#a man a woman and the souls of one thousand evil men | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lostkidmustnotdie · 1 year

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In case anyone needs in-depth revenge lore here’s my masterpost:

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by American rock band My Chemical Romance is a concept album, following the Demolition Man, the Demolition Woman, the Devil, and a thousand evil men. The story begins in the last song, Demolition Lovers, of the prior album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.

Context and Controversy: There is some explaining needed before we get into the plot of Revenge. Gerard Way says in an interview that “Revenge is the story of a man and a woman who are separated by death in a gunfight. And he goes to hell, only to realize by the devil telling him that she’s still alive (There is debate on this, it will be discussed). The devil says he can be with her again if he brings the devil the souls of a thousand evil men, and the man agrees to do it, and so the devil hands him a gun and says ‘go do it.’” (Gerard Way, AOL Sessions Interview, 2004) “So obviously he kills 999 evil men, and then he realizes that the last evil man he has to kill is himself.” (Gerard Way). There is some debate, however, on the actual whereabouts of the Demolition Woman. There are no completely clear answers, it really is all up to interpretation. One theory is that the Demolition Woman is in Heaven, another is that she has survived the shootout on the highway and is alive somewhere on earth, and another theory is that the Devil has lied to the Demolition man and told him that the woman has died and gone to heaven when really, she has survived the shootout or vice versa. There are lines to prove and disprove each theory, so it really is up to interpretation.

Gerard did a drawing of the Demolition Woman on what could either be an operating table or an autopsy table (see right). There is blood on the blanket or sheet that covers her below the shoulders, which could mean she’s dead or could mean she has survived, there’s really no way to tell. Either way, in any of the three theories, they are separated, and the man has agreed to kill a thousand evil men to get back to his lover. Another source of controversy or debate is track order. In My Chemical Romance’s third album, The Black Parade, which is also a concept album, the tracks are chronologically out of order. Lastly, it is also debated whether songs Helena and I’m Not Okay (I Promise) belong in the story canonically. These topics will all be discussed as I go through the story.

Act One

Demolition Lovers: This song serves as essentially a prologue to the story of Revenge. We are introduced to the Demolition Lovers (debatably, depending on your analysis of bullets. However, I’m choosing to ignore any events that happened in bullets aside from Demolition Lovers because that’s not what this master doc is about). All we know about them is that the Demolition Man is wearing a suit, the Demolition Woman’s outfit, though unclear, may be some sort of wedding dress (see right), and they have been shot to death on a highway.

“Hand in mine, into your icy blues / and then I’d say to you, ‘we could take to the highway’... / I’d end my days with you in a hail of bullets... / and we grow cold.” (Demolition Lovers). This sets up the beginning of the plot. We know the characters have died, and we know they died from bullets. Other lines throughout the song, however, introduce us to the relationship between our characters, which is obviously romantic. “...I’m trying / to let you know how much you mean ... / Know how much I want to show you [that] you’re the only one / and as we’re falling down, and in this pool of blood / and as we’re touching hands... / I'll see your eyes, and in this pool of blood, I’ll meet your eyes / I mean this forever.” (Demolition Lovers). This clarifies, even though it was obvious, that our characters are lovers and they obviously mean quite a lot to each other.

Importantly, the setup for the plot of Revenge is mentioned a lot in this song. “But this time, I mean it, I’ll let you know just how much you mean to me / but this time we’ll show them... all how much we mean / like a bed of roses, there’s a dozen reasons in this gun.” (Demolition Lovers). This really begins to bring up the idea of revenge and avenging their own deaths, which is exactly what the Demolition Man does in the album.

Give Em’ Hell Kid: This is the second track on the album. I believe that Helena, the first track, comes later in the story if it’s even canonically involved at all.

And so it begins. This song takes place right after the Demolition Man has agreed to this mission, this quest to kill a thousand evil men. He leaves from New Orleans, takes a dose of ephedrine (a stimulant used to increase alertness), and starts his life on the run. “Took a train outta New Orleans, and they shot me full of ephedrine / this is how we like to do it in the murder scene, can we settle up the score?” He has taken on this brand new role of mass murderer, taken stimulatory drugs to increase his efficiency, and declared that that is how it rolls for a life like this.

Despite this determination, he also talks about missing his lover. “If you were here, I’d never have a fear / so go on, live your life / but I miss you more than I did yesterday / you’re beautiful... / you’re so far away...” (Give Em’ Hell Kid). The second stanza is a line that contributes to the debate of whether the Demolition Woman is actually dead. If you choose to take it literally, he assumes she is alive. If you think she’s in heaven, or you think the devil lied about the man to her location, the line can be interpreted more among the lines of the Demolition Woman being happy in paradise (Heaven), which is mentioned a few more times throughout the album. It could go either way.

The Demolition Man, while steadfast, still doesn’t feel great about this deal. Who would? He experiences moral debates on it throughout the album, but very early on we can see him wondering if it’s worth it and if the Demolition Woman would do the same for him. “Well, I'm a total wreck and almost every day / like the firing squad or the mess you made... / We never wanted it to be this way / for all our lives / do you care at all?” (Give Em’ Hell Kid)

Lastly, there is the line: “Well, don’t I look pretty looking down the street in the best damn dress I own?” This could be taken metaphorically, the dress being some sort of determination-related confidence, but I see it more literally. I think he could have been in drag. There are a few things that lead me to believe this is true: both the fact that Gerard used to crossdress throughout college, and the line “What did you call me?” which leads me to believe the Demolition Man could have been called some sort of homophobic slur, which I can conclude from the next line, “Well, there’s no way I’m kissing that guy.” This take on it is interesting, because we see the Demolition Man struggle with a question of sexuality throughout the album as well, first explored in the next track on the album, To The End.

To The End: This song was originally based on William Faulkner’s short story A Rose for Emily. In this story, a woman, abandoned by her husband, lives a reclusive life in a house with her father. When her father dies, the coroners have to convince her to let them bury the body, which she has been keeping in the house for 3 days. After this, she rarely goes out, until years later when she meets Homer, a northerner, who is said to “like men” which could either be taken as homosexuality or that he likes to remain a bachelor. The story is from 1930, so it’s likely that it could have been phrased so vaguely on purpose, as Faulkner would have been arrested had it been a direct allusion to homosexuality. Rumors spread that Emily and Homer have married, and no one sees either of them for a long time, shut up inside the house together.

Until Emily goes out to buy poison, “for rats.”

When Emily dies, they break open a part of the house that has been shut off for years and find Homer’s long-decayed body in a bed. On the pillow next to him is a strand of Emily’s hair, implying that she was in the habit of sleeping next to the decomposed body.

The main takeaway of why this story is important, is Emily is upset that her husband did not love her, either due to the fact that he was gay or that he was simply not interested in marriage.

This same double meaning is exhibited in To The End, in which the Demolition Man murders an entire wedding reception.

It’s clear in this song that the Demolition Man is getting a little out of control with this killing spree, maybe even beginning to enjoy himself. He goes to this mansion where a wedding is taking place and kills every person inside. Certainly, not all of these people were “evil men,” which means that the Demolition Man is on some sort of power high. “He calls the mansion, not a house, but a tomb / He's always choking from the stench and the fumes / The wedding party all collapsed in the room / So send my resignation to the bride and the groom.” (To The End). We can see that it's still in the beginning of his quest, though, because he is still not used to the smell of corpses or blood. Even though he has killed probably hundreds by now, that’s still out of a thousand. He’s got a long way to go.

He thinks of the house as “not a house, but a tomb,” implying that he does in fact plan to kill every person inside. This also can refer to A Rose for Emily, in that multiple people have died and decomposed in that house. Everyone is “collapsed,” either in that they are dead or they are on the ground begging him not to shoot. He’s gotten snarky with it, too, “send my resignation to the bride and the groom,” proof of this confidence that he’s good at his job, and he’s getting it done.

Here’s where the first hint at the sexuality crisis the Demolition Man experiences comes into play, with that same vague, double meaning as the one in A Rose for Emily. “He's not around, he's always looking at men / Down by the pool, he doesn't have many friends, as they are

/ Face down and bloated, snap a shot with the lens.” (To The End). This line could either mean he’s not present in his life, because he’s so focused on finding and hunting down all these evil men that it’s all he can think about, or that he’s not around his lover and he’s now made a habit of checking out other dudes. I personally think it means both, that this double meaning exists for a reason. It’s the same as A Rose For Emily- either meaning that you choose to accept means that the man is not present with his lover because of something in the way.

The second part of the line refers to him having no friends- understandably because he kills most of the people he interacts with.

The pre-chorus is him wondering again if the Demolition Woman would do this for him as well.

“If you marry me / Would you bury me? / Would you carry me to the end?” (To The End)

The chorus really confuses me. “(Say goodbye) to the vows you take / (And say goodbye) to the life you make / (And say goodbye) to the heart you break / And all the cyanide you drank.” (To the End). I really have no idea what’s going on here. “Say goodbye to the vows you take” could either be about him defying his morals and ethical values because he’s murdering all these people, or it could have something to do with marriage vows, which could be in relation to the Demolition Lovers or the people who were getting married that he murdered. The cyanide bit also confuses me; in A Rose For Emily, Emily uses arsenic to poison her husband. I don’t know. The chorus is up to interpretation.

“She keeps a picture of the body she lends / Got nasty blisters from the money she spends / She's got a life of her own and it shows by the Benz / She drives at 90 by the Barbie's and Ken's.” (To The End). I think this line is what the Demolition Man thinks the Demolition Woman is up to in heaven. Heaven is supposed to be paradise, so he thinks she’s having the time of her life (no pun intended) up there while he’s doing all this work to get her back. He shows bitterness about this topic multiple times throughout the album.

“If you ever say never, too late / I'll forget all the diamonds you ate / Lost in coma and covered in cake / Increase the medication / Share the vows at the wake (kiss the bride).” (To the End). This continues the bitterness, the Demolition Man saying he’ll forgive her for having fun up in heaven while he’s suffering down here if she marries him. This whole song, I think, speaking of weddings, is about the Demolition Man wanting to marry the woman. The song starts by taking place during a wedding, so it’s not unusual that the Demolition Man would be thinking about it. “If you ever say [it’s] never too late” is probably about her commitment, and so is the chorus, along with “share the vows at the wake,” which I think means he wants to get married as soon as he dies again to go back to the afterlife to be with her. While we can’t see much of the demolition woman’s outfit on the album cover, (See paragraph on Demolition Lovers) I believe it could be a wedding dress. It has sort of a lacy neckline and appears to be white, so it’s possible. The man is also wearing a suit, and they look like they're about to kiss, so it's entirely plausible.

You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison: Featuring vocals of The Used’s Bert McCracken, is when the Demolition Man, with a hit to his belief that he is invincible, is caught by authorities and sent to prison.

“In the middle of a gunfight / In the center of a restaurant / They say, "Come with your arms raised high" / Well, they're never gonna get me / Like a bullet through a flock of doves.”

It’s a common pattern throughout the album; the Demolition Man starts to believe he is untouchable, godly almost, and then something sets him back and he completely breaks down. This is the first time his invincibility gets shattered, when he becomes incarcerated and it slows down his mission. “To wage this war against your faith in me.” (Prison). He’s had this huge halt in his progress, and he’s afraid Demolition Womanis losing hope that he’ll see her again (even though she doesn’t know he’s doing this in the first place), and that she’ll stay loyal to him. We see the first mentions of religious belief sprinkled throughout the song as well: “On your mother's eyes, say a prayer / Say a prayer / …as God had made us.” (Prison). This theme is explored more in coming tracks Interlude and Thank You For The Venom.

It is also the track that really begins to explore this sexuality crisis the Demolition Man is having. Let’s be real: Gay sex is not new for prisons. It’s really not. And we know he’s been questioning this identity for a while now (See Paragraph on To The End), so it was bound to happen sometime, especially when he’s trapped with only a bunch of other men in the same situation for an undetermined amount of time… “Now, but I can't, and I don't know / How we're just two men as God had made us / Well, I can't, well, I can, yeah.” (Prison). Forgive me but I cannot think of a heterosexual explanation for this. I really can’t. The last stanza is the Demolition Man having some sort of inner conflict with himself about morals, like, should I really be doing this? And while he feels guilty, he decides he clearly doesn't feel guilty enough because he keeps on doing it. “Too much, too late / Or just not enough of this pain in my heart for your dying wish / I'll kiss your lips again.” (Prison). In the last stanza, he could be talking either about the Demolition Woman or some guy that he’s formed some sort of sexual and/or romantic bond with inside the prison.

Unfortunately, while consensual sex is not new for prison, neither is non-consensual. It can be inferred that the Demolition Man experienced this during his incarceration with these lines: “My cellmate's a killer, they make me do push-ups in drag / …What they ask of you will make you want to say, "So long" / Well, I don't remember / Why remember you?” (Prison). Something else common in prison is trying to effeminate one partner- to pretend like what they’re doing isn’t gay (it’s gay), which could explain the drag bit. We also see him mention a little bit of memory repression from this trauma that has been induced upon him.

Prison is also where he starts having his first mental decline, understandably. He’s become a mass murderer, he’s struggling with his identity, he’s away from everything he knows and loves, and it’s taking a toll on him mentally; he’s even beginning to toy with the notion of his own death, whether sentenced by law or by suicide. “But nobody cares if you're losing yourself / Am I losing myself? / Well, I miss my mom / Will they give me the chair? / Or lethal injection, or swing from a rope, if you dare? / Nobody knows all the trouble I've seen / …Life is but a dream for the dead.” (Prison). The last stanza has a double meaning: It could continue the theme of wishing he were dead, or it could continue the theme of bitterness toward his lover, who to his knowledge, is having a great time in heaven.

At the end of the song, the Demolition Man and presumably some of his prison friends break out of the jail. “Do you have the keys to the hotel? 'Cause I'm gonna string this motherfucker on fire / …And well, I, I won't go down by myself / But I'll go down with my friends.” (Prison). “The hotel” could be referring to where he’ll stay when he gets out of the prison, referenced later in the album: “Check into the hotel Bella Muerte…” (The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You) (which may also be a metaphor, more on that when we get to Jetset Life.) So it can be assumed that there was a breakout, the fire being literal or metaphorical, either way meaning they’re leaving the place in shambles. The last stanza may also have a double meaning, potentially being a sexual innuendo as well as a declaration of camaraderie.

Interlude: This track on the album actually comes after The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You, but I think it makes more sense after Prison. A very climactic, high-intensity part of the story has just occurred, everything’s a mess, he’s just broken out of prison, what’s going on with the Demolition Woman… leaving us wondering what will happen next, which seems like the perfect time for an intermission. Yes, I agree that typically, the intermission is more toward the middle or ⅔ mark, but to me this is the best placement for it.

Interlude only has three lines: “Saints protect her now / Come angels of the Lord / Come angels of unknown.” (Interlude). This is the Demolition Man praying to any higher being that he can think of to protect his lover and keep her safe. Thus, the end of Act One.

Act Two

The Ghost of You: This song is sort of a duet between the Demolition Lovers, the lines changing perspective from the woman and from the man. Gerard has done this in other songs as well, such as Famous Last Words, where there is a conversation happening between two different people, but the switches between speakers are unmarked. I’ll mark who I think said what for each mentioned line.

DW: “I never said I'd lie and wait forever.”

DM: “If I died / We'd be together / I can't always just forget her / But she could try.”

DW “At the end of the world / Or the last thing I see / You are never coming home, never coming home / Could I? Should I?”

I think the last line from the Demolition Woman is her wondering if it’s okay for her to let the man go. To reach some sort of acceptance that she’s never going to see him again.

DM: “Ever get the feeling that you're never all alone? / And I remember now / At the top of my lungs in my arms, she dies.” This, to some, is confirmation that the Demolition Woman is in fact dead. It could also be argued, however, that the line “If I died, we’d be together” could have come from the woman and not the man, which contradicts itself with the “she dies” lyric. These contradicting lines can be placed into either the alive or heaven theory by rearranging who said what, or it can be placed in the category of “the devil lied to the demolition man” if you say the woman said “If I died we’d be together.” Any of them work for the story; the point is, she misses him and wonders if it's messed up of her to try and accept the loss of him.

Throughout the album, the Demolition Man has this constant fear of “falling,” which I think means dying or failing his mission. “If I fall…” It’s mentioned more later on in the album, but it brings up the point that he still could fail the mission. He could still die. This is not a guaranteed win for him, so maybe it’s not all that bad of an idea for the Demolition Woman to reach some type of acceptance…

The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You: Back to the story. The last song was more just about emotions and how everyone is feeling and how things are going up in Heaven but now we’re getting back into the plot, shortly after the Demolition Man has escaped prison and checked into a hotel somewhere, called the hotel Bella Muerte (Beautiful Death in original Spanish). This hotel could also be metaphorical… more when we get to that line. The song starts with him missing her and looking at how much longer he has to go before he’ll complete this mission. “Gaze into her killing jar I'd sometimes stare for hours… / And for the last night I lie / Could I lie with you?” (Jetset Life). While he’s missing her, though, he’s also starting to resent her just the tiniest bit for making him (even though she didn’t make him) do all of this miserable awful stuff to get back to her when he doesn’t even know if she still believes in him anymore. “When holding on / Oh, I hope you do the same / Aww, sugar / Slip into the tragedy / You've spun this chamber dry.”

This song is also when the Demolition Man starts turning to drugs to numb the pain of everything going on. “I'm lost in the prescription / …It gives the weak flight / It gives the blind sight / Until the cops come.” His drug use is making him sloppy with his work and it’s almost getting him caught. (Side note, these are probably expensive drugs he’s using. The word Jetset means basically “rich and fancy” and he says the jetset life will kill you, (as drugs can)). This is where the potential metaphor of “Hotel Bella Muerte” comes into play- it’s mentioned right after the “lost in the prescription” line, and “checking into the hotel Beautiful Death” could represent actually dying due to this drug use. It could get him caught, it could kill him through an overdose. This metaphor could be continued (well, started) in Prison too, when Bert yells the line “Do you have the keys to the hotel? 'Cause I'm gonna string this motherfucker on fire!” (Prison) it could have meant “are you ready to die?”

Cemetery Drive: So, the Demolition Man is taking a break and recovering from prison. He’s visiting presumably his hometown, feeling, not gonna lie, a little suicidal. “Back home, off the run / Singing songs that make you slit your wrists / It isn't that much fun / Staring down a loaded gun.” (Cemetery Drive).

He then makes the very bad decision to go find his lover’s grave. “This night, walk the dead in a solitary style / And crash the cemetery gates.” (Cemetery Drive). He starts getting really sad because of this and starts reminiscing and just talking about how much he misses the woman. “I miss you / I miss you, so far / And the collision of your kiss / That made it so hard.” (Cemetery Drive). He also has another one of those moments of “is it worth it?” when he says “So, I won't stop dying, won't stop lying / If you want, I'll keep on crying / Did you get what you deserve? / Is this what you always want me for?” (Cemetery Drive). The rest of the song is very repetitive, but the line “way down” is repeated many many times. It could be talking about hell, it could be talking about the woman under the ground, it could be talking about this “fall” he’s constantly afraid of, it could be anything, really. The main important part of this song is that it leads to another change in identity: in religion.

Thank You For The Venom: This is when things mentally really start to go downhill for the Demolition Lover. He has just visited his dead lover’s grave, he’s by himself, and this is when he decides, ultimately: Fuck God. He’s given up on religion. He knows it’s real, because he’s literally on a quest from Satan himself, but he has no faith in it anymore. “Sister, I'm not much a poet, but a criminal / And you never had a chance / Love it, or leave it, you can't understand / …Preach all you want but who's gonna save me? / I keep a gun on the book you gave me, hallelujah, lock and load” (Venom).

I think maybe a nun has tried to “save” him; he could also be talking about religious people in general, but for story’s sake we’ll say a nun tried to “save” him. We know he’s had religious beliefs in the past, like when he says he was how God made him, or when he prayed to the angels to protect his lover, but he’s done. He’s like, “fuck God, fuck religion, fuck this nun.” (He does end up killing the nun: “Love is the red of the rose on your coffin door / What's life like, bleeding on the floor?”) He really doesn't care at all if people know about this aversion to religion: “I wear this on my sleeve / Give me a reason to believe.” He even contradicts his line from earlier in the album: “We’re just two men as God had made us” (Prison), with “I'm just the way that the doctor made me.” (Venom).

His drug use has gotten worse since Jetset Life: “So give me all your poison / And give me all your pills / And give me all your hopeless hearts / And make me ill.” (Venom). And the man still thinks he’s untouchable too, whether that means they can't convert him or he can’t be stopped in his mission or both. “You're running after something / That you'll never kill / If this is what you want / Then fire at will.” (Venom) This is also where he really starts to not give a shit if he even finishes out the mission: he’s like, fine, kill me, I don’t even know if this is worth it anyway. This attitude only gets stronger in our next track: Hang Em’ High.

Hang Em’ High: The Demolition Lover, with this new “Fuck It” mindset, is now picking up speed on his killing spree, barely caring if he gets killed himself in the process. This entire song is basically about him hunting down the men on the list and killing like a machine, a ruthless rampage that takes on the sound of an old western. “Grab your six-gun from your back / Throttle the ignition / Would I die for you? / Well, here's your answer in spades / Shotgun sinners / Wild-eyed jokers / Got you in my sights / Gun it while I'm holding on.” (Hang Em’ High). You can note the tone of resentment toward the Demolition Woman as well. There’s sort of been this underlying question of “will she still love me after what I’ve done?” and this song really hits the point of “I don’t care what she thinks I’m doing it the fuck anyway.” He’s real sarcastic about it too, but that’s nothing new: “After all is said and done / Climb out from the pine box / Well, I'm asking you / 'Cause she's got nothing to say / …She won't stop me, put it down / So get your gun and meet me by the door.” (Hang em’ High.) This song is also where that theme of “falling” comes again. In this song, he sort of says “If I die, I die, and we’ll both move on.” “If I fall and don't look back / Oh, baby, don't stop / Bury me and fade to black.” (Hang em’ High). This is very different from The Ghost of You, where he’s a little more afraid of this “fall.” It’s really better explained in the tone of the song. In The Ghost of You, the line about falling is very isolated, warningly ominous, and is followed by a heavy chorus of basically just wailing, so it seems like a big fear of his. In Hang ‘Em High, the “fall” is much more casually mentioned and is followed by “don’t stop and bury me,” AKA, “get over it.”

It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s A Fucking Deathwish: This song is very important to the story because it exhibits a large change in character. This song is about the Demolition Man hunting down one or more of the people who murdered him. “For what you did to me / And what I'll do to you / You get, what everyone else gets / You get a lifetime / …I'm coming back from the dead / And I'll take you home with me / I'm taking back the life you stole / …I will avenge my ghost with every breath I take / …This hole that you put me in / Wasn't deep enough / And I'm climbing out right now / You’re running out of places to hide from me.” (Fashion Statement).

This song contains a very crucial part in the album. This is the song where he fully accepts that he may fail his mission by dying. In Ghost of You it was his greatest fear, in Hang Em’ High it was maybe-a-thing-that-could-happen-but-I’m-not-going-to-think-about-it-right-now-just-gonna -kill-a-bunch-of-people. In this song, he knows it’s possible. He’s reached full acceptance that he may never see his lover again. This, right here, is one of the most important lines in the album: “I lost my fear of falling.” (Fashion Statement)

Obviously, he’s going to keep trying, though. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still very determined to be with the woman again, but he’s setting his bar realistically in that he may not make it. “If living was the hardest part / We'll then one day be together / …When you go / Just know that I will remember you / I lost my fear of falling / I will be with you, I will be with you.”

And thus, with his determination and preparation in his mind, we arrive at the finale.

I Never Told You What I Do For A Living:

This is the last song in the story of the Demolition Lovers. The Demolition has almost made it to the end of the mission, and he is absolutely ready to kill the last person and see his lover again. “Another night and I'll see you / Another night and I'll be you.” (Never Told You). He is going down the list, going on this rampant spree trying to hunt down the last men on the list. “Another knife in my hands /…I keep a book of the names and those / Only go so far 'til you bury them / So deep and down we go.” (Never Told You).

The only thing he’s worried about is if, one: the woman will still love him after what he’s done, and two: how he’ll deal with the guilt. He’s hoping getting into heaven and seeing the woman will cleanse him of his sins: “Another knife in my hands / A stain that never comes off the sheets / Clean me off / I'm so dirty babe / The kind of dirty where the water never cleans off the clothes

/…Touched by angels, though I fall out of grace / I did it all so maybe I'd live this every day.” (Never Told You). The first five stanzas are about the “seeing the woman will cleanse him” thing. The rest is about his guilt. If he’ll think about it day after day once he’s in heaven, and if he’s ruined his chance at religion because he’s fallen “out of grace.” The part about the woman not loving him anymore is a valid concern, really. I mean, think about it. He’s not the same guy anymore. He has killed one thousand people. That’s too large of a number for us to even comprehend in this context, but try. That shit would change you, for sure.

We have another chorus, after which he simply says the word “down,” which I have to assume means he has just killed the 999th person.

And here’s where everything falls apart.

The devil has just told the Demolition Man that the last evil man he must kill is himself.

He’s been hunting down man after man making kill after kill for at least a year in completely dismal conditions, dirtying his conscience and completely uprooting his life and mind as he knows it. He’s suffered through this all just to get back to the Demolition Woman… and now he can’t. It was all for nothing.

“And we all fall down / I tried /I tried.”

I strongly suggest you actually listen to this part, because just the quote definitely does not get the tone across. It’s at about 1:40 in the song. Gerard is screaming and wailing, really capturing the anguish that his character is feeling, knowing his work was for nothing and knowing that he’ll never see the Demolition Woman again.

However, he does accept this fate.

“And we'll all dance alone to the tune of your death / We'll love again, we'll laugh again / and it's better off this way.” (Never Told You)

Those worries of guilt, the worries that he’s changed too much as a person, the worries that the woman won’t love him anymore, are released. The fact that he says “we’ll all” instead of just “I’ll” is really interesting. He does it in other places throughout the song as well. I have to assume he’s referring to the other 999 people he’s killed, which is a very cool image, all of these people that have died because the Demolition Woman has died, the man soon to join them. It’s an image Gerard creates in the third album as well, an army of ghosts rallying for a final hurrah: “We're damned after all / Through fortune and flame we fall.” (Mama).

He says it’s “better off this way” which is an interesting choice in wording because it’s the same phrase he uses in I’m Not Okay (I Promise), which is not a song I’ve talked about yet. “I never want to let you down / Or have you go, it's better off this way.” (I’m Not Okay).

The second stanza I suppose means that they’ll move on. They’ll learn to “live” without each other in the afterlife.

However, this acceptance comes very quickly after the breakdown, which implies that it was sort of that “quick fix reasoning” we tend to do- something bad happens and we instantly try to reassure ourselves that it’s going to be okay by conjuring up the first solution or remedy we can think of.

I can infer this because the Demolition Man starts reminiscing about the day they were shot, repeating these lines: “And never again, and never again / They gave us two shots to the back of the head / And we're all dead now,” twice, increasing in desperation and emotion the second time around, and then he starts wailing again. “Well I tried / One more night / One more night / Well I'm laughin' out, cryin' out, laughin' out loud / I tried, well I tried, well I tried / 'Cause I tried, but I lied.” (Never Told You)

He’s losing his mind. He’s freaking the fuck out, the whole impact of what has happened is hitting him, and he’s no longer trying to quickly reassure himself, but just insisting that he “tried” over and over again, even to the point of laughing, he’s so far out of it. He just keeps saying “One more night,” knowing he was that close to seeing the woman again.

He repeats “I tried” a few more times, and then he tries to assure himself again with the lines about it being “better off.” He’s jumping back and forth, his touch on what he knows loosening. He does understand one thing, though. This guilt will haunt him, Demolition Woman or not. “And it's better off this way / So much better off this way / I can't clean the blood off the sheets in my bed!” (Never Told You.) I feel like it’s important to note that during these shifts in thoughts, Gerard switches between more calmly singing and completely screaming which probably accurately represents this complete breakdown the Demolition Man is having.

The song ends with a final reminiscence of the night of the Demolition Lovers’ death, as the Demolition Man does what the devil has asked of him and joins his list of the dead.

“And never again, and never again / They gave us two shots to the back of the head / And we're all… dead… now.”

***

The End? Not quite. You may have noticed that I’ve neglected I’m Not Okay (I Promise), Helena, and the bonus tracks from the live recording collection: Life on the Murder Scene.

Helena: Helena was written following the death of the Grandmother of Gerard and Mikey Way (Bassist). Gerard has described this song as “an angry, open letter to himself.” The lyrics are more than anything about the Ways’ Grandmother, Elena, than the story, but if we must find a way to connect it, I believe it would be from the Demolition Woman’s perspective (It could also be about what the Demolition Man thinks the woman is thinking). “What's the worst that I can say? / Things are better if I stay / So long and goodnight / …Well, if you carry on this way / Things are better if I stay / So long and goodnight/” (Helena). This can be the Demolition Woman saying she’s better off in heaven after she’s seen what the Demolition Man has done and who he’s become.

The whole song is about grief, which means it could take place pretty much anywhere in the timeline, that is, if the song fits with the story at all.

I’m Not Okay (I Promise): I’m pretty sure this song takes place before they die. I think it’s about both of them having some mental health issues and problems with each other, which means their relationship was a little rocky. Don’t get me wrong, they were still totally in love with each other, I mean, obviously, he killed 1000 men for her, but they had some issues. This can also be concluded from some lines in Demolition Lovers: “And after all the things we put each other through…” (Demolition Lovers). It’s largely unimportant, I think. The lyrics are not really of substance, except that neither of them are okay and they kind of fought sometimes, but they won’t break up because being a little bit unhappy with each other is better than not being with each other at all: ““I never want to let you down / Or have you go, it's better off this way.” (I’m Not Okay). That’s about all I could take away from this track.

Desert Song: One of the two bonus tracks from this album, found on the live recording collection Life on the Murder Scene. I’m not gonna lie, the analysis of this song is very simple: We died, that’s sad, I miss you.

It’s pretty much the entire story’s plot (feelings-wise) in one song. There’s an allusion to I Never Told You What I Do For a Living: “And did you come to stare or wash away the blood?” (Like the line “Clean me off / I'm so dirty babe / The kind of dirty where the water never cleans off the clothes” (Never Told You)). It details the journey of their bodies: “From the earth to the morgue /

Morgue, morgue, morgue!” (Desert Song) and talks about the woman living in heaven or mourning him or both: “Spend the rest of your days rockin' out / Just for the dead.” It’s not a very eventful song, and I have to assume that much of it is written about Gerard Way’s real life more than the Demolition Lovers.

Bury Me in Black: My personal favorite. Also found on Life on the Murder Scene, this song has got to be the angriest on the album.

There’s proof that it could be directed toward the Demolition Woman, and theories that it could be directed toward the devil, but I think it’s both. It takes place sometime during his mission, I assume around the 400 mark where he’s probably extremely fed up with this mission and just angry as hell. “I wanna see what your insides look like (I wanna see what your insides look like)/ I bet you're not fucking pretty on the inside (not so pretty) / I wanna see what your insides look like (not so pretty, baby)” (Bury Me in Black). Yeah, he’s mad. He’s extremely violent, either toward his lover or toward the devil, we don’t know. But he’s been killing for so long now that violence is all he knows…

There’s some maybe-proof that it’s toward the woman: “I said, ‘We'll drown ourselves in misery tonight’ / White lies, you've worn out all your dancing shoes this time,” which I think is bitterness that the woman is in heaven. He’s completely miserable, and he wants her to be miserable too, not having fun in paradise.

The part that makes me think it’s the devil is here: “I've been calling you all week for my

Shotgun / Pick up the phone / Pick up the phone, fucker.” He has to be in some sort of communication with the devil to let him know what’s going on, which makes me think he doesn’t have the materials or information he needs, which is halting his mission, AKA frustrating him enough that he wants to literally gut Satan.

This is also another look at just how miserable he is. He’s drinking to numb the pain: “These eyes have had too much to drink again tonight,” He’s feeling suicidal: ‘Black skies, we'll douse ourselves in high explosive light,” He’s physically injured from fights: “And well, I can't explain / What happened to my face / Late last night,” He’s homeless: “I sleep in empty pools, and vacant alleyways,” and he’s having a sexuality crisis: “And what I'm going through / Shot lip gloss through my veins.” (Bury Me in Black). It is another song that fits pretty much anywhere in the timeline.

The End: Thank you for reading this stupid bullshit if you made it this far. Yes, I wrote all of this and if you are for some reason crazy enough to use it for anything please credit me; I spent far too long working on this to get robbed. It is December 25, 2022, 12:52 am, thus concluding my first completed masterdoc: The Story Behind My Chemical Romance’s: Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. Thanks for reading.

#three cheers for sweet revenge #three cheers era #tcfsr #my chemical fucking romance #my chemical romance #mcr lore #please i worked so hard #thank you for the reblogs i very appreciate it

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scotianostra · 6 months

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On October 22nd King James VI set sail for Norway to collect his bride Anne of Denmark.

King James VI of Scotland married Anne of Denmark in a proxy marriage ceremony in 1589. But when it came time for Anne to sail to Scotland to meet her new husband, that is when the real trouble began.

Anne’s ship was delayed by storms for so many months that James decided to sail to Norway, where she was stuck, and retrieve her. He too, had issues with the storms, but they finally reached Scotland in 1590.

It was during this turbulent time that it was first brought to James’ attention that witches might be responsible for the storms that caused the delay in Anne’s travels (and also caused the death of one her maids). Witchcraft and the hunting of witches was very popular in other parts of Europe at the time, in Scotland, witchcraft was against the law – although it mostly went unpunished before 1590.

Upon returning to Scotland, James had no fewer than seventy of his subjects rounded up on suspicion of bewitching his fleet and that of his new wife. He personally superintended the interrogation of many of the suspects, including the supposed ringleader – a 'wise woman' named Agnes Sampson. Taking 'great delight' in her torture, he was dismayed when she suddenly called a halt to the proceedings and beckoned the king to her. She then whispered something in his ear that made him go as white as a sheet. It transpired that she had repeated the very words that had passed between James and Anne on their wedding night – words that no other mortal soul could possibly have known. If James needed any further proof that witches existed, this was it. He sent Agnes straight to the flames. Thousands more of his subjects – both in Scotland and (after 1603) in England would perish for the same crime

The early seventeenth century, when the witch hunts were at their height, was dominated by fear and superstition. In an increasingly unstable and volatile society, people clung ever more tightly to their deeply-held superstitions – even those who claimed to have embraced the reformed religion. The Kingdom of Darkness was as real to them as the Kingdom of Heaven, and ordinary people everywhere believed in devils, imps, fairies, goblins and ghosts, as well as legendary creatures such as vampires, werewolves and unicorns. Everyone feared evil portents, such as a hare crossing one's path or a picture falling from the wall. A pregnant woman must avoid gazing at the moon because it would render her baby insane.

Children were frightened into obedience by their mothers or nursemaids with tales of evil witches, spirits, elves and fantastical creatures. Women were grouped together with the sick and infirm as being particularly susceptible to 'vain dreams and continual fear' as a result of their 'weakness of mind and body.' Even grown men were afraid of the dark, for this is when it was believed spirits most often appeared. 'Some never fear the devil, but in a dark night…especially in a churchyard, where a right hardy man heretofore scant durst pass by night but his hair would stand upright.'

In 1597, he published Daemonologie, a treatise on witchcraft that became so influential that it was republished several times and distributed across Europe. It inspired a witch hunting fervour of dangerous proportions, giving sanction to all manner of horrific persecutions. Those most at risk were women: as many as 95% of those convicted for witchcraft were female. Most were unmarried, poor and misfits in their community. Many had a 'familiar', such as a cat, dog or rat, which would supposedly help to carry out their evil spells.

The witch hunts also became a convenient way of getting rid of troublesome neighbours. The old saying that there was 'no smoke without fire' certainly held true here: an accusation was all that was needed to bring someone to trial, and a staggeringly high proportion of those who were hauled before the courts were found guilty.

Recently calls are growing for a national memorial to the thousands who were tortured and killed for their supposed black magic, there is one in Edinburgh, that is small and overlooked my most visitors to the castle, which it stands close to, many of those that were condemned to die were burnt on what is now the Esplanade, you will find it on what is the Tartan Weaving Mill. Further afield there is a collection of stones about 20 feet high, topped with a cross and decorated with gifts left by visitors—pennies, feathers, shells, fluffy stuffed animals, and tiny tea candles. The stones bear the words in stark white lettering: “Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch.” While this has become a shrine to “Maggie” and witches in general, there is no record she existed.

Nobody knows who built the memorial, nor do we know who regularly freshens up the white paintwork every so often. Maggie Wall's Memorial is located right outside of Dunning in Perth and Kinross. It is off of the road B8062 which you can access from the A9 highway.

I use the words judicial murder from time to time in my posts, those that died accused of witchcraft fall under the term, they were murdered, there is no other way to describe it.

#scotland #scottish #history #The Stuarts #Witchcraft #Royalty

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ystrike1 · 2 years

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How to Clear a Dating Sim as a Side Character - By Dalzo (6.5/10)

Well, well, well. We have a real predicament here. First, this is a harem. Harems annoy me when they get too big. The only big harems that can work are comedic ones. Our heroine here seduces like ten men (and women). She is pretty cool but keeping track of everything and the huge cast is exhausting. Also. The second problem is uh...haha. Oops. I don't like the main love interest. I like the asshole prince character better.

What a mess.

Eveness Harin is the Saintess. She was sold to the temple by her family after her powers were discovered. She has no backbone, no desire for romance, and she's extremely conservative. She's the triple SSS hard route protagonist in a successful otome game series called Midnight. It's a very highly rated game. The developers added Harin's route as an Easter egg. It's not meant to be enjoyed. It's a challenge for hardcore gamers. Harin is doomed to fail and die 99.9999% of the time because her route is too damn hard. One day Harin awakens with a different soul. The soul of a gamer who died after a long otome gaming session. So now she has a higher chance of survival because she knows what the plot is.

I wanna cry and scream. Eveness Harin was incredibly interesting. She was raised by an abusive high priest to become the perfect Saintess, and she did it. The people adore her. She is a symbol of morality and justice for all. Only she can cure the deadly magical disease that rips people apart (after they use too much magic). She's invaluable and beloved because she has saved thousands of mages from death. Her devotion made her into a weirdo. She fell in love with Prince Yuri, in a distant kind of way. She fawns over him and watches him from under her veil. Her route is near impossible because of course the Saintess can't get married. The prince would have to be willing to break the rules to have her, and he just finds her annoying. Harin became awkward, quiet, and weak because she's a hard worker. (and her life sucks)

Her purification powers drained her energy too much. She can't even take a short walk without feeling ill. The other noblewomen think she's an ugly hag because of her veil. She's kind of a pushover because of her upbringing, so she never fights back. The abusive asshole who raised her gives her a potion. A mind control potion to use on the prince. She doesn't quite understand love but she wants his attention so she uses it and she's executed. The Prince does it gleefully because he thinks Harin is a willing puppet, but she never knew how evil the temple really was. They were using her good reputation and hard work to do evil crap behind closed doors....For the love of Jesus pisspants Christ please write the story I just described. Enough of this reincarnation harem crap.

I'll miss you Harin, but I have to talk about the actual plot we get now.

Anyways the otome gamer girl boss is pretty good. She's ok, ok? She's alright. She knows the temple is evil so she immediately tries to run. The Saintess has actual duties to attend to so she can leave to work. She decides to romance Daniel. He's a really nice and religious man. He likes Harin but he's too faithful to see the saint as a woman. He develops a giant crush on her. It's pretty cute, and I completely understand why a relationship doesn't develop. He's too religious to kiss a godly woman.

Harin was gorgeous under her veil all along. Hooray. The hardcore gamer gets to enjoy her face and power. Hooray. Beatrice, the true protagonist, almost immediately becomes her best friend. Hooray. Harin avoids the master of the magic tower because she knows how scary he is, but her cute stubbornness steals his heart. Hooray. One of the love interests actually gets turned into a plot device bodyguard, which is genuinely funny. Like he doesn't even get any scenes with her. He serves the master of the tower and he protects Harin on his behalf. He swoops in when the Master is too busy to swoop.

Lol.

This is the harem in the original game. Beatrice is unrecognisable. In this plotline Beatrice just claps and compliments the new Harim. She's not a wicked foe or an enemy at all. Everybody is interested in Harim, because she changed. She's so much better now. She's not a spineless, religious, abused loser anymore. Hooray. It's not like watching characters heal and leave their abusers is satisfying or anything. Just give her body to a gamer girl boss. Who cares?

Prince Yuri is the only character who doesn't immediately love gamer girl boss. His mother was murdered by the corrupt temple. Harin is the symbol of that temple. He knows she's evil. He can't let go. He tries to foil her (innocent?) plans. He stalks her while she rolls her eyes like a girl boss. He's genuinely worried about what this evil temple is going to do to his country. Harin is only interested in eloping to the desert with Daniel. Also she doesn't love Daniel. She's just using him to get away from the execution ending. It's actually pretty fucked up if you think about it. Like some of these characters have depth and emotional issues. There's actual political problems in the country, but of course new Harin just cares about her own survival. That's fine but uh...the world building here is half decent. I feel bad for these characters. I want Yuri to get his revenge. He wanders around outside sometimes. He sleepwalks and looks for his dead mom because losing her traumatized him too much. Harin just thinks he's an annoying jerk.....but they are the most similar pair in the harem cast. She hates the evil temple and he does too. Sadly, that doesn't mean anything because the master of the magic tower is sooooo hooottt.

The main love interest isn't that bad. He's not boring. He's just too much. He has special eyes that can drive you insane if you look directly into them. He has every kind of magic. He's secretly a god. His puppet body (Duke Joshua) is currently the prime minister of the country. He hides from his subordinates because he doesn't want anybody to realize that one guy controls magic and politics.

He starts to stalk Harin. I realized he was the yandere a little too late, because I didn't care. His love for new Harin is very...bleh. He seems to know that her soul is new, and he doesn't give a shit about the actual Harin that is gone forever. He and his lackey (pictured above) solve most of Harin's problems for her. It gets boring and I noticed something. Everything Harin does on her own is inconsequential. She never does anything relevant on her own. The Master (Adam) is always there helping if something important is happening.

I don't like that.

Oooh! Sudden side plot! The princess is obsessed with Adam. Oooooooo. That's totally scary even though we already know that Adam is literally god and he can kill her no problem. Harin goes into the princesses salon in a pretty white dress. Yuri is there and that's when I realized I liked him. He's the better yandere. He has a really good reason to be obsessed with Harin. She's connected to his mother's death. She has a crush on him (in the other timelines) which disturbs him and repulses him. Which makes him obsess over her every move, because he's convinced that she's more evil than a demon. It would be so cool to see Yuri accept that she was a pawn who truly fell for him....but no. Gamer girl boss time.

Anyway. Master Adam starts..... slicing down trees???? Whenever Harin gets hurt or somebody flirts with her. Again. That's really lame yandere shit. He stays in the shadows and uh...chops trees when the Princess suggests that Harin should break tradition and marry someone. That is pretty yandere but it feels off. He also kills random dudes for her but...yawn. Feels a little eh...especially compared to the plot I could have enjoyed if Korean authors weren't COWARDS who think reincarnation is the only type of plot that exists....

#yandere #male yandere #yandere male #yandere boy #recommendations #recs #rec #recommended #webtoon #How to Clear a Dating Sim as a Side Character

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chemicalarospec · 2 days

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What Makes a Ship Demolition Lovers Core?

I want to do a series where I make posts for a bunch of my ships evaluating their Demolition Lovers AU potential (though who knows if I will). I figured it’d make the most sense to set up these basics in a separate post instead of just squeezing it in the first one.

Oh, and if anyone doesn’t know (A/N: u don’t belong here, prepz!!!), the Demolition Lovers story, is, in short: “the story of a man, a woman, and the CORPSES OF A THOUSAND EVIL MEN” outlaw lovers gunned down to restore their lives and reunite, one approaches the devil and a deal seals: “bring me the souls of 1000 evil men.” 999 he slays, only to realize the blood has sullied his soul and the 1000th is himself

traits of the demolition lovers dynamic:

the ship is not unfamiliar with “darkness” and “death” . inspecific phrasing but like basically they just gotta be a little emo

willingness to “sell soul” - turn to dark forces

willingness to kill — they don’t HAVE to be a murder couple to fit a demolition lovers AU but nobody can be a goody two-shoes (murder couple is another category on my list of favorite dynamics - status is determined by canon amounts of violence)

the non-killing character must have the capacity to find the killing endearing/romantic. this trait isn’t featured in the original demolition lovers lore but it’s a part of how I see it plus since they were described as Bonnie and Clyde-esque, I think it’s an easy assumption. speaking of their pre-death dynamic,

partners in crime

mutual commitment that reaches codependency — extreme devotion — inseparable in this life and the afterlife. They would fight for each other!! if one dies, they do NOT move on

Notably, the original demolition lovers has that bit of sexism to it where the man does the whole killing thing and the woman doesn’t. Sometimes I like to change this up and split the labor, sometimes I work with it as is -- depends on the canon of the ship.

uh I don't have an ending for this post. that's all for now!

#i might edit this if i think of more later #i don't think i'll evaluate each ship on these like categories but we'll see #i said this #ship dynamics #demolition lovers #shipping #shipping dynamics #(one couple i won’t be featuring is SO close to being demolition lovers core but they canonically broke up so it just doesn’t Fit)#(actually reflecting on them (they come from a problematic source) the bigger problem with them is that one of them WOULD do the murder #and the other WOULDNT like it)#demolition lovers core #dynamics #will they demolition lovers AU?#<- potential series title

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agnerd-bot · 1 year

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Fate Fanservant: Sū Dá Jǐ, Toppler of Empires(Berserker)

Picrew Source: https://picrew.me/image_maker/29841

Ascension Stages:

First Stage: A pure white cheongsam adorned with golden flowers, and a pair of glasses on the bridge of her nose. She holds a smoking pipe carved from human bone, and bloodstains can be seen on her face. Her nine tails are posed menacingly behind her.

Second Stage: A lab coat is thrown over her dress, the pipe replaced by a scalpel. Her tails gain a mechanical edge, with metal stingers on their tips. A pair of blades extend out from her left wrist, made of human bone.

Final Stage: A pair of skeletal, spider-like limbs jut out from her back, and sacred bindings wrap around her arms like a straightjacket. Like Xiang Yu, a sickly green energy emanates from her eyes and mouth. Her ribcage is left open, exposing the same green energy.

Traits:

Class: Berserker Alternate Class: Assassin, Caster True Name: Sū Dá Jǐ Source: Chinese History/Fēngshén Yǎnyì Region: China Alignment: Chaotic Evil Attribute: Sky Known as: Dájǐ, Lady Kayō, Bāo Sì, Tamamo-no-Mae, The Nine Tailed Fox, The Wicked Fox Spirit, The Toppler of Empires

Voice Actress: Saito Chiwa

Deck: QAABB

Parameters: Strength: B Endurance: A Agility: B Mana: EX Luck: E NP: C+

Passive Skills:

Madness Enhancement EX: While fully capable of holding a conversation with her Master, it is next to impossible to come to a mutual understanding with Dájǐ, as she simply has a fundamental inability to comprehend human morals. Her ideas of love and beauty are simply incompatible with human convention, and no matter how hard one tries to teach her right from wrong, she simply will not comprehend it.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Buster performance by 12%.

Independent Action A+: As she is accustomed to being run out of town due to her wickedness, Dájǐ is easily capable of roaming around alone, doing whatever she pleases as she sustains herself on her own mana or the blood of innocents. No Master can hold her down easily, rather, she is the one who directs the Master.

Wait, isn't this a terrible skill to give to a Berserker?!

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Critical Damage by 11%

Item Construction(Torture) B+: The most infamous aspect of Sū Dá Jǐ's history, the Nine-Tailed Fox's obsession with torture is the stuff of legend. A pit of snakes where seventy two maidens were thrown in to be feasted upon. The Bronze Toaster where victims were forced to dance atop its surface before being burned alive. The Forest of Meat and the Lake of Wine, where couples were fed until they could eat no more, and after they became food for Dájǐ herself. All the while, the Nine-Tailed Fox laughed and laughed at the suffering of mankind.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own debuff success rate by 9% -Increases own damage by 185

Active Skills:

Femme Fatale (True) A: The manifestation of a beauty that can only be described as inhuman. With but an innocent request, she toppled empires. With but a coy smile, she felled kingdoms. Rulers of all stripes were brought down to nothing by her charms, and she left them all in ruin without even an afterthought. Be they man or woman, all people will eventually fall to the vixen's charms in the end, and all of them will be left broken by the all-encompassing love she holds.

(FGO Effect:) -Chance to Charm all enemies for 1 turn. -Reduces defense for all enemies for 3 turns. -Gains critical stars.

The Everlasting Nine Tails EX: According to a story told by Katsushika Hokusai, The Nine-Tailed Fox took the name of not one, but four separate beauties capable of tearing apart nations. Sū Dá Jǐ, the downfall of the Shang Dynasty. Lady Kayō, who drove King Banzoku to kill a thousand men. Bāo Sì, the melancholy beauty who left King You alone in the face of an army, and finally Tamamo-no-Mae, the elegant fox who was finally put to death in Japan. Even that wasn't enough to stop the fox demon from killing. Her soul possessed a stone that became known as Sessho-seki, where her spirit proceeded to kill even more until Genno finally placated her.

The Nine-Tailed Fox's sheer will is nothing if not incomparable, as next to nothing can stop her from acting on her desires to kill. It doesn't matter who or what stands in her way. Blood will be spilled.

(FGO Effect:) -Apply Guts status(2 times, 3 turns). --After first Guts is triggered, reduces own damage taken for 3 attacks, 5 turns. --After second Guts is triggered, apply Invincible status for 1 turn -Apply Curse for 5 turns to all enemies. -Apply Disastrous Curse status for 5 turns to all enemies.

Artisan of Torture A: Among all the beings to walk the earth, the woman known as Sū Dá Jǐ is inarguably one of the most cruel. Many a horrific act was committed by her hands, from cutting open a pregnant woman's stomach to understand how it worked, to cutting off a farmer's feet to see how he could walk barefoot on ice. Her curiosity and her sadism went hand in hand, and it continues in her manifestation as a Servant. One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind those wicked eyes… What dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty…

(FGO Effect:) -Increases party's Buster performance for 3 turns. -Charges party's NP gauge. -Increases party's damage against enemies with Man Attributes for 3 turns.

Noble Phantasms

Investiture of the Gods - The Eternal Spirit of the Fox Rank: A Maximum Targets: 1 Range: 1m Classification: Anti-Unit

In legend, it is said that the consort Sū Dá Jǐ was not born a fox spirit, but rather, was possessed by the nine tailed fox sent by Nüwa. Likewise, Dájǐ's Spirit Origin is not confined to the human body she inhabits. Rather, her Spirit Origin is puppeteering the dead body of the original consort to interact with humanity. If her body is at risk of falling apart or being destroyed, Dájǐ can extract her spirit from her body, implanting it within another person's body, allowing her to take over.

This technique is all but useless against Servants, but if she takes over a human, she is able to elevate their abilities to match those of a Servant. The only way to tell if Dájǐ has taken over a body is to use powerful enough magecraft to reveal her fox ears and tail.

Jiǔchí Ròulín - Carnival of Carnage Rank: C+ Maximum Targets: 100 Range: 130m Classification: Anti-Army

The famed 'Forest of Meats and Lake of Wine' attributed to Dájǐ manifests in her Servant incarnation as a powerful Reality Marble. Those drawn within the confines of the forest slowly are chipped away in mind and spirit, giving away to the carnal desires that most restrain themselves with day to day. Gluttony, lust, sloth, all are laid bare in a humiliating display of sin.

However, the true horror of the seemingly heavenly forest is revealed once the victims have eaten and drank their fill. Once a pair of victims has become satisfactory fed, Da Ji proceeds to eat them alive, granting her a boost in magical energy. The Forest of Meats is nothing more than a hunting ground, and all trapped within are nothing but prey for the Nine-Tailed Fox.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases damage against enemies with debuffs(Activates first, Effect increases with Overcharge) -Deal heavy damage to all enemies -Chance to Charm all enemies -Greatly recover health for self(Effect increases with Overcharge) -Charges own NP gauge(Effect increases with Overcharge)

Voice Lines:

Summoned: Hello~! My name is Sū Dá Jǐ, of the Berserker Class. And you… Ahahahahaha! Well, well, well, a human is to be my master? What fun! I just know this will be quite the wonderful experience! I will serve you faithfully and earnestly, and I hope you will treat me the same. Our lives are in each other's hands, after all.

Level Up: Every modification I make to my body has a purpose. I'm glad you recognize that, Master.

First Ascension: Ever evolving, ever advancing. That's how you humans live, isn't it? I desire to be the same… When I made a contract with Nüwa, my initial goal was for immortality. Now? Now I understand the true ascension… I want to be human.

Second Ascension: These offerings… You remind me of my first lover, King Zhou of Shang. Ah, what fun we had. A pity he was put to death by his own citizens… Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! I wonder, will you treat me with the same love and kindness that he showed me? …ahahahaha! Who am I kidding, you've already more than proven that!

Third Ascension: Master~ What do you think of my new form? I made it myself, bit by bit. Ahhhhh~ I feel so beautiful! I don't know why I ever wanted to be an immortal, this alone feels heavenly~!

Final Ascension: Hey, Master… What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? This is what we wanted, wasn't it? To advance further? To have a Servant that can destroy all your enemies? The appearance I take is merely a reflection of your humanity's desire. That's all I am. That's all I ever will be.

Fight Start 1: Hey, hey~! I wanna see what you look like inside, so just hold still, pretty please~?

Fight Start 2: Ahahahahaha! Come on, come on, let's dance our cares away!

Skill 1: Don't be afraid to scream, I don't mind~!

Skill 2: The fun's just getting started! I want to keep the game alive!

Skill 3: Come on, come on, let's keep going!

Skill 4: I wonder what this will do to you…

Command Card Select 1: I wanna cut them open!

Command Card Select 2: Just how do you work, I wonder

Command Card Select 3: Which do you prefer - to be crushed, or to be torn apart?

Noble Phantasm Select 1: Twirl and laugh around! The fun has just begun!

Noble Phantasm Select 2: Come on, don't be shy! Everyone's welcome to enter the forest!

Attack 1: Let me see what’s inside!

Attack 2: What fun, WHAT FUN!

Attack 3: Let me cut you to pieces, pretty please?

Attack 4: I just love the feeling of someone's life running through my hands!

Attack 5: More, more! I want more! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Extra Attack 1: Dance, dance as you burn to ashes! Ahahahaha!

Extra Attack 2: Ahahahahaha! You look so strange, dancing like that! Ah, you fell-

Noble Phantasm 1: Eat, drink, and be merry!

Sing and play to your heart's content!

Dance until your flesh falls apart, leave nothing behind but your bones!

Let the Carnival of Carnage consume you in totality!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Noble Phantasm 2: I love you, with all my heart, with all my body, with all my soul…

Your screaming, your wailing, your shrieking, all of it fills my heart with song!

Come, let the feast begin! Let us tear each other apart in an elegant frenzy!

Jiǔchí Ròulín!

Ahhhh~! Humanity is beautiful~!

Noble Phantasm 3: Come into the garden, we can play a game!

We'll tear off our clothes, there's no need for shame!

We'll sing and we'll play in the Forest of Meats!

And when we're all tired, I'll partake of the feast!

Thank you for the meal…

Damage from Noble Phantasm: AHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, that's the spirit!

Regular Damage: Hey, hey~ That stings!

Defeated 1: I-I-I can keep going! I wanna-

Defeated 2: Not… yet… I don't… I don't want this to end yet…

Victory 1: Awww… What a shame. I was hoping we could have some more fun… Still, it was nice while it lasted!

Victory 2: I see, I see~ So that's what you're like on the inside! Ahahahahaha! Just as I expected, humanity is beautiful!

Bond Level 1: How interesting… I must say, you're so very different from the kings I sat alongside. Your spirit is incredibly strong, almost like… Ah, don't mind me. Just reminiscing on someone I met long ago. Now… The control phase has long since passed! Let’s start the real experiment now!

Bond Level 2: I want to learn more… I want to understand this thing you call humanity… Even monsters and animals can supposedly become human if they pursue it. And likewise, humans can lose their humanity over time if they neglect it. I wonder… What is the defining factor? If I can narrow that down, then perhaps I can find how to become a human myself. Bond Level 3: Master… Hmm, what a funny thing that is. Like Zhòu Wáng, you have hundreds at your beck and call waiting to kiss your feet, and yet… You favor me so. I wonder why. What about me makes you want to bond with me? Hm? Because I exist? Well now, you're just going to make me blush!

Bond Level 4: Hm? Why do I kill if I want to become human? Well, now that's a silly question. I kill because I love. I wish to know everything, inside and out about you. I want to understand each and every facet that is the beast known as humanity. So I do what anyone does when they try to understand. I dissect. I cut people apart and I put them back together. With each death, I understand more about mankind, and with each death, I grow closer to attaining that dream of mine. What else can you call something like that than love?

Bond Level 5: Master… I love you. You are an embodiment of the human condition in its sum. Its sins and its glory. Its love and its hate. Its good and its evil. Every single aspect of the incomprehensible wrapped up into a single body for me to observe and understand. Ahhhhh, what a beautiful creature you are, Master. You are everything that I fell in love with during my time among man. Come, show your consort your everlasting beauty and show the world why humanity deserves to live long into the future.

Dialogue 1: I enjoy tinkering of all sorts. Machinery, plant and animal upkeep, and human anatomy are all some hobbies of mine. I've always enjoyed trying to figure out how certain parts worked, especially how you never seem to expect what pops up.

Dialogue 2 (If you are in Part 2): I've noticed that well-fed blonde man has been giving me odd glances from time to time. What a strange little creature he is, no? The way he shrieks whenever I so much as spare him a glance is nothing if not hilarious!

Dialogue 3 (If you are in Part 2): The Lostbelts… Worlds damned to oblivion thanks to the foolishness of mankind grinding everything to a halt. So much suffering… It's beautiful. Master, let's kill them all!

Dialogue 4 (If you have Tamamo-no-Mae): Tamamo-no-Mae… Hmm~ To think that a fox bearing my name would wander these halls with me. …ahahaha! I wonder if she'd like to sit down and have a chat! After all, I just need to know what stories she has to tell!

I wonder if she knows what it's like… trying to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Dialogue 5 (If you have Jiang Ziya): So, the great sage Jiang Ziya is here… I must say, I was afraid that you would be avoiding me, young scholar. I'm glad to see that isn't the case. Our meeting was oh so very brief, but… Oho? What's this? The mighty Tai Gong Wang, tearing up? Ahahaha! Will wonders never cease!

(…)

Perhaps things could have been different. Another time, another life. But that doesn't matter anymore, does it? You banished the demon fox, I went on to explore more of the world, our stories began and ended in the Shang Dynasty.

Hmmm… strange, something feels different now. Like a weight in my chest. I wonder if my body is breaking down again…

Dialogue 6 (If you have Tamamo Cat): Hmmm? Another fox bearing my visage? How strange. Here little doggy-kitty-fox, I won't bi-EYOWCH! Masterrrrrr! She bit me!

Dialogue 7 (If you have Koyanskaya of Light/Koyanskaya of Dark): In another life, in another time… A creature such as this took my face and my name… To think, there could be a creature that despises mankind to this degree. What a strange little animal indeed. Still, little bunny rabbit, I hope we can get along! Perhaps you can show me some of those little tools you have stowed away…

Dialogue 8 (If you have Summer Tamamo-no-Mae): Uuuu… Look at her strutting around without a care in the world, under that umbrella's shade. I wish I had a fancy little swimsuit like her… Eh? No? Why not? Master, why have you gone so pale?

Dialogue 9 (If you have any 'Chef' Servants): Tch. I still don't understand why I was immediately banned from the kitchen before I got to step inside. What's all this about my Noble Phantasm being 'a health code nightmare' and my cooking being 'flat-out horrific'. It tastes just fine to me!

I must admit though, there's nothing that tastes the same as a good home-cooked meal… Maybe I can find a way to sneak into the kitchen later.

Dialogue 10 (If you have Qin Shi Huang): The Emperor of the Lost Qin Dynasty… I heard they had some experiments done on the one who took my face. I wonder if they'd be willing to collaborate. I have some ideas I'd love to see in action, and if they're just as interested as I am in how the human body works, I'd love to be their consort for some time!

Dialogue 11 (If you have Carmilla): Hmmm… How strange. I feel some sort of connection with this vampire. And yet, despite all my travels, I never once stepped foot into Hungary. Perhaps she'd enjoy a meat bun.

Dialogue 12 (If you have Katsushika Hokusai): Hokusai, Hokusai… Ahhhhhh! That's the one who told my story, wasn't it? While I never read their accounts for myself, I must admit, I would love to see how one of the supposed greatest artists of human history works.

Dialogue 13 (If you have Xiang Yu, Katō Danzō, or Nezha): Ahhhh… So it seems that my hopes to make myself into a human does have some basis within humanity itself. I'm glad! I wonder what would happen if I tried to take them apart and see their inner workings… Ahahahaha! Maybe someday!

Dialogue 14 (If you have Dobrynya Nikitich): So… This is the person the 'other me' turned to as a parent? How cute… I feel strange around her though. Like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. This requires further analysis… Is what I would say if the 'other me' didn't expressly forbid me from talking to her for some odd reason.

Dialogue 15 (If you have Yù Tù): The Lunar Rabbit… Legend says she was once a mortal, before ascending to godhood and joining the Jade Court. …how strange, the look on her face.

Likes: What do I like? Ehehehe! Isn't it obvious? I love seeing humans and how they behave. I love trying to understand what humanity is, how humanity works, all of the utter mystery that is the human condition is something that I'm somewhat of a fanatic for!

Dislikes: What do I hate… Hmmmm… Well, I must admit, I don't like bowmen that much. While I do admit to knowing my way around a bow and arrow, I confess that the way that my body was eventually killed does make me wary…

About the Holy Grail: The Holy Grail… I heard it has the power to make the heart's desire manifest… I wonder, can it give me the humanity I dream of?

During an Event: Oooooooh, it appears there's a celebration of some sorts going on! Come on, Master, let's go! I have just the thing needed to make this interesting!

Birthday: Happy Birthday, Master! I heard that giving gifts is customary for this time, so here, I made you some of my famous dumplings! They're delicious, so please, take one! What's wrong? You look ill.

Profile:

Default: One of the most infamous monsters in all of China, Sū Dá Jǐ was famous for bringing down the Shang Dynasty with her wickedness and intellect. A monster among monsters, the one known as Dájǐ was the beloved consort of Zhòu Wáng and the feared monster that terrorized China. An inhuman creature incapable of feeling mercy, she ran rampant all across Asia under many names.

Bond Level 1: Height/Weight: 160cm • 49kg Source: Chinese History/Fēngshén Yǎnyì Region: China Alignment: Chaotic • Insane Gender: Female

"A fox borrows the tiger's might."

The Nine-Tailed Fox is an entity who does not exist in her own form. Rather, she steals the bodies of those around her, assimilating their minds into hers and using their skin to walk among them. Sū Dá Jǐ, Lady Kayō, Bāo Sì, Tamamo-no-Mae, at one point each of these women had the chance to live normal, ordinary lives. Of course, that all changed when the spirit of the fox happened upon them one day and stole their lives.

Bond Level 2: The Nine-Tailed Fox, despite her gruesome hobbies and mature appearance, is oddly childish in nature. She is as curious and as inquisitive as a child, always asking questions about how this or that works. If one doesn't answer her though, or if their answer doesn't satisfy her, she will always try and find the answer through the only way she knows how: dissection. Cut something open, and you'll figure out what's inside. That's just logic.

She does not care if what she cuts open is a stranger or her own Master. To her, everything is the same. Everything is something to learn from, and everything is something to be cut open. All one can do to avoid death at her hands is to placate her for as long as possible, even if it means sending another to their death in their stead.

Bond Level 3: A world of horrors she has amassed. The road of skulls, she makes her path. To a chorus of carnage, the dread fox laughs, And she drinks to the sound of your weeping.

That monster was once entombed in rock, But now thanks to you, she has been unlocked. Do you think that she'll ever be stopped? That company that you're keeping.

She fills your soul with endless dread, She feasts on your flesh as if it was bread, There's no point in struggling, you're already dead When the Fox has begun its reaping.

Bond Level 4: Across three nations, a single entity is shared as one of the most terrible monsters ever known. People speak in whispers of her cruelty and love for torture, a monster wearing human skin who relishes in the pain of others. Others speak of how she brought three different kings to disaster, driving nations to ruin as she stalked away without consequence. Others still speak of the dark magics she knew, a demon unparalleled that will destroy everything in her wake.

Looking at the spirit in person, then, is almost absurd at times. The earnest smile she gives to those around her, the genuine adoration as she observes people simply walking about and talking about their day. The endless curiosity as she asks people question after question. Seeing the contrast between Dájǐ the torturer who laughs at others’ suffering and Dájǐ the spirit who wishes to understand mankind, one almost can find themselves laughing. at the sheer impossibility of the existence before them. But the two exist, and they are at consensus thanks to one all-encompassing factor.

Love. Overwhelming, all-consuming, unconditional love.

Bond Level 5: What must it be like, being a creature who desires humanity without understanding it? What must it be like to look at a loving family, desiring what lay before their eyes while being completely incapable of comprehending what makes that sight before them so beautiful? What must it be like to be a creature who does not understand human concepts such as spite, or empathy, or even pain, and yet still seeks to make those concepts a part of her? What must it like to see humans through the eyes of a creature so completely alien?

Even killers understand the concept of laughter, even gods understand the meaning of pride, even phantoms can comprehend the idea of hatred. But not her. Never her.

So she tinkers. She tears herself apart, looking in at her own heart, only to find a deep, endless chasm. And she does not understand. So she does it again. And again. And again. All to be what she can never be, all to understand what she can never understand.

What a cruel trick of the gods, to force a mirror onto a creature with no face.

Extra (Clear Interlude “Ever Evolving”): The essence of humanity is its ability to evolve. As the times changes, so do people, whether it be their appearance, their beliefs, their education, their standing in life. Such is humanity. Likewise, such is nature. Animals and plants also evolve as time goes on, learning and adapting in order to survive the harsh environments they live in. It's simply the survival of the fittest in action.

But something must be different between the way humans evolve and the way animals evolve. There must be a difference in how humans act, how humans think, how humans are that led them to become the way they are. But what? Is it their biology? No, there's very little difference between a man and a mere pig if that would be the case. Is it their ability to use tools? No, a bird or a monkey could do the same thing.

I have to know… I have to know what humanity is! If I do… then maybe I can…

#damn my brain for not backing everything up in the first place #fate #fate grand order #fgo #fate fanservant #fgo oc #fanservant #su da ji #daji #picrew

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cyarskaren52 · 1 year

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRnIVDPLQs/

shaunking 🤬🤬🤬What I’m seeing right now with over $2 million given to support Daniel Penny after he choked Jordan Neely to death IS NOT NEW. The public celebration of Penny isn’t new either. ⁣

⁣

It’s BEEN happening. ⁣

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Gathering to celebrate the brutal lynching of a Black boys, girls, men, women, and even entire families is a white American pastime. It happens every generation. ⁣

⁣

It’s one of the single most evil realities about this place. ⁣

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I decided to crop out the dangling dead bodies from this image. ⁣

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I almost posted a slew of them, but it’s just too much. It was always too much. ⁣

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In the not so distant past they lynched Black folk and made it such a communal event that THOUSANDS gathered together, smiling, posing, even taking body parts as souvenirs. ⁣

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That they’ve made Daniel Penny a hero, and have rallied behind him, isn’t a hidden message. Not at all. ⁣

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It’s them openly celebrating not just the man, but what he did, to a tiny Black man with a tragic history of severe mental health challenges.⁣

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I have to say it, but Jordan Neely DID NOT TOUCH A SOUL. ⁣

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He never put his hands on ANYONE before this man killed him. ⁣

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In the extended video people are telling him that he’s killing Jordan but he still refused to let go. ⁣

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Thousands of Marines have said EVERY Marine is taught against this in their martial arts training. ⁣

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Anybody that knows how to apply the rear naked choke knows that holding it this long will kill someone. ⁣

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But white folk have made this man their hero anyway.⁣

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Why? Because THEY LIKE IT. ⁣

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They like what he did. ⁣

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I saw them celebrating the murder of Trayvon Martin and literally buying autographs from his killer. ⁣

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Who the hell does this?⁣

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The same people that proudly posed with dead Black bodies generations ago.

This is their kink

When a black man, woman and child is killed or tormented it makes them feel horny

to them a black suffering is a sexual turn on

This is not making me horny it’s making me angry

this doesn’t turn me on it’s pissing me off

to hell with traumatic porn !

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roman-catholic-mass-readings · 9 months

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28th July >> Mass Readings (Except USA)

Friday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Colour: Green: A (1))

First Reading Exodus 20:1-17 The Law given at Sinai.

God spoke all these words. He said, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ‘You shall have no gods except me.

‘You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God and I punish the father’s fault in the sons, the grandsons, and the great-grandsons of those who hate me; but I show kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

‘You shall not utter the name of the Lord your God to misuse it, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who utters his name to misuse it.

‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath for the Lord your God. You shall do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the stranger who lives with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that these hold, but on the seventh day he rested; that is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it sacred.

‘Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God has given to you.

‘You shall not kill. ‘You shall not commit adultery. ‘You shall not steal. ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. ‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is his.’

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 18(19):8-11