#thread: equivocator

[immobiliter]

i write so many stubborn muses but flint really does take the cake. there is no arguing with this man. he will either refuse to even give you the time of day or he will thusly consider you an obstacle and good luck getting him to change his mind lmao

[cobragardens]

CORRECTED & UPDATED! Clothes + Equivocation = Romance:

The Husbands in 1793

EDIT: I made a significant error when I wrote this. As @goodjomans kindly points out in the comments to Part 2 of this essay (massive shoutout for this, goodjomans! also I love your name!), Aziraphale is the one who dresses the executioner in clothing like Aziraphale's original ensemble, not Crowley. This changes my conclusions about the meaning we can take from this scene!

On the one hand, mea culpa, y'all. I shall get on with eating my crow. On the other hand, I had to go through this frame-by-frame to catch which of the ineffable spouses puts Jean-Claude in his new togs, and the answer only lasts three frames. Here it is:

After Aziraphale changes his clothes, but before Crowley snaps his fingers and unfreezes time, there's a shot of the executioner over Crowley's shoulder, and he is now wearing a light coat with gold embroidery on the shoulders like Aziraphale's. Aziraphale arranges the executioner's death, not Crowley. So I feel like an idiot for missing it, but not a total idiot.

Let's discuss how this information changes what we can read from this scene! I'm going to leave my original text in place and edit with bold green. I can still stand by most of this essay, but this detail changes how I read the meaning of the husbands' communication at the end of this scene.

So we're all clear on the fact that the universe of Good Omens is an inescapable nightmare dystopia in which either of the husbands' merciless authoritarian regimes could be watching or listening to them at any time, yes? And that if either are caught 'fraternizing' with the other that means discorporation, torture, memory wipe, and/or death for either or both of them, yes?

Which means Crowley and Aziraphale can never speak or do anything openly to each other about their friendship or attraction or love. Everything they say and do has to have an innocuous meaning they can point to in case anybody ever sees or hears something Team Azcrow can't explain away. Walls (and ducks) have ears, and the price of slipping up--as we see in 1827--is heavy.

When a character says or does something that has two distinct meanings because they need to disguise what they really mean from one party but make their meaning plain to another, lit-nerds (and lit nerds🍃) call this equivocation. Equivocation is a kind of coded communication meant to pass hostile ears and eyes in plain sight but reach its intended recipient with its true meaning. The 1793 scene is jammed with it.

A lot of that coded messaging revolves around the clothes Crowley and Aziraphale choose in this scene, so--THESIS PARAGRAPH, BITCHES--we're going going to talk about how their clothes read to the people of this time period and location, what their clothes tell us about their characters, how their clothes help them equivocate, and what they're really saying with that equivocation. And Spoiler A-fucking-lert, it is ROMANTIC AF PRETTY GD ROMANTIC. Let's get nerdy!

We start with Aziraphale's beautiful champagne-gold and powder-pink ensemble.

This outfit would tell people of this time period 3 things about Aziraphale:

That he's insanely wealthy--These clothes would be silk, hand-embroidered with thread made with actual gold. Each individual garment could cost years' or even decades' worth of working-class wages and take a team of skilled artisans dozens to hundreds of hours to make.

That he's a fop--i.e., a man who loves fine clothes and dressing up and looking fancy. By the 1790s in England, once-fashionable foppishness was giving way to the Neoclassical 'Corinthian' style, and was considered effete. (Fun note: During this time period, effete did not automatically indicate gay, and pink was considered a masculine color, so while Az. is queering it up to the audience here, his clothes would not have read as gay or overtly effeminate to the other characters around him.)

Even though he's insanely wealthy, Aziraphale wears clothes that are decades out of fashion.

According to the Victoria & Albert Museum, "As the [18th] century progressed, the male silhouette slowly changed.[...] Coat skirts gradually became less full and the front was cut in a curved line towards the back. Waistcoats became shorter. The upper leg began to show more and more[...]. Shoes became low-heeled with pointed toes and were fastened with a detachable buckle and straps or ribbon[.]

Source

That description is not what Aziraphale's wearing. Judging by his heel height and the length of his waistcoat, Aziraphale is wearing a style that's at least a decade older than this:

And this is from 1765. The great crepes caper happens in 1793, almost 30 years later.

My inference: Just as he has in the modern period, Aziraphale has settled into a style he really likes and refused to let go of it long after it's gone out of fashion.

We'll come back to this set of Aziraphale's clothes in a bit, but we need to talk about Crowley's first, because Crowley's clothes in this scene help render a line he says later about this outfit very flirtatious and darkly romantic.

First, some background: What was considered acceptable attire for wealthy people in France changed pretty much overnight during the French Revolution after the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the fall of the French monarchy. Instead of advertising wealth, clothes now had to advertise political allegiance, and they had to do so loud and clear. And if you didn't want to be murdered by the French First Republic, that political allegiance had fucking better be to the Revolution.

People started wearing a looooooot of super patriotic shit. And I mean it was like little kids on the 4th of July; clothes were red, white, and blue in any hue and garish combination and print. The cockade, a fabric rosette in the colors of the French flag, was required by law to be worn by men, and despite that was just as popular among women. To show solidarity with the laboring classes, the fabrics the wealthy wore went from embroidered silk in light Rococo colors (what Aziraphale is wearing) to sober neutrals without decoration in wool, cotton, and linen.

Now, the script note for Crowley's clothing in this scene is this:

But clearly there were some changes made between script and filming, because Crowley does not appear standing behind Aziraphale; he appears lounging.

And he's not dressed as a French peasant.

Here's how French peasants dressed in 1790:

Peasants at this time wore styles that distinguished them from the styles of the upper classes not just in materials, colors, or patterns, but in shapes. Full trousers and cropped boxy jackets in French flag colors were the marks of the laboring-class Revolutionary, and both styles were huge changes from hundreds of years of French fashion up to that point.

And that's not what Crowley shows up wearing. Crowley is wearing the knee breeches, stockings, waistcoat, and frock coat of a wealthy man, and in fact his clothes reference a very specific type of wealthy man.

In the 1790s, if you were an aristocrat who wasn't happy about the Revolution and you were so sure of your privilege that you would risk your life showing it, you wore black in mourning for the monarchy and in protest of the violence of its deposition. If you were an aristocrat who wanted to protest and you didn't want to be immediately murdered by the French First Republic, you wore a style called half-mourning, which was black with a colored coat.

Here's a picture from a 1790 fashion magazine of an aristocrat in half-mourning:

"The text accompanying the plate describes his ensemble as 'half-mourning,' referring to the aristocrats who lamented 'the diminished powers of the monarchy and [signaled] their willingness to die for the royal cause'" [emph. added]. [Source]

Notice: the shoes, stockings, breeches, waistcoat, and cravat are all black. You with me?

Because here's Crowley in 1793:

I've turned up the brightness and exposure in this image so he's more clearly visible against the stone, but I haven't warmed it up. He's wearing a coat that's a dark blackish red. Everything else, even his cravat, even his shirt, is black. (The black shirt is anachronistic, a lovely little nod to Crowley's refusal to wear angelic white.)

This is 179fuckin'3, y'all. Marie Antoinette is executed in 1793. It's 3 full years after that fashion plate up there in his bright red jacket, and that lil dude was already risking his neck way back in 1790. As we can see from the fact that the government are apparently now grabbing random wealthy-looking Englishmen off the street to murder without trial, the time for a man demon to be sauntering around Paris dressed in all black or even nearly all black is well past.

Crowley's also wearing a whole assload of huge silver buttons, which would have been flashy and tacky and frankly pretty weird in 1793 but very definitely an eccentric Rich Person Thing to do, bc regular buttons at this time were horn or wood and covered with the garment's fabric. The only man in France who could get away with this fancy aristo shit anymore was Robespierre himself, and only "devotion to the cause[...] excused Robespierre’s showy dress since he was perceived as a bridge between the politically empowered bourgeois deputies and the ardently antimonarchical unenfranchised classes." [Source]

So when Crowley teases Aziraphale--

--both of them are perfectly well aware that Crowley's outfit would get him just as killed as Aziraphale's.

And that's why Aziraphale's expression is annoyed when he has abandon his "standards" and change his clothes. Because Aziraphale's the one who needs the favor, Crowley makes him take one for the team and wear the goofy hat.

The clothes Az. changes into here still tell people that he's rich, but they also say he's a hardcore Revolutionary. The red jacket in a current cutaway style, the cockade and sash, and the bonnet phrygien (the red garden-gnome cap) all announce this guy is a huge supporter of the Revolution. His clothes are all still aristocratic in shape and materials (and he keeps his now-unfashionably frilly lace cravat), but he's no longer flaunting obscene wealth in a city filled with angry starving people, and the gnome cap says he's in solidarity with the working classes even if he isn't one of them.

Once he restarts time, Crowley is not leaving that prison cell safely without either changing his clothes or taking Aziraphale with him, because Crowley looks like a rich asshole protesting the fall of the monarchy--which is frankly exactly the kind of thing he'd show up wearing to the Bastille during the Reign of Terror (just like he wears athleisure in Heaven). But Aziraphale's new appearance covers for them both: if the rich-looking guy with no cockade and wearing all black under his almost-black coat is in with this other guy who's obviously a Revolution fanatic, then the rich guy's probably okay, right? He just forgot his sash at home or something. Bees.

Something else happens when Az. changes, too. Look at Aziraphale's new dress from a different angle:

Half-mourning is a white shirt, but a black cravat, so this isn't half-mourning. He's wearing three different badges of the Revolution to make up for the fact that Crowley looks like a Satanic libertine (which tbf he is), but Aziraphale's new ensemble is black and dark red.

Y'all. Aziraphale changes into Crowley's colors.

Now, this is a more fashionable and higher quality version of what the executioner is wearing, so Aziraphale has very plausible deniability here; if anyone ever pulled him up on it, he could say he just copied our man Jean-Claude.

But let me show you what English fashion looks like right now:

This is a French painting of a wealthy Frenchman, but he's wearing the English 'Corinthian' style. It was painted in 1795, so this would have been the very cutting edge of fashion in England in 1793, and the fabrics and colors look right at home in Revolutionary Paris. (He's wearing the cockade on his hat, btw.)

Look at all that angelic white! The buttery almond of the buckskin breeches, the golden kidskin gloves, the rich tan of the riding boots! The blue of the greatcoat! All colors we know Aziraphale prefers!

And yet this is what Aziraphale chooses:

We know from the entire rest of the show how very particular about his clothes Aziraphale is. And yet 150 years before he (accidentally) admits in words that he's Crowley's friend, Aziraphale wears Crowley's colors to take him to lunch to say thank you for a rescue.

When we decide whether a character's speech or action is equivocation, one of the things we check is whether equivocation (and deception generally) is something that character does elsewhere in the text, which, with Aziraphale, hahahahaha, DUH. He's already using equivocation in this scene.

The lunch date itself is equivocation on Aziraphale's part. Aziraphale tries to thank Crowley for the rescue, but Crowley says,

So Aziraphale says,

No more words like "thanks" or "rescue" used, but a couple hours of good food and drink and conversation, Aziraphale hopes, will express the gratitude toward Crowley it's not safe to speak aloud. With this, Crowley and Aziraphale explicitly establish that they are equivocating for each other's safety and using coded communication--immediately before Aziraphale changes into Crowley's colors.

So yes, Aziraphale may well copy the executioner's clothes. But consider: When a character who can't speak or act openly says or does something that has two or more possible meanings, this can be read as equivocation.

We don't get a face reaction from Crowley about Aziraphale's new 'fit, so we can't be sure how he feels about this. But this whole scene is, even on its surface, about 1) the meaning clothes transmit to a viewer ("Oh good Lord," says Aziraphale when he sees what Crowley's wearing) and 2) how to show gratitude and appreciation when you can't speak of them openly. And we know Crowley notices clothing and clothing colors, because look at what he wears, like, ever. So it's very reasonable to presume he notices Aziraphale wearing his colors, and it fits well with both the rest of Crowley's actions in this scene and with his being very hurt and angry when Aziraphale later characterizes their interactions as "fraternizing."

Right, so we've covered what's going on with the husbands' clothes, and we've looked at two examples of equivocation on Aziraphale's part, viz., lunch and his change of colors. (Here's an example of equivocation on Crowley's part as well.) Now let's look at that super interesting thing Crowley says about Aziraphale's first outfit.

Here's the line:

Crowley follows up here on earlier lines in which he teases Aziraphale for coming to Reign-of-Terror Paris for crepes: "Dressed like that?" meaning Aziraphale was guaranteed to get arrested dressed like an aristocrat. The top layer of equivocation is always an innocuous meaning: the plausible deniability meant for the hostile/unsafe listeners. That's Meaning 1.

But "Dressed like that, s/he's asking for trouble" means two other things, too. It's a veeerrrrry familiar phrase, isn't it? We've all heard that arrangement of words in that order before. It's used when people think someone (usually but not always a woman) is dressed to invite sexual attention.

How do we know we're supposed to take this modern meaning from this phrase? This is how:

We have learned in literally the previous sentence to this one that rain has not been invented yet. The only two humans in existence have just left the Garden. Balloons definitely do not exist yet, humans couldn't tell you what lead is, and yet this is a phrase Crowley uses and Aziraphale understands. This tells us, the audience, in the very first line of the very first scene with these characters, that their speech is anachronistic and modern, and that we are to understand their phrasing in its contemporary sense.

So. When Crowley says "Dressed like that, he was asking for trouble" in 1793, we should read that in the context of the scene and in the senses the phrase carries to us today.

And since Crowley is using a phrase that means the executioner is dressed to invite sexual attention, and the executioner is wearing clothes identical to Aziraphale's, then Crowley is necessarily telling Aziraphale that when Aziraphale was wearing those clothes--those frilly, effete, unfashionable-for-decades clothes that nobody else likes and the French now murder people for wearing--that was, in Crowley's view...provocatively sexy. Meaning 2.

"Dressed like that, s/he was asking for trouble" is also what people say to justify violence, especially sexual violence against women and queerphobic attacks against men perceived as gay or just 'insufficiently' 'masculine'. In fact justifying assault is likely the most common way this phrase is used today by a wide margin. Meaning 3.

Crowley's joke isn't even really a joke in this sense; it's a vicious barb. And, because it must, it sounds like it's at Aziraphale's expense: You wore the wrong clothes, you weren't careful enough to guard yourself against the men who want to do you harm, so you deserved the trouble you got. Meaning 1.

Except remember: Crowley is also dressed for trouble. And Aziraphale is aware of this. Crowley's 'fit would be almost as offensive to the Revolutionary French of 1793 as Aziraphale's Rococo pastels, and probably just as likely to get him arrested and murdered by the state if he weren't making letting Aziraphale keep him safe by wearing the cockade and the silly hat. Crowley's not saying anything about Aziraphale here that he's not also saying about himself; and as we know from Aziraphale's initial "Oh good Lord" when he turns around and sees Crowley's black and red half-mourning (with extra black and gobs of silver), Aziraphale knows it.

Then why the rapey joke, Crowley?

This is fucking why:

Crowley rocks up at the Bastille just in time to witness some grubby fucker assault his friend. Assault the person Crowley will greet 15 seconds after this as angel.

Crowley's first act after freeing Aziraphale is to send this dude to his death. Nope! Aziraphale is the one who arranges to have the executioner killed in the clothes he would have killed Aziraphale for wearing. He takes Jean-Claude's ability to speak (but not to make sounds, interestingly! Jean-Claude can still whimper, Jean-Claude can still cry!) so the executioner can't tell anyone about the 'mixup.' It's unclear which of them blocks the executioner's power of speech. The vicious joke about assault in Meaning 3 isn't at Aziraphale's expense at all. It's not You wore the wrong clothes, so you deserved the trouble you got. It's If this guy thinks you deserve trouble for wearing the wrong clothes, he can eat his own rules.

And that's the other piece of evidence that, along with Crowley's ensemble, shows us the audience and Aziraphale which meanings Crowley intends with his equivocation. Meaning 1 is cancelled out by Crowley's clothes. That leaves Meanings 2 and 3.

Crowley and Aziraphale share clothes as a common interest. They don't have the same style, but they're both aware of current fashions, and Heaven and Hell aren't. You can't tell me Hastur or Uriel would recognize the significance of Crowley saying "Dressed like that, he's asking for trouble" about someone else while wearing black stockings and cravat and waistcoat himself. And that means Anything the husbands communicate to each other through clothing choices goes undetected by their masters.

SO. With all this in mind, let's go through the 1793 scene again and look at what their clothes help them say without words.

Concluded in Part 2!

[reiashiftsrealities]

Dear Reia I am slow to anger but I toe the line As I reckon with the effects of your life on mine I look back on where I failed And in every place I checked The only common thread has been your disrespect Now you call me immoral, a dangerous disgrace If you got something to say, name a time and place, face to face I have the honor to be your obedient servant Z dot Rants

Mr. Zipperrants,

I am not the reason no one trusts you

No one knows what you believe

I will not equivocate on my opinion

I have always worn it on my sleeve

Even if I said what you think I said

You would need to cite a more specific grievance

Here's an itemized list of thirty years of disagreements

Hey, I have not been shy

I am just a guy in the public eye

Tryin' a do my best for our republic

I don't wanna fight

But I won't apologize for doing what's right

I have the honor to be your obedient servant

R dot Shifts

[yuri-is-online]

Yuu: "Do you know about the ritual madness of Dionysus?

Men, women, children, slaves, everyone would gather around and just get drunk as fuck. Then everyone dances, and just keeps dancing, sometimes for days at a time. Until everyone is consumed with ecstasy and reverts back to their primal base instincts. Then, they bring out an animal and the crowd descends on this animal and rips and tears it apart with their bare hands.

The goal in this whole ritual was to channel dionysis and offer not only the animal, but your temporary insanity to him. For those few hours or days, you were dionysus. You were a God. And you held the power of life and death over this poor sacrifice."

Twst boys: *backing away slowly*

I just read your thing on religion in twst and wanted to freak them out with some of the "holy shit" ness that religion sometimes brings.

The the metaphorical cannibalism in catholicism, or aphrodite almost single handedly causing the Trojan war.

You know I had to let this bounce around in my brain for a bit because I knew I had something to say but couldn't find the thread for a bit.

In the west we typically associate religion with the concept of a "god" and worship of it, but that's not really how most eastern religions work, so the fact that twst is mostly godless and devoid of things like religious rituals is not actually that surprising. Even with the presence of the King of the Underworld, even if the other greek gods were there it wouldn't change much because unless a god shows up at your house what they do isn't really your business.

When you take that sort of thought into account I think the twst boys would hear about that ritual and think of it as being equivalent to people in Yuu's world trying to use magic. Something that were I in their position would make the story even more disturbing, like what do you mean your world's version of magic is trying to channel the literal concept of insanity??? Why would you do that???

The myths about things like the Trojan war I think they would find easier to understand by equivocating it to stories about the great 7, but they might find it odd that Yuu's world thinks these things never happened. I could see someone like Lilia liking these stories the most though since he and Yuu could talk about the way people choose to remember and explain their histories, which is a topic very near and dear to his heart.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Whoa missy, I see you trying to inject nuance into a heated Tumblr thread. Well this is the pissing on the poor website, so here's a death threat for only 90% agreeing with OP. And I think I'll call you a Zionist for equivocating between dead babies of different races. I'm doing good praxis.

some good, light satire there! but i regret to inform you that you failed to predict the actual anon hate that was about to succeed yr own ask

[kaywavy]

transforming soffits reorganizing keys formalizing immersion joints justifying kick extractors advising aggregates managing elbows recasting connectors achieving aluminum trowels officiating disks exhibiting absolute spigots progressing coil hydrants jerry-building reflectors informing casters inventing rubber hoists performing wrenches judging chalk adapters upgrading ignition paths

regrowing flashing recommending ratchets approving barriers sweeping impact fillers sewing mirrors detailing collectors enforcing measures distributing systems presenting plugs interwinding registers piloting ash diffusers gathering cranks supplying eave pockets undertaking scroll stops accelerating straps designing fittings protecting diamond boilers logging downspouts correlating shingles uniting mallets qualifying electrostatic lifts sharing clamps obtaining circular fluids ranking foundation gauges sensing miter brackets originating space networks translating drills regulating guards selecting gable padding utilizing pellet dowels reconciling artifacts altering pulleys shedding space filters determining vents representing mortar remaking flash rakers supporting funnels typecasting rotary chocks expressing junctures resetting auxiliary vises professing strip treads inlaying matter trowels questioning drivers forming edge fittings sketching blanks overshooting spark breakers rewriting controls playing tunnels inventorying buttons enduring joint handles effecting ratchet bibbs unwinding couplings forsaking vapor conduits defining sockets calculating heaters raising grids administering tiles measuring resources installing ignition remotes extracting corners manufacturing ventilators delegating consoles treating mounting stones enacting jig deflectors intensifying alleys improvising cargo pinpointing bobs prescribing arc masonry structuring metal chucks symbolizing lathes activating plumb kits adapting coatings fixing channels expediting cordage planning compressors enlisting hangers restructuring keyhole augers shearing ridge hardware collecting reciprocating bolts maintaining corrugated dimmers whetting hole collars conducting mandrels comparing assets compiling sealants completing paths composing equivocation wheels computing dampers conceiving electrostatic treatment ordering cotter grates organizing ties orienting ladders exceeding materials targeting thermocouples demonstrating emery stock expanding latch bases training wardrobe adhesives overcomming[sic] fasteners streamlining storm anchors navigating springs perfecting turnbuckles verifying gate pegs arbitrating arithmetic lifts negotiating outlets normalizing strips building surface foggers checking key torches knitting grinders mowing planers offsetting stencils acquiring bulbs adopting rivets observing avenues ascertaining coaxial grommets slinging wing winches instituting circuit generators instructing wicks integrating pry shutters interpreting immersion lumber clarifying coils classifying wood bits closing cogs cataloging matter strips charting holders conceptualizing push terminals stimulating supports overthrowing shaft spacers quick-freezing connectors unbinding ground hooks analyzing eyes anticipating gateways controlling proposition rollers converting power angles coordinating staples correcting benders counseling joist gaskets recording gutter pipes recruiting drains rehabilitating rafter tubes reinforcing washers reporting guard valves naming freize sprues nominating rings noting straps doubling nailers drafting circuit hoses dramatizing flanges splitting framing compounds refitting stems interweaving patch unions placing sillcocks sorting slot threads securing mode cutters diverting catharsis plates procuring load thresholds transferring syllogism twine directing switch nuts referring time spools diagnosing knobs discovering locks dispensing hinges displaying hasps resending arc binders retreading grooves retrofitting aesthetics portals seeking stocks shrinking wormholes assembling blocks assessing divers attaining lug boxes auditing nescience passages conserving strikes constructing braces contracting saw catches serving installation irons recognizing fluxes consolidating fuse calipers mapping shims reviewing chop groovers scheduling lag drives simplifying hoists engineering levels enhancing tack hollows establishing finishing blocks

[morningstar-chronicles]

Dear Maddie I am slow to anger but I toe the line As I reckon with the effects of your life on mine I look back on where I failed And in every place I checked The only common thread has been your disrespect Now you call me immoral, a dangerous disgrace If you got something to say, name a time and place, face to face I have the honor to be your obedient servant Z dot Rants

Mx. Vice President

I am not the reason no one trusts you

No one knows what you believe

I will not equivocate on my opinion

I have always worn it on my sleeve

Even if I said what you think I said

You would need to cite a more specific grievance

Here's an itemized list of thirty years of disagreements

Sweet Jesus

Hey, I have not been shy

I am just a guy in the public eye

Tryin' a do my best for our republic

I don't wanna fight

But I won't apologize for doing what's right

I have the honor to be your obedient servant

M dot Chron(icles)

[shifterbee]

Dear Amy I am slow to anger but I toe the line As I reckon with the effects of your life on mine I look back on where I failed And in every place I checked The only common thread has been your disrespect Now you call me immoral, a dangerous disgrace If you got something to say, name a time and place, face to face I have the honor to be your obedient servant Z dot Rants

Mx. Zipper Rants I am not the reason no one trusts you No one knows what you believe I will not equivocate on my opinion I have always worn it on my sleeve Even if I said what you think I said You would need to cite a more specific grievance Here's an itemized list of thirty years of disagreements Sweet Jesus Hey, I have not been shy I am just a guy in the public eye Tryin' a do my best for our republic I don't wanna fight But I won't apologize for doing what's right I have the honor to be your obedient servant A dot Bee

[keepsmagnetoaway]

The Incredible Hulk 161 (March 1973)

Steve Englehart/Herb Trimpe

Beast's arc from Amazing Adventures concludes...in a a Hulk comic! This stuff is hard enough to follow now but it must have been truly baffling in 1973. The six-issue Amazing Adventures run ended with an issue full of baffling in-jokes that resolved nothing and in no way told you that you needed to go and read this issue now, and it's easy enough to track down online, but back then, I dunno. Anyway, this issue is actually mostly not about Beast, or Hulk, or Mimic (Mimic is in this) but rather the great nation of Canada.

Hulk has fled from the US into Canada to find the peace in the wilderness he seeks: but so has Calvin Rank, aka Mimic, who we've seen in a few X-Men stories being first a villain and then a kind of equivocal hero (again, if you were a random Hulk fan in the early 70s picking up this issue, how could you have known any of this?).

Mimic's powers have gone out of control, stealing powers from other heroes in an ever-incrwasing radius, which is why he's hding out in remote Canada: but he's summoned Hank (via Vera, who still doesn't know that Hank is Beast) to see if he can fix this problem. In order to get across the border, incidentally, Hank "has to" knock Vera unconscious.

It's fine! She's not even mad! She said so!

Eventually Mimic's effects start sapping Hulk's powers and he comes over to investigate why this is happening and smash the source of the problem, but this actually just kills Mimic, who absorbs a massive amount of gamma radiation from Hulk's powers. So...problem solved, sort of, and thanks for all your help, Dr McCoy. Then he gaslights Vera about it a bunch.

So yeah, this is a really weird issue and Hank is kind of terrible in it, and also almost totally extraneous to the plot, and this is doesn't really tie up his own new plot threads, but it's I think the only look at him we get for a while, so...weird. Yeah. Not great. Onward now though to various other X-Men guest appearances of the era.

[astrxlfinale]

@blckswnstm replied to your post “Data Archives Information on CAELUS one of the...”:

guess time to eternalize that in garden of recollection too, remembrance doesn’t lie after all

​

To think this would be the history that Fuli's non-judgemental magnanimity would also endlessly record.

Caelus would remain stunned as the thought of the Memokeeper pounds into the depths of his mind. How it'd be an equivocal truth that sings across the Amber Eras, how the rampant journeys of a Nameless that brilliant flashed with the force of shooting stars, purging lands of all consuming Stellaron's despite being from that same ilk, a betrayer to their cause.

To become a destroyer of godly entities alongside the Nameless? To fight against the ancient, primordial urges of this ancient power? There could be countless threads drawn about the totality of what he pressed upon the metaphorical table. However, there was one golden thread that could always conjure the curious eye, that could ignite a rippling effect across the cosmic membrane that houses possibility. It'd be known other than this very thought.

The Starwalking passenger known as CAELUS undoubtedly held appreciation for the buxom backsides of the lady's across the universe. To his eyes it was the fabled golden ratio, a pinnacle point where all attention, concentration and focus could be entirely devoted. The mere bounce or-- clap as they call it, immediately igniting a vigor that burns beyond mortal instinct and immediately imbues itself with spiritual reinforcement.

Yes, those golden eyes of his did shine too whenever he found himself entranced. For details like this must also be intoned into The Remembrance.

This fact would not and never change, potentials of reincarnation be damned.

Can you hear the internal screaming? The morbid curiosity of him pondering what some sects of the Garden of Recollection even need this level of intel for? Was it potentially blackmail material!?

...

What if there was a deeper purpose to it all? If their lands faced a potential destruction that could annihilate all creation itself, did that go to concepts? Thoughts and feelings? This intent behind him holding such a vigorous enjoyment of ass? Somehow the thought that even that could vanish was a horrifying thought. In kind, it only caused the power of this select memory to enrich vivaciously with power. A solemn determination to never let such an earnest desire to fade away, the sight of such peachy purviews could not be consigned to non-existence!

Black Swan, this might be a Five Star light cone you have on your hands.

"And.. It's just going to be chilling there alongside everything else?! We know full well what this is about, right!?"

[paper-gold-theories]

Villainous Musical Headcanon: Dr. Flug and GoldHeart You're Obedient Servant

I kinda imagine Flug and GoldHeart singing this.

Source: You're Obedient Servant (Hamilton The Musical)

Note: Song belongs to Hamilton The Musical, the only edit made is to clip parts of the song that fit the headcanon.

(After an intense battle with the Villainous Gang vs the Golden Rule, Flug and GoldHeart meet at the dark of the night in under a rows of dim street lamps.)

Flug: Dear GoldHeart,

I am slow to anger

But I toe the line

As I reckon with the effects

Of your life on mine

I look back on where I failed

And in every place I checked

The only common thread has been your disrespect

Now you call me "amoral"

A "dangerous disgrace"

If you've got something to say, name a time and place, face-to-face

Flug: I have the honor to be (twirl) your obedient servant (mocking bow)

Flug: K dot Flug (fake sweet smile)

GoldHeart, mocking: Mr. Vice President

I am not the reason no one trusts you

No one knows what you believe

I will not equivocate on my opinion

I have always worn it on my sleeve

Even if I said what you think I said

You would need to cite a more specific grievance.

GoldHeart, smirks: Here's an itemized list of several years of disagreements (tosses a bunch of papers over Flug)

Flug: Sweet Mother of Science…

GoldHeart, angry: Hey! (pokes Flug on the chest) I have not been shy

I am just a guy in the public eye

Tryna do my best for our republic, I don't wanna fight

But I won't apologize for doing what's right

GoldHeart: I have the honor to be (twirl) your obedient servant (mocking bow)

GoldHeart: G dot Heart (fake sweet smile)

Flug, grabs GolHeart by the collar: Careful how you proceed, good man

Intemperate indeed, good man

Answer for the accusations I lay at your feet or prepare to bleed, good man

GoldHeart, moves Flug’s hands away: Flug, your grievance is legitimate

I stand by what I said, every bit of it

You stand only for yourself, it's what you do

I can't apologize because it's true

Flug, with a darken expression: Then stand, GoldHeart…

Weehawken, dawn.

Guns drawn.

GoldHeart , with a similar darken expression: You're on…

Flug & GoldHeart: I have the honor to be (twirl) your obedient servant ~

Flug: K dot Flug (fake sweet smile, glares)

GoldHeart: G dot Heart (fake sweet smile, glares)

[bestworstcase]

clearly the wonderland stuff has hit critical mass because it’s 6 AM and i’m lying here wide awake trying to line up thoughts in order of which ones i want to write out most except i keep bumping into more SO LIKE. send help i am losing my grip

- kernel of a thought i’ve been gnawing on for a while now that there’s a pattern to the wonderland allusion that i can’t quite put my finger on yet. but it’s like—there’s a sort of temporal wobbliness to what and when that feels like it might be something but also just continual swirling it all around D4, D6 and D7, looping in the aaiw stuff and the red queen by constructing new associations (the queen of hearts was the red king, the duchess’s baby becomes the jabberwalker, the cat leads to hatter leads to hatta, the caterpillar lives in the forest where ruby loses her ‘name’, the beach is the garden is the pool of tears is the island for hunting the snark (<- are the mice the bellman’s crew lol. what are they hunting) and like the connecting thread here is mirrored pairs, the tweedles and hatter/hatta and the immanent reflection of the self in mirror-written jabberwocky, with the cat emerging as both the cheshire cat and humpty dumpty to the jabberwalker’s poetry (<- which draws another circle around neo and the jabberwalker in that the cat belongs to the duchess and the duchess is fanatically concerned with meaning in a way that sits kitty-corner to humpty dumpty’s determination not to let denotative meaning get in his way) and then there’s this undergirding idea of ascension and like—never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them otherwise. the you you wanted to be when you were still you. it’s a matter of perspective, i’m afraid. & they want to get to the tree but can’t but the intertextual layer of the narrative has them oscillating back and forth between primarily D6 and D7; they are so close to winning the game but they can’t see the forest for the tree—and the tree functions like looking glass gardens and perhaps more saliently like the red queen, in that alice wants to meet the red queen but cannot find her until she turns about-face and walks away. (“her tree” huh.) (the blacksmith is the tree is the queen; all the ways about here belong to her and, of course, a cat can look at a king. or a queen.)

- the speaker, the subject, the jabberwock; the knight, jaune, the jabberwalker? (<- also occurring to me suddenly that the reason the only critters from the first stanza not present in the marketplace are the raths is, the duchess’s baby turns into a pig—and a rath is a sort of green pig—and neo is both lost and driven by wrath—and her constructs have recently gained the ability to outgribe.)

- in light of the jabberwalker being the story’s [unwritten, unfinished] ending i am feeling SOME TYPE OF WAY about specifically houston!worst day of my life bc like. man. “once upon a time/i knew who i was/some of it was true.” “i feel as if i’m caught between/what i say and what i mean” “could there be someone else to blame/for why it always feels the same/inside this woman i became” MAN.

- actually yeah no no more equivocating someone on the writing team saw this musical during the houston run. i don’t care who i don’t care to confirm i just know in my heart where all the brainworms live. what’s your title/what’s your purpose :)

- c o r n w i n k l e

- laughing hysterically forever about what this implies about ozlem OH YOU MEANT DIVORCED DIVORCED. LOL. LMAO

- ahem.

- wonderland—more precisely hunting of the snark—has a particular invocation of the rule of three (anything said thrice is true) and given the obvious fun rwby could have with an idea like that i’m wondering if we’ll see it repeated in the ever after in some capacity, whether as a literal narrative rule within the ever after or thematically. it occurs to me that it might have done already; “i am a huntress” is repeated thrice before crashing into ruby’s existential dread and uncertainty (<- the beaver loses count and mathematical panic ensues, which incidentally is also the part of the poem where the jubjub bird appears and, further incidentally for the bees people in the audience, is also the bonding moment in which the friendship between the butcher and the beaver becomes so homoerotic that there’s academic discourse about whether the beaver might actually be female, so make of that what you will.)

- the lively carpenter is not the blacksmith so Question Mark. the thing is the walrus and the carpenter is the tweedles’ poem so its inclusion fits the 4/6/7 focus and it connects to both the forest without names and the red king directly, and perhaps to the jabberwalker in the more roundabout sense that where jabberwocky is a poem about slaying a creature the walrus and the carpenter is about people behaving monstrously. who’s the carpenter and what are the oysters

[chicago-geniza]

Have been thinking a lot about the concepts of "childishness," transparency, narcissism/gay narcissism/narcissism as childish affect, refusal to betray one's principles as simultaneously selfish & collectively-oriented act, Jelonka & Simone Weil, "naivete," autism, solipsism/solitude as a focus in Weil's philosophy and as a diagnostic criterion vs. Jelonka's enmeshment in social networks, the early and sober acknowledgement that refusing to comply or compromise with any regime on any grounds if it went against one's personal, individual moral code--regardless of consequence, regardless of censure--would cut their careers off before they began (Jelonka & Weil, I mean); the way their contemporaries describe them as "pure," "innocent," again--childhood, naivete! Always in need of protection, constant care. Always precarious. Too childlike and "innocent" (as in: lacking practical knowledge, untouched by the world, when Jelonka survived the Holocaust & the Powstanie, & Weil subjected herself to suffering on purpose) to comprehend the consequences of their unvarnished truth and commitment to live by it. The language is reminiscent of obituaries for intellectually disabled relatives, & the discourse around I/DD in general; that's what is so striking for me. It is also--a standard deviation away from corporeal concerns. It places them there. As though they are morally superior, angelic, but must be protected by those who know how the seedy underbelly of the Real World works. Those who sully themselves with Sark-Consciousness. How Sloan talks to Bashir about Section 31. Idk. There is a thread here about the rights of children, about guardianship, about equivocation, justice, principles, etc. I will try to tease it out when less migraine aura.

[inbredrodentcretin]

a breathing kind of dead

It terrifies me, how simply everything turns into a string of complications. My head rests even on the seemingly solid ground, I feel the dense fumes catch up to me, Inhaling all the poison that constitutes the air at this moment. But such equivocal nature of this current memory, it only conjures and pools into a stagnant body for a brief, crisp thread of time and then continues to never exist again. replacing all the air that fills my lungs with another of the same kind, a vile cycle that allows the vice inside my mind to live forth another dusk. its a shame, the way this mortal body of mine was carefully engineered to protect itself from hastily fading to be, when all the undead detritus that resides inside only wants to cease.  

[random-blep]

I cannot stop thinking of BB and L doing your obedient servant from Hamilton.

Dear L,

I am slow to anger. But I toe the line. As I reckon with the effects of your life on mine. I look back on where I failed and in every place I checked the only common thread has been your disrespect. Now you call me "amoral" A "dangerous disgrace" if you've got something to say, name a time and place, face-to-face

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, B.B

Second at Wammys

I am not the reason no one trusts you. No one knows what you believe. I will not equivocate on my opinion I have always worn it on my sleeve. Even if I said what you think I said You would need to cite a more specific grievance. Here's an itemized list of X years of disagreements.

Hey, I have not been shy I am just a guy in the public eye Tryna do my best for our republic, I don't wanna fight But I won't apologize for doing what's right

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, L.

[lemontartyellow]

How does Hamilton, an arrogant, immigrant, orphan, bastard, whore son somehow endorse Thomas Jefferson, his enemy, a man he’s despised since the beginning, just to keep me from winning? I wanna be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens, the room where it happens. You kept me from the room where it happens for the last time. Dear Alexander, I am slow to anger, but I toe the line as I reckon with the effects of your life on mine. I look back on where I failed and in every place I checked the only common thread is your disrespect. Now you call me “amoral”, a “dangerous disgrace”, if you got something to say name a time and place, face to face. I have the honor to be your obedient servant. A. Burr. Mr. Vice President I am not the reason no one trusts you, no one knows what you believe. I will not equivocate on my opinion, I have always worn it on my sleeve. If I said what you think I said you’ll have to cite a more specific grievance. Here’s an itemized list of 30 years of disagreements (Sweet Jesus). Hey I have not been shy I am just a guy in the public eye trying to do my best for our republic. I don’t want to foght, but I won’t apologize for doing what’s right. I have the honor to be your obedient servant. A. Ham. Careful how you proceed good man, intemperate indeed good man, answer for the accusations I lay at your feet or prepare to bleed good man. Burr, your grievance is legitimate, I stand by what I said, every bit of it. You stand only for yourself, it’s what you do, I can’t apologize because it’s true. Then stand, Alexander. Weehawken, dawn. Guns, drawn. You’re on. I have the honor to be your obedient servant. A. Ham. A. Burr.