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9worldstales · 3 years

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MCU Loki: Why I fear they failed to deliver what they promised

At this point I’m kind of confused by who the “Loki” series is trying to reach or which is the goal/message they’re trying to pass along.

They had tried to intrigue assorted audience but, if you ask me, the series has often failed to deliver what it seemed to promise.

Of course I might be wrong. Or maybe I'm not seeing another type of audience the series aimed and managed to reach.

When the series started I wanted to keep a positive mentality and hope whatever seemed not to work would be fixed along the way or have a reason for existing that I just wasn't seeing because I hadn't seen the full story yet.

However, after 5 episodes I'm starting to lose hope the series will make a genuine effort to reach the fans at whom it seemed to aim.

PART 1 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD FANS WHO PRODUCED META SHOWING HOW HIS TRAUMA DAMAGED HIM

"I think it's the struggle with identity, who you are, who you want to be. I'm really drawn to characters who are fighting for control. Certainly you see that with Loki over the first 10 years of movies, he's out of control at pivotal parts of his life, he was adopted and everything and that manifest itself through anger and spite towards his family." [Loki's Struggle With His Identity Confirmed To Be A Focus Of His Disney+ Series]

What was it about Loki as a character that attracted you? He’s just fun, for one. He has a very playful sense of humor about him. I like how he never quite lets you know what he’s thinking. Beyond that, what I connect to about him is the same thing the legions of fans do, which is his humanity and his vulnerability. This is a guy who—yes, on the one hand, he was the prince of Asgard, seems like a nice life—but his father, in fact, killed his actual birth father, adopted him, lied to him about his heritage and parentage his entire life, he was forced to live in the shadow of his oafish older brother who was born to be king. He’s experienced a lot of trauma, and I think that what he’s looking for is just a little bit of control over his life. Which he feels like maybe he’s never quite had. That’s something I think we can all relate with. [From Loki to Doctor Strange and Star Wars, Michael Waldron Is the New Franchise Whisperer]

Let’s be honest, the audience for the “Loki” series is not really meant to be Marvel movies old time fans who enjoyed “Thor” and “The Avengers”, made countless Meta analyzing Loki’s behaviour and who wanted answers about what happened to Loki prior to “The Avengers” or wanted to see Loki’s family terrible dynamics be discussed, or at least to see explored the wrong dynamics of Loki’s interracial adoption (he’s taken away from his planet, the truth is hidden from him, his look is changed to disguise him as an Asgardian, nothing is done against the racial hate for the Jotuns at which Loki is exposed, even witnessing it from his brother) or talk how much in control of himself Loki was during “The Avengers” (okay, the web said the sceptre manipulated Loki, but what about acknowledging that in his own series? It doesn’t have to come from Loki who had no idea he was manipulated but someone could mention ‘think yourself lucky here the stones don’t work, they’ve the nasty tendency to manipulate people’).

The series has avoided digging into all that as much as they could.

Even when Loki talks with Sylvie, the most we get is a small big about how Frigga was awesome in his eyes and taught him magic, but this isn’t meant to explain any of the issues Loki had with his family, it just make Sylvie feel bad because she can’t remember her adoptive mother, as for the D.B. Cooper born out of a bet with Thor, yeah, fun but completely random. What’s meant to be the message about family dynamics here, that it was the bets between Thor and Loki that caused Loki to decide to conquer Earth? Or what about the Sif loop? Is it there to push on Loki the blame of his poor relation with Sif?

No, clearly not.

In regard to Loki the Frigga flashback is there to remark he had a loving and supportive family while the other two are there to have Loki admit he is ‘a mischievous scamp’, ‘a horrible person’ and ‘a narcissist’.

To put it in Classic Loki’s words: ‘Damn it! Animals, animals! We lie and we cheat, we cut the throat of every person who trusts us, and for what? Power. Glorious power. Glorious purpose! We cannot change. We're broken, every version of us. Forever. And whenever one of us dares try to fix themselves, they're sent here to die.’

In short it’s all Loki’s fault if he does bad, nothing happened to him that could have messed him up, he’s just a horrible person… however…

PART 2 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD AND NEW FANS WHO BELIEVED LOKI TO BE A DANGEROUS, EVIL, PSYCHOPATH VILLAIN EITHER

"Loki is an a**, and that makes my life as a writer, easy." ... "Due to the trauma in Loki’s life, I would even [accept a story] in which he is committed to being all bad." [Michael Waldron on Loki: He’s an a**. That makes things easy]

Considering the series is trying to pin SOLELY on Loki his wrongdoing, completely skipping the toxic way in which he was raised you might think they want to paint him as an evil, psychopath who was just born bad.

But no, that’s not the intention, we see it from the start.

Loki is given a quick briefing on how his beloved family loved him despite him hurting them, a briefing that contains false information which would work if we accept the briefing as manipulative but, at this point I’m not so sure that was the author’s intent. The Doylist purpose of the briefing is clearly to show the audience how Loki cares for his family, how he still has feelings, feels pain at the idea Frigga and Odin died and wish to make up with his brother.

It’s not just they loved him and did nothing wrong toward him, it’s also he who loved them and didn’t mean to harm them. That’s why we’re fed that damn discourse about Loki sending the Dark Elves to kill Frigga, because the series wants to remark that no, Loki didn’t want to kill his family, he loved them.

Tom Hiddleston used to say what Loki is came from a place of pain but the series didn’t explore that place of pain… it just gave him more pain and not just in episode 1. Episode 2 has him discovering Asgard is destroyed, episode 3 has him remembering Frigga, episode 4 shows him believing Sylvie die and watching Mobius being pruned. He doesn’t cry in Ep 5, episode 5 wants us to truly feel bad for Sylvie, not for him, but there’s a lot of bitterness from Classic Loki who commits a heroic suicide so you might say we get a sad Loki anyway.

And this also works as a shock to make him change his mind about his ‘glorious purposes’. Sorta, with Thor reminding us he’s not so bad and Loki explaining his behaviour as “I don't enjoy hurting people. I... I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to. Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.”

Plot-wise, this is completely useless.

The show will prove Sylvie is not Loki and has completely different motivations and Mobius, being an expert in Variants, should know.

What’s more why would Mobius care if Loki enjoys hurting people or not?

His goal is to capture Sylvie with Loki’s help. The most he should care about is how to keep Loki loyal to him, not if Loki has fun hurting people or not which, in fact, is a knowledge that won’t be used in his investigation.

No, this is here for the viewers, to tell them Loki isn’t a sadistic, evil villain, he’s someone weak who tries to scare others so as not to look weak. As Mobius will put in ‘a scared little boy, shivering in the cold’ who has an ‘insecure need for validation’.

What’s more?

The show will try his hardest to establish he’s not even competent.

Let’s talk of him as a fighter.

In the movies Loki is a competent fighter and side material establish he’s pretty strong, definitely much more than a human.

In “The Avengers” we see Captain America needs Iron Man’s help to beat him and, anyway, Loki’s plan was to be captured. Loki manages to walk away on his feet when Coulson hits him with that superspecial weapon and it’ll take him to be Hulk smashed after a fight with Thor and a meeting with an explosive arrow of Hawkeye before he can’t fight any longer.

This doesn’t happen in the “Loki” series.

Loki gets beaten up by various people in 4 episodes, preferably women (B-15, the people possessed by Sylvie, the guards on the train, Sif). You might say in episode 5 he’s not but actually Classic Loki is the one who gets swallowed by Alioth and our Loki instead survives because he has Sylvie supporting him as, on his own he couldn’t even distract Alioth.

Let’s talk of him as a wizard.

He can use magic, impressive magic but… it serves him mostly nothing. In the TVA his magic doesn’t work. Outside of it is mostly useless. It doesn’t help win fights. The Tempad he caused to disappear gets broken. To beat Alioth they needs enchantment, not his own magic. What’s more, when they’ve to go on the train his disguise wouldn’t have worked without Sylvie’s enchantment and, if this wasn’t enough, he got drunk, removed the disguise and wasn’t even able to make tickets appear.

Classic Loki too, with his impressive illusions is ultimately a distraction. Alioth tears easily through his illusions which aren’t even solid.

Let’s talk of him as a planner.

All Loki will accomplish is to escape from the Time theatre for a brief period in episode 1 and figure out Sylvie hides in apocalypses in episode 2. The rest of his plans fails or are not plan or are mocked over and not even put into practice.

Let’s talk about him as a manipulator with a silver tongue.

He can’t even persuade Mobius when he’s telling him the truth, Mobius dismisses it as a lie due to ‘cockroach's survival mechanism’.

And psychologically?

He’s just someone who crave attention because he’s a narcissist scared of being alone. Not a psychopath.

Loki is not meant to be a dangerous, evil, psychopath villain in this series, he’s a not serious man, a clown, a scared little boy in need of attention, a narcissist who needs to be loved.

Welcome to cartoon villain Loki, this Loki isn’t the Variant of “The Avengers” Loki, he’s the Variant of “Avengers Assemble”Loki… only he’s even less competent than him.

PART 3 – “LOKI” IS NOT EVEN HERE FOR GENERAL MARVEL MOVIE FANS

"That's a lot of Infinity Stones. That's true but they are useless there in the TVA, so I don't know. Is that gun loaded or not? We'll see..." [Loki Writer Comments On Whether TVA’s Infinity Stones Will Return In MCU]

“We had to create an insane institutional knowledge of how time travel would work within the TVA so the audience never has to think about it again. It was a lot of drawings of squiggly timelines.” Marvel already made its case for how time travel works in Avengers: Endgame, but that, Waldron points out, “is the way the Avengers understand it.” With a TV show it’s a little different. “I was always very acutely aware of the fact that there’s a week between each of our episodes and these fans are going to do exactly what I would do, which is pick this apart. We wanted to create a time-travel logic that was so airtight it could sustain over six hours. There’s some time-travel sci-fi concepts here that I’m eager for my Rick and Morty colleagues to see.” [How the Man Behind LokiIs Shaping Marvel’s Phase 4 and Beyond]

BC: The TVA is there to clean everybody up? MW: Yeah, Avengers: Endgame… that's how The Avengers understand time travel. 'Loki,' episode one, is how the TVA explains time travel to Loki and we're certainly building on what's come before us. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

It’s true “Loki” is focusing on a new corner of the MCU but it interconnects very poorly with the movies before it.

Although Loki escaped with the Tesseract... it just dismisses completely the Infinity Stones.

Despite talking a lot about timelines and creating branching realities it waved away the whole plot of "Avengers: Endgame" as apparently supposed to happen even though it should have created branching realities.

We see Renslayer wave away how the Avengers went in the past causing the Tesseract to end up in Loki’s hands... and all the other things the Avengers did that affected the past goes unmentioned.

Bruce meeting the Ancient, Thor meeting his mother and taking away Thor’s hammer, Rocket being seen as he steals the reality stone from Jane, Tony stealing a suitcase and damaging the place in which the Tesseract was kept then meeting Howard Stark, 4 flacons of Pyn particles missing, an alarm given to the military bases, how Steve managed to bring back the sceptre if that timeline was pruned, how a timeline handled being without Thanos and Co as they went in the future or how they clearly didn’t bring the orb back the second they took it as Nebula remained unconscious there and nobody came and when she woke up Thanos could get her. It didn’t even explain why Steve remaining with Peggy didn’t change anything.

It's not that the audience has all explained... it's that they were told to dismiss it as 'meant to happen' and that was it.

What's more, the TVA apparently didn't list a finger to stop 2014 Thanos from going in the future and causing Tony Stark's death.

As if this wasn't enough, “Loki” just skips any possible connection with the movies, even hands Loki false information about them (he lead the Dark Elves to his mother when Loki had no idea the Kurse was a Dark Elf and they would have found her anyway as they were searching for the Aether which Malekith could sense, he’s born solely to cause pain and suffering and death, overlooks how he saved Jane twice or helped the Asgardian escape Hela) and never discusses them again.

Even with Classic Loki, who’s a Variant of “Avengers: Infinity War” Loki, they don’t talk about what happened after Loki’s supposed dead, apparently hinting it was better if he died, nor explain how Loki knew Thor survived.

PART 4 – “LOKI” IS NOT REALLY OFFERING A GOOD REPRESENTATION FOR FEMALES EVEN THOUGH IT CLEARLY AIMS AT FEMALE AUDIENCE

Let’s make a quick experiment.

Everyone, let’s name all the characters we remember which appeared in more than 1 episode of “Loki” for more than one minute.

We’ve, of course, Loki, Mobius, B-15, Renslayer, Sylvie, C-20 and Miss Minute.

5 females versus 2 males.

What’s more, females are not sexualized, they remains completely dressed, they’re clearly not there to attract male gazes, they’re represented as strong, dangerous, in control, something archived often by showing them beating males either physically or intellectually or in rank.

It seems promising. At first.

Is there someone who’s sexualized?

The “Loki” series takes care to offer us Tom Hiddleston naked.

So since there’s an abundance of females in the cast and Tom Hiddleston is shown naked is it aiming at a female audience?

Very, very likely but… but how’s then handled all this?

When Loki is seen undressed he’s not in a situation of power, like Thor who’s twice shows half naked in his movies but because he’s changing/washing and perfectly comfortable in showing his body and once in a situation which could be a male forbidden fantasy, to have many women massage your naked body, no, he’s shown as he’s powerless while being stripped by a machine. Clearly not a male power fantasy, more like a male nightmare.

And, in a totally not surprising way, pictures of this scene were spread by many female fans because it was aimed at them… though a part of them, was also honestly appalled at seeing this scene in contest, finding the forced stripping humiliating and degrading.

Sure, a naked Tom Hiddleston makes a nice eye-candy but this wasn’t how Loki’s many fans wanted to see Loki naked.

But let’s talk of female representation here, since the show seems to be interested in female audience… only who even though this was the representation women wanted doesn’t understand much of women representation in the first place.

Why?

For start because women here are all the same type of woman.

Strong fighters who’re in control and confident, with no real characterization beyond this to speak of despite the large amount of screen time.

Renslayer is an ex-hunter who can fight one on one against Sylvie and who clearly has the position of power she has because she was good as a hunter and shows her abilities in fighting after that Sylvie had beaten 2 guards at the same time. B-15 is introduced by beating Loki and is the commander of a squad. C-20 is another commander and, albeit possessed, can dispose of a part of her squad members.

Do I need to spend words on how Sylvie is depicted as this awesome fighter who has learnt to fight by herself, can keep at bay more than 1 Minuteman, can use a sword, has learnt enchantment on her own and is feared by all the TVA? Do I?

And it’s awesome to have women who are strong fighters in positions of command/power/control… but why women has to be represented as just that?

Even when they add a female as an one episode cameo, it's Sif, beating the hell out of Loki. And what about the Lady in Lamentis 1 who was too old to be strong but managed to blast away both Loki and Sylvie seeing through their deceptions?

Even the harmless Miss Minute can avoid being hit by Loki and gets she has to pretend to do researches to stall Sylvie and save Renslayer.

Women kick asses here… but that’s all they’re good for.

And so we get to Sylvie, who is the superior Loki Variant… because she’s female.

Kid Loki: You're different. Why? Loki: No, I'm not, you see? I'm the same, really. I'm the same as all of you. Have any of you met a woman Variant of us? Classic Loki: Sounds terrifying. Loki: Oh, she is. But that's kind of what's great about her. She's different. She's not trying to take over the TVA, she's trying to take it down. And she needs me. Now, you said Alioth is what keeps us here. You said it's a living thing. You said it's a shark. Well, if it lives, it dies. So I'm gonna kill the shark. I'm gonna kill Alioth, and I could use all the help I can get.

That’s what Loki preaches to his fellow Lokis who think a woman Loki would be terrific.

I mean, they’ve an alligator Loki, a POC Loki, but the one who has to be different is the female Loki. Because being female is a character trait.

Mobius: Okay. I feel like I'm always looking up to you. I like it. It's appropriate. [Ep 1]

Basically females in the “Loki” series are all representation of the Action girl trope and aren’t even different representation of said trope. I mean, “The Avengers” have 5 actions boy who’re clearly as different as they could be. Girls can be represented as different too, if they really aim at young audience they can take good old “Sailor Moon” as an example. 5 action girls who are strong and determinate AND DIFFERENT, more than just someone who kicks the adversary away.

And it’s not like they don’t know how to characterize people in a different way.

Mobius is an analyst who shows sympathetic traits toward the Variants and a certain level or intelligence. U-92 and D-90 are hunters who are shown to held Variants in little regard (U-92 wanted to attack the boy they found in the church, D-90 mistreated the scared people in the shelter). Casey is an harmless and naïve guy who had never seen a fish. The guy who made Loki sign the papers about what he said seemed emotionless but he clearly loved cats as not only he had one but on his cup there was also the image of a cat. Martin is clearly a bossy daddy’s son, who think too high of himself to the point he can’t respect rules. The boy in the church, despite thinking Sylvie was a demon, accepted and ate food she gave him and remained in the place despite the crime. He’s clearly more brave than he looked like but he’s also naïve as he easily trusted ‘the demon’ and Mobius.

What’s C-20 character trait when she gets described by Sylvie?

Sylvie: Yeah. She was just a regular person on Earth. Loki: A regular person? Sylvie: Loved margaritas.

She’s a regular person who loves margaritas. Liking a drink is not a character trait!

There’s a more diverse female representation in “Thor” than in “Loki”.

In “Thor” we’ve Frigga, queen of Asgard, loving mother and wife who’s powerless to erase Thor’s banishment. We’ve Sif, a dangerous and loyal warrior. We’ve Jane, the amazing scientist with a lot of enthusiasm. We’ve Darcy, who’s funny and who seems focused mostly on herself but who, when the city is attacked, worried to save all the animals at the pet store.

But maybe the one who gets the worst treatment is the supposed heroine, Sylvie, because the poor girl is turned into a Mary Sue.

In case someone isn’t familiar with the term:

“The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal. She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc. Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series.” [tvtropes.org]

So let’s see how she fits this checklist:

1) She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour: Sylvie painted her hair blonde even though the Lokis are supposed to be black haired

2) has a similarly cool and exotic name: She is the only Loki Variant who has changed her name from Loki to Sylvie.

3) She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting: Awesome at fighting she can enchant people, an ability the Lokis don’t posses, that she magically learnt on her own and that is necessary in the story. Also she figured out how a Tempad worked BEFOREseeing it in action.

4) She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing: No flaws, all her plans involve fighting and brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile, which could be a flaw… if it wasn’t for the fact that the series will prove Sylvie can plan just fine without using fighting and brute strength and also be successful at it.

5) She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story: She was taken by the TVA when she was younger than Kid Loki but managed to escape them and had to live alone and on the run till then.

6) The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting: Loki, who has never loved anyone, falls for her, Mobius saves her and apologizes to her, B-15, who used to look down at Variants, basically asks her what should they do and is shown admiring her, the Lokis don’t criticize her plan, Classic Loki dies to save her, everyone views her as the superior Loki Variant.

7) if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal: Renslayer, the hunter who has arrested her, is currently playing the part of the antagonist who’s fascist and believes in a murderous, lying cult.

8) She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc.: She’s the Variant and love interest of the titular character.

9) Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series: Loki, the title character, has conveniently been turned into someone who’s a weak fighter and incapable of planning which Sylvie has to save by enchanting guards or giving him her sword or pruning herself or teaching him how to enchant and coming up with all the plans.

Now all she needs in order to be a perfect Mary Sue is to know how to sing well as Mary Sue usually do this as well, though I’m sure she can do it because Loki could so she surely can.

Sylvie is amazing, Loki himself said so:

Loki: No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don't die. We survive. I mean, you did. You were just a child when the TVA took you, but you nearly took down the organization that claims to govern the order of time. You did it on your own. You ran rings around them. You're amazing!

There’s nothing inherently wrong in having a new female character who’s competent, for whom the hero falls and who changes him… if all this is built around a solid plot.

Think at “Iron Man”.

Tony Stark is, to quote Tony Stark himself a “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist”.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? But the movie shows us why he’s that.

It spends time setting up his pedigree, how he inherited the money and intelligence from his father, how he was supported as he grew and studied becoming always a greater genius. Tony shows himself to be charming before seducing his first woman onscreen so that when he does it makes sense. His philanthropic activities are, at first, just mentioned but seems rooted in how his father was a hero who helped fighting Nazi and then they became his mission. He felt guilty he was a merchant of death and tried to make up for it.

Sylvie too could have a solid plot behind herself.

Instead than magically knowing what a TemPad does and how it works and managing to escape with it, she could have escaped with, let’s say, a hunter that discovered the truth and decided to rebel to the TVA or just had pity of her. Maybe another Mobius Variant who used to work at the TVA prior to Mobius and that, instead than an analyst was a hunter. She might have learnt fighting from him and then he too died and she was left alone.

Enchantment might have been an ability she might have learnt coming in contact with a mind stone. It could have been an occasion also to talk how mind stones can influence people negatively. Or it could have been taught to her by Frigga who, with a female daughter, decided to teach her a different type of magic than Loki.

Her past could have been explored more instead than being tragic for the sake of tragic. We might have seen her fall in love and either be betrayed or have to say goodbye to her loved one because that reality got pruned. We might have seen her being interested in males and females alike as she’s supposed to be interested in both.

She could have had discussions with Loki that weren’t just about Frigga or about how the TVA kidnapped her from Asgard, she escaped and from that point on she was always on the run, or about how love didn’t feel real, but more about how they were, how they felt, what hurt them and what made them happy, what they liked and what they disliked, their ideals and their fears, things that can built up a relation.

Loki basically fall for her because she’s on a mission for revenge instead than power and seems confident. That’s his reasoning.

She falls for Loki… because apparently he’s the person who spend time with her who praised her. That’s not a solid love story, that’s desperation.

SYlvie could have flaws, she could have learnt diplomacy or persuasion from Loki or could have something she lacks and Loki has so that they would complete each other.

And since the purpose was to have Sylvie and Loki fall for each other… they could have let Loki have characteristics that can motivate the exceptional heroine to fall in love for him PRIOR to him falling in love for her. He might be shown good at something, instead than just a clown.

Even if we say the real purpose of this series was to turn Sylvie into the protagonist, the heroine, a good Loki character was still needed to explain why this awesome girl would fall for him.

So okay, there will surely still be women who can see themselves in Sylvie and imagine they got Loki… and it’s not bad really… but I think we deserved more.

Long story short, yes, “Loki” has many females in its cast and this is meant to draw the female audience… but the representation is poor as almost all of the females have no character traits and Sylvie is just a Mary Sue with no realistic characterization.

A good female representation is diverse and solid. Women don't need to be born irrealistically perfect out of nothing to be good, they can inherith and grow and learn to be as such like any human being.

Last but not least…

PART 5 – DOES “LOKI” REALLY OFFERS REPRESENTATION TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY?

BC: There is a lot of talk on social media about Loki being gender fluid. Wouldn't that actually be a natural fit for the character? MW: Yeah, I guess as, with all questions pertaining to that stuff, I think those answers, truly, are best experienced in the watching of the show, as opposed to me trying to answer them. Because it's just watching it and the way that's addressed and everything will just be more fulfilling. BC: Why do you think it's important that Loki is gender fluid? MW: I think that Loki is a character that a lot of fans see representation in. People that haven't felt represented before, and they see themselves in Loki and everything. So we want to do justice to the character, to who the character is in the comics and in Norse mythology as well. And you also … you know you want folks to feel represented, and everything. That's why it's important. It always has been. It comes from everybody on the creative team. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

The series hugely spread the info that this Loki would be fluid and Bisexual. The news were welcomed with delight and it’s awesome how the series didn’t hesitate to put it on paper.

Loki being fluid was written for everyone to see, and Loki having male and female interests was spelled out for everyone to hear.

IT’S A GREAT THING!

However…

It’s all we got.

It had no relevance into the plot whatsoever, it’s just a random info we’re given.

Him being fluid was on a paper along with his other data like eye colour and birth planet.

Him being interested in males and females seems to be put there just to imply he tried a large amount of people before deciding love didn’t feel real.

Assuming the other Lokis too were fluid, they actually found terrific the idea of a woman Loki in a not positive way. They weren’t interested or asking for clarifications about what Loki meant.

Loki’s bisexuality doesn’t even get a side story, them sending Fandral to beat Loki instead than Sif because Loki cheated on him or something. I’m not upset Loki ended up with a female, this is one of the possibilities of a Bisexual person. I’m upset that this was used merely to attract the audience but then wasn’t explored. They could have said Asgard was open minded with it, or disapproved it so Loki had to keep it hidden, or it could have been Sylvie who discussed some experience in that regard.

We were told over and over it was a show about identity. We expected it to be explored instead we were just told ‘ah, by the way, Loki is bisexual, let’s move on.’ And that was all.

Having representation from an important Marvel character is always important, especially considering the shortage of representation. But honestly I expected more.

PART 7 – TO SUM IT UP

Many of the people who worked in “Loki” are fantastic actors. They worked hard for this series, I can see they tried their best.

The premises for the “Loki” series are interesting.

We get a Loki who hadn’t experienced most of what happened in the movies yet, we make him confront with someone who knows his life, the one he lived and the one he was meant to live and we also make him confront with Variations of himself.

Loki has the Tesseract and the TVA has plenty of infinity stones, we could explore them.

The TVA itself have a fascist organization that dictates people’s lives and murders whoever tries to do differently, that goes so far as to brainwash the people working in it, which mistreats and belittle the Variants and establish a manipulative cult around the Time-Keeper with elements of police brutality which could be very actual.

Time travelling was the plot of "Avengers: Endgame" they could have tied the movie to the series, esplore the why some time travels were allowed and some weren't or their effects.

There were references to plenty of awesome comics they could take inspiration from.

But unless it redeems itself with the last episode… well, so far it’s failing to deliver what it promised due to a really poor plot which doesn’t give the characters a chance to be themselves or to be characterized as they’ve no real story nor real differences to speak of.

They’re given more time than a movie as they’re a series… but that’s no good excuse for wasting said time.

I’m still hoping the last episode will be spectacular, that it’ll manage to erase the messes of the other 5… but, as of now I’m disappointed.

I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope they’ll surprise me.

#mcu loki #loki #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #9 worlds study

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flydotnet · 3 years

Text

Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me requests according to this marvelous card! (Red cross is the completed prompt, character headshots are prompts I’ve already filled. I don’t have any request left, so feel free to send in suggestions for this card!).

What... did you say...?

It's been a hot, like, 2 years since I last wrote for THH or Naegiri, and man, it shows... My Makoto writing is all rusty and I hate it. This fic isn't very good by any of my usual standards, but I really wanted it out of the door, and I just remembered just how much I like Makoto, Kyoko and Naegiri. I may not have the same fervor I had for DR as I did almost 4 years ago when I started writing Febris-Induced Case, but hey... I still like those guys. I hate canon but I love those guys. It's such a weird feeling. I usually go back to V3 instead, so seeing them again... made my heart flutter a little, then realize my prompt fill sucked ass lmao. Oh well. I'll probably go back to the ship and characters later during this card; but for now, I think I at least got that one prompt out of the way. Honestly, I had to do it with a THH-inspired oneshot because, y'know, Chapter 5 is a thing and it was the glorious sick episode that got me into DR in the first place. Also, is this set Post-Canon or is it in an Everybody Lives AU? Who knows! I sure don't!

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Last Heartbeat

Summary: Someone is trying to kill him while he's down for the count; yet Makoto can't find the strength to move away from the danger.

Fandom: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Wordcount: 1.6K words

Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo

AO3 version available here.

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There’s a shadowy figure hovering over his bed.

He doesn’t know who it could be or why they’re here – but he’s got a bad feeling about this. All he can see about them is the reflection of the moonlight in their eyes (he forgot to close the curtains before collapsing back into bed, but he’s thankful for it, now) and the way their smile shines through the darkness like white under the black light, sharp teeth threatening him.

He doesn’t know why, but there’s one feeling that’s overwhelming the rest of his sense – he needs to escape from whoever that person is, as fast and as soon as possible.

That’s all well and dandy, but the thing is, his limbs won’t bulge. He’s trying his hardest to push him out of the bed before that person can do anything to him – he doesn’t even know if they’re armed or not – yet neither arms nor legs are responding to his desperate calls. He feels like his entire body has been covered in lead and that, in turn, seeped into his blood and flesh and made him heavier than he has any right to be.

The light reflects in the sharp edge of a knife pointed right towards him by the mysterious figure, ready to strike at any moment, to extract the breath from his chest – but he’s already breathless, so he wonders if he hasn’t been stabbed already… but that can’t be, right? He’d have felt if the blade had struck. He’d be able to see blood flowing down it, right?

It doesn’t make sense, but he feels lightheaded and breathless, so it may just be his head playing tricks on him.

Adrenaline kicks in before long and he manages to push himself to face the mysterious figure, legs following with a delay, as he sees their eyes: sulphuric yellow, bright and glistening, unrealistically bright even considering the lights outside – like a demon’s. Their breathing is unnaturally heavy, so close to him that he hears every crackle, every wheeze and every wet sound in it, oppressing him through merely existing and being in such a close range.

He’s now facing the figure, who has lied down on him, their knife still showing under the moonlight. Their expression is haunting, a mix of pleasure and pain like he’s never seen one before – their eyes are full of sorrow, but their teeth keep smiling, distorted in a pleased grin, a droplet of red falling down from one of them, one sharper than the blade they’re holding.

Their intent is nefarious indeed, but his legs are trapped in the drapes and covers tangled in his feet, and he finds himself cornered by the wall against which his bed is. He attempts to flee from the sides, left, right, left, right – but the person (the creature?) flawlessly matches his pace, if they’re not actually predicting what he’s about to do, so there’s no way out there either.

With strong hands, they pin him down to the bed, preventing him from even attempting an escape. He now has a closeup view of their eyes: their pupils are slit, like a cat’s in a way, and focus directly into his despite the fact it should be impossible in a mostly dark room like that one. They emit their own light, so they can probably bypass his limits, making them invincible by default.

His own breathing is heavy (albeit less than the creature), his hands are trembling and he’s stuck in this position, having to wait and see what the other person is going to do, even if he can guess their intentions can’t be good – he still has some hope left that it could be one giant misunderstanding. This may just be weird dream, after all, and his luck could finally be on his side for once and –

Hands wrap around his neck, cold and leathery to the touch, as the fingers dance around the edges of his jaw – he has no idea of what they’re doing, but he wishes he wasn’t so vulnerable and lethargic right about now, wishing he could recover just enough strength to get away from this dangerous situation. Their gaze is cold as it studies him, contrasting with the caustic grin, and their intent is now too clear for him to remain any optimistic about it.

Oh my God. They can and will kill him.

He has no idea of why someone would kill him, right now. Something tells him he must have done at least one thing to be a person to eliminate. He must know too much or snoop around too many places, and that must be displeasing to at least one individual. Kyoko did try to warn him, after all, of what sort of cases she may get on; but he didn’t mind because, simply put, he’d go through the apocalypse to be with her.

He’d very much appreciate her to be by his side, right now, considering he’s about to get killed, all alone, and it stings to think he’ll be drawing his last breath all on his own. If there was one thing he could be proud of about himself, it wasn’t any sort of talent nor ability, but his role as the heart of the class, the beacon of hope of the group as some have nicknamed him (it used to be ironic, but it grew on people); so, now that he’d need someone to pay him the favour back (now that he ever thought of it that way, but you know…), there’s nobody by his side and he’s left facing a demon in the darkness.

And that’s when one realization strikes him.

He’s going to die alone.

He’s going to die right here and ow without having had the opportunity to see all of the people he loves one last time and to tell them how grateful he was for every single one of them.

He won’t have the chance to hug Komaru one last time and tell her how she’s the best sister ever.

He won’t have the chance to thank his parents for their love and support, for comforting him in times of needs.

He won’t have the chance to tell the class he loved being their classmate and friend, how he spent some of the best years of his life with them, how they were the best thing to happen to him.

He won’t have the chance to tell Kyoko that… that…

The fingers around his throat slowly move from his neck to his head, eyes glancing into his, still burning with hellish flames, albeit suddenly expressionless, evoking nothing in his panicked mind. The person’s breathing gets heavier and heavier as his starts to disappear, second by second, as his own breath is starting to run short. He’d try to fight against it if his limbs weren’t, again, too heavy to move, too stiff to use, especially in a situation like that – adrenaline isn’t enough to save him, now.

And there he is, dying in his bed, slain during a moment where he was too vulnerable to escape. It’s sad, sad thing; but at least, it’ll be a quick and easy death, if it comes to it.

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

He wakes up to the soft light of the sun peeking through the curtains and the faint scent of lavender. The air is soft and a little cool, unlike what he can vaguely remember having felt before – only to jolt up when he remembers he shouldn’t even be alive to think that.

Two hands push him back into the bed, gentle yet firm. He doesn’t need to think much (and thank goodness for that, his head is heavy and feels like it could split in half if he used it too much) to know who this is, smile a little at the realization, then get even more confused about how he landed in this dream-like situation.

“Stay put,” Kyoko tells him in this tone that only her voice has, the one that’s stoic yet caring, in a way he can’t quite describe.

“B-but… I…”

He coughs, loudly, and his laboured breathing reminds him of something: the person’s, the creature’s.

“Everything’s okay, Makoto. You’ve just gone through a terrifying night. Everything else is fine. You’re still here.”

Her words are making him think a little more rationally about what felt like his death: it must have been a nightmare he didn’t wake up from. That’s weird, because usually, he’d wake up when he’d pass away in his dream, only to jump awake, drenched in sweat. The apocalypse happening before everyone’s eyes hasn’t helped.

“I don’t know what you saw while I was tending to you, even if I can imagine a version of it.”

He’s used to comforting Kyoko, not the other way around. She used to be very much uneasy with it, stumbling with her words and preferring silent gestures to words – which she still does and does very well at that with people she’s opened to – but she’s trying her best, he can tell.

“All I can tell you is that you were trying to escape from me but couldn’t.” She puts a damp washcloth on his forehead, prompting him to notice she isn’t wearing her gloves. “I assume you mistook me for someone else while I was simply trying to keep your fever in check.”

So, the figure… wasn’t trying to kill him, then.

“That’s probably it,” he replies with a cough interrupting him. “Sorry if I scared you.”

“It’s fine. Please tell me about it if you feel like it. I want to understand what happened when you pushed me away.”

“Will do,” he gives her the biggest smile he call pull off.

#bad things happen bingo #danganronpa #naegiri #makoto naegi #kyoko kirigiri #sickbed slaying #sickfic #my writing #i apologize #like this isnt peak naegiri #i'll need to give 'em justice later #just needed that prompt out the door

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youngdumbamericanteen · 4 years

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Mabel bad?

Oof sorry for never answering you nonnie! I’ve been pretty busy lately haha. But the post you’re responding to is a bit...old. I now understand Mabel a bit more now as a person, however I do still dislike her as a character because her flaws I was talking about in that post are never meaningfully addressed.

This might get a wee bit long, oops. Click for a big Gravity Falls writing analysis/essay/thingy.

It’s good for characters to have flaws. Flaws that actually affect them and have consequences. Otherwise you have something of a Mary Sue that isn’t relatable and has a story that’s too easy and boring for the audience. The narrative punishes or addresses those flaws and they present a challenge for the character.

But at the opposite end, you have characters who have flaws that the narrative never addresses, which means the characters never have to grow. There’s two reasons this is bad. One, that you can have the same issue where they don’t face any struggle or grow as characters and it’s a boring story, or two, people don’t generally like to root for characters who they’d want to punch if they ever met them irl. You can have a story with main characters who are bad people, but you have to either make the character likable in other ways, present the situation so that the audience can gather that they’re in the wrong and either be rooting for their downfall or their growth, or have their actual story be compelling enough that the need to know what happens next outweighs dislike for the character. (And all of these things often require the story to be told from said bad character’s point of view.) Gravity Falls doesn't really do any of these things. Or rather, it tries but is ineffective for around 50% of the viewers.

Mabel is often presented as a pure soul, good of heart and just overall a good person. But she’s got flaws. She’s selfish and a bit inconsiderate, which is normal and not an unforgivably terrible thing, especially for a 13 year old girl figuring out her place in the world. All the Pines are a bit selfish, I think it runs in their genes. But the thing is, the show will treat her selfishness as perfectly fair and normal, with anyone her selfishness affects being shown as in the wrong. She often guilts people, mainly Dipper, into sacrificing things for her while rarely making any sacrifices of her own. She does it to other characters as well, but here’s a brief list of times Dipper has sacrificed something for Mabel (which I compiled with the help of this post on Quora):

Tourist Trapped: Dipper spends almost the entire time worried about Mabel’s safety and trying to protect her, while she just brushes him off and laughs at him.

The Hand that Rocks the Mabel: Dipper agrees to break up with Gideon for her.

Time Traveler’s Pig: Mabel insists that Dipper give up the reality that doesn't break his heart so that she can adopt Waddles, and when he initially refuses she purposely endangers the space-time continuum as retaliation.

Little Dipper: Mabel is very angry about Dipper making himself taller, even though Dipper would not have resorted to it if now for her teasing. She immediately demands and fights for the magic flashlight, causing it to fall into Gideon’s hands.

Summerween: Mabel drags Dipper out to go trick-or-treating in a costume he dislikes because she’d planned on them having a duo costume.

Boss Mabel: I shouldn’t even really have to explain this one, the whole episode is about her going on a power trip.

The Deep End: Mabel embarks on a rescue mission for Mermando, doing and using things that would lead to Dipper being fired from the pool job he loves, without consulting him at all. She hears his concerns and instead of just explaining she’s saving Mermando the first time, she completely ignores him and speeds off, destroying more pool property and ensuring he’ll be fired.

Carpet Diem: Dipper informs her of the the issues he has with her roommate habits, and she completely denies any fault, even though she and her friends had legitimately destroyed the room and the mini-golf course the twins had built. The two of them both overreact, and act selfishly throughout the entire episode, but she absolutely refuses to listen to him.

Boyz Crazy: This one isn’t Dipper but I still wanted to mention it because she is so ridiculously selfish throughout the whole episode, to the point where it’s to her and the people she loves’ detriment.

Dreamscapers: Again not Dipper or a sacrifice, but her worst nightmare is apparently losing her cuteness and becoming ugly. I dunno if that’s exactly selfish or anything but God did it make me wrinkle my nose in distaste.

Sock Opera: After promising to help Dipper with the laptop, she almost immediately abandons him for her crush of the week, then proceeds to ignore him for, and inconvenience him with, her puppet show, taking his things without asking and expecting him to be completely cool with all her actions. Bill literally mentions her selfishness to manipulate Dipper and it completely works.

The Love God: Dipper leaves Wendy and her friends in chaos to help fix Mabel’s mess.

Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons: Mabel, her friends, and Stan all make fun of Dipper and Ford and insist they should have full use of the living room.

Dipper and Mable vs the Future: This is one of the big ones that people talk about. Mable finds out that Dipper might want to stay as Ford’s apprentice and becomes incredibly upset because she dreamed of the two of them having fun in high school together. She sees Dipper and immediately makes it about her and her feelings, treating something he’d been dreaming of all summer (being The Author’s apprentice) as some direct attack on her happiness. She proceeds to literally give Bill the ability to start the apocalypse to avoid being separated from Dipper, all without having any sort of meaningful conversation with Dipper or considering his feelings.

Weirdmageddon Part 2: Escape From Reality: Out of all of these, this might be the one that gets to me the most. Mabel, seemingly knowing full well that she’s trapped by Bill, creates an imaginary fantasy land and refuses to leave just to spite Dipper for considering taking the apprenticeship. And despite doing all this, and attempting to convince him to stay with her, she creates an alternate “better” version of Dipper who’s “cool” and supportive and very, very, different from the real Dipper.

And this isn’t even mentioning all the times she just assumed she was completely in the right about something or had the moral high ground. Mabel frequently makes rush decisions because she thinks everything should be her way or how she thinks is right.

And I want to say again, none of these things are unforgivable. Honestly, a lot of the things on the list are pretty standard sibling things, and like she isn’t even always in the wrong. The issue is that I’m naming at least 15 times where Mabel has been selfish or forced someone to give something up for her, and she almost never learns her lesson or is punished by the narrative. There are also only 2 or 3 times I can think of where Mabel sacrificed anything for Dipper, and they were all times he was in actual danger or someone had to talk to her and say she messed up and needed to fix her mistake.

Dipper, on the other hand, sacrifices things for Mabel, faces consequences for his mistakes and his flaws, learns substantial lessons, apologizes, and rarely, if ever, repeats said mistakes. Now, this doesn’t mean that Mabel is awful and Dipper isn’t. I mean, Dipper does some pretty crumby things and has to be told he’s in the wrong or to apologize. And Mabel isn’t a bad person. Like legitimately, that is not what I want anyone to take away from this. She does genuinely love her brother and care about his wellbeing. She’s just a little selfish and unthinking sometimes, like anyone else.

Like I said, my issue is that it goes unpunished, and she repeats the same type of offense wayyy more than any other character. She’ll disappoint Dipper enough that he’d make a deal with Bill and then everyone will still say she’s the best and most caring person ever. That’s just annoying, honestly, or it is to me at least.

This isn’t dunking on her, this is dunking on the writers. And they aren’t unforgivable either, I mean Gravity Falls was a masterful web of foreshadowing, character building, lore, plot work, and incredibly intelligent humor mixed with jokes kids would love too. I don’t blame them for dropping the ball on Mabel, and I don’t hate her or the show or anything because of it. I just want us to acknowledge this flaw of the show, and also have people get it when Mabel gets on my nerves a little bit.

#ask b #i adore mabel as a character/person #but as an example of writing? she's not so hot #gravity falls #gf #mabel #mabel pines #mabel salt #anti mabel #<< those are just in case

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fizzingwizard · 3 years

Text

Things my dad now believes (now, as in he didn’t believe them before, but now it’s convenient to believe them):

- The Capitol riots were staged by “Antifa,” and the FBI, who says no they weren’t, is corrupt and evil

- The real date of inauguration is in March because that’s when it was before FDR changed it and therefore counting the electoral ballots now is treason

- BLM protesters got treated lightly and Capitol rioters got treated like animals

- The Georgia runoff was rigged in the same way the presidential election was rigged

- Absolutely any facts, videos, photos, articles, whatever, that show anything otherwise are “leftist bullshit,” even if they actually come from one of his favorite right wing websites!!

Like the mental gymnastics here are astounding. There’s no talking with these people. It’s a very stark good vs evil scenario for them. The fact that I hate Trump doesn’t mean I love Biden, nor do I want to defend his decisions in the future if I think they’re wrong. I want to be able to be critical of my government when I think it deserves it and supportive when I think it should be supportive. But I can’t do that with my dad. If I’m critical of Trump, regardless of the reason, I’m a “sheep.” And if I say one thing critical of Biden (or anyone on the left), it’s “SEE? I TOLD YOU. THIS IS WHAT TRUMP MEANS WHEN HE SAID ‘DRAIN THE SWAMP.’ TRUMP IS THE ONLY GOOD THING.”

Seriously, HOW can you believe your judgment is sound when there’s a HUMAN BEING you believe can DO NO WRONG?? That is not normal. That is a cult.

And my parents divorced so my dad’s now living by himself with nothing but his political cult and depression, so I’m afraid to say anything at all no matter how much he blows up on Facebook, because I’m worried what it could do to his mental health. He already considers all his liberal friends deserters who hate him for no reason. (The truth is he pushed them away by calling them stupid to their faces and then insisting he meant stupid in a “nice” way.)

It’s hugely ironic because, when I was about 12, he got into a big fight with a longtime friend of his who was a Democrat, because my dad felt that the Democrat friend had called him stupid. He has not spoken to that friend since. One time, he felt he had been called stupid, and he dropped all contact, but after pushing the rest of his family away multiple times over the past four years, he’s the one feeling betrayed that they no longer want to talk to him. It’s because talking with you is unpleasant, Dad. That’s the reason.

It’s fine to talk with him as long as we don’t discuss politics, and since he knows he and I don’t see eye to eye on basically anything, he’s been good about not bringing it up with me in the past. Unfortunately I still see his stuff constantly on Facebook. I don’t interact with it, even though it drives me crazy. But that’s all I can do. My mind is boggled. How do you not see the convenience in all these conspiracy theories??? The instant something goes wrong, they change their position to accommodate. The instant things look grim for them, they pop up with some baseless accusation that “it’s all a plot to trick you!” etc etc. It’s just like that guy who predicted the apocalypse, then when it didn’t happen, re-predicted it and people still believed him. Guess what... still waiting for that apocalypse. -__-‘

at this point I have no expectations that my dad will ever leave Team Trump. I’ve just got to consider it entertainment, I guess, to see what new take the conspiracy theorists come up with to pretend they’re still right despite all evidence to the contrary. Honestly - if the Democrats, the GOP, the FBI, the Supreme Court, and the media are ALL corrupt to the point that these conspiracy theorists believe, they should be leaving the US in droves. Because that is an untenable situation. The system is not fixable if that’s how bad it is. Instead they whine online from their basements and then, when their whining results in things like the Capitol riots, they say it “wasn’t them” but “support it anyway.” Yeah, y’all seem so scared, so heroic. Martyrs, all of you. Typing inflammatory lies on the internet and then denying any culpability for the violence it incites - yep, that definitely sounds like True Patriotism!

#fizz's life #politics

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mittensmorgul · 6 years

Note

Hi, the “why didn’t Cas go with them to save Dean” anon here. When I said “Cas went with them after Lucifer” I was also referring to s12 like in 12x07 and 12x08. Thank you for clarifying that Michael is just established as more powerful, but why would Lucifer be weaker than an AU archangel when their only difference is what universe they’re from? Why are AU archangels more powerful? Sorry if I made this too complicated, I just struggle with following the canon for magical powers sometimes.:P

I think you’re expecting a deeper canonical reasoning for some of this stuff that canon itself is basically just laying out in concrete terms here. Sometimes canon just Does That. Canon is not required to explain or justify itself when the explanation or justification is just... irrelevant to the larger narrative. This is a really difficult thing to explain, because this isn’t a value judgement on a character or a plot point or viewers who headcanoned something very different before canon laid down a New Fact. This is just... objectively what canon does sometimes. The trick for viewers is to use these new fact to readjust previously held headcanons and perceptions to fit with what canon is telling us is actually reality.

Why are AU archangels more powerful? Because canon said so. Because 13.07 hammered that point home. But okay, even if you accept that, and you still want an explanation as to why? Well, sorry, canon hasn’t given us one.

We can apply headcanon to this, look at the canon we already have in the past about archangels in our universe, and attempt to deduce the reasons for the difference, but honestly we don’t have enough information about the AU to say for certain. We know that universe is different from ours in fundamental ways. Sam and Dean were not the end-all, be-all apocalypse vessels for that universe, you know? Or else the angels would’ve made sure John was resurrected to father them into existence with Mary one way or another, and the apocalypse as it was prophesied in OUR universe would’ve marched on the same way.

(we know both Zachariah and Lucifer threatened to just keep bringing Sam and Dean back to life when they threatened to kill themselves to stop the apocalypse, so if Sam and Dean were the destined vessels in the AU it seems like the angels would’ve just... done the thing and MADE it happen, you know? Something is fundamentally different there on a cosmic level)

Not to mention the way AU Michael, in direct contrast to OUR Michael, has this disdain for God. Our Michael was trying to be the dutiful son despite God’s abandonment, but AU Michael made his own plans instead, almost as if his experience with God was very different. Which is interesting in its own right, bringing up the notion that maybe God really is absent in their universe, and what that might mean on a cosmic scale. Even if these thoughts don’t lead us to a concrete, absolutely solid explanation for why AU Michael is more powerful, they give support to the notion that if canon unequivocally states that is a fact, we’re given leeway to accept it as fact.

Sometimes canon requires us to apply critical thinking skills and make these sorts of leaps of faith, to fill in the gaps however we see fit in the moment. Just because we’re being asked to build the mental bridge and trust it’s solid enough to cross the divide doesn’t mean the bridge doesn’t exist.

But this does bring me to one of the dangers of the viewer attempting to fill those narrative chasms in with concrete, rather than just trusting the invisible bridge. I’m gonna call it Headcanon Fatigue. Bear with me, because one of my favorite things to do with canon is to attempt to explain it all with one Grand Unified Theory of Everything (which, heck, is why s11 is still my favorite meta-wise, because it DID solidify at least the cosmic-level Grand Unification via Love Theory, which honestly is still playing out in aftereffects). But often canon isn’t ASKING us to fill in all the canyons yet. It WANTS us to slowly construct a latticework of intricate bridges and stairways to navigate the canyons and explore all the nooks and crevices, but to not become so distracted by what we find to assume we’ve actually explored the entire canyon as a whole or understood the tiny fraction of what we’ve explored correctly, you know?

Like the whole Angel Vessel Consent Issue floating around a lot of the speculation I’ve seen about Michael and Dean lately.

A lot of that speculation was based on the single case of possession of Donnie Finneman in 5.03, and I think it leaves PLENTY of questions and like... a grand total of zero answers. So the fact that Dean wasn’t rendered comatose by Michael’s possession? NOT BREAKING THAT OLD CANON, because what we saw back then was unreliable at best, and an outright deception at worst. Deception that’s only been compounded by years of headcanon being built up around a single incident in canon that we never got a real explanation for.

Let’s compare the actual FACTS of Donnie Finneman’s case with easily misconstrued opinions versus various headcanons I’ve seen solidify into concrete, inflexible assumptions over the years:

Donnie, the vessel of Raphael, was the mechanic at a gas station where a skirmish between angels and demons had broken out”

FRAMINGHAM: Would not have believed my eyes if I hadn't seen it myself. We're talking a riot. Full scale.DEAN: How many?FRAMINGHAM: Thirty, forty, in all-out kill-or-be-killed combat?

So there was a generalized riot, then a sudden pure, bright white explosion, and the only one left alive in the middle of that was the mechanic, Donnie, who Cas immediately identifies as Raphael taking his vessel.

But... what led to Donnie saying yes? And WHY were those angels and demons skirmishing at that specific gas station? And WHY did Raphael chose that time and place to take his vessel?

Because we have to assume that Donnie was in the middle of that battle, you know? Can you even imagine just being at work doing an oil change or something, and suddenly there’s this all-out riot between supernatural beings all around you? Like, seriously, that would probably be enough for ME to want to say yes to a cosmic being offering me protection or whatever in exchange for a yes there...

So was that entire scenario arranged by Raphael specifically to secure consent from his vessel? I mean, that’s one logical possibility.

Now let’s look at Raphael for a moment, throughout canon and not just at this one episode. Let’s remember what he thinks of humanity in general, and what his reasons for wanting to restart the apocalypse in s6 were. He HATED humanity. He was TIRED of playing that role of watching over them. He was BORED with humanity, and just wanted it all to be over. He wasn’t passionate about remaking the world in his own image the way Lucifer was, or the way AU Michael seems to be now. He’s just done.

So with that knowledge, why would Raphael even care about taking a vessel at all? What was his purpose? Why did he bother to arrange to have Donnie reduced to the ready and waiting “open phone line” of a practically empty vessel Cas and Dean saw in the hospital? What exactly was that entire situation about?

Because that’s what makes no sense with the rest of canon, you know?

So I suggest that rather than break your brain trying to resolve all of extant canon with that singular anomaly, you look at the entire scenario from the opposite perspective. Canon has been repeatedly inviting us to do this, after all.

It’s like... we aren’t so petty as to insist that the mission Dean and Sam set out on to kill Lilith at the beginning of s4 was actually the true mission they SHOULD have been going on to stop the apocalypse, you know? The entire season was a misdirect focused around the goal of killing Lilith under the assumption that SHE would start the apocalypse and they needed to stop her from doing that, but in reality she WOULD start the apocalypse-- with her carefully planned death at the exact right time and place. Sam and Dean (and Cas) were played for fools in the end, and everything they thought had been true had been overturned and the truth was only uncovered at the last minute, when it was too late to change course.

And I think a lot of the assumptions about archangel possession are based on those early (and deliberately misleading) assumptions based on Donnie Finneman’s case. Like... we take Cas’s word that Michael would leave Dean in a worse state than Raphael had left Donnie... but why do we accept that as a literal, surface-level assessment based on concrete fact? Because Cas said so? Cas also said they needed to kill Lilith at one point in order to stop her from breaking the final seal, but we later learned he’d been lied to about that, as well. I mean, Cas asked DEAN for help in uncovering Raphael in 5.03, because CAS DIDN’T HAVE ANSWERS AND NEEDED DEAN TO HELP “TALK TO PEOPLE” TO GET THEM. So assuming Cas’s guesses there, or Cas’s warnings to Dean about worst case scenarios of what MIGHT happen if he said yes to Michael can be seen on just that level-- since we know Cas is willing to lay down EVERYTHING in order to stop Dean from saying yes in the end. I mean, hello 5.18.

But now that we have that said, let’s go back and try and guess what happened to Donnie in the first place. Was he somehow gravely injured during the skirmish that led to Raphael showing up and coercing a yes out of him? I mean, we just learned the sorts of torture Zachariah was willing to impart on Dean in order to coerce a yes out of him in 5.01, and in 5.03 we also learn the sorts of trickery Lucifer will resort to in order to coerce a yes out of Sam, and in 5.04 we learn the lengths Zachariah is willing to go to get that yes again, and we learn again in 5.16 just how far Heaven will go... so why not apply that to Raphael, as well?

What if Donnie’s semi-comatose state was a direct result of injuries he sustained in that skirmish? What if Raphael had arranged that just so he could make Donnie into his notion of a “perfect vessel?” I.e. one not encumbered with an annoying human consciousness he’d have to deal with? Like Michael securing that yes from John in 5.13 (and in 1978), waiting until he was gravely injured and promising to make everything right? To save his wife and heal his body in exchange for that yes?

Why do we assume Raphael used any different tactic to secure Donnie’s yes?

Like... “I can relieve your suffering, deliver your soul to eternal rest and peace where your pain will end, if you allow me the use of your vessel.” If I’d been Donnie in that state? I’d have been tempted to agree.

So why do we headcanon that Donnie was Fine And Dandy before Raphael possessed him? And that the results in that hospital were only the result of Raphael’s possession? Because of that one offhand comment from Cas?

DEAN: I take it that's not Raphael anymore.CASTIEL: Just an empty vessel.DEAN: So is this what I'm looking at if Michael jumps in my bones?CASTIEL: No, not at all. Michael is much more powerful. It'll be far worse for you.

But we assume Dean was referring to the physical state Raphael left Donnie in here. So... why do we assume that Castiel, an angel, was also referring to the physical state of Donnie’s empty vessel with that comment?

Nothing in canon is suggesting that’s the correct interpretation of that scenario. In fact, current canon is actively refuting it. And it HAS been actively refuting it since Sam first said yes to Lucifer and was not rendered a blubbering vegetative lump of sasquatch in the aftermath, you know? NONE of the canon between 5.03 and 14.03 has supported that assumption that it was only Raphael’s power that rendered Donnie in such a state.

So that’s like... the opposite problem to the one you’re having making that leap onto a solid surface that canon is insisting is real, even if we can’t see the support structure holding it in place. We’re not being asked to pave over everything between point A and point B here. In fact, I’d suggest that attempting to pave that road could be as misguided as assuming that all the archangel possession canon post 5.03 must somehow support the headcanons that formed around Raphael’s possession of Donne Finneman. Because that’s not how canon works.

Sometimes it’s asking you to build bridges, and sometimes it’s just telling you the ground is solid, and going poking under your feet for the support structure is just gonna lead to you toppling headfirst into the ravine. Not fun at all. :P

*scrolls back up to reread your original question and wonders where the heck I took a wrong turn... probably Albuquerque...*

#spn 14.03 #spn 5.03 #spn 4.22 #spn 5.01 #spn 5.04 #vessels and meatsuits #on the nature of angel grace #angels and souls #spn 13.07 #dinkle #Grand Unification via Love Theory #canon vs headcanon #wtf happened here...#i have a massive migraine... i'm blaming this whole post on that...#Anonymous

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lodestarslagoon · 6 years

Text

AHS Apocalypse 8x03 Live Stream

SPOILERS UNDER CUT

Oh I thought the opening scene looked like the Dinah, Coco, Mallory descencum. Damn Michael...

Night Vision of the soul? Tell me about your powers!

Lol, spoiler, entitled, helpless.

OMG COCO! Fire Mallory lol

“Something Dark”

DAMN CALL HER SHALLOW!

Og again? He knows Dinah?

SHE’S NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH?!

DINAH IS A WITCH!

MICHAEL CONFIRMED IT!

Ish

Dinah is in the sanctuary!

Evil soul?

Oh nvm, it’s Andre.

Unless Dinah is Andre’s son...?

God this is one opening scene of mind fuckery.

I want Dinah to use some powers

Mallory’s made for that world?

Mallory should want to leave.

Ew what an ugly close up to Michael.

Oh Mallory has a darkness..... Unfun.

MALLORY PUSHED HIM BACK

MALLORY IS A WITCH!

OMG MALLORY PYROKINESISED MICHAEL!

That’s right Mallory! Call his ass right back out!!!!

OMG MY THEORY THAT DINAH MALLORY AND COCO R WITCHES ARE RIGHT!!!

THEY DID DESCECUM WHEN THE OTHER 3 WALK IN!

BEST OPENING SCENE IN AHS HISTORY!!!

I swear the opening theme has been changing scenes every week.

ITS COMMERCIALS AND I AM SCREAMING IN EXCITMENT STILL THAT MALLORY, BILLIE LOURD, AND DINAH, SAME NAME AS BLACK CANARY, ARE WITCHES!!!

I still wonder if Coco’s a witch based on set pics Ryan Murphy released.

I am so excited to find out how Dinah knows Michael.

Adina Porter came out and said the scripts made her mind twist and turn, and well I hope it’s true cause it’ll be interesting to see a strong black witch since Angela Basset is too busy with 911 to come back as Marie.

Omg Michael’s doing a spell, ritual.

I wonder if it’s Tate father of devil father.

OHHHH It’s a scrying!!!

He thought he destroyed them all?

Michael did the witches?!

HE DESTROYED WHO? THE WITCHES?!

I cant with this fucking shit. Omg Witches need to ocme and take hsi ass back.

Boiling blood is actually kind of a cool effect.

Am I the only one whos still scare dof Michael’s demon face that happened earlier?

Oh yay the snakes are still around.

Ave Satanis... “Awaken Satan” right?

Kathy Bate’s voice is so distinct.

Her own self made costume is adorable.

The tricker treatgiver is a famous actress I remember her from places.

Wasn’t Kathy Bates in Rosemary’s baby?

Go Young Kathy Bates! Slap him.

Oh shit, she’s a good fighter!

Oh she’s an agent. This makes sense.

Can we have Kathy Bates in Spy 2?

Can someone inform Melissa McCarthy and 50 Cent Piece to get Kathy in on this?

Oh everything happened on Halloween in Kathy Bates’ life. Nice.

Okay as nice as robot Kathy Bates’ life story is, can we get back to the witches?

I still swear Mallory and Coco are connected because they’re witchy powers keep them together.

I am so validated by this knowledge they were witches.

Awww Venable showing support for Kathy Bates is actually touching.

Omg Venable being so adamant on Michael is very interesting.

“That’s Outrageous”

“If you die here, Justice dies here” Really? you’re the sadists here!

“Kill everyone!” Jeez Kathy, these methods are nice.

“ You’re mean and self invovled enough to survive anything, and I’m a robot”

Oh is this guy the Coco husband who screams “You bitch?”

Someone saw a leaked pic that he appears again I think.

I was a finalist on top chef omg hahahhaa

Omg, he is very good “tracking” her for a year.

No one sees the figure approaching behind him?

I wonder where this guy got the gun.

Wait I guess we know officially that the apocalypse did actually happen.

How come these people can breath fine without pain like the people Michael claims he saw.

mother with kids^

OMG ANOTHER WITCH BREACH?!

STEP FORTH WITCHES PLEASE!!!!!

MADISON I INVOKE THEE!!!

They teleported in already I bet.

Ugh.... Why can’t we just reveal the witches already.

Anyone have any guesses where Michael did the ritual? I am very curious? How do people not notice things that happen in this place?

Apples... cause they’re fucking for Adam and Eve aka UCLA and Jail Girl

lol a nurtition blog!

Oh Venable happy enough to try the red delicious.

Vine providence? Wtf Kathy Bates....

Before they die? Don’t you just kill them anyways?

“Not a bad apple in the bunch?” Is that symbolism for they all deserve to go to the sancutary?

WHERE ARE THE WITCHES?

I could honestly care less about Coco’s husbando bf guy.

How can he breath the air and not the guy in the mask?

This Nuclear fallout is making less and less sense to me.

Less sense than where are the witches of all things.

I ownder how Coco will react ot seeing him.

MALLORY STARE AT THE FIRE AND INVOKE THINGS PLEASE!

Oh another Gray got a speaking line.

God I have a lot of thoughts tonight.

Celebration and Comradery?

Wait the only saved Asian is a Gray....

Victorian Masquerade Ball.... @holypancakes is about to blow it!

What are they going to be able to make in this bunker.

Omg Coco, and Gay Evan Peters destroying Mallory is so relatable and sad.

Omg Stew!!! I love how they love Stew.

“I don’t wanna rub it in for the ones who don’t get picked” lol

“No offense Mallory” BAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAJA

These 1v1′s is hilarious.

OMG WHY THE FACE AGAIN :’(

Oh Mallory’s coming out of the broom closet!

Oh they’re laughing at him.

NO MALLORY ITS NOT THE BLAST!

OMG DARK PHEONIX! Shit thats so meta, with Quicksilver right there lol.

Coco commanding shit.

I know she probably won’t but pleas Mallory do something.

This is such a Cinderella point.

Shit Coco is kind of getting a little far right now.

She totally had a point with Evie’s room.

OH IS THIS WHEN MADISON APPEARS IN THE BEAK MASK TO DINAH OR WHOEVER IN THE TRAILER?!

I know it’s not confirmed but we all know that mask was the same Madison wore for to scare Zoe in Bitchcraft.

LOL “Sweet horses”

Lol Mallory has to introduce her.

LOL THAT BOO

FX WTF DON’T U FUCK UP THE PICTURE AUDIO NOW!

Oh shit Venable knows the Ghosts situation.

I mean if it’s been 18 months, this has happened before.

I wonder how many monologes Sarah Paulson has this season.

WHAT MUSIC WILL PLAY I WONDER?!

No idea what this symbolizes honestly.

Oh UCLA’s wire crown is actually creative.

OMG THE FOG IS ROLLING IN WHICH MEANS THE WITCHES CAN COME!

Madison is not that tall, so idk who that could be.

Mr. Langdon doesn’t seem that tall either.

Is Coco dying? Damn....

I still pray it’s Madison, but still.

Wait Coco got into Harvard?

I hope it’s like by real merit. Not money.

BITCH YOU WERE TRYING TO BE AN INFLUENCER U NEVER MADE IT!

Analingus omg Coco.

Coco’s about to die sigh.

Coco can you not....

Short tongue and sensitive gag reflex. sigh this show.

Oh shit Brock I forgot he was around lol.

HOW DARE SHE INVOKE SUSHI!

Brock doesn’t look happy.

NOOOOOO COCO!!!!!!!!

SOMEONE VITAL VITALUS HER!

WHERE IS MISTY?!

BRING COCO BACK!!!!

COCO WAS SEEN IN OTHER SET PARTS AND SHIT!

Lol festivities and your gun. Bitch, has no clue who Michael is.

So many snakes.

I wonder how bored they must be that this si so thirlling for them.

I wonder how many times these peopl have bobbed for apples. I think it’s harder than this I think.

I also think it’s weird UCLA and Jail Girl are so calm right now about all this. They were about to be murdered last week. I don’t knwo how I could deal with these people.

I wonder how bad this mass suicide will end up.

Oh Gay Evan Peters sis howing signs.

Mallory might be immune?

Oh nvm she threw up.

Oh UVLA had blood on Jail Girl ew.

Gay Evan Peters looked so fake.

I wonder what it’s like to act this scene.

Okay so where is Misty to bring everyone back?

Literally we know Misty is in the first 5 episodes since the trailer promos only filmed the first 5 episodes at time they made it. I thought she’d be in later.

Misty being team Michael would make so much sense based on what we just saw.

“Oh Venable you think you killed everyone? HA! Watch this,” Michael shows Misty who dances around and brings everyone back.

“And here’s the trick” hahahaha

I’m still waiting for Michael to bring Misty in.

I wonder when they’re going to realize Coco’s like head stabbed.

Oh shit he’s just open about the laptop being there lol.

I think this is funny, let alone Michael.

Oh shit, she passed the test!

I wouldn’t do that either.

NO SCARY FACT IS COMING BACK :’(

Oh wait she’s on his side duh #HailSatan

OH SHIT!!! CONCILUM!!!!

BE THAT WARLOCK MICHAEL!

I know why she did it.

Michael’s monologe right now is so confusing.

Not what he’s saying, but how interested I am.

Where is the witches?

Someone from his childhood?!

The Beautiful Boy? I’m still confused by this.

Okay so this song is so calming over these corpses and bile.

Brock is around doing what right now?

OH SONG CHANGE?!

THERE IS A HOUSE IN NEW ORLEANS?!

Oh no, it might not be?

OMG THEY’RE COMING!

THEY’RE HERE!

OMG I BET THEY ARE!!!!

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

THEY’RE IN MY EYE SIGHT!

I SEE THEM!!!

I’M DYING!!!!

I AM CANARY CRYING ALL OVER THE PLACE RIGHT NOW!!!!

OMG MY EYES MY HEART MY LIFE!

I CAN’T HANDLE THIS OMG YASSS BRING THEM BACK!

BRING BACK MALLORY AND CO!

FIND OUR SISTERS YES!!!!!!

I KNEW IT COCO IS A SISTER!

YASSSS RESURGENCE!

Madison looked happy to see them back.

OMG YES MADISON KNEW! SHE GOT THE LAST LINE!

AHHHHH SHE GOT THE LAST LINE!!!!

i am so happy!!!!!

#ahs #ahs apocalypse spoilers #ahs apocalypse

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kingdomcomefic · 6 years

Text

Heaven’s Gate

One look from you and I’m on that faded love, out of my body and flying above.

In an old warehouse off South Johnson Street in Amarillo, Texas the angel Castiel stood, leaning his back against a support beam, leaving a voicemail on Sam Winchester’s cell phone. “Sam, it’s Castiel. Again...Listen, I’ve left a message with Dean already. I’m in Amarillo. Have you made any progress in finding Gabriel? I sensed no power here but a small coven of vampires, a few demons. I’ve dispatched with most of them. I’m going to head back to the bunker to check in if I don’t hear from you or Dean soon.” He hung up the phone just as he heard a scuffling sound behind him. He stood still, acting as if he hadn’t heard the sound, but he couldn’t help tilting his head in curiosity at what he sensed. It was something like a demon from the level of energy he was feeling, but something was off. He felt the demon drawing near and he spun in a battle stance, grabbing the demon’s outstretched arm and slamming his hand onto its forehead, but he held his power when he noticed who he had in his grasp.

“Whoa, there, Clarence. Ain’t callin’ me baby. Why the sudden change?” Meg quipped, nervously. She smiled flirtatiously, trying to hide just how overjoyed she was to actually be standing in front of the real Castiel after all this time.

He slowly and gently slid his hand from her forehead to her cheek before dropping it to hold onto her other arm, holding her firmly in his grasp in case this was all some kind of trick. “I never called you ‘baby’,” he said, softly and seriously.

“It’s a Destiny’s Child song, Cas,” she explained.

“I know it’s a song by the group Destiny’s Child.” In response to the look of surprise that crossed her face he shrugged. “I do know some things now. What I want to know is...How are you alive? What is this?”

“When you busted out of that nothing-place we were in it woke me up, and I was apparently just as annoying as you were to it’s king. Got out. I’ve been trying to catch up with you ever since. I’ve killed vampires, demons, hell I even sneaked into Asmodeus’ throne room to try to get the low down on that nephilim kid,” she said, then snorted a laugh. “You wouldn’t believe what I thought--”

“What do you know about Jack?” Castiel demanded, letting her arm go as if she’d burned him.

Meg frowned. “Hey, now. Easy. I just know the basics. He’s Lucifer’s kid and he’s part hummingbird. You’re really protective of the kid for somebody who’s immortal enemies with his daddy-o,” she ssid. “What’s going on around here Castiel? A few weeks ago I saw Asmodeus posing as you and doing the retcon on some guy, demons are looking for Lucifer’s kid, Lucifer was freaking begging for change in broad humanity. What is the deal?”

As she finished speaking Castiel raised his eyebrows and drew a deep breath. “It is all very, very complicated.”

“Un-complicate it for me, Clarence.” She put her hands in her back pockets and raised an eyebrow, “You’re not getting rid of me easy, so spill it.”

He turned his eyes toward the ceiling as if the answer might be written there. “When I came back from the Empty--that ‘nothing-place’ we were in--something wasn’t right. I could feel that it wasn’t. I...Can’t fly. I can’t heal people if they’re too injured. It’s like I’m only a fraction of the celestial being that I once was. I’m still strong, I can still smite, but anything that requires my full angelic powers, I’m...Incapable of. Have you noticed--”

“Yeah, I can’t smoke out. Tried a few times during some hairy fights, but to no avail, and I have no telekinetic powers at all. Just my translocation,” she said in frustration. “See? It happens to everybody, Clarence,” Meg joked, trying to ease the dark mood.

It seemed to work, as one corner of Castiel’s lips quirked up. “I have missed your terrible humor,” he said, looking at her fondly before shaking his head slowly. “I feel like something is wrong. Amidst this new feeling of fracture there have been many tribulations.”

“Such as?” Meg said, moving to settle herself to sit on a pile of old, stacked up shipping crates.

He paced in front of her as he spoke. “The boy, Jack. I care for him as if he was my own son, I do. I believe that Sam and Dean think of him as family as well. Most especially Sam, who seems to sense the same brokenness in Jack that Sam himself feels. I think he identifies with Jack because of his history as one of Hell’s tools intended for use to cause destruction,” Castiel said, in a that’s-just-the-truth manner. “Then there’s Apocalypse World, and trying to open the rift to get Jack and Mary Winchester safely back to this dimension--”

“Hubba-what? What did you just say? This dimension? There’s another dimension? Mary Winchester?” Her eyes were wide with surprise.

“Yes, Mary Winchester, and that’s not even the most remarkable thing that’s happened since you were slain. To the point of dimensions...there are thousands of other dimensions. Heaven, Hell, the Empty? They’re not constructs within just this universe, but in many. In this realm there are under a dozen angels left, but in the Apocalypse World there are whole armies. In this realm there are Winchesters, in the other they were never born and the world is a wasteland.”

“Is there and Apocalypse World Castiel?” she asked, suggestively.

He narrowed his gaze. “Most likely. You’ll never find out,” he said sternly.

“Aw, why? Let me have a little fun. Two Clarences? Could be interesting,” she smiled devilishly, enjoying how brooding he was.

Castiel leaned his shoulder against the nearby beam. “Meg, if there is a Castiel there, then there is a high probability that he’s nothing like me. He would smite you on sight. You’re a demon, and the angels there do horrible things to humans, let alone abominations.”

“What if there’s an alternate me? You think he would have killed her way back when in that ring of holy fire?”

“Very likely. I could have, but there was something about you that made me hesitate. I still don’t know what that could have been. I’m glad I didn’t.” He inspected the seams on his coat sleeves absentmindedly as he spoke, only meeting her gaze at the end.

“I’m glad you didn’t. Would have really sucked trying to get out of the Empty on my own,” she laughed shortly.

“You would try, wouldn’t you?” he asked, smiling softly, not really needing an answer.

Meg cleared her throat to break the silence that had fallen. “So, why Amarillo?”

“I’m here looking for Gabriel, my brother. We’ve recently learned that he’s alive, and we need his help getting through the rift to get Jack and Mary.”

“I’ll help you,” she said immediately, “I’ll go with you, too. I’m still okay to fight.” She stood, crossing her arms.

He put up a hand in a halting motion. “Absolutely not. I can’t let you go with us when we finally open the rift.”

Outrage crossed her features. “Excuse me? I’ve busted ass to find you, and now you think you’re going to another dimension without me? I don’t think so. I’m coming with you.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Why the hell not?!” she argued.

“Because I need to know that you’re here and safe! At least as safe as you can be. My friends--my family are already risking their lives to go there and bring back Jack and Mary. I can’t risk losing you, too. Risk losing you again. I won’t gamble with your life,” he said, the anger he’d begun speaking with melting into weariness.

For the first time she really noticed how tired he looked. In an ageless vessel, he looked like he’d aged a decade. She stood silent for a moment, meeting his gaze firmly, before finally glancing to the floor. “What can I do here, then? Let me help you.”

“Avoid hunters and angels, and keep your head low. If things go wrong, I want to know that you’re not in harm’s way. Is that acceptable? You could even look after the bunker, maybe. It’s in Lebanon, Kansas--”

“The old power plant?” she asked, annoyed with herself.

“How do you know that?”

“Sometimes I just miss what’s right in front of my damned face,” she huffed. “You know I love laying low, but Castiel--”

He stepped towards her and leaned down, resting his forehead against her’s. He closed his eyes, and said softly, “I’m pleased that you’re not dead. Try to stay that way, please?”

She blew out a breath slowly. “Because you asked nicely. I’ll do this for you, but if the fight comes to me, I’m not going to back down.”

He drew back and looked at her, one corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “I would expect nothing less of you, Meg,” he said.

#Megstiel #Kingdom Come fic #Season 13 Parallel #Castiel and Meg #Supernatural Fanfiction #Supernatural Fandom #Meg 2.0 #Amarillo By Morning #Unfinished Business Cut Scenes

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not-a-space-alien · 6 years

Text

Earth Helps Back, Part 3: Newfound Old Friends

On AO3 (AO3 is glitching so idk if it actually went up or not--will fix later)

It’s hard to describe the effect of not knowing anything about someone and then suddenly having an encyclopedia’s worth of knowledge about them dumped into your head. Anathema had been granted memories that were not hers, but they were in the past, they were memories. So when they dropped into her, it felt as though she had always known everything she currently did.

As a consequence, Anathema in that moment felt rather like Aziraphale and Crowley were very close friends that she had known for a long time.

It’s kind of the business of witches to know things they’re not supposed to, but this was a step above and beyond what Anathema usually dealt with. The sudden rush of having memories spanning back millennia felt like it physically knocked the wind out of her.

She remembered the Garden, the apple, she remembered ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and Greece and Rome and Jerusalem, a wealth of places and times she had never been, people she had never met and experiences she had never had.

She remembered the Arrangement. She remembered what it had felt like to shake hands with your supposed mortal enemy and feel a great deal more fondness than you were supposed to. She remembered what it had felt like to realise so grippingly and suddenly that the world was going to end by the hands of your own comrades unless you did something to stop it, you, who were virtually powerless against the powers-that-be, but you had to try nonetheless. She remembered the—was it fair to call it love?—that they felt, for the Earth and for the humans and for each other, and the tightness with which they had gripped each other’s warm hands when they thought they were about to die, or whatever ghastly equivalent would be waiting for them in place of death.

We have to try was the theme. We can’t do it, but we have to try.

And they had won. ��The Earth was safe.

And then their victory had been torn out from under them.

Anathema’s excitement grew as she saw these two beautiful beings built from the ground up in her memory, vibrant and full of life and kindness and so ready to try. And then it had all been smashed to pieces, because the memories that came flooding into her past a certain timepoint had taken a sharp downturn.

Darkness. Or blinding light. Pain, never-ending pain, and crying and begging and absolute helplessness. The feeling of being forcibly stripped of any personal autonomy you had managed to scrape out for yourself.

Regret.

And then pushing on in a muddle of grey, utterly miserable, without reprieve, on and on.

She was snapped out of her trance by Newt kneeling beside her. “What’s wrong?”

“We…” Anathema staggered to her feet, knocking over a few candles. “We have to help them.”

“Who?” said Newt. “The angel and the demon?”

“Their names are Aziraphale and Crowley, and…” Her head was spinning. She didn’t even know where to begin.

“Help them with what?”

“Newt, it’s awful, I felt…”

Newt came up and supported her elbow, because she looked a bit wobbly. “What?”

“They were punished, Newt. For trying to help us.”

“Oh,” said Newt. “Oh no.” He scratched his head. “By Heaven and Hell, you mean? Their bosses?”

“It must have been. Oh, Newt…”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yes. Come on.” Anathema dashed over to the coat rack and started pulling on her peacoat.

“Wh—What, wait, where are we going?”

“To go help them!”

“You’re not serious, are you?”

“What?” said Anathema, pausing with her arm halfway in the sleeve. “Of course I’m serious. They’re in trouble.”

“Well, it’s not like there’s anything we can really do about that, though, right?”

“Wh—Nothing we can do? Imagine if they had had that attitude when the apocalypse was about to happen!”

“Well, I-I mean…” Newt rubbed the back of his head. “It’s not really any of our business, is it—I mean, it’s one thing to think maybe you can phone them up and ask for some feathers, but we can’t really go against—”

“They risked everything for us! And you don’t even want to try?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to try!” said Newt. “I’m just saying I don’t see what we’re really capable of doing.”

Anathema became self-aware and finished pulling her coat on, buttoning it up angrily. “You know what, Newt? You were right. Trying to stop the apocalypse really doesn’t sound like something you’d do. Fine, then, stay here. See if I care. I’ll go by myself.”

“Oh, come on,” said Newt. “Wait, hold on.”

Aggravated, Anathema turned and crossed her arms.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t help them. Really, I’m not. But they’re—they’re other-worldly beings with powers we can’t even comprehend. We must look like mice to them. It’s unrealistic to expect you can take on whatever managed to best them, don’t you think?”

Anathema flared her nostrils. Newt took her hands. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt, Anathema.”

“You didn’t see what they were like before,” said Anathema. “You don’t know them.”

“Neither do you!” Newt exclaimed. “Just this morning you weren’t sure they existed!”

Anathema suddenly regretting not having Newt join her in the circle. He hadn’t seen it and couldn’t imagine what she knew. There was no way to explain it all to him, and the feathers were gone now, so she couldn’t assemble it again and have him repeat it. “Even if we do look like mice to them, that doesn’t mean they can’t fall victim to something bigger. Like a tiger.”

“And it’s the mouse’s job to fight the tiger?”

Anathema looked away, face red. “It hardly seems fair. That we help save the Earth and then get to go live our happily ever after in a nice flat in the city. But they do it, and…”

“It really bothers you, doesn’t it?”

“We have to do something, Newt,” Anathema said, desperation mounting. “If you had felt it…”

Newt squeezed her hands. “All right, Anathema. You know what you’re talking about. Let’s go see what we can do.”

Anathema was able to glean something about their routines from her glance through the spell. The angel, she thought, seemed to spend his Friday nights at a specific soup kitchen helping out. The demon, meanwhile, hung around a night-club that was an hour away on the tube.

She wondered if that was on purpose. She wondered if they had been avoiding each other. She wondered if something dreadful would happen if they were brought back together. There were a lot of details that had been left out that she didn’t understand properly, and Anathema second-guessed herself all the way over. But Newt had sounded so confident in her, so sure of her ability to just figure things out, that she thought I have to try.

They hit up the soup kitchen first. A human volunteer offered them seats to the meal before Anathema realised what was happening and waved him away, saying they weren’t there to eat.

“So what’s he look like?” Newt asked, squinting at the line of volunteers handing out food.

“I should be able to sense his aura,” said Anathema. “Hmmm…None of these people.” She flagged down the volunteer who had spoken with them and asked, “Excuse me, we’re looking for someone. He’s pretty tall, got very curly hair, may go by the name Ezra?”

“Oh, you must mean Mr. Fell!” said the volunteer. “He works in the back. I’ll go tell him there’s someone here to see him.”

The volunteer disappeared into the back. A few moments later, a haggard figure came out to meet them. He looked like he hadn’t brushed his hair in weeks or slept in millennia. He was about the most un-angelic-looking person either of them could think of. He didn’t seem entirely here in the present.

His eyes drifted above their heads. “Er, hello?” said Anathema, giving a little wave.

The angel’s eyes snapped down to her. “Er…Do I know you?”

“No,” said Anathema. “I don’t think so. My name is Anathema. You’re Aziraphale, right?”

Aziraphale looked at her sharply. “Don’t say that so loud. Let’s go talk outside.”

They went onto the street. Aziraphale refused to say anything until they had moved off into the adjacent alley.

“How do you know my angelic name?” Aziraphale demanded. “I haven’t told it to any humans in years.”

“I…” Anathema was suddenly unsure of how to proceed. She didn’t think it would go over well if she just demanded Aziraphale abandon his angelic duties and go with her. And it definitely seemed like the two of them had been staying apart on purpose. Would she have to trick them into following her and meeting each other again?

Additionally, she wasn’t sure how he would react to finding out she was a witch. The witches Heaven condoned were simply re-labeled as prophetesses, but witchcraft did have a bit of a sticky history with the religion Aziraphale served.

She could claim authority from a Higher power. That would surely do it.

“I’m a prophetess,” said Anathema. “I’ve had a vision.” That wasn’t too much of a stretch of the truth, actually. “And I came to give you instructions. The Metatron sent me.”

As soon as the last sentence left Anathema’s mouth, Aziraphale’s face crumpled into a cowed expression. “Oh, I see. What are the instructions?”

“You, uh…You’re supposed to follow me,” said Anathema. “You can take a break from your work here. This is very important.”

“All right,” said Aziraphale, sounding utterly dejected. “Please give me a moment to let the supervisor know I’m leaving. I’ll be right back out.”

He disappeared back into the soup kitchen. “Boy…” said Newt. “That guy helped save the world?”

“You should have seen them before, Newt…”

Newt put his arms around himself to guard against the cold. “We’ve got the angel. Can we go home now?”

“We still have to get the demon.”

Newt grimaced. “Must we?”

“Newt!”

“What? He’s a demon. He’s responsible for all sorts of awful stuff, right? Why should we help him?”

“They’re a pair, Newt. You can’t have one without the other.”

“Mmm,” said Newt, not sounding convinced.

“Are you afraid of him?”

Newt gave her a look. “Can you blame me?”

Anathema couldn’t in good conscience say that she wouldn’t have been afraid of the possibility of meeting a demon with just the information Newt had. “He’s not like that, Newt.”

“Sure, sure. I’m sure he’s got a heart of gold. Poor guy needs our help so he can go back to whatever he was doing before, which I’m sure was helping little girls get kittens out of trees.”

Anathema gave him a dirty look. Aziraphale reappeared, ending their sniping. “All right,” said the angel. “Lead the way.”

“We’ve just got to hop back on the tube for a bit,” said Anathema. She noted the increasingly late hour on her watch with concern, suddenly wishing she had been able to talk Newt into driving them. “Hopefully we won’t get there too late.”

Aziraphale did not bother to ask where they were going. He let himself be led onto the train like a herd animal. He took a seat across from Newt and Anathema and let his eyes drift absently over them as the train pulled away.

“I don’t like the way he’s looking at us,” Newt whispered to Anathema.

“Don’t be a baby,” Anathema answered him.

Aziraphale did not say a single word the entire ride. He seemed absolutely miserable. Anathema made attempts to engage him in idle conversation, but he refused to respond even to that.

“This is us,” Anathema told him when they were there.

Aziraphale shuffled off the train after Newt and Anathema. Anathema led them up from the station into the chilly night air. She wrapped her scarf more tightly about herself. “All right. Good, it’s just right there. Let’s go.”

Anathema paused whenever the night club came into view. She could see huge groups of people moving about inside, and the music was so loud it was audible even from across the street. Places like that had always been particularly overwhelming for Anathema. She had to deal with feeling everyone’s auras on top of the usual sensory stimulation.

She really didn’t want to go in there. Luckily for her, she could faintly feel the aura she was after just outside the club.

It was markedly bigger than those of the humans around it. And it had a certain dark tint to it.

“There he is,” said Anathema. “He’s around back. Aziraphale, will you wait for us on the corner here?”

“All right,” said Aziraphale. “I don’t suppose I have much choice.”

Anathema took Newt’s hand and bypassed the entrance to the club, peeking her head into the alleyway beside it. Down at the end, just before the dumpster, a woman in a slinky red dress leaned against the wall; a slim figure in a black suit leaned over her. The two were engaged in a very passionate snogging session, bodies pressed together.

“Hmph,” said Newt. “Oh yes, he looks so miserable.”

In the faint light, Anathema caught a glint off a wedding ring on the woman’s finger and thought she had an idea of exactly what was happening here.

Without further comment, Anathema legged it up the alleyway towards them. Neither of them acknowledged her advance.

The man in the black suit—who at this point Anathema confirmed, yes, was Crowley exactly as she saw him in her memories—leaned in to bury his lips in the woman’s shoulder. She tilted her head back and let out faint moans.

“Ah, excuse me,” said Anathema.

The woman’s head snapped towards her. Crowley, very slowly, raised his head, but did not look at her.

“We're a bit busy,” the woman huffed.

“Mr Crowley?” said Anathema.

Anathema caught sight of a thin tongue flicking out of Crowley’s mouth, very quickly. Then, he pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his breast pocket and slipped them on. “Go wait for me inside,” he murmured.

The woman reached down to collect a discarded handbag off the floor, then scurried to the back entrance of the club, where she disappeared.

Crowley turned, hands in his pockets. “What?” he said gruffly. “I'm kind of in the middle of something.”

“Ah…” said Anathema. She was sure that if she could just convince Crowley to walk the thirty feet out of the alley and lay eyes on Aziraphale, something would happen. “Would you mind coming with me for a bit?”

“What’s this about?”

Anathema bit her lip. “I’m a witch.”

Crowley sneered at her, turning back towards the club. “Piss off.”

“Beelzebub sent me!” Anathema blurted out.

Crowley froze.

“Don’t worry about finishing up your job here. I need you to come with me.”

Crowley turned back to her, whipping his sunglasses off. Even though Anathema knew full well Crowley did not have human eyes, she still wasn’t quite prepared for it. Newt, who hadn’t had any preparation whatsoever, took a shocked step back.

Crowley’s slit pupils were blown wide in panic. “I followed my instructions.”

“I’m sure you did,” said Anathema. “I just need you to come out here.”

“I—I—I wasn’t doing this for enjoyment,” said Crowley. “Duke Hastur told me to come here and spread sexual immorality. I swear it. He’s my direct superior. I was following his orders to the letter.”

“You’re not in trouble.”

“I-I know there was a no sex rule, but the qualifier was I should do it if a superior gave me a mission,” said Crowley, voice ratcheting up faster and faster with anxiety.

“You’re not in trouble,” Anathema repeated, holding her hands out in what she hoped was a placating way. “I promise.” She leaned in towards Newt and rapidly whispered, “Go get Aziraphale.”

Newt turned around and jogged out of the alley.

Crowley trembled as though Anathema had threatened to shoot him. “I’m sorry I was rude to you. I really am. Hastur told me to do this. You can ask him.”

“We just need to talk to you about something,” said Anathema. “Scout’s honour. Just talk.”

Crowley took a step back. “L-last time he said that…”

“Please don’t run away,” said Anathema. “Please just wait.”

Newt appeared at the mouth of the alley. Aziraphale was behind him, but the angel was moving more slowly.

“What did Beelzebub offer you as a reward for doing this?” said Crowley.

“Nothing—”

“Whatever it is, I’ll give you more.”

Newt arrived, pushing Aziraphale. The angel’s face collapsed into an expression of sorrow the second he laid eyes on Crowley.

Crowley took another step back. “S-so this is it, then?” he snapped. “Beelzebub’s had enough of me following directions and wants to see me suffer even more?”

“No, no, no,” said Anathema. “Now that you’re both here, I—”

Anathema heard a shing from behind her and turned to see that Aziraphale had drawn a huge sword from out of nowhere, leveling it at Crowley. Crowley, meanwhile, had produced a pair of very long, wicked-looking knives, and had them out and crossed in front of him.

“No,” said Anathema. “No, put those down.”

Before she could move to get in between them, Crowley lunged at Aziraphale with a yell. Aziraphale blocked his attack with his sword, then pushed him back and went on the offensive. Crowley twisted to avoid it.

“Newt, make them stop!” said Anathema.

“What do you want me to do?” said Newt.

Crowley tried to sink a knife into Aziraphale’s shoulder, but the angel blocked, and the knife skidded off the blade and clattered onto the cement. The sword came down and carved a gash in Crowley’s arm, from elbow to wrist, eliciting a cry of pain.

“Stop!” Anathema yelled, racing forward and grabbing Aziraphale from behind. Newt, taking his cue, tried to grab Crowley’s arms.

Crowley elbowed him out of the way and pressed forwards, bringing the knife down at Aziraphale. Aziraphale held the sword out to block, and the knife came down, grinding against it. Crowley pushed to try and break the block, and Aziraphale stepped back, squishing Anathema against the alley wall.

Newt got both of his hands on the arm holding Crowley’s knife, trying to pull it away from Aziraphale.

The two blades still ground against each other. Aziraphale and Crowley finally locked eyes from over their blades. And they both burst into tears, arms trembling on the weapons.

Crowley leaned into Aziraphale, sandwiching the flats of the two blades harmlessly between them, sobbing. Aziraphale sunk to his knees, and Crowley went down after him, head on his shoulder.

“I can’t do it,” Aziraphale wept.

“Me neither,” said Crowley. “Tell Beelzebub whatever you like. But I can’t do it.”

“I can’t kill him,” Aziraphale moaned. “I just can’t. Do whatever you want to me.”

“Even if it means more torture,” said Crowley, “if it came to it—”

“Wait!” said Anathema, frantically waving to cut off their lamenting. “I didn’t—I never told you to fight each other. I’m not actually here because Metatron or Beelzebub sent me.”

They both looked up at her with wet eyes.

“That was just a little—um—that was just to get you both here. We’re here to help you.”

Aziraphale stared at her foggily. “And who are you again?”

Anathema puffed out her chest. “My name is Anathema Device. I’m an occultist, professional descendant, and your new friend, and I’m going to do whatever it takes you help you sorry pair. Now follow me. We’ve got to get back on the tube before it stops running for the night.”

#good omens #my writing #my good omens fanfic

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elainescookingforthesoul · 4 years

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TRANSCRIPT for Episode 1.13 “Robin’s Biscuits and Gravy” (PART 1/2)

ACT I

[INTRO MUSIC]

ELAINE: Greetings and thank you for returning to the program, I'm your host, Elaine Martínez...Listeners, while we careen down the mainstream of this chaotic river of life, we tend to give ourselves credit for the journey itself. Given the choice between crashing among the rocky shores of eternity or desperately clinging to the deflating raft, few people opt to make the leap towards certain death. Instead, we blindly grip onto the sinking vessel, perhaps a prayer on our lips even as the icy water wraps around our ankles. And when the journey is over, when the mad rapids whirl to an uncertain calm within an unfamiliar cove, we do some quick retroactive editing on our memories and proudly tie them together to provide a smooth emotional arc, use phrases like "meant to be," or "all for a reason," and trick ourselves into thinking we've stuck the landing. But what happens when the landing sticks you? Are our beautiful delusions worth anything at all? Is this what it's really meant to be? It is a question I often ask myself within this desolate, desperate Cormac McCarthy-esque landscape. Especially when cooking! Welcome to Elaine's Cooking Podcast for the Soul! I may not be able to control the river, but one small thing that is within my control is giving a warm welcome to my guest and co-host this week. Warm welcome, Robin Jones!

CUE .5 SEC APPLAUSE SFX.

ROBIN: Hello, Elaine!

ELAINE: Robin, it is truly a pleasure to see you again. How have you been?

ROBIN: Oh, you know, desperately evading capture as always! Hahaha.

ELAINE: I do hope you're kidding. Your energy is very difficult for me to interpret sometimes.

ROBIN: Well, you have to laugh, is what my parents always said. They said "Robin, if anyone ever asks you about your parents, you just laugh. Big belly laughs, like they just told you the funniest joke you ever heard. That's what's going to keep you safe in this country. Being harmlessly weird."

ELAINE: Well that is certainly...advice. Shall we turn to our recipe of the day?

ROBIN: See, it works!

ELAINE: Wow, you're right.

ROBIN: Biscuits and gravy! That's what I brought you today.

ELAINE: Wow. Robin, that sounds incredible, but I thought I told you that this is not a political podcast--and bread is still very illegal.

ROBIN: Listen, a bread is something made with a leaven or yeast. My biscuits involve four things: flour, oil, water, and salt. Notice anything about those ingredients?

ELAINE: No leaven. No yeast.

ROBIN: That's a BISCUIT baby! Apocalypse biscuits.

ELAINE: Oh, I was told to not use that word--

ROBIN: APOCALYPSY BISKYYYYS!

ELAINE: Alright, alright. Now, you even mentioned gravy?

ROBIN: That I did. Now, I grew up with white gravy on my biscuits, but since milk is so hard to come by right now, I've settled for a brown gravy that is honestly...well, it's not bad. That involves flour, some canola oil, and vegetable stock.

ELAINE: Well, I say let's jump right in. I'll get the toaster oven warmed up on this patent-pending cooking cart.

[TOASTER OVEN TICKING]

ROBIN: Let's do this!

ELAINE: Oh--so you're really just throwing it all together, it looks like.

ROBIN: Yup!

ELAINE: For our listeners, Robin has thrown in their entire week's ration of flour--the full cup--into our bowl. I would guess that they've included about a third of a cup of oil and about as much water. Full week's ration of salt, too, the whole teaspoon. Oh my, and they are just going full force with both hands, kneading and kneading.

[CLANKING AND PUFFING NOISES]

ROBIN: Sorry, my rings are knocking against the side of this bowl. Guess I coulda taken them off.

ELAINE: You still could--

ROBIN: Nah, it's too late. Need to knead!

ELAINE: Let's take a peek...wow, that is holding together nicely. What's next, Robin? Do you want to wash your hands or dust off your face?

ROBIN: Not yet. Now, we pat this out. Can I use this side tray thingy?

ELAINE: Of course, I'll just get these dental tools out of your way.

[CLINKING OF TOOLS BEING MOVED AND STASHED]

ROBIN: Thanks. Cool. Now, I don't have, like, a rolling pin, so I'll pretty much just kinda pat this ball of dough around with my hands until it's in a great big circle. One less dish to clean, right?

[SLAPPING SOUNDS OF HAND ON DOUGH]

ELAINE: Right.

ROBIN: Mkay. So now that it's this, like--half-inch? Inch?--Somewhere around there. Now that it's this fat plank, we just need a way to cut the biscuits out.

ELAINE: I would suggest either hand-cutting them out with the periodontal probe, or..oh! We have plenty of paper cones over at the water cooler. Let me just go get one.

ROBIN: Oh, those look perfect.

ELAINE: Glad they're perfect for something....I told my partners that the cones make people nervous because they can't set them down while they wait and flip through magazines, so now this is the one item in the world we have too many of. Here you go.

ROBIN: Thanks! Boom, boom, boom and boom.

ELAINE: Wow, those are really shaping up.

ROBIN: Cool. So now we have four angelic little biscuits and some scraps. I'm just gonna gather the scraps and pat it out again. Pat pat pat. Cha and cha. Six biscuits and a bit of dough left over. Wanna bite?

ELAINE: It sounds very unappealing, but I can only imagine the caloric content, what with all that flour and oil. I'll take what I can get.

ROBIN: You're gonna be surprised, I promise--

ELAINE:--hmm--

ROBIN: --once it's fully baked and done. Right now I bet it tastes pretty much how you'd expect.

ELAINE: Oh, the toaster oven is nice and warm. I'll just remove the little baking sheet. Looks like we have enough space to bake two at a time.

ROBIN: They take about 12 minutes at 400 in a regular oven. Do you think this baby cooks faster or slower?

ELAINE: Let's find out! While we tinker with the toaster, we're going to take a break for a word from our sponsor. When we come back, we'll whip up a nice, achievable gravy and dig into a southern classic.

ROBIN: Ooh, allow me to apologize to anyone in the south who is hearing this podcast.

ELAINE: We'll be right back.

END OF ACT I.

INTERLUDE/AD BREAK

ELAINE: Folks, what a wild ride this has been. This final episode is brought to you by Period Network. That’s right, you’ve been bait-and-switched. Twelve episodes of Elaine’s ads you eagerly, voraciously consume and never ever skip over, only to tell you now a little about Period Network. Period Network supports women and nonbinary folks in podcasting, and has a few shows you might really like. Plus, Period Network legitimately makes this show possible. Without Makenzie Mizell and the Period Network, Elaine’s Cooking for the Soul simply wouldn’t exist. You can go to www.periodnetwork.com to check out all these amazing podcasts, support Period Network and what they’re doing on Patreon. Big thanks to Period Network, and thank you, dear listener, for doing what you’re doing.

[MUSICAL TRILL]

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omgktlouchheim · 7 years

Text

Word Vomit Wednesday - "I'm Embarrassed" A Poem by KT

I’m embarrassed

It’s not me, it’s definitely him

There’s no “both sides” to this thing

Honestly, I don’t give a fuck if that pisses people off either

I didn’t even choose him anyway and he still gets to represent me to the rest of the world

It’s embarrassing.

He can barely string a coherent sentence together

He’s ruined one of my favorite Elton John songs for me

Like, I won’t be able to listen to that song and not think about him and the apocalypse he’s promised to bring to the world

HE MAKES EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM UGH

You know who else is embarrassing?

His supporters

Ya’ll are embarrassing

And basic

And boring

Dear NYT, WaPo, The AP and basically any other journalistic source,

Stop doing pieces about what his supporters were thinking and feeling

WE ALL KNOW WHAT THEY’RE THINKING BC IT’S CONSTANTLY SHOVED DOWN OUR THROATS ALL THE TIME

I could read a thinkpiece from 1930s Germany and it would say the same thing

I could read a thinkpiece from the 50s or 60s in this country and it would say the same thing

Nothing these people say is interesting

How about a story about how the black communities in Charlottesville feel and how they navigate their lives and what they need?

How about speaking to undocumented people about their stories? How they came here, why, what they’ve been through, what they need.

How about promoting the voices of experts in authoritarian regimes, community organizers, and education and peace movements?

How about including indigenous people in the conversations because, I don’t know, this was their country first and for some reason we treat them like shit?

How about that?

So embarrassing.

Hollywood

Stephen Colbert, James Cordon, Jimmy Fallon

You really give zero fucks

Did you get those laughs? Did they feel good?

At least we’re all used to being embarrassed by straight white men by now, right?

Such disappointments

Not to mention dangerous. Normalizing the American equivalent of Goebbels on national television

The moment I think the bar can’t get any lower

I think, at this point, we’ve surpassed all of Dante’s rings of Hell

Who knows where the fuck we are now

Lucifer’s looking down on us thinking his icy cage isn’t so bad after all and musing about what kind of fucked up shit we all did to get here

Now, I’m no authority on Hell by any means

But, are we allowed to make requests down here?

I would like to request a rooming assignment switch so I don’t have to be in the same circle as the dumb-ass politicians who think that giving Trumpcare an even dumber name will be enough to try and trick people into not finding out that the bill is actually Trumpcare because they are evil, vile, embarrassing people

I will pay extra. Thx Satan

Should I be embarrassed that when I now hear the song “Rocket Man”

I fantasize about 45 and Kim Jong Un peeing on each other?

I don’t endorse white supremacy, start pissing matches with dictators with nuclear weapons, assault people, incite violence…

so, nah.

Katie Louchheim is thinking about everyone impacted by the earthquakes in Puerto Rico, Mexico and LA, and to everyone still suffering in the aftermaths of Harvey and Irma.

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nicolabarth · 7 years

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‘What if’ challenge

I participated in @sdavid09s ‘What if’ challenge and my prompt was What if instead of hating humanity, Lucifer loved it too much?

It got a bit strange. I mean it. I’m not even tagging the usual suspects, because I don’t know who might not like this.

Warnings: criticism of some religious concepts; samifer if you squint; rewriting of season 5

“You think I want to destroy humanity? I invested a bit too much in you for that.“

Amongst all the things in this wretched dream this is the one that makes Sam pause. He looks at the unassuming face of the blond guy in front of him. The devil himself, even though he doesn’t look like it. He opens his mouth, but no sound comes out. Sam clears his throat and tries again.

“What do you mean?“

Lucifer rolls his eyes as if that’s something everyone should know. “The tree of knowledge? Does that ring a bell? You were nothing but animals. I gave you self awareness, I brought you the light. Everything humanity accomplished since then, it accomplished because of me. Philosophy, art, invention.“

Again Sam is struggling for words. “But ... but ... don’t you hate us?“

“To the contrary. I loved you too much.“

“That’s not what ...“

Lucifer sighs. “I know, I know. Some people apparently didn’t appreciate the gift.“

Sam’s legs don’t support his weight any more. He sits on the bed, where he had been lying with Jess only moments before. “You’re lying.“

“I’d never lie to you.“

Sam shakes his head. “Then why did you start all this at all?“

“Try being locked up for a few millenia. I just wanted out. And I’m not going back.“

It’s hard not to sympathise with that. Sam takes a deep breath, rakes his fingers through his hair. “I can’t ...“

“Take your time, Sammy. Think about it. But I’m planning to stay upside, and I need a permanent vessel for that. You will say yes to me.“

It’s probably a bad idea to discuss this with Dean, but Sam has to talk about it with someone. “Think about it“, he says. “If we can get Lucifer on our side, we can really win this. We can save the world.“

“He’s lying, Sammy.“

“But the story about the tree of knowledge really never made sense. Because it is a gift. We’d be nothing but animals without it.“

Dean shakes his head. “I didn’t pay much attention in bible school, but wasn’t eating from that tree the first sin ever committed or something like that?“

“Yeah, but why? Knowledge isn’t bad. Knowing right from wrong isn’t bad. Why was it a sin?“

Dean shrugs, but the more Sam thinks about it the more he’s convinced that Lucifer might have actually told him the truth. “There’s no other reason than ‘because god said so’,“ he goes on. “So on one side we have a guy who wants blind obedience and gets really pissed when people don’t give him that. And on the other side we have a guy who gave us the ability to think for ourselves. It’s not even hard to pick a side, if you think about it like that!“

Now even Dean looks thoughtful. “Huh ...“

A few days later Dean gives in and Sam finds himself praying to Satan to tell him their location, hoping it won’t be a mistake. He tries not to reflect too much on what his life has become

They half expect a demon army, but Lucifer shows up alone. They talk for a long time and finally even Dean is convinced.

“So what’s the plan?“ he asks. “We can’t have you fighting Michael. That’d fry half the planet, right?“

Lucifer nods. “I can protect you. As long as you keep saying no to my big brother, there won’t be an apocalypse.“ He turns to Sam. “But Nick here is just an improvisation. He’s burning up. I need my true vessel.“

That’s the part where it gets tricky, because it still could be a very elaborate lie, right? A trick to get Sam to say yes.

“Mind if I think about it for a while?“

Lucifer smiles. “Take your time, Sam.“

Sam thinks about it, while they’re dodging angels, a feet that’s made a lot easier with Lucifer on their side. Castiel is not amused, but there are long talks in enochian between him and his big brother, and he gradually warms up to having the devil around.

They pick up Gabriel along the way. Lucifer is overjoyed to hear his little brother has fallen in love with humanity a long while ago. They hug. Dean teases them for it.

In Detroit Sam says yes. They agree to share his body. Sam in control most of the time, Lucifer taking over, when it gets dangerous. They’re winning. It really looks like they can win this thing.

Then they hear Michael found a vessel in Adam Milligan, their half brother. The whole plan falls to pieces over that.

“We can’t run forever,“ Lucifer says. Sam can feel his despair as if it is his own. “All we can do is try and win this quickly to minimize the damage.“

“Aren’t you forgetting something, Luci?“ Gabriel asks. “I’ve been hiding for millennia. Worked for me.“

“Yeah, sorry to burst your bubble, Gabe,“ Dean says, “but you’ve never been heaven’s most wanted. I’m with Luci here. Running is over.“

Sam takes control over his vocal cords to contribute to the discussion. “There’s one other option.“

He can feel Lucifer’s grace shifting inside him. The archangel already know what he’s thinking. Of course he does, they’re one. And he doesn’t like it.

“I’m not going back into the cage!“ he says with Sam’s voice.

Sam’s heart breaks for him. He can only imagine how it felt, spending millenia alone in the deepest pit of hell. That’s why he says what he says next: “You won’t be alone this time. I’ll come with you.“

“No!“ Dean protests.

Gabriel laughs though. “Great winchestering there, Samsquatch. If all else fails try self-sacrifice, eh?“

“I mean it,“ Sam protests.

“And while you’re trying to be heroic, you’re missing the most obvious solution.“

“That is?“

“Who says it has to be Luci who goes into the cage? Why not Michael?“

Yes, Sam feels a bit stupid for not thinking about that.

When they meet Michael at stull cemetery there are the rings of the four horsemen in Sam’s pocket, all given willingly, because Lucifer asked for them. When Michael shows up, they open the gate together. It’s Gabriel though who sweeps down and gives his brother a shove.

It’s over in half a minute. The world is saved.

Dean smiles and rubs his hands together. “That was a bit anti-climatic, but I won’t complain. Anyone want to go grab a beer?“

#TaleTeller’s What if Challenge #fanfiction #lucifer

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ecoamerica · 1 month

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youtube

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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vjdarkworld · 7 years

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NieR: Automata Review (SPOILER FREE! NO SPOILERS HERE!)

Score: Must-Play, anyone who loves videogames should play this as soon as possible.

// Read my Reviewing system for Context of Score

Nier Automata is Yoko Taro’s first game to ever get both critical and commercial success which he has earned it rightfully. For why I believe Automata is a masterpiece is because of the ending. As everything in the game builds up to one gameplay moment. And that gameplay moment is an emotional climax all because of a well crafted journey. Yes the game’s story is told through cutscenes, dialogue, music, etc, but when the climax of the story is GAMEPLAY it just reminds me why we play videogames in the first place.

The Good:

Gameplay

Nier References

Art Direction

The Bad:

Unoptimized port for PC

Little support for PC version

The Best:

Music

Messages/themes

The Ending

Meaningful Sidequests

The Good:

Gameplay:

This is a PlatinumGames game, so of course the gameplay is good. When it originally announced that Yoko Taro would be helming a Nier sequel with PlatinumGames it was an instant "hype" moment because the original Nier had quite simple gameplay. Pitting PlatinumGames expertise with fluid combo oriented hack n slashes with Yoko Taro's crazy storytelling and it was a match made in GAMERRRRRR Heaven. But how did they deliver?

Well they did deliver, in the context of this game. This is an RPG, so the game is story based. Thus, PlatinumGames decided to make this the most simple out of their hack n slash titles. Basically you can spam dodge and attack buttons and mostly cruise through the main story IF you really want to. But the combo system does actually have a little depth to it, and you can pull of some fun wacky stuff once you know some tricks.

Even a recurring simple minigame that will happen a lot throughout a playthrough was fine by me. Some people were bother by it, but it's an easy enough mini game that does have a major story payoff in the end so it's all worth it.

And to cap it off, the way that abilities and special attacks are unlocked is pretty unique. Effectively you’re doing ability item management, which has some limitations but it's a fun way to make it thematic with robots.

Which I think is why the gameplay is so good regardless of its weak points is because it was all made within the theme of androids. I'm not going to mention every cute detail but I will finish off talking about gameplay with one controversial design choice: no autosaves. Instead you manually have to save at save stations. Maybe it's because I have played all the From Software Soul's games but it didn't annoy me. Really the save points are frequent in Automata that it doesn't effect it that much. And just like in Souls games, the save points have a thematic purpose of "saving your data" to the in-universe network. Basically the manual save is there as a meta-element. And again there's many other examples of this but this is Yoko Taro's strong suits, metaphorical gameplay.

Nier References:

Nier Automata is part of a strange series that spans two different games. In fact, here's the series order:

Drakengard 3 -> Drakengard 1 -> Nier Gestalt / Nier Replicant -> Nier Automata.

Yeah, that's pretty wild. So it's understandable that you may be worried about going into Nier Automata without a clue of what's going on due to ~Lore~ reasons. "Do I really need to watch a Let's Play on Youtube of some niche game, or worse LPs of all the niche games??" Worry not, as you absolutely don't need to... well right away atleast.

To break it down, no you don't need to play the Drakengard as all the references to it are just cute references.

Yes there are characters and side quests that are deeply connected to OG Nier, but they have no bearing on the main story being told. They are supplementary knowledge that helps both boost the main story and help provide additional emotional moments IF you have played Nier. But again, understanding what happens with the main characters is all self-contained within this game.

Now do I recommend playing OG Nier? Yes, in fact I believe that is another Must-Play game, but I specifically recommend PLAYING it. Watching a let's play on youtube will not do it justice.

To summarize, if you play Nier Automata without playing OG Nier you will be perfectly fine. You will be confused at first, but that is intentional and all will be revealed by end of the story. But, once you beat this game, you will probably get the urge to play the first game and THAT'S when you play it. Don't spoil the first Nier's experience, ya can wait it out.

Art Direction:

From the characters, to enemies, and locations the vibe is clearly of apocalypse, but there is almost a level of cuteness to it all strangely enough.

Our android protagonists, and the group they’re in called Yorha, are decked out in futuristic style gothic lolita fashion. The enemies almost look like the smartphone brand Android's mascot. With a round head, an oval body, dainty arms/legs, and tiny eyes they look quite innocent.

While there's the obvious ruined city, abandoned factory, and barren desert locations for a "post-apocalypse distant future" setting there's actually some surprise appearances. To not give too much away, two standout areas would be a 2001 A Space Odyssey rotating spacestation and a cheery amusement park.

All in all, the art direction is pretty nice. But, I need to address the elephant in the room. The 2B "controversy", specifically her butt.

Alright some context needs to be given to understand this stupidity, so bear with me. This timeline will explain it all, for the Western World specifically:

NieR Gestalt releases to little fanfare. It doesn't have much critical or commercial success, but it does get a cult following.

NieR Automata gets announced at E3 to little fanfare. The diehard fans are hyped beyond belief, but everyone else doesn't care. Though everyone is amused by Yoko Taro's antics with the emil mask.

A puzzle platformer on Steam gets greenlight and released by the name of Haydee. The title is the name of the games TITular protagonist, a robot that for some reason has huge breasts and butt. It gains a major following, spawning lots of pornography being made of this character.

NieR Automata's free demo releases on PSN. Because of the people going off of (and getting off on) the previous robot girl, people all of a sudden are extremely horny towards 2B (even though they didn't care about her for 2 years up until this point) A lot of pornography is created of 2B, most notable is a screenshot edit that starts the "controversy". An upskirt screenshot of 2B climbing a ladder is edited so that she has an asshole visible. People thought it was a real screenshot and went even more ballistic. Even after confirmed fake, people stayed horny for her.

NieR Automata releases. This time, because everyone regardless if they were horny or not, has seen the protagonist 2B all over the internet. Since everyone is hyped over 2B (and not because of the cult-classic series), NieR Automata has both critical and commercial success.

Alright, now that you are caught up, I can confirm that.... yes, 2B is cute. Yes, she has a butt. But, there's barely any fanservice of her in the game. If you’re not going up a ladder, you basically have to glitch the camera to be able to see under her skirt, and even then she pushes your camera controls away. If you detonate as her you will see her in the leotard but uhh Wonder Woman shows more skin than 2B so I honestly have no idea why some people are so pissed off at her. Some people even refuse to play the game cus of her which is really silly.....

I'm going to leave off on that for now. I will come back to that later, but let's finally get to The Bad.

The Bad:

Unoptimized PC Port:

You’re going to need a graphics card leading on the high end side if you want to see the pretty graphics.

Also, FAR mod is required if you want optimization. You’re going to need to look that up before playing.

Now I do put this in the bad category, and many people want to boycott PlatinumGames and Nier Automata for this unoptimized port, but that's going too FAR (get it). I'm going to give the context as to why this happened:

While I didn't play the PS4 version, I have heard reports of poor framerates at certain points. This leads to the revelation... this game was really only made optimized for PS4 Pro. Which I think it still lags there but not too much.

Anyways, so Square Enix decides that since Nier Automata is part of a niche franchise they might as well put it on Steam to get a quick extra bucks. So they have a quick port job happen by who knows what and boom it's on Steam.

So basically, the major problem here is Square Enix. It almost seems like they don't respect the game. No amount of "boycotting" by random people on Steam of a masterpiece game will make the company retract their thought process. SE has their FFXIV money printer, there is no incentive for them to fix a niche game. It's sad but true. And in fact, not buying the game proves their point that only FFXIV will make them money.

Now I don't condone a bad port job, this is why it's in the bad but.... the game is still perfectly playable even if you put all the grafix as low as possible, which is what I did. The only times the game crashed was when I tried to max out the graphics and resolution beyond what my PC could handle and made my GPU be at 100% usage for too long.

Little Patch Support:

This goes off of the other point. There's only been a couple of stealth patches for the DLC release, but nothing addressing the optimization. Again, it's sad that Square Enix isn't treating the game with the respect it has earned.

The Best

Music:

As the old saying goes, film is 70% audio and 30% visual. Of course that is an exaggeration, but it's trying to get across how important a soundtrack can be to making a movie iconic.

Now why am I talking about all that? Well. OG Nier had such a beautiful OST that it could be the sole reason why it got such a cult following.

Automata is no different, the music here is simply breathtaking. But listening to the OST alone doesn't do it justice, as the music is contextualized within the game perfectly. Every area has such a distinct song that I can FEEL that area when I hear the song out of the game. And without saying spoilers, the credits song makes me FEEL the ending all over again. Hell, even when I heard a song from the first Nier in this game I almost cried for real.

The music just compliments the moments within the game so well, that the music MAKES the game. And that playing the game makes the music more emotional. If you love music in games, or music in general, you gotta play Nier Automata.

Message/Themes:

As you probably know already, Yoko Taro is an odd fellow. You can lump him with other japanese videogame auteur directors ala Kojima and Kamiya. But what makes Yoko Taro different from Kojima's wacky metaphors is his consistency.

Right from Drakengard 1 Yoko-san established his auteur theme: Violence in Videogames. He explains that for a videogame protagonist to slaughter thousands of people, he has to be a crazy psychopath. The enemies in that game beg and plead to not kill. But, after 9/11 his view changed. So, in the first Nier he went with a different concept. That someone can discriminately kill without remorse if they believe their cause is Righteous. I can't say how this is achieved as spoiler, but you get the picture. Automata continues the violence theme off of the Nier idea.

There's other themes, but that's the main one.

The Ending:

The True ending is quite possibly why I think the game is a masterpiece. The entire game is building up to this climax.

Every sidequest, all the confusion is finally explained (albiet maybe too quickly). But that's just one of many twists. In which the final sequence has so many false finishes that I truly believed where the ending that the final moment caught me off guard. This last finale is what justifies getting through the entire game, regardless if you don't like hack n slash games. The trick done too is so simple that it being the emotional climax in my opinion proves it’s a masterpiece.

Meaningful Sidequests:

When going through the game, understanding what is going on is confusing. Hell even the prologue is confusing. This is intentional, because information is being kept from you. While The Truth is only revealed at the end, nearly all side-quests foreshadow the ending.

The side-quests are special in that each one has some type of twist to it. They all seem like some ordinary RPG fetch quest, but there's always a twist. Sometimes it's happy, sometimes it's sad, but they can catch you off guard.

But as I was saying, the twists of these side-quests don't stop there, as once you beat the game and know The Truth you will have a epiphany if you think back to side quests you have done. They give hints to the Truth, sometimes the events in the side-quests mirror what was revealed. It's quite awesome how well this was put together.

This is all most likely cus Yoko Taro creates stories backwards, starting with the ending and going to the start. And also why the ending is so good.

I've seen some people say they think the "twist" of the game is "practicable"... but considering the entire game is hinting at it, hiding in plain sight, I would say no... foreshadowing isn't practicability, it's good storytelling plain and simple.

2B:

I already talked about the controversy with 2B being cute and having a butt, but(t) to wind down I want to address something as my final point. The thing is I don't know if Yoko Taro is a puppet master genius, or how intentional was this but.... people's obsessive hype over 2B has a payoff as a moment within the game.

To give a little context, the lady from the previous Nier, Kaine was extremely scantily clad with purpose. It being to challenge body norms, and people fell hook line in sinker. People said she was way too sexy and only eye candy, and even barring the amazing character arc she has, there is a part of her body that's really only hinted at within the game. I won't spoil it, so Let me go back to 2B.

Now 2B is cute, and everyone loves how 2B looks or wanting to be knee-jerk contrarian cus of the annoying horny people. Here's the thing, this is addressed in the game. This obsessive of 2B is reflected back at the player in one moment. I have no idea if Yoko Taro knew there would be this fervor over the games protagonist but mannnnn,

I think we all got played, hook line and sinker. Ya got us good Yoko Taro.

Details of Playthrough

I played on PC, bought on Steam. FAR mod used as well. I had a pretty low/midrange spec going in, so i had to play everything on low at 900p, also using FAR mod to turn off lighting effects. Still, I had framerate drops at certain areas. Game crashed if I played on higher settings, but keeping it on low stopped that.

My Specs (at the time of playthrough):

CPU: i5-2400

GPU: Radeon R9 270 Sapphire

RAM: 16GB

#nier #nier automata #automata #no spoilers

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ace-and-ranty · 7 years

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On Nuns and Witches

So there seems to be a bit of confusion on what’s the deal with the conflict between Witches and Nuns, and, as always, I’m here to ramble about Sister Claire and explain it all to you in a nicely sourced Tumblr post.

So many sources this could be a damn academic paper.

A couple disclaimers first:

Some of it will be speculative, but I’ve got Ash’s seal of approval on this post, so rest assured. You’re in good hands.

If you’re not reading the Missing Moments, it’s no wonder you’re lost. That’s like only reading every one page of a book. Why are you doing that to yourself. Go read the MiMos. Then get back here.

Now let’s get to it!

So, the conflict between Witches and Nuns comes primarily from Three (3) Things:

Witches Attract Shards

Witches Have Scary Powers

Historical Context

TL;DR: The conflict between Witches and Nuns is rooted in old, systemic prejudice against Witches. Witches are discriminated against because they’re so dangerous and the world is already such a hostile place.

For a better explanation, let’s break each of these factors down:

Witches Attract Shards

One of our very first introductions to Shards comes from the early Missing Moment, “Pezzi Rotti — Broken Pieces” (geddit? Geddit? Ahem). And in there, Jackson gives us a very important piece of information:

“See, they’re mostly drawn to high energia — to Witches, people with magick.” (x)

Energia, as Mother Yolanda kindly explains in Chapter 5, Page 78, is the “spiritual power that flows in all creatures”. In other words, it means one’s Life Force. Everyone has it.

Witches have lots of it.

Because Witches have lots of Energia, they’re a homing beacon for Shards. Energia’s often compared to light in SC — see Clementine being hailed as the Bright One — and Witches are Lighthouses that have Shards swarming to them. The more powerful you are, the brighter you are, the more Shards you attract.

Is there a way to prevent this? Well...

Olga gives Claire a neat sum of all I’ve been telling you in Chapter 6, Page 118:

Witches often refuse to ward their magick quiet, and magick draws Shards. Shards destroy everyone. Sometimes, we have to pick... destroy a Witch or doom the rest?

So for Witches, the choice is: either Ward your magick, or...

But as it’s been explored throughout the comic, Magick’s not just a fun trick for Witches. For many, it’s part of their identity. Think of Hana, who’s been shamed and taught to suppress her magick. Think of the Flock, whose magick allows them at least the safety of being able to fly the fuck away from there. Think of the Wolfwitches, whose magick’s intrinsically a part of their culture.

Take a minute to check out this Livewrite about Magpie, where it’s implied her previous guardians wanted to ward her.

So on one side, you have Nuns wanting Witches warded to avoid Shards and keep people safe — and on the other, you have Witches to whom magick’s precious and part of their identity.

Yikes?

Yikes.

2. Witches Have Scary Powers

There’s more to Witches’ magick than their Shard-attracting effect.

The general populace’s wary of Witches for the same reason people are scared of the X-Men. If you’re just a humble little human trying to farm your potatoes — how do you feel about your neighbor John over there, who can start fires by snapping his fingers?.

How do you feel about Clementine, who can make the trees fucking walk just to fuck your shit up?

Or how do you feel when that friendly bird up on a branch could be a human being spying on you?

All of the while you’re standing there holding your pitchfork. Fear the might pitchfork.

We’ve had an entire Missing Moment devoted to the ways magick can be scary, inconvenient, and make people want to run you out of the village.

Think that’s bad enough? Oh, we haven’t even covered mind fuckery yet.

Cause remember, some Witches have mind powers. And what’s scarier than knowing you’re not safe even in your own mind?.

But you know, you have a pitchfork. You should be just fine.

3. Historical Context

Here’s one thing y’all have to understand: Sister Claire is not Ye Old Medieval Magic AU.

Sister Claire is the fucking zombie apocalypse.

The SC world had huge, advanced civilizations. Big ass cities. It had Jaegers Machina. Hell, it still has electricity — Maman has an electrical fan.

But, as Abraham and Clementine explained in “Non Svegliarle — Don’t Wake Them”, around the same time Shards first appeared, those old civilizations all went to hell. The Sister Claire world we know today is all but a corner of the world with very small pockets of civilization scattered throughout it.

The biggest of those pockets we know of, Salvation, has to be walled in, warded to its teeth, and continuously kept by a rotation of Nuns. The world is overrun by Shards. How are you gonna get anywhere as a society when things such as big gatherings of people, electricity, light, all attract the zombie Shard horde upon your head?

Not exactly welcoming to commercial routes, if you know what I mean.

Now, when you’re living in the middle of the damn zombie apocalypse, how are you gonna deal with, you know — those people, that attract the zombies Shards to your home by virtue of simply existing? You realize this is not a very welcoming reality at all — not the sort of place where you'll see people practicing tolerance and acceptance.

And you know what? There’s precedent.

Mother Abraham tells us that, in the wake of Shards, the Old Civilizations used Witches to pilot Machinas. Essentially used them as cannon fodder. Fast-forward centuries later, to pre-Eden era, and Witches are still facing systemic prejudice.

The Flock’s not allowed to drink water from a village well. Remember when Maman referred to her home as “This place full of whores and Witches”? Remember Oscar screaming at King Michel because the organizations he supports, all organizations that come from the upper rings of Thronum Mare, “routinely and proudly turn away people with magick”?

The attitude towards Witches in the pre-Eden era is riddled with prejudice. “We’ll let you exist, as long as you do it the fuck away from us”, more or less.

And then?

Then comes along Clementine.

Clementine’s the most powerful Witch to exist in her time. She builds a huge city that’s a sanctuary for Witches, gathering dozens, maybe hundreds of Witches in a single place. Can you imagine the terror? The thought of this gigantic Shard beacon filled with powerful Witches?

In a society that ostracizes and fear Witches, can you imagine the panic that caused?

And then the worst happens: Eden falls. Eden totally self-destructs, I mean, it really fucking explodes. On the wake of its fall, Thronum Mare, one of the last and oldest pockets of civilization left, also crashes and burns in spectacular fashion.

Do you know what that creates? Shards. A fuckton of Shards set free. And what else? Refugees. Dozens, maybe hundreds of Witches turned refugees.

And there’s backlash.

Leaving Witches be clearly didn’t work, so the fall of Eden and TM sets off years of pent-up prejudice and hatred. Enough tolerance. Enough letting Witches run rampant. They’re too dangerous to be left alone.

Cue a massive Witch hunt, tensions breaking out, war breaking out, the whole world going to absolute fucking shit — until, mysteriously, the day Baby Claire’s found, the Witches all go into hiding to escape persecution.

Reiterating:

The conflict between Witches and Nuns is rooted in old, systemic prejudice against Witches. Witches are discriminated against because they’re so dangerous and the world is already such a hostile place.

For any questions, please hit my askbox!

For clarification on another, related topic — why are the Mercy Nuns acting like such Witch hunters in the comic, when they were all pretty chill in the MiMos — please check out this post.

#Sister Claire

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something-wicked-sims · 7 years

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What if? Sims OC Tag

Chosen OC: Laney Kerrigan

You can find the story here: Life and Times | Pastel Pink | Charcoal Grey

I was tagged by @dinaswimmer and @lovelychooser three years ago, and pestered by @pixeltrashcan. This is the only Laney you’re getting for a LONG time heaux.

WHAT

What is your character’s favorite memory?: Okay, one, you can not have a favorite memory, come on. This question is terrible. Anyways, I would say that the thing she loves most about growing up was how incredibly close her family was (her mom, dad, and her). They would spend the summers at the family cabin, and so she learned to like being on the water. She liked those trips the most, making pie iron pies with her mom and listening to her dad tell her stories he ripped off Unsolved Mysteries about Big Foot and Skunkape.

Who and what would your character give their life for?: She would sacrifice a lot for anybody she cares about, even though she’s never really been tested. So, I think the list would be long. Laney does a lot of hurting people childishly, but if she could look past her own selfishness she’d realize how much those people mean to her. So, her parents, Scotti, Klein, Isla :)

What is your character’s greatest fear?: Being alone. And, coincidentally, being in charge of her own life, because she is afraid of responsibility.

What is your character’s proudest accomplishment?: To date, getting a publishing contract for her first manuscript.

What is your character’s #1 insecurity?: Her lack of self-confidence, which in turns makes her fear every decision she has to make. She’s constantly afraid that she’s making the wrong move, or saying the wrong thing.

What will/can break your character completely?: Oh, I mean, a lot of things? She just doesn’t fucking know it yet? Her first big break came when she realized how her poor decision making came to hurt other people. It totally destroyed her confidence. I wouldn’t say that her confidence is gone, per se, it’s just kind of laying dormant, and she doesn’t remember how to wake it up (or she’s too afraid to). Right now, she would get pretty broken if a certain someone were to leave her completely, but for all the wrong reasons.

What would your character make a scene in public about?: Generally anything. The high price of cupcakes, lack of Toaster Strudels at Kroger, Peter Pan Peanut Butter Alerts, Pixar Same-Facing. You know, worldly problems.

What can drive your character to do criminal acts?: I don’t know. I think her moral compass is too overclocked right now.

What Pet (mythical or not) would your character want to have?: Unicorn. Mermaid. Probably the unicorn though, because she’d want to ride it. But maybe the mermaid, because those seem pretty self-sufficient, but I think maybe that’s also called slavery. So, we’ll go with the unicorn.

What is the cutest thing your character has ever done?: Um? This is Laney. How about the LEAST CUTEST THING SHE’S EVER DONE. We all know what that fucking was.

HOW

How does your character feel about sexual intercourse?: I’ve always thought that Laney spent the majority of her adult life snickering behind her hand at the mention of human genitalia, and using sex scenes in movies as prime opportunities to refill her snacks. Laney in a relationship was actually pretty gung ho about it, but that has mostly changed. Now it’s something she does but doesn’t talk about.

How close is your character with family and friends?: Super close. Uber close. Her parents are her biggest support system, and she loves her best friends more than anything.

How does your character react to pressure?: Quite literally emotionally collapses.

How religious is your character (if they believe)?: She doesn’t think too much about it. She’s not religious, but she is spiritual in the sense that she believes there’s someone watching over us, she’s just not sure who or what and she doesn’t mind, but she does find comfort in them.

How does your character’s personality change when someone gets uncomfortably close (relationship wise)?: She thinks she’s figured this problem out by keeping relationships in boxes, and only poking enough holes so that they can breathe, but very much is forcing that relationship to behave the way she wants it to, and when that doesn’t work out, she gets really anxious. I’d say her personality changes big time. She’s pretty smothering, and kind of like one of those mean neighborhood kids that stands at one end of a garden hose and makes a big kink, and just waits for some unsuspecting creature to come along to fall for her trick.

How does your character’s living space correlate with their personality?: I think it’s a pretty good reflection of who she is deep down, when it’s not covered up with noxious behaviors and self-loathing. It’s cluttered, kind of dusty, and cute, but mostly it’s a giant collective of all the things she loves and all the experiences she’s gathered.

How well does your character act around with unknown and different people?: She’s fine, mostly. Her social awkwardness covers up the fact that she gets uncomfortable, because she’s pretty good at making other people just as uncomfortable as her.

How much does your character value money?: She doesn’t, really.

How would this character cope with losing someone extremely close to them? I would really hate to see this. I think Laney is at a point in her life where if something like that happened, she could never come back from it.

How long does it take for your character to trust others? That depends. If it’s like a business or professional setting, then it’s a much lower threshold. I still think she’s too trusting in general.

SCENARIOS

If your character could change one thing about themselves, what would they want to change?: Her inner strength. I think she does really want to get back to a place where she’s okay relying on herself. She’s always looked up to her mother and Scotti, and women who are sort of “one woman armies”. There was a time she thought she was like that, but it wasn’t the person she was meant to be. Now she’d be happy with being a quarter of that.

If your character could go back in time at any point in their life, what would they do to change the present?: I think the single most important moment for her, was when she started working at the Weekly. It symbolizes when she stopped doing things for herself, and lost control of her life. If she could go back in time, she would have skipped the whole city living chapter and gone straight for following her heart, and done the Sims of San Myshuno project straight out of college.

If your character was given a chance at fulfilling their dream, can they drop everything they have now to go pursue it?: Yeah, she did that already.

If your character’s current spouse or partner cheated, would they try to make it work or leave forever?: Right now, she forgives her “current partner” for a lot of things. They’re non-exclusive, so I guess the cheating part is just emotional, but I’m pretty sure Klein could commit murder and she’d still wash the blood off his knuckles. Desperation is very motivating. In a hypothetical future sense where she was in a healthy relationship? Yeah. She’d probably try to work it out, only because she was the one to cheat, once, and she has to believe that cheaters can be forgiven, and also because a small part of her would think she deserved it.

If a zombie apocalypse begun in the town your character currently lives in, what would they act like?: She’d go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for it all to blow over.

What if your character suddenly woke up to an unfamiliar place, and realize the life they lived was all a dream. Their family, friends, home.. all gone but still crazily vivid in their head. How would they react?: Well, she’d be really sad? I have no idea LOL. How could anyone react to this. She’d put on a fucking trench coat and find the nearest operator.

If your character was thrown in jail, what would they be guilty of?: Creating a public disturbance.

Rewind 10 years from now, what is your character currently doing?: Finally comfortable with herself after years of bullying in school, she’s just managed to eek out of her awkward phase, lose the braces, embrace the glasses, and fashion, and will soon be graduating top of her senior class.

Your character is in the movie SAW, facing their worst fear. What is that fear, and how does he/she react?: She’s in a room full of shelves filled with those unsightly Victorian porcelain dolls and they all have voice boxes. Cue The Joker-esque transformation.

We regret to inform you that your character is dead. Where do they end up? Heaven? Hell? And how the heck do they react?: She’s stuck somewhere in regretful purgatory where she gets to sit, confused, drifting between hysterical laughter and uncontrollable sobbing for the rest of eternity.

I’m tagging no one because this meme is super old and I don’t even know. It took me like an hour so I’m not going to submit others to this torture. I hope you’re happy, Nicole. You better read every fucking word, too. I’ll know if you’re lying. Pop quiz at 8PM sharp.

#tag #jade babbles #saviorhide #long text post #text post #laney

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surveys-at-your-service · 7 years

Text

Survey #98

“white trash, get down on your knees.”

have you ever lied to a person of authority? what did you say? i mean, i've lied to my parents. and i don't know, multiple things that don't immediately come to my head. are your eyebrows darker than your hair? yeah. what do you prefer, lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs? spaghetti w/ meatballs. i don't like lasagna because of the cheese. are all your pets micro chipped? no, but they have tags. would you ever cope in a jail? NO. i would be depressed out of my SENSES. have you ever seen an alligator in person? in zoos as well as the wild. when hurricane floyd like ruined everything, the zoo flooded and was essentially destroyed. apparently, an alligator got out, because i saw one in the ditch once shortly after the hurricane. that zoo was never rebuilt. do you live across from a corn field? no, but i once lived across from a tobacco field. welcome to nc. how long have you been tattooed? if you’re not, do you want to get tattooed? i got my first for my 18th birthday, so a few years. are you a liberal? not mostly, but i have some liberal traits, ex. i support gay marriage. were you fearless or a coward in the face of the child hunter in "chitty chitty bang bang?" i'm pretty sure he scared me. i don't remember much about the movie. did you ever hit anything while learning to drive? i literally almost immediately hit a curb lol. jeff foxworthy, bill engvall, ron white, or larry the cable guy? i enjoy them all, but jeff's gotta top the list. have you or a pet ever gotten a tapeworm? no. i would rather die than get one. i am deathly afraid of internal parasites. do you know any furries? yes. i once lived with two of 'em. do you ever worry about your future? (i.e.: college, marriage, kids, etc) yes. more than anything, i worry about what my job situation is going to be like. do you snore? steal the covers? roll around in your sleep? I STEAL THE FUCK OUT OF COVERS is the lion the best character in "the wizard of oz?" i actually like the scarecrow. would you immediately look for someone right after you broke up with your bf/gf? no. it just doesn't seem... right. if you became a doctor, would you help your patients kill themselves? no. just. no. do you tell your best friend EVERYTHING? no. do you have someone who you can be your complete self around? only sara and connie. have you ever tried to learn another language? how did it go? i took four years of german, and i got to the point where i was pretty fluent. it's atrophied all to hell though. have you ever shared a house with a significant other? an apartment, yes. do you have a crush on anyone? tell me about them. i'm dating whom i have a crush on. have you ever had something signed by someone famous? what and who? no. i think. does your father have any facial hair? he has a van dyke beard/mustache. have you ever felt like you were making a mistake when dating someone? oh boy, have i. did you continue the relationship or end it when you realized? ended it. do you think you look similar to your siblings? we have some similarities. ex., we all have the same shade of brown hair naturally. have you ever played cards against humanity? did you like it? oh my actual god, one time when i was at colleen's, we did as a family. we all had a couple drinks, so it was funnier than it should've been. closest i have EVER been to peeing myself. however, it's not as funny with subsequent plays, because you know what cards to expect. do you know anyone who’s lived through a natural disaster? yeah, me and many family members and friends. hurricanes are a common occurrence in nc. how many brothers/sisters do you have? two immediate sisters, one half-brother, three half-sisters. are you lactose intolerant? no. would you describe yourself as more punk or pastel? dude i am the weirdest mix of both lol. how do you feel about tattoos and piercings? explain. they are wonderful ways of expression. i just find some piercings aesthetically pleasing on certain people, while tattoos are how you can easily paint the picture of your life on yourself. list the concerts you have been to and talk about how they make you feel. i've only been to one, and that was alice cooper. it was very fun, despite thunderstorming the whole time. have you ever been on drugs for anxiety, depression, mental illness? i have been since the 6th grade and i still am. do you like green apples? only if they're crisp. have you ever had a guinea pig for a pet? yes. squeak, harry potter, snickers, and one other whose name i've forgotten... do you shop at hot topic? yes. have you ever studied any new age or occult religions such as wicca? no, but they intrigue me, especially wicca. would you rather be a boy or girl? a girl. do you prefer to be around introverted or extroverted people? introverted. not trying to generalize here, but i find they tend to be more insightful. what do you think makes you a good girlfriend or boyfriend? i'm devoted and loyal as fuck, very loving, and will emotionally support a partner through thick and thin. what do you think makes you a bad girlfriend or boyfriend? one, my anxiety and insecurity. i've also never encountered this situation before, but i honestly feel that i'd get pretty jealous if he ever hung out with another girl platonically, because i'm immensely paranoid. like do not get me wrong, i wouldn't prevent him from doing it, i'd just be very worried. an issue i'm sure a lot of people would have with me is the fact i'm a pretty big prude. has anyone written a song or a piece of poetry about you? yeah. but i can virtually guarantee he used it on other girls. how many drinks does it take for you to become drunk? i wouldn't know, considering i've never been drunk. i was relatively tipsy after four bottles of very mild alcohol, though. do you admire brutal honesty? sometimes. other times it is completely unnecessary. what is your party trick? hiding out in the background somewhere, playing with your pet. <-- THIS haha <<< SAME if you had a mental disorder, what would it be? i'm diagnosed with chronic depression, general anxiety & social anxiety, ptsd (which i think i'm recovered from), and i've heard both bipolar ii and borderline personality disorder. do you think the "paranormal activity" movies were scary? no. i actually liked them. do you want someone aggressive or passive in bed? i'm honestly very passive, so aggressive. the last time you drank with someone else or more than one person who was in the worst shape? chelsea always is. she takes two bottles of light alcohol and she's vomiting lol. what would you say is the worst part of high school, period? you're going through it in arguably the biggest time of your life. you are constantly changing and developing and going through so much mentally. you're still figuring out who you want to be. not to mention, you're expected to make huge decisions, all the while still having to ask to go to the bathroom. you have so much responsibility just all of the sudden while your brain is morphing a lot. are you someone who actually likes to babysit children? no. too much responsibility. not to mention they try to get into everything; you can't turn away for two seconds. what is the worst name a friend has ever called you? do you remember? probably just "bitch" or something along the line. no friend has ever called me one to my face, but i can literally guarantee some have. ACTUALLY. to my face, i was called a martyr by my ex's friend after the break-up. and i'm certain he didn't mean it as in "you'd die for your beliefs," he meant it as in "hey you pretend it's the apocalypse to get sympathy." which is entirely fucking untrue about me. that honestly hurt a lot and it still sticks with me. it honestly made me more uncomfortable to express my feelings. do you find any of your friends’ parents creepy or really mean? i can't stand colleen's mom because she's a grade-a bitch, and her dad makes me uncomfortable, but he's not creepy. what is your least favorite word? i literally abhor the word "cunt." hurts to even type. what turns you on? various, pretty normal stuff. what turns you off? the usual stuff - bad hygiene, bad manners, etc <–Yep. <<<< I agree. <<<<< same. have you ever been to a psychiatrist/therapist? i've had one since the 6th grade. have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? not a legitimate crush, no. who is your celebrity crush? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) who is your most loyal friend? i honestly feel like connie. we've literally never fought, and she's always been there.

why are you happy, if you even are?

because i've come so far in my recovery that i have no excuse to complain.

is there a secret you’ve never told your parents?

yes.

what do you think of when you hear the name mark?

lol you know exactly who i think of.

kristin?

no one.

zoe?

only the best character from "ssx tricky"

jamie?

no one.

adam?

alex shepherd's dad from "silent hill: homecoming"

carmen?

the best dancer that was ever at the dance studio i used to go to

do you like fluffy yogurts?

NO. i CANNOT do the texture.

don’t you hate that you have to watch the baby being born in health class?

i actually never did. but i physically wouldn't have been able to. i would've 100% shielded my eyes.

what’s the earliest memory you have?

walking out into the living room with my stuffed baby bunny and seeing ashley play "medievil" (i'm pretty sure that's how they spelled it). we all used to love that game. we only had the demo disc, though.

do you ever say “fail” when people mess up?

no, but i usually say "gg" lol

how important is it for a significant other to be good with kids?

not all that important considering i don't want any, but simultaneously, i certainly wouldn't tolerate them being mean to kids.

what was the last thing that hurt your feelings? was it warranted or do you think you just took it too personally?

i'd rather just not talk about it, but yeah, it was warranted.

what is your dad’s name?

kenneth, but everyone calls him ken.

does your mother have a sister? if so, what's her name?

... wait,

does

she? i don't think so, actually... maybe...

is your favorite color the same as when you were a kid?

not exactly; my first favorite color was just normal red, now it's maroon.

who last grabbed your ass?

chelsea lol

have you ever been called a slut/whore?

no, because i am literally the direct opposite. well correction, chelsea, colleen, and alex have playfully, but none of them have ever meant it. we all call each other shit names lol. all in love<3

who is your favorite foreign singer/musician?

rammstein. they have amazing music and their lyrics are usually pretty cool.

do you ever get mad at people for not having the same opinion as you (ie abortion being wrong/right, meat-eating being wrong/right)?

no. i enjoy people having different opinions. grow the fuck up and let people think differently.

do you edit any of your pictures? in what ways?

yes. i tend to do general things, like color correction and basic enhancement. sometimes i do more, particularly if it's legitimate photography of mine, in which case i tend to either bump up or desaturate the colors.

who do you know personally that has a nice singing voice?

colleen

what months were you and your siblings born in?

as far as immediate siblings, april and june, and i was born in february.

do you prefer prince or michael jackson?

jackson. i was never into prince.

do you like spring rolls?

yeah. ruby tuesday's has the best.

when was the last time you painted something?

it's been about a year.

name one favorite thing to do with kids while babysitting.

if they're old enough, i love to teach them how to play games from my childhood. if not, idk. i just in general don't like watching kids.

what kind of things do you post on tumblr?

rhett&link + markiplier stuff, mostly. but i also reblog some funny stuff, plus meerkat pictures.

what band would you stand in line for 24 hours to see?

none.

name the three biggest things that make up you.

passion, anxiety, dank memage. *finger guns*

what song is your ‘anthem’?

the song "that's what you get" by paramore reminds me most of myself, particularly the line "i drowned out all my sense with the sound of its beating."

which movie villain do you find the most terrifying?

hmmm. a number. i find christabella laroache from the "silent hill" moving frightening (no, i'm not being biased) because she's like the queen example that religion can drive people insane. the joker is also horrifying for the simple fact he's legitimately insane.

do you think frogs/toads look disgusting?

no, they're cute.

what happens when you strongly disagree with someone?

if i voice my opinion, i get very scared that they'll get angry with me. if i don't, nothing. i just accept their opinion.

have you ever been tested for drugs?

yes, while i was at the er for suicide attempts/being suicidal.

do you own any fish? if so, are the docile or aggressive?

no.

if your lover cheated on you and profusely apologized, would you accept them back into your life?

nope.

are you allergic to any insect bites?

no.

who is your favorite golden girl?

rose!!! (:

what is your favorite commercial of the moment?

it is legitimately always going to be the sexy mr. clean commercial lmao

do you have any famous relatives?

not relatives, but ancestors. we're related to queen victoria and william clark.

favorite album?

"black rain" by ozzy osbourne. i literally love every song on the album and it was my first voyage into heavy metal.

if your son said he was gay, how would you react?

i would be really really proud of him for trusting me with such a thing!!

would you date someone who played video games all weekend long?

so long he does his responsibilities, sure. let him do what he enjoys.

what are your top three video games of all time?

"silent hill 2," "amnesia: a machine for pigs," and then probably "silent hill 3."

what's your favorite care bear?

i remember i liked the one with a rainbow on its stomach.

state 8 facts about your body.

i'm 5'5''. just gonna say i'm bigger than i'm supposed to be. i have five piercings. my hair is naturally brown, but dyed red. my eyes are blue. the nail on both of my rings fingers is slightly deformed (my sisters' are, too). i have incredibly tiny toes. i wear glasses.

what was your kinkiest wet dream?

not a kinky person over here.

what song, no matter where you are or what you are doing, immediately takes you back to high school?

"all signs point to lauderdale" by a day to remember, DEFINITELY.

do you think you could join the army?

no way. i couldn't anyway because i'm mentally ill/have a suicidal history.

would you date someone who has cheated in their previous relationships?

nope.

do you have soft hands? do you like holding hands?

just about everyone who's ever touched my hands tells me they're soft. and yeah, so long they're not sweaty.

do you think having a sleepover with a guy is theoretically acceptable?

to me, it really depends on where you're sleeping.

have you ever failed a class?

only in college.

have you ever cried over a breakup?

only for over a year.

are you planning on dying your hair any time soon?

hopefully.

do you feel as though you're good at understanding/communicating with animals?

people have called me dr. doolittle since i was a very young kid for a reason lol

where would you like to spend your honeymoon?

i actually don't have big plans. i'd just love to spend a little while in the mountains of nc.

what's one thing you collected as a child:

stickers. my dresser at the time was legitimately covered.

what fictional animal do you wish was real?

oh my GOD, the fey dragons from wow. they are fucking adorable and so pure.

have you ever been told you’ve punched someone in your sleep?

lol yeah. sorry, jason.

have you ever written a song or poem for someone special?

a few poems, yeah.

what is your favorite vampire book/movie/show?

i remember i loved the book "bite me"

do you actually know anyone who is homophobic?

yes.

did you ever read "the giver"? see the movie?

i read the book and loved it.

what was your first impression of your best friend?

i don't have a *best* friend, but i'll answer for the two closest to me. one, i don't really remember because we were super super young. the other, oh my god it was obvious we hated each other.

what is your profile pic a picture of?

i'mma just answer for like... all of them lol. main tumblr & youtube: link neal (but i'mma change yt to mark when i'm not being lazy); facebook&this blog: me; deviantart: an oc; km rp: mark fischbach; aaand i'm sure i'm forgetting some

have you ever been dumped really harshly?

very. he dumped me over facebook messenger like a coward, considering we'd been dating for 3 1/2 years.

has a tree ever fallen down on your house?

yes, during a hurricane. i was totally knocked out asleep so i didn't even hear it land directly above my head lol. then at our second house, a tree fell on our fuel tank, literally landing directly beside the cap, sooo we're lucky as fuck it didn't blow up.

would you ever get your hips pierced?

no. dermals sound really painful.

what if someone asked you to be in a relationship with them?

i'm in a relationship right now and am happy that way.

what will your next piercing be?

my nose.

what do you regret doing at FAR too young?

i'd rather just not talk about it.

marvel or dc?

dc, maybe.

what are you most proud of?

how far i've come

what is your favorite otp?

that actually exists, mark&amy. hypothetically, rhett&link

who is your favorite disney villain?

scar, maybe? OH. maleficent, actually.

did you ever watch "phil of the future"?

not really. i was never a big fan.

are sex and sexual activities something you enjoy?

sexual activities, sure. sex itself, i wouldn't know.

how old were you when you first became sexually active?

again, mind you, i'm a virgin, but if you're talking about doing anything sexual, probably 16. maaaybe 17, but i'm pretty sure 16.

would you rather have a pet crocodile or a pet octopus?

i legitimately wanted a caiman for a while because apparently that's legal lol

where is the last place you’d want to be on halloween night?

not sure

describe your favorite comedy movie?

my favorite's "white chicks" omg

what, in your opinion, is the most disgusting part of the human body?

i've stated before i have some asexual traits, and part of that is found in the fact i find both genitalia legitimately disgusting.

what feelings come over you when you know you’re falling in love?

i smile a lot and get very shy around the person. looots of butterflies.

do you believe in ghosts, spirits, demons?

yes to all.

would you consider yourself creative and how wide would you say your imagination can stretch?

i honestly believe i'm creative as fuck. it goes pretty damn far.

if you could go into any video game world, what would it be and why?

"world of warcraft." because. like. just take me to azeroth, pls. god i am such a nerd.

hamburger or hot dog?

cheeseburgers, usually.

what's something nerdy about you?

i am legitimately made of nerdy shit

would you cheat on your significant other if it meant sleeping with your celebrity crush?

no, actually. probably surprising considered how obsessed i am with him lol

how old do you want to live to?

maybe like 75? 80? i don't want to get to the point of being old where i'm like pissing myself and need help with literally everything. that would be legitimate torture to me.

are you comfortable with your height?

sure.

have you ever slept on a couch with someone else, with whom?

yeah, jason.

do you think the legal drinking age should be changed?

not entirely. i do, however, believe 18-year-olds should be allowed to drink only if accompanied by an adult.

have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?

i have hit rock bottom before.

have you ever been bitten by a snake?

no.

do you like train’s music?

i was a big fan way before they become mainstream thanks to mom.

how’s your relationship between you and your grandparents?

dad's mom is dead, mom's dad is dead, i don't even remember the last time i talked to my dad's dad (but he's suuuuper nice and supportive), and i'm pretty damn sure mom's mom doesn't like me. she's bitched me out before and has said some very rude things to me. i'm not particularly fond of her either, but i try.

has the last person you had sex with ever had sex with someone besides you?

never had sex, but as for the only person i've ever been sex

ual

with, yes.

are both of your blood parents still in your life?

my parents are divorced so i don't really see my dad, but he's still a part of my life.

do you like your best friend’s boy/girlfriend?

colleen's husband is awesome and is quite a bit like myself, but sara's not in a relationship.

have your parents met the person you’re currently interested in?

yeah.

when you’re interested in someone, do you let them know?

no.

have you ever had a kinky dream about a celebrity?

ha ha omg yeah

what are your parents’ middle names?

marie & john

in your opinion, which is more attractive: nice biceps or washboard abs?

biceps. really obnoxious abs aren't that appealing to me.

have you ever been hypnotized?

no. i don't believe in that jazz.

do you have any lockets with pictures inside?

no.

what would you consider to be the worst television channel out there?

mtv

do you have any siblings you absolutely despise? why?

no.

do you think age matters in friendship?

no. i have a friend who's 30.

how old do you think you will be when you finally have kids?

i don't want kids. i'm fine with my nieces and nephews.

list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.

heather (silent hill), tyler is legitimately me (markiplier crew), chase (rhett&link crew)

what’s a popular movie you’ve never seen?

the entirety of "harry potter." and "lord of the rings."

has anyone ever gotten in your face completely bitching you out?

my grandma, yes.

does it annoy you when people use too many emoticons when they’re typing?

it can.

would you ever consider yourself over dramatic?

i can be, honestly.

would you consider yourself more indie or mainstream?

indie. essentially nothing about me is mainstream.

do you ever use cheats when you play video games?

no.

has anyone, besides yourself, considered you as a failure?

most likely.

did you go to pre-k?

yeah.

have you ever stolen a friend's boyfriend?

not intentionally. then there's the fact we never actually dated.

do you regret it?

i regret ever being flirty with him, yes.

are you sorry?

it's only like my biggest regret, so.

who was your first celebrity crush?

probably jesse mccartney lol

would you smoke if it meant getting $30, or do you smoke anyways?

no.

what school teams or clubs are/were you a part of?

art honors society, honors society.

do you enjoy going through old pictures?

sometimes. other times, the nostalgia is too much.

is there a band you like with amazing music but a bad vocalist?

i honestly find dave mustaine of megadeth to be an awful singer, but somehow, i feel it adds to his charm??

do you tend to get clingy in relationships?

really, it depends on my mood and how comfortable i am with you. i legitimately demand space early in a relationship, and i romantically bond with people very slowly. once i actually feel attached to you, i can be sometimes. other times, i still need space.

have you ever dated outside of your race?

for less than a day, so you couldn't really call it "dating." he was hispanic.

when was the last time you received a massage?

never had one professionally, but jason and i would give each other a massage if we legitimately felt like we needed one.

would you rather have curvy legs or skinny legs?

not like really big, but curvy.

what do you usually put in your omelets?

cheese and ham. man... now i really want an omelet lol

do you like kiwis?

YAAAAAS

do you want any piercings?

my nose will be next, then more in my ears. i also would like a belly button ring one day, but i'd only get it once i'm much smaller. absolutely no offense intended, but i don't think they look good on bigger people like me.

have you ever flipped off your mother or father?

no, but i said "fuck you" to my mother only a few months ago. that went over well.

have you ever bowled a strike?

probably.

which is worse: stale chips or flat soda?

stale chips. flat soda doesn't bother me too much.

have you ever questioned your sexuality?

not seriously. when i had ocd, added onto my anxiety, i got into this totally random repetitive thought cycle that i secretly bisexual. i am in no way bisexual, but it was a random question and then my mind obsessed over the possibility i was lying to myself.

what did you usually pack for lunch at school?

sandwiches.

favorite nonliving musician?

probably freddie mercury. wonderfully talented man.

biggest learning experience of your life?

holly hill

what’s your opinion on religion in schools?

i believe all of the more common religions should be electives. i know that's a bit unfair, but if we're being realistic, there's too many religions to fit and get instructors for all of them.

how do you decide whether to accept or not accept a friend request?

i have to know the person and like them to accept them.

do you have an unspeakable past regret?

unspeakable, no.

do you litter?

absolutely not.

do you feed your pets gourmet pet food?

no.

were you miserable in middle school?

i wouldn't say "miserable," but it was definitely the worst school years. it's when my anxiety and depression started, so.

how many people do you know who identify as transgender?

one that i'm certain of. i have another friend that went through a transgender phase.

what is your preferred painkiller?

advil

what color was your senior prom dress?

black

do you support transgenders being able to use the opposite restroom?

i promise, you don't want my opinion.

do you support the raising of the minimum wage?

yes. you can't live off of $7.25.

are you courageous?

not really, if i'm being honest.

could you ever forgive your best friend for sleeping with your boyfriend?

nope.

do you live with your biological parents?

with my mom, yes.

do you have a snapchat?

no.

who is your hero?

mark <3

are you allergic to bees?

i wouldn't know. never been stung.

have you ever had stitches?

yes, in my chin.

did you graduate high school a virgin?

yeah.

would you ever date out of your own race?

yes.

can you describe your father in one word?

forgiving<3

what’s your favorite movie trilogy?

"shiloh," maybe

do you play any games on facebook?

no.

do you have a dog?

we have three.

do you have a step-parent?

yes, but i don't call her "mom" or anything.

do you like grasshoppers?

they actually kinda scare me, especially big ones lol

do you like laffy taffy?

yeah!

at concerts, do you buy merch?

only been to one, but i did. i'd like to think i always would.

what color is your underwear?

i don't wear underwear unless entirely necessary. increases your chances of a yeast infection and they're just uncomfortable.

what’s an interesting fact about the state in which you were born?

it has an abandoned wizard of oz-themed park.

outside of school, have you ever used a thesaurus?

yes. i use it occasionally for writing.

do either of your parents have any tattoos or piercings?

my mom has her ears pierced.

would you ever stalk a celebrity?

no. i have respect.

do your parents use social media? if so, which ones?

mom has facebook.

do you believe that there’s good in everybody?

nope.

person you used to have feelings for shows up at your house, you say:

"get the fuck away from my house" or something like that.

were your parents married when you were born?

yes.

have you ever thought about having sex?

yeah?

are you available?

no.

do you live in a big house?

no.

have you ever flown in a plane?

twice, but the first i don't remember.

do you like mangoes?

i've actually never had a real mango, but i think i'd like them. i love mango juice.

do you think you’re always right?

absolutely not. it's a ridiculous thing to think.

what’s your favorite season?

autumn.

best disney song?

dude let's be real, "be prepared" from tlk was fire

what’s the worst veggie?

BEANS.

do you like the color yellow?

nooo. it's one of my least favorites.

do you have any old calendars in your room?

i have two meerkat calendars from years ago that are part of my collection.

is it important to you to make a good impression on a bf/gf’s parents?

of course.

are you one of the people who think obama will be assassinated?

well, he obviously wasn't. if anyone's going to get assassinated, it'll be trump.

are you more sympathetic towards animals or humans?

animals, because they have no voice and are never truly do things out of ill intent.

when did your parents stop enforcing curfew?

i never really had a curfew.

how long does it take you in the shower?

not even 15 minutes. i've never understood how people can take such long showers. do your shit and get out.

ever kissed anyone with a nipple piercing? what about a lip piercing? nose piercing?

lip piercings, yes.

ever made out in a pool?

maybe, but i don't think so.

are you a virgin?

depends on how you define "virgin." but by my definition, yes.

be honest. have you had any dirty thoughts today?

well now that you mention it.

have you ever purchased a pregnancy test, for yourself or otherwise?

no.

do you have trouble reading small fonts?

not usually. depends on what the font is.

are there any old [as in, no longer on television, not necessarily old in terms of years] television shows that you could happily sit through and re-watch the entire series?

"that '70s show"

of all the decisions you have thus far made in your life, which was the best and which was the worst?

best: going to holly hill. worst: letting jason be my everything.

if you were presented with a bowl of fruit with apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes in it - which fruit would you pick to eat?

grapes.

do you have any gay friends?

yes, and i love them.

are you gay yourself?

no, but i don't discriminate against those who are.

how many brothers do you have?

one half-brother.

do you like mexican food?

noooo.

what’s your best friend’s pet’s name(s)?

colleen: miracle, maxwell, maze. i couldn't even try to name all of sara's lol

do you need to shave?

no.

do you see yourself married in the next five years?

nope.

are you responsible?

if i'm being honest, no.

ever had a pregnancy scare?

no. well, because i have anxiety, i was once scared while i was with jason because i missed my period, despite the fact we never had actual sex. safe to say, i wasn't pregnant. it was my anxiety getting to me.

do you partake in gaming?

if i can, i do. however, my consoles are broken and the psu or graphics card on my gaming laptop is fried, so i haven't in like... six, seven months. it's been torture lol

who has your heart?

two internet celebrities that don't know i exist lmao

do you have an ex who still talks to you? do they want to be with you again?

no. tyler tried to, but he finally got that i wanted nothing to do with him.

ever get mad at something that happened years ago?

yep.

don’t you hate when people assume you’re jealous of somebody just because you dislike them?

y e s

do your legs get really itchy after shaving them?

YES. it's why i have a scar on my shin because i scratched the fuck out of it.

who was the last person you went out to eat with?

dad, his wife, sisters, and my sister's in-laws.

honestly, if you wanted to get laid right now, could you?

probably not. i wouldn't want to anyway, since i'm like 95% sure i want to save 'til marriage.

have you ever kissed someone with a tattoo?

regrettably.

ever had a guy best friend?

yes.

how is your last ex doing?

i don't know and i don't care.

ever given your ALL to someone?

yes, and it was the wrong fucking choice.

how do you know the majority of the people you know?

school, the internet

have you ever had pink eye?

no, but my sister has.

do you really care how many friends you or anyone else has on myspace/facebook?

nope.

how many band shirts do you own? which?

including those that don't fit anymore but i have saved, two for ozzy osbourne, two for metallica, otep, disturbed, asking alexandria, hollywood undead, iwrestledabearonce (which i no longer like), marilyn manson, two for alice cooper, and i am 100% positive i've had more. i've had a loooot.

is nutella amazing?

yaaaas queen

have you ever had anything pierced that you don’t have now?

yes. right side of my nose, left anti-tragus, right tragus, left cartilage. they all closed while i was in the hospital.

would you consider yourself “tough”?

emotionally.

do you have any twins/multiples in your family? are they identical or fraternal?

i don't think so?

who is the youngest person in your family that you know of?

my nephew, i think.

is your mom a good mom?

she tries her best and does so much for me.

who was your first friend?

brianna. we drifted apart in middle school.

would you consider yourself a shy person?

waaaay too shy.

are you on good terms with your last ex?

no.

would you rather be a toaster, or a calculator?

... lol wut

do you like beards, and if so, what is the ideal beard length?

no opinion.

did/do you play with barbies?

i did only when nicole wanted to.

what holidays do you decorate for?

halloween, christmas.

have you ever been high?

no. it just doesn't interest me. i don't like my mind being foggy. it's partially why i've never even been drunk.

do you believe in homosexuality?

yes?? it obviously exists, and there's nothing wrong with it??

do you believe in jesus?

yes. it's a historical fact that he existed, it's just a matter of if you believe in the stories of what he did or not.

who was the last person you kissed?

my boyfriend.

do you play minecraft?

i never have and i'm not interested in it.

do you like mozzarella sticks?

noooo. the only cheese i like is american.

do you listen to nickelback?

i have no shame in admitting that i like some of their songs.

do you watch pewdiepie?

i've been a fan since 2013, or maybe 2012. he's a funny guy. he's got a lot of drama around him, but i sincerely think he's entertaining. i've enjoyed watching him develop as a person and comedian.

do you like the water?

no. i literally never drink it unless i'm dehydrated.

do you like eating zebra cakes?

sure. been a long, long time since i've had one, though.

are there any hobbies you have that you don’t perform in front of others?

write, draw.

have you ever felt as though you were unrecognizable to yourself?

yep.

when was the last time you took a taxi somewhere?

never.

what was the most embarrassing thing you’ve had to buy?

nothing really embarrassing.

have you ever mistaken a person’s gender?

yeah.

did you stay calm during the whole swine flu scare?

yes. i have the immune system of a god.

without the aid of mascara, do you have long eyelashes?

yes. my old english teacher literally stopped class once just to point out to the whole class that i had super long eyelashes lol. i loved her.

is there a kind of music you listen to that helps you release your anger?

yeah. tends to be rammstein or metallica.

do any of your close friends have children?

no.

were you ever rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room?

no.

when was the last time you were at the hospital, and why?

in february for a suicide attempt.

"the breakfast club," yay or nay?

i couldn't get into it.

have you ever had a piercing get infected?

yes. second piercing in my right ear lobe.

do you get embarrassed easily?

just about everything embarrasses me, so.

is anybody in your family a carpenter?

no, but my dad was.

would you date someone 8 years older than you?

yeah, but that's like my limit. i'd have to

really

like someone who was nine years older, but i'm cool with eight.

would you rather date someone older than you or younger?

older. at my current age, i wouldn't date someone younger than me.

have you ever dated someone you met online?

no.

what’s something you have a very strong opinion about?

abortion, more than anything. i'm getting more heavily adamant about gay rights.

what gets you emotional?

recalling past struggles and people, seeing others suffer, people doing good in the world, etc.

do you often try to find common ground when in a political debate?

ugh. i just don't like political debates.

do you come across as cold and aloof at times?

i'm sure.

do you think the last person you kissed is a player?

no.

if an ex said they hated you, you say?

good for you.

could you ever be friends with the person who hurt you most in life?

no.

are you happy with yourself?

in certain aspects.

would you change yourself for the person you love?

to some degree. it depends.

has a guy ever seriously punched you more than once?

no one's ever punched me, thankfully.

do you think you were ever in love?

i can say without the slightest doubt in my mind that i was.

have you ever dated your friend’s ex?

no.

have you done bad things with your parents nearby?

define "bad things."

have you started a horrible rumor about somebody?

no, i'm not that low.

why do you believe/not believe in god?

because it just seems most logical to me. it just seems... highly, highly unlikely that the fucking stars aligned so perfectly as to make this all possible. but i perfectly respect people that think the opposite, so long they don't stomp on religion.

do you have any recurring dreams? what are they?

no.

what is your favorite baked good?

muffins, maybe.

do you have an addiction to anything?

i have an addictive personality, so, a number of things. nothing unhealthy, though.

during thunderstorms, how does your pet react?

teddy and bentley don't care, cali gets so terrified that she quakes and hides behind the couch.

are you addicted to any energy drinks?

no. energy drinks taste like poison to me.

do you like croutons in your salad?

noooo

when did you meet the last male you texted?

when i was born. he's my dad.

have you ever talked to a boyfriend about a previous ex-boyfriend?

yes. i was having a ptsd breakdown and needed to know if i could confide in him about some things.

can two living souls become one?

no.

has a stranger ever yelled at you for your language?

no, but someone probably should lol. i recently realized that i say "fuck" waaay too much. jason's family defiled me. they swear like sailors and like everyone i know noticed my profanity got worse after dating jason for a while because i was with his family a lot and it rubbed off.

why aren’t you in love with your ex anymore?

because you don't love the person that almost caused you to kill yourself.

if your best friend “came out”, how would you feel?

colleen: i would go into legitimate shock since she's for traditional marriage and whatnot. sara: she's demisexual, so.

ever kissed someone you weren’t in a relationship with?

no.

have you ever been given a lapdance by an actual stripper?

ew, no.

what was the last song you listened to?

"cake and sodomy" by marilyn manson

have you ever been on a ferris wheel that had swinging cages/gondolas? were you in the swinging cage/gondola or too chicken to go on it?

yeah. it was at a little festival so it was sketchy as fuck too lol. i went with jason, who's afraid of heights, so that was interesting.

do you want a small or big wedding?

small.

are your parents going to buy you a car?

probably not. i don't drive, anyway.

who’s your favorite rapper? and your favorite song by this rapper?

the only rapper i genuinely like is eminem, and i really like "space bound"

how about your favorite band? and your favorite song by this band?

oh brother... ozzy osbourne: "trap door," metallica: "whiskey in the jar," otep: uhhh "special pets" or "apex predator," a day to remember: "i'm made of wax, larry, what are you made of?," marilyn manson: "heart-shaped glasses," rammstein: "nebel" or "donaukinder," cradle of filth: probably their cover of "mr. crowley," korn: "here to stay"

do you hate your last name? do you want to get married so you can change it?

i don't like my last name, but i don't want to get married just so it'll change.

who was your first boyfriend/girlfriend? why did you break up?

if you're talking about the first guy who ever had the title of "boyfriend," aaron. we were in the 7th grade and i just didn't like him like that.

do you drink coffee?

no, it's bitter as fuck and just overall gross.

what outfit makes you feel the most attractive?

you assume any outfit makes me attractive.

what do you think of people who always wear make-up?

whatever.

has anyone of the same sex ever hit on you?

i think so.

are you open to a same-sex relationship and why or why not?

no, i'm straight.

have you ever wanted to vlog?

no. too awkward for that shit.

who was the last person you held hands with?

ugh.

have you ever told someone to their face that they were ugly?

what the fuck, no.

have you ever seen a live bat?

yeah. they're so cute.

would you ever let your child drop out of high school?

depends on the reason.

do you pronounce “aunt” like “want” or “ant”?

"ant"

would you ever let a girl/boy put you through hell and back?

never again.

have you watched porn alone before?

i don't watch porn to begin with.

what do you think about weed?

i think it smells fucking awful more than anything.

recommend a book:

i recommend "johnny got his gun" by dalton trumbo more than any book on the face of the planet. the writing style is very unique and a bit hard to understand sometimes, but the meaning behind it. it increased my pacifism by a mile.

do you like to cook? or do you always prefer take out?

i can't cook. i literally burned a hot dog to where it split in half in the microwave.

are pets allowed to be on the furniture in your house?

yes. they live here.

declawing cats: for or against?

against

what theory (serious or not) has always intrigued you?

if the moon landing was fake or not. i believe it was real, but there is some seriously compelling evidence that it was a studio trick. i'd highly recommend reading about it.

do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

about some things.

#survey #quiz #questions #asks #answered

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