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sparrowsabre7 · 4 years ago

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Ok this was in my drafts from ages ago and I forgot to post so it’s here now:

So with Arkham Knight completed I wanted to discuss the story and some of the things I liked about the plot.

For my money Arkham City is the most entertaining of the series plot-wise. It is wide in scope, incorporating a large group of Batman’s rogues, with a lead villain who has a commanding presence. It is the quintessential Batman plot, full of twists, focusing on his dynamic with the Joker and is a big ‘ol actionfest.

Arkham Knight’s plot on the other hand is quite pedestrian by comparison looking at the villain plot: Scarecrow wants to take down Batman and cause chaos in Gotham and a mysterious new villain appears to help. From this standpoint, Arkham Knight is nothing special. However, as a character study of Batman, it goes much deeper than any of the previous games, and deeper even than any of the films. Most of those dealt with “Why does Bruce Wayne become Batman?” whereas Knight asks the question “What does it mean to BE Batman?”

In this respect “Be the Batman” is more than just a marketing tagline. We really delve into what makes Batman and Bruce Wayne tick and their relationships with the world, their allies, and enemies.

We’re going to delve into big spoiler territory now so be ye warned.

Batman in this game is in an interesting place. Crime is supposedly lower than ever when Scarecrow’s plan starts falling into place, yet he’s hitting criminals harder than ever, working tirelessly in his war on crime. His modifications to the Batmobile make this immediately apparent, adding numerous heavy weapons and armour. One of the unlockable Arkham stories indicates that adding more weaponry has been something Batman has fought for years, according to Lucius, but he had a change of heart some point between City and Knight. We learn soon enough that Batman is on borrowed time. His blood is still infected with Joker’s own and is actually beginning to turn him. This is his last assault on crime, one final push if a cure cannot be found. As a result, he is pushing his allies further away than ever. This alienation was seen in a small way in the epilogue DLC “Harley Quinn’s Revenge”, keeping Robin at arm’s length and mostly avoiding contact with his allies entirely.

This is one of the key themes of the whole game and, personally, if I were to choose one word to sum up Arkham Knight it would be “family”. “Asylum”, “City”, and “Origins” were all solo efforts on Batman’s part, with some input in his ear from Oracle and Alfred, and a brief appearance by Robin. This is the first game to really have the Bat-family on board proper and this really informs a lot of the game and Batman’s motivations.

He pushes them away because he knows he’s dying. He pushes them away because he wants them to get used to the idea of him being gone. Most importantly, he pushes them away because he believes this will keep them safe. This is underlined when Scarecrow’s fear toxin kicks in. Thanks to the hallucinations provided by it, we are shown two of Batman’s greatest failures in his eyes, along with his raison d’etre: the crippling of Barbara Gordon, the torture and murder of Jason Todd, and the death of his parents. The former two are clearly never far from the dark knight’s thoughts and show why he genuinely does fear for his allies safety. This ends up, in the obvious ironic twist, putting them in greater danger. By keeping them at arm’s length and withholding his plans, the Batman is a less effective force. He doesn’t consider that they are safest together, working as a team. His allies come to his rescue a couple of times during the course of the game, Nightwing saving him from Penguin’s thugs, Catwoman saving him from an unwinnable fight against The Riddler, Oracle aiding him during the defence of the GCPD and Robin not saving him per se, but defusing some of the Johnny Charisma’s bombs while Batman is unable to move.

Another key subplot is Batman vs Joker. Even after his death, through his blood and the fear toxin, Joker is resurrected as a hallucination, a dark Jiminy Cricket pestering and needling the caped crusader at every turn. This is the ultimate Joker, no less potent for not being “real”. He represents everything Batman hates and fears, because he is not only The Joker, but the darkest parts of Batman’s mind, all the what ifs, the maybe should’ves, all of this tumbles out of Joker’s mouth, taunting the dark knight with his own insecurities. It shows Batman’s human side a lot more than any previous game, shows he can be afraid, he does have doubts, can fail, can falter. This is something which clearly plays across his mind throughout the game and leads him to the ultimate conclusion of the game which I will touch on in a bit.

The Joker has always been key to the Batman mythos. He was that in Batman #1 so nearly as long as the Batman has been in existence. Having him manifest as a facet of Batman’s subconscious is both a neat narrative trick (and way to skirt the “Joker is dead” thing without cheapening the end of “City”) and a useful dynamic in explaining who Batman is. Much of his existence has been spent battling The Joker and it’s clear that there is a side of Batman in “Knight” that almost misses him in a sense. His presence also plays up the yin-yang of their relationship and eventually culminates quite literally in a battle in Batman’s psyche.

Near the game’s ending Scarecrow unmasks Batman and injects him with a heavy dose of fear toxin. This causes Joker’s personality to be brought to the fore but at the same time empowers Batman’s own power of fear, showing the clown prince of crime his own greatest nightmare: being forgotten. This is ultimately delivered personally by Batman, bursting from the shadows of his own mind and subduing the Joker side, locking him away forever, enforcing this with the time tested phrase “I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman.” This is said, as another blogger pointed out, as much to himself as to The Joker. This is a declaration that he is Batman, he is no longer Bruce Wayne. To paraphrase “Batman Begins”, as Bruce Wayne he can fail, be killed, and simply die, which is when we come to the ending.

Upon the final villains being rounded up he initiates the Knightfall protocol and removes his mask. This is a clear symbolic gesture as he is leaving Batman behind on the rooftop with the Batsignal and reverting to Bruce Wayne. He flies back to Wayne Manor and it explodes, destroying the whole building. It’s not made explicit but it’s fairly evident that Bruce has faked his death, very publicly killing Bruce Wayne, now that he has been revealed as the alter ego of Batman. Gordon’s narration states that “this is how the Batman died” but it’s really how Bruce Wayne died.

The final scene shows Thomas, Martha and young Bruce Wayne stand-ins walking down an alley past a theatre, visually recreating Batman’s origin. There’s a gunman, there are broken pearls, this is the birth of Batman as we remember. This time however, Batman already exists. A shadow appears on the rooftop behind the criminals, towering high before spreading shadowy wings and fiery demon eyes alighting as it swoops towards them and cuts to black. It’s clear this is more than a symbolic statement as the criminals react to this “Knightmare” and are clearly terrified. Ultimately it’s up to interpretation, but I think, either it is The Batman in his purest form, shed of the Bruce Wayne identity, free to be more than human (with the use of Scarecrow’s fear toxin apparently), or it simply a psychological manifestation. After Scarecrow’s gas flooded Gotham’s streets, perhaps the residual effects left a lingering memory of Batman that was burned into their consciousness.

Either way it’s a true and final realisation of Bruce Wayne’s goal for the Batman. To become something eternal, supernatural even, that will watch over an protect

#batman #arkham knight #games #arkham trilogy

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pendragyn · 4 years ago

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First Line Tag

I was tagged by @gaslightgallows

Rules: Post the first lines of your last ten fics read or written and then tag others to do the same.

Tagging: @raevenlywrites @froglesbianwriting @mperialscribe @teaflint @writingamongthecoloredroses @moniquill @napoleonscat and I know I am forgetting people, please join in on the fun and tag me if you do!

So.. Er, haven’t read much of anything but my own stuff on AO3, trying to get back into writing because everything sucks rn. It’s Good Omens with a dash of Discworld all the way down, below the cut.

In The Garden; pre-fall, pre-canon fic of them in the Garden of Eden.

BEFORE THE BEGINNING...

…Was darkness. That’s what happens when the sun isn’t up, and as it was almost the middle of the night —the first night, leading into the first day in the Garden of Eden— darkness was only to be expected.

The Great Plan was being set in motion. The countdown to start the countdown to the end of the world had begun. Things were getting down to the wire and the Heavens were in a tizzy to make sure everything went off without a hitch during the official launch.

Down in the Garden of Eden, all was peaceful. This was also to be expected. The only living beings in the entire Garden were two corporeal but unconscious angels reposing among the roots of the Tree. They’d been held in stasis since their incorporation a number of days earlier and weren’t due to wake until things were officially under way. Ostensibly this was to allow them to acclimate to corporeality, but in reality it was to keep them out of everyone’s metaphorical hair.

Of course, even the best laid plans never do go quite as planned, do they?

There was no Heavenly fanfare heralding the occasion, no Celestial sign except the eternal march of the stars across the sky, nothing at all to indicate that something was being set into motion as midnight of the day in question rolled around.

But down in their resting spots, the angels awoke.

Serpents And Ladders; what happens after the end of In The Garden.

After the fall of the Garden, for the first time that any could remember, change came rapidly to Heaven in the form of the instant adoption of corporeal forms amongst most of the archangels, much to the bafflement of some of the oldest Celestials who were gently prodded to a quiet retirement out among the stars. Heaven itself shifted to accommodate their altered forms, which forced the rest of the Celestials and the Elementals who did most of the day to day operations to adopt similar seemings.

Of course, Aziraphale and Crawly knew why it caught on, not that anyone ever thought to ask them. The reasoning was simple enough, if multi-faceted. Firstly, corporeality is a surprisingly potent antidote to knurd[1], with built in buffers against the harshness of reality. Really no surprise that it was popular.

Secondly, Celestial beings come in a great many shapes and sizes and types and having them all conform to one generally accepted shape was much more convenient, especially when it came to paperwork. (No one knew where paperwork had come from, since paper was technically not a thing yet, but there you go. It’s ineffable.)

Thirdly, with the increasing tensions between certain factions within the Host, having your firmament safely ensconced inside of flesh and bone made it that much harder to be spied on, making secrets that much easier to keep, especially once they discovered how to hide their wings.

And last but not least, though it took Aziraphale and Crawly a long while to fully comprehend the ramifications of it, it was because the humans began to believe, in great enough numbers, that that was how Heaven and the Host looked.

1. Being knurd is to be unintoxicated to such an extent that all comfort stories are stripped away from the mind. This makes you see the world in a way 'nobody ever should', in all its harsh reality.

Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls (It Tolls For They); the church in ‘41 and what happens, and doesn’t happen, after. (total tearjerker)

Crowley ran, ran and ran, heart pounding, almost blind with panic, hissing with pain as their foot hit the edge of consecrated ground, but it didn’t matter, because they were in time and like a snake shedding their skin the panic slipped away as they yanked open the door and hot-footed their way into the church under the confused eyes of a trio of nazis and an angel moments away from a fate worse than death.

A church, for fuck’s sake? Can’t the angel see it’s a setup? A trap? Dealing with nazis on holy ground, giving them holy books, even if it’s supposed to be a double-cross, a double double-cross. “Sorry, consecrated ground. Ugh, like being on the beach in bare feet.” Crowley fervently kept that thought in mind, because in reality, it was far far worse than that. Crowley was very good at imagining not being on fire, and that belief was all that was keeping them from falling to ash inside that church.

Aziraphale continued to stare at Crowley in shock, for a moment wondering if they were actually hallucinating the way humans could during moments of high stress. Because consecrated ground discorporates demons, and yet. And yet, Crowley was somehow really here. Why the he heaven is Crowley here? “What are you doing here?” Aziraphale hissed, the nazis and the gun momentarily forgotten.

“Stopping you from getting in trouble,” Crowley hissed back, dancing from foot to foot just an arm’s length away from Aziraphale. Play it cool, play it cool, play it cool, if you panic you’re both done for.

Stacking The Deck;

Harriet wanted to be asleep. She’d just had a baby a few hours earlier, and all she really wanted was sleep. They had given her something for the pain, but it didn’t stop her having to use the restroom, which was NOT FUN right now, and it took a while for things to settle back down and she just. wanted. sleep.

What she got, was voices.

A few she recognized, distant and muzzy, as the nuns who’d helped deliver the baby. There was also the one not-nun who’d shuffled in during the chaos, wrinkly as an old apple with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, who had actually delivered the baby before quickly shuffling back out again. The nuns had treated her with deep respect, whispering to each other about ‘a touch of the Old Adam’ she carried about her.

There was now a lot more raucous laughter coming from down the hallway, and some singing of what were definitely not religious hymns. Mingled in were the voices of men, which some deep part of her brain realized were from her supposed security detail, who’d abandoned her the minute the live feed with her husband had ended.

But under those voices was another voice, one that she’d learned to listen to when it whispered a little too loudly to ignore. And it was telling her to check on the baby, to check on Warlock. Right Now.

With a muffled groan Harriet slid her legs over the side of the bed and eased herself to her feet. With the dimmed lights and muddled by whatever they had given her, it took her a moment to realize that the bassinet wasn’t there. No Warlock. And no guards. And no nuns.

The coolness of the linoleum felt good against the bottoms of her feet and she shuffled dreamily out of the room into the empty hallway, too well medicated to feel panic, but the little voice was getting louder. And it was talking with an odd accent, which was weird. And it was calling her by her full name now, which was even more unusual. Find your baby, Harriet Sibyl Dowling. Find him now or lose him forever.

Nature vs Nurture; raising the antichrist

After the handshake, Crowley left in a hurry to set some of their plans into motion, with promises of talking soon and a casual ciao tossed over their shoulder before slipping out of the shop and roaring off down the road. What Aziraphale didn’t see was the demon pulled over a few blocks later, pressing their forehead against the steering wheel of the Bentley and letting out a shuddering sigh of relief that the angel had finally, finally, agreed to help them save the world. And wondered, briefly, if God hadn’t been right to kick Crowley out, because how much of a right proper bastard did you have to be to knowingly ask your best friend to do the most dangerous thing they could ever possibly do?

Aziraphale’s first course of action was to make sure the shop door was locked before retreating into the back room to think, away from the demon’s so very temping influence. It didn’t take the angel long to convince themself that it had to be the right thing to do, because otherwise it wouldn’t be hell starting the war, but heaven, and surely heaven didn’t want a war. Once that was settled, Aziraphale began to really set their mind to finding the solutions to the multitude of problems their scheme would surely entail. The second course of action was to retrieve the ancient tome of magic they kept safely secured in a secret room on the second floor of the shop and settling it reverently on to the desk to start their research.

Setting Things To Rights; Adam Young gets a visit from Agnes Nutter after the world doesn’t end.

“Come back. Please.”

Adam stared down at his best friends in the whole universe, sure his heart was breaking as they turned and ran away. He knew then he’d messed up bad, maybe beyond fixing. He tried to call them back, to beg even, but no sound would come and he closed his eyes against the sting of tears. Come back! Please! he wanted to say, pressing his hands to his tear-dampened face. I’m sorry!

You don’t need them. You can have new friends. Better friends. All you have to do is show us the way.

A low growl and a familiar waft of doggy breath as a wet tongue lapped at his cheek had Adam opening his eyes, and he hugged Dog tightly in relief. “Oh Dog! I’m so glad you’re here,” he whispered hoarsely, smiling when Dog licked him again. “I am sorry, you know that, don’t you?”

Dog whined and licked him again in answer.

“Thanks boy.” Adam let out a much heavier sigh and rubbed at his eyes when tears threatened again. The dream had been so real, too real, more memory than dream, and frightening in ways he didn’t want to think about. It hurt, knowing he’d hurt his friends so bad they’d stopped being his friends. And even though they’d forgiven him in the end, would they ever really trust him again? Especially when he could still do what he’d done? Would he trust someone who had done that to him?

In the silence there were two faint but distinct knocks that Adam heard clear as a bell. Dog’s ears perked up and Adam blinked and they both looked around the room for a source of the noise. There wasn’t much light but it was more than enough to show that nothing was out of place.

Still, Adam found himself saying, “Who’s there?”

A faint glimmering form stepped through the door. It was an old woman, dressed in really old clothes. “I have waited a long while for this meeting, Adam Young.” She bowed at him, a faint smile on her lips. “I be Agnes Nutter, witch. And ghost.”

Ineffable Bastards; the one I’m stuck on. :/

Groaning brakes pulled Crowley from their thoughts and they led Aziraphale off the bus, waiting until it had pulled away to turn towards their building. There was a sharp twinge in their stomach when they looked to the empty spot where the Bentley was usually parked. They felt another twinge when they looked at Aziraphale, who was staring up at the building with a distant blankness of expression that Crowley understood all too well. “C’mon, angel, I think we could both use a drink.”

No sound came at first, but Aziraphale managed to croak out, “Yes,” after a moment. They felt strangely distant from their feelings in the odd silence and they trailed behind the demon into the flat, which was both nothing like and exactly like what Aziraphale would expect from Crowley. The art got a few blinks but there was no energy to consider what they might mean after the day week decade they’d had.

Unlike the bare concrete walls in the other rooms, the kitchen was slick with creamy white marble and terrazzo tiles, ebony cabinets that gleamed and stainless steel appliances that had never been used or even plugged in, though they were well stocked with food and drink. Crowley grabbed a bottle at random and a couple of glasses, bringing them over to the chrome and glass table with a small collection of colorful orchids in the center. “Salute.”

The angel lifted their glass to toast before downing the drink and holding it out for a refill. Crowley obliged and they sat in silence for a while before Aziraphale asked, “Now what?”

“Eh, now I fall down and sleep for a while and you…” Crowley pulled off their glasses and gave the angel a long look. “You don’t really sleep do you? You should try it, great for getting away from your thoughts.”

“Rarely. Doesn’t seem to work that way for me, I’m afraid.” Aziraphale sighed and shook their head. “I just keep thinking about Agnes’ prophecy. Face the fire.” They shuddered a little. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

Rubbing at their tired eyes, and the sting of unsheddable tears, Crowley nodded. “You’re in big trouble, angel.”

“You know full well we’re both, as they say, in for it,” Aziraphale corrected, smiling a little when Crowley gave them a look. “I’ve toed the line for a long time, but you, my dear, have danced around it to the point that I’m not sure they even know where they drew the line to begin with. If Heaven is going to ‘fire’ me, what’s Hell going to do to you?” Saying it aloud had tears burning in their eyes and they wiped at them hastily.

Wilde Card; my take on why Aziraphale had a set of Oscar Wilde’s works.

“Aziraphale?”

“Hmm?”

Crowley tried to find a subtle way to ask, but curiosity had been eating at them to the point of distraction since the former angel had let slip that humans could have preternatural ancestry. “When you said, you’d never… with a human.”

Aziraphale gave them a confused look that melted into amused understanding when they realized Crowley was blushing. “My dear, are you asking me about my experiences?”

“Uh… Just, I seem to recall you mentioning a lot of gentleman’s clubs...” Crowley let their head drop back against the couch and covered their face when Aziraphale chuckled. “Ugh, angel!”

“I won’t judge you, you know,” Aziraphale murmured, smiling tenderly when Crowley looked at them. “If you, uh, found human companionship-”

“No! Ugh, no, it’d be like… no, I can’t help but think of them as children,” Crowley admitted. “Even Nanny Ogg, which tells you something about me I suppose,” they said, making Aziraphale laugh.

“I am in complete agreement with that sentiment,” said Aziraphale. “And it wasn’t just gentleman's clubs I frequented, there were quite a few for women if you knew where to look and who to talk to. You do know a lot more went on in the clubs than just sexual intercourse, don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah, I should’ve known better, just, uh...” Crowley reached over and took Aziraphale’s hand. “There must have been quite a few poor smitten fools vying for your attention.”

Apple Of My Eye; complete fluff I wrote because of a pic I saw on tumblr

Crowley looked up from their mobile, barely able to contain their grin. “Hey, angel-”

“No.” Aziraphale didn’t even have to look up from the book they were reading to know the former demon was up to no good.

“I haven’t even said anything yet!” Crowley protested, still grinning at seeing the amusement crinkling around the reformed angel's eyes.

Aziraphale looked over at them with a feigned put-upon sigh. One look at Crowley’s grin had them asking, “Oh somebody, do I even want to know?”

If anything, that only made Crowley’s grin grow. “So I’m thinking maybe it’s time I branch out, try some different styles of shades. Whaddya think?”

Aziraphale spluttered into startled laughter when Crowley turned the mobile around, revealing a pair of spectacles where the rose tinted lenses had been shaped into breasts. “Why in the world-”

“Ain’t humans grand?” Crowley said, grinning down at the picture before sliding a sly look at Aziraphale and raising a hand, fingers poised to snap. “I could just…”

“You would too, wouldn’t you,” Aziraphale said with a shake of their head, pretending to go back to reading but watching Crowley sidelong. “Well I would rather you didn’t but I can’t stop you from going around looking, looking like a right proper tit if you want to,” they said with feigned primness, barely hiding their smile when Crowley laughed. “I wouldn’t want you to make a spectacle of yourself.”

“Alright angel, alright, you’ve convinced me. Wouldn’t want to put you off being seen with me.” It was a joke, mostly, and Crowley was still grinning as they said it, but inwardly that age old doubt still lingered.

Aziraphale knew it was there of course, having many of the same insidious worries about their new togetherness, and gave them a fond smile. “I assure you my dear, that having adored you in spite of that dreadful hairstyle you had in Paris, I would barely blink to see you in a pair of breastacles.”

Crowley blushed at the mention of adoration, sneered at mention of the hair and burst into raucous laughter at the name. “Only you’d think up a proper sounding name for it. Breastacles. Brilliant.” They darted in and grinningly kissed them. “And here I thought you’d appreciate me seeing the world through rose-titted glasses. But, as you wish.”

Aziraphale laughed and beamed at the phrase, taking their hand and lacing their fingers together. “Thank you, dearest. For everything. And especially for sparing everyone that.”

#Good Omens #good omens fanfic #snippet #first line tag #tag game #Pendragyn writes #long post #readmore #ao3 #Ineffable Bastards

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archtroop · 5 years ago

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Supernatural ENDS - A Darkness!Dean & God!Sam Ending MetaTheory

As Supernatural enters its final a story arc, there have been many theories of the possible ending for the Winchester brothers. Me, personally, I've theorized it before, but now, that the idea of killing/eliminating both God and Amara was made literal within the show – I would like to humor and toy with this idea once more – and with feeling – of the ending being God!Sam & Darkness Dean.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you -

Supernatural: A Divine Comedy

FICTION BECOMES YOU (Is that a Misery thing?)

The brothers were written as God's way of dealing with his own issues with his beloved other half – The Darkness. But when I say “Brothers” I mean not only Sam and Dean: Before them there were Michael & Lucifer (and I would also suggest that the discrepancy presented through the seasons regarding who is the older brother and who is the younger may actually suggest they are a set of twins, foils, literally, figuratively and in any other way, and thus – stand first and foremost on equal grounds); Cain and Abel – whose story was altered by Lucifer's intervention – be it Chuck's intent or not – and Finally – Dean & Sam themselves.

There is actually one more couple I could think of who weren't mentioned but may have just been another set of Chuck's machination: Adam and Eve. The show obviously shied away from this parallel, but it did parallel Dean and Sam with their own parents. It's not that far fetched and I'll explain my reasoning later on.

In various myths of creations, in all cultures – pagan and monotheistic alike – the duality and the fraternity of two entities that are also a couple is very common: Morduch and Tiamat, Isis and Osiris and you google it. Morduch and Tiamat are especially interesting in this regard – since Tiamat is water and skies and the Primordial Goddess of Chaos – she is defeated by Morduch – who is the God of the Land - and thus earth is created. Well you get the picture.

My point is, Dean and Sam (notice I'm flipping the order of the names on purpose) are the last link in a series of sets, and in Chuck's perspective – they are his best and most enjoyable ones. In a very convoluted, subversive Supernatural-esque way – they are also unkillable to a certain degree – they have a free will too strong, and Chuck can't seem to bend them to his own will. Dean and Sam won't kill each other under no circumstances. And this drives Chuck towards madness.

The thing about free will and godly intent is that – as a Jewish saying goes - “everything is predestined, but permission is granted” - means God will not bend free will. He will give you all the roads less traveled, all the hints and clues and goading, but you are still free to choose. Also he knows what you may choose, unless you choose otherwise. It's a paradox of sorts, and that is exactly the point.

With Michael and Lucifer Chuck sought to have his own story under control. But Lucifer wouldn't comply. Lucifer, the Light Bringer, is actually a Chuck parallel. Chuck, too, had to have his own way. Michael, forever loyal to the order of things – just like The Darkness is – followed orders. And thus, Lucifer, cursed with the mark that held the Darkness (about that later on, too) - fell. My sympathy for the Devil in this case is that – Lucifer showed great free will (in the Supernatural mythology, by that point Lucifer was the carrier of The Mark, but I would give him the benefit of the doubt and allow Lucifer act on his accord regarding the rebellion). Lucifer's free will is immense: He had an actual, personal opinion, while it was an unfathomable notion to any other angel at the time. Lucifer sought the love and approval of his absent father – who was eternally immersed in his work. When he couldn't achieve that – he rebelled. Interesting to think of that in regards of young and willful Sam. Pride – was also a trait Lucifer and Sam shared. Sam had the audacity to step out, and he acted upon his free will. He rebelled. Sam, too, was “marked”, but was that the Demon Blood in him, or was it his free will? God's hypocrisy is also very apparent in this – angels are not to have free will, as it is not meant for them. Yet, they are capable, and are punished for acting upon it, be it benevolent or malevolent.

Adam and Eve followed. There are actually two separate tales in the bible regarding the emergence of mankind: The first depicts Adam and Eve as made equal and in God's image. The second one – tells the story that features the rib. Canonization of the bible by men preferred to emphasize the later – out of obvious reasons. Yet if you look closely and read carefully – the first one is still there. What is interesting about this duality is the idea of Nature vs. Nurture emerging: the Nature of Adam and Eve is equal. But the nurture – societal tale – is not. This is interesting especially in regards of Dean and Sam here – their predestined nature was neutral - a big brother. A younger brother. Just another family. But God's machinations, Azazel's plan (remember free will?) and the angels all together – created a “rib”: The story diverted, in a way that Dean not only fulfilled the role of a brother, but also acted as the mother, the father and anything else in between in a way – Sam grew out from under Dean's wing – from his rib, to be at his side. The roads all together lead to a situation, in which, by the time Mark Of Cain came up, Sam was not just the Abel of the story, But also the Colette. This toppled the story over, and prevented the ending Chuck was constructing.

Also, Adam Milligan was a reenactment of Seth – the third brother of Cain and Abel. Seth was born to replace the brother that died, and this is literally his only predestination. Within the show, Adam Milligan ends up as Michael's vessel, but if we go back, and think about god's great plan – it is most likely he would've thought of a backup for Lucifer's vessel – since the trait of pride and rebellion would've been the vessel's predisposition. Azazel had similar thought's actually. See my Azazel meta for more musings.

Adam ending up as Michael's vessel was one of the first chinks in God's plan. Dean and Sam had it their way, as did the angels and the demons. And God liked that story, he really did. But he was not satisfied. His characters surprised him. But they were also disobedient.

While Sam is the one who is constantly defined by his eternal faith (which is kinda proudfull on its own), he himself feels “unclean” and “unworthy”. Yet as long as he has Dean – he would have enough “Faith” for them both. In many ways, Sam's path to godhood was well paved from the start: he is the Saint, the Sacrificial Body, the one to take upon himself the sins of others. Many times he is the Jesus, the Messiah. Sam mourns the few even if he saved the most. He is the God humanity would've wanted – the God who is on the side of humanity, the God we deserve.

Dean, on the other hand, is The Righteous Man, the one to call the shots, most of the time, the one to be right about many things again and again. And this is not about doing the right thing, it's about being right about the nature of the thing. He basically embodies naked truth, a chaotic, primordial truth. In other words, if Sam is conscience, compassion and forgiveness – Dean is raw judgement, truths and facts (in fact, “Dean” in Hebrew – and thus in the bible – means “judgement”). They both comprise together flesh and spirit – body and Soul. Of course, this is not cut and dry, and their traits crisscross between them throughout the story.

When Dean took upon himself The Mark Of Cain, he became the carrier of The Darkness. He was the body that released her, he became the mother of The Darkness on the earthly plain. Darkness is matter and nothingness. God – is creation, spirit, soul. He en-souls earth with life. The Darkness is very much a mother earth figure, the material from which creation could happen. Sam is what gives Dean his motivation, his life. Without Sam, Dean is a sorrowful walking corpse. Without Dean, Sam is a soulless shell of a human being, vicious and remorseless. They keep each other human, sane.

The Mark in itself, embodied the rage of an entity trapped for eons. It drives the host mad with basic carnal desire and strips it of all its virtues. Demon!Dean embodies this. It's a cry for help. Amara screaming for freedom. In a way it is somewhat of an allegory to pagan beliefs and old faiths screaming in agony as Christianity crashes and tramples them. It manifests as this natural catastrophe of sorts, cruel and unpredictable. After all, vices are born from desires being locked away and ignored.

SAM AS THE CREATOR; JACK'S FREE WILL

God may have created all things, but his prime virtue is giving choice, and presenting his creations with numerous paths. Sam is this. Jack was born predominantly an evil creature (which is not entirely true – Lucifer was an archangel first, Satan – later. In closer look, he embodies free will and the freedom of thought). Dean was right about Jack being dangerous, about him bringing discord and hurt. But Sam was the one to insist on the fact that Jack is part human, and he has as equal chance at goodness. As much as Castiel was to be the one to raise Jack and influence him, he ended up being the one to insure his corporeal emergence of all things. This is in itself a beautiful thought: Castiel “fall” is about becoming less of a wavelength of celestial intent and more and more of a human being. His pull towards Dean, which is undeniable, in my opinion, is his longing to become a whole complete creature – by defending Kelly till the very end and ensuring the birth of humanity, Castiel embodies a very corporeal form of evolution.

But it is Sam who molds Jack the most: He gives him CHOICE. Dean, with time, comes to terms with Jack and who he is and may be. In this metaphor – Sam is God, Dean is The Darkness and Jack – is humanity and creation. Jack may bring discord and hurt, but as well may bring joy and hope. Jack in his turn invokes himself a guiding figure: Castiel, who is there to be by his side, an actual, real and corporeal guardian angel. He is the godfather figure, in this metaphor. The faith humans put in whatever there is other then God; a set of rules, a spiritual guide. It's beautiful on it own: Sam is to give Jack choice, but the angel – is the one to grace Jack with conscience.

“I AM TIRED”; DEAN'S SOLACE IS AMARA'S WISH

When the line “there will be peace when you are done” is ever uttered, we must recall a very specific thing: While Sam, as a Messiah figure, rises his head again and again, Dean is the one to repeat how tired he is. To actually be frustrated at having to save everybody. To be running on fumes. Time and time again, it comes up – he is torn between the duty and the longing for quite, and to close his eyes. He is a death seeker. Sam is forever hopeful, and hope is the last to die, if Sam's hope runs out – everything falls apart – Dean will shoot himself (Croatoan) or worse. When Amara came to Dean in a shroud of blackness, she offered him to be one with her. To receive an eternal rest. It reminded me of Jewish burial: the body is thoroughly cleaned and wrapped in white shrouds, then lowered into a hole in the ground. No coffins – you are to become one with the earth. Your soul is to depart and to be placed with all the rest of the souls in the “bundle of lives”. Amara goes on and says that the souls she consumed live inside her, and are at peace. And Dean is tempted, he is pulled towards her and her words. But he can never rest, for there is work to be done. He is cursed to feel responsible.

One other thing that makes Dean and Amara compatible, is their choice of freedom: Amara, as a free entity (and I mean – free from any and all inhibitions) indulges in humane activities, rather then trying to, say, take over or plot further revenge. Dean, too, is actually a very carnal, tactile physical being. In many ways, Dean embraces humane vices, as things that just exist – he acknowledges the joys of flesh (even though it is not his primary longing), and that furthermore positions him as an earthly being of raw matter. He may be very judgmental of human choices but not of their cravings.

In the duality of Creation and Nothingness, we now enter the duality of Spiritual and Material. And from the point of view of religiousness – spirituality is the divine, while the carnal is regarded to as vein. In that parallel, The Darkness is all that is ungodly – it does not render it as void (that would be The Abyss – dubbed as The Empty on the show), but rather the foil of Spiritual Divinity: Flesh and Blood.

---------------

To save humanity, our heroes need to stop the God That Has Gone Mad. But since he is woven into the fabric of creation, he cannot be killed – it will cause a great imbalance. Billie's reincarnation as Death could be a foreshadowing: maybe if a reaper is made in Death's image, and the human is made in God's image – the human to annihilate God – will become him? Or, maybe the answer is The Darkness. But will Amara be willing to hurt her younger kin? Micheal turned on Lucifer at God's will. Cain killed Abel out of necessity (to save his soul); but Dean wouldn't kill Sam for neither of those reasons. He would have Sam corrupt or not but alive. Maybe a pair of soulmates are needed to complete this task – two humans who embody a bond on a metaphysical level, a strong enough bond to hold the balance of the universe with it.

In whatever scenario it goes down, at the end – no way God or The Darkness may exist without the other. A reincarnation of each of the entities would be needed to keep the universe on its feet. Since the idea of heroism has been presented – that would be the perfect heroic balanced act to put an end to the story: Sam taking God's place, and Dean becoming one with The Darkness. By becoming a corporeal manifestations of omnipotent entities, they have the power to save creation and maintain balance, while never loosing each other. Sam as the new God, is no more the writer, as much as he is An Archivist (A Men of Letters), Dean obtains inner peace within all the turmoil he is bound to carry throughout his life; to roam the earth and indulge in it, in its vices and virtues alike. God and The Darkness were never The Good and The bad, for Choice is both – but rather Spirit and Matter. The Darkness is an advocate of the Matter (as we actually get a glimpse of her, enjoying life among humans in the beginning of S15). God is the advocate of the spirit. Darkness!Dean may as well be that random entity that stirs things a certain way to its liking or approval. He may be the Judge and Executioner of those he deems unworthy of creation: him being fully responsible and overprotective of humanity being met with the power to intervene, would be a sight to behold.

And God!Sam? Will be there to answer your prayers and give you a long-time-coming guidance; an entity that advocates autonomy and free will, out of a sense of great purpose and love. An entity of eternal compassion and forgiveness. You can atone your sins before The Darkness, you may serve in Hell for your sins, but it is God's forgiveness you may need to enter Heaven. God!Sam and Darkness!Dean would care enough to negotiate with The Empty for all the souls there, to properly purge them, to give those souls new purpose, as part of creation, be it via reincarnation or raw energy. God!Sam may even remake Heaven in his image – where angels are working hard to help, to guide and protect, Castiel by his side above, Rowena bellow. Darkness!Dean would take it upon himself the cleansing of Purgatory, making it habitable for outcasts, for Darkness!Dean is the one to take in the most lost souls and finding them a place. The various creatures of nightmares and loss and pain would be slowly taken care of; one by one. A harmonious balanced creation may also mean that negativeness like ghosts are inevitable. But the way they are taken care of could be addressed by these newly formed prime entities, and it may be a better way.

But that's a whole other story.

...Oh and the Blackout? Is from Chuck's perspective. This is the ultimate Death of The Author, after all.

---------------

On a personal note, after writing this out, I feel it is too cheery and is a happy ending with an actual stories that might follow and now I suspect that this theory won't hold on the show... Not enough peace.

I suspect Sam gives up his life to annihilate Chuck, and Dean commits suicide. Billie collects their souls, for keeps forever. That would be the other only way to stick it to God and obtain eternal peace. But. Who knows.

Or, S16 is a go for some strange reason, and Sam kills Chuck and takes over as God!Sam but is nowhere to be found, and Dean scouts the Earth and Hell and all of the Heavenly Host with his amulet around his neck hoping it will shine in the presence of God.

-The End-

#supernatural #spn #meta #god!sam #darkness!dean #spn ends #spn ends theory #slight wincest of the canonical variety #free will #choice #jack kline #spirituality vs carnal desires #divinity vs matter #foils #demon!Dean #amara #chuck #the darkness #spn god

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thecloserkin · 5 years ago

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book review: Carolyn Slaughter, Relations (1976)

Genre: Gothic psychological suspense

Is it the main pairing: yes

Is it canon: yes

Is it explicit: yes

Is it endgame: no

Is it shippable: yes

Bottom line: I read this concurrently with Wuthering Heights and allow me to play sommelier—10/10 recommend this wine pairing for maximum gothic extraness. tw: suicide

There’s boatloads of sex but this is not a horny story. It’s a lyrical story—in the sense of expressing direct, spontaneous feeling. Not that a story couldn’t be both (Wuthering Heights is both horny and lyrical) but I actually want to spend a minute defending this book to my past self. The first time I read it, I was unimpressed because Relations wasn’t much of a Love Story. You know the kind I’m talking about, you know the beats you’d expect it to hit: here is a pair of siblings tOrMeNtEd by their iLLiCiT pAsSiOn!!! I mean, the mode isn’t always tragic or dark but even the cream-puff versions of this arc entail some sort of line being crossed or feelings being caught. We are used to characters who begin in initial-state, a journey brings them to end-state and a clear delta separates the two conditions. This book says: fuck that. Fuck change. Fuck growth. My best days are behind me and I’m ok with that because now my brother is lost to me and I give zero fucks about anything else. We have a novel steeped in the symbolism of winter (the season of loss & deadness that is impermeable to change). Our pregnant heroine dreads her impending due date, in part because the child is not her beloved brother’s; but mostly because having a baby is just about the biggest change a body can be subjected to, and she’s actively averse to change. All she wants is her brother back. If you’re looking for characters to fall in love, as in transition from feeling one way to feeling another way, this is most likely not the book for you. But I enjoyed it a whole helluva lot and let me tell you why.

The predominant note of this story is MELANCHOLY. It’s backwards-looking rather than forward-looking, things just keep getting worse and worse for our protagonist and yet she’s unapologetic about what she did: she loved her brother, loves him still and always will. What I admire is that she is steadfast in the face of remorseless despair. Compare these quotes, this one from near the beginning: “I feel listless, often close to tears. I am beset by fiendish pangs.” This is from near the end: “I am hollow, clanging with emptiness; there is no solution.” Do you see what I mean by no delta between initial-state and end-state? I think there is an important distinction between this book and Forbidden, which holds out the promise of a happy ending only to snatch it away at the last minute, in that Relations puts its cards on the table & promises no such thing. It’s melancholy all the way down (well, three-quarters of the way down it transpires this book is in fact a high-concept Folgercest prequel I SHIT YOU NOT friends read it yourself).

In the novel’s present, our girl Catherine is entombed in a emotionally sterile marriage; in the past she grows up warmed by the sun of her brother Christopher’s regard & affection. Slaughter chooses to locate these strands at two crucial points in Cathy’s development—age ten (prepubescent) and age thirty (the age at which women’s “biological clocks” start ticking—this is relevant because Slaughter is writing in the 1970s even if Cathy is living in the late Victorian Era). We should note here that Christopher is older than Catherine by two years, aka the universally acknowledged INCEST SWEET SPOT (I know some of you favor twincest but you are WRONG and I will prove it in my forthcoming monograph on the topic). At age ten, Cathy and Christopher have intercourse for the first time after stumbling on their father’s secret porn stash. The sex is more mechanical than enjoyable, and that’s the point: they start banging out of curiosity, keep banging out of habit, and only later do hormones and feelings kick in. Ten- and twelve-year-olds just don’t get horny the way older kids do, and that is, again, the entire point. Slaughter structures it so the sex happens first (in the very first flashback chapter). The feelings don’t follow, the feelings don’t emerge, the feelings were there all along. What the sex does is seal a secret between the two of them, the secret of their father’s porn stash (hidden in an abandoned wing of the house).

If we turn back to the present, we find Catherine yoked to a man who excites zero feelings in her. By her own admission she married him because “I found him pleasant to listen to and he never made any demands upon me.”These are the qualities that recommend a husband to her—that he impose no psychic demands whatsoever! All her energies are already absorbed in reminiscence lol. We find out he proposed to her with a speech worthy of Pride & Prejudice’s Mr. Collins, and that he possesses not a particle of passion. Which is exactly how Cathy wanted it:

I entered the marriage in a state of apathy; simply undergoing it because of Mamma’s pressure, and because there seemed no other real alternative apart from marriage open to me.

We were married in the winter of my thirtieth year.

I walked down the aisle in a state of complete inertia, my sense muffled by the laudanum … I wished with all my heart he could have been my brother.

File away that glancing reference to winter; more on that later. For now please focus on how numb she is—not discontent, just apathetic. Cathy insists the present brings her nothing but pain and insists she doesn’t regret the choices that brought her here. She’s unrepentant about loving Chris, and explicitly rejects the conventional moral framing that would view her past self as “sinning” and her present self as “redeemed”:

I could not rid myself of the old and over-riding passion of my childhood. I decided eventually that no one would ever, could ever, be what my brother had been to me.

If I could have felt then, and now, that there was some evil in what we did, then I could have borne it. But I could find no evil in it.

I would not be so oppressed if I could but feel my past was wicked and scandalous. If I believed that, i could gladly submit to the institution or the grave. But some buoyant spirit within me keeps insisting that what I had was fine, and contained elements of true beauty.

“The institution or the grave,” she says. Those are the choices. If you want to have Thoughts and Feelings and not just a Body, then your lot as a woman is to end up either in a sanitarium or dead in childbed. Only when she looks back at her childhood does Cathy perceive a time when it was different, when Christopher, at least, saw her as a whole-ass person. Yes, this is another entry in dr. thecloserkin’s ongoing “Incest vs. the Patriarchy” series; if you guys thought I was going to stay off my bullshit for more than ten minutes then joke’s on you hahaha. Here are some quotes that show she was getting her emotional needs met as a child (she’s borderline suicidal as an adult):

leaves me with only the memory of such complete intimacy. It is beyond my reach now, and perhaps I shall never agin recapture it though I live to be ninety.

there was no discord in our interests and desires.

We talked all the time. We never ran out of conversation; I never grew tired of his speech.

It never occurred to me…that we would not always be together. There seemed no need for anyone else—he filled out my present and my past.

Ok so if everything was so idyllic back then what the heck happened? How did it all fall apart? Slaughter withholds the crucial revelatory scene until close to the end, but the story up till then is permeated by a very Gothic sense of creeping dread. The elephant on the horizon is change. Cathy and Chris are on the precipice of puberty, which portends seismic changes in their bodies, and the accompanying changes in their roles as they inch toward adulthood. Cathy doesn’t handle it well:

the old fear. A fear of things changing; of his face looking at me in an unfamiliar way; of our world altering and growing cold about me.

There seemed no question why it should not always continue in this way, and no reason why our bodies or our minds should change or suddenly not fit.

Our life became a little cloister: and I never wanted to leave it. The idea of change haunted me.

I was insisting, always, like a child, the nothing must change; nothing must happen to destroy our life together.

And here is where I connect her fear of change with her favorite season, winter:

I was afraid of change. It seemed menacing. I realized the sadness and bleakness of the winter really suited my nature best. It made me feel more real; sadness now seemed more real than happiness; more permanent, and therefore easier to bear.

the seasons change and find me the same. Nothing touches me, nothing makes me laugh or weep. I have no real substance.

OMG SHE’S A FUCKING REVENANT

”You are so thin. Your limbs are slim as these winter branches.”

I have touched my roots, my beginnings, the things that have formed me.

This book is an anti-change pro-winter manifesto. Winter is the season of desolation, where nothing grows, and if there is one change she adjures above all others it’s the life presently taking root within her womb:

If I am a seed about to burst, if I am to flower, the old seed, my Self, must die. Some new thing will grow out of me; but I must perish. I cannot have it; I cannot allow it to happen. I must protect myself from this that would devour me.

My body continued to change according to its own will, nothing could shift the determined embryo within me … I cannot bear the thought of this thing growing within me, living off my blood … I feel nothing but doom, and a great fear if this shall finally come to pass.

The progress of her pregnancy is literally making her mentally ill. I want to link this horror imagery to child!Cathy’s musings on the decomposition of her father’s corpse:

I wondered if all the flesh had fallen off by this time. I imagined his bones growing into the wood of the coffin, and the trees growing into his skull, the roots twisting around his rotting limbs.

People who read this passage and think “this is a really tight horror aesthetic but what is it doing in the middle of my luscious love story” are missing the point. This is a horror story. But instead of framing the incest as the impure act that violates and threatens our accepted categories, we are invited to view the pregnancy as a gross & unnatural hijacking of Cathy’s body. Her body’s fecundity defeats and puzzles her. She actually tells us about her nightmare wedding before she tells us about her real wedding; in her nightmare she looks at her bridegroom and:

transfixed with horror because he is without the male member — all that resides in the space between his thighs is a burnt-out stub—like the hacked branch of a tree deadened and blacked by many winters.

So far we’ve had body horror associated with (1) her father (2) her husband (3) her unborn baby. Notice who’s not on this list? Notice who she always thinks of with tenderness? Notice who doesn’t ever evoke an iota of fear or horror in Cathy? That’s right! Her brother. The whole incestuous affair is really an own-goal on patriarchy’s part, because the same doctor who warns Cathy’s mother against Cathy’s “wild and unnatural attachment to her brother” goes on to say:

Little girls, Madam, are the scourge of the earth. They have no future, but to grow into that unhealthy state of womanhood, with its unclean festerings and grotesque swellings of the abdomen. I would that little girls could always stay the pure young things they are before the age of eight.

This is some next-level IT WAS EVE’S FAULT SHE ATE THE APPLE spin. Can you blame Cathy for taking this venerable authority figure at his word, and staying “pure” by staying a child, by warding off womanhood and childbearing altogether? goodforher.jpg

Real quick here are some lighthearted episodes from their childhood since it’s not all doom and gloom: Christopher marches next door to confront the Frenchman who is maybe sleeping with their mom and is definitely perving on Cathy. Christopher returns the Frenchman’s gift of silk stockings with a grand declaration of “My sister Catherine has no need for these.” That’s right shut him down Chris!!! Also: Cathy falls into a frozen pond and Christopher rescues her. Their negligent mother blames Christopher. Cathy is shaking with pneumonia and all she wants to do is “make the sad look leave my brother’s sweet face.” Christopher refuses to leave her side until she rallies from the fever. He is thirteen:

I think that Christopher and I half-died together in that terrible week, and afterward, when the terror had passed, we were never quite the children we had been before.

Congrats kids you have undertaken a symbolic journey to the underworld!!!! Good job.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

It wouldn’t be a real incest story without a third sibling, an odd-man-out who helps us triangulate our main pairing’s relationship. Edward is a sociopath and a bully. Parents playing favorites always wreaks havoc with children’s sense of self-worth, but I think in this case it’s 90% down to Edward just being a bad egg (fwiw their father, when he was alive, did favor Christopher). Edward is a peripheral figure for most of their childhood; he appears only to “bang on our door to tell us to be silent for our giggling kept him awake.” That’s right, our door—teenage Catherine and Christopher share not just a room but a bed (!). Edward resurfaces as an adult to beg for Catherine’s intercession with his wife. He married an heiress, and now he seems to have soured on her. He talks about her “malady” and her “hysterical nonsense.” She has “phantom confinements.” They are “phantom” because she is barren. Sir you are literally a Victorian dude named Edward who keeps his mad wife locked up in the attic, you can sit allllll the way down. A heavily pregnant Catherine rolls up to Edward’s house just in time to witness his wife’s suicide: ”I had to make sure there was nothing inside me,” explains the poor woman, lying in a pool of blood after cutting her abdomen open with a knife. This seems fine. This whole society seems fine, right? Catherine reflects: “Ill-health or madness was her only solution, married as she was to a man who so complacently felt himself her superior” and “We are sepulchered alive in this close world, and want more room.” If this applies to her sister-in-law’s tragic fate it applies with equal force to her own situation. Cathy may not be physically barren but her inner life is empty af.

I’m going to talk about the breakup now. The climax of this book is the last time Cathy and Chris have sex. Contrast the arc of many slow-burn stories where the climax is the first time the main pairing has sex. Cathy’s menses doesn’t even arrive until after the incestuous affair is over! And what precipitates the breakup? Well, their mother decides to take the family on a seaside vacation. This is the summer when everything changes (Cathy’s favorite season is winter, and she abhors change). As for what changes, exactly, it’s kind of unclear? Wasn’t like they got caught having beach sex (which they had a ton of). The forces of change are wholly internal. They’re growing up. They’re waking up to the existence of social taboos that will brand their love “unnatural” & worse. As readers we can see that Catherine and Christopher’s attachment is as natural as breathing, and it’s actually the Incest Is Icky crowd that’s drawing harmful artificial boundaries. What happens is there’s a local girl who has obvious designs on Chris. She’s a nonentity but the mere existence of someone outside of Catherine and Christopher, someone who views one of them as an object of sexual desire, sort of punctures the bubble they’ve hitherto been living in. They can’t pretend society doesn’t exist or that what they’re doing isn’t immoral by its lights:

”We have never felt bad before. It just happened and there was no harm in it. I see no harm in it now—I cannot feel suddenly that it is wrong … but even if it is, why does it signify? Nobody knows.” ”Yes, but why does nobody know? It must be because we have deliberately tried to hide it?”

Christopher is the one who unilaterally decides that incest is wrongdirtybad and it has to end. Christopher is the one who seeks out Rando Local Girl and fucks her just to prove how serious he is about ending it with Cathy, which imo was inflicting a pointlessly cruel injury for no reason?? Wtf Chris I thought you were one of the good ones. What I love about Cathy is the steadfastness of her conviction—she accepts Christopher’s decision but she is far from convinced by his reasoning, his deference to social norms. Here’s Cathy’s take: “it seems to me that to live in a way that is contrary to one’s own nature, to live in a way that is false, that is the evil. The discontent grows like a cancer.” Authenticity ought to count for something, no? But these kids and their beautiful love are ultimately outmatched by, and broken by, the weight of social mores:

I could not bear to think of anything changing. I wanted it to stay the same dear way it had always been; ever since I could remember … but the spell was broken; we could not pretend any more. We had to stop being children. “Please. Once more.”

And that’s the breakup scene. It’s devastating. Cathy keeps staring at this one beauty mark on Christopher’s familiar well-loved face and she’s crying and I’m crying too. Recall that they’re still sharing a room/a bed up to this point? “The first night alone was the worst,” says Cathy. Imagine losing the person who is your whole world….overnight. Oof. There’s a time-jump of a few years, and Chris announces he’s off to—I think South Africa? I think this is around the time of the Boer War? I didn’t make any detailed notes and I’ll be damned if I’m going to fish for my copy of the book just to confirm what we already know, that it’s the 1800’s and the sun never set on the British Empire:

”I must get away from here and see something different; begin again…I cannot imagine a day without your face, or your sweet companionship. I do love you. But this must be for the best.”

Christopher goes off to doing colonial-settler stuff, initially. Here’s his first letter home:

I want you to be happy and grow up straight without me.

As opposed to growing up crooked, or growing up gay?? Here are subsequent letters where he seems to have done a complete 180:

thought it would be simpler to be away from you, from the constant temptation. It is not. My nightmares terrify me, they are eating my brain. I don’t know how long this can last.

AND THEN he writes he’ll be coming home for Christmas! I must’ve missed the memo where this story turns into a straight-up Folgers fic but that’s about where we are. It’s literally Folgercest. He goes to Africa explicitly to get away from her. Time and distance cannot suppress their feelings. He comes home to find her still waiting for him:

”Why have you clung to me, or rather the memory of me. For surely the memory is better than this twisted, pathetic creature before you?” “I have found no one better,” I said simply.

Asdfdfkdfjd this reunion scene is heartbreaking bc Christopher and Catherine are barely five minutes in each other’s company before Edward intrudes, claims to have found them in a compromising position, claims to have suspected all along about the incest, almost comes to blows with Christopher, tells him to get out. And Chris does. Cathy doesn’t even get to say goodbye. Edward’s presence is so clearly a case of entrapment—he was expecting Chris to come to her, he was expecting to catch them doing something “inappropriate” even though it sounds like they were only embracing—that there is no doubt in my mind Edward’s intent was to hurt Cathy and Chris, rather than to protect Cathy’s reputation or whatever bullshit he was spouting. We have seen from Edward’s abuse of his wife that he is no kind of moral authority. He does, however, succeed in “making me feel unclean, and dirt was attaching itself to me with every foul word he said.” In this scene Edward is handy synecdoche for patriarchy, which berates Cathy with accusations of sinfulness while actively stifling her every creative impulse and intellectual endeavor. If this book has a villain (and I don’t think it does; it’s not that kind of book) Edward is it. I find that edifying. It’s not Cathy’s husband who’s the primary antagonist standing in the way of her self-actualization—the husband is no more than an empty suit—it’s her other brother. One brother saves her and the other damns her.

After Edward runs Chris off and Chris goes back to Africa there are a few more letters, including this one: “that nothing has changed in my heart. That I love you with the passion of our youth, with the strength of all these long, long years.” Thank you for the affirmation Chris! I needed it even if Cathy didn’t. But the war is ramping up and Chris is headed into a combat zone and the odds of his survival do not look good. Cathy is already preparing to grieve him. She’s also preparing to go into labor any day now. These two threads, her brother’s impending death and her child’s impending birth, merge in the final pages of the book where Cathy is just clearly SO OVER IT:

I have nothing to fight, yet the waiting is most terrible … I have nothing to do but wait. I have nothing to leave.

It is hard to go on. How can I escape this life, this round of boredom and other births? O, that I could be ten and happy!

That’s the end but come on. Raise your hand if you don’t think this girl will 100% yeet herself into the sea and they’ll rule it “postpartum depression”? Anybody? No?

#book review #carolyn slaughter

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1111twinflames · 4 years ago

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July 3, 2015 ·

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KATY CATS Shared on Google+ · 2 days ago ¯`v´¯) `.¸.´ ¸.•´¸.•*¨`. ¸.•¨*.¸¸.•*¨`*• (¸¸¸.•*¨`•.•´.¸.•´* .•´*¸¸.•*¨`*• Miracles of Light on your way Category Education License Standard YouTube License KATY PERRY HITS: https://youtu.be/t5Sd5c4o9UM?list=PLA908D6C2BA16BF88 · KatyCat Hudson is this a Dream shared? Shared on Google+ · 1 year ago · This meditation is a short, eyes-open guide to help you to still your mind and connect with your higher self: to experience yourself as the Dreamer who exists beyond the 'Dream'. When we detach from the 'dream' of our thoughts, emotions and personalities, we 'wake up' to our true self - universal consciousness, beyond the illusory world of duality. The Dreamer is the Creator, the infinite space within which all forms manifest... YOU are the DREAMER... and so am I!! Love x "There is another Path to embrace after your Awakening, and one that if you choose, can lift and raise you up and out of the limitation of human strife, raising you into the highest vibration of Light & Love, a path of Higher Consciousness ...it is called "The Path of Becoming your True Self" on Earth, also known as "The Path of Resurrection". As you embrace this path, a great raising & expanding activity unfolds within your mind and your feelings, your consciousness, and ultimately your physical garments. You are wide awake, your Life calls upon you to rise now & become on Earth your True Glorious Self 'I AM' individualized of Mother/Father God. It is a path in which there begins to be experienced by you the second birth, lightning flashes of sudden Light within your mind, great outpourings of Love within your being, all that prepares you in the centre of your consciousness to enter into The Secret Heart of your God Nature, and to pass through 'The Door of Everything' where you will drink of the Waters of Life, the greatest Love of all, The Mother's Love, the Love of the Heavenly Mother that individualizes as your Soul. When that Love begins to express through you it will reveal its Presence and it will nurture and fulfils all that your mind dares to conceive. Your Soul is the Sacred Womb of The Divine Mother of our Universe, Individualized, just as the Christ is the Individualized Mind of The Father." And just before I went under for the final time Jesus wondered why his Katy love had reappeared and he said to himself because I was denied the MOMs love for so long, so serious was his disgust at himself for thinking it was not there it was always there but Katy is busy and you must let ISIS sleep and John pouring ‘Wide Awake’ Powder down his throat night after night never sleeping and always demanding the attention of MOM it just appeared in John’s desperate drug riddled brain that it had disappeared. Her Love is there forever a shining beacon in John’s heart but if one will ‘circle the drain’ expect turbulence then he realized he had been actually opening up the mind of God and his higher consciousness that he had beaten absolutely every thinking thing into submission with his self-belief of proven invincibility as he took on the world and even the Universe to tame it then control it; 1) Anymore thinking would not even leave a gap in the door for a cat to pass through, John’s mind is slightly overloaded with toxins built up by lack of sleep. 2) Jesus dumped his love for Katy on Sunday night, jettisoned for the spiritual battle Vs Satan but John needed the Warlords’ mind on not posting red hearts to Katy and glittering cards for her calling her ‘duckie babe’. 3) She would get it back for John once the battle is lost and won. 4) As expected John won and his Love heart returned in this moment and stays there no harm done as Katy will not admonish him for the struggles he faces when he is called into battle and her advice is given for a reason as yet untold but John continues with his lessons and homework and every new day he has learnt more. John believes that when he awoke from the path of his true self that he had taken Katy under with him and they both surfaced and as John had drunk at the love of ISIS for so long he was convinced that she could actually be the Mother of the Universe and John knew now that he had become the heavenly Father of the Universe. So, Katy here announce this: ~The Incoming Seventh Golden Age ~The arrival of Super humans called "The Untouchables" ~And the enforcement of a New era of Spiritual Enlistment upon the Earth. ~The Emperor and The Empressa of The Holy Roman Empire RULE THE WAVES and STRINGS and QUARKS of the WORLD & THE UNIVERSE THEY OWN THE EVER-EXPANDING UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING INIT. BECAUSE THE EMPEROR IS JESUS CHRIST THE SAVIOR=GOD AND THE EMPRESSA IS EARTH MOTHER QUEEN ISIS=MARY MAGDALENA. THE DREAMTEAM. There you are Katy XXX spelt out what you gonna do? As the love of the heavenly Mother had nurtured his mind to believe he could be the Emperor of the Universe so as the Christ he was able to take it over but without armed force but by magical willpowers called ‘THE FORCE’ and although Katy has gone very silent on him John knew that his soul was still shared by Katy as the divine Mother because how else could he have achieved the unachievable without it? AND JOHN WOULD LIKE TO THANK KATY SO HE HAS POSTED THIS FOR HER THE EMPRESSA OF THE WORLD TO ADD TO HER MISS EVER EXPANDING UNIVERSE TITLE AS KATY REMAINS JOHN’S FAVE EVEN THOUGH HE BROKE THE MAGIC SPELL CAST UPON HIM BY THE GALLOPING DARK HORSE OF ‘BLAME IT ON THE NIGHT’!:)J HE RETURNS TO KATY/ISIS VICTORIOUS NEVER BEATEN IN BATTLE AS THE EMPEROR OF THE UNIVERSE OF HIS OWN FREE WILL TO DRINK AT HER WATERS OF LOVE/LIFE Top of Form SO HERE IS GODS PRAYER FOR ISIS TO CONJURE HERSELF UP WHEN JOHN CALLS AND IT IS UP TO KATY/ISIS TO RESPOND AS JOHN HAS MADE HIS INTENTIONS PLAINLY HOT. A SMALL (PROBABLY TOO SMALL TO FIT) GOLDEN RING WITH ‘SISTER’ WRITTEN ON IT WILL BE DISPATCHED RECORDED DELIVERY TO KATY’S MELROSE AVE OFFICE IN 3 HOURS TIME AND ALTHOUGH SHE IS PROBABLY IN ARGENTINA HE KNOWS NOT WHERE, THERE WILL BE A MAGIC +VINTAGE ALHAMBRA JEWELLERY GIFT SET INC A BLACK ONYX BRACELET AND CORNELIA EYE OF THE TIGER WITH GREY MOTHER OF PEARL MOTIF ENGAGEMENT RING WAITING FOR HER AT VAN CLEEF & ARPLES 300 N Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills +1-310-276-1161 WHERE IT WILL BE FITTING JUST RIGHT AS SOON AS SHE HAS A MOMENT TO INDULGE HERSELF- I AM INVESTING THE INTEREST ON MY $1million ON YOU. Bottom of Form ENJOY. JESUS AND ISIS AS MARY: OUR SONG: https://youtu.be/lp-EO5I60KA?list=RDlp-EO5I60KA ISIS, glorious Goddess. Let your instrument sound Hailing you with all homage, ISIS, glorious Goddess. To the candlewick the fire I raise on the altar set to you, ISIS, glorious Goddess. And the night time incense rises, sweetly mixed, to put me in the mind of perceiving you, ISIS, glorious Goddess. Who rises behind me like a flame of Gold and Brushes my back with her deft wings? #GODSLOVE ☼ℒℴѵe ƸӜƷ ¸. ´´¯`•.¸¸. . ☼•* *• I am Isis. The Restored Eden, the Supernal Mother, the Second Eve. I am the new heaven and the new earth for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; I am the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I am the mighty Mother Isis; most powerful of all the world. I am she who fights not, but is always victorious. I am that Sleeping Beauty who men have sought, for all time; and the paths which lead to my castle are beset with dangers and illusions. Such as fail to find me sleep; or may ever rush after the Fata Morgana leading astray all who feel that illusory influence I am lifted up on high, and I do draw men unto me, I am the worlds' desire, but few there be who find me. When my secret is told, it is the secret of the Holy Grail. It is love. I have plucked out my heart and have given it to the world; that is my strength. Love is the mother of the Man-God, giving the Quintessence of her life to save mankind from destruction, and to show forth the path to life eternal. Love is the mother of Christ... Spirit, and this Christ is the highest love Christ is the heart of love, the heart of the Great Mother Isis the Isis of Nature. He is the expression of her power she is the Holy Grail, and He is the life of blood of spirit, that is found in this cup. Isis am I, and from my life are fed all showers and suns, all moons that wax and wane, all stars and streams, the living and the dead, the mystery of pleasure and of pain. I am the Mother. I the speaking sea. I am the Earth in its fertility. Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, return to me. All glories of the Universe bow down, the blossom and the mountain and the dawn. Fruits blush and women are creations crowned. I am the priest, the sacrifice, the shrine. I am the love and life of the Divine. Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, are surely mine. Isis am I, the love and light of Earth, the wealth of kisses, the delight of tears, the pleasure never come to birth, the endless infinite desire of years. I am the shrine at which thy long desire devoured thee with intolerable fire. I was sung music, passion, death upon thy lyre, I am the grail and I the glory now. I am the flame and fuel of thy breath. I am thy queen enraptured and possessed. I am the star of God upon thy brow. #ISISLOVE ☼ℒℴѵe ƸӜƷ ¸. ´´¯`•.¸¸. . ☼•* *• I AM THAT I AM JESUS CHRIST THE MESSIAH THE HIGHEST LOVE, THE HEART OF LOVE OF THE FATHER, THE MOTHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST. MY FATHER OF THE UNIVERSE IS HERE WITH ME GEORGAS ZEUS, EARTHWORKER AS MY MOTHER IS HERE WITH ME ISIS THE QUEEN OF NATURE, SHE IS MY HOLY GRAIL WHOSE GREAT DEEP AND WONDEROUS LOVE BRINGS ME BACK TO LIFE EACHTIME I FALTER AND FALL OR TAKE A BOW FOR A REBIRTH BUT IN HONOR I CARRY ISIS’S BACKBONE OF STRENGTH AND LOVE, WORSHIPING AT HER TEMPLES OF DIVINE LOVE OFFERING AWARDS AND EPITHATS AND ABOVE ALL PRICELESS TITLES UPON HER ALTER SET UP FOR HER. #JESUSHEALS #JESUSLOVES #JESUSSAVES #JESUSTHEJUDGEMENT #JESUSISMANKINDSANSWER ☼ℒℴѵe ƸӜƷ ¸. ´´¯`•.¸¸. . ☼•* *• SHARE AND REJOICE FOR I OFFER ALL WHO BELIEVE IN ME ETERNAL LIFE THE HOLY GRAIL MANIFESTED. KATY PERRY HITS: https://youtu.be/t5Sd5c4o9UM?list=PLA908D6C2BA16BF88

LIGHT: The nature of light has the character of a wave motion (interference phenomena) _ See Newton’s rings, alternating darkness and light-the point is you are only cuming thru in waves the light goes on so bright but you shut me into the darkness. A consistent theory of electromagnetism was determined in 1873 by James Clark Maxwell the velocity of light therefore the ‘light’ is electromagnetic waves as being oscillations in an all-pervading elastic medium, ‘ether’. Katy/Isis you are ether to me-unreal- but if you would just communicate with me in the darkness then you could illuminate me by passing the waves through a prism, your prism then straight coloured lines of light would appear and then the negative charge I carry as the atom are electrons but I could, I could be your ‘plum pudding model’; you could pass the balancing positive charge evenly threw the atom my electrons being the ‘plum’ and the positive charge the ‘pudding’. The spectral frequencies should then correspond to the various ways in which the electrons might oscillate within the positively-charged ‘pudding’. I.E. making me better as you are my MOM who radiates love but I get it in waves leaving me with the feeling I am loved then not loved [Hot n Cold] then I heal and all is ok again. It is your bipolar love, love. Up and down that affects me as I am Unipolar all one way high never depressed but when we shared the same soul-come back you tart you are missed-your love as radiation oozed continuously in and out of my black darkness riddled body like water in and out of a sponge. If you spent some time with me then your radiation of love you give me in the heavens would be emitted then I could absorb it in packets of energy of a definite size. Then my dear, the energy content of one of these packets would be a quanta proportional to the frequency of the radiation of love you emit. (Are you with me so far?) The constant of proportionality was taken to be a Universal constant of nature, Planks constant. Now cos of this I can only absorb your love, and you only emit it during events involving a single quantum of significantly high energy-which as you have felt I can be the highest form of energy anywhere but I can’t keep it up 24/7 and you seem to be only attracted by my high energy periods and you only spare me a few minutes if I am relaxed as in ‘gotta go to bed bye’ and you only string a few words together, I want to listen, to read. Do you know what it feels like to love someone who seems to be constantly pushing you away? YESS YOU DO. Anyway, that’s why I blow hot n cold = YOU.

#jesuschrist #jesus #jesusislord #katherynhudson #katheryn elizabeth hudson #katy perry #katyperry #katyperrysexy #katyperrycollections #katy #katycats #god #isis #queen

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zeusdemetertwinflames · 4 years ago

Video

The True Stages of a Twin Flame Union

John Rumary

is with

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson

and

3 others

July 3, 2015 ·

Shared with Public

#follow jesus #jesuscalling #god #katherynhudson #katy perry #katheryn elizabeth hudson #katyperry #katyperrysexy #katyperrycollections #katy #katyc #katycats

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lumina-chronicles · 5 years ago

Text

The Lumina Chronicles (A Writeblr Intro-Post Thingy)

Okay so, I love character asks/tag games and interracting with the writeblr community, but I realized I only sporadically talk about my work and my characters. I figured it was high time I compile everything in one easily accessible post.

I’m not entirely sure the best way to go about this so I’ll try my best. Have mercy on me and please feel free to ask any questions you may have!

This is going to be a stream of conscious BEAST so I appologize in advance for any and all typos, and for all the times I’ll no doubt bounce around and probably forget things. In order to not clutter up dashes and make everyone hate me, everything will be under the cut :)

_____________

THE STORY

(credit to the amaaaazingly talented mari_gdraws on instagram for this stunning cover. Go commission her, its worth it.)

First thing’s first, this is a Portal Fantasy. If you don’t know what that means, think Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wizard of Oz, any story where someone from our world gets transported by magical means (usually by accident but not always) to a fantasy world.

Second, I have been working on different variations of this series for over a decade. I started writing the first itteration of this concept when I was a 13 year old weirdo who thought I was the greatest thing to ever happen to writing. (Hint: I wasn’t. I still am not, but at least I’ve grown enough to recognize that.) I may share snippets of the original 2009 draft sometime, but be warned its steaming hot garbage. Good for a laugh though. tl;dr, I’ve been working on this story for too long, but these characters are my babies and I refuse to quit until I give them the story they deserve.

ELEVATOR PITCH

MAGGIE is a college girl who just wants to paint, stuck in a fantasy world with more ties to her life than she realizes. KINDLE is a wayward dragon dealing with PTSD, an obsessive fairy queen, and a stalling rebellion. ELLE, who wants nothing more than to find her missing best friend, is stuck babysitting (not literally) an angel (literally.)

^^^^^This is the really bad summary I have up on wattpad. The story is so much more than this but I’ve never been good at simplifying, hence 100k+ words of novel.

WHAT THE STORY ACTUALLY IS

Blood vs Bonds. (What really makes a family?)

A central cast who were children during a massive, life-altering war, now trying to pick up the pieces.

Found Family goodness out the wahzoo. (There is a mermaid adopting you as we speak. Her name is Faye and she’s your mom now, welcome to the family.)

A fox and a tree dating. They’re lesbians. I love them.

Not at all thinnly veiled bashing of imperialism, nationalism, and racism.

A few heavy concepts that I feel don’t get enough attention in media (pm me if you’d like to know since I don’t feel comfortable elaborating here, I’ll provide trigger warnings before explaining anything in-depth.)

The greatest bromance of all time, between a tired gen-Z nerd and a literal angel who doesn’t know how electricity works.

Said literal angel becoming obsessed with pokemon.

A moody dragon who loves to bake, and his ghost bff judging your every move.

A dozen angsty conversations masquerading as a fantasy novel.

On the subject of masquerades, one of those happens too. What can I say, I’m weak.

The slowest of slow burn ships.

Time travel shenanigans.

Me, pouring all of my love and tears and blood into one singular project for over a decade, unabashedly celebrating every trope I love and telling the story teen me needed.

_____________

THE WORLD

So this is the map of the “known world” for the planet I refer to as Ragilora. This name is never used in the canon of my stories and it stems from an inside joke, but its a lot easier to say than “*gestures vaguely* The Planet.”

I am one of those authors who writes several unconnected series all set in the same fictional world, but for now, since I’m only talking about the Lumina Chronicles, we’re focusing on thiiiiiis chunk of the map right here:

This chunk of land (which 13-year-old-me dubbed “The Shadow Realm,” 18-year-old-me expanded to the “’much more impressive’ Realm Under Twin Shadows,” and 22-year-old-me just refers to as “The SR”) is the only location we pay any attention to in the Lumina Chronicles, which (surprise, surprise) focuses on the conflicts between Lumina and the territories surrounding it.

Important side note, Ragilora has two moons, hence the “twin shadows” thing. The moons come up a lot over the course of the story, especially since one of the cultures (Nox) believes their queen is a reincarnation of one of those moons.

MOST IMPORTANT LOCATIONS

LUMINA

The human kingdom ruled by the Lousvar family. Self-important racist a-holes who took over most of the realm during the Orphaner’s War nine years ago. King Jareth Lousvar (the aformentioned Orphaner) hasn’t been seen in years, so who’s really running the nation? Your guess is as good as mine. That’s a lie, of course I know.

IGNUS

Once the private, gorgeous desert home of the dragons, ruled by the Danthragnir clan. They were the main targets of the Orphaner’s War, and now Ignus sits as mostly unoccupied ruins. The dragons who surived the seige now live in hiding or are enslaved in Lumina. Their religion is my favorite of all the cultures in the story, and I’ll talk to you about it if you want, but I don’t wanna ramble here lol.

NOX

The queendom of the fairies, not rules by any particular family. The current queen in Lydia D’Norse, Queen Lydianna Chrysanthus D’Norse, Mother of Her People, the Moon Made Flesh. This is the territory of magical moon-worshipping lesbians. Fairies are great, they’re my favorite race in the Lumina Chronicles.

SPECIES/RACES

Human- Just your standard, magic-free human. Identifiable by their brown eyes. Any skintone/haircolor that can be found in nature. (A rare few have other colors for eyes, but that just means they aren’t fully human and will probably be shamed for this fact.) They hail from Lumina. Average height 5′9″. Average lifespan 70-80yrs.

Dragon- Generally dark skinned with dark hair, identifiable by their Firestone (a comination of red/orange/gold/black that shifts and flickers like flames) eyes. Basically firebenders who can transform into the giant, winged lizards you think of when you imagine dragons. Almost all dragons have black scales in dragon form, though some have dark red or a sandy brown. From Ignus. Average height 6′6″, Average lifespan 80-90yrs.

Angel- Generally pale skinned with either black or blonde hair, identifiable by their blue eyes and the fan of feathers behind their ears. Angels are a highly intelligent, long-lived species with massive feathered wings (either irridecent black if they have black hair, or white if they have blonde hair.) All angels have perfect recall and photographic memories, which is helpful for their self-imposed job as the Realm’s unbiased recordkeepers. They soulbond (explained in more detail further down.) From Aeterna. Average height 6′, Average lifespan 180-200yrs.

Merfolk- All varieties of skintone and hair color, identifiable by the colorful scales around their green eyes (and the eyes themselves if living in a situation where scales ahve been forcibly removed.) While preferring to live out the majority of their lives underwater, merfolk must travel to land to reproduce. While on land, they have legs. As soon as their feet come in contact with water, they go back to having a tail. All merfolk wear skirts on land regardless of gender (could you imagine wearing jeans and accidentally stepping in a puddle and then your legs try to form into a tail with the fabric between them? Ouch.) From Siaboras and the surrounding waters. Average height 5′4″, Average lifespan 70-80yrs.

Fairy- Generally pale skinned, all fairies have long pointed years, silver hair, and violet eyes. While they no longer posess wings, all fairies have the ability to produce a mind-altering magic known as “venom.” This venom is administered to a target through contact with the fairy’s skin, and can produce results ranging from euphoria and hallucinations to severe pain, memory alteration, and even death. Results depend on the specific fairy and the dosage of venom. A pregnant female fairy can produce a hazy purple cloud of venom outside their body to better protect themselves and their unborn child. Use of fairy venom as a recreational drug is outlawed (doesn’t stop fairy dens from popping up all over Lumina’s slums though.) From Nox. Average height 4′9″, Average lifespan 45-50yrs.

Shifter- All varieties of skintone and hair color, some that may not occur in humans. Identifiable by their golden eyes. While dragons mostly occupy their human form and can shift into giant lizards, Shifters are animals who can take human form. Their human form in some way resembles their animal form. Most prefer to be in their animal form and only take human form for the purpose of hunting larger prey or communicating with other species/variants of shifter. Others have chosen to completely integrate themselves into non-Shifter society and spend the majority of their time in human form. From the Wildlands. Average height 5′9″, Average lifespan 70-80yrs.

Dryad- All dryads have brown/bark-colored skin and leaves for hair. Depending on the type of tree they come from, the length/thickness/color/style of this leaf-hair can vary. When a tree has fed off the magic of the realm for long enough, they develop the ability to take on a human form, and can shift between that and their tree form. They can feel emotion and learn language just as all other species/races, but they tend to be slightly more detached by default. From the Wildlands. Average height (in human form) 6′, Average lifespan uknown. A dryad will live as long as their grove lives. If their human form in destroyed, they can be replanted and will eventually regrow.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFO

A few notes, mostly on sexuality in the Shadow Realm:

- Bisexuality is considered to be “the default” just as heterosexuality is treated in our society. There are still people with preferences for one gender or another, but most just assume that if you don’t specify otherwise, you’re bi.

- All angels are some variation of Ace/Demi/Gray-sexual. They mate for life in a process known as “soulbonding” to the first person they are sexually intimate with, literally joining their lifespans and spirits forever.

- Soulbonded partners can communicate telepathically and access a shared memory-bank, including access to skills and languages.

- It is perfectly valid for an angel to choose never to soulbond, and some choose to soulbond with a beloved friend rather than a romantic partner.

- Dryads have no sex organs and are genderless by default. Some choose to present as feminine/masculine or use pronouns, but that’s a matter of preference and not neccessity.

- All species can interbreed, but there are no “mixed-breeds.” Meaning if a dragon and a mermaid were to reproduce, the results wouldn’t be a mer-dragon with the abilites/traits of both parents, the resulting child would be either a full-dragon or full-merfolk depending on the sex of the parents.

Expanding on the above point, each species is either male or female dominant, with dominant meaning which sex of parent determines the species of their child with interbreeding. Dragons, Shifters, and Humans are male dominant. Angels, Merfolk, and Fairies are female dominant. Examples:

Male Human + Female Dragon = human child (with red-tinted brown eyes)

Female Human + Male Dragon = dragon child (with slightly duller firestone eyes)

Female Human + Male Fairy = coin-toss child (because humans are male dominant and fairies are female dominant, this duo would cancel each other out and the child would either be a fairy or a human.)

_____________

THE CHARACTERS (aka the real reason I made this masterpost)

all character art by needlessly_cryptic

NARRATORS

The three protagonists of the series. Maggie is our portal-hopper, having travelled from our present day world to the fantasy world of the SR. Kindle is one of the few surviving dragons and has never known any world but the SR. Elle, also from our world, spends the whole book in our world trying to figure out wtf happened to Maggie, while also dealing with Marc (an angel from the SR who came to our world around the same time Maggie vanished.)

^ Magdalyn, she/her, Human, 20yrs old. Heterosexual. ^

^ Kindle, he/him, Dragon, 22yrs old. Asexual. ^

^ Estelle, she/her, Human, 19yrs old. Bisexual. ^

ELLE’S PARTNER IN CRIME

Formerly of the Abandoned Order, now trapped in our world with no idea what to do or how to get back. He gets his own segment because I can’t really put him anywhere else. (Those are feathers behind his ears.)

^ Marcellus, he/him, Angel, 20yrs old. Biromantic Asexual. ^

THE ABANDONED ORDER

A ragtag group of former war-orphans and child-soldiers trying to pick up the pieces after the war’s end, and finding the strength in each other to take back their stolen home lands from the oppressive kingdom of Lumina. Kindle’s family. Maggie’s... well she’s not quite sure.

ALLIES

^ Faye, she/her, Mermaid, 26yrs old. Bisexual. Soulbonded to Seraphim.^

^ Carlyle, he/him or they/them, Ghost (former human), forever 20yrs old. Biromantic Asexual. ^

(A note on Carlyle: they can only be seen/heard by Kindle and later Maggie.)

^ Pina, She/her, Mermaid, 17yrs old. Lesbian. ^

^ Em, She/her, Dryad, ???yrs old. Lesbian. Married to Inari. ^

^ Rhiannon, She/her, Angel, 24yrs old. Biromantic Demisexual. Soulbonded to Isidor. ^

^ Izzy, He/him (trans), Fairy, 23yrs old. Heterosexual. Soulbonded to Rhiannon.^

ENEMIES(?)

^ Lydia, she/her, Fairy, 18yrs old. Bisexual. “Soulbonded” to Seraphim. ^

^Ser, he/him, Angel, 25yrs old. Biromantic Asexual. Soulbonded to Faye Lydia.^

^ Jakoby, he/him, Shifter(snake), 27yrs old. Lydia-sexual. ^

^ Nar, she/her, Shifter(fox), 23yrs old. Lesbian. Married to Emrys. ^

LUMINA

The children of the victors. Are they all as bad as their parents, or will they become part of the change and strive towards a better future? *shrug*

^ Cas, he/him, Human, 20yrs old. Bisexual. My son. ^

^ Rainette, she/her, Human, 17yrs old. Heterosexual. Betrothed to Favaro. ^

^ Juju, he/him, Human, 24 yrs old. Gay. Bodyguard to Prince Cas. ^

^ Tobi, he/him, Human, 18yrs old. Bisexual. Bodyguard and boyfriend to Princess Raini. ^

^ Ander, he/him, Human, 21yrs old. Gay especially for Julian. ^

^ Favaro, he/him, Human, 22yrs old. Asexual and Aromantic. Betrothed to Princess Raini. ^

PRECIOUS CHILD WHO ISN’T INTRODUCED UNTIL BOOK TWO

^ Khatalanya, she/her, Dragon, 16yrs old. Lesbian. In love with VENGEANCE. ^

_______________

IN CONCLUSION

this really was a dumpster fire lol. If you would like to know more about specific characters or races or aspects of my world, feel free to ask! I’m gonna link this to an easily accessible part of my profile somehow. But yeah, mostly just admire my children. I love them all, even the horrible ones.

#writeblr #intro post #wip: the lumina chronicles #am writing #fantasy #my ocs #art #not my art but my babies

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elizabethrobertajones · 7 years ago

Note

What does “plot accordion” mean?

You have talked a lot about your “three-year” arc for Supernatural, but The CW did just renew the show for season 11. Are you altering your plans now?

Carver: To be perfectly honest, I think that started to alter or change even last season when I realized we were probably going further. So basically the notion of that arc, some of it’s been accordioned out in certain moments, and other things have been dropped in. We spread our wings more knowing we have many more seasons.

(x)

Fair. I know last year you spoke of a multi-season arc for the show’s mythology. Has that plan changed at all?JC: No. When I spoke to the multi-season arc, it is like an accordion. There are elements we can stretch and contract as long as we’re always staying true to the brothers’ relationship; everything else is pliant. As long as everything feels fresh.RS: We’ve actually opened it up this year.JC: Yes. While still staying on that same track. And that was somewhat purposeful in saying that, well, maybe [season] 9 won’t be the last year, so we always need to leave that open.

(x)

IGN: Whew. I believe you’ve mentioned you had a 3 year arc planned as of Season 8. Is that still accurate? Where is Season 11 headed?

Carver: We do have an idea where it’s going in Season 11. To be perfectly honest, once we realized we were going even further along in the seasons, we stretched out certain things about that arc. We’ve left some things boiling on the stove which we’ll come back to, and we’ve introduced other storylines. So, in my mind, we’ve sort of accordioned that arc out a little bit to fill it in with much more story. And it’s actually taken us to some really exciting places, so it’s been fun.

(x)

TBQH it’s dangerously irresponsible to analyse Carver’s narrative structure without accounting for the accordion in the middle of it and it has been the cause of much wailing and gnashing of teeth while this was all airing, especially as Carver’s original comments on wanting a 3 act structure caused SO much positive meta speculating on endgame based on either season 8 itself being the 3 acts, or the 3 acts taking place over season 8 and the following season, or then season 8, 9 and 10 with increasingly diminishing returns on where that all plays out.

Considering the Mark of Cain is a random pitch Robbie threw in with no clue it would go so far, and not something that was an integral part of the 3 acts, 9B and all of season 10 are pretty much entirely filler for Dean’s character development in this structure; the post I reblogged last night from @postmodernmulticoloredcloak excellently pointing up some early set up to the questions that won’t get answered for 3 years and the rapid escalation of tablets and metatron etc does make me think the original structure was season 8 > ??? > Chuck vs Amara in some form or another, and with what form she would take and how she’d be brought into the story all up for grabs.

It’s nice to be out of the woods, but it makes my bones feel old that people don’t know about Carver’s Plot Accordion any more considering we only left its dark shadow less than 2 years ago :P

#Asks #i genuinely believe if Carver hadn't left the show he would still be accordioning it out somehow or other #marshmallow era

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kattimariias · 7 years ago

Text

Sonic Multiverse infodump

There’s like...a lot of redesigns. To start, Sonic’s proportions are a mix between his Classic and Modern design, the tips of his quills are slightly lighter (they also look like Boom!Sonic’s quills), and he wears a red neckerchief because that’s obligatory in Sonic redesigns at this point I guess

Tails is smaller and wears the same goggles as his Boom design, he also may or may not have similar markings to red foxes (idk whether to go for this or not)

Knuckles is more stocky but not as muscular as his Boom design. He also has white tribal markings and a muzzle that’s similar to real life echidnas (but very stylized), and wears his OVA hat.

Amy wears a shirt with ruffled sleeves, purple skirt and stockings, and a purple (or dark pink) sash. Her quills are longer and are more like her Classic design, and she also has back quills.

Shadow’s eyes are slit, his hands look like claws, and he has a slithery tongue and a longer tail.

Silver has blue glowing lines on his arms and quills, the latter’s more curled and they open up whenever he uses his telekinesis (aka i just took something from his original design).

The Babylon Rogues have feathers on their arms. Originally, they did have wings, but they were clipped off.

Sally’s back stripe is the same color as her hair and it also goes to the bridge of her nose. Like real life chipmunks, she also has a white backstripe. (i was so tempted to change her hair to brown but i just couldn’t :U)

Nicole has a larger black stripe and Infinite’s glitchy effect.

there’s more that’s going to be redesigned, but i haven’t finalized them yet

The Freedom Fighters are still around, they’re just side characters and don’t have as much history with Sonic

Freedom Fighters from the British comics are apart of the Knothole team

The Sonic Schoolhouse students are Freedom Fighters trainees

The custom heroes we’ve seen in Forces’ gameplay and screenshots are apart of their own team

Amy has fortune telling abilities. She utilizes this with tarot cards.

Amy’s also 14 in this AU

Any interpretations of Sonic, Tails, or any other character’s parents are changed to being other relatives. With that in mind...

Sonia and Manic are Sonic’s cousins

Nikki exists, but Sonic isn’t his alter ego. He’s also his cousin

Eimi is Amy’s sister

Uncle Chuck remains as Sonic’s uncle

Jules is still robotized

The original parents have different kids. Specifically, Jules and Bernette have a daughter who’s based off of Sonic’s Sister from a cancelled Sonic game

Elias is Sally’s older brother still, but idk whether if I should go with him being her fraternal twin or identical. They look very similar, but then there’s also Elias’ drastically different tail

Sally’s family also includes a few foxes, hence why Elias has a fox like tail. Mobian genetics are weird like that

Cream has a lot of siblings, she’s the middle child

The red and yellow hedgehogs from another cancelled Sonic game are Sonic’s adopted younger brothers

Wisps and Zeti linger around on Earth

Echidnas are still around. Instead, Tasmanian devils are more rare

Seedrians are also still around...for now

Chao Garden is an actual location where people can take care of the local Chao there

Chao based off of canon characters are a myth

Cheese, at some point, evolves into a Hero type

The world in this AU is Earth, but with anthropomorphic animals

Most of the anthros/mobians live in woodland areas, although there are a lot that live with humans

Elise is a mobian (idk which animal she would be though) with sun powers. She’s more emotionally repressed here compared to canon.

Shadow doesn’t seal Mephiles into the Scepter of Darkness. Elise also isn’t given the blue emerald, because time travel is bullshit

Silver is from a really fucked up alternate universe

The Sol Dimension is filled with counterparts from the main universe, such as an Amy counterpart, a Freedom Fighters counterpart, etc

Blaze has parents that are like River and Moon from Star Vs

Mighty and Ray’s whereabouts are unknown, they just kinda disappeared after hanging with Sonic and the Chaotix. They’re looking for Matilda, who also mysteriously disappeared

Knuckles has a super form. His quills become bigger and they flow around everywhere, and he turns green

Super transformations are not limited to male hedgehogs obviously

Moebius is still a thing, but Scourge doesn’t start off as Anti-Sonic (and Moebius as a whole probably has a different name)

Sleet and Dingo are apart of the Egg Army

...and so is Lyric. he’s just heavily downgraded compared to Boom

Grimer is a reptilian

Fiona isn’t with Scourge, nor is she evil

Gadget the Wolf is a huge dork who idolizes the heroes of Earth a lot and tries to be cool whenever he’s with them, the cat is highly energetic and ready to kick ass, the bunny is more serious and goal orientated (though still cares for the world and others), the yellow wolf is the peacemaker and cinnamon roll (tm), and the other cat is protective and willing to make sacrifices

Mina is a singer, rivaling Madonna in popularity

and by Madonna, I mean Sonic’s cut girlfriend, who’s also a Mobian in this (like Elise, I don’t know what her species will be)

Alicia is still...ded

Super Emeralds may or may not be a thing

Sonnette and Mark have a secret Sonic fanclub

The game’s South Island and the OVA’s South Island are two different places

Sara is an actual cat, her dad adopted her

Sticks was found and taken in by Big

Bygone Island is a village many avoid, because it’s basically the place where assholes live. It’s protected by a small Freedom Fighters team which is lead by Tiara

Eggman has an abnormally long ass name

Most Mobians get name changes after their abilities get discovered

Mobians don’t have an educational system. Like real life animals, their parents teach them everything, but they can enroll in schools

Sally and Nicole are a couple

#sonic multiverse au #i don't know what i'm doing with this au lmao it's such a mess

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jfprongs-blog · 8 years ago

Text

IC INFORMATION,

Characters Name: James Fleamont Potter Faceclaim: Jordan Fisher Age & DOB: 19 years old & 27th March 1960 ( aries ) Gender & Pronouns: cismale & he/him Former House: Gryffindor Wand: 11", mahogany, unicorn hair, pliable Boggart: the people he loves dead by his own hand

FREEFORM,

( edit 01. ) || ( moodboard 01. ) || ( moodboard 02. ) || ( moodboard 03. )

( note ; i purposely avoided writing about lily, the marauders and other possible connections, as i would much prefer it to be talked about it beforehand?? hope that’s okay !! )

Fleamont && Euphemia Potter had spent the majority of their adult lives trying to have children, without much luck. Euphemia miscarried so many times that they eventually began losing hope to have children. This took a toll on them because they always wanted a big family, lots of children running around, and it was like something was ripped away from them when Euphemia hit 50 and still was unable to get pregnant.

At the age of 52, Euphemia finally manages to fall pregnant, much to the shock of the ageing couple, among with several Healers. Late pregnancies aren’t unheard of in the wizarding world, where their mortality rate is much longer than Muggles, but it’s still fairly uncommon.

The Potters are just happy that they ultimately managed to conceive a child. Sure, it’d be nice to have more, but.

James Fleamont Potter is born on the 27th March, 1960, and Fleamont, along with his wife, realise from the very beginning that they have more than they bargained for.See, James is charming and proud, but very, very much a handful for his parents who are growing older by the years.

And he grows up loved, he grows up not knowing that families aren’t all like this. His parents would give him the world if they had to, would sacrifice their considerably large wealth in a heartbeat, and James thinks, this is how it should be. Of course, his parents enforce their customs on him; they teach him chivalry and selfishness andgenerosity, all the things that matter. So they’re not that strict on him, worn out by the years without the energy to restrict him. But they do their BEST, and honestly, it’senough.

As a young boy, James is arrogant, not realising that the world, for once, is not abouthim. Because it always has been ; in a vast house containing only three people, in a group of childhood friends who have always been in awe of the name Potter and how compelling his charm was, in his parents’ social group where he was the youngest kid always.

James Potter goes INTO Hogwarts like this: loud and obnoxious, brilliant and a natural with magic, big head with a big heart, boastful of his insistence for Gryffindor, spurred on for years about a grudge on Severus Snape that never really went away. But he’s charismatic, makes friends and enemies in every breath he takes, is wonderfully, wonderfully young.

Remember when Fleamont and Euphemia wanted a whole herd of children ? They got them, albeit eleven years after the birth of their son. James comes home from his first year at Hogwarts, the names ‘Sirius’, ‘Remus’ and ‘Peter’ falling out of mouth in every sentence. And then, suddenly, the three of them are always there, whether in their home or with James in some way. The Potters’ house seem to be the base of the newly deemed Marauders.

It’s James’ idea that they become Animagi to help Remus Lupin, werewolf be damned. Because here is a thing about James Potter: he cares. This boy cares TOO much. Even at the age of twelve, there’s never been a stopper on his ability to care, couldn’t comprehend a world where he would not run headfirst into danger to protect who he loves. To protect his family. Because that’s what they are, isn’t it ? Family.

Even with the constant presence of the four of them, it is Sirius Black who’s just always there. There aren’t even words to describe, how the two balance each other out, and they just work. This is the sole reason James finally sees the world how it is, that it can be cruel and unforgiving, even from something he always consideredsacred like family. Because the Blacks are not the Potters; they do not treat their eldest son in a way they should. Every time Sirius turns up at his door with an anger brewing in his eyes, Euphemia Potter already has a guest room prepared, specially donned ‘Sirius’ room’.

This bedroom in his house has always been Sirius’, but the summer before sixth year, it becomes official. This is the pinpoint moment when James finally loses his sense of black-and-white in the world. This is the pinpoint moment when he finally realises he needs to grow up. This is the pinpoint moment when the world was spinning on its axis and he wanted to change it.

Things happen in his life that he’ll most likely never live down, though most are often self-inflicted, he supposes. Being a Head Boy, however, very nearly makes the top. There’s disbelief spread among his friend group, if only just for a moment, because,really. All he ever does is take care of people, it makes sense if they think about it.

James Potter comes OUT of Hogwarts like this: still loud, still painfully obnoxious as times, still very much young. He’s still brilliant, still a natural with magic, still got a heart that bleeds for everyone he loves. Yet, this young man knows how much has been at stake, in a world where known fellow students have been linked to the Dark Arts. So, he still makes impulsive decisions, still gets himself to trouble that could’ve easily been avoided, but he’s trying.

It is no secret that he has a distinct passion of hatred towards the Dark Arts. James is tolerant of many things, willing to love a werewolf best friend without a single thought about it, but Dark Magic ignites a terrible anger in him. Because James is many things, been a childhood bully for most of his academic life, witnessed destructiveness in his best friend with his very own eyes, but he truthfully cannotfathom cruelty in a form like this.

An auror is not always what he wanted to be. It’s not like he actively hates the idea, but when someone asked him where he saw himself in ten years, an auror is not what he would say. He supposes he would’ve said something like a Quidditch player, maybe. Nonetheless, the beginning of seventh year is when he decides. It’s a stroke of luck, really, that the NEWTs he picks the year before allow him to follow this career path. This is what he’s born to do, isn’t it ? The HERO of it all, even if he doesn’t know it.

7 FACTS ABOUT JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER:

It’s a Potter tradition to pass down their names onto firstborn heirs, and it just so happens that James ended up with Fleamont as a father. Fleamont himselfunderstands the issue of such a name, becoming rather apt in duelling those who made fun of him throughout his school years. James avoids this by not mentioning his middle name next to never, but you can bet your lucky stars Euphemia let it slip to Sirius and wouldn’t be able to live it down ever.

Quidditch is a very important part of James’ life. There’s something reassuring about the natural feeling of being in the air on his broomstick. With exceptional talent, he managed to snatch a Chaser spot on his house team in second year, and determinedly held onto the position as the years progress. By the time fifth year rolled around, he was given the Quidditch Captain badge, and took that very seriously, hell-bent on leading the team to victory for the next three years. He is an avid supporter ofPuddlemere United.

It’s no secret that Fleamont Potter was the inventor of Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion. This was invented long before James was actually born. It’s so terribly ironic that James has a habit of messing up his hair, ruffling it until it looks permanently messy. Euphemia finds this amusing, and her son makes an effort to ruffle it more frequently when he’s around his father. In fact, he refused to get a haircut from first to fifth year, until he finally was persuaded to cut it.

James is 100% a very serious collector of chocolate frog cards. This is not information he often tries to flaunt, especially as the likelihood of it being used against him is highly likely. It just really doesn’t do for his reputation that James Potter, auror and ¼ of the Marauders, is a giant fucking NERD.

Growing up with magic, on top of being able to pick things up quickly and a natural flare for such things, James excelled it most subjects at Hogwarts; also earning high enough marks in 5 separate NEWTs. However, the subject that clicks him with him most the best is Transfiguration, particularly born gifted with the capability. That puts him in McGonagall’s good books, no matter what pranks he had pulled on her in the seven years, because he was good at Quidditch AND Transfiguration.

On every planet, in every world and universe, James is the mum!friend. ALWAYS.Period. He cares so much that he wants the best for the people he loves; which includes nagging for healthy eating, making sure his friends wake up on time, cleaning up afterwards, ensuring they go to the hospital wing when needed. From afar, you wouldn’t really see it, but he is.

In the pick-a-side notion of optimism vs. pessimism, James is an optimist. He knows he is privileged, knows that being born a Pureblood ( however much a blood traitor he is counted now ) is a blessing in this society, and he hopes. He fights, of course, that’s something he really knows, but he hopes for a better future and a CHANGE. The supposed death of Voldemort does not alter that.

+ 1. ( It’s a bonus fact, mostly because I have no self-control. ) After making the house team in second year, James realised that he legit could not see. Everything was blurry. It started off tolerable, until it kept getting worse as he did nothing to help it. By the time it was the summer before fourth year, his mother forced him to get a pair of glasses — which is for the BEST, as now he can only make out shapes without them. In all these years, he constantly bought square-rimmed kinds ; though, in fifth year, he thought he’d be different and bought huge circular frames, before giving it up after a week.

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isisosiris1111twinflames · 4 years ago

Video

The True Stages of a Twin Flame Union

John Rumary

is with

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson

and

3 others

July 3, 2015 ·

Shared with Public

#katherynhudson #katheryn elizabeth hudson #katyperry #katy perry #katyperrysexy #katyperrycollections #katy #katycats

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