My biggest hope is that, at some point, Ruby calls Salem out for her systematic genocide towards the people with Silver Eyes, and that just completely spoils all of Salem's plans to present herself as the injured party.

Because no matter how Salem tries to spin her reasoning behind it, Robyn's Semblance would reveal just how cruel, petty, and POINTLESS the millenia of slaughter were.

The Brothers definitely wronged Salem, but that does NOT make it okay for her to take out her rage on completely innocent people, just because they MIGHT be related to her ex husband.

i think salem kills silver-eyed warriors* for exactly the same reason humans hunt grimm

(*distinct subset of silver-eyed people)

because irrespective of whether normal grimm are sentient beings (and i think they are), salem is a person who’s spent the last several thousand years living in forced exile—it is ozma’s explicit goal to get rid of her—with nothing and nobody to turn to for companionship except grimm, and from his stated interest in silver eyes and his recruitment of both summer and ruby we know he’s made use of silver-eyed warriors for this purpose whenever he can find them.

meanwhile salem to all appearances… did nothing, because ozma absolutely could not have kept her a secret if she’d been acting in kind all along and we know now that even as little as twelve years ago that ozpin’s war was all smoke and no fire.

so yeah no assuming it is what it looks like—that salem took out silver-eyed warriors who either worked for ozma or looked like they might, during the very long period of his one-sided crusade—i think she has a leg to stand on. her general has silver eyes, it isn’t like she hates them on principle.

the most important question here is what the hound’s deal was, where and how she found him and what circumstances led to using his (reanimated?) corpse as the core of a grimm. because that’s new—an experiment, probably something begun after beacon fell—and we have zero context. in a story that is all about things never being as simple as they seem! in a story where we’ve already had a huge in-character assumption about the hound shown textually to be wrong! in a story where we know salem has or had two more agents we’ve not met yet, and one of them is obviously summer rose.

In the reboot the Warners are very openly violent with each other, they go after each other in ways that in the original series they saved solely for their enemies. Do you think this is something they are being forced to do by their new writers or has there been some sort of negative shift in their relationships with each other? Primarily it seems to be Wakko and Dot against Yakko. Could this even be part of the reason Yakko created Yolko?

I think criticism of the reboot can often be over the top, but this is one point I do agree with. I think the writers (real world writers) fell into the trap of knowing they needed to include cartoony violence but didn't know when or how to use it. In much of the reboot, the Warners are the only cartoon characters around, so they end up directing the violence at each other. If you think about it compared to the original, though, they also seem to be strangely reserved when it comes to using violence against their human "special friends" in the reboot. Why aren't they dropping anvils on Ralph or smashing Nora with a mallet? They just sort of hang around and talk most of the time. Almost seems like they've mellowed out, but the opposite has happened in regards to how they interact with each other.

In the original, they were kind of written in most cases as a single character with three different personalities. Rarely separated, always pursuing the same goal. Basically, if you wouldn't write a single character malleting themselves, you shouldn't write the Warners malleting each other. I think the change can be described succinctly like this: they went from acting like the Marx Brothers to acting more like The Three Stooges.

In-universe, I think there are some things we have to establish first when looking at this dilemma. First, toons cannot be permanently injured except by means of a plot device specifically devised to injure them (Dip). It's also unclear if they actually feel pain, or if they just have comedic reactions to violence that simulate being in pain. It's possible that the Warners aren't hurting each other at all. If you knew you could hurt your siblings without actually causing them pain, would you?

Perhaps the answer to that is irrelevant in the Warners' case, because the Warners are closer than regular siblings. They are not just the only family each of them have ever had. The only people in general who care genuinely about them is each other. Their relationship is built on total, implicit trust. Whether they can really hurt each other or not, the fact that they try at all is troubling. I'll get into detail on that lower down.

I have one solid theory on why it started happening, in-universe. We all know the Warners can't physically change. But I think some people let that fact trick them into thinking the Warners also can't mentally change. Like any other living being with a brain, the Warners learn and develop and grow (mentally). If they didn't, they wouldn't really be living beings. People have often pointed out that it feels like the Warners are older in the reboot. And, yeah, they kind of are. I don't know if that's what the reboot writers intended, but I don't think it's really canon-shattering to think that the Warners aren't exactly the same now as they were in the 90's. There's one particular event that may have changed their outlook on life permanently- the cancellation of their original show, followed by whatever happened in the 22 years in between that and the reboot.

My headcanon is that the cancellation of the original show deeply affected Yakko in a negative way. He felt like he failed his siblings, let their livelihood and ticket to freedom be taken away. Worst of all, he didn't even know exactly what he did wrong to deserve the cancellation. In truth, it was nothing, just the changing economics of the animation industry, but that doesn't stop him from blaming himself. So, when the Warners are reanimated and put back on air, his mindset has changed. This is what led him to becoming more openly protective/paternal towards his siblings in the reboot. It led to him becoming more anxious as well. He has decided that he must guide them more firmly if he wants to protect them and avoid another cancellation. However, becoming more like a father figure and exercising his authority over his siblings had an unintended side effect- his siblings started to rebel. Not in any major way, but they take what liberties they can to get back at him for his annoying behavior, which is where the violence comes from. I have explored this concept in some of my fics, most openly in "The Warners Write."

That's my best explanation for this- but it isn't that simple. Before I elaborate, let me eliminate some other possibilities. First, that the Warners are simply getting tired of each other after almost a century. Maybe, but I don't think it's the case. I don't think it's possible for the Warners to get tired of each other. They adore each other, now and always. Second, the possibility, as you said, that they are being forced to do it by the fictional writers of their in-universe show.

There's nothing about that theory that inherently makes it unlikely. It probably is the best explanation overall. I just don't like it, because it's kind of... lazy? I don't know, there's probably a better way to describe it. But when you start getting into this territory, there's nothing to stop you from saying that everything the Warners do is just part of the script, and then the entire canon falls apart and we're back to square one. If nothing the Warners do represents their actual personalities and actions, then there's no point speculating on anything they're shown to do, ever, at all. Plus, if everything they do is part of the fictional show, then there's really no difference in discussing it from discussing it as a real world show. They're still directed by writers and live a fictional life, which is exactly how it really plays out on our screens. You're just adding another pointless meta-layer to it.

Anyway, now to that big climax I've been putting off. You heard my best explanation. That explanation works well enough for when it's the younger siblings directing violence towards Yakko. The problem arises when it's Yakko directing violence towards them.

The single worst instance of this inter-sibling violence problem in the reboot, the one I absolutely can't stand or explain at all, is, coincidentally, its very first scene. There's just no way to explain it that's consistent with the characters of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot.

When I first saw this scene... it didn't bother me at all, of course. It was the first scene of Animaniacs I ever saw. I couldn't have known then how awful and out of character this moment is. But I do now. And it's hard to watch. Am I being too dramatic about it? You be the judge.

It isn't the using Wakko as a battering ram that bothers me. It's the slap after. Yakko says "Oh, right, it's a pull, not a push." Then he promptly punishes his little sibling for his own mistake, after he already gave him a pointless head bashing against the door. Neither he nor Dot even show an ounce of concern at any point.

Now, sometimes siblings play rough. Sometimes they seriously hurt each other. This doesn't necessarily harm their relationship. In some cases, it even makes it stronger (as long as it doesn't rise to the level of bullying). The same would not be true if, say, a father did the exact same thing to his child. That would be abuse, possibly, negligence at best, if it was accidental, and the father should feel guilty for it.

To see what I mean, imagine this exact same scene playing out, but Slappy is in the place of Yakko and Skippy is in the place of Wakko. Kind of changes the connotation, doesn't it? But it shouldn't, really. By and large, Yakko is just as much of a parental figure to Wakko as Slappy is to Skippy. The size difference is even similar. Some of you may not know this, but Yakko is actually taller than Slappy.

Point is, Yakko holds the absolute trust of his siblings. They can be violent to him, but him being violent to them is a completely different ballgame. Using Wakko as a weapon, making him visibly beat up, and then twisting the blame for your mistake onto him and hitting him once more for good measure is almost abusive-level conduct. It would be straight-up abuse if we didn't know these were toons who can take damage without actually being injured. There isn't a way to explain it in-universe. As much as I hate to resort to such simple answers, the best explanation here is that the reboot writers simply got it wrong. They tried to write the Warners like Daffy and Bugs. This scene would be absolutely fine if it was between those two, because they're rivals, not the closest set of siblings in the world.

Sometimes the reboot gets it right, though. For example, when Nora knocks Wakko off the desk, and the next frame shows his siblings at least checking on him.

Since the egregious example of Yakko hitting Wakko happened in the first scene of the first episode, I can just chalk it up to the writers not really knowing the characters yet (though they should've, but that's beside the point). To frame this all in a more positive way, ignoring that one scene, I think Yakko might actually be proud of his siblings for standing up to him more and developing their own boundaries. He did his job- he raised them to be self-confident and assured. It took a century, but he did it, and he can withstand a little physical pain along the way. It's worth it.

As for Yolko, if you take my main theory earlier, it could be connected. Yakko is proud that his siblings are branching off a little, but he does miss when they followed him without question. So he gave himself someone else to raise from scratch, an egg. Though it probably isn't literally alive, since it would need to be constantly incubated.

I didn't really intend for this post to turn into a long rant about the reboot. If this is the only post of mine you've seen, you might think I'm some reboot hater. If you've been following me for some time, though, I hope you already know that isn't the case. The reboot got me into Animaniacs. Even if it was the worst thing in the world, I could never hate it. And it's far from the worst thing in the world. It has a few flaws, some glaring, but overall I still love it, and I think it's only gotten better as time has gone on.

I'm really pleased with the number of asks coming in over the past few days. If the current pace of asks continues, though, I probably will not be able to continue answering them the day they come in, especially since I returned to college yesterday. Keep sending them if you have them, but my response may not be instantaneous.

Alright. So I finally watched Night at the Museum 1 and 2 and I'm not emotional you're emotional.

I will watch the cartoon movie tomorrow, but I know that they leave my besties out. :(

Fucking Khonshu. "What? Yeah sure I'll bless this tablet of life or whatever. Everything gets life. I don't know. Is that statue alive? It is now. Anyways I'm gonna go pick on this other guy now good luck!"

What a weirdly specific thing for the tablet to do. Instead of just keeping them alive it just...brings everything to life. Like, no wonder he got himself banished. You think that's why he got banished? Osiris shows up and just goes, "You did what? Why would you do this thing in particular? What....Just why?"

Epitome of "Fuck it we ball".

Anyways, I love these movies now and I desperately need a cross over.

Yes 🤣 it’ll be called Moon Knight at the Museum

But khonshu making the tablet really is so random?? He doesn’t have anything to do w anything. He was a minor god that was only popular for a few hundred years; he wasn’t  associated w pharaohs or tablets or reanimation or anything. Like???

Maybe the tablet was his first attempt at protecting the travelers of the night. He was like “ok well, if someone gets attacked at night they’ll need extra strength and energy to defend themselves… and maybe we can make the statues come to life too to help protect them… and let’s bring dead ppl back too while we’re at it. Bc what if u die? What if they unfairly died? We have to cover all our bases.” It has the vibes of an idea that originally made some sense but then he kept adding crazier and crazier things to it until it was totally different from the goal he was trying to achieve lol

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You are absolutely right that Osiris or some other god showed up and was like “Why???” This is how it probably went down:

Osiris: khonshu, why are my dead ppl being taken out of the underworld every night and then put back in the morning??

Khonshu: to protect the travelers of the night! 😤

Osiris: wha-? how?? How does taking ppl out of the underworld protect the travelers of the night?

Khonshu: well, um, you see… uhhhhhh…

Osiris: it doesn’t, the answer is it doesn’t. All you’re doing is messing up my organization system and giving me more paperwork. Stop it. It doesn’t make any fucking sense. You know what? Get out. Get out of here. You’re banished.

Khonshu: :(

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I suppose the statue/inanimate object thing kinda makes sense from a cultural point of view? They had ushabtis and other statues that were supposed to come to life and help you in the afterlife and had a lot of apotropaic statues like the sphinx that were supposed to ward off bad luck/evil spirits. So making them all actually come to life isn’t too much of a stretch in terms of trying to protect ppl

In the third movie they have a whole bunch of tablet lore that explains why it happened from a human/worshiper point of view but it still makes no sense from a god point of view lol The third movie is also set in the British Museum so there is actually potential for them to run into our favorite gift shoppist.

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If the system met the museum gang here’s how I think it would go down.

Honestly, Larry would not be surprised that they’re a superhero avatar for the moon god. He would just be like “ok great. I’ve seen weirder, I can handle that.” The museum exhibits would probably not be phased by moon knight either bc they’re already so unique and different from each other they would be like “another weird new friend, great!”

Marc would not be surprised but very disappointed lol Larry would explain their situation and the tablet and he would just sigh and put his head in his hands while mentally cursing khonshu out. He’s not surprised he would do smth like this, just so tired of Khonshus bs lol

Jake would ask to try Larry’s flashlight out and wouldn’t be as invested as marc and Steven in the magic side of things. I can see him making friends w the exhibits tho and just chilling w them. I think Attila and Teddy would be his favorites.

And now Steven. Oh Steven. Steven would lose his fucking shit. This would be the best day of his life, including the tomb and the pyramid of Giza. He might straight up faint when he finds out abt Ahk. He’s squealing louder and louder at Larry’s introductions of all the exhibits bc this is so much firsthand knowledge abt these time periods, he could solve so many mysteries of history, and then they get to Ahk and it’s fantastic. There’s a real life pharaoh standing a few feet in front of him and he can talk to him and ask questions and just exist in the same space as him… and he collapses. As soon as he comes to again, he’s asking questions and talking everybody’s ear off. Some ppl are more inclined to humor him than others (like Teddy would be more than happy to talk abt himself as opposed to jed who would just be confused and walk away). Either way, Steven is living his best life rn.

Steven would have also been useful in the second natm movie lol He could read the hieroglyphics on the tablet and realized the answer was pi in a matter of minutes. He could have spared Larry a lot of grief lol

I’ve thought a lot abt what would happen if Larry was the night guard at the British museum the night Marc destroyed the toilets. Probably at first he would assume that Marc was the main threat since he wouldn’t be able to see the jackal, but he’s smart and would quickly figure out that he was fighting smth even more dangerous. Idk how much of a help he would be but he would certainly try his best; maybe trying to distract it or dumping paint on it so it’s a more visible target or using the true and tested game of fetch method (I mean, jackals are just dogs right?). He would find a way to help and then figure out what Marc’s deal is lol

But I think Larry and moon knight could be a really good duo tho. Moon knight helps him w problems w the tablet, translating any languages he hasn’t learned yet, and giving more historical context to things that Larry wouldn’t be able to find on the internet. In return, Larry lets them hang out w the exhibits and points out Khonshus bullshit for them lol I feel like he’s very good at seeing through ppls lies and setting clear boundaries which is smth that Marc is not always the greatest w lol

Renowned Tarnished and the Shardbearers they Champion

Why does the guidance of grace point towards the greatrunes, but also Millicent, Castle Sol, and Castle Morne? A process of elimination with the shardbearers philosophies and the renowned Tarnished of Elden Ring:

Firstly - ignore the Empyreans (and Rennala) for now. If Ranni is any example - the endings that align with their philosophies would have been something truly something unique. 

Secondly - assume that the endings are exactly as shown. The fractured and broken version of Marika is never repaired. The Elden Ring may be fixed, but she herself never is - in the four standard endings we become Lord to a dead god.

Mohg - Dung Eater - Mending Rune of the Fell Curse

Mohg revels in being an Omen. The Fell Curse aims to create a world where everyone lives a cursed existence. No notes. By which I mean, yes there is nuance to Mohg and I have many notes, but no I don't think it is needed context for this connection.

Morgott - Goldmask - Mending Rune of Perfect Order

Morgott is also called the veiled monarch, to hide that he is an Omen. Goldmask is hiding a frankly emaciated and undead looking face behind a brilliant mask of gold. Also notably, Goldmask is not aligned with the hunters of those who live in death. His goals and Fia's are not in opposition. Both Morgott and Goldmask see that there is an inherent problem with the Golden Order - but continue trying to prop it up by any means necessary rather than allowing for change to a new kind of Order. Marika is Radagon and we just killed them - god is dead, but let's put on a good face and pretend that all is well.

Godrick - Fia - Mending Rune of Death

This one is most easily understood through methods - they are both about reanimating corpses to restore a gruesome version of the Golden Lineage. Godrick grafts body parts onto himself with corpsewax. The yellow in the wings of Fortissax the lichdragon demonstrate that there is little difference between corpsewax, amber, and "gold". In all endings the rune of Destined Death is returned to the Elden Ring - but it's Fia's end that introduces the new centipede looking rune of Death. Those who live in death are exalted in the upcoming age.

Rykard - Sir Gideon Ofnir - Age of Fracture

They also actually have a lot in common, but it's subtle: Neither wants to restore the Elden Ring. Both are associated with orders of knights, both are only interested in prolonging combat. They've positioned themselves as arbiters of god's will - Gideon through claiming to know Marika's intent and Rykard through declaring himself a god wanting to devour and replace Marika. 

Radahn - Hoarah Loux - Relics of the Age of the Erdtree

It can't really be said that we meet "Radahn" in the game - his mind has long since been rotted away by Malenia. Similarly, when we first encounter Godfrey, his eyes have lost grace. He only regains the light of grace after the defeat of Morgott - who had been striving to prop up the failing Golden Order. Morgott is the face of the Golden Order as it is, and Godfrey the face of what it was at the height of its power. Also Radahn was said to idolize Godfrey, and they both have that lion theme. 

So, given that understanding of how we can unwittingly choose to side with various demi-gods through the renowned Tarnished, I think that the guidance of Grace has something to do with ideals. To fight any given shardbearer requires stepping into their domain - to consider the world from their point of view. Ideals are infectious - the act of engaging with them may be subtly influencing the perspective of the player Tarnished and impacting the ending that they choose to lock in.

This purpose would explain the presence of the 3 outlier guidance of grace: Millicent and Castle Sol are both important to understanding Malenia and Miquella's perspectives. Completing Irena's quest at Castle Morne is the mandatory first step in understanding the perspective that culminates in the Frenzied Flame. Which is also important to Miquella's - it is afterall his needle that can stop the frenzy flame ending. And for Melina, going through with the Frenzy Flame reveals a side of her that otherwise would not have been seen.

Dumb Theory of the Tryna...

Yo I forgot to post this last week lol

Don’t take this remotely seriously, I just thought it was a neat idea and a sort of interesting “what if” scenario. It basically all boils down to, if given little ot no physical or mental limitations by using his mask, could Kingdom!Matoro, in theory, reanimate Mata-nui’s dead corpse? And whether or not there is any sort of implication of this not only being true, but was his being given a Tryna perhaps pre-determined in case Matoro failed to revive Mata-nui in time?

Under the cut for length!

So in regards to Kingdom!Matoro (or Matoro as a Mahri I'm general) he was bestowed with the kanohi Tryna - the mask of necromancy reanimation. An interesting choice by the Ignika (which is the supposed source of his and the other Mahri’s mutation) but it got me thinking... (ie I was VERY bored at work).

Now again, this is not to be taken seriously, but after rereading the Into the Darkness podcast transcript again, something just really bugged me about the whole situation with Teridax and Matoro. So, Teridax’s goal was to blackmail Matoro into reanimating Tuyet, because she had remnants of the Nui-stone embedded in her armor (though apparently in the main universe, it wasn’t Nui-stone fragements), and the reason was...so he could bestow it on a Toa? 

That got me to thinking just what this implies. We’re all fully aware of Teridax’s psychopathic ability to plan and prepare a thousand backup plans to his backup plans. We also know he has an invested interest in The Plan to take over the Matoran universe, but it can’t be achieved if Mata-nui dies. So, taking into account his tendency to have backup plans in stacks, could he have, say, predicted Matoro being given the Tryna, and thus, his plans for the Nui-stone were in fact to somehow sway Matoro to his side, give him the Nui-stone, and in the event Mata-nui dies, have Matoro harness the stone and, I don’t know, reanimate the husk? At least enough to allow Teridax to slip into the Core Processor and do what he needed to do, because as it stands, it SOUNDS like for him to even get into the GSR, Mata-nui HAD to die at least briefly. 

And to me, it just doesn’t entirely add up. Or maybe I’m not remembering things correctly (it’s been A While since I read the books). Why would he want the Nui-stone to begin with? As far as I can tell, it’s used exclusively to enhance Toa.

He showed an unusual interest in Matoro, and I’m going to guess it’s because, one, Matoro is inherently linked to the Ignika for obvious reasons, and two, he has a mask that may or may not be of use to Teridax in some way if something goes wrong. 

So, if given the Nui-stone, could Matoro have proved useful in reanimating Mata-nui? My guess is yes. In Tuyet’s hands, she apparently was able to essentially take over the Toa Empire Universe. If given that enhancement, Matoro probably could reanimate a massive, universe-sized robot with very little strain; at least long enough for Teridax to do whatever he needs to do. 

On the flip side of things, there is also the possible reason why Matoro got the Tryna. The Inika/Mahri were mutated by the Ignika, and due to the Ignika’s sentience, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had chosen their masks from the get-go. So why the Tryna for Matoro? Why such an obscure, taboo mask? 

Supposedly masks are a sort of nod to a trait of a Matoran/Toa's personality or ability, or perhaps at the least prove utility to their programmed profession. So, supposedly, masks align with one’s destiny. Matoro’s destiny is to die to revive Mata-nui. If we assume over-use of mask powers causes strain, we can assume if he tried to reanimate Mata-nui without a Nui-stone, he would probably die in the procees. But what would be the point? There is no utilitary reason for Matoro to have the Tryna that isn’t just symbolism (which is rife within the MU, but I digress). The other Mahri, on the other hand, all got masks they could utilize to their new enviroment. Jaller got echolocation, Hewkii got gravity powers, Hahli can mimic Rahi, Kongu can summon demons and Rahi and god knows what else, and Nuparu got stealth ninja powers. One could argue there’s A Lot of dead things in the ocean, but there is literally SO many other masks Matoro could have been given that would have been much more useful in The Pit. 

So does the Tryna just imply his destiny is to revive someone (ie Mata-nui)? Or was he given the Tryna because, regardless of the Ignika and REGARDLESS of whether or not Matoro dies or if he has a Nui-stone, the Tryna would act as an end all contingency? I can't see it being the former, and while the latter is REALLY pushing it, it makes more sense. This may or may not also be supported by the fact that a contingency mask DOES exist, and that is the Ignika itself. It’s supposed to both be Mata-nui’s defibrillator, but it’s also a reset button.  

I don’t know, it just feels very off to me, both Matoro’s mask and Teridax’s motivations for the Nui-stone. I can’t recall if it was ever expanded upon if he even had a Toa in mind to give the stone to, and if not, I doubt he would have gone to the trouble of finding it. That’s a HUGE detour to take when he’s on such a tight time crunch now.

Anyways, that’s gonna do it for me, so if anyone has any thoughts, discuss! 

Sabretooth/Exiles #5

Alright time for the big event! Been waiting for the finale of this two part series, and after the teasing on the cover and the tag spoilers, there is hype!

Spoilers: this is not the finale, AoA Sabretooth does not show up, and to be honest…nothing much really happened.

We start off where #4 left off; Graydon beating down Victor because totally not a surprise, he was the GC working with Orchis

This though was a surprise! They actually acknowledge the second half/ending of the Weapon X-Force book. Like I’ve said before, everyone else seems to try to ignore it, but this one just confirmed that yes it did still happen. Granted the art isn’t 1:1 accurate but hey, that’s forgivable. It’s also wonderful that Graydon remembers this; oh I’m not frowny that he stayed evil, that’s just how Graydon is. No he remembers this, and still refuses to accept Victor. That’s great.

However, father-son beat down time us interrupted by the appearance of these three

Points to note; Earth-12 is the world that Mimic from the original Exiles was from, while the other two worlds are brand new creations. I’d also like to note the parallel to the feral council; a tactician, a carefree wild child, and an animal. Neat! Also why the heck do they all have the stupid eyes??? I could I’ve with “the island changed him in the pit” explanation for why main Vic got the new eyes, but these alternate versions should not; this has NEVER been his default eye coloring. Nitpick I know, but it bugs me.

They explain they were in holding pens, so I guess they can koolaid man their way it, sure. Graydon runs off, the three newbies talk to Victor…

I…hm. I was really hoping that we’d get some Victor who was “good”, because this insistent urge megalomania evil they’re pushing is crap. I suppose that’s why (a) AoA Sabretooth was not part of this, since he did do the good and it didn’t backfire, and he was able to make up with his Graydon. (Unless the first dead one was supposed to be him since it’s make sense Graydon could multiverse snag Sabretooths if he had that one with a Tallus attuned to him. But that would be dumb and terrible). But I’ll give it some leeway since Graydon was a bad seed before this, so his staying evil shouldn’t have been unexpected, but still.

Heh cute reference. Also interesting how he refers to his collection of dead bodies; Graydon refused to call Victor his father before, so maybe being saved from hell did soften him slightly…however the dead are all copies of your dad or technically your mom, not aunts and uncles…

Oh yeah he kept the bodies for a zombie army, thus the Reanimator reference. And hey I recognize Heroes Reborn and the post-Axis costumes…so two version I actually liked are headless zombies…great…

The trio fight the hoard of zombies, main Victor comes back in fighting shape. They throw Graydon into a portal as he swears revenge. Very anti-climactic.

Oh the Pit gang was also spliced in around all of this. Their subplot about underwater babies trying to kill them; Nanny hypnotizes everyone to being kids so the babies relax then dies stuff no one knows about and they all escape swearing vengeance on Victor. Barrington and her gal pal decide to run away to Antarctica I guess, so that’s another plot thread for later.

This memo…is from the future?? It talks about runaway slaves hiding in swamps, so history lesson like the others…but then it shifts to future stuff?? Are we dropping the “Exiles” name and being called “Maroons” now? Or are the Pit gang going to be in a separate book now? And again, why do writers think Victor wants to take over the world these days? Sure he had a plan to do something reality shifting when he ran the Hand (he had magic so sure) but in War of the Realms his goal was his own country? And I’d still argue that Chuck and Beast are doing far more damage to everything but I’ll admit to bias there.

Anyways we leave off with Vic and friends on a space ship and this happy sentiment

I was going to gripe about that, buuuuuuuuuuuut Logan’s birthday is late May, so since the Hellfire Gala 3 hadn’t happened yet, you are technically on the right spot in the timeline. It’s annoying your first thought was “let’s go bother Wolverine” but there we go.

And yes, it promises that there will be more. And this ending was much more…less of an ending than the first half. That end, it st least closed off the story it had going; Victor got out of the pit and went through self introspection in the process. This one though? His son kidnapped him for 5 seconds before being thrown away and leaving him in a pile of alternate hims. The first half felt like it fit the “and the Exiles” title more than this half did. This half wax all just…setup I guess? And I wonder if the ending was shifted to include the alternates or not cause Graydon does feel out of place with the start of this. The gang is in the run, and Barrington nabs them, shenanigans ensue; that makes sense. I just don’t know.

The team did their homework though for this series, and I do indeed applaud that. From the Death Hunt stuff in the first half, to Weapon X-Force finally getting lip service in the second, that’s nice. But everything else…meh?

I’ll be reading a third part if that comes to fruition. I will admit, watching Victor (and his clone army) burn the island would be enjoyable.

This short article is the included in Bitcoin Magazine's" The Orange Party Issue". Click here to subscribe now" Today absolutely nothing is more modern-day than the assault versus The Political. American investors, commercial specialists, Marxist socialists unify in requiring that the prejudiced guideline of politics over impartial financial management be gotten rid of. There should no longer be political issues, just organizational-technical and economic-sociological jobs. The type of economic-technical thinking that dominates today is no longer efficient in viewing a political concept."-- Carl Schmitt, Political Theology Politics in today's world no longer has anything political about it. Politics as we comprehend it has actually ruined the extremely nature of that which we would call The Political, and changed it with an appeal contest in between 2 corrupt sides of the exact same fiat coin. Politics then is absolutely nothing more than the altering of colors of the rotting and festering system of abuse and exploitation that we call federal government. Politics does not have any of the amazing potentiality or deep empowerment that comes from The Political which needs of itself to believe beyond the weak bounds that politics has actually tried to restrict within it. This is why there is no course through politics to end wars, defund the military or to develop brand-new and much better political systems that are more fitting for our time. There is absolutely nothing in our day and age that is political about politics-- it is simply a program. A two-ringed circus to sidetrack the wide varieties into sensation like something might politically alter, when politics is precisely what will make sure absolutely nothing will alter. The unfortunate concealed fact is that there is no longer any possibility of extreme or advanced modification through our types of politics-- that possibility passed away long earlier with the death of God and its covert significance for the world. However there is a secret routine that can be carried out by people to reanimate the specter of The Political when again. It is not for the faint of heart or those of fiat convictions, however it is possible, and just you can make that option. It is an approach in which politics should be approached in a totally brand-new and foreign method. A manner in which no longer problems itself with the celebrations of the previous or the ideology of state administration; however through a brand-new and innovative manner in which handles to cut the king's avoid in modern politics. This decapitation permits the birth of a concept which is the most political of all concepts in a world that has actually made every effort to ruin The Political-- Bitcoin. Bitcoin is "The Political" rather than simply another kind of politics due to the fact that it triggers this secret routine that permits the healing of The Political. It is The Political since it exists outdoors and beyond the power of any and all states and it produces a kind of company that is beyond electoral politics or administrative systems of any state. Bitcoin produces genuine and considerable political modification due to the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with modern politics-- that's the whole point. Bitcoin does not require to choose the best leaders, get the ideal laws passed and even require to be comprehended by the bulk of the population. All Bitcoin needs to do is exist to provide its political goal to the world. Since the birth of bitcoin simply a little bit more than a years back, it has actually gone from being a nascent interest to among the most important possessions on earth. It has actually done this since it has actually achieved a political goal that no individual, organization or innovative motion has actually had the ability to achieve in the last century; the development of an independent, self-sovereign cash that is devoted to no individual, state or organization. Bitcoin has actually

decrypted the most amazing kind of The Political that exists; the political nature of cash itself. Money is privately the most political item that there is not due to the fact that it remains in and of itself political, however since of the manner in which fiat cash has actually changed it into a political things. Cash has actually just been mutilated into something political through the most deceiving and shrewd obfuscations of politics that has actually required, through the state of self-inflicted emergency situation, for cash to end up being fiat. It is just when we begin to comprehend that fiat cash remains in and of itself political that we can begin to comprehend simply why Bitcoin is more political than any kind of politics that can be chosen. The worldwide financial system is the most political things in our extremely synergistic, digitized, globalized society, and the rejection to acknowledge that remains in itself a political concern. Cash is the most political perfect due to the fact that it is that which includes all individuals all over and how we protect ourselves and households for the future. Bitcoin is the statement that the time has actually gotten here to conquer the financial imperialism of the last century, and to shake off the last vestiges of slavery from this old political system called fiat cash. The time is now for each people to carry out the routine that will exorcize the devil of fiat cash and open us as much as the typical political self-respect that is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is our typical wealth that all of us share; the commonwealth that specifies us. Money is political not even if it is our circulating medium, and even since it is the fiat legal tender that has actually been required upon us, however since it is something that all individuals all over utilize every day. All over, all the time, individuals are negotiating with each other, mostly in fiat cash, for their financial desires and requires worldwide. This is what makes the commonness of cash really political-- it is something that we should share if we want to exist together in harmony and cooperatively. Bitcoin is the secret routine that anybody can carry out to resume The Political when again, where their wealth will be secured by the typical bond that is consensual exchange that is Bitcoin. Today nevertheless, the genuine basis of our commonness of wealth is that of tyranny represented through fiat cash. Fiat cash is not responsible to our laws and systems of politics, however originates from jurisdictions that are outdoors and beyond our power as typical individuals to effect, direct or modification. No matter what political system you live under, there is no possibility to straight alter how cash is provided, directed, credited, put or produced. Whether you are from communist China, capitalist America, socialist Europe, or the Global South; all financial systems become part of the very same administration that exists for the elite and effective alone. It is a commonwealth of hardship and it is the most specifying political function of our age. We have actually been informed that we are complimentary individuals that have democratic procedures offered for us to alter the systems as we require to, however when we try such adventurous objectives we can not even get in the door. Like Kafka's guy "Before The Law," we too discover ourselves waiting prior to the law pleading to access the only manner in which we can see. We have actually waited on numerous life times prior to the law just to understand right prior to we pass away that we will never ever be admitted to it by the guard; just denied of it. The secret key to comprehending this parable and decrypting the trick of how to access the law originates from the tip offered at the very end. The watchman who waits prior to the door of law who has actually been declining entry to the guy states, "Here nobody else can get entry, because this entryway was designated just to you. I'm going now to close it.

" The secret is that the law is not something to be "accessed"; it is something to be participated in. Simply as we participate in an agreement or a contract with another, so, too, do we get in the law. State stars do not supply access to the law; they can just at finest facilitate its entryway. We need to comprehend prior to it is far too late that the state can not and will never develop an entryway to a type of cash that is reasonable and impartial. It can refrain from doing that due to the fact that the state itself is unjust and prejudiced-- it does not have the capability to ever move beyond that, and we must not anticipate that of it. There will never ever be a time that the state will wish to free us from its shackles of fiat cash and the chains of financial obligation slavery, due to the fact that it has no reward in doing that. The only interest the state has remains in continuing itself at all expense and costs-- in the most genuine financial, financial, social and biological expense that are required within that. The state actually can not exist without fiat cash, which indicates that it can not exist by supplying access to sound cash. As Daniel Webster cautioned us almost 2 centuries back, "There are males, in all ages, who indicate to work out power usefully; however who indicate to exercise it. They suggest to govern well; however they suggest to govern. They assure to be kind masters; however they indicate to be masters." Let us follow that caution as we move on in looking for to separate what sets Bitcoin apart from the politics of the past. Bitcoin is The Political due to the fact that it has the genuine possibility of producing transformation to our particular political systems through our individual option to utilize and hodl bitcoin as our primary type of wealth. It is political since it can alter the whole affair of politics through the individual choice that is bitcoin overthrowing the whole criminal ponzi that we call politics. Bitcoin is democracy required to its most severe location and in the most severe method possible by exceeding politics and into The Political itself. This is not due to the fact that Bitcoin is another tool of politics to be bent and mutilated to serve one ruler, or another, as all previous tools have actually been utilized; however since it unilaterally and unapologetically ends the requirement for there to be any masters to rule on the commonness that is our wealth. In our world, within an innovative worldwide digital economy where our shared concept of "what is cash" is higher than our shared concept of who is the appropriate god. Bitcoin has the power to reactivate The Political and vanquish politics permanently. We understand that God is Dead, and he has actually been dead for a long while now-- enough time that we can comprehend that he is not pertaining to conserve us. It has actually been long enough that we now understand it is we who require to conserve him. We should save God from the nihilistic void he has actually been compromised into since to save God is to conserve worth itself. In a worthless age, the age of nihilism, recuperating a worth that can not be damaged or bent by politics is to reactivate that which is the most effective, the most austere, the most political. To repair the cash is to repair the world, and not due to the fact that cash is the root of all wicked, however due to the fact that the misconception of what cash is is the root of evil. Evil in the inmost sense of the word; it can not believe however just be-- it is us who should do the thinking. And if we are to consider cash as we comprehend it today, as fiat cash, then cash is absolutely nothing more than an authoritarian decree. This decree that develops cash "ex nihilo" is an essential mistake in the reality and magnanimity inside the concept of wealth. It is a decree of the stake of authority over the reality of work and the significance that it offers to worth. In a world where we have actually

recuperated the significance of worth and wealth when again, we likewise comprehend the fact of genuine danger and work that need to go into structure wealth. There is no statement that can develop worth-- just ruin it through the most guileful and deceiving obfuscations of what the reality is. It is this very same obfuscation of the nature of worth itself that has actually damaged our types of politics. If we wish to get away the night that is politics and reactivate the light that is The Political, we should follow the trick that the watchman in "Before The Law" has actually used us. The entryway to the law is a door that is designated just to you. I can not access it, simply as your personal secret is something just you can understand in order to stay powerful; I can not. It is within this routine that develops the personal secret where we discover the secret that unlocks of law just available by you. A personal door appointed to just your secret. The Political is not something that the watchman will provide you access to, however rather an entryway that just you might get in. It is through understanding that this door is just for you to gain access to that you might have the ability to reactivate The Political, indicated just for you, when again. Read More

Day 7 of the Pride Month interviews! Please perceive the lovely Astra! :elmofire:

Astra, author of Unmourned

Pride Month Featured Month

   You are V. Frankenstein, a science prodigy with an ambitious streak a mile wide. The eldest child of the Frankenstein family, you went to university to further your understanding of the world, and made a name for yourself as a hard-working innovator and radical thinker. Unsatisfied with the academia-approved learnings your teachers saught to instill upon you, you’ve instead turned your attention to a goal more suited to your ambitions: discovering the secret of life.

   After spending the better part of a year perfecting your craft and selecting the finest speciments for your experiment, you succeed in doing what none thought possible — you’ve reanimated a body carefully pieced together from multiple corpses. Now, it’s time to face the consequences of your actions.

Demo: TBA

Tags: retelling, thriller

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!)

Q1: Tell us a little bit about your project(s)!

Unmourned is a retelling of the classic Frankenstein tale, where you take control of the eponymous V Frankenstein and have the power to change the direction of the story. The story starts with your giving life to The Creature, and how you choose to react to that will have rippling effects throughout the story. Not only are you able to shape your relationship with the person you've reanimated, but the rest of the cast will react and adapt to your behaviour too. Unmourned is a story about identity, family, and accountability, and about how sometimes letting go is better than clinging on.

Q2: Why interactive fiction? What drew you to the medium?

I've been a fan of visual novels for several years by now and had kind of passively discovered some published interactive fiction games a couple of years ago, but it's only last year that I really discovered the interactive fiction community, and that's what made all the difference. Seeing all these passionate authors putting in hundreds of hours telling these captivating stories and always pushing the limits of what has been previously done was an enlightening and motivating experience. Just the sheer amount of personalization and immersion offered by the medium was a big selling point for me. When I discovered Twine, and all the ways you could customize your story telling experience, I knew that I found my medium.

Q3: Are your characters influenced by your identity? How?

I think they definitely are; in particular, being able to explore The Creature's journey to discover themselves and how their identity shapes the way they interact with the rest of the world is a very cathartic experience. I've known I was bisexual since I was about 10 years old but coming to terms with being nonbinary is definitely a more recent development, and I'm excited to explore every character's relationship with their gender identity and sexuality. All the characters are bisexual, but they still have their own preferences and past experiences that influence the way they approach new relationships. It's important for me to show that bisexuality isn't a monolithic experience.  

Q4: What would you like to see more of in LGBT+ fiction?

LGBT representation that does not rest solely on the identity of the main character. I feel like often, the only character able to be trans or nonbinary is the main character, there are few if any LGBT characters, and the romance options' sexuality is so intrinsically tied to the player's identity that sometimes it feels flat. I want to see more well-rounded characters throughout the cast, that have their own identities, that have had relationships before meeting the main character, that have their own preferences and motivations. I think making the entire story and side characters' personal development revolve around the main character is a formula that got popularized by published authors and that is currently being challenged by smaller authors, which is great! I'm excited to see where this new movement goes.

Q5: What or who are some of your biggest inspirations?

I think this is a complicated question to answer, as I've been an avid reader for almost 20 years now, so I've been slowly absorbing my favourite parts of all the media I've ever consumed. When it comes to interactive fiction, I find all the authors willing to put themselves out there and share their passion with the world super inspiring; I believe I'm very lucky to have been welcomed in such a warm community. When it comes to traditional book authors, I think Mark Z. Danielewski inspired me with the way he constantly reinvents the printed medium to enrich his story telling – his experimental typography and constant innovation are amazing. Stylistically, I've always been a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut and Roger Zelazny, and I've no doubt my writing reflects that.

Q6: What’s a super vague spoiler for your current project?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Q7: Lastly, what advice would you give to your readers?

I believe every single person has something worth sharing with the world, and you simply need to find what that something is for you. Whether it's art, fiction, music, or anything else, what you do is deserving of recognition. I think it's very easy to fall victim to the thought that everything has been done already and that it's impossible to create something completely original and innovative (I would know, I've done it too!), but it's very important to remember that none of those other works have been created by you. Regardless of what you're sharing with the world, you'll always be bringing your own personal touch, and that's what makes the magic!

Adrien Agreste is a boy whose life will inevitably go to the absolute shits, because Adrien is a good boy whose only mission is to beat a supervillain and that supervillain is his only living parent. The question, then, is this: how dark is a TV series meant for kids willing to get?

Yeah, “Cat Blanc” went there, but it went straight from supervillain dad reveal to blowing up the moon. At some point, the story WILL have to show us Adrien coping with the reality of his father’s actions, and I very much doubt that there’s going to be a canon storyline about him being effectively orphaned at the age of middle school, the trial against his father, the unclear circumstance of his mother’s death and how THAT will play into things, the suspicions bound to be cast on Adrien himself, the inevitable lawsuits about his custody because he does not appear to have any living relatives in Paris and it the closest we’ve got to a “family friend” is Kagami’s equally sinister mum. 

So what are the alternatives?

1. Gabriel redeemed There’s a reason there are people legitimately thinking that gabenath is a somehow touching and romantic pairing, and that’s because Gabriel is shown to posess sincere affection and concern for Nathalie, which is HILARIOUSLY more than can be said for what he displays about his son. This is not to say that he treats her any better, of course, but the obvious lessons lies open for all to see: Gabe just needs to realise that he stands to lose something important and make the right choice when he’s faced with the reality that he can’t have both his son and his wife. 

Of course, the NYC special also showed us that Mr. “willing to start a nuclear war to reanimate my wife’s corpse” was also willing to command his bedridden employee to further endanger her health for his goals, so it might just be that the writers are in fact aware that the man needs something far more than “seeing the error of his ways” before forgiving and forgetting is a viable option. 

I think this is the most likely outcome, and it’s also one that I hate. Even though Gabriel clearly cares about his son, he also very clearly cares about himself A LOT MORE. The way he has repeatedly targeted his son’s friends and utilised his son’s friendships for a quick akumatisation just speaks for itself - special prize goes to “Cat Blanc” because he would know how badly it would hurt Adrien to be dumped like that, but you know - gotta get them miraculouses! The argument is frequently made that Gabriel isn’t entirely navigating reality, as it is - that his goal is to rewind time, and that nothing bad he does now will count. But you know, hurting your son without a second’s hesitation will never be the look of a person who is sincerely kind. 

So sure, they’ll probably find some way to explain that he’s a big softie inside just like Plagg said, nevermind the nuclear war and the continued emotional abuse of his son or any of that. This one is particularly likely in combiation with the next point:

2. Gabriel defects There being a different Hawkmoth in the future makes it overwhelmingly likely that Gabriel will at some point be overthrown. Since he’s up to his BS because of one very specific goal rather than world domination or whatever, it wouldn’t be terribly unlikely that him losing the control of the miraculous and being victim to its new wielder would mean that he’d hunt down Ladybug and assist her in the new battle.

Adrien will have to have SOME frank conversation with his father, who will at least make an effort of being a better person if he’s on this track.

3. Gabriel reset As Master Fu’s current predicament makes evident, wiping a person’s memory is within the ability of the miraculous magic. By Adrien’s (admittedly not entirely trustworthy) assertion, Gabriel wasn’t garbage personified before he lost his wife. Granted, Gabriel also couldn’t be arsed to give his son a decent birthday present even while the wifey was still around, but as a fellow terrible gift-buyer, I’m somewhat inclined to cut him some slack in that particular regard.

The easiest way to deal with a once good man having sunk as deep as Gabriel has is of course to give him a factory reset. Something goes bad with the magic, some kind of sacrifice is demanded from him, The Order of the Guardians dish out their special kind of justice that doesn’t outright involve killing someone to keep them from revealing the secret of the miraculouses. Whatever the cause: Bad guy Gabriel is gone, and replaced with his once (presumably) kind and caring self. 

Adrien will have to live with the knowledge of the evil of which his father was capable, but at least he has his dad back

4. Gabriel dies Falls into the sun/sacrifices himself for Adrien somehow/trades places with Emilie/whatever. He’s gone and he ain’t coming back and Adrien’s main occupation will be grief but hopefully also closure because he won’t, in fact, have to navigate life around the personified horse pile that was his sperm donor. This route will also have a 95% chance of Emilie returning, and at least we don’t know that she was bad. 

Some Thoughts on Why White Pagans Need to Heal Their Relationships with Christianity

Note: I've been trying to write a piece like this for months and the only way I know how to write this is to be very vulnerable and personal. So just please keep that in mind as you read this. It isn't very refined and it's something I'm still very much in process with, to borrow a phrase from my charismatic Christian upbringing. It's more a diary entry than a finished piece and none of these thoughts are original or eloquent. My hope it's helpful to see someone thinking through these things though.

If you're white and you don't want to further colonization and imperialism in your spirituality, then going back to Christianity in some form is pretty necessary; to do the work of decolonizing it's doctrines and to prevent taking from traditions that aren't ours.

This is just the conclusion I've arrived at after a lot shadow working in and around both my ancestors and my religious trauma. My ancestors aren't all white Europeans. But given that I'm white and I don't have any way to carry on the traditions of those that weren't, I feel like the best way to honor those non-white ancestors is to go back to the spiritual traditions I do have access to and doing the work of reshaping them into something less harmful.

I have read and intellectually understood that culture forms the foundation of spirituality and that when you remove something from it's originating culture, that concept or tool no longer works properly, if at all. In working with my non-white ancestors, I really got it on a practical and emotional level. There was this sense that they'd love for me to know their traditions but that it required an understanding that just isn't possible for me given my upbringing and disconnection - "you don't know the words and there's no way to find a person who can teach you" as one ancestor put it. It was an important reminder that "this isn't for white people" isn't merely a categorical assertion but a cultural and practical one.

They've generally asked I stick to practices I have a cultural grounding in when honoring them, even though it is not theirs - the cultural and linguistic element is that important to them. They would rather an authentic expression of gratitude and care through a ritual that isn't theirs rather than an imitation of one that is or being left out of my practice all together. Which makes sense to me in a relational way I hadn't fully grasped before.

In working with my white ancestors, I've come to more viscerally understand that the present understanding of Christianity is wildly different than other historical understandings. One thing that surprised me was that some of my more recent ancestors have expressed more discomfort around my queerness and transness than many of my older ancestors but both root their understanding in the Bible. I enjoyed one ancestor who, when I explained that I'm partnered with a woman, to mean that I would have a life of service - "no men to distract you from God" - which I mean is not wrong on several levels. It really highlighted for me that Christian doctrine is far more flexible than I'd initially thought. It challenged ideas I'd picked up through traumatic religious experiences. So much of what I'd assumed was Christianity itself seems to be more Christianity right now.

The historical angle is really important me. One of the things that drove my interest in Paganism was trying to understand what came before Christianity, to connect with whatever had been cut off in that process. The more I've come to learn about imperialism within Europe - how various empires conquered and destroyed localized traditions indigenous to parts of Europe - it clicked for me that my white ancestors did to others what had been done to them. It is intergenerational trauma in a nutshell.

It's also striking to me that so many people term the traditions pagans pull from as "dead" religions or at the very least "not living". For years I took that to mean they were "safe" to take from, that I wouldn't hurt anyone by doing so. But I hadn't really understood the weight of what "dead" meant - that there was no one left alive who could teach me, that I can't live in a context where all of the beliefs, tools, and traditions make intuitive sense. And if it was important to my ancestors who had had a connection to their traditions, then what was I missing by reanimating these traditions without that link?

I don't have a full visceral understanding of what I'm missing to be honest. I have a feeling that'll develop as my practice evolves. But that question alone has marked a pretty important change in how I understand myself spiritually.

The living and cultural element to my practice is more important to me now. For me, just given the family, community, and area I was raised in, that means Christianity is the living tradition I have access to and I've been revisiting it. I was reading an interview the other day with someone who is both a Catholic theologian and a practicing Buddhist. I liked the way he put it when he referred to Catholicism as "one of his sources of wisdom". That better captures my relationship with Christianity that's been unfolding over the last few months.

Making sure that intergenerational spiritual trauma stops as much as possible with me is really important. I had mistakenly thought that meant abandoning Christianity all together, that it was the problem. Which in hindsight, is fucking wild - I hugely fucked up there. There's nothing stopping me from just enacting the harm I learned in the context of Christianity in a different context, a Pagan context. It doesn't get to the root of the issue. At the end of the day, I just want to be sure I do not use my religion, any religion, to further the harms of structural inequality and colonial oppression. That's the goal.

In reading around about this, I've come to feel pretty strongly that one of the best ways to work toward that is to strive toward animism. Animism has been a great antidote to the spiritual entitlement that colonial religions cultivate (including white paganism). Animism also builds a relational spirituality rather than a goal/individual centered one. White paganism isn't inherently animistic since white culture teaches values that undermine quality relationships - individualism, competitiveness, and seeking domination of some fashion in order to feel safe. An animistic lens requires you unlearn those values and cultivate new ones - mutuality, respect, and accountability.

So all this is to say that given my current understanding, I think trying to build a practice out of New Age concepts while trying to avoid appropriation sounds impossible and hellish. I also think it doesn't deal with the work that needs done. I'm choosing to take an animist lens to the living traditions I do have to see if that's a better space for both my spirituality and my evolving understand of decolonizing to grow in.

People will rightly question my use of the term "shadow work" given this perspective. Shadow work is a problematic term for a lot of different reasons that are beyond the scope of this piece.  Where I'm at with it right now is that most western religious traditions seem to have some understanding of what we might call shadow work which points to it being important and useful. However they all used different terms given their contexts so I'm still unsure of what term might be the most appropriate given where I'm at. So for right now, you might see me use it less in the title or body of work I write from here on out, but I still might use it as a tag to make it findable. There's a good shot this doesn't go far enough and I'm not sold on this approach. Just know it's something I'm trying to figure out.

So that's where I'm at right now. I think white pagans really need to be more serious about animism at minimum and hopefully also looking at the role living religious traditions play in their current practice as well. I think white pagans' unhealed reactivity around Christianity too often serves as a justification for spiritual appropriation and furthering colonial harm. Changes are definitely needed. What that looks like in practice for individuals will likely vary a ton. I'd love to hear from other folks doing work in this vein. What's worked for you so far? What hasn't? Where are you in the process?

Autopsy of Weston Arc

A few days ago I visited a beloved friend @sweetbunny8, and we were bitching about the Boarding School Arc together. That friend is so incredibly smart, she brought up amazing points I never thought about... and so we spent the afternoon facepalming, discussing how many missed potentials there were. The below are the 5 points we talked about, on FIRE🔥🔥🔥!

1. The Arc owes us a thorough Power Dynamic Swap

I think the biggest draw of Kuroshitsuji is the unusual power dynamic between our protagonists. It would have been amazing to see a thoroughly explored power dynamic swap between master and servant.

The manga did touch upon this swap, and it gave us a delicious appetiser of what this Arc could have been. I really would love loved to see more of how Sebas and O!Ciel would deal with their cognitive dissonance of role.

Our Ciel

O!Ciel was raised in a world where the roles of servant vs master are very distinct. To O!Ciel it must have been very weird to now suddenly be subordinate to his servant. I would have loved to see if O!Ciel found it uncomfortable, or just really fun to try something new without stakes, or how his habits would slip through. In the Circus Arc we saw very clearly how both Sebas and O!Ciel still succumbed to their habits, thereby accidentally drawing unwanted attention.

Doing so in the Weston Arc would not have been a carbon copy of the Circus Arc, because unlike at the circus now O!Ciel would be performing in a more familiar environment with people of comparable status. I really wish we could have seen more of that.

Sebastian

Sebas would also have been a blast to see in a likely unprecedented role for him. In this post I argued how Sebas was probably never given opportunity to interact for real with humans on close proximity, and how he was probably not ever considered more than a mass-destruction weapon. It would have been very interesting to see how Sebas would handle suddenly being surrounded by people who don’t just interact, but are also subordinate to him as a teacher!

I find it unlikely Sebas ever had the experience of playing a superiour role to his own master. Sebas loves testing his limits with his master, and it would have been a blessing to see how Sebas could now “legally” exploit his own position of power over his master. I’m sure he would have gotten a kink out of it.

2. Planning and Calculation???

It would have been logical and responsible if the Queen just told her Watchdog what House Derek was in for O!Ciel to investigate. A “P.S. He’s in Red House according to the latest information btw, loves - Vicky” would not be too much asked. She knows Derek’s parents, and I can’t imagine the March of Arden being secretive about what House the kid is in. But even if Victoria didn’t do the efficient thing, we still would have loved it if O!Ciel had to discuss with Sebas and strategically choose a House to get into, rather than him just being planted in Blue House.

My friend thought O!Ciel would have chosen Red House regardless of whether he knew for sure where he’d be, because as the nephew of the Queen, Derek being in Red was the most logical. As an actual Lorded Earl himself, O!Ciel would have a decent chance holding down a position in Red House. And considering how Redmond has a talent for choosing awful personalities for fag, O!Ciel would have fit in perfectly too!

Then O!Ciel’s goal could still have been to become a prefect’s fag, but then the showdown with Maurice would at least have direct, immediate conflict, rather than... whatever it was the manga did. Maurice had NO reason to neutralise O!Ciel as long as they’re in different Houses! Maurice you... boring, inefficient, redundant twat...

3. Yana... is Edward a joke to you?

Why didn’t O!Ciel/Yana capitalise more on Edward being at Weston?! It would have been a perfect chance to develop Edward further and show O!Ciel’s interaction with family! I love Lizzie, but it would have been amazing to see Edward interacting with our protagonist without his sister being the reason for interaction. UGH 💔

Also, the cricket drag could have been shortened dramatically if O!Ciel had thought of using Edward. Edward has been at the Weston for longer, and he is a prefect’s fag to boot.

Sure, O!Ciel didn’t know that at first, but he finds out BEFORE the cricket was set up. The moment O!Ciel would learn that he’d need to win cricket to meet the principal, he should have gambled on Edward. If O!Ciel explained to Edward that he is investigating the disappearance of the Queen’s relative, I can’t imagine Edward not being willing to help by winning cricket in becoming “the chosen one” through gentlemanly play. That’d be what Edward would be aspiring to become, anyway.

4. Why Cricket ANYWAY!?

Even IF Edward for some reason refused to help, the cricket would still entirely have been unnecessary. It wouldn’t matter at all who would win, because as the prefect’s fag, Edward had the privilege to attend the Midnight Tea Party ANYWAY. All four prefect fags are present, as we all can see. O!Ciel would only have needed to ask Edward to act as his agent, and tadaaa.

Besides, even IF Edward didn’t exist in the arc it’d still be entirely fine, because all the prefects would SURELY have access to the Party. That is known. O!Ciel only needed to tell Sebas to keep an eye on where the definitive participants would be going, and track them. When push comes to shove, Sebas could just barge in like he did anyway (and bring O!Ciel even if he’s uninvited), and the case would still have unfolded the way it did.

5. PLOT HOLE!?

My friend also brought up a humongous plot hole so large it became a space on its own that I didn’t even notice it was a hole. Why did the prefects react so differently to Agares and Derek being “alive” respectively?

So, my friend and I both watched the musical adaptation as the last thing, and in the musical the prefects were all being totally chill about Agares being around, but shocked shitless to see Derek back. All four prefects were present during the killing of Derek AND Agares, so they should all know both are dead. It had not been addressed in the musical that the prefects have knowledge of corpse reanimation, so they shouldn’t have been able to act so normal next to Agares, but freak out about seeing Derek. (This is yet another example of WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE, KUROMY21!?)

In the manga it had been addressed that the prefects have knowledge that reanimation of the dead is possible. And it seems like Redmond arranged for the reanimation of at least Agares. But why didn’t they arrange for the reanimation of Derek too? (@chibmib​ Thanks sis, for checking this for me so I didn’t have to suffer through it again)

Derek is the Queen’s relative, his disappearance would really have invited suspicion, as it indeed did. The reason the P4 didn’t arrange for Derek’s reanimation can’t be because the they considered Derek too evil to bring back. Agares was namely arguably worse; he was an adult and the vice-principal! It was his literal job to be responsible.

The P4 couldn’t have decided to not reanimate Derek for fear of him ratting them out for assault. There are plenty witnesses of Derek’s crimes, and the P4 would be first-hand witnesses too of Derek’s lying. If Derek told the authorities he was assaulted, all witnesses could have helped testify for the P4 against Derek.

The only reason I can make sense of the double standard in the P4′s reaction is that Undertaker told the P4 he only succeeded in reanimating Agares and not Derek, because the technology is still very young; which would have been true too. BUT THEN THE MANGA SHOULD HAVE ADDRESSED IT.

Even if that’s what happened though, the P4′s reaction shouldn’t have been such horrified surprise. They should be relieved to see the Queen’s relative alive, because then they wouldn’t have ‘murder of Queen’s relative’ on their résumé. All they had to do instead then is explain why they attacked Derek in a moment of lost control at the sight of a future-prefect being a lowlife. And again, the victims could have helped testify...

And this all would only have happened if we momentarily accept the unlikeliness of Sebas coincidentally having a plugged nose and not smelling Agares’ corpse stench the entire Arc.

Unbidden - Act 1, chapter 5

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Content warnings: None

Morgan awoke to the sound of humming. He stretched, groaning as his muscles protested. Evidently his choice of sleeping positions had not been ideal, but he'd been too tired to care when he'd settled in. The humming stopped, and Deckard Cain turned to him from where he had been tending a pot over a small fire nearby.

"Would you believe," he said, "that none of the Sisterhood would give me your name, friend? Such a strange thing."

He would believe it. He'd learned long ago that it was generally not worth the trouble to correct people once they'd decided what they wanted to call him. The strange thing here was how little Cain seemed to be troubled by his presence. He would enjoy it while it lasted.

"It's Morgan."

"Well, Morgan, we have much to discuss. But before we get started, let us eat. You must be famished after yesterday's events." He held out a bowl of steaming soup, which Morgan accepted gratefully. It was hot and filling, exactly what he hadn't realized he needed. He'd gotten cold overnight.

Morgan briefly summarized the request that had brought him here: to disturb the progress of the unidentified manifestation of darkness taking root in these lands. Cain filled in quite a lot of details while Morgan mainly listened, asking occasional questions for clarification. A great and ancient evil had come to light in Tristram, leading eventually to the tragedy that had befallen the city. Although a hero had been successful in defeating that evil, it seemed he had been unfortunately corrupted by the same. He had fled eastward, but to complicate matters, another powerful demon had arisen to trouble the area.

Cain suspected this new demon to be Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish. Quite a title. He shared what he knew about her: a venomous demon queen with the power to enthrall mortals unlucky or unwise enough to look her full in the eyes. Like most major demons, her power also manifested in a sort of influence that spread out from her like a miasma. By Cain's estimation, this would be apparent through increased emotional sensitivity in those affected, to complement the physical anguish she was capable of inflicting. That would be something to look out for; emotional regulation was the foundation that gave strength and clarity to the priests of Rathma. To have it disrupted would compromise his ability to act in the best interest of the Balance. Morgan would have to be careful about that.

He was enjoying the conversation, to his surprise. Cain had a vast wealth of knowledge and seemed eager to share it. He was explaining his interpretation of a particular prophecy when Blaise stalked up to them with a sour look on her face. She glared daggers at Morgan, crossing her arms.

"Good, you're awake. Come with me, we have work to do."

"We do?" He'd expected - hoped, if he was honest with himself - that her involvement would be finished after retrieving Cain. That was as far as Kashya had demanded it, anyway. "I thought you-"

"I thought this nightmare was over too, but I just finished arguing with Akara. One of our old commanders has risen from the dead to attack us, and she blames you." She looked back toward the gates. "I told her that's not how your stuff works, but she didn't believe me." That was a surprise - he would not have guessed she might speak up in his defense. He wondered what had changed. Maybe Cain had convinced her somehow. The man was good with words, with people, in a way Morgan knew he could never hope to echo. "So if you don't come with me to put her back in the ground, you're probably going to regret it," Blaise continued with a pointed look.

Well, Morgan couldn't argue with that. He stood and stretched, taking stock of his belongings as Cain pressed Blaise with questions. She bore them with more patience than he'd expected. One of the other scouts had survived the attack, but her recovery was not going well. It sounded like she'd been poisoned. A shame they hadn't kept the arrow; he might have been able to identify the toxin. But then again, if he tried to treat her and failed, they would be even less willing to trust him. If Cain was right, it would be a moot point anyway - he thought the resurrection was Andariel's doing, meaning that the poison was likely due to her influence. He had no experience with that type of venom.

"Oh, Morgan, I almost forgot," Cain called out as they were leaving. Morgan turned to see him holding something in an upraised hand. "You had better take another scroll of town portal, in case you should need to return with haste."

"Thank you." He accepted the proffered scroll with a small bow of his head, tucking it into his belt.

"Let's get a move on already," Blaise called. She had already started walking. Morgan jogged to catch up, already apprehensive about the journey ahead. Her mood had softened around the old scholar, but it seemed Morgan would not be privy to those benefits. He hoped this situation would be resolved quickly so he could begin planning his attack on Andariel.

The battle was over in short order. The reanimated rogue captain had called out to Blaise by name, which confirmed Cain's guess about her origins - only very powerful forces could resurrect both flesh and spirit. She must have been buried inexpertly, leaving her vulnerable to those malign forces. Most funeral proceedings not led by the Order of Rathma or other experienced practitioners were more for the benefit of the living than the dead. At any rate, it served only to fuel Blaise's already considerable anger, and she'd defeated the revenant with only a moment's hesitation. Several piles of earth were evidence of Morgan's attempts to provide support. Each golem was ever so slightly faster to rise than the last, but this enemy had been agile enough to render them all but useless until she'd stumbled over a previously flat spot of ground. Not an elegant solution, but effective enough in the end. Now Blaise was examining the body, brow furrowed.

"Hey. Ghoul... uh. Morgan." That was a surprise. Cain had called him by name in front of her, but he'd assumed she wouldn't be bothered to remember it. "If you do that... ceremony. Like in Tristram. Will it... help her?"

"The final rites will lay her spirit to rest, and consecration should prevent her from rising again." He'd planned on performing them anyway, as a matter of course. At the very least, they would prevent her from being wholly resurrected again - powerful magic could overcome a properly consecrated body, but it could not pluck a spirit back once it had passed on.

Blaise seemed reluctant to ask outright, but she did step in to help when he went to move the body back to the grave it had clearly clawed out of. He opted for a more thorough consecration ritual and a shorter liturgy, both of which seemed to be well received. Blaise didn't raise any objections, at least. The interment was easier than the last ones, the ground more yielding, but a frown crept onto Morgan's face as he stood up and surveyed his work.

"What are you making that face for? Didn't it work?"

"No, that's not it. Your commander is at peace now, but there are many restless dead here. It must be Andariel making them stir like this." He could barely hear their whispers at the edge of his awareness if he concentrated. It was a little unsettling; usually he could only just sense a hint of the spirit lingering on a set of bones, nothing near this strong. He lacked the natural facility with spirits that drew some of the acolytes to his Order. At any rate, their agitation was cause for concern.

"I don't have the supplies to handle this many."

"I guess we'd better take the fight to Andariel, then. Don't look so surprised," she added, folding her arms across her chest. "The Sisterhood doesn't want there to be a... demon queen or whatever just running loose. She's killing our people. And apparently bringing them back again, and that's just fucked up. I may not like you, but you're the only person who's come through lately and survived. So we might as well work together on this."

"Yes, of course. You're right." The suggestion was wholly unexpected, but sound. Their objectives aligned, at least on the surface. If that was enough for her to tolerate working with him a little longer, he wasn't about to turn down her assistance. She was many times stronger than him. Luckily, she seemed capable of putting aside her personal feelings temporarily in order to meet a goal. It was really about as favourable a partnership as he could hope to make.

Now seemed like an opportune time to present a peace offering of some sort. But given her previous overreaction to a completely innocent comment, he didn't really want to risk giving a gift that could be taken as a token of anything he didn't intend. Perhaps... knowledge? There had been few of his brethren in the Order who'd had trouble with the portal scrolls, but their difficulties had always been resolved with a little coaching. It seemed like it would be worth trying.

He plucked the scroll from Cain out of its spot on his belt and held it out to her. She eyed it suspiciously. "Here. These are useful. You should try it again."

"It isn't that far to go back, you know," she said, not making a move to take the rolled parchment.

"The object is to see if you can use it. Not to actually travel. You might need one in the future."

She snatched the scroll from his hands and unrolled it with a snap of her wrist. "I can't even read what it says," she grumbled.

"Neither can I," he said. She looked up from the parchment with a perplexed frown. "It's not words, it's more like a spell," he explained. The look on her face told him she was going to need more than that. "You just have to believe it's going to work. Try telling it that it's going to open a portal for you."

"You didn't have to tell it anything when you did it yesterday."

"I already know how it's going to work. I just have to... acknowledge that I expect it to let me travel somewhere, and think about where." It was much easier to do than to explain. "Just try," he urged. "You don't have to say it out loud," he added, in case that helped.

She looked back down at the scroll. Her lips moved a little, and shortly a small circle appeared in the air in front of her. Her eyebrows rose in surprise.

"See, it works for you. Now try to think about a specific place," Morgan advised. Slowly an image came into focus within the circle. It looked like the inside of a building. There were rows of beds lined up, presumably the barracks of the Sisterhood. Blaise looked cautiously pleased as the portal opened up fully now that it had a destination.

"I guess it's not so hard to use magic, is it?" she said with a smile. It was strange for a moment, having that smile aimed at him.

"Not this kind," Morgan agreed. There were many different types of magic and some of them were quite difficult to use even for experienced mages, but he suspected this would not be the time to get into a discussion on the topic.

"How do I close it?"

"It will close on its own when you come back through it, or if the spell is disrupted. Yesterday I tore the parchment to close it."

"Huh. Thanks."

Morgan nodded an acknowledgement and turned to go. The walk back would give him a chance to think about how to best approach the situation. Andariel was probably lurking within the nearby cathedral, if the patterns of undead were to be trusted. Demons often liked to pervert religious spaces, and major demons tended to draw flocks of lesser evils around them.

"Aren't you coming?" He turned back to see Blaise standing by the portal, hands on her hips.

"I'm walking. It isn't that far to go back," he parroted.

"This is easier, though. And faster."

"That looks like your sleeping quarters," he pointed out. "I doubt I would be welcome."

"Oh. Uh, yeah. Good point. I'll see you back outside the encampment, then." She turned and paused for a moment, then strode confidently through the portal. Morgan waited until it had flickered closed behind her before taking his leave. He would have preferred to be able to put more of the spirits to rest, but that could be seen to after Andariel had been defeated. There would be little point in wasting his energy on a task that was likely to be undone. He stopped at the cemetery gate and knelt, touching a hand to the soil. A thin line rose up, curling around itself in a simple sign. It marked the area as requiring the attention of a priest of Rathma. This way, if he was to fall in battle, the next of his Order to come along would be able to soothe the unquiet dead.

He raised another golem and started walking. With this new partnership, there could be a reasonably good chance of defeating Andariel. He wondered what state the cathedral would be in, and how many skeletons he might hope to find lying beneath its floors. He hoped there would be some stained glass still intact. Not for any strategic purpose, just because he liked it. It was his personal opinion, not endorsed by the priesthood, that artisans who spent their efforts on creating beautiful things were doing work for the Light. Of course beauty and skill did not appear in the list of attributes that added up to make the weight of a person's goodness or lack thereof, and it was really just idle musing on his part. Still, he appreciated beauty where he found it.

Title: Zombie Note Author: @izaori For: @llawlietofficial Pairings/Characters: Light Yagami, Ryuk, L, Matsuda, mentions of other characters Rating/Warnings: Teen, nongraphic violence, potentially unsettling descriptions of zombies (the effects of death on the human body are interesting, right? Now make that corpse jiggle) Prompt: Light didn’t read the fine print on the death note and now everyone he killed using it has turned into a zombie Author’s notes: Interesting idea! I wanted to explore Japanese folklore in either the fanart you requested or fanfic but I quickly discovered that these ideas are popular because they are specifically western. That being said, I tried to incorporate a couple cultural things since Death Note is so Japanese culture heavy, and I figured it would make sense if something like a “zombie note” happened would have something related, too. Then I got wrapped up in the details… I hope you like reading. It’s much more than 750 words. Thanks for the fun idea! It was a great last prompt to go out on! I wanted to do the fanart but it just wasn’t coming out right. Bonus sketch at the bottom based on those requests, though. Mods feel free to ditch that if you want just the fanfic.

—————————–

There’s a saying that life doesn’t always go as planned. Light Yagami, top student in the country and owner of a death note, knows this very well. He’s quickly learned that sometimes death doesn’t go as planned, either.

With someone more average, less motivated, maybe even scared and cowardly, there could have been minimal damage. An incident or two at most, enough to be written off as something silly like someone eating bath salts. Unfortunately for Light, and for people around the world, the young man had written names of hundreds if not thousands of criminals in the span of a week, along with scheduling many more to die that he cannot reverse. Death cannot be erased.

News of the first revival popped up in Japan, of course. Light had tried to space out the deaths enough that authorities could keep up with the stream of dead bodies, but there was bound to be a build up at first as society gets adjusted to a new, less crime ridden world. In a morgue somewhere, apparently one of the first criminals he had killed as a test subject got up from the table. The previously dead man scared the undertaker out of his mind, reaching out for him, clearly wanting to take a bite–!

It really was a stroke of luck that the undertaker had already sewn the corpse’s mouth shut using wire. After getting a quick yet confused grasp on the situation, the undertaker took the nearby fire extinguisher and made the corpse still once more.

News got out fast across the world. Dead bodies coming back to life. Unfortunately, not many people were nearly as lucky as the undertaker. Those killed by the zombies were turned into zombies themselves so long as they were salvageable. The very smallest relief is that the zombies seemed to ignore small children.

Light paces around his room, death note on his desk, untouched. It was obvious to him from the first occurrence but even the news is broadcasting what everyone is thinking now. Kira has created zombies. Any of the praise he had previously is gone, replaced with fear and disgust. Only a select few loons are absurd enough to support someone turning criminals into zombies! A few minutes pass, and Ryuk laughs, breaking the tense silence.

“This is funny to you, Ryuk?” Light asks, tone sharp. He stops in his tracks, glare icy.

Ryuk stares at him, unblinking. Can a shinigami even blink? “Very,” Ryuk states, “since I thought you read all the rules.”

“None of the rules say anything about zombies!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Light.” Ryuk floats over, snickering to himself, and flips open the death note. He points to a seemingly blank page on the back. Upon closer inspection, in a different more similarly colored ink, there is a rule that clearly states that humans written in the death note by another human that have died will come back as zombies after 72 hours from their time of death, provided their body is intact enough to be reanimated. Not only that, but a second rule states that these reanimated humans are able to do the same to other humans with the same restrictions.

Light can’t help but gawk at the hard to notice rules. He had been so careful to read over the rules before, but had missed this. Shameful trickery. Ryuk laughs again, watching the gears turn in Light’s head. These people are already dead, the death note can’t kill them again. Even if it could, they’d simply be zombies another time over.

~

Meanwhile, government officials that had already been pointing fingers about conspiracies on the deaths of criminals across the globe are now making much more serious accusations. This has now escalated from planned death to some kind of biowarfare, involving what is assumed to be a state of not actual death followed by this zombified state. There are arguments, with some people insisting that these are genuine zombies, not flukes. These people would be right.

L sits in solitude, listening through his computer to the chaos in Interpol. This Kira person, was this their intention all along? It’s not the feeling L had first gotten from them, but it had also only been a week since the Kira murders started. For all he knew, Kira could have planned this from the beginning. L feels rather confident that this was not, in fact, Kira’s goal, for if he was Kira and wanted to bring around the death of many people to become zombies, he wouldn’t have picked criminals. There would have been some overlap with criminals for sure, but just criminals? Not a chance.

Watari brings in L over the conference call, and L lays down the law. To prevent as much further tragedy as possible, no more reporting crime as much as possible. In fact, try to keep everything on paper. On the possibility that these aren’t genuine zombies, a cure for this zombified state should be researched. Furthermore, the finger pointing needs to stop. No country would have willingly inflicted this upon themselves along with the rest of the world. It goes on similarly with L heading to Japan.

~

Just how many criminals did Light already sentence to death? Pages upon pages, names and names, all over the world criminals continue to die. All over the world, corpses begin to reanimate. In more fortunate, more savvy places, people have already begun cremating all the corpses to circumvent the problem. It’s hard for a zombie to happen if it’s a pile of ash. Some places, however, are already under total lockdown. Mass zombie infestations turning people left and right.

Light pours over ideas, drilling Ryuk for answers, but Ryuk doesn’t give. He laughs, giving vague responses and going on about how interesting humans can be in a crisis. Light has had to completely halt his plans in cleansing the earth of criminals. By the sound of it, he won’t be able to continue his plans at all. The death note was just a farce, a false hope. Something designed to be dangled in front of his face like bait that he took like a starving fish.

“If I’m the one who created these zombies, shouldn’t I be able to control them? Since I’m able to control the actions of people before their death, to an extent.”

“No,” Ryuk laughs, “You can’t control a thing. This isn’t about you, Light. The power isn’t yours. You’re just using it.”

Of course. To a shinigami, to Ryuk, this is all just a funny game. Light feels burned by something he didn’t fully understand the scope of to begin with. It truly wasn’t his power, but he felt it was given to him with purpose. Bestowed upon him by some divine intervention because he is able to sway fate with a written name.

~

Zombies. Walking the streets, drudging, semi-intelligent despite being functionally brain dead. Varying degrees of rotted bodies. It’s funny and unfortunate, really, because one would think that a lockdown because of an actual zombie outbreak would mean people would stay inside as much as possible. That’s not the case.

“The government can’t take away my freedom!”

“The zombies are misunderstood!”

“There are no zombies!”

An actual zombie apocalypse could be in the works and there are people denying the existence of the zombies. Some people believe the zombies are real but straight up don’t care whatsoever. Then there are the people who think of the zombies in almost an animalistic sense, thinking that since they were once human they shouldn’t be killed again even though they are actively trying to eat at and therefore turn more humans.

It’s impressive. It makes Light want to double down and get rid of criminals more, give people a reason to think more clearly, but the more he tries to create that ideal world the more damage he’ll do.

L’s solution is simple, after an autopsy. Or vivisection, depending on how one would argue the inspection. The zombies are just animated corpses. It isn’t a disease. It isn’t a mass case of doctors and undertakers around the world collectively thinking all these bodies are corpses. Something impossibly otherworldly must be happening right here, right now. A force beyond their mortal comprehension is making these corpses come back.

“Kill them again,” L says bluntly, “Destroy them. If it’s a zombie, it’s already dead.”

“Ryuzaki, what about their families! Surely they wouldn’t want their loved ones being destroyed!” Somebody argues with L, of course. “What would you do if Watari became a zombie?!”

L puts a finger on his lip, dragging it down. His eyes go to the ceiling. “Unfortunately, I’d have to kill Watari. If the situation was reversed, he would need to do the same. Regardless, there is no saving them. The zombies exist only to destroy, so we must destroy them.”

Watari doesn’t respond, but what L said is true. He doesn’t want to think about it since he considers L to be his son, but if something were to happen that led L to become a zombie, he would want to be the one to put L down. He’d be much more upset if someone else did it.

~

Gun shots. Bats. Sledgehammers. People running over zombies with their cars. Some people have taken this as an excuse to let out their violent urges. Light sees this on the news and feels his blood boil. Something he wanted to prevent, senseless violence, has sprung up even more because of this damned note. Telling Ryuk to take it back is pointless. The damage is done. What would happen, though, if Light held onto it without using it? Would Ryuk kill him?

Light glares at the shinigami. “You said I was the first human you’ve seen write this many names so fast. That implies other humans have had a death note. Wouldn’t somebody have noticed a zombie before?”

“Who knows?” Ryuk floats over to the window, looking out at the abnormally empty street. “Maybe it’s been forgotten.”

There’s nothing Light can do to reverse the chaos, nothing he can do to end it. Fine, then. The worst have the worst have already been written, many other well-known and otherwise publicly known criminals have already been written. More zombies are bound to appear, but this is it. On a regular piece of notebook paper, Light writes himself a note explaining the situation, knowing he won’t necessarily believe it when he reads it.

“The death note is worthless to me now. If this is its purpose, I don’t want it. Take it back!”

“I’ve had a lot more fun than I expected already.” Ryuk laughs, grabbing the death note away from Light. “Too bad. I wanted to eat more of your apples. They’re so… juicy.”

“Leave already.”

~

Having excellent marksmanship, Matsuda is part of the force assigned to patrol. It’s not his favorite thing in the world, in fact, he’s a little scared of the zombies. Too bad for him his skills are simply too much to pass up on in a time like this. He’s got not just one, but two guns locked and loaded, ready to go. It’s unusual for him to have even one on him most of the time, but the circumstances are grim.

Think on the bright side, Matsuda. According to sources around the world, the only new zombies popping up are ones being turned by already existing zombies, which are dwindling. He’s already taken down a couple. It’s unnerving. Most of them look almost like they could be okay if they put on a little weight, got a little color. Initially, Matsuda was surprised that rigor mortis let them move at all, but was quickly informed by an irritated Aizawa that at most rigor mortis lasts up to 84 hours. Then Matsuda felt grossed out by the idea that the zombies might be overly squishy. That idea was quickly stamped out, as the zombies are probably not squishy at all due to dehydration. Would they even really have blood? Probably, right? The one he shot had some blood.

What disturbed Matsuda even more was that when he went to check the body, taking hold of the hand, the skin came clean off like a glove. Admittedly, it made him sick. None of the sighted zombies have looked particularly bloated, though, which is a positive for him. Matsuda wasn’t sure what he would do if they smelled any worse than this.

Smelled. Can they smell? Matsuda was lost in thought, wondering how the zombies managed to find their way around, when he was interrupted by his earpiece.

“Focus, Matsuda.”

“Sorry, Ryuzaki!”

He taps something on a device that lets a cleanup team know the location of the zombie before moving along, wondering again about a zombie’s senses. Depending on how they died, their eyes might be all dried up, so surely, they couldn’t rely on vision. Maybe hearing is the way to go unless they died already deaf. Then Matsuda remembered that these zombies aren’t actually a result of an ailment. Not the original ones at least. The ones turned after the fact were declared uncurable as well, and Matsuda had his doubts, but the human body can only take so much decay before it’s irreversible.

Another shot rings out. Matsuda means business.

~

Light sits at the dinner table with his family, discussing the zombie topic. Light now has no memories of ever having owned or used the death note, and his brain has filled in the gaps for him. His dad insists that they all continue to remain in lockdown, that he can make the runs himself if they absolutely need anything from the market. Light encourages his dad and offers assistance. Why wouldn’t he?

Sayu and Sahicko have a brief argument that ends with Soichiro telling Sayu to respect her mother. Light smiles. For some reason, he was beginning to miss this.

~

By the time the zombies are cleared up, L is unsatisfied. He was never able to pinpoint who or what exactly caused this out break. Many people try to tell him it was a freak accident, but he knows better. Even if it was an accident, it was no accident. L wanted to know so badly who the face behind the operation was. He clenches his fist and bangs it on the table.

“Kira…” Yes, whoever Kira was, if they’re still out there, might have been killed by their own creation. What a twist of fate. L decides for his own sanity that Kira is still alive, but he doesn’t press the subject. How could he? Kira is seemingly no longer active, and the zombie situation has been solved. If something like this ever happens again, L will be ready to track down and find Kira.

~

Supercorp where kara hints that she loves when Lena waers suits and continuously tries to be sneaky in getting her to wear them. I think it would be adorable if it was set before they are dating but honestly do whatever you think is better😇😇❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hi, Anon! Thank you for the prompt! I hope you enjoy it! (You can read it on AO3 if you prefer)

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“You’re wearing a dress”.

It’s not a question, but a statement that comes out of Kara’s disappointed? outraged? mouth. So Lena frowns down at her very sexy, very expensive designer dress.

“Yes?”

“Huh”

“What...” the fuck? 

Lena looks down again. And, she’s sorry, but she actually looks pretty damn good in this dress. She spent the better part of her before-bed-routine thinking about what she would wear today. And she specifically selected this dress because of how well it hugs her figure and because of the color. Because Kara, herself, has told Lena time and again how good she looks in this color. How pretty her eyes shine next to it. So, yes, what the fuck?

“Nothing just... Nothing. You look gorgeous!” But Kara is frowning. No, pouting. And Lena knows she’s not an expert on Kryptonian culture or social etiquette. But she knows this Kryptonian very well. And Kara is upset because Lena is wearing this dress.

“I could change?...” With no superpowers, Lena just saw a flash of hope in Kara’s eyes. She’s sure of it. Before:

“No! No? No, no. Lena, you look amazing. I’m sorry. I guess I’m just tired”

“Are you all right?” Now she’s worried. Maybe Supergirl had some sort of top-secret mission.

“No. Yes, I’m fine. Just... It’s nothing. Promise.” And, finally, she smiles a genuine smile. A Lena smile. One that Lena can’t help but return, despite being a bit confused about her friend's behavior.

“Very well. Shall we?”

“Of course!”

And off they go. They’ll be joining the rest of the group at the new and improved alien bar. M’gann’s alien bar. It’s a sort of inauguration, but a more private one, before the grand opening they’re planning for next week. Lena is delighted that her dark chapter with Kara is in the past. They both worked really hard to mend their relationship and themselves. Years of traumas definitely influenced the terrible outcome. But neither could avoid their responsibility nor blame it all on their respective pasts. Therapy and hard work from them both have not only reanimated their friendship, but Lena would dare say it’s better than ever. They are better than ever, So much so that Lena is hopeful for more. She’ knows Kara feels the same. But they’re cautious of not rushing into anything.

It’s why she thought so hard on her outfit for the celebration tonight. She’s supposed to be wooing Kara and instead she, apparently, disappointed.

“Do you think I’m overdressed?” Lena asks, just to try and see if she can figure out what the deal is. Because Kara herself is looking very fine in her own dress. Her lovely hair curled up in a simple but fancy bun, exposing her strong neck, which makes Lena wish she was a vampire, so she could sink her teeth in it.

“What? No! Lena! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude before. You look beautiful and perfect, as usual.” At Lena’s raising eyebrow she keeps going, a tad nervous. “I just thought you, uh, would maybe wear a suit? I mean, you, ah, you said they’re more comfortable, and I want you to be comfortable. Because it’s a celebration between friends! So you should be as comfy as possible, right?” And she lets out that adorable nervous little giggle she does, that never fails to make Lena smirk (or smile... or melt)

“Huh. Well, I didn’t even think about a suit for the occasion. I usually wear them for business. You know, intimidating CEO and all.” Lena teases, hoping to lighten the mood and move on but, oh. Kara is blushing?

“Yeah” Is a breath more than speech. And Lena’s brain is working at a speed that would leave Barry behind. But they’re here. They have arrived at the bar, and she has to let it go. For now. The best thing about M’gann’s bar is that it serves alien alcohol. Which was exciting before. But now? Now she’s eager to get in and let a couple of hours pass.

A couple of hours had passed and Kara is wonderfully tipsy. Most of them are, actually. But Lena had a new goal in mind for the night, so she refrained from consuming too much, or too fast. She’s watching Kara like a hawk because she doesn’t want the alien to get drunk. Her blue eyes are just barely glassed, her cheeks tinted the prettiest pink, and she can’t seem to be able to stop smiling. Or giggling.

They have sung, they have danced, laughed, and eaten. Now, Lena knows, they’re close to ending the night. They have spread in little groups, conversing. So she waits for the moment Nia leaves Kara to go in search of Brainy to sit next to her.

“Hello, darling.”

“Lena!” Kara beams at her. Lena wants to kiss her.

“Enjoying yourself?” Kara nods and lets her eyes roam over Lena’s whole body. “Enjoying the view?” She tries, because, why not?

“Yeah”

“I thought you didn’t like this outfit”

“What? No! I love it! You look so pretty!”

“Huh. I don’t know. You seemed disappointed I didn’t wear a suit?”

“Yeah.” Kara exhales and looks down at Lena’s body again. “You look so sexy in your suits”

“Is that so?”

“Uh-huh. So badass. And sexy. Did I mention how sexy you look in your suits?”

“You did” Lena's smile is so big she’s worried she might dislocate her jaw. “I wish I knew before how much you wanted to see me in them.”

“Why?”

“Eyes up here, Supergirl.”

“Uh... sorry”

“See? You can’t see my breasts as well in a three-piece suit.”

“So much sexy”

“The dress or the suit?”

“The suit! Always the suit, Lena. So sexy”

“God I want to kiss you” And, oh, Lena did not want to say that out loud. At least not here or now. But now Kara is looking her in the eye. Her smile is so bright, it could probably recharge her Kryptonian cells.

“Yeah?” At Lena’s nod, she confesses: “I want to kiss you, too. I want to kiss you all the time. Especially when you’re wearing a suit.”

And that’s it. Lena takes Kara’s face in her hands as if she’s made of glass instead of being one of the most powerful creatures on Earth, and kisses her senseless. Or she would if it weren’t for a pointed clearing of a throat, right behind her.

“Come on, Luthor! Really? You’re going to kiss my little sister on a bar for the first time?” And Lena leans back, not letting go of Kara’s face, closing her eyes to savor the fact that she kissed her. She did. And it was all she ever thought it would be. But better. So Alex’s purposed dig is not going to ruin this for her. Kara, however...

“Alex! Go away! Don’t you have a girlfriend to kiss yourself?”

“Oh, you think I’m not going to take the chance to annoy you guys on your first kiss? What kind of big sister do you take me for?” And Lena chances a look at Alex over her shoulder because she doesn’t sound drunk at all. Not even tipsy. And Lena’s glare softens when she thinks of Kara worrying over her sister's drinking problem. Thinks of how much Alex has worked on her own issues. And of how much the fact that both Danvers sisters had worked so hard on themselves has made their bond all the stronger.

“The best sister!” Kara says, solemn, not a hint of tease in her voice. And then is Alex softening. And Lena is so grateful that Kara has this. That she worked on fixing things with Alex, too. Because she could not get in between these two. 

“Come on, you dorks. We’re all leaving.”

And yes, there’s only the three of them inside. The place looks kind of tidy. Which, when did that happen? So, they gather their things and get outside with the rest. 

“You’ll take her?” Alex asks Lena once they have all shared good-bye hugs. And Lena turns to see Kara squishing M’Gann, again. Smiles:

“Always”.

HERBERT WEST CHEAT SHEET !

since my muses are not super well known in the contemporary rpc ( and i’m too lazy to do a full about page at this very moment ) i decided to put together little posts for them that give their general backgrounds, vibes, and plot possibilities !

this is a mix of canon and headcanon, and these are subject to change / adapt as i get more used to writing the characters

BACKGROUND:

Films: Re-Animator 1985, Bride of Re-Animator 1990, Beyond Re-Animator 2003

We don’t talk about Beyond Re-Animator......

Dr. Herbert West, 24 in the first movie, 27 in the second movie, idk like 40 in the third movie. Mad scientist to the MAX. In the novelization Herbert is an orphan who gets passed around in foster homes before eventually going to undergrad at NYU and pursuing his theory about the re-animation of dead tissue. Mostly people think he’s sort of crazy until one of his articles catches the eye of Dr. Hans Gruber at a university in Switzerland, and he invites Herbert to come work alongside him. Herbert eventually grows to respect Gruber as both a mentor and father-figure.

Herbert and Gruber develop a reagent that affects re-animation in dead animal tissue but they know that for their results to be taken seriously they need to do a human trial. Dr. Gruber volunteers but the dosage of the reagent is too large, and though it brings Gruber back to life it quickly overwhelms his system and he dies again. Herbert is taken into psychiatric custody in Switzerland but is eventually released.

Herbert returns to America and specifically sets his sights on Miskatonic Medical School in Arkham, Massachusetts because one of the staff, Dr. Carl Hill, used to work with Gruber years ago, and even went on to plagiarize some of Gruber’s work and publish it in America. Herbert makes it his secondary goal to absolutely terrorize Dr. Hill, and because he’s a chaotic gremlin in human form he’s very good at it.

Herbert continues working on perfecting the reagent, rooming with Dan Cain and eventually pulling Dan into the experiments as well when Dan’s cat dies and Herbert is able to prove his research by reanimating it. Herbert isn’t perturbed when Dan’s talk with Dean Halsey goes south, and just digs his heels in and insists that the only way to truly prove that the reagent works is to reanimate a human cadaver.

Results are just as bad as you’d expect. Sure, the cadaver reanimates but it also wrecks the morgue and kills Dean Halsey. RIP. Herbert insists that they reanimate him and the dean comes back less like himself and more animalistic, trying to kill both Herbert and Dan before his daughter Meg shows up and stops him. Despite it all, Herbert manages to wriggle his and Dan out of any suspicion from the police but Dr. Hill takes an interest in Herbert’s work once he does exploratory surgery of Dean Halsey and finds out he’s technically dead.

Dr. Hill confronts Herbert in his laboratory and threatens to steal Herbert’s work and take it for his own, offering Herbert the meager honour of being his assistant. Herbert promptly murders Hill via decapitation but decides not to let his fresh corpse go to waste and reanimates both Hill’s head and his body, which come back to life and knock Herbert out and steal all of his work.

Yada yada, Herbert gets Dan to help him go after Hill, the big climax happens. Herbert is able to prove his theory about overdose by shooting up Dr. Hill’s headless body with a bunch of reagent, which backfires and Herbert is left for dead all tangled up in Hill’s intestines, but not after he ensures that his research is safe with Dan.

They never explain how Herbert survives the first movie but he sure is alive in the second movie! It’s roughly 3ish years after the first film, so he’s got his doctorate now and he’s drug Dan all the way to Peru so they can be volunteer medics in a civil war. This obviously gives Herbert an unprecedented access to fresh bodies for his experiments.

Eventually he and Dan head back to Miskatonic Hospital, where they’re able to get jobs and a creepy cute little house that used to be a mortuary so they can continue the work. Herbert is now obsessed with the reanimation of separate parts and convinces Dan to help him build an entirely new life from parts. Dan’s not on board until Herbert shows him Megan Halsey’s heart and promises that they’ll build the body around it.

Dr. Hill’s head also somehow survived the first movie and it tries to terrorize Herbert, along with a cop who’s investigating Herbert for stealing corpses. Herbert eventually kills and reanimates the cop, and then gets into even more trouble when all of the other strange creatures he’s been reanimating start coming after him because they’re being mind controlled by Dr. Hill’s nasty head ( don’t ask me okay, this script was written in literally 6 weeks it makes no sense )

Anyway Herbert and Dan successfully bring their creation to life right before getting attacked by Dr. Hill and his army of weirdos, all while Dan is having a mental breakdown because he thinks the creation is his dead girlfriend Meg. In the chaos Dan and the creation escape separately while Herbert and Hill and co. get trapped under buried rubble and are left for dead ( AGAIN ).

But surprise! Herbert isn’t dead! We don’t know how he survived but we do know that at some point in time Dan turned over evidence to the authorities that led to Herbert’s arrest and imprisonment. The third movie picks up with Herbert who’s been in prison for 13 years and the dumbass new hospital doctor is a fanboy of Herbert and brings in some of his reagent. Herbert basically starts a prison riot, chaos ensues, this movie is Not Good, but the important thing is that Herbert escapes prison with his work and gets to walk off free and definitely alive into the night <3

VIBES / PERSONALITY:

His work is EVERYTHING to him -- there have been multiple times where Herbert has put his work above his own bodily safety or chance of survival, and I guarantee he would do it again, too. Herbert is mostly focused on being able to do the impossible simply because it’s “impossible.” He’s able to convince Dan to help him because he reasons the practical applications of his reagent, like saving lives by aiding in surgeries or helping with amputations, but at the end of the day Herbert is only concerned with discovery, acclaim, and giving classical science a big ‘ole middle finger.

He can be incredibly manipulative when looking for a specific action or behavior in the people close to him. This mostly is seen in how he treats Dan, often reeling him back in with promise of how much good their work will do in the world when Dan starts to get squeamish. Herbert is also really good at finding the sorest spots in someone and pressing on them, but usually only does this when he wants to prove a point or if he really hates someone.

He gains a lot of power by seeming like the more “level-headed” person in an altercation, but he can get extremely excitable or aggressive, especially when something goes well with his research or if it’s being threatened.

He’s genuinely a good doctor, doesn’t freak out under pressure, has neutral-good bedside manner, is very decisive and isn’t afraid to make difficult decisions when it comes to a patient’s life. However, Herbert considers himself a scientist first and a doctor second. The work on reanimation will always come before anything else.

He’s a HUGE fucking nerd, he loves making puns or little zingers whenever he can fit them into a conversation. He also likes playing practical jokes, though he doesn’t do it often. He’s got a great evil giggle.

Oh he’s terrible at taking care of himself. There’s a deleted scene from the first movie where Herbert is shown to be injecting himself with a weakened version of the reanimating reagent because it helps keep his brain sharp and makes it to where he doesn’t have to sleep. What a NUT. I think he probably weans off this habit, by force or choice. His sleeping and eating habits are still pretty bad, though. Definitely the kind of person who doesn’t eat/sleep/rest unless he’s genuinely about to collapse because of it.

Oh he’s also sooooooooooo gay. gay gay gay homo sexual.

There are very few people he outright respects or enjoys spending time around, and with everyone else he is absolutely so bitchy and rude. He doesn’t give a single shit about being polite. Also ACAB.

PLOT POSSIBILITIES:

Got any canonically dead muses? Want them to be alive again? Herbert can help with that! He’ll definitely want to make sure they stick around and observe them to see why the reagent worked so well, maybe do some extra tests, so he can also double as a really annoying, creepy roommate. Score!

Med student muses? I have a new classmate for you

Ever wondered what your muse would do if they saw someone graverobbing, or smuggling body parts into their house in the middle of the night? Do they stop him? Ask questions? Offer to help? Now’s the chance to find out!

He could always use a new assistant since Dan keeps abandoning him after every movie, jfc, loyalty is so hard to find these days

Meet-cute where one of his reanimated creations tries to murder you and he saves you from it <3

Verboten 8 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Chapter warning: some gets physically sick, discussions of death

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 8

"Hey, is it just me, or is the floor moving?" Danny questioned as he stared at the moving stone.

"No, it's not just you," Sam confirmed as she glanced at her friend. Although he was sitting rod straight as he watched, his coloration was still flickering, and there now seemed to be a green tinge to his cheeks.

"Don't you think we should run?" Tucker's question nearly made Sam snort. With Danny getting worse, there was no way he'd be able to escape with them.

Before anyone had a change to respond, the stone completely lifted and shifted to the side, exposing a hole. Seconds later, a furry head popped out. They watched in silent horror as it flicked one of its ears as if hear them and turned to face them.

The face that greeted them was terrifying. If Sam had to describe it, the appearance was like an angry polar bear who happened to have icy horns. Maybe calling it a yeti would be more accurate, but she could argue with herself about the semantics once she was out of this mess.

They just stared at the thing in the floor until it smiled at them. Whatever spell its sudden appearance held over them was broken, and they yelled in terror. There where several seconds of confusion as the three of them tried to escape. Tucker was halfway to the door while Sam tried to help Danny, who had fallen off the table, when the thing spoke.

"Children, please do not be alarmed," it gently requested as it raised itself up from the floor. Its entire body was covered in that same white fur, save for its one arm, which appeared to be made from ice. In an almost bemused afterthought, Sam noted it wore a blue clothing article which may have been a kilt. "We don't have much time before Plasmius returns."

When they didn't respond of move, the creature continued to speak as it tried to look as non-threatening as possible. "I am call Frostbite, the leader of the Far Frozen. I am lucky to have found out about you when I did. Plasmius has killed many humans in his experiments. If you allow me, I will help you return to your home."

"Why should we trust you? How do we know you won't take us somewhere and eat us?" Tucker demanded as he inched closer to Danny and Sam.

It laughed heartily at Tucker's question. "Myself as well as my clan do not eat people. We have made it the goal of our afterlives to try to assist as many wayward humans as we possibly can." Frostbite's smile faded. "However, I acknowledge your concern. This is the first time we have met, and if Plasmius has been your first encounter with the those of us from this realm, then you most likely do not think highly of us." It, possibly he, glanced at Danny as his coloration cycled again. "You are ill, and if you do not leave this place soon, you may not be able to return to the land of the living."

There was a tense moment as Sam and the boys stared at Frostbite. It… no, he… seemed genuine. Although his face was frightening, his eyes were sincere and almost seemed to plead with them.

"Alright," Danny eventually stated as he slowly stood, "but, you have to swear you won't hurt them!"

"I swear it on my honor, young one."

"Psst, Danny, what are you doing?" Tucker angrily whispered as he tugged on Danny's sleeve. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"Call me crazy, but I think it's much less risky to go with him then it is to stay here and wait for Plasmius," Danny responded as he tested his footing. "He's a lot more honest than Plasmius, that's for sure."

"You noticed it too?" Sam was impressed he picked up on it. Although, Danny was often clueless when it came to certain social cues, particularly flirting, he did have an amazing talent for picking up on whether someone was being honest.

Tucker looked at both of them for a disbelieving moment before he shook his head. "Alright. I'll follow your lead on this, but if we get eaten, I'm blaming you."

"Young one, do you require assistance?" Frostbite asked as he eyed Danny, who appeared to be somewhat lightheaded as he tried to walk.

"It's Danny, and no, I can handle it."

A frown crossed Frostbite's face for a moment before he scurried forward and scooped Danny into his arms. "I understand your desire to escape on your own, but you are not well, and time is of the essence." Frostbite then instructed Sam and Tucker to enter the hole in the floor first. Once they were safely inside which was revealed to be a tunnel, he handed Danny to them. He then entered the tunnel and carefully replaced the floor's stone.

There was little light in the tunnel save for the slight glow Frostbite and occasionally Danny produced. As if sensing their concern, Frostbite held up his hand (or was it more of a paw?) and created a soft blue light. "This way, children," he instructed as he began to walk. "I am sorry I cannot produce a better light source, but if I generate much more energy, Plasmius may discover our location."

"I was wondering why we were doing things so old school," Tucker whispered.

As Sam rolled her eyes at him. If it wasn't for the fact she and Tucker were both supporting Danny as they walked, she probably would have smacked him for being rude. But, his statement did bring up an interesting point. "So, you could have gotten us out in an easier way, but Plasmius would have caught us?"

"Correct. Most sentient ghosts can easily phase through walls, unless the object is something native to this world or is coated in something that disrupts our powers or repels us. Plasmius' palace is unusual as much of it is created from materials taken from the human realm, but his reputation and the barrier he uses is able to keep most ghosts away. He is very unkind to trespassers." Frostbite glanced back at them. "I know young Danny's name, but I have yet to learn yours."

As weird as it sounded, Sam was embarrassed by that lapse in courtesy. She quickly introduced herself, and Tucker followed suit.

"Sam and Tucker! Such fitting names!" The strange ghost seemed pleased, but after a moment, he stopped walking, so he could turn and look at them. "Please alert me immediately if you notice you are not feeling well or notice something strange about yourself." After they promised, Frostbite nodded and continued forward. "This world can do strange things to those who unintentionally enter it, and there are many ways the changes can occur."

"Can… can I ask a question?" Once Frostbite agreed, Danny continued, "I'm sorry if this is a bit rude, but were you human?"

"That I was." The ghost didn't appear bothered by the question. "While many of my human memories have faded over time, I do remember that I was once an explorer. As for how I came this this realm, I am uncertain, but I do know that by the time I once again found a way back to the world of the living, I appeared much how you see me now. Many of my clan seem were also explorers or those who spent a great deal of time in the woods or mountains. We are not sure why we have taken this form, but we use it to our advantage. We often patrol areas where portal formation is common and try to scare humans away from them. However, more recently we have been finding more and more humans who seem to be looking for us." He seemed absolutely puzzled by the concept.

Sam shared a look with her friends. Did that mean that he and his clan were what people considered Bigfoot? Maybe she was reading too much into it, but that's what it seemed like.

"So, does that happen to everyone who dies? Cuz I don't know if I can handle the fact I might not keep these good looks when I die," Tucker whined.

The soft blue light flickered as Frostbite chuckled. "I don't believe you have to worry. While it is possible, you are unlikely to become a ghost if you expire outside of this realm. However, I am no expert regarding the mysteries of life and death."

"But what happens if you die here?" It was Sam's turn to ask a question.

"It seems to vary. Some die, but their souls do not remain here. For others, their body and soul mingle and change, creating a ghost."

"That almost sounds like a zombie," Sam mumbled to herself.

Frostbite chuckled again. "I understand why you would think as such. However, zombies can only exist in your world. They are corpses reanimated, often through magic, but lack a soul. For us, our earthly bodies are somehow a catalyst for the new form our soul takes, but even though I have seen it happen, I do not understand the process."

His explanation somewhat made sense, Sam mused. It also lined up with what Plasmius mentioned about how his experiments didn't always work. Although, it posed a more troubling question. What exactly would happen to Danny? If he really did die and become a ghost, did that mean there would be no body for his family to bury? It was a troubling thought that wouldn't go away no matter how much Sam tried to think of something else.

However, something Sam also noted was that Danny was avoiding asking questions regarding what was happening to him. Other than when his hands flickered in and out of visibility in the lab, he hadn't brought up the subject. It was possible he was focusing on escaping. However, with the new knowledge Frostbite had given them, he was probably in some sort of denial. She wasn't certain if she'd be able to be as calm if she was the one affected.

What seemed like an hour later, although her sense of time could have been altered due to the darkness, they finally reached the end of the tunnel. It wasn't a moment too soon as Danny had fainted when they had first caught sight of the exit. Once outside, she and Tucker carefully sat Danny down, so they could take a quick break. Once she was certain Danny was settled, she took the chance to look around.

In front of them was a think yet somewhat dead looking forest, like what they first found themselves in when they fled from the first ghost. Behind her was the tunnel which had been cut into what appeared to be a rock outcropping. If it wasn't for the strange coloration, it could have looked like something found in the forests back home.

She started when Frostbite gave a quick whistle. Moments later, four more ghosts who had similar appearances to Frostbite appeared from within the forest. They had to be part of the clan the ghost had mentioned while they were escaping. The group exchanged a few words before Frostbite beckoned to the humans behind him.

"Children, do not be alarmed. These are members of my clan, and they will be assisting us in your escape. However, we need to stop at our realm first as we have an object that will help us locate when and where a portal will open. I would also like to assess Danny's health." The ghost frowned at the form of the unconscious teenager. "You have probably guessed this realm has a grip on him, but he is resisting the change more intensely than I have ever seen."

"That means he'll be able to come home with us, right?" Tucker's question was full of a wary hope.

"I am… uncertain. We may have to seek the wisdom of an older entity to know for sure."

…

The world wouldn't stop spinning when Danny finally came to. After rolling over and relieving the contents of his stomach, he finally was able to think clearly enough to take stock of his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be some type of medical room. Although the walls appeared to be made of ice, there was a light and almost friendly atmosphere about the place.

A sound caught his attention, and he turned just in time to see white creature duck out of the room. Puzzled at the reaction, it wasn't until it returned to the room with Frostbite that he realized it was simply retrieving the other ghost.

"You've wakened, young one!" Frostbite seemed exuberant as he examined him. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got spun around in one of those centrifuges at space camp way too many times," Danny replied as he rubbed his head. Although the dizziness had subsided, he still felt somewhat ill. "Where are Sam and Tucker?"

"They are resting in another room. They've been eagerly waiting for news of your awakening."

Danny sighed in relief at the news. "Will I be able to see them?"

"Absolutely, but first I would like to discuss something with you," Frostbite sat down at a chair near the bed Danny was using. Somewhat unnerved by how serious Frostbite seemed to be, he carefully sat up and gestured for him to continue. "Your circumstance is nothing like what any of us have ever seen before."

"My circumstance?" That didn't sound good. Did it have to do with something Plasmius did to him?

"Yes. Before I explain, I need to ask if you've eaten anything while you were here?"

Danny shook his head. "Unless Plasmius fed me something when I was unconscious, then no. Wait," he paused for a moment as he tried to remember what Plasmius had told him, "maybe? Plasmius said something about taking care of me when I got lost when I was six."

"How odd, but as you must have returned home afterwards, it might have something to do with the unexpected results. Did Plasmius explain what he wanted from you?"

"He wanted me as his heir? I think?" Before he or Frostbite could say anything else, Danny felt something clench in his navel. Immediately afterwards, what seemed to be a flash of light momentarily blinded him. Terrified, he yelped and tried to move away. "What-what just happened?"

"This is what I have need to discuss with you." The ghost then rose and picked Danny off the bed before carefully setting him down in front of a mirror at the far end of the room.

It was the first time since he had come to this world that he had a chance to take stock of himself. However, the image looking back at him wasn't what he was expecting. His eyes weren't his usual blue but were instead an unnatural green. His skin had tanned, but the color somehow seemed unhealthy. His hair was now a silvery white instead of his black, and if he wasn't imaging it, he was admitting a slight glow. "What's wrong with me?" he asked in a horrified whisper.

Before he could get his answer, he felt the clench in his navel again. When the light subsided, he was greeted with the reflection of how he originally looked. Uncertain if his mind was playing tricks on him, he checked his hands and what he could of his bangs. Everything appeared normal.

"Usually," Frostbite started, which caused Danny to pause his examination and look at the ghost," when this world claims someone, they can no longer return to their human form. If they do, they often end up dead. You are somehow able to keep your human form, yet you produce a ghost form. In all my years, I have never seen such a thing."

"What exactly does that mean? What am I?"

"Unfortunately, I do no know. From what our tests showed, you have both a functioning human heart and a ghostly core, which is our equivalent of a heart. You've been switching back and forth between forms for some time."

======================================

Notes:

1) So… the Bigfoot mention. This is something that I've heard before. There are 2 major lines of thought regarding the famous cryptid. 1) Bigfoot is a flesh and blood creature, and 2) Bigfoot is an interdimensional, extraterrestrial, or spiritual entity (I seriously had a professor who believed Bigfoot could travel through dimensions. He even wrote papers about it). For this story, I'm going with the concept that people are catching brief glimpses of Frostbite and his people as they patrol areas known for spontaneous portal openings.

Interdimensional aspects are popping up more and more when it comes to paranormal topics, and they're a major theory when it comes to unexplained disappearances and weird creatures. Personally, I find the concept intriguing, but it's not something that can currently be proven. Though… there are a lot of rumors about how CERN is trying to do that. I know that group is just supposed to be studying particles and quantum physics, but there are sooooo many weird rumors about CERN.

2) For this story, I'm borrowing the type of idea where a ghost can't be created unless its former vessel (body) is used as a medium. You see things like this for Revenants, Strigoi Mort (Romanian ghost/zombie/vampire thing), and Gjenganger (Scandinavian ghost/zombie thing similar to a Dragur), and others. For those stories, the only way to get rid of them is to damage/destroy the body in specific ways which vary from region to region.

3) human centrifuges are real things. They are used by to help test the effects of G-forces on people, and astronauts receive training to handle said forces in them. They do, at least used to have, a version of it at space camp.