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thesecondcircleofkel · 5 years

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SFW Alphabet, Aizawa: A-Z

Reposting all of these together for convenience and to save space. I don’t accept requests to do the entire alphabet for someone all at once. You have to stick to the guidelines of 1 character per ask, and 5 letters per ask, and once I finish the alphabet for a character with requests like that, I will repost it all together. Request are closed at the moment, though.

A: Affection (How affectionate are they with a s/o?)

He’s decently affectionate with you. While he may not show you a lot of affection in public (out of professionalism and wanting to keep his private life private), he doesn’t shy away from it when the two of you are alone. He tends to linger with his hugs and kisses, just so he can enjoy your presence for a little bit longer, and if you two are together in public, he might sneak in a gentle touch across your hand while no one is looking just as reassurance for both of you.

B: Breath (What could their s/o do to take their breath away?)

Do something nice for his students. Try to hide it as he may sometimes, it’s obvious that cares about them, so make them some treats to cheer them up, or write them all notes telling them how great they’re doing in their training. It doesn’t have to be too big, but his heart will definitely melt when he sees you showing them some love. His heart will also undoubtedly melt if you’re good with Eri. He wouldn’t mind a kid or two with you one day (so long as you also want them), and seeing you interact with her kind of turns him into a broody hen (there’s a good image for you to sleep on).

C: Cuddle (Do they cuddle? If they do, how and when do they cuddle?)

There will be so many cuddles with Aizawa. The man loves his naps, and he loves them even more when you’re with him for them, so he’s prone to dragging you off whenever he gets sleepy so he can cuddle with you until he falls asleep. If you’re really far into the relationship, and he can find a good napping place where no one will find the two of you, then he’ll even share his sleeping bag with you.

D: Dream (What do they dream of doing with their s/o?)

It’s not exactly a long-term dream, but he really looks forward to spending his rare days off with you. Of course, most of the day will be spent in bed as he catches up on all of the sleep that he missed while he was working, but again, he loves sleeping with you nearby him, so that’s really the perfect way to spend the day in his opinion.

E: Effort (How much effort do they put into a relationship?)

You may not always be able to see it, but he actually puts in a lot of effort. He can’t spend as much time with you as he wants because of his work schedule, so he tries to make the moments that he does have with you really special to make up for it.

F: Fear (What do they do if their s/o is scared? How do they handle it?)

You could have the most illogical fear in the world, but in this instance, he won’t point that out. If there is an immediate danger threatening you, then he will obviously go into hero mode and protect you, but even if that’s not the case, he’s still good about taking you away from whatever it is that’s scaring you. Once you’re somewhere safe and away from everyone else, he’ll hold you for as long as it takes for you to calm down, and if you want to talk to him about your fears at this point, go for it, he’s all ears.

G: Gifts (What type of gifts do they give their s/o? Do they want a gift in return?)

Gifts aren’t really his thing, the minimalist that he is, but he does want you to have at least one thing to carry around as a reminder of him. It’d be something small, of course, and probably also something that you could wear, but that’s about it when it comes to gifts with him because he really doesn’t care about receiving gifts.

H: Hugs (Do they hug their s/o? How often?)

He’s another one that won’t give you public affection so he can maintain his professionalism, but he’ll give you a hug whenever you want behind closed doors. He at least gives you a hug of his own accord once a day, probably in the evening or late at night when he finally gets home from work. He likes to feel you in his arms and have that reassurance that you’re still there with him. His hugs are fantastic, too. He holds you very firmly and for a long time. He’s the type to also bury his face in your neck while he hugs you so he can really breathe in your scent before he lets you go.

I: Intimacy (How romantic are they? Do they have problems with intimacy?)

There is a lot of intimacy in the way that he looks at you. Whenever his eyes land on you, his gaze will be filled with love and adoration, as if you are truly the light of his world, so even if he’s not the most overtly romantic person, there won’t be any question as to how he feels about you.

J: Jealous (Do they get jealous? How do they act when jealous?)

Jealousy is illogical, or at least it is in his opinion. If someone is making unwanted advances towards you, then he trusts you to send them off on your own, or that you’ll let him know if you need help sending those unwelcome suitors away. He also trusts that you’ll be upfront with him if you feel like there’s something missing from your relationship.

K: Kiss (Are they a good kisser? Do they like to kiss? How often do they try to kiss you?)

Again, there won’t be any kissing in public, but he’ll give you as many kisses as you want when the two of you are alone. He’s got his slow and sensual kisses down pat, and his favorite times to kiss you are right before he leaves for work and right when the both of you have just woken up. He lives for lazy, sleepy kisses.

L: Love (When do they say they love you? How often do they say it? Do they prefer to say or show it?)

He really only says it once every blue moon, but it will be very apparent in his actions that he loves you. From the time that he makes out of his busy schedule to spend with you, to the lingering hugs and kisses that he gives you, his love for you is very obvious, even if he doesn’t say it a lot.

M: Marriage (Do they want to get married? If so, what kind of ceremony?)

It’s not a huge priority for him, but he wouldn’t mind getting married at some point assuming that it was something that you wanted, as well. He wouldn’t be too picky about the ceremony, either, so long as it was at least somewhat private with only your close friends and family being invited. Beyond that, you can do whatever you want with the ceremony and he’ll support your decisions and try to help you with planning whenever he can (he dreads involving himself with the planning, but he’ll do it for your sake if you need help).

N: Night Out (What type of dates do they like to go on? How often do they like to go on them?)

Naptime. He prefers lowkey dates, and he’d be perfectly happy with an at-home date, where the two of you make dinner together, eat, and then chill on the couch to watch a movie. He’ll inevitably fall asleep during the latter portion, but he can’t really help it, not when he gets so comfortable and content with you curled up at his side.

O: Out of the Ordinary (What’s something they don’t normally do for/with their s/o?)

We’ve already established that he isn’t into public displays of affection for various reasons (professionalism, privacy, etc.), but that’s about it. So long as you’re not doing anything too out there or irrational, then he’s actually pretty chill about going along with whatever it is that you want to do. He may grumble about it at times, especially if you’re keeping him from a nap, but honestly, so long as he’s spending time with you, he’s fine with it.

P: Playful (Are they playful in a relationship? If so, how do they play around/mess with their s/o?)

You’ll probably find his rampant stoicism and broody nature humorous at times (that pout, though), but no, he’s not playful; playfulness is just not in his nature, although he can be quite tender with you at times.

Q: Questions (Do they ask their s/o their opinion on things? Do they share theirs?)

To him, a relationship is a partnership, and it just wouldn’t make sense for the two of you to be in a partnership with each other and not be willing to hear each other’s opinions. The two of you will definitely have very long discussions with each other before any big decisions are made.

R: Random (How spontaneous is their relationship? Do they do things on the spot or plan ahead?)

He definitely plans everything ahead of time. It’s just the more logical way of doing things, plus if he knows the exact time that the two of you will be together, then he can plan to get some rest beforehand so he can completely focus on you while you’re together. He can be convinced to do something spontaneously, but it’ll have to be something that you bring up.

S: Sleep (How do they sleep with their s/o?)

In any way that he possibly can. So long as he’s getting the rest that he desperately needs and you’re there with him, he won’t be picky about how you sleep together. You could lay at his side and use his chest as a pillow, he could do the same to you, you can both face one another and hold onto each other through the night, literally any form of spooning-whatever you decide on, he’ll be perfectly content with it. And if you don’t necessarily want to fall asleep with him, then he’s also fine with using your lap as a pillow.

T: Trust (How much do they trust their s/o?)

To be frank, he wouldn’t be with you if he didn’t trust with his life. He takes relationships far too seriously for that not to be the case, and the fact that he lets himself be so physically and emotionally vulnerable around you only further proves the trust that he has in you.

U: Unique (What makes them unique as a s/o?)

How deeply he cares about you. He may not be the most open person about it, but his feelings for you run deep, and he’d legitimately lay his life on the line for you. He puts so much focus into your happiness and to making sure that you have everything that you need that it’s doubtful that you’ll ever want for much of anything.

V: Vulnerable (How long until they can be vulnerable around their s/o? What are they like in this state?)

It won’t happen until he knows for sure that he wants to dedicate himself to you and you’ve earned his trust, but even when it does happen, you’ll be hard-pressed to notice it. He typically just gets even quieter than he normally is, and he’ll be a bit clingier, too, but beyond that, he won’t do anything to indicate that he’s in any sort of distress. He’s able to work through most things on his own and he doesn’t really have a need to talk about them, so he’d rather just get some comfort from your presence and leave things at that.

W: Wild Card (Random domestic headcanon)

You will be able to write a book about each and every single one of his students. He tells you a lot about them on a near daily basis, and it’s heartwarming to see the small glint of pride that flickers through his eyes when he tells you about his students doing particularly well at something.

X: X-Ray (What would they do if their s/o got injured?)

He will immediately remove you from harm’s way and take you somewhere safe where you can receive medical care. Even if it wasn’t remotely his fault in any way, he’d still feel guilty that you got hurt, and he will do everything that he can to support you while you recover. He also won’t want you to be left alone while you’re recovering, and if he can’t stay with you himself, then he’ll have someone that he knows and trusts stay with you in his stead.

Y: Yuck (Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o? Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?)

There aren’t many things that you could do that would get on his nerves. He’s just far too laidback and patient with you for that, but he probably wouldn’t appreciate it if you made it a habit to needlessly wake him up from his naps. It’s one thing if you wake him up for a reason, even if it’s a somewhat trivial reason, but if you wake him up from his much needed rest for absolutely nothing, then he’s not exactly going to be happy. He also seems to be a bit of a minimalist in terms of possessions and whatnot, so he probably wouldn’t like it if you had a bunch of useless junk laying around. As for his habits, he doesn’t exactly try to hide them; what you see is what you get when it comes to Aizawa, so if the constant naps and scruffy appearance bother you, then you probably shouldn’t have pursued him in the first place.

Z: Zeal (Are they passionate as a s/o? Do they want or like passion?)

Aizawa may not start jumping for joy every time that he sees you, but rest assured, he’s very passionate about and dedicated to you. You mean the world to him, and he’d do anything to make you happy. You bring him so much joy in life, and he’s ready to dedicate the rest of his life to trying to show you how grateful he is for that. You don’t have to be showy about it, but he would like a similar amount of dedication from you.

#aizawa shouta #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha x reader #mha x reader #aizawa x reader #bnha headcanons #mha headcanons #aizawa headcanons #bnha aizawa #bnha eraserhead #sfw alphabet

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makeste · 5 years

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BnHA Chapter 157: Giant Zelda Boss

Previously on BnHA: The badass lady squad kicked some villain ass (even if it did take them a while). Toga showed up disguised as Deku and directed the heroes to where Nighteye and co. were fighting Overhaul underground. They crashed onto the scene as Toga, Twice, and Compress watched from the street above. Twice and Toga told Compress to go kidnap Eri, and he was all “:/ but it’s dangerous” but in the end they bullied him into going down there. Overhaul tried to escape with Eri and Deku leaped after them. We learned that Eri was the granddaughter of the Precepts’ boss, and her mom abandoned her, so the boss put her in Overhaul’s care. Apparently she had an unknown quirk that had somehow killed her biological father. Overhaul experimented and found out her quirk had something to do with “rewinding.” Then the rest of it we already knew -- Overhaul continued to hurt her and she had to suffer through it and eventually she was conditioned to blame herself and to believe that she was “cursed.” But now with everyone trying to rescue her, her quirk is apparently “awakening” with her desire to somehow save them all. omg.

Today on BnHA: Deku grabs Eri and says he’s not gonna let go! Overhaul, who has reverted back to his normal form, is all GIVE HER BACK, and creates some stabby rock tentacle claws to try and get at them. Deku instinctively uses 100% OFA to escape to the surface, and then panics afterwards, thinking that he’s broken his legs. But surprisingly, they’re fine. Meanwhile, Overhaul fuses himself with another unconscious minion and heads after them. Nighteye tells Ryuukyuu and the others that he saw the future and that Overhaul is going to pursue Eri and kill Deku, and that even if they go after him they won’t win. Back on the street level, Deku realizes that all of his injuries have been healed, but then he promptly crumples over in pain. Overhaul, having transformed into some sort of multi-limbed giant rock dragon man, explains that Eri’s quirk gives her the ability to “rewind” humans, and that she can’t control it. But Deku decides this is the perfect opportunity to activate OFA Full Cowl at 100% and just have Eri heal him as he goes. He’s gonna BREAK BONES LIKE NO ONE HAS EVER BROKEN BONES BEFORE.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 187 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

oh! I like this!!

“the determination to be saved” YESSSS ERI YESSSSS

also, going back to the previous panel for a second, what is going on??

what happened to Overhaul and Nemo? they unfused?? did she rewind time and undo all his bullshit?

anyway Deku has her now and he says this time he’s not letting go of her! YAY

AHHHHH

FUCK. SOMEONE SWAT IT WITH A NEWSPAPER

also Horikoshi’s love of drawing hands has officially gone too far. that is SO FUCKING DISTURBING. and also AWESOME, GODDAMMIT

like, look at how his fingers are separating the panels in the bottom right corner. fuck this artistic bullshit

also why is Deku worried about his ability to move? it’s not like Overhaul is any better off. he’s disintegrating the platform he was standing on so he can literally fall at them. you’re both falling. just dodge him. it’s not like he’s any more mobile than you are, and he doesn’t have 20% OFA or 8% or whatever the fuck you’re using right now

anyway he’s hugging Eri determinedly and glaring at Overhaul and again thinking that he won’t let her go no matter what

oh cool are we flashing back to one of the best lines in this arc? I’m down with that

nice to see Deku getting back to his roots

nice to see Horikoshi getting back to his roots, actually. pacing has picked up again, art style is back in full swing, and Deku is thinking determined thoughts about heroically saving others? this is the manga I fell in love with

...maybe I spoke too soon

wait, what? did he just make a giant claw cliff only to grab himself?

okay but what the fuck is happening, though?

wha

that’s what I... you know what, never mind

OH MY GOD

DID YOU BREAK YOUR FUCKING LEGS DEKU YOU FUCK

ARE THEY!?

I can’t tell?? they don’t look anything like they did the last time he used 100%, but the one time it happened with his legs, it looked pretty different from when he breaks his arms. with his arms his sleeves usually rip right off and he’s all noodley and floppy. but with his legs, his pants always seem to stay intact to preserve his modesty. which is very thoughtful of you, OFA

anyway, down in the basement, Ryuukyuu and the others are saying they felt some sort of shockwave, so it’s indeed seeming like he broke his vow to never use OFA at full strength until he mastered it

I forgive him though. do you guys. I fully forgive him. as long as it actually worked oh please god let it have worked

hmm?

SHE WHAT. WHAT’S HER QUIRK GODDAMMIT

he’s screaming at Eri (even though she’s not there) that he needs her “in order to realize Pops’s ambition”

well too bad

Ryuukyuu looks very concerned, and I didn’t understand why, but then I remembered that even though Deku and Eri got to safety, the rest of them are all still stuck down there with him lol

it honestly didn’t even occur to me to be concerned. I don’t know why. I just assume they can handle themselves

NIGHTEYE WHY ARE YOU TALKING

I mean, we already knew that though

omg

...well shit

but I mean. did he really see that? because if so, that’s officially the first vision he’s had that we 100% know is not going to come true. so I guess they’re not infallible after all

and of course Ochako is FREAKING OUT now

oh no but she’s falling down now for some reason

(ETA: I guess she’s still fatigued from all the vitality-absorbing attacks earlier)

Nighteye says that he saw it

Ryuukyuu’s turning in disbelief asking him if he thinks they’d just go along with what he’s saying after hearing that

but he says that in their current condition they can’t win

EXACTLY

Nighteye is all “...”

and he’s giving Tsuyu directions to where Mirio is

and he’s asking Ochako and Ryuukyuu to help him to the surface omg

ARE YOU GOING TO SACRIFICE YOURSELF

meanwhile back on the surface, Deku is landing!

and HIS LEGS AREN’T BROKEN OMG

IT’S ERI’S QUIRK

he’s asking her about it!

oh shit and now something’s happening

“RRIP” is not a good fx for one’s body to be making, generally speaking. though jury is still out on “ZZGGGG”

oh shit

look Overhaul, I’m going to allow you to make one last stand for just long enough that you can explain how this quirk works. and then you can fucking die

he says she doesn’t know how to stop it

siiiiiiiiiigh

you really went and made yourself into a giant Zelda boss. and made yourself into its fucking tongue

anyway he’s continuing to explain, and it seems it is indeed a time-rewinding quirk

actually that quirk sounds amazing. once she’s able to control it she’s going to be a BEAST. offensively and defensively this is a winner. I can’t believe she had to put up with so many assholes telling her she’s cursed. cursed with being fucking awesome, maybe

(ETA: question, the way Overhaul phrases this makes it sound like she can rewind literally anything. do we know if there is a limit? is it limited to just living things, or organic materials? or is it literally anything, because if yes, holy shit though?)

Overhaul’s telling Deku to return Eri to him. hahahahaha. full of jokes now, are ya

“there’s no way to stop her other than her disassembly” um, nah. pretty sure she’s capable of stopping herself if they can get her to calm down. which could probably easily be accomplished if you would just kindly step off and go fuck yourself

anyway, Deku’s strapping Eri to his back. oh damn

he gets it now. the instant his leg broke, she reverted it before he could even feel the pain

he says it’s a kind, gentle quirk

oh my god Deku yes. say it louder for her to hear!

oh baby girl it’s okay

oh fucking shit, of course Deku immediately thinks of how to appropriate this quirk for his own reckless needs

DEKU YOU SELF-DESTRUCTIVE LITTLE LUNATIC

(ETA: “CONSTANTLY ACCUMULATING INJURIES AT AN EVEN GREATER SPEED...!” jesus christ he is so fucking excited to have found this new and revolutionary way to wreck his body more efficiently than ever!!)

HIS HAIR SPIKED UP LIKE ALL MIGHT’S OMG!!??

DID THE SHAPE OF HIS FUCKING FACE CHANGE?? IT LOOKS MORE ANGULAR AND LIKE HIS BABY FAT IS SOMEHOW GONE ALL OF A SUDDEN?

I WISH I COULD SEE HIS MUSCLES, ARE THEY ALL BIG

(ETA: normal! so we’re still not sure how All Might does it, but that’s okay)

THIS KID IS ACTUALLY INSANE. “WILL YOU LEND ME YOUR POWER” FUCKING MAYBE ASK THAT BEFORE YOU GO AND DO THIS

NIGHTEYE REALLY PREDICTED HIM DYING EVEN AT ALL MIGHT LEVELS OF STRENGTH? JUST HOW BADLY IS HE SOMEHOW GOING TO MANAGE TO FUCK THIS UP

OH MY GOD LET’S KEEP READING AND FIND OUT

BONUS:

okay first off we have an “afterword” by Horikoshi announcing that this arc will finally come to an end in the next volume, and thanking everyone who’s sent him fan letters, and apologizing that he doesn’t have time to respond to them

he also talks about how tired he is and how energy drinks aren’t as effective anymore

I’m pretty worried about him burning out now tbh. Jump always works their best mangaka to the bone, and it’s a problem

other than that, there’s just the back of the volume 17 cover, which has Eri clutching her beloved Lemilliocape and more or less looking like she’s come straight out of some sort of apocalyptic AU

how did her clothes and bandages get so raggedy omg. Overhaul is just the worst caretaker in the history of time

#bnha #boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #overhaul (bnha)#eri (bnha)#sir nighteye #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #so in the bnha universe whoever makes pants needs a raise for sure #deku's pants can survive anything apparently #whereas his sleeves rip apart if he so much as sneezes #y'all remember his polo shirt from the forest lodge arc #'what shirt' you ask #yeah exactly #it lasted for like half a chapter #so what we have learned from this is that deku has the same tailor as bruce banner

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cheesecake-quaffle · 5 years

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Fragments: Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Pairing: Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto

Summary: Izuku then remembered that it was a day just like this when the young prince, Todoroki came months ago, the man with a broken heart but still gave him smiles that offered nothing but an effervescent sweetness but with eyes that held hurt beyond comprehension. And Izuku thinks, “I want to fix him”

In a world where people wear their hearts on golden chains, a young prince with a broken heart befriends a heartsmith who promises to help fix his heart.

Tags: Fantasy AU/Angst and Fluff/Arranged Marriage/Happy Ending

AO3

[Nepenthe (Greek) - (n.) something that can make you forget grief or suffering]

The next day, Todoroki decided to return to the workshop the next day to check on his heart. He was still unsure about leaving his precious heart with a person who’s essentially a complete stranger.

“Hello?” he said as he cautiously entered the shop.

The room was bathed in warm candlelight, a contrast to yesterday’s lively sunlight, as the day’s weather was dark and promised rainfall.

Behind the desk, Midoriya, wearing an odd pair of goggles that were too big for him, was concentrating on placing a piece of metal on a small heart. My heart probably, Todoroki noted. Eri was sitting beside Midoriya, handing him tools when he asked. Both Midoriya and Eri looked up when they heard Todoroki’s voice.

“Oh, g-good morning, T-Todoroki!” Midoriya pushed up his goggles to his forehead.

“How may we help you, Mr. Todoroki?” Eri asked as Todoroki approached their desk. He placed his satchel on the table.

“I just wanted to check on my heart. I also brought you guys some food that my sister made.”

He rummaged through his bag and fished out two boxes.

“Oh, Todoroki, you didn’t need to!” Midoriya said, “I-It’s really all fine, but I should have probably told you that before you left the last time, and now I’ve bothered you. I’m really sorry! You really didn’t have to go out of your way to ask your sister—eh? Wait, your sister? Oh no! I bothered your sister too! And, wow, I really have to apologize now! And—”

“Midoriya.” Todoroki said, halting Izuku’s ramble, “It’s really fine, I insist.” said Todoroki as he handed Midoriya and Eri a box each, takes a box for himself and sits in a stool by the desk.

Izuku hesitates and eyes the two boxes before sighing, “If you’re sure then.”

“It’s katsudon!” Eri exclaimed, eyes lighting up and bright laughter escaping her lips in excitement as they opened the boxes. “Katsudon is Deku’s favourite.”

Todoroki glanced at Midoriya “It must have been a lucky coincidence that I brought this.”

Midoriya grinned then turned to Eri “Could you get us some spoons and forks in the kitchen?”

“Sure!” Eri walked towards a door that lead to the kitchen.

Todoroki leaned forward. “So, how are things going?”

Midoriya showed him the heart he was working on. His hunch was right for that heart was his. “You see those cracks all over your heart? You know that it’s an indication that the heart is broken. But only trained heartsmiths can identify how deep these cracks go. Yours are quite deep, I’m afraid.”

Todoroki sighed, “I’m honestly not that surprised. My heart has been broken ever since I was a child.”

Midoriya glances at Todoroki then hums to himself, “I hope you don’t mind me intruding but why do you want your heart fixed all of a sudden?”

“You must’ve heard about the wedding. Father made sure that the engagement was as public as possible.”

“Oh, yes. I do remember. It was the talk of the town for a whole month.”

“The thing is, I want to get married with a whole, healthy heart.”

Midoriya smiles softly “That’s very kind of you, Todoroki. Your fiancé must be lucky to have someone who loves her that way.”

Suddenly, Todoroki’s expression became unreadable. “Yeah.”

“Midoriya, can I ask,” Todoroki says as he cuts a piece of pork. “How are you and Eri related?”

“Oh, we’re not relatives if that’s what you’re thinking. The thing is, Eri came from a small neighbouring village. A few years ago, it got attacked by a group of rebels.”

“I think I remember this.” Todoroki said, “It was our kingdom’s army who captured the rebels afterwards.”

“Yes, but they caused so much damage that the whole village caught fire. Eri was able to survive but, unfortunately, her parents and everyone else in the village didn’t make it. She escaped that night and ran here, to our kingdom. I saw her in the marketplace begging for food and I just couldn’t leave her like that so I took her in to live with me.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

Eri then entered the room, “I got the utensils!” She chirps happily and gave them utensils. Midoriya took them and gently ruffled Eri’s hair. “Thanks, Eri.”

“Deku, wait,” said Eri giggling “You’re messing my hair.”

Midoriya proceeded to ruffle her hair faster, ignoring her protests.

Todoroki found himself smiling at the two. Whatever doubts he had before were gone. He could trust this man with his heart.

They were interrupted by a loud crash of thunder. “I really should get going before the weather worsens.” Todoroki says as he packs up his things and walks to the door, Midoriya and Eri trailing behind him.

Midoriya held the door as Todoroki fixes his cape “Thanks for stopping by, Todoroki.”

“Thanks for the food, Mr. Todoroki!” Eri says. Todoroki waved at them and faced the dark marketplace, people rushing to find shelter from the oncoming storm.

Todoroki wasn’t able to visit Midoriya’s workshop for a few days because of the storm. His time was filled with the usual royal duties and wedding planning. When he finally got some time for himself, he quickly filled his satchel with sweets from the kitchen, grabbed his cape, and headed to the marketplace.

As Todoroki was about to open the workshop’s door, he heard a loud bang from inside followed by Midoriya’s voice. “Aah! I’m sorry, Kacchan! I didn’t know that—”

“Stupid Deku!” Todoroki heard another person shout “You knew that would fucking happen! Fucking die!”

Todoroki swiftly opened the door, fully intent on showing his wrath to whoever talked to Midoriya that way. Instead of a fight, he sees Eri and a brunette girl laughing, a man with dark blue hair standing with a shocked expression, and Midoriya holding a charred metal stick in one hand and an angry looking blond beside him.

“Hi, Todoroki.” Midoriya said sheepishly “Don’t mind the burnt smell please.”

Todoroki blinks at the sight, unsure of how to react to everything, “Is everything alright in here? I heard shouting.”

Izuku let out a laugh while the blonde glared at the smaller boy, “Don’t worry, that’s normal around here!”

Todoroki heard the brunette gasp. “Holy shit, Deku.” the blond said, “You weren’t lying.”

The blue haired man went up to Todoroki and bowed lowly “It’s a pleasure to meet you, your highness. I am extremely honoured to be in your presence.”

The brunette girl also stood to bow. The blond just looked annoyed.

“It’s alright. Please stand.” Todoroki said, “And just call me Todoroki.”

Midoriya walked towards Todoroki “So, um, these are my friends. They help me with the shop sometimes.”

The blue haired man shook Todoroki’s hand “My name’s Iida Tenya and I work in my family’s mechanical shop and I assist Midoriya by supplying his materials.”

The brunette popped up behind him. “I’m Uraraka Ochako! I’m a witch in training. I help Deku with the potions part of heart-making and repair, which he totally sucks at.”

She laughed at Midoriya’s indignant cry of “Ochako!”

Midoriya pointed to the blond man. “And that’s Bakugou Katsuki. He’s a blacksmith and helps me with metal forming.”

“I can introduce myself, Izuku.” Bakugou snarled as he approached Todoroki. “I don’t care if you’re a prince so if you make Deku cry, I’m gonna go to that fancy palace of yours to beat your ass.”

“Kacchan! What are you talking about?” Midoriya looks flustered, thought Todoroki. “I’m so sorry about him. He’s just being a brat. The shouting being a normal thing here? Yeah, it’s because of this guy! He’s too awkward to properly communicate his feelings he just shouts everything and converts all his emotions into anger.” the said brat started spewing profanities but Midoriya barely even paid him a glance.

“You’ll get used to it.” Midoriya added.

Todoroki blinks once more before shrugging it off, “No worries.” Todoroki brought out his stash of sweets. “Would you guys like some candy? I originally got them for Eri but I got more than I intended.”

Eri and the others gratefully took pieces of candy.

“Thanks so much, Mr. Todoroki!” said Eri

Uraraka looked at her sweets with wide eyes “These are expensive.”

“Which is why we should be grateful for the prince’s generosity.” Iida exclaimed, swinging his arms around to prove his point.

Even Bakugou reluctantly took a piece.

“While these guys are busy,” Midoriya said to Todoroki “I want to tell you something.”

He lead Todoroki towards the desk and showed him his heart. “Remember I told you that your heart was kind of challenging to figure out?” Todoroki nodded “Well,” Midoriya continued “I examined your heart closer and it seems that the damage is really deep. I’ve never encountered anything like this. And I just wanted to tell you that I wouldn’t be able to guarantee you anything.”

Todoroki’s face twists into something much like heartbreak. His usually deadpanned face breaks and his lips turn down and his eyes turns so so sad and Midoriya’s breath stops. He wants to reach out to the other man, wants to tell him he was kidding, but he would be lying. Midoriya then feels his heart hum in his burst of emotion and he brings a hand to his chest. He looks at Todoroki’s face once more and he decides, he’d do everything he could. Everything and anything.

“Don’t worry, though!” Midoriya said, hands waving frantically, “I’ll find a way to fix it! It’s just going to take longer than other hearts, if that’s alright, but I promise I’ll do everything I can!”

“Are you sure you it won’t be too much of an inconvenience?”

Midoriya feels his heart hum once more in his chest and he puts a smile on his face, “Yeah! I’m sure! All I ask is that you give me some time, is that alright? I swear I’ll make it in time for your wedding! I’ll make sure your fiance will get to see you with your heart whole!”

Todoroki’s eyes widen in surprise, and then he gives a small smile to Midoriya, “Thank you.” He says and Midoriya flushes at the small smile.

“I-It’s nothing really! I’m just doing my job! Now, let’s get back to the others before Kacchan breaks or explodes something!”

Todoroki found himself spending more of his free time in Midoriya’s workshop. Usually, Midoriya’s friends show up and they talk and laugh and make Todoroki’s day brighter. These people are the closest Todoroki ever considered as friends. Even Bakugou seemed to warm up to him. Some days, Todoroki brings books to read to little Eri and cherishes her bright smile. But most of the time, he’s with Midoriya, accompanying him as he fixes hearts.

The prince, however, was bewildered every time he’s in close proximity with the heartsmith. He can’t help but mentally note on how warm it feels when he’s near Midoriya, or how his lips subconsciously form a small smile every time the other boy mutters his thoughts out loud.

Each day, Midoriya informs him of all updates on the repair of his heart. The heartsmith lets the prince watch the repair process in curious silence. His hands are so gentle, the prince mentally notes. Midoriya pauses from tinkering with a contraption and looks at Todoroki with a kind smile. For the first time after a long while, Todoroki thinks, everything will be alright.

#tododeku #midoriya izuku #todoroki shouto #bnha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #mha #uraraka ochako #bakugou katsuki #iida tenya #my writing #fragments #NEW CHAPTER!!!!

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examiningmormonism · 5 years

Text

Critically Examining the Case for Book of Mormon Historicity

Preface: This started as a YouTube comment and turned into a much more extended essay, as I had meant to work on such an essay for some time. In case you're inclined to ask why I bothered to write all of this, here's why: for different reasons, I find the ancient Near East, the Bible, ancient Mesoamerica, and Mormon origins to be profoundly interesting, and these subjects converge in discussing with LDS scholars the origins of the Book of Mormon. I've never been LDS and my interest in Mormonism is largely academic, though as a believing Christian I have an interest in engaging Mormonism from an orthodox Christian perspective. For those who are interested in reading through this, I hope it both stimulates your own consideration of these issues and sharpens up your ability to engage credibly with LDS family and friends who use such arguments. This essay considers seventeen arguments made by Dr. John Clark, a well-regarded archaeologist of ancient Mesoamerica.

As a non-Mormon and an interested reader of LDS scholarship (which I enjoy reading in the midst of deep disagreements) , I think that this video provides a good encapsulation of where defenses of Book of Mormon historicity tend to go wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkF4hlddGfw

The basic model of these arguments for Book of Mormon historicity are that there is a feature of the Book of Mormon text which was unknown or absurd in Joseph's day but which is now confirmed by historians of the ancient Near East and Mesoamerica in our own day. In order to evaluate these arguments, I want to spell out what I take to be important methodological points:

1. The two models we are comparing are a) the Book of Mormon as an ancient Mesoamerican codex engraved by authors of roughly Near Eastern extraction and b) the Book of Mormon as a production of the 19th century, written by author(s) familiar with the then popular ideas about the "Mound Builders." These mounds no longer occasion much interest because most of them have been removed or have been built over. But to persons of Joseph Smith's time and place, the Indian Mounds dotted the landscape and provided observers with much material upon which to speculate. Dan Vogel's "Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon" provides a clear and well-argued defense of this model of Book of Mormon origins.

2. This means that we are not looking at what scholars of ancient America thought in Joseph Smith's day. Then, as today, what academics thought and what was ingrained in the popular understanding were very different things. As LDS scholars often point out, Joseph Smith was relatively unlearned. We would therefore expect a production by Smith or someone associated with him to reflect popular understandings of ancient American civilization rather than academic understandings of that civilization. Hence, to compare what **academics** thought of ancient America in the 19th century with the Book of Mormon is a false trail. Nobody is suggesting that a 19th century scholar of ancient America composed the Book of Mormon.

3. We are not comparing 19th century conceptions of Mesoamerica with 21st century conceptions of Mesoamerica, as nonbelieving accounts for the production of the Book of Mormon do not set its narrative in Central America. Rather, as just described above, the setting of the Book of Mormon according to those who reject its historical authenticity is generally in the North American Heartland, including upstate New York.

These considerations lead us to the most important principle in evaluating claims of Book of Mormon authenticity. If a feature of the Book of Mormon text is found **both** in the ancient world **and** in the popular understanding of Joseph Smith's time and place, then the feature of the text **provides no argument for its authenticity or for its non-authenticity.** Both skeptics and believers of the Book can fall into this trap. In the same vein, we must understand that American culture in the 19th century was far from a monolith. What was believable and normal in 1830 Palmyra might be laughable to a scholar of that period or to a layperson in another area of the country. Thus, that critics once laughed at a feature of the Book of Mormon which has since been found in the ancient world is only significant if the feature was laughable and unexpected in the precise cultural context which enveloped Joseph Smith himself.

Each of the arguments made by Dr. Clark is a point which concerns two worlds. While Dr. Clark is an eminent expert in one of these worlds, in the other, he is merely a layman. The former is Mesoamerica, the latter is 19th century upstate New York. This point must be emphasized, because in several instances Dr. Clark explicitly makes a claim about what was conceivable for "19th century Yankees", with similar claims implied for his other arguments. My argument is that the major failure of his argument turns not on a misunderstanding of Central America (Clark is too much of a scholar to simply have "misconceptions" about Central America), but on a series of failures to grapple with Joseph Smith's own cultural context. Because of the paramount importance of a well-crafted methodology in approaching the question of Book of Mormon historicity, I will be returning to this point again and again in relation to the specific arguments presented by Dr. Clark.

With these points in mind, let's turn to the specific arguments.

1. Metal plates in stone boxes.

The first concerns metal plates sealed in stone boxes. We are told that this claim was thought to be ludicrous in Joseph's time but has since been shown to be authentically ancient. The engraved gold plates of Darius, sealed in a stone box, probably provide the closest analogue to the Book of Mormon plates. But there are serious issues with using this as an argument for the Book's authenticity. First, while engraved metal plates have been found in the ancient world, there has never been a text of the size of the Book of Mormon found- not even close. That a local aristocrat such as Laban had much of the Old Testament translated into Egyptian and engraved on brass plates indicates that the engraving of large records, comprising multiple scrolls, must have been somewhat common in the 6th century BC. The plates that have been discovered provide only a moderate parallel to the description found in the Book of Mormon.

Still, were there no analogue of similar precision found in Joseph Smith's own time and place, this would be a remarkable parallel. However, there are such analogues. The first comes from the surviving Spalding Manuscript, which I use only as an example of what was current in Joseph Smith's background, not as an argument for the Spalding-Rigdon model of BoM authorship. The Spalding Manuscript describes a colony of Roman Christians from the 4th century AD, blown ashore to the American continent accidentally. The internal narrative of the story is that Fabius, the leader of the colony, recorded the history of his people on a document and then sealed it away in a stone box, placing that box inside a cave. Fabius does so in order that the record might come forth and be translated by future Europeans so that they might know the history of Fabius' people. The plates of the Book of Mormon are similarly supposed to record the history of an ancient civilization extracted from the Old World, sealed away in a box with the intention that they should later come forth and be translated so that the later inhabitants of the American continent might know its history. Moreover, testimony from Brigham Young and Oliver Cowdery suggests that the stone box was thought to be hidden away inside a cave filled with records. I am not suggesting literary dependence. Rather, I am pointing out that analogues, even relatively close ones, were indeed present to Joseph Smith in 1830, and that the currency of these ideas indicates that the Book of Mormon's internal account of its sealing in a stone box does not need to be explained in terms of the ancient world: ultimately, it would be a wash.

But what about metal plates? Fabius' account is not engraved on plates of metal. Was this laughable in Smith's context? No, it wasn't. Fawn Brodie (whatever one thinks of her reconstruction of Smith, I refer to her book because of its citation of primary texts) notes that "a Palmyra paper in 1821 had reported that diggers on the Erie Canal had unearthed 'several brass plates' along with skeletons and fragments of pottery." (No Man Knows My History, 35) So, we find that in the cultural world immersing the young Joseph Smith, there are already ideas of records sealed up in stone boxes as well as engraved metal plates, and that these ideas were linked with the Indians, particularly the Mound Builders which forms the setting of the Book of Mormon according to nonbelievers.

So this, at best, is a wash. At worst, the immediacy of the parallel to Joseph's own context and the lack of precise analogues in the Near East (given the length of the record) provides a slight advantage to nonbelieving models for BoM origins. An argument could be made for either, but this is miles away from the slam dunk suggested by Dr. Clark.

2. Ancient American writing

Dr. Clark argues that the Book's description of writing and books in ancient America are exceptionally prescient, given what was then thought of ancient America.

The above examples suffice to show that it was hardly inconceivable in Joseph Smith's world that ancient Americans had writing systems. After all, the fundamental idea undergirding popular ideas about the Mound Builders was that the Mound Builders represented a lost civilization of basically Old World extraction, having all the sophistication known from the Old World, but wiped out by the ancestors of the American Indians known in the 19th century. The Book of Mormon provides a particular spin on this narrative, but it is recognizable as a form of the narrative. So, given the Book's situation in this narrative world (according to those of us who don't believe the Book is historically authentic), it is entirely reasonable that writing systems should be described. And since nobody is alleging that Joseph produced the Book based on an academic understanding of Mesoamerica current in his day, Clark's comparison of the BoM with the scholarly knowledge in 1830 is a false one. However ludicrous ancient American writing might have been to the scholars of 1830, Joseph Smith wasn't acquainted with their ideas, but with the ideas of those for whom ancient American writing was to be expected.

There is thus a close analogue in both the world of Joseph Smith and in ancient Mesoamerica, if one is simply considering the presence of written language. Given that the writing systems of ancient Mesoamerica are not presently related to any Old World writing system, the parallel to the Book of Mormon is quite vague, as the latter describes writing systems derived from Hebrew and Egyptian. So the parallel is merely in the concept of written texts- hardly precise enough to be striking.

3. Ancient American Warfare

Dr. Clark describes the notion of warfare in ancient America as having been "ridiculed" in the Book of Mormon until about twenty years ago. But as before, the question concerns the source of that ridicule. Would a person in Joseph's environment ridicule the idea of wars of extermination among the ancient inhabitants of the Americas? Certainly not. This was the basis for the mythos of the Mound Builders- that the creators of the advanced civilizations of ancient America were savagely wiped out by the ancestors of the Native Americans known to Joseph and his contemporaries. These immense wars of genocide were then seen to explain the ubiquity of the mounds heaped up with the remains of ancient inhabitants of the continent. The Book of Mormon contains a number of passages suggesting its origin, in part, as an etiology of these mounds, where the bones were visibly heaped up almost immediately under the surface:

Alma 16:11: "Nevertheless, after many days their dead bodies were heaped up upon the face of the earth, and they were covered with a shallow covering."

Alma 28:11: "And the bodies of many thousands are laid low in the earth, while the bodies of many thousands are moldering in heaps upon the face of the earth; yea, and many thousands are mourning for the loss of their kindred, because they have reason to fear, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are consigned to a state of endless wo."

Mormon 2:15: "And it came to pass that my sorrow did return unto me again, and I saw that the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually; for I saw thousands of them hewn down in open rebellion against their God, and heaped up as dung upon the face of the land. And thus three hundred and forty and four years had passed away."

Ether 11:6: "And there was great calamity in all the land, for they had testified that a great curse should come upon the land, and also upon the people, and that there should be a great destruction among them, such an one as never had been upon the face of the earth, and their bones should become as heaps of earth upon the face of the land except they should repent of their wickedness."

Even apart from the link between the Mound Builder mythos and the Book of Mormon, bloody wars with Native Americans were a matter of living memory and direct knowledge for contemporaries of Joseph Smith's. This is one place where I am genuinely mystified by Dr. Clark's assertion. Why would anybody in Joseph Smith's environment be surprised that he describes ancient Americans as fighting wars?

4. Nature of Civilization

Dr. Clark states that the account of ancient American civilization differs markedly from what Joseph would have expected from his own knowledge of the American Indians and their culture, But this misses the point in a crucially important way. The Mound Builder mythos itself arose as an explanation for an apparent discontinuity for the high civilization evident from the mounds and the perceived low culture of the Native Americans of the 19th century. As wrong as Rodney Meldrum is, he and his compatriots have played a helpful role in reminding everyone that there is evidence of civilization in North America, with highways, fortifications, and the like. In their efforts to demonstrate that "Joseph knew" the setting of the Book of Mormon in the Heartland of North America, they have also provided extremely helpful documentation showing that this evidence of civilization was known to Joseph and his contemporaries.The important point is that these features were immediately apparent in Joseph Smith's own day, as the mounds which have now been eradicated or built over were visible to the naked eye and well-known as a feature of the landscape.

[As a minor footnote, even if these things were not known to Joseph and his contemporaries, anyone describing an ancient civilization of Old World extraction would draw features known from Old World cultures, which is particularly predictable for a narrative like the Book of Mormon, anchored in the detailed information given about ancient Israelite civilization.]

According to the Mount Builder mythos, the architects of the great civilization evident in the Mounds were wiped out by the ancestors of the Indians known to 19th century Americans. In the Book of Mormon, this position is neatly filled by the Lamanites, cursed with a red skin (which is at the very least the strong prima facie evidence of the BoM text) and identified as the forefathers of the Indians. 2 Nephi 5:24 serves as an etiology for the perceived low culture of these Indians:

2 Nephi 5:24: "And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey."

Enos 1:20 provides an even clearer example:

Enos 1:20: "And I bear record that the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God. But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us."

And see also:

Mormon 6:9: "And it came to pass that they did fall upon my people with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war."

The red-skinned Lamanites are noted for their association with the bow and the axe- both well known associates of Native Americans known to Smith, whose favorite weapons were the bow and the tomahawk axe. I'm not sure when the teepee became a stereotype for Native Americans in general, but if it was present in Smith's day (I'm working to confirm or deny its presence), then the notation about the tents provides another specific convergence to Smith's background and context. The reference to the shaven heads likewise hits the mark for the Native Americans known to Smith, for whom a partially or entirely shaved head was a common hairstyle. And the reference to loincloths is easily accounted for in terms of the "breechcloth" which was common to most Native American tribes and would have been immediately known to Smith and his contemporaries. Thus, while the Nephites (and righteous Lamanites who are turned white- thus suggesting a path of redemption for the Natives known to Smith) are described in terms of civilization familiar to the Old World, the Lamanites who are the ancestors of the American Indians known to Smith (in the unbelieving model of Book of Mormon origins) are described in a way which immediately rings true with what was thought in the 19th century. I don't write this to attack Smith or his contemporaries for believing this, but simply to note that the Book of Mormon resembles almost precisely what one would expect from a text drawing on the Mound Builder mythos.

5. Weapons and Armor

Dr. Clark then states that the description of Book of Mormon weapons and armor converge unexpectedly and specifically with ancient Mesoamerica. As evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon, this point cannot prove very much, since the weapons described are easily explained as a result of a) a biblical history of ancient America mirroring biblical warfare, where all of the mentioned weapons and armor are described and b) knowledge of weapons used by Indians of the 19th century and found in Indian Mounds. The latter accounts for the peculiar prominence of the axe (tomahawk) and bow in relation to the Lamanites, who are linked with the Native Americans of the 19th century on the non-historical model of Book of Mormon authorship.

5a. Excursus on Metals in Mesoamerica

By itself, then, the presence of these weapons is neither an argument for or against the Book of Mormon, as their textual presence can be explained both as an authentic Mesoamerican history and as a projection of biblical warfare. However, when further detail is considered, the weapons described point away from Book of Mormon historicity and towards a 19th century origin. First, as mentioned above, the weapons associated with the Lamanites are suggestive of a 19th century cultural background. Second, and more seriously, while most references to Book of Mormon weapons and armor are nondescript concerning their makeup, those details which do exist each point towards a metallic origin. No reader of the Book of Mormon without knowledge of ancient America would have any reason to suppose that they were made of anything else- on "bloodstains" see below. Evidence of metallurgy in Mesoamerica during Book of Mormon times is slim to nonexistent. It is important to distinguish metallurgy from the use of metal. John Sorenson has plausibly noted linguistic and some archaeological evidence for the use of metals in Central America during Book of Mormon times.

However, as Deanne Matheny points out:

"It is important to distinguish between metalworking, 'the act or process of shaping things out of metal' and metallurgy, the 'science and technology of metals' which may involve such processes as smelting, casting, and alloying." ("Does the Shoe Fit" in "New Approaches to the Book of Mormon", p. 283)

The Book of Mormon is very clear that the Lehites and the Jaredites possessed advanced metallurgical technology. Not only does the text describe tools (such as swords fashioned after Laban's model) which can only be produced by metallurgy, it makes explicit references to metallurgy. "Dross" is used as a metaphor in both Alma 32:3 and 34:29. The latter is placed in the mouth of Alma himself, preaching to the people and saying "if ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth) and is trodden under foot of men." This comment is immensely significant in evaluating the presence of metallurgy in the Book of Mormon, because its use as a metaphor indicates that it must have been common enough for the average person to understand. Hence, in the society described, metallurgists would play an important economic and civic role, and given the intelligibility of the metaphor, it would be strange if Book of Mormon civilizations did not use their knowledge of advanced metallurgy to produce metal weapons and armor, as such implements would provide a decisive advantage in war with those cities which did not use metallurgical technology.

Helaman 6:11 explicitly describes the extent of metallurgy at this point in Book of Mormon history: "And behold, there was all manner of gold in both these lands, and of silver, and of precious ore of every kind; and there were also curious workmen, who did work all kinds of ore and did refine it; and thus they did become rich."

Helaman 6:9 describes the geographical extent of this knowledge: "And it came to pass that they became exceedingly rich, both the Lamanites and the Nephites; and they did have an exceeding plenty of gold, and of silver, and of all manner of precious metals, both in the land south and in the land north."

Thus, in the first century before Christ, advanced metallurgy is known among both Nephites and Lamanites and is prominent throughout the entirety of the lands described in the text. Given the vast extent of this knowledge- in both land northward and land southward, among both Nephites and Lamanites, among both rich and common (as evident in its intelligible metaphorical application)- it would be totally unexpected for this knowledge to simply pass away, as some Book of Mormon scholars have suggested occurred. Metallurgy is an important enough technology that once it is established on a large scale, it will not be forgotten by accident.

2 Nephi 5:14-15: And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people. And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.

The close textual conjunction of the making of swords like Laban's sword and the description of metallurgy strongly mitigates against an interpretation which suggests that the swords were like Laban's in form but not in their metallic constitution. 1 Nephi 17:10-11 describes the process of Nephi's metallurgical knowledge, where ore is mined, refined through the use of bellows as smelting tools. The emphasis placed on the working of various metals suggests that they must have been of supreme importance in Book of Mormon societies. Indeed, the use of metal seems to be a literary motif that runs throughout the Book, as signified in its engraving on a book of metal plates.

Jarom 1:8: And we multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land, and became exceedingly rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel, making all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, and weapons of war -- yea, the sharp pointed arrow, and the quiver, and the dart, and the javelin, and all preparations for war.

The text here links the use of metallurgical "machinery" with the making of both agricultural tools and weapons of war. Such would be expected from a projection of Old World civilization as known from the Bible, but would be manifestly unexpected as a description of an ancient Mesoamerican civilization.

Ether 7:9: Wherefore, he came to the hill Ephraim, and he did molten out of the hill, and made swords out of steel for those whom he had drawn away with him; and after he had armed them with swords he returned to the city Nehor and gave battle unto his brother Corihor, by which means he obtained the kingdom and restored it unto his father Kib.

Here, almost at the earliest point in Book of Mormon history, we are told of metal swords being produced by metallurgy in ancient America.

Ether 10:23-27: And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work. And they did have silks, and fine-twined linen; and they did work all manner of cloth, that they might clothe themselves from their nakedness. And they did make all manner of tools to till the earth, both to plow and to sow, to reap and to hoe, and also to thrash. And they did make all manner of tools with which they did work their beasts. And they did make all manner of weapons of war. And they did work all manner of work of exceedingly curious workmanship.

Several centuries later (during the time of Kish and Lib) in Jaredite history, metal is a central feature of Jaredite civilization, and the mining of ore and its refining into metal is described in the context of agricultural tools and weapons of war. The phrase "exceedingly curious workmanship" is also generally used of metallic implements in the Book of Mormon.

At the very latest point in Book of Mormon chronology, Moroni indicates that metallurgical knowledge was available to him in Mormon 8:5: "Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone."

If ore were available, the text clearly implies, Moroni had the skills necessary to extract the necessary metals and make additional plates. Thus, metallurgy is in evidence from almost the beginning of the Jaredite history to the exact end of the Lehite history. Moreover, it is not presented as an ancillary feature of Book of Mormon civilizations. Rather, metallurgy is presented as central to the economies of both Nephite and Jaredite peoples. It is described in conjunction with the creation of agricultural and military implements during both the Jaredite and Lehite periods. War and food are twin pillars of any ancient society, including ancient America. It was known at the beginning, middle, and end of the Lehite period, with its use spanning the entirety of Book of Mormon lands and both Nephite and Lamanite branches of the nation.

Evidence for metallurgy during this period in Central America is basically absent. I say "basically" only to leave open the possibility that I have missed the publication of marginal evidence for metallurgy during the appropriate period. However, as far as I know, the first evidence for metallurgy in Mesoamerica comes around 700 AD. Before this period, the only evidence for pre-Columbian metallurgy is in ancient Peru, which is not relevant to Book of Mormon lands on the standard Mesoamerican geography. What is remarkable is the absence of the evidence in Mesoamerica during Book of Mormon times when its presence is clearly known in Central American archaeology from 700 onwards, especially in light of the centrality of metallurgy to Book of Mormon civilizations.

While it is always possible that evidence for metallurgy will be forthcoming in the future, as long as one is speaking of the present state of the evidence, one is faced with the complete absence of archaeological evidence for one of the most central features of Book of Mormon civilizations for the entirety of its timeline of two and a half millennia. Given the appearance of such evidence several centuries after Mormon's death, this is evidence that one would expect to see if the Book of Mormon were truly an ancient Mesoamerican codex. But it is missing.

Back to Weapons and Armor

I spent so much space discussing the issue of metallurgy because of the centrality of warfare to Book of Mormon history and the importance placed on the convergence between Book of Mormon history and ancient America in this respect by Dr. Clark and other LDS scholars. Below I will return to the issue of specific weapons and the nature of the convergence with Mesoamerican evidence.

5b. Breastplates:

Breastplates are described several times in the Book of Mormon, and are known from ancient America. However, the one time that the makeup of a breastplate is identified, we are told that it is of brass and copper, referring to Jaredite armor brought to King Mosiah:

Mosiah 8:10: And behold, also, they have brought breastplates, which are large, and they are of brass and of copper, and are perfectly sound.

5c. Swords:

1 Nephi 4:9: And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel.

2 Nephi 5:14: And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people.

Mosiah 8:11: And again, they have brought swords, the hilts thereof have perished, and the blades thereof were cankered with rust; and there is no one in the land that is able to interpret the language or the engravings that are on the plates. Therefore I said unto thee: Canst thou translate?

Thus, when it comes to swords, the only textual evidence for the composition of swords in the text of the Book of Mormon is that they are metal. Dr. Clark, however, argues that there is evidence for non-metal swords in Alma 24, where the swords are described as having the ability to be stained with blood.The first thing to point out is that the text describes the swords, after having been cleansed, becoming "bright", an adjective which makes far more sense in reference to a clean metal sword which shines in the sunlight than it does to a wooden sword. Second, the use of "bloodstained" in reference to swords provides little evidence that the swords were anything other than metal, as "bloodstained" is used of metal swords in the parlance of Joseph Smith's day.

To give just one example (searching Google Books produces a good number of examples) from 1825, Augustin Thierry's "History of the Conquest of England" (p. 127) describes a "bloodstained sword." Language of staining with blood is frequently metaphorical- one says that one has bloodstained hands if one is guilty of murder, not because the skin on one's hand has reddened permanently. Given, then, that this phrase was attested in Joseph Smith's day when speaking of metal swords, one cannot take this as evidence that the swords are anything other than metal. Of course, it's possible, given the constraints of the text, that some of the swords described could be made of something other than metal. But there are a number of passages which clearly describe metal swords, and there are no passages which clearly describe a non-metal sword. There are no hermeneutical grounds for assuming that every sword in the text refers to a non-metal sword unless it specifically states otherwise. Such an interpretation must be brought to the text on the basis of Mesoamerican archaeology, in which case the strength of an independent convergence between the text and the evidence disappears.

Evidence for metallurgy in the appropriate time periods is presently lacking, and the Book of Mormon text needs to be supplemented by conjecture to bring it into line with the archaeological evidence. Thus, the picture that Clark paints of a specific convergence between the Book of Mormon text and Mesoamerican civilization of the appropriate time period is exaggerated at best. At a deeper level, however, this point reveals the profound discordance presently existing between Mesoamerican archaeology and the Book of Mormon. Throughout the text, metallurgy is presented as widely known and centrally important for agriculture, warfare, and trade. With regard to the specific issue of weapons, the convergence suggested by Dr. Clark is actually a substantial discordance, for the weapons known from ancient Mesoamerica are not made of metal, while the only indications provided in the text are for metal weapons and armor, along with a substantial metallurgical industry. This must be regarded as a substantial argument against the historicity of the Book of Mormon- a major textual feature permeating the whole narrative which is entirely absent from the appropriate time and place.

5d. Cotton Armor

Dr. Clark briefly mentions cotton armor as a convergence between the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerica. Such a convergence, as something not present in the Bible nor (to the best of my knowledge) to the Indians of Joseph Smith's day, would be exactly the kind of convergence which is striking. But it is not present, as Dr. Clark suggests, in the Book of Mormon text. On screen, Alma 43:19 is cited, which refers to the "thick clothing" of the Nephite armies. At most, this is a vague convergence rather than a specific one as cotton is not mentioned. However, a better textual explanation for this feature can be found. I discussed above the description of Lamanites as wearing loincloths and its connection with the "breechcloths" widely known among the Indians of Joseph Smith's day. This is described in the text as one of the features differentiating the civilization of the early Nephites with the wildness of the Lamanites, who are nearly naked, live in tents, and subsist on uncooked meat. Here, in Alma 43, we see Nephite and Lamanite soldiers clashing, and the differences between the two cultures (the stereotypical contrasts present in the Mound Builder mythos) is drawn into focus. In Alma 43:20, we are told about the Lamanites who see the Nephites with their armor and "thick clothing":

"Now the army of Zerahemnah was not prepared with any such thing; they had only their swords and their cimeters, their bows and their arrows, their stones and their slings; and they were naked, save it were a skin which was girded about their loins; yea, all were naked, save it were the Zoramites and the Amalekites"

This text is very similar to the above-cited text concerning the initial wildness of Laman's people. We are told of their typical weapons of warfare and their near-nakedness except the "skin which was girded about their loins." The meeting of these armies thus provides a glimpse at the sharp difference between the civilized Nephites and the wild Lamanites who explain the perceived savagery of 19th century Native Americans. The reference to "thick garments" then, is explained best as a contrast between the near-nakedness of the Lamanite army with the sophistication and civilization of the Nephite army. While it is possible, given the constraints of the text, that it refers to cotton armor, the literary contrast is sufficient to explain why "thick garments" are described, so that absent any additional evidence (which is not, as far as I can see, present), it is an unjustified leap to identify characteristically Mesoamerican cotton armor in the Book of Mormon text.

To sum up this most important section, there is nothing that I can see in the textual description of Book of Mormon implements of war that is convergent with ancient Mesoamerica in a way that is discordant with Joseph's own context. On the other hand, there are major discordances between present knowledge of Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon- discordances which are convergent with Joseph's own context.

6. The Use of Severed Arms as War Tribute to the King

Dr. Clark next turns to the story of Ammon and the presentation of severed arms to King Lamoni as evidence of a convergence with ancient Mesoamerican war practice, which is said to include the presentation of severed arms as a traditional feature of warfare. However, the documentation provided about ancient America is too vague to make this a strong convergence. This article cites the specific sources underlying this argument:

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/why-did-the-servants-present-lamoni-with-the-arms-of-his-enemies

In this case, two sets of parallels are cited. The first set comes from the ancient Near East, but the parallel concerns merely the severing of any body part as a war trophy, including heads, arms, hands, or legs. This practice is attested in the Bible, obviously available to Joseph Smith, and does not apparently include the ritual presentation of the severed body parts to the king. From ancient America, Izapa Stela 25 is cited, which is mythological in nature. It shows two heroic twins in a fight with Seven Macaw. When one attempts to grab Seven Macaw, Seven Macaw tears off his arm and hangs it over a fire. Here, the only parallel is in the tearing off of an arm, hardly specific enough to require situating the Book of Mormon in the ancient world. And while the authors state that the story "likely reflects actual Maya attitudes and practices in war and conflict", no specific evidence for this practice is described. The other example cited comes over a thousand years after the close of the Book of Mormon and refers to the Aztecs throwing severed limbs of Spanish soldiers at the Spaniards to taunt them. In addition to the chronological gap, there is no evidence that this was an established ritual among Mesoamerican civilizations, and the severed limbs are used to taunt enemy soldiers and strike terror into them rather than being ritually presented to the king.

Ultimately, then, there is no specific evidence that the practice described (once) in the Book of Mormon was a ritual practice in ancient Mesoamerica. Alma 17 describes Ammon's enemies "lifting their clubs" against Ammon, who cuts their arms off. The image which one is supposed to derive from this is of a number of soldiers attacking Ammon all at once, who is so skillful in battle that as soon as one raises an arm against him, he slices the arm off, and within moments, he swiftly maneuvers to cut another arm off in the same way. Thus, the severed arms are significant in that they particularly reflect Ammon's valor and skill in warfare and his ability to decisively win an engagement in which he is significantly outnumbered. The peculiarities of the text are explained in terms of the literary purpose of the story. As above, this does not rule out ancient Mesoamerican context, but absent more specific evidence, hypothesizing such a context is unnecessary to explain the text's production and thus does not indicate an anomaly in a model of 19th century authorship requiring the Book's ancient authenticity as an explanation.

7. Towers as a Place of Final Surrender

Dr. Clark then turns to the scene described in Moroni 9, where Mormon narrates the Lamanites' taking prisoners from the tower of Sherrizah. This, he argues, reflects the ancient Mesoamerican practice of fleeing to the tower/pyramid (the two are used interchangeably in the Bible and thus reasonably so in the Book of Mormon) as places of last defense and surrender. While he may have additional evidence for this practice, the only evidence he cites is the fact that broken or burning pyramids are a symbol of a city's conquest in Mesoamerican art and iconography, which is vaguer than the specific convergence being cited. More importantly, however, the notion of the tower as a place of last refuge is present in the Bible and thus directly available to Joseph Smith:

(Judges 9:50-52) Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

While Abimelech is then unexpectedly killed, the story closely resembles the story in Moroni 9, where women and children had apparently fled to a tower at which they were defeated and captured. Since this textual feature was available to Joseph Smith, it cannot provide evidence for an unexpected convergence with Mesoamerican civilization at a point which diverges from Joseph's time and place.

8. Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism

Clark briefly mentions human sacrifice and cannibalism as a convergence between the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerica. This is true, but both were also present among the North American Indians with whom Joseph and his contemporaries were familiar. North American Indians were often especially reviled because of the exquisite ritual torture exacted by some tribes upon captured European settlers. Likewise, while the evidence for cannibalism among North American Indians has been controversial, there is no question that Europeans who encountered them believed them to have practiced cannibalism, as is documented among early Jesuit encounters with the Iroquois. As above, then, since the feature is present both in ancient Mesoamerica and in Joseph Smith's world, it cannot provide an argument for either as the source of the Book of Mormon.

9. Large Troop Numbers

Both the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerica featured large battles, but such large battles were also believed necessary to explain the heaps of human bones found throughout North America, so the presence of large armies in the Book of Mormon provides no specific evidence for either time period as the Book's production context.

10. Large Structures Such as Temples and Palaces

This was discussed in #4 above. Far from being "foreign to the gossip along the Erie Canal" as Dr. Clark suggests, the known presence of an advanced civilization in ancient North America was the foundation for popular speculation about the Mound Builders which forms the nonbelieving production model for the Book of Mormon.

11. Cement Buildings in the Land Northward

Here, Dr. Clark refers to the presence of cement buildings mentioned once in Helaman and states that the notion of cement buildings was "considered ridiculous" in 1830. Actually, cement plaster had been discovered in the aforementioned North American mounds and thus forms a part of the most pertinent background for the production model of a non-historical Book of Mormon. The Spalding manuscript (which I again present only as an example of what was present in Joseph Smith's cultural world, not as a literary source for the Book of Mormon) also refers to the working of stone to build walls and other stone implements.

The description in Helaman 3 is the only place where cement is mentioned in the Book of Mormon, and the specific content of the reference is highly problematic. First, it states that the use of cement to build houses came about because of the lack of timber in the land, suggesting it was a novelty. However, in Mesoamerica, the use of cement was relatively common before the time of Helaman 3. Second, Teotihuacan did suffer from deforestation, but the deforestation occurred as a result of the use of cement, which requires the burning of timber. To attribute the rise of cement buildings to a lack of timber reverses the order of causation and makes little sense in itself.

Brant Gardner suggests that Mormon has unintentionally anachronized his abridgment and has projected the deforestation he knew onto Helaman's time. If one were already persuaded of Book of Mormon historicity, then this is a potential explanatory route, but for the person who is not persuaded, the fact that this kind of textual massaging is necessary appears to undermine the utility of the parallel as an argument for the Book's authenticity. Moreover, the text reports that Mormon was working with far more extended sources, so that if he were making a specific explanatory connection, one would assume that it had a basis in the sources he was abridging.

As a general parallel, then, cement appears in both the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerica. But since its presence was known among the Mound Builders, it cannot be used as an argument for an ancient Mesoamerican setting over and against a modern setting in the genre of Mound Builder myths. Moreover, the specifics of the parallel are problematic for an ancient Mesoamerican setting, suggesting a 19th century Mound Builder origin as a cleaner and simpler model, at least in this respect.

12. Kings

Dr. Clark suggests that Joseph's own context provides no basis for inferring kings among ancient American tribes. This is another instance where I find his claim mystifying. Kings among Native Americans were known from the historical memory of European settlers, who remembered "King Philip's War" and the "Four Mohawk Kings" to pick two examples almost at random. The Spalding Manuscript (again, just as an example of what was circulating at the time, not a literary source) also has Fabius immediately encounter a Native American king. It would be more surprising if the Book of Mormon did not mention Native American kings than if it did, and this is certainly not an argument for an ancient Mesoamerican production context.

13. Coriantumr's Stone

Here, I'm willing to grant a slight advantage to the proponents of historicity. The text in Omni 1 describing Coriantumr's stone fits very well with Mesoamerican royal stelas where the history of a particular king or dynasty was engraved iconographically on a large stone. Given other considerations, this argument is relatively minor, but this is a good match.

Nevertheless, one can find enough analogues to plausibly situate this in Joseph Smith's context. The Spalding Manuscript (above qualifications holding) describes engravings and art on stones among the Native peoples encountered by Fabius. Petroglyphs of North American Indians were also known (to the best of my knowledge) in Joseph Smith's day. A closer analogue is perhaps the stone box in which the record is sealed, which as described in #1, was a feature of Joseph's cultural background. This also fits with the overall literary themes of the Book of Mormon. Additionally, the idea of writing on stones is analogous to writing appearing on seerstones, which is directly described in King Mosiah's translation of this very stela and of course is present to Joseph Smith in his use of a seerstone. Writing appearing on the Liahona runs in the same vein. As a nonbeliever in BoM historicity, I find the link between Mosiah reading the translation in stones and Coriantumr engraving his record in stones to be the probable explanation for this textual feature. That the stone is "large" likely relates to Coriantumr and the Jaredites being "large."

14. King Benjamin's Labors

Clark states that a king "laboring with his own hands" as is recorded of Benjamin was a remarkable thing to claim. I'm not sure what the argument is, since Clark doesn't cite a Mesoamerican parallel, though perhaps he meant to. But the remarkable nature of this work is part of the point of King Benjamin's speech- that he was not a king who lorded his power over his subjects. Additionally, this is part of the larger literary theme in the Book of Mormon which presents relative economic egalitarianism as the ideal to which societies should confirm. This was a common theme in Restorationist movements of Joseph Smith's time, and one which the early Latter-day Saints attempted to put into practice with the "United Order", where all things were held in common. The inspiration for this is in Acts, where the apostolic Church is said to have "held all things in common." So this motif was directly available to Smith in his own world.

15. Riplakish's Throne and Olmec Thrones

Dr. Clark suggests that the Book of Mormon's description of Riplakish's "exceedingly beautiful throne" in Ether 10 presents a remarkable convergence with what is known of Olmec culture, which produced elaborate stone thrones. Remember that the key in determining Book of Mormon authenticity is to present features of the Book of Mormon text which would be unexpected to someone like Joseph Smith but are confirmed in ancient Mesoamerica. However, in this case, biblical parallelism is sufficient to explain the presence of the throne of Riplakish. As described in the methodological discussion above, the description of the building of the throne is concordant with what is known of the Olmec, but it is also perfectly concordant with what one would expect to see from a biblically-based narrative of a covenant civilization in America. As such, the throne is consistent with both models but alone points in neither direction.

Moreover, the parallel is not specific enough to alone indicate a connection with the Olmec people, and the story of Riplakish is linked in a number of respects with the story of King Noah, who is polygamous, gathers up precious metals, and erects a beautiful throne. King Noah comes long after the end of Olmec civilization, and while one might suggest that he represents a remnant of Jaredite culture, the presence of these features in his story as well decreases the specificity of a proposed link with Olmec culture. Along these same lines, were this derived from Olmec civilization, one might expect the "exceedingly beautiful throne" to be a staple of the Jaredite history rather than something mentioned only in connection with one king. This is, of course, intelligible in light of the fact that Ether is identified as an abridgment of a very extensive history, but it reduces the value of the throne as a specific parallel which would stand out as a sign of connection with Olmec peoples. All we are told of the throne is that it is "exceedingly beautiful", a description which could be applied to most royal thrones. Thus, the convergence with Olmec civilization is simply that Riplakish constructs a throne as the Olmec constructed thrones. This is consistent with Book of Mormon historicity but is far too vague to be indicative of it.

Can one find a more specific explanation for the presence of the throne in the narratives of Kings Riplakish and Noah in Joseph Smith's background? I believe we can, in 1 Kings. All commentators on the Book of Mormon, believing or not, agree that the KJV Bible was available to Joseph Smith, known prominently in his time, and formed an influence upon the text. To be clear, I do not think typological resemblances are arguments against historicity, a fallacious argument made by a number of critics of the Book of Mormon. What we seek is a model which is sufficient to explain the specific features of the Book of Mormon text. The specific links with the story of King Solomon are not incompatible with historicity, but they seriously weaken the usefulness of the "throne" as an argument for the setting of the Book of Mormon in ancient Mesoamerica. Both ancient and modern authorship are sufficient to explain the presence of this textual feature, and it cannot be used to advantage one model over the other. Joseph (or Solomon Spalding, or Sidney Rigdon, or whoever) could be creating a fictional narrative based on the biblical Solomon just as easily as Mormon and Moroni could be telling the stories of Kings Noah and Riplakish in such a way as to echo the biblical Solomon narrative.

Note the multiple connections with the story of King Solomon. Riplakish has many wives and concubines, as does Solomon:

(Ether 10:5) And it came to pass that Riplakish did not do that which was right in the sight of the Lord, for he did have many wives and concubines...

(1 Kings 11:3) He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

Riplakish taxes the people heavily and uses the funds to build great buildings, as Solomon:

(Ether 10:5) ...and did lay that upon men's shoulders which was grievous to be borne; yea, he did tax them with heavy taxes; and with the taxes he did build many spacious buildings.

(1 Kings 9:15-19) And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife; so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

Riplakish is especially interested in precious metals, which are similarly abundant in the time of Solomon:

(Ether 10:7) Wherefore he did obtain all his fine work, yea, even his fine gold he did cause to be refined in prison, and all manner of fine workmanship he did cause to be wrought in prison. And it came to pass that he did afflict the people with his whoredoms and abominations.

(1 Kings 10:21) All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.

And after a reign of about forty years (42 in the case of Riplakish, 40 in the case of Solomon) the heavy draft of forced labor causes a rebellion which tears apart the kingdom and instigates a civil war:

(Ether 10:8) And when he had reigned for the space of forty and two years the people did rise up in rebellion against him; and there began to be war again in the land, insomuch that Riplakish was killed, and his descendants were driven out of the land.

(1 Kings 12:1-4) Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, "Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you."

(1 Kings 15:6) Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

Given the multiple links between the story of Solomon and the story of Riplakish which exist already, it is reasonable to look for the source of the "exceedingly beautiful throne" in this context. And indeed, it is in the immediate context of all of these parallels that one finds the most detailed description of any human throne in the Bible:

(1 Kings 10:18-20) The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and at the back of the throne was a calf's head, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom.

As a sidenote, additional links with this story are found in Morianton, who is the eventual successor of Riplakish. Morianton is said to have gained power over all the land by easing the burdens of the Jaredite people (Ether 10:9) so that the people themselves anoint him as king (Ether 10:10). This matches quite closely the story of Jeroboam, who gains power over all the tribes except Judah after he promises to ease their burden of forced labor. Like Morianton, the people themselves gather and crown Jeroboam as king (1 Kings 12:20). Morianton, like Jeroboam, is said to be faithful in easing the burdens of the people but unfaithful to the Lord. This additional set of textual links reinforces the argument made above that the biblical story is sufficient to explain the distinctive features of the Book of Mormon text.

16. Trees Growing from Hearts

Next, Dr. Clark points to the metaphor of a tree growing from the heart in Alma 32, comparing it to an image from the Dresden Codex of a tree growing out of the heart of the Maize God. Perhaps a closer connection, though not mentioned here, is in Piedras Negras Stela 11, where a plant is seen growing from the heart of a sacrificial victim. Alma 32:28 describes a seed as a symbol of "the word" of God. The growth of this seed into a tree is likened to the growth of faith in the believer. Is there a reasonable explanation from Joseph Smith's context? Yes- as with much of the above, the KJV Bible provides a sufficient source for the language of the Book of Mormon.

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the sower, where the sower sows seed upon different sorts of soil so that the seed grows with different strengths. Jesus, like Alma, identifies the seed as a symbol of the word of God. The soil symbolizes the heart of the hearer. In Matthew 13:19, Jesus describes the seed as having been "sown in the heart." In the same context (Matthew 13:31-32), Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a "mustard seed" which then "becometh a tree." The literary dependence of Alma 32 on Matthew 13 is also indicated by the phrase "good seed" in Alma 32:28 and Matthew 13:24 and the comparison of an unprepared recipient of the word with barren ground in Alma 32:39 and Matthew 13:5. Additionally, given the literary link between the mustard seed-tree relation in Matthew 13 and Alma 32, it is notable that in Matthew 17 the mustard seed is itself the symbol of faith, the growth of which is the principal subject of the parable of Alma 32.

In ancient Mesoamerica, by contrast, the tree growing out of the heart is an image of human sacrifice, which is patterned after the cosmic offering of the gods to give life to the world. In the Dresden Codex cited by Clark, the heart depicted belongs to the Maize God, whose sacrificial death gives birth to the renewal of the agricultural year, symbolized by a tree growing from his heart, the focal point of Mesoamerican sacrifice. In the Piedras Negras Stela 11 which I cited above as a potentially closer parallel, the tree grows from the heart for basically the same reason: human sacrifice, focused on the heart, is what sustains the world in existence and secures a good harvest, the primary concern of all agrarian societies.

Thus, the interpretive matrix wherein the parable of Alma 32 is intelligible is found in what is perhaps the most well-known parable of Jesus, which is present to Joseph Smith in KJV Matthew 13. Matthew 13 alone describes a seed representing "the word" sown in "the heart", unable to grow in barren soil, and growing into an enormous tree. An innertextual echo from Matthew 17 links the seed with faith, thus accounting for each of the symbols in Alma's parable. By contrast, the Mesoamerican images of a tree growing from man's heart, while superficially resembling Alma 32, is intelligible in a symbolic matrix unrelated to Alma 32 except in a marginal way- the proponent of the BoM as a Mesoamerican codex might link the human sacrifice with the heart of faith by reading the former through the sacrifice of Jesus in which one is called to believe. But these connections are extraneous to the actual text of Alma 32. While such a connection might provide new light on the text for a person who is convinced of the Book of Mormon's ancient pedigree on other grounds, the imagery of Alma 32 itself provides no argument for situating the Book of Mormon in an ancient Mesoamerican setting.

In light of the methodology described at the beginning, the features of Alma 32 are sufficiently explained from Joseph Smith's own background and do not require anything else. While they do not rule out a Mesoamerican background, the sufficiency of Joseph's background undermines this image as an argument for an ancient production context.

17. 400 Years as a Significant Block of Time

Dr. Clark notes that 400 years was a Mesoamerican "baktun", one of the most important blocks of time on the Mesoamerican calendar. He connects this to the repeated prophecy of Nephite destruction "four hundred years" from the coming of Christ. The difficulty is that there is no evidence (at least not here or that I've seen) for the use of twenty as a base number or the use of four hundred as a number which is intrinsically significant. What explains the 400 year prophecy? First, note that the 400 year prophecy is mentioned three times: Alma 45, Helaman 13, and Mormon 8. The first two are prophetic, the last records the year when the 400 year prophecy is fulfilled. But equally significant to the Book of Mormon is the 600 year prophecy, marking the time from Lehi's exodus to the coming of Christ. This is mentioned four times: 1 Nephi 10, 1 Nephi 19, 2 Nephi 25, and 3 Nephi 1. The first three are prophetic, the last records the year when the 600 year timeline is completed.

Even though the 600 year prophecy is mentioned once more (and we can say that it's about equally significant to the Book of Mormon's prophetic calendar), Dr. Clark doesn't mention it, because it is not a specially significant number in the Mesoamerican calendar, and even if it was, the prophecy originated in a Near Eastern context. What about the 400, then? Why 400? If Joseph was to make up a text, why not 300 years, or 500 years? The answer seems to me to be simple. The roughly 600 year timespan between Lehi and Christ is fixed by the date of the exile at around 600 BC and the coming of Christ at around 1 AD. So the 600 year prophecy is locked in, as it were. Then, a millennium is one of the most significant timespans in biblical prophecy, especially in a millennarian environment, in which Joseph moved. So if Lehi leaves Jerusalem on the eve of its destruction and the whole story is to take place over a millennium, 400 years is the consequence.

While I doubt that the following passage was a literary source for the 400 year prophecy in the Book of Mormon, it is useful to show how a 400 year prophecy exists biblically in a context uncorrelated with the Mesoamerican calendar:

(Genesis 15:13-14) Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

This is cited in Acts 7:6 as well. If one wanted to suggest a literary parallel, the 400 year timespan in both Genesis 15 and the Book of Mormon is completed with a cataclysmic national judgment. But I'm not suggesting a literary parallel.

Since a 400 year timespan is only used in these three instances in the Book of Mormon, and since it can be neatly explained in terms of the necessary result of a millennium long history combined with the known historical date of the exile in relation to Christ's birth, this cannot be considered a remarkable connection between the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerican calendrical cycles.

---

For those who have read this, thanks a lot. I initially meant this to be a relatively brief comment only touching on one or two of the issues raised in the video. However, after I accidentally hit the back button and deleted the entire thing, I decided to turn it into an extended essay. Dr. Clark is a good scholar, certainly not a hack. He thus provides a good test case to see how well the best defenses of setting the Book of Mormon's production in ancient Mesoamerica can hold up. My intent has not been to pick holes here and there with Dr. Clark's arguments. Rather, it has been to demonstrate a series of systemic failures which explain what I take to be the failure of LDS defenses of the Book more generally. The flaws are fundamentally joined to each other in that they seek convergences between the Book of Mormon and ancient Mesoamerica without really engaging with a detailed portrait of Joseph Smith's own time and place. My intent has been to show that the Book of Mormon is better explained in terms of the 19th century Mound Builder mythos than as an ancient Mesoamerican document. Far from being "crazy" or "unheard of", again and again, specific features and details of the Book of Mormon narrative are exactly what one would expect to somebody like Joseph Smith, who was immersed in that world. Were it a Mesoamerican scholar of 1830 producing the Book of Mormon, I would not expect the text that we have. But nobody thinks that a Mesoamerican scholar of 1830 produced the Book of Mormon. Instead of comparing the expectations of such a scholar to the text of the Book and modern archaeological knowledge, one should compare the expectations of someone like Joseph Smith to the text. While the narrative diverges from an academic understanding of ancient America as it was conceived in 1830, it strongly converges with a popular understanding of the North American Heartland in 1830. While the connections with Mesoamerican civilization are at times tenuous, where those connections do exist, they almost always simultaneously exist in Joseph Smith's background, and so cannot be used as an argument for or against either model. What differentiates the two models is those instances (which I would argue are frequent) where the text converges with the 19th century and diverges from ancient Mesoamerica. I have focused on the former in this piece, but I have also touched on the latter.

Thanks again for reading!

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changingourdestiny · 4 years

Text

Shadowkeep Part 5: Darklight

Summary:

Just as it seems Rae will fall at the hands of the Hive, Marcia steps in to save her while also revealing she has the Starlight ability like Rae. But something seems off...

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“Run!” Hive began to swarm towards the Fireteam. “Fall back! We gotta get out of here!!!” Rae yelled as she and her Fireteam sprinted as fast as they could back across the bridge past the Phantoms and through the Catacombs, dodging the incoming fire. “Don’t stop! Whatever happens, keep moving!!” Marcia yelled as they dashed through the tunnels. Rae used her Scorch and Solar Grenades to clear a way through incoming Thralls while Adam used his rocket launcher and Blaze used her grenade launcher to blast away Acolytes, Knights and Wizards. “Almost there!” Rae called out, as they approached a large stairway, “Keep pushing!” There was a gap between the ground and the stairway that Marcia, Blaze and Adam were able to jump across and keep sprinting forward but when Rae jumped across, her foot caught the edge which caused her to trip forward. Blaze heard Rae fall behind her and spun around to go back, but she was too far ahead to get there in time. Rae heard the screeches of the Hive quickly catching up behind her and squinted her eyes shut, bracing for the incoming pain of being ripped apart and praying that Ghost would be able to revive her. But the pain never came. Instead, she heard the pained screeches of Thralls. She opened her eyes in time to see silver light beginning to fade. Standing in front of her was Marcia. But she had a pair of silver wings with black markings and an eerie dark aura emanating from them and matching horns emanating from her head. In her hand was a large periwinkle, black and silver staff with a periwinkle gem encased in a silver casing, the hunter symbol near the bottom of the staff and an illustration black serpent-like dragon curled around the main part of the staff. Marcia turned slightly so her face was facing Rae. Her iris’s were pitch black – glowing with the same eerie darkness – with silver pupils. Her bangs and Paragonialan mark were also silver and her scars were emanating the same dark glow. “Stay back.” She muttered before slamming the bottom of the staff on the ground, causing a large blade – similar to her wings – to appear from the top, forming a large scythe. Marcia let out an agitated and pained roar as she slashed at the incoming Hive, that had been temporarily pushed back by the sudden bright light, striking many of them down with each swing. “Rae!” Rae felt herself being hoisted to her feet by Blaze and Adam. “Are you okay?!” Blaze exclaimed; voice filled with worry. “Y-yeah! I’m okay.” Rae replied, shaken. Adam looked at Marcia who was taking on a Hive Knight and a group of Thralls, “Wait…is that…?” “Yeah…” Rae replied, “I think that’s Starlight…but it’s different to mine. Something’s off about it…” Marcia dealt the final blow to the Knight, but saw even more Hive coming towards her. “Go!” Marcia yelled as she turned back towards the Fireteam. Rae nodded as they four of them ran up the stairway, Marcia using her silver wings to fly ahead but not too far as to make sure the Hive didn’t catch the others. As they reached the top, Rae turned around and noticed that the Hive have stopped chasing them. She breathed a sigh of relief, but the moment was cut short as Marcia suddenly collapsed to the ground, her form reverting to normal. “Ugh…dammit…” Marcia groaned weakly as she tried and failed to get up, “I forgot how freaking painful that is…” “Are you alright?” Rae asked crouching beside her. “Aside from the fact that all my energy just got sucked out all at once,” Maria began, “I’m pretty good!” Marcia tried to laugh, but it quickly turned into a series of coughs. “Are you sure? Starlight never caused me to end up like this…” Rae noted. “Well except the first time when you got knocked out afterwards.” Blaze added. Marcia raised an eyebrow as she looked up at Rae, “You’re a Starlight?” “Yeah. Wait, that’s the actual name?” Rae asked, “I thought I made it up.” “Figures…” Marcia muttered before letting out another groan in pain, “I hate to ask…but can someone give me a hand? I literally can’t move.” “I got her.” Adam volunteered as he picked up Marcia and placed her over his shoulder, “Blaze, you still have the Cryptoglyph, right?” “Yup. Firefly’s been keeping it safe.” Blaze nodded. “Guardian?” Rae’s face lit up as Eris’s voice was heard in the comms, a mix of panic and worry in her voice – something uncommon to hear from Eris. “Eris! We’re here. We got the Cryptoglyph.” Rae reassured. “I thought you’d…I’m sorry.” Eris apologised, “The immense darkness of the Pyramid kept me from you.” “It’s ok. We’re all alive, thanks to Marcia. She saved us.” Marcia chuckled weakly, “Eh…was nothin’. You guys did most of the work…” “Good. With the Cryptoglyph in hand, we stand a chance against the Pyramid. Bring it here and let us make use of it.” “On our way.” Rae replied, before turning to her Fireteam, “Let’s head back up top and go back to Sanctuary. Marcia, you can ride with me on my Sparrow if you want.” “Thanks.” Marcia smiled, “I don’t have the strength to do anything right now, honestly.” ——————————————————————— Three Sparrows made their way across the grey surface of the Moon, Rae going slower than usual to make sure Marcia wouldn’t fall off since she could barely even hold on to Rae. “So…” Marcia began, her voice a little stronger now, “You probably have some questions about Starlights then?” “A few, yeah.” Rae replied. “Well, how much do you already know?” “Well, I was able to use my power whenever I think about the people I want to protect. The first time I used it, in the Black Garden, it only enhanced my abilities and I could cast spells I couldn’t cast before. It also kinda happened by itself. The second time I was able to summon it on purpose and I had a sword with my. It wasn’t my usual Dawnblade, it was different – a falchion. And I looked similar to you – wings, horns and all – but mine were gold and white. That’s all really.” “I see.” Marcia began, “Well first off, that sword is called Paragon’s Fang. A blade able to amplify the user’s Light and is incredibly damaging to creatures of Darkness. Each one of the Paragonialan tribes has a warrior that is born with incredible abilities and powers that are called Starlights. They each have a weapon representing the tribe they came from. Tribe Eye had a crystal that allowed the user to predict an enemy’s next move so they could counter or dodge it. Tribe Horn had a dagger that enhanced the user’s speed to the point where they were barely visible to the naked eye, however the ability could only be used for a little while at a time, otherwise it could be harmful to the user’s body. Tribe Tail had a whip that could grapple onto enemies and could perform many elemental-based feats like shock them with electricity, burn them with fire, drain their energy with Void or even freeze them solid with ice. Tribe Scale had a shield that could nearly block any attack and could grow to the size of a two-story house, but the bigger it would grow, the more energy it would take from the user. But any attack that hit it, the shield would absorb and send the damage right back when used to hit an enemy.” “Whoa…” Rae gasped in awe as Marcia continues, “And then there’s mine – a scythe. It can make its user immune to the effects of the Darkness. But also, while it can’t physically hurt any creature of Light – like Guardians – it can temporarily disable their Light. Only for a few minutes though, then it comes right back. And I already told you about your weapon.” “So if you hit me with the Scythe…” Rae began. “You wouldn’t be able to use your super, your Solar Grenade, your Scorch, your healing rift, or even your own Paragonialan abilities, since their made of Light too.” Marcia finished. “There’s one thing I don’t get though.” Blaze began, “Rae’s form was gold and white, but yours was silver and black. Is it different for each tribe or…?” “Nope.” Marcia replied with a sigh, “Just another effect of my good ol’ friend the Darkness. Since my Light is slightly corrupted, my form looks different. I like to call it ‘Darklight’. My Darkness is also why I collapse afterwards. Since my scythe makes me immune to Darkness, it comes back at full force when I dismiss my form and it hurts like hell, draining all energy from me. So I try not to use it too often. But you punks needed me, so I was willing to risk it.” “Thank you.” Rae smiled. “Like I said, was nothin’.” “I mean it. If you hadn’t have stepped in, I would’ve died back there. You saved my life. Thank you, Marcia.” Marcia gave a small smile, “Well…we're the last of our kind. We gotta look out for each other.” Marcia’s smirk returned, “Even if one of us is a mega snitch.” “Oh, I’ve been promoted to mega snitch, have I? Do I get a medal?” Rae joked. “Nah, but you do get a different award – your butt kicked by yours truly once I get my strength back.” “You? Kick my butt? In your dreams!” The Fireteam shared playful banter with each other as they approached the Sanctuary – reassured that no matter what comes next, they’ll have each other’s backs. Fireteam Eklipsys gently pulled up to the Sanctuary as Rae got off her Sparrow and helped Marcia off, “Can you stand?” “I think so.” Marcia replied as she shakily stood on both legs, “I just need a little break and I’ll be fine.” “Alright. You guys rest up here while I go talk to Eris. Blaze, can I have the Cryptoglyph?” “Sure.” Blaze grinned as Firefly appeared and floated over to Rae, materialising the Cryptoglyph in her hands. “Thanks, Firefly. How are you feeling?” “Still a little funny, but I’ll be fine.” Firefly chirped. “Good.” Rae smiled, “I’ll be back soon.” “Take your time.” Marcia called as Rae left, Nox summoning her Sparrow as she sat down on the ground and leaned back against it. As she approached Eris, Rae now saw four Phantoms around Eris. The fact Rae wasn’t all that surprised as seeing new Phantoms pop up almost disturbed her more than the actual Phantoms. She shook the feeling off as she approached Eris, who was glaring at the Phantoms. “I. Don’t. Care.” Eris grunted as she turned to face Rae, “You reek of the Hellmouth.” “That or it's me. Haven’t had a shower since we got here.” Rae joked. “You spend too much time around Cayde and Blaisel.” Eris sighed, “Regardless, that armour will prove useful in the battles to come – but the Pyramid demands greater power to enter it. Three further pieces of armour – three more Nightmares. These diseases torture the Moon with their very presence. Send them back to the past where they belong, and in return they shall provide us with power. You and your Fireteam-” “I’ll be going alone.” Rae interrupted, “The others are exhausted from the past missions. Hell, Marcia can barely move. If it’s just killing a few Nightmares, I can handle it. But let them rest.” “If you insist. But be careful out there.” Eris warned, “And Rae?” “Yes?” “I’m serious. You’re jokes are becoming worse than Cayde’s.” Rae gasped dramatically, “Eris! First I’m called a fool and now this? I’m so insulted!” It was faint, but Rae swore she saw Eris’s lips twitch upwards slightly before shaking her head and turning back to her books. Rae smiled to herself as she set off to hunt down some Nightmares, reassured that her friends were safe and would be well rested for whatever may come. To Be Continued…

#Changing our Destiny #rae drakyx #adam bergfalk #blaze kiria #fireteam paralight #marcia wyverk #fireteam eklipsys #destiny eris morn #Eris Morn #destiny ghost #ghost #paragonialan #destiny hive #hive #destiny 2 #destiny shadowkeep

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404botnotfound · 5 years

Text

The Line [3]

…and where to draw it.

SERIES: Destiny WORD COUNT: 6,335 SHIP: Quinn/Drifter CHARACTERS: quinn leonis (AU), glyph, ash, finn, adebole, the drifter

iii. learning curve

n. the rate at which something can be learned, or the degree of difficulty in learning something.

The deck is utterly silent when Glyph transmats her down to it.

The air around her is still; the only sound she can hear is the creak of heated metal from her ship as it slowly cools and the occasional soft whisper of displaced air from whatever oxygen filters the larger ship uses.

With how beat up and old the ship looked on the outside she’s thankful the air even works--it would’ve been pretty damn embarrassing for Glyph to need to transmat her right back into her ship because she hadn’t thought to ask if there was atmosphere. She’s used to relying on her fireteam leader letting her know whether her typical avoidance of helmets would fly.

Luke called it her ‘allergy’. She called it ‘not liking to feel encased.’

Habit or not, forgetting to ask if she would be able to breathe upon leaving her ship wasn’t a lapse she would’ve made if she were running on all cylinders; she needed to get some decent sleep soon.

There are two ships docked to the left of hers, both devoid of any signatures within as per Glyph’s deduction; the ship to her left was specific to New Monarchy’s development line. Her eyebrows drop lower over her eyes in distaste.

There was always room for exceptions, but she doesn’t hold out hope that she’s not going to be dealing with a prick in the very near future.

Directly in front of the line of docked ships is an open platform with a set of triangular, dimly glowing pads, penned in by a glass barrier. She steps out onto the platform until she’s in front of the barrier, noting first that the bay the platform is in is much longer than it was wide, stretching a hundred yards into the distance to her left.

She’d almost think it looked like some kind of docking bay in and of itself, but with a glance behind her at the line of ships she lifts an eyebrow and wonders why it’s so empty save for the platform.

Across the bay from the platform she’s on is another one, identically penned in and featuring the same four glowing pads. If she squints she can just barely see the outlines of more ships beyond that other platform; definitely a four-versus-four setup, if all eight guardians present were divided to both sides of the ship.

Illumination finally draws her eyes to the left where another raised platform stands, almost resembling a podium and lifted above the other two in the bay. It’s connected to either side of the bay by a set of bulkheads.

And the illumination is coming from--

--gooseflesh ripples violently over her skin and she sucks in a startled gasp of air at the sight of what stands beyond the podium. It’s some kind of tank or enclosure, but what’s within is what leaves her cold and filled with terror.

Twisting forms of viscous, liquid-like darkness curls and writhes behind the glass, contrasting with the brightness of the glowing energy. The all-too-familiar contradiction of the paracausal and eldritch power of the Ascendant Plane, wielded by the Taken King to twist beings to his bidding.

And it was trapped within a tank like a spectacle in a zoo.

Flashes of a nightmarish, blackened landscape of endless gales and primal roars rush through her mind as she stares, unable to tear her eyes away for fear that the power she looks upon would reach out and rip her to shreds.

‘Breathe, guardian.’ Glyph says, the chirp in her head snapping her back to reality and allowing her to finally drop her eyes to the deck below her feet.

She lets out a shaky breath and closes her eyes, blocking out the blinding darkness and forcing her focus inwards until the sharp edge of panic ebbs and her breathing slows to normal. It’s been years since that botched mission on the Dreadnaught that killed Gil, and yet…

If only Eris hadn’t disappeared when the City fell. Quinn wants desperately to ask her how she’d put the fear of Darkness behind her.

‘We have another waypoint.’ She blinks at Glyph’s careful statement. The tone in its voice tells her that, with the sight of what was being contained on this ship, it wants her to turn around and leave. If she were being honest with herself, she wants to turn around and leave.

Once again, she’s left asking the same question: who the fuck is the Drifter, and what the fuck is he up to hauling around his own little chunk of the Ascendant Plane? And she knows that’s what it is--even with two barriers between it and her she can still recognize its awful power.

“Right,” she swallows the stone that had lodged itself in her throat, blinking rapidly and turning away from the glass, “which way?”

‘That bulkhead down to your left. I’m seeing light signature in that direction, too. Just three. The other four are on the other side of the ship.’

Well, she’s willing to bet that meant she’s about to meet her teammates.

Her eyes drift back up to the twisting darkness just beyond the docking bay she stands in as she begins to move and then quickly return to what’s in front of her. A shiver ripples up her spine; there isn’t any obvious creature through that glass, but even so she can feel something looking back at her.

She leaves the docking bay behind, following Glyph’s directions. She’s so used to letting her team give her direction ad warning--it’s frustrating and unnerving to know she’s going to have to use her helmet while here.

Listening to Glyph tell her this way and that way, especially if they were going into a high-risk situation, would be inefficient at best and downright deadly at worst.

Pulling her armored duster’s hood up as she passes through a third bulkhead and into a room that stretches around a corner, voices reach her ears and Glyph goes silent as she approaches.

“I’m getting tired of waiting. I wanna fight something.” A woman whines.

“Calm down, Ash. We all had to pass through the Cabal exclusion field to get here--our fourth is probably taking it carefully.” A deeper voice responds; though it’s a statement meant to calm the first speaker, Quinn can hear irritation in it.

A snort follows the second voice. “If our fourth is so incompetent they cannot pass through such a threadbare fleet, I doubt their ability to contribute to this team I must work with.”

Her expression darkens with humorless amusement. Found the New Monarchy supporter.

The first one that spoke lets out a frustrated, impatient groan. Quinn imagines she was about to say something else, but all conversation halts when she rounds the corner and grabs the attention of all three.

She bristles at the sudden intense scrutiny and her eyes narrow at them in turn; hunter, titan, and warlock. The whole trifecta of classes.

With her being the odd one out.

The hunter is small, probably only a few inches taller than herself and clad in the typical lightweight but functional armor favored by hunters, painted in bright pinks, vibrant and obviously meant to call attention to herself.

She’s Awoken, her skin a dark purplish gray and eyes glowing silver, face heart-shaped and features petite and cute--but the look in her eyes is almost manic, contrasting entirely with the gentle upwards tilt to her lips. Her hair is wavy and cut to the line of her jaw, a light lavender in color.

“It’s about time,” she says, flipping a knife in one hand and settling the other impatiently on her hip, “I was promised a good fight and you almost ruined it!”

Impatient, trigger-happy.

“Don’t mind her. We were on Io and made it here first. That’s Ash, I’m Finn.” The titan introduces the two of them with a sigh and a glance at the hunter.

Their features are longer and more androgynous than Ash, body wirier than the usual titan but no less large. They’re Awoken as well--light blue skin, orange eyes, and a white painted marking down the middle of their lower lip and chin with short, blue hair.

They wear inky black armor that’s much heavier than the rest of those in the room is painted with bright splashes of white like a direct contrast to their hunter friend, and the fan-like sash they wore over their hip is white.

Patient, a mediator. But their armor is also banged up to hell and back, suggesting the titan is just as much into a good fight as Ash.

“Quinn.” She introduces herself in turn, shifting her weight and turning to scrutinize the warlock next. She nods at him in greeting. “I got held up on Earth, not by the Cabal.”

“It matters not.” He sniffs derisively, squaring his shoulders and standing with his hands clasped behind his back. His robes are swathed in whites and golds, gilded with elegant patterns and decoration, and he wears a black-and-gold patterned scarf tucked into the neckline. His skin and eyes are dark and his head is bald. Gold shadow matching the patterns on his robes covers his eyelids. “You were inefficient and I hope that does not extend to your participation in this challenge.”

Arrogant.

Of the three, Quinn thinks she may only be able to truly tolerate Finn.

Lips pursing she turns back to Ash and Finn. “I’m guessing we’re all in the dark on what we’re doing here?”

“Uh-huh.” Ash halts her knife-flipping long enough to reach back and adjust the black cloak on her shoulders. “Not sure what we’re waiting for now, but I’ve got half a mind to kick that weirdo--and you--for making us wait.”

Quinn ignores the threat and settles a pointed, stony glare on the warlock. “A challenge we’re all new to, so don’t act like you’re better than the rest of us.”

“We will see.” He replies with a curl of his lip. “My name is Adebole, and many do it but I would ask that you do not shorten my name to ‘Ade’. I do not like it.”

“Nice to meet you, Ade.” She fires back with as much false cheer as she can manage, smiling when his countenance grows angry. Well, they were off to a good start.

Across the room Ash laughs. “I’ve changed my mind, I like you!”

That makes one of us, Quinn thinks, quietly adding ‘fickle’ to her mental list of Ash’s personality traits.

A nearby door hisses open and, like her own entrance, all conversation or attempts at it halt, the four of them turning to look at whoever had entered.

The Drifter stops just inside the doorway and looks over all of them, his eyes settling on her last and a wry smile finding its way onto his lips. “Glad you made it, darlin’.” He says, and she frowns when she feels like there’s some kind of private joke in there that she’s missing. “Alright, rookies, ready to learn what you’re all here for?”

“I am no ‘rookie’, Drifter.” Adebole responds vehemently. Ooh, her petty response had struck one hell of a nerve in the man.

“Prove it on the field, rookie.” Drifter neither misses a beat nor acknowledges the aggression, and Quinn fights down a smile at the way the response aggravates Adebole further. Turning, Drifter steps back through the doorway and gestures over his shoulder for them to follow. “C’mon, this way.”

“You can’t just tell us the rules now?” A whine colors Ash’s demanding question as they all file after him.

“You wanna get dead, sister?” Drifter asks.

The question throws Ash off balance for a moment. “No?”

“Then pay attention and follow me.”

‘Quinn, if this ‘Gambit’ is dangerous enough that death is a possibility, you realize I can’t revive you, right? If you die, you die for good.’ Glyph opines to her, its discomfort heavy and grasping at her heart through their bond. ‘I don’t want to lose you, guardian.’

The swell of emotion that hits her after that threatens to topple her and her steps falter as she fights to get it under control. She says nothing, not wanting to speak aloud in her present company and hoping the determination and promise she dredges up can be picked up by her ghost.

She has no intention of getting herself killed--she wouldn’t go down easy even if she did.

She focuses on the Drifter’s back as they follow after him, her eyes narrowing; operating a dangerous, unsanctioned competition out of the Tower under the Vanguard’s nose, seemingly aloof about guardians that may die within it, and then the giant chunk of something his ship was dragging around and the damn tank of Ascendant power he kept--who was he?

She can’t think of a single reason for someone with good intentions to have enough interest in the power of the Darkness to keep something so dangerous in close proximity.

“Why are you keeping a chunk of the Ascendant Plane’s energy on your ship?” She asks abruptly, the question leaving her mouth before she can think better of it.

All of them stop when he does, her three other teammates turning to stare at her, bewildered. She pays them no mind, her gaze unwavering from the Drifter’s form as he turns to look at her sideways.

That damn smile of his doesn’t falter.

They stare each other down and there’s a look in his eyes that, for the first time since meeting him, she can safely identify--he’s daring her to back down from her demand for answers and the thinly veiled accusation.

He’s daring her to recant it and show a lack of spine.

But she doesn’t back down, and like with their first meeting the longer he watches her the wider his smile grows. Whatever he sees in her he apparently decides he likes. “Noticed that, did you? It’s a conversation piece.”

She bites down her immediate response to call bullshit as he keeps walking. She’s the first to resume following, pulling ahead of the rest of the group as the only one not still stuck on processing what had just happened.

“Hold on, you've got a chunk of what on this ship?” Finn falls into step next to Quinn.

“An alternate plane of existence, rookie. Try ‘n keep up.” Drifter replies breezily.

“How did you manage to do that?” Adebole demands, the tone of his voice having changed entirely--now he sounds dangerously interested. “You cannot just capture an entire plane of existence like a beetle in a jar.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Her eyes narrow again; she has a feeling that whatever he’s keeping it for has something to do with why they’re here on his ship, so she keeps quiet as they follow him while the rest of the group tries and fails to get him to answer their questions.

He turns a corner and stops in front of a sealed bulkhead, leaning to the side to input some kind of code into a keypad next to the door. Archaic, by City standards. It reminded her of the old Clovis Bray facilities half-buried in the sands that had swallowed Freehold on Mars--Golden Age tech and security. Had he appropriated it for his own purposes, or had it always been part of this ship?

The door slides open with a pneumatic hiss and they follow him inside, all eyes drawn to the object in the center of the room as he walks towards it. It’s an upright, clear cylinder with a wide base and what looks like input slots on four sides, twice as tall as herself.

Some kind of container?

“The fuck is that?” Ash asks, squinting at it suspiciously.

The Drifter stops next to it and raps his gauntleted knuckles on the clear chamber, resulting in a series of hollow thunks. His smile is lopsided and--proud? Did he make whatever it was? “This is a bank,” he answers. “Specifically, it’s a mote bank. There’s gonna be one in both teams’ arenas.”

Plural. More than one arena. Already different from the Crucible--no playing in the same pen, killing and being revived for points and objectives. But he had implied there was an inherent danger to the game, and that meant there was going to be more to it than the two teams being kept separate.

“Now, don’t you worry--your opponents got the same explanation you’re gettin’, but pay attention ‘cause you’re all in for a fight tougher ‘n more involved than any kiddie games like Capture the Flag.”

Damn, the Drifter must really not like Shaxx to be insulting him so openly; half the guardians in the Tower held the superstitious belief that the Crucible handler had some kind of supernatural sense for insults and slights, and no one wanted to be on Shaxx’s bad side.

He continues, stepping towards them. “Both teams transmat down to their respective arenas. In both you’re gonna face enemies you’re already familiar with: Cabal, Vex, and the Fallen--”

“What, are we racing to see who can kill the most enemies first?” Ash interrupts.

“I said pay attention,” The Drifter says sharply, and then continues as though she’d said nothing at all. “I wanna be clear: these enemies are as real as any you’d put a bullet in elsewhere and make no mistake, they will put a bullet in you and your ghost same as. This ain’t any kinda game to them. You got a problem with dyin’ for good, now’s your chance to skitter back home with your tails between your legs.”

None of them move, though she can feel Glyph’s open discomfort through her light and it’s probably silently begging her to take the chance while she still can.

The Drifter’s expression turns pleased in a way that has her shivering; she was beginning to understand why Glyph had said that something just wasn’t right with him.

He paces towards them again, gesturing idly with his hands as he speaks. “Now, whichever enemies chance decides to throw at you, you gotta kill ‘em. Simple, right? Well, all these enemies are gonna drop things called ‘motes’.”

As if to punctuate the statement, a small, glowing, pyramid-shaped object is transmatted into his hand--presumably by his ghost, who they all had yet to see. He turns to her and tosses the object over to her.

The second it lands in her palm she immediately fights not to throw it away. Her skin burns where it sits in her hand, even through the light gauntlets she wears and she again feels the distinct pull of the dark energy she’s so uncomfortably familiar with.

The mote glows softly as though innocent, but she knows instinctively that this thing isn’t any further from the Darkness than the Taken energy in that tank.

“Your jobs,” Drifter’s voice returns her attention to him and he gestures to all four of them, “is to collect the motes and drop ‘em in the bank, and to do it faster than your opponents do. You drop enough of those motes in the bank at once and it’ll send a nasty surprise to the other team’s side, blockin’ their bank and makin’ their lives miserable.”

She takes the moment of him looking away to quickly pass the mote off to Finn, trying not to make it look obvious how uncomfortable she was. “What kind of ‘nasty surprise’?”

“One of the Taken.” He answers, grin widening at the way she goes stiff in response. “How nasty it is depends on how many motes you got when you bank ‘em.”

Her chest tightens with discomfort; if the other team got this same explanation, it means they could do the same.

She supposes she can’t avoid fighting the Taken forever, but Sky-be-damned she isn’t excited to know that this competition was going to involve them, much less to know that she’ll be actively sending those monsters to attack the opposing team.

“Having second thoughts, darlin’?”

Quinn blinks up at him and tries to school the uneasy feeling away. She hadn’t even realized her focus had lapsed. He’s smiling at her and the challenging look in his eyes is back; he’s still reading her like an open book. “No.”

Stop calling me that.

He watches her for a moment longer before moving on. “Your first goal is to fill the bank before your opponent does.”

Unlike her, Finn, and Ash, Adebole is still holding onto the mote that the Drifter had tossed to them. They’d all passed it on as soon as they’d gotten a good look at it, but he’s still studying it with rapt fascination to the point Quinn wonders if he even heard any of the Drifter’s explanation.

“I assume,” Adebole says as though to prove her assumption wrong, turning the mote over in his hands and staring at it intently, “there is more to this competition than simply filling the bank.”

Drifter crosses the floor and snatches the mote out of Adebole’s hand, striding back over to the bank and completely ignoring the threatening glare boring into the back of his head. “You assume right.”

But he says nothing more, and after a length Finn lifts their eyebrows. “Are you planning on telling us what else, exactly, is involved?”

“Nah. You’ll figure it out. You’re all smart like that.” He replies with a kind of muted humor that Quinn just knows means nothing pleasant.

“And what do we get for winning?” Adebole asks.

“What do you get?” The Drifter laughs as though it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “You get paid, brother. Shaxx ever pay you to play his kiddie games?”

Competitive Crucible players did get paid, but that was by the Factions rather than by Shaxx himself, and not everyone made the cut for Competitive.

Ash slumps forward like a pouting child and Quinn wonders if she’d been one of the ones that hadn’t made that cut. “Not unless you count pats on the back and congratulations as payment.”

Finn frowns at her, but they share the same interest in their eyes. They fix a look on the Drifter. “You said our first goal was to fill the bank. Is there a second?”

A brief, darkly excited look passes his expression, so quick she nearly misses it. He lifts his arms in a half-shrug with easy cheer. “Your second goal is to be bad guys.” He tosses the single mote in his hand into the air, catching it and then with a deft motion slotting it into the base of the bank.

A silent gale of Taken energy fills it.

Quinn feels the blood drain from her face and her whole body goes rigid with pure, animalistic fear. Though the room itself is silent, the howling of that storm of Ascendant energy is loud in her mind and an echo of the Deathsong she’d missed hearing the end notes of by scant seconds more than a handful of times hides in its winds.

None of the others react, and with a clench of her jaw she fights to reign her fear in.

Oryx is dead. Her team had entered his throne world and killed him once and for all. The Taken had no King, and they were all the weaker for it.

She can handle this.

“What d’you mean ‘be bad guys’?” Ash frowns.

“Simple,” he answers, tapping the bank with his knuckles again, completely unbothered by whatever Darkness those motes were made of, “there’s the obvious--send Taken grunts to play merry hell with your opponents, maybe kill a few in the process, make ‘em lose their motes and set ‘em back. Put your team at an advantage.”

“And the not obvious?”

“Each team’s gonna have a gate in their arena that’ll open a portal to the other arena at intervals. You jump through, you get thirty seconds to play merry hell with ‘em yourself. Feel what it’s like to be the enemy.” He says, his grin turning wicked.

There’s something heavy to their silence this time. Something was significant about this particular difference from the Crucible--still guardians-versus-guardians, but something inexplicably off about it at the same time.

The sudden manic smile on Ash’s face makes Quinn nervous. “I like it. When do we start?”

Is she the only one unhappy that this whole thing involved the Taken? Is she really the only one that cares about how dangerous they are?

Just like that, the Drifter’s demeanor melts back into the unnervingly easygoing, friendly one she was becoming familiar with. “Head back to the docking bay you all got here in. We’ll get started soon as both teams are ready.”

“Wait, that’s it?” Finn asks.

“What, you want someone to hold your hand? May as well go back to the Crucible, ‘cause I ain’t gonna.”

“What about rules?” A scoff leaves Adebole. Did the man’s entire repertoire of moods consist of exclusively ‘arrogant’ and ‘irritated’? “You have only given us how the game is played.”

The Drifter laughs again. “Rules? There are none. Fill the bank, kill things, beat your opponents, and make it happen by any means necessary. How’s that for rules?”

“Fine by me.” Quinn says after a pause, hoping her voice doesn’t reflect the thick, uneasy feeling twisting in her gut. Adjusting the hair under her hood she turns and heads for the door. “Always preferred trial by fire.”

“Yeah, yeah, no one’s impressed, blondie.” Ash calls after her, pointedly loud, footsteps following after her nevertheless.

She ignores the insult; the thin boast hadn’t been much more than an attempt to ward off the way her skin crawled at the thought of being in an arena with Taken than anything else. No holds barred, and they were going into it almost completely blind.

Discomfort aside, she found herself actually anxious to get started.

‘You ‘prefer trial by fire’?’ Glyph asks her, nearly hysteric and fully incredulous. ‘Quinn, you could die. You could die and for what? I really don’t think Zavala would ever find out what killed you--I doubt it would spite him half as much as you think it would!’

“I don’t have a death wish and I’m not--” she stops herself from finishing the whispered statement, knowing damn well that she’d been about to lie not only to her ghost but also to herself. “Okay, so I’m also doing this to spite Zavala. How is this any different from when I’m active out in the field, Glyph?”

‘You’re not doing that for fun, for one thing!’

Ash cuts off anything else Glyph tries to say. “Ugh, great, I’m on a team with a loony that talks to herself.”

The lamenting whine nearly gets to her, but Quinn inhales deeply and forces it to roll off her shoulders. Save it for the enemies, Quinn.

They reach the docking back without any more words exchanged and file into it. Across the large bay stands another four-guardian team, fanned out onto their set of glowing pads on the floor.

Glancing at the others, she and the other three follow suit and fan out onto their own pads. They must’ve been heavyweight transmat pads--meant for longer-distance movement than what ghosts and field kits were capable of.

Reaching up to lower her hood she winds her fingers through her hair and loosely ties it back; when she lowers her hands Glyph transmats her helmet onto her head and she lets out a soft breath to steady herself, then lifts her hood again.

Footsteps catch everyone’s attention and all eight guardians in the bay watch as the Drifter makes his way up onto the podium between the two transmat platforms.

He looks between the two teams with a wide, toothy smile and produces several of his jade coins out of thin air. Like when she had met him, he rolls them out over his knuckles with deft ease. “Alright, mavericks--ready to see what you’re fightin’ today?”

No one says anything.

He’s left many impressions since she first met him, but Quinn amusedly tacks ‘show pony’ onto her what-the-fuck-Drifter list.

He snaps his wrist out and one of the coins sails into the air; all eyes are rooted to it as it arcs up and is caught again, then slapped down onto the back of his opposite hand. A heartbeat passes.

“Cabal on the field!” He calls out, lifting the coin and holding it out to them as though they were even remotely close enough to see what was on it. “Watch out for those Scorpius turrets, they sting worse than a left hook from Lady Efrideet.”

She nearly chokes out a laugh at the statement, thoughts of her scant few interactions with the Iron Lady that had briefly taken over Lord Saladin’s duties as handler for the Iron Banner tournament drifting through her head. She was a firecracker of a woman with a short fuse but otherwise good humor--how the hell did he know what a punch from her felt like?

Better question: what had he done to deserve it?

‘That coin has an engraving of the Red Legion’s sigil,’ Glyph remarks, ‘he must have separate coins with an engraving representing each enemy type. I guess that was what he meant by chance, earlier.’

She watches the Drifter as he steps over to a workstation set into the podium next to him and begins to work at it. He took the whole ‘chance’ thing seriously if he had to take the time to set up the matches immediately prior to them beginning.

“Am I synced with the other three?” She glances down the line where her teammates stood.

Glyph beeps in confirmation and a moment later their voices filter into her helmet. Ash mentions wanting to be the first to get a kill and Finn let out a long-suffering sigh. It isn’t until Adebole demands they all stay out of his way that Quinn speaks up herself.

“We’re on a team, asshole.” She snaps.

A laugh catches her attention and she looks back up at the Drifter, finding him nearly doubled over with mirth; a glance at the other team shows them all standing relaxed and still. Either the Drifter was tapped into their team comms and thought the vitriol was funny as hell, or he was just plain batty.

She’s not sure which to bet on. Yeah, this is gonna go great.

“Get ready to drop!” The Drifter calls out.

The glow from the pad underneath her intensifies as the transmat fires up and space rips apart around her.

#v: destiny #f: the line #c: quinn leonis #c: glyph #c: ash #c: finn #c: adebole #ch: the drifter #sh: embrace the dark

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