#safety is relative when it comes to computer demons

[duckapus]

Brock actually manages to stay relatively normal during his time with Ash...only for Things To Happen during his time with Professor Ivy. All he ever says about it is that he had a complicated relationship with doors for the past six months.

Misty: But...we were only gone two months.

Brock: *eye presumably twitches* A very complicated relationship with doors.

And now he can kinda-sorta-there's-extra-door-related-steps-involved teleport. Misty is very jealous that she's now the only member of the OG Trio without weird eldritch powers.

Unrelated to that, living around Ash for ten years did have some effects on Palette Town's populace, with Professor Oak in particular doing some research into the occult and studying willingly donated samples of Ash's Void Stuff, and...well, long story short the AIs in the Pokedexes he hands out are actually bound demons who were interested in Pokemon research and vetted for how safe they'd be with kids. The reason Ash's Pokedex goes by Dexter is both because he likes puns and because the sound of his real name would flash-fry the intestines of every mortal in hearing range.

#pokemon anime #eldritch ash au #brock slate #professor ivy #misty waterflower #door #professor oak #ash ketchum #pokedex #dexter the pokedex #safety is relative when it comes to computer demons

[septembercfawkes]

The Hero's Journey Explained: The Middle

In my last post, I started talking about the Hero's Journey, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it differs from other popular story structures. I also broke down the elements of the beginning (Ordinary World, Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, and Meeting the Mentor) and decided to again use Spider-verse as one example, to help illustrate how it actually fits multiple story structures. You can see that post here. Today I would like to pick right back up, covering the middle.

Crossing the First Threshold

Armed with whatever magical thing she got from the mentor, the protagonist is now ready for adventure. This is another moment that I think can be a little confusing, so I want to pause and talk about a few things. Like I said last time, the magical thing may be real or figurative. It can be a magical pendant or it can be something like sage advice. The character may be armed with a magical thing without realizing it yet. Or the character might be armed with a magical thing he doesn't like or is reluctant to have.

In Crossing the First Threshold, the time arrives for the hero to officially depart from the Ordinary World and enter the Special World. Remember, the Ordinary World and the Special World are relative. This is the moment Buddy the Elf goes to New York. Or Elle Woods goes to Harvard in Legally Blonde. Or Bilbo leaves Hobbiton behind. Or Harry goes to Diagon Alley. Or Katniss leaves District 12. Or Lucy goes through the Wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

But in some stories, the Special World is more a state of the character than an actual place. It might be when a dad dresses up as a nanny to see his kids, like in Mrs. Doubtfire. Or a Chinese girl dressing up to take her father's place in the war, like Mulan--it's a "special world," for the character. And of course, it might have nothing to do with the external. The character might need more personal growth, and the Special World can be him now striving to grow in that direction.

The main idea is that the character is leaving normalcy behind and is now truly entering a new, unfamiliar, or different situation. Some characters may be eager to go, while others may be forced. But the Special World has come, whether they want to embrace it or not.

Just before crossing the threshold, many characters may prepare, by packing, strategizing, or praying to their ancestors (Mulan). There also might be one more external or internal event or turning point that kicks them out into the quest for good, like a sudden death, a new threat, or a change of heart.

In Spider-verse

The facts that Brooklyn may be destroyed and that Peter Parker dies are external events that kick Miles out toward the Special World. He doesn't just have Spider-man powers, he needs to become Spider-man. Acting as Spider-man is the Special World. So what does he do? He prepares. He buys a Spider-man costume, wears a mask, tells himself everyone is counting on him. He crosses the threshold as he tries to jump and swing from buildings. He is now in the Special World.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

Now in the Special World, the hero is going to be tested, make friends, and probably enemies. In order to survive the Special World, she will need to adapt, which includes facing difficulties (tests). She will probably need some help or guidance from someone (allies). And she will probably have to struggle against an antagonistic force (enemies).

Some of the allies and enemies may have been foreshadowed or introduced in the Ordinary World, but here their true natures are revealed.

In Harry Potter, Harry meets Draco Malfoy in Diagon Alley. On the train, he meets Ron and Hermione and Neville. And at school he meets even more allies and enemies. And he faces difficulties as he is tested (sometimes literally) by the Special World.

Bilbo faces trolls and spiders but also gains friends and allies. Katniss connects with Peeta, Haymitch, Effie, and Cinna, but makes enemies with Cato and some of the other tributes. She is literally tested before the Games, and then she faces more difficulties in the arena. Buddy, Elle, Lucy, and Mulan do the same thing.

The Special World also has new rules that the hero has to learn to deal with and probably live by.

In Spider-verse

Soon after trying to become Spider-man, Miles meets a Peter Parker from another dimension. And through the middle, he accumulates a bunch of other allies, like Gwen, Peni, Spider-ham, and Spider-Noir, even Aunt May. But he also gets more enemies, like Doc Ock and Kingpin's other henchmen. He faces difficulties: trying to repair the goober, trying to learn how to swing, trying to steal a computer from Alchemax, and is tested by the Special World--that of being Spider-man.

Approach the Inmost Cave

Now more experienced, supported, and familiar with the Special World, the hero is ready to go deeper into the heart of it--where some of its greatest rewards are guarded by the hero's worst fears. Near this part of the story, the hero and allies may again make preparations or plans to snatch what they truly desire: riches, success, safety, a love interest. It's similar to glimpsing a cave and then preparing and approaching it. Within the cave lies their wants, along with their antagonistic forces.

This is not necessarily where the hero enters the cave, but where they draw closer to it and its promises. There may be people and obstacles in the way. And if they enter the cave, they won't yet succeed in getting what they want. They will have to face more tests and trials and challenges. They may have to learn even more about the Special World. They may have to cross another threshold within it.

The "Inmost Cave" is often the most dangerous feature of the Special World. Sometimes this is a literal place, like Smaug's lair for Bilbo. Or the Death Star for Luke. But other times it's more of a state of being--where the risks are high. If it isn't the most dangerous feature of the story, it is the second-most dangerous. Again, though, this isn't so much entering and conquering the Inmost Cave as it is glimpsing or preparing and approaching it.

So in Mulan, this is when the now-trained soldiers have to go face the Huns. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, this is when Harry first encounters Fluffy, who is guarding the trapdoor in the forbidden corridor. However, I think you could also argue that this extends into the next chapter where Harry and Ron must face a troll that actually came from within the trapdoor--it's another glimpse of the Inmost Cave.

In Spider-verse

After getting the computer from Alchemax, Miles, Peter, and Gwen head to Aunt May's house, where they can prepare to defeat Kingpin, by making a goober as well as specific plans. There, they meet the other Spider people, and they all have a discussion about what to do and who does what. However, Miles is still not quite ready for the Inmost Cave, and there will be more tests and obstacles as they try to approach it.

The Ordeal

The Ordeal encompasses what others may call the "all is lost" moment or plot point two. In the Hero's Journey, it may be said that this is what the story is really about. I find that kind of vague, so let me explain that some more. What the story is "really" about is the thematic statement, which is almost always illustrated through the protagonist's character arc. This is the crisis moment for the character arc. It's where you hit the protagonist hard with whatever inner demon or thematic challenge she needs to overcome to defeat the antagonist later.

The Ordeal is the biggest test so far for the hero, and it will make them hit rock bottom. They will face their biggest fear here, and have to confront it. This will lead to the most significant, personal growth.

In the Hero's Journey, this is a sort of death and rebirth. Sometimes this is literal--the hero may literally die and be revived. But it's often figurative--the old them dies and a new them is then reborn.

But of course, something needs to bring about that moment--a powerful obstacle or opponent. This is essentially the climax of the middle segment.

In Mulan, The Ordeal occurs after she is injured saving the soldiers from the Huns, when she is found to be a woman--one of her biggest fears. She is told that she will bring dishonor to her family, that she is a disgrace--her other biggest fear. This directly hits the theme topics of the film: honor and gender equality. She is sent away and at her lowest low.

But soon, she will be reborn as someone stronger.  

In Spider-verse

After discovering the Prowler is his uncle, Miles runs away back to Aunt May's house and is followed. This leads to a fight, where Prowler dies, and the other Spider people have to explain to Miles that he isn't ready yet to be Spider-Man. To make the moment even worse, he has become even more alienated from his dad. This is the lowest of the low. It's a crisis moment that hits on the theme topics: quitting and perseverance, choices, expectations, and faith. For Miles, all seems lost.

#writing tips #writing tips and tricks #writing tip #writeblr #hero's journey #writing reference #fanfic #spider-verse #Harry Potter #Mulan #The Hobbit #writing advice #writing help #story structure

[skvaderarts]

Apocrypha Chapter Thirty Eight: Deconstruction

Masterlist can be found Here!

Chapter Thirty-Eight:

Note: AH! I’m so sorry, but this chapter is going to be a few hours late! Sorry about that. I woke up today with a spinning headache, so I called off work and decided to take something for my head and take a short nap. And i woke up five hours later. And I hadn’t started today’s chapter yet because I fell asleep at my computer last night doing god knows what. FORGIVE ME! (-~-)

Sunday, August 25th, 2:15 am

The once quiet seaside town that they had visited only a few weeks ago was in complete and total disarray. Several structures had collapsed as a result of the vibration caused by the cave-in, and a fire had broken out a few blocks away. Swarms of people had filled the city streets in a panicked and ineffective bid to escape the seemingly doomed area before it fell to the ground in a heap of ash and rubble. Where those on foot were headed was anyone’s guess since the train station was still under construction due to the cultist attack that had nearly taken the lives of dozens of innocent bystanders, and most didn’t seem keen to allow strangers into their vehicles. Firetrucks and other assorted service vehicles were headed towards the city center, their intention to save as many people from the disaster clear for all to see. 

All in all, a stark and somewhat jarring departure for the serene scene they’d left behind only a few short weeks ago.

With an almost disbelieving shake of his head, Dante turned in the direction of his twin. The eldest of the two was standing alongside him, seemingly understanding what was going on better than he was, but no less taken aback by the rapid collapse of the settlement they currently stood in. It had taken them less than five minutes to arrive at this location after realizing that going directly into the conduit’s cave was virtually impossible due to some unseen barrier that seemed to be blocking their path. Although Dante had not seen Vergil fail to open a portal before, he didn’t need to ask his brother if that was a normal occurrence. If the somewhat befuddled look on his face had been anything to go by, it clearly wasn’t. So with no other options available to them, they had retreated to the relative safety and ease of access that the city provided them, intent on simply entering the structure the same what that they had originally. But now those plans seemed highly improbable and the likelihood of them being able to execute them as planned was distant, to say the least.

“So, any idea why like half of the city is on fire, Vergil?” Dante said with a thick layer of barely concealed confusion. It was far from the first time he’d seen a city burning, but from what he could tell, this didn’t have anything to do with a demonic attack. It occurred to him at that moment how strange it was that he immediately attributed large scale disasters to demonic activity and not a natural disaster of some sort, but that was simply the world he lived in. All of his assumptions were based on experience and inexperience in equal measure, and it was admittedly strange to see a city leveled by something that wasn’t strictly demonic. But while the irony of that wasn’t lost on him, a certain question still lingered in his mind.

How had this happened in the first place?

The obvious answer was that Belial had done this somehow. After all, the timing of the two events and the locations involved couldn’t be coincidental. But the question that lingered in his mind was how had a demon managed to level an entire area without stepping foot into the human world? The number of explosives that would be needed by his cultists would have certainly set the entire adjoining forest alight, and the only thing on fire around them was downtown. Add to that the fact that Dante was somewhat certain that what remained of the cult either had been or would be exterminated by their leader, and you had a total juxtaposition of situations that didn’t strictly strike the youngest of the Dark Knight Sparda’s twin sons as possible or impossible simultaneously. It was all simply a bit surreal.

Vergil shifted slightly, taking in the litany of sights before him. In a situation like this, it was best to beat the authorities to the sight of the disaster of they still could, but he wasn’t sure how they could find the conduit from the ground level on foot before the local military decided to stumble their way into the forest. He combed the inner recesses of his mind, contemplating their options. He didn’t particularly like any of them, but it was still far from the worst outcome that this scenario could produce.

“... I can’t say. But we have more pressing matters to deal with,” Vergil said, turning and facing away from the street towards a nearby alley.” If we are to have any hope of reaching the conduit before they do, were going to have to go in from above. I am not in the mood to contend with armed military personnel tonight. This is a new shirt.”

Dante raised an eyebrow, following after his twin. While the prospect of being seen wasn’t ideal, and they would probably have to fly further out of the way as a result, it was still the quickest way of getting there since Yamato was out of the question. But they were going to have to be quick about it. An armed response couldn’t be far off.

“Wait, when did you buy a new shirt?” Dante asked as it occurred to him that his older brother had just mentioned wearing one. From what he could tell, that was true, he was in fact, wearing a new dark blue dress shirt of some sort that seemed to be made of a silk-like material. In fact, knowing Vergil’s exacting taste in literally everything, Dante was willing to guess that that was exactly what it was made out of. He just hadn’t noticed it until now due to the fact that both of them tended to wear multiple layers of clothing at all times. Hell, all of them did. But he couldn’t recall Vergil mentioning that he’d gone shopping at any point, well, ever. It was far from the most important thing going on at the moment, but he was still curious.

The Darkslayer shot his twin a look of slightly flabbergasted disbelief as he continued forward, stopping when he was certain that they were out of the line of sight of most of the locals. It was beyond him to try and comprehend why his younger twin cared about that with everything going on, but he still just didn’t get it. Why was he like this? Why had he always been like this?

“Magnolia purchased it. She insisted upon doing so when I visited her last week. She forced me to go shopping with her in an attempt to prevent me from hovering over V during his recovery, at least according to her.” Vergil crisscrossed Yamato through the air, this time leading to a portal opening. He let out a vague sigh of satisfaction, pleased that this time his destination seemed to be assessable. He’d never experienced such an unnerving phenomenon before, and the devil slayer in blue had no intention of doing so.” Come. We have somewhere else to be.”

Vergil stepped through the portal, signaling his urgency to Dante as he left him barely enough time to slip through after him before the portal closed. As soon as they exited the gateway, Dante took a moment to look around to try and regain some semblance of familiarity in regards to this new location. After a moment, he realized where they were. Just ahead of them was the cave entrance, or at least what remained of it. 

The blackness that had resided deeper into the structure bellowed outward like a tidal wave of putrid, all-encompassing smog, threatening to envelop the entire area. There was a definite change in the atmosphere that they found themselves in, something more primordial and malevolent. It was as though something had been unleashed in this place; some unknown seal broken. The twins looked at one another, seemingly coming to the same conclusion before activating their devil trigger forms and lurching forward into the sky.

Around the for several miles in either direction was the inky blackness that bellowed out of the remains of the conduit, snaking out in either direction like some sort of demonic tentacle monster comprised of smoke and fog. In a way, it reminded the youngest Son of Sparda of the roots of the Qliphoth, grasping and reaching out in every direction simultaneously as though it were searching for something. It was an unsettling sight, to say the least. Dante shook his head as the two of them plummeted downwards towards the center of the mass, Vergil seemingly knowing more about this than he was alluding to.

“I didn’t know that cave was keeping all of this in it. Do they do normally do this kinda thing?” Dante said hesitantly as they approached the gaping wound that the cave-in had left in the ground below. It was as though a small lake had caved in and left a massive, jagged structure in the middle. Another unintentional yet morbid reminder of what was left of Redgrave City now that the Qliphoth had been destroyed.

With a slight furrowing of his brow, Vergil responded, clearly displeased by what he saw.” In truth, I’ve only heard whispers of what happens when a conduit goes critical like this. Try as they might, there is no way to stop this. At least this time the damage will be less widespread since there are no nearby cities. And most of the region seems to be evacuating.”

As they descended into the darkness before them and attempted to find a place to land that wasn’t mostly obscured by darkness, broken trees, or rubble, Dante mulled over his brother’s statement. What did he mean by “this time”? Was this not the end of the damage? “This isn’t over, is it? What, is this thing gonna blow up or something?”

The moment they both landed in front of the conduit, the structure shuttered viciously, sufficiently knocking them both off of their feet. They returned to their human forms as they made impact with the ground below them, nearly falling into the putrid black liquid below them. With a shared barely audible groan of discomfort, they both brushed themselves off and clambered to their feet, warily eyeing the imposing monolith in front of them.

For a moment, Vergil didn’t speak. He simply gazed upon the structure, not accustomed to standing this close to something so volatile and primordial. During their initial journey to rescue V, the eldest Son of Sparda had never been afforded such an up-close and personal encounter with the conduit, but now that he was closer to it, he wished that he was anything but. The structure radiated a certain unmistakable aura that he was all too familiar with, and it brought back memories that he would prefer to permanently forget if given the opportunity. This had most certainly been Belial’s handiwork, of that there were no doubts on his part. But that didn’t mean that he understood how it had come to pass. The devil slayer in blue closed his eyes for a moment before turning to face Dante, not at all pleased with the outcome this was going to initiate.

“Yes. Absolutely.” Vergil said, the level of certainty in his voice was far from comforting considering the subject matter that they were discussing. There was a grim, unwavering quality to the way that he spoke those two simple words that made the hair on the back of Dante’s neck stand up as he gazed upon the structure in front of them. There was no stopping this thing. He didn’t even need to ask. The calm, almost relaxed demeanor that radiated off of his older twin spoke volumes. He’d accepted that things had just blown wildly out of proportion, far out of their realm of conceivable control.

Well… that’s not good. Guess you’re not gonna get a follow-up date with Magnolia anytime soon.” Dante said as another tremor echoed through the cavern, the cave becoming more and more unstable by the second.

Vergil shot Dante a somewhat livid look, clearly displeased with him. Dante resisted the urge to smile in spite of it all. Nothing about this situation was positive, aside from the embarrassment that Dante knew that his brother was concealing beneath his barely justified rage. It didn’t matter if it was a date to him or not, Vergil was going to be livid either way and he knew that the moment his lips had allowed those words to slip through them.

“It was not a date, Dante.” Vergil said through clenched teeth, letting out an irritated sigh.” We need to go.”

Dante shook his head slightly, allowing the barest form of a smirk to spread across his face.“Yea. Uh-huh. Sure, Vergil. I’m sure it wasn’t. Just keep tellin’ yourself that.”

The Darkslayer in blue unsheathed Yamato, extending towards Dante in a movement so smooth and sudden that Dante was genuinely taken aback by it. He allowed the blade to linger there for a moment, giving his younger brother a stern look of something akin to disgust before the younger of the two raised his hands in a halting gesture, signaling that he was done talking. Vergil then withdrew the blade and cut another cross-section in the air, this time more aggressively than before. The devil hunter in red got the idea that his older twin was repurposing the same motions that he’d like to do to him, but he wasn’t keen to find out. A lifetime of pushing Vergil’s buttons had taught Dante when he was dangerously close to being impaled by his brother, and his instincts told him that it was probably best to leave things be before he found himself in the possession of an extensive dry cleaning bill.

“Not another word, or I will leave you here. That I promise you, brother.” Vergil said, returning Yamato to its sheath with one graceful swing. He then stepped forward and into the portal, allowing his younger twin to follow close behind. As soon as he was out of earshot, Dante chuckled to himself as he gave the conduit a final glance and stepped through the portal, not at all surprised by his identical twin’s threat. Vergil clearly didn’t like discussing private matters, and even though Dante doubted that they had actually gone on a date, he knew that his brother would react the same way regardless. At the end of the day, Vergil was a solitary creature who didn’t enjoy others meddling in his personal affairs. But at least if they were seeing one another, Dante could finally put one question he’d always had about his older twin to rest. It seemed that friend or otherwise, Vergil possessed a predilection towards beautiful, fierce women. That was one of the few things they seemed to have in common. 

Dante couldn’t help but wonder what V and Nero’s mothers were like...

(-~-)

Sunday, August 25th, 4:30 am

“If I was willing to make a guess, I’d say the gas main probably ruptured due to the collapse of one of the buildings, and some exposed electrical wiring probably did the rest. But I’m not a civic engineer, so I can’t add anything more to the conversation. Anyway, we will be closely monitoring the situation to see if things approved in either Capulet or-”

A burst of static freed the shorter-haired man from the bleak reality of the news they’d just received, allowing them a moment to think. Nero glanced over at V, quietly cursing himself for bringing the portable radio that he’d found in the van into the house as his older sibling leaned over and silently turned the volume down, leaving it barely audible. He didn’t need to hear anything else, and Nero didn’t really disagree with the prospect of not listening to the reposts that were flooding in from both cities. Another demonic attack, and a cave-in. It didn’t take a mental giant to put together the fact that this might have something to do with the cult or the demon that they worshiped.

For almost a minute, they sat in near silence in front of the fireplace, reflecting on how something like this had happened. Everything had been just fine a few hours ago. What had changed so drastically in the short time that they’d been away from everyone else tending to V’s new dwelling? Was it that difficult for this region to go more than a week at a time without a catastrophic accident of some kind? V glanced up at Nero, his eyes traveling over towards the fireplace for a moment before he spoke.” … I did this, didn’t I? When I talked you both into going down there. I can just feel it.” He turned his attention towards the radio, fiddling with his sleeves for a moment as he considered the possible scope of his actions. There had been no way of knowing, but still. “I shouldn’t… throwing that cultist into the conduit was a terrible mistake. I just knew somehow.”

Nero shook his head, but there was a part of him that understood what he meant. It was not V’s fault that this attack had occurred, but the conduit acting like this after spending so long dormant underground did seem like fortuitous timing. But to totally blame himself for something like this didn’t seem fair. That wasn’t to say that he was surprised by this turn of events, but he still didn’t agree with the sentiments that V felt towards this situation. Was it simply his nature to respond to situations out of his control that involved innocent people being harmed by blaming himself?

“Look, this isn’t you’re-”

Before Nero could finish his statement, an unexpected sound caught their collective attention. Despite all possible logic telling them that what they’d just heard wasn’t possible, they knew better than to doubt their senses. Seemingly everything in their life was improbable. This shouldn’t’ be any different, aside from the fact that they were sitting in the living room of a basically abandoned building in the dark where no one should have known they were. That was an important factor.

And yet, in spite of it all, there was a knock at the front door.

(-~-)

My extra ass actually pulled out a damn Callender and checked what day of the week august 25th was on in 2019 for this fic as well as finding out how long the story had taken place down to the day lol! I’ve truly lost my damn mind. Guess that means they are still living in 2019… wonder how they’d all handle the pandemic lol! That’s a fic for another damn time. Also, I’m thinking of starting “book three” once I hit chapter 40 just to preserve the structure and flow of how I write. Don’t worry, it would be literally the same story, just in the form of another fic. But I’ll make another pole for that for the next chapter. More details on Friday! Sorry again for the late chapter. I hope you all enjoy turkey day!

#V'sApocrypha #Dante #Vergil #V #Nero Sparda #Devil May Cry 5 #DMC #Vitale #Devil May Cry V #Devil May Cry #DMC5 #DMCV #VDMC #A03 Fic

[robhorninginternalexile]

pleasure and protest

An essay about Covid-19 and the quarantine by Paul Preciado, published in early May in Artforum, concludes with a remarkably prescient sentiment:

It is imperative to modify the relationship between our bodies and biovigilant machines of biocontrol: They are not only communication devices. We must learn collectively to alter them. We must also learn to de-alienate ourselves. Governments are calling for confinement and telecommuting. We know they are calling for de-collectivization and telecontrol. Let us use the time and strength of confinement to study the tradition of struggle and resistance among racial and sexual minority cultures that have helped us survive until now. Let us turn off our cell phones, let us disconnect from the internet. Let us stage a big blackout against the satellites observing us, and let us consider the coming revolution together. 

When I first read it a month ago, it seemed far-fetched to me. It struck me as the kind of tacked-on rallying-cry conclusion that many critical essays end with, sounding a note of hope when their critique otherwise suggests the futility of resistance. But now it seems as though ”the time and strength of confinement” has actually turned into a surprisingly broad commitment to “study the tradition of struggle and resistance among racial and sexual minority cultures that have helped us survive until now” for those thousands of people now joining protests whose tone has been set and adopted from Black Lives Matter and other police- and prison-abolition movements. It can appear as though the “coming revolution” has indeed come, and de-alienation is taking place night after night in the streets.  

But that development doesn’t seem to have followed from Preciado’s plea that we “turn off our cell phones” and "disconnect from the Internet.” The uprising is not currently shaping up as a unified resistance to technology; rather it has manifested as a collective rejection of racist policing and all the societal manifestations of structural racism more broadly. That’s not to say that contemporary technology is not deeply implicated in sustaining and extending racism. The webs of surveillance it facilitates makes possible not only the old forms of discrimination and targeted oppression but new forms of embedded, infrastructural racism, whether that is a matter of the racist search results Safiya Umoja Noble details in Algorithms of Oppression, the systematic misidentifications of facial recognition technology that Joy Buolamwini has detailed, or the ways race is encoded and reified and leveraged, as Ruha Benjamin outlines in Race After Technology. Day after day, Chris Gilliard’s Twitter feed documents the tech industry’s complicity in structural discrimination and racist policing. Especially egregious are “neighborhood watch” platforms like Nextdoor, which are vectors for racist intimidation, and surveillance systems like Amazon’s Ring, which have proliferated through the company’s partnerships with police departments. 

So Preciado’s implied sequence of events seems backward: Our relationship to “biovigilant machines of biocontrol” — a.k.a. phones — begins to change when our relationship to resistance and liberation struggles changes first. (And then changes in relationships to technology feed into protest tactics and strategy, and so on.) 

For now, tech companies seem like they are on the defensive: For instance, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon have been pushed (thanks in part to the researchers cited here) to abandon their development of facial recognition technology or temporarily halt its sale to police departments. Some workers at companies like Facebook have questioned their roles in fomenting fascism and racism. Yet it is also easy to imagine that tech companies will try to capitalize on any progress toward police abolition by proposing as alternatives its surveillance-driven forms of predictive policing and pre-emptive discrimination (like “cashless stores” which effectively prescreen customers, and other tech-driven forms of “targeting” that allow businesses to shop for customers). All the many forms of algorithmic screening will likely be touted as useful planks in efforts to “defund the police” by automating the police’s current function of enforcing modes of segregation and unevenly distributed economic exploitation. In Cloud Ethics, Louise Amoore details how companies have tried to sell AI tools to police departments that would, for instance, anticipate protests or identify targets for ICE by scanning social media and other forms of location data and network activity. These tools are marketed as police aids but they could be repositioned as automating the police away. Of course, this would not solve the problems presented by policing, but encode them in systems that would be just as impervious to change, abetted by the false sense of computational neutrality.  

It will likely require sustained protest and pressure to prevent tech companies from putting forward their usual methods (datafication, surveillance, solutionism, regulatory capture) that their business models demand. “Decollectivization and telecontrol” will certainly be attempted to contain the protests, even if they did not necessarily spark them.

In part, Preciado’s essay focuses on ideas of immunization as protection, as exemption from risks others are made to bear, and how these kinds of exclusions become the basis for communities. "The management of epidemics stages an idea of community, reveals a society’s immunitary fantasies, and exposes sovereignty’s dreams of omnipotence—and its impotence,“ he writes. (This makes me think now of the “qualified immunity” that U.S. police are granted to protect them from legal accountability for their actions, as well as how Nextdoor permits neighborhoods to defend their whiteness.) 

Epidemics are “sociopolitical constructions rather than strictly biological phenomena.” They don’t unfold according to some script dictated by a virus’s level of contagiousness; they enter into existing social relations and present an occasion for their rearticulation. Thus, Preciado argues, “the virus actually reproduces, materializes, widens, and intensifies (from the individual body to the population as a whole) the dominant forms of biopolitical and necropolitical management that were already operating over sexual, racial, or migrant minorities before the state of exception.” With Coivd-19, this is evident in the how white people have been disproportionately less affected, an index of their relative privilege. The refusal among white people to wear masks reflects and celebrates this privilege as well, which helps explain why health officials who recommend masking have been harassed and threatened by white mobs.   

Similarly, “cures” for diseases don’t proceed inevitably to those who need them; they aren’t distributed any more evenly than power, wealth, or opportunity. They too must first reannounce the existing power relations, which delineate who deserves to become “well” or immune and who should be lastingly pathologized. (If a cure threatened existing power relations, those in power  would seek to suppress it.)

For Preciado, the social course of pandemics and “cures” reflect the more general logic of “pharmacopornographic” forms of control — “microprosthetic and media-cybernetic control” administered through communication technology and pharmaceuticals, visual and literal stimulants. As Foucault  argued about power generally, these mechanisms of control are experienced not as restrictive but as subjectivity-granting, an expansion of pleasurable possibilities that secure the subjects’ assent. Preciado writes: “These management techniques function no longer through the repression and prohibition of sexuality, but through the incitement of consumption and the constant production of a regulated and quantifiable pleasure. The more we consume and the better our health, the better we are controlled.” 

I’m often tempted by this line of analysis to treat all forms of pleasure with suspicion — anything proposed as “fun” is probably a thinly disguised form of social control, enjoyment of which establishes just how much my psyche has already been formatted by the apparatus of domination. It then follows that anything that makes me uncomfortable proves I’m engaging in a form of resistance. But that unsustainable line of thinking leads nowhere. The point is not to demonize pleasure but to explicitly politicize it, to engage in political practices that sustain a different kind of subjectivity that enjoys other kinds of joy. In this conversation with Zoé Samudzi, Vicky Osterweil explains:

One of the things that scares police and politicians the most when they enter a riot zone — and there are quotes from across the 20th century of police and politicians saying this — is that it was happy: Everyone was happy ... The playwright Charles Fuller, who happened to be a young man starting out his career during the Philadelphia riots of 1964 ... talks about the incredible sense of safety and joy and carnival that happens in the streets.

I think riots and militant violent action in general get slandered as being macho and bro-y, and lots of our male comrades like to project that sort of image. That definitely happens, but I actually think riots are incredibly femme. Riots are really emotive, an emotional way of expressing yourself. It is about pleasure and social reproduction. You care for one another by getting rid of the thing that makes that impossible, which is the police and property. You attack the thing that makes caring impossible in order to have things for free, to share pleasure on the street. Obviously, riots are not the revolution in and of themselves. But they gesture toward the world to come, where the streets are spaces where we are free to be happy, and be with each other, and care for each other.

This is the obverse of the pleasure in consumption and individuation that Preciado describes, which in his analysis is anchored in the technologies that allow us to consume in physical isolation at home like would-be Hugh Hefners in our multimedia-enabled “soft prisons,” adrift in a fantasy of dematerialized insubstantiation. 

The subjects of the neoliberal technical-patriarchal societies that Covid-19 is in the midst of creating do not have skin; they are untouchable; they do not have hands. They do not exchange physical goods, nor do they pay with money. They are digital consumers equipped with credit cards. They do not have lips or tongues. They do not speak directly; they leave a voice mail. They do not gather together and they do not collectivize. They are radically un-dividual. They do not have faces; they have masks.  

There seems to be a lot of fetishization of “real” communication implied here — again as if digital communication were the main obstacle preventing people from collectivizing their bodies for revolution. But the protests now seem to suggest that while consumerism may have been an obstacle (i.e. the right-wing talking point that the protests are popular because people can’t go shopping), digital technology, which many have been leaning on and living through more than ever under lockdown conditions, hasn’t been, at least not yet, and not in the ways Preciado is suggesting. 

The threat posed by technology is not so much that it prevents people from having “real” encounters but that it can facilitate such encounters on terms that are already fully contained — imagine, for example, protests operating only within parameters deemed acceptable in advance by machine-learning simulations, or conversations that are pre-mediated to a degree that they can’t exceed the anticipated possibilities. Preciado is right that these experiences will be pleasurable; people generally take pleasure in being accommodated, from being recognized. But to detect the kinds of pleasure that are complicit with oppressive forms of social control, it is not enough to simply look for situations where screens are foregrounded and bodies are suppressed. It’s not enough to check our voice mail.

[nenestansunsthings]

Incident 239-A, Excerpt Two

When he received the e-mail, Francis Wojciechowski's first instinct was to go for the butterflies.

The 408s had to be Butterfly's first defence. Of course they'd be-- his coworker was more obsessed with the illusionary butterflies than he was with his terrifying camera, and that was certainly something. He could be sure, at least, that 166 would be untouched, and that he could get 105 to help him before anything got too bad. James Talloran was back from that mission, wasn't he? His Mobile Task Force was in the cafeteria, presumably having just gotten the e-mail as he did. James would know to come and find him. Meri's task force was on site, too, just back after a mission neutralizing a shaper. If it concerned Butterfly, they'd all need to work together and stop him.

Past the panic and the quick part of his mind that analyzed and planned a response, some part of him had feozen. She's only three, he thought. A three-year-old girl. And Butterfly was going to kill her.

"Not on my fucking watch, Lens," Francis swore, typing up a storm. He needed to lock the place down. He needed to make sure Butterfly could never get in.

The light in his room flickered, his shadow twisting behind him, and that was all the warning he had before there was a boy stumbling into his office, stepping out of the writhing darkness. "Doctor Wojciechowski! The e-mail--"

"I'm aware." Francis sent the order. "I'm locking down 408's cell and I'm ordering an evacuation. Get as many non-combatants out as you can. Safe-ish skips, too-- we don't need a containment breach on top of this. Is Cain under control?"

"Reasonably." Which meant barely at all, yes, but that was better than nothing. Why they had someone who was basically a vengeful plant demon on an MTF he still had no idea. "Get everyone specializing in neutralizing shapers into my office within three minutes. Neutralizing, not killing. We don't want Butterfly dead."

James nodded, stepping back and disappearing into the darkness again. Francis scowled, turning back to his computer. The 408 chamber was locked down. And...

And 239's. Surveillance had sent him a live feed of her containment cell. The toddler was sitting on the mattress of her bed, kicking her legs in a rhythm as she flipped through her printed spell book. Francis took a moment to take in the sight of her, a tiny little girl like he remembered Meri to have been. He took a moment to imagine her broken, bleeding body under the dripping blade of Butterfly's sword.

"You're not getting near her, Lens," he heard himself say. "Not as long as I can stop you."

Francis clicked the feed off.

Excerpt from the personal log of Doctor ██████ Butterfly.

I don't like killing children.

Even in the GOC, I hated it. I hated seeing their lives cut short. I hated seeing the grief when people's children were shot, or stabbed, or blown into bits. I hated being on missions where I had to take out little kids or face the explosive in my neck to go off. I hated seeing them die.

But G-d fucking damn it all, this one needs to go.

I can see it. I can see from every possible vantage point exactly how she changed Site 17. Its people. Clef hasn't talked about anything but that girl ever since he'd walked into her containment cell. Iceberg visited once and suddenly there were suspiciously blue pillows and storybooks being delivered from Site 19. Draven's been talking about dreaming of some toddler turning the souls he hears when he sleeps into stuffed toys. And--

And they seem happy. They seem so fucking happy.

It's selfish. I should let them. I should give them this.

I remember snapping, once. I put myself into containment for a week after. It was the anniversary of when she Draven's mother died. Was killed. Clef made a bad joke about marriage and I just...

I told him to shut up and throw himself off the roof for being an asshole.

Sometimes, when I'm off my meds, the depression gets bad enough that I forget things. I could never forget the look in his eyes when I said that.

Clef... Francis... He got up and started walking. There was nothing behind his eyes.

I stopped him before he got out of the break room. I don't remember how I did that. I think I was crying? I don't remember. But I remember, when he snapped out of it...

G-d, he was terrified. Of me.

She's doing that. On a bigger scale. Making them into nothing but bodies to do her wishes. She's three, and I get that, but she's turning them into puppets, and I...

I can't let her do that. I have to stop her.

Even if it means killing another little girl.

Butterfly found six agents stationed by the entrance waiting for him.

The site was quiet. He couldn't hear the buzz that was life inside it, the noise that came with humanity and things that were close to it. They'd listened when he told them to evacuate. The only flickering little signs of something alive inside were few and far between, separated into little groups with freedom of movement and more weapons than he'd expected. Clef worked fast, he mused. He was a far more efficient site director when things were going wrong.

"We're giving you one chance to surrender, Butterfly," one of the agents said. A field agent, judging by the uniform under the protective gear. One of the ones who expected to be expendable. An interesting choice, Clef. "Put your hands up and get down."

"I blew up your doors," he shot back. "Do you think I'd stop now?"

The woman's gun cocked. "Stand. Down."

"You wouldn't have done this if I was just trying to blow up the statue, would you?" Butterfly asked tiredly. He was pretty sure 173 wouldn't have merited this much protection. Their protective gear was good. If he had his camera... But no, he'd left it on Clef's desk like an idiot. Hadn't gotten it back before the termination attempt. Whatever; he'd have to improvise.

Butterfly pulled a notebook and scribbled down one sentence. You will go to sleep.

It took a moment-- his anomaly was rusty, after all. But all at once, like an insect flapping its wings, it took effect. Every one of the agents collapsed, unconsciousness hitting them hard, and Butterfly groaned as they hit the ground. They'd all be like that, wouldn't they? Ready to die for that girl.

There was a note on the first agent's back. He'd recognize Francis's looping handwriting anywhere. Have the decency to leave them outside when you're done.

... Time-wasting tactics? Good, Clef, but not good enough.

Butterfly hefted the six agents up without an issue, depositing them outside the doors. He checked the hallway carefully-- no more hidden fighters, huh?-- and after a moment he stepped in.

A tiny LED light in the corner flicked blue.

And the corridor erupted in bullets.

From the relative safety of a few halls down, Francis checked the security feed. One of the cameras had cut out. The bullets were distracting Butterfly well enough. They weren't lethal, only thick rubber and wood meant to subdue and not kill, but they served their true purpose well.

He didn't even notice the sleeping gas.

Francis adjusted his gas mask, making sure it was entirely secure and gripping a familiar weapon in his hands. A camera, of course. It wasn't his.

If he got past the sleeping gas... Well, Butterfly would be wanting it back. And Francis was happy to oblige.

#scp butterfly au #butterfly au #scp foundation #swapverse #incident 239-b #ask to tag #writey asks #ish

[note-katha]

Evenfall Chapter One

Alright, according to my notes, it’s just about time for the story to begin. Now, before we get started, we should review some very important things.

What we discuss while this story unveils you might want to keep secret. You could tell people, but then I’d tell you to expect more than a few weird looks and questions about your mental stability. If that’s what you were aiming for, go ahead!

I personally find that keeping the ongoings of Everless a much more favorable (and easier!) solution.

Secondly, I hope you don’t find yourself at a loss with all the information the story requires, I understand that there’s quite a bit you don’t know, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn! Learning is very important and you can count on me to be a wonderful teacher!

So, without further ado, let’s begin!

The Melpomene dorm was the school’s oldest dorm, the first one built and the smallest to boot. It wasn’t used as often as the other dorms, only really being used if there were too many students. Or given to a very particular type of students, which was quite rare but not unwelcome. Usually.

For one reason or the other, Kalavathi, Juli, and Ardis found themselves assigned to the dorm, taking residence alongside six others.

Taking the other suite on the single floor of the dorm was a quartet of second-year students who seemed very...odd.

While we know that there is much more to the world than humans, these people seemed to barely pass as such.

Oh yes, and filling out the fourth slot in their room was a girl named, hm, really? One moment, let me check this.

Right, yes, yes, that’s actually her name? Wow.

Filling out the fourth slot in their room was a girl named “Mary Sue”. Yes, really. I can’t believe it either.

The final person in the dorm was their “RA”, resident advisor. A relatively charming demon-type who rarely fit the assumed archetype for demons. Don’t let the horns fool you, they’re very nice. You see, however, the problem with demon names is that they’re written and pronounced in a script which is also used in magic, usually demonic specific magic. It’s not hard to say words in that script normally, but those not trained to know the difference usually face some problems.

Their name will damn any normal human that attempts to say it to another realm in which no one has ever been able to return to, so when I tell you, don’t say it out loud.

It’s Tattvagyega. They usually go by Tatti or Cels. They visit me frequently and we talk about the people trapped there. Cels visits them to apologize and bring snacks. They make a mean sugar cookie, you should try them one day.

Apologies, that was off-track, let’s focus on our main trio, yes?

Kalavathi was the first, as usual, to arrive. “So, this is my new home,” she thought aloud, as she was prone to do. “Could be worse,” she shrugged, pulling the school-provided luggage cart behind her as she walked up. Kal pulled the keys to the dorm out, this building is so old they have keys instead of cards, scary, I know. She unlocked the door, entering the quaint and warm building. She walked in backwards, in order to properly pull the cart in.

“Hello!” A voice called out to her, “Welcome! I’m your RA, Cels Ev’rals. You are?” Kal didn’t answer for a moment as she yanked the cart into the building.

“My name’s Kala—” she cut herself off with a panicked scream when she finally turned around. Cels was a demon, a Southern Demon to be exact, which meant deep red skin and curly, ram-like, horns. I can see why that would be a bit scary, especially for someone like Kal who managed to make it this far without realizing that Evenfall wasn’t normal.

Cels frowned, cocking their head to the side before glancing down. “Aw man, I forgot my glamour, didn’t I?” They, in fact, had but with a quick rambling recitation of their glamour spell, the young demon appeared far more human. A deep tan and messy brown hair replaced their demonic visage. “Better?” they asked.

Kal stared blankly for a moment, running through what had just happened in her mind. As rational as she usually was, she had had a sneaking suspicion that Evenfall wasn’t normal, one that was just confirmed. Taking into account that information she groaned. Quite loudly as she crouched to the floor.

Cels took a step forward, unsure how they could help.

“Kalavathi Nayri, I prefer Kal and I’m a Computer Science and Graphic Design double major.” She took a moment to regain her composure and stand. “On my acceptance, it said W, Creation. I have no idea what that means.”

“Oh, Creation Witch?” Cels offered, glancing at his list, “That matches up. You’re our only second circle. Nice.”

Kal opened her mouth to ask questions.

“Wait till orientation, they’ll explain better than I can.”

“Alright,” Kal nodded. “Nice to meet you, by the way, Cels,” she said, offering a hand to shake. Cels beamed as they accepted the handshake.

It was now that our second and third main characters finally managed to make their first appearances in considerably less fanfare than Kalavathi.

Ardis pushed the door open, scanning the room with a hesitant expression. Or, rather, it seemed like a mostly blank one, but that’s because Ardis isn’t the best at facial emotions. I can relate, Ardis, so don’t feel bad.

“Hello?” He called out to the two. “Uh, I’m here to move in?”

Cels waved, “Hello, welcome!” They took a few steps back, giving room for Kal and Ardis to adjust their carts, along with a third person, whom as previously mentioned, is Juli. “Welcome to Evenfall, if I can get you two’s names, I can leave you alone to unpack before your orientations.”

“Ardis Akiya-Blair, freshman Astrobiology major.”

“The Nature Witch,” Cels said aloud as they checked it off, “And you?”

“Juli Cárdenas Rivera Silva Vicente,” she answered without hesitation, “Major is currently undecided.”

“The Voice Witch, nice to meet you guys. Let me know if you have any questions! This right here,” they pointed at the entrance right beside the group, “is actually your suite. Four rooms, a full kitchen, and a common area. We’ll deal with rooming agreements tomorrow, you guys relax tonight and have fun at orientation.” Cels gave them a charming smile, as they were prone to do, smile before heading off.

“Uh, they’re not human,” Kal said as she faced the group. “Are you human? You look human but I’m not sure what to trust anymore.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m human,” Ardis nodded, “I found out about the magical thing, which might make me not human.” He shrugged, “My name’s Ardis, by the way.”

“Kalavathi, but you can call me Kal,” she answered on instinct, “Thinking about it now, I probably shouldn’t be that surprised that this school isn’t normal.”

“Yeah, I kind of just came because it was in-state for me. Magic was not expected,” Juli admitted, “Call me Jules, nice to meet you guys! We’re suitemates it seems, huh?” She grinned at them, “Then that means we gotta team up to figure out everything new we’re gonna experience.” Ah, fortunately, Jules was at the very very confident end of her confidence spectrum. Good, that’s going to help today.

There was a beat of silence and before anyone could speak, the door swung open.

“Of course, I get this kind of dorm,” someone groaned loudly as they entered.

Ah, yes, her. Mary Sue stepped into the building, her blonde hair tied up into a ponytail. A somewhat ridiculous expression of apparent irritation. Her scowl got worse as she looked around as if she had heard something.

She eyed the group, “Do you know where the RA is?”

The three pointed in the direction Cels had gone in. Without even any thanks, she walked off to find Cels.

Jules frowned lightly, but shrugged, “Hey, anyone have a preference about their rooms in the suite?”

“Let’s get into the suite first, then pick,” Kal offered, “We should head over for orientation afterward.” Aw, Kal’s trying to socialize. I’m so proud of her!

Orientation took place in the school’s amphitheater, the heart of Evenfall University’s campus and a typically beautiful place which students often used as a hangout spot.

However, now, as the sun was slowly beginning to set, students of all types that made up the freshman class were finding seats on the grass. Many whispering between each other, trying to figure out what was going on.

Not too long after our trio arrived, taking seats close to the stage, did they notice the two professor-looking adults milling about on the stage itself.

“What school does their orientation when it’s getting dark?” Kal murmured, “On top of that, what school makes their freshman wait until the day after orientation to sign up for classes?”

“It’s certainly weird,” Ardis nodded, “The school’s seemingly pretty well functioning, so I don’t think there’s much cause for worry.”

Before Kal could respond, there was a small commotion. The two professors scrambling off the main stage before an explosion of smoke erupted and spilled out of nowhere.

Lights were the first thing visible. Shapes on the grass, ones that began to light up everywhere.

A line within a triangle within a square within a pentagon, all starting from the very top of the pentagon with a small dot in the center. Ah, yes, the Five Circles of Magic! A lovely symbol.

Once the smoke dissipated, there stood a woman, brightly smiling and illuminated by the sigil beneath her feet.

“Welcome to Evenfall University!” The woman waved, “My name is Suvati Kair and I’m the Dean here at Evenfall.” Ah, yes, Suvati. Her flair for the dramatics will never end, it seems. “I’m sure many of you have questions, so allow me to explain.” With a flick of her wrist and a recitation of something that wasn’t exactly English, lights began to flicker to life around her, fifteen to be exact. “It might come as a surprise to some, though I imagine at least a few of you have figured it out, but Evenfall is home to one of many magical universities devoted to providing a place of education and safety to all students. We also work to find students with Nevermore heritage or magical background in order to educate them on their identity and abilities.” She pointed at one of the professors, “Dr. Avali here will take over to discuss the basics of what Nevermore and Everless are.”

Dr. Avali, an Angel, and not exactly the type you’ve read about, though I can see why you’d think that, with the fluffy white wings and all, took center stage.

“Hello, my name is Dr. Alex Avali, I’m a professor here, I teach a variety of mathematics classes along with the Angelic Educa class here at Evenfall University,” he began, his voice managing to ring throughout the amphitheater yet remain soft. He’s using a vocal enchantment charm, to explain. Alex loves those things, he doesn’t have to raise his voice for people to hear him. “We’ll start with what is Everless. The answer? This.” He waved his arms around, “Here is Everless. This town, this country, this continent, this world, this solar system, galaxy, universe.” Dr. Avali listed.

He glanced around, not seeing enough understanding in the students. I know I could explain it far better, but he continued. “We are the other side of the pond, but I don’t mean across the pond. Everless is the place when you jump into the pond and emerge on the other side. The other side to us is Nevermore, the birthplace of magic.”

Kal leaned forward, entranced. She didn’t need to spare a glance to her new roommates to know that they shared in her wonder.

Taglist, asked to be added or removed: @spacebrick3, @no-url-ideas-tho, @arynneva, @superwaywardangel, @likeicarusifall @aschenink, @writing-for-the-batfam, @ekrizdis, @wiccanchester

#notetalking #note writes #my writing #writing #project: evenfall

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 1: Dead Zone

All right, it’s time or the first DBZ movie.   Dead Zone premiered on July 15, 1989, right between epsiodes 11 and 12.   It wasn’t actually called “Dead Zone”, and it’s title was simply “Dragon Ball Z” until the other movies came out, and then it was known in Japan as “Return my Gohan!”     Personally, I think “Dead Zone” works better as a title although it doesn’t really come into play until the very end.  

I ran into some trouble with this one, because I own all the DBZ movies on Blu-Ray, and it turns out that I can’t take screen captures of Blu-Ray movies on my computer.   So my only other option was to log on to Funimation’s streaming service and get my images from there.   But the video quality was pathetic, so I’ll apologize in advance for the crappy screenshots.  

I’m not sure how I’ll proceed with the other films.   I can’t use Funimation.com for all of them, because the Bardock special, the Broly movies, and Fusion Reborn were all taken off the site, probably because they’ve been playing them in theaters lately.   I guess I could buy the DVD editions, but I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.   Well, I’ll worry about that later.

We open on this shot of Piccolo screaming.   Right away, you call tell this is going to be a great movie.   Casablanca should have done this.  

I’m not sure what Piccolo is up to here, but I guess he’s blowing up rock formations as part of his training to beat Goku someday.  

Then he gets ambushed by three mysterious warriors, and they pretty much eat his lunch.   A fourth one orders them to kill Piccolo.

Piccolo screams, and there’s an explosion, and the bad guys seem pretty confident that he’s dead.   They also know that since Piccolo and Kami were once the same person, they’ve killed Kami along with Piccolo, which seems to have been the purpose of this attack.

Except Kami’s just fine.  We see him on the Lookout, sitting in what looks like a confessional.   He’s startled, but only because he can sense that Piccolo has been defeated.   He suspects Goku, but then he realizes that it must have been... him. 

From there, we move on to Goku’s house, where the Ox King just arrived to bring Gohan some presents.   It’s very much like the first few episodes of DBZ, only this time Gohan is actually home when Ox shows up.

But then Ox King collapses, and Gohan has to run away before his grandpa can fall on him.

Turns out some bad guy coldcocked Ox King from behind, and now he wants the Dragon Ball on Gohan’s hat.  Chi-Chi sends Gohan into the relative safety of the house...

...but this guy’s waiting inside, so that’s no good.   Also he eats three pears, just because.

Chi-Chi squares up to fight these guys, but there’s three of them and one of her, and she has to keep an eye on Gohan too.  There’s a lot of gifs out there of Chi-Chi’s desperate stance in this movie, because it’s just so well-animated.   Everything in this movie is well-animated, really.    It might not be the most innovative story, but the visuals more than make up for it.  

Chi-Chi can’t even land a blow, as it turns out.   The bad guys take Gohan and leave, and Goku’s out fishing.   Somehow, he senses it when Chi-Chi falls, and he runs back to the house to see what’s wrong.   Chi-Chi tells him that his son has been kidnapped by bad guys.   The question now is: Is Goku a bad enough dude to rescue him?   The answer is yes.  

Then we cut to the bad guys’ lair.   This shot looks amazing.   I love the weird architecture of the castle, I love the salmon-colored sky and the yellow clouds, it’s just really pleasant to look at.   I’d hang this up on my wall at home if I did that sort of thing. 

The leader, named Garlic Junior, plans to use the Dragon Balls to wish for eternal life.   With Gohan’s capture, they now have five of the Dragon Balls, and they seem pretty confident that they can locate the last two without much trouble.   I’m curious as to how they can find them so easily, but this is never explained.

Also, I don’t understand why they kidnapped Gohan when all they wanted was the Dragon Ball on his hat.   Gohan informs them that his father will come rescue him, and the bad guys seem mildly impressed to learn that Goku is his father.   Garlic even recognizes Goku as the man who defeated Piccolo at the World Martial Arts tournament.    On the other hand, they just got done beating Piccolo, and quite easily, so they figure they can handle Goku if he happens to show up.

Garlic senses that Gohan has a great power within him, and decides to raise him as his henchman.   This right here turns out to be a huge mistake.  Bringing Gohan here was a questionable move at best, but here we see Garlic decide to keep the kid, rather than kill him or send him back to his family.    It just isn’t worth it.   Yeah, Gohan might make a useful flunky, but does Garlic really need one?   Probably not, but he’s too high on his own success to hedge his bets. 

Meanwhile, Goku heads to Master Roshi’s place to get Bulma’s Dragon Radar.   Not sure how he knew Bulma was at Roshi’s place, but whatever.   Just like in the TV series, when Radditz kidnapped Gohan, Goku was able to track his son by the Dragon Ball on his hat.   And this seems like a good time to discuss the continuity of this movie.

See, the original Dragon Ball movies sort of functioned as a retelling of Goku’s early adventures, with different characters and plot elements tossed in.   It was readily apparent that they didn’t fit into the continuity of the TV anime or the manga, because they literally retold key moments, like Goku meeting Bulma for the first time, or Krilln meeting Master Roshi, or Tao Pai Pai’s murder of Bora.   But the circumstances were changed, so it was clear that those movie moments didn’t fit in with the original story.   The DBZ movies, on the other hand, sort of operate as side-stories to the manga and anime, ecxcept that there’s usually one or two plot holes that keep them from fitting into the mythos.   

In this case, the big problem is that Bulma, Roshi, and Krillin are helping Goku find his lost son, but they didn’t find out Goku even had a son until Episode 2 of DBZ, which ends with Radditz kidnapping the boy.    If not for this scene right here, you could make an argument that this movie works as a prequel to DBZ, and Gohan got kidnapped by a different supervillain right before Raditz showed up.   

So why not say that it’s set after the battle with Raditz?    Because Goku dies in that battle, and by the time he comes back, Piccolo is dead.    By the time Piccolo returns to life, they’re all on Planet Namek.    You won’t see all of these characters reunited on Earth until Episode 121.    By that time, Goku’s a Super Saiyan, and Gohan is a few years older, and far more capable than the timid little boy we see in this movie.  

Still, it’s a pretty subtle plot hole, which I think is why some fans cling to the idea that the movies are canon somehow.   It doesn’t help that Toei did a whole filler arc in the anime, where Garlic Junior returns and references the events of the movie, but it just doesn’t make sense. 

Back at Garlic’s castle, he’s sent two of his minions to gather the last two Dragon Balls, while the third has to look after Gohan.   He doesn’t care much for this, and he stops to take a break by eating fruit from a tree in the courtyard...

... But Gohan has the same idea.  

Turns out this is special fruit that gets you drunk.  

Gohan has a whole hallucination, complete with a musical theme.

Somehow he wanders into Garlic’s oversized novelty cuckoo clock.

And then he sleeps it off on Garlic’s throne. Garlic seems to consider all of this as a sign that Gohan is no ordinary child, so maybe a normal kid would just pass out or die if they ate that fruit. 

Doesn’t matter, because it’s wish time.  Garlic gets all seven balls, and he asks the Dragon to make him immortal, and it works!   Goku’s still on his way when this happens.    It’s kind of surreal to see a bad guy pull something like this off without a hitch.    Even King Piccolo had to fight a few people first.

The actual process of making Garlic Junior immortal seems to involve some sort of energy transfer.    It even looks a little uncomfortable, but Garlic is sure that it worked. 

then we get this whole scene of demons rising up from the ground and marching off to war.    I’m not sure if this is actually happening while Garlic is becoming immortal, or if he’s just imagining what he’s going to do now that no one can stop him.

Goku arrives soon after, demanding the release of his son, and then Kami shows up, all glowing yellow like he’s a big shot.  Garlic is shocked to see Kami, since he assumed he was already dead, but Goku is just annoyed that Kami is butting into his rescue mission.   This scene makes a lot more sense when you’ve seen Kami and Goku quibble over the fight with Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball.

From there, Kami starts explaining just who Garlic Junior is.   Turns out that Garlic Senior was Kami’s rival for the job of Guardian of the Earth.   The previous Kami recognized the evil ambitions in Garlic, Sr.’s heart, so he picked the guy we now know as Kami.   Garlic, Sr. was a sore loser about this, so he rebelled against Kami, only to be defeated.   According to Kami, Garlic Senior’s last words were that he would take his revenge 300 years later. 

Kami finds it tragic that Garlic would be so evil as to put his own son in charge of his vengeance, but that’s where things stand.    So let’s talk about this for a bit.

I guess this is one of the things that makes this one of my favorites.    The previous films really didn’t add anything to the lore or advance the story.   Mystical Adventure was pretty good and fun, but it basically rehashed the same ideas that were already established in the TV series.   My favorite part of that movie was the Mifan Empire, but it can’t exist outside of that movie, because there’s no Chiaotzu or Crane Hermit to run the place.    On the other hand, the villain in Dead Zone has ties to Kami, which means that we can learn some things about Kami that maybe fit into the canon as well?   Like, this movie isn’t canon, but Kami is, so maybe he really did have to compete with a guy named Garlic to get the job 300 years ago?

Anyway, Garlic Junior seems to be an amalgam of several Dragon Ball villains.  He looks a lot like Emperor Pilaf, to the point where Funimation cast Chuck Huber to play both roles.   Garlic always struck me as an attempt to make an Emperor Pilaf who could really cause trouble.    Beyond that, Garlic also resembles King Piccolo because of his wish on the Dragon Balls and his plan to conquer the world, and he resembles Piccolo Junior, in the sense that he’s been tasked to avenge the defeat of his wicked father.   I don’t know if the Garlics have the same relationship as the Piccolos, where the son is essentially a duplicate of the father, but it could be like that.   Garlic also resembles Raditz by kidnapping Gohan and using similar moves to battle Goku and Piccolo later, and finally, he resembles Vegeta in his desire to wish for immortality.   Put all of this together, and you end up with a pretty compelling movie boss. 

At his core, though, I think Garlic is sort of meant to be an evil version of Kami.   Garlic Senior failed to impress the previous Kami, so he went full-on evil.    The current Kami, on the other hand, succeeded because he purged himself of his wickedness, although he created Piccolo in the process.    The implication here is that it was kind of a no-win situation.    The previous Kami had to choose between two inadequate applicants.    One became a villain and the other created a villain.   Even when Garlic Senior was defeated, his son was left behind to carry on his vendetta. 

The story raises more questions than answers, though.    What was Garlic Junior doing for 300 years?   Training, I guess, but it never gets explained.   The Garlic Junior Saga will later establish that he and his father are aliens from the planet Makyo, so how does that all fit into this?    Was Garlic Senior always a bad guy, or was he truly sincere in his desire to become Kami until he was turned down for the job?    Where are the Spice Boys in all of this?

Anyway, Goku doesn’t care about any of this.    He’s just here for his son, and for some reason Garlic’s minions actually bother to stop him.   They introduce themselves as Ginger...

...Sansho...

... And Nikki.

Then they puff up their bodies to get stronger and faster.

The three of them give Goku a little trouble, but then Krillin and Piccolo show up and the odds are now even.   I guess Krillin followed Goku here from Roshi’s place, while Piccolo survived the ambush from the start of the movie, and now he’s here for revenge.

Turns out that Garic’s henchmen aren’t so tough when they can’t gang up on someone.   Piccolo crushes Sansho like it’s not even hard.

Meanwhile, Kami and Garlic fight.   This is kind of a big deal, because we never get to see Kami in action in the anime, even though he was supposed to be a very powerful character in the Piccolo sagas.  But this is DBZ, so he’s helpless against as DBZ villain like Garlic.  

But Kami still has some power to spare.

Meanwhile, Goku fights Nikki and Ginger at the same time, and while they give him a little trouble, he wins pretty handily.    This movie also marks one of the few times we see Goku use his Nyoibo as an adult.    I feel like DBZ never quite figured out what happened to the Nyoibo after Goku came down from Kami’s Lookout, but he’s got it in this movie, and he needs it, because Nikki and Ginger can pull swords out of their bodies.

This movie also marks the first time Goku actually kills a villain with a Kamehameha.   In the past he either misses or the bad guy survives somehow, but here he aims at Ginger, hits him, and then hits Nikki with the same blast.   That’s one of the nice things about the movies.    They’re very short and self-contained, so there isn’t time for plot twists like “The big finishing move didn’t work!” or “Goku lost!  What do we do now?”   If Goku loses in a movie he just has to get up and try again, or hope the bad guy is feeling merciful.

Kami is clearly overmatched against Garlic, so he tries to blow himself up to kill Garlic in the process.    Trouble is, Garlic’s immortal, so that trick wouldn’t work.

Fortunately, Goku and Piccolo want a piece of Garlic Junior, so Kami can sit this one out.   Garlic actually wonders why either of these dudes would come to Kami’s aid.    Isn’t it obvious?    Garlic kidnapped Goku’s son, and he ambushed Piccolo, so now they want revenge.   I mean, on top of that, Garlic’s plans for the Earth would make things tough for their own lives, but there’s plenty of reasons for them to want to beat him up.

So Garlic transforms into the big beefy guy we saw in shadow a the start of the movie.    I guess this makes him the first Dragon Ball character to transform?   Well, Goku and Gohan turned into giant apes, but still, this is kind of a big deal.

Like I was saying, Garlic sort of resembles Raditz here, in that he managed to get Goku and Piccolo to team up against him.    He even uses the same opening move as Raditz, rushing towards them, vanishing, and then hitting them in the back with his elbows at the same time.

So where’s Krillin in all of this?   Goku tasked him with looking after Gohan, but when the fight started, Krillin got clobbered by a falling pillar and dropped the kid. 

Outside, Goku and Piccolo shed their weighted training clothes, just as they did against Raditz.    Goku again expresses surprise that Piccolo even uses weighted training clothes, so once again, this episode just doesn’t fit in continuity.   They could have teamed up to fight Garlic and Raditz, but Goku can only find out about Piccolo’s weighted clothes once.

Anyway, shedding the wieghted clothes seems to do the trick pretty well, so I guess that means Garlic Junior isn’t quite as tough as Raditz.   

For some reason, they decide Garlic is beaten, so they move on to settling their own rivalry.   Did everyone just forget that he’s immortal?

Garlic Junior sure didn’t, since he’s back on his feet.    But instead of fighting again, he takes a different approach.

Here’s a great shot of the castle, by the way.

Then this black hole looking thing opens up in the sky and starts sucking everything into it.

Piccolo almost gets drawn in, but Goku manages to save him, which is pretty awesome.

I always thought “Dead Zone” was a dub-ism, but no, that’s what Garlic himself calls it in the original script.    He even says “Dead Zone” in English.   What is a dub-ism (I think) is that his father, Garlic Senior, was banished into the Dead Zone 300 years ago.   Of course, any living thing that gets trapped in the Dead Zone gets killed eventually, so we might as well call that an execution, but the Japanese dub never mentions this when discussing Senior’s fate.  

It would be kind of ironic, though, because Kami doesn’t have anything to do with the power of opening portals to the Dead Zone.   Garlic Junior can do it (obviously), so if Senior got stuck in the Dead Zone, then that sort of implies that he put himself there accidentally, just like Junior is about to... well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Turns out Gohan’s awake now, and he’s mad.

I mean really mad!

Garlic isn’t entirely surprised to see that Gohan can resist the suction of the Dead Zone, but he doesn’t seem to think Gohan can stop him either.  He prepares to attack him with all of his power...

But Gohan fires an energy blast that knocks Garlic off his feet, and sends him into the Dead Zone instead.   

Garlic proclaims that this won’t kill him, but I don’t know if he’s relieved or terrified by that prospect.

Now that the moment has passed, Gohan just sort of passes out.

And without Garlic to maintain the portal, the effect wears off.

And then the sky fractures?   I don’t know what this is supposed to mean.   I thought the yellow and red color scheme just meant that it was sunset at Garlic’s fortress...

But now it’s a clear blue mid-day sky.    So I guess it was Garlic Junior’s doing?   Anyway, Kami remarks that he’s trapped forever in the Dead Zone, without even death to relieve his suffering in that place.  

Ironically, Gohan thinks it was Goku who saved him, when it was actually the other way around.  

Piccolo watches the others leave, and promises to deal with Goku another day.

And then we find the shards of the orange sky on the bottom of the sea, and Garlic is inside one of them, desperately trying to get out.  

So yeah, this is one of my personal faves from the movies.    I dig the idea of a bad guy actually wishing for immortality, only to have it backfire on him so spectacularly.   It fits in nicely with the whole theme of greed in this story.   Garlic didn’t need to attack Piccolo or kidnap Gohan to further his plan, but he did it anyway because he saw no downside to it, and it all came back to haunt him.   Goku and Piccolo almost lost when they got too wrapped up in their own grudge, but they managed to get back on track before it got out of hand.   

Also, this movie is just a visual feast.    Even simple things like Nikki eating pears or Chi-Chi tossing her apron aside are really beautifully done.   

It’s a little light on characters, but after Mystical Adventure, I’d say that was a good move.   Yeah, it would have been nice to have more of the gang in this movie, but they would have slowed the story down.   Honestly, they could have left Krillin out of the mix and it wouldn’t have hurt anything.  

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #dead zone #goku #piccolo #gohan #krillin #kami #garlic junior #nikki #ginger #sansho #shenron #garlic senior #master roshi #bulma #ox king #chi chi #dbmovieliveblog

[ayearofpike]

Thirst No. 5: The Sacred Veil

Simon Pulse, 2013 441 pages, 17 chapters + prologue and epilogue ISBN 978-1-4424-6731-6 LOC: PZ7.P626 Thb 2013 OCLC: 795175747 Released March 5, 2013 (per B&N)

With all the bad guys destroyed, Sita and her friends should be safe, right? Not so fast — there’s still a nationwide manhunt going on, enhanced by the computer program that’s already told authorities about Team Vampire. On top of this, the now-headless devil’s advocate had a photo in her suitcase implying that the evils are after a sacred artifact that Sita came into contact with during World War II. To beat them to it, she’ll have to trace a past that she can’t remember in order to cancel a deal she didn’t make.

With this book, it feels like Pike is finding his stride with the modern YA genre. It’s more pages than we strictly need to tell the story, the group is given reasons for existence beyond “Sita likes us,” and the vampires finally fuck. That said, it does use some of Pike’s favorite tropes: flashbacks, Hinduism, the consistent timeline, jumping from high places, muthafuckin lizard aliens. You’re not going to mistake this for someone else’s work, especially if you’ve already read The Wicked Heart.

Yep! Pike is reusing his old assets again! This time, it’s the evil descendant of Heinrich Himmler ... well, sort of. We’ll get there. I guess it was only a matter of time before Sita had an Adventure With Nazis, considering how the Holocaust is a monster of a humanitarian travesty, relatively prominent in American minds, and it’s natural that Pike would want to explore how she might have tried to fight it. Plus it’s kind of a get-deep-quick card in terms of how your story is going to be received, and it does sell books. (I was recently at my kid’s book fair — at an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL — and was alarmed by the number of books about WWII and the Holocaust.) 

Whatever it is, I am really not into white dudes fictionalizing Nazi Germany. But I read this anyway, because I’m dedicated or something. 

I might as well jump in with the summary, and I’m going to try to be quick about it, even though I pretty much need to re-read the book. But as I said, there’s a lot less action in this story, and we already know Sita and her backstory from the last eight, so I don’t have to be quite as worried about leaving stuff out. Still, this book kind of comes from nowhere, so I’ll do my best to be fast yet thorough.

We pick up where The Shadow of Death left off, with Sita deciding whether or not to return to Earth. Of course she does, because she’s got friends to take care of and a headless demon channeler to bury. But in going through the kid’s effects, she finds a picture of a couple, the woman looking familiar for some reason. When she looks closer at the picture, she sees why: there’s another photo on their table of another couple, and these ones were friends and confidants to Sita in Paris in the 1940s. There are two reasons why the devil might have a picture of these people, and Sita isn’t buying the first, that it’s a link to her. It must be the other: the woman is the most likely owner of the Veil of Veronica, a sacred cloth used to wash Jesus’s face as he carried the cross and now containing some of his essence.

Sita and Immortal Boyfriend want to follow the trail, but CEO is less inclined. She feels that hiding out is going to be better for them, because sooner or later the national law enforcement search for them is going to at least shift to the back burner and it will be safer to move around the country. But when Sita calls the last number dialed on Demon Girl’s phone and gets Satan himself on the line, the decision is made: they have to get the veil before the evil does. So they drive to Vegas (again, fuckin’ Vegas), where CEO has a stash of cash and some fake IDs for everybody, which ... weird. But she buys a jet and they take off for North Carolina, where they’ve traced this couple in the picture.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Sita book if they could just travel unencumbered. They’re targeted by a couple of military jets, which Sita dispatches by jumping out of the plane and forcing one pilot to eject before using his missiles to blow up the other. Everybody parachutes to safety (well, not the military pilots) and hitchhikes with a trucker to Chapel Hill, en route to which Sita has to hypnotize a couple more cops at a roadblock (though the trucker is cool). Then they set the humans up at a hotel while she and Immortal Boyfriend go scope out the address. Right away it’s clear they’re too late: there are two dudes with critical injuries on the floor. One is the husband, and Sita manages to hypnotize him into describing the attackers and what they’ve done with his wife, only she doesn’t understand how they took her into the sky. He doesn’t know where the veil is, but they find a book written in code across four different languages. Sita also finds footprints leading away from the house ... to a charred circle in the grass, glowing with radioactivity.

The other dude on the floor showed up and tried to help, the husband says before he dies, so they decide to take him back to the hotel and see if he has more intel. Back at the hotel, Sita heals his head injury, enough that he wakes up and tells her he knows a little bit about what they’re doing but he can’t explain why or how he got the information. He does maintain that he can disable the tracking program that’s made them wanted criminals, using a mishmash of technology in a bag that they found in what was obviously his watch nest, but Sita insists that he needs to sleep first. She’s not gonna sleep, though: she’s gonna flash back to her experience in Nazi-occupied Paris, breaking a resistance leader out of a torture cell and bringing him to her friends, who are both doctors, for a little underground treatment. This is a prominent memory of the veil and how it can help soothe and calm fears, and maybe even ward off evil, which Sita needed after a long night of infiltrating a Gestapo headquarters and soaking up the terrors within.

She tells this story to Seymour and Immortal Boyfriend the next day, as they fly their new plane to New York. It's the home base of the phone number Sita dialed on their deceased spy's phone, after all, and they've traced it to a monster of a law firm that CEO can tell is shady through her own experience. How did they get the clearance to fly? Well, it seems that our mysterious new spy wasn't lying about his ability to throw a snarl at the Internet program and slow it down long enough to free up Team Vampire to slip through security. Our immortals kidnap the lawyer and get him to admit that his firm was working with the Indian girl on background checks, and also that they funnel dark money to the Pentagon for what is rumored to be military spacecraft. He doesn't get a chance to say more, though — armed mercenaries blow up the entire side of the hotel, taking him out, though Sita and Immortal Boyfriend escape over the roof and down the back stairs.

They did manage to make off with the lawyer's laptop, though, and while New Spy hacks it Sita traces him through his fingerprints, because of course there's a missing persons report out on him. In talking to the dude's wife and son, though, she's confused to learn that he's just, like, some guy. No particular skills, talents, or intelligence, just a decent dude who withdrew ten grand from his bank account and disappeared. Oh, but he did have a passion for astronomy, and in the last month before he took off he could be found staring at one star through a telescope for hours on end.

When she returns, New Spy has news: the military is definitely developing spacecraft, out at Nellis Air Force Base in, yep, fuckin' Vegas again. Seymour makes a connection from this development to the number of early NASA scientists who were reformed Nazis, but Sita warns him to shut the fuck up before he reveals too much. She tells him a little more of the story on the flight out: how she learned about changes in the Germans' military movement plans and swam across the English Channel to inform Allied forces (including a one-on-one meeting with George S. Patton, who insisted he knew her from a past life) but returned to Paris to find her SS informant murdered, her friends taken into custody, and a cold-blooded major waiting with a weird piece of tech that incapacitated her and allowed him to round her up as well. Related to the Telar torture device? Maybe. Seymour is seeing connections all over the place — not just that, but also from Sita's experiences as a prisoner of war to her interactions with the demon duke of Italy, way back when this series was still called The Last Vampire. Both times there was an artifact that supposedly had Christ's blood on it, both times she was tortured and taken prisoner, and both times she couldn't quite remember the end of the story. He might have a plan to help her remember, but we're going to have to wait to find out what it is.

There's a more pressing problem: New Spy is becoming incapacitated by swelling in his cranium. Sita takes him to a hospital as soon as they land, and he makes her swear that as soon as he's done with the procedure she'll take him wherever they go next. Yeah, Vegas isn't it, apparently, though if New Spy knows where is he ain't saying. While he's undergoing brain surgery she reads what he's managed to translate of the coded diary they found. It's a story narrated by Veronica herself, about meeting a Master (you know, one of Pike's favorite enlightened humans) and learning how to step outside both of our own thoughts and of society's restrictions and expectations. Then she goes back to the hotel to see what Seymour has planned and figure out their next steps.

Only first she has to fuck Immortal Boyfriend. Yeah, they talk about lost love and painful loneliness first, and how angry they’ve been at each other, and then they realize they might only have each other for eternity, and so it's time to hop on the meat train to Bone Town. I don't know — maybe it makes more sense than I'm painting here. I was, after all, always the dude who didn't see the intense horniness in Pike books when I read them as a teen. Still, it's felt for a while like neither of them is ready to move past Teri. Besides, Sita herself has become progressively more connected and enlightened through her various absorption of higher-level immortals and maybe gods, so what does she need a boyfriend for? The whole thing doesn't actually feel like love, necessarily ... more like a deep and abiding connection that they've decided must inevitably lead to Naked Time. And maybe I'm OK with a physical and emotional relationship that isn't the be-all and end-all of the storyline, but it still feels a little forced here.

Anyway, they go find Seymour and learn that his plan is to try to go into a mutual hypnotic trance with Sita to help her remember just what happened in that concentration camp. And it works like whoa: she starts flashbacking hardcore, to being kept in a basement cell for forty days without food or water. At the end of it the major shows up with a familiar-looking woman, and they know about her past. Like, a lot of her past, including her role in the battle described in the Mahabharata, where Arjuna called down a divine fire that obliterated a seemingly overwhelming enemy. They want her to tell them what she knows and what she saw during the battle, and torture her when it's not what they want to hear. She's chained to a pole in the courtyard, either to humiliate her or warn the other prisoners, but of course her friends from Paris find her and try to break her out. There's a mass gassing, a visit from Himmler himself, a failed attempt to unlock her shackles, and a promise to hide the improved key in her cell before the next torture session, but this time they're going psychological on her ass: they've captured her resistance leader friend and actually start flaying off his skin before she finally cracks.

As with the Nazi capture, as with the Duke of Death, it's like this part of her memory has been walled off somehow, and it took this pain to unlock it. How inconvenient that Pike took pains way back in 1994 to make it clear that Sita remembered everything that ever happened to her. But anyway, she tells the military dudes about finding Krishna during the battle and hearing him talk about alien observers watching the battle, maybe even having their own that echoes what's happening on Earth. He warns the soldiers to leave it alone, but a couple of them know what Sita is and coerce her into entering a large dome that is not safe for any human, because of an energy source that gives off a glowing heat. That's all the dudes can get out of her with this hypnosis session: she comes to all the way back to present day out of this flashback-within-a-flashback. It's easy to see, though, that the Nazis figured they could win the war with this technology, but how were they going to recreate it? Unless they somehow already had it. Unless they'd found an actual ship in India, on an artifact hunt like the ones ol’ Indiana Jones likes to thwart, and were trying to activate it using the knowledge from their literal link to the past.

Immortal Boyfriend knows where to go now: Joshua Tree National Park. You remember, where Miracle Baby was conceived, where Sita fought off the muthafuckin lizard aliens to get him back. Apparently it's in the video game that they were warned about, which IB has kept playing and recently beaten but won't describe because he doesn't want to influence Sita's genuine reaction to what he expects to happen. They bust New Spy out of the hospital and steal an ambulance to drive there, and along the way he starts dropping hints that it's not exactly the veil that these folks are after. He makes a phone call, supposedly to his superiors, but somehow Sita knows it's to whoever is trying to find them and is now pissed at this sudden but inevitable betrayal. But there's nothing for it: they have to know this meeting is happening tonight in order to get the veil-keeper back.

Seymour suggests another trance session now that they're in a spiritually powerful place, and they get some more of Sita's past. Using the female doctor friend (the one who had the veil at the time) the Nazis torture Sita into remembering the inside of the ship: the dead men who tried to enter and perished before they could exit, the exposed radioactive power source that she manages to snap back into place. She remembers blacking out and being partially rescued by Original Vampire, only to be taken hostage thanks to the same torture box and reawakening as the craft flies over the battlefield. They broke free and Sita destroyed most of what she now realizes were nuclear weapons (though one fell and incinerated Arjuna's enemies, giving a white person credit for an ancient Indian doctrinal miracle) while Original Vampire killed their captors and somehow shot the ship up above the sky. But when this is all she remembers, the Nazis go to burn her friend alive. It's enough motivation for Sita to strain for the hidden key right in front of everyone and free herself, brutally murdering the major but failing to stop the female torturer from drenching her in gasoline. Her friend smothers the flames with — you got it — the Veil of Veronica. The artifact heals Sita and gives her the strength to break them out, but when she tries to find her resistance leader lover, she's frightened away by the way the female torturer is standing outside the door, soaking up the pain of so many prisoners in bliss. 

I know! It's President Coroner! Enough with the same-same, Pike! This one is even happening NOW!

So that was Sita's mistake: leaving the pain-sucker alive and running away from her fear. And here she comes, walking up the hill toward Team Vampire with her captive and a young man that looks like Himmler fucked this devil woman. Or he might be reanimated or reincarnated; Pike never deigns to explain this dude. He does explain that the evil torturing lady is the same wife of the Demon Duke from way back, even though now she’s fair instead of dark (and, y’know, had her heart ripped out). She explains that they (the Nazis) already know what happened: Sita and Original Vampire flew off into space somehow, were rescued by beings of a higher plane, and found being returned to Earth so mundane and unsatisfying that they asked to have all memories of the spaceships erased. And the ship is still here, disguised as one of the giant trees. However, the damn thing is locked and will only open for someone who's been in it before. And Sita’s the only one alive who’s done so. You see the Nazis' problem. But it doesn't matter what Sita does or tries — she can't get the sumbitch to open. And this is a problem, the woman points out, because they made a deal. And now Sita sees through her dark, evil eyes, and realizes that the devil can probably possess and direct more than one measly human.

If she can't open the thing, Devil Lady says, Sita will have to go with them, or else they'll start killing her friends. She agrees, and in saying her goodbyes learns that New Spy has managed to translate the end of Veronica's journal. It was finished by her brother, it turns out, because she was crucified as a heretic and a woman taking credit for a man's job, but in her final moments she successfully stepped outside her mind and was enlightened, and that hers is the face on the veil. So Sita figures we can all become one with the universal consciousness that drives our higher powers — the same one powering Krishna, Jesus, Miracle Teen — and so maybe she'll be OK. And this is what it takes for the spaceship to appear to everyone. She goes to it, and sure enough it opens, meaning she has control and can save her friends. But before she can go in, Devil Lady shoots her in the inferior vena cava and bails with Young Himmler. And they are never seen again. (See what I meant by "sort of" at the beginning of this article? Dude's role is so small he could have been anyone. He literally doesn’t even have a LINE.)

But now Sita is dying, and New Spy takes charge. If she gets on the ship, he explains, she can transcend time and have as much as she needs to heal. How the shit does he know this? Well, it turns out that our regular dude has been possessed by his ten-thousand-years-in-the-future self, with technological knowledge beyond anyone in the present. He’s grown up in a timeline where Germany won the war, and so there is no mysticism left, only hard science. So when he discovered a loophole through this ancient technique of viewing the past, an ability to alter his own world and bring some magic to it, he leapt at the chance. This moment — Devil Lady and Baby Himmler escaping — was his fork in the road, the way he could alter his own future. And while he’s explaining, this magical ship does all the work, healing Sita and chasing the bad guys and blowing them up. Or at least that’s what he says. We don’t see it, because we know how much Pike readers hate action sequences (good.thing the entire first half of the book wasn’t one). And now they can set back down in the timeline, wherever they want to be.

So Sita ... 

goddamn, this is infuriating ...

Sita goes BACK TO ANCIENT INDIA TO KILL THE ORIGINAL VAMPIRE AGAIN. Only this time she’s gonna do it when he’s an adult, when he comes to whisk her away from her family.

Only he somehow knows about it. He knows everything. He knows about her plans, her ideas, her potential future. But he also knows that Sita’s greatest regret is that she was never able to live her normal human life with her truest love and her child, and is willing to accept his own death if she carries it out. And she realizes: Immortal Boyfriend came back too. And he’s inside his father, somehow. And she’s not sure she can kill him.

And that is where this mother fucking vampire saga, spanning eight books and almost twenty years, leaves us hanging.

According to Wikipedia (which, take it with a grain of salt; there’s no citation and I’ve already deleted two entries for books that don’t exist), Pike is working on three more Sita books, and plans to self-publish when they are done. He said that two and a half years ago. Are we ever going to see such a thing? Is the eleventh book in this series, as promised, the actual DEFINITIVE END of the Sita saga? Will we ever find out? Is he just gonna George Martin us until he dies? I say don’t hold your breath for another Thirst book. But I also thought Pike was done with YA when Alosha trailed off, and I thought he was done with YA when The Blind Mirror came out after a three-year absence, AND I thought he was done with Sita when she stabbed her dead best friend in the uterus and killed the unborn demon. So how much does what I say matter?

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Kitty from X-men for the headcanon meme?

Me, throwing canons into a blender: I Don’t Give A Shit

Also, hi, remember how I’m the only person on the whole internet who ships Kitty/Colossus and therefore have to create all my own content?  Yeah, sorry about this.

Send me a character and I’ll give you 10 headcanons!

Kitty joins the Institute at 13 and straight up stows away on a mission at 13 and six months because she hates seeing her friends risk their lives when she could help them, you will literally pry this from my cold dead hands, this is old-school X-Men canon and I’ll die on this hill.  The Blackbird is pretty large for a tactical plane, she just kind of crawls into a baggage compartment and waits to come out until they’re most of the way to their objective.  If Logan could get ulcers he would pop one on the spot, and Ororo probably actually does.

Kitty becomes one of the X-Men of choice to deal with alien spaceships very quickly, because she’s hard to contain, creative, well-spoken, and a genius with computers.  And besides, if you need to incapacitate a ship on the spot, there aren’t many better options than someone who can fry the entire onboard system by walking through it.

Kitty gets to a point where she’s about twenty and her relationship with the idea of death is...weird.  She’s not really blase about it, because while the X-Men come back reasonably regularly your average civilian does not, but also she’s used to being mostly invulnerable as long as she’s got some advance warning of an attack.  So she reads as intensely hypervigilant, but also utterly reckless and disinterested in her own safety.  She can tell you blind how many people are in a room and where they are relative to her, but also if you pushed her off a building she’d probably roll with it.  It’s weird even by X-Men standards.

It takes Kitty several years and more near death experiences than she cares to tally up to get Colossus to go on a date with her.  She appreciates his moral principles but would also appreciate it if he got on her level.  Just a little.  If she’s getting shot at and kidnapped by space aliens and otherwise put in mortal danger every other weekend, she should get promoted from ‘kid’ status, in her opinion.

Kitty and Illyana have kind of a weird relationship, because on the one hand Kitty was Illyana’s first crush (Illyana wouldn’t move in on her brother’s girlfriend/object of pining, but Kitty was smart and pretty and funny and Illyana is very gay don’t question me).  But on the other hand before Illyana was Magyk, Illyana was a six-year-old girl who loved her brother and worshiped Kitty, who seemed very grown-up indeed and told the best stories.  Kitty is mostly unaware of the fact that sometimes Illyana has a very uncomfortable lurch of dissonance between god you’re hot and you...kind of helped raise me for a while?

Kitty, contrary to a great many people’s thinking, is...not super emotionally intelligent.  For other people, sure, hell yeah, she can sit there and do group therapy for the tiny baby New Mutants or talk Logan down from the ceiling all day, she’s fucking crushing it and she has been since she was a kid.  But about herself?  About the way people feel about her?  Not so much.  Kitty trusts fairly implicitly that the X-Men love her, but tbh the only reason she was able to pursue Piotr is because he admitted out loud that he was interested in her.  

Kitty is a terrible artist.  She doodles flowers and stick figure comics and shit, and she knows she lacks inherent talent and won’t ever spend the time on it to really develop the skill, but she enjoys her terrible doodles anyway.  Piotr, who is an actual artist who paints on canvases and shit, thinks it’s adorable.

Kitty and Kurt are demons together.  Between the two of them they are the ultimate prank team in any universe, because their powers make it super easy and also because they love to fuck with people.  Depending on which person on the team they ambush, this has...variable results.  Rig the Danger Room to splatter Logan with bright pink paintballs?  Probably the worst thing that’ll happen is some very manageable carpet damage.  But one time they set up a jumpscare and Cannonball took out a wall when he spooked at it.  It wasn’t an important wall, as such things go, but like.  Still a wall.

Since the Institute holds a pretty varied collection of people, they have celebrations all the way through the month of December some years depending on when holidays fall (they’ve pretty much settled on the Solstice as a nondenominational ‘we all made another trip around the sun, get drunk if you’re legal and physically capable of doing it’ party) and Kitty is the honorary Jewish matriarch of the household, so she leads the Hanukkah celebrations with aplomb.  It’s hard to get all of the High Holidays off because supervillains (although Magneto has a handful of days where he’s reliably Not In Business and Yom Kippur/Yom Hashoah are among them), and she has literally never succeeded in getting all of Pesach off, but she does her best to observe them all anyway.  One year she showed up to a Purim celebration with lightning burns up half her body and a pair of crutches but like, she was fine, Mom, stop worrying about it.  And it’s very few years that Kitty doesn’t hold or attend at least one Seder because honestly fuck supervillains, they’re not the boss of her and she’s going to do the thing properly.

Kitty is much beloved by the X-Men.  This is a fact.  She’s one of the longest standing X-Men, one of the most loyal, one of the longest lived.  Even as a scared teenager who was far too young to be on the battlefield, Kitty never flinched, never tried to leave, and even when she’s been left behind, she was still ready to answer the call.  Every last goddamn one of the X-Men, even the ones who don’t know her as well personally or who might have a glitch, would pick up the phone if she called them at two in the morning needing a favor.

Fight me for Kitty Pryde’s honor.

#kitty pryde #xmen #THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK #headcanon meme #ask meme #AT LEAST HALF OF THESE ARE CANON #no look seriously 1 2 3 4 6 8 and 10 are all arguably actual canon because KITTY IS GREAT #FIGHT ME #FIGHT MEEEEEEEEE #*VIOLENTLY HAMMERS SIGN INTO GROUND* NO ERASURE OF JEWISH SUPERHEROES ALLOWED #NONE #GIVE KITTY THE INDIVIDUAL STRONG PLOTLINES SHE DESERVES GODDAMNIT #AND WHO DO I HAVE TO KILL TO FIND ANOTHER PERSON WHO SHIPS KITTY/COLOSSUS #honestly this was a lot of fun and i could easily hammer out ten more of these on the spot #BUT WHO THE F U C K DO I HAVE TO KILL #LIKE I'M GLAD TO WRITE 40 PAGE FICS AND SHIT #BUT I COULD STAND FOR SOME SMALL-SCALE CONTENT TOO #LIKE NORMAL TUMBLR SHIT #I MEAN FUCK #anyway here's wonderwall #idiot teenagers with a queue #necer0s #asked and answered

[bamby0304]

The Hart: Chapter One

Summary:  When Lizzie was just a few months old, she lost her father. Fifteen years later she lost her mother, and then her sister. Now in her early twenties Lizzie spends her days and nights hunting things and saving people. When the Winchesters meet the bright eyed and bubbly blonde they don’t realise what they’re in for… and neither does she…

Part Twenty: Eight

Masterlist

Warnings: Nope :):)

Bamby

EPOV

In the backseat of the Impala, I watched as Sam and Dean talked amongst themselves. It had been a couple of weeks since they'd dealt with the trickster. A couple of weeks since I'd managed to convince both of them and Bobby that me being on the road would do me some good. Turns out I was kind of right.

No, my headaches were not gone. I was still feeling pretty crappy. But the guys served as a distraction. They made me feel better.

Then there was Sam. We hadn't spoken about it yet, but I knew we both wanted to talk about what the demon had told me. There were a million questions both of us wanted to ask the other. But what I really wanted to know was, what ability did I have?

Could I hurt anyone with it? Could I kill anyone with it? I didn't want to become a monster, and the idea of me being able to harm some innocent person scared the hell out of me.

"All right, tell me about Highway 41."

Sam looked down at the file in his hands, flashlight shining on the words so he could tell Dean about the case we were headed for. "Twelve accident over fifteen years. Five of them fatal. All of them happening on the same night."

"So what are we looking at? Interstate dead zone? Phantom hitchhiker?" Dean asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Not quite." Sam answered. "I mean, year after year, witnesses said the same thing made them crash. A woman appearing in the middle of the road being chased by a man covered in blood."

"Two spooks?"

"Not unheard of." I noted.

"Thought you were asleep." Dean adjusted the rear-view mirror so he could look back at me. "How you feeling?"

"Fine." I lied. "We nearly at the hotel?"

As if right on cue, he turned into the parking lot of the hotel and found a spot to park the car. "Stay here. I'll get us a room." Dean offered as he got out of the car, leaving Sam and I alone.

Sam turned around to look at me. "You wanna tell me the truth? How are you really feeling?"

I shrugged, leaning my head back and closing my eyes. "The headaches aren't as bad. I'm better at keeping my food down."

"What about..." it was clear he was a little unsure how to word his next question. "Have you noticed anything else? Anything different?"

Opening my eyes again, I looked over at him. "You mean, am I seeing the future or electrocuting things I touch? No, Sam. I'm not one of the psychics. Not yet at least."

A bang on the roof of the car had me jump as Dean poked his head through his window. "I got us a room. Let's go."

DPOV

Liz dumped her bag on the floor before she dropped onto the couch. She looked exhausted and nowhere near healthy enough to be on a case. It had me really concerned.

Shaking my head, I grabbed her things, moving them to one of the beds. "You're not sleeping on some lumpy, uncomfortable, crappy couch. Take one of the beds."

"But-"

"Dean's right." Sam cut her off. "You need it more than we do."

Sighing, she pulled herself up and moved to the bed where I'd put her things. Crawling on to the mattress, she rested against the headboard, watching as Sam and I grabbed our things to head out again.

"We're gonna go see if we can find anything that might help us with the case." I explained. "You stay here, get some rest. We'll bring back food." I assured her as Sam and I headed for the door. "Don't go anywhere."

"I won't." she nodded, sliding down the bed to lay down.

As I closed the door I kept my eyes on her until I no longer could. I didn't like leaving her alone, but I knew she needed the rest, and we couldn't put the case on hold.

SPOV

I sat in front of the computer in the library as Dean stood behind me, looking over my shoulder to the screen. We'd found some old news articles on the Highway that dated back to the beginning of all the accident.

"'February 22, 1992. Jonah Greely and Molly McNamara both died tragically in a highway accident on Highway 41'." I read. "It says Molly spun off the road after she lost control of the car and hit Jonah. Her husband David was the only survivor."

"What about Greely? He have any relatives?"

"Ah, yeah. A wife. Marion. But after she collected her husband body she disappeared."

"Well that's great." he sighed, shaking his head as he walked away from the computer. "She'll be the only one who knows where he's buried. Can't burn the bones if we don't know where they're buried."

"Look, we'll just go out there tomorrow night and look for them."

He didn't look too sure. "Tomorrow? As in the anniversary of their death?"

"It's the only night they appear." I noted. "What, are you scared?"

"No, I'm worried about Liz. She'll stay at the hotel while we're researching, but the moment she thinks we're heading out on the Highway, she'll be right there. No way she'll let us go off without her."

He was right. Lizzie cared about our health and safety just like we cared about hers. If she thought there was any way we might end up in danger, she'd want to be there to help even though she could hardly help herself at the moment.

I was worried about her. I'd had some headaches and migraines, but none of it had been as bad as what she was going through. It was as if the blood from Meg had accelerated everything, catching Lizzie up to where the rest of us were.

The whole thing made me feel guilty. I knew it was the demon using my body that turned her life upside down, but that didn't ease my mind. I'd been right there. Screaming inside. Trying to tell Meg to stop. I'd seen the fear and confusion in Lizzie's eyes. I'd felt the blood pool into my hand and then into her mouth. It wasn't me, but I was there.

I shrugged. "Look, we'll go talk to Molly's husband tomorrow, Lizzie can come. If she does okay, then we'll take her to the Highway."

"And if she doesn't?"

"We'll deal with that when the time comes."

EPOV

I hugged my coat to me as I walked between the brothers. We were walking up to the front door of David McNamara. He was the widows husband of Molly who died on Highway 41 fifteen years ago. She- along with a man- were the first to die on the highway since all the incidents started. So naturally, Sam and Dean guessed she was one of the spirits.

We were at her husband's house in the hopes that he could tell us where her bones were buried. Posing as FBI investigating the many deaths, we hoped David wouldn't be too suspicious seeing as it had been fifteen years.

"You okay?" Dean asked, looking down at me.

I nodded. "I'm fine."

I wasn't too bad, really. My head throbbed a little, but the cool fresh air was helping me. My stomach wasn't twisted in knots, so that was a bonus.

"If you need to leave, just let us know. We'll understand." Sam told me, not for the first time.

"I know."

Raising his hand, Sam knocked on the front door before taking a step back. We waited in silence.

The door opened, revealing a middle-aged man. "Hi, can I help you?"

Pulling out my fake badge, I smiled at him. "I'm Agent Ramis, this is Agents Murray and Aykroyd." I gestured to Dean and Sam. "We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions?"

Walking back on to the path, Dean shook his head, clearly agitated. "So much for burning her bones."

Turns out there was a problem in our master plan. After talking with David, we found out Molly was cremated. That meant there had to be something holding her back from moving on. Some kind of unfinished business.

Sam sighed. "Yeah, but then what's keeping her here?"

"Whatever it is, we have no choice now." I shrugged, walking to the car. "We all know the only way to finish this job is to go to the Highway. We need to find where Greely was buried, and we needed to find Molly's spirit. So, did I pass the test? Are you gonna let me come?"

Dean opened the back door for me once he reached the Impala. "Could we stop you?"

"Nope." I answered, popping the 'p'.

He chuckled lightly, shaking his head. "Thought not."

"Looks like we're going for a late-night drive, boys." I nodded, stepping into the car.

DPOV

Driving along the road, we hit Highway 41 at around ten o'clock. The three of us were keeping an eye out for any signs of life. Or well... you know what I mean. It hadn't taken long before a woman suddenly ran out on to the road.

"Stop! Stop!" she screamed.

I slammed my foot on the brakes. "Holy-" as the car came to a stop, we only just missed her.

Once she'd recovered from the shock of almost being hit, she looked up at us. "You've gotta help me."

I recognised her from the newspaper article, and a picture David had shown us. It was Molly McNamara.

"Guys..." Sam looked confused and surprised as we watched molly hurry over to his window. "I don't think she knows she's dead."

"Please, please." Molly frantically knocked on Sam's window, her voice desperate and scared.

"All right, all right, calm down." Sam told her as he wound the window down. "Calm down. Tell us what happened."

"My husband and me. We were in a car accident." she started, getting more and more worked up.

"Hold on." Liz slid across her seat, over to Sam's side, before she opened the door and stepped out to join Molly on the road. Grabbing the woman's arm, she tried to calm her. "Start from the beginning, and just try to keep calm."

As Molly nodded and took a breath, Sam and I got out of the car as well, listening to her story. "We were driving when a man stepped on to the road. I swerved and we crashed. And when I came to... The car was wrecked. My husband was missing. I went looking for him, that's when the man from the road started chasing me."

"Did he look like he lost a fight with a lawnmower?" I asked earning disapproving looks from Liz and Sam.

Molly frowned, confused. "How did you know that?"

"Lucky guess." I shrugged.

Before Molly could ask any questions, Sam spoke. "Ma`am, what's your name?" he knew who she was, but we weren't too sure if she did. I mean, she clearly didn't realise she was dead.

"Molly." she answered. "Molly McNamara."

"Molly, look, I think maybe you should come with us. We'll take you back into town-"

She cut Sam off, shaking her head. "I can't. I have to find David. He might've gone back to the car."

"We should get you somewhere safe first. Dean, Lizzie and I will come back." Sam offered, trying to convince her to leave with us. "We'll look for your husband."

But she wasn't having any of it. "No. I'm not leaving here without him." she sighed. "Would you just take me back to my car, please?"

Sam and I shared a look, both of us knowing we had to get her off the highway. It would make the case a lot easier. But we also knew she wasn't going to leave. Not when she thought David was out here.

"Of course." Sam nodded.

Liz gestured to the car. "Come on."

SPOV

Dean stopped the car where Molly told him to, parking it on the side of the road before the four of us all climbed out.

"It's right over here." Molly gestured to where the ground slopped down.

Heading over there, we looked down at found no car- unsurprisingly to Dean, Lizzie and myself. It had been fifteen years. The car was long gone.

But Molly just looked confused. "I don't understand. I'm sure this is where it was. We hut that tree right there." she gestured to a tree at the bottom of the slope. "This doesn't make any sense." shaking her head, she started down the hill.

"Guys, we gotta get out of here." I noted, keeping my voice low so only Lizzie and Dean heard me. "Greely could show up at any second."

"What are you gonna tell her?" Dean asked.

"The truth." I didn't see any other way.

"She's gonna take off running in the other direction."

"Dean's right." Lizzie nodded. "We can't tell her anything."

"I know it sounds crazy, but I crashed into that tree." Molly called to us, pointing to the same tree. "I don't know who could've taken it. It was totalled." she looked so desperate. "Please, you have to believe me."

"Molly, listen, we do believe you, all right?" I assured her. "But that's why we wanna get you out of here."

She shook her head. "What about David? Something must have happened. I have to get to the cops."

Dean gave a sharp nod. "Cops. You know, that's a great idea. In fact, we'll take you down to the station ourselves. Okay? So just come with us. It's the best way we can help you and your husband."

She still looked unsure, but eventually Molly nodded. "Okay." she agreed, heading back up the hill and heading for the car.

EPOV

I sat next to Molly, watching her as she looked ahead but not at anything. She looked so down. So lost. Her unfinished business was clearly her husband. She missed him. She was worried about him. Her confusion about the situation meant she had no idea he was alive, and actually remarried.

"We're supposed to be in Lake Tahoe." she told us.

Sam looked over his shoulder to her. "You and David?"

"It's our five-year anniversary."

"A hell of an anniversary." Dean mumbled.

Ignoring him, I rested a comforting hand on Molly's shoulder. When she'd showed up on the road, I'd taken my iron ring off and slipped it in my pocket, not wanting to hurt or scare her even though it could help if Greely ever showed up.

Out of the two, I was more concerned about crossing her over. She was confused, he was violent. Violent was fine, I could deal with that. But seeing someone hurting like Molly was, it was almost too much to bare.

"Right before, we were having the dumbest fight. It's the only time we ever really argue, when we're stuck in the car."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, I know how that goes."

The confused and offended look Dean gave him didn't go unnoticed by me. In fact it put a little smile on my face.

"You know the last thing I said to him? I called him a jerk. Oh, God." Molly looked so guilty and ashamed, wiping the smile off my face. "What if that's the last thing I said to him?"

"Hey." I shook my head, feeling so bad that I couldn't tell her the truth. "We'll find him. I promise. We'll figure out what happened."

It was at that moment the radio turned on and began to play House of the Rising Sun by The Animals.

Dean looked to Sam. "Did you...?"

Sam shook his head. "No."

"Great." Dean sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that."

"This song..." Molly leaned forward, listening to the music. "It was playing when we crashed."

The station on the radio started to change again as a voice spoke. "She's mine."

"Dean..." I did not feel good about this.

"She's mine." it repeated. "She's mine."

"What is that?" Molly asked, completely clueless.

I looked up from the radio, looking to the road when suddenly Greely appeared. "Dean!"

"Hold on." he warned, pushing his foot onto the accelerator.

Molly grabbed his shoulder, watching the man on the road as Dean neared him. "What are you doing?!" But Dean just kept driving until he drove into Greely, breaking the spirit apart for the moment. Turning around, Molly looked out the back window to see where he'd gone. "What the...? What the hell just happened?"

"Don't worry, Molly. Everything's all right." Sam assured her.

But the car started to make a noise as the engine shut off.

"I think you spoke a little too soon, Sammy." Dean noted as we rolled to a stop. he tried to start the car again, but it just wasn't happening. Giving up, he spoke the words I'd been thinking. "I don't think he's gonna let her leave."

DPOV

"This can't be happening." Molly shook her head, climbing out of the car.

Liz, Sam and I headed for the trunk as Molly stood off to the side. If we had to deal with an angry spirit like Greely, then we were going to need weapons. We need to be ready for anything.

"Well, trust me, it's happening." I told her, unlocking and opening the trunk and pulling out a gun.

"Well, okay, thanks for helping, but I think I got it covered from here." turning around, we saw Molly backing up, her fear now directed towards us.

Liz sighed. "She saw the guns and she's freaking out." she mumbled so only Sam and I heard.

Unable to let her go, Sam stepped forward to try and get her to stay. "Wait, Molly, wait a minute."

"Just leave me alone."

"No. You have to listen to me."

"Just stay away." she warned, turning around to walk off.

Having no other choice, Sam decided to tell her the truth. Or at least part of it. "It wasn't a coincidence that we found you, all right?"

She stopped. "What are you talking about?"

I shrugged, standing next to Sam now. "We weren't just cruising for chicks when we ran into you, sister. We were out here. Hunting."

"Hunting for what?"

When Sam couldn't come up with a lie, I told her the truth. "Ghosts."

Sam turned to me, shaking his head. "Don't sugar coat it for her."

"You're nuts."

"Really? About as nuts as a vanishing guy with his guts spilling out." I may have been a little harsh, but we had a job to do and we didn't have much time. "You know what you saw."

Leaving Sam with Molly, I headed back to the trunk where Liz was leaning against the car, looking both unimpressed and amused. As Sam kept on trying to convince Molly to stay, I stepped up to Liz, the two of us talking amongst ourselves.

"Somethings going to go wrong here. It always does."

"Probably." she nodded. "It's not like we've ever had an open and shut case before."

"Yeah, but this time you're not a hundred percent. You gonna be okay out there?" I asked, nodding to the tree line.

"Well I'm not staying by the car, if that's what you think." she told me matter-of-factly, leaving no room for argument.

"You feel like you need to stop, you tell me. Sam can go on ahead."

She cracked a smile. "What? You gonna babysit me, Winchester?" biting her lip, she looked me up and down.

My thoughts instantly turned bad. Actually, they were nice thoughts, but I shouldn't have been thinking about them at that moment. Yet here I was, picturing us in between sheets and alone, instead of out here in the cold.

It had been awhile since we'd slept together. The last time was during the week Sam had disappeared on us. We'd both been worried and needed a distraction. But despite how long it had been, I still remembered every detail of it. It was engraved in my mind.

She groaned, pulling me from my thoughts as her hand came up to rub at her forehead.

Moving closer to her, I rested a hand on her back for comfort and support as I watched her with worried eyes, all other thoughts gone as I concentrated on her here and now. "On a scale of one to ten?"

"Eight. So, it's not too bad."

"Eight is bad." I argued.

"Not when I've been dealing with tens for days at a time."

"Everything okay?" Sam asked as he and Molly moved back to the car.

Liz nodded, lowering her hand as she looked up at him, a small and forced smile on her lips. "Yeah. So, we doing this thing, or what?"

Bamby

If you would like to be tagged please send an ask, and tell me what tag list you want to be added to, it’s just easier to organise this way :):)

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#supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural fic #spn #spn fanfiction #spn fic #dean winchester #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester fic #sam winchester #sam winchester fanfiction #sam winchester fic #The Hart #The Hart: Chapter One #Elizabeth Rose Hart

[silvensei]

When Mob has too many emotions spilling over to resolve them all in one explosion, the explosion doesn't end.... 

Finally another installment of @silvervictory‘s AU in fic form, holy jeez, it’s been so long. Whoops

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

It was only when he was outside, down the block, and waiting for the light that Ritsu realized maybe that was a bad idea, pawning off his possibly-homicidal possessed brother to a fake psychic. Would Reigen be alright if things turned sour? Would Mob? Wasn’t he really just running from his fears again?

The light changed but he hesitated. Was he running? Now that his aggravation was starting to dwindle, he realized he was terrified. Any sane person would be if they knew just how much power was at the boy’s disposal. Ritsu had finally come to trust Mob with controlling that power, but someone—something—other than Mob…?

The light began blinking, warning the intersection of its impending change.

No, he insisted, I’m not running. I just need some time to think.

Reigen would be fine. He was a con and a fraud, but he was good at it; he’d been in the game long enough to survive with relatively decent chances. And if anything could get through to Mob, it was that man’s silver tongue. Mob might get home tonight and be perfectly normal.

Ritsu glowered. That seemed overly optimistic. No way would it be that easy.

By the time his focus returned, the light was red again. He huffed, finding just a twinge of comfort in being annoyed at something normal like traffic.

He was not going to let history repeat itself. He learned his lesson. He was older, wiser, with powers of his own and contacts for assistance. For once, he wasn’t alone.

The most immediate issue: surveillance. No one knew what this entity would do to Mob, his body, or to the rest of the world if left to its own devices, but Ritsu was only thirteen and needed to sleep. He would need someone to take the night shift. Someone that could be vigilant into the early hours of the morning. Someone who could hold their own if a problem arose. Someone he could trust. Well. Since he just left his brother’s demon with Reigen of all people, that last one was debatable.

The walk sign appeared for a second time. Ritsu ignored it, turning the corner, a new destination in mind.

“I have done nothing but help keep his brother alive in all the overly-dangerous situations these kids get into, and this is the thanks I get? What an ungrateful little prick, just throwing me in here and leaving. He better learn to give me the respect I deserve.”

The boy dropped down into the couch, swinging his legs onto the coffee table like he wanted to snap it in half. Arms hooked over the back of the sofa, head reclined to lazily observe the ceiling as his grumbling quieted into inaudibility, he looked…very…not Mob.

He was relaxed. Mob was normally relaxed, Reigen knew. His student found comfort in being at the office, but he was usually still composed and polite. After all, he was on the job and had to be ready to greet walk-in customers. This kind of lazing about was way past any of that. It was such stereotypical teenage indifference to the world that Reigen might’ve chuckled and teased him about it. Had it been any other kid, that is. Like his little brother. But this was so so unlike Mob that he was stuck, silent, watching.

The scene stayed that way for a few minutes. Then with a long-drawn-out sigh, the boy declared, “You’re staring, Arataka.”

His given name again…. And he wasn’t even looking his way. Something definitely was amiss with him today. What had his brother said? That something had…taken him over? Frankly, Reigen had passed it off at the time as part of pubescent sibling bickering. That was probably a bit of an oversight on his part, but according to Dimple, Mob was virtually unpossessable, so what changed? He took his time powering off and closing his computer, habitually adjusting his tie, and moving around his desk to sit across from the boy. All he got for it was an unenthusiastic glance.

He crossed his legs, looking the teenager over. He still looked like his student, for the most part. Sure, when he smiled it was borderline creepy how he showed too much of his teeth, and maybe his eyes looked a bit worse for wear, and he could almost convince himself that red glow to his irises wasn’t a trick of the light, but besides that and the splayed limbs and aloofness and casual air to him, he was pretty much the Mob they all knew and loved.

Yeah, no, that didn’t sound right at all.

“Sooo…,” he started, his professional countenance in place. Totally not worried in the slightest. “Something happened today, I see.”

“Something happens every day, genius.”

Reigen ignored that. “Something that made your brother angry or frightened enough that he would trust me with it. And whatever it was, it’s made you different today, too.”

“Man, nothing gets by you.”

“So could you fill me in on the details, please? Your brother seems to have left out—”

“Not my brother.”

“—some…details— huh?” Reigen blinked.

For a moment, he thought the boy wouldn’t explain anything in favor of continuing to find patterns in the ceiling. Mob rolled his shoulder. Then his chin dropped to his chest, eyes piercing through his bangs. “You’re scaaaared,” he sang.

Despite his efforts, the back of his neck prickled. He hoped it didn’t show. “No. Just confused, ‘s all.”

“Oooo, that just did a number on ya.” Reigen caught a glint of white from a grin. “Can’t fool me, compadre. I’ve got this thing with feelings, and with how much you’re worrying about this kid you’d think he was your own son.”

Reigen spluttered for a moment before he turned it into a cough, buying some time to recompose himself. So this wasn’t Mob after all. The quiet middle schooler would never fill him with unease so quickly, not to mention Mob was in no way adept at understanding emotions, his own or otherwise.

“Mob’s brother was right then,” he said while looking over the body in front of him. “But how? Mob’s not an easy host; what changed today? You’re not….” He squinted. “You’re not Dimple, are you…?”

Something cracked—in the atmosphere as well as the room’s framework. Reigen barely registered the change before he gagged, his tie tightening, being tugged from his jacket as the boy suddenly appeared crouched on the table, eyes wide, aura boiling, wrapping the tie around his hand. “You better not fuckin’ make that mistake again,” he hissed. “I’m nothing like that worthless scrap of a soul. I am energy itself. I am emotion incarnate. And at the moment, I am the god damn face and form of animosity.” He tugged the tie again, bringing their eyes mere inches apart. “Ya got that?”

Fumbling at his neck, Reigen loosened it enough to take a quick breath. “A simple ‘no’ would’ve sufficed,” he said with a cough.

Mob’s face scowled. He threw Reigen back on the couch with more force than was physically possible before stepping off the table. He swayed before finding his balance, saying, “It’s been just an hour and I already got shit like this. Shigeo likes this guy. Why’s he gotta like him. Why can’t he be expendable.”

Reigen leaned back into the cushions while righting his collar, too dazed to be any more than confused. Just what had happened to his student…?

The boy froze, looking down at himself to cautiously wrap an arm around his midriff. The scene remained for a moment. Reigen fixed his tie, watching the other’s expression as it grew more unsettled. Then he heard a low grumble.

“What have you done to make this body betray me already?” the boy snapped. Contrary to before, though, it sounded somewhat curious. Mostly angry as a default, but also genuinely interested. “What is happening…? Shigeo isn’t awake yet….”

He seemed…naïve. Like before, with his deliberate mannerisms. Whatever this is, it must not possess people often. He sighed and said, “It’s hunger.” He stood up, tugging his suit coat into place. “It’s the muscles in the intestines trying to shake free any undigested food they missed. After a day or so, if they don’t find anything, energy is taken right from muscle and fat reserves, which isn’t healthy for my student.”

Mob looked up, eyes narrowed and searching Reigen for any hint of a lie. Eventually, he ventured, “So if you don’t eat something, your body eats itself…? Not gonna lie: that’s pretty hardcore.”

Huh. A quick check of his pockets later, he turned to the door. “Might as well close up, then. Can’t work too well without my assistant, after all.”

“…Are you doubting me?”

“Right now, I doubt your ability to act human, so let’s just start with some ramen. My treat.” Reigen opened the door with a sweeping gesture. “Remember Mob’s bag,” he added.

For a moment, he thought Mob’s stand-in wouldn’t listen, instead dropping to the couch or grabbing his poor tie again in his belligerence or literally disappearing. However, with a sharp tsk, the schoolbag by the table began to float, and he stepped out into the hallway with it trailing behind. He didn’t say anything as Reigen locked the office and continued as such as they left the building behind.

The walk there was uneventful (fortunately), if increasingly awkward. Now that he was aware of it, Mob really looked like a kid possessed. The entity was stiff, especially when compared to Reigen’s own lackadaisical gait, and it was like he was on stilts the whole walk there. Reigen considered starting some kind of conversation or interrogation then, but he looked like it was taking much of his concentration just to walk straight. At least the restaurant was only four blocks away.

Being neither lunchtime nor late night, the ramen shop was nearly empty; they got a table and an order in no time. Reigen made extra sure to order the same amount of pork in both bowls. For his own safety.

The delicious scent of meat and miso was instant gratification. He snapped the chopsticks apart, giving them a roll between his hands before swishing a slice of meat around in the broth.

Mob grimaced, the first noticeable change since they left the office. “Oh, great. More precision motor control,” he complained, eyeing his own pair of chopsticks, still in their paper sleeve. He slipped it off, took the unbroken wooden skewers in his fist, and stabbed them into his ramen.

Reigen paused, half a pork slice hanging out of his mouth.

He picked up the stake, two meat slices successfully murdered, and ripped the top one off with his teeth. The boy stared at him as he chewed, unblinking.

Reigen slowly followed suit. “So…chopsticks, eh?” he said after he’d swallowed. “Well. It’s ah, a bit like holding a pencil, only you hold two instead, on top of each other.”

Those red eyes conveyed no emotion whatsoever. “Are you serious. I mold energy with my mind; when the ever-loving shit would I have used a pencil.”

“Ahh damn, that’s a good point,” he muttered. “Can’t you like…I don’t know, tap into Mob’s memories? He’s still in that head, after all, isn’t he? He knows how to use chopsticks.”

The boy’s dark-rimmed red eyes stared him down as he slurped up the two noodles he managed to fish out. “Ya know, when most people find out their kid’s been possessed by a suspicious entity of unknown origin and intent, one of the first things they say usually isn’t, ‘You should try breaking into my dear child’s mind even further than you already have’.”

Reigen nodded. “That’s true. However, I don’t get the sense that you’re going to harm him.”

“Oh?” He tried again to scoop up some noodles, catching a few in his mouth before the rest fell back into the bowl. “And what makes you say that, Arataka?”

“Well…uh…—”

“Animosity.”

“Animosity. Alright. Not ostentatious at all. First off, what spirit would want to harm their host? Can’t use it after that, and that’s just more work. Plus you don’t seem adept at possession, really, making me think this wasn’t intentional.” He took a sip of broth. “If you were just a ghost, Mob’s little brother could’ve exorcised you earlier. Instead, he was also really annoyed. That doesn’t seem like the usual first reaction to the possessed sibling scenario, so something like this must’ve happened before to some extent, or he always figured it a possibility….”

He wasn’t staring him down anymore, instead engrossed in his meal, but when Reigen trailed off he said, “No no, keep going, you’re getting there.”

Reigen took a couple more bites during this break. “The names, the demeanor: It’s all just a power play. You probably could kill me, but you held back earlier for Mob’s sake.”

“I did, now, didn’t I? Whoops.” Animosity picked up the bowl and downed the rest of the soup, finishing it off with a loud exhale and a smirk. “This eating business isn’t half bad!” he proclaimed. “Energy tastes much more interesting when it’s physical. What’s that?”

He was pointing at another table where another patron put down an opaque cup. “Some kind of drink to go with dinner?” Reigen guessed, wondering if it was a trick question.

“I want one.”

“Ah jeez, another kid that’s going to eat through my wallet….”

Animosity’s smirk grew. “I can make you get me one,” he said in a low voice.

“Not when you understand how money works, you won’t.” Despite his complaining, Reigen got up, pulling a few bills from his wallet to get a small soda from the bar. He took the rest out, too, as an afterthought, paying off their bill at the register while he was up. When he got back to their table, the little ramen he had left in his bowl was completely gone, and Animosity was picking at his teeth. 

“Alright, then,” Reigen said, handing over the soda. “Wasn’t much left anyway. C’mon. Might as well get you home so Mob’s brother doesn’t sue me.”

“Hah.”

The bell on the door rang as they left, the sun hidden behind the cityscape around them and the sky beginning to dim. Mob’s bag floated behind the pair again, Animosity sipping at his drink emotionlessly as they walked. The silence hung around long enough to get awkward; Reigen hoped it wouldn’t become a regular occurrence.

“You think you’re right?”

“Hm?”

The boy took another long sip. “Think I can be trusted? Not all gods are good, you know.”

Reigen spared a glance at him. His eyes still looked too dark, too ill, but he looked…content. A god, eh…? He’d heard that one before. “Not all that say they’re gods really are,” he countered.

Surprisingly, he laughed. Loud, sharp, a bit harsh, but a laugh all the same. “Arataka, you are fucking right about that one!”

Reigen watched him for a minute. The body ambled along, still stiff and unnatural, but more coordinated than before, with both hands wrapped around the disposable cup. If Mob were here—really here, that is—would he be worried? Quickly, he shook his head. Of course not. That one was easy. Human, ghost, god, whatever they were, they were innocent until proven guilty to Mob. He should try to do the same for his sake. He turned his gaze forward. “Is Mob okay, at least?”

Nothing but footsteps and the clattering of ice in an empty cup.

“He’s just asleep. He’s fine.”

Reigen let out the breath he was holding. “Then I guess that’s good enough for now.”

#not dead just distracted #Mob Psycho 100 #MP100 fanfiction #Animosity Among Men #Reigen Arataka #100% Animosity #sorta #Animosity God AU #fanfic #silvervictory #these tags are mostly in a random order at this point #my writing #not my art #I posted this on AO3 last night #but I then had class in seven hours and didn't have time to make this post then #just now I had this post draft open for three hours while I talked with my roommates instead #remember to be social kids it's good for you #are you kidding me tumblr says 'ramen' is spelled wrong

[a-m-proudfoot]

Blog Tour ~ Hell Holes Series ~ Excerpt

Blog Tour ~ Hell Holes Series ~ (What Lurks Below & Demons on the Dalton)

Author: Donald G. Firesmith

Genre: Science Fiction /Paranormal/Fantasy

Dates: 1st – 12th of May

Hosted by: Ultimate Fantasy Book Tours

  Blurb:

When hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, they threaten financial and environmental catastrophe should any more open up under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline or any of the many oil wells and smaller pipelines that feed it. An oil company sends a scientific team to investigate. But when the geologist, his climatologist wife, two of their graduate students, a local newspaper reporter, an oil company representative, and a field biologist arrive at one of the holes, they discover a far worse danger lurks below, one that threatens to destroy all of humanity when it emerges, forcing the survivors to flee south towards Fairbanks.

 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28425525-hell-holes

   ↓Buy Links↓

  Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Holes-What-Lurks-Below-ebook/dp/B012IUE14U

 Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/hell-holes-what-lurks-below/id1076804292

 Booklife: http://booklife.com/project/hell-holes-what-lurks-below-12402

 Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/hell-holes-what-lurks-below/9781310431210-item.html

 Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/608355

  Blurb:

   When hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appeared overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, geologist Jack Oswald picked Angele Menendez, his climatologist wife, to determine if the record temperatures due to climate change was the cause. But the holes were not natural. They were unnatural portals for an invading army of demons. Together with Aileen O’Shannon, a 1,400-year-old sorceress demon-hunter, the three survivors of the research team sent to study the holes had only one chance: to flee down the dangerous Dalton Highway towards the relative safety of Fairbanks. However, the advancing horde of devils, imps, hellhounds, and gargoyles would stop at nothing to prevent their prey from escaping. It was a 350-mile race with simple rules. Win and live; lose and die…

 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29741250-demons-on-the-dalton

   Buy Links:

 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Holes-Demons-Donald-Firesmith-ebook/dp/B01FQA1EFI

Booklife: https://booklife.com/my/project/hell-holes-demons-on-the-dalton-12403

 Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/625752

 Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/hell-holes-demons-on-dalton/id1097614941

   Author Bio:

  A geek by day, Donald Firesmith works as a system and software engineer helping the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive systems. In this guise, he has authored seven technical books, written numerous software- and system-related articles and papers, and spoken at more conferences than he can possibly remember. He's also proud to have been named a Distinguished Engineer by the Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is tempered somewhat by his fear that the term "distinguished" makes him sound like a graybeard academic rather than an active engineer whose beard is still slightly more red than gray. By night and on weekends, his alter ego writes modern paranormal fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from various magical woods and mystical gemstones. His first foray into fiction is the book Magical Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore written under the pen name Wolfrick Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton, Pennsylvania with his wife Becky, and his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs, cats, and birds. His magical wands and autographed copies of his books are available from the Firesmith’s Wand Shoppe at: http://magicalwandshoppe.com.

  Visit him at:

 Website: http://donaldfiresmith.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FiresmithAuthorFanPage

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DonFiresmith

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001HQ006A

  BOOKTRAILER: https://youtu.be/amXuTAlKoX0

Hell Holes: What Lurks Below

Excerpt - Preface

Though the sun had finally dipped behind the rounded mountains of the Brooks Range, the temperature remained well above freezing, leaving the ground moist from the morning’s rains. It was quiet except for the soft sound of the breeze blowing through the short shrubs and sedges that covered the tundra of the North Slope.

An arctic fox silently patrolled his territory. He sniffed the ground, following the scent of a female that had passed by earlier that evening. She had brushed against a bearberry bush, and he stopped to breathe in her enticing smell. She was in heat, and he hoped to father her second litter of the season.

Though the fox occasionally heard the distant rumble of big rigs driving north along the Dalton, carrying supplies to Deadhorse and the oil fields around Prudhoe Bay, he paid them no mind. The humans were several miles away, and unlike wolves and wolverines, they posed no threat.

The fox abruptly stopped, turning his head to the side in puzzlement. He heard a faint hum that seemed to come from the ground below him. It was a new sound, one that he had not heard before. It rapidly increased in volume until it became a piercing, high-pitched whine, far beyond the dull hearing of the humans in their trucks. In agony, the fox rolled on the ground, desperately pawing at his ears in a vain attempt to stop the pain. He yipped and whined, adding his voice to the faraway howling of wolves.

The sound suddenly stopped, replaced by a deep rumble as the ground beneath the fox began to shake. Slowly, foot by foot, a huge circle of tundra the size of a large pond began to push itself above the surrounding tundra. Carrying the fox upward, it rose until it reached the height of a caribou’s antlers. Along its circular boundary, loose wet dirt and ragged patches of plants fell off, forming a ring-shaped pile that surrounded the rising ground.

With a sharp jerk, the massive cylindrical plug of earth underneath the fox stopped rising and began sliding downward. No longer incapacitated by pain, the terrified fox sped across the quivering ground, running for his life as it continued its unrelenting collapse. He ran toward the edge, arriving just as the ground beneath him slipped below the short ring of loose and muddy soil that marked its circumference. With a desperate leap, the fox jumped up, landing on the ring’s slippery slope as the ground continued its collapse into the rapidly deepening crater. He slipped, sliding perilously backwards before desperately pawing his way back up and over the top. Once down on the solid ground surrounding the huge hole, he ran away as if he were chased by a pack of starving wolves.

The frightened fox was several hundred yards from the hole when the rumbling stopped. Still running for his life, he did not see the brilliant blue burst of light that shot skyward out of the huge crater. But he did see dozens of similar blue beams briefly light up the northern horizon. As suddenly as they appeared, the lights winked out. The fox did not stop until he had placed several miles between himself and the pit. Silence returned to the North Slope, while the scent of sulfur and decay filled the air above the newly formed hell holes.

#Hell Holes Series #What Lurks Below #Demons on the Dalton #Donald Firesmith #Fantasy #Paranormal #Blog Tour #Excerpt #Ultimate Fantasy Books

[ciathyzareposts]

The Black Gate: Gunpowder Treason and Plot

Druxinusom asks me about Inamo. I love that the dialogue options allow you to say that Inamo was murdered or to say something like, “Uh, well, he’s not doing so hot.”

             I suppose it’s time for a recap before we move forward. The Avatar hasn’t been in Britannia for 200 years in Britannian time. He leaps through a red moongate when it appears in his back yard (it’s still a mystery how or why) and finds himself in Trinsic, former City of Honor, where a gruesome murder has just occurred. A local blacksmith named Christopher and a wingless gargoyle named Inamo have been killed in a ritualistic manner. The Avatar teams up with his old friend Iolo and Christopher’s son, Spark, to solve the mystery. He soon learns that the murders were committed by a gargoyle and a man with a hooked hand, and that they may have fled to Britain on a ship called The Crown Jewel. In Britain, the Avatar learns that a similar murder happened years ago in Britain.           

Spark seems to think we have the kind of relationship where he can talk to me like this.

           The victims of both the Trinsic and Britain murders had the misfortune of running afoul of a relatively recent fraternal/philosophical organization called The Fellowship, which seeks to replace the old Virtues of the Avatar with a simpler doctrine. They have maneuvered Fellowship members into positions of authority all over the land. The player should have some idea going into the game that the Fellowship is up to something suspicious, as the game manual–written by Fellowship founder Batlin of Britain–is a thinly-disguised revisionist history that undercuts both the Avatar and Lord British. As the game progresses, it becomes clear that the Fellowship (or at least its leaders) are taking orders from an otherworldly demon called the Guardian, and that they have a plan that involves a mysterious substance called blackrock. Someone has built a generator in the Dungeon Deceit, fueled by blackrock, that is affecting magic all over the world and driving mages insane.           

While this is all going on, a mysterious island–the very one on which the Avatar defeated Exodus in Ultima III–has risen out of the ocean, causing worldwide tremors, and is waiting to be explored.

Most players join the Fellowship in Britain, either because they haven’t been paying attention and believe it’s a worthwhile organization, or else to investigate it from the inside. If they want, players can follow a relatively linear path that chases leads from one city to another until the game comes to an end. My Avatar, Gideon, declined to join the Fellowship and decided to conduct his investigation in his own order, starting with visiting the cities in the classic order of virtues: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, honor, sacrifice, spirituality, and humility. I decided to visit each city’s associated dungeon at the same time, so I could engage in a little side exploration, wealth-building, and experience-earning. I also decided to take the opportunity to do a little “surplaying” (see the glossary) by following the virtues as in Ultima IV, visiting the associated shrines, and returning the Runes of Virtue to people in each town who deserve them.            

In Moonglow, I stick the Rune of Honesty in the desk drawer of the town healer.

                  I made some significant progress in Moonglow, where I awoke the sorceress Penumbra–who had put herself in an enchanted slumber 200 years ago in anticipation of these events–and told me about the anti-magic generator. She said that to destroy it, I would need the Ethereal Ring, currently in possession of the gargoyle king Draxinusom in the gargoyle city of Terfin.

In replaying these events, I mostly stuck to the script I related in my series of April and May entries, including visiting the Dungeon Despise (incorrectly called Shame) after Moonglow. I nabbed the magic carpet a little bit earlier. I found the switch that opened the room with the full set of plate armor in Lord British’s castle. I saved myself from a repeat visit to the mines near Vesper by purchasing “Unlock Magic” from Nystul before I left Britain the first time. I probably missed the odd NPC or two. And of course I didn’t repeat my Lock Lake clean-up efforts.             

Sigh.

          Despise ended up exhausting me with its numerous traps, teleporters, and locked doors; you find at least half a dozen keys in the dungeon and still not all the doors open. But I got far enough to serve my purpose, which was to make enough money to feel comfortable buying some spells and getting some training. I also got some nice equipment upgrades for my six characters. Before I gave up on the dungeon, a teleporter brought me to a little tower poking out above the mountain tops. There was a locked chest there. I’ve learned the hard way to open locked chests at a distance, as they can be trapped and explode. (In a weird subversion of reality, you can double-click on your lockpick and then have them open any accessible chest on the screen, no matter how far away from the characters. If it’s far enough, they don’t take any damage if the chest explodes, even though presumably one of them would have had to walk up to the chest with the lockpick in hand.) There wasn’t enough room to get away in the tower, so I had Shamino lug the entire chest out of the tower and back to the streets of Britain, where I opened it in safety. It contained a sword called Magebane, which I don’t remember from previous experiences with the game (admittedly, they were a long time ago). Magebane doesn’t appear in Vetron’s Guide to Weapons and Armor, so I don’t know how much damage it does or why it’s called “Magebane.”          

Finding a chest at the top of the world.

         What I can tell you is that if you keep it wielded, it hums insistently. This problem doesn’t just affect this one sword. If you equip a Wand of Fire, it cackles constantly until you run out of charges or put it away. Since there’s no easy way to have characters “sheathe” weapons, having them make continual noise was one of the more obnoxious design choices in the game.

I had previously explored Britain, City of Compassion, and I had given the Rune of Compassion to Nastassia in Cove. Next up is Jhelom, City of Valor. But as I prepare to board my magic carpet, I realize that for role-playing reasons, I really need to go to Terfin next. Mages–including friends of mine–are being actively assaulted by the anti-magic generator in Deceit, and I know how to stop it. That’s not something I can justify putting off.

      The party takes the magic carpet to the island that was formerly the site of Blackthorn’s castle. Shamino seems lost in thought as we arrive, and I recall that he was guillotined here back in my party’s experience with Ultima V. It occurs to me that I failed to note his miraculous resurrection when he appeared at the beginning of Ultima VI. It’s probably too late to ask him about it now. Terfin was settled by gargoyles fleeing the destruction of their homeworld after the events of Ultima VI.           

Even here I have to hear this nonsense?

              The first gargoyle we meet is a winged one, a trainer named Inforlem, who is capable of training in both strength/combat and intelligence/magic. Between him and Sentri in my party (dexterity/combat), I’m not sure we need anyone else. I suppose other trainers out there might be more efficient, requiring fewer slots to increase more attributes, but you can’t hold your slots open forever while you run around comparing trainers.

The gargoyles’ Shrines of the Principles–control, passion, and diligence–were relocated to Terfin, including the statues of Mondain, Minax, and Exodus. Exodus is again represented as a demon instead of the computer that he was in the game. You can’t talk to them anymore, so either their spirits didn’t make the trip or they just don’t have anything to say. In my winning entry for Ultima VI, I talked a bit about how odd it was that the gargoyles would hold up humans as exemplars of their virtues, particularly tyrannical humans. It’s as if some aliens came to Earth and told us their virtue system was exemplified by Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler. But the gargoyles seem to be using the triad more as examples of unbounded adherence to a single virtue–as in, Minax is an exemplar of passion unchecked by control and diligence. As such, I’m not sure they’re really “worshiping” the triad so much as using them as warnings.        

Someone bellyaching about food screws up this shot of Exodus.

         Of course, the Fellowship is trying to make their way into Terfin, too, despite being closely associated with the Britannia Purity Society. The chapter hall is run by a winged gargoyle named Quan who refuses to explain the self-selected name. He sees a lot of overlap between the Gargish system of virtues and the Fellowship’s Triad of Inner Strength. Runeb, a particularly rude winged gargoyle, is his assistant. I toss the building but don’t find anything incriminating.            Quaeven runs a kind-of community center, a combination between an athletic facility and a library. He’s also a Fellowship member, and currently working on converting Betra, the provisioner. He imparts some interesting information about the “voice” that Fellowship members supposedly hear after visiting the Meditation Retreat: it not only helps guide them in effective life choices but also helps them win at the gambling games at Buccaneer’s Den. That’s a bit worldly for a deity.

Anyway, Betra says he has no plans to join the Fellowship. Indeed, he’s heard rumors of a plot to destroy the gargoyles’ altars of virtue. He notes that only two gargoyles in town have the necessary supplies to pull this off: himself and Sarpling, a Fellowship member whose name, ominously, means “snake tongue.” Upon further investigation, Sarpling has a note in his chest from Runeb, the Fellowship clerk, talking about the forthcoming use of explosives on the shrines. When confronted with the note, Sarpling caves immediately not only to the plan to blow up the shrines but also to assassinate Quan so that Runeb could take over the Fellowship branch.             

This is why you don’t talk without a lawyer.

          Runeb attacks me when confronted with the evidence, and we’re forced to kill him. Upon reporting all of this to Teregus, who maintains the shrines, we all get 50 experience points. Quan, for his part, refuses to believe in the plot even after Runeb’s death.            

The 6-to-1 odds didn’t really work in his favor.

           The tavernkeeper also tells us of continued problems between winged and wingless gargoyles and suggests that we talk to them about it. A gardener, Silamo, is a wingless gargoyle and clearly bitter about it, but he doesn’t want to talk to us. I otherwise can’t find any dialogue options related to this supposed problem.

Lord Draxinusom lives in a small, one-room hut next to the community center. He fondly remembers the old days and notes that no one really seems to look up to him anymore. He’s suspicious of the Fellowship. When asked about his Ethereal Ring, he says he was forced to sell it, along with most of his other possessions, to the Sultan of Spektran to finance the gargoyle move to Terfin.

Before I can bring up the subject independently, Draxinusom happens to mention that Teregus’s son, Inamo, is in Trinsic. Inamo left Terfin because of the growing influence of the Fellowship, with which he had vocal and public disagreements. This suggests that either the Fellowship got lucky when they were able to kill Christopher and Inamo at the same time, or that perhaps Inamo was the main target after all. We then have to break the news to Teregus, who is understandably upset and asks for updates on our investigation.             

It was a waste of all life.

          I’m surprised that I don’t hear anything about the mines north of Terfin during our time in the village. I briefly pop in to check them out and find in the storeroom enough powder barrels to indeed destroy the shrines. We find lots of gargoyles working, but none of them will talk with us. I’m also surprised we didn’t find an NPC companion in Terfin. I could have sworn I remembered there was at least one.         

This guy has some issues.

         The island of Spektran is northwest of Terfin. I think it’s where we found the pirate treasure in Ultima VI. No longer a desert land crawling with giant ants (giant ants in general seem to have ceased being a problem in the last 200 years), Spektran is now lushly forested and dominated by a single large building. The door slides open as we approach, and the Sultan greets us from an armchair just a few feet into the hall. Wearing a Persian headwrap, he introduces himself as Martingo, the Sultan of Spektran. The man is clearly quite mad, hallucinating subjects–including a harem of 11 women–throughout his barren fortress. He repeatedly speaks to an invisible “advisor” during our conversation. I’d like to think that elsewhere in this game, you can find an interesting backstory on this person.

When we bring up the Ethereal Ring, he says that it’s in his vault, and he welcomes us–dares us, in fact–to test its defenses and to retrieve it. His “vault” is in fact just a large room behind him. We soon find that the Sultan’s vaunted “security system” consists primarily of a stone harpy that comes to life when we enter the room. The damned thing kills me repeatedly, and I hate waking up at that Fellowship shelter in Paws. I have never once kept playing from this situation, as I don’t trust what the Fellowship did while I was unconscious, and I don’t trust these doppelgangers of party members who are suddenly all full of praise for the Fellowship for finding and rescuing me.              

Kind of a dumb thing to yell at a creature made of stone.

           After dying a couple of times at the harpy’s stone claws, I have this idea that it can only be defeated with fists. I don’t know where I get this idea; I think maybe I’m muddling it with another game I played recently where that was true. It would make sense that conventional weapons wouldn’t be able to do much damage to living stone, but then again, neither would fists. Either way, it seems to work, although it takes me another couple of reloads before I’m able to kill the harpy with all of my characters left alive.       Martingo’s vaunted vault has nothing in it except three magic rings and the Ethereal Ring, which is the only one I take. We defeat some wolves before lifting off to the Dungeon Deceit.         

My one fourth-level spell is looking a bit lonely.

          Deceit is a man-made dungeon with brick walls. Its first challenge is a magically-locked door, but we take care of that with “Unlock Magic.” A few harpies attack us on the other side, but they’re regular harpies, not stone ones, and we don’t have any problem with them.          A switch lowers a door which leads into a room with a dragon! We actually manage to kill the thing, but not before losing three party members. Since that route only seems to mislead you into a dragon battle, I reload and go a different direction. I soon find that the dungeon is characterized by unavoidable traps: arrows shooting out of the walls, fire erupting, lightning bolts zapping–which I can only avoid through trial and error or finding whoever sells the “Detect Trap” and “Disarm Trap” spells, but I seem to remember from previous experiences that they don’t work very well.          

Despite the yells, no one is protecting anyone here.

        In the dungeon, I meet two warrior sisters named Eiko and Amanda. They are in pursuit of the cyclops who killed their father, a mage named Kalideth, and studied under a trainer named Karenna of Minoc specifically for the task. I find the cyclops in a clearing in the middle of the dungeon. He introduces himself as Iskander and admits he’s done some monstrous things in the past in defense of his clan. He complains that humans seem to think that cyclopes exist solely to be killed by adventurers, and thus Iskander has been wandering the world looking for some place that will serve as a homeland. Neither conversation gives me dialogue options to use with the other parties, and I ultimately decide that it’s none of my business and move on.           

To be fair, your kinsmen in Cove attacked us first. After we invaded their home with weapons drawn.

          Eventually, we make it to the tetrahedron generator. Exhausted and out of most spell reagents by the time we arrive, I am annoyed to find there’s nothing obvious to do. Pointing Rudyom’s wand at it doesn’t cause it to explode. Double-clicking on it does nothing. Trying to walk into or on top of it does nothing. Frustrated, I consult my screen shots and am reminded that Penumbra wanted me to bring the Ethereal Ring back to her before I tried to use it.       

Trying various things that don’t work on the tetrahedron.

         Rather than fight my way back out, I decide to reload from before I entered the dungeon. I take the carpet to Penumbra’s and get the ring enchanted. Afterwards, she asks me an odd question: how did I know to come to her in the first place? The answer is, I didn’t. I was exploring the towns in systematic order and followed the clues I found to wake her up. But that’s not one of the answers I get, which are Nicodemus and the Time Lord, neither of whom I’ve actually met this game. It’s a bit annoying that Origin didn’t anticipate a player simply stumbling upon the quest this way.            

Why is that even important?

            Some miscellaneous observations before the end:        

It’s kind of annoying that the bedroll, which you often need to find in the dark, is one of the darkest items in the backpack.

Either the “Light” spell has a bizarrely random duration or something else is going on. I cast it while the party was exploring the Vesper mines. After that, I did the MoonglowPenumbra segment and then flew to the Dungeon Despise. The spell was still active when I entered the dungeon and lasted for most of my exploration. Then, later, when I cast it in Deceit, it blinked out after about three minutes.

To land the magic carpet, you have to find a section of ground the size of the carpet that has no obstacles. A large plant, rock, or log is enough to stop the carpet from settling down. As I flew to Despise from Moonglow, I happened to pass over the ruins of Skara Brae, and I noted that the entire island seems designed to disallow using the magic carpet to get there. It is scattered with just enough rocks, logs, and other debris that there’s no clear place large enough to accommodate it. That’s just an impression, though; I didn’t search the whole island.

            They really want you to come in the long way.

             I took note of some experience point rewards for solving quests. Returning the signed bill from Cove gave everyone 10 experience points. Solving the gunpowder plot gave us 50. These are small numbers in comparison to combat.

If I start the game with the GOG settings, it frequently freezes in the middle of NPC dialogue and I have to wait about 30 seconds, clicking around occasionally, before I get it unstuck. If I just fire up DOSBox and open the game on my own from there, this never happens. But I worry that not using the GOG settings is what caused the corruption last time.

The Books of Britannia entry has been updated with Brommer’s Flora, The Book of Forgotten Mantras, and Book of Prophecy.

          I fight my way back to the tetrahedron, and this time it lets me enter the thing, although my party members are unable to accompany me. I am pitted against a monstrous, demonic defender, and nothing I can do allows me to defeat him. This is the consequence of following my own path and reaching this point before most other players, who probably have more advanced protection spells, better equipment, higher levels, more training, and so forth.            

Sorry it’s so dark, but I ran out of sulfurous ash for the “Light” spell.

         Thus returning to the outdoors, I reflect on my next move. The responsible thing to do would be to return to Britain and pick up the path the way the game was meant to be played. The second most responsible thing to do would be to continue my previous path, returning to the tetrahedron later when I’m more powerful. I thus board the magic carpet and aim it west, towards the Isle of Fire.

Time so far: 30 hours

  source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-black-gate-gunpowder-treason-and-plot/

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