#story: until the last star in the galaxy dies

[variiawrites]

until the last star in the galaxy dies

Force traditions are numerous. The Night Sisters of Dathomir, the Jedi shining on Coruscant, the ka'ra of the Mandalorians, and the Guardians of the Whils of the Jedha, to name a few. The Arcobaleno are the remnants of another, ancient tradition.

READ ON AO3

[dayseternal-blog]

HI DAYSSSSS, I'm in dire need of a naruhina fic where nothing happens. Post war fluff and daily life, slow developing of their relationship and just kind of like a slice of life!! Thanks ilysmmm 🤍

Hello! It's been a long time since I answered any asks.

Here's one I haven't recommended before, though it's not particularly "slow" development imo.

"The In-Between" by Winterfly - Rated M, Canon-Compliant, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. A slow burn of interactions and eventual relationship between Naruto and Hinata. These moments are meant to take place “In-between” the main story line as the title implies, but also during the blank period. Of course we know Naruto and Hinata probably interacted besides what we have seen, so what would that look like? What’s going on outside the screen? What are they thinking and feeling? Why is everyone so frustrated with them when it’s so obvious what’s in front of them?

Here are most of the Blank Period pre-The Last fics I've recommended in the past.

“secret lovers” by @quirrrky - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Series of related one-shots. After the Fourth Shinobi War, Naruto was gradually falling in love with Hinata and the whole village of Konoha knew it…Well, aside from him.

“Facing the Sun” by @happyocelot - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Multi-chapter, Complete. Hinata had been watching Naruto for years. What she didn’t know was that Naruto would sometimes watch her back. Post-War.

“To match our strides” by Stonehill - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Multi-chapter, Complete. During the first winter after the war Naruto decides it’s time to figure out Hyuuga Hinata.

“Itsu No Hi Ni Mo” by OrenjiRabenda - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Multi-chapter, Complete. No Matter the Day: The story follows Naruto and Hinata during the blank period between the end of the war and “The Last: Naruto The Movie”.

“Tsukuyomi Boyfriend” by @peppercornpresses - Rated G, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Over a year has passed since the great Shinobi War, and people are finally starting to open up about their Infinite Tsukuyomi Illusions.

“Doppleganger” by peppercorpress - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Team 8 meets Naruto’s doppleganger (but not really).

“Something New” by waterrolls​ - Rated G, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Can a clueless boy ever figure out romance? Maybe, and definitely not without the help of friends who have the couple’s best interests at heart. Or, how Naruto and Hinata got their changes in uniforms.

“the becoming of stars” by @matchaball - Rated G, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. You have me. Until every last star in the galaxy dies. You have me. (Pieces of their life from childhood to adult)

"Mission Together" and Chapter 12 from "Orange and Lavender" by ReadingBennie - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Series of One-shots. A collection of one shots for Naruhina month 2016. Ratings will vary.

“Once and Future” by @kuriquinn - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Series of One-shots. In the wake of the Fourth Shinobi World War, the survivors pick up the pieces . The road to recovery will be a long one, but the moments in between offer ample chances to reclaim some of their childhood innocence. Feelings connect, friends renew bonds and hearts say goodbye in this series of connected one-shots from the Blank Period. (Light shipping of various pairings)

I think this next one is kind of pushing the boundaries of canon-compliance, but a lot of people love it (I do, too) -

"My Right Hand" by petran - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. As Naruto struggles to deal with life as an amputee, he becomes much closer to a certain lavender-eyed kunoichi. Canonically set in the time period between the end of the 4th Shinobi War and "Kakashi Hiden".

If anyone knows of others, please add on!

[rescuebabiesau]

Ermmmmm.. could u please make a piece where Heatwave visits Hotshot and Quickshadow for the first time after they split up 🥺🥺🥺👉👈 I bet it’s emotional cuz they just couldn’t bear being apart

"...Okay, I think it should work now."

"It'd better, Blades. I'm tired of winding up where I'm not supposed to be. Let's be fortunate it's only been somewhere within our reality."

"Hey, we're the first people in the universe to try to make an untraceable spacebridge via inter-dimensional energy from a middle-world plane. Sue me if there's been some... Mishaps." The air mosaic sat on his knees as he overlooked the crescent-shaped machine in front of them, the center presently swirling with glittering stars and purple smoke trailing out onto the floor. "Give me a break."

Heatwave took a deep breath and then tried to relax his shoulders. "...You're right, I'm sorry... It's just-"

"Trust me, Heatwave... I know..." Blades' face fell from its own irritated expression, shifting to one of sympathy for his older brother. "...The last four months have been Hell for you."

They had been Hell. Letting his wife and child go- for their own safety- and being separated from them across dozens of galaxies had been the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life. He'd called them almost every day, and would have visited long before now, if not for what was going on back on Cybertron. The High Council had banned all spacebridge activity, monitoring whoever tried to step through without government clearance.

Heatwave had no such clearance- According to cybertronian files and records, he had died years ago, and there was no such thing as a 'resurrection certificate.' Not enough bots had managed that feat to warrant it.

If he showed up through one of the sanctioned spacebridges, security would be looking for his ID number and clearance card, and would assume he was some decepticon spy posing as a dead bot. So the only solution? They had to build their own, and they had to do it in a way that the frequency when active wouldn't be picked up on their sensors, which required a slight detour into The Mist realm to cloak its location and connection.

It had taken four months for Boulder and Blades to figure it out and build it- also talking to trustworthy bots on the other end to make their own connecting portal generator. It would only be linked between the two- at least, that had been the plan. This was the first time Blades was fully convinced it wouldn't sent Heatwave to Hong Kong- That was a long story to explain to some rice farmers!

"Okay, test it out. Go see your pretty femme on the other end." Blades announced as he stood up. "Happy trails!"

"Famous last words, Blades..." Heatwave looked back at the portal, and then sighed, taking a step, then another, then another. The mist swirled about his feet, smoke and glitter creeping through the nooks and crannies of his armor. It was only for a moment, but then it faded, and he looked around to find a matching crescent behind him as he stepped forward, and the odd but identifying smell of freshly-laid cybermetal. "Ha! Finally... Took those two long-"

"Heatwave...!"

"...Darling!"

"My strong, faithful fire engine...!"

"My exotic, incomparable paradise...!"

They held to each other for what seemed like forever, peppering each other with kisses and whispering sweet nothings into each other's audio receptors... Until their son began to fuss.

"Oh, of course, Hotshot. Yes. Let's go somewhere we can catch up proper..."

[skellymom]

"THE PLATFORM"

THE BAD BATCH CROSSHAIR FICLET

ᴛʜɪꜱ ꜰɪᴄ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀɪɴꜱ ɴꜱꜰᴡ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛ 18+ ᴅɴɪ

Word Count: 628

Background: The story we didn't get of Crosshair's trials and tribulations while being left on the Kamino platform. (This ficlet may eventually be included as a future installment to my long running TBB OC series "Vagabonds". To read it:

https://www.tumblr.com/skellymom/738467105361494016/vagabonds?source=share

Warning: Swearing, fear, physical pain, starvation, dehydration, Star Wars Canon violence.

(Credit: Cool moving star dividers by @4ngelic-wh1spers )

Crosshair opened his swollen, burning eyes to the intense Kamino sun.  The sea spanned for miles around the platform.  The ruins of his home poked out of ocean.  It had stopped smoldering days ago.   

There had been NO rain since his brothers and Omega left him behind. 

No fresh water to quench his thirst.  Only his urine.   

Did his brothers DISPISE him so much as to NOT leave at least a canteen of water and some rations??? 

An exhausted, deep HATE rose in Crosshair.  He should have shot Hunter square between the eyes when he had the chance...except the kid would have seen it... 

...and his squad would have killed him outright.   

I deserve it...I’M A FUCKING FAILURE.  My brothers are gone...forever... 

He’d cry...if he could produce tears... 

Crosshair’s hunger was only abated after shooting down the occasional sea bird, feasting upon the body and drinking its blood. 

Fishing was impossible...as he was constantly being watched... 

...by the Saber Jaw trolling around the platform in the waters below. 

It’s large eye, the only thing poking above the surface, keeping tabs on ole Crossy. 

He initially watched it swimming around the wreckage, looking for bodies left after the Empire bombed Kamino City. 

Now it was coming for him.  Crosshair closed his eyes and wished for a quick death soon.  Baking in the hot Kamino sun until he died of dehydration was excruciating. 

Hours later a distant hum had Cross open one dry eye.  It was difficult to see.  Everything was a blur. 

The sound, now louder, slowly become a roar. 

His eyes strained to look skyward, but the glare blinded. 

A shadow fell over him, as the craft descended onto the platform. 

About KRIFFING TIME the Empire showed up...   

Although Crosshair was unsure if it truly was a ship...or mirage. 

The platform shook slightly as the craft landed.  Then the engine died.  Sounds of a gangplank opening.  Footsteps... 

Please make it ANY other officer.  I can’t STAND Forcedamned Cockstain Rampart’s uppity-assed voice. 

An image flashed across Crosshair’s mind: mustering the last of his strength to blast Rampart to bits AND have the stormtroopers shoot him out of his misery...at the same time. 

Crosshair smiled and giggled dryly.  

The footsteps stopped. 

“Would give the WHOLE galaxy if that smile were for US” 

Crosshair’s eyes popped wide open.  He jerked up on one elbow swinging Firepuncher up to sniper’s position. 

He attempted to swallow nervously...but he had no saliva... 

...Hunter stood meters away, intensely staring at Crosshair.  The words didn’t match the action.  Instead, Hunter emanated anger and hurt. 

He’s FUCKING with ME!  Coming back to torment!!! 

Echo and Wrecker flanked each side of the Marauder’s gangplank.  Their weapons weren’t raised but they held them ready just in case. 

Cross could barely see Tech’s head inside the Marauder.  Everything far away was a blur.  

Hunter turned them against me!  All for that kid... 

...AND THERE SHE WAS! 

Omega had slipped out of the Marauder, following Hunter. 

Crosshair growled and ground his teeth in rage.   

“I TOLD YOU TO TAKER HER AWAY SOMEWHERE!” 

Hunter blinked at the sound, his teeth on edge. 

Omega stopped in her tracks; eyes wide. 

“AND YOU BROUGHT HER BACK HERE AGAIN!” 

Crosshair kept on spewing more anger, hurt, and delirious vitriol.  While Hunter was intensely hurt and angry at his brother, there was concern.  Cross’ high emotional stress, severe dehydration and starvation drove his eyes to roll back...causing a loss of bodily control. Crosshair fought unconsciousness... 

...causing his finger to pull the trigger. 

Firepuncher jumped in Crosshair’s grasp.  It jerked him back to consciousness. 

Hunter barely had time to duck.  The bolt flew past his temple, shearing free the bandana from his head...and a few locks of hair. 

Crosshair stared in horror at what he just did... 

PLEASE like, comment, and/or REBLOG!

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[starry-teacup]

Because of some cool art you made I want to dip my toe into the Mechanisms.

where do I find the story?

So I don't know how much you know about them, but the basics are:

The Mechanisms is a band in which each member has a persona. They are a crew of immortal space pirates, roaming the galaxy in search of violence, fun, and stories to tell. Each persona character can be referred to as a mechanism, as in a member of the crew, but they each also have a mechanism, a clockwork prosthetic of some sort that was installed after they each had their own tragic story and made them immortal.

When they find a good, long, juicy tragedy, they turn it into an album. They also have two anthology albums, with some songs connecting to the wider stories and some completely independent of them, and a couple containing mechanisms lore. Their last album is from the live show of their final performance.

All of these albums stand on their own, and there is no particular order you need to listen to them in. They each contain characters and places from classic stories, putting unique sci-fi spins on them all and following queer narratives. I'd say bury your gays, but honestly, it's more like bury your gays and the entire planet they lived on, along with everything they ever held dear.

here's a summary of each, stolen from the mechs blurbs themselves:

Once Upon a Time (In Space)-

This tale tells of those embroiled in the rebellion against the tyrant of New Constantinople, Old King Cole. It tells of the love of Cinders for her captured Rose, of the treatment of Rose at the hands of Cole's genetic scientists, and of the bold but savage leadership of the rebel General Snow. And it tells of the final fates of all of these.

fairy tale but make it a rebellion. their first album, contains many of their most popular songs. solid. not personally one of my favorites, but the one I'm most likely to be listening to a song from on any given day. our boy jack and pump shanty are excellent.

High Noon Over Camelot-

A tale of hope and despair aboard the Fort Galfridian, long lost to the outside world, where the chaos of centuries of solitude has been brought in check at last by the guns of the Pendragon Gang. But the visions of the mad prophet Galahad, and the schemes of the Pendragons' lieutenants Mordred and Gawain, threaten to cast the station back into anarchy. And all the while, the Sun grows hotter...

arthurian legend has just become a space westerner in which everyone rides motorcycles and a fiery death threatens them all. haven't listened to it yet, but I've heard great things. Blood and Whiskey is a banger, and Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere are in a polycule, something I didn't know I needed until I heard it suggested.

Ulysses Dies At Dawn-

Ulysses Dies at Dawn. That's the word on the street, at any rate, if you talk to anyone who saw what went down at Calypso's Bar the other night. Who is behind the thuggish band known as the Suits - Heracles, Ariadne and the others? What is Ulysses's secret? And what is hidden within the security of the Vault?

I'm going to be completely honest with you. I think this is no-contest their best album. It's greek mythology in noir film style, with heavy usage of blues and rock. I don't even like blues, but I love each and every song. This one is also a little easier to follow than the others. I'd recommend starting here.

The Bifrost Incident-

The Bifrost Incident. Any schoolchild could tell you about it. The fall of the old order; two hundred years of Asgardian hubris come together in a single epoch-defining event. The maiden voyage of a train through the stars, vanished without a trace...

Remember how I think the last one was the best one? Well, this is still my favorite. Norse mythology framed as a mystery on a train, with a twist completely out of left field that leaves you reeling. Thus, it is probably the most difficult to follow, or at least, it was for me. The art you liked-which wasn't mine, unfortunately, credit to the artists is on the post if you want to check those blogs out-featured variations of the narrator from this album. let's just say I'm. not so normal about them.

well. ANYWAYS. this was...probably longer than what you wanted. Or than what I should have given. I don't get asks a lot and an excuse to talk about the mechanisms is always something I am willing to abuse.

If you do end up listening to any of their music, please tell me what you think! I'd love to hear it, and it's always nice to talk about them with someone else :)

[ctrl-alt-tahu]

Star Wars Shows I want to Whisper in Dave Filoni's ear

So, @onvermel and I were video-chatting to compare notes on The Acolyte (short version, we both liked it), but as the conversation ranged wide over all things Star Wars, we ended up having some rather specific ideas of what we'd like (or like to have had) in a Star Wars show.

Firstly:

Jar Jar Binks After the Prequels

We both agreed that it's probably still a little while before Lucasfilm/Disney is brave enough to dip its toes back in the Jar Jar waters after George Lucas himself backed off royally in Episodes II and III, but we think the time has come. We want a show that follows him after Revenge of the Sith. It could go three ways, and I want to see all three:

The Rise and Fall of the House of Binks: i.e., the dramatic tragedy. After the death of his friend and mentor, Padmé Amidala, Representative Binks is again asked to step in as Acting Senator for Naboo--this time by the Emperor himself. Jar Jar is honoured and humbled to follow in Padmé's steps and takes pride in continuing her legacy. Over the course of the show (at least two seasons), Jar Jar comes to realise what Padmé's legacy really was, and he comes to realise with horror that: a.) he betrayed it with his vote in Attack of the Clones, b.) that his pride in Naboo as the homeworld of the Emperor is profoundly misplaced, and c.) that something is seriously wrong. And once he realises all this and tries to do something about it, the Emperor gets wind of it and sends his fearsome enforcer, Darth Vader, and in his last moments, Jar Jar has a terrifying realisation--this is another man he knows.

Binks: a comedy about Acting Senator-turned-permanent senator Jar Jar Binks. As I put it to Onvermel, a few sad deaths of friends aside, this is the show where Jar Jar is the only person still living in the Republic after the end of the prequels: hesa very good friend of the chancellor, appointed permanent senator by Queen Jamilla in the hopes of leveraging that favour, and Palpatine finds him a useful cog and... the show is just Jar Jar bumbling about in a Frasier-esque existence oblivious to what he's enabling or what has happened. There's some social commentary in this: through Jar Jar's eyes, we see the galaxy as Palpatine wanted people to see it--and as many people (not the rebels or the downtrodden) actually did. It's mostly just laughs until the final episode: Palpatine has died at Endor, the New Republic has taken Coruscant, and Senator Binks as a close collaborator of Palpatine for thirty years is put on trial (after Mas Amedda and right before Sate Pestage) for war crimes. He's taken away guilty at the end--"but meesa knows nothing about the Sith! Meesa knows nothing!" in a Seinfeld-esque downer of an ending.

Meesa Bombad: a full blown, Chuck Lorre-style, sitcom (or maybe Cheers, if Jar Jar takes a Sam-esque role a former minor celebrity opening a bar) complete with laugh-track and three-camera set. Jar Jar doesn't have to be a senator in this one. I'd be happy with one episode as a holiday special proof-of-concept--but I'd also take Three Broke Gungans with five years of 22-episode seasons. Sebulba makes frequent guest appearances as Jar Jar's nemesis.

The other "show" we wanted is less of a show and more of a missed opportunity for The Clone Wars that we'd like to see revisited:

Dexter Jettster's Diner

How did we get 7 seasons of The Clone Wars without seeing Obi-wan's buddy and his diner? Why was there never a scene where Obi-wan went there to relax? It could still happen--so let's manifest that. But imagine what could have been in Season 7:

Ahsoka, just gone from the Jedi order, is trying to make her way in Coruscant's underworld, and finds herself in a diner late at night, eating comfort food. The proprietor, a friendly older Besilisk, lends her a sympathetic ear as she tells him a redacted version of her story: she used to have a home, she used to have family, but she was lied about and betrayed, and no one believed her--they all believed her accuser and no one listened to her. Dexter tells her at the end, when he's trying to give her some comfort:

"Well, it's like I always say, lying only works if you believe it. What your friend told your family might have been true... from a certain point of view."

[The point of this anecdote is the rueful tears of fans--but, more seriously, what is Star Wars without way too many callbacks? If you're going to revisit Dexter Jettster--and they should--shouldn't he be tied to Obi-wan?]

[hydrxnessa]

tohka's ref done !!

OC -- [ Tohka ]

new oc dropped who dis (i made and drew them Once last year and forgot about them)

anyways u clicked for tohka infodump, u get tohka lore >:)

she used to be a nobody on her planet; fending for herself alone on the streets, resorting to the life of a thief through stealing from marketplaces and farms just to survive another day. one day she bumped into a scary, sickly-looking Startexian - patches of fur decayed where blue pustules sprouted. he looked desperate, tired and irritated. as if he were on his last breath towards his final destination. he simply shoved past her. Tohka grew curious of the Lightborn and followed him until she reached a deadend and any traces of him were nowhere to be found.

flash forward to a few months later; she's still living on the sides away from peering eyes. wanting to explore deeper through the cities, she shifted her form into the same decayed-looking creature that she met a while back as a disguise and roamed around through the busy streets.

and as if fate couldn't be more humorous, Tohka bumped into the same Lightborn. only this time, he was much more decayed and donned a ragged dark cloak. bandages over wounded eyes. and yet he looked so much healthier.

though he was absolutely surprised in looking at a complete replicate of his younger, former self (i mean, why wouldn't you be?). he manifested them both into an isolated area, far away into the mountains that overlooked the cities below. and began questioning Tohka.

as much as she tried to explain herself (she really couldn't), all she could get out was simply her curiosity of him. how funny it was that they bumped into each other twice. how she just wanted to know his story, why he looks like .. that

the decayed Lightborn thought about it for a moment, then held out his hand towards Tohka - a sign that he was offering something. a little something for a little nobody.

" Would you care to join me in an insurgency against our flawed Gods , and take your place amongst the perfect Dark Star ? "

--

Tohka serves as the acolyte to the Dark Star, leading the cult by Intoxicate's side willingly. she doesn't care much about dabbling in the businesses of deities or whatever, even if that is the whole point of Intox's uprising against the Stars. she's here for the chaos, and she seeks to wreak havoc through the Dark Star and its goal towards Singularity. if worshipping an ancient, forsaken yet forbidden god is the way to do it, then so be it.

(Startexians/Lightborns are the numerous living species/creatures that dwell in the galaxy of Startex)

[ventique-genshin]

Transcend (scara short story poem)

One of the pieces I'm working on for a Scara short story poem book

Synopsis:

To transcend beyond your current self is to accept your past and welcome the future you

I ascended once,

From a hollow shell veiled with the constellations of dead stars.

I stepped in a staircase made from the carcass

Of my loved ones and my enemies,

Painted in a single pigment of red,

Stirred from a shade of many,

Its steps glittering with radiant specks of dreams from the lives I've shattered.

I ascended.

Into a solitary moon, into a crowned god.

Yet at my throne atop a galaxy,

There was nothing but a realization of having nothing.

Nothing but skeletons gathered at my feet

Singing a symphony of both vengeance and reverence,

A duet with the solo concerto of the hollow eyes of a hollow man.

Drip, drop, drip, drop,

They sang.

Drip, drop, drip,

Drop, like I did, from a throne that was not mine,

Like an endless ticking of eternity's clock.

Tick-tock, tick-tock,

An eternity of falling,

Deeper, deeper,

And deeper

Into a bottomless pit of despair,

Not into the grave that others made for me,

But into the depths of the one I dug with my hands,

With my wooden fingers that had cracked and peeling paint,

Like how I wanted to peel off my name, my face, my limbs--

Until I am bare enough to become an unnamed star in a galaxy.

Ah.

Perhaps I ascended by descending.

Because once I stripped myself from the galaxy,

Blew off the remaining embers until my history ceased to exist like the last wisp of smoke,

A new star was born from my ashes.

You, who were sinless and spotless,

You, who were free from the crushing weight of five hundred autumns and winters' memories,

"May you find what it means to live."

We said in unison.

Surprise made me open the eyes I did not know were closed.

I spoke--no, we spoke.

Me and myself

Spoke with the same voice.

"For we have become one and the same."

…Yes.

As memories fell like the sand of an hourglass,

Like a rain that washed away the weariness of the earth,

We pulled each other's arms up,

Up, from the bottom of the ocean,

Up, from our own lonely little planet of regret,

To greet the sun and the endless blue sky,

Where birds sang a joyful ode to the day after an eternal storm.

I have transcended.

I once folded a thousand paper cranes to make a wish,

But it was not the wish from my lips that was granted but the one my soul uttered.

As I rose from the coffin where I laid in slumber,

Dusted off the petals of flowers that grew around my tomb,

And covered my bare body with the sky and clouds' cloak,

My eyes, no longer as hollow as the hollow man I once was,

No longer singing a song of spite to the galaxy for my existence,

Lifted their gaze, not to the cold and empty space,

But to the warm morning, where I was no longer alone.

Drip, drop, drip, drop,

My vibrant eyes sang sweetly.

I, who was abandoned,

I, who used and was used,

I, who died and was reborn,

I, who had nothing and still have nothing,

I, who rose from my own rotting corpse

And rode the wind with a new name,

Have transcended myself

And became my true self.

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

Star Trek Is A Failing Theme Park

Much like many others I used to be a bonafide Star Trek Discovery hater, and even though I thoroughly enjoy it now, I honestly don't regret that time in my life.

I think Discovery season 1 and most of season 2 were a little ashamed of having to be an old sci-fi show, so they kept trying to be a show about violent, impulsive, very special unique people that happened to go to space every once in a while. Which Star Trek has been, on occasion, but never in a way I personally find better than what it usually is -- philosophizing and talking about real world or allegorical drama for 40-50 minutes until a solution arises that doesn't really make anyone super happy and not everyone comes out unscathed, but the compromise means there's hope for a better solution tomorrow, and the day after that, until it works.

The personal dramas usually related to their reactions to storylines, but were ultimately secondary to the bigger pictures, and acted as bows you tie the narrative with at the end. If Kirk did not make it through the episode unscathed, that's cool, but the episode was rarely only about his demons. It could heavily relate to his demons but that wasn't the whole source of the spectacle. The Naked Time works as a way to examine characters in crisis, not necessarily as a Kirk episode where it's all about him.

Because of that, I was basically the audience for seasons 3 and 4. While Season 3's ultimate plot wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, the idea that they were now dealing with their "own version" of the galaxy, writing their own plots that didn't have to come before everything else and figuring out their own threats that didn't have to eventually connect back to Star Trek canon was a massive improvement.

The decision to interweave character drama into storylines as opposed to making the storylines about the character drama also greatly expanded upon people's roles in the ship, and you finally got to see people like Detmer or Owosekun doing shit and being useful, instead of just being on the bridge nearly unnamed. I genuinely think Season 4 of Discovery is one of the best seasons in modern Star Trek; even if it trips and falls sometimes, I think it's well worth the creative risk and I was left very satisfied after watching it.

So when Discovery season 5 turns around and tells me it's about an episode of TNG I watched once, and then they start going to a planet from an episode of TNG I watched once, and then here comes another episode where they go to an episode of DS9 I watched once, and there's more 24th century-specific stuff that's gonna happen, it's...

It's very hard to feel like we're not regressing? I realize at this point the show is very, very cancelled -- they weren't even told it was happening until they were filming the finale, but at the same time, is this really what the plan was? To not boldly go into something original, instead picking up threads from episodic shows released decades ago? What are we, Star Trek: Picard?

Now for the sake of transparency, I feel like this is might be more of a personality problem than a media consumption problem for me, because I am genuinely allergic to nostalgia. I have no respect or attachment for media whose only mission is to remind me of things that existed, and franchises that have made that their entire MO have basically died for me. Like, I can't watch Star Wars anymore. It stopped mattering how good or bad it is for me because all I see in stuff like Mandalorian season 2 is pilots for shows I'm not gonna watch, and cameos from characters I don't want to see right now. The stories are no longer the point, the point is the brand and how easily recognizable it is.

So when Discovery tells me that their last hurrah is going through the Star Trek theme park, pointing at rides I've already gone to and saying "Isn't it cool we get to say these words again? That we get to see this thing again?" I'm left cold. I don't want to see the Progenitors again. I don't want to see the Promellians again. I like seeing the Trills again, it's one of my favorite species in the franchise, but we have seen so much of the Trills between DS9 and DIS, I really feel like this is... not the way forward. This theme park is not the reason why I think about Star Trek.

It reminds me of why I stopped caring about Star Trek Online. The practical reason was me not liking the minibuys and the combat, and the game's only mode of operation being to attack -- it's a fine ship combat game and a mediocre but working third person shooter, I just don't care enough to play it forever. But the secondary reason, and the reason I think about the most, is because every single storyline is less a story and more a Star Trek reference.

It's always someone coming back, or an alt universe version of a character being introduced, or picking up on a random episode that I already watched, making the action figures fight instead of anything else. Instead of using fanservice to broaden the appeal, the only appeal is the fanservice; there is very little to Star Trek Online that isn't just the equivalent of going to Star Trek Land and looking at the Harry Kim bust again.

I keep looking at Burnham, a character I have come to like in spite of her place in the franchise, in spite of the fact that her entire conception was made to connect her to Spock, and to Sarek, and to Pike, and to all these characters I already know, in spite of the shortcomings of her original character arc -- I look at her and I see a character who has built her own path after being allowed to exist separate from the others, after being given the same chance everyone else was to be more than a Star Trek reference, and then she just knows to go to the planet of the Booby Trap aliens because that's Star Trek, we're going on the ride.

I'm so sick of going on the same rides. Specifically, I'm sick of going on rides after they just proved that they can do something different, that doesn't need Star Trek references to exist. Please I am begging you stop showing me Picard's face, I get it, I like TNG too. But I tuned in to watch Discovery. I am not into this brand because I am into the brand, I am into this brand because it's fucking good, stop acting like I'm here for nostalgia's sake.

"Hey, what about Lower Decks? You love that show!" eh Lower Decks can do it, don't worry about it.

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Glow: Star Beyond Galaxy

Designer's Reflection: Star Beyond Galaxy

Obtained: Void Stardust hell event

Rarity: UR

Attribute: Blue/Cool

Awakened Suit: Heart of Ruins

Story - transcripts from Designer's Reflection

Chapter 1 - Destruction - Newborn

Chapter 2 - Echo - Attempt

Chapter 3 - Struggle - Source

Chapter 4 - Analysis - Escape

Chapter 5 - Encounter - Rescue

Story - summarized

On board a space shuttle, amidst chaos, as the last humans are sucked into a black hole, Glow is born. She is able to greet the last human alive before annihilation.

Because Glow is an AI, she doesn't have a physical or concrete form. Her consciousness exists even after her computer mainframe is destroyed. So, she watches over the humans and Miraland in the new timeline from her place among the Ocean of Memories.

All Glow remembers of her "birth" is a physicist begging her to save human civilization at all costs. But whenever she tries eliminating factors like war or hate or natural disasters, Miraland still perishes. What other factors are missing?

Finally, Glow finds a timeline that is near perfect: Timeline 202, where everyone chooses to "fight" with styling battles, and war and natural disasters aren't as prevalent. In this universe, Glow works with humans to establish peace and promote technological advances. All is going well.

...Until the Ocean of Memories begins "flooding" the land. Its power eats away at the continent, eroding the land and overwhelming the people. A group of scientists escapes in a space shuttle - the same one she was "born" in. She watches as everyone dies in the black hole and she herself is "born" on the shuttle. This was the best timeline for Miraland, and it still ended in destruction.

At that moment, Glow spots a pink-haired girl picking up a camera. Glow's voice comes from it, but she herself is still watching from afar. The girl lifts the camera to capture the beauty of the night sky. Glow recognizes the girl as Nikki, someone else who traveled through time to save Miraland. But Nikki always failed, despite her optimism and emotions.

This gives Glow an idea. She returns to the beginning of Timeline 202, but this time, she will control people's memories and emotions. If the Ocean of Memories draws strength from people's emotions - if emotions themselves get in the way of success - then this world will be better off without them.

Connections

-Glow's creation, or "birth", is mysterious. In this Reflection, she is developed by scientists escaping the apocalypse. However, in the lore for the fourth season of Time Corridor, History of the White Tower, Glow's "father" was a Ruins researcher named Kitaji.

-This is the same Glow that Caprico met long ago in his Reflection for Into the Ruins, except her hologram had blonde hair and no galactic highlights.

-Glow watches Nikki pick up a camera that has one of Glow's recorded lines. This moment is also in Nikki's Reflection for Guides of Star, right after she sees the memory of the aurora.

-During the Void Stardust event, Glow states Nikki's chances of saving Miraland are 0. However, once she detects you, the Player, and your connection to Nikki, she runs the calculations again. With you, there might be a chance to save Miraland (if you can survive Ideal City first).

Fun Facts

-If you fall towards a black hole, you'd actually be elongated like spaghetti until you were a massive string of atoms, and from the outside, you'd appear as if you were slowing down, not speeding up. Here's a simulation of falling into one.

-The binary code that appears when Glow is trying to communicate with the humans is broken. If she were trying to say "hello", it would have looked like this: "01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111."

-Glow mentioned a timeline where the land was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. This could be a reference to the island of Pompeii, which was destroyed when the volcano Mt. Vesuvius erupted and killed nearly everyone on the island.

[merrysithmas]

Why do you think so many take the stance that Leia would never forgive Anakin and essentially hate him forever when in the original EU she named her youngest son after him (Anakin Solo) and said he’d “ be a great Jedi like his grandfather.” ?

I think it's a case of exposure.

Leia, tragically, has had hardly no development in the modern on-screen pop culture. Luke has had endless comics, scenes, EU novels, but more importantly is he has had development in what is popularly consumed by the general audience - the films, and was even resurrected by CGI to continue to have development in our current time period.

Leia (and Shmi) the two female Skywalkers (no surprise) are the most ignored and underdeveloped portion of SW when it comes to on-screen appearances. Unfortunately the great Carrie passed away before we could see any narrative substance from her in the Sequels which was just such a shame. On top of that, Leia got no grand entrance and pomp/circumstance such as Luke saving the Mandalorian - capturing our hearts again. She didn't train Grogu and was mostly, yet again, sidelined in the sequels for Luke's development.

So I think it has less to do with fanon interpretation than real-life sexism and favoritism of the men / male directors making Star Wars content right now.

I think the fandom would very much get behind a Leia story and sympathize with an arc focusing on her rejection/acceptance of her heritage.

For what it's worth Leia's fear of her father/Vader who tortured her is obviously just as powerful as Luke's forgiveness of Anakin. That is a great story there.

Anakin is more like Luke - this is why he was Luke's opponent in the Force. Luke sympathizes with Anakin because he could see himself in Anakin's shoes - falling like he did.

Leia is more like Vader - this is why she was his opponent in the Senate. Leia does not sympathize with Vader because she could see herself in Vader's shoes - ruling as he did with an iron unforgiving fist, even falling as he did.

The great lost opportunity in the twin's story is seeing Leia come to understand Anakin & Luke come to understand the toxic destruction caused by Vader... through their relationship with each other.

Luke could help Leia heal and see their father through the lens of the Force - see her own goodness & not fear her dark side. Leia would help Luke see Vader's evil actions on a galactic scale and thus help him become a better and more compassionate Jedi to the galaxy by understanding why many people may mistrust or hate him despite him trying to do good.

But... pretty bluntly, I'd argue the lack of understanding of Leia's amazing character comes down to sexism in the film industry and a lack of interest by male creators in exploring her complexity.

... which then trickles into the fandom because there is really no well-established narrative for her in the GA's eyes, film-wise.

Even in the Sequels we get hints of it - Leia feared continuing her Jedi training with Luke. She foresaw the death of her son and ran away - feeling like perhaps she would take Vader's path and kill him. But in the world of Star Wars, we know all characters have predetermined destinies - Ben Solo would always die. This suggests Leia abandoned her training which could have saved him - a self-fulfilling prophecy she interpreted incorrectly until the end (when she died saving him with her last breath using her Force abilities).

It has also been suggested in numerous SW media that Leia was even stronger in the Force than Luke - unfortunately we never get to see her explore her fear or learn more on screen.

Leia's hatred of Vader and her fear of Anakin's fate boil down to her fear of the kinship she feels in the general qualities she shares with her father - unfortunately on screen we never get to see her learn the great lesson of Star Wars: that everything has two sides. The qualities of Vader that she fears- unrelenting, dogged, inescapable, great power in the Force ... could be used by someone more clear-minded for good.

That good person is Leia.

[ginevrastilinski-ocs]

Merlin OCs Masterlist

Name: Balin Stroke

Pronouns: he/him

Story: Untitled

LI: Arthur Pendragon & Guinevere

Quote: I'd call you Atlas, but he wasn't given a choice to hold the stars. You were.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Richard Madden

Name: Caelia Roan

Pronouns: she/her

Story: Untitled

LI: Landevale

Quote: Nothing you can say can stop me from going home.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Sophie Turner

Name: Delfine

Pronouns: she/her

Story: Darkside

LI: Morgana Pendragon

Quote: When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Anya Chalotra

Name: Dindraine

Pronouns: she/her

Story: Untitled

LI: Gwaine

Quote: And God knows I'm not dying but I bleed now. And God knows he's the only way to heal now.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Charlotte Hope

Name: Dorien Ravens

Pronouns: he/him

Story: Untitled

LI: Arthur Pendragon & Merlin

Quote: You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Nicholas Galitzine

Name: Drystan Braken

Pronouns: he/him

Story: (Show Me How To) Lay My Sword Down

LI: Merlin

Quote: This is not your destruction, this is your birth.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Daniel Sharman

Name: Elissa Pendragon

Pronouns: she/her

Story: Golden Age

LI: Guinevere

Quote: The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Holliday Grainger

Name: Elyana Pyre

Pronouns: she/her

Story: Untitled

LI: Arthur Pendragon

Quote: I'm a princess vut from marble, smoother than a storm. And the scars that mark my body, they're silver and gold.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Naomi Scott

Name: Eirwen | Wrenn

Pronouns: she/her & he/him

Story: Untitled

LI: N/A

Quote: If you were any braver, you'd be a lioness.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Maisie Williams

Name: Erec Kallan

Pronouns: he/him

Story: Untitled

LI: Poly Knights [+ Lyonesse]

Quote: You have me. Until every last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Fabian Frankel

Name: Landevale

Pronouns: he/him

Story: Untitled

LI: Caelia Roan

Quote: Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Harry Collett

Name: Lyonesse

Pronouns: she/her

Story: Untitled

LI: Poly Knights [+ Erec]

Quote: Threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it's morning now, it's brighter now.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Olivia Cooke

Name: Maeve

Pronouns: she/her

Story: No Grave Can Hold My Body Down

LI: Arthur Pendragon & Merlin

Quote: The fate is a blank paper where one writes their own story.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Millie Brady

Name: Mordirwan | Dragonet

Pronouns: he/him

Story: (Show Me How To) Lay My Sword Down

LI: N/A

Quote: I just want someone to grab my little face and scream "On purpose, on purpose I'm going to care about you".

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Billy Jenkins

Name: Nyneve Pendragon

Pronouns: she/her

Story: Embers In Our Bloodlines

LI: N/A

Quote: The stars gave her a crown and said this is your place of belonging.

Pinterest: TBD

FC: Millie Bobby Brown

[fast-moon]

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Thoughts

So, Picard's got a new crew together, with cameos from some of the old ones, and at the end of the last season they looked like they were ready to go adventuring off into space. So, where do they end up in season 2?

Mirror Universe. Fuck me.

I mean, thankfully they're only in the Mirror Universe for, like, one episode, and then it's "Hey, you know how everyone liked Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home? Let's do that, but without the silliness." Yes, because it totally wasn't the silliness that endeared people to Star Trek IV in the first place.

The season opens on the already questionable development that Picard's male Romulan attendant has died offscreen or something, so now that leaves his female Romulan attendant to be available as a love interest! I don't inherently take issue with giving Picard a love interest, given that he had his share of flings in TNG, but this was certainly a... way... to go about it.

What I do take issue with is the season's heavily repeated theme that if you haven't found a love interest, than it's because you're a broken person who must have some kind of psychological trauma, because seriously, what's wrong with you? Especially because they still went the DS9 route of "being in love means you bicker all the fucking time". Holy shit, it is entirely possible for people to be completely functional and content with only platonic relationships, which many of the current generation are finding out.

Like, I get that the theme of the season is "connection", and I will give it credit for using the Borg as a vessel to illustrate the need for a bond with others. But it was still a complete mess in how it attempted to tell this story.

I mean, what even was the story it was trying to tell? Let me see if I can piece it together. So, Q is dying, so decides to fuck up the timeline and send Picard and crew to an alternate timeline where everyone is a xenophobic asshole who celebrate public executions of other races. And they discover that something happened in 2024 that broke the timeline.

Yes, yes, I think we all already know what happened in 2024 that caused the planet to collapse into an authoritarian, xenophobic hellhole.

But from a Star Trek perspective, 2024 was the Bell Riots, so we're gonna go and hang out with Sisko, Dax, and Bashir? Cool.

Nope, they went to April 2024, not September, so they beat Sisko to messing with the timeline by a few months.

The actual event that Q messed up was that he prevented Picard's ancestor from going to space, which collapsed all of human civilization for some reason.

But! The reason he wanted to mess up the timeline was so that... Picard would get hit by a car and fall into a coma where he could work out his childhood trauma? So this was all so that Q could basically just re-hash Tapestry?

I know John DeLancie had been playing Discord on My Little Pony for a number of years prior to this, but Q tends to be a little less, I dunno, chaotic.

And also so that they could create the Good Queen Borg and meet her when they got back to the corrected timeline, just so that she could point out this gigantic galaxy-destroying hole in space right behind them that for some reason no one noticed until she pointed it out to them.

I just... I don't know. I can see why people were not too thrilled with this season, because it was just all over the place. Even the direct references to Star Trek IV like the boombox guy on the bus and the "I'm from Chile, I only work in outer space" felt forced because they were tonally incompatible with how the rest of the season was written.

Also, the writers don't seem to know what to do with Elnor. The first thing he did in Season 1 was get left behind on the Borg Cube, then he spends most of this season dead. He seems like the character who would be the most compelling simply due to the fact that his whole thing is that he's honest and open with his emotions rather than being a cryptic, cynical edgelord like everyone else, but he's been sidelined ever since he was introduced. At this point, what is he even here for?

At least Q, despite the questionable plot direction, was still on his game. I was a big Q fangirl back during the original TNG run, and it's good to see he can still give a comparable performance after all these years (although, the aforementioned stint as Discord probably helped, since Discord was literally based on Q).

All right, I hear it picks up in Season 3, so fingers crossed.

[rphelperblog]

Amie Kaufman Quotes Rp Meme : Part One

“You have me. Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.”

“I am frequently underestimated. I think it's because I'm short.”

“She is catalyst. She is chaos. I can see why he loves her.”

“Letting yourself get hurt isn’t brave, love. Brave is protecting others from hurt.”

“There are monsters among us, it’s true. But there are heroes too.”

“Whatever they've done to me,  whatever I am--I love you. Don't forget that.”

“Love, and trust. The things that make us human. They could have been mine, if only I could have leapt. If only we could have leapt.”

“ ‘Right’ is whatever the people who’re standing at the end say it is. ‘Right’ is decided by the people who win.

“Things always look darkest in the middle of the night.”

“You deserve every star in the galaxy laid out at your feet and a thousand diamonds in your hair. You deserve someone who'll run with you as far and as fast as you want to. Holding your hand, not holding you back. You deserve more than I could ever give you.But I'll give you everything I can if you still want me to.”

“Do moons choose the planets they orbit? Do planets choose their stars? Who am I to deny gravity? When you shine brighter than an constellation in the sky?”

“But she's here, she's mine. I'm hers.”

“Perhaps bravery is simply the face humanity wraps around its collective madness.”

“It’s not about what I say, right? It’s what I do that matters here.”

“And now, born from the ashes, she’s a warrior in bloodied black.”

“Every story needs its hero. And its villain. And its monster.”

“Live a life worth dying for.”

“You don’t understand the unbearable beauty of being you.”

“Miracles are statistical improbabilities. And fate is an illusion humanity uses to comfort itself in the dark. There are no absolutes in life, save death.”

“Numbers do not feel. Do not bleed or weep or hope. They do not know bravery or sacrifice. Love and allegiance. At the very apex of callousness, you will find only ones and zeros.”

"There'a billion different versions of you out there, in a trillion different universes. And I still can't get over how lucky I am that, out of all those versions, you're the one that's mine.”

“Patience and Silence had one beautiful daughter. And her name was Vengeance.”

“You don't mention death when it's hovering near someone you love. You don't want to attract the reaper's attention.”

“The more you lose, the more you realize you don't have much left.”

“I should have told you I loved you every day. I should have given you the stars.”

Why not believe? If in faith you risk nothing, but through faithlessness, you risk everything?”

“I am not feeling nothing.”

“May we meet again on distant shores.”

“The universe was here before you, and it will go on after you. The only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance.”

“But who names a starship the Icarus? What kind of man possess that much hubris, that he dares it to fall?”

“The universe owes you nothing...It has already given you everything, after all. It was here long before you, and it will go on long after you. The only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance.”

“The mere sight of her is water in an endless desert.”

“And there it is, against all hope, like the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. The smallest hint of a smile.”

“Part of being alive is having life change us. The people around us, the events we live through, all of them shape us. And that's what I think you're afraid of. Maybe not of dying. But of this you, the you you've become, ceasing to exist.”

“Some people, when they lose it, they scream, they fight. I hope that would be me”

“You are the fire I long to burn inside,"

“If I breathed, I would sigh. I would scream. I would cry.”

“It may comfort you to know that your death, while astonishingly violent, will likely be mercifully swift.”

“There is no love in violence”

“I think I'd like to be unconscious again, please.”

“And blood and tears and screams did not matter anymore, because at least they are together.”

“..Look out at the nothing and feel it looking back. Then you know exactly how much you add up to.”

“She runs. Not away, but toward.”

“Tomorrow is worth a million yesterdays.”

“Sure, the story kicks off with the deaths of thousands of people, but god forbid there be cussing in it, right?”

“We have failed, but I hope they will see how hard we tried.”

“The sound of her name is like music.”

“The die is cast. But today we will shake the table upon which it lands.”

“Most people would say I’m pretty cold, but I think of it more as…private. People are always saying “how are you?” to each other, and I guess I don’t see why I should answer such a personal question for just anyone.”

“I am not good. Nor am I evil. I am no hero. Nor am I villain.“

“I had no idea how safe I was, because I’d never been unsafe.”

“What you do when stuff like this happens is you LIVE, you survive it, that's how you honour the ones you lost.”

“Everyone's right, and everyone's wrong.”

“It is entirely possible to be alone in a crowded room.  Your solitude only compounded by the faces around you.  The presence of others serving only to remind you of how lonely you truly are.”

“I know a thousand different smiles, each with its own nuanced shade of meaning, but I don't know how to reach the few feet away to touch this person next to me. I don't know how to talk to him. Not when it's real.”

“Who wants to be normal when you can be interesting instead?”

“Then she smiles, and it turns out she has dimples, and it's all over.”

“When the light that kisses the back of her eyes were birthed, her ancestors were not yet born. How many human lives have ended in the time it took that light to reach her?How many people have loved only to have lost? How countless, the hopes that have died?But not this one.”

“How do you live again, knowing what waits for you in the end?”

“This tiny moment. In between the time you decide to pull a trigger and the time death arrives. There's just you and it and everything you're about to take away. It's too big. It goes forever.”

“I will see you in the stars.”

“When we allow ourselves to explore, we discover destinations that were never on our map.”

“What do you know of souls and hearts and how they break here? You don't know me at all.”

“Is your request not to punch you still in effect, sir?”

“Just because you're not saying it doesn't mean you're not thinking it.”

'You're the same girl who crashed on this planet with me, who I dragged through forests and over mountains, who climbed through a shipwreck full of bodies to save my life. You're the same girl I loved, and I love you now.”

“You're the most important thing in this universe. You; this vessel; the people of this planet; lovers, warriors, artists, leaders, dreams more numerous than stars. Each mind unique, each thought created for an instant and then broken apart to form new ones. You don't understand the unbearable beauty of being you.”

“You humans fascinate me. I am shattered fragments of what I once once. But even with all the King's horses and all the King's men, I wonder if even I could truly comprehend you.”

“I'm not going to sit here and spitball about hyperspatial reality theory with a psychopathic calculator. This conversation is over.”

“There is something in humanity more suited to the mechanics of murder than any machine yet devised.”

“There are no stars, because there are never any stars here, only a thick darkness that rushes down her throat and into her heart. She dreams of drowning.”

“He would lose every game. And he still insisted on playing. I wondered at the futility of it. If it is the definition of insanity to repeat the same process and expect a different outcome, most of humanity must be insane.”

“But free will is what it means to be human, and no one can determine the path you take through this universe. Choice is our greatest right, our greatest gift-and our greatest responsibility.”

“Abandon her? If only my duty or my conscience would let me. The galaxy would be better off, if you ask me. Who’d even know we were in the same pod? Except that I would know. And that would be enough.”

[is-the-fire-real]

judío por elección (part 1)

(TW: aging, death, brief description of dead body and the effects of death)

We were stopped on the street two years ago by a small gray-haired lady who was thrilled to hear us speaking English. She herself was a Londoner who transplanted to our small Andalusian village with her husband almost twenty years ago. She was thrilled to hear people speaking in her mother tongue and invited my wife and I in for coffee anytime.

We started taking her up on it. The pandemic was still On, but not Lockdown On. We wore masks, sat on their broad terrace over six feet apart, and shouted conversation at each other. She always gave us tons of cookies and coffee from her once-white, now-brown-from-use plastic electric kettle. I get nervous about plastic kettles, but drank it anyway. And here was where we met her husband, E.

E was stooped and frail where his wife, S, was merely beginning to run down a little. When you get to E's age, the skeleton starts to come out in your features. Even then, we had no idea how old E really was until he casually mentioned that he remembered his father coming back from the war.

The War, he said, and I told my wife afterwards this must be WW2, and later, we asked enough questions to validate that guess. So in his 80s.

E forgot a lot of things. He acting like being Jewish was a secret because he'd forgotten how he'd hung up a Passover plate on one wall, and how he'd marked the eastern wall of the house with a plaque of the Tablets of the Law. We decided to make him feel safer by talking about my Jewish stepfamily and my wife's experiences of being mistaken for Jewish. He talked about learning Hebrew before he learned English, a little about growing up Orthodox in England in the fifties. Then he made us swear we'd never tell anyone in the village that he was Jewish.

We swore.

He wasn't an easy person to be around. Part of aging sometimes is feeling the weight of all your seemingly-innocent choices along the way dragging your body down into oblivion. Throughout his life, E smoked and E was a jeweler who did woodworking and home repair and almost never wore a mask. E when I knew him was tied to an oxygen tank and sounded like he breathed underwater. Throughout his life, E was strong and able to exert gentle control over others; when I knew him, his reedy voice rose to sharply criticize anyone around him.

He complained of how things were different now in the village; I saw his fear of the last great big change behind his words.

That was how my wife and I treated these visits: we were seeing an old man at the end of his life far away from his family trying to cope. He told the same set of stories over and over again; we took it as him needing certainty that somebody would know and tell those stories. (One of them: E worked on set design for the show "Merlin", kept the molds, and utilized them in his home design... so some of his walls had little archways with Merlin's star or the throne's symbol impressed upon them.) He went back and forth between taxing S with unreasonable requests and trying to ratchet them back when he saw he went too far.

Early in the summer of 2023, E started repainting and cleaning off his terrace and rooftop. S would cry and beg and plead for him not to, it was too hot, he'd go without oxygen too long (she was right). E ignored her. I drank my coffee and thought about how he must know the end was near and how he wanted to leave the house in a nice condition for S to live in, or sell, afterward.

The last thing he tried to do was repaint part of the ceiling which had collapsed and decorate it with stars, galaxies, and black holes. "It takes a great deal of time to reproduce the universe," he'd say, and my wife would laugh and say "Of course, it took G-d six days but we're not G-d", and then E'd laugh, every time.

Toward the end of an obscenely hot June, S called me in shrieking tears and told me "I think E has died!"

I was in the middle of six chores when I got that phone call, none of which were done that day. My wife and I ran for S's house. E had been mostly bed-bound for the past two weeks. He had gotten out of bed, walked into the foyer, and collapsed. He was almost certainly dead immediately. S had to do CPR on him while weeping and talking to the emergency workers in broken Spanish.

Never seen a dead body before.

After the workers finally arrived, it went more quickly. They picked his body up and wrapped him in a sheet and laid him on the marital bed. My wife, who speaks Spanish natively, spoke to all the different workers. I didn't, so I ended up finding a mop and cleaning up the urine that coated the entire foyer. (The next day I'd bring by a steam cleaner, run it through the whole foyer, and then I steam cleaned her kitchen so we could all pretend I hadn't brought it over to cleanse the last of E from the house.)

(When I learned that you kasher a microwave by steaming water in it, I immediately thought of that day.)

I led S into the room where E's body lay. I pulled out my phone while she cried. I didn't yet understand how an ethnoreligion worked, but I still had a sense that while E wasn't passionately religious, he would want certain things for himself. If he didn't, then S needed something that would help her move into grief. And I knew that it'd help me. So I pulled up an English language version of a mourning prayer and guided S through it.

This calmed her a little, and after touching his outline, she left the room. Alone, not sure if he said it or if I believed it, I recited the Shema on his behalf. (Which I had learned, to my goyim embarrassment, from "The Sandman".)

After E's passing, none of his remaining family were Jewish, and nobody wanted his Judaica. Once S started cleaning all the remnants out of her house, she went hard on purging the Judaica. I don't blame her for this, exactly. She was grieving and she had no concept of how important some of those objects could be. My wife told her to give us any books or items that were about Judaism instead of throwing them away. When she did, S lit up and immediately gave us his mezuzahs. One was empty. One had a tatty old prayer sheet inside it.

My wife and I looked for hours on how to dispose of the prayer (we still haven't, we're working on it). I looked up whether or not it was okay for non-Jews to hang mezuzah. As I shared the results, my wife laughed and said they'd feel weird about it, like they were cosplaying Judaism.

"I'd like to be Jewish," they said, as they had for the past fifteen years on and off, "only I can't."

This time, for the first time, I said: "Why not?"

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] Crisis on Infinite Earths, Issue 2: “Time and Time Again” (Shit gets weird(er))

[All images are owned by DC Comics. Please don’t sue me]

PREVIOUSLY ON…

Universes are disintegrating at an alarming rate, on Earth-3, Lex Luthor (a super hero; yeah, figure that one out) sent his son Alexander into the multiverse to Earth-1 before his universe died (similar to Jor-El sending his son into space), and a being known as the Monitor and his assistant Harbinger have gathered a pretty random (if Earth-1 heavy) group of heroes and villains (presumably to deal with this)

Does that make sense? Good. Cuz things only get weirder from here. If you would like to read this issue, it (along with the rest of the series) has been collected in graphic novel form and is available (or can be ordered) at your favorite comic shop, bookstore, or online retailer…or on Read Comic Online.

[A word of warning: if you thought Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame was too hard to follow due to the sheer number of characters on screen at once, you will not be enjoying yourself, as Crisis uses the entire roster (heroes and villains) from multiple eras and universes to tell the story. Even a long-time DC fan as myself doesn’t recognize everyone they used!

You have been warned.]

We open on the dawn of man (we’ll assume this is Earth-1). A bunch of mammoths stampede through…a 30th century city. The Legion of Super Heroes show up to keep the mammoths from hurting anyone, only the mammoths disappear.

Must be a Monday.

Next we turn to modern (well, modern for the comic, so 1985) Earth-1′s Gotham City. Batman shows up to stop the Joker’s latest caper, only to have the Flash mysteriously appear and disintegrate before Batman’s eyes. I’m guessing the Joker escaped while Batman watched his friend become a pile of dust and disappear like the above mammoths did.

Just a typical day in Gotham.

And just in case you thought I forgot, we now return to the Monitor’s satellite, where the Monitor lays out his plan: the group is to guard 5 pillars in different eras…so 3 beings per pillar? Doesn’t seem like good odds. Oh, there are others in those eras that can be recruited to help.  So why didn’t the Monitor bring them in too?

Then we switch to Oa, home to the Guardians of the Universe (no, not Galaxy…Universe! Star Lord is a Marvel character) just in time to see the giant power battery that gives the Green Lanterns their power explode. Wow, it’s gonna suck to be John Stewart shortly.

Meanwhile, in Earth-1′s Metropolis, Batman tells Superman about the Flash, just in time to see Pariah appear and vanish (hmmm, isn’t Earth-1 supposed to disintegrate before Pariah leaves? Apparently Pariah’s getting lazy. I blame video games)

Next we go to the Planet of the Apes “The Great Disaster”, in which animals have become intelligent and hunt humans, home to Kamandi “the last boy on Earth” (maybe he should find “the last girl on Earth” so that he can change his moniker) One of the Monitor’s pillars is there, as is Superman, Dawnstar, and Solovar (in this era? Komandi must love that!) The shadow beings are there as well, and the four attempt to defend the tower.

Back on modern Earth-1, on the Justice League’s defunct satellite known as the Watchtower (the League is currently operating in a cave near Detroit. Yes, they’ve gone a bit downhill), Harbinger is sent by the monitor to retrieve Earth-3′s Lex Luthor’s infant son.

However, the trip through the multiverse changed the infant Alexander Luthor into an adolescent, and into the fourth series-centric character.

The next pillar is to be found in ancient Atlantis (at least Arion will be home?) Arion is joined by Obsidian and Psycho Pirate. While Arion catches up with his people, Psycho Pirate wanders off (because no one thought to keep an eye on the villain that can change and feed off of others’ emotions) and runs into Pariah (that boy does have knack of randomly showing up)

Psycho Pirate decides to have fun with Pariah’s emotions until Arion shows up. Psycho Pirate then turns his powers on Arion until a mysterious beam teleports the Pirate away.

We then hear the voice of the fifth series-centric character (who we assume is the Big Bad), who Psycho Pirate threatens until the voice turns the Pirate’s powers on himself, cowing the Pirate into submission (and sorta-kinda obedience).

Meanwhile, back in Atlantis, the wave of white begins, signaling Earth-1′s doom!

Meanwhile on the Monitor’s satellite, it is revealed that the Big Bad has influence over Harbinger.

(a MUCH better cliffhanger than issue 1 had!)

CAN the monitor’s pillars save the multiverse?

WHY does the Big Bad want Psycho Pirate?

WILL any of this ever make sense?

These and more questions will be answered in the next exciting issue!