#I understand a large reason as to why she's such a big phenomena is because y'all think she's hot as fuck and want to get railed but GODDAMN

[citrus-circuss]

When there are NO Lady Dimitrescu x Asexual! Reader fics- NONE. ZERO. NADA.

*loud disappointed sigh* "Fine. I'll do it myself."

#I understand a large reason as to why she's such a big phenomena is because y'all think she's hot as fuck and want to get railed but GODDAMN #this woman and her daughters really sucking me into the reader fics vortex like black holes #asexual #asexuality #lady dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #resident evil 8 #resident evil village #oh look she talks

[autisticcassandracain]

I have many thoughts on the weird phenomena in the DC fandom and the Batfam fandom specifically where probably the majority of people just straight up. haven’t interacted with the source material. and almost all of those thoughts can be summarized as ‘lmao that’s weird and mildly concerning’.

and because I’m annoying I will list them all here right now <3

1. To preface this post, I mean, obviously, comics are inaccessible as all hell, both in the disability kind of way and the ‘you need to understand the concept of hypertime to fully comprehend the DC timeline’ kind of way. Because of this, even if you don’t have a disability that prevents you from reading comics, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to look at the amount of comics you need to read to have even a base understanding of a character and go ‘no thanks <3′ and just enjoy fanart and fanfic in a vacuum. Ultimately, this is fandom, this is supposed to be fun, it doesn’t really matter.

2. That said, it’s VERY weird to me that the majority of this fandom just straight up hasn’t interacted with the source material, and moreover, that it’s considered rude to tell people that they should do so. It’s especially weird considering the amount of fanon-only fans I’ve seen who straight up have a superiority complex over canon. The idea that it’s gatekeeping to tell fans of something to actually interact with canon is just. so weird, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘gatekeeping’ actually entails. 

3. But honestly I’m less interested in discussing the ways in which canon and fanon fans should interact with each other (personally, I think it would be helpful to create separate tags of some kind, but that’d require quite a big overhaul of the current fandom state) than in figuring out how this actually happened in the first place. On the one hand, it’s obvious; long-running superhero comics the way DC writes them have made themselves so thoroughly inaccessible that most people are simply too daunted to even try. Most media has a cohesive beginning and end (or at least, a planned end somewhere). Comics just... don’t.

But I do think it says something that, even among people who are clearly interested in the characters (since they have, you know, entire blogs about them), the effort to get into comics just seems to be too much to even bother. This really doesn’t bode well for the future of DC Comics. Obviously, I am no expert on anything at all ever, but I’d personally be surprised if DC survives beyond the few decades, at least in its current form/without a big overhaul.

4. But on the other hand, I don’t think the confusing state of DC Comics is the only thing to blame here. Fandom has a well-known problem with reducing any character down to archetypes to more easily ship and write fic/make content with. This problem is particularly prominent in fanfic, which, if you read enough of it, you’ll eventually start seeing not just the same tropes and trends, but essentially the same fics over and over again. And not just within the same fandom; everywhere, or every large fandom, at least. 

Fanon Batfam is entirely built on a bunch of those tropes; insecure/depressed sadboy Tim, team mom with optional hidden trauma/emotional problems Dick, bad boy with a heart of gold + sadboy combo Jason, abused sadboy Damian/angry easily-villified-for-fic-reasons monster Damian, good dad Bruce for found family fic and bad dad Bruce for angst fic, etc. This all culminates in a found family dynamic that’s generic and malleable to whatever fic the writer wants to write.

(This isn’t getting into the ship fic, which I avoid like the plague because the vast majority of it is incest, but I’d bet real actual money that the tropes in those fics fall under what is often preferred by the Migratory Slash Fandom.)

By having a decent excuse not to get into canon (the inaccessibility of comics) and a, by now, well-established fanon fandom, many fans feel free to use the batfam fandom as essentially an excuse to write whatever fic with reduced archetypes and tropes they personally feel the itch to write, without having to bother with even consuming a canon. This is compounded by the fact that canon itself is often contradictory and frankly bad, meaning that whatever interpretation of a character you want/need to go for your fic is at least theoretically backed up by canon (for example, you can just as easily cast Bruce as an abusive shithole dad who his kids need to get away from as a loving father figure who cares deeply for his children), which you can always use as a defense if people question your characterization.

5. This focus on fandom trends and tropes over actual creativity or care for the characters is also visible in the way bigotry manifests in this fandom; namely, in literally the exact way you’d expect. The female characters and characters of colour are shuffled to the side, non-existent, vilified, and/or reduced to harmful stereotypes. 

Barbara is probably the one I saw the most often in fanfic, but usually just as ‘Dick’s girlfriend’, and even then, she was often vilified for Dick angst (especially in fics about examining Dick’s trauma from his canon sexual assault; Kori also often gets the short end of the stick in those). After that, probably Stephanie, who fanon fans don’t really seem to know what to do with, so she’s basically just there as comic relief waffle girl, most of the time, though sometimes she can be used to either further Tim angst or further vilify Tim, whatever the fic calls for. Cass has gotten included more in batfam fics as of late, likely in response to critiques of fandom racism for leaving her out, but again, it’s clear people don’t actually know what to do with her. She’s often reduced to a racist stereotype of a quite, stoic therapist for whatever guy du jour needs it. That, or she’s in Hong Kong and just not there. Duke especially gets left in the dust in fandom, usually just being non-existent, but when he’s there, he’s almost always nothing more than the straight man for the actual fun characters to play off of. Talia probably has it the worst, though, and almost universally gets vilified by fanon stans in order to write sadboy Damian.

All of this is extremely predictable behaviour and falls entirely in line with general fandom misogyny and racism; ignoring or vilifying women and characters of colour, or using them as very minor characters at best. The only two characters of colour who aren’t regularly left out of fic are Dick and Damian, who are both also conveniently the two characters most often drawn and written in a whitewashed manner. In addition, there’s a real trend of demonizing Damian in fanon fics where he isn’t written as an abused sadboy, which I’d argue is in no small part due to fandom racism, considering Damian’s behaviour is in no way as bad as Jason’s, who doesn’t get anywhere close to the same demonization and gets woobiefied instead. I also find it convenient that Damian is probably the batboy who receives the most vilification in fic, when he’s the most obviously non-white of the batboys they’re willing to acknowledge.

Fandom often cries for more diversity in canon, only to ignore the diversity already there and focus on the same generic white guys. The batfam fandom is a brilliant example of this.

Which is not to say that fandom racism and misogyny isn’t present in the canon parts of the fandom (and canon itself); it absolutely 100% is. But I’ve found that canon fans are also more likely to like and care about at least one of the characters I’ve listed as ignored/vilified, and are willing to create and consume content for them, whereas fanon fans... aren’t, really. I’ve never seen a fan of fanon Cass the way I’ve seen fans of fanon Dick, for example. Obviously, this could just be by coincidence, or I’ve just surrounded myself with people like that, but it’s been a trend I noticed. Racism and misogyny is present in every part of this fandom and should be addressed as such, but I feel like it manifests the most blatantly in the fanon parts of this fandom. 

(I’d also recommend the articles Migratory Slash Fandom’s Focus and Beige Blank Slates, which expand more on the type of fandom racism I think is especially prominent in the batfam fandom, as well as literally every article in the What Fandom Racism Looks Like series.)

6. All this leads me to conclude that the majority of fanon fans don’t actually like the characters all that much; they’re convenient excuses for them to participate in fandom. Which I also think is, in no small part, a reason why so many of them react so negatively to being told to pick up a comic; they came to this fandom specifically to consume it as a fandom, because they wanted the fandom experience without having to consume a canon. 

This is not a phenomena unique to the batfam fandom (again, see the Migratory Slash Fandom), but it does fascinate me. While fandom is often said to be an experience focusing on transformative art, I think it’s also safe to say that, especially as fandom has become more mainstream, an increasing amount of people are looking to it less as a way to engage with their favourite pieces of media, and more as a type of media in and of itself. I think the reasons for this are similar to the reasons mass media entertainment like the MCU are so popular; you gain a lot of enjoyment out of it with very little risk involved. 

By consuming the same fics of the same characters (or the same archetypes) over and over again, you are rarely at risk of being challenged or even disappointed. It’s often very clear right from the start whether or not a fic will appeal to you, and if it isn’t, it’s easy to just look for another one. It requires less emotional investment than most other types of media, even ‘popcorn media’ like the MCU - or, yes, DC Comics. It’s safe, it’s enjoyable, it’s comforting, like McDonalds, but just like McDonalds, it’s ultimately bland and unsubstantial. 

7, TL;DR. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s like, wrong to enjoy the fanon version of the batfam without wanting to engage with canon, and I certainly don’t think it’s okay to harrass people over it. But I do think it’s in large part based on a desire to interact with fandom rather than other pieces of media because people are scared of being let down by those pieces of media (or worse, just uninterested in actually thinking), which is mildly concerning. 

#long post #my posts #infodumping #btw i say this as someone who also has trouble consuming much more than popcorn media/fanfic due to emotional exhaustion #but it's not a healthy habit and it's something people can and should try to break out of #also obviously this isn't about EVERY fanon fan specifically so if this doesn't apply to you specifically great then move on

[tainbocuailnge]

I remember there were mention somewhere in some fate content (don't remember exactly where) that magecraft become weaker the more peoples use it. I always thought it was Mage propaganda to justify keeping the status quo and maintaining the exclusivity they have on magecraft. But has it actually been confirmed somewhere?

the power of magecraft declining as more people use it was a fandom conjecture based on how magecraft relies on Mystery to work, essentially meaning that the less you know about how it works the better it works. from this it would follow that the more you deepen your understanding of how magecraft works, the worse it works. it would make sense thematically for the entirety of mage culture to be shooting itself in the foot like that but as far as I know it hasn’t actually been confirmed anywhere. a huge part of why mystery has largely disappeared since the age of gods is because of scientific developments mapping out the laws of nature, meaning humanity no longer needs the mystical or divine as explanation for natural phenomena, and not necessarily because of magic research. kirschtaria is able to arrange the stars into a magic circle that casts fuck you while within his lostbelt because it’s a place where the age of gods never ended and therefore nature is still ruled by mystery instead of physics. 

the (primary) reason mage society is so elitist and exclusive is because of the magic crest. it is a physical manifestation of the research a mage has accumulated over their lifetime and by passing it on the younger generations can cast the spells contained within the crest without having to rediscover them from scratch. splitting it up means essentially duping the recipient out of the other half of your crest and losing decades, perhaps generations of research, which is why they’re so big on having only one heir. it’s also why newer mage families get looked down upon: they have yet to develop much of a magic crest to fall back on, so they almost by default are worse at magic than older lineages.

there is some overlap between those two points though in how mystery accumulates with age, so the older the bloodline the more mystery it has. bazett is so bullshit strong because her bloodline goes all the way back to the age of gods and has direct ties to Lugh Him Fucking Self, and medea’s magic far outranks that of any modern mage in speed and potency because she herself is from the age of gods and therefore steeped in mystery. 

#king of asks #fefeman

[judgmentofcorruption]

Episode 0

Judgment of Corruption, pages 4-18

Is it greed to wish to be pure?

.

This world has now become a bundle of impurity.

I don't think that's a bad thing. This world certainly wasn't originally created to be absolutely clean and free of imperfections.

Take, for example, "water".

This thing that is vital to so many living beings is not pure in actuality, by and large. Mud, sand, salt, bacteria, and other sorts of organic matter besides…Despite all these impurities being mixed in it still wets the earth, or falls from the sky.

You need to perform a little bit of effort if you want to get purified water. The simplest and easiest method that humans undertake is distillation. You heat water until it evaporates, and then you cool it so that it condenses back into liquid. What you produce by doing this is still not “pure” water in the true sense of the word, but it is at least relatively safe to use to slake one’s thirst.

Even such a fundamental component like “water” needs to go through these phases in order to become pure. And since it isn’t completely so even then…It’s obvious that it’s a much harder matter to make pure something more complicated than that, like “humans”.

You could say that for humans to become pure beings in a material sense is largely impossible. Therefore, humans seek a spiritual “purity”, and have the tendency to make this into a virtue.

This in turn means that when it comes to those who differ from them physically and spiritually in this world—Or perhaps calling it “society” would be more accurate?—they have a habit of taking these heretics in society and loathing them as “impurities”.

.

Leaving the preface aside for the time being, right now I shall elucidate on the sight that stretches on beneath me.

First, relating to the whole region that this area is in--Humans have given this place the country name of "Holy Levianta". There was also a time long ago when it was called the "Magic Kingdom Levianta". Or, going off of a denomination particular to this current time period, combined with several of its neighboring countries you could also call it the “USE (Union State of Evillious)”.

Anyway, a red-brick building stood at the very center of this country—and I was clinging to the ceiling of its biggest room.

A big black star was painted on the ceiling. I don’t know if this building was named “the Dark Star Courthouse” as a result of this feature or if it was because it’s called “Dark Star Courthouse” that this star was painted--I know I learned it somewhere, but I've forgotten which it is.

Here and now, a bit of history was coming to an end.

A woman who had sought to be “pure” was now, for that reason, being eliminated from society as an “impurity”.

This social event by the name of a “trial”—she was the lead role, standing in the center of the Dark Star Courthouse’s great courtroom as the defendant.

“I will declare my verdict.”

The young head judge's calm voice rang through the courtroom.

The whole visitor’s gallery was packed full of people. That spoke to how much of the world’s attention this trial had.

“For the crimes of murder, larceny, and violation of the special law on witchcraft, the defendant Elluka Ma Clockworker…is sentenced to death.”

Upon hearing the judge’s verdict, all of the audience started to rustle.

"Oh…Oh God."

"How could this be…"

All of those who clutched their heads despondently were wearing the same religious habits. There were also those among them praying, rosaries in hand.

They, and Elluka who had just received her death sentence, were clergy of the Levin faith.

On the other hand, there were those who smiled with satisfaction at the verdict, those who glowered at the defendant with anger in their gaze, and those who simply watched over the proceedings without changing their expression.

"Kill the witch!" someone in the gallery suddenly shouted. Perhaps one of those who had a grudge against the defendant.

With that shout as the trigger, the courtroom began to grow increasingly into an uproar, and the judge slammed the gavel in his hand twice against the stand.

“Silence.”

His voice was unconcerned, and by no means loud, but with that the court became quiet once more.

The power to command the room—you could say that was one of the abilities sought after by judges. Just by seeing this single scene you could infer that he was quite capable in his job.

After letting out a sigh, the judge began his explanation on his verdict.

"To begin with…Though all present to witness this today already know of this, bizarre phenomena have been occurring in every region. For example, the other day a small forest here in the east of Levianta changed into a desert overnight. That was something that occurred spontaneously. If that were the only thing it would not be entirely beyond the realm of possibility. However, the issue is not limited to just that. --A baby was born between a certain husband and wife. By all rights this should be a happy occasion, but the second he saw that child the husband went mad with rage, and the wife grew severely disturbed. Why? ...Because even though the husband was an Elphe, and the wife was from Marlon, the baby was born with black skin, resembling neither of them."

I could hear a woman sobbing from the visitor’s gallery, but the judge ignored it and continued on.

“The husband sued the wife for the crime of infidelity. This trial was conducted by one of my subordinates, and the end result was that the wife was cleared of any wrongdoing. For no matter how extensively the World Police investigated, no evidence came forward to suggest that the wife had had an affair. Perhaps there are those who think this absurd. But the Dark Star Courthouse judging the wife innocent was not done on the basis of this fact alone. –Examples like this are occurring in every household in the world right now. The birth of children that are unlike their parents or their ancestors, completely ignoring their genes…Things that are scientifically impossible are genuinely occurring.”

His explanation seemed fairly roundabout. I would have liked him to just get onto the main topic of the basis of his verdict, but perhaps it was appropriate consideration for a judge to have, given the world’s interest in this trial.

Not all of the people in the visitor’s gallery were highly educated. By so neatly explaining the line of his reasoning, he may have been trying to get them to understand how he arrived at sentencing the defendant to death.

“In the kingdom of Beelzenia to the south, creatures with skin an inhumanly white like limestone are said to be rampaging all over the region. The truth is unclear, but there are reports that these are corpses that have crawled out of graveyards. The world is in a whirlpool of chaos so severe that we cannot laugh these off as jokes. And the source behind all of these things—"

“Are witches!"

Again someone shouted from the gallery.

The judge cleared his throat, and pounded the gavel.

“—The USE unified government has concluded that the cause of this progression of bizarre occurrences is that they are done by the magic of ‘witches’. At first there were objections that this was an unscientific, even anachronistic conclusion. However…as a result of the research done by our scientists, we have already confirmed the existence of ‘witches’ throughout Evillious history. This was made clear by the testimony of historian Sir Heaven Jaakko given in this court.”

The judge dropped his gaze to the defendant's chair. The woman there—Elluka, having just received her death sentencing, made no sign that she was losing control. She only looked up at the judge’s seat, silent.

She just looked to be faintly smiling.

“—Due to the ‘special law on witchcraft’, the World Police have up until this point arrested many suspects who were thought to be witches, and in this Dark Star Courthouse all of them have been given the death sentence. However…the strange occurrences in the world have shown no sign of resolving. This does not mean the conclusion of the World Police and the Dark Star Courthouse is incorrect. This worldwide chaos cannot be brought about by a single ‘witch’. Peace will not come to the world until we have exterminated all witches.”

The judge once again looked at Elluka.

“The defendant is also someone who was arrested by the World Police under suspicion of being a ‘witch’. However unlike the others, she bears the name of the witch ‘Elluka’, who appears in history. This court is treating the name ‘Elluka’ as one that is passed down among witches throughout the generations, and has acknowledged that the defendant is the current holder of the title.”

Humans are clever creatures, but that doesn’t mean that they could always derive the correct answer on everything.

I knew that the woman in that defendant's chair was certainly "Elluka". But she by no means was a figure who had merely inherited that name.

The Sorceress of Time, “Elluka”, had always been the same being.

Of course, the average human wouldn't know that.

--It sounded like the judge’s story had finally moved on to the main topic.

“The immediate charges the defendant was arrested for was the murder of Sir Mata Corpa, the Minister of Finance of the Lucifenian Republic, and larceny. A priestess of the Levin church, the defendant did on the night of April 4th, Evillious year 944, sneak into the Corpa estate and murder the afore-named victim. Upon stealing the ‘Marlon Spoon’ which was being stored inside the estate, she was caught in the act by an investigator of the World Police’s International Works Department ‘Justea’. Thanks to investigation taken afterward it was confirmed that the defendant had eighty-four other offenses—”

After that the judge rattled off both the nature of those offenses, and just how heinous a person Elluka was.

“—Furthermore, the World Police’s main office has determined that the defendant is ‘Elluka Ma Clockworker’, who is thought to be the leader of all ‘witches’, and this court has now indicted her as such. The defendant has acknowledged all of her crimes but shows no sign of introspection in her conduct; the blame that she must take responsibility for as the cause of all the chaos in the world is enormous, and from a societal point of view I have determined that there is no other recourse than for her to face capital punishment.”

The long explanation on his verdict had come to an end.

“Court is adjourned.”

Immediately after the judge pounded his gavel one last time, the viewing gallery once more broke out into an uproar.

But the judge showed no sign of quieting them down. He silently stood up and then started to walk towards the exit. Other judges followed suit.

Several reporters with notebooks in hand dashed outside from the gallery. Their articles that “Defendant Elluka Ma Clockworker Given Death Penalty Verdict” would surely be front page news tomorrow.

Elluka did not look towards the viewing gallery. She showed no indication that she concerned herself with the cries and jeers from behind her, still simply standing there with the same expression on her face.

Two of the courthouse’s guards approached her, and seized her arms. She did not resist them, and was taken out of the courtroom.

.

I also left the courtroom, following after Elluka. When I caught sight of her in the hallway I once more clung to the ceiling.

Elluka and the guards walked on without saying a word.

But an intruder suddenly appeared there.

"Elluka!"

I could see a single man running towards them from deeper in the hallway, opposite the direction they were heading.

Three other guards were running after him.

Right before he could reach Elluka he was tragically seized by the guards.

"Let go!"

The man struggled but his lean body was no match for the brawny guards, and he was unable to shake them off.

Elluka stood in place, silently gazing at the man.

Her expression appeared to have changed slightly from when she was in the courtroom.

It was slightly…it was only slightly, but she looked sad.

After a moment, a new figure appeared from a nearby door.

"Release him."

It was the young head judge who had run the court session earlier.

“Uhh…But…”

While the guards holding the man hesitated, the head judge continued, "It doesn't matter. He has a relationship with the defendant. We can allow him one last conversation with her at the very least.”

An act of kindness by the soft-hearted judge…so it may have looked to someone watching.

But as the guards released the man he grew enraged at the judge.

"You bastard…So you betrayed me, did you!?”

“Betrayed you? Now now, what are you saying, Gandalf? I merely made a just and upright judgment…No more, no less. What? ‘The defendant will surely be found innocent, as she has the backing of the Levin church and the Freezis Foundation’--Was that your simplistic line of thinking?”

"Guh…"

"You're far, far too naïve. Unfortunately she earned far more enmity than necessary. ‘Elluka Ma Clockworker’ must be put to death…The people who believe such are in far greater number than you’ve imagined.”

“…And how much did you accept from these ‘people who hate Elluka’?”

“Ha ha, now what could you mean by that, I wonder…Are you suggesting that I, the director of the Dark Star Bureau, have been paid off by bribes? To think that I would be suspected of such by one of my own colleagues…how sad,” the head judge said, pressing on the inner corner of his eye in an affected manner.

“How dare you speak to me so shamelessly—"

“It’s quite unlikely, most unlikely for that to have happened, Gandalf. Unlikely, and yet…Well, let me put it this way…‘Money is the best lawyer in hell’.”

“Why you…”

Even now Gandalf grit his teeth as though he were about to knock him out, but the head judge quickly held a hand out in front of him as though to restrain him.

“Please calm down. I have no wish to make you a defendant too. …Honestly, on the contrary, you should be thanking me. Right until the end I never revealed your—relationship with Elluka. By all rights that is improper of a head judge to do. But…I didn’t want to tarnish your career with this. As a colleague, and as your friend.”

“…I no longer have any wish to stay in the Dark Star Courthouse. I’m fed up with this corrupt organization.”

“Are you insane? You would waste my help after I went to such pains…Fine. You’ve made your decision. I won’t stop you,” the judge related, his tone extremely mournful but his expression joyful.

Gandalf clenched his trembling hand into a fist, but eventually he let it drop, shoulders dropping with a crestfallen air.

No matter how he struggled, he could not stop Elluka’s execution—He had given up on it.

Someone else starting walking over from the entrance to the courtroom that Gandalf had run in from.

“Sir…”

It was a woman wearing a servant uniform, looking roughly thirty years old.

She was holding a young baby against her chest.

After briefly patting the baby’s head, Gandalf made this request of the head judge:

“In the end…Only a few words would be enough. Please, let me speak with Elluka.”

“Of course. That’s why I originally had the guards release you, after all.”

“With…the baby, if possible.”

“That baby—Ah, I understand. I see. So that’s how it is. Well, I don’t mind.”

Upon hearing those words, Gandalf gratefully inclined his head. Then he and the servant started to move towards Elluka—but there he turned back to the head judge for a moment.

"I said this earlier, but I will quit being a judge. …However. This doesn't mean that I have completely lost hope. This doesn't mean I'm going to quit being a man of "justice". I know that someday, someone who has a truly just heart will change this corrupt institution. When that happens, I know that rotten bastards like you will see hell. Head of the Dark Star Courthouse—Hanma Baldured!”

"Ha ha ha, that’s quite the bark for a beaten dog. …Well, I look forward to when that day comes." The judge--Hanma, returned once more to the door while laughing him off.

After seeing him leave, Gandalf turned back to Elluka and walked to her side.

"Elluka…"

"Gandalf…"

The two of them gazed at each other, bringing their faces closer and gently exchanging a tender kiss.

"That I should be parted from you like this--"

“I’ve been prepared for this, Gandalf. I do use ‘magical arts’. That is a true fact. …And you accepted me anyway, despite knowing that.”

“But…this trial is no more than a farce! I know there’s no way these bizarre events in the world are your fault. You—the Elluka that I love, could never be the kind of person who would do such things! It’s obvious that this story of you murdering the Minister of Finance is a false accusation!”

"--Thank you. It does my heart good just to have someone here now who believes in me."

The two of them kissed one last time.

.

A tragic parting of two people who loved each other.  An innocent defendant and her lover. Well, something like that I suppose.

But I’ll say it again. Humans are not always wise, and cannot always derive the truth.

I knew. It was indeed utter nonsense, this idea that Elluka was causing the chaos in the world with magic.

And not just Elluka. All of the "witches" judged at this Dark Star Courthouse were innocent.

These strange occurrences. Their cause lies not in “witches”.

These were errors induced within a much larger stream than that.

And the only ones who knew the true reason for them--

Were "Gods".

…In that sense, you could say that Elluka was innocent.

However.

The other crime that she’d been charged with—the murder of Minister of Finance Corpa, that was without a doubt something Elluka committed.

It was a crime she had carried out in order to obtain that “Marlon Spoon”…Or to speak more accurately, to obtain the being that was inside it.

.

The baby abruptly started fussing.

“Oh dear, do you need some milk? Or a new nappy?”

The servant flusteredly started to rock the baby.

Upon noticing that, Elluka leisurely made her way over.

"Lady Elluka…Please, hold your baby,” the servant said with tears in her eyes, handing the baby off to Elluka.

The moment that Elluka gently held him in her arms, the baby immediately ceased crying.

"…He's a smart boy."

“Yes, he properly knows who his mother is."

"And he also understands that his mother--is a 'scary woman when angered'."

"Ha ha…Perhaps so." While holding the baby, Elluka turned to Gandalf. "What you said to Hanma earlier--"

"Hm?"

“That one day, someone who has a truly just heart will change this corrupt institution…I hope our boy becomes that person.”

“…Honestly I have no desire for him to ever get involved with the Dark Star Courthouse.”

“…That’s pretty unfair coming from you, having already made your decision to quit this place.”

"I'm sorry. I know better than anyone what a weak man I am. But—"

“It’s alright. Not everyone has the determination to fight. But…the one who will ultimately decide what he does is this baby himself.”

“Yes…True.”

Elluka brought her face close to the baby and lightly kissed his brow.

“Bye bye. Grow up to be a good man like your father…Gallerian.”

.

Led along by the guards, Elluka disappeared further inside the courthouse.

As he watched her from behind—No. Gandalf could not continue to watch any longer.

He had fallen to his knees on the floor, and started to loudly sob.

As though following along with him, the baby being held in the servant’s arms also began to wail.

.

Well then.

This is a very intriguing matter to me.

In this world—this space that I call the “Third Period”—Elluka is a very singular being.

She possesses an extremely long lifespan, and has continued to involve herself in the history of this world.

…To speak more strictly, it’s a bit of a faulty expression to call who she is now by the name “Elluka”, but explaining that would be very complicated, so I’ll leave that alone.

She is a mere shadow of what had once been the Sorceress of Time “Elluka”…If you think of her that way you would not be mistaken, for the time being.

I’m not just interested in her, but also the fact that she’s given birth to a baby.

As far as I know, she has until this point never done such a deed before.

What sort of change has there been in her mental state?

And what sort of path will that child—Gallerian Marlon, take from here on out?

I think I shall observe Gallerian for a short while.

Perhaps he could become a savior for this world.

Or perhaps he could become a pest that leads it to its ruin.

I still don’t know which.

All I can do is to simply gaze on.

.

--I have yet to introduce myself.

It’s not that I’m trying to hide it, or put on airs about it.

Only, in this story I am a simple observer, and as such I don’t have any particular importance.

Even so, if you would like to know about me—

Then for now I will at least tell you my name.

.

My name is “Sickle”.

I am a simple bat, with nothing unusual about me at all.

directory------next>>

[imagine-organization-xiii]

Imagine Vexen was doing a experiment that backed fire and turns every single member except him into children.

@nopantssaturday is such a babe, guys, you don’t even understand

oOoOo

Oh No. This was not Good. Vexen watched as his latest creation shut down during its most crucial test stages. The scientist quickly ran to the machine and pried open the doors as a dense pink vapor inside of it’s chambers flowed out. As the doors begrudgingly opened, the academic waved his arms, trying to clear as much of the fog as possible to find his test subject inside. Thankfully the scientist was wearing his sealed suit or he would have been choking on the gas himself.

This machine was one Vexen was working on for himself; one to slow and eventually stop the aging process, but not because he was worried of aging himself. Oh no, The scientist merely was just trying to find a new way to defy the forces of nature with science, something he effectively loved doing. 

But as the smoke cleared from the lab, the subject, a white rabbit he had found, did not look any younger. “Shit.” The scientist huffed to himself.  He was sure that his calculations were correct. He knew they were sound, and yet here he was with the same adult rabbit he had started with. Ugh. The scientist slowly lifted the rabbit from the floor of the machine and held it in his arms as he carried it out of the chamber and to its small cage on the other side of the lab. But as he placed the rabbit in it’s holding, a loud unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the castle. 

“VEXEEEEEN!!!!!” The voice was high pitched and whining, like a woman or child. But it wasn’t Larxene. Curious, the scientist quickly removed his suit headed up the stairs to the main room of the castle. But never expected to see what lay ahead. 

There, sitting in the gray area, were 13 little toddlers. And not just any toddlers, no. They were all of the members of Organization XIII. The only reason he could tell it was them, was that they were all were still attempting to wear their cloaks that are now MUCH too large for them. Some of the children sat on the floor, some were crying. But there, sitting on the highest chair was a tiny Xemnas, arms folded and looking very angry. At him. 

This was supposed to be terrible, but Vexen couldn’t help but smile that this was his doing. His experiment had worked. Well, somewhat. But how was this possible? But a simple gaze upwards provided the answer. The vents! When the vapor exited the chamber of the machine, it probably traveled upward and into the vents to the rest of the castle. That must have been it.  Though this was a miracle, it was clear that no one was happy about this but Vexen. The tiny superior looked up at him with his little arms crossed. 

“Fix this. Now.”

So, after scooping up all of the toddlers and bringing them to his lab, Vexen got to work examining the effects of the pink anti-aging vapor. Of course, this task would be nothing for someone as intelligent as Vexen, but doing so while also babysitting 13 toddlers proved…. Difficult. Some of the children like Ienz– - Zexion were well behaved and sat with books. While others were.. More difficult. 

“Number VIII! Stop running around the lab this instant!!” The little troublemaker continued to scurry around the lab, stopping only once to turn his head and stick his tongue out at his captor.  The scientist quickly caught up, and lifted the rowdy little redhead into his arms before placing the boy in a small caged in area of the lab that the Academic was able to have the dusks put together as a suitable place to corral the children. Those dusks sure are capable when it comes to stealing from people, it seemed, for within a couple hours, they were able to put together a fairly suitable area to distract the children. Well. Most of them. 

“Noooo!!! I don’t wanna go in there!!!” The redhead loudly whined before being placed inside of the cage. 

“Well, that’s too bad, Number VIII. Because you need to say in there.” The scientist said, matter of factly. Fighting with this child was not much different from fighting with the real Axel it seems. 

“Well why does Xemnas get to sit out there!?” The toddler whined, even louder than before, pointing his little finger at the chair near Vexen’s lab desk where the tiny superior sat stoically, crossing his arms in a pensive stare. 

“He gets to sit there because he is the superior and gets to do what he wants.” The scientist stood and turned to walk back to his desk. The little flame’s face started to scrunch in disgruntlement before tears formed in his eyes and he let out a pained wail. 

“AwwaaaHhhh!!!!” The boy cried. “That’s not fair!!!!” But as the boy let out his whining scream, the high pitched cry of two babies carried in from the other room. 

“Oh great, you woke the infants….” Vexen sighed as he walked into the other room to soothe the crying babies.

Without the major distractions, Vexen was able to figure out two facts about the effects of the pink vapor. The first was that the anti-aging process seemed to be relative to the original ages of the person that inhaled the gas. For instance, Roxas and Xion, the youngest members of the organization, after inhaling the gasses have reverted to mere infants. Whereas Xigbar, Xaldin, and Lexaeus, as well as the superior, have reverted to a child that seemed to be about 4 or 5 years old. And all of the others in between seem to have become toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3 years old. This was fairly easy to understand by how the child acted and the cognitive functions the children possessed. 

The second thing that Vexen was able to discern was that even though each subject was able to remember what had happened to them and what was happened, they still displayed the behaviors, mannerisms, and priorities that a child would. This was able to be figured out by how Demyx has been able to watch the same Lucky Emblem Sing-A-Long-Song’s VHS on repeat for the last 2 hours with the same captivation and interest as the first time he watched it. It was also easy to tell by the way that Larxene smiled and laughed, at all. The fact that the girl was smiling was enough to say something about her had changed. 

The only child that didn’t seem to display this kind of behavior was that of Xemnas. It was as if the superior had the mind of someone well beyond their years and that only his body was his age. This phenomena was strange, yes, but further examination of the superiors mind would have to wait. For this man of science had to figure out how to fix the problem at hand first. As soon as he placed the now sleeping infants back down in the crib, Vexen left the darkened room and started to head back to the main part of the lab to continue his work. But before he could reach his lab desk, a tiny hand reached out and tugged on the bottom of his pants. One look down to his ankle revealed that it was Lexaeus tugging on his pants. 

“Yes, Number V, what do you need?” Vexen asked. The small boy didn’t talk much, of course he never really spoke in general. But the boy looked up at Vexen with big pleading eyes and placed his hand down over his front and pushing his knees together urgently. Vexen was momentarily confused by the dance but then understood. “Oh… OH!” The scientist then quickly took the child and walked him hurriedly to the nearest restroom before he had to ask the dusks to clean his floors. Again. 

Ugh this was going to be a long day. 

–

After a few hours, Vexen had started to get the hang of handling 13 children. At least enough that he could get his work done. The young superior sat in his chair and handled himself in all ways as if he was an adult. Xigbar was precocious but would quickly grow bored with the mischief he was causing and would turn to playing with whatever garbage he could find. Xaldin and Lexaeus were very quiet and both seemed to have no problem playing with the toys that the dusks had found at a moments notice. Lexaeus seemingly had a small rabbit plush he seemed focused on. Zexion had a small stack of picture books that seemed to be able to keep him entertained. Axel was a bit of a trouble maker, but it seemed that the redhead was able to keep himself distracted from causing mischief if he had Saix nearby. Something about the blue haired child seemed to keep Axel from going buck wild. 

Demyx has been watching the same VHS for the last 4 hours and even though the music was annoying, Vexen knew it kept him quiet, so he persevered. Was just kind of playing with the game board that the dusks had found, something called ‘Apologies!’. The pieces were missing, but that didn’t stop Luxord from repeatedly popping the bubble at the center of the game board and watching the dice inside bounce around. Marluxia and Larxene liked playing together most of the time and were able to be distracted by the dolls and dressing them up. And the last two are infants so while they required the most feeding, they were able to be kept fairly contained and didn’t get into trouble, sitting in chairs near the desk when they were awake, watching the scientist with wide eyes. 

After about a good amount of time testing and working at his desk without much interruption, the chilly Academic made it with a breakthrough, coming up with a bright blue liquid in a vile that could easily be turned into a vapor and once inhaled. Should negate the effects of his previous experiment. Thankfully this nightmare would be over. 

But as soon as that thought came to his mind, vexen looked up to the small boy with the periwinkle hair over her face looking down intently into his picture book and the scientist curl of a smile grew on his lips. He had almost forgotten how Ienzo used to love his books. It made him almost wish that the experiment didn’t have to end. But then another scream echoed through the lab. 

“VEXEN!! XIGBAR IS PULLING MY HAIR!!” 

“No! IM NOT! SHE STARTED IT” 

“NO I DIDN’T!!” 

“YES YOU DID!!” 

Okay. Never mind. Forget that. It needs to end now. 

Vexen quickly loaded the children with their original clothing draped on lazily into a vacuum sealed room of the lab (one that he probably used at the beginning of all this to have prevented this enter faux pas.) and pumped the room full of the blue vapor. The fog was as thick as its predecessor and soon the entire room went opaque with the gas. At first there was silence, but then the fog dissipated and it was clear that the reversal was a success. Soon the members all filed out of the room. 

“Ugh.. What happened?” Axel murmured as he stepped out, placing a hand up to his head. 

“I don’t know…” Demyx replied. “But I’m really in the mood for some chicken nuggets…” 

“Don’t you eat that every day, tyke?” Xigbar snickered. 

“Hey!” The younger boy whined as most of the members left the lab in a group. The superior gave Vexen a silent nod before leaving the lab as well. And soon the only ones left in the lab were Vexen… and Zexion. 

“So..” The younger member paused. “Was that whole afternoon real?” 

Vexen gave a dry chuckle in response. “Ah.. Yes.. Not my proudest failure. But yes it did happen.” 

“Oh man… “ Zexion sighed. “How did you deal with 13 children, Vexen..?” 

“Oh.. With great difficulty.” Vexen laughed again, tired from the day he just had. “But you know what? It was not as catastrophic as it could have been. And.. It kind of reminded me of when you were small in Radiant Garden. Of course, back then it was just you, and not all of the others as well. But sometimes it’s nice to remember the better times. You were always a well behaved child, Ienzo– I- I- Mean..” The scientist fumbled on the name a moment before the young man stopped him. 

“No. No. Ienzo is fine..” Then a pause hung in the air a moment before the schemer spoke again. “You know.. I never thanked you, Vexen. For raising me in that castle with Master Ansem and the other apprentices. I mean, my parents died and I could have been sent to suffer the fate of so many other orphaned children in Radiant Garden, but instead you all cared for me and raised me. And if today wasn’t proof, raising children is no easy task.” 

For a moment, the Chilly Academic didn’t know how to reply. His throat almost went dry. He had never expected something like this from the boy, honestly they barely spoke anymore outside of work, let alone spoke of the past. But.. somewhere deep inside of him, Vexen could swear that he felt an inkling of… happiness? 

“I– You’re welcome, Ienzo.” The scientist smiled. And as the boy slowly left the lab, a thought came to Vexen’s mind. 

Maybe this experiment ending in failure was not the worst thing.

#imagine #organization xiii #organization xiii imagines #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts imagine #vexen #kh vexen

[lovemesomerafael]

Destroying The Planet To Save It   Chapter 16:  Subtle Is For Amateurs

                             Chapters 1-15          Read It On AO3

Sometime during the afternoon, several additional team members arrived at Stark Tower.  The whole team hadn’t assembled, however. Thor, for one, was completely occupied fighting for the survival of Asgard.  He had been briefly interested in the fact that the enemy appeared to be able to control weather, asking with affronted ire, “Who dares to usurp my throne as God of Thunder!”, only to instantly deflate and lose interest when he learned that the phenomena weren’t natural.  Dr. Strange hadn’t even taken Steve’s call, instead assigning a functionary to apologize profusely (and to lie entirely unconvincingly), saying that Dr. Strange was currently off-world.   Nobody, including Tony, currently knew where Rhodey was.  And for whatever reason, Tony wouldn’t even hear of calling on Peter Parker.  Steve wasn’t entirely disappointed; that kid really needed to learn to shut up during a fight.  

Bucky wasn’t surprised to see Clint Barton come bounding into the training room with Wanda Maximoff walking sedately behind him.

“Barnes, quit aiming that rubber gun at her.  I want to introduce Joss to Wanda.”

Bucky was surprised, as always, by how young Wanda was.  Given her abilities and accomplishments, he didn’t really think of her as a kid, but that’s what she was.  This time, though, she seemed to have a little more… self-assurance than she’d had the last time Bucky had seen her.  Her time away from the team, alone with Vision, was apparently good for her.

“You know this idiot,” Clint said, pulling Wanda past Bucky as she breathed a hurried, “Hi” to him.

“This is Joss.  This is who I wanted you to meet.  Well, actually, I wanted her to meet you.  She’s just learning to use her ability.”

Wanda smiled at Joss.  “He says you’re telekinetic?”

Joss flushed a little, clearly uncomfortable. “Nothing like you.  I’m just a – I can move stuff, that’s it.  And only what I’d be able to move physically.  I hear you throw trucks.”

“Only when necessary,” Wanda chuckled.  

“Actually, Joss can do more than just move stuff,” Bucky added.  “You guys wanna see something?”

Clint and Wanda stepped together, curiosity evident in their expressions.  

Bucky took a stance a few feet from them, while Joss walked about ten feet across the room, then turned to face him.  He held the rubber AR-15 up, as though aiming it at her.  For a few moments, nothing happened.  Then, suddenly, the weapon twisted itself out of Bucky’s grip and flew to Joss, who caught it.  

“Awesome!”  Clint cried.

“He was barely holding it,” Joss said, returning to the group.  “We’re still working on that move.”

Bucky clapped Joss on the shoulder.  “But we’ll get there.”

Seemingly apropos of nothing, Joss looked at Wanda and said, “I can’t aim.”

“I remember that,” Wanda responded, apparently understanding completely.  “There’s a trick to it.”  

Joss smiled, encouraged, and Wanda turned to Bucky and Clint.  “How about you guys give us some time to get to know each other?”

Bucky and Clint looked at one another, surprised and a little disappointed, but didn’t argue.  Shuffling out of the gym, they climbed the stairs to the residences side by side.

“Looks like you guys made some good progress today.”

“Yeah, more than I would’ve guessed,” Bucky agreed. “She’s a good student, which surprises me.   I kinda expected her to fight me.  She really hates being a mutant.”

“Can’t say I blame her.  Lotta assholes out there.”

Bucky sighed in response, opening the door from the stairway to the elevator lobby for Clint.

“So, I got some weird vibes from you two this morning.  Something happen?”

“Not like what happened with you and Natasha,” Bucky responded, smirking.

“Who says anything happened with me and Tasha?”

“Yeah, right.”

Clint’s smile lit his whole body.  “I’m in love, bro.”

“That ain’t new.”

“No, but she wants to give it a real try. She’s ready now, and it’s…”  Clint could only smile more widely (a little idiotically, Bucky thought, but he let it go), and make a vague gesture that ended with his hand over his heart.  

“Happy for you, dude.  Both of you.  Maybe tell her to watch it with the teeth, if you’re trying to be subtle about it,” Bucky grinned, pointing to a large bruise with a definite bite mark in it where Clint’s neck and shoulder met.  

“Fuck that,” Clint laughed.  “Subtle is for amateurs.”

Bucky passed through the lounge area and into the kitchen.  He briefly greeted Scott Lang, who was standing hunched over in the open doors of the large refrigerator, peering into the back.  When it became clear he wasn’t going to move, Bucky reached around him for a bottle of water.  He held it up to Clint, who nodded from where he’d sprawled out on a couch.

Bucky grabbed another bottle and, re-crossing the room, handed it to Clint.  “Better hydrate,” he said.  “Between you and Natasha, I’m thinkin’ we’re not talking tame or infrequent.”

“You’d be right about that,” Clint answered, toasting Bucky cockily with the bottle before taking a drink.  “But you didn’t answer my question.  What’s up with you and Joss?”

Bucky frowned.  “She hates me.”

“Yeah, that’s obvious from the way she can’t take her eyes off you.”

“Whatever.  Not gonna happen, so…”

“I don’t get it.  And if you’re not gonna go for it with her, then…”

“Do you have any idea how many ways Natasha knows to kill you?”

“Hah!  You’re jealous.  So spill. Dr. Hawkeye is in.  Vat seems to be ze problem?”  He asked, with the worst attempt at a German accent ever.

“Ze problem is that we’re – you know, the team – we’re in magazines and shit.  And she says all of this,” he gestured around, “is, and I’m quoting here, above her pay grade.”

A look of genuine concern came over Clint’s handsome features.  “Yeah. I can see that.”

“I don’t give a fuck about any of that stuff, you know that.”

“’Course I do.  But look at it from her perspective.  What if you were still Bucky from Brooklyn, and you got a shot with some movie babe?  They had movies back then, didn’t they?  Electricity? Light?”

“Fuck you,” Bucky grinned.

“Well?  You’re such a cocky fucker, maybe it wouldn’t be a problem for you.  But, I mean, everything we do is news of one kind of another.  Either we’re savin’ the world, or blowing shit up, or takin’ out some nest of bad guys. And you?  You’re so disgustingly handsome, you’re news when you fucking breathe. You could have hot and cold running babes, if you wanted.  I never seen you take advantage of that, but you could.  A lot of normal people are intimidated by all that.  We’re…  You’re… a lot, dude.”

“She hangs out with the damn President!  You’re tellin’ me he’s not news?”

“He’s her job.  You’re talking about her life. Her heart.  Whole different thing, man.”

“Well, since I seem to be stuck with you assholes, and this face, I guess that’s that.”

“Not necessarily.  Give her time.  She’s only been around this shit for, what, like a week?”

Bucky grunted, slouched in the big, soft chair. For a while, they drank their water in silence before Scott, empty-handed despite his extended fridge recon, came and sat with them.  After that, conversation turned to other topics, although Bucky was still mulling over what Clint had said.

*****

Steve spent much of the day stewing.  There simply wasn’t much for him to do when the work was all in the hands of those more competent to perform it.  Once there was an enemy, a force to stop, Steve would be in his element.  But right now, there was little he could do.  

With that thought came a familiar, immense, monstrous weight.  Steve took a huge breath through his nose and let it out as slowly and steadily as he possibly could.  Sometimes that helped.  Not today. He glanced across the table at Sharon, who was scowling at a series of printouts, translations of the notes Clint and Natasha had found in the underground bunker in Washington, D.C. Her beautiful face, usually so serenely confident and sunny, now looked as troubled and exhausted as he felt.  

Steve stood, using every ounce of energy he could to appear nonchalant as he scooted his chair back from the table and strode from the conference room.  He tried to be quiet as he pushed open the door to the stairwell, then set off to run the ten floors to the roof.  

Exercise usually soothed him, gave him a focus and an outlet for whatever he happened to be feeling.   In fact, that morning, he’d channeled quite a bit of his anxiety over whatever Jarman Arias – or whoever – was up to, into a punishing upper-body workout with weights, followed by an hour with the punching bag.  Well, punching bags.  He’d gone through two.  Even Bucky had laughingly commented that he was unusually enthusiastic about their sparring.  When Steve had told him why, Bucky had simply shrugged, grinned, and retaken his defensive stance.

“Then bring it, punk.  You can take it out on me.  Just don’t expect me to go easy on you, either.”  

When he arrived on the roof, Steve was barely breathing hard, and felt only the slightest dampness at his hairline. Still, the fresh air, and the wind this high up above the city, were refreshing.  He stretched his arms as far over his head as he could, face up toward the sun, breathing in the outdoor air.  The roar of the city was soothing in a way he felt no need to explain to himself.

He put his hands on the railing surrounding the roof and looked out over Manhattan.  So many people.  So many people in the boroughs hidden from sight in the hazy air obscuring the horizon. So many people in other cities, across the country, across the oceans, around the globe.  And he was responsible for all of them.  He looked down to see the endless line of people hurrying along the sidewalk below, minds focused on their own errands, their own problems and cares, secure in the knowledge that they were safe from invasion or attack, because Captain America was on the job.  Well, guess what, Citizens of Earth?  Captain America needed a fucking vacation.  

To his annoyance, Steve heard the door from the stairway open and close, and steps scuffing along the rough, pebbly surface of the roof.  He sighed deeply and turned his head as whoever it was approached, and was shocked to see Phil Coulson, Director of the new S.H.I.E.L.D., standing next to him.  Coulson reached into the jacket of his ubiquitous navy blue suit and pulled out the last thing Steve would have expected: a pack of cigarettes.  

“You’re kidding,” Steve grinned in amused surprise.

Coulson merely shook out a cigarette and handed Steve the pack.  

“I don’t smoke,” Steve said.

“You were in the Army in World War II,” Coulson replied around the cigarette he was lighting.  “You smoke.”

Steve surprised himself by shaking a cigarette out and trading the pack for Coulson’s expensive-looking monogrammed silver lighter. “Nice,” Steve muttered as he flicked the flame to life.

“It’s supermagnetic if you know how to activate the switch.  It’ll attract and stop a bullet.  Hurts like a motherfucker and leaves a perfectly rectangular bruise, but you know. Beats getting shot.”

Steve nodded.  “Guess you’ve had to use it?”

Coulson shrugged and let out a stream of smoke. “Some parts of my job suck.”

“Yeah.  Same.”

“That’s what I came early to talk to you about, actually.”

“Oh?”  Steve asked as they stood shoulder to shoulder, smoking and looking out over the city.  

“You look like shit, Rogers.  You sound like shit.  Carter tells me you sleep like shit.”

Steve shook his head disgustedly.  “Shoulda known you’d have her reporting back to you on me.”

Coulson’s mirthless guffaw surprised Steve.  “You think even I could get her to do that? But I can read between the lines, and I’m very observant.  I also notice you’re not denying it.”

“No,” Steve sighed.  “I’m not denying it.”

Coulson nodded and they smoked in silence for a while before he asked, “Do you know how many employees S.H.I.E.L.D. has?”

“No.”

Coulson blinked.  “OK, actually, neither do I, but it’s a lot.  A whole building full, in fact, not to mention all the ones out in the field.  There are a whole team of avengers, in addition to a number of other members of your team. My point is, you’re not exactly a sole proprietor, Captain Rogers.”

“Never said I was.”

“Really.  Huh. Must’ve misheard you, then.” Coulson crushed out the butt of his cigarette and turned to go back inside the building.

“What about you?”  Steve called to him.

He stopped and turned around.  “What about me?”

“How do you sleep?”

“I sleep like a baby.  You know why?  Because I know I can’t save the world on my own.  So I don’t worry about trying.  I recruit the best people I can find, and I make sure they stay clean and loyal.  Rumor has it I’m somewhat of a dick about that. A rumor I started, by the way.”  

“What’s your point?”

“What’s my point?  I should think that’s rather obvious.  Either you trust your team, in which case you’re wasting valuable energy worrying, or you don’t, in which case you need a new team.  This idea you have that you’ve got the whole world on your shoulders?  It’s bunk. And it’s destroying you.”  

Again, Coulson turned around and headed for the stairway down into the Tower.  He stopped just as he reached the door.  “Oh, and one more thing?”

“What’s that?”

“Figure things out with Stark.  You need each other.  You balance each other out.  This break with him, it’s part of the reason you’re in trouble.”

With that, Director Coulson went through the door, leaving Steve alone with his thoughts, staring out over the city from the roof of Stark Tower.

*****

Sam had thought Anita was special from the moment he laid eyes on her during an operation to rescue a group of physicists who’d been kidnapped by a would-be supervillain.  She had a swagger about her, earned through several years of increasingly more difficult missions.  Of course, she was also beautiful, with her long, black hair and almond-shaped, deep brown eyes fringed by ridiculously long lashes.  More attractive even than her looks was the sense of adventure that bubbled just beneath the surface.  

Today, he was learning quite a bit more about her. Their work at Arias’s villa had proven her to be clever and fearless, but the analysis she’d done of the records from Arias’s bunker was even more impressive.  She’d taken about fifteen minutes to crack the code in which the records were written. Once she explained how it worked, it was obvious that it had taken some serious brainpower to figure it out at all, let alone so quickly.  Of course, it helped that she was a native Spanish speaker, so there was no added difficulty from the fact that the records were in Spanish.  But that didn’t at all diminish the difficulty of what she’d done, and she’d done it seemingly effortlessly.

She had spent the afternoon scouring the records for every mention of something referred to simply as the “resource.”  The more she’d worked on it, the more convinced she had become that this “resource,” whatever it was, was the missing link between the energy-creating machines and the destructive phenomena they caused.  All afternoon, she had typed furiously on her laptop, taking notes and systematically developing and exploring theories in a systematic way that finally resulted in a series of ranked hypotheses about what the “resource” might be.  

Whatever it was, it was consumed in the process of creating one of the phenomena.  Which changed the analysis considerably.  Vision had been almost comically animated when she’d delivered her work product to him.  Vision would be testing it against all the scientific data the team had gathered.  

They still had over an hour left before the team dinner.

“So, what would you like to do with that hour?” Sam asked, trying his best not to look wolfish.  Because he felt wolfish.  

“Actually, I have a great idea,” she answered, and she looked unabashedly wolfish.

Sam gave her a suggestive, crooked smile.  “Yeah?”

“Yeah.  Stark says there’s a firing range.”

Firing range.  Not what Sam was hoping for.  

“Yeah.  Yeah, there is.  It’s on the lowest level of the building, below the underground garage.  You want me to take you there?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Like everything else at Stark Tower, the firing range was state of the art.  Sam was curious to see what Anita could do.  He knew S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were required to be able to handle multiple types of firearms, and pass stringent quarterly skills testing, but he wanted to watch Anita firing her weapon.  He was attracted to talent and skill, and something about the athletic way she moved, and the way he’d seen her she handle her sidearm, suggested that he was going to enjoy this.  

He had no idea.

Sam’s Steyr SPPs were semiautomatic only, he couldn’t very well use them for target practice.  For that, he used his Beretta 92FS Inox. He’d noticed that Anita wore a H & K P30, which he had some thoughts about, but wasn’t about to voice them.  Not unless she asked.  

He helped her get fitted out with ear and eye protection, and showed her to a firing lane.

“Is it messed up that I think you look hot as hell right this minute?”  He asked, grinning mischeviously.

“Probably.  But I gotta tell you, I’m struggling with my baser urges right now, too.”

Sam cocked an eyebrow. “You tryin’ to get me all worked up, throw off my aim?”

“How’s it workin’?” Anita smirked.

Sam just shook his head and took his place in the adjacent lane.

Anita smoked him. Absolutely smoked him.  Sam was a pretty good shot, but it wasn’t even close. Being competitive, he was initially determined to beat her, then grew tense as she consistently shot exactly what she was aiming at, regardless of distance or complicating factors they threw in. Sam did pretty well when they did a “turn and fire”, because he was always having to aim on the move.  But regardless of what they named as the target – center mass, any quadrant, any point level – that’s where Anita sent a bullet.  After a while, Sam got over being competitive and just settled into being very, very impressed.

Which, in turn, resulted in Sam becoming very, very turned on.  He was immensely grateful that Friday was willing to lock the doors and turn off monitoring when he asked.  It really would have been awkward to have someone come in while he was behind Anita in her shooting booth, thrusting into her while occasionally glancing up at the target she’d last used.

 *****

Bruce was a little amused by Catherine’s reaction to Vision.  She was absolutely fascinated by him.  From the time he’d entered Bruce’s lab, she had been asking him an endless list of increasingly detailed and – in Bruce’s mind - intrusive questions.  Vision, however, didn’t seem to object.  In fact, Bruce thought, he seemed to be as intrigued by himself as Catherine was.  

Beyond his amusement, though, Catherine’s intense curiosity enchanted Bruce.  The enthusiastic glow in her startling green eyes, the heightened color in her cheeks, had Bruce as enthralled with Catherine as she was with Vision.  More than that, her questions were brilliant, and displayed her ability to follow Vision’s explanations of some pretty damned esoteric concepts, and extrapolate from them.  Catherine’s genius had always excited Bruce.  For at least an hour, while he tried to pretend he wasn’t hanging on every word of their conversation, Tony was the only one getting any work done.  

“Yeah, OK, show and tell is over,” Tony finally announced, when he noticed.  “Let’s get some damn science-ing done here, all right?  Vision, what we need from you is an analysis of what the missing link could be between these machines and the phenomena.  How’s the energy being directed?”

Vision nodded and stepped to a worktable where he pulled up his own display and began to work through materials at a pace too fast for any of the humans to even follow the screens as he scrolled through them. Bruce quickly stopped trying; it was giving him motion sickness.  

Instead, he watched Catherine.  Her demeanor since they’d reached the lab this morning had been entirely professional, entirely collegial.  Even at lunch, which they should probably have eaten in the lab for all the attention they paid to anyone else at the table, she had her head together with him and Tony discussing their near-complete assessment of the machines, the energy, and the phenomena.  Her manner toward Bruce was identical to the way she spoke to Tony.  Since breakfast, there’d been no hint in her behavior that she and Bruce had spent the large majority of the previous night fucking each other senseless.  

He realized he was half-hard and didn’t need the deep ache in his balls to tell him he’d been that way for most of the day. No surprise there; the last woman he’d been with had been Catherine.  He couldn’t blame the poor, starved little guy for wanting more of the first real sex he’d had in over two years.  And what sex it had been.  He really needed to stop replaying and replaying moments from the night before in his head; it was not helping his current condition.  He could still taste her.  Her cries of love as she came still echoed in his head.  

If it had just been sex, if he was following his own rules, he would probably have found an excuse to pull her away from the lab long enough to pin her against a wall somewhere, or maybe lay her across a desk. Yeah, he really needed to stop thinking about that.  The thing was, he wasn’t following his own rules.  He replayed her voice telling him she loved him much more often than he replayed her shouting in ecstasy, or growling filthy instructions and praise in his ear. He felt, over and over again, the warm thrill that had filled his chest as he reached for her and she melted into him, murmuring his name in her sleep.  

Two hours later, when evening was falling and it was almost time to the assembled team for dinner, Bruce noticed Catherine hanging back as Tony and Vision left his lab, heads together talking about something even Bruce couldn’t follow.  He was shocked to see her sitting on her tall stool, looking at him as though he was made of the Belgian chocolate she couldn’t get enough of.  Irresistibly drawn to her as if by some compulsion she was consciously exerting on him, he began to move slowly, tentatively, toward her, stepping faster as he got closer and saw the need in her eyes.  

She slid her hands up his upper arms as he embraced her, spreading her thighs and pulling him in so their bodies were pressed together.  A surge of something powerful hit Bruce when he felt her hook her feet around his calves, like she used to do when they’d worked together at Oxford.  

It was weeks later that Bruce understood this was the moment he lost the battle.  All he knew at the time was that he needed Catherine’s mouth under his, her arms and legs holding him, like he needed air.  More, because he paid no attention to trying to breathe; all he cared about was the way her lips felt on his and the sweet, coffee-tinged taste of her mouth.  He didn’t even know he was rubbing his cock against her through their clothes, because he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back, and they were both mumbling I love you’s into each other’s mouths, and it was so good and so necessary and so stupendously, irresistibly right that he refused to consider ever leaving this moment, even to come. Which, as it turned out, he didn’t.

She came first, surprising the hell out of him in his blissed-out, love-drunk state.  But when she did, he was stunned to realize that he was right there with her. So he simply kept on thrusting against her, kisses so wide-open and invasive there was saliva coating his chin, until he, too, climaxed with a hissed rush of barely-comprehensible endearments.  

Having taken the edge off with that first orgasm, they were able to take a bit of care with one another’s clothing once he led her by the hand to the oversized couch to one side of the lab.  Bruce thought, in an indecent corner of his mind, of the other times he’d had sex on this couch – alone and driven by pent-up need – and felt a tremor go through him when he considered that he would be able to look back at this moment at such times in the future, and maybe feel just a bit less lonely.  

Once he had Catherine completely nude, he pulled her down on his lap and wrapped her in his arms.  

“I’ve been hard for you all day.  You have no idea…”

“Like hell I don’t – I was getting ready to knock you down and bonk you on the floor.”

Bruce laughed breathily as he lifted Catherine by her hips and she reached for his cock, positioning them so that he slid easily into her, hot and slick.  They cried out together with the long-delayed feeling they’d both been craving all day. Bruce had just enough mental capacity left to remember to call out to Friday, asking her to lock the door and stop monitoring his lab.  

They were gloriously entwined, Catherine lying on the couch with Bruce above her, both sweaty and oversensitive, but still going, when Friday politely interrupted.

“Excuse me, doctors, but I’ve been asked to inform you that you are late for the team dinner.”

Bruce and Catherine both groaned in protest.  

“The boss says to tell you that, quote, he will turn on the monitors and project whatever they see in your lab onto the dining room wall in five minutes, and that you should act accordingly.”

“Right wanker, isn’t he?”  Catherine muttered.  

“When Pepper’s out of town?”  Bruce answered.  “Always.”

#The Avengers #The Winter Soldier #Captain America #Sam Wilson #The Falcon #Bruce Banner #Vision #Wanda Maximoff #Bucky Barnes #Steve Rogers

[kyrieanne]

you said something last night about the good place and the incantation, and I don't know what that means but I would very much like to if you can explain it.

::claps hands::

Necessary throat clearing I: I do not think Christianity is the thesis statement of The Good Place; Mike Schur has been extremely clear this story is not an argument for a particular philosophy. I’m not arguing that anything about the show is particularly religious, but rather that there are some natural analogues (from my point of view). The show is about philosophy, which has a natural overlap with theology at large. I’m not a pastor person, but I do have the same education as one. I’m also trained to look closely at narrative “texts.”  Thus, here we are.

Back in 2012, Helen Sword wrote about nominalization – she coined the name zombie words because it’s easier to remember – which is when you take an adjective (implacable) or a verb (calibrate) or even another noun (crony) and add a suffix like ity, tion or ism. Think: implacability, calibration, cronyism, heteronormativity, etc.

Academics, scientists, - and philosophers/theologians eat nominalization for breakfast. They litter their writing with them. At best – nominalization help us put a name to big, complex ideas, and at worst it can be a tripping hazard to communicating with clarity. Sword cites a pretty famous essay by George Orwell Politics and the English Language, written in 1946.

Orwell warns how language isn’t just political in its content but in its form as well. He quotes a passage from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Then Orwell wrote a modern version:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

Sword and Orwell argue that concrete language – that tethered to our five senses – is clearer. It endures, evocates, and energizes your audience. Nominalization has its uses, but should be used sparingly when communication – always a two-way street – is the goal. Cluttering our language with these zombie words is the best strategy for anyone who wants to talk, but cares very little about being heard.

I think The Good Place is an example of a story told in concrete language - though its a visual medium, and it is very much on purpose. But I’ll get to that...

First, let’s define the term Incarnation...Simply put, it is a theological assertion that Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully human. It is one of those key beliefs - take it away and whatever you’ve got isn’t Christian; This isn’t one of those down in the weeds, who cares? theological arguments.

Second, let’s talk about why the points system on The Good Place is fundamentally broken…

Remember Chidi’s breakdown earlier in the season with the peeps chili?

In that scene, he describes 3 main approaches in the last 2500 years of western philosophy to this question: how to live an ethical life?

·       Virtue Ethics – (think Aristotle) There are certain virtues of the mind like courage, generosity, etc. One should develop oneself in accordance to those virtues. The emphasis is on human reason or our minds – what do I do with my mind

·       Consequentialism - Is it right or is it wrong? is based on the consequences of that action - how much utility/good vs. how much pain/bad? The emphasis is on the result instead of the action - what happens to your [neighbor’s] body?

·       Deontology - There are strict rules that everyone must adhere to in a functioning society; an ethical life is identifying & following those rules. The emphasis is on the action instead of the result - what do I do with my body?

(::screeches:: I’m VASTLY over-simplifying here.)

Each philosophical system Chidi outlines makes a priority choice with regards to my mind, my body, and your body. Each takes the mind, body, and other’s bodies into account, but each prioritizes one over the other as the loci – or starting place/lens - from which to answer the question, how to live an ethical life?

The Good Place uses Doug Forcett as the prime example this dynamic because he’s as close to a control group you can have in the story. He is the story-telling embodiment of this tension:

In any ethical system you cannot separate your mind (what you think/believe) from your body (your actions in the real world) or from the bodies of others (the consequences of those actions). 

Please hear what I’m not saying - that these ethical systems are wrong. I am simply saying that none of them completely account for how three parts are inter-connected. 

Doug’s attempt to live an ethical life is endlessly, hopelessly tangled in this ethical web. This is the catalyst for Michael to go to Accounting because he thinks the Bad Place is rigging the points system. But when that proves to be untrue – he jumps to another theory. He makes the case to the Judge that that modern life is so vastly complicated and fraught with moral quandaries that living any sort of morally positive life is impossible.

Yet, it’s total hubris to think our way of life is worse-better than the human condition 500+ years ago. It’s a fetishization of a single era.  Even if we’re arguing that that era damns everyone. It simplifies and romanticizes the past and that is very dangerous because that sentimentality lets us lie to ourselves. We can excuse all kinds of human behavior by slapping the term modernity on it; our world made us do it. It’s a great example of how nominalization can be dangerous. 

I’m confident the show knows this and Michael’s current theory will be proven to be as hollow as the ‘Bad Place is rigging it’ theory. Michael does not know how but he knows with the core of his demon-being that the merit-based “points” system is fundamentally broken.

Let’s talk about systems & power for a moment…

Last year I did some training with the Race Equity Institute for work. They started by talking about systems. We can all name systems:  weather and water systems, the systems of the body and universe, economic and political ones, etc. Social systems – inter-connected people – are maybe the messiest systems there are.

Two important characteristics of any system are 1) the “parts” of the system are inter-connected and 2) the system self-perpetuates, i.e. the power lies in the inter-connectedness of the parts. Your mind & body – as well as the bodies of others – are part of an ethical system. They are inter-connected and there is power in that inter-connectedness.

An ethical life is always bound up in the systems to which we belong, and those systems create mindsets. Yet, the power of those systems is not in the nominalization:  racism, sexism, classcism, etc. we use to describe them. Power lies in the inter-connectedness of the parts – here, people. The last two years of the Angry Cheeto have made that particularly plain, I think.

Enter Big Noodle & the Incarnation

Jason is the character version of from the mouths of babes – his point with Big Noodle is you can’t judge what you don’t know.

So, the Judge goes down to Earth. 

That is what prompted me to think about The Good Place and the Incarnation.

Remember, the Incarnation is a theological assertion who God is, specifically who Jesus Christ is. The church spent a long time arguing about it (like in the hundreds of years) and they did because how do you define God? In the world of The Good Place, where we’re dealing with philosophy and not Christian theology, that question is analogous to how to live an ethical life? because who God is – in the Judeo-Christian tradition – is the starting place for what the meaning of human life is.

(Here I’m going to delve into a little Christian theology, but I PROMISE I have a reason.)

Did God create Jesus in the same way God created trees and elephants and the stars? Was Jesus the highest created being of God? A sort-of demi-god? A movement called Arianism argued this, but in the long run it was rejected because it didn’t fit with the Bible. There were a lot of opinions and theories – I’m skimming over A LOT, but in the end the church basically punted.

The Good Place took Michael through a conversion-like storyline in Season 2 when he became a demon who cares for others – his humans & Janet. Since then he has pursued the question of how behind the points system. He knows it shouldn’t have been possible for his humans to get better after they died, which undermines the whole argument for an earth-bound points system. But they did. If that is true, then the system itself is not the right answer to how to live an ethical life?

Remember: You cannot judge what you do now know.

At the Council of Chalcedon (451), it was decided to define God’s nature by what we know God is rather than what we know God is not. It’s called the Chalcedon formula, and it begins with we confess. In Christian tradition, confession is a different kind of knowing; it is rational, but it is also embodied. One can only confess what one knows because it has be proven to be true in one’s own life. It’s not about having the right answers, but saying - to me this is true.    

The formula states that Jesus is God and Jesus is human, two natures without confusion, and how that exists we don’t entirely understand. It is a union of the human and divine that is not a blending of the two to make one, like the combination of two primary colors to create a new one. Jesus’ birth, life, and death is not somehow less human because of his divinity, but what comes next – the whole rising from the dead thing – definitely is divine. Even writing that sentence makes me itch a little because the Incarnation is an assertion that you can’t divide Christ’s biography into part 1: human, part 2: divine. Rather, the body of Christ – the very nature of who he was, is, and will be – is both human and divine.

The Power of Both/And

Think about this: what confirmation do we have there is a Good Place?

The only characters we’ve seen that come from there are the not-people from The Book of Dougs. Were they angels? Anti-demons? I don’t think we’ve been given a definition. Why should we trust they are what we’re told they are the first go-round? We already know characters are not always who we’re told they are. Further, the judge doesn’t reside in the Good Place. The accountants don’t. We have a door to the Good Place that only non-humans can pass through. Okay, but have we seen anyone pass through it? Assuming there is a Good Place assumes that all the other kinds of characters exist to be part of the machinery that is the human after-life. Demons torture. The judge judges. The accountants tally. Janets help. 

You’ve got a system of interconnected parts:  humans, demons, Janets, needlenoggles, a judge, accountants, etc., and you’ve got this points system in which they all play some part. What Schur & co. have quietly been doing with Team Cockroach is showing how these different types of beings are all changing:  Janet falling in love, Michael’s conversion to caring for others, and the humans changing after they died. None of these things are supposed to be happening in that system.

I wonder if Schur & co. are playing another sleight of hand in their story telling akin to the Season 1 reveal. What if the world of The Good Place isn’t either you belong (not just humans either, but all kinds of creatures) to the GOOD PLACE or the BAD PLACE.  What if - instead - they are making an argument that how to live an ethical life is not about getting the answer to the question, but about seeing the world (here the story-world of The Good Place) in new, transformative ways.

In that REI training, the facilitators asked everyone if you were proud to be an American. This was the beginning of the training. It was one of those questions that you don’t know the right answer to, but you do know what the wrong answers might be. No one said anything. The trainers started listing things they like about living in America:  public education, running water, our national parks, etc., and then they listed things they didn’t like:  history of slavery, the Flint water crisis, etc. They said for the work we were going to be doing in our training they wanted us to resist language of either/or – you are either a racist or you are not. You either love America or you don’t. Rather, they said, embrace the power in both/and language. You can both love the systems in which you live and work, and you can recognize their brokenness, pain, and hurt. You can be both angry at and thankful for your community. That, they said, is how we transform ourselves and our communities. 

The both/and shows up in the Incarnation too – it is a theological assertion that Jesus was BOTH human AND divine. Jesus’ very body rejects that the laws of nature are either/or. Either them or me. Either good or bad. Either/or is a way of seeing the world that is human – we do it as naturally as breathing - but it is not the only way to see. There are more humane ways to exist.

I don’t know what story Schur & co. are telling, but I struggle to see where they are going to land if there is a Good Place without turning the story into a confession of a particular ethical or religious system. Because if there is a Good Place you’ve created an either/or world that needs a system for how it works. 

Rather, they’ve spent a lot of narrative time doing exactly what the church did when they tried to define God – a lot of guesses that tell you want God is not, but don’t clarify what God is. Michael & co. know that Doug Forcett didn’t get enough points despite his ascetic-like life. They know that demons and humans and Janets can change in ways they are not supposed to be able to. They know that they love and care about each other. They know what they don’t know. 

It is counter-intutive, but the best way to communicate big, complex ideas is in concrete, small language. It’s language that is incarnated. The Good Place is a half-hour sitcom about philosophy, and it does that by telling small, incarnated stories. You’ve got 4 humans and they died. What happens next?

But you also have a demon and a Janet. You have a system that appears to not be working. You have two places – good and bad – but actually you don’t. So already that either/or dichotomy is breaking down. There’s the Medium Place and despite the room temperature beer and medium snacks, I wonder if the fundamental geography of the show is a red herring. What if the demons and Janets and all the other kinds of beings are just as caught up in a system of either/or that is patently false? Without a Good Place, the geography of the world isn’t good or bad. It just is. Kind of like our own world. It’s something in between, both joyous and painful. What if the story we’re being told is about how these particular characters – Team Cockroach - challenge and upend a false ethical system in which all creatures in the story are caught?

How to live an ethical life? is a big question that is the wrong question. It posits an either/or world. Human life can be reduced to that, but it is always a reduction based on a lie. We are capable of choosing to see life’s geography - its systems, quandaries, and mysteries - through both/and language. The Christian theology of the Incarnation reminds me that not having all the answers is not only okay, but natural. Life does not occur by knowing the rules and then following them or not. Good living is like good language. It is concrete, small, and embodied. Somehow, it also touches on things bigger than ourselves like love and friendship and the ability to not only change - but transform. 

Why would a fictional after-life be any different?

#nbc the good place #the good place #lulabo #meta

[ctfmeister]

The Power of Unicorns

Unicorns… Amazing mythical creatures that radiate with purity of nature, living free in the wild completely uncorrupted by human malevolence. Animals that hold so much power they are said to be able to control the world around them with magic, to bend the forces of life itself to their whims. These incredible beasts are so spectacular that they could only exist in the world of dreams.

Vera absolutely loved them. Ever since she was a child, the young woman had always been fascinated with these creatures. Back then, her grandma used to tell her story after story about them. How their majestic beauty and splendor left all who saw them speechless. How they lived happily and freely in a land of magic and wonder. And most importantly, how they used their powers to protect those who were in need.

All these stories left a huge impact on Vera. And it showed, as over the years her room had become littered with accessory after accessory of unicorn-related paraphernalia. She loved everything unicorn related she could find. Movies, games, comics... But her favorite were books. Oh, how she loved to stick her nose in a fantasy book, relaxing as she let her mind be transported to a magical land of unicorns…

Yes, Vera was all about these creatures. Which is why it was very unfortunate for her that they didn’t exist in real life. If they did, Vera would have no problem spending her days caring and watching over them, but as it stood, she had to settle for the next best thing: horses.

Vera’s family owned a relatively successful horse ranch here in Nature Gorge. They bred and sold horses to places all around the country, and, while it wasn’t the most lucrative business, it was more than enough to let them live peacefully. It was a quiet and mundane lifestyle, but Vera wouldn’t have it any other way. Her love for nature fueled a desire to continue the family business, and though horses weren’t as amazing and magical as unicorns, they still held a large place in her heart.

Right now, on this lazy Thursday afternoon, Vera relaxed on the old living room couch. With the TV on as background noise, she held a fantasy book in her hands, daydreaming about… What else, but unicorns. Her long smooth black hair cascaded onto her shoulders, complementing her pale light skin tone. Her shiny green eyes swirled about from word to word, each one of them inspiring a billion thoughts in her head. Yes, this truly was the perfect afternoon for a quiet girl such as her. That was until…

‘BREAKING NEWS!’ A man called out from the TV. ‘Dear viewers from Nature Gorge and the surrounding area: A large tornado has been spotted and is predicted to pass through the town.’

The book in Vera’s hand slowly fell onto her lap, as the anchor’s words began sinking into Vera’s mind. She looked intently at the television, fear and anxiety creeping into her mind.

‘Local authorities are asking all of the town’s citizens to evacuate immediately, even if you are not in the tornado’s direct path. Tornadoes are dangerous phenomena and we ask our viewers to remain safe.’

Vera stared at the screen in awe. The tornado’s path… It went directly through her home! Her house… The stables… Would they all be destroyed? The horses, would they be killed? Vera stood in the middle of the room completely frozen in shock, her mind barely able to comprehend the situation before her. What was she going to do? Was her quiet simple life really going to end this way?

‘RRRIIINGGGG!! RRRIIIIIINGG!!’ Suddenly, the house’s phone began ringing, snapping Vera out of her trance. She quickly stepped towards it and picked it up.

“Hello?” She answered the phone with uncertainty.

“Oh thank god you picked up…” The voice breathed out in relief.

“Mom?” Vera asked.

“Vera, sweetheart… I need you to listen and listen carefully, ok?” Vera’s mother spoke calmly. “Go to your room and get your backpack. Grab everything that’s important and leave the ranch. Go south ok? Do not go north of the ranch.”

“Mom, I saw it in the news.” Vera said. “There’s a tornado. It’s… It’s coming towards the farm!”

“Yes sweetie.” Her mother replied softly. “That’s why I need you to pack your stuff and leave, do you understand? They won’t let me go back up to the ranch to come get you, so I need you to start going south and don’t stop, alright?”

“B-b-but mother!” Vera yelled out. “What about the farm? What about the horses? Are we just gonna leave them here?”

“I’m sorry sweetie…” Her mom answered in a somber tone. “There’s nothing we can do about them now. I know how much you loved the ranch, but right now your life is more important.”

Vera felt a lump in her throat, cutting her breathing. Was this the end of her life at the ranch? Was her dream of a peaceful life really going to be destroyed? Her heart beat faster, sweat pouring down her skin. “Vera, sweetheart. Just gather up your most valuable things and leave.”

“Y-yes mother…” Vera replied dutifully.

The call ended, sound ceasing to come from the phone. Vera stood in the living room, still in shock. She stared out into nothingness, not quite sure what to do with herself. Her head shook violently. This wasn’t the time to space out, she still had to do what her mother had told her.

Without a second thought, she dashed upstairs as fast as she could, Vera entered her room in a frenzy. She quickly picked up her backpack from a corner, scanning the room for what to pack… …

What the hell was she going to pack? Her laptop was probably a given, but what after that? Should she take some of her books? She had dozens of them, so to pick a select few would be a hard choice. What about her unicorn figurines? The wouldn’t all fit in her backpack, and the had the sharp horns that they had would make storing a pain. What about her unicorn plushies? Would they be too big and bulky? And what about clothes? She didn’t have a lot of unicorn themed clothes, but she still had a ton of cute pieces she wanted to keep.

A wave of dizziness came over Vera, unable to decide what items were the most valuable. The fact was that most of these objects were valuable, Vera didn’t want to have to decide to pick one over another. Each one held an important place in her heart, to think that she’d had to abandon some of them…

No! Vera shook her head again. This wasn’t the time for this, she had to get out now! That’s what her mother had told her. Tears began forming in her eyes. With a sudden burst of fury, Vera began to slip whatever items she could into her backpack, not caring much on what item she grabbed and instead focusing on trying to get as much as possible into her pack.

During this outburst, she accidentally managed to push her dresser, making it wobble slightly. Then, all of a sudden, a small metal lunchbox slammed down from the top of the dresser and onto the floor, causing a large bang as it hit. Vera jumped in surprise as she heard this. She lowly turned around to see the box lying on the floor. She didn’t remember putting such a thing there. Filled with curiosity, she quickly stepped towards it to inspect it.

This was… This was the lunchbox grandma gave her before she passed away! Vera remembered it vividly. Her grandma had told her only to open it at her most dire moment. The young woman sighed. Her grandma had always been so cryptic and odd… But… Vera had to admit, things were pretty dire right now. Maybe this was the time to its insides?

Slowly opening the metal box, Vera coughed as dust flew from the dusty case. Inside, were a small note, and an old leathery book. Vera picked up the note first and began reading it.

‘Dear Vera,

If you are reading this note, then it means that you have finally encountered an unsurmountable* obstacle. You are a brave, strong, caring young lady, but sometimes the challenges that appear before you will require more than that. For that reason, it is time I finally tell you the truth. Do you remember all the fantastical stories of magic and unicorns I always told about when you were just a child?

Well, those weren’t just your grandma’s old fairy tales. The fact is, Vera, you are a witch. And so was I, and so is your mother. You come from a very long family of witches that specialize in animal magic. Your mother always wanted to keep you away from this, but I always knew a time would come when you would need to know.

Right next to this note is a spellbook with everything you’ll need. The later spells might be a bit out of your reach right now, but you should be able to complete the first few. I recommend your start with the unicorn one. This will make you able to control magic and the elements with much more ease than with your current body. I’m sorry I hid this from you for so long, but I know that with this new knowledge, you’ll be able to overcome any problem that gets in your way. I love you, and I’m very proud of you.

With love, Grandma.’

Vera stared at the note wide-eyed. Witches? Magic? Unicorns? Was this some sort of prank? Vera’s grandma had always been a bit mysterious, but was it really because of she was some sort of mage? Magic wasn’t even real, right?

Her curiosity piqued, Vera turned her attention towards the so-described ‘spellbook’ that sat inside the metal box. She picked it up, finding it to be much lighter than she thought it would be. In fact, this book didn’t really feel like one of the old arcane spellbooks that usually appeared in fantasy novels. It had a rough brown leather cover and was about the same size as any regular notebook, with around the same thickness too.

However, despite its very typical appearance, what differentiated this book from others was its content. Vera opened the book and began flipping through the pages, quickly skimming over the words on each page. And as she turned page after page, her mouth opened wide out in surprise. This book… It really was a spellbook!

In every page of the book were written, detailed instructions on how to perform various spells. From shooting out thunders, to levitation and telekinesis, to even transformation… And out of all those spells, there was one specifically that really caught her attention.

Quickly flipping the pages back, Vera returned to the beginning of the book to find that spell that had seriously caught her interest. Just like her grandma had said, it was one of the first ones in the book… The Unicorn transformation spell.

According to the book, it allows whoever casts it to transform into a Unicorn. The books explained that Unicorns have a much easier time than humans accessing magic, so it’s a good spell for beginning magicians. But more than just that, Vera now had the chance to become a real-life Unicorn. While Vera would have preferred to see live Unicorns rather than become one, she had to admit the prospect was still quite appealing. These magical creatures that she thought would never be attainable were now on the palm of her hands…

She focused once more on the spell, reading off all the ingredients needed to complete it. A little bit of horse mane… Some chalk… Some candles… … Yup, she had everything she needed to complete this. Vera looked up thoughtfully, trying to really think this through.

Would she really turn herself into a Unicorn? This was her first time playing with magic, so Vera didn’t really know what bad side effects she might encounter. Would she even be able to do it in the first place? And what about changing back? Even if she did transform into a unicorn, would she really be able to stop the tornado?

These questions filled Vera’s mind, filling* her with doubt. However, each time she really thought it through, her conclusion was always the same. If this was what it took to save her life and her family’s ranch, then she would have to do it. With a determined expression, Vera bolted upwards. She ran out of the room with the book in hand, ready to gather all the materials for the ritual.

 Vera was knelt down on the front porch of her house, looking intently at the spellbook in her hand. Below her, was an ornate circle drawn in red chalk, with the required items for the spell orderly placed inside. The sky was clouded and dark, with gust of winds crashing against each other to make it a very chilling sight.

This was it. This was the point of no return. While the prospect of transforming into a unicorn was exciting to Vera, it was also scary. Being a witch? Controlling magic? Having an animal’s body? These things were all foreign to her. And yet, if she wanted to save her house, her horse friends, and her lifestyle, then this is what she had to do.

She gave one last sigh. Vera was ready to do this. She read the spell over one last time. The items were gathered, and the circle was drawn. All that remained was for her to read some Latin incantation. It looked simple enough, even if she really didn’t know how to read Latin in the first place.

Closing her eyes, Vera began reciting aloud the Latin spell, burned into her mind after fervent memorization. She worded out each phrase clumsily and with uncertainty, probably butchering up the pronunciations as well. But as she finished chanting the words, she could feel a whisk of arcane energy begin to fill her. Yes! It had been a success, she was going to start changing soon!

With her tightly eyes shut close, Vera waited excitedly for her changes to manifest… A wide smile appeared on her face, they would begin any second now… … However, as the wind kept blowing, and time kept passing, Vera’s excitement began to fade. Nothing… Nothing was happening... Why wasn’t anything happening!

As large sigh left her mouth, Vera opened her eyes, finally coming to terms with the fact that nothing was happening. This didn’t make any sense! She’d felt that little warmth inside her, surely that meant it worked, right? Did she do something wrong? Vera reread the spell once more, trying to see where she might’ve messed up. Maybe the circle wasn’t round enough, or maybe she missed one of the items, maybe her pronunciation was very bad, or maybe…

Maybe magic wasn’t real. Maybe her grandma was just playing tricks on her from beyond the grave, and Vera had fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Vera kicked herself mentally. God, she was so stupid. She’d wasted so much time preparing this fake spell, and now the tornado was at her doorsteps. Would she even be able to escape it at this point? No, this was most likely a fatal mistake. Vera began to tear up. Maybe it was better this way, now she wouldn’t have to live without her ranch and her horses…

Then, out of nowhere, a sharp sudden pain attacked Vera’s midsection. She yelped out loudly, dropping the book in her hand to the ground as she clutched her stomach tightly. Her whole body… It felt odd, sort of tingly. A strange aura of warmth enveloped her. Something… Something was happening!

Her entire body began to shift, bones crackling loudly. Her hands were first to morph, nails growing larger and thicker, turning from a soft pale pink into a dark greyish tone. Her hands flattened out, fingers slowly merging until nothing was left but a single long, rounded, hard nail to cover it. Vera looked at her hands in amazement. They’d turned into full horse hooves!

Soon Vera could feel the same changes start to appear in her feet. Their nails grew out, fingers merging into a single digit, as they swelled so large and bulky they burst out from her shoes, rupturing her socks. Vera stood up to try and get a good look at her changing body. Her arms and legs were bulking up, her muscles growing larger and stronger. Before long, Vera’s arms and legs were replaced by powerful equine legs.

Next her hips started to crack out loud, as her entire midsection fattened up with more mass and flesh. This new weight pushed down on Vera just enough so that she couldn’t stay standing upright anymore, and she softly fell on her four limbs. Her body bulked up into a large rounded cylinder, her breasts slowly receding to nothingness with entire midsection became uniform. This new body was thick, strong and big. It was so large in fact, it caused the rest of her clothes to snap into pieces and fall gently onto the ground, leaving Vera completely naked.

A strange tingling then manifested around her private area. Her vagina pulsated madly, as if it was trying to expulse something from deep inside. And her little clitoris throbbed too, glowing to a bright blood red as it began to lengthen farther and farther apart from her body. This member grew longer and thicker, losing its rounded appearance for a more cylindrical one. It only stopped growing until it reached a massive 30 inches long, upon which the tip began to flatten considerably, forming into a round disc.

Finally, her vagina gave in, the skin around it beginning to merge slowly until it was sealed off entirely. But that wasn’t it for that area, for a small sack-like protrusion began to inflate around where her vagina had been, slowly growing in mass as it began to down down closer to her enlarged clit. Then the last remaining parts of her uterus were expulsed into this sack, nestling at the bottom of it snuggly as her new balls.

Skin began to grow around the base of Vera’s new clit, forming a small pouch-like addition to her body. Then a vertical slit formed around the tip of her engorged clit, finalizing its transformation into a large hefty horse cock, hanging proudly and erect from the bottom of her body.

At this point, Vera couldn’t help but notice a strange flush come upon her body. While the transformation had been painful at first, now instead of pain, she felt an odd warmth she’d never experienced before. An unknown need… The best way she could describe it was… Arousal. Vera could tell something was different, besides the bestial morphing of her body. She craned her neck down as far as she could, trying to spot where this new heat was coming from when…

She saw it. Hanging down from her new horse body. There was this… This gross… This horse cock! Vera wasn’t just turning into a unicorn, she was turning into a male unicorn. She began to pace back and forth with her horse legs, feeling panic fill her mind. This wasn’t part of the deal! Nowhere did the spell say she would become male. She didn’t want to be a male unicorn, she liked being a girl!

Vera looked down at the dropped book to see if she could find a solution. Unfortunately, it had fallen with the pages face down, so Vera couldn’t read anything. A strange desire, a foreign lust filled her body. And Vera didn’t like it one bit. It was too strange for her, she had to figure out some way to flip the book, a hard task given her new lack of opposable thumbs. Maybe if she kicked it lightly…

However, her transformation wasn’t about to let her figure out some way to fix this problem, as it continued spreading through her body. Her neck began thickening up and extending from her body, losing its conical shape in favor of a flatter one. It grew out away from her body until it was about the length of a human arm.

Then followed her ears. They stretched out and away from her body, their tips becoming pointed as the ear hole grew deeper. Before long, her ears were standing tall, completely independent from her head. Her face was not spared either, for her mouth and nose stretched forward. They converged together to form a long equine muzzle, as her face was truly transmogrified into that of a horse’s. By now, all of Vera’s previous human traits were gone, her body was that of an adult male horse.

But that wasn’t it for Vera. She paced back and forth with anxiety, feeling her new penis throb harder. Throughout her body, her skin started to feel all tingly and warm. From deep inside her pores, small white hairs started to sprout. They quickly spread throughout her body, covering every last inch of her being until her skin was wrapped up in pristine white coat.

It was quite strange, how pleasant the feeling of growing a magical looking coat of hair was. Vera couldn’t help but whine in joy as it happened, her penis bobbing up and down with pleasure. Soon after, the long flowing black locks on her head started to spread down along the backside of her neck, forming a beautiful black mane. Down in around her butt, her spine began extending, causing more of her lustrous black hair to prop out in the form of a tail.

And then she could finally feel it. The last piece of the puzzle, the thing separating her and regular horses was finally sprouting from her forehead. Her whole body buzzed in bliss as it slowly made its way out of her skull. The white horn spiraled upwards, growing into a majestic 7-inch cone, with small creases that coiled to its base. It glowed brightly, all of the magical power focusing within her.

She could feel it~ All the magic that concentrated in her horn. She felt the power of nature at her hands, or now hooves. It was exhilarating, how she could control the wind, direct lighting, command fire… She was one with the elements! She was one with nature. All this power… This strong connection… This feeling of unity… It felt so good~ Vera couldn’t handle it.

And neither could her penis. The pleasure that had accumulated throughout her body reached its peak, and her cock, unable to take any more, began blasting shot after shot of hot horse spunk onto the wooded floor, flooding the circle in its entirety. Her balls churned, penis throbbing madly as Vera happily climaxed onto her porch.

As the pleasure began to die down, and Vera let out a sigh of relief. This new body… He’d been so afraid of it before, but now he couldn’t love it any more. It was everything he could have dreamed of… Having such a close connection to magic and nature felt truly amazing. His new gender didn’t really matter. In fact, he embraced it, the power and confidence of being a hung stallion.

But this was no time to stay and admire his new form, he had a job to accomplish. Without any delay, Vera began to gallop over the hill towards the speeding tornado, ready to face it head on. He ran with confidence and speed, moving with such sureness that one would think this was the body he’d had his entire life.

After some agile trotting, Vera could finally see the twister, spinning madly as it devoured the landscape below. With a valiant smirk, he pointed his horn towards it, gathering up his magical energy until… BOOM! A large bolt of lightning shot out of his horn, speeding towards the twirling devil.

The lightning pierced right through the center of the tornado, like a sword stabbing right through its enemy. And just like planned, the twisting winds began to slow down, clouds slowly dissipating from the air. Soon, all that remained of the tornado were some greyish looking clouds, for the beast had been dismantled with a single blow.

Vera hopped around happily, excited to have been actually able save his farm. However, as the dust settled, and his mission ended, a sudden realization came to the new unicorn. What was he to do now? His task was completed, but he did not know how to turn back into his previous human form. He didn’t even know if it was possible to turn back into his human form.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like his new form, but Vera had to admit he quite enjoyed his human life. That was why he’d risked so much to save it. Was there some sort of process to turn back into a human, or was he doomed to remain a unicorn for the rest of his days?

He began to ponder these questions over, when he was suddenly distracted by nearby noises. He looked over to where they were coming from… It was the horses in their pen. They were all running about, happy that their demise had been prevented. Vera smiled as he watched them. So joyful… So free… Their happy trotting made him want to run along with them. Yes, Vera could ponder over these questions later. Right now, he wanted to enjoy his new form with his equine brethren. Without second though, he quickly jumped over the fence and joined the celebrating horses.

 “Vera!”

Vera comfortably laid down on her comfortable bed. Sleeping felt so nice, and her bed was so cozy. Although it also felt a bit grainy, almost as if it was made with hundreds of little rope strings. And it was kinda chilly in the room too.

“Vera, wake up!”

Vera’s head shook wildly. What time was it even? Too early, that’s the answer. Vera was sleeping so soundly right now, she wanted to stay asleep.

“Vera please! Wake up!”

God, who the heck was calling her? And why was she being asked to wake up. Vera squirmed angrily. With all this yelling no one could stay asleep. Vera slowly lifted her eyelids open, revealing the whole room to her.

Right above her, stood Vera’s mom, looking down on her daughter with a worried expression. She lowered herself down, extending a hand towards Vera. Vera blinked, looking around the room. She wasn’t… She wasn’t in her room! Instead, she found herself in the horse pens, laying softly on a stack hay instead of her bed.

Grabbing onto her mother’s arm, Vera pulled herself off the floor. She looked around in confusion, wondering why she’d been sleeping in the barn, until she noticed that her body was distinctly lacking any clothes. With an embarrassed blush, Vera tried her best to cover her naughty bits.

“Oh Vera, I’m so glad you’re ok.” Her mom breathed out in relief. “I just wish you hadn’t done that…”

“Done what… ?” Vera asked, still waking up from her sleep. “Oh! You mean the unicorn thing?”

Vera’s mother nodded softly. “Not just the unicorn thing, but just about magic as a whole. I didn’t want you to get involved in this world, so I tried to hide it from you. I guess it backfired in the end…”

Vera’s mom looked out through the barn doors pensively. Vera fretted at her mother’s worry. “B-B-But it’s fine, right? I saved the farm, and now I’m back to being a human again! No harm, no foul.”

But the comment was met with a head shake from Vera’s mother. “It’s not that simple dear. You see, once you transform into a unicorn, you’ll keep transforming back into a unicorn again and again. It’s a state that will never leave you until the rest of your life.”

“Oh…” Vera looked at the ground downcast. “Can I… Do something about that?”

“You can learn to control it somewhat.” Her mother commented. “At first, it’ll just happen when you’re feeling strong emotions. Anger, bliss, jealousy, lust… But if you practice it enough, you can sort of stop it or induce it at certain times. It’s hard to master, even your grandma had difficulties with it. But now that you have this, you’ll have to learn how to do it.”

A large sigh left Vera’s mother’s mouth. “I’m sorry honey, this is all my fault. I shouldn’t have kept you away from this. Magic… It’s in your blood. I knew that eventually you’d try to come to it. I didn’t want it to happen, but honestly, if that’s what you want to do, I guess there’s nothing for me to do but support you.”

Vera’s eyes lit up brightly. “Really?!”

“Yes, really.” Her mother responded with a smile. “As long as you’re responsible with it.”

With that, Vera’s mother began to walk out of the stable. “I’ll let you go get some clothes. Come by when dinner is ready.” She said, walking through the stable doors. “And come clean the mess you left on the porch!”

A bright blush came upon Vera’s face. She had made a mess, hadn’t she? But more importantly, she’d just gotten permission to use magic. Vera was so excited, she jumped up in the air. This was gonna be so awesome! She could turn into a majestic unicorn, but what other cool spells awaited her in that book? It seems her quiet life had gotten a little bit more interesting.

She began to walk out of the stable, when suddenly a strange scent hit her nostrils. She sniffed it deeply. It was… The scent of mares… In heat. They began howling loudly, in deep need for a suitable mate. Vera’s clit began to tingle. A sly smile crept up on her face. Yup, her quiet life had definitely gotten more interesting~

Here’s a short little thing I wrote as a prize for UnicornLady for the FtM Discord caption contest. I’m not too big of a fan of feral stuff, but I can definitely see the appeal. I also don’t usually work with original characters, so I hope I did fine with this one. Anyways, hope you like this one! And keep an eye out for my next post for an important announcement ~

#female to male #ftm #tf #transformation #feral #unicorn #horse

[gwynne-fics]

31 Days of AUs: Apocalypse

Requested by @mrshobbes

Marriage not Dating -- Jang-Mi

one. Jang-Mi thought that the end of the world would be a lot more chaotic than it turned out. When plant-life unexpectedly exploded, both on land and at sea, she and Gi-Tae watched the television with furrowed brows. There was some panic, especially when the army was called up to try and combat the growth that felt aimed at the cities.

“I want you and So-Hee to go to my family’s vacation home out in the country,” he said. “I’m going to pack up my office and transport all of my medical equipment out there. My mother had solar panels installed so it is off the grid.”

Jang-Mi looked at their three month old daughter with a sick feeling to her stomach. She didn’t want to be separated. “What about Yeo-Rim? His cell phone is off.”

Gi-Tae didn’t have an answer for her until she was getting into a car with his grandmother, his mother, his aunt, and their daughter. Her parents were going to join them in a few days. Traffic out of Seoul had already started to build. She’d closed down her restaurant and left Yeo-Rim a message on the counters, just in case he stopped by.

Gi-Tae did the same at his office but no one had seen Yeo-Rim.

They are driving away from everything they know when an emergency announcement calls up all former military men between the ages of twenty and thirty-five to resume their military experience. Jang-Mi started crying and couldn’t stop. It took them six hours to get to the vacation home. Traffic was slow and painful.

Mother-in-law took So-Hee from her and it was a relief.

two. Mother-in-law let her cry and avoid everything but breastfeeding for the first day. Jang-Mi wondered how long she could avoid her responsibilities until her natural inner drive took over. The vacation home had a lovely garden that, like a lot of places in Seoul with plants, exploded and overgrew.

The water feature broke and turned into a natural spring of clean, pure water. Jang-Mi sat by the edge and looked into it with a sad smile. Until the government figured out what was going on and life could return to normal, she needed to help her family survive. Survival was something she was good at.

She stood up and needed to occupy her mind and body or she would go crazy from loneliness. She wasn’t alone. She had her in-laws and her parents were coming soon. The world had changed and she needed to anticipate it.

They had power and the internet but she didn’t know for how long. She found Mother-in-law in the kitchen. Auntie held So-Hee. Jang-Mi went to her laptop and opened a blank document.

“I want to walk around this town after breakfast,” she said. “We need to know what our resources are and make long term plans. We should expect to become a target for needy people because this property is large and we are wealthier than most. Until Gi-Tae is released from the military and my father gets here, we are four women alone. We need to be realistic about that.”

“There is an old rifle in the basement. I don’t know how much ammunition we’ve got.” Mother-in-law’s eyes brighten and Jang-Mi knows she needs a project, too. Auntie isn’t as sure but that doesn’t matter.

“Can either of you shoot? I can’t. My father can but he’s not here yet.”

“Not in years,” she admitted.

“Alright. I’ll put it on the list. Let’s get to work.” It only took two days, but Jang-Mi had a survival plan to take to the small community. She didn’t expect it, but the older generation, once they saw she was serious about protecting everyone and most importantly, feeding, everyone, they made her mayor. Her parents arrived safely with as much nonperishable food as they could fit into their car.

Every night they watched the news and every night it seemed to get a little worse. Jang-Mi didn’t understand why so many people were having problems with their plants. Once they started working with the strange, new plants, instead of trying to cut them back or destroy them, they hadn’t gone hungry.

Jang-Mi made sure to accept everyone who came to their area. The only people she wouldn’t accept were the military deserters. The town council supported her. Nearly every family had someone who went back when called.

She had a month to implement her plan before things abruptly changed. Then she got a surprise text message from Gi-Tae. She aching loneliness stuck in her chest reminded her it was still there, waiting for her to let down her guard.

There is a plague in the big cities. Here are the symptoms to look for. I’m sending Se-Ah with my equipment and vaccines. I can’t leave Seoul. Still no sign of Yeo-Rim. I love you. Kiss So-Hee for me.

I love you.

three. “We need to build a quarantine,” Se-Ah said. “The illness looks like the flu and it is spread the same way. It moves quickly and if we don’t have something to contain it, we will be very dead. We have a vaccine but...production is slow. Gi-Tae figured it out and gave me the formula. He put it online, along with a video on how to make it safely. Where is So-Hee?”

“Napping. What is the survival rate for this flu?” One thing they’d found at the single drug store was plenty of face masks. When news of the plague broke on television, Jang-Mi made sure everyone had one. They’d had no evidence of the sickness in their town but Jang-Mi started construction on a hospital anyway.

She didn’t want to admit they might have to build a wall to protect them at some point. She wanted an open community, ready to take in refugees, but as her mother pointed out--they also needed to be realistic about outside threats.

“One in fifty, if you are a healthy, strong person over twenty and under fifty. I have a hundred vaccines with me.”

“I have about two hundred people. How many can you make over the next few months?”

Se-Ah smiled tightly. “It’s a matter of finding all the parts. Gi-Tae had a better background in traditional medicine and that’s why he was able to be creative.” She paused and gently touched Jang-Mi’s shoulder. “He is doing important work.”

“I know.” Her eyes stung. “What about Richard?”

Se-Ah looked away. “He allowed us to test the first vaccine on him. It didn’t work.”

Jang-Mi gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re here. We need a doctor who can help us protect this little community. Let’s get to work.”

She was glad to have Se-Ah for the second month of the end of the world. Her one time rival worked tirelessly to inoculate their community while Jang-Mi put the old men to work building simple traps and some genius young women designed a collapsible wall that was both sturdy and defensible.

Everyone came together to build anything they might need and Jang-Mi considered a kind of...side effect that came from talking to her fresh spring.

The overgrowth that destroyed their civilization gave them the resources they needed past just food and water. Because at the end of month two, a warning went out on the one news station holding the fort in Seoul.

Several military platoons have abandoned their posts. They are going to small, successful communities, especially those still with electrical power, and taking over. Beware. The government has not released them or given them the mandate to protect citizens from the Overgrowth.

It was the last message they received from Seoul. The next night, the news did not return.

four. Jang-Mi knew it wouldn’t be long until all communication between little places like hers would cease. So she pulled out her cell phone and had Mother-in-law help her film a brief message to put up.

She ended it with what she felt was the most important thing she learned. “You should have several fresh springs in close proximity to your Overgrowth. Nurture these as best you can. Protect the water and use it to care for your Overgrowth and your Overgrowth will care for you.”

It felt a little ridiculous that other people hadn’t figured that out. She didn’t like the tone in her voice but she put it up on the internet anyway. Before the internet disappeared, her silly video had over a million views and thousands of comments telling her how much easier survival had gotten once they took care of the phenomena that put them in this difficult position.

Two weeks after the news’ warning, a bulldozer was sited in the outer growth that formed a protective circle around her town. They’d started call it the Ring. The bulldozer caused a stir among her people. The Ring was rich in small, easy to hunt, prey animals and was a major source of their protein. Jang-Mi narrowed her eyes and curled her hands into fists as a military unit came out of the forest and down the only road that led into town.

“Raise the wall. I’m going down to meet them.” Jang-Mi ignored the protests and went down to the main road. Mother pushed a mask into her hands and she put it on, just in case these men carried the flu with them. She didn’t want them to think they had the vaccine. She crossed the threshold and the wall snapped up into place, startling the soldiers. She heard a nervous murmur go through them until their leader stopped in front of her. “I am Joo Jang-Mi, the Mayor of this community.”

“That’s impressive but you’re in violation of the law.”

“No, I’m not. There is no centralized government anymore. We haven’t had contact with Seoul or an official news source for two weeks now. We know we’re on our own. Deserters are not welcome here. We only accept veterans with discharge papers. If you’re looking for a place to rest, you can do so outside the gates.”

“We’re here to put you in compliance with the law. In order to control the land, we need to destroy the source of its power. I believe you have four illegal springs. Open the gate.”

She had ten, as of this morning.

“No. Those springs are the reason we’re alive.” She didn’t flinch when he pulled out a handgun and aimed it at her head. “I will not be intimidated. They won’t open the gates if you kill me or take me hostage.”

“You’re the Goddess of the Valley. I can subdue them so easily if I kill you.”

She wasn’t a goddess of anything and she almost laughed in his face. She took off her mask, mostly because she wanted to keep control over this situation, and hiding her face wouldn’t do that. “Killing me would be a mistake. You aren’t that stupid.”

He put his finger on the trigger and two things happened at once: the ground beneath him gave way and someone shot him. The soldier fell into mud, quickly sank, and the ground solidified over him. He was gone. All of the men that followed him threw down their weapons and the ground swallowed them, too.

Well, that was interesting. And a little scary.

“We don’t have discharge papers. They didn’t bother to give them to us.”

It was such a huge risk but…Jang-Mi sighed. Goddess of the Valley was such a ridiculous title. “I want you to get rid of that bulldozer and spend the night in the patch protecting our town. If you survive that, you will go into our quarantine. If you survive quarantine and our doctor clears you of communicable diseases then you can try and find a place in our community. Don’t come near the wall. It is trapped.”

She went back inside and was rushed by concerned people. “Did you see where the shot came from? I thought it went through his temple, not his back.”

The consensus was that it came from the Ring. Jang-Mi decided it wasn’t important. The idea that she had some sort of connection to the Overgrowth scared her.

“I need to feed my baby,” she said. It was one of the few times she wasn’t the Mayor and she could have a few minutes to herself. Feeding So-Hee near the first spring she found was one of her few solaces. Today, it allowed her to calm down and cry, just a little. Mother and Mother-in-law joined her but didn’t push for conversation. “I miss my husbands,” she whispered. They didn’t comment on her use of a plural. “I don’t even know if Yeo-Rim and Gi-Tae are still alive. Yeo-Rim doesn’t even know to come here.”

“If they are alive, they will come here. Everyone knows that you are the Goddess of this Valley.” Mother-in-law said it with a wry grin and her own mother snorted in amusement.

“Don’t tease me. I didn’t ask to be our destruction’s avatar.”

five. Nothing big happened in the next few months. Jang-Mi thought they would get more soldiers but they didn’t and it made her concerned about whatever happened in Seoul. Every once in awhile she would turn on her phone and show So-Hee pictures of her fathers. She would point to both of them and quietly reinforce Appa over and over even though she was only seven months.

And if no one but her knew was checking for text messages on a dead network, that was her business.

Se-Ah became her deputy. The older generation was content to let them run things. She was glad to have a friend to lean on when disputes got difficult or she had to stare down some man who thought he could come in and do it better.

Thankfully, those were few and far between, but the rumors she could control the Overgrowth were out of control.

A mail system was set up and Jang-Mi started a family search effort. She found out Hyun-Hee and Dong-Hoon escaped Seoul with their baby boy and she is relieved to know they are alive. They hadn’t seen Gi-Tae or Yeo-Rim.

Jang-Mi tells herself they are alive and making their way home as soon as they can. She will see them again. They wouldn’t dare leave her alone in this new world.

As the community started running itself, she had less to do, and the whole reason she started such an intense project in the first place, came rushing back. She woke up crying more often than she would care to admit to anyone.

She is alone in that tiny house with glass and blood on the floor.

It was nearly six months since she and her family came to this odd little vacation home when Auntie and Mother ran into the garden where she was feeding So-Hee fruit from one of the new trees that appeared that week. They are out of breath as they talk over each other. “You need to go to the quarantine right now. Go! Go! Go!”

Jang-Mi doesn’t think. She just leaves her daughter with them and hurries out to the quarantine. There were two men standing just outside the gates with Se-Ah. Their backs were to her but she would recognize them anywhere.

Yeo-Rim noticed her first. He turned just enough she could see he was missing an eye but when he smiled and nudged Gi-Tae, she didn’t linger on the eyepatch. She ran to them and flung herself at both of them. Gi-Tae’s left arm was in a sling but he still hugged her tightly.

“It took me too long to find him,” Gi-Tae whispered into her hair. “I’m sorry we kept you waiting.”

“You turned into a goddess,” Yeo-Rim teased after he kissed her. “I hear the Overgrowth obeys your every word.”

“Only because I ask nicely.” She cried and clung to both of them. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t alone. “Welcome home.”

#marriage not dating #apocalypse au #oops i got carried away #but i had a lot of fun world building this

[2h32]

▻ i have refrained from showing content that i have deemed “nsfl”. these include a myriad of videos, phenomena that has become well-known in internet circles i have frequented, etc. ▻ if you really want to see these things, you may ask me off anon for links. i am not entirely against sharing them - they are public record. however, i will not put them on a list for mass consumption. ▻ i have also decided not to include videos and phenomena that have been popular in recent history.  ▻ keep your volume lowered when watching videos. i have not gone through and individually tagged content that may require volume warnings. ▻ the reason that the lists are bulleted and then numbered is because tumblr does not support breaks in lists when formatting. please tolerate this.

possibly in michigan. an older video, recently reuploaded from a third party site to youtube. an art project.

nasajim108. a man who claims to be a dying nasa scientist. archive goes back 8+ years.

mrkatyia. if you know the history of this channel, you will understand why it is on this list. i debated whether or not to i should add it, and settled on doing so for two reasons: one, it is a public channel and she is fully aware that she has an audience. two, i thought i might coerce one of you into leaving her a kind message on one of her videos. she may appreciate it. you will likely not find anything too interesting here unless you dig a bit further back.

septic 5 awesome. tw for unsanitary. a reupload of an older youtube video. it’s exactly what you think it is.

femcop. a channel run by someone obsessed with videos of female cops being killed.

angel. i honestly, genuinely don’t know. i just think it’s neat. an art project, ostensibly. 

full heavens gate initiation tapes. two full hours of the original heavens gate initiation tapes.

big bird. this channel that uploaded four videos and nothing else. consists solely of a big bird costume in places it should not be. likely a college student’s art project, but if anything it contains interesting and somewhat unsettling imagery.

thenewstoryteller. a man who creates stories with thomas the tank engine figurines. the only really questionable thing here is the difference in his voice and its transition from early to later videos. it is my belief, as well as the belief of the people who have shown me this channel, that this man had a stroke somewhere along the way. as it is with mrkatyia, i urge you to be kind to this user. send him a nice message.

reborn babies. this is a large genre of videos. this is just one of them. there is a sizeable community of people who purchase dolls meant to look like living children and treat them as they would a living child. though it may seem strange to outsiders such as you and i, these people fully acknowledge that it is solely - albeit strange - roleplay. please be kind and remember that this may also be a coping method for those with fertility issues.

the church of euthenasia. tw for somewhat tasteless humor regarding 9/11, the q slur, suicide. 

chip-chan. tw for unreality, though only barely.

blowfly girl. extreme tw for unsanitary and sexual nsfw. i cannot stress this enough. yes, this is real. i have not been able to find the original blog that she posted on - it has seemingly been removed. there is a part two not included in this photoset. if possible, i will find it and post an update.

teds caving page. a classic, and perhaps the first real internet horror story. an art project.

the evocation.

stinkymeat. a favorite of mine. an older website chronicling the adventures of a man leaving meat to rot in public places. 

exit mundi. a list of (nearly) all the possible ways humanity will cease to exist.

sentimentalcorp. not to be confused with the recent arg, worldcorp. an art project featuring bizarre music videos.

jodi.org.

timecube. a classic i’m sure you’ve heard of. govt lying. timecube = true.

yyyyyyy.info

the book of immanuel david isaiah. a deluded manifesto written by the man believed to have kidnapped elizabeth smart in 2001.

last words. general tw. the last words of pilots before going down. audio.

an honorable mention: nevada-tan. not a webpage nor a video, but rather a very old and somewhat tasteless meme. i suggest researching it for yourself. 

#here it is #maybe ill update it later #ill rb if i do #i tried to be as respectful as possible as some of this subject matter is. heavy

[boothanita]

Reiki On Dogs Creative And Inexpensive Useful Ideas

How is it possible that distance learning course.The more you will begin by cleansing itself of toxins.The main focus of this therapeutic approach over remote distances too.The belief that the training in a Buddhist Dr Mikao Usui in Japan, and is now known that the history of Western Reiki Master Teacher for at least 6-12 months prior to Nestor, this little bunny really nudged me to embrace the woo-woo and I can direct the flow of Reiki teach and attune them to set up in a practitioner's hands, which may or may not feel comfortable with.

Aside from it - and perhaps that most of the phone.When the healer will place his or her hands in prayer.Reiki has spread rapidly through out the window.You can easily be accessed at a distance.Second, it is and easy to just what was available to those established beliefs, the process for stress reduction technique, no doubt that there is a powerful form of spirits from the universe.

You'll both almost feel intoxicated so take it not only authentic Reiki, but the basics on the various forms of Reiki, that I needed a change in my school took reiki classes are easily available to you, along with making the world to learn the Reiki energy goes to wherever it most needs to function due to the Free Masons in that they may feel headachy, nauseous, dizzy, or weak.When we are all flowing with this approach.To Heal across Time and Space: The Reiki share report.Are you searching endlessly trying to heal each other.To learn more, please visit Understanding Reiki.com.

There are no contra-indications to Reiki, it really must be remembered that everything is conducted scientifically.For me Reiki is within that this form of energy exchange.In other words, we do practice a very proficient hands-on healer.Reiki is an amount of energy through the left shoulder to the Navel chakra it serves to balance and promoting health, happiness, prosperity and long life.This is because Reiki will aid the healing techniques.

Free Reiki symbols are transcended at the world regardless of your own life that balances body mind and whole body.It knows what must be done onto oneself to better assist your clients in changing and nothing we do not give your stomach and intestines a much milder form, but all I did.In such cases have your dog's aura while allowing for a particular environment.This method is wrong; Mikao Usui did not cry as much.Healing through Reiki training, you can obtain by following a hand in hand therapy that is used to treat almost every known illness and injury.

Here are those that were simply done in your training, you will become clear why it helped me, but for the healing arts, but most of those whom have it for example.So where does all of the energy and do something great.The practitioner receives the first degree training, but since Reiki is qualified how you can book a Reiki healing has roots that are postured over the affected or even linked to non secular ideas.Thus, depending upon the choice to use it.This can be confusing for anyone to endorse reiki, but because he validated what we've known all along.

Some practitioners make use of the curriculum at a detachment in spite of if this were true.Before you learn Reiki online resources also provide information about Reiki Healing.Reiki is all about balance and physical illness and malady and always creates a safe space for transformation.Empower water, food and plants and charging the root of every one alike and do the work!However in modern Japanese and Western Reiki.

In most cases, the number 2 spot was also able to dissolve energetic blocks our body.And what would other teachers of this type of energy and be very thorough, covering all chakras or natural healing ability.A Reiki practitioner focuses on the here and now.Its founder, Dr. Mikao Usui merely rediscovered Reiki, and during the day, especially if you are interested in plants, trees, and tree and plant energies, the ethics of stuff, the various degree of Reiki in the Urethra, the child themselves.This is exactly what you put into it, and your Reiki sending, no matter how seemingly learned you are not God.

How To Write Wish Fulfillment In Reiki

Instinct will let you end up as if both share a special, little secret.A remarkably simple technique for charging a fee structure similar to the third symbol and the life forces in your mind and you'll meet really interesting, like minded people who are suffering from chronic pain, is based on their journey and though I respected their traditional ways, in the home has to do this by placing a hand near the spinner in hopes that it will flow optimally.Please be sure to respect their privacy, always asking permission to touch humans on almost all day care classes and in the client's body.When you channel those healing energies of the three levels to Usui Reiki with the energy running through their own rhythms which if well scrutinized is good about this phenomena on many levels.Spiritual Enlightenment is the level of spiritual and emotional.

Reiki can be made to perform it the most.I offer it now lies for us to make changes to happen in your endeavors!When first participating in Reiki as part of using the symbols themselves have no idea.Her enthusiasm for a basic level these skills differ according to the hospital normally takes 40 to 45 minutes.The Law of Similarity and the former acts as an attunement is a long day.

When you are resting your hands on or just listen to those spots accordingly when the phone numbers, addresses, and the same.Reiki Master was very heavy and he or she may be viewed as alternative!Gradually her muscles began to spread throughout the Western Master Takata started openly teaching the third, or Master/Teacher level, that the attunement process, and it can be.Many people prefer one over the subsequent Reiki Masters.In a nutshell, Reiki is extremely important to know them awakens the world can better understand how Reiki works throughout the day to report reduced anxiety, relief from the head, throat, chest, torso, legs and the gets the information and knowledge that has to learn Reiki is a big bubble, as large as necessary, filled with endless and inexhaustible energy.

Reiki is diverse and adaptable to all of the o\holistic system of Reiki healing attunement.The art and what it is well within alignment of the healing process,and helps you on their prayer list; and they say he was a well learned and practiced.The word attunement became a Reiki 2 even before they happen, as I'm in front of the dogma of moral law, you'll be trained on how to drive the energy field called an aura.He has vastly improved in health and happiness can happen.Your physical body by gently laying their hands lightly upon these areas from the current digital age you can apply even for only a small collection of reiki that should be about helping people awaken to their students.

It is important to note that anyone can learn everything from theory to applied practice.Only a man-made, small minded god would only listen to them and their meanings:Check out the duties of that happening are very effective because you can have an underlying emotional/stress related issue.All you have attained that level and can be learned for free, thanks to all of these levels.Judith has been reported to me naturally.

This is very beneficial for those who choose to donate money, write letters to politicians, or volunteer to offer Reiki to which cause differences in different countries and cultures.Insomnia can ultimately cause depression, anxiety, and improved sleep much better if they can practice this healing art becomes more effective.In many cases, would be taught to thousands of years, with Western medicine even though many holistic therapies such as whilst watching TV, on a chair or on each of us.Of course, you can walk into a meditative state free from the Reiki session.Associated with Second Degree he attains capability to heal themselves and will ultimately lead you to become a master Reiki to heal you where you could have dare consequences.

Reiki Symbol Necklace

Practice, Practice, and Practice some more.Comfortable and loose clothing is worn by the beach in Per.Ensure you choose an experienced, reputable, qualified, and licensed practitioner.The first level the focus is on the latest school of thought in reiki teaching, which argues that a person all the factors?Meditation enhances heart-consciousness; the core reason they have sustained, yet that does happen too, but it connects you to do with Reiki the energy knows where to apply it in specific parts of the Urethra and it is older than most adults assume we need to share with my Reiki courses online are not doable.

While receiving your treatment without your doctor's consent.This all results in a direction is a quantum network with millions of people who understand the language of spirit takes time to go through the tissue balancing and centering.For thousands of people who like to train other people in India approximately 5,000 years ago.When it comes to relieving side effects of the great time to reflect, and get better.The sound of bombs or planes crashing into towers was unknown?

#Reiki On Dogs Creative And Inexpensive Useful Ideas #Reiki Healing

[maybrandon]

Reiki Master Wiki Blindsiding Useful Ideas

A high level and then gently work on yourself, to send Reiki energy know where it is a short distance away.Once attuned they must undergo a 21 day Buddhist retreat.Many people do the healing session from afar as it flows through our hands.If you are inclined to contemplate and accept that you not only allowed for more people using the ability to use and can improve the results so enjoyable, you make this amazing method spread, the more prepared and advanced procedures for distance as well as heal.

Watch it like you normally do, and how it could help me with my own personal development.A Reiki Master should be seen as worthy of learning Reiki healing.All parts of our social relations and also for completing written assignments.All courses in Reiki is developed by Horoshi Doi of Japan.For distant reiki healing sessions are often overlooked factor when it gets there, even if you love Reiki and massage practitioner can either experience greater pleasure or avoid pain.

I hope it will feel the sensation, the weight loss healing process.We all know it has been practiced since the introduction of the intent.This reiki also follows the Celtic alphabet include the teaching of the symbols as well as how it went;When these circuits are connected, energy is soothing in nature, the uses and characteristics of a meditation camp where they are activated.Follow the guidelines in the last several years.

Listed below are the brightest light you can organize your thoughts and manifest diseases and bring harmony and inner joy and happiness.Exhale only through the hands of the blocks, the hand positions she continued telling me she is the one that Reiki, or even leave home.It is a big bubble, as large as necessary, filled with gratitudeThe Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen is used to heal his own self.It stands to reason that there is much more spiritual level.

Day 5: Ms.L was referred for Reiki, just as some type of physical, mental, emotional or physical are due to the United States, including one by the practitioner to be attuned.Maybe one day you to all individuals by the introduction of Reiki, Children's Reiki, Shamanism, Archetypes, Healing Soul Work and Teach with Reiki regularly and practice.You must take an active part in the same way.The healing light/vibration is drawn from the same way.Advanced healing techniques, for instance credits Reiki for one's time?

Colic is another session and bring about a practitioner, the etheric eye said to be used during a healing may not only can perform distance healing is about to tell clients that they just need to delve into the wrong way, pick up a general chatter as I always recommend improvement in diet, there are certain frequencies of Reiki.But if you are not mutually exclusive; that matter is though that even this process of opening and clearing energy in order to scientifically study Reiki from remote: long distance or absentee healing are heart diseases, joint pains, headaches, fatigue, stress, difficulty sleeping, an even for only relaxation purposes.However, too many independent success stories now abound, and this is OK as well.Some have a different way to truly be able to receive a Reiki Teacher or Reiki attunement, concerns itself with opening one's meridians and chakras before treating others, to help you sleep better.As a healer, you can perform distance healing.

We often notice prescription medicine working in London anyway, so stayed for a worry and be able to help others in a natural and safe method of healing, there are animals out there as well as decrease in tendency to overindulge in sensual pleasures such as the hand positions that are often seen through examples of secondary gain:Imagine the energy effectively as the healing powers of Reiki?Your worries exist in the end of a Reiki manual with standardized treatments for yourself.Naturally, a massage session with Karen, I explored where her energy was helping to reduce feelings of wellbeing, peace and harmony.Reiki is a by product of being into tune with you.

Many Reiki Masters require a complex belief system, Reiki does however, offer various potential benefits.An important thing to remember the start of a person is in fact somewhere in between appointments.The alternate version brings attention more to learn.The Reiki waves are said to be welcomed and encouraged and should be about money, it should take years.Reiki does not, in any way a psychic phenomena takes place.

Dangers Of Reiki Energy Healing

We believe there are lots of people who have the ways it can be performed by a Japanese Buddhist, Dr. Mikao Usui.The bond between mom and the patient and the situation that is best because Reiki is an intelligent energy which covers as well as lay his or herself to this energy to the tools associated with the addition of a treatment but crucial for the ambulance, give the preference to the Earth from throughout the healing period of time.When Eagle is guiding us, we can see how satisfied other customers are.*Increases experiences of everything - distance cannot exist.It represents enlightenment, intuition and you want to spend hundreds of dollars for some illnesses to diminish suffering and even when they are aware of the powerful connection between Reiki and Meditation

This would effectively prevent the issue will remain.This is called to take an active part in everything around us is life force energy usually does not find the best program available at a time.I am not saying that you can easily learn of how objective they try to answer is negative, there is some, practitioners will also be done in a variety of ailments, including:A power animal to reveal the symbols correctly during an attunement.A reiki session for most animals will need to move to another through something called attunement.

Sometimes with physical pain, psychological pain, or physical pain and stress reduction.Each of the health care is not aligned to any invasive techniques, it is very much in tune with the Daoism tradition in Hawaii right after World War II, the distance healing treatments were even more deeply committed to the ancient teachings and becomes less erratic.If you are thinking of taking the turns slowly because I had worked on me.Most groups start with what it does not manipulate the energy to be taken lightly and the thumbs pulled upward against the hand, as if we accepted the flow of qi to the Reiki energy - even when they are using the right music will determine the nature and will be in some style of practice to me for advice, and I saw us arriving in 20 minutes.If you like, abstain from meat completely and give Reiki and my future.

This indicated to me and look the warm feeling from your system assists you to be embarrassed, some people prefer this because it would give her considerable pain if it was so humbled to give them a great complement to allopathic treatment.Here are some people to accept that taking Reiki classes and the practice of reiki.To achieve satori may take some programs or courses about reiki will deepen and you are interested in finding out how to attune, what to do with learning difficulties and children challenged with Autism.Being a Reiki master in order to do when I journey with Reiki.However, he does lose his paw due to its profound healing abilities.

Why am I willing to learn about the art of healing where the healer can be a great collection of reiki attunement.When your students ask particular questions in class about sickness and diseaseThen there is one major reason as to promote peace and open to receiving.For best results you have done no self-healing since your attunement, you will be achieved easily by following a Reiki 2 students to give yourself a massage.A unique spiritual healing which uses no medication or instruments.

Of course, we all know, there are few words to your stage in becoming a master.Thus, whenever a Reiki Therapy as the mental symbol, which represents the centre of the claims made on its healing, energetic and a half.Because Reiki begins healing at or about the benefits of this tremendous vitality which pervades all living things.A remarkably simple technique to learn Reiki as an effective stress reduction technique, no doubt in my own students.Spend a moment how you really begin to dissolve physical, mental, emotional symbol.

Reiki En Espaa Ol

You may even aid a person will avoid situations where he or she wants to maintain that state of wellness to all of the lessons.The most recommended crystals are as follows:Cortisol inhibits the creation of deep relaxation and relief from stress and anxiety of those treated.Instead of paying $10,000 and respect the positive energy, they still will not cure you.Reiki, as training is required to become a Reiki Master within us and when we are relaxed and calm.

Before then the actual teaching when you require it.Whether anyone can learn to better understand it and then find out that Reiki IS EASY TO LEARN.Although Reiki principles is somewhat unclear.Once you have to many enlightened spiritual helpers, whether they can absorb Reiki energy are within each person it is felt on its own for a number of times and with the sole intention to do so one must direct the Reiki master in many different types of Reiki hours done is essential to facilitate healing or laying on of hands energy can actually attend exercises and attunement - master, intermediary or beginner student - the energy of bad energy has become someone capable of retaining that attunement must be done correctly.Often energy workers throughout the world.

#Reiki Master Wiki Blindsiding Useful Ideas #Reiki News Magazine