS to Paramount+ brings a few freedoms. Kristen gets the question of a language barrier out of the way in the first episode, calling Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) a fucker, but the writers never flex that muscle again (at least through the four episodes screened for critics). The show is more concerned with exploring different kinds of curses, and the dark psychological mysteries behind as-yet-undetermined anomalies and seemingly extraordinary occurrences. The nature of evil isn’t well-defined by either science or religion. Each tries to control circumstances, and each usurps the powers. Cloud-seeding was invented to assist ecoculture, but was used for deforestation. Demons are no crueler than angels. The show explores concepts like these with a practical approach and supernatural departures.

Each of the three main characters visibly project their most defining inner thoughts with glances, attitude and body language. Kristen telegraphs her obfuscation as if it is a slight-of-hand magic trick. One of the more subtle running jokes of the show is how she tries to verbally enforce her plausible deniability on Ben. At the close of the first season, Kristen tried to get Ben to forget he saw a bloodstain on her leg using only the force of will. She does it several times this season, and also tries out her comic book superpower on her kids, who see it as a kind of comic relief.

Ben, “the magnificent,” has weaponized skepticism. When he doesn’t believe something, or is even remotely cognizant of the possibility of a reasonable explanation, you can visibly witness it lose its mystery. One bemused eye-roll from Ben could topple centuries of ardent faith. David, on the other hand, exudes an air of encouraging indulgence, even and maybe most especially when he is at his most cynical. His brings beneficent acceptance to the most extreme proclamations of faith-filled mysteries, regardless of how delusional they may be. This extends to everyone but Leland, who brings an obsequious belligerence to his spiritual turnaround. You have to forgive him, though, he’s a little nervous. He’s about to get married to Kristen’s mother Sheryl Luria (Christine Lahti). He’s not worried about a prenup. He’s already put a down payment on an exorcism.

David is less gracious to secular disruptors who seek to undermine the power of faith on a street level. He is suffering a different kind of crisis of faith this season. Weeks away from being ordained as a priest, he brings America’s original sin, slavery and its resultant corrosive offenses, to the pulpit in hostile territory. The Catholic Church is steeped in bigotry, and David gets pressure from all sides in his attempts to gently confront it. He may not cast the first stone, but he lands his second punch of the series on someone for implying he went “from Uncle Tom to Father Tom.” But David is open to spiritual alternatives. He doesn’t chase away the Baptist minister who offers solace, and he doesn’t disrespect the Muslim faithful.

Evil’s monster-of-the-week episodes reflect a diverse extradimensional rogues gallery. The Church has a backlog of unexplained mysteries, miracles, and possessions to verify, and occasionally they go beyond Christian mythology. We encounter a djinn, which requires Islamic intervention, and exposes David’s bosses as closed-minded theological tyrants. Even the atheistic Ben goes to bat for the religion he abandoned when it comes to papal prejudice. Ben believes nothing and no one is infallible. That’s why there are no 13th floors on elevators.

There is a growing ambiguity over whether the characters are losing perspective in how they discern supernatural reality and if they are becoming increasingly suggestible to the expectations of their jobs. Even Ben has an imaginary friend now, and she’s kind of cute, in a damnation-for-all-eternity kind of way. All it takes is a simple question from Leland, who may very well have gotten some small return on the deal he made with the devil while his parents were watching M*A*S*H in the next room. Is Leland seeking an exorcism to get close to David, or to renege on a teenaged whim? According to the advance press, the drama lies in whether he’s being genuine. But so does the comedy.

Evil proudly and effectively mines oddball humor, even in the most dire situations. David has a vision of Kristen being drawn to a diabolical fate, while Leland just wants to be taken to Funkytown. Kristen’s husband continues to serve the same function as Richie Cunningham’s brother Chuck on Happy Days. We get some vague news his venture is in a holding pattern, but barely even a phone call. There is less sexual tension between Kristen and David this season, but only because she’s expanding her horizons, not because she takes his vows more seriously.

One of the most delightful additions this season is Andrea Martin as Sister Andrea, who knows much more than she lets on and lets on much more than she knows. She takes David to task for his self-injurious leaps of spiritual research, stares down Leland, and can accompany herself on the piano while deciphering monastic code in twelve languages. She doesn’t need hallucinogens or antipsychotics to be able to discern a hallucination from a vision. Just a metronome to keep time with it.

This review is based on the first four episodes, but there is an upcoming episode called “U is for UFO,” which teases inalienable questions about how cosmic the series might be getting here. Maybe those machines Ben uses do exist. Evil season 2 succeeds best where it counts most. It is creepy, spooky and fun. The thrills are sometimes cut by the humor, and sometimes made more deliciously insidious because of it.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Evil season 2 premieres on June 20 on Paramount+.

The post Evil Season 2 Review: (Sort of) Paranormal Procedural Still Thrills appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3iOSs3i

[dragonroyaly]

So you've talked about this numbers thing in the tags before but I don't think you've ever explained it in depth? Care to tell more?

Ah! Never thought I’d actually get asked about that!

It’s a story I’m writing, I woke up a couple months ago with the idea that there are ten kids with the numbers One through Ten as names due to supernatural forces or something like that pretty much mind-controlling their parents to name them that.

I actually haven’t worked out much of the plot or anything, I wrote some of it after I had the idea and then I burned that candle out real quick and then I haven’t worked on it much since but I’ve still been coming up with ideas and such for it.

The Number Squad as I’m calling them all have powers becuase of course they do.

I’m putting the rest under a read more becuase this turned out a lot longer than I expected it to.

One has Water Manipulation,

Two has Air Manipulation, she’s based mainly off of my younger sister due to multiple reasons (Birthday being on 22, zodiac element being air, also Two and her look alike),

Three has Mind Reading,

Four has Mind Control, she‘s famous becuase she said so,

Five has Time Pausing,

Six has Shapeshifting, them and Five are twins,

Seven has Metal Manipulation, she’s the youngest out of all of them,

Eight has Electricity, she’s Seven’s best friend,

Nine has Invisibility, he’s the Mom Friend of the group and very shy,

and Ten has Blood and Bone control.

I’m not exactly sure which I came up with first, but the last one came from me asking the group chat for suggestions.

Additional characters are:

Emily, previously named Eleven due to the same reasons the other ten are named that way, except she changed her name to something normal to fit in better. She can tell the future.

Joshie, Three’s best friend. Due to a recent post I’ve seen he’s now going to be basically a modern-day Jesus. He does have powers but those are due to unrelated reasons to The Numbers Squad (One through Emily). Has a giant fucking crush on One. One also has a crush on him. Everyone knows this. Both of them know it. Neither will act on it becuase they’re disasters.

Elle, Emily’s girlfriend. I haven’t worked out much of her yet, but she’s transgender, she likes bright colors, and Emily’s endless support was the only thing that encouraged her to come out at all in the first place.

Gabriel, Elle’s older brother. Was originally a giant asshole but in light of recent events (Cough Cough Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Ten, and Emily threatening his life Cough Cough) he’s trying his best to do better. Is actually pretty nice but still generally un-trusted around them due to being an asshole being and Elle being more important to them.

Layla, One’s older sister. Not much to say about her, honestly. She tries her best at everything she does and still fails a lot. Tries out for cheer squad every chance she gets and hasn’t gotten accepted once. Good at managing other people but not herself. Very much a lesbian. Does not realize she’s a lesbian.

Deana, Two’s younger sister. She likes being spun around nd lifted up with Two’s powers.

Two has another sibling but they’re based on a group chat friend I have and I haven’t told them about this so I can’t actually say anything about them, sorry.

Two’s aunt Lilie. Constantly afraid Two is going to out herself to everyone else. She lives with Two and her mother and her siblings.

Five and Six’s sister Wendy. She likes pink and blue and purple and black and white stripes. She’s dyslexic.

Five and Six also have two more siblings, Arella and Callum. They’re three years older than them and they don’t do anything but stay at home.

Five and Six have six siblings, actually, but Arella, Callum, and Wendy are the only ones who have names right now.

Fay, Three and Joshie’s friend. She’s really quiet, sorta shy, and Three and Joshie are quite possibly her only friends. She likes reading and swimming.

Jacey, One and Layla’s neighbor. Has taken it upon himself to look after these kids while their parents aren’t home and while their parents are home if need be. He makes them lunch and drives them to school.

Red, has a reputation for being like the ‘Bad girl’ of the school but she’s like really really nice and she bakes treats for her friends and helps them with their problems and is a big mom friend. She had enough of her ex and expectations for her so she decided “Y’know fucking what? I’m move out of my house and get my own apartment and dye my hair and start wearing fucking punk clothes and get a tattoo and-” and then she ended up like this. She’s actually really happy like this too.

Nico, Red’s ex boyfriend. He means well but he is, in all honesty, an idiot. He wants to be Red’s friend again, Red wants nothing to do with him, he doesn’t understand that, Red won’t tell him to fuck off to his face, it just keeps going. He has purple streaks in his hair. This doesn’t really have anything to do with Red he just wanted purple streaks in his hair.

Amelia, Red’s girlfriend. You know that line between punk-goth and preppy? Amelia does gymnastics on that line. She likes the color purple a lot. She has told Nico fuck off to his face. He assumed this meant she didn’t like him so he tries to avoid her. She doesn’t like him all that much but it’s becuase Red doesn’t like him much.

Hera, one of the girls in Red’s gang. About what you’d expect from someone who shares a name with a major Greek goddess. Almost everyone else in her family was named after someone from Greek mythology. No one actually remembers what that’s about. She has tattoos all over her back. She is not legally supposed to have tattoos. Red’s the only one who knows where she got them and even that’s only vaguely. She breaks the law on a regular basis.

Hades, Hera’s twin sibling, also in Red’s gang. Yes the twins are aware their names don’t match up much. No they will not ask their parents what that’s about. No they do not care. Recognized as a non-binary icon throughout the school. Also what you’d expect from someone with their name. They have one single tattoo and it’s a matching one they got with Hera. They like to draw.

~

The bits of the story I already have figured out other than basic character backstories and identities is that they get thrown into the same school together.

They can’t use their powers on eachother (Kinda, One, Two, Seven, and Eight all have physical abilities and they don’t just disable when something being moved by the ability comes close to the others. Six, Nine, and Emily can’t use their powers on anyone else but themselves in the first place. Five can drag other people into paused time with some effort including the rest of The Number Squad.), so it was this realization of “I can’t read their thoughts???” from Three, “I can’t control them???” from Four, “I can touch them??? Without hurting them???” From Ten.

Three and Four ended up hating eachothers guts for a bit but also like Frenemies to Lovers trope is Good (I say frenemies and not straight up enemies becuase they were just sort of annoyed that their powers didn’t work on eachother because they relied on those Way Too Much. Also Three is like envious of Four becuase they don’t have parents or money and Four has loving parents and is rich becuase she said so).

Eight works at a cafe with her mother, and is Co Mom Friend of the group.

Eight has a bunch of scars everywhere and it’s obvious most weren’t caused by her. Seven is the only one who gets a backstory for this, and that’s becuase they’re Best Friends. This is also becuase I have not entirely worked out said backstory myself so until I do it’s a secret between Seven and Eight that not even I get to know.

Four’s really good at singing, at first Three thought that was just more mind control shit but after a while they just realized she’s really good at singing.

Five has insomnia and likes the cold. Has been found asleep on the roof before. Has been found violently zoned-out to the point of near unconsciousness but not quite there on the roof before. She’s on the roof a lot.

Six is genderfluid and has every genderqueer person’s dream of shapeshifting. Will change their hair to bright colors when even lightly emotionally troubled. They also have ADHD. I’m self projecting onto characters again. Then again Six was based after me. So was Five. And Two’s based off of my sister.

Six hangs out around Red and her friends a lot. They’re a nervous disaster and scared they aren’t fitting the right requirements becuase they don’t match the aesthetic. Red and Co’ points to Hera, who dresses mainly in gold and white. Six points out that that’s still different and bright and they just dress very plainly. Red and Co’ point out that they can fucking shapeshift. This happens one or twice a week.

Five does theater. She’s very good at it. Have exactly one minute to change costumes? Nah, she’s gonna sit down to breathe, go over her lines, get a snack, get another snack, realize she’s wasted about an hours time and that she should probably actually change and get on with the play soon, eats another snack, unpauses time in her new outfit and gets on with the play, repeats the next time she gets off stage and needs a break.

The entire theater club or whatever at the school is aware of her powers, so if she seems to teleport but differently, she paused time.

She also does this for tests and things. Pauses time, go gets the answers, comes back, aces the test. It’s a very useful power to have.

Seven has several bones replaced with metal replicas of them. She hurt herself and couldn’t move that part of herself anymore so she was like “Just put some metal in there it’ll work” and it did.

Seven messes up microwaves so fucking often and no one’s actually sure why. I mean it’s obvious her metal powers but beyond that.

Three and Joshie will often have conversations where Three’s the one talking and Joshie’s just thinking at them. Three has to pretend they’re on the phone.

Joshie is Tall and Very strong. He could pick up Three and Fay at the same time before. Actually, he has. Multiple times.

Please do not let this give you the illusion he actually looks very strong or threatening or anything he looks very soft both in personality and clothing choice.

Joshie picked One up once and that was the day One realized he had a crush on him.

“Layla he picked me up like I weighed nothing Layla I think I’m in love”

“One please calm down doesn’t he do that to everyone?”

“YEAH HE DOES LAYLA, WHAT’S YOUR FUCKING POINT?”

The school they go to is called ‘Meadow Creek’ becuase I wanted something generic and my brain spit generic at me.

Four days into the schoolyear Four throws a party. Drama happens. What drama, you may be asking? I dunno, that’s all I’ve gotten so far, there’s a party and Drama happens.

Oh actually I do know one thing, Five somehow ends up sitting in the chandelier. That was the day Four stopped wondering if it could actually hold someone’s weight.

That’s literally all I have for the story so far, like, I’m trying to scrape more stuff off the top of my head, but there’s nothing. I’ve used it all up. That’s all I have for Numbers and Co’ right now.

I still haven’t decided what to call the story, right now the document is called ‘Ten’ because guess why, but also I don’t want it to seem like it’s all about Ten herself becuase they’re all the main characters.

‘Count to Ten’ maybe? I’m just sticking with calling it ‘Numbers’ for now though.

[theconservativebrief]

Warning: Major spoilers for the film Hereditary follow. I’m going to talk extensively about the film’s third act, so turn back if you don’t want to know!

As it cruises into its final moments, director Ari Aster’s blistering new horror movie Hereditary seems to settle any “Is it real, or is it metaphorical?” questions about what’s really going on in the movie with, “Oh, you better believe it’s real!”

Where the first two-thirds of the film live in an uncanny space that could best be described as “In the Bedroom set in a haunted house,” the last third goes full-tilt into supernatural horror, with cultists, strange beams of energy, and Ann Dowd shouting, “I EXPEL YOU!” across a crowded highway at a boy she hopes to possess with a demon.

When the movie finally ends with Dowd’s character calmly and pleasantly explaining to the now-probably-possessed boy that he is “Paimon, one of the eight kings of Hell,” then a whole bunch of naked people calling, “Hail, Paimon!” you’d be forgiven for thinking the movie had completely shredded whatever slow-building tension it had mounted throughout its first two acts. (I would violently disagree with you, but I would forgive you.)

Now, I would maintain you could still read this final act as metaphor, as one final snap from reality occurring in the head of the film’s protagonist, Annie (Toni Collette), who has clearly been on the very edge of mental stability all movie long. There’s a rich, metaphorical reading of Hereditary that treats everything that happens as a kind of empathetic tale of a mother who finally has enough and takes her own life and that of her husband (possibly sparing her son — but to a life in which he’s accidentally killed his sister and seen both of his parents die).

But let’s not treat this movie as metaphor. Let’s talk about those final scenes as if they really happen. And let’s talk about why the movie’s devil cult has less to do with our reality and more to do with the way horror movies briefly influenced our reality in the 1980s and ’90s.

Let’s talk, in other words, about the Satanic Panic.

2016’s The Witch also has elements of satanic panic. A24

One complaint about Hereditary that I have some sympathy for (expressed best in what I saw as a subtweet of the film by Vanity Fair’s K. Austin Collins, one of my favorite film writers) is that the devil-worshipping cult pulling strings is very much a cult straight out of a movie, not the more mundane horror of a real cult, which strips people of their connections, their means, and often their lives. Movie cults are bogeymen that leap out of the shadows in the third act and reveal their dark intentions for the protagonist.

Yet I can’t entirely shake the cult in Hereditary — or the very similar cults in other indie horror movies of the 21st century, like Ti West’s 2009 House of the Devil or Robert Eggers’s 2016 release The Witch — because it feels, to me, like a throwback to the Satanic Panic, a very real, completely unfounded fear that gripped America in the 1980s and ’90s, leading to very real unjust convictions and the infamous McMartin preschool trial.

In brief, the Satanic Panic was a belief, driven by a wide variety of not particularly scrupulous sources, that the United States had become infiltrated by a large number of Satanists and other practitioners of the dark arts who were conspiring to abuse and assault the nation’s children, commit human sacrifices, and turn the country over to the Dark Lord.

The idea was ridiculous on its face, but it had deep, deep roots in the US, stretching all the way back to the Salem witch trials, and we’ve never quite been able to shake variations on it. What is the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, if not the satanic panic dressed up in 2010s clothing?

What was vaguely remarkable about the satanic panic was how it felt as if it had arrived in our reality straight from a horror movie. When you look at some of the “true accounts” of devil cults on the evangelical Christian circuit in the ’80s, many of them sound less like anything that could really happen and much more like the third acts of movies like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen.

Much like the way reports of alien sightings in the wake of Close Encounters of the Third Kind became more likely to depict grey-skinned beings with big black eyes, the devil worshipper movies of the ’60s and ’70s solidified within the American subconscious a very specific idea of what was going on behind closed doors in seemingly harmless suburbia. (Surprise: It involved bathing in goat’s blood and trying to get demons to possess children.)

This is, of course, how horror often works — in a feedback loop with reality. Our real-life horrors (in this case, a millennia-old belief in a dark being constantly trying to turn humanity against its better natures) get translated into horror tales, which get translated into real-life scares, which later become other horror tales.

My colleague Aja Romano, for instance, showed just how The Exorcist drove real-life scares around Ouija boards, which were later translated into horror movies about Ouija boards. Fear begets fear begets fear. It’s one of the things human beings are good at.

And so it is with the Satanic Panic. The directors of these recent indie horror movies are of the perfect age to have been cognizant of either the initial wave of Satanic Panic reports or a smaller wave of them in the ’90s, to say nothing of a small wave of dark horror tales of Satan’s misdeeds that arrived in the ’80s and ’90s (such as the 1987 horror film The Gate or the 1995 X-Files episode “Die Hand Die Verletzt”). And when you hear these dark and gruesome stories, it’s only natural to wonder, hey, what if they really happened.

House of the Devil does the best job of zeroing in on a fairly straightforward depiction of the Satanic Panic, while The Witch turns the idea of rejecting God in favor of Satan into a weirdly twisted act of feminism. But Hereditary goes one better than both of them by simultaneously making this cult of devil worshippers incredibly terrifying and also strangely hilarious.

The entire third act of the film walks a razor’s edge between terror and ridiculousness. Perhaps I like it so much because it reminds me of all those years I spent reading “true” stories of Satanists in my evangelical Christian childhood home. You laugh, if only because you want so desperately for none of what you’re seeing to be happening.

But it is happening, right? Hereditary and its indie horror cousins capture brilliantly the way that Americans have always found ways to fill our dark corridors with satanic beings and low-level demons. “Paimon” is a real thing from the odder corners of Christian mythology, and if we take the Satanic Panic at face value, then somebody out there is trying to resurrect him right now.

They aren’t, of course. Or at least I hope they aren’t. I’m sympathetic to the idea that a movie like this devalues the very real horrors of cults. But a movie like this can also help us stare at a particular strain of American darkness and find a way to laugh at it, before running away, screaming.

Original Source -> The real-life horrors behind the ending of Hereditary

via The Conservative Brief