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nightmares-voicemail · 1 year ago

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Introduction

Oh, hey, mortal. So, guess this old thing still works…? Well, congrats. By discovering this interface, you gained the ability to send messages beyond time and space, to the Infinite Cosmos. I advise you to use this power with an adequate level of responsibility.

Or don’t. It doesn’t matter, really. Because of the nature of the Cosmos, each reality contains infinite copies of itself. Even if you somehow end up completely messing up a world by, I don’t know, sending nuclear plans to cavepeople? Who cares, there’s still infinite versions of that world where that never happened. Just please, don’t piss off any Prime Gods. They will get on my case, and while they can’t do anything to me, they love to complain, and I have no interest dealing with them.

Actually wait, I can just make it so that you can’t contact other Prime Gods through this. That should save me some headache.

Anyway. If you REALLY feel like you need an entity with knowledge and power that you won’t be able to comprehend in a billion lifetimes for some chit-chat, you can message me. Make it entertaining and I might answer. Okay, that out of the way, here’s some instructions and basic terms on how to use this thing.

P.S. If you’re about to ask me to save you from some sort of world-shattering disaster, don’t. I’m not your nanny.

P.S.2: I might make an exception if said disaster was caused by me, but do not ask me to fix what other deities messed up. We have a policy of not getting into each other’s business and the only reason I ignore that is if it amuses me. But believe me, your problems are incredibly boring.

Okay, so the rules.

This is an ask/RP blog for my stories and OCs from the Infinite Cosmos setting. That is, basically all my stories and OCs. You can address me with general questions about characters or my writing, or you can address my characters for an in-character response. I might hold on to information about ongoing stories to avoid spoilers, but otherwise I like to rant about my writing so go and give me an excuse to do that if you’re interested.

The Setting

The Infinite Cosmos, most commonly referred as simply the Cosmos by its inhabitants, is a multiverse of multiverses where every possible and impossible version of reality exists somewhere. Some worlds and people are more aware of the other worlds out there than others. Also some worlds exist in other worlds as works of fiction. All my stories, both original and fanfiction, take place in the Cosmos. This is usually not at all important for the stories itself – after all, the Cosmos is infinite and I crafted it with the exact purpose that any kind of fictional world can coexist in it without contradicting each other, but it gives justification for cross references and metajokes which I love to make. (There is a cosmology and backstory I’m working on which I will definitely finish and use in an actual story one day.)

My Stories

Enchant: My current main project. An ongoing series about troubled teens discovering magical powers and turning into superheroes in a fictional modern setting. Updates irregularly with pretty long chapters.

You can always see the darkness: A long series of Deltarune fanfiction that I wrote over the course of a year, eventually turning it into its own AU. It is finished now.

Shuffled Fate: A discontinued isekai story from 2021. A lot of my OCs originate from here. To address the Shuffled Fate-version of any characters, just put “SF!” before their name. Otherwise, the more recent version of the character will answer if there are any.

Reverse Rune: An ongoing Deltarune roleswap AU series. It’s currently on the backburner.

Misplaced Fate: My multifandom-multiverse-crossover project. On the backburner.

Cross-references

I’m a writer with writer friends. Sometimes we get involved in each other’s projects or write fanfiction/recursive fanfiction for them. I have a friend who has a universal adaptor cast of OCs and she also likes to put her friend’s OCs into her stories. We both like crossovers and references. This can lead to shenanigans. If I reference a friend’s story or character, just take it as my headcanon/take on the original like you’d do with any canon fandom characters. Obviously nothing is canon to my friends’ works unless they say so.

Canon Characters

If I ever wrote fanfiction for something, you can send asks or prompts about those stories and characters too, just keep in mind that you’re talking to the character’s version living in my multiverse.

My OCs

Wisp: Okay, so this is not really an OC (man, I’m bad at this aren’t I), it’s just me. The creator of all my works and the narrator of most of them. You can address me in general about my worlds and characters, just keep in mind that I have no idea what I am doing most of the time, I will most likely make up stuff on the fly and might end up contradicting myself. I also use they/them pronouns mostly, it/its fine too until further notice.

Nightmare: He’s a Prime God, that is, he’s one of the “true gods” of the multiverse, not part of an in-universe pantheon. He can do anything, in theory, and he’s quite determined to see if that’s true in practice too, unlike other deities who usually stick to creating and managing their own worlds. He usually appears as this really tall guy with spiky black hair, long black fingernails, wearing a biker outfit, sunglasses, and oh, he has eight eyes. He also tends to talk in a kind of deep, booming voice that carries the feeling of powerful emphasis for mortal beings. He can be a bit jerkish and full of himself as a side-effect of the whole all-powerful god thing.

“I can hear you; you know.”

Flow: “Uhm, voices in my head… okay, don’t panic, this happened to Natasha too. Wait, that’s not reassuring at all.”

Flow is a guy (gender neutral) who I like to put into situations. They went from being unexpectedly isekaid in Shuffled Fate to being unexpectedly but a bit more willingly becoming a hero in Enchant (those are different canons and even worlds but eh). They’re great at being out of their water, feeling anxious, and serving as a foil to more extravagant characters, which does not mean they can’t be a bit of a mess themself. Also they’re 15 because that’s a great age to have things happen to you.

“Good things?”

“Oh…”

In Enchant, Flow’s heroic identity is Ruthen. If you address Ruthen, they will answer as them, assuming you don’t know their identity.

Natasha: “Oh no, not again.”

“Oh, come on, I know you enjoy making a good show. And now you have an audience!”

“Sigh, fine. Not like I have much choice, you will just keep broadcasting these telepathic messages from other worlds into my head until I answer them, don’t you.”

Excuse Natasha for her mood, she had a rough…

“Life.”

“Lives.”

… existence. She started out as a minor Deltarune OC, then grew into a major antagonist in my fanfiction, then into an Anti-Villain. At some point in 2022 when Kira was looking for friends’ OCs to put them into her MLB fanfic, Maris Stella, I submitted Natasha, somewhat reworking her concept to work better with the different setting. Then, partially inspired by MLB and Maris Stella myself, I started to work on Enchant where Natasha became one of the main protagonists.

Even though she’s got three different versions now, the gist of the character stayed the same. She started out as an orphan living in pretty bad circumstances, being bullied by older kids, got separated from her one (1) friend, then got taken in by a rich widow who turned out to be an abusive jerk. Where the story goes from there is what really differs in the different continuities.

Addressing Natasha generally will get you her Enchant version most of the time – you can address DR!Natasha for her original version from my fanfiction or Maris!Natasha for the version appearing in Maris Stella. Addressing Nocturknight or Sylvana, her heroic alteregos from Enchant and Maris Stella respectively, she will answer as them, assuming you don’t know her civilian identity.

Vess: “…”

These are voice messages. They can’t see you. All they know is that you’re not talking.

“…”

Sigh. Vess grinned threateningly at the audience, showing their inhumanly sharp teeth.

There, happy now?

“Yes.”

Okay, so…

“Wait, are you making fun of me?”

… so Vess was originally my interpretation of the Discarded Vessel from Deltarune for a fanfic I wrote. Then as I kept writing more stuff with them, they kept growing, slowly becoming their own thing. Since I wanted to use them more, I decided to rework their whole background, creating a version with largely the same personality, and keeping and building on the gimmicks I added, for Enchant.

In all their versions, they’re an edgy, angsty, creepy, mostly-humanoid-in-an-uncanny-valley-way straw nihilist creature with artificial origins who will eat anything. That might or might not include you.

“It does.”

By default, Vess’ Enchant version answers the asks. For their original version from my fanfiction, address DR!Vess.

Néne: Néne is a powerful Seer native to Stonecloud Realm (the original setting of Shuffled Fate). She has the ability to see a person’s past and future as a network of branching paths but can’t predict what choices someone will make before they actually make them. Basically imagine what Garnet from Steven Universe had going on, but on a much bigger scale.

“Oh, Garnet? She’s adorable, but if anything, I’d call her a talented guesser rather than an actual Seer. I mean come on, being given false information can confuse her vision. That’s called a prediction, not a prophecy. But she’s a great yoga partner and I got my favorite pancake recipe from her. She’s always welcome at my house.”

Unlike most other Seers who work as spies, strategists, or advisers, Néne uses her power the run a successful restaurant, as she can make anyone’s favorite food, the exact way they like it without ever meeting them before. This, and her “first time free” policy turned Néne’s Dinner Hall a popular tourist spot among the travelers of Stonecloud and sometimes even guests from other worlds pay a visit.

“I saw it too many times, what it does to people if they learn about their possible futures. It paralyzes them with fear, denies them from meaningful choices. Everyone wants something and we all fear failure – but if we start to make our choices based on fixed knowledge of what will get us what we want then our life becomes a complicated choreography and somewhere along the way, we stop being ourselves. A good meal can make so much more good, don’t you think?”

Artemis: “Hi there! If you have some time, come, visit my shop! You don’t need to buy anything, but you might want after checking out our antique wares! For more information visit gwn.herald.con/@ArtemisHolmes and don’t be afraid to leave a like!”

Uhm okay, yes, while Artemis poses as an antique shopkeeper…

“I can assure you, I’m a perfectly ordinary shopkeeper.”

… he’s actually one of the few remaining members of the Order of the Enchanters, guardian of the remaining Enchants and currently in charge of picking human allies in the fight against the Sorcerer. He’s also well over 800 years old and is the spouse of…

Nox: “I don’t trust this at all. We have enough on our plate here, in our world without voices from the Cosmos.”

Rob Nox (Rob is his family name) comes from a long line of soldiers serving the Order. He was about to be an exception, up until his family history quite literally caught up to him. Long before Nox’s birth, his father was afflicted with a magical condition that slowly turned his body into living crystal feeding on his very life-force. Nobody realized the severity of it until it was too late. After his father succumbed to the curse it moved to the next generation – onto Nox. He joined the Order in hopes for retaliation and a cure but only started to care about its mission after meeting a young and idealistic Artemis. Then the Mistfall came.

Narwia: She’s not a cat.

“Wait, that’s it? That’s all you’re going to say about me‽”

It seemed important to you.

“No, you know what I mean, there’s really nothing interesting you can say about me? You did it for all the others!”

Very well, why don’t you go ahead and talk about yourself then?

“Hah! You’d like to know, don’t you?”

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyway, Narwia Solena is a felimorph and professional reaper and devil-hunter, working with the Order of the Enchanters on a strictly occasional basis.

She’s also a cat sometimes!

“I’m a felimorph!”

Igne: “Hey! Not sure who you are and how can we talk, but go ahead, ask me anything!”

Igne is one of Flow’s classmates with a passionate personality and wide range of interests. They love martial arts but have a hard time following any actual training because of their wayward nature. They hate bullies and dream about being able to help others but can be a bit reckless at times.

Matis: “Is it really a good idea to give out all this pretty personal information about us to some mysterious voices claiming to be from other worlds? I mean, shouldn’t we be at least a bit suspicious about this?”

Matis is Flow’s other classmate and the best friend of Igne. He’s usually responsible for his age and often acts as the voice of reason besides Igne, however his curiosity and desire to be more proactive and bolder can lead him into dangerous situations as well.

This list is incomplete and will be updated over time, but don’t feel limited by it. You can address any characters who appear in any of my works, whether they’re on the list or not!

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magnecalliope · 2 months ago

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2, 4, 6, 8, writing ask game...mutilate. idk

Gladly!

Yet another writing ask

2. Anything that you'd like to write but feel like you're unable to?

Ough. Novel length projects in general. Keeping the energy up to write more than just a one-shot is a struggle. My most successful long projects are really just a series of snippets set in the same universe in a vague timeline, with huge chucks of context missing between them because I just didn't feel like writing those parts, but I'm always happy to clarify whenever questions about those pieces arise.

4. Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?

Boy, I'm so glad you ask! Here's a shortlist of some of my characters, or at least the ones I can think of right now.

Del: This is my fursona and self-insert. They don't really have a story because I just put them wherever I need them, but their general vibe is intensity and cluelessness. They love oversharing and hate picking up on social cues. They are what I'd call the worst version of myself.

Sandy: This is the OC I've had the longest, so she's gone through a lot of iterations, but I've settled mostly on her being an orphan from the Capital Wasteland, a mechanic and engineer, and nosy optimist. She started as a self-insert for my 12 year old self (like I said, I've had her for a LONG time), so she has creative tendencies and nerdy interests like comic books and old holotapes of genre film.

Artemis: My current Courier Six OC, he's a former vaudeville performer from a little town in Arizona, where his parents exploited his talent for marksmanship to draw in tourists and traders. A big part of the marketing for his show was being something like an Annie Oakley type, so his parents were not particularly supportive when he came out as trans, and he ended up running away at 17, which is how he ended up working odd jobs as a courier.

Dolly & Stiles: My Helluva Boss OCs! A robofizz and baphomet who work at a maid cafe in Greed together, they're a bit of a bonded pair. Dolly is technically property of the maid cafe, but he lives with Stiles, who is doing their best to support the both of them with their side gig as a camboy (camthey?).

Talc: Formerly my Minesona, Talc is a kiln god that's gone mad from isolation in an abandoned ceramics studio and made a deal with a entity more powerful than herself to escape it. She's an annoying asshole because she no longer has any sense of boundaries, and doesn't care to relearn them.

6. What's your ratio for rating your works?

Is this asking if I'll up the rating on a work if a character says the word shit too many times? I just go based on vibes, man.

Or is it asking what kudos:comments:hits I consider successful? I try not to look at stats that way for my own mental health, but I do like checking how many private bookmarks some of my more salacious smut has to know how many secret perverts are out there pretending to be Respectful of Boundaries to the wider mcyt community.

8. How slow is a slow burn?

I guess it depends on the length of the story in general, but I guess as long as they aren't getting together until the last third of the story it counts.

#pipanswers #ty for the ask!

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atrayo · 1 year ago

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Channeled Angelic Wisdom of the Jewels of Truth Series on Beloved Kinship, Unique Blessed Talents, & godly Ascension

Hello All,

As we're on the cusp of being one month away from the start of the holiday quarter of the year. I wanted to reach out and post another trio of angelic-channeled Jewels of Truth statements. All three topics touch upon the spiritual Intuitive gifts in some fashion or another. Just as it is seen as pious to develop one's divine gifts from God in his worship. It is also seen as righteous by the heavenly angelic host to develop your Intuitive faculties in conjunction with further appreciating the holy upon the world and the afterlife therein.

Perhaps with the exception of Judaism where the High Priest could use oracular abilities. The other two Abramahic faiths of Christianity and Islam go basically frantic when a person embraces their divine clairvoyant Inheritance on earth.

If it wasn't for my not listening to my Inner divine calling as a scribe utilizing psychic Inspirational automatic writing to date. There would be no Jewels of Truth series of 28 years of channeling spiritual compassionate wisdom, metaphysics, and mysticism at large as a clairaudient and claircognizant. As they say no risk, no reward.

I always affirm the presence of God's Absolute Love in my life. Whenever I connect informally and formally with the angels, fairies, mythological lesser deities, and so forth. In that way, there is nothing to fear and they arrive always like a gentle whisper in my mind's eye when spoken to telepathically. As long as you pray and ground yourself to Heaven and Earth as a beginner. You can cross the spiritual realms with confidence with the only caveat is if you channel something garbled your human ego got in the way.

Today's trio of topics consists of Beloved Kinship which covers the statement of praying to departed loved ones be they a person, a pet, or some nostalgic place in a distant time. Next, there is the topic of Unique Blessed Talents which delves into the Intuitive Clairvoyant suite of psychic senses of your spirit/aura and Divine White Magicks overall. Lastly, there is the topic of godly Ascension as a summary of how and why to prepare your spirit for the hardcore ascetics to overcome the world in general.

May you find these topics intriguing, to say the least regardless if their merit is too much as a bridge too far for you to travel in your faith with God to date. Amen.

Beloved Kinship:

3262) When any loved one as a dearest fellow person, creature, and even a place in time fades from recent memory upon the world. They are surely missed from our daily lives in terms of intermediate contacts generally being the case.

It is here one must have the self-realization that such a beloved consciousness recollected isn't in vain at all. That what is omitted now in a permanent fashion due to the finite mortal coil by appearance's sake can indeed return. Just not under its original guise in question that must be readily acknowledged in peace.

Here is where personal sorrow can be eased and lessened by developing your own psychic spiritual faculties upon the world responsibly. These are standard skills or senses of your Soul on earth in the Image and Likeness of God as what you call your Divinity. Available to all physical beings be they human or some other sort of creature such as mammals, reptiles, etc... However, humanity is the keenest able to discern intellectually where the other species of the earth are not so much.

No one entity as a Being can deny you your graces of spiritual interactions with the Heavenly Host. These expressions are profoundly Holy and carry the gravity of the Will of God upon them as Divine Law. To be intimidated by well-meaning religious Institutions and other secular organizations leaves you at their mercy. The faith-filled being better prepared as in skilled to face the world spiritually and intellectually can offset many troubles over time.

The Holier Realms are your Divine Birthright here on Earth, whether you construe it as Heaven on Earth or something else by another namesake. If you are deaf, dumb, and mute with your innate psychic standard gifts then surely you can easily be manipulated by conditions on the ground at a huge disadvantage.

With all beginnings, you will stumble like a naive toddler learning to speak, read the omens, signal, and walk in an Intuitive psychic fashion. Taking years to learn the spiritual Intuitive basics and decades to master all the rest upon a mortal lifetime. There are grand differences between the mundane physical dominion of your Creation and the spiritual realities be they astral, fairy, or heavenly. The Inner Mind's Eye of your 3rd Chakra is the conduit of self-realized expressions feeling and not necessarily thinking your way to parse your Intuition.

One has ample time and opportunity to engage with the Holy Masters be they angels, ancestors, and the lesser deities as exalted angelic beings overall. What can be easily dismissed as mere nonsense intellectually has profound emotional undertones if interpreted correctly. However, if your Intuitive faculties have you startled easily like a child.

Then consider the tried and true devotional tools or graces all religions espouse in one manner or another. For example, prayer to your ancestors be they loved ones or historical figures and then watch for coincidences as validations of their generic or specific response to you personally. Next, there is counting your blessings as a form of thanksgiving. In giving thanks to the heavens be they God, your beloved ancestors, and/or the angels you open up your heart to receive divine blessings. As like attracts like kind as an echo response of goodwill.

There are other spiritual devotional tools such as supplication this is the needy form of prayer versus the conversational kind. Calling in for reinforcements to aid you to lessen dire conditions and circumstances in your life from the greater hereafter. Often a bulwark after a prayer of supplication there are Affirmations here to empower your psychological sensibilities in the world. Claiming such and such is a truth in your personality matrix alleviating your fears of lack and/or trouble. Affirmations provide you the worshipper of God with levers to switch on strength as living courage. When everything else appears toxic all around you in a temporary fashion.

When you pray, give thanks, supplicate, affirm, and so forth to a loved one upon the afterlife. The Holy Ghost as the exalted Supreme Spirit of God hears it simultaneously and profoundly. Where it is dispatched to your guardian angels and other ancestral supporters in paradise like an instant email system. It is Indeed Instant due to the timeless nature of the afterlife without the constraint of temporal occurrences.

Often if you listen deeply and gently enough you can feel the immense love pouring out to you. It can be sensed like a wave of positivity washing through you giving you chills up and down your back. Where the 1st Impression is often the correct response and not the one you perform overkill with by second-guessing yourself into paralyzation.

It takes practice and immense patience to overcome incremental steps of the infancy of a beginner's development with your sacred Intuitive faculties of God in you. Never can it be rushed it has its own graceful elegance on your human end to endure. This is whether you adore a loved one as a person, a creature akin to a domestic or wild pet, or a place in time long since faded. None are far away in terms of situational or spatial spiritual Infinity. For Infinity is another conundrum dimensionally speaking with endless spacelessness as the extended Meta-Being of God(dess). Amen. ---Ivan Pozo-Illas / Atrayo.

Unique Blessed Talents:

3261) Everyone as a Divine Being of God whether Incarnated or not upon other spectral ghostly forms of existence. Has an Intrinsic make-up directly attributed to the Likeness of God metaphysically as a co-creator, co-sustainer, and co-destroyer upon the world. These are but the basic premise of the meta-constant circular nature of the Great Mysterious Maker.

Consider it akin to an Infinite unique watermark or fingerprint of your native bodily appearance as genetics go physically in time. Such a mark is both Holy and Sacred when it is posited upon the metaphysical afterlife by comparison as the extended essence of the Divine Supreme One. All are Children of God as people, creatures, ecosystems, meteorological patterns, etc...

Unfortunately what is also Above in Heaven has its corrupted Twin in the Hellish realms of the cursed underworld of the afterlife. Each is considered a separate dominion of God itself. Structurally speaking what is perfect in Heaven is warped in Hell. Basically, Creation as your physical universe is shared equally with both Heaven and Hell in tandem. Heaven on Earth and Hell on Earth for instance as ethereal places as States of Being of both the Human Condition and other expressions of totality itself.

Every being or entity has latent powers of the Soul of God within them earnestly. Whether these are expressed responsibly by righteous means or selfish mean-spirited occurrences of misconduct. Although there is an equal spread of the type of clairvoyant and magical modalities upon the world. Each arrives uniquely through the person in question as configured differently as a pattern of proficiency.

We the Heavenly hosts often realize someone is spiritually talented when they are cooking off abilities randomly without discipline. Much like a toddler with a cigarette lighter. When there is love in the home the person is stronger than any form of fear. Often their curiosity may pass in time and if not the old soul must be careful not to provoke the ire of relatives inadvertently.

Heretofore we as the eternal blessed witnesses see all under the sun of men and women alike. When such godly holy nature exhibits itself naturally at first blush as it was said. These are powers or talents that need careful development if they are to be awakened spiritually with respect to all concerned. As there are physical bodily senses of sight, taste, hearing, touch, and smell. Your spirit body or aura has an equal set of spiritual senses as a ghost incarnated into a physical body.

Often depicted as clairvoyance by sight, clairaudience by spiritual telepathic hearing, clairsentience by feeling akin to touch, clairalience as smell, clairgustance as taste, and an extra ability as claircognizance as Inner Knowing. These are the standard powers of all spirits regardless if they are disembodied or incarnated.

Further afield there lay the godly angelic powers of said magicks of evocation, Invocations, conjuring, abjuring as forms of exorcism, and many other lesser pools of magical being. This too can be construed as either elemental as earth-based or divine high magicks as strictly interacting with the heavenly angels when faith is strong and conviction is steadfast. For some magical living is like a religion all its own settled within another contemporaneous spiritual tradition. Akin to a force multiplier that affords a bigger bang for your buck in divine interactions with hopefully only the heavenly host in question.

When there is such a silent majority upon the spiritual world living in the flesh whether declaring their utmost presence without fear. There can be a galvanized awakening for the world to realize what it has feared completely out of hand was an overreaction. Careful understanding with respect to the undertakings must be adhered to with sensibility. Nothing is to be taken for granted even if it means that it must be tested as there are truly no sacred cows as taboos. Question until you feel secure enough and then live by a higher sophisticated ideal of what it means to be truly spiritually alive in union by faith with God(dess). Amen. ---Ivan Pozo-Illas / Atrayo.

godly Ascension:

3260) All forms of Divinity are not alike thus the makeup of truly being alive in faith united with the Heavenly Host is paramount not unlike anything before in spiritual truth. Every entity or being is an Infinite facet of the cosmic Creator the God of all gods supreme. All facets as slivers of the spect of God in each of you are truly universally unknowable it is a universe unto itself mysteriously so.

Your soul bodies must abide in utmost alignment with your spirit here on earth. If and when you decide to be devoted to religious or spiritual traditions of the endless afterlife. Here is what is by the auric tones symbolically what is entailed for spiritual ascension upon a lifetime briefly. The totality of God has generically extended out its hand to all whom would carry the sacred flame of truth with conviction. Not just into the world but all other astral and otherwise spiritual realms that be made so possible metaphysically.

For a human being or any other semi-sentient intelligent creature out in your physical cosmos. Intends to live a devoted ascetic life in service to all including themselves without neglecting self-care. They can begin to syncretize themselves to wisdoms and other spiritual knowing beyond this world. This entails being adopted by the Holy Masters otherwise progress is dwarfed as the sojourn goes forward.

Depending on the religion or lack thereof of such a background many errors introduced by so-called learned men as theologians must be unlearned as innocent mistakes. This clears the way for later more complex rudimentary understandings to be envisioned within a lifetime. No one wants to move forward half-cocked only to realize they need to double back to undo assumed mistakes long ago made by well-meaning spiritual forefathers.

All godly spiritual powers are angelic in holy nature period. The next evolution of all fully or partially intelligent lifeforms out in your cosmos spiritually speaking is into the next rung on the ladder of eternity and infinity as angelic in the perfect template of God itself. The animal or other ephemeral mortal coils on whichever planetary sphere you began upon are immaterial in question. All roads lead upwards as an uneven celestial cosmic corkscrew.

You and I are different manifestations of the god force of the totality of being alive. You are human and I am angelic in godly holy nature. I am highly evolved and by happenstance, your soul eclipses my own since you have more than one soul, which I only have one which is the standard holy fare dearest "Ivan the Atrayo".

The conundrum doesn't escape us as a paradoxical flip of the uneven nature of God to keep us all on our so-called toes as divine beings. As we explain these feats of ascension to your esteemed modern spiritual readers. There comes a limitation placed on what can be explained with simplicity based upon your human vocabulary as our oracle or herald.

Those who are philosophically inclined may mutter what all this means with confidence. Your lack of a fuller education in the literary arts Ivan has afforded us the chance to work with you as a truly blank slate as it were said. To Be like God can not be overstated here for that is the yardstick of measurement required for any person to overcome the societal norms of convention at least metaphysically at present.

Here is where morality as the norms of virtues, ethics, and another sound basis of well-meaning care with common sense and uncommon wisdom is also required. At least for those seeking Enlightenment from Heaven. Enlightenment is possible through Hell, however, that is a tortured affair altogether and not the basis of this statement of the Jewels of Truth series.

Detachment from the obstacles of modern living is a plus if one has the mental acumen to be divorced from the popular rage of the world. For spiritual service, whether you call this dharmic or something else must have a caring compassionate center within moderation to affect positive changes overall. To be extremely detached and one becomes a fool without any bearings as a balloon without any proper moorings.

One must inhale life in all its glory and exhale all its lacking poisons, otherwise, imbalances will occur. Patience with fearlessness upon courage is also required to act when all others have frozen feet coupled with loathing fears. To Be Saint like is a good start, but not to the point you have an inflated vain ego because of it. Everything holistic whether mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual spheres are required when interacting with forces beyond your total control. Anything short of this call upon us the heavenly host to aid your path when encountering circumstantial turbulence in life.

All forms of godly Ascension is a team or heavenly societal effort it is welcoming a renewed luminary upon the world and the hereafter simultaneously. There are many unique creative one-time and otherwise frequent paths of celestial ascension back to God prior to a mortal death blow. Not all are created equal as the caveat is so simply put. We welcome all earnest efforts even if one abandons their efforts in one lifetime and comes back in their next reincarnation where they last left off. The holy of holies is a stickler for details like that to be wholly respected.

There is a metaphysical near endless universal angelic arts and sciences that dwarf all knowledge-based knowing in your bubble of a physically created universe altogether. Only the perfect absolute Mind of God mysterious and unknowable upon totality as it were dwarfs our collective angelic knowing completely of the infinite heavens. Amen. ---Ivan Pozo-Illas / Atrayo.

Ivan "Atrayo" Pozo-Illas, has devoted 28 plus years of his life to the pursuit of clairaudient-inspired automatic writing channeling the Angelic Heavenly host. Ivan is the author of the spiritual wisdom series "Jewels of Truth" consisting of 3 volumes published to date. He also utilizes a unique channeled angelic divination method called the Multi-Deck Divination System. Numerous examples of his work are available at "Atrayo's Oracle" blog site of 18 years plus online. You're welcome to visit his website "Jewelsoftruth.us" for further information or to contact Atrayo directly.

#ivan pozo-illas #jewels of truth #atrayo's oracle #spiritual wisdom #automatic writing #angels #god #spiritual teacher #spirit guide #spirituality #metaphysics #mysticism #esoterism #Beloved Kinship #Unique Blessed Talents #godly Ascension #goddess

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randomshyperson · 2 years ago

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Rulers of The Multiverse - Wanda Maximoff x Reader - Chapter Twelve

Summary: Strange’s faulty spell will cause a series of unexpected events, from your reunion with the love of your life in another world to the appearance of a child capable of traveling across the multiverse. This story follows the journey of a very tired Guardian alongside mischievous America Chavez and Scarlet Witch.

Warnings: (+18) explicit language and sexual content, violence, a lot of magic, found family, mentions of abusive past and trauma, mind control, use of illicit substances, mostly top!reader, soulmates analogies. CW: smut, violence, mention of murder || Words: 8.236k

General Masterlist | AO3 | Wattpad | Series Masterlist

--//--

Chapter Twelve - A Bunch of Books and Dreams

"The Scarlet Witch is a legendary being of great power, who at her peak, will be able to transit through the multiverse and is therefore destined to reign over all Worlds."

Wanda lets out a loud sigh with your reading. The three of you are sitting on the floor of the Library of Alexandria with dozens of open books around you. And since you lost patience with the Book of Vishanti citing the Gods as the most benevolent creatures on earth, and decided to join Wanda in her research - along with little America, who had already reread your little guide a couple of times and offered to make notes that Wanda needed - you had already found over a dozen different descriptions for what a Scarlet Witch was and her fate.

"That's another point for a ruling entity." America commented writing in a notepad on her own lap, and you - who was holding one of the Books of the Wise and Great Masters, Entities of Power from Earth-721 - closed it and tossed the item on the pile of readings before moving to grab the next one: The Book of the Damned, Earth-28.

"Just to make sure, you're certain that Chthon won't start whispering my worst fears if I try to read this, right?" you ask Wanda in a light tone, darkhold in hand, and she rolls her eyes, hiding a small smile as she straightens the Book of the Vishanti she picked up from you in front of her face.

A few more minutes pass before Wanda finds what she was looking for.

"Hey, Y/N, listen to this." She catches your eye, tracing her finger across the page containing the drawing of the Scarlet Witch and the Guardian of the Order with their backs to each other, familiar to her from one of your memories. "A Guardian's oath is taken on the first Full Moon of their Forge, with their Master Teacher and their knights present."

You frown softly, taking your attention away from the book to look at Wanda, who continues to read, "If the presence of the living Knights is not possible, the ritual must be done in close proximity to their bodies."

"That's so creepy." You grumble with a grimace, to which Wanda agrees with a nod. She mumbles a bit, skipping a few not-so-relevant sentences, before speaking again.

"If the forging is not complete, the Guardian must find a way to earn the attention of the Elder Goddess of the Eastern Star, Oshtur. The only known case of a sworn Guardian in arrears was of the Insane Aeneas, who offended Oshtur's justice by fraternizing with demons and dark magic in pursuit of greater power, falling into delirium for a millennium by performing a Malignant Forge. Aeneas paid his punishment after a thousand years, by freeing the In-Between Realm from the dominion of the Devourer of Worlds, Dormammu. Aeneas sacrificed himself and all his magic, and the benevolent Oshtur allowed him to rest beside the fallen order."

"I swear, how many times are these guys going to write Belovelent..." You mutter, managing a small laugh before Wanda snaps her fingers for you to focus.

"It doesn't say anything in here about getting sick for not carrying out an oath." She comments and you sigh thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I noticed it too." You say. "But that's the interpretation of all the masters, isn't it? And it would come as no surprise if Oshtur is a Narcissistic-"

The room shudders as if the thunder outside is on the wall, and Wanda and America give you a warning look about offending Oshtur in that place. You sigh, raising your hands in surrender before flipping through the Darkhold again.

"Write that down then, America, great heroic act for the gods to notice me." You mutter half-ironically. "And I thought killing the mad titan was going to be enough."

America giggles but scribbles down what you asked. Wanda goes back to her reading, and you find the description of darkhold in the next fifteen minutes.

"[...] Yep, another one for the Destroyer of Worlds pile, babe." You comment as you finish reading. "Sorry."

Wanda sighs but doesn't comment at all, closing the Book of Vishanti and putting it in another pile while you lean over to look at America's notepad, commenting with a smile that her handwriting in English has improved greatly since last time.

Wanda feels her heart warm with moments like this. Part of her mind screams at her not to get attached, but she can't help but notice how much more like a family you and America feel to her with every second you spend together.

Suddenly the cuckoo clock is ticking in the room, and the books start to turn transparent, and the three of you let out soft exclamations, trying to hurry to the exit and sharing soft laughter at the angry librarian's complaints about the hour.

Outside, it is raining heavily.

"I swear it seems like time passes faster every time we go in there." You comment waving your arms and looking at the amount of water that doesn't look like it's going to subside anytime soon.

"I wouldn't doubt it." Wanda murmurs in agreement, and she is about to suggest that you conjure up umbrellas when America runs out in the rain. "America!"

"Come on, you old ladies, it's fun!" Chavez retorts between one laugh or another, and you waste no time before going after her.

Wanda bites back a smile, watching you run around in the rain, and you stop with open arms, waiting for her. And she thinks you look beautiful.

"Come on, Wanda, I promise you won't melt." You tease with a laugh, but Wanda thinks you're wrong.

She melted a long time ago.

—--

Later and already inside the van while America - now wearing clothes that smell of sweet fabric softener and with wet hair - is sitting at the dining table with what looks like a strange card game, Wanda bumps into you on the way out of the bathroom when she decides to prepare something to eat.

It probably doesn't do her and her dreams any good to see you in a towel, but there's not much to be done when you offer an almost embarrassed smile, entering into a little dance about who will move first through the short space between the bedroom and the bathroom exit before you worsen the state she's blushing in by holding her waist and pressing her gently against the wall for room to pass.

"Sorry." You murmur and are hurrying off into the bedroom and closing the door the next second.

Wanda can see your silhouette, and you tug at the towel, so she looks away before America asks about the redness of her face.

Dinner is as amazing as all the other little moments the three of you have together. Wanda can feel her heart warming with how familiar it is to watch you make bad jokes or America steal your fries. She doesn't want to think about the stolen glances between you two or the natural complicity of doing the dishes or saying good night to America.

Despite her growing anxiety, Wanda is impressed by how casually you crash into your bed and fall asleep - as if the thought of sleeping next to her doesn't affect you much - and Wanda wishes so much that she could do the same.

She is considering an incantation when without expecting it, she falls asleep. And this time, she doesn't like her dreams one bit.

It begins in a room dimly lit by candles in chandeliers, and she is sitting in a chair that looks very much like a throne.

There is a knock on the door, and she straightens up before allowing you in. You, in what looks like creedal clothing - a brown cloak and a belt with a sword in its holster - come in and offer a short smile before approaching, wasting no time in kneeling down.

"Your Highness, I have brought what you requested." You say without looking at her, and Wanda feels a smile form on her face.

"Where is it?" she asks.

You waste no time, pulling something out of your jacket pocket. Wanda lets out a gasp when the yellow glow of the Mind Stone is in her range.

She reaches out of her dress cover, but before she can touch the necklace, she removes her glove, and when you get a glimpse of the black color of her fingers, your natural reaction is to hesitate, which is a mistake, because Wanda uses her free hand to grab your chin and force you to your previous position, her black fingers closing around the necklace.

"F-forgive me, my highness!" You ask quickly, fear stamped in your eyes. "If I may ask, what happened to-?"

"None of your concern, little dove." She cuts in with an icy voice, and pushes your face hard, the position causing you to fall backward with the loss of balance. Wanda is not affected one bit, her attention returning to the necklace in her hand. She inhales deeply, and then, "That's not the one I seek yet."

She presses the stone against her palm, shattering it as if it were pure glass, but it is a real infinity stone because a great wave of energy comes out of the object, and it has shattered and knocked down almost every bookcase, silverware, and mirror in the room.

You crawl away, scared and in shock, but Wanda watches herself conjure some kind of chains around your ankles and pull you back to her.

She throws the shards of the Stone on the floor and holds you down with her own hips, her face hovering over you.

"Shh, there's nothing to be afraid of, I haven't even started playing with you yet." She says macabrely, and when you try to scream for help, she simply shuts you up with magic, a wicked little laugh escaping her lips. "Let me take a closer look..." She whispers, ignoring your desperation as she holds your face, and forces it to the side to get a wider view of the back of your neck. She scratches her fingers on the skin at the nape and lets out a disappointed sigh. "Not my guardian yet, just another pretty knight."

Suddenly, chains of magic are holding your hands high above your body, and you try to struggle, begging gasps as you see Wanda reach for one of the shards of glass closer.

She meets her own gaze in the broken mirror across the room, a short smile escaping her lips that whispers "Noisy" which makes her whole body shiver from head to toe before she watches herself turn her attention to you twitching in despair below her, and without any fear, she snaps the shard against your neck and rips-

Wanda jumps out of bed gasping with fright. She is surprised that she hasn't yelled out honestly. The dream is so vivid that she has trouble blinking back to reality, and recognizing your concerned voice and touch on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Wanda, it was just a bad dream." You whispered in a sleepy voice, kissing her cheek and stroking her hair. And Wanda could only cry.

Did her just-

"I'll get you some water." You mumble but she holds your hands tightly.

"N-no." She asks in a whining voice. "Don’t go anywhere...just… it okay if we sleep in the same bed?"

You blink in surprise but offer her a smile so sweet that Wanda can only feel an even worse wave of guilt over the dream.

"Of course my love." That is all you say to her before passing your arms around her. Wanda hugs you back, hiding her face in the curve of your neck, and inhaling deeply.

It is only when your beds are together again, and you are snuggled completely underneath one comforter, and Wanda can hear your soft breathing and your heart beating in your chest, that she can go back to sleep.

—---

The next day Wanda is practically running on automatic.

You woke her up completely entwined with her, kissed her cheek, and made pancakes, and Wanda could only remember her own horrible nightmare.

She was convinced that so much magical reading was driving her insane, and was about to suggest that they stop it when America found a passage in the second edition of her pocket guide-which Aarif said had been added to her record and the girl had been devouring for the last few minutes - and Wanda almost fainted.

"Listen to this, people!" America started to get your attention, the little book at eye level. "Rare are the beings capable of traveling through the vast multiverse, but it is common knowledge that the vast majority of creatures have been gifted with the ability to connect with their other lives. Forest people can converse with their versions through natural rituals at sunset, and humans have the ability, from the first second of life, to glimpse, and even connect, with their alternate consciousness from universes other than their own. This ability receiving the name of dreams-"

"No fucking way!" You cut in with an excited exclamation, moving closer to an equally excited America. Wanda would have said something about language around a child, but she was busier trying not to despair at having just discovered that the other night's dream was actually a memory from the other life. "Oh my god, that's so cool! When I was a kid, I once dreamed of a park completely made of cotton candy! Some variant of me is having a blast!"

America laughed, beginning to share dreams as well. But soon you noticed Wanda's silence and interrupted your own babbling on the subject by asking if she was all right.

"You look a little pale, sweetheart." You commented with a frown, but Wanda's forcing a laugh.

"What? No, I'm fine. It must be because we've been locked in here all day." She lies quickly, getting up. "I'm going to ask Aarif something, I'll be right back."

She's getting out of the room faster than you might ask.

It is Aarif who finds Wanda actually - trying to control a panic attack behind a pillar - and he sighs softly.

"Are you having some of the human diseases?" He asked, and he had a Medical Guide to Diseases - Earth Species flying into his hand in the next second. "Please do not vent any kind of human residues on the edges of the library."

Wanda laughs breathlessly, shaking her head. She takes a deep breath before raising her gaze to him. "I'm fine, you don't need that." She says speaking over the book. "It was just a malaise."

"Excessive reading can cause exhaustion, and pushy travelers often get tired, so time speeds up for the preservation of your health." Comments the birdman, offering nothing more than a gentle nod to Wanda's surprise before he begins to walk away into the distance.

She wastes no time in going after him. "Wait, Aarif!" She says, and the man, despite slowing down, continues to push his cart of books that fly by as they are in the right aisle. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Aarif doesn't like questions." He retorts.

"I know, but can it be just one?" Aarif sighs but nods quietly. Wanda swallows dryly. "Is it true that dreams are vision's of other worlds?"

"Yes."

"Shit." Wanda immediately grumbles, receiving a raised eyebrow in surprise from the other, "Sorry."

"Curses are expressions of anger in the language of human beings. Did Aarif upset you?"

"Oh, no Aarif, not you!" Wanda quickly assures half-heartedly. "I just... Well, I had a really bad dream last night, and it's not the best of news to find out that it actually happened."

He sighs in understanding. "Aarif doesn't know if it will be any consolation, Miss Maximoff, but there is no temporal connection between the dreams. You may have watched something that happened a thousand years ago in a dead universe. Or something that is happening in the same cosmic time equivalent."

Wanda frowned slightly. "I'm sorry, what does that mean?" She asks and adds quickly. "I promise that's the last question!"

Aarif laughed softly. "Time works differently in each universe. Each world has its own flow of time happening, and the dreams that humans share can sometimes come late, in a way. Some masters even believed they could come early, but Aarif thinks it's impossible."

Wanda bit her tongue to avoid asking why next. Instead, she decided to skirt around it. "It was something really scary, Aarif. Something I would never want any version of me to have done."

Aarif sighs again. "I am sorry, Miss Maximoff. In the vast multiverse, creatures often find versions of themselves committing atrocities that are beyond imagination. The laws of probability reach everything, and everything that can will happen. It's nothing to take to your heart."

Wanda swallows dryly, nodding. "It's really a shame that I can't stop some things from happening."

Aarif murmurs in agreement, returning some books to the shelves. Wanda is almost leaving him alone when the man adds:

"Look on the bright side of things, Miss Maximoff. Your friend, the Chavez girl is here, even if her world is not yet born, you were gifted with her. Sometimes being early isn't always a bad thing."

Wanda's eyes widened at the revelation, but when Aarif asked if she was feeling sick again, she quickly clarified that she was just tired.

The clock sped up.

—---

Aarif led you all to the door.

"Three days, goodbye, goodbye, don't come back in this life." Dismissed the birdman, using his wings to push you three out.

You laughed in spite of everything. "At least you got us to the door, eh, bird-face!"

"Don't come back here even after death, please, guardian L/N." Murmured the man and you gave a soft grimace.

America was waving goodbye, but you stepped forward before the man closed the door.

"Please, just one last question, about the way back-"

Aarif sighs interrupting you by raising his hand.

"The road, Miss Maximoff." He says. "It is called the All-Way Road, Aarif assumed you would have realized by now that you are in the In-Between Realm, but travelers never know. The road gets you where you need to go, but if you are in a hurry, Miss Chavez can help. Goodbye."

He closes the door without fear, and this time, the doorknob disappears.

"What were you going to ask him?" Wanda asks curiously, and you shake your head.

"If I could back up the sidewalk at the library, but that was far more instructive." You reply getting giggles from the other two.

America uses the step to jump on your shoulders, and you carry her to the van at a brisk jog.

"I guess we're on the road to the gods now, I hope they're planning something heroic so I can kick their asses." You comment once you're behind the wheel, and despite the shuddering skies, the car starts moving.

Wanda was trying to find the right moment to tell you about what she had discovered, both about the dreams and about America and her unborn world.

While she didn't want to scare the girl, she also knew what it felt like to have the truth kept from her, and she didn't want that between them. So, about fifteen minutes down the road, she took a deep breath and got up from the passenger seat - squeezing your shoulder gently and receiving an affectionate smile - and joined America on the couch, busy with a magic cube that would never complete itself, and which Wanda was sure had been your magic trying to keep the girl occupied.

"Hey sweetheart, can we talk?"

America offered Wanda a gentle smile, but when Wanda told her what she came to say, she had tears in her eyes.

"[...] So, does that mean I can't go home?"

You let the car drive itself, and joined them.

"I don't know America, I'm sorry." Wanda continued as you knelt at their height, holding one of America's hands. "Aarif just said that your world hasn't been born yet, but maybe, we just need to wait. And look, Y/N is going to meet with the gods, and maybe she can ask..."

You shake your head quickly, exchanging a look with Wanda. "Hey, kiddo, I know it's not very good news, but... um, you're not going to be alone okay?" You assure her with a smile. "I'll keep my promise until your world is born. And even if it never happens. We get to travel, and I could even buy a house if you want, and you learn to control your powers and -"

America cuts you off with a tight hug. She's crying a little, but you stroke her back gently, and Wanda strokes her hair. "Thank you." She sniffles softly.

"No problem, darling."

When she breaks the hug, you offer her another smile, but America swallows dryly and asks hesitantly.

"Can... Can Wanda be with us too?"

You give a surprised laugh. "If she wants to..."

But Wanda swallows dryly, frowning.

She wants to. With all her heart. But she can still remember the feeling of the shard of glass against her fingers.

"Let's just find your heroic act first, guardian." That's what she says, and you give a weak laugh, muttering to America that you could still convince her.

Wanda backs away back into the passenger seat, and America says she's tired and retreats to her own room.

You returned to the wheel in silence but didn't stay that way for more than five minutes.

"What else did you ask Aarif, sweetheart?"

Wanda swallowed dryly. She could lie, but there was no reason to prolong this, even if her chest was burning with guilt and shame.

And honestly, you knew her so well it was almost annoying.

"I had a bad dream and I wondered if it was really a memory from another life."

You sigh softly at her confession, but you don't take your eyes off the road even though you don't really need to pay attention.

"In that dream...did you hurt me?"

Wanda felt the air leave her lungs, but when she looked away and noticed your not at all guilty and almost embarrassed semblance, she frowned.

"How...?"

"I dreamed about you the day we got here." You interrupted without meeting her gaze, twiddling your fingers together. "I had some kind of sword, and I used it to stop you. It was some kind of corrupted world, and when I was done with you, it was my turn."

"Y/N..."

"I'm sorry for not saying anything." You cut in again with a sad smile, and when you meet Wanda's eyes, she can see the tears. "But it's just that it's not easy to say these things. I will find a solution for us, Wanda, even if I have to remove my forge to do it."

Wanda reaches out for your forearm.

"Don't say that." She urges. "I know what the Book of Vishanti says about the forge. And yours saved your life. Removing it would be the same as taking it away, and I can't-" Wanda interrupts herself before she starts to cry. Taking a deep breath, she forced a smile. "Besides, you love your magic. We should keep our agreement, and when this is over, we each go back to our own universe. You'll have America, and I..." She swallowed dryly. "I'll be fine."

But you shook your head softly. "I'm sorry, but I'll never leave you alone again, Wanda. I'll just go tell the gods and their prophecies to fuck off." You assure her, scrunching your nose adorably, and turning your attention back to the steering wheel because the road vibrated a little, and you didn't want the car to lose control.

Wanda lets out a shy chuckle, settling back into the passenger seat and hugging her own legs.

"Hey, what kind of heroic act do you think would be enough for the gods to notice me?" You pull up a conversation a moment later, moving your hands to turn on the radio.

Wanda smiles, "I could conjure up some monsters for you to kill."

You widen your eyes and open your mouth in an excited expression as if Wanda had come up with the best idea of the century, and she laughs in immediate denial.

—----

It must be almost two in the morning - if time has any meaning in this place - when you start to yawn.

Wanda is practically asleep in the passenger seat, and you poke her gently in the ribs to call her into the bedroom.

"You know I don't trust that spell." She murmurs over the enchanted steering wheel but doesn't insist too much because you are pushing her by the hips toward the bed.

You lie on your backs to each other and fall into a comfortable silence for long minutes until you realize that neither has really managed to catch up on sleep. You turn at the same time as her, resting your face on your folded arm as Wanda settles hers on her own pillow.

"I'm scared." She confesses softly, her eyes half tired but watching you intently.

"Of falling asleep?"

"Of hurting you." She retorts and you lift your fingers to her cheeks, caressing her skin that warms to your touch.

"You could never hurt me." You whisper, moving your hand away to your own t-shirt. Wanda blinks in confusion, and it didn't help that you suddenly sit up in bed, and remove the garment with one motion. "See here. First Avengers training, and you were my partner. You threw an energy ball right here." You counted pointing to your shoulder. "And of course, I was too busy drooling on you to deflect it. But see, no marks. And here, one time, we were trying power-free training and you hit me right in the face." You continue telling with a sweetness and nostalgia that makes Wanda smile while you’re pointing at your chin. "It hurt like hell, and it cut a little, and the first thing you did was get a first aid kit."

You continued counting for a few minutes, until Wanda swallowed dry, and found her hand on the bed.

"This is all very sweet, but you know I'm not talking about training injuries or pretend fights." She interrupts upset, and you swallow dryly, nodding.

You shift a little on the bed to get closer and pull her hand until Wanda's palm is on your low back, and she blinks in surprise and curiosity.

"Most of them have faded, but you can still feel those." You murmured, and Wanda traced the thin scars on your skin.

"They are from..."

"The Mirrored Dimension." You clarify with a nod, and Wanda swallows dryly, pushing your hand away. "I'm just showing you that-"

"I can hurt you." She interrupts making you sigh in frustration. Before she pulls away completely, you grasp her forearm and pull her palm against your chest, the position making Wanda sit up begrudgingly. "Y/N, what-"

"Try." You ask earnestly. "Try using your magic on me."

"What? N-no, I-"

"Come on Wanda." You insist, placing your free hand on her chest. "I'll do the same to you."

"That's the worst idea you've ever had, I swear."

"Trust me."

The worst part is that she did trust. So she concentrated, guiding the magic into her palm as she felt yours become warm as well.

You offered her a small smile. "On 3."

"2."

"1". You counted and she closed her eyes before stimulating the magic outward. Expecting a noise, and expecting the pain of yours, Wanda was surprised by the sound of your chuckle.

"It tickles." That's what you whispered, and when you pushed magic into her, she giggled too, sharing the feeling.

"What...?"

"I told you." You casually retorted as you shrugged and lowered your hand. "Equivalent magics, Wands. We're not meant to hurt each other, no matter what the gods or the books say."

You offer her an assuring smile, and stretch, saying that you are tired. You lie back down again, and Wanda swallows dryly, twisting her fingers in her lap.

"Go to sleep, witchy, we have a heroic act to look for." You scoff softly, and with your eyes closed. Wanda smiles a little and lies down beside you.

She manages to resist the urge to touch your back for almost 30 whole seconds and thinks it is one of her greatest achievements.

You sigh softly as you feel her fingers, but it turns into a soft choke as Wanda lets the magic flow through them, and watches the scarlet witch tattoo form.

"There was nothing in the book about this." She comments tracing her fingers across the design. You swallow dryly, trying to disguise the growing excitement in your body as you adjust your face against the pillow.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence."

Wanda gives an incredulous chuckle. "A magic tattoo on your back about me? I don't think so."

"Wanda..." You moan softly when she scratches unintentionally, and the woman blinks in surprise at the sound, feeling her face burn, though her touch doesn't waver.

"How does it feel..." She begins in a mix of curiosity and desire, bringing her mouth close to the height of your ear while pressing her open palm into your back. "When do I touch you here?"

You gasp again, hiding your face in the mattress. Wanda watches in wonder at the other signs: the way your thighs are pressed together, one hand gripping the blanket tightly, your shallow breathing, the heat emerging from your skin-

"Stop doing that." You murmur, your voice muffled against the pillow. "I...fuck, it's really hard not to kiss you when you do that."

Wanda pulls away with a surprised sigh, and when her hand isn't touching your back, she watches you grunt against the pillow, trying to breathe normally again.

"I’m sorry, Wanda." You mumble almost guiltily, still on your back, and she doesn't even know what you are apologizing for. She doesn't think she even cares. "Just give me a minute."

You take another moment to take a deep breath, running your hand over to wipe away some of the excess sweat before you look at her, your cheeks half reddened.

"Hey." You greet embarrassed, clearing your throat at the way Wanda is looking at you in anticipation. "Sorry, I don't...I don't mean to make things awkward."

"What was that about?" Wanda asks more impressed than anything, but you, trapped in your own shame, understand that she is repressing you.

"Damn, sorry, I know it's... weird." You mumble frowning. "I don't know what happened either. But I think it's some kind of bonding spell or something. I had only felt it once before, when I helped my Wanda get forged, and it was nothing like now. It was painful and suffocating. B-but with you, damn it, with you it's incredible!" You explain affectedly trying not to blush so hard. "I had never felt the spell again, I didn't even know it was still here until that day in the cube. It must have to do with your magic because when we... hmm, were first together, you didn't, well that hadn't happened. And now it does."

"But what do you feel?"

You sigh in frustration. " Well, come on, Wanda, it's almost like-damn it, it's almost like you can make me finish with just a touch!"

"Oh." Wanda exclaims in surprise, feeling her face burn as well. But you sigh again.

"But it's not just that!" You continue. "I feel like ... well I just feel you."

"Me?" she asks affectedly, and you swallow dryly, nodding.

"Yeah, all you." You retort. "It's an attraction, very, very strong. It makes me want to touch you and hold you. Not just... fuck. But to be close. Every inch of me."

Wanda swallows dryly, nodding and leaning in until your foreheads are touching. "I feel that too, my love. Even without the magic tattoo." She confesses in a soft tone, managing to get you to laugh briefly at the joke at the end.

"I didn't say anything before because I didn't want it to be weird." You mutter with your eyes closed. "That, and well, you kind of broke up with me."

It is Wanda's turn to laugh softly. She brings a hand to your cheek and sighs softly when you entwine her waist to pull her closer.

"There's something I didn't tell you, too, because I thought it would make things awkward."

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm." She replies by tracing lines along your face. "Promise you won't make fun of me."

"I probably will." It is your response that makes her chuckle softly, burying her face in the curve of your neck. You caress her back for a moment, and it's almost as if she's not going to tell you anymore when Wanda suddenly whispers: "I've had other dreams about you."

You blink in surprise, already preparing to repeat to her that nothing bad was going to happen to you two when Wanda's hot panting on your skin makes you lose your line of thought. She seems to have taken the courage to confess more when she brings her mouth to the height of your ear.

"I dreamed we were fucking." She whispers huskily, the thick accent making you roll your eyes softly, your body shuddering with the wave of heat that hits your lower abdomen. "But I want it to be more than just that in reality."

You nod, coming closer. "It's already more than that, Wanda." You tell her softly and she hugs you back, sighing as she feels your bodies fitting together.

She calls your name in a whisper receiving a hum back. "Can you.... can you kiss me to sleep?"

"Oh, I would love that." You meekly confess before breaking the embrace, only to hover over Wanda waiting for a confirmation.

She smiles at you, returning her hand to your cheek, "And it's okay if, tomorrow, we kiss again?"

It was your turn to smile, nodding before resting your forehead on hers. "Wanda, darling, I would kiss you every day of my life for as long as you let me."

"Start now." She demands half impatiently and affected, managing a short laugh before you break the distance.

You kiss her slowly at first, trying to satisfy the craving you felt for the sensation with one of your hands steady on Wanda's hips as she leaves hers on your face, matching the intensity as she follows your tongue.

But then it gets hungrier, one of your hands sliding to her thigh to guide it to move over your hips - the cue Wanda gladly follows - and the affected sigh you both let out makes your body warm, and your heart races in your ears.

Wanda takes control of the kiss and explores every inch of your mouth, her hips following the pace, wiggling on top of you as she moves, and the feel of your breasts together and your thigh between her legs from where you can feel the heat of her center gets a sound from your throat that makes her break the kiss with a bite on your lower lip, a teasing tug to gets a groan out of you.

She stares at you with completely darkened eyes and parted lips, and you can't find any reason to have ever stopped.

"Wanda, can I..." You begin in a hoarse voice, swallowing dryly to push the desire from your brain and speak clearly. "Can I take off your clothes?"

She smiles mischievously, raising an eyebrow at you, and pulls away a little only for with a flick of her fingers, all the clothes are gone. You grunt softly at the image of her breasts, or the feel of her core now without any covering on your thigh.

Wanda bites her lip watching the effect she has on you, and you pull her closer by the hips, getting a soft sigh from the friction of the movement.

You kiss her again, still calm but intense, and Wanda melts. As she slides her tongue against yours, making your head spin, you let out a deep moan before feeling her rub against your thigh, the wetness dripping onto your skin and making your body warm. Wanda shudders when the friction is precise, breaking the kiss with a gasping moan, and your hands hold her by the waist to guide her movements. She meets your gaze again, her brow slightly furrowed and her cheeks rosy, but she doesn't stop moving, the friction of your skin against her clit pulling gasp moans from her lips.

You bite your lips as you watch her, your own core throbbing with the absolutely sinful image in front of you, and when Wanda wriggles around again, starting to bounce more frantically against you in an attempt to reach her high, you can't help but latch onto her breasts at your eye level. She almost screams when your mouth wraps around her nipple, sucking hard.

You continue licking and sucking the tip of her nipples, giving them both equal attention as you guide Wanda's movements against your thigh. All she can do in return is whimper, feeling the knot in her belly about to break at any second.

"Detka, you're gonna... m-make me come..." Wanda tries to warn you between breathless moans, and you give a husky little laugh, releasing her nipple with a pop, and lifting your face to her.

"That's the goal, baby." You prompt back, one hand releasing her hip to move your fingers to her clit and the new pressure of your thumb makes Wanda throw her head back. "Come on pretty girl, cum for me."

That alone is enough for Wanda to fall off the edge, a loud moan ripping through her throat as she spills herself onto your thigh, and you watch her with adoration, letting your hand rest on her waist as she spasms through her orgasm on top of you.

Wanda kisses you again, hard but slowly and making you smile.

But your grin turns into a gasping sigh when she slides her hand down, taking advantage of your distraction to guide her fingers to your pussy, collecting your wetness and spreading it all over your entrance and swollen clit. Wanda breaks the kiss with a satisfied hum.

"Just watching me made you this wet, malyshka?" She teases hoarsely against your lips, and you feel your face heat up, Wanda's fingers motioning up and down along your soaked folds and making you shiver in anticipation, your hands dropping down to grab the sheets as Wanda adjusts herself to get a better look at you.

"Don't torture me, Wanda." You beg breathlessly looking up at her with a slight frown, and your abdomen twitching. The redhead licks her lips.

"You look so pretty like this." She compliments leaning her face toward you again, but you can't kiss her, the intention to reciprocate turning into an affected moan as Wanda slides two fingers into you slowly, filling you as deeper as she can go and watching every reaction of your body with a smile on her face. "Begging for my touch." She adds in a whisper against your lips, and you can only grunt back, throbbing in her fingers.

She holds still until you grow impatient, your body vibrating. You throw your hips against her hand, a gasping sigh escaping as you command "Move." that makes Wanda bite her lips and raise a brow at you. She just slides her thumb to your clit, and presses into circling motions until you whimper. "W-wanda."

"What, is there something you want?" She teases without stopping her movements, applying a little more pressure in your clit that makes your walls clench tight in her digits, the feeling taking a heavy sigh from both of you. "Ask nicely."

"P-please, Wanda." You whimper at once, your face burning but embarrassment doesn't overcome the liquid arousal in your body, and the redhead murmurs contentedly, sliding out and making you choke as she enters you again, trying to find a rhythm as she watches your reactions.

As she finds it, and figures out the way to curl her fingers inside that make you arch your back, hips trying to match the speed, Wanda kisses you again, swallowing all your breathless moans until the knot in your belly explodes and waves of pleasure spread through your body, curling your toes. You fall backward off the bed, breathing out of rhythm, and Wanda watches you with adoration shining in her eyes, her fingers slipping in your cunt with ease. The overstimulation makes you jerk, and you lift one hand to grasp her wrist.

"Too much, baby." You warn, and Wanda sighs, sliding her fingers out. She feels her face heat up when you guide her hand to her face heigh. "Open it up. You can have a taste."

Wanda tries to hold eye contact, but as soon as she tastes you on her tongue, she rolls her eyes and closes them, sucking her own fingers eagerly, and you groan, a strong heat wave hitting your lower abdomen with the image. "Come sit on my face." You ask.

Wanda lowers her hand from her mouth, letting it rest on your thigh, her brow slightly arched. "But I wanna make you feel good, too." She reasons, making you chuckle breathlessly.

"I promise I feel amazing with your pussy in my mouth." You retort and her cheeks turn pink, but she giggles shyly. She looks ready to follow your command when as she straightens up, her gaze notices something in the bedside drawers, and she bites back a small smile. She leans over you - breasts at face height that you waste no time in putting your mouth on it, sucking and making her flinch and almost lose track of what she was doing - until she reaches for the toy.

She settles back against your thigh, holding the fake cock in her hand, an impressed and surprised expression in your direction.

"I suppose this is your subconscious solution?" She mocks and you shrug, hands on her thighs.

"We could try it." You say drawing patterns on her skin. Wanda bites back a smile, nodding in agreement. She pats your leg to get you to open up more to her, and you sigh as you settle better in the bed, getting ready. She goes to adjust the toy, grinning mischievously when the strings of the strap magically appear as soon as she is at the correct height, and works quickly to fasten. But once it fits, you let out a gasping sigh that makes her look up with curiosity.

"Wanda, I can fucking feel it." You explained with a warm face, your gaze on the fake cock she still squeezed between her one hand. She frowned softly.

"Bullshit." She retorts, but seeing the redness of your cheeks, she gives a tentative squeeze and you gasp, twitching on the mattress. She lets out an incredulous giggle. "Oh my god."

Your fingers try to pull her up quickly. "Sit on me, please, baby." You practically whimper, and Wanda moves excitedly, but you both miscalculate how good the feeling really is when she lines up your cock, tip teasing her warm entrance just for a second before she slides it in at once, a scream ripping through her throat - you have a lot of trouble ignoring the absolute delight of having Wanda's pussy squeezing the toy to cover her mouth with one hand, and the other behind her head - while you muffle your own moan with a bite on her shoulder. She doesn't move at first, trying not to come all at once while being stretched out. You need a few seconds to calm down as well, moving your hands back to her hips just a moment later.

"Fuck malyshka, it's even warm." Wanda moans softly as she gives a tentative wiggle on it and you choke as you are able to feel her entire cunt, the way she's soaking wet, walls clenching with her quick heartbeat.

"I'm gonna start moving, okay?" You ask and Wanda nods quickly, and you quietly settle her better, moving your face back to hers to kiss her and waiting for Wanda to reciprocate to thrust your hips upward, eliciting a loud moan from her when your fake cock hits a sweet spot. You try a slow speed, thrusting deep inside her cunt and feeling her dripping onto the toy and her thighs; but Wanda is on the verge of combustion - whimpering each time your cock fills her - and she instinctively hugs your body, her hands on your back and shoulder.

"Baby, you're so fucking tight." You moan affectedly being able to feel her pussy throbbing against the toy, and you grab better at her hips to increase the speed, making Wanda moan loudly while throwing her head back. You carry on your motions, and the prolonged strokes into her sweet spot make Wanda dig her nails into your back, sending a strong wave of warm pleasure straight to your core. "God, f-fuck me." You whimper, feeling your whole body burning and twitching with the magical stimulation. Wanda whines when as you turn her over on the bed all at once, pressing her against the pillows and sinking inside her again, the new position drives your cock even deeper.

"Detka, d-don't stop...I'm going to..." She begs breathlessly, but she doesn't even need to, because you are fucking her with such intensity now that Wanda is seeing stars, the strokes so deep and hard that she has to dig her nails into your skin for some support. She feels the knot explode, and her whole body is wrapped in waves of blinding pleasure, but you don't stop your thrusts, her pussy clenching your cock all the way in and out as the toy keeps filling her to the bottom. She twitches beneath you, but all you do is swallow her moans with intense kisses as you slide your fingers back to her pussy, pressing her swollen clit with your thumb, circling around until the slight pain of the overestimation of your thrusts turns to burning pleasure again, and Wanda whimpers against your tongue, one of her legs closing behind yours to pull you closer.

The toy feels funny - really very warm like the rest of your body - but it's not a real extension of you, or so you assume. But Wanda is so tight and soaked, the sounds of your thrusts echo in the room along with yours and her moans, and you just want to ease the knot in your abdomen and make Wanda feels good - and by the way her pussy is clenching tightly onto your cock, her hips frantically trying to match your pace and her nails are digging into your back and arm, you can tell she's almost there too.

So you call out to Wanda, asking her to look at you. She has trouble doing so, and you grunt when she finally does, impressed to find red irises, not realizing that yours are golden as well.

You feel yourself falling over the edge, and you thrust hard inside one last time, your cock slipping easily between her soaked folds, and deep inside, you come. With the feeling of your warm cum against her throbbing walls, Wanda comes with a cry of pleasure, arching her back in the bed and spilling down the toy and her thighs. You both let out satisfied moans, and you rest your face against her collarbone as you calm down.

"That was something else, right?" Wanda comments breathlessly, to which you just give an affected laugh, agreeing in her collarbone. "Hey, I felt..." She starts but seems to lose her nerve. You blink wearily, raising your head slightly to look at her.

"What?" you insist and Wanda chuckle shyly.

"It's no big deal, I kinda felt pretty good actually, but I just... I think you came inside me."

"Oh." You murmured in surprise, looking down. You could still feel Wanda - pussy clenching just softly throughout orgasm - and you slid out quickly, getting sighs from both of you. You bit your lips at the state of the toy, soaked up with your juices, and just as magic worked quickly to release the item from your waist, you took the toy in your hand, spinning it around a bit. "Hmm, I think it's one of those pre-filled types." You explain, making a small grimace afterward. "Is it weird that my subconscious has something like that?"

Wanda laughs softly, her hands on your face to make you look at her. "No more than any of the other things." She comments making you laugh as well. "Don't worry about it, I was just surprised at how it felt. And it's not like you can get me pregnant." She jokes to which you also laugh, throwing the toy back in the drawers and moving your hand to Wanda's hip.

"The advantages of sapphic sex, I suppose." You murmur and Wanda laughs again before kissing you more intensely now.

--//--

A/N-> I'm like soo busy and i'm sorry this took the whole day to be up, but at least is here!! In case you're not familiar with the comics, America is from the Utopian Parallel, a dimension created by the Demiurge, who Billy Maximoff will yet become.

#wanda maximoff x reader #wanda x reader #wanda maximoff x you #wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff imagines #scarlet witch x reader #marvel imagines #elizabeth olsen x reader #Rulers of The Multiverse

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teacherintransition · 2 years ago

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Crisis of Confidence

Life lesson day 1: things rarely go as planned…Transitions in life are by their very nature CHANGE.

When obstacles come, keep driving forward, alter your path, but for god’s sake don’t ever, ever, ever go back!

“The best laid plans are …,” …100% reliable? …are easy to put together? …will often go sideways? …unnecessary? Which are most accurate? If you chose, “unnecessary,” go to the back of the line and cover yourself in bubble wrap… cause you’re gonna get beat the hell up by life. Bring Tylenol. The other answers are all possibilities with “total reliability” being possibly 0.0001% likely. Truly, how often do grand designs go off without a hitch? Not often, but there has to be a goal. I absolutely love the line from George Harrison’s song, Any Road, “But if you don't know where you're going

Any road will take you there!”* George was the man. You pick a road, but for damn sure you can expect bumps, potholes, detours and even a fender bender. The ticket is not to give up and turn back.

We made the decision to retire, I set my personal goals and we set goals for us, we envisioned where it would end up; and very little of what we’d planned turned out the way we saw things happening. Death and loss due to Covid…. nuff said. I never planned to write a book, we never planned to have to cancel travel plans, we never planned for the selling of the hospital where Kim worked for thirty three years to a soul crushing entity, we never imagined living in Alexandria, Louisiana or Granbury, Texas… but here the hell we are. Not what we expected, but we are still headed in the same general direction. The lives of our sons took extremely unplanned trajectories that affected our path and delayed some of our plans. Detours and delays have been in abundance, but the overall outcome is still doable.

This series of articles has always pushed encouraging words and a positive outlook during a period of major life transitions. It ain’t always easy… disappointments abound; and despite the freedom of the pressures of time philosophy I push, one is acutely aware that there’s more behind you than ahead of you. The diabolical “what if’s “ begin to surface: what if I don’t get this or that done? What if the place we go isn’t what you expected? What if time runs out? Heavy thoughts to ponder; and if disappointments occur with some regularity, any number of less than positive outcomes can occur. It can just seem easier to go with the flow of less resistance. In other words…compromise. During this period of life that was to be filled with calm, peace and dreams can often start to resemble the stressful struggles of the work world that you tried to leave.

My oldest son is a Marine and their famous motto, “ADAPT, IMPROVISE, OVERCOME,” has more depth that it might appear. I’ve had to adapt what end goals might look like in the end, but still recognize the spirit of what I wished to attain. Creative, quick thinking or improvising is essential. The free spirit mentality I try to promote when writing lends itself to goal improvisation. All sorts of metaphors come to mind and references to “Roads less traveled,” when finding confidence in an altered path and an open mind can reveal attainment of dreams that might go unnoticed. We’ve always wanted to live in a city and through Kim’s travel nursing job …we did! We have also wanted to live in the Hill Country, and now we are …temporarily. These were dreams that had been buried and forgotten; but zig was the path instead of zag, and we received a major surprise. Overcome: plain and simple, don’t let unwanted circumstances rob you of what you are wanting to do. Putting things off is ok, but giving up on them isn’t.

Nothing looks like you thought it would, but that doesn’t make it a failed attempt. The key is to not let struggles turn into stresses …this is your time. You should see the process as your adventure not the burdening obligations that retirement/transition was to free you from in this path. To paraphrase George’s earlier referred to song lyric; “If you know where you’re going, there’s not just one road to take you there!”

*Harrison, George; “Any Road;” Brainwashed; Parlophone, Dark Horse Label; 2003

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celestialholz · 3 years ago

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Celestial Live-Reacts: STP 2.2, 'Penance'

Well I've already seen at least twenty very interesting gifs of this episode, let's fucking goooo

The red grid's everywhere?

"How 'Yesterday's Enterprise' of you." This man's been on the screen for three seconds and he's already breaking the fourth wall, I fucking adore him 😍

"You're the very board upon which this game is played." Q into roleplaying confirmed? Entities You Don't Want As Your DM include 😂

"Old, yes! How unfair time is... so many wrinkles. So many disappointments." Ah well, good to see that three decades hasn't harmed de Lancie's ability to sell the absolute shit out of a scene, my god. The bitterness is almost tangible 😭

That almost face-touch was him stopping himself because he doesn't want to actually confirm his own words and touch the wrinkles, I'm fucking done

"The chase is cut, Picard; the chase is bleeding, the chase is dying in your arms, and I am but a suture in the wound." Jesus H. Christ John, your acting sir? Honestly, you don't just come along and be a perfect foil to the brilliance that is Patrick Stewart, and this man's always managed it effortlessly ❤❤

This whole scene is so gay, I adore it to tiny pieces 😍😍

Today on 'Celestial Hazards a Guess': this situation is putting Q under considerable mental strain to amend because it's so widespread. I don't actually think it's a physical health issue? I'm going with PTSD. 🤔

... He didn't want to tell him that did he, oh dear

He's saving his fucking life and entire timeline because he loves him and Picard still won't look twice at him, I am dead my dudes 😣😭

We're in an AU fanfic boys, get hype

"You see, I thought to myself, I thought - I really must see Jean-Luc." This whole exchange is ice-cold, but this? Yeah no, this is the only honest thing here

"So I simply sought out the nearest explosion." 😂😂 Valid

"Oh I could tell you, but you're far too clever to listen." Very Tapestry...

"We're never too old to be students of our own behaviour, Jean-Luc..."

... And then he hits him? Actually fucking PHYSICALLY?! Brooo, there is DEFINITELY something wrong with this entity's psyche, as if he would ever 👀

"And I've had enough of your obstinance, your stubbornness, your insistence in changing in all ways but the one that matters!" You, erm... way to show a guy your heart there, good lords above ❤

'Penance'... a punishment laid upon oneself for their transgressions. This man has not done his homework and Mr Q is angry 😶

I'm kinda loving these clicks where nothing much seems to happen until it does - I'd say it was lazy, but I'm thinking it's indicative of the mental state now. No flashiness, all substance - his usual opposite 🤔

Mirrorverse? Are we really mirrorversing right now

"Through a mirror, darkly - and here, the man who holds the glass is darker still." I get that this is Picard's horror story, but the 'man who holds the glass' here is Q in showing him all this, and I love that dichotomy

... That's Gul Dukat? Oh shi -

Martok and Sarek? Mirror!Picard is pantomime levels of evil, damn sir

A girl needs to write a Qcard mirror fic, clearly

"This is the only life you understand"????? What

"But don't worry - I won't let you do this alone." My heart. 😍😍

"Do you wish for me to respond to the designation 'Q', sir?" Look what your nonsense has wrought Picard 😒

This really do be Tapestry 2 my dudes, fuck

This is still a James Bond intro sequence

The roses, though, murder me personally - rose-tinting, Tapestry roses, symbol of general love, and courage...

... Hang on, all of that was just the cold open? Fucking damn son, this series goes hard lmao

Picard is space Hitler now. Okey-doke 🙃

"Colombian roast, black." "... This really is the circle that Dante overlooked." 😂😂

... I mean this timeline's garbage, buuuut Picard also doesn't suddenly have a random romantic interest from nowhere, so...

'Eradication Day'. Oh fuck

Oh hello Seven, you beautiful lady you 😍😍

Is she married?

Where do I get me an electronic candle that realistic

If they had to give Seven a husband, it should have been Robert Beltrane for full and complete levels of sitcom nonsense

General Sisko, god fucking help us all 👀

Love this bloody friendship between Rios and Seven, it's so wholesome ❤

What did you do to my son's girlfriend

The matriarchal love 😍😍

"I want this one kept alive - for questioning!" "I don't know anything!" 😂 Precious child, bless him ❤

Even in the mirrorverse, Agnes is operating on -100% and I feel that spiritually

Spot-73 is an icon. He's giving me absolutely nothing and I love him 😍

... Are they about to finish exterminating the Borg? Oh, very good - I await Picard's split opinion with great interest 👀

Even the Queen thinks Agnes is too quirky, damn 🤣

'The Borg Queen has a kind of trans-temporal awareness' - ahhhhhh, intriguing

That is a spectacular villain HQ

These little interlinks to how they reconnect are wondrous

"Say what now?" Oh Raffi ❤

Ohhh, so she has 'commitment issues'? Well, that explains something in this show, for once

... It's not an AU?

'Mr Alphabet' 😂😂

"This morning, even for Q, he seemed... unstable. Not quite sane." Is that concern I detect Jean-Luc, good lord - a writer might think you care... 👁👄👁

Elnor completely missing sarcasm gives me life

"A friend, a foe, and now..." Now what exactly

Spirk mention, hurrah!

Jeri is on fire here, this Queen chemistry's glorious

Annika 'Seven Shots'? Up your game sweetie, you'd never have survived my university 😂

Noooo Elnor 😣

So many relationship issues in this show, so little build-up

YES ELNOR 😘

"Time travel is not a way to make me feel better, about anything" - me during 95% of Trek time travel storylines

I'm with Rios here, fuck connecting that to my ship

NOOO ELNOR 😭😭

"Killed whilst rescuing a Borg." I, Borg Picard would never

... Wow, guys.

Celestial Rating: 8/10.

Whatever the fuck the space husband's up to, it's hugely compelling - and this new, dystopian alternative future's beautifully realised. Even Agnes didn't irritate me this week. Very promising.

#star trek picard spoilers #star trek picard 2.2 #jean-luc picard #q of the continuum #cristobal rios #agnes jurati #raffi musiker #seven of nine #colour me impressed... and fascinated #celestial live-reacts #celestial reviews #qcard

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tuiccim · 4 years ago

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Terrigenisis (Part 10)

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Bucky Barnes X Inhuman!Reader

Words: 1669

Summary: After undergoing terrigenisis unwillingly your life is turned upside down when you are deemed too dangerous to return to life as a civilian. You are put with the Avengers team to train and rebuild. As you hone your powers and skills, you must also decide if you can find home and love again. Or is your curse to be a lonely wanderer forever?

Warnings: Fluff and SMUT (18+, NSFW)

Terrigenisis Series Masterlist Divider by @firefly-graphics

As the months went by, the relationship between Steve, Bucky, and yourself became more and more solid. You talked about the future, made plans, and worked through the few issues that had arisen. There had been missions and you had become an integral part of the team. You were happy. You had a job you loved, two men you loved, a home, and a family in your team. It was idyllic. Which terrified you at times. When the fear began to overwhelm you, Bucky and Steve were there for you. They let you express your fears and helped you through them.

You were gearing up for a mission to take out a large Hydra base that had been recently discovered. The intel on its existence was solid even though what was going on there was a mystery. Some information had been gleaned through surveillance but it was mostly pictures of objects with an alien language. Thor and Loki were expected to arrive today to help and give some information on what these items could be.

The team was awaiting their arrival in the conference room except Steve and Tony who were greeting them. You were going over mission details and making tactical plans with the available information.

“So, what are Thor and Loki like?” You ask the group in general.

“Thor’s a good guy. Nice. A little terse at times. Intense.” Bruce replies.

“What about Loki?” You look at Bruce.

“He’s a bag of cats. He’s trying to be… different. Better, I guess. That’s why he’s coming. Thor is trusting him. I guess we’ll have to try, too.” Bruce shrugs as Natasha scoffs.

“Be careful around Loki. There’s a reason he’s the god of mischief.” Natasha warns.

“Noted.” You say just as they walk in. You immediately smile when you catch Steve’s eye but turn your attention to the two Asgardians as they enter. Steve makes introductions as Tony pulls up the intel photos for the two gods.

“This looks to be Kree.” Thor states.

“It is.” Loki confirms as he swipes through the photos.

“Kree?” You say bringing Thor’s attention to you.

“Yes. They-”

“Created Inhumans.”

“Yes. You are familiar with the Inhumans?” Thor asks.

“I am an Inhuman.” You watch the two for any reaction.

“Ah, a fellow abomination.” Loki grins. “What are your powers?”

You stare Loki down for a moment. Interpreting no malice in his remarks, you reply, “Warging, understanding of all vocal communication, increased strength and stamina.”

“Interesting.” Loki narrows his eyes.

“Warging?” Thor asks and you give him a brief explanation.

Going back to the available information, the team gleans all it can to formulate a plan. Afterwards, everyone moves to the common room to relax while Tony has a meal brought in.

“Loki has been watching you the entire time we’ve been in here.” Natasha murmurs to you.

“Novelty, I guess.” You shrug.

“Maybe so. Are you okay?”

“Just have a headache all of a sudden.” You say.

“Want me to get you something?”

“No, I’ll-mmph! Ow. It feels like an icepick in my head.” You say.

Natasha’s eyes widen and her head snaps up, “Loki, stop!”

You make eye contact with the god and feel another stab of pain. Realizing he is trying to get in your head, you push back at the feeling.

“What are you doing, brother?” Thor grabs his arm.

“I just wanted to see how far her capabilities went, brother. She began fighting me. Strong, this one.” Loki smirks.

“Keep your mind games to yourself, Loki!” Steve growls.

“No, it’s okay.” You say. “Try.”

“What?” Steve turns to you with a stern look.

“I want to see if he can. I can’t know how far my abilities go if I don’t push them. Most of my powers have to do with my senses. I’m just curious.” You shrug.

“Doll, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Bucky warns. “It was obviously causing you pain.”

“It’s not a big deal. Will you try again, Loki?” You ask.

“At your service, darling.” Loki grins and concentrates on you again. Your head aches almost immediately and the sharp stabbing pain returns but you fight back against it. Using the same thought process you use when warging you concentrate on Loki, pushing back against his mental invasion. The pain in your head increases the more you fight back but you aren’t willing to stop. You feel a surge from Loki and automatically push back at him with a mental force that suddenly turns your eyes green as the god’s and you realize you have entered his mind. Intense pain spikes through you bringing you to your knees as you grab the sides of your head. A scream tears from your throat before you black out.

You wake in Bucky’s arms as he takes quick strides towards the elevator.

“Bucky. I’m okay.” You say.

“You passed out. You aren’t okay.” Bucky says firmly.

“We’re just going to take you to get checked out, sweetheart.” Steve says from right beside you.

“No, I’m fine. Put me down.” You squirm in Bucky’s arms.

“Doll-” “Sweetheart-”

“Down! Now!” You all but shout. Bucky reluctantly lowers you to the floor and you stand, holding his shoulder for support. “Well, that was new.”

“What did Loki do to you?” Steve growls.

“I only did as she asked.” Loki defends himself. “She managed to fight my attempts. It was quite impressive. Not many can keep me out of their mind as she did. And then, she slipped into my mind. It probably overwhelmed her as she’s not used to such an exertion.”

“Agreed.” You say. “I’ve never been able to do that with a human before.”

“You were probably able to because I have to open my mind in order to reach out. That was admirable.” Loki says.

“Uh, thanks?” You laugh lightly.

“Did you see anything?” Loki asks with eyes narrowed.

“It was pretty jumbled.” You admit.

“That’s normal for a first timer. Come, let’s discuss our little experiment.” Loki wraps your hand around his arm and guides you away from your two supersoldiers who glare at Loki as the two of you sit on the loveseat. When dinner is ready, you sit at the table between Bucky and Steve. Loki is seated across from you with Thor next to him and the table is jovial as everyone enjoys the company and food. You notice that Loki retreats into himself during the meal. As soon as the meal is over, you approach Loki again to ask more questions about his abilities. Everyone drifts into the common room while you and Loki sit at one end of the table and talk. He has a great deal of knowledge regarding the Kree, Inhumans, and different abilities. You learn more in two hours than you had in the six months with your Inhuman team.

“Hey Doll. We’re heading to the room.” Bucky approaches to say.

“Okay, Love. I’ll be there shortly.” You smile up at him as he leans down to plant a quick kiss on your lips.

Loki watches as Bucky leaves with a smirk, “So, you and Sergeant Bar-”

“Sweetheart, you coming to bed?” Steve interrupts.

“Soon, Babe. Loki is giving me some history on the Kree.”

Steve eyes Loki for a moment before leaning down to kiss you possessively “Don’t be too long.”

“I won’t.” You smile at him as he leaves. Turning back to Loki, it’s your turn to smirk, “Yes, Me and Bucky and Steve.”

“That was unexpected.” Loki raises an eyebrow.

“I imagine not much surprises you.” You laugh.

“Very little.” Loki says.

“You know, I was prepared to hate you but… you aren’t exactly what I was expecting.”

“I was under the influence of other entities during the Battle of New York. It spoke to the basest part of me. I know I’ll never fully make up for it but I’m hopeful I can do some good to set it to rights.”

“I’m sure you will. Do some good, that is. I should head to bed. Good night, Loki.”

“Good night.” Loki nods his head and joins his brother.

You were impressed with him. Truthfully, you had planned on hating him. After all, he had killed Coulson but when you had slipped into his mind you had felt his remorse. You were honest when you told him that everything was jumbled. The memories and images that came through had been but his feelings had been loud and clear. Inferiority, remorse, contrition, fear, and hope had suffused you when your minds were joined. It had softened you towards him and you hoped that he could find some corner of redemption in all of this.

When you get to the bedroom, you pause a minute to smile at Steve and Bucky cuddled up together in the bed.

“Come join us, pretty girl.” Steve beckons.

“What were you and Loki talking about that kept you so enthralled?” Bucky groused.

“Careful, Buck. You almost sound jealous.” You laugh. “We were talking about the Kree and inhumans and different abilities. I learned a good bit from him. Loki offered to bring some information and writings when he comes again.”

“He doesn’t usually talk to any of us much when he’s around.” Steve says.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Usually all we get out of him is sly remarks.” Bucky says.

“Huh. Probably a defense mechanism. He feels he has a lot to make up for and know no one really likes him.” You offer.

“How did you find that out?” Steve asks.

“When we did the Vulcan mindmeld. I could feel what he was feeling more than anything else. It told quite the story in and of itself.”

“Loki is a master manipulator.” Steve warns.

“I understand.” You reassure them. “And we leave for mission tomorrow for who knows how long. Is there anything you'd like to do before that happens?”

“Yeah.” “Definitely.” They speak at the same time.

“What would that be?” You ask.

“You.” They say in unison.

Part 11

Tuiccim’s Masterlist

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#Stucky #Stucky x you #Stucky x reader #Stucky series #Stucky fanfic #Stucky fanfiction #steve x bucky x reader #steve x bucky x you #Bucky #Steve #Bucky Barnes #Steve Rogers #Captain America #The Winter Solider #marvel #avengers

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takaraphoenix · 3 years ago

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Hey, I’m already warning that it’s Angst! So, what would Nico, or even most of Camps and Percy’s family and friends do if Percy die? This after the Giant War and he dies in a quest. What would they do?

I know this is a weird question but I need to know! I’m writing a story about this. But I wanted to know your opinion since your PJO stories inspire me to write!

Well, first of all, I'm very flattered that I spird you to write and I wish you good luck with your writing! <3

Then mh. Generally, I try to avoid death fics, both in reading and writing.

But in this fandom you can find great ways to work around it. So the real question is, where do you want to go with it?

Percy who dies, but due to his heroics in the past earned himself godhood and now his family and friends have to cope with the fact that he is dead and a god.

Percy who dies, but Nico says "fuck this shit", storms the underworld, grabs ghost!Percy's hand and does the second jail break because let's be real Thanatos owes Percy one for saving his life so he'd turn a blind eye and Hades doesn't even dare to speak up because Nico's been annoying him about Percy Jackson's pretty eyes for years now and if he doesn't allow Nico to steal the soul back, he will never hear the end of it.

Percy who dies and just... hangs out in the underworld. It's chill, honestly, he finally gets to bond with Nico who lives down there and they get together that way (I think I literally wrote that fic before. Or a Hades/Persephone/Percy fic. Or both. Unsure).

Percy who dies and becomes a ghost. New Rome is full of ghosts in canon, isn't it? Percy could just decide to hang out with his friends. Still painful, but they adjust to it.

Percy who dies and gets reborn and like 15 years from now, his friends get to meet him again, in a new body and have to cope with that.

Percy who dies and is just... gone.

Sooo, before you can really work on "What would they do?", you have to pick what you do. Where do you want Percy's death to go, because depending on the route taken, the reactions would vary.

Obviously, everyone grieves in their own way. So keep in mind how the characters act in canon. (Which, quite frankly, in the case of Nico really only leaves the "fuck this shit" Orpheus and Eurydice version, considering he tried to bring back Bianca for years and successfully revived Hazel.)

And "What would they do?" also depends on what you want them to do. Because if you stick with canon, most of them would just be sad for a bit and then move on, if canon's anything to go by. Annabeth in HoO never even mentions Luke or her grief for her first big crush slash mentor who had died just a few short months before. I refuse to touch ToA but from what I gather no one attempted to bring back Leo and they were all just kinda sad until he returned on his own. Jason's dead too now and I don't think anyone tried to bring him back either and Piper's already smooching her new love interest from what I've heard. And "camp" as a large entity wouldn't do much; all of them have lost so many siblings in the war and they moved on from it. They'd burn a shrout for Percy and move on from it, though he is our protagonist, in the general picture of a war riddled society with child soldiers who have lost dozens of siblings in the past few short years already, his death is not that much more significant than any of the others.

You can go with the route closest to what is considered "in character" by orienting yourself on the way these characters have been shown in canon to react to character deaths.

Personally, I think Riordan was a coward who vastly downplayed the PTSD, survivor's guilt and grief these characters should have been going through by the time HoO rolled around and I think that you should make the judgment call yourself. You've read the books, you have a feel for how they acted, how they felt, how they reacted. What do you think would be their appropriate reaction?

Sure, you could give me a list of characters you want involved in this and the scenario you want to go with and I can directly answer the question you asked and tell you how I think they'd react. And that can be a good guideline if you are unsure yourself. But at the end of the day, this is your story and it must feel like yours. You have to be the one who, when reading it, is satisfied by the reactions and behind how they acted. And that can easily be derailed by looking to others for guidance. That's not meant to be me declining your answer; if you do want to know what I think specific characters' reactions would be like in a specific scenario, then come back to me with that and I'll offer you my opinion.

It's more meant to be encouragement for you to look into yourself and test your own grasp on the characters and go with whatever reactions you think would be most satisfying; they don't necessarily have to be the most in character. Not just because sometimes, as above mentioned, "in character" can be dissatisfying and deliberately play down emotions a real person would be feeling in certain scenarios (often due to the author's own lack of knowledge about the specific scenario, deliberate ignorance or ratings; it's tough to sell a kids' book series if you genuinely confront the trauma that comes with the reality of being a child soldier), but also because sometimes, being more "out of character" is just... more fun, sometimes things are thought experiments, sometimes you want the extreme reaction because it makes for a better or more entertaining read.

Since this turned, uh, longer than anticipated, to sum it up shortly: Decide what Percy's death is supposed to mean in the larger context of the story and where you want to go with it, then decide which specific characters' reactions you're looking for. In some cases, you can easily compare to how they have reacted to a similar scenario in the past and then see for yourself if you want to stay in line with that reaction, or if you feel like a different reaction would be more appropriate, or just more fun to write/read.

You read the books and, I assume, enough fanfiction to know the characters and find your answer yourself, even if you're unsure about it right now. And if you do want more detailed input, you are free to come back to me with specifics, or message me in private and we can talk certain scenarios or particular characters you're struggling with through and I'll see if I can help you. ;)

#Phoe Giving Advise #Writing Advise #Writing #PJOverse

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maxmagi · 4 years ago

Text

A List of My OTPs

because it's 11 and I can't sleep.

Enjolras x Grantaire a.k.a. Enjoltaire a.k.a. ExR- Les Mis

How I fell into this I don't remember now. I vaguely remember reading a crackfic of this and then everything just went sideways.

This was also the fandom that helped me realize that I wasn't exactly straight and that it's okay to not be loud about my sexuality, that I can just be.

I think that explains my attachment to this ship, not to mention just the movie's Grantaire (played by George Blagden) also shipped the characters and played his character like how he thought it should be, Grantaire loving and pining after Enjolras without the revolutionary knowing it.

Except in the fan fics, Enjolras returns his feelings and they work it out, even though it's not easy because they're both stubborn as mules. Ah, ultimate fantasy I guess. And the number of great fics here, *whistle*

Also, the Les Amis? Is amazing? Especially in the modern AUs? Like they're great friends? I love this fandom so much! Permets-tu!

Shen Wei x Zhao Yunlan - Guardian / Zhen Hun

C'mon, Zhu Yilong & Bai Yu's performance and emotions? Plus just the fact the fanfic writers of this ship are absolutely amazing? Please, escape from this pairing is impossible!

Best opposites attract trope for me. An academic by day, superhero by night in love with a roguish police chief who has no powers but whose charisma, wit, and heart can get him to toe to toe with the legends.

Also, Professor Shen Wei constantly acting like an innocent civilian and lying badly? Gold!

Loki x Tony Stark a.k.a. FrostIron - Avengers

How did I honestly get to this ship? I really can't remember what started it all. I think it must have been a Loki redemption fic where Tony Stark and Pepper broke up and something something happened. Let me tell you, the writers of this ship have written sagas and ballads of epic and sometimes confusing proportions, and that is why I fell deeper into the pit. I mean, they gotta give justice to two brilliant but chaotic characters, right? Angst. This ship has sooooooooo much angst.

Eiji x Ash - Banana Fish

My god, if you want to keep your heart intact and not be reminded of all that's ugly in the world, DON'T WATCH OR READ BANANA FISH. YOUR HEART WILL NEVER HEAL!

If you're gonna watch/read it anyway, make sure to watch something fluffy and sweet after. There's a reason that people from this fandom go, "If you've seen Banana Fish's ending, then you can handle whatever angsty show you're watching now." ~ or something to that effect. Another thing we like to say in this fandom is, "Other fandoms: Let's write a Mafia AU! Banana Fish fandom: We are the Mafia AU." Yes, all of us in this fandom is dramatic af.

Yuuri x Viktor - Yuuri!!! on Ice

Uh, does this really need an explanation? Aside from the fact that you will surprisingly find a lot of Mafia AUs here because we all know that hiding behind that beautiful face of Viktor Nikiforov is a devil capable of... tearing down your self-confidence, like WTF Viktor, don't make Yuuri cry! Also, their dance together at the end, such beautiful love.

Magnus Bane x Alec Lightwood aka Malec - Shadowhunters

I never read the books and have no plans to in the near future. I just saw a video on Youtube about why Malec is life and now here I am, still reading some Malec fics from time to time.

Some stuff on the show were WTF but overall they were a really good couple who supported each other. Plus, they're a Power Couple.

Erwin x Levi aka Eruri - Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin

Not to be confused with Ereri, which is Eren x Levi, which I don't generally ship except for that one time when a writer wrote an epic fanfic series with Eren in his mid 20s and Levi in his late 20s/early 30s, reincarnation AU. Boy was that one a surprise. I did not expect that.

Anyway, I'm an Eruri fan through and through. Especially with that promise that Levi made to Erwin. And the reason he gave the serum to Armin. HE DIDN'T DO IT FOR THE KIDS YKNOW. HE DID IT FOR ERWIN. Plus, Levi, Erwin, and Hange are my special trio. Erwin's batch was really amazing.

Also, I really like the fact that the shorter and slighter person is the more badass fighter while the taller, bigger one is the more calculating and strategic one. Rocks the boat of stereotypes and all that. Bonus: how these two met. My god, what a meet-cute! 😂

Dani x Jamie aka The Au Pair and the Gardener - The Haunting of Bly Manor

It really is more of a love story than a ghost story. I dunno how to feel about this. I loved these two characters so much and I wished they had a better ending but I wasn't SO surprised because it was a horror series (Like, I was still hoping at the end that they'd be together forever but yknow...). In any case, Jamie was just awesome. And her nickname for Dani? Poppins?! God, what a lover and fighter. She was not afraid to cock a gun in a ghost's face.

... and now for my flexible BROTPs

Merlin x Arthur aka Merthur - BBC Merlin

Yeah, my brain is so chaotic multiple OTPs and BROTPs of the same pairing exist at the same time without clashing with one another or having major identity crises.

I actually really like BROTP Merlin and Arthur and also like reading OTP Merthur.

And when Merlin is paired with Morgana or Freya or sometimes even Gwaine, that's fine with me too. As long as his bromance with Arthur stays intact, because that's what drew me to the show in the first place. Personal preference. I see them as platonic soulmates.

*Shout-out to the Merthur writers though, you kept me sane during my "Post-Merlin Depression," which is actually a term thrown around in the fandom because of that horrid final season (not saying it's a good term but it's what it was called). A lot of amazing fics here, too, both Magic Reveal and Modern AU ones. Full of action and adventure too! I mean, there are boy-band-looking Knights and magic-wielding badasses!

Tim Drake x Conner Kent/Kon-El aka Red Robin x Super Boy - DC Comics

More like flexible otp. I dig Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake BUT I really really also dig Tim Drake and Conner Kent. When they're TimKon, it's like an entirely different entity from TimSteph. Ugh, hard to explain.

I mean, Kon telling Tim, "You'll always be my Robin" and Tim telling Kon, "And you'll always be my clone boy" is the shit. Also when Kon could pick out/recognize Tim's heartbeat. And when Tim nearly went mad scientist trying to bring his bestie back. Like, dudes, wtf. And at the same time, hell yeah.

Liu Kang x Kung Lao aka LiuLao - Mortal Kombat

- I see these two as more like ride or die best friends connected by fate/platonic soulmates. But also like their dynamic is so awesome, cute, sweet, badass, can't-live-without-you vibes.

Basically the same way I feel about Merthur. I like reading both romantic and platonic relationships between these two characters. Like, the LiuLao fan creators peeling off the layers of this relationship and exposing every raw nerve is beautiful.

They love diving into the characters' psyche, emotions, motivations, fears, and doubts and you get really amazed because... Aren't they just characters from a video game, you ask? Well yeah, but MK video game has several interesting storylines and the Mortal Kombat 2021 movie was just the perfect jumpstarter to this beautiful blaze.

I mean, "We swore that if we were to die, it would be together"? Hell no, you're not dropping that on us and not expecting us to create our very own spin-offs and 12-page essays on that shit. That's what we fans do, baby. And also, really, we need a shaolin monks/white lotus spin-off/prequel. We're starving here.

As this ship is the newest one on my list, it's the one I'm looking forward to the most. Not enough fan content, I tell you. Not enough. One of these days, I just might add my own.

But right now, it's past 1 and so I shall attempt to sleep.

***No images for TimKon and LiuLao coz apparently I've gone past my 10-images allowance 😤

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scandalsavagefanfic · 3 years ago

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Hi. Um I'm reading your Gods among us series rn. I started like a couple hours ago and I'm on chapter 6 rn but i needed to pause and just say. HOLY. SHIT. this? is AWESOME. Dude. Dude. I can't deal with how good this fic is???!!! Its dark and fucked up i love it. Also the world building is immaculate!!

I'm literally kicking myself for not picking it up sooner. Honestly many many kudos to you. thanks for sharing this!

Hope you have a lovely day!!!

a;dkfjkaljfkal;afhl;dkal;hf

Thank you so much for such a beautiful, glowing comment!! I’m sorry it took so long to respond to these but I kept them so that I could look back on them easily when I needed a confidence booster (which is too often lately). This is such a lovely, sweet comment. Thank you so much, you really made my... well, weeks that I’ve had this in my inbox lol. I’ve reread it so many times.

But one can only be selfish for so long and it’s time to get you an answer.

[Find the series we’re talking about here: GOD’S AMONG US] I’m pretty thrilled when people say they like the worldbuilding because I had so much fun thinking about it. If you haven’t checked them out already, you might be interested in the Appendices. (Also, I am still working on additional stories in this verse! I’ve just been very distracted by other projects lately. One is very close to completion though!)

Re the “War is a growing pain”/dual natures stuff... ultimately this fic was born from some thoughts I’ve had for original work over the years and my musings on the nature of divinity; how living forever and having these insane powers that separate you from the beings of the next closest evolutionary level by lightyears would inform how one viewed not just other life/intelligence but existence in general. I’ve always felt like there was something missing from the way we write and talk about immortality and I still don’t think I fully did it justice but I hope I managed to scratch the surface a little. The idea that we get so caught up in the world around us and all it’s problems that it’s easy to forget all the ways things are better now than they ever were before was kind of the catalyst for “If you had the first hand perspective and experience of history to inform your thoughts, would you be jaded or awed at the potential of humanity?” And at one point someone described a country or a political concept as “young” and I started thinking about international relations as interfamilial relations or even personal growth; how humanity as a species might evolve along the same emotional and intellectual ebbs and flows as a single human... I’m sorry, I’m not articulating my thought processes very well 😭 I’ll move on to the easy answer now 😂

The time period! I did mostly want to leave it open to interpretation, but I did have specific reasons for making certain decisions.

SO while this fictional world is very similar in a lot of ways to ours, there are obviously some major differences. The biggest one is that these gods are known entities. No one questions whether they exist. There is no such thing as atheism in this world because the gods are tangible facts, happy to remind people that they do, in fact, exist. AND many of the gods are in same-sex relationships that produce children, the ones who are part of “fated” or “official” pairings are still ancient beings, monogamy isn’t really a thing for the gods (another one of those things that seemed unlikely for eternal beings). While there is still a lot of religious tension between sects and subsequent moralizing, it’s on a much smaller scale. So while each region of the world still has it’s own history and developed individual cultures, there is a also this massive shared experience with the gods. At the same time, the gods have largely secluded themselves from the world and humans, with all their problems and all their lack of power, don’t have that option. For good or bad, they can’t hide and are forced to deal with their issues.

All this apparently translated to this anachronistic, vaguely WWII era aesthetic on Earth with hopefully little bits from all over the world seeping in (If you’ve read any of the other fics in the series, Dick is India for the celebration of this universe’s approximation of Holi at the beginning of A Love Story and bits of his temple are definitely inspired by Japanese shrines) and the Hall of Divinity was largely stuck in a classic ancient Greek aesthetic.

A couple little notes: jeans and t-shirts have been around for a long time! Jeans since the 1800′s I think and t-shirts actually right around the time of WWII (though I think there were similar garments before that. And the stuff with the computers... that was meant to show that the gods do actually have jobs 😂 The computer in Tim’s rooms isn’t available on Earth. Jason is mesmerized by it. What he thinks of as a computer is MASSIVE and don’t actually have screens. The computer he sees in Tim’s rooms is the future and it’s Tim’s job to figure out how to inspire mankind to use it wisely when they finally invent it (inspiring mankind to invent it is Arsenal's job).

Thank you so much for such amazing and insightful questions! I really do still love this AU and I’m so glad people are still getting enjoyment from it. You honestly made my entire month lol 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

#asks #you are too kind anon #thank you so much #I'm so fucking flattered #melting from all the sugar in the sweet things you said #watgp #we're all the gods' playthings #fic commentary

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peel-a-potato-with-a-potato · 4 years ago

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So I binge read Invincible

What a trip of a story. Gotta say, I’m really hoping Amazon doesn’t screw it up, but what I’ve seen of the show so far seems to be a good update. The comic came out in 2003 after all, so there’s some parts that don’t hold up well 18 years later.

The ending wasn’t to my taste, but it was mostly satisfying. Spoilers if you keep reading beyond here.

The comic makes gratuitous use of time skipping, usually because of Mark being very vincible (yes, bad joke, don’t care), at several points. The worst ones for me were the 3 or 4 months he spent with his father and brother healing from a stomach wound and the 5 year skip after the “reboot”.

And oh boy do I have thoughts on that reboot. Some mysterious entity we are never given any further information on traps him in a cave and sends him back to being 17 with no powers on Earth. He proceeds to do everything in the most efficient way he can before giving up to be with his family. And then he’s back, but 5 years after he left. Was he really in the past or was that entity just messing with his mind? And did it really take him 5 years to process those few weeks? Or did he get brought back to the wrong time? Was that thing vengeful and wanted to rob him of what he wanted for disobeying it? And after that little section is over, we never hear about that thing again.

And then there’s the deaths of Oliver and Nolan. Both were mostly well done, Oliver died in battle (sure he would have wanted it that way), and Nolan died with his favorite son present. Or least favorite, it’s hard to tell at some points. And both were well used catalysts into propelling the story. Oliver’s death convinced Mark he had to act against Thragg. Nolan’s death put Mark in control of the new Viltrum Empire, and in direct opposition to Robot. I refuse to call him Rex. Rex Splode deserved better than that.

Through the whole series, I didn’t trust Robot. From the beginning, I had a bad feeling about him, and when he was revealed to be a human, Rudy, that pretty much cemented it for me. A genius who relies entirely on logic, even when they have an emotional attachment to someone? Yeah, if that doesn’t scream trouble, I don’t know what does. Putting his brain in a jar and leaving Immortal in charge seemed like the best option.

But that also brings up the question of why he left Immortal in charge at all. Having been brought to the future by two people working for Immortal just so he could get his death, don’t you think Mark would have remembered that? Would have known the pain he would cause his friend? Or was there really no better option? It does provide continuity, answers why Immortal was in charge, and I guess prevents a paradox, which is all probably why it was done. Mark doing that knowing what would happen though, it’s probably the most Viltrumite thing he does in the series, cold and devoid of human emotion. Mark does have a habit of disagreeing with his allies at times, and sometimes that leads to what feels like betrayal.

Even Allen got the short end of that stick, with the Viltrum Empire spreading peace at the end, Allen’s coalition fell apart. And Mark makes some good commentary there that definitely applies to Earth today. But wouldn’t you think he’d want to help Allen change the COP to make it better for those planets being exploited? That seemed to be his thing, but instead he just left them to figure it out.

Going back to immortality for a bit, let’s talk about Eve. She gets severely wounded and suddenly she becomes a god just long enough to patch herself back up. This is used a couple times, first on Eve alone, and then on herself and Mark. The first time she gives herself bigger breasts (yup, it’s a guy writing the series) and the second time Mark asks “Did you make me stronger?” while he flexes. Given that Eve was carrying their child at the time, it makes sense why he wouldn’t leave her power to kick in to replace her lost leg, but it ends up making death feel a bit cheap, the way Marvel and DC do by killing off their heroes and bringing them back. It’s really made worse when Eve dies of old age and is suddenly in her 20′s again. “Guess I’m immortal” my ass. If she’s just going to keep doing that, eventually she will outlive Mark’s thousands of years and she’ll be just as lonely as Immortal. Feels like they didn’t think the ramifications of that one through. I do enjoy the fact that Eve is always, and I do mean always, the one initiating their intimate moments though. A woman taking charge of her sexuality is nice to see.

And then there’s Marky. Poor Marky. Left alone on Earth with an adoptive human father while Mark ignored him because of his rage at Marky’s mother. Debbie steps in to help, and it’s clear Mark still has some contact with his son, but he’s definitely not going to have the support his father did growing up, even if he is the new Invincible. Why on earth would this poor half abandoned child take the name of the father that clearly doesn’t want to take much interest in him? I get it’s a carrying on the family legacy kind of thing, but it gives me weird vibes.

For all my griping though, I have to mention Cecil. Almost a perfect foil to Mark’s black and white thinking. Cecil only sees in shades of grey. No matter where someone’s actions put them in Mark’s eyes, Cecil always sees them as a force to be used to his own ends. Cecil’s need to protect people and his search for peace align so perfectly with Mark’s but because of his way of looking at the world and lack of superpowers, he contrasts so perfectly with the hero of the story. I disagree with Rudy that Cecil would have been okay dying to get the world brought about by Rudy, but I’m not really sure how to put those thoughts into words just yet.

But the ending in general, while neatly wrapping up most of the plot threads (looking at you tentacle entity from the reboot storyline), feels a bit too much like a happily ever after. Now that’s personal taste, but honestly, if they’d just ended it with Mark taking over and saying he was going to leave Earth with the Viltrumites on his mission to help the universe, I’d have been a lot happier leaving the rest up to the imagination. Instead, we get flashes of this race of near gods forcefully bringing peace to the universe and we end with another vaguely satisfying callback.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the series and I’m honestly tempted to read it again to get a better idea of the callbacks and setups we see. The perspective on some things might be different now too, and that’s always interesting. I’m very much of the opinion that if you love something, you should be critical of it. And there’s a lot in Invincible that seems like doing something just to make the story work. I can’t tell if that’s just because of the medium or if it actually makes sense given that Mark is an alien, so maybe I would need to read it again to figure that out.

#Invincible #Invincible comic #Mark Grayson

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rayofspades · 4 years ago

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How to Write a Horror Story: The Magnus Archives

This post is kinda weird since most tumblr fandom content is based on the assumption that Everyone Has Seen The Thing, but since this is a transcript of a video essay, it’s more broad.

I might link the video in a reblog since, you know, tumblr doesn’t like links.

Anyways, here’s the post:

Hello Jon, apologies for the decep-

I’ve seen a lot of mystery shows in my day, and some supernatural shows, and the common thread between them is that they kind of...fall apart as they go on.

Obviously, this is a generalization and I haven’t seen every mystery show or every paranormal show, but it’s a pretty common problem.

At this point in pop culture criticism, it’s basically common knowledge that these shows fall apart due to a lack of planning. If a mystery series is making shit up as it goes along while trying to surprise the audience, it’s going to stop making sense at some point. And if an episodic paranormal show is constantly trying to up the stakes, eventually it’s going to become absolutely ridiculous and stretch the audience’s suspension of disbelief past a breaking point.

Other people have already talked about this stuff to death, but today I want to talk about a paranormal mystery show that actually succeeds at what it set out to do.

The Magnus Archives is a podcast written by Jonny Sims and directed by Alexander J. Newall. It ran from 2016 to 2021 and it’s...really really good. It’s an episodic horror story, taking place at the fictional Magnus Institute where the head archivist reads various statements about people’s encounters with supernatural entities. It’s got it all; scary stories, mystery, an overarching plot, office comedy, office romance, office tragedy, a villain that’s making straight men everywhere question their sexuality, and an overall really solid structure.

If you listen to the Q+As put out by the writer and director, you’ll hear them talk about how they planned the series from the beginning, setting up the layout for each season. Some things were definitely changed throughout the actual writing process; that’s just inevitable and necessary when you’re working on a long running show, but in a general sense, they knew where they were going. But, writing a good story doesn’t just involve knowing where you’re going; it’s about executing whatever plan you have effectively. And I think the execution of The Magnus Archives is pretty brilliant, so I want to talk about it.

And for the record, I said “brilliant,” not “perfect.” I do have a lot of criticisms of this show, and I’m definitely going to talk about those too, because honestly? Even the problems with this show are interesting in their own right.

Ok, let’s go.

Oh, spoilers by the way. For the whole plot. Whole thing.

Part 1: Horror and Mystery

Ok, so The Magnus Archives has two separate plots going on: the episodic stories that can be listened to individually, and the underlying meta plot. The former is where most of the mystery storytelling takes place, and it’s a really engaging mystery. It’s starts off slow, and almost undetectable at first. The main character, Jon, also known as The Archivist, is just reading out old scary stories that people have delivered to the Magnus Institute. Stuff like; a college student sees a ghostly inhuman figure asking for a cigarette, a woman’s fiancé dies and she finds herself trapped in an empty graveyard, there’s this goth kid who apparently murdered his mother and then skinned her? But she’s kind of still alive? What the f*ck? Hope we never see that kid again. Also, this “Jurgen Lietner” guy wrote a bunch of cursed books and Jon knows about this? Are more books gonna come up? And then you’re like, wait is the goth kid who killed that burn victim the same goth kid who killed his mom like 8 episodes ago? Holy shit the family of that girl’s dead fiancé FUNDS THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE? Did this famous youtuber meet one of the missing people from episode one? The goth kid is back and he’s looking for Leitner books? The name “Michael” has come up like 6 times? Are they all the same guy? I just—who the f*ck is Jurgen Leitner?

So yeah, as you can see, a lot of these stories connect in cool ways, and I’ve only mentioned like, 0.2 percent of all of those connections. Furthermore, these stories are told out of chronological order, and sometimes the same scenario appears in more than one statement, told from different perspectives. This asymmetrical storytelling and odd doling out of information creates a mystery that’s really interesting. It also makes for a great re-listen, since you can retroactively see what elements were set up before you even realized that they were going to come back.

The audio format contributes to this too; you can’t just see that the table from episode three matches the pattern on the box in episode eight. You have to pick up on clues that were mentioned and pay attention to what people are describing, and it’s highly rewarding when the pieces all start to fit together.

There is a bit of a downside to this though. Technically The Magnus Archives is a horror story first and a mystery second, and these two elements can mesh in weird ways.

The horror is element is really strong. Each story is completely different, sometimes focusing on psychological horror, body horror, or supernatural versions of more primal fears like heights, darkness, enclosed spaces, etc. Basically, if you’re afraid of anything, there will be at least one episode of The Magnus Archives that gets under your skin.

Jonny Sims can really sell his stories through both his writing and acting. He plays Jon, by the way, and plagiarized his own birth certificate for the character name. (For future reference, Jonny is the actor, Jon is the character). Overall, he’s really good at writing prose, and each narrator has a very distinct voice even though the large majority of the stories are being read by one character/actor.

Obviously not every episode is a bull’s eye. Sometimes it’s due to the subjectivity when it comes to what you as an audience member are scared of, and occasionally it’s just weird writing decisions. I’m thinking specifically of episode 21 where the line “the sky ate him” is said, and it is the worst line in the entire show. The whole goddamn show. That’s it. That’s the number one worst line.

But still, overall, the horror storytelling is incredibly solid, and some episodes even gave me brand new fears, like the unholy isolation of being in space, or the concept that someone you love could be replaced by someone completely different without you noticing.

But here’s the thing;

A lot of good horror is based on the absence of explanation. Most of the episodes that gave me the most visceral reactions of genuine terror come from the first two seasons, because that’s when the audience has the least amount of information.

For example, in episode two, a really terrifying coffin is introduced. It’s creepy, it reacts very strangely to water for some reason, and appears to compel people to try opening it. By the end of the episode, the audience never finds out what’s in that coffin and that is a good thing. That is a huge part of what made that episode so unnerving.

And then a few seasons later, we do find out what’s in the coffin, and to be fair the answer is both very creative and very scary, but it also takes a lot of the punch out of episode two.

No matter how f*cked up your thing is, it’s not going to compare to whatever the audience can conjure up in their own mind after such a creepy set up. This problem isn’t just stuck in this one scenario either; there are a lot of early episodes that, while still good, seem a lot less creepy in hindsight after you learn more about the scenario.

I don’t think it’s bad writing, but I do think it’s a double-edged sword. Jonny Sims even mentions this sort of issue in the first Q+A.

But yeah, to sum up; the narration is good, the ideas are creative, and seeing the mystery unfurl itself is deeply compelling. And for the record, the mystery elements aren’t of the Sherlock Holmes variety. It’s less about finding out who did the thing, and more about discovering how all of these individual points are intricately connected, pulling on each other as they move. Woven together like a... oh shit what’s the word? Gah, it’s on the tip of my tongue. Ah, whatever, I’m sure it’s not like a running motif or anything.

Part 2: Stakes

One of the main reasons I stopped watching Supernatural is that it devolves into complete f*cking nonsense. At the end of season five, the boys literally defeat the devil, and then the show...keeps going? Which would be fine. It’s also, largely, an episodic show, so if they have more creative ideas, they could definitely keep going with it. In fact, there are some post season five episodes that I thought were pretty good. But as they kept trying to outdo themselves with Bigger Bads, it got kind of difficult to suspend my disbelief. And the final nail in the coffin for me was the end of season nine, when Crowly basically points out to the audience that the main characters keep dying and coming back to life, so there are no stakes. The most-badest bad guy can always be defeated because some new Thing can just come out of left-field, and dying isn’t even on the table as a threat since people have tons of ways of coming back to life.

The Magnus Archives, while being a show based in the supernatural, notably doesn’t bring anyone back to life, even though some very beloved characters die. I say “notably,” because in the season three Q+A, Jonny even says, “We make a point not to bring people back from the dead in Magnus, I know it sometimes feels like that, but we are very careful to never actually resurrect anyone.”

Upon listening to this I said “oh my god, these guys are the only writers left who at least kind of know what they’re doing.”

Also, as far as plot progression goes, The Magnus Archives is lowkey structurally perfect in the way the threats escalate in the underlying plot; both in terms of destruction and power and in terms of emotional consequences. Season one starts off with one major threat that’s dealt with by the end of the season, season two reveals the main villain, season three lays out the grander forces at play, season four ends the world, and season five is about un-ending the world. The difference between season one and season five is vast, but how we got there makes perfect sense.

As for the emotional stakes, let’s talk about themes and characters.

Part 3: Themes and Characters

At the very end of season two, it’s revealed that the supernatural happenings in the Magnus universe are the result of entities far beyond our understanding. Since their existence is so fundamentally different from what we can comprehend, they interact with the world through cursed items, creatures, and humans who have dedicated themselves to an entity.

A lot of people read this as a metaphor for late-stage capitalism, and I am one of those people. A bunch of faceless entities exploiting humans through means of dehumanization and causing people to suffer because it feeds them seems like an appropriate metaphor.

While we’re on this topic, I do want to talk about Elias, since he’s the main villain of the entire series and also one of my favorite villains of all time. The Magnus Archives is a series that deals with a lot of moral questions and has a lot of characters who do morally questionable things, so one might assume that the villain of said series is, you know, morally ambiguous and sympathetic to some extent despite being “the bad guy.”

Nope! No stops, full bastard. It’s great.

He falls under what I’ve deemed the “unbeatable boss” archetype. He just doesn’t tolerate insubordination or resistance, and that combined with his lack of empathy means that anyone who crosses him is either killed or brought to heel. His power set is cool too. On the surface the ability to see out of any eye and read minds sounds useful, but not deal breaking, but the way he uses that power to manipulate people and anticipate threats...yeah, it makes him kind of impossible to beat.

He’s just...so evil and he loves being evil and every single f*cking thing he does pisses me off and makes me want to kill him. It’s. Great.

Anyways, I think Elias’s role as the central antagonist is what makes the capitalist reading so common. He’s the head of the institute, he’s wealthy, he’s powerful, and he dehumanizes people in ways that are both brutal and chillingly indifferent. He seems like an appropriate stand in through that lens.

I also love how voice actor Ben Meredith plays him like’s he’s trying to seduce the audience.

With all of that said, I wouldn’t call this the critique of capitalism a direct allegory or anything; in much looser terms, this could be a metaphor for any power structure that exploits humans. Organized religion or cults might be even more on the nose, considering there’s a lot of mentions of rituals and worship within the show.

But if we boil it down to its barest aspects and focus on the avatar characters, The Magnus Archives is a series about people becoming monsters. Or, at the very least, becoming worse versions of themselves. That can mean a lot of things to different people in a metaphorical sense; the tense relationship between desperation and morality, the eagerness to please at the cost of one’s own mental health, the psychological traumas that lead people down dark paths, and how personal choices can still be dictated and manipulated by outside influences. It’s kind of heavy stuff, but put into a digestible package through the show’s abstractions.

Well, for the most part.

There’s some debate as to whether or not Daisy’s arc was handled tastefully. While her demise and Basira’s character arc were clearly meant to condemn police brutality and the deeply corrupt system that allows it to foster, it’s still a weird subject to discuss in such a fantastical context, and there is a strange sympathy for the devil angle that can get kind of uncomfortable for some listeners.

Okay, stepping back from that for a bit, let’s talk about Jon and how he fits into this whole “people becoming corrupted” thing.

Jon has one of my favourite brands of character arc, which is one based in deterioration alongside growth. The most obvious way this takes form is his departure from humanity as his relationship with the Eye drives him to psychologically harm others, and he finds himself sympathizing more and more with the people he was afraid of, stating in episode 152 that anyone listening to his recordings might compare him to the other avatars that have had their minds and morals twisted.

Over the course of the series, he is repeatedly traumatized and the show makes a point that he is being both physically and emotionally scarred. These happenings are what drive his motivation for revenge in season five, and he even states that revenge is making him a worse person. As a character he’s constantly berating himself and his own monstrousness, much to Martin’s dismay.

That’s why the finale destroys me in the best way. Upon seeing that Jon has betrayed him and basically given himself over to the Eye, Martin asks “how much of you is even left?” And when Jon tries to reassure him that he’s still himself, Martin’s response is “how would you even know?” This cuts through me every time. Up until this point, Martin had consistently stood up for Jon and Jon’s humanity, even in the face of Tim’s doubt, Basira’s mistrust, Elias being cryptic, and Jon’s own self-hatred. This is the ultimate breaking point, the point where even Martin, the love of Jon’s life, doesn’t really recognize him. It’s brutal. Because at the end of the day, Jon is still himself; he’s a deeply broken person trying to make the right decisions.

We’ll come back to the finale later, but for now I want to talk about the romance.

Jon’s emotional growth throughout the series is largely tied into Martin. Martin’s the first person that Jon really opens up to, and this later grows into trust which then turns into a genuine emotional connection. On the flip side, Martin’s growth in season four is largely tied into Jon. Martin starts season four basically waiting to die, but Jon’s return gives him a reason to keep living, and he’s later able to recognize his own value outside of the pure utility of ‘you need to set yourself on fire to keep everyone else warm.’ Both of them give each other reason to push onward despite everything becoming more and more hopeless.

It’s a good romance. I wish the two had had a few more scenes together before the culmination, but it is built up over the course of four seasons and comes together in an utterly fantastic confession.

And yeah, the scene with Martin and Jon in the Lonely is cheesy as hell, but it is the highest quality of cheese. These are some gourmet nachos.

Umm, also kind of stating the obvious here, but it’s also pretty cool that the main character in this horror story falls in love with another man. You don’t see that a lot, and it’s cool that no one even makes a big deal out of it. It’s just a normal romance, but with two guys. It’s nice.

So, they go to Scottland, they hang out, they’re in love, Jonalias starts the apocalypse through Jon, the world ends, and season five starts!

...Let’s talk about season five!

Part 4: Season 5

At the very start of this post, I said that supernatural mysteries tend to get worse as they go along, and I am deeply sad to report that I don’t think that The Magnus Archives is an exception. It just goes downhill in a very different way than its ilk.

And, so we’re clear, I don’t think season five totally tanks or becomes unlistenable, it’s just, in my opinion, notably worse than the rest of the show.

As discussed earlier, it doesn’t fall apart due to a lack of planning; everything still makes sense, but the presentation has changed drastically. The episodic statements are no longer scary stories, but more like slam poems about the various hellscapes that Jon and Martin are trekking through. Honestly if these were published in a book of slam poetry, I would probably think they slapped pretty hard. I genuinely believe that Jonny Sims is a good writer, but as a podcast a lot of these statements just made me zone out. There’s at least four that I don’t even slightly remember. Myself and many others have noted that they just...aren’t scary, unless there’s a specific episode that really gets under your skin due to a certain fear or phobia.

To quote my friend, “it’s harder to feel a solid impact when the setting is literally divorced from reality. People would either go numb or insane to the point where their fears become unrelatable.”

And, to be honest, I think that this same surreal odyssey set up could have worked with a slight shift in narration. Two stand out episodes for me were “Strung Out” and “Wonderland.” Both of them show the tormented target actively trying to resist and interact with their tormenter, instead of just trying to escape or live through their situation. “Strung Out” is also more of character study; you learn about Francis’s life before the apocalypse through their interaction with the Web hellscape. Meanwhile “Wonderland” is just...f*cked, and you get to see Jon take the perspective of first-person Bad Guy throughout the whole thing, which is its own level of disturbing.

But the majority of episodes feel so abstract that I kind of forget the people trapped in them are supposed to be characters and not just concepts, so it’s harder to feel their dread and pain.

But I’m still here for the metaplot, the drama, and the romance. And when that’s good, it’s great! I think the final handful of episodes are really solid in that regard.

Buuuuuuut...

A decent chunk of season five is dedicated to the “kill bill” plot. Jon discovers he has the power to smite people, and while at first, he’s embarrassed about this, since he actively enjoyed killing Not!Sasha, Martin is super into it! He’s encouraging Jon to murder people.

This is actually the set up for a really good arc. As Jon gets more and more into his own avenging angel persona, Martin could get more and more disturbed by it so by the time they get to London, Martin could be really upset that Jon is so willing to wreak his own divine justice by killing or torturing all of the avatars.

And this does kind of happen. We do reach this end state, and it makes for a good final conflict, but the way we got here was borderline nonsense. Thematic gibberish, if you will.

Throughout the journey, Martin is clearly motived by a sense of justice; these people are bad, and so they should die. Whereas Jon is clearly more motivated by revenge; he only goes after the avatars that hurt him personally. At one point, Jon admits that maybe all of this killing isn’t making anything better, but just making him worse. Martin apologizes for egging him on, Jon absolves him by saying he started it, and then Martin’s like “I’ll keep my apology then.” This is the second worst line in the entire series, right after “the sky ate him.” And it’s close.

But it kind of feels like we’re back at square one. Jon is back to being ashamed of killing and Martin is still keen on his justice stance, but now just less pushy about it. The arc is basically half resolved at this point.

But then it doesn’t matter, because Jon kills Helen anyway. So, Jon’s back on his revenge/justice thing. Then what was the point of his earlier revelation? Why have that if it’s not going to matter and the conflict that was escalating still culminates with Jon leaning into the avenging angel stuff, and Martin being disturbed by it? It just makes both of them look like huge hypocrites! I f*cking hate it when they’re in the tunnels and Martin says “you weren’t meant to enjoy it this much,” regarding Jon’s smiting. Where did this come from?! Why didn’t you say this earlier? Third worst line in the series.

And yeah, I’ll say it; the boys fight too much in this season. I loved their romance up to season five, and their cute moments and more lowkey serious discussions are still good in this season, but God, they fight so much. And I’m not saying couples can’t have fights or tension, that’s just realistic and also stories need conflict to be interesting. Jonny Sims is on the record saying that balancing a healthy romance with the stress of a literal apocalypse was a priority, and I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s well balanced. I’m just saying that sometimes it feels like they don’t even like each other and it really started to grate on me.

Maybe it would have been better if the beginning of this season was dedicated to charming romance at first, so we as an audience could better appreciate how strong their love is and how it’s truly being tested. But obviously that was never on the table—

ALEX NO.

So, yeah, I have a lot of problems with season. I think it’s the worst one by far, even though there is a lot of it I still enjoy, including the ending.

As I mentioned before, the moment where Martin confronts Jon in the panopticon absolutely kills me, and Jon’s reaction kills me even harder. Throughout the season, Jon had largely been motivated by revenge, martyrdom, and the subconscious call of the Eye, and all three of those factors led him to his position as the pupil. He’s getting revenge against the powers, sacrificing his humanity to get rid of the Fears, and taking his place as wearer of the watcher’s crown. But all of this gets thrown out the window when he realizes that Martin is going to die. And not only is Martin going to die, Martin is going to die specifically because he loves Jon and refuses to leave Jon alone to die horribly. Martin had always been an underlying motivation for Jon, his “reason” as stated in episode 167, but now love as a motivator has come to the forefront, and Jon can no longer go through with his plan because of it. But at this point in the series, they’re both utterly doomed, and Jon concludes that the only possible chance they have of surviving, however unlikely, would be to sever the pupil of the eye, technically killing Jon, but maybe, just maybe, allowing them to escape with the Fears. Whether that’s meant to be literal or more ethereal is left unclear. Hell, maybe Jon’s just making it up completely and creating his own potential happy ending. It’s a pretty potent ending in emotional terms; Jon has to release the Fears and Martin has to kill Jon, and those are the two things they were dead set on not doing.

The Web, arguably the real main antagonist, basically won, and their manipulation of Jon worked. The destruction spread, and there is kind of a bleak underlying tone to that.

But at least this ending has some semblance of hope to it. I’m not saying that releasing the Fears was objectively the correct moral decision; the entire point of the dilemma is that there was no objectively correct moral decision. But, while Jon’s solution does have merit, it was also the most hopeless. I think dramatically, any one of the choices on the table could have worked if the writing was well executed, but thematically this one seemed like the perfect combination of grim and optimistic. Like, all of the evils that plague humanity can’t just be defeated forever and things could get worse, but maybe not. Maybe everything works out...

So yeah, The Magnus Archives...is a podcast. And it’s a really good podcast. Great, even. I can complain about season five all I want, but regardless of how that worked out, you can tell throughout the entire show that the people working on it were trying to tell a genuinely excellent story.

It’s good. Go listen to it. Even though I spoiled the entire thing and if you’re still here, you’ve probably already listened to it. Listen to it again.

#tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood

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