#tis fixed now

[musicalplumbob]

The Berry family added two animal members to the household because why not!

[athenaevm]

tis glitching

[buttered-milky]

IM SORRY THIS SAT IN MY DRAFTS SO LONG BUT I FINALLY EDITED IT

Ah. Time to articulate. So I want to be clear right at the start here and say most of this hinges on my own interpretations of symbolism. There is nowhere in the lore where anything says point blank “Marika wanted to make an angel of vengeance” (or something similar, but in fromsoft writing style). But to me it’s implied that’s what she did!

Basically, take this read with a grain of salt because it’s a lot of interpretation! You don’t have to enjoy it or agree with it, and symbols often represent many things, so there are definitely multiple ways to read Messmer.

That said let’s get into it.

First of all, I’m working under the assumption Messmer is Marika’s firstborn. This is heavily implied from Gaius’ greaves, which say Messmer was an elder brother to Radahn. The only other demigods we know to be older than Radahn would be Godwyn and the omen twins (? Possibly, unclear on where they fit in the timeline). Messmer could feasibly be somewhere in the middle of that lineup, but I think not based on his vibes and symbolism (we’ll get to this later in the post). I think Marika had him shortly after the genocide of her people. The O Mother gesture being in Bonny Village also implies this—like Marika gave birth somewhere familiar. This is slightly complicated by opening narration saying the first demigods were Godfrey’s children. Marika may have taken Godfrey as Elden Lord before she left the Shadow Lands, which would make this make sense.

Second of all: the genocide. Understandably, Marika was distraught with grief and rage after her people were destroyed and put into jars (items to check out here are anything to do with living jars, but specifically the tooth whip and the spectres around Bonny Village and the Gaols). This was done for spiritual reasons (implied by ghosts saying they’ll be “saints”), so it seems Marika’s apotheosis was a direct response to what happened and a very…thematic attempt at revenge.

That’s the key thing here: revenge. And that divinity is the way to get it.

Revenge is Marika’s focus right around the time she had Messmer. I think she may have manifested that desire in him. I don’t just mean that she raised him to be an armament of war (though that is likely true, too) but that she literally put all of what she was feeling into his soul.

…I know that’s very metaphysical and weird, but it is how I see their relationship. In fact, I think most if not all of Marika’s children represent some aspect of her own being and are manifestations of some desire. For example, Godwyn seems to be the first of Godfrey’s children born in Leyndell and is the incarnation of the “ideal” order of things.

But anyways back to Messmer.

Messmer was born of a “single god.” Regardless of who you think his second parent is (or if he even has one), Marika is the god this refers to. Something about her newly-given godhood and the depth of her human emotion just screams to me that she might’ve, accidentally or intentionally, birthed what she felt the world needed: something to bathe it in divine fire and avenge her people.

A lot of that read has to do with Messmer’s fire as well and how it’s discussed.

I know some people think the fire is his curse (and you could certainly view a soul full of vengeance this way) alongside the base serpent, but given the way items describe it, I don’t think so. It seems to me that the fire was only an attractant for the base serpent. Snakes sense our heat, after all, and we know from his Remembrance that the base serpent feeds off his fire. But without the base serpent, Messmer seems fine and has no issues using his fire. The fire doesn’t necessarily act as a curse—it just attracted one. That’s what I’m getting at when I say by creating an angel of vengeance, Marika ended up cursing her son.

What about the angel part of my original take? Well, Messmer is a demigod. But what originally got me thinking about this was the winged serpents. If you look at his character model, they run through his shoulders and exit from his spine and one shoulder blade. They can be held like (admittedly fucked up) wings, not to mention they have wings themselves. To me, that reads as angel.

It’s interesting to me that fire (vengeance) insta-cursed Messmer. Because that’s true to life. You can’t end cycles of violence by killing/hurting just One More Guy. If your only purpose in life is revenge, of fucking course you’re gonna end up with The Horrors gnawing at your soul.

That’s pretty much all I have for elaboration on my original take. Hope this helps 👍

TLDR: there is no canon evidence for the original post, I just like interpreting winged serpent positioning and fire symbolically and got “damn he’s an angel of vengeance.”

If you’re wondering why I’m like this: it’s because I’ve read Carrie, so now I get way too into religious vengeance in media since it reminds me of that book.

Bonus: biblically accurate angel vibes from all the eyes on the base serpent

Marika trying to create an angel of vengeance and instead accidentally laying a curse on her firstborn because Cycle of Violence is so….yeah. I don’t have the words right now to express this more articulately oops

[bowenoke]

you'd think a timeloop of mouthwashing would go so hard but unfortunately i think to remain true to the source material. the crew member stuck in the time loop WOULD have to be jimmy

[skrunksthatwunk]

landing

[canisalbus]

When Machete became a cardinal, did his parents ever recognize him?

Machete's home village was on the other side of Italy (and separated by the sea no less) and it was small, relatively rural and remote. It's very unlikely many news about Holy See's happenings made their way there. I don't think his parents had any reason to expect to ever hear about him again, he seemed to be somewhat of a lost cause when they dropped him off.

[brosif40]

THROW IT BACK MY SCARAB

[hana-bobo-finch]

Shoutout to this draft I made a couple hours ago when I suddenly had an epiphany for how I could fix a part of my story and I was so excited that the only way I could express it is to write whatever this is but I couldn’t post it because I didn’t have internet

also it got marked as mature for some reason

[rosemaze-reveries]

thinking about matthias having a sensitivity to hearing you call his name 😣♡ he can't remember the last time he heard someone say it so passionately. most people just opt for "mr. czernin" out of polite distance. calling him matthias might seem like a no brainer to you once you cross a certain threshold w/ him but his heart flutters a bit every time,, it's a welcome reminder that he is still visible to someone out there. ofc, he's good at hiding the impact it has on him

[wundrousarts]

Going to do a Nevermoor series reread in June + July + August ? if anyone else also wants to do a reread around that time, could be fun to have more of the fandom prepping for Silverborn

Did initially make a roadmap plan to split the books up into weeks on top of already being months, so that people could focus on specific parts and discuss each week….. but between the fact that I messed it up the first time, Silverborn kept getting delayed as I planned it, and I’m actually really bad at keeping to stuff like that (looking at you, Silverborn Countdown Challenge…) I’m deciding to just go for it at whatever pace happens.

[anneangel]

The news in the original media: The third season of Good Omens will have just one 90-minute movie episode. The news in the media in my country: the third season of Good Omens has been CANCELED and will now only have a 90-minute special.

[mint-mango]

matchablossom soulmate au!

the red string of fate ties two people together, but the ability to see the thread is a rare trait

10 pages of comic below!

[augustatheghost]

i don’t know what you guys are all complaining about i love that svu has vaporized olivia from woman on the verge to lady cragen

[bearer-of-anguish]

Oshi no Ko(u) doodle!!!! I don't watch the anime but the op is such a banger I've been obsessed with it 😭 it also fits kou so well imo!!

(also yes. I am Aware of the hands. Might fix it in the future if I ever decided to render it, or give him justice and draw more than a doodle, but for now, simply ~~look away~~~)

[dyrewrites]

I finished Before Deluca.

220k words, as I suspected.

So much revision will be needed.

But it's done.

So...I go cry now yes.

I will add chapters to the cohost periodically and link em still. This way maybe some of you can tell me what to take out for that ungodly wordcount. >.>

→Before Deluca Taglist<-

// feel free to ask to be added or removed ^.- //

@watermeezer @starbuds-and-rosedust @thespacelizard

@your-absent-father @mr-orion @cowboybrunch @olliexwrites

@rowanmgrey-author @the-golden-comet @wyked-ao3 @leahnardo-da-veggie

@lychhiker-writes @aziz-reads @mthollowell-writes

[lokh]

what i did: make a really long hair 'ribbon' that i would have to actually wrap around the bun and then my head and somehow tie it up

what i should have done: not that