#the way these concepts are being addressed is very tasty to me

[tinybrownie]

listened to the latest camlann episode and I'm really enjoying how this episode (and really the podcast as a whole) explores the themes of choice and fate and destiny

[useless19]

In one of my previous posts I mentioned reading/playing the old Nintendo Adventure Books when I was a kid. Out of curiosity, I managed to find some scans of them online and poked through some of the ones I didn't used to have.

They still have an old-school cartoon vibe (constant quips, a lot of nasty appearance-shaming toward the bad guys, etc - they're from 1991), but if you can get over that, I really like the way they often have puzzles to give you hints as to which way to go. It's something I feel is missing from most choose-your-own-adventure books.

(Okay, yes, sometimes the puzzles pushed you in the wrong direction or were just straight up wrong, but the concept is there at least).

However, the reason I'm making this post, is because book 4 Koopa Capers has an opening which I'm amazed that the bowuigi crowd seems to have missed.

"KoopExpress," a voice yells outside the Super Mario Bros. plumbing shop in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. "Special Delivery!"

Luigi looks up from his new invention, a water-powered pasta machine. It isn't working quite right. "Strange," he says. "Mario and I weren't expecting any deliveries today."

The tall, thin plumber tucks his high-tech plumber's helper into the pocket of his green overalls and heads for the door.

When Luigi opens the door, he sees a big package on the stoop. It looks like a giant hero sandwich wrapped in brown paper. "Mmm, looks tasty! But there's no return address," he says, stroking his thick black mustache.

Luigi is even more puzzled when he takes the paper off. "It's a rug!" he exclaims. "I wonder where it came from?" He unrolls the carpet on the living room floor. "Very pretty. It looks like a Goomba pattern."

He steps onto the rug to get a better look. "Hey!" he shouts as it comes to life under his feet. It's a magic carpet!

Before Luigi can escape, the rug wraps itself around him so that only his head and feet protrude from the ends. It rises into the air and zooms down the hall through the special pipe in the workshop that leads to the Mushroom World.

The next thing Luigi knows, the rug screeches to a halt in front of Bowser Koopa's castle. "Oh no!" Luigi thinks. "I'm being served to my worse enemy for dessert."

Out of the corner of his eye, Luigi sees two large helmeted red turtles carrying hammers. The Hammer Brothers! They waddle up to Luigi, pick him up, and carry him into the castle, still wrapped in the magic carpet.

Soon Luigi's bearers arrive at Bowser's enormous throne room. They unroll the carpet and send Luigi tumbling across the floor. He rolls to a halt at the scaly feet of Bowser Koopa, king of the turtles and leader of most of the bad guys in the Mushroom World.

"Good," Bowser says, squinting down his slimy snout at the prisoner. "Now, everybody out! Not you," he growls as Luigi tries to sneak off with the rest of the crowd.

Bowser waits until everyone else leaves. Then, in an embarrassed whisper, he says, "I need your help, plumber."

Before Luigi can recover from shock, the turtle king goes on. "My daughter, Wendy O. Koopa has vanished! She may have been kidnapped," he gulps, shedding a large crocodile tear.

He wipes his eyes with his sleeve and continues. "I sent my Koopa Troopas to search for her, but with no luck. I need a real hero to find her!" He puts his arm around Luigi's shoulder and adds, "I know you can do it. But the whole thing must be hush-hush. I want it kept a secret from my sons, the Koopalings. It's possible that one of them may be the kidnapper. Besides, no one can know you're working for me. It would be terrible for my image."

Luigi is very confused. "Let's recap," he says. "You want my to find your daughter? And you don't plan to tell anyone I'm working for you? So I'll still have to fight your flunkies, including your bratty kids, while I'm doing it?"

Bowser nods. "Right. Of course, your brother Mario might have been a better choice, but---"

"Oh sure, everyone would rather have Mario," Luigi retorts, offended. "Too bad he's fixing that drip at Niagara Falls. What if I say no?"

"I'd be very annoyed," says King Koopa, showing all his teeth in a sinister smile.

As Luigi looks at Bowser's enormous teeth, he says to himself, "Maybe Bowser is telling the truth. There's a first time for everything. And he does seem upset."

Luigi takes another look at the turtle. Bowser is now gazing at the ceiling and whistling innocently. "On the other hand, he's a born liar," the plumber thinks. "Well, maybe I should look into this mystery, just to see what the real story is. Besides, it would be quite a tale to tell Mario."

"Are there any clues?" he asks aloud.

Bowser holds out two shreds of paper. "There was a note in her room, but her Nipper plant chewed it up. This is all that's left."

Luigi can read only two words, FORT and MAGMA, on the scraps. "Intriguing," he says. "Okay, I'll do it. It might even be fun!"

Solve this puzzle to see what happens next:

Help Luigi find his way through this message maze to see where the clues lead.

If you think Luigi should go to the Magma Pits, turn to page 55.

If you think Luigi should go to the Fortress, turn to page 20.

If you think Luigi should look around Koopa's Castle, turn to page 29.

[lloydfrontera]

another thing about terminal devotion that i keep tripping over and i can't decide if i hate it or if i love it is that i just,,, can't see either of them taking the first step to turn their relationship in a romantic direction.

i don't think damian would ever dare to do so, this poor man has had his concept of self-worth completely destroyed by the end of the novel (which is something that i feel wasn't properly addressed but it's fine i love it when my blorbos are emotionally maimed and left for me to fix <3) i think he would be content to even be allowed to stay at rakiel's side for the rest of his life despite everything that happened and never ask for anything beyond that which is. so sad. and so very tasty actually now that i think about it. but the point is!! i don't see him taking the first step so he's a dead end for me in this case.

as for rakiel. this man is so frustrating to me. because i can't tell if his indifference to romance is because of his orientation or because he has really strong opinions about doctor-patient relationships lmao. like!! he's so focused the entire time on treating the people around him!! that i'm not sure how he acts when he's dealing with someone who isn't his patient or under his responsibility in some way!! its maddening what do you mean there's a facet of my blorbo that i'm not privy to that's insane stop it

but overall he just seems so uninterested in romantic relationships, despite mentioning being in several dates before, that i just can't picture him taking the plunge to start something with damian either. like. i feel it wouldn't even occur to him unless someone else points it out as a possibility and even then he might just not see it necessary. i mean. it's damian. they're already together in every way that matters aren't they.

this is just one of those ships that are extremely aroace coded or at least in the queerplatonic side of the spectrum to me. and it's fascinating in a way that makes me go a little bit insane

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m aroace myself or because it’s the effect your writing has on me but stsg x aroace reader has been on my mind NONSTOP 😭 what have you done to me. This is literally just my idea and take on it feel free to ignore my silly little ramble I’m actually insane <33

I feel like dynamics where there’s some obstruction of sorts from it being just a regular happy healthy relationship is my fav ever because. It means there’s so much more yearning and pining involved and it’s so much more emotional I LOVE ITTTAUGHH and aroace spec reader is a great example of that. I feel like the main kinda reasoning (“obstruction”) would be how reader views the relationship they have with stsg and how they feel about it, the way it’s supposed to be just a regular platonic friendship but there’s so much unaddressed care and deep rooted love (that maybe reader doesn’t want to address) and it’s just a confusing mess of emotions. Reader being hesitant to accept that maybe it’s more than just a friendship because they aren’t 100% sure what those complex feelings that undoubtedly come with being ‘friends’ with stsg are. AND aside from aroace reader, a reader with intimacy/trust/abandonment issues or trauma that hasn’t been unpacked (take your pick!!) while it is the same kinda theme (basically just reader’s hesitance to have to face and attempt to understand their own emotions) it’s just. AUGH!! It’s such a yummy idea to me there are so many scenarios. Maybe reader just doesn’t want to be helped or is too untrusting/scared to open themselves up and be vulnerable with people again, is kinda introverted maybe, just generally like. Lost. almost as if they don’t really have a place anywhere? They don’t feel particularly special and they’re just painfully conscious of their own negative emotions + their own loneliness?? Are you seeing what I’m seeing. The type of person that could be in a room full of people and still not feel any less alone. In a way they’re a lot like sugu!!! OHHH HOW IT WOULD BREAK SUGUS HEART I ALREADY HAVE A VISION!!!! Him seeing himself in reader. Dear lord. The understanding that bond would create and him slowly coaxing reader into becoming more emotionally open because he gets it, sugu is so special because there’s an unspoken understanding between him and reader that they’re kindred spirits. as I’m writing this I am literally imagining reader and sugu sitting by the sea late at night. The sea is where lost doomed people that are overwhelmed by their own grief belong!!!! Can you hear my heart shattering and can you tell how much I love angst 😇😇😇 takes a deep sigh and leans back in my expensive chair as I dramatically overlook the city below me. Another day of being a stsg fan forcing everyone else to suffer with me because nobody in the jjk fandom will ever feel joy again

OLLIE MY DEAREST ohhhhh reading this made me so :(((( so so emotional AND I AGREE COMPLETELY what if i told you this is literally exactly what i had in mind………… we’re so connected fr

(this got Very long 😭😭 you have been warned!!)

FIRST OFF it’s crazy that you specifically mention The Sea bc !!!!! when i thought of the aroace!reader stsg fic i immediately envisioned them sitting by the sea under the stars :> i might’ve mentioned that but i don’t Think i did …… IT REALLY IS THE PERFECT PLACE FOR LOST SOULS DOOMED SOULS GRIEFSTRICKEN SOULS ETC ETC IT’S TRUE IT’S TRUEEEE i think it’s perfect for sugu/reader especially !!! T_T more on that later tho…

but okok let’s get into this I’M OVERJOYED THAT YOU’RE INTO AROACE!READER/STSG BTW I THINK IT’S SUCH A TASTY CONCEPT ….. from one aspec to another i am equally insane abt them i just. think there’s so much potential there…..

some of the things i love writing about most are 1) the blurry lines between platonic/romantic love (one of my gojo fics was actually written w a qp relationship in mind :33) and 2) the difficult parts of love/the fear of intimacy in general… it’s something i like exploring because it’s interesting + i don’t see it in fanfic often and. idk!! i just think it’s important to me that i depict a kind of love that’s very tender and healing and careful. especially since i literally only write for characters who have intimacy issues themselves LMAO

I feel like dynamics where there’s some obstruction of sorts from it being just a regular happy healthy relationship is my fav ever because. It means there’s so much more yearning and pining involved and it’s so much more emotional I LOVE ITTTAUGHH

LITERALLY THIS you put it so perfectly ollie.. T_T love with obstructions is alwaysss most interesting to me …. AND I AGREE!! if i ever end up writing this fic the focus will definitely be on reader and how they view love!! being on the spectrum is genuinely so isolating sometimes and i feel like that’s comparable to the kind of isolation stsg carry with them :’3 none of you can fully understand the others’ individual hardships but with a lot of understanding and respect i think it would go well.

… honestly i hc both gojo and geto as being on the spectrum themselves LMAO but maybe i’ll avoid those hcs to make the fic more interesting 😭😭 ace demiromantic gojo + demisexual sugu are soooo real to me they’re my pookies <333

it’s supposed to be just a regular platonic friendship but there’s so much unaddressed care and deep rooted love (that maybe reader doesn’t want to address) and it’s just a confusing mess of emotions.

OLLIE I SWEAR WE’RE CONNECTED THROUGH THE AROACE HIVEMIND BC THIS WAS EXACTLY MY THOUGHT PROCESS TOO 😭😭😭 it’s just such a tasty scenario because i feel like stsg would be in denial about their feelings at first, but then (once they’ve come to terms with it!!) approach reader immediately… i kinda pictured it as stsg already being a couple, and then confessing to reader with the hope of them joining their relationship……… and it’s so difficult because reader doesn’t really know where their feeling lies between platonic and romantic, don’t really care about the specifics, they just know that they love them and cherish them but now they feel pressured to put a label on it and i think that would just make them panic.

and it’s not at all intentional on stsg’s side !!! they’re half expecting reader to reject them, but they’re just so sincere and tender about the confession. and i think that they just won’t be able to understand reader’s feelings even when they try to explain it :’3 because reader does like them. love them. but they don’t know if it’s romantic, and they don’t really want to know. and even if they knew for sure, they might not care for a standard relationship anyway!! it would just take a lot of understanding and support from stsg to even have that conversation without reader running away, but i think they’re both so gentle when it comes to you :(( they’re always willing to hear you out, and even if they don’t understand all the aspects of being aroace, that doesn’t mean they won’t support it.

…. tbh i’m not entirely sure how it’d work out 😭😭 i think it’d have to be kind of vague but i can picture the three of them living together, going grocery shopping and cuddling and whatnot, and there aren’t really any labels there. not for reader anyway. but they all love each other and that’s enough <33

i love how we both started ranting LMAO this concept just means a lot to me so i can’t help but ramble a bit T_T BUT BUT BUTTTTT we still need to talk abt stsg with a reader that has intimacy issues/unpacked trauma… ollie literally every single part of ur ask made me feel insane in the head this is another concept that means a lot to me and i’m SOOO excited that i get to talk abt it with you!!!! :’3 i think i’ve already said this plenty of times but i’ll die on this hill: stsg would be PERFECT for this kind of reader. so loyal and understanding and accepting. they’d be so, so patient because both of them really only care about your happiness!! that’s all!!!!

and tbh i feel like no matter what kind of issues reader has specifically, it all boils down to them having difficulties with vulnerability!! showing it and seeing it and just embracing it as something important and healing. AND that’s perfect for stsg because they’re literally the same LMAO…. and in this case i think that would benefit the relationship as a whole!! it’ll be bumpy at first because i feel like all three of you would encourage the other two to open up, express themselves etc — but then not return that vulnerability. and that just wouldn’t work out!! and i think that would force you to open up, if only so your partners will do the same. same for stsg!! and it’s just soooo tender and raw :(((( but so important!!

i can honestly imagine suguru having the most trouble opening up, even though he’ll be the most insistant that you and satoru do so 😭😭 he’s a big ol hypocrite is what i’m saying. but i can see him dipping his toes into that vulnerability for you, because he knows you won’t get anywhere otherwise and he wants to be a good example for you to follow. it’d make things so much easier for reader because they aren’t the only one who’s having difficulties !! it’s all three of you!! you’re all learning and growing and loving each other so delicately :’3

now on the topic of sugu….

OHHH HOW IT WOULD BREAK SUGUS HEART I ALREADY HAVE A VISION!!!! Him seeing himself in reader. Dear lord. The understanding that bond would create and him slowly coaxing reader into becoming more emotionally open because he gets it, sugu is so special because there’s an unspoken understanding between him and reader that they’re kindred spirits.

THIS THIS THISSSSS OLLIE OUR BRAINS ARE HOLDING HANDS YOU GET IT YOU GET ITTT this is SUCH a great scenario AND IT’S SO REAL TOO… i think sugu would be the mvp in helping reader (NO DISRESPECT TO SATORU i think he would be vital in other ways!!) because like you said!! they’re the same. there’s something so soft and tender in that dynamic :’3 them talking by the sea… about their own loneliness and difficult pasts……. i 100% hc sugu as having had a rough childhood so if reader also did it’d just strenghten their connection even further. i think that what suguru needs more than anything else is understanding, so to receive that from reader, while also being able to give it in return……. yeahhhh. he’s whipped. you’d be talking by the sea looking up at the stars and he would already be thinking of marriage LMAO he’s such a sap to me 😭😭😭 he just has this moment when he realizes that he wants to Protect You Forever and it’s so special to him. he’s your pillar and you’re his anchor. (<- slowly spiralling as we speak I LOVE THIS MAN SO DEARLY…..)

OLLIIIIIEEEEEE THIS MADE ME FUCKING INSANE I’M SO SERIOUS I ALMOST CRIED both these concepts are so good T_T….. i can’t thank u enough for sharing them w me <333 YOU’RE ALWAYS WELCOME IN MY INBOX ILYSM!!!! i really feel like we see stsg the same way i swearrrr it’s the aroace hivemind…… anyway i am looking out at the city right with you………… drinking a glass of orange juice………… pondering stsg…………… they make me so sad/happy/other emotions that i don’t think human beings are supposed to feel 😔😔😔

[bropunzeling]

old ship you want to revisit (write or read!)

new ship you plan to read and/or write about

fic you want to see in the world but not write (c'mon, people, why haven't you got on this yet??)

fic you want to see in the world and have plans to write (as vague or as detailed as possible)

fannish wish for this summer

something you're looking forward to this summer, fandom or not

[thing - food, artist, character/ship, etc] is underappreciated! Tell us what you like about it and why we should give it a try!

[coming in late as we watch euros]

old ship to revisit - i was never hugely into them at the time of their youth, but reading a really good nate/jo fic set during the past season that addresses past youthful fears and urgency and new adult worries and deep feeling could be REAL good imho

new ship to read or write about - technically i have written a fic for them but im still thinking deeply about brady/quinn and all the vast potential that long-distance friends to lovers has to offer. also same sitch but matthew/sasha could be SO romantic and tasty. idk i find the particular bravery of making the leap from friends to something more so compelling! also a mo/timmy summer boyfriends concept continues to rattle in my skull like a ping pong ball.

fic i want to see in the world but not write - i continue to find future fic hard and scary to tackle myself, so i WOULD love someone to write a very tasty 70k break up/make up future fic for any of the ships i am into, in the full "we were something and then we weren't and now fortune and free agency has thrown us together again and neither of us know how to handle it" kind of way

fic you want to see in the world and plan to write - it's seattle au! i'm not the first to think of the basic premise in the loosest sense, but i do think my version is going to be perfectly calibrated to my sensibilities (rooted in place, lots of oblivious yearning) and i hope other people will like it too 😊

fannish wish for the summer - we land someone wildly unexpected in free agency. matty and shane throw out some pitches again. fun uncle matthew pictures (technically that's fall but whatever)

something you're looking forward to for the summer - never thinking about wedding planning again, because i will be married (and i guess the actual getting married part too haha!)

unappreciated thing - i watched the five hour rant about fourth wing and it brought me much joy. you, too, can also feel joy about a really poorly conceived book being ripped to shreds.

[nickgerlich]

The Wonder Of It All

The way we dine out—or in, as it turns out—continues to change before our very eyes. Third-party delivery is an industry now. We have evolved from boring, bland food courts at the shopping mall, which are primarily populated by miniature versions of the same brands we find along city streets, to food halls, where mom-and-pops occupy stalls among shared kitchen facilities.

Ghost kitchens have also become common, with established brands running secondary brands out of the same facility, as well as those owned by DoorDash that welcome mom-and-pops, along with corporately-owned ones like Inspire Brands’ kitchen in Atlanta with Arby’s, Sonic, and all of their other brands. It’s all about delivery.

And then there’s yet another wrinkle, this one from Wonder and its 30 proprietary brands all created under one roof, and ready for pickup or delivery. Wonder just raised $700 million in capital to fund a rapid expansion. The company had started with food trucks trying to deliver the same concept to wherever they could find a place to park, but has now opted to go with brick-and-mortar locations. With 10 units now in New York and New Jersey, and one inside a Pennsylvania Walmart, the company plans to have 90 food halls by the end of 2025.

And it’s a great idea. Some 90% of orders are made online at their current kitchens. But perhaps more impressive is the fact that the smoke and mirrors they have created to shroud the fact that they own all of the brands attests to the veracity of the concept.The diversity of offerings is impressive, from American comfort food and burgers, to Asian, Mexican, Indian, salads, and more.

Oh, and all from the same commercial kitchen. That’s no small task, and to be able to pull it off without accidentally putting the wrong food into a bag or box labeled for one of the other brands they offer, means that they probably ought to stick to just using Wonder as the umbrella for it all. One name, no problem.

The concept addresses multiple needs and desires. Top of the list, of course, is convenience. Busy American households don’t have as much time to cook as they would like, especially after a long day at the office and a tedious commute home.

And there’s the beauty of everyone in on the order can pick whatever they want, with no one bound to pizza or any other stand-alone food genre. You want Indian street food? Fine. And I’ll have Pad Thai.

Lastly, it builds on the food hall concept, that it is free of the big brands we see everywhere. It is no secret that fast food has been struggling a bit of late as dietary preferences continue to expand.

To be fair, Wonder is not the first to try this. Two other companies have tried in the last few years, and not fared well. One of them even partnered with Kroger to allow for pickup as well as delivery. Some fine-tuning is in order here, and perhaps Wonder can make it work. The Walmart unit reflects the giant retailer’s shift away from Subway and McDonald’s leasing space inside, and if the one unit thus far is successful, look for more in other Walmarts.

I like this idea a lot, perhaps because I do love me a good food hall in the first place. The people with whom I am most likely to dine don’t like fast food, and prefer more esoteric categories of food. Being able to choose from among multiple options is golden.

To be perfectly honest, I have made myself hungry while writing this. While I don’t have the option of something like Wonder out here on the High Plains, I can at least whip up something tasty and healthy, and not otherwise available at a diner or fast food joint.

And that is pretty much the Wonder business plan in a nutshell. Evolution is a very good thing. Bon appétit, y’all!

Dr “Leaning Into Cumin And Garam Masala Today” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[minisoysquares]

As fun as the events and ideas you posted about 19days would be, wouldn’t it also just bring in more negative stuff - like fandom in general has become a field of land mines and I fear that something that’s supposed to fun will turn into some sort of battle. Like how some people get extremely heated over any other ships outside of their fave ship and they cannot possibly have other ships except theirs, etc. The last thing anyone wants is for content creators to be targeted simply for making something they thought would be fun

(This ask and answer is about this post.)

First of all thank you so much for addressing such a big and valid concern. I agree that that has indeed happened in certain fandoms - I can say I've been in the thick of it and witnessed quite the warfare - but in others it has also brought fans and readers and content creators together even closer and tighter in a wonderful thriving community.

I have the feeling this'll get quite long so please proceed under the cut with that in mind.

I believe all things are potential harbingers of both discord and harmony. There will always be people who feel entitled and who want - even demand! the audacity! - authors and artists to create for their ships and their ships alone. And there will also always be people who can appreciate the writing and the art without judgemental treatment regarding the pairings/characters depicted, no matter their preferences.

All of that happens and will continue to happen, whether we go forward with these events or not. And yet authors will still write what they want to write, artists will still draw what they want to draw, graphic designers will still make the edits they want to make as well. What we could do, in this small and close knit fandom, is take in our hands this powerful rich opportunity and try our best to make a model of positivity out of it.

In these events, there would be no bashing or shaming allowed. The content created would be to be enjoyed by those who are attracted to it, and those who do not have a taste for that fanwork in particular would be asked to remain respectful. (As it should always be.) There would be no ship wars in these spaces. Discourse, hate-speech or anti-behaviour would not be tolerated by the moderators of the event.

Creators who indulged in it would be immediately disqualified. Any unnecessary commentary or complaints from the audience would be deleted and reported as spam. Anyone instigating conflict would be only painting a target on their back, really. Because most of us - I dare say - are only here to appreciate the brilliant artwork and fanfiction woven and crafted by the talented people who share it with us.

If it came to it and it escalated, this hellsite has several tools that can be put to use to that regard. Accounts could be blocked and/or even reported. They wouldn't be able to interact with the blogs created to run these events from then on. We would be able to create a black list and post it publicly so everyone else who wished to could simply block those unruly pesky accounts and remain at peace and free to enjoy themselves to their utmost.

Let us not forget that this is all fiction and it's all for fun. Everyone's allowed to have their own opinion, likes and dislikes. There simply is no need to step on anyone else and their interests to elevate them.

Let's exemplify, for the sake of clarity:

Do I personally ship A with B? Imagine I do not. I do not search for it. If I come across it? I scroll past it. Once or twice, I may even like - and even reblog - if it happens to catch my attention and it's well written/drawn! (I have tags along the lines of 'I don't ship it but' and 'look at this beautiful art' or 'drown in the power of these words.')

It's so easy to interact amongst ourselves without coming with pitchforks at one another. Know what actually needs effort? Being a meanie and a party popper! Who in their right mind wastes their time on things they don't care for? Dum dums, that's who! Of course, we're all dummies at times... and that's okay! Let's just not harass people or crash their fun while we're at it!

If nothing else: you wouldn't like if others did this or that to you, therefore don't do it to others. It's a simple concept to grasp.

Very important: in these events, every single piece would be explicitly and properly tagged and warned for right at the very top of each post, so there would be absolutely no excuses for anyone being nasty.

We would just have to be open to the experience. Enjoy our ships and let other enjoy theirs. We do not have to all like the same thing. That would be just boring. But we can cohabitate devoid of trouble in fandom. Each one of us just has to be respectful. No need to even be nice. No one has to compliment something they don't like. They also don't have to step on what others do.

Don't like a ship/character/theme? Don't read stories focused on it. Don't put down authors who write it or readers who enjoy it. Same for art. No need to shout about how awful it is just for the simple reason that it does not fit into your personal shipping preferences. It can still be still be a tasty and wonderfully baked cake, it's just that you're not fond of vanilla or strawberries. It's okay. There are all kinds of cake for everyone's tastes!

Further examples: If a ship happens to be a NOTP for me or I don't care for the character(s)? I filter the tags. All of them. Any and every tag I can think of. It's very easy to protect ourselves on Tumblr from content we do not wish to see. (My own list is huge and just as effective.) Filtering is incredibly important.

So go ahead and filter out the ships you can do without! Filter out porte-manteaux like Tianshan, Zhanyi, Qiucheng, Tianxi, Tianyi, Lishan, Litian, Liyi, Shantou, Polydays, (...) Filter out any ship tag that doesn't strike your fancy like Q x MGS, HC x JY's mom, (...) Filter out characters that aren't your cuppa tea like HT, HT's dad, SL, JY's mom, XH, (...)

Make it safe for yourself and for others. That way you won't rage at the sight of your NOTP, won't feel the compulsive need to trash the people who ship it, no one is hurt and everyone is happy!

There are many steps we could follow to prevent rotten eggs in our coop. And many more actions we could take to throw them out if need be. I firmly believe, however, that if we're all of the same mind everything would go well and with very few bumps along the way.

If we only ever feared the possible negative consequences of our actions, never taking the risk for the possible positive ones, we'd never get anything done. I say let's not let our beloved fandom stagnate or dry out. Let's incentivate and motivate and inspire! Let's share! Let's have fun!

Think of it in these terms: it wouldn't be a competition at all but rather a charity event. Performers and spectators coming together for a common good, raising content and spreading joy! There would be no winners or losers or prizes. What would matter would be good old-fashioned participation, both by providing content and/or consuming it.

It could also a good way to get people to express themselves more. Many content consumers tend to lurk or keep to themselves even if they like the content posts. (I used to be one myself and only a couple months ago started to come out of my shell.) I myself advocate for reblogging instead of liking - if you have to choose one or the other, I mean, why not do both? - and leaving a word on every single post I like and/or reblog. Sometimes I go nuts commenting, sometimes I leave a small note in the tags.

It doesn't matter how. Even if you're shy or introverted (*raises hand*) or don't know what to say I guarantee a single emoticon or a string of disordered letters symbolising incoherence will make the creator's day all the same. Getting feedback is so important and motivational for creators and also a great way for fandom members to keep in touch and support each other.

Additionally, if a person would like more of a certain type of content here are some healthy actions they could take: a) commission a creator and pay for it if they can; b) politely make a suggestion to a creator with an open ask box; c) post a prompt publicly for possible interested creators to use; d) do it yourself and share it with others!

This turned out into more of a "behavioural guidelines" thing than I'd have liked. I am not in any way whatsoever telling anyone what to do. This is what I do, and it works wonders for me. I stay completely out of toxic arguments and in on all the goodies. I'm able to fully enjoy my fandoms. And isn't that what we all want?

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. And I apologise for the long rant!

Of course, this is only my personal stance on the issue. I did go for a survey first exactly for this end, to get their opinions on the subject and see if it would be worth a shot. I shall hope many other people will think as I do, but I will wholly respect those who don't.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Did Bobo really create the Wayward Sisters? If so, why weren't Jack and especially Cas included in that episode? That's my biggest issue with that pilot honestly, I mean, the fact that the show abandoned Claire and Cas' bond after season 10 and gave that storyline to Salmondean. Her bond with Cas is more interesting because of their connection to the Novaks. I also think that Claire and Jack would've made a more engaging dynamic and spin off together, I think they're strong characters & actors

Hi there!

Bobo isn’t the “creator” of Wayward so much as it can even have one, as it was a very organic idea, which even involved a healthy amount of fandom input. The original campaign in season 10 was for Wayward Daughters, and the idea picked up so much steam the altered title for, I guess, a mix of copyright and thematic relevance was the Sisters one. I’d say 10x08 was the real genesis of it as something that could be really solid. Once Kim and Briana were put together the chemistry and star power they could have had together was really meteoric as far as our small SPN world was concerned. Phil Sgriccia directed 9x13 and wrote 10x08 and was more of the parent of Wayward than any specific writer in that sense. Jody and Claire were pretty much common property of the show by that point. Claire was really introduced again in relation to plotlines and questions about Cas and less to do with them really going out of their way to re-launch her. I think they’d have been much cornier about it from the start and while YA protagonist diary writing her way through the end of Wayward Sisters was cute, it’s the sort of cutesy that really has to be earned. If she STARTED that way, like maybe me and 3 friends would be stanning her and everyone else would be revolted :P

(I am a YA fantasy novel author, but I do think everyone should make room in their hearts for this level of cheese)

In any case, Bobo just threw his hat into an already crowded ring with Alex, but obviously loving the characters and having his own personal wayward child to contribute did help elevate him to the prospective showrunner seat, but also all the other writers who’d written these characters except Dabb had left at that point. If Bobo was going to shepherd them through to their new show, he’d be the legacy writer, even though he was a new baby writer in the season Donna was introduced... Attrition aside, he did genuinely write them very well, loved their stories and was great with writing Jody when he could get her, so he would also have been a good choice even if all the others were left still... 

But anyway. Season 10′s subplot for Cas was about Claire and learning some stuff about himself along the way, but she was used very much for his personal development and for Dean as well, being a mini Dean herself in a season where he had lost a lot of his sense of self. It’s a total accident of scheduling but Angel Heart (10x20) being the last episode before 10x22 is a nice touch in that regard. And while Cas tried really hard with Claire and awoke his inner Dad side so that he’d be more prepared for fatherhood next time, it was pretty insurmountable between them to have anything more than a bittersweet relationship where the best he could do was make up with her and see her somewhere safe. The fact of him looking like her actual dead father is horrendous the more you think about it and while she managed to see him for who he was instead of a horrible monster, that’s more than enough trauma to inflict on an already traumatised girl for the sake of helping Cas’s manpain and tidying up the sticky question of Jimmy and Cas’s right to the vessel. 

Angel Heart very specifically ends with TFW mailing Claire to Jody because they know she’s already good with Alex in a genuine way and can handle these sort of issues and has done it before. And also because she can be a guardian who will not constantly remind Claire that her father is dead but something is walking around wearing a perfect reconstruction of his face. Carver era did a few things here and there with bodily autonomy and the problem of angel and demon vessels, but it was also really hit and miss. They’d get random waves of feeling guilty about it but then by necessity go back to stabbing angels in their still-living vessels an episode later. Claire was a way to address at the very least that whatever Cas was being put through was only a punishment on Cas and not on Jimmy as well, which is probably why we got such sappy Heaven scenes. We NEEDED to be shown he was in Heaven and largely okay with what was going on so that the show could justify using Cas at all as a character without breaking the code of ethics they tried to make their own characters adhere to. Aside from that it also gave Cas a side plot for when he wasn’t needed in the main plot, and any emotional connection to anything that wasn’t Sam and Dean.

Anyway 10x20 caused this huge fandom high which was followed by one of the lowest lows of the fandom immediately after, and both centred on female characters (in fact, now we know, 2 lesbians even! Though I’d wonder if, The Gay Agenda aside, Bobo spite-wrote that specifically because of the roots of Wayward) and I think that galvanised the whole movement of fans and hopefully some self-reflection in the show. They DID start making an effort in season 11, which shows some of the early signs of better inclusion but also backtracking or edging nervously away from the more intense Carver era stuff. Not just because Dean didn’t have the Mark any more but in general it was like someone had opened a window and let in some fresh air... Even before Carver bailed somewhere around the midseason to go do a different show and Dabb started to step up. 

All this to say that the Wayward stuff was always about the female characters and making up for the past sins of the show. It’s even a riff on the “wayward son” line which obviously centres around male protagonists and their journey. Claire stumbled into being a part of it in the lucky way of being in the right place and time, but the journey had already started even in the season 10 momentum with earlier work and it was that which suddenly made the prospect that Jody had two young women living with her now seem like a starter for the next generation of the show as it was a mirrored format to season 1 in a way, if you took Alex and Claire as the new Sam and Dean. It was exciting but people flipped out after Angel Heart because stuff had been bubbling since season 9 and earlier in season 10, so this was just pouring more candy into an already visibly full bowl of potential tasty gems. It made a possibility seem real that hadn’t before because we already had Kim bitterly complaining that the CW refused to hear the case for a Jody spin off because she was too old. The next best thing was a Jody spin off where she was the Gandalf to some CW age appropriate characters.

(the CW is and always has been garbage)

Anyway in season 13 Jack was introduced as a Claire 2.0 but as a male character with staying power for that reason, but he was filling the space she left for Cas. He couldn’t be a father to her and neither really wanted that set up anyway. But thematically it had created the possibility of Dadstiel and the space he had in his heart for that. Since the show was in its waning years they would be looking for endgame and handing Cas an easy win with a son he could unconditionally love who would love him back unconditionally absolutely filled that gap. It was a non SamnDean thing that Cas could have for himself outside of whatever happened with them. Not sure the memo came back that he was supposed to have mORE than that but oh well it’s not real if you don’t watch it :))) But yeah Jack was always going to be linked to Cas’s endgame, he wasn’t a free-floating character such as Jody who could go where she wanted and do as she pleased. He was main story relevant from start to finish and tied inexorably to another main character’s fate. Because the show wouldn’t do that with its female characters they could be bundled into spin offs but in practical terms Jack was both never what the Wayward as envisioned by fans or writers was about, nor would he have been free to go. 

Since it would have been about centering the stories of people overlooked by the main story, Claire a case in point that she had her life ruined in season 4 and it was a footnote until season ten, and then metaphorically more the concept of having queer and non-white characters in the mix of main characters, it would have represented a future of the story where the main show was unable to tread. Probably because of the CW. Also inherent biases in the writers. Bad cocktail. Jack is both too white and too male to fit the brief to ever leave SPN, and not only that but he is so as a precise mirror to the main white male characters, being passably any one of their sons if you squint, and meant to be instantly instinctively read as such... he was one of the safest bets of representing the show as the network wanted to imagine its target demographic.

So I really don’t think that Jack has any place being in a spin off of the show unless you want more of the same. They tried to give us something different and the CW didn’t like it because it wasn’t more of the same. Ironically a Jack spin off, with or without Claire, would have more chance of being greenlit and more chance of success. But the spin off they put their heart behind was Wayward Sisters as it was. And I think it was absolutely correct that never mind leaving Jack out of it after his work was done in the lead up episode to help set the table, but honestly they could have cut all the middle scenes of Sam and Dean wandering in the woods and gained precious seconds with the girls and still had a functioning story with those guys. It was like some cowardly missive was sent that the show couldn’t actually go more than 10 minutes without showing a flesh and blood Winchester or the whole thing would spontaneously sizzle out of syndication and the money tree would wither on the spot. And in the mean time, we could have been having Banter with the girls. Or Claire and Kaia holding hands some more. The good stuff :P 

[satsurikusajira]

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty 03

words: 2354

Grimmjow x OC

Chapter 01

Grimmjow awoke to a dull throb in his shoulder. He tried to rub his face with his hands, but only one touched his head. Then the memories came rushing back. Tosen cutting off his arm and how he'd opened a garganta to the World of the Living and found himself on Lora's balcony. He looked down at himself. Lifting the covers, he saw his stump was bandaged. It still smelled of medicine.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" A soft voice startled him and he snapped his head around to see Lora sitting at her kitchen table sipping at a cup of tea. He groaned as he sat up and scowled at his situation in general. "Easy…" She stood and approached him, ignoring his growl as the back of her hand touched his forehead. "Good, you're not feverish. Are you hungry?" Grimmjow looked up at her. "Come on, talk to me, Kitten." Her hand drifted into his hair to push it away from his face.

"My name's Grimmjow." He growled at her nickname.

"Okay, Grimmjow, tell me how you feel." She smiled down at him and dropped her hand. Why did she stop? It had felt so good. Grimmjow's body moved before his mind could catch up to what he was doing. He bowed and leaned forward, pressing the top of his head to her stomach. She chuckled and rested both her hands on his head, fingers combing through his hair. "There…" Her voice was soothing. Running her fingers down his neck and onto his shoulders, she checked the bandages. Satisfied, she returned to lightly scratching her nails on his scalp.

Grimmjow was scowling at her socked feet, his lips pulled back in complete disgust at his own behaviour, but he couldn't stop the purr rumbling from his chest as her fingers touched him in a way he would never have thought anyone would ever want to touch him. His eyes were heavy, his body relaxing. Her hands steadied his shoulders when he started to lean sideways.

"Don't fall asleep. You have to eat something." She stepped away from him. "Come on." He allowed her to pull him from the sofa and rest her hand on his chest. He was steady, so she let go of him and turned, leading him back to the kitchen. He sat at the table and watched her move around, humming softly. Soon, a bowl of rice with eggs and a piece of roasted fish was on the table. He went for the fish first, unceremoniously stuffing it in his mouth and barely chewing. His eyes followed her as she sat and poured them both tea.

"Aren't you gonna ask me what happened?" He finally spoke after swallowing.

"No." She looked at him. "But if you want to tell me, I'll listen."

He just grunted as he finally picked up his chopsticks and started on the rice. It was tasty, but the fish had been better.

"Why are you helping me?" He asked her. He would flip the table, one armed and all, if she said she pitied him.

"Because no one deserves to go through whatever it is that made you so hostile and afraid of affection."

"I'm not afraid of anything!" He slammed his fist on the table.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you were." Lora surprisingly kept her composure. "What I meant, is that you deserve to feel safe and relaxed."

Grimmjow blinked. That concept was completely foreign to him. He had to be alert at all times. He's the King, and the King is in constant danger. Lora could see he wasn't taking her words very well, so she decided to drop it when he changed the subject.

"Where's that ugly cat of yours?" He looked around.

"Hemingway's out for a bit of fresh air." Lora sipped at her tea. "Do you want more fish?" She noticed he had pushed the rice and eggs aside. Grimmjow looked at the empty plate where the piece of meat had been, then back at her. She wordlessly took the plate and put a larger piece on it, placing it back in front of him. Grimmjow immediately started eating it. "You don't look starved. I'm glad my cooking pleases you so much." Lora giggled. Grimmjow froze. He never felt the need to eat human food, as an Espada, he survived on reishi. This was his panther side taking over. It always did when he was in danger, or in this case, injured. Licking his lips, he put the chopsticks down.

"It's good." This was the closest thing to a 'thank you' he would allow past his lips.

"You're welcome." She seemed to understand. "Do you need to leave now, or can I check your bandages first?"

"I'm fine, woman." Grimmjow stood and made his way to the balcony. Lora just sipped at her tea, pretending not to notice him hesitate at the glass door.

---

It had been weeks since his last visit. Aizen had been defeated, and Hueco Mundo was being ruled by Tier Harribel. Grimmjow was restless, pacing his quarters in Las Noches like a caged animal. Why was his mind wandering back to that human? He should be confronting Harribel for the throne. He was the King!

After another hour of debating with himself, he opened a garganta and stepped into the World of the Living. Her apartment was empty, aside from the cat asleep on the couch. Grimmjow ignored him and jumped down to the street to look into the bookshop. A sign said 'closed' on the door. He turned and pointed his nose into the air, singling out the distinct smell of herbs and paper. Following it, he walked for about twenty minutes until he heard her voice.

"For the last time, no!" She sounded distressed. "Just leave me alone, Theopanes." Grimmjow rounded a corner and saw her trying to walk around a man, who was blocking her way.

"We both know that's not going to happen, my dear." Grimmjow felt a growl bubble up his throat at the man's tone of endearment. "Come have dinner with me." He saw red as the man's hand wrapped around Lora's arm.

In an instant he had sonidoed to her side, pulled her into his chest and was looking down his nose at the man, teeth bared and reiatsu flaring. Something primal inside of him kept repeating 'mine, mine, MINE!'. The man startled for a moment, but a mask of indifference fell across his features a moment later.

"Oh? That's quite a Golem you have there, Lora." He sneered at Grimmjow.

"What the fuck is a Golem?" Grimmjow growled and tightened his hold around the smaller body as she tried to wiggle out of his grasp. 'mine!'

"Grimmjow, let go of me." Lora looked up at him, pushing against his chest. He loosened his hold, and she turned to walk away from the man. "Go home, Theopanes."

"Don't walk away from me, bit-AH!" His insult was interrupted by a loud snap. Looking back, Lora saw Grimmjow standing between them, holding Theopanes' arm at an odd angle. "You bastard, you broke my arm!"

"Don't touch her." Grimmjow spoke lowly. He felt something touch his back and turned his head to see Lora with an irritated look on her face.

"Let go." She dropped her hand and turned to walk away once more. "Come on." Grimmjow spared the man one last glare before dropping his arm and following Lora. The man was smarter than he looked, and did not follow them. They walked in silence, Grimmjow a little closer than necessary to Lora, his arm bumping her shoulder ever so often. "You shouldn't have done that." She finally spoke. He just scoffed at her. "Now they're going to be after you."

"Bring it on." A feral grin spread across his face. Lora just sighed and shook her head. They arrived at her shop and she unlocked the door, stepping inside. Grimmjow made to follow her, but an invisible barrier pushed against him. He looked quizzically at the door and tried again. Lora just stood and looked at him. "Let me in." He growled at her. She rose an eyebrow at his tone. He clicked his tongue and looked to the side, irritated, shoving his hands in his pockets. He would not ask again. He'd just leave.

And yet, his feet didn't move.

A moment of silence stretched between them as Lora stood and waited. He finally huffed and looked back at her, irritation written clearly on his face.

"May I come in?" He gritted through his teeth. After a moment, she turned and walked up the steps.

"Lock the door behind you." The barrier softened and he was able to pass through. He turned the key and followed her upstairs, grumbling to himself. "How's your arm?" She asked as they entered her apartment. He rolled his shoulder and let her push his jacket aside after setting a plastic bag on the kitchen table. Her fingers traced over his arm, not finding a scar or anything that betrayed his injury.

"I got it healed." He stood still, watching her hands.

"Yes, I can see that." He immediately missed the warmth on his skin as she dropped her hands and turned back to her plastic bag.

"Is that Theopanes I smell on you?" Hemingway had awoken and was hopping down from the couch.

"He followed me from the market." Lora rolled her eyes. "Grimmjow broke his arm."

"Oh, boy." Hemingway made for the window. "I'll set a perimeter." Lora opened the balcony door and thanked him, watching him leave.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you just caused me?" She turned back to the blue-haired man.

"I don't care, he shouldn't have touched you." Grimmjow frowned.

"He shouldn't have, but that's not your problem." Lora watched him grumble to himself as he paced around her apartment. She sighed and started putting her groceries away. When the silence became too irritating for her, she put on a vinyl, but the jazz wasn't as soothing as she hoped. Deciding to address the elephant in the room, she just asked: "Why?"

"Because you're mine!" Lora blinked in surprise at his outburst, before her exasperation kicked in.

"Excuse me?" Her fists went to her hips. "I don't belong to anyone, much less some stranger who popped by unannounced half a dozen times, whom I know nothing about, who bled all over my carpet, and who thinks he's entitled to-hm!" Lora's rant was interrupted by Grimmjow's lips crashing over hers. She spread her palms across his chest and pushed him away. He let her, but kept his hands on her waist. "What do you think you're doing?" Lora leaned away from him, angry and confused. She stilled as he bent down and rested his forehead on her shoulder.

"Witch." He muttered.

"Well...yes." Lora was still perplexed at his actions.

"I can't stop thinking about you." He continued, not raising his head. "I can't stop thinking about the way you smell, how your touch feels, how your voice sounds…" Grimmjow growled at himself. "How...good...you make me feel." He nearly spat out the admission.

Lora sighed in understanding and stopped pushing him away. He was still a wild animal deep down, and was probably confused at the lack of threat she posed to him. He most likely had never felt someone care for him. She remembered how hostile he had been when she had tried to comfort him.

"I'm still my own person, and I don't belong to anyone." She spoke calmly now. His only response was to growl and pull her closer to him. "You can't just appear out of the blue and interfere with my life." She tried reasoning with him.

"He grabbed you." Grimmjow's logic was very simple.

"So did you." Lora leaned back and coaxed his head up to look at him. "I've taken care of myself until now, what makes you think I couldn't handle myself?"

"He grabbed you." Lora sighed and shook her head. It would take more patience than she had to make him understand the situation. She let go of his face and made to step away, but he stepped with her, until her back hit the kitchen sink behind her. His expression betrayed a mix of confusion, rage and affection as he looked down at her.

"Grimmjow what do you want?" She asked.

"You." He frowned. Wasn't it obvious?

"And how is that going to work?" Lora grabbed his wrists and tried to make him let go of her, but he just pressed his body closer. She didn't feel threatened, but her already strained patience was wearing thin. "Some kind of hostage situation?"

Grimmjow was reminded of the orange-haired woman Aizen had kidnapped and how she seemed to deflate a little every day she was kept in Las Noches. He didn't want that. He wanted Lora to want him as much as he wanted her, even though he didn't understand why he was feeling this way. He stepped back and let her put some space between them.

"Theopanes has his crows around the house, but I set a ward." Hemingway entered through the balcony door.

"Thank you." Lora smiled at him. Grimmjow frowned. Why wasn't she smiling at him? How could he make her smile at him like that? He turned and left out the balcony door without another word.

---

It had been three days since he had last seen her. Grimmjow had spent them patrolling around her house, noticing patterns in the flight of birds on the first day, shooting them down with balas. On the second day, the man, Theo-something-or-other had approached the bookshop, but Grimmjow had dropped from the roof and just growled at him, watching the coward scamper away. The third day was eerily quiet, and the night brought the coward back with two other men and a woman. They emanated a dangerous aura, but so did Grimmjow. He had made quick work of them, barely restraining himself from killing anyone. They limped back to wherever they came from, beaten and bloody.

[cookiesandkatanas]

I've always had Big Thoughts about Smith and how being/presenting male was a huge detriment to the whole "picking up vulnerable people and drowning them" thing. People are gonna be suspicious of a 6 foot guy trying to get you in his car.

So here are some of my headcanons that answer this issue

a kelpie's true form is a horse adjacent creature. you know, the creepy waterlogged #fae horses.

young kelpies first learn glamours for the anatomically similar horse, but the ability to shape reality in relation to themselves is powerful, as it is in most water fae. Theyll soon be able to shift their entire physical form, not just the perception of it. Of course, the next most natural form is a horse. And to interact with humans beyond hunting, well, you gotta look like a human.

Any glamour or form a kelpie takes is basically a costume, the individual is *choosing* how to look

SHAPESHIFTERS ARE ALWAYS NONBINARY

(personal aside, I've been off T for a while and god I feel like a completely different PERSON so) different bodies literally affect Smith's personality, to an extent.

femme!Alex loves the mind games. She prefers to toy with people, both for her own amusement, and if they're prey, well, their emotional high of fear is one more tasty thing she gets to munch on when she finally drowns them. Her favorite food is emotional energy.

femme!Alex pros: seeks out people already leading chaotic lives, and her clean drownings mean she can usually make a pretty penny selling a body nobody will even be looking for for a few days.

Trott is convinced since shes always feeding off all that riled up emotional energy, shes more riled up and emotional. He swears shes more impulsive, more sexual.

masc!Smith lives for the pleasures of the flesh. food and fucking, and for him, they're one and the same. he wouldnt be able to tell you which he liked more, feeding on the sexual energy before the drowning, or the flesh and blood he ate afterwards

masc!Smith pros: usually content with smashing stuff/someone up, no patience or interest in making up and playing out drawn out political games for fun. Intimidating presence. More in tune with the water (the local water fae hate when they're Alex, she always says she'll visit but she NEVER does >:c

Trott doesnt like how Smith always runs hot, temper or sex drive or energy.

History:

True name: Alsmiffy. Got to the city in early 1900s, before cars are common. They had to get a job to pay for a place to live, and only men could do that, so human male form it was. Kelpies dont really have a concept of gender, so Alsmiffy doesnt mind their pronouns matching their current form. In the evenings it was still easy to hunt down by the river as a horse.

By the 40s horses had nearly disappeared from the city, and no one was approaching wild ones anymore. Smith started working as a taxi chauffeur, driving people about, drowning a few every so often.

In the 60s they started moving towards the hunting style of present day, using the lure of sex to draw in prey. This is when they started presenting as female more regularly.

Of course, Trott gets fed up with all the shit Alsmiffy pulls. But always wrongly blames it on their form. If Alex is impulsive and sexual, and Smith is hot headed and hot blooded, maybe the issue isnt the body, it's the person, lmao.

As Alsmiffy becomes more comfortable male and female presenting, they spend longer amounts of time in one body or the other. Trott finds some reason or other to ask them to change ("hey can you seduce ___?" or "hey can you be extra muscle at ___?") and they're usually too indifferent to shift back.

As this goes on, Alsmiffy is cultivating two different social circles worth of court favor, but only one at a time, and usually only one for weeks at a time. The sharper and more well connected people put together that the siblings manage some other affairs out of the city, and whatever it is cant be left alone for very long, because one or the other is always out there. Rumors fly wildly about what it may be.

The Troffy Feels

In present day, Alsmiffy has started to realize Trott resents both of their regular human bodies. Instead of addressing the issue of Alsmiffy leaving chaos behind them, Trott postpones the issue again and again by derailing Alsmiffy's focus whenever their collateral damage gets too much. Trott's resentment only grows because the issue keeps coming up, and Alsmiffy just gets increasingly aggressive requests to "go get your 'brother/sister'"

Of course, because its Alsmiffy, this is the gravest of insults and must be responded to as a challenge. (You dont like me now? Oh you'll see how bad I can be.) As time wears on, they start to take it more and more personally, and it becomes the spectre hanging over their relationship.

Ross, who joined them in 60s-80s (not sure exactly when yet) never saw their relationship any other way, and has no other reference for relationships, tries his best to talk them down individually. It doesnt always work, and he usually clears out when they're all together, to give them some time and space to talk things out. (Trott and Alsmiffy both resent the other for always escalating arguments to the point where Ross wont even be in the same room as them)

Despite it all, Trott and Alex have never touched each others' keys/skin. All three of them tell themselves that means they're okay, they wouldnt cross that line so they still respect each other, still love each other. On the worst days that feels like the only assurance they have.

__________________________________________________________________________________

All these headcanons are being refined thanks to my ongoing Urban Shadows game, a ttrpg made by Magpie Games, run on Powered by the Apocalypse.

It is such a great game, even if you're not adapting it to run umy, lmao. The team is working on 2nd edition out later this year, but a quick start version is out now and I'm p sure it's free on drivethruRPG

[addisonacres]

The Venom/9-1-1 crossover that no one asked for.

I’m currently working on a Venom/9-1-1 crossover. I’ve only just started but I have the whole thing outlined (and I never do that, but I was so excited at this concept that I had to get it all down). If there’s anyone who might be interested in such a fic, here’s a sneak peek 🧡 

Symbiotic by scarletmanuka

Eddie Brock sat in his rental car, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. He’d been parked across and just a little down from the fire station for the better part of half an hour, waiting for the shift change. He studied the large building, with the massive roller doors that always remained open so the trucks could leave immediately. Even though it wasn’t even 8am as yet, the station was a bustle of activity. One ladder truck and an ambulance had recently headed off to an incident and the other two trucks were being cleaned and stocked. On the faint breeze, Eddie could hear laughter and banter, the men and women of the 118 jovial as their 24 hour shift came to an end.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered.

“He will show,” Venom rumbled. “Patience, Eddie.”

“I just want to stop this fucker before he hurts someone else.”

“So do I.”

Eddie snorted. “You just want to eat his head.”

“I can want both,” Venom protested, sounding offended.

“Yeah, that’s true, isn’t it? You’ve come a long way in the years we’ve been together.”

“I guess you’ve rubbed off on me.”

“In more ways than one,” Eddie said, waggling his eyebrows.

“You are a juvenile.”

“But you still love me.”

“Always.”

Cars began to pull into the lot attached to the side of the station and Eddie played with his phone whilst keeping one eye on them, making sure that any casual glances his way would show nothing more than someone looking up an address. Two pickup trucks pulled in, one shiny and new, the other a little worse for wear and Eddie watched the two men get out and greet each other. One had dark hair, looked to be of Latino descent, and grinned at the other man with his whole face. Eddie flipped through his notes and figured that this must be Edmundo Diaz. The man with him was tall, with sandy blonde hair. and a birthmark above one eye. This was the one that Eddie had flagged as the potential target. He’d keep an eye on Evan Buckley.

After Diaz and Buckley had gone inside another pick-up truck pulled into the lot. It was large but not the biggest. It was clean but not shiny. It was a gun metal grey and didn't have fancy wheel rims. It was completely and utterly nondescript. “Here’s our man,” Eddie whispered.

They watched him get out of the truck and stand, looking at the station for a moment. He was tall, taller than Buckley, and more defined than Diaz. His tight t-shirt rippled as his muscles moved beneath the fabric and his jeans bulged around his thighs. He had dark hair and a chiseled jaw and Eddie knew that up close he would see that he had bright green eyes. 

“He looks tasty,” Venom commented.

He knew that Vee was talking about the brains inside his skull but Eddie saw it in a different light. Carl Delaware was ridiculously good looking and he made heads turn wherever he went. He was a natural charmer and he seemed to have no problem at all in making people feel comfortable around him. He drew them in, and made them feel at ease.

Then he’d kidnap them, torture them for months on end, kill them and dump the bodies in the woods.

Delaware had a preference for first responders, mostly firefighters. He also had a very specific victim. They were always male; they were all tall and strong; they were always blonde; and they always had some sort of defining feature. 

Eddie knew in his very soul that Carl Delaware would kill again and was 99% certain that Evan Buckley was going to be his next target.He was also certain that he was going to stop him.

“We, Eddie,” Vee rumbled. “We are going to stop him.”

[spockandawe]

So, my heart keeps circling and circling back to The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, and I was idly prodding at why that is, even more than the other mxtx stories, and then I thought to myself, ‘why not ramble into the internet abyss instead of just in your own head?’ And so here we are.

I love this story so much, seriously. It was maybe the most difficult of the three novels for me to begin, because the translation editing is definitely rougher than mdzs and tgcf, and I think the story itself assumes that readers are kind of familiar with transmigration concepts (teal deer, person from real world reads novel, involuntarily is pulled into novel, often(?) as one of the established characters, lives out the-novel-plot-but-different).

But once I got past like, that first chapter? MAN. I was so hooked. 

I think the first thing that really stands out to me is that Binghe as a love interest is...I’m not sure I want to say he’s more “flawed” than the other mxtx love interests, but that’s the best word I’m finding right now. The wangxian ship is mostly in tune with each other in the present, despite a few lingering misunderstandings. And the hualian ship, like, hua cheng rolls up like ‘heyy what up i would do anything you asked of me’ and xie lian was like ‘you. i like you a lottle.’ and their in-book development is mostly about bringing xie lian up to speed on the depth of their history together.

But Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe! The original canon Binghe is specifically a blackened hero, who is casually cruel and manipulative, and has collected up a massive harem of pretty ladies to be his wives and concubines. Pretty much the last straw in that blackening is that his abusive teacher (who he still desperately wanted the approval of) found out he was half demon (also news to luo binghe) and kicked him into the abyss where he had a miserable few years having his demon blood awakened. Later, he came back to the human realm, much stronger and angrier than when he left, and his morally questionable adventures involved de-limbing his old teacher, cutting out his tongue, and keeping him alive for years.

Shen Yuan is a modern-day human bean who has been hate-reading the webnovel of this story, where he can see a lot of interesting potential in the story, but is massively frustrated by the things the author has chosen to do with it. It is a Significant shock to his system when he wakes up inside the story, in the body of Shen Qingqiu. After Luo Binghe has already been his student for some time. Also, there’s a System that’s policing whether or not he acts in-character as Shen Qingqiu, and he’s going to get punished if his points drop below a certain threshold. He gets more freedom to act as the story progresses, but at first he has to do things like argue with the System about why he should be allowed to give medicine to Luo Binghe after he gets beat up (it will shame their sect if outsiders see him with a bruised face). And on the one hand, he’s trying DESPERATELY to avoid a future where he gets mutilated and tortured by his student, but... he is absolutely a massive softy who takes no time at all to start ADORING this kid and being super proud of everything he does. He won’t admit that, even in his own pov, and he has a very, very reserved external manner, but he’s so soft on the inside.

(ps why did using fans as conversational props stop being a thing. maybe sometimes i don’t WANT my face hanging out in public, maybe sometimes it’s extra fun to hide your expression.)

And this makes for a fascinating dynamic, because this new Shen Qingqiu 1) adores Luo Binghe, 2) is terrified of Luo Binghe.

At first, when Luo Binghe is still a teenager, it’s easier to land on the side of just adoring him. The original canon character was a sweet, sweet kid all on his own. And Luo Binghe is still an extremely good boy when this novel starts, even though he’s being mistreated by his teacher and most of his fellow disciples. But when Shen Qingqiu starts giving him support and positive reinforcement, oh my god, he BLOOMS. 

But Shen Qingqiu is from outside the novel, and he knows where this is headed eventually. And at the point where the original character shoved Luo Binghe into the abyss for a couple years of misery, the new Shen Qingqiu thinks he’s in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, and... reluctantly does the same thing.

So here’s the trouble. Luo Binghe is... needy. He’s a needy, needy boy. He loves very hard and cares about his people (person) a lot, but he is also clingy as heck, jealous, and has MASSIVE abandonment issues. Getting this treatment from his favorite person in the entire universe is... not ideal. Having it happen when he’s just found out he’s half demon is even less ideal, especially when the framing makes it look like he’s being rejected because of What He Is, not something he has any power to change. And it ties back into to his oldest, most painful insecurities. His name literally means ‘lowered into the icy river’, because that’s what his birth mother did with him. 

So when he comes back to the human realm, he’s not as blackened as he was in canon, and doesn’t have a grudge of the same magnitude as the original Luo Binghe. But the person he loves most in the world hurt him very, very badly, and he :) has :) some :) questions :))))))))))))))

And this is the point where every time Luo Binghe breathes, Shen Qingqiu goes WAUGHHHH

Which is so TASTY, honestly! And the escalation of hurt and mistrust is such a delicious feedback loop! I love a good supportive relationship, but I live for two people who care about each other inadvertently inflicting massive wounds on each other’s hearts.

I don’t want to go into describing the later parts of the plot, because that seems like such a waste, but I feel like transmigration stories are the MOST tasty if having prior knowledge of a novel’s plot makes the leads act as dumbasses in all kinds of new and exciting ways. Which definitely, definitely applies here.

And there are all kinds of DELICIOUS side relationships, which weren’t there in the original canon, and that Shen Qingqiu accidentally discovers/uncovers while he’s fumbling around trying to dodge his canon fate. Like, early in the book, Shen Qingqiu is supposed to kill one of his peers in the sect. The guy was suffering from a qi deviation and the original Shen Qingqiu was like ‘look, he was out of control, and I didn’t want to kill him, but it was him or me.’ Everyone was skeptical, but they didn’t have any evidence to contradict him. This character was the brother of one of Luo Binghe’s eventual wives, so it was pretty much just another bonus reason to hate his shizun once he turned against him.

The new Shen Qingqiu is like ‘okay, so this Liu Qingge is supposed to be strong. Maybe if I save his life he’ll protect me from Luo Binghe?’ And it changes SO MUCH! And Shen Qingqiu is SO DUMB! He’s like ‘wow, liu qingge really hates me, huh.’ And Liu Qingge is like ‘WHY ARE YOU BEING NICE. IT’S WEIRD. ARE YOU REALLY STILL YOURSELF?’ And then later there are spoilery developments, but there’s this act of devotion that moves me so much. (five years!!!!!!!!!!)

And I don’t want to undersell the intense emotions these characters are so frequently feeling in this story, but they are also. so dumb. so frequently, frequently dumb. and I live for it.

Like, I just got past the part in the novel where Shen Qingqiu sees Luo Binghe and Liu Mingyan having their first conversation. Liu Mingyan is a legendary beauty (so beautiful she wears a veil, because otherwise her beauty is just too distracting) and eventually becomes one of Luo Binghe’s favorite wives. So Shen Qingqiu (who hates the original novel, but also sure has a lot of passion for it and remembers a lot of the details, considering how much he theoretically hates it) is like ‘OH, HOT DAMN. MY OTP’S FIRST CONVERSATION. I WANNA SEE HOW THIS GOES.’

And what happens is that Luo Binghe gets so massively jealous. We get a bit of his pov, where almost all of his thoughts are ‘WHY IS SHIZUN STILL LOOKING AT HER?? IT’S NOT LIKE YOU CAN SEE MUCH PAST THE VEIL ANYWAYS. AND ANYWAYS, I’M PRETTIER???????????????’ And finally Luo Binghe goes off out of sight with her so shizun can’t watch her anymore, and Shen Qingqiu is like ‘ah.... alas....... of course the protagonist and his lady get privacy for such an important scene..............’

They are so dumb, guys. They care so much, and they ache so much over each other, and they are so dumb. And the supporting cast isn’t much smarter. Even the smart ones have the dumb ones inflicted on them.

In the extras, at one point demon king Luo Binghe is addressing his main retainers, and he’s like ‘if... hypothetically..... two people’s hearts were out of alignment with each other........ how would u fix that.......... hypothetically..............’ And his poor retainers are like

But I really, really think that the protagonist being afraid of the love interest is a really key point for me, personally. And then it’s extra my favorite, because of 1) him having a good fucking reason to be afraid, and 2) his love interest having no goddamn clue. It makes for such a good blend of humor and sincere pathos. I’m weak to dumbasses-in-love as a dynamic, but it can be hard to have something so lighthearted while also working in painful emotional depths. The premise for this story is hard to replicate, and I’m kind of drawing a blank on anything that I’ve read that measures up to it, and the plot REALLY makes the use of some incredible foundations.

Anyways, thank you for coming to my ted talk, this book is ridiculous and i love it, and it’s also the shortest and most linear of mxtx’s books, and i highly recommend it to everyone.

[legobiwan]

15, 17, 19 for Obi wan if you’re still doing that

Oh WOW anon, these are some tasty ones

15) What it takes to make them cry

I think Obi-wan has to be at his absolute breaking point in order to cry. 

Not that he doesn’t feel, he feels intensely, is probably highly empathetic in some ways (I’ve mentioned this before but he is a master Negotiator. And to be a master negotiator one has to a) be able to see situations from another’s perspective and anticipate their emotions (empathy) and b) be able to manipulate that situation and predict the outcomes (which is a whole other side to Obi-wan’s personality that is not germane to this question, yet it is fascinating.))

Anyway, we see this in canon. Obi-wan only cries or looks to be on the verge of crying on three distinct occasions. 1) when Qui-gon is killed 2) when Satine is killed 3) when Anakin is burning alive

Each time, Obi-wan is pushed to his absolute limit. (And in two out of the three, he strays reeeaaaallly close to the Dark Side. Jury’s out on Obi-wan’s internal monologue during the duel on Mustafar - I tend to believe that was more despair than anger, although certainly Obes would get to the anger part later on Tatooine.)

Obi-wan buries his emotions, I mean he just practically suffocates them, stuffs them down somewhere behind the shadow of an internal organ or three and he spends so much effort being in control, has been for years (he had to in order to train Anakin. It was the only way he would survive.) So if that well-honed control breaks, you know it’s something serious so Obi-wan crying means something massive has just gone down.

(And, if he’s close to crying, it means he’s close to losing control of his emotions, meaning he’s close to losing control, meaning he could use that hurt, that anger, well....someone I know might be interested in pushing that limit. *coughdookucough*)

17) Regrets

Do you have an hour? Or a hundred?

So I would like to frame this response by comparing Qui-gon and Obi-wan. 

Qui-gon, by and large, doesn’t have major, debilitating regrets. He believes the Force is guiding him, that the Force has the answers, and that the Force personally relays these answers to Qui-gon (which is a whole other issue for another response). If everything is the will of the Force, it’s difficult to regret your actions because everything, in Qui-gon’s view, happens for a greater reason. (yeah I know. Qui-gon is kiinda that person. Not that he doesn’t believe in personal responsibility, but he kind of woo-woos it when it comes to himself.)

Obi-wan, on the other hand, believes in the Force as a guide, trusts in the Force. But at no point am I ever led to believe that he thinks the Force is giving him direct messages. (and it gets into the nitty-gritty of the concept of free will as it relates to the Force and religion in general, I suppose, and this is not the time nor place to really address that topic, but this is what we’re dealing with here.) Obi-wan makes a conscious choice to train Anakin, to believe in the prophecy, to keep in the Light despite everything. Frankly, it’s one of the more amazing aspects of his character in that he chooses to stay good even when everything in his world crashes around him, and he knows he holds a not-insignificant amount of responsibility in the way those events unfolded.

So all this is to say yes, Obi-wan has Regrets. Capital R regrets, especially when he gets to Tatooine and he has the time and space to process the previous 4-5 years. (And oh boi oh boi the Kenobi series had damn well better that delicious slice of angst aka Ewan McGregor crying in the desert for 8 episodes or whatever the hell it’s going to be.) 

Because when you make a choice (as opposed to convincing yourself you are following the will of something, which is a choice in and of itself but couched in a way that avoids some degree of responsibility), you always leave yourself open to regret. 

19) People they’ve hurt or indirectly killed, and how it affected them

Uh....yikes. So I’m pretty certain Obi-wan blames himself for Qui-gon’s death (as much as he blames Qui-gon for barrelling ahead without him, as much as he blames Maul for being a bastard). Which is to say, he becomes the best damn defensive swordsman the Jedi have ever seen in response (not to mention a crack at jar’kai and other forms which he doesn’t use because going on the offensive like is too similar to Naboo and he can’t relive that again.)

Of course, he thinks about all the innocents in the war he wasn’t quick enough, smart enough, skilled enough to save. The clone who dies under his command (his decisions, his words, dripping in the blood of others.) 

And then you no longer wonder why Obi-wan pushes himself so hard, tries to be the model Jedi despite everything. 

And then there’s Mustafar. 

What was the point of it all? If all his efforts were for naught all those years, Palpatine whispering poison into Anakin’s ear from the very beginning and Obi-wan could do nothing about it, couldn’t influence Anakin one inch closer to the. Light. Maybe if he had stood up for Ahsoka, if he had turned down the Rako Hardeen mission, if, if, if...

I suppose this gets into regrets, but it also gets into what I believe is a very dark period of Obi-wan’s life on Tatooint (come on Disney, give me what I fucking want which is Obi-wan plastered at a cantina while watching the Galactic news and trying to find meaning in his life after everything.)

Anyway, yeah. This could be a thirty-page answer in itself, but I think you get the idea :)

[dailyaudiobible]

06/22/2020 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 3:1-4:17, Acts 14:8-28, Psalms 140:1-13, Proverbs 17:22

Today is the 22nd the day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you today as we move into our time together around the Global Campfire and around the Scriptures. We’re in the book of second Kings. We haven’t been there long but we’re moving into the book of second Kings. And we spent a good…good-ish amount of time in the northern kingdom of Israel and their kings as well as the prophet…prophets Elijah and Elisha and we’ll continue with that. We’ll continue in the north and we’ll continue with the prophetic voice of Elisha today. Second Kings chapter 3 verse 1 through 4 verse 17.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we are on mission with the apostle Paul at this point in the book of Acts and they move through a city called Lystra and they preach and there is a healing. People witness this. They start freaking out and they decide that Paul and his companion Barnabas at this point, that they are gods that have come down in human form and they need to be worshiped. And, so, they're doing everything that they can, and they decide that Barnabas is actually Zeus and Paul is Hermes. And, so, there…there happens to be a temple to Zeus. So, they’re like going to the priest and…and saying “hey. Zeus is in town. Like he’s showed up in town in human form.” And, so, they’re bringing bulls out. They’re gonna do these sacrifices to the…to Paul and Barnabas. And, of course, Paul and Barnabas are like trying to stop everybody and are like, “hang on a second. We’re just humans like you. We’ve come here to tell you about the living God.” And, so, they begin to share the gospel, but the people still are convinced that they’re Zeus and Hermes. And, so, there like still trying to do the sacrifices until…until some Jewish people from nearby cities come in and they know who Paul is. And. so, they start to turn the crowd. And the next thing we know, Paul is stoned and left for dead. That…that’s the story of the early church. Like these are the stories of the early church. This is how things came to be. And, so, Paul went from being a God to being stoned to death and left for dead, as it appears, on the same day, which shows you a bit of the mob mentality at work, like how quickly people can be pulled together in one direction, even with a complete false word, a false story or declaration. People come around the stores. And, so, that's what happened. At first, they are absolutely convinced that the gods are among them, until the seeds of this story from the Jewish people spread through the crowd which turns the crowd murderous. That's not a new concept. Obviously, it’s an old concept because we’re reading it out of the Bible. So, we’re reading a story that’s a couple thousand years old. But this kind of behavior has always been going on. And it's interesting. On the one level it's interesting how compelling a narrative can be, like how concrete some sort of narrative can be when it pulls people together and ushers them to move in the same direction for a period of time. That can be for great good and for great evil. Often, it's for great evil, especially when there’s a mob involved like this. And we’ve seen these kinds of things in our lifetimes, but that…it's not new. Like this has always been happening. We have to admit that this is not unlike the mob mentality that ultimately condemned Jesus to the cross. So, we can see some pretty significantly negative things can happen when people are swept together without the whole story. And we have to look into our own lives at the way that we get swept into things the same way. And at times we get swept into things against our brothers and sisters in the Lord and people's lives get damaged or destroyed in the process.

This is essentially the words coming out of the Psalms today. So, going back even further, way further than the book of Acts. “Those who surround me proudly rear their heads. May the mischief of their lips engulf them. May burning coals fall on the. May they be thrown into the fire into miry pits never to rise. May slanderers not be established in the land. May disaster hunt down the violent. I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright live in your presence.” It’s like this kind of thing has always been going on, causing at minimum mischief and maximum total destruction to the lives of people in their path. It’s part of the Old Testament story. It’s part of the New Testament story. It’s part of the early church story. It’s still part of the church story. And we have to watch ourselves because it's really, really easy to get swept up into worshiping God for what He's doing through someone and then trying to destroy that someone because it turns out they’re a human being after all and not God. So there are times that we just…we need to keep our eyes on our own lives and the path that we are walking, and not get swept into someone else's story that's getting stirred up. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves, “yeah, that might be tasty to get into, but is that my battle? Is that even something I have anything to do with whatsoever? Am I getting involved to be seen here? Like, what's going on? Am I being invited to be an agent of the good to be Jesus in this situation or is it that I simply want my opinion expressed? What good can come from my involvement? These are good questions for the times that we are in and the times that we are going into. And as we navigate, may we remember the proverb today; “a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Let's not be agents dispensing crushing blows to people's lives. Instead, let's hear the first part of the proverb; “a cheerful heart is good medicine.” So, we can take that on board in our own lives and say, “okay. Whatever it takes I've got to find a way to maintain a cheerful heart. That’s medicine for me. But I also need to spread, like in every way that I can I need to promote a cheerful heart so that we all might experience this good medicine instead of being swept up into things that will only crush people and eventually crush us.

Prayer:

Father, we come into that and consider that. And it brings up all kinds of different scenarios and situations that we've experienced in our lives, times that we’ve hurt people, times that we've been crushed, times that even with our own brothers and sisters we’ve been at odds and swept into things we had no business being involved in and people got hurt. And this was…this was never Your way for us. So, Holy Spirit come and show us what it looks like to maintain a cheerful heart and made it become good medicine in our souls. And as we are transformed may that spill out into the world so that we aren’t being swept into anything, we aren’t crushing anybody. Rather, we are about the business of restoring things. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus. we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There's a link on the homepage. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your partnership as we move into the summertime. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app which is little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning everybody. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. Yesterday was a very upsetting day for us. Some of you will know from the Friend’s page. Our little ginger cat Loki went missing. He’d been __ too so where really concerned as the day and night was ticking on. He’d been gone nearly 20 hours and is very unlike Loki. I cried out to the Lord as we do, and I was listening to worship and they were singing about trust. And I said to the Lord, “I trust you Lord.” I didn’t have an outcome in my mind or in my heart, but I simply said I will trust you. It wasn’t long after that declaration that Peter went out searching again and little Loki appeared very thin, quite unwell. He’s just gone to the vet. But he was home. I’m so thankful to God. What’s precious to us is precious to Him. His love is…it just melts me. His care for us. The little things in life with all that’s going on in the world He was concerned enough about my heartbreaking over the…the gift of a pet he gave to me. And His love abounded towards us. Thank you so much. This is God’s Smile here sending my love and drying my eyes. Bye-bye everybody.

Hello this is Gloria from Uganda here in __. I’m really really very grateful for this Daily Audio Bible app and __ podcast. And I’m really really really very grateful because I had desire to study a Bible plan at the start of the year but I couldn’t go with the flow but I’m very excited and I’m really enjoying hope to review all the previous messages. I’m really really blessed thank you very much Brian. Thank you very much China. We…we love you. We…we ask you to pray for us. The situation and the pandemic with most of the people all around. And the closest family to me and all unemployed right now and it puts me in a state whereby I have to look after my family of 12 people. My mom and my dad are not working, and I really really puts me in a very very very difficult position right now. But I trust God and with your messages I believe my faith is going to rise higher and I’m gonna…I’m gonna…I’m gonna go through this __ first and with your messages I believe I will…I will move forward I will believe and I will grow. Thank you very much. We do really really appreciate it and ask you to pray for us. My job __ business is really slow, and I pray that our business visions and people came back __ because many of our staff were laid off because of the pandemic. And I also pray to get an increase in salary because I got a promotion, but __ an increase in salary. I need to have a family of 12 people behind me. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Pam from Shasta County California and I am calling in for Patricia in New Orleans. And Patricia, I just want to pray for you. Heavenly Father thank You so much for Your goodness and Your mercy and Your love and thank You for how much You love Patricia. Thank You for her heart, thank You for her passion, thank You for her strength. Father I just pray in Jesus name right now that You would ease her pain Father. I pray for relief. I pray for healing in Jesus’ name that You would just pour Your healing out over her and that she would get immediate relief from this pain. Father, thank You for who she is Lord and who You are in her life. Father thank You that You are so close to her. I pray that she has people around her that are loving her and are helping her Father and are praying for her. And help us all to remember pray for her and everyone here and we thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your mercy. And thank You for Your healing in Jesus’ name.

[singing starts] Lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you be gracious to you. Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. May his favor be upon you for a thousand generations your family your children their children their children. May His presence come before you and behind you and beside you all around you and within you he is with you he is with you. In the morning in the evening in the coming and the going in your weeping and rejoicing he is for you he is for you. He’s for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is. [singing ends] Just a sweet reminder DAB family. This is Abba’s Grace and He shines. Amen. Amen!

This is Vickie calling from Southern Oregon and I have been listening now for a few months and really enjoying reading Brian and I’m also enjoying the prayer community. Thank you so much. I’ve been struggling trying to call and not having the courage to do that. My son is an adult and having problems. He’s severely mentally ill and he’s also strung out on drugs. And I recently moved him out to Oregon trying to save his life and now I’m feeling overwhelmed and not really knowing how to help and it’s disrupting my life and, you know, risking my career and my home. So, I could use some prayer. His name is Eddie. Thank you.

Hi this is Brooke Right from Omaha Nebraska. I just want to pray for my mom because my grandma who came to take care of everybody, she…I don’t remember how long ago…is leaving tomorrow afternoon and my mom just had a major surgery taking out her…in which she had to take out her womb. A womb is a place with the babies come. So, it was very painful. She has a lot ohwees. She has to go on a walk twice a day which is kinda good for my dog Ella which I would show you but this is a recording not a video. And, well, just want to pray for my mom, my brothers and my dad because he’s in masters. Probably have a lot of more….no… wait…just quite a few maybe five which is…we count it quite a few…more…like five more chores a day because we have a garden that has like snow peas and tons of other things. So, yeah, alright I don’t have much longer on this call so I’m just gonna leave. Bye. Brooke Right.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is God’s Light out in Portland Oregon, and it’s been some time. I’m responding from Ben in Columbus who called back in…maybe the 12th of June or probably even before that. His message was there on the 12th of June and I…I believe he was speaking to me and I was so taken aback that I needed to allow a couple callers in and hear a couple more prayer request just to confirm that he was speaking to me. I have tried to submit prayer requests and haven’t…and having…and fallen short and felt silly for doing it. I’ve really…I’m in a bad spot right now financially, physically, mentally, spiritually. Everything’s under attack and I have lost everything. I’ve lost my home, my children, my ex-wife. I’m soon to have another child, which I’m ecstatic about. So, the grieving process comes and goes with excitement but…but for the most part this grief and humiliation is following me. And if you could pray for me and I would…I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been following the Daily Audio Bible since 2011 pretty much every day and I’m just so thankful for this community and thankful for you as my family. I’m very thankful to have you. Please stay strong and I pray for all of you.

[eddycurrents]

Hellboy & The BPRD: 1954 - “Black Sun”

Story: Mike Mignola & Chris Roberson | Art: Stephen Green | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1954 - Black Sun #1-2 | September - October 2016

Collected in Hellboy & The BPRD: 1954

Plot Summary:

Hellboy goes off to the Arctic to investigate a bizarre cryptozoological attack, finds something stranger, and winds up facing a hidden force of Nazis doing more strange occult experiments.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything found in the issues or collections.)

pg. 1 - I suppose it never really dawned on me, but extreme climates don’t really seem to bother Hellboy all too much. It makes his remark about the “nicest places” all the more funny.

pg. 2 - It’s also interesting at this point that Hellboy is still considered an urban legend in some parts. Especially considering that he was a celebrity amongst the kids in Beyond the Fences.

pg. 3 - Great reaction here from the cursory mention of the “sightings”. Although set at the opposite end of the Earth, set in the Arctic it gives the same feeling as The Thing.

pg. 4 - Racism is alive and well at this research centre. 

pg. 5 - The negative space silhouette that Stephen Green uses for the creature is impressive. While it emphasizes the alien nature of whatever it was that attacked the team, the absence of details also helps play up that they’ve no clue as to what it was that attacked them.

pg. 6 - It’s funny that some of them just want to write it off as a polar bear, but others are adamant that it was something unnatural. Woodrow’s enthusiasm is wonderful. If ill-timed.

pg. 7 - It’s kind of funny that the guy with the weather bureau is the only one willing to go out and help Hellboy and Woodrow.

pg. 8 - Woodrow hoping that it’s a yeti is hilarious.

pg. 9 - Especially considering that Hellboy thinks it’s another mutated animal. Hellboy may still be wet behind the ears himself, but he’s usually right.

pg. 10 - Great action here. I love that the creature is still kept in darkness or moving too fast to accurately be seen. Love the art here from Green and Dave Stewart.

pg. 11 - And that it does seem to be a mutated polar bear. Love the design here. Hellboy’s headbutt and the “TONK” sound effect from Clem Robins are hilarious.

pg. 12 - At least it wasn’t a monkey with a gun. It’s also good that Hellboy is using his experience to try to figure these things out.

pg. 14 - Even when it’s not what he thought it would be. Seeing what looks like a flying saucer is certainly a twist.

pg. 15 - Whoever piloted the craft looks like they also made a tasty snack to the mutated polar bear.

pg. 16 - I’m not sure this is a good idea...

pg. 18 -Yeah...

pg. 19 - I love the red shift to the colour scheme here, it makes this feel all the more dramatic before Hellboy blacks out.

pg. 21 - Even more flying saucers makes this even more interesting.

pg. 22 - Of course it’s Nazis.

pg. 24 - The approach to this swarm of Nazi soldiers is impressive. I love how Hellboy is coloured to pop against the black and grey of the soldiers and background.

pg. 26 - That’s some kind of laser beam thingy. The blue energy is also a nice contrast to the red and grey.

pg. 27 - Its nonlethal setting still looks pretty deadly.

pg. 29 - Agreed.

pg. 31 - I think it’s hilarious that Hellboy needed to goad their egos in order to get the Nazis to finally address him. It really shows as to how arrogant and ignorant this group happen to be.

pg. 32 - I love this breakdown of the various different groups that were operating in the occult corner of the Nazi regime. And how much they seemed to be at odds with one another.

I think this is an interesting way to incorporate the broader Hellboy narrative into this story, while still presenting something new.

pg. 33 - Likewise with the saucers. Since they’re found within the Earth, you’ve kind of got to wonder if they’re more Hyperborean machines, although where they come from is anyone’s guess at this point. It does further intertwine various belief systems into the syncretic approach of the Ogdru Hem.

pg. 36 - More interesting bits of existing Hellboy mythology, further connecting the vril energy and now naming the energy from the Black Goddess as being “shakti”. 

In Hinduism, Shakti is both considered the original cosmic energy and the divine female progenitor. Shaktism is one of the major branches of Hinduism revering the godhead as female, especially Adi Parashakti. I think it’s interesting here that we’re essentially making cognate the idea of the Black Goddess and Durga, one of the aspects of Adi Parashakti, rather than Kali.

pg. 37 - Also, Nazis are insane.

pg. 38 - Nazi flying saucers attacking the world is just a bizarre concept. Fits the story great, but it’s just bizarre.

pg. 40/41 - Love this double page spread. It’s absolutely hilarious how Hellboy takes down the base.

pg. 42 - I think this image is incredibly iconic. Hellboy frozen in the snow, just beautiful.

pg. 44 - I find this very interesting. It seems to fit more with the legend of the hidden Nazi base in the Antarctic, while also furthering the hollow earth idea that we’ll see later with the Hyperboreans.

Final Thoughts:

Even though this is only a few years ago, I love seeing creators who are currently killing it on their own creator-owned material (as Stephen Green is in Sea of Stars) with work in the Hellboy universe. In many cases, their first work for a major publisher with a broad audience, and seeing them shine here as well. As Green does, beautifully capturing the weirdness of the mutated polar bear and the cold, sterile nature of the Nazi experiments.

d. emerson eddy probably smells like a mutated polar bear. Give him a white coat and he probably looks like one too.

[seanhakuba]

Part 1 - To Japan

I’d known it was coming but it crept upon me real fast. Here’s what Japan and the associated travel arrangements have been like so far.

My Japanese experience started early, and this was before I had even boarded the plane. As I sat at the gate (way too early, I might add), a Japanese man sat himself at the mini grand piano situated near the entrance to the gate lounge. He played a number of songs, but most notably two core pieces Spirited Away, an incredible anime film from years ago. It was wonderful, whimsical and also about the only music I would have wanted to hear as midnight approached. I then realised two things:

1. The Japanese man was in fact a very talented young Japanese boy travelling with his mother, and;

2. I should wear my glasses more often.

I met my 10hr friend when I sat down on the plane. His name was Dante, and he was going to go work on a ski field too. The whole thing sounded a little odd, but not enough so that I think the 19 year old will end up as a victim of human trafficking. The flight was good though - I slept on and off, watched two halves of different movies and chatted to Dante. So, I would say, thanks to Japan Airlines, that I was ‘humanely trafficked’.

What I realised as I went through customs was that a vast majority of Japanese people have a more solid grasp of the English language than the vast majority of Australians, are much more likely to help, and are less likely to call you a ‘dumb cunt’.

As I attempted to pass through customs, I was ushered off to a side room. I was initially concerned that they might be getting their long rubber gloves ready, but it was actually just to sign a couple of pieces of paper and be handed my temporary residency card, so I had puckered my butt for nothing. My upcoming Yelp review will reflect my disappointment.

I was greeted at the gate by a Japanese man, which is probably about what you’d expect when arriving in Japan. He was dressed in a smart suit, which truly highlighted, in my mind, how much of a hot piece of garbage I actually was at the time. He had my name on a card ready for me, and while I’m not sure if I recognised the name or if my brain had latched onto the only non-Japanese writing it could find, but the system worked and we walked to his taxi bus.

I have to assume that my Japanese isn’t at a high enough level to allow me to read my driver’s name, as it seemed to be written in more complex lettering. I also have to assume that his name is not ‘Takushi’ which is Japanese for ‘sound it out if you haven’t got the joke’.

That said, he had pronounced my name as ‘Seen’ when I had arrived, so either he had issues pronouncing my name or he was practicing ghosting irl.

I must be exhausted. I put a movie on as soon as I got in the taxi. If Jason Statham fighting a giant shark can’t keep me awake enough to also take in the sights of Tokyo from a passenger seat, then I don’t know what will.

I passed out as the taxi was slipping along the highways of Tokyo, and was confused when I awoke to find myself surrounded by seemingly unending mountainous hills. Having spent so much time in Melbourne, I had completely forgotten that the wold was not actually flat - in that regard. I woke up in the mountains somewhere (Saikoji/Uenohara) for a rest stop. 5 hours to go. I ordered some food through a screen at the insistence of a nice Japanese lady. I had no idea what I had just ordered, but it had been reasonably tasty! So, as long as I could withhold from projectile defecating in this nice man’s taxi, I was calling it a win.

He spoke briefly to the other passenger in Japanese before addressing me with a cheerful ‘One more stop!’

As we climbed further and further away from Tokyo, it started to get colder, snow started to appear on the peaks that surround the snaking valleys and then, out of nowhere, I realised that hoo boy we must be about due for another rest stop and I shouldn’t have been drinking so much water in the bus.

Japanese money doesn’t feel real. I felt like I just bought a bottle of water with Monopoly money - you know, if Monopoly money had coins and important Japanese people on them and was less likely to cause a riot after a family dinner.

Another rest stop. The trope of Japan being more wild and eccentric than the rest of the world rings reasonably true to certain extent, though it is also true that theirs is a rich and complex culture; soaked in generation after generation of respect and tradition through thousands of years, blended with the present and ever-evolving technological age in which Japan sits highly regarded as a powerhouse of ingenuity and invention by the rest of the world.

So yeah, I used one of those cool Japanese toilets with the magic dials, seat-warmer, calming music and the jet of water that shoots up your ass because at this point paper is just an archaic concept being hold onto by the western world.

But yeah, pretty good.

I also made it to Hakuba. More on that later.

All in all, whilst I had not received a full body cavity search at the airport, spending nearly twenty-four hours in transit still left me feeling like I had -

exhausted, vulnerable and with a REALLY sore butt.