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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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IOTA Reviews: Rocketear

The Rocketeer is a 1991 Disney movie set in 1930's America where a test pilot gets a jetpack and uses it to fight Nazis and— Wait, what? “Rocketear”? Oh, damn it!

Let's get into the eleventh (chronologically the seventeenth) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Rocketear.

We start off with Carapace and Cat Noir struggling to hold back some T-Rexes brought back to life by a scientist Jurassic Park style. Seriously, they reference the movie in the same scene.

Why wasn't this the plot of the episode again?

After managing to tame the dinosaurs with a whistle of all things, Ladybug notices something's wrong with Nino after he gives the Turtle Miraculous back to her. Apparently, he's wondering why Rena Rouge (who he knows is Alya) wasn't recruited with him today. Ladybug tells him that he was the only help she needed today. In reality, it's because Alya has adjusted to her new role of supporting Ladybug behind the scenes in her new form, Rena Furtive.

And I'm not a fan of the new form. I get the camo, but it doesn't really help her blend in when her suit is bright blue. I think it's based off the arctic fox, but that animal is able to camouflage itself because it's fur matches the snowy environment. I'm sure a bright blue jumpsuit won't stand out when she tries to blend in at all. Also, the fact that Alya can just change her hero form gives even less excuses as to why Ladybug's new form is only when she uses her Lucky Charm.

Alya is struggling to keep this a secret from Nino because they don't have a lot of secrets in their relationship. Marinette says she can kind of get it because she had to keep her identity a secret from her friend and has to keep keeping her identity a secret from everyone else. Basically, she's telling Alya to suck it up because this is what being a superhero is.

So the next time she sees Nino, Alya tells him she's no longer Rena Rouge, but not about Rena Furtive, which troubles her. The very next scene shows Alya showing Marinette pictures she took of her new costume and asking her which version looks better.

You could always try reviewing Akuma fights. I heard there's one blog that does it when they're not criticizing the famous director Thomas Astruc on social media.

Yeah, in case you can't tell, Alya was only able to rent her brain for a few episodes because she really doesn't seem as understanding about being a superhero as she was in earlier episodes. In episodes like “Optigami” and “Sentibubbler”, we saw Alya use more strategy and show discretion as Rena Rouge, seemingly taking her job more seriously, but then this episode just had to go and piss it all away. I also love how the first time the animators made Alya's skin the same when she's transformed is in a single frame for a joke.

Alya thankfully deletes the picture, but Nino overhears her talking about struggling to find more content for the Ladyblog, and decides to go to the movies with her to help take her mind off things. Nino, in turn, proceeds to give the same reaction to the in-universe Ladybug movie that Astruc gives to the PV.

Apparently, that movie's already getting a sequel and it has a teaser. So was the sequel animated at the same time as the original like Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III?

Nino gets pissed the next movie in the Ladybug Cinematic Universe will feature Rena Rouge and not Carapace... even though Rena Rouge debuted first. The teaser then shows Rena Rouge falling for Cat Noir (yet another creative liberty taken by the writers or something Astruc's self-insert threw in himself), and takes it like it's the real thing. Dude, the first movie said Ladybug was afraid of cats, and the director yelled at the person it was based on for judging it. He clearly has a hard time distinguishing fiction from reality.

Alya leaves Nino early so she can go on patrol, but Nino sees Cat Noir heading out as well. He then watches a video on the Ladyblog where Alya praises Cat Noir which is totally not Astruc projecting or anything.

I don't know what your definition of a prince is, Alya, and I honestly don't want to know.

So Nino takes this as evidence that Alya is in love with Cat Noir and decides to tell Adrien, who naturally laughs him off. And just before you think we have an episode where Adrien plays the straight man, Adrien decides to visit Alya because he's afraid he accidentally charmed Alya.

Yes, because Cat Noir is so charming, girls are just fighting over him, aren't they?

We then cut to a black and white film noir monologue by Nino (dressed like a detective with a fake mustache), who decides to spy on Alya. When Cat Noir asks Alya if she is attracted to him, she naturally laughs him off, though Cat Noir is thankfully a good sport about it, even giving her a hug to apologize. Unfortunately, Nino took this the wrong way.

The next day at school, Nino takes Adrien into his “office” (it's really an excuse to reuse the boiler room setpiece), and shows him the picture of the hug. Adrien says that Alya would never fall for Cat Noir because she's always dedicated to finding out the truth and telling her boyfriend everything. What's Nino's retort?

Okay, several problems with this bit. First of all, why would Nino even tell Adrien any of this? What would it accomplish? Why not say all this to Alya while confronting her about her alleged unfaithfulness? Second, Ladybug didn't give Nino and Alya their Miraculous at the same time until it was an absolute emergency. She outright said in “Hero's Day” that she didn't have time to recruit Nino and Alya separately.

Ladybug: I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. I know I'm revealing your secret identities but I don't have time to find a good excuse to give them to you separately. Rena Rouge and Carapace, I need you both!

Nino and Alya kept their identities secret from each other until then, with Alya even keeping the fact she knew who Carapace was a secret as well. Nino didn't find out because “they don't hide anything from each other” (which I plan to talk about later).

Other than that, I actually liked Adrien in this scene. It was really investing to see him try to justify the whole secret identities rule while Nino blatantly said there was an exception. This is the kind of stuff I wanted to see when it came to Adrien doubting Ladybug, not him destroying things in his anger.

While Nino rants about how Cat Noir “stole” Alya from him, Shadowmoth sends an Akuma his way, turning him into Rocketear.

And the design he has is just boring. It's just a blue jumpsuit with some black spots that look like teardrops, a teardrop-shaped head and a visor. I think the reason this season's been relying more on past Akumas and using more Sentimonsters is because DQ is terrible at character designs. I mean, compare this suit with Aigraon from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (his Power Rangers counterpart is Wrench from Dino Charge).

The design does so much more with the teardrop motif, giving him a perpetually miserable face with tear lines going all over his body. Add that to a more diverse color scheme, and you have a much more visually stunning design. And this was created in real life, not rendered on a computer. I'm not sure if this is a budget thing or a laziness thing, but if it's the former, you really need to do better, animators.

The powers are meh, giving Nino the ability to fling explosive tears at enemies. It's a clever idea, and it makes sense he gets a power that parallels Cat Noir's, but I think maybe it would have been more interesting if he couldn't control the tears at all. Like, imagine if he was constantly crying like Blue Diamond, and with every tear he shed, Rocketeer could send it at whoever he felt was causing him misery, mainly Cat Noir, all while serving as a metaphor for people who blame others for their own personal issues. Better yet, make him look like the detective outfit Nino wore for the second act. It would have made him more unpredictable instead of making his tears generic projectile weapons.

Marinette and Alya see the fight and transform into Ladybug and Rena Furtive respectively, the former summoning her Lucky Charm, a projector. Is it just me, or has this been happening with Ladybug a lot recently?

Back to Rocketear, we get a good moment where Cat Noir intentionally lets the Akuma hit him so he can get a chance to resolve things diplomatically. See, this is a moment where Cat Noir's self-sacrificing nature feels heroic and not selfish like when he does it without Ladybug's permission to spite her. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere as Ladybug shows up and plays the recording Nino took (Alya found his phone earlier), while Rena Furtive uses her Mirage to give the audio to what actually happened that night.

Rena transforms back into Alya and embraces Rocketear, who apologizes to her for his behavior. And then he just... rejects Shadowmoth's power while looking like it wasn't that much effort.

At least when Chloe and Alya did it, we saw them struggling for a little longer. I guess maybe it's because Nino is motivated by his love for Alya, but I think it should have been fleshed out more. So Ladybug purifies the Akuma, gives Nino a Magical Charm, and Cat Noir is still unsure about his feelings for Ladybug at the moment, though they still pound it.

Back in his room, Adrien ponders why Alya and Nino get to know their identities while he and Ladybug can't, but Plagg points out it's because she's the Guardian. It's brief, but I do like seeing Adrien start to doubt Ladybug's judgment, and it looks like it'll foreshadow future episodes. This is a problem I've had since “Hero's Day”, and I'm glad the writers are finally acknowledging this double standard. I just hope they don't end up blaming Marinette for whatever happens later on.

Marinette, of course, apologizes for what happened between Alya and Nino, and I have to say... yeah, no. It's obviously Nino's fault here.

Nino really pushed personal boundaries in this episode, much like Marinette's friends in “Gang of Secrets”. Yes, honesty is a valuable trait, but sometimes, people have secrets they want to keep to themselves. Nino's idea of “not hiding anything from each other” is somewhat controlling, like he's demanding Alya tell him everything whether she wants to or not. The fact that he immediately assumed Alya was cheating on him without giving her freedom to make her own choices doesn't make him look good. Let's be honest, a more realistic outcome would be Alya choosing to break things off with Nino or at least lecture him about how she can do what she wants and keep the secrets she wants. But instead...

And that's how the episode ends.

Okay, Marinette just said she trusted Alya to make the right decision, but I highly doubt she meant this. Marinette strictly said Alya had to keep Rena Furtive a secret, and now she's telling Nino this despite the risk? The whole reason Marinette and Luka broke up was because Marinette had to keep her secrets from Luka, but now it's okay for Alya to be completely honest? How is this not a double standard?

This episode was just dull, and there’s not even much I can really say about it.. There were a handful of standout moments, and the stuff with Adrien was somewhat compelling, but Nino's behavior was just insufferable and dragged the episode down. The Akuma fight was weak, only lasting about four minutes at most, and while the Lucky Charm was more creative this time, the plot was just frustrating. It's really one of the weaker episodes this season.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch the better Rocketeer.

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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I am looking (disrespectfully) at the trope of Bruce and other family members only seeming to respect Dick’s wishes when doing so aligns with what they already wanted to do.

Let’s go to the examples!

1) Bruce not broaching adoption with Dick because he wants to respect Dick’s first parents and feels like he would be taking their place or overstepping or putting himself in between Dick and his memories of his parents. Sometimes its cited that Dick himself expressed this wish early on after his parents died, sometimes its not and this is still just upheld as Bruce’s reasoning for not adopting Dick before he was already well into adulthood.

THE FATAL FLAW (in mine own personal opinion, natch. Personal mileage may vary, check your speedometer to be safe):

This particular plot point or tangle is in my experience ALWAYS paired with Bruce’s own insecurities about his role in Dick’s life, or not wanting to push that or receive an answer he doesn’t want to or is afraid to hear. Sometimes its about his fears of unworthiness to be Dick’s actual parent, etc, etc. But the bottom line is, there is always the presence of SOME element (and not a small one) in which Bruce’s own self-interest or feelings are protected by him NOT broaching the adoption conversation with Dick and having to confront these fears head on.

This is additionally juxtaposed with the problem that although there’s a lot of variance in regards to stories where Bruce fired Dick versus stories where Dick gave up being Robin and moved on to Nightwing voluntarily....there’s NOT a lot of stories where Dick makes Jason Robin himself or is asked by Bruce first. The part where Bruce takes this initiative on his own, without thinking through its repercussions on Dick emotionally.....this is practically always present.

Now, the problem here is that......Dick became or began becoming Robin well into his time with Bruce. Its frequently cited as the thing that began allowing them to truly connect, their time training and acting as Batman and Robin.

Meaning no matter WHAT interpretation you go with as to why specifically Dick chose the name Robin, whether it was a family nickname or an homage to Robin Hood.....the fact remains, NOTHING of Robin, THEMATICALLY, nothing that spoke to Dick in regards to what he wanted Robin to be - specifically in honor of his parents because avenging his parents and making sure what happened to them didn’t happen to others like, this was literally a key part of what bonded Dick and Bruce, the fact that Bruce was TRYING to help Dick specifically BECAUSE they shared this particular overlap of purpose - like the bottom line is, nothing about Robin CAME from Bruce. Or Dick’s feelings about Bruce. That....didn’t really even exist yet, at the time he created Robin. Everything about Robin, other than the physical costume itself, not even the design just the actual creation of it....all of that came from BEFORE he met Bruce. None of it was thoughts or feelings derived from BRUCE. Its the whole reason Dick was never Batkid or Batlad, or any derivative of Batman.

It all, ALL came from what Dick came to the manor WITH. Remnants of his life with his first family.

So the fatal flaw of Bruce’s reasoning that by not broaching the subject of adoption with Dick before well into adulthood, he was actually just respecting Dick’s relationship with his first parents and not trying to come between them and Dick’s memories and feelings about them....

All of this is inherently undermined by Bruce’s own actions.....when by repurposing Robin to ANY degree, even just to give the mantle to Jason.....this meant that he was inherently viewing Robin as being more about being Batman’s partner, HIS partner....then it was about being Dick’s heritage, his last intangible keepsake of his first family and life BEFORE Bruce.

In effect....Bruce making Jason Robin or firing Dick as Robin, either way....both betray Bruce’s OWN alleged intentions for only wanting to respect Dick’s relationship with his parents, and that being why he didn’t want to overstep by trying to impose or even ask for his own official parent/child relationship with Dick. Because that’s exactly what appropriating the Robin mantle was. It was Bruce ignoring the relationship Dick had with his parents and their memory and the fact that Robin was directly born of that....and making Robin entirely about Bruce’s OWN relationship with Dick, heedless of any other factors.

And the second Bruce did that.....his entire justification for not raising the adoption issue....disappears. It goes away. Because you can’t claim inaction being just a result of not wanting to disrespect something you’ve already voided respect for. No matter whether Bruce INTENDED it or not.....by crossing this boundary, Bruce already acted against Dick’s feelings in this regard and well, disregarded them....which makes claims of Bruce not raising the adoption issue pretty much JUST self-serving at that point. Its an alleged viewpoint of Dick’s that Bruce largely just ASSUMES....and only ultimately respects - in direct contrast to how he didn’t respect the associations Dick had with Robin - because it aligns with something Bruce ALREADY wanted to do, rather than what Dick actually wanted. It provided justification for Bruce to just....not have a conversation he was afraid to have. And that’s about Bruce at that point. Its not about Dick. Its just like...not.

2) Another example of this that is not unique to just Bruce, but recurs frequently in both canon and fanfics in Dick’s dynamics with other characters he’s close with.....is characters not apologizing for things they’ve done to Dick or raising the issue of things they did a long time ago but never apologized for....while claiming to do so because they thought DICK didn’t want to talk about it.

THE FATAL FLAW (in my own personal opinion. Nuances and variations may not be identical at all store locations, please see your local branch for details):

The particular problem I have here is that....Dick never ever ever in the history of ever and also the before ever time.....has EVER expressed a desire to avoid confrontation.

Like. That’s what he DOES. That’s his JAM. That’s literally CITED time and time again as one of the reasons he’s viewed as more of a people person and natural team leader than Bruce and other Batfam members....because he’s not afraid to cut straight (or bi) to the heart of the matter and air out a dispute.

In fact, this very character trait is one of the ones most commonly utilized AGAINST Dick in various depictions of him, as he’s often cited as TOO confrontational, TOO eager for a fight or conflict especially when his temper is engaged, such as when he’s well....personally hurt or offended.

So how does it follow, then, that avoiding tough conversations ONLY when its on the OTHER person to INITIATE, because they were the ones who DID the wrong-doing and Dick the subject of that rather than the instigator....how does it work, exactly, that these are the only times in which we DON’T tend to see a direct conversation about the harms done and the fallout that resulted? With it being claimed that this is solely for Dick’s benefit, out of a desire to avoid pulling him into an allegedly unnecessary (but really just unpleasant) confrontation?

When the concurrent reality is that whether stated or acknowledged or not.....avoiding these specific conversations and ONLY these conversations (as there never seems to be a problem finding canon or fanfic stories in which Dick apologizes for harm HE’S caused to others or is clearly expected to).....this avoidance also carries the side benefit of allowing the character who DID something wrong to Dick to....not ever have to have that super uncomfortable conversation in which they actually verbally acknowledge the thing they did to him and the effects it had on him, and apologize for that.....and then render themselves vulnerable to actually hearing whether or not he accepts their apology or is still upset with them regardless.

While - as long as they DON’T ever have this conversation, for whatever reason - they can look to the clear and consistent precedent of Dick continuing to work with people who have done things like oh, I don’t know....punched him in the face cuz they’re mad at him (and this isn’t a Bruce critical point, this is a whole damn family critical point as the only one who HASN’T actually done this is Duke. Well, Cass technically just threw him out a window, but I mean, tomato toh-mah-to). Writers and characters both can lean on the fact that actually Dick has a pretty clear track record of ultimately giving up a grudge or at least showing a willingness to look past those grudges enough that it doesn’t prevent him from still maintaining or resuming some kind of relationship with the person who hurt him.

And thus, like Example Numero Uno......this ultimately just lets other characters off the hook while claiming to do Dick a favor, but actually Dick receives no real benefit from it and instead now just has another instance of characters saying “see we respect your wishes” when ultimately their inaction is MORE in service to their own wishes and self-interests.

2b) See also the variation of this in which characters such as Bruce, Jason, Tim and assorted others like....are written specifically determining that they’re not going to apologize to Dick or beg his forgiveness because they feel they don’t DESERVE to be forgiven, and once again....its in HIS best interests that they not even give him the opportunity to say he forgives them....because they know Dick Grayson of course, and they know he’s too forgiving for his own good, so its better to like....not make it ever a possibility in this particular instance.

With the problem here being like.....Dick can’t and shouldn’t be expected to KNOW that’s their logic? So....all he’s going to actually SEE is loved ones just....not expressing remorse for hurting him or acknowledgment it even happened? Which....hurts?

So......hurting your loved one MORE after already hurting them....because you don’t feel you deserve to be forgiven for hurting them in the first place and are actually PROTECTING them from being hurt more when mistakenly forgiving you.....by.....hurting and continuing to hurt them with your silence and lack of evident remorse....

Mmmm.....

Its not the best approach, y’know?

Flaws are detected.

3) Dick’s friends and family manipulating situations in order to get the end result THEY desire, while claiming to do so for his benefit only. Dick being willing to manipulate people to achieve his own ends comes up a LOT actually....but there’s relatively little examination of how often people do this to him, claiming his best interests but really just circumventing his clearly stated desires for independence and the right to make his own choices about what HE needs....or when this is brought up, its usually limited to JUST Bruce doing it, but uh....no that ain’t it.

Specific examples of this are like when Wally joins the 1999 version of the Titans specifically to get Dick to join up, because in his estimation Dick needs more of a social life and is drowning himself with his responsibilities....and then quits not long after Dick is finally officially invested in staying with the team. Another example is when Roy gets Dick to join the Outsiders based entirely on his pitch of NOT treating the team like a family, like they did with the Titans, so that Dick could keep emotional distance and not be as worried about losing them like he suffered from losses like Donna....with his claim again being that he worried about Dick in the aftermath of that loss, etc.

And to be clear! Its not that I think Wally and Roy and others who do similar things have NEGATIVE intentions in mind for Dick. That’s the whole point of this post.....like the other examples, I fully believe THEY believe (or writers believe when writing them this way) that they have Dick’s best interests in mind and not their own. I just....disagree.

THE FATAL FLAW (at least as I see it here):

Is that I view this and Batfam members who do similar stuff as like.....falling into the trap of the savior friend complex. Its that thing when you see a friend hurting, and over time get FRUSTRATED by seeing this when a solution seems obvious to you but think they won’t take it because they’re too stubborn or don’t know what’s best for them....with this specifically recurring a LOT with Dick in particular, due to his core characterization of wanting to be the one to make his own choices. The problem here, same as the problem with the savior friend complex....is that it treats the subject of these views as like....incapable of determining what they need. Its a tacit condemnation that they actually don’t know how to cope with things and are doing it wrong - even though the ones making this assessment will never be the ones actually having to LIVE with the outcome of their meddling. Its the conviction that someone like Dick needs to be HANDLED, for his own good....because he can’t be trusted to KNOW what he needs, not as well as them at least.....and so they jump to manipulation rather than just....ASK him what he needs, or HOW they can best support him, or even just WHY he’s making the choices he is.

For instance, the problem with what Wally did was never that Dick wasn’t struggling. He was. He was drowning in his responsibilities, he had very little to no life outside of them.....Wally is not remotely in the wrong for WANTING to do something to change this situation. The problem is Wally basically defaulted to just...HANDLING his friend by restarting the Titans just to give Dick a social life again, which is pretty much a line straight out of the comics...and basically railroaded right over Dick’s initial ‘no’ when he first heard the proposal. And kept pushing things until Dick eventually joined up in order to get Wally to commit to the team too, because Wally spun it as though Dick was helping Wally by getting Wally to commit to the team for the very same reasons Wally wanted Dick to. And then....right after that, Wally quit to go back to just focusing on the Justice League, which was part of what Dick predicted would happen all along.

The thing was.....at no point along the way did Wally actually ask WHY Dick initially said no....he jumped straight to assuming his own view of the problem, that Dick just COULDN’T be made to ever see the reason to take a break occasionally and put his mental and emotional health as a priority. If he’d done this, Wally could have had dozens of other options to achieve his desired end result....he could’ve like....set up regular hangouts with Dick.

But Wally jumped to assuming he knew the answer, he knew what was best for Dick, and that Dick’s logic was inherently self-destructive and self-flagellating.....and he felt the solution was to bring back the Titans, as he recalled their earlier times as Titans together as a time when Dick was better able to balance his social life and responsibilities.

But by not ever stopping to LISTEN to why Dick felt the way he did and was initially opposed to rejoining the Titans....Wally overlooked one crucial fact: He isn’t Dick.

And more important, his view of the past wasn’t Dick’s view of the past.

Wally was a lot more capable of viewing the Titans as not just a family, but an inherent social life, a hangout, a kind of club....because that’s what it had always been to him.

But he’d never been the leader.

Throughout all their childhoods, the whole time the Titans WERE all of the above, and relatively light-hearted in comparison to their older selves....Dick STILL had the weight of responsibilities that none of the others had by virtue of just...not being the leader. Ultimately, all of their lives were in HIS hands. He was the one calling the shots. The buck stopped with him.

And this is precisely WHY Dick had gotten to the point he had in adulthood. It wasn’t because he’d changed. It wasn’t because he’d stopped figuring out what he needed and how to take care of himself. Its because the position he’d ALWAYS been in as leader....has WEIGHT. That eventually added up more and more and weighed him down. A huge part of the reason Dick had ended up leaving the Titans in the first place, before they disbanded prior to the 1999 revival....is because of the sheer WEIGHT of all the deaths and misfortunes that had befallen the Titans....and how much he and he alone struggled with it in ways the others didn’t....because they didn’t have to. It hadn’t been their plans, their calls, their RESPONSIBILITY to find a way the others could have all made it out alive or at least less traumatized.

So.....of COURSE Dick said no when Wally first proposed restarting the Titans, before Wally defaulted to using his own membership as a lure to get Dick to agree.....because......nothing about the above paragraph had changed, via Wally’s ‘plan.’ It wasn’t because Dick just didn’t KNOW how to be a fully rounded person....it was because nobody was helping him find actual OPTIONS for doing that....that didn’t just double as MORE responsibilities! Because that’s exactly what ended up happening! Dick wound up the leader of the Titans again, just as responsible and just as invested as always.....just like he always knew he would....and also as he knew would happen...Wally ended up quitting not long into it and persuading Jessie Quick to step in as his replacement....aka just one more person for Dick to worry about when it wasn’t like he was going to be worrying any less about Wally, just now he wasn’t going to have Wally there to even POTENTIALLY be able to support him when tragedy inevitably struck because they’re freaking superheroes....and instead he’d just have another person looking to him for the answers but with no reason or chance of being the support Dick could ACTUALLY use at times like that!

Wally’s manipulations circumvented Dick’s opinion that no, actually he knew what was best for him and it wasn’t what Wally was suggesting....without actually accounting for the fact that hey, Dick might actually know that. And in the end, Wally got the result he was after, he got to feel that he’d HELPED his friend....which again, this isn’t WRONG to WANT to....but Dick didn’t...exactly....benefit from this. It wasn’t actually in his best interests ultimately.

I mean...see Donna’s death for details.

And in the aftermath of THAT....Roy essentially did exactly what Wally did....just in REVERSE! Roy got Dick to agree to lead the Outsiders, to shoulder responsibility once again....by promising that Dick WOULDN’T have to view them as family. And did Dick go too far and end up TOO uncaring about their welfare? Yup! No disagreements there! Problem is though....he only ended UP in that situation because yet again a friend thought they KNEW the solution to what Dick needed.....only for Dick to end up essentially punished and further self-blaming....just for doing exactly what Roy had told him TO do, with this particular team. Again - Roy hadn’t EXPECTED Dick to take it this far. But that’s the whole point! Roy had expectations about what Dick would ACTUALLY end up doing, that didn’t match up to the pitch Roy actually gave Dick to GET his agreement.....because Roy all along was of the assumption that by virtue of being Dick Grayson, he wouldn’t be ABLE to avoid connecting with these new teammates and viewing them as family, and thus he’d end up ‘snapping out of it’ with it being the funk he’d been in since Donna’s death.

Roy’s intentions might have been noble, once again.....but his methods stuck to the same pattern of people around Dick believing they knew what he needed or knew who he was or knew what it meant to BE Dick Grayson....better than Dick actually did...particularly when Dick said no, this isn’t what I need or this isn’t a good idea or just...I don’t want to do this.

And in the end....its Dick who ended up paying the price for it, as well as the people who got hurt because of his INTENTIONAL emotional distance.....because the ‘view all surrounding people as new surrogate family’ aspect of the Dick Grayson Experience hadn’t kicked in as Roy thought inevitably would....but the ‘view all this as directly my fault and suffer guilt for it forevermore’ aspect of the Dick Grayson Experience most certainly did! Not at all actually helped along by the fact that like....Roy also expressed frustration with Dick that like.....Dick hadn’t actually responded to Roy’s intended manipulation of his emotions the way Roy had expected him to when he EXPRESSLY TOLD DICK TO BEHAVE THE WAY THAT DICK ULTIMATELY BEHAVED. (Just, he didn’t tell Dick to dial that all the way up to Extra, but given that’s the only setting Dick does ANYTHING at, I feel its a possible outcome Roy should have at least considered. I mean, wasn’t the whole point that you know Dick Grayson better than he knows himself?)

But lo, I am salty.

LMAO, but I mean, you get it right? Obviously, I LIKE Wally and Roy. I LIKE Jason, etc. I’m not saying all of this to be like ugh how dare these characters do all this to Dick....I’m saying it because like.....they all keep falling into the same patterns of making a big fuss and acknowledgment of how much Dick prioritizes being able and free to make his own choices and decide what’s best for him and what HE wants.....

But without ever like....actively asking him AT THE RELEVANT TIME....what he thinks and feels about all this. What he thinks and feels he needs. What he ACTUALLY wants from them, or why he’s ACTUALLY saying no to something and maybe it being for reasons that aren’t just him inherently being stubborn and self-destructive.

And instead just defaulting to falling back on whatever he might have said or expressed in an entirely different context at an entirely different time.....and saying okay, by doing so, we are abiding by his wishes and thus doing what he wants and respecting his right to make his own choices.....

But ONLY when doing all of the above just so happens to align with these other characters then getting to do the thing or take the approach they’re already predisposed towards wanting to take because of their OWN self-interests at the same time.

With this never actually coming into play when respecting Dick’s wishes aligns with them taking actions they DON’T personally want to undertake, because it makes them uncomfy or they think its a bad call, even if it is something that should be his call to make.

Like....the pattern. It very much exists. And abounds. Like I could cite examples allllllllllll the way up to Ric Grayson, where Bruce respected RIC’S wishes to be left alone and not interfere in his life no matter what.....in ways Bruce almost never respects Dick’s actual expressed wish for Bruce to butt out of matters when Bruce is actually quite keen on meddling and would very much like to....

But notice how the other thing about the Ric Grayson storyline is that Ric’s expressed desire to stay the fuck out of vigilantism and superhero work, like.....just so happens to align with Bruce’s longstanding desire for Dick to like...get out of the vigilantism and superhero work? With butting out of Ric’s life and respecting his privacy in ways Dick has to FIGHT him for, like......absolutely the optimal action to take in order to allow this expressed desire of Ric’s to flourish in the ways Bruce always wished would kick in for Dick?

.....just saying.

The pattern. It abounds.

And the key to breaking any pattern, of course, is to first recognize....and acknowledge....that it exists.

Otherwise you tend to fall into the trap of repeating and perpetuating it over and over without even realizing it, simply because its what’s familiar.

This has been A Post by Me. Thank you and have a nice day. Or don’t. Idk. I’m not the boss of you. Whatever.

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bagog · 3 years

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What On Earth Has Happened

Hey, no story here, no experiments. Just a play by play of an awful year in my life. Please don't reblog. Trying to just get it down in one place for people who care about me. Long, sob-story beneath the cut.

Air - 'Things are looking up!' I had started to drift a bit from tumblr. The porno purge came and a lot of my friends trickled off the platform after that. I went back to school, attempting to score myself a Masters degree in something that would pay enough to get me out of Student Debt. I was doing great, picking things up fast. I got a new job at a company doing pretty menial work, but the people I worked with were great conversationalists. The work didn't involve dealing with customers at all, paid well, and was small and accomplishable tasks. Essentially I was being prepped to take a better position at the place once I had my Masters. Covid happened, then. Earth - 'The Whole World Sucks Right Now' My company was "essential," so I continued going to work, now on weird schedules. The company I worked for was profiting off Covid, all the while making fun of it as an overblown conspiracy, even as their own epidemiologist urged them to take better precautions. Work became hard to swallow. Water - 'When your lowest place could be lower' The apartment I shared with my boyfriend flooded. The lowest place in any sewage system is typically the bathtub, such that if it backs up, it does so into that tub. Our lowest point is the toilet. So the apartment flooded. Three times. Roots growing through the sewage outflow meant that, often, you needed to wait a solid hour between toilet flushes, or else the toilet would back up with such gusto the sewage would slosh down the hallway and into the living room. We mopped many times. The problem was finally fixed 8 months later, necessitating our having to camp because our house had no water. Fire - 'To destroy all you've done' One afternoon, I smelled burning. Going to our bedroom, I found our shelf a column of flame. I could barely breathe for all the smoke, but I managed to grab a blanket and beat the fire out. On the other side of the room, the pages of the books upon another shelf had begun to crisp from the heat, the blinds on all the windows were warped. The whole apartment had been about to go up. I'm kinda scared of fire now. Heart - 'When moving is too much to ask' Personal health sorta hit a new low. Migraines kept me out of work for two full weeks. I have seasonal foot pain, I always assumed from hiking for a living in my 20s. Turns out it was gout, all the while. Gout is exceptionally painful: it's like a messy pile of razor blades in the ball of your foot every time you step down. At work, I could barely stand. Walking from my car to the door became something I needed to psyche myself up for. Not a lot can stop a gout flare-up once it's in full swing, so I just had to wait it out. For a month. Two. Some of the worst sustained pain I've been in. Little did I know that, in January, come the kidney stones. Kidney stones feel awful. Feel like total shit. Gout and kidney stones are comorbid--brought about as a result of the meds I take to help me focus. So any day I don't drink enough water is a day when my kidneys or my foot just starts aching. But going back to September of 2020... Homophobia - 'goddammit' Finally things are looking better. I'm limping quickly again. Then I am called into the HR office. I am told that two sexual harassment charges have been brought against me. I'm told that one individual has alleged that I, while in the restroom, used a reflective toilet brush to attempt to peep him under a stall wall. I did not do this. I do not understand--reflective toilet brush?? wtf. The second allegation: I just straight up looked over a stall at a guy. I didn't do this either. I'm asked to defend myself, I ask who or date or time of day. I am given nothing. I remark that I don't think I'm tall enough to see over the stall, and I do not understand about the toilet brush. Of the ten minutes of the meeting, I spend 8 of them trying to get my head around how a claim about a reflective toilet brush has me here. "Would you like us to go now to see if you're tall enough to see over the stall? If that would help your defense?" says the HR head. "Yes, I

would," says I. We did not go. I am told that the accusers have no reason to be collaborating, or to even know each other made a claim. This is bullshit, because it was a company of 80 people, and only a quarter of those employees used the restroom where my alleged harassment was to have taken place. Before I am dismissed from work for the day to go home and wait to find out if I'll be fired or not, I march into the HR office once more and say "I hope none of this is happening because I'm gay." The HR head looks positively offended. I got fired cuz I'm gay. Next day I got a call. They'd come to the "objective truth" (that phrase is burned in my mind), and were terminating me. Apparently they discounted the toilet brush rumor, after all. But they really honestly believed I looked over the stall at a dude. Nightmare - 'No Fear One Fear' Let me tell you something: this is a nightmare. This is my honest-to-god nightmare. I've been terrified of getting accused of something in a bathroom since I was 11 years old. I am incredibly self-conscious and careful in public restrooms. To be fired? From a place full of people I like? And all of them will think I'm a pervert. My boyfriend worked at the same place. He would now have to work there every day dealing with people looking at him and wondering what he must think of his boyfriend. That sent me on a spiral. I'm still out of work, almost a year later. It would have been the worst mental health crisis of my life if it wasn't for my boyfriend, my support network, and the meds I've finally been able to get ahold of. Oh, also. My two accusers? Were roommates. HR knew they were roommates. They basically collaborated on a story to get me fired. The story circulating around the place (I still have acquaintances I talk to working there) has dropped the reflective toilet brush entirely. I guess they thought it was too unbelievable. So anyway, the people who accused me are now telling a different set of events than what I was told. Absolute horse shit. Tried to go to my city's human right's council to see if my situation warranted further attention. I gave my side of the story--including tales of the straight manager who had had enough harassment charges brought against him that he was no longer allowed to meet female staff--which indicated I'd been treated differently and wrongly. My old job made an impassioned argument that the committee violated their First Amendment rights(?) ('Freedom of speech' is the biggie with the First Amendment, for people who cba re:USA). I won the vote!! But one member of the committee was missing. So there weren't enough people for the vote to pass. Dismissed. We took it to the EEOC to make an official federal complaint. Just a week ago, an agent of the US Government patiently explained to us that these laws are literally designed to fuck over the worker and protect the employer unless they are epically stupid, and unfortunately, mine had not been epically stupid. So there's nowhere to go, no recourse to be had. It's over, I guess. Family - 'How to sum it up quickly...' My family hit me with the old soft-disown. No more calls, no more communication. They think they are loving me by not having contact with me. By depriving me of my family, they hope it will make me realize that the path I'm on is destructive, and I'll return to them living an upright life. No. I'm living an upright life, now. And if my family can choose to throw me away, then they are not a family I choose. Then my dad hit me back two months later, absolutely gaslighting me and pretending we never had the disown conversation at all. Reality - 'I don't know who I am anymore' I have trouble knowing what's real, anymore. Every message my dad sends on the surface seems loving and supportive and plaintive. I feel I must be the one in the wrong. I got fired for bullshit reasons. It doesn't feel real. "My family can't possibly have ceased contact with me: that's one of those things I know can never happen!!" But that did happen. So what else that feels real, actually isn't? I do

mean to be so dramatic, and I won't apologize for it. But I truly do feel like my mind has been pretty thoroughly unseated by the last year. Whoever I am, I'm becoming someone different. More distilled, at very least. I've discovered a lot of things about myself: trauma that has likely led to a lot of my mental health problems. Discovered I actually have RAGING ADHD, and it has robber me of a lot of things I wanted to do, and now is sort of consuming me completely. I'm looking for help. Trying to get better. Here's hoping. Every bold point above could be its own book, for all my thoughts about them. But enough of that for now. Love you. Thanks for reading.

#personal #depressed writing #life update #2020 sucked

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sepublic · 3 years

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Coven Bindings- Even more restrictive than they seem?

@aguigenae and I were talking about how coven bindings would even work, going with the idea that Belos’ nine magical categories are purely arbitrary, and they came up with a chilling yet fitting concept;

What if witches with coven bindings can’t actually develop new spells, only learn and perform pre-established ones? What if witches are told to believe that all of the spells they can do are the full extent of that ‘category’, when in reality they’re not being excluded from other forms of magic, they’re actually having their magic turned off completely, save for a select list of spells that the bindings are programmed to include? And because experimentation and magic-mixing is discouraged, nobody realizes there are spells they SHOULD be able to cast according to how the coven bindings claim to work, based on alleged categories, but can’t- Because those categories don’t actually exist!

What Aguigenae suggested makes a lot of sense, it’d be easier to seal magic with a coven binding if it’s really just a list of spells you’re allowed to do, VS all magic banned except for potentially infinite spells of this one type. Witches are taught only to learn spells already pre-established in textbooks, not create and try different, new ones; Because then that will expose the limitations of coven bindings when witches inevitably run into them, and multi-track learning can put a hole into Belos’ claims.

The insistence on practicing only what’s been established is likely to hide the truth of how the coven bindings really work; Because if people realize how much smaller their options already are, and they’re already hesitant about the bindings in general, they might revolt! Like, a Plant Witch will discover a never-before-seen plant, but then realize they can’t recreate it with a spell- Because their magic isn’t banned EXCEPT for plants, it’s ONLY plant spells, but not EVERY plant spell possible, so to speak.

Suddenly, Belos’ system is even more insidious, because he’s not just dividing magic; He’s halting development of it entirely! It’s possible actual magical categories exist, but they subscribe more along elemental lines found in nature (hence Luz’s glyphs), not the fake categories that Belos devised, meant to fit in with societal roles and functions as part of a larger machine. And witches in covens can’t explore the height of their magical potential, because not only does that category not even exist technically (with the exception of the Plant Coven apparently), but there’s a specific set limit that Belos has secretly established, an invisible glass ceiling that nobody is even aware of; And if witches run into it, they’re gaslit into thinking it’s because they’re too weak to climb even higher, or some other propaganda.

This could even apply to the Coven Heads; Perhaps they don’t even HAVE coven bindings yet claim to do… And this allows them to perform and create new spells that other witches in their coven can’t, so long as those spells seem to fit within the category that Belos devised. If witches who have actual bindings can’t do the same spells, it’s actually because they’re just not skilled nor talented enough. It artificially maintains the power of the Coven Heads similarly to how the Emperor’s Coven does, but in a way arguably more insidious; Because people don’t even realize it’s because of their bindings that they’re not as strong, they just think it’s their own lack of ability!

And it makes the Coven Heads seem much more dedicated and skilled than they actually are, when in reality they’re given a hidden advantage from the very start. It’s an unfair system that’s cheating against you. It also adds to the illusion (not just for that one coven) that witches with coven bindings CAN innovate and create new spells, and it’s just your fault for not being good enough, nothing to do with a rigged system or anything…

This could tie into how the Coven System robs witches of abilities they naturally have, and treats them as privileges to earn back- Or even just earn in the first place! Belos won’t let people have what they already own, he steals it from them and forces witches to prove they’re ‘worthy’ to have it. There could even be spells that don’t quite fit into Belos’ nine categories, so either he arbitrarily places spells into types with no room for overlap (perhaps claiming Fire as Potions magic because it can heat chemicals, even if it has uses in many other covens), and/or he’s open about spells not belonging to any of the nine categories; These special spells are of course exclusive to only the Emperor’s Coven.

Even if all nine covens were to band against the Emperor’s Coven, they’d have a smaller range of spells to use than the covenscouts, especially since the Emperor’s Coven can actually invent new spells to begin with. A typical member of the Emperor’s Coven has more magical potential and spells to choose from, than a group of nine witches from each coven combined! Belos acknowledges spells that don’t fit into his nine categories, as just another privilege for the Emperor’s Coven to further inflate its power, and maintain a distance. Some students might try to learn these ‘exclusive’ spells in preparation/advance for joining the Emperor’s Coven, maybe even joining so they can hold onto these special spells as well- It’d just add another dark layer to how Eda probably only wanted to join the Emperor’s Coven to keep her magic.

Likewise, if you see new bard magic done by a covenscout, that you can’t do? That’s probably because it’s actually mixed magic, and/or you’re just not good enough! There could be spells discovered AFTER your binding was applied, and thus your binding doesn’t include it! To maintain the ‘illusion’ of the coven bindings and his magical categories, Belos probably has hidden updates to his coven bindings to include more spells; And it could create the illusion that later generations in his Coven System have more access to magic than previous ones, because the Emperor’s curriculum is ‘superior’. The Emperor’s Coven can’t admit the truth because it breaks their illusion of choice; Witches aren’t so much excluding themselves from certain spells, as much as they are binding themselves to a very select group that seems similar enough to fit within Belos’ fake taxonomy.

It’s even possible Belos plays into the holes of his claims, by passing it off as wild magic! Perhaps he insists that when the Titan created magic and blessed the Boiling Isles with it, it only devised a set amount of spells approved for common witches to utilize. Spells created or found beyond that approved list are a dangerous type of heresy, a usage of magic not within the Titan’s plan and design. Journeying into unpredictable territory can yield unknown consequences, such as Eda’s Owl Beast form- So Belos claims. As Aguigenae put it; You join a coven and can’t use one of your favorite spells anymore because you came up with it, even though it should fit your binding- Must’ve been wild magic, you shouldn’t have been messing with that!

Any spells not approved by the Titan are blasphemy, perversions of its magic that weren’t created with the safety of witches in mind, with no part in its hierarchy- An outsider’s magic. Only the Titan can create new spells and mix magic… And of course, its trusted few in the Emperor’s Coven- Who are skilled and loyal enough to be trusted with creating new spells, experimenting, and performing forays into unexplored forms of magic. Only they are proven to do what is dangerous or otherwise blasphemous for the common witch to do, because only the Emperor’s Coven has the Titan’s approval. The Emperor’s Coven is beloved and chosen by the Titan, to oppose them is to oppose its will! Experimentation is dangerous, and if a spell wasn’t approved for the common witch by the Titan, it was for a reason…

Again, that’s why experimentation and multi-track learning is frowned upon and even banned by Belos; Because people like Luz or the Detention Kids can show that new spells aren’t as dangerous and unpredictable as Belos claims them to be! Or at the very least, the benefits of experimentation FAR outweigh the cons, and it shouldn’t be restricted to a select, ‘privileged’ group- Especially if that groups exists to enforce a hierarchy and dictatorship on behalf of the Emperor. Even the Emperor’s Coven would discourage innovation, as only new spells that are relevant to its military interests and control would be researched.

It’s all, as Luz might put it, “Fiendishly clever”; It’s a philosophy that keeps witches even weaker than they’re led to believe, while discouraging them from experimenting… It artificially maintains a hierarchy with even more new spells for the Emperor’s Coven, all while gaslighting some into thinking that if they can’t do the same spells as their Coven Heads, it’s because they’re just not good enough; NOT because their Head Witch secretly lacks a coven binding to begin with, actually!

Again, this is all conjecture. If coven bindings weren’t “all magic banned except this type” and actually “all magic that fits into this made-up type”, it’d just prove the system to be even more corrupt and fake than it already is. It’d expose Belos’ lie, because the coven system doesn’t even let witches ‘focus’ on the type of magic they’re best, because they’ll never go beyond what he explicitly approved of thanks to his bindings… It’s stagnation everywhere except where Belos has control and can use it for himself, and it fools witches into believing in their own lack of ability. Even if they were to all band together and rise up, their magic would STILL be lesser than the Emperor’s Coven.

#the owl house #the owl house belos #emperor belos #covens #coven system #emperor's coven #speculation #theory

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vgfm · 3 years

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Deltarune Theory: More Musings on Everyman and Gaster

Hey all, it’s been about a month since my big Everyman Analysis Post and I just wanted to make a quick follow-up that ended up being quite long.

This follow-up includes some things that I left out of the original post, as well as a couple of new revelations and developments I’ve uncovered since then.

This new post also segues into a theory I’ve been building about Gaster, since I feel like both characters are connected.

I recommend you read the original post (if you haven’t already) otherwise this follow-up may not make much sense.

Sections

Quick Recap

Further Foreshadowing

The Curious Case of Mettaton

“Strange” Times

Revisiting Reaper Bird

Creating Reaper Bird

Ice-E’s Odds and “E”nds

A Deeper Look into Father Alvin

Heroes of the Dark, Villains of the Light

A New Challenger Approaches!

Gaster’s Connection to the Knight

Creating a New Future

Gaster is ???

Gaster the ???

What are Skeletons, Anyway?

Conclusion

Quick Recap

If for whatever reason you haven’t read the previous Everyman post, here’s the cliff notes version:

Everyman was the bullet attack from the Reaper Bird amalgamate in Undertale’s True Lab (the one whose head got eaten by butterflies)

Everyman appears twice in Deltarune Chapter 1, implying a greater role in the full game

In Undertale, Everyman was likely an actual person/monster who became part of an amalgamate like Snowdrake’s mother and Shyren’s sister did

Everyman is likely to be “The Knight,” mentioned in Deltarune (see first post for full argument/evidence)

Jevil and the King of Spades are connected to both the Knight and Everyman, implying they’re the same person (again, see previous post)

The word “strange” is associated with Everyman; his sprite in Undertale is called “strangeman” and Seam refers to the Knight as a “strange knight”

The Knight may or may not have a “strange son”, according to Seam (it’s unclear because the line is worded vaguely)

The Knight/Everyman is probably connected to Gaster

If Everyman is an existing character, then he’s likely either Father Alvin or one of the Ice-E’s employees (long story, see previous post)

[Image transcript: Two text boxes from Rouxls Kaard. In order, he says: “Lost...? Frightened...? Confused...? GOOD!! HA HA HA!!!” end image transcript.]

Need some help? Otherwise, we’re moving on...

Further Foreshadowing

I wanted to touch a bit more on the concept of character foreshadowing in Undertale/Deltarune, since it’s one of my foundational arguments for why I think Everyman will be important in Deltarune.

I still can’t help but find it remarkable that Toby took the time to include multiple Everyman “cameos” in Deltarune Chapter 1. The Jevil fight cameo especially gets me because it’s in a secret fight that most players already won’t experience on their initial playthrough, and on top of that it’s a rare event in said fight. It reminds me of how the “Mysteryman” event in Undertale has a strong chance to not trigger even if you have the correct fun value. This all feels like a lot of trouble for Toby to go through for what is an otherwise extremely obscure character.

Last time I gave examples of how characters like Mettaton and Rouxls Kaard were foreshadowed before they were properly introduced, but I found another example of a foreshadowed character that better illustrates my argument:

Muffet was a fan-made boss included in Undertale as a backer incentive for the game’s Kickstarter. In other words, she was (presumably) not part of the initial plans for the game or its demo (which was released prior to the Kickstarter). In the finished game, Muffet, while not as important as other boss characters, still ties into the spider bake sale seen in the Ruins and she’s (possibly?) one of the mercenaries hired by Mettaton to kill you.

Muffet’s inclusion in the full game retroactively makes the Ruins’ spider bake sale serve as foreshadowing for her character. However, Toby didn’t stop there.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side screenshots of Undertale. In the left one, the narration says “(It’s a spider web.)” In the right screenshot, the narration continues: “(There’s a flyer for a bake sale on it.)” end image transcript.]

Toby also added a bake sale flyer in Napstablook’s house as an additional reminder and gave Muffet her own introductory bake sale room in Hotland before she’s properly fought.

Note how once again Toby took the time and effort to foreshadow a character multiple times, even though that character wasn’t even part of his original plans. And, as was the case with MTT and RK, the foreshadowing wasn’t just a one-off hint or nod, either.

Muffet is also an example of how foreshadowing doesn’t need to include a character’s name or a direct reference in any dialogue or flavor text. Mettaton and Rouxls Kaard are both mentioned by name (or initials) by other characters, yet Muffet’s name is never spoken before her fight.

A first time player going in blind would have no way of knowing that Muffet exists as a specific character in the narrative, but her presence would still make sense and be foreshadowed from contextual clues. The spider bake sale, while not telling us exactly who Muffet is, clearly builds up to the eventual reveal of her role and motivations. This is what I meant when I said that some foreshadowing only makes sense in hindsight, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is foreshadowing.

The Curious Case of Mettaton

Think back to what I said last time about foreshadowing:

“For all we know there could be other, more-cryptic Everyman references already in Deltarune that we don’t have the full context to understand yet.”

While I didn’t specify it at the time, I meant this as a subtle hint that Deltarune’s mentions of the Knight would double as foreshadowing for Everyman (assuming they’re the same person, as my theory alleges). Obviously I didn’t start my original post with this argument because it would be putting the cart before the horse and I had to first establish why I think Everyman is the Knight.

Speaking of the Knight, another thing that I hinted at but didn’t fully spell out last time is the fact that the three most prominent characters who mention the Knight (Seam, Jevil, and the King of Spades) all coincidentally leave “clues” that point to Everyman as well. Seam uses the word “strange” more than any other character and is the first one to mention the “strange” Knight. Jevil mentions the Knight and has the rare Everyman bullet. The Spade King mentions the Knight several times, including as his final in-battle line, then right after allows his cloak to fly away as a butterfly (an image associated with Everyman, per my last post).

If my theory is correct then it would mean that Everyman is foreshadowed even more heavily in chapter 1 than just his two visual “cameos”. It would also mean that every mention of the Knight would serve as a “namedrop” for Everyman, like how Mettaton and Rouxls Kaard are namedropped before their introductions.

This type of foreshadowing, where namedrops are seemingly “unconnected” to visual cameos, isn’t unprecedented. Mettaton is namedropped several times in Undertale before Hotland, but we also see his rectangular form powering the Snowdin colored tile puzzle.

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Frisk looking at Mettaton’s deactivated body next to the colored tile puzzle in Snowdin. The narration says “(The machien isn’t working.)” end image transcript.]

I also want to clarify that, yes, that’s actually Mettaton--Papyrus mentions that Alphys designed the tile puzzle and you can see that Mettaton disappears from that room later on before eventually reusing the tile puzzle himself in Hotland.

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Frisk talking on the phone with Papyrus in the Snowdin colored tile puzzle room. Papyrus is saying “OH HO!!! THE PUZZLE THAT DR. ALPHYS MADE!” end image transcript.]

But here’s something you may not have ever thought about: there’s absolutely nothing prior to Hotland that outright says that the mysterious “MTT” and the machine powering the tile puzzle are one in the same, just like how there’s no line of dialogue in Deltarune Chapter 1 that outright says Everyman is the Knight.

In fact, I’d argue there’s more evidence to suggest that Everyman is the Knight than there is to suggest (to a new player, pre-Hotland) that “MTT” and the tile puzzle machine are the same person (or even a person at all), and yet we know the latter is true. Just something to think about.

“Strange” Times

Something else I wanted to expand upon was the use of the word “strange”. I pointed out last time how Everyman is called “strangeman” in Undertale’s game files and how Deltarune’s dialogue uses the word “strange” very deliberately.

What I didn’t touch on was how the word “strange” is used in Undertale. Long story short: it’s used a lot more often than in Deltarune but its usage also feels a lot less deliberate. On the one hand, “strange” is used to refer to important things like Alphys’ Lab, Sans’ room, Toriel already “knowing” humans after a reset, and the broken machine in Sans’ workshop.

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Frisk staring at a curtain in Sans’ secret room. The narration says “(There’s a strange machine behind the curtain.) (It seems to be broken.)” end image transcript.]

On the other hand, “strange” is also used to refer to more mundane things like sleeping in Toriel’s house, quiet echo flowers, or Mettaton rattling off the features of the game-shaped bomb.

In truth, I don’t think the word “strange” has much meaning when it comes to dialogue in Undertale. However, Everyman is the only sprite in Undertale with the word “strange” in its title. Almost all of the non-dialogue strings with “strange” in their name also relate to Everyman. There are a couple of other strings referring to a “strangetangle,” but I’m not exactly sure what that is.

My personal theory is that Everyman and the True Lab may have been one of the later additions to Undertale’s programming, and by that point Toby had likely written most of the game’s dialogue and didn’t feel the need to retroactively limit the use of the word “strange”. That’s purely my own speculation, of course.

The point still stands that Deltarune uses “strange” in a way that feels much more planned. Unlike Undertale, Deltarune tries to limit “mundane” uses of “strange” as much as possible. I must also reiterate that the first mention of the Knight and the first usage of “strange” in Deltarune is Seam referring to a “strange knight” in bright red letters.

[Image transcript: A Deltarune screenshot of Seam saying “But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away.” end image transcript.]

On the flip side, Toby has gotten a lot more careful with filenames for sprites in Deltarune. There are no sprites named “everyman” or ”strangeman” in Deltarune’s game files, just as there’s no “Gaster” or “mysteryman” either (save for the vessel name flag that restarts the game). The Everyman bullet that appears in Jevil’s fight is simply “spr_carousel”, and the graffiti is part of “bg_alphysalley”. Toby left far fewer secrets in Deltarune’s files than he did in Undertale’s, likely as a conscious effort to avoid spoiling any future reveals.

Revisiting Reaper Bird

Speaking of covering tracks, when writing my previous post I was a little disappointed to find that Reaper Bird’s battle text was something of a dead end for clues. Almost all of the dialogue and flavor text in Reaper Bird’s fight is repurposed text from the Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot fights.

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of the Reaper Bird battle. Reaper Bird has three text bubbles. In order, they say: “Someone finally gets it,” “Ribbit ribbit,” and “Courage...” end image transcript.]

When you think about it, Everyman is the most noteworthy thing about the Reaper Bird fight. Without him, Reaper Bird would be the most forgettable amalgamate. Reaper Bird doesn’t even show up again during the True Pacifist “victory lap” walk-around. Endogeny, Lemon Bread, and Snowdrake’s mother all show up in the overworld and have additional dialogue (or dog noises) with their family members. Reaper Bird and Memoryhead are the only amalgamates never heard from again.

I do think that Reaper Bird and Memoryhead are meant to serve a purpose beyond being general amalgamates. Memoryhead at least has the distinction of being the first amalgamate fought, having the unique “bad memory” item associated with it, and (arguably) being the most mysterious of all the amalgamates due to having no easily-identifiable “component” monster parts.

Still, there are a couple of Reaper Bird tidbits worth pointing out. First is the name: I find it interesting that Everyman has been associated with two different “reaper”-affiliated enemies (i.e., Reaper Bird and Jevil w/ his scythe). It’s also interesting how the artbook shows an early concept for Whimsalot that carries a scythe as well:

[Image transcript: Two entries from the Undertale Artbook. On the left is a spritesheet for Everyman. Beneath it says “spr_strangeman_losinghead.png by Toby Fox. Name: Everyman Description: Just a good guy who shows up on occasion. To the right of this entry is an image of a Whimsalot holding a scythe while wearing a skull mask. Beneath it says “spr_whimsun_reaper.png by Toby Fox. Different idea for Whimsalot.” end image transcript.]

The sprite is even called “whimsun_reaper”. Funny coincidence how Whimsalot’s design was changed to become more knight-like in the end.

While we’re on this page, there’s something I wanted to take another look at:

Madjick and Knight Knight are grouped with Everyman and Whimsalot despite neither of them being represented within the Reaper Bird’s design or dialogue. This page is immediately after a page that shows concepts for Final Froggit and Reaper Bird:

Wouldn’t it make more sense for Everyman to be on the same page as Reaper Bird, rather than being grouped with with Madjick and Knight Knight? The only things that Madjick, Knight Knight, and Whimsalot have in common are (1) they’re Core enemies and (2) they have the strongest “knights and wizards” theming out of all the Core mercenaries. Final Froggit and Astigmatism’s designs are more ambiguous, and the latter isn’t even included in this section of the artbook at all (despite being a component of Reaper Bird!).

Looking at this page, the earlier design for Reaper Bird’s eye-mouth thing does remind me of something...

It’s a somewhat tenuous connection and could just be a coincidence. Then again, Spade King is connected to the Knight and I already made a big deal out of his butterfly-shaped cloak. Interestingly, Spade King never uses his Chain of Justice attack after his cloak flies away and instead resorts to basic spade bullets to put down the Fun Gang. If the cloak was a gift from the Knight, perhaps it was endowed with sort of power that heightened the King’s abilities?

It is odd how the Chain is the only part of the King’s sprite that’s grey instead of black, white, or blue. Lancer’s sprite doesn’t have any grey on it, nor does he have his own “Chain” appendage. As far as I know this shade of grey is not used on any other character. Grey seems to carry a very specific connotation in this series: New Home is entirely in grey, the overworld sprites for the Amalgamates are grey, and Gaster Followers/Goners are associated with the color as well. We don’t fully know what it means yet, but it seems to be significant. Best make a mental note of it, at least.

Creating Reaper Bird

What especially sticks out to me now is Toby’s line above Reaper Bird’s Artbook entry:

“I created Reaper Bird first but I realized it wasn’t creepy enough so I gave it longer legs in-game.”

Now, when Toby says he created Reaper Bird “first”, he doesn’t specify what that “first” is in relation to. Was Reaper Bird the first amalgamate he designed? Or does Toby mean that he designed Reaper Bird “first” and then designed the Core mercenaries afterwards so that they’d fit as “components” of Reaper Bird’s body?

That latter interpretation may seem like a bit of a stretch, but it’s worth noting that Reaper Bird is the only amalgamate shown in the art book whose concept art does not have a step-by-step “breakdown” of how it was created from the designs of its component monsters. Endogeny and Lemon Bread both have full-page spreads showing earlier concepts alongside the regular monsters that make up their components.

What’s especially interesting is the artbook also includes a scrapped “Royal Guard” amalgamate and a page for Snowdrake’s Mom, whose final design only takes inspiration from Snowdrake.

And yet despite the fact that Reaper Bird has one of the most obvious designs in terms of how its components “fit together”, Toby did not show his early design process and instead only shows three frames of Reaper Bird’s idle animation. Assuming Reaper Bird was designed first and the Mercenaries’ designs were created or modified afterward, this would fit with my theory that the Core Mercenaries were deliberately themed around Everyman and his “knighthood”.

Even the design of Reaper Bird itself evokes some traits of Everyman’s design. Namely, both characters are bipedal, both have long necks, both have a beak/proboscis, and both have a single visible eye mounted on the side of their head. That last part stands out the most to me, as every major character in Undertale and Deltarune has forward-mounted eye sockets, like a human would. Even among random encounter enemies and background NPCs it’s a rarity to find wall-eyed characters.

It could just be my over-eager imagination, but the fully-stretched Reaper Bird looks like it even matches Everyman’s proportions to a degree, almost like it’s a skeleton or outline attempting to regain its “true form” out of the cobbled-together mercenary parts.

I said before that Reaper Bird becomes the most “boring” amalgamate without Everyman. In many respects Everyman is the centerpiece of that amalgamate, and by extension he may also be the centerpiece that informed the designs of the Core mercenaries.

If that’s going too far out on a limb, consider how many places and characters in Undertale are connected to Gaster despite the fact he has no real role in the game’s main plot. Sans, Papyrus, the Core, and the True Lab are all “informed” in some way or another by Gaster’s “existence” even though he never properly appears. Is it so unlikely to imagine that another “unseen” character who may be important in Deltarune also had a large impact on aspects of Undertale’s world?

Ice-E’s Odds and “E”nds

Speaking of impact... I don’t really have a segue lined up, so let’s talk about Ice-E’s instead. In my last post I brought up the idea of Everyman being one of the Ice-E’s employees that we see in Hometown. The bulk of my analysis focused on The Warrior, but I neglected to talk about the other unknown mascot: the “purple guy”.

In truth, there’s not a whole lot to this character. He only has one line of dialogue and he seems to be a deliberate reference to the “purple guy” from Five Nights at Freddy’s. Still, he’s just as mysterious as The Warrior and could very well have a larger role to play in the full game.

Interestingly, the purple guy’s sprite is named “icemascot_fake” in Deltarune’s files, whereas Burgerpants and the Nice Cream Bunny are “icemascot1″ and “icemascot2″, respectively. This fits with Burgerpants’ line where he questions whether the purple guy “even works here”.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. Both feature Kris talking to Burgerpants in Hometown. On the left, Burgerpants says “Purple Guy - Man, THAT GUY, you gotta...” and on the right he continues, saying “... actually, does that guy even work here?” end image transcript.]

The purple guy is also the only Ice-E’s mascot whose costume’s body doesn’t match the color of the costume’s head.

His colors do match the Everyman/Ice-E graffiti, though. Judging from his “fake” costume, he’s apparently some sort of Ice-E’s fanatic who made his own Ice-E’s getup and pretended to work there. I’m not sure how that would tie into the Knight’s motivations, if at all, but it certainly fits the bill for being “strange”.

Ice-E’s is apparently strange and creepy enough in-universe to inspire urban legends about it

But Kris was only kidding, right?

Getting back to Ice-E’s as a brand, it’s interesting how the company focuses on the letter “E”, inserting it into the word p”e”zza and other places where it doesn’t belong.

[Image transcript: A Deltarune screenshot of Burgerpants saying “Ice E’s P’E’ZZA, You’re number ‘1′ Spot for a piping hot pe’E’ce of PEZZA.” end image transcript.]

Could the focus on “E” be pointing towards “E”veryman’s involvement? Eh, mayb”E”.

Something that was pointed out to me by gantaloupe on Reddit: In the Core we see two branching paths: the sage’s path and the warrior’s path.

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Frisk reading a sign in the Core. The sign says “(North, the warrior’s path.) (West, the sage’s path.) (Any path leads to The End.)” end image transcript.]

While this could just be a coincidence, it’s an interesting factoid in light of how Everyman is connected to the Core mercenaries and possibly connected to a character named “The Warrior” in Deltarune.

One last thing that I noticed is how Everyman’s bullet sprite and the Ice-E’s costumes both have nubby arms and legs without any defined fingers or toes. Everyman’s body and Ice-E’s head would fit together like a glove. It would certainly be easier to picture one of the mascots abstracted into Everyman’s bullet design rather than, say, Gaster or Father Alvin. Speaking of which...

A Deeper Look into Father Alvin

Father Alvin kinda got the short end of the stick in my previous post when I said he was “less likely” to be Everyman than one of the Ice-E’s employees. I still hold that opinion, but that doesn’t mean he’s not worth exploring further.

One thing that I glossed over was the topic of Alvin’s potential connection to Gerson. Now, there’s nothing in chapter 1 that outright says Gerson and Alvin are related, but it’s easy to intuit based on the fact that they’re the only two turtle monsters that we see in the series. Both characters are connected to Hometown’s school, and one could infer that Alvin’s drawing in the supply closet could be a drawing of Gerson rather than a self-portrait.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. Both feature Kris looking at a drawing on a cabinet in the unused classroom. In the left screenshot, the narration says “(It’s a yellowed, poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle.)” The right screenshot continues: “(It’s signed ‘Alvin’.)” end image transcript.]

Gerson himself seems to have no connection to the Knight’s machinations, and it’d be difficult to imagine otherwise since he’s, y’know, dead. Still, it is eerie how Gerson was the only character in Undertale who provided any information on the deltarune symbol and now he’s “conveniently” absent from Deltarune’s narrative.

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Gerson saying “That’s the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom.” end image transcript.]

Instead we have a different turtle character who also makes mention of an “angel” like Gerson did.

[Image transcript: A Deltarune screenshot of Kris talking to Father Alvin. Alvin says “Let the Angel’s power light your way.” end image transcript.]

We don’t know much about Alvin yet, but the impression I get from him is that he’s Gerson’s opposite--mild-mannered, patient, and more interested in divine matters than history or research. Alvin also shows reverence for the Angel, capitalizing the name, whereas Gerson uses the term “angel” with quotation marks and treats it as a quaint curiosity.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Undertale screenshots of Gerson talking. In the left screenshot, he says “Most people say it’s the ‘angel,’ from the prophecy...” The right screenshot Gerson says: “I jus’ think it looks neat! Wahaha!” end image transcript.]

Getting back to Alvin’s drawing, it was pointed out to me that Alvin’s green turtle drawing and the drawing of three people smiling in Sans’ lab are both described as “poorly drawn” by the narration.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Undertale screenshots of Frisk in Sans’ secret room. In the left screenshot, the narration says “(It’s a poorly drawn picture of three smiling people.) (Written on it...)” The right screenshot continues: “don’t forget.” end image transcript.]

This may sound minor, but these are the only instances where the descriptor “poorly drawn” is used in either game. It’s also significant because the drawing of three smiling people only shows up when Frisk talks to Clamgirl, who mentions “Suzy” and is eventually revealed to be a goner/Gaster follower. This means both drawings are tied to Deltarune’s world.

I’m not entirely sure what the significance of the drawings is, since we still don’t know for certain who the three smiling people are or which green turtle is in Alvin’s drawing. If Alvin is the Knight, I could see him using drawings to attempt to bring specific types of darkners to life with the dark fountains he pulls out of the earth. In the case of the turtle drawing, maybe he was hoping to bring Gerson back as a darkner by recreating his likeness?

In Deltarune we’ve already seen a possible darkner “counterpart” to a lightner in the form of Ralsei, so maybe the idea of “recreating” lightners as darkner doppelgangers will be explored further in the full game? Chapter 1′s dark world was in the school and Gerson was a teacher there before he passed away. Chapter 2 seems poised to take place in a hospital dark world, and we see Rudy in a poor state of health at the hospital just prior to chapter 2. It’s too early to tell, but maybe these “holy” fountains and darkner doppelgangers are the Knight’s idea of bringing about life after death, or an “angel’s heaven,” if you will.

It goes without saying that my ideas of the Knight’s motives are purely speculative, but one last note I’ll leave on is how Gerson is mentioned an awful lot in Deltarune, more so than he was in Undertale. Gerson’s name is also one of the names that triggers a special response in the vessel creation sequence. Seems like an awful lot of attention for a “dead” character with no further role to play in the story, and remember what I said earlier about repeated character foreshadowing. All I’m saying is, don’t be too surprised if we meet a darkner by the name of “Snorge” or “Resong” or “Goners” or--hmm... Goners...

Heroes of the Dark, Villains of the Light

Now’s as good a time as any to bring up something I and a lot of others have noticed: Deltarune’s heroes are dark. Ralsei is a prince from the dark with horns, Susie is a bully described as a “dark knight” in one of her equip screen titles, and Kris is described by some Hometown residents as “creepy,” to say nothing of how Chapter 1 ends. Others in the fandom have pointed out how Deltarune’s battle system places Kris & co on the left side of the screen, in contrast to many classic JRPGs where the heroes are positioned on the right side of the screen.

On the other end of things, Ralsei’s prophecy refers to the “heroes of legend” sealing the “holy” dark fountains in order to “banish the Angel’s heaven”. That doesn’t really sound like a typical “heroic” goal. There’s also the speculation that sealing Card Castle’s fountain may have had negative repercussions for the Castle’s inhabitants. I’m not saying this to argue that the fun gang is somehow “evil”, but merely to point out that they have the trappings of darkness.

Angels, on the other hand, are typically associated with light and goodness, and we know that Alvin serves the angel (whether this is solely in an abstract/religious way or in a more direct way remains to be seen). We know that sealing dark fountains somehow relates to banishing the Angel’s heaven, so it’s not a stretch to assume that the Knight is in league with the Angel due to his desire to create fountains.

I already entertained the idea of the Knight and the Angel working together in my last post, but something else that ties into this is Toby’s refrain of describing Everyman as “just a good guy that shows up on occasion.” He uses this description in the Everyman tweet as well as Everyman’s entry in the Undertale art book. It’s clearly meant to be a significant phrase.

[Image transcript: On the left is a Twitter thread by Toby. On the right is an excerpt from the Undertale Artbook featuring a spritesheet of Everyman. In both images, Toby writes “Everyman. Description: Just a good guy who shows up on occasion.” end image transcript.]

We can infer that the Knight will be a major antagonist going forward, and I’ve already argued that Everyman is the Knight, so this paints the picture of a Knight with good intentions--a “Knight in shining armor,” if you will. This could be another argument in favor of Alvin being Everyman/the Knight, since he at least tries to project the image of piety and fits this theme of "holy” villains to contrast the “dark” heroes.

Now that I think about it, a “villain” like that would be an interesting inversion from the likes of Flowey--instead of an antagonist who’s trying to kill people, we have an antagonist who threatens to smother the entire world with the unchecked new life he’s creating. His actions at Card Castle show that he doesn’t go out of his way to kill, given that the three kings were kept alive as prisoners, but we also see how his actions enabled an evil King to abuse his power in the name of protecting his “holy” fountain.

While Flowey illustrated the lesson of “don’t kill and don’t be killed,” perhaps this Knight would be meant to show the dark side of appeasement and how “good intentions” only get you so far? The Spade King definitely comes off as a subversion of the typical “don’t fight!” approach of Undertale, and if Alvin is the Knight then he might push that “lesson” further going forward.

Still, for every champion of the light there is one who waits in the dark...

A New Challenger Approaches!

That’s right, there’s a third Knight candidate to cover. I’m sure some of you have been eagerly awaiting this one, so give it up for...

spr_normalnpc!

Ok, in all seriousness a couple of people wanted me to talk about this character who shows up in the Hometown Library. Their name isn’t given in-game and they’re simply known as “spr_normalnpc” in the game files. As of right now their only purpose is to block Kris from visiting the upstairs floor of the Library.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Deltarune screenshots of Kris talking to Normalnpc in the Library. In the left image, Normalnpc says “I love reading books. Especially the books upstairs. You should really.” before finishing in the right image, saying “Read them!” end image transcript.]

As far as we can tell, this character is the Deltarune counterpart to the elusive Gaster Follower 3 from Undertale.

Not all of the character design details line up, but both characters cut a similar silhouette and that’s good enough for me.

After my initial Everyman theory post, I’ve been asked whether I think normalnpc might be Everyman/the Knight. I never gave it much thought before now, so let me start with the points in this character’s favor:

Normalnpc shares some of Everyman’s basic design traits, namely a beak/proboscis, a single eye visible on the side of their head, and a long neck

“Normalnpc” and “Everyman” are both such generic names that they immediately arouse suspicion

Normalnpc acts “strange,” repeating placeholder-ish dialogue about reading books while simultaneously blocking you from going upstairs

Normalnpc maintains a positive tone, making them a “good guy”...?

Both characters are connected to Gaster, maybe?

Ok, look, I’m not saying that Normalnpc can’t be Everyman, but there’s very little to work with here besides the general design, the name, and vague Gaster connections. And even then, I’d say Normalnpc’s and Everyman’s designs have too many differences for my liking. While some of the basic features are there, their silhouettes, proportions, and stance/posture are all completely different.

Another complication is the fact that Normalnpc’s “goner” counterpart already exists in Undertale, and I said last time that Everyman would have to be a character who isn’t seen elsewhere in Undertale because he was busy being stuck inside Reaper Bird.

On the other hand, we do see goner counterparts for characters that already exist in Undertale, as is the case with Gaster Followers 1 and 2 (for the sake of simplicity I’m assuming that Gaster followers are the same thing as “goners”).

But I’m not sure whether these “goners” are meant to be alternate “versions” of these specific characters or whether they’re just other members of the same “species” as their counterparts.

Monster Kid and Goner Kid, for example, have many differences in their designs, including different shirts, different spine arrangements, and slightly different facial features.

Clamgirl muddies things even further, undergoing a total transformation when she “becomes” Gonerclam. This raises the questions of what causes someone to “become” a goner as well as how and why their bodies change in ways beyond just turning grey.

So far we’ve seen instances of goners coexisting alongside their “originals,” like with the two Monster Kids, but we’ve also seen Clamgirl get “replaced” by her goner by becoming one. Based on our limited and seemingly-contradictory knowledge of how goners work, I can’t even say for certain whether Normalnpc’s presence in Undertale would be accounted for or not with the existence of Gaster Follower 3.

And that’s kind of the problem with Normalnpc as an Everyman suspect: we know far too little. Father Alvin and the Ice-E’s employees each have a smoking gun that makes them likely Everyman candidates: in Alvin’s case it’s the drawing in the closet, and for Ice-E’s it’s the graffiti plus the Warrior’s hospital stay potentially lining up with Chapter 2′s setting. The best things Normalnpc has going for them are a vague resemblance and having a more obvious (yet vague) connection to Gaster, the latter of which is hardly a unique thing in this setting.

Moreover, there’s nothing that specifically ties Normalnpc to being the Knight other than through Everyman, and the “connection” between Normalnpc and Everyman is already tenuous. Alvin is independently connected to the Knight by virtue of leaving his drawing as a “calling card” in an area the Knight has recently been. The Warrior’s roleplaying shtick would make him a natural fit among a “swords and sorcery” setting that the Knight evokes. Of the three candidates, Normalnpc definitely has the weakest claim to Knighthood.

That all being said, Normalnpc is still a character to keep an eye on. The name alone comes off as Toby hiding a secret in plain sight. Even if this character doesn’t wind up being Everyman or the Knight, I’m sure their role will be bigger than that of a mere NPC.

Gaster’s Connection to the Knight

Now for the moment you’ve really been waiting for! Truthfully, a lot of this is Gaster stuff that I wanted to talk about last time but didn’t have room to fit in.

I made clear in my last post that I favored Everyman being the Knight over Gaster being the Knight, though the two could be interchangeable in the event that the Knight has a “strange son” working alongside him (which is a prospect I still can’t fully commit to).

Still, a lot of Deltarune speculators have latched onto the idea of Gaster being the Knight. Near as I can tell, here’s the evidence:

Both characters are associated with darkness

Seam, who’s familiar with the Knight, uses the Entry 17 phrase “darker, yet darker” in reference to the “strange someone” Jevil met (who may be the Knight)

Jevil says “THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS DRIFTING FORWARD”, and Gaster is associated with hands

Gaster is believed to be the “man” who gives Kris an egg. The word “EGG”, in all-caps wingdings, is written as three hands pointing in the “L-shaped” movement pattern of a knight piece in chess

I can see how this evidence would be compelling, especially in the absence of any competing theory for the Knight’s identity. I can’t refute all of this, aside from saying that the “darkness” association is overly broad in a game where half the cast are darkners and the “EGG” thing, while neat, could be a coincidence. I do think this evidence could point to Gaster being connected to the Knight, but I have two main reasons for believing he isn’t the Knight himself.

First off, I don’t think Gaster’s goals align with the Knight’s. For this argument I’m going to assume that the mysterious voice from Deltarune’s intro, game over screen, and pre-release Twitter takeover is Gaster. Gaster, at least nominally, seems to be on the same side as the red soul, or is at least willing to work with them. The fun gang’s goal of sealing the dark fountains would almost certainly put them at odds with the Knight, if the Spade King’s reaction was anything to go by.

When you get a game over and continue, “Gaster” says “THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS”.

While he doesn’t urge you to continue like Asgore does during Undertale’s game over, he certainly doesn’t discourage it either. When you refuse to continue, Gaster says “THEN THE WORLD WAS COVERED IN DARKNESS” and the melancholic song “Darkness Falls” plays.

One could argue that Gaster is trying to maintain objectivity or “neutrality” when the red soul dies, like a scientist would in an experiment.

Nonetheless, I would imagine that if Gaster was the Knight then he would be adamantly opposed to anyone who threatened his creation. Ralsei mentions that the prophecy of legend was foretold by “time and space”, and Gaster is said to have shattered across time and space.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Deltarune screenshots of Ralsei talking to Kris and Susie. In the left image Ralsei says “A LEGEND that one day, two HEROIES of LIGHT will arrive.” In the right image he says “And fulfill the ancient prophecy, foretold by time and space.” end image transcript.]

It would be odd for the Knight to deliver a prophecy that predicts the undoing of his own handiwork, and then deliver that prophecy to a prince who would assemble the heroes to do just that.

Creating a New Future

I want to touch a bit more on Gaster’s use of the word “future”. He also made mention of this during the Undertale Twitter account’s takeover just before Deltarune Chapter 1 released:

[Image transcript: A Tweet from the official Undertale Twitter account, dated the day of Deltarune Chapter 1′s release, saying in all-caps “I LOOK FORWARD TO CREATING A NEW FUTURE WITH YOU.” end image transcript.]

For whatever reason and through whatever means, Gaster wants to help the red soul create a new future. Choosing to continue from a Game Over causes Gaster to reiterate this goal, while the “opposite” of that, i.e. giving up, is seen as allowing the world to be covered in darkness. This implies that the “future” Gaster wants to create is one where darkness isn’t running amok. Even if Gaster is trying to remain neutral or merely observe, it still sounds like he prefers for the fun gang to prevail.

All this emphasis on the word “future” reminds me of something from the Reaper Bird fight...

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Reaper Bird’s check text description, stating “REAPER BIRD - ATK ?? DEF ?? This relentless future finally looks brighter and brighter.” end image transcript.]

Now, this check text is a combination of the three check texts for Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot. To wit:

[Image transcript: Three Undertale enemy check text descriptions arranged from top to bottom. In order they say “ASTIGMATISM - ATK 32 DEF 26 This relentless bully ALWAYS gets its way. FINAL FROGGIT 7 ATK 2 DEF Its future looks brighter and brighter. WHIMSALOT - ATK 34 DEF 12 It finally stopped worrying.” end image transcript.]

But as I said before, Reaper Bird may have been designed first and then “informed” the designs of the Core Mercenaries afterwards, and that could hold true for their check text as well.

I find this use of the phrase “relentless future” interesting. A “relentless” future could mean one that’s inevitable or predetermined, and the phrase “finally looks brighter and brighter” could signify that the future has finally changed for the better. Gaster’s goal seems to be to create a “new” future, which would imply an outcome different from a “predetermined” future where your choices don’t matter, which is a running theme in Deltarune. I don’t think Gaster would describe the future as being “created” by people or “in your hands” if he felt that choice was an illusion.

This isn’t the first time that Gaster has been associated with unpredictability or defiance of “fate”. Most Gaster-related events in Undertale were tied with the fun value, a randomly-generated number that changed with each playthrough. Although this mechanic had little impact on the story, it did give each playthrough a greater sense of identity and made events less set-in-stone.

Now, compare this “optimistic” interpretation of Gaster to the “strange someone” that Jevil met.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Deltarune screenshots of Seam talking. The left image says “One day, he met a strange someone... and since then, he began to change.” The right end image continues, saying “ Soon, he began to see the world as a game, and everyone as its participants.” end image transcript.]

Seam says that Jevil began to see the world as a “game” and everyone as its “participants,” which doesn’t imply a lot of agency. This mindset is a big red flag when we remember how Flowey viewed others when he saw them as part of a “game.”

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Undertale screenshots. The left one shows Flowey tying Frisk’s friends, saying “This is all just a GAME.” The right image shows Flowey talking in New Home, saying “Sets of numbers... Lines of dialogue... I’ve seen them all.” end image transcript.]

Seam’s own view of the world becomes “darker, yet darker” after talking to Jevil, and Seam asks “would I have found a little more purpose in my life...?” if not for the experience of locking up Jevil (and, presumably, the experience of listening to Jevil’s words).

[Image transcript: Four Deltarune screenshots arranged in a grid, all featuring Seam talking. From beginning to end the four images say “Since that time, the strange words he’s said have stuck inside my cotton... And my view of this world has become darker, yet darker. And I wonder, if I hadn’t been asked to lock him up... Would I have found a little more purpose in my life...?” end image transcript.]

In order to understand what “darker, yet darker” truly means, we need to view the line in its original context:

ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN

DARK DARKER YET DARKER

THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING

THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER

PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE

THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT

SEEMS

VERY

INTERESTING

...

WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK?

The phrase “darker, yet darker” originally referred to something that Gaster was observing in Entry Number 17. Although the phrase has come to be associated with Gaster, it doesn’t necessarily refer to something that he’s causing or wants to happen--part of a scientist’s job is to observe and comment on results as they unfold, after all. And the “interesting” experiment Gaster refers to is something that’s happening “next”, which implies that the experiment is happening after or in response to whatever is causing things to become darker, yet darker. It also suggests that he’s not calling the “darker, yet darker” event itself “interesting”.

The impression that I get from all this is that Deltarune is meant to be a struggle against inevitability, with Gaster seemingly in the “choices matter” corner of the conflict. If the Knight is the “strange someone” Jevil met then that would imply that he’s very much on the opposite end of that spectrum. If, for example, somebody like Father Alvin is the Knight then I could see him rationalizing his position as fulfilling “fate” pre-ordained by the Angel. In this dynamic, the Knight would serve as an agent of faith and order to oppose Gaster as an agent of science and invention, further tying into the “dark heroes vs. holy villains” theme I posited earlier.

Okay, phew, that was all the first reason why I don’t think Gaster is the Knight. As for the second reason? Well...

Gaster is (Probably) a Darkner

Boy, that’s sure a loaded title, isn’t it? I made an offhand remark about this in my original post but didn’t want to get into it there. I only bring it up now because I previously argued that the Knight is a lightner and that would rule out darkner characters from filling the role.

So, why do I think Gaster is a darkner? Well, part of the reason is because I think that Sans is a darkner as well. Two Left Thumbs’ "Sans is a Darkner” video is probably the most accessible way to understand the theory, but there are several posts about it on Tumblr already if you look hard enough. Either way it’s not required viewing in order to understand my arguments for Gaster, but long story short there’s a lot of evidence to suggest Sans is a darkner and it’s strongly implied that Sans and Gaster are related (if not by blood then through other means), which makes it likely for Gaster to be a darkner as well.

Aside from the Sans connection, another reason I think Gaster is a darkner is due to the line about him being “shattered across time and space.”

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Undertale screenshots of Frisk talking to Gaster Follower 2 in Hotland. Follower 2 says “Alphys might work faster, but the old Royal Scientist, Doctor W.D. Gaster? They say he shattered across time and space.” end image transcript.]

We can infer from Deltarune that, for whatever reason, darkners are more difficult to kill than monsters due to Deltarune’s enemies all being unkillable. Whether this is an inherent trait of darkners or some “rule” of the dark world or Deltarune’s universe is unclear, but given that defeating Sans doesn’t contribute towards your kill counter in Undertale, there’s a strong likelihood that darkners are difficult to kill, if not outright impossible.

So how is this relevant? Well, it seems like a darkner would be far more likely to survive being “shattered across time and space” than a monster. When a monster’s body is broken apart it means they’ve either turned to dust or will soon, but the fact that “pieces” of Gaster persist (as seen with Gaster Follower 2) implies that he’s made of something sturdier than dust.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Undertale screenshots of Frisk talking to Gaster Follower 2 in Hotland. Follower 2 says “Ha ha... How can I say so without fear? I’m holding a piece of him right here.” end image transcript.]

Not only do I believe that Gaster is a darkner, but I’m pretty confident that I know what “kind” of darkner he is. Most of the darkners we’ve seen in chapter 1 can be linked to real-world objects that exist in the Hometown school’s supply closet. While we don’t know what objects (if any) were used to create Ralsei or (possibly) Sans, at most those two are exceptions to the otherwise-universal rule that darkners come from inanimate objects. In Gaster’s case there’s definitely an object that’s associated with him:

Gaster the Egghead

[Image transcript: A Deltarune screenshot of Kris hidden behind a tree. The narration says “(You received an Egg.)” end image transcript.]

In Scarlet Forest “a man” gives an egg to Kris before vanishing, much like how “Mysteryman” vanishes in Undertale. The song that plays during this scene is called “man” in the game files and sounds a lot like Gaster’s theme. The egg itself exhibits strange dimensional properties, reappearing when used, prompting the narration “what egg?” when you try to get rid of it, and becoming two eggs when put into Asgore’s fridge.

When Kris leaves the dark world at the end of chapter 1, their inventory turns into a “ball of junk”, i.e. the real-world objects that were given new form by the dark fountain.

[Image transcript: A Deltarune screenshot of the inventory menu open in Hometown. The only two items are “Ball of Junk” and “Egg” end image transcript.]

The egg is the only other object that remains after chapter 1, implying that it’s a “real” egg and that the egg itself is not a byproduct of the dark world like the dark candies and other items are.

The fact that the “man” disappears when he hands you the egg implies that his presence or “form” is somehow contingent upon the act of giving you the egg. If Gaster is a darkner, if he’s “the man”, and if his form is based on an egg then it makes perfect sense why he’d disappear in that moment--he’s turning back into an egg and surrendering his “true form” (or a piece of it) to you for safe keeping. Given that Gaster seemingly wants you to seal dark fountains, it would make sense that he’d want to hitch a ride out of the closet’s dark world before its fountain goes caput.

This isn’t the only time we see mentions of eggs in Undertale and Deltarune:

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Papyrus’ dating HUD. On the left is a small white egg, labeled “EGG.” end image transcript.]

Papyrus (who’s connected to Sans and likely Gaster as well) has a conspicuous “egg” on his dating HUD.

[Image transcript: Two side-by-side Undertale screenshots of Frisk talking to a Temmie in Temmie Village. In the left image, Temmie says “tem... WATCH EGG!!!” In the right image, the narration says “(It’s hard-boiled.)” end image transcript.]

In Undertale, one of the Temmies is watching over a hard-boiled egg. However, in Deltarune we see a Temmie with a very different kind of egg.

[Image transcript: A Deltarune screenshot of Kris examining an egg on Temmie’s desk in their classroom. The narration says “(It’s a black-and-white hardboiled egg.)” end image transcript.]

Specifically, it’s described as a “black and white” egg. Needless to say, that’s an odd way to describe an egg. Not all eggs have white shells, but most people wouldn’t describe a white-shelled egg as “black and white”. Of course, we know someone who’s also “black and white”.

[Image transcript: An Undertale screenshot of Mysteryman in his grey room.” end image transcript.]

And he’s “black and white” in the very literal sense. Unlike the Gaster followers, Mysteryman solely uses pure black and pure white in his color palette, and he’s one of the only characters with an all black-and-white overworld sprite. Note also how Mysterman’s head is vaguely egg-shaped and has lines resembling cracks.

Out of all the objects that I could imagine a darkner being made from, an egg is one that I could picture “shattering” like Gaster did while still leaving some small pieces scattered around. I’m not sure whether this would be a “real” egg or a similarly-fragile facsimile like a Faberge egg--either could work in this scenario.

What are Skeletons, Anyway?

“Now wait,” some of you might be saying, “isn’t Gaster supposed to be a skeleton?” Well, I don’t think Gaster being a skeleton is mutually exclusive from Gaster being based on an egg. Egg shells are made of calcium carbonate, one of the mineral components that make up bones.

We see in Deltarune that darkners’ forms in the dark world don’t have to match their “true” forms completely. Pretty much all of the darkners based on playing cards are abstractions that barely resemble a rectangular card. And while we don’t know what Ralsei’s “true” form is (if he has one), it’s very unlikely that he’s a small goat with a hat and scarf in the light world. If Sans is a darkner then there’s also the possibility that his “true form” isn’t a skeleton either.

The rules of the dark world and its inhabitants aren’t entirely clear, so in spite of my arguments I can’t say with certainty that Gaster is a darkner because I can’t even say with certainty that Sans is a darkner, despite him having much stronger evidence supporting that conclusion.

As compelling as Sans’ case is, it still invites questions like how he’s able to exist in Hometown without the apparent aid of a dark fountain, or why Papyrus turns to dust in Undertale despite being Sans’ “brother”. Similar concerns crop up with Gaster in light of his connections-by-proxy with Papyrus and his implied presence in the mysterious Hometown shed.

I still think the possibility of Gaster and Sans being darkners is one worth discussing and it’s a possibility that many fans are sleeping on. Moreover, it’d be fittingly poetic if Deltarune’s main conflict was engineered by a lightner trying to spread darkness and a darkner trying to seal away the darkness.

Conclusion

So this ended up being a lot longer than I originally planned--almost as long as my original Everyman post!

A lot of what I’ve said here is meant to provide further context and elaboration to my earlier theories, but I admit that some of this was pure speculation, namely in regards to Gaster/the Knight’s motivations and the “dark heroes vs. holy villains” theming.

While a good argument should have evidence to back it up, at the end of the day a work of fiction is still a story and is governed by the conventions of storytelling much more than it is by logic or the laws of physical science. This is one reason why I lean so heavily on Toby’s use of foreshadowing, since it’s a narrative tool he’s leveraged consistently in the past.

My attempts to second-guess the motivations of unseen characters and chart the plot’s trajectory would be downright conspiratorial if I were talking about some real-world event, but Detlarune is a story and stories have to go places. A well-written story doesn’t take the time to set up or foreshadow certain characters or exposition if it doesn’t plan to pay off that setup down the road.

Normally I wouldn’t make theory posts this long and esoteric about a work of fiction, since a large amount of writing consists of revision, retcons, and changing things as you go along. Undertale and Deltarune are partial exceptions to this rule in no small part due to Toby planning Deltarune before he began Undertale and planting many “seeds” referencing Deltarune in Undertale’s narrative as a result.

A lot of my conclusions haven’t significantly changed since my previous post: I still believe Everyman will appear again in the full game, I think he’s the character most likely to be the Knight, and I think the most likely Everyman candidates are the Ice-E’s employees and Father Alvin, in that order.

As far as which of my conclusions have changed, I’m now more apprehensive of the idea of the Knight having a “strange son” and of Gaster being the Knight himself. I still can’t discount either possibility entirely, however. I was always shaky about the “strange son” and I often went back and forth on it, but further probing Gaster’s motivations has made me far less convinced that he could be the Knight or in league with him. I’m sure there’s still a connection between both characters, like a shared origin or some past falling out that they had, but I no longer think that they would be on the same side.

Another thing I’ve (sort of) changed my mind on is that the “purple guy” Ice-E’s employee and Normalnpc have both risen in prominence in my eyes. I don’t know if I’d put either of them down as top candidates to be Everyman or the Knight, but something is definitely up with them and I’m sure Toby has plans for them in the future.

Deltarune is shaping up to be a much longer game than Undertale, likely following the mold of traditional RPGs whose stories span several hours. In the time that it would take to play through Deltarune’s story, we may see narrative payoffs to every loose thread and Everyman candidate I’ve brought up. If the identity of the Knight is meant to be a mystery then some candidates might even be deliberate red herrings set up by Toby. Who can say? We’ll just have to wait and find out.

I closed my previous Everyman post by remarking that I had said all that I can on this topic and hopefully this time I mean it. I can’t really think of much else to say about Everyman until Toby releases more information himself, and that’s not likely to happen until the next Undertale anniversary or Deltarune’s full release.

As I said before, my main goal with all this is to spark conversation within the fandom on what is an otherwise under-discussed topic. I might still make other theory posts in the future, but for now I think I’ve bled this topic dry.

#deltarune #undertale #gaster #everyman #undertale theory

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ginevranights · 4 years

Text

The Rose

Pairing: Neal Caffrey x Female! Reader

Co-writer: @bathed-in-lilac

Summary: Early in his career as a con man, Neal Caffery met a woman who went by the name ‘Victoria Rose’ Aka Y/N L/N. Soon after, he realises she’s also a con artist and he falls for her...hard. However, Y/N seems to be the only one of them who realises that maybe people in her profession don’t get to find love.

A/N: So...if your name's Victoria Rose 1) cool name! 2) for the sake of this fanfic you can imagine a different first name used...I guess Grace. Anyway… this was co-written by the wonderful bathed-in-lilac and honestly I could not have written this without her. She literally wrote everything I got stuck on and helped me develop my ideas. So thank you so much!

Warnings: Spoiler for White Collar I guess. It has been out for over 10 years now.

Words: 2800

--------------- & ---------------

{Paris-----&-----2000}

Y/N L/N was not a name that one would find on the invite list and yet here she was, standing on the balcony of an engagement party she wasn’t invited to, staring out over Paris. She was wearing a simple dress, appropriate for the occasion, and had jewellery that screamed ‘I have money!’ Whether the jewellery was actually expensive was another matter…

She had gotten into the party using the name ‘Victoria Rose’. Victoria was a distant family member of the future groom and she ran a successful flower business in cities like London, New York and - of course - Paris. Y/N L/N, however, was a con artist. And a good one at that.

“You’re not a fan of choreographed dances?” Y/N turns around and is faced with gorgeous blue eyes that belong to a handsome brunette. Y/N blinks slightly but takes a sip of her drink.

“You’d think a couple with such impeccable wine taste would know that choreographed dances are cheesy and tacky.”

“Point taken,” the man nods and stands next to her, putting a hand out in greeting. “Nick Halden.”

“Victoria Rose,” ‘Nick’ places a gentle kiss to Y/N’s palm and she smiles slightly “such a gentleman.”

“Are you on the bride or groom’s side?”

“Groom’s,” Y/N lies “I’m assuming you’re on the bride’s side?”

“Yeah,” ‘Nick’ nods. “I’m happy for her, it seems like he’s a good one. I mean, by the looks of that ring, she probably won’t have to work another day in her life. I mean, they have to keep that thing in a safe. It probably costs a fortune.” Y/N inwardly smirks, she knew this tactic, it seemed Nick Halden may be someone of the same profession. It was time to change the subject.

“Who needs a big flashy ring when you’re in love?” Y/N asks with a small smile “I mean did Romeo and Juliet give each other anything fancy? No. And their love story is famously one of the best. It was tragic, yes. But it was… beautiful in a way.”

“You sound like you haven’t found your love story yet…”

“No… no I haven't and I don’t think I will. My job involves me moving around a lot and it’s hard to find someone. Actually...I don’t even really know if I want someone,”

“Everyone wants love… in one way or another. Maybe you just need to find someone who’ll fit your lifestyle,” ‘Nick’ says slowly, maintaining eye contact with Y/N.

“Hm, and on that note, I need more wine,” she waves her empty glass and heads back inside, sparing a glance at the man she was never going to see again. It was a polite conversation that would go nowhere. She was more prepared; she was taking the ring tonight and he didn’t have a clue where it was even stored.

{Neal’s hotel-----&-----Later that night}

Later that night, Neal Caffery and Y/N L/N returned to their respective hotels, one with a two and a half million-euro engagement ring, the other an anxious expression as he prepared to tell his co-conspirator that the ring was already gone when he got there.

“How did this happen?!” Neal was silent as Mozzie stared down at him. “Okay, start over. Tell me everything you did. Somebody else must have known what you were going to do and got there before you.”

“I don’t know what happened, Mozz. I barely talked to anybody there. The only person I properly talked to was some woman for a couple of minutes and she didn’t seem like a threat.”

“Neal…” Mozzie sighed and pinched his nose, clearly exasperated. “What was her name?”

“It was Victoria something…like the queen, y’know? She was pretty enough to be royalty, and she said she was related to the groom -”

“Neal, I don’t care. I need her name,” Neal takes a moment. He remembered a flower…

“Oh! Yeah, I think her name was Victoria Rose.”

“Victoria Rose? Victoria Rose?! That’s who you chose to talk to?!”

“Yes Mozz! What’s so important about her?”

“Neal you’re an idiot.”

“What, why? What did I do? It’s not my fault somebody else got to the ring first.”

“Well, seeing as you were talking to Victoria Rose it sort of is your fault.”

“Mozzie, I still have no idea who that is. Besides, I’m sure we can find another ring, expensive engagement rings aren't that rare,”

“Neal...you just met one of the best con artists. To the criminal world, she’s a myth, to the feds, she doesn’t even exist,” Mozzie muttered, eyes narrowed as he looked in Neal’s direction. “Nobody even knows her real name.”

“Oh really?” Neal tilted his head curiously, the words clearly not having the effect that Mozzie wanted them to. Instead, Neal let a faint smirk appear on his face “That’s kinda-”

“Nope… nope, I don’t want to hear it.”.

{Edinburgh-----&-----2000}

Y/N didn’t know the people who threw the party, but she did know some fellow...colleagues she had to speak to. Although, that business was over quickly and she had time to mingle. She had grabbed another glass of champagne when he had come up to her “I love your alleged work,”

“You didn’t even know who I was a few months ago,”

“That’s a compliment to you,” Y/N had looked into those blue eyes again and decided she could stay to chat. He’d introduced himself properly and she’d been shocked that this was who her New York contacts were talking about - Mozzie’s new partner. She’d given him her current allies and he’d raised an eyebrow. However, that didn't stop them from talking for hours and when the countdown started, Y/N had let him place a gentle kiss to her lips before disappearing… it was tradition.

{Italy-----&-----2001}

When Y/N snuck into a gallery that night in Italy, she had definitely not expected to see Neal standing there - she was always shocked when he appeared. He had been entirely unaware of her presence when she first made her way into the main room, instead he was focused entirely on the gallery’s main exhibit: the chandelier. Y/N had decided to change that, slipping on a faint smile as she made her way toward where he was standing. She tapped him on the shoulder, relishing in the amusement she felt when he jumped. He had turned around and, for some reason, he seemed to smile when he saw that it was her. It was almost as though he was happy.

“Good evening, Mr. Halden,” she had said, a sly smile on her face. “It is still Halden, isn’t it?”

There had been no verbal response, simply a faint hum and a nod of his head. She had watched him, an amused expression on her face as his eyes met hers. Whilst Y/N was wondering if he was also here to check the gallery's security, he was distracted by her eyes. Given that information, it was no surprise when he turned and fell face first into the chandelier on display. It had tumbled to the ground with a loud crash and, before she could even think about what she was doing, Y/N had grabbed Neal by the hand and tugged him toward the door. That night they both got away and, when Neal kissed Y/N’s cheek in thanks, nobody would have known about the heat rapidly rising up her body.

{Monte Carlo-----&-----2002}

The next time they met, Neal was the shocked one. He had been in the middle of replacing a painting that had just been delivered to the museum with his own forgery when Y/N had appeared out of nowhere. She was dressed like any female thief would be and was obviously also surprised to see him nicking a painting. She’d raised an eyebrow and made some confusing hand gestures, to which he had responded with even more gestures. Neal couldn’t believe it was the ‘myth’ con artist Mozzie had named ‘The Rose’ who just sighed and left the gallery. She’d let him take the actual painting with no fuss. She could’ve gone to the police and gotten the competition out of the way. Instead, he got a free drink at the bar later that night and a note saying he should think about making some original artwork. Neal had realised there and then, he may have a little crush on ‘The Rose’.

{London-----&-----2003}

After that night, Neal and Y/N met frequently at museums, parties, galas, basically anywhere with anything of any value inside. And at some point, they stopped meeting at those places and started meeting at hotels instead. Hotels where they'd get drunk and stumble into bed, clothes covering the floor. Hotels where they'd wake up wrapped in each other’s arms, talking about nothing and everything at once. But still… Neal didn’t know her real name.

That seemed like centuries ago now though, as they lay in their latest hotel bed. It was early morning, the light from the sun just barely managing to light up the room with its warm golden glow. It was that golden sunlight that ended up waking up the couple that was still tangled in each other’s arms. Neal woke up first, slowly blinking his eyes open and then glancing down at Y/N who was starting to wake up. She made a faint humming sound as she rested her head against Neal’s chest and then pressed gentle kisses to the side of his neck. He smiled at her, one hand beginning to gently card through her hair. When she mumbled good morning to him, he could feel her words warm against his skin.

There was something about the situation that just felt so right. It was almost as if it had been designed this way. They were supposed to work perfectly together. Still holding her close to his chest, Neal leaned down to press a gentle kiss to the top of Y/N’s head. He thought about how wonderful it would be if he could just stay here forever. If only things could be that easy. He knew that maybe their lives were just meant to be complicated. It almost seemed fitting that Romeo and Juliet had been the first thing they talked about.

“I’ve been thinking…” Neal starts, testing his voice out for the day

“Hmm, that’s never good,” Y/N responds quickly, her voice croaky as she snuggles her head further into his chest.

“When we met... you mentioned Romeo and Juliet, but you never told me if you were a fan of Shakespeare.”

“No, it was just the first example I could think of and a good excuse to change the subject,” Y/N laughs slightly.

“I think you’re lying. Or I think that deep down you want something like that; you like romance.”

“Do I? Well then maybe you should step it up a bit because this is not the beautiful love story idea I had that night.”

“It could be,” he whispered slowly. “We could move to Paris. I mean, we could go right now - run away. Take the train on the Eurotunnel across to France and ignore everything and everyone.”

“That’s a nice dream to have, but that’s all it is, isn’t it? A dream? We can’t actually have that.”

“But why not? What’s stopping us?”

“I… I just can’t. I’m sorry,” she whispered, a regretful expression on her face.

“At least tell me your name. Please?”

“Let’s just go with Juliet....”

{2009-----&-----2012}

Things became more complicated after Neal got sent to prison. However, there was still something pulling them together - an unexplainable force. Y/N kept her distance for a time, but she couldn’t keep herself from meeting with him once she had heard about Kate. She was worried about him. She knew him well enough to realize that he needed somebody to check up on him. That’s the only reason she was going: to make sure he was okay. She wasn’t there to get back together with him because she knew she didn’t have the energy to try. All she wanted was to make sure he was okay so that she could stop worrying and move on with her life.

Of course, things didn’t go the way Y/N had hoped. Neal had charmed her the moment she saw him in one of those damn suits and soon, she was finding herself meeting up with him again, and again...and again. She couldn’t remove herself from the situation. She knew Neal worked for the FBI now and one wrong move could destroy her, yet she was always going back to him.

The restaurant Neal chose looked lovely that night. Y/N had been sent a rather formal invite and she realised immediately that Neal had told the owners it was a special occasion. Was it going to be? The table had been set and a vase of roses served as the centrepiece. The two had sat down to talk and Neal’s reason for inviting her over was soon made clear. He wanted her to stay.

Of course, they’d started with small talk. They spoke about Y/N’s hotel, the weather along with traffic and strangely the latest art thefts. But soon, the topic moved to the mornings when the two would lay in different beds and talk about their future. When Neal would suggest they fly to Paris and settle down.

“I know it may not be Paris...but what if you moved here. What if we spent more than a night together?” Y/N hadn’t known how to respond, but she let him talk, she let him fantasize. Neal seemed to have everything planned out, he wanted her to move to New York, he wanted her to settle down with him and the way he spoke about it… made sure that Y/N could never refuse.

She couldn’t stop herself from nodding and letting herself get lost in the dream Neal was talking about. Maybe she could actually move to New York and forget about her old life. No one knew who she was, she could tell Neal her real name and she could get a job, an actual legal job.

Once Neal was sure Y/N had agreed, he started rambling, an excited look taking over his face whilst he started explaining what their life was and could be like. He’d told her about his work, about his colleagues and his newfound family. Y/N could barely believe that he was talking about the same Peter who had hunted him across the globe for years.

Eventually the night had ended and the two parted ways yet again. Neal had offered to take her back to his place, but Y/N had laughed slightly and declined. Neal being Neal was prepared for this, and so he brought out the rose which was on the centre of their table and tucked it behind her ear. Y/N blushed and quickly left, kissing Neal briefly before setting down the street smiling.

Her mood was quickly ruined though. She’d stopped to quickly read through the news headlines on the day’s papers - as one does when you know many criminals. One had caught her eye and as she read the article, she realised that the crew that had approached her a few days ago with a job, had been arrested by ‘Peter Burke and his criminal consultant’. She’d almost taken that job…

Now in a panic, she turned around and saw Neal still there, smiling fondly as he waved. She ignored him though and rushed off, disappearing into the nightlife of New York.

It was dangerous being around him, Y/N had always known that but when she had sat at that table and listened to him talk so fondly about Special Agent Peter Burke, she realised he had grown comfortable with his life. Everything she had, everything she had worked so hard for could be taken away just because of Neal Caffrey. He had too much power over her and she knew that the moment she had blindly agreed to moving to New York. And so, after that dinner she decided it was time, time to say goodbye to him. She’d made promises she knew she could never keep. After all, she was a con artist, and perhaps the greatest con she ever pulled was letting herself believe that her and Neal could be happy.

#neal caffrey x reader #white collar x reader #neal caffrey imagine #white collar imagine #neal caffrey fanfiction #white collar fanfiction #white collar #neal caffrey

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sardonic-courtney · 3 years

Text

Crowley x Reader. We Met Before. Part 6/7.

Summary: You end up living with Bobby after your parents die. You go to church and meet Priest Crowley and you end up getting along (if you know what i mean). A few years later when Bobby passes you move the the bunker with Sam and Dean and end up meeting Crowley again.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 7

Warings: Mentions of death, Maybe spelling and language.

Around 1500 words.

A little note before we start, I know technically the bunker isn’t around this time but I’m not following storylines, hence the random case.

Life moves with a Daemon in the basement.

A great way to say goodbye...

Over the next few months, you had expected a call or text, but nothing. To be fair you didn’t exactly try to reach out to him either. Church felt emptier, as did your free time. So, you just spent it building up a great book collection, training, and further bonding with Bobby. Life had turned back to normal. Other than Sam and Dean had became more distant dealing with angels, daemons, heaven, and hell. Which you guess is the usual just busier. You even went on your first few hunts. During one involving a wendigo you lost your phone, only to find it beyond repair. Which cut ties completely with Crowley.

**Four Year Time Jump**

Now 22 years old, you are a full-time hunter still living with Bobby, when you’re not staying in shabby motels.

Your days are filled with hunting, reading, and watching bad movies. And for some reason every Sunday you still found yourself in your spot at church. You told yourself it was still because you wanted to feel closer to your mum, but deep down you knew you were hoping for the chance he would walk back through those doors. But when he didn’t you pushed the sinking feeling away, it was ridiculous to still miss the man you had hardly known. Although when you think about it you did know him, maybe not for long, but you knew more about him then you did about the other close people in your life.

You had been on a few dates with random guys since then, but none of them really stuck, and to be honest you weren’t exactly looking for them to. Everything was going well, which with the life you live was bound to end soon. Which it did.

The shot...

The coma...

The death...

His death...

Bobby was gone.

To say it hit hard was an understatement. You weren’t even there when the shot fired. You visited him as soon as you heard but couldn’t shake the feeling you let him down in some way. Sam and Dean tried to explain what happened, but you didn’t fully understand, or didn’t want to. You mourned alongside Sam and Dean. Ending up moving into the bunker with them, where you resumed going on little hunts with them, but mainly staying back as designated researcher. The bunker was a lot homelier than the random motels, and although your combat was good, it wasn’t what it needed to be with what they were dealing with.

Over the next year you met Castiel when he was “Back to himself” as Dean put it. You two quickly becoming friends, when you got used to his quirks. Everything once again was back to a new normal, well as normal as it could have been. You did stop going to church, no longer seeing the point of finding a new one nearer. You grow closer to the boys, finding new things out about them both.

You and Dean’s relationship is a weird one. He is exactly as you would imagine an older brother to be. But is also annoyingly stubborn, always teasing, and argumentative. But that’s what you love about him. Especially when he would give in and let you take Baby to the shops.

Sam is more like a twin, even though he’s 6 years older than you. You still stayed up late when you could talk about whatever. He is the more freely sensitive one. He is however just as stubborn and caring, especially when it comes to your lack of interest in dating. It was strange but he wants to see you happy with someone. Even though he knows in this life it’s hard, he still wants you to try. Which you don’t see the point. No, it’s not because you can’t picture going on dates and talking to anyone other than that beautiful accent, or because you can’t see yourself kissing any other lips. It’s just because you didn’t see the point, because (Y/N) (L/N) was not the sort of person to be hung up on a guy and his forgotten promise.

Right now, you are sitting in the kitchen with Sam, in silence. You are reading a book you found on a random shelf, and Sam is typing away on his laptop. The past 3 weeks the bunker has been filled with a tense mix of emotions. Hunters had seemed to become the hunted, being killed in many forms some were ripped apart other drained of blood some still full of blood a couple had their eyes ripped out, some even as mundane as being stabbed. But no matter the method, they were all linked by one small mark on the left thumb. A delicate R.

The case was confusing to say the least, and all leads you guys had found turned out to be dead ends. Which is why after a week and a half of no progress, Sam and Dean had decided to call on a certain demon for help…and by call you meant forcefully summon against the king of hells wishes. But no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t get anything out of him.

Not that you really knew who ‘him’ was. All you knew was that even from the basement he managed to cause tension between the brothers. You weren’t allowed down there. That was your rule. Which you begrudgingly followed. Not without your arguments, which you kept up. You love the boys, but it seemed they were getting nowhere with their interrogating, and you being the best at getting information out of the three of you, it seemed like the obvious choice. If the two weren’t so adamant at keeping you away from the whole thing. Being deemed too impressionable or something regarding your safety.

To be honest all you knew was that he was an annoying dick, that Dean was considering killing, and he had the answers to your problems. You didn’t even get to know what Dean and Sam were doing down there to try get information. Which was what Dean was doing now…. or what he was doing before he comes into the kitchen, breaking the silence.

Dean let out a sigh. “I swear he finds joy in pissing me of”.

“That would be the King of hell for you Dean”. Sam says not bothering to look up from his screen.

“Why did we even bother?” Dean slugs into a seat at the table across from you.

“Because we have no other leads.” Sam said seeming bored, but you knew it was him trying to mask his annoyance.

“But it’s been 9 days and he still hasn’t acknowledged the attacks; the cocky bastard keeps rolling his eyes at me. I swear if he makes one more remark, I will stab his eyes out.” Dean looks at Sam, which Sam senses and looks up meeting his brother’s eyes. “Sammy, I don’t know what else to try”.

But before Sam could add anything on you joined in. This being your perfect opportunity to get information and meet this alleged king of hell. “Me! I’m still an option”.

Dean rolled his eyes falling back in his seat, moving his gaze to you. Sam following suit.

“No chance munchkin, as said before we are not taking the chance.” Dean repeated.

“But I don’t understand, why not”. You frowned.

“Because” Sam started this time. “He doesn’t know you exist, and it’s safer that way. He could use you as a weakness to get to us, he could hurt you. It’s just not worth it.”

“But hunters dying is?” you asked, managing to get them speechless. Which they remained. “Common guys. I’m good at getting out information, and like Dean said, what other choices have you got?”

Both the brothers looked at each other and then back at you, still remaining silent.

So, you pulled out your best attempt at puppy dog eyes, “Please, I’ll be safe I promise.”

Dean let out a defeated and gruff “Fine”.

“But we are keeping an eye on you” Sam added trying not to chuckle at how Dean had finally given in. He wouldn’t admit it, but your logic did seem like the best option in his eyes to.

“Deal” you said smiling. The three of you got up, ready to descend downwards to the captive, who hopefully had answers.

For some reason you were excited and nervous. You imagined all the ways you could get information, getting into his head and muddling it out. Sure, he was a daemon, but you had swindled information out of a few before, how different could this one be? But no matter what crossed your mind, you would never have known what had been locked up right under your feet for the past 9 days.

(Pointless note, this was sort of a filler bit for some time to pass. i kind of struggled with mixing past and present tense, but hopefully it’s not too confusing).

#crowley #crowley x y/n #crowley x you #Crowley Supernatural #crowley x reader #PriestCrowley #supernatural x reader #supernatural #xreader #y/n

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ineedhelpdotorg · 3 years

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Another thing I would like to speak about this is my opinion I don’t want to talk over other trans people or the community I’m not speaking for the community as a whole this is just my personal opinion and I would like to state that I respect you and please respect my opinion and the opinions of others. Thank you. Here are some topics brought up that I’ve seen and I want to jsut state and voice my opinion if I offend you in any ways your are free to scroll. I value your opinions your thoughts but please be mindful and respectful of others.

THIS IS HELLA LONG BTW SORRY IN ADVANCE

(But please read the whole thing you don’t have to if you don’t want to)

1. "The vast majority of the individuals who have been examining this are cis, which is an issue first thing"

It truly isn't, there is no issue with this. There's nothing amiss with cishets imparting their insight, since anyone can have an assessment on anything. I see what your saying in some cases the don’t but as you saw on my other post they do in some events and cases the have a freedom to voice there opinions though.

2. I still can't seem to see a 'genderbent' rendition of a male character who needed bosoms and a dfab body. This is the first and most clear motivation behind why 'genderbending' is innately transphobic - it accepts that actual characteristics and sex are something very similar, and that you can't be female without additionally being dfab. (I will say AFAB)

Indeed, more often than not genderbent characters are not given characteristics and such generalizations. In any case, what's the issue with that? There's no issue playing into generalizations. You presently can't seem to see a genderbent adaptation of a male character who needed bosoms and is AFAB. That is narrative, and individual stories can't be acknowledged as obvious proof. Regarding why, the banner appears to introduce their conviction of actuality, when it clearly isn't. There's a lot of male genderbend characters (genderbent to be female) who do need bosoms, yet for what reason would it be advisable for it to significantly matter? Generalizations or not, there ought to be no issue here.

"It expects that actual attributes and sex are something very similar, and that you can't be female without likewise being AFAB." This is indeed another supposition, not a reality. Actual characteristics in sexual orientation are not something very similar, but rather it plays into the reality and generalization that actual attributes in sex jobs/sex generalizations are something very similar, to which they (as a rule) can be. You can be female without likewise being afab, and (expressed by and by) there are numerous characters out there that are trans and were being genderbent (tragically, however we shouldn't actually genderbend trans characters since it eradicates their sexual orientation except if when they're genderbent they're as yet trans, the exact inverse way.) and you could discover numerous trans characters being genderbent or such in games, manga, and media by and large.

3. "This is cissexism, and this is transphobic. The message that 'genderbending' says is that you should have bosoms and a v/gina to be female, and you should have a penis and a level chest to be male. I ought not need to clarify why that message is transphobic."

This isn't cissexism. The genuine meaning of cissexism: "Cis-sex-ism. Noun. Prejudice or discrimination against transgender people.” Stop twisting word’s definitions to fit your appeal and opinion. Stop believing threads such as this when they can’t even use the original definition properly. Genderbending is as simple as twisting someone’s gender so they fit into the stereotype. (a majority of the time, at least.) Biological genitalia are biological genitalia. Gender is defined by your brain, but we obviously cannot show that fact if there was a genderbend, because humans brains quite obviously do not show outside of the skull.

4. “The way 'genderbends' are completed likewise has unmistakably transphobic suggestions by they way it changes out the actual attributes of characters to make them 'the contrary sex' (The notion of there being ‘opposite genders’ is some fresh bullshit that I’ll cover later in this post) For instance, by giving a male character curves and breast’s while 'genderbending' him, the message is evident that this character was cis regardless."

This is being made way deeper than the notion actually is. Switching out physical traits to play into gender roles and gender stereotypes is not bullshit whatsoever. Giving a male character breasts and curves is as simple as what the action actually is. Genderbending, nothing more, nothing less. Nobody is actually reading into how detailed this is besides the original poster. But my issue is, what’s wrong with the message that the character is cis? Is there something wrong with cis people or there being cis characters? Trans people can still fit into these categories, and assuming trans people look different from cis people (whether in fiction or not) is transphobic, not characters fitting into the ‘cis’ category in your opinion. Once again, there is the assumption that the character was cis to begin with (unless the character has been stated on their wiki or in canon to be cis, to which most aren’t usually.

5. "'Genderbending' naturally infers that all characters are cisgender of course, and deletes any chance of these characters being trans. this isn't as plainly transphobic as the main point, yet it is hurtful to trans individuals inside being a fan spaces, as the presumption that all characters are cis until unequivocally expressed in any case pushes us out of media and eliminates whatever portrayal we may attempt to make for ourselves. "

Genderbending doesn't suggest anything, the first banner (and rebloggers) are indeed assuming. This obliges the hurried suspicion false notion, which is a coherent error that shows when a argument I’dbadly made. Genderbending doesn't suggest that all characters are cisgender as a matter, however it infers that the individual who composed this accepts so. There are cis looking trans individuals, and there are so to state, "trans looking" cis individuals. It doesn't eradicate any chance, in light of the fact that there can even now be trans individuals with genderbends, just as the way that there is trans genderbends out there. (despite the fact that it's avoided upon, obviously) It isn't unsafe to anybody at all, considering genderbends are quite often for no particular reason or investigation, there is no supposition that all characters are cis until expressed something else. (also, regardless of whether there is, the thing that's the mischief in that. there's no damage in having cis individuals not be expressed and trans individuals being expressed, on the grounds that cis individuals are the greater part.) It doesn't eliminate any portrayal at all, and I'd prefer to check whether operation really had any sources identifying with that, considering this has no sources at all and explicitly lies on striking allegations and suspicions.

6. "The third issue with 'genderbending' is that it is reliably cis male and cis female, and that is it. I have never seen people 'genderbend' characters by making them nonbinary or intersex. I have never seen a genderbend of a female character which made her a trans male in light of everything. 'Genderbending' proposes that there are only two choices concerning sex: cis male and cis female. There is nothing of the sort as nonbinary individuals inside this philosophy. Intersex individuals are bizarre, best case scenario. Agender individuals are minimal better than a far off fantasy."

Prior to anything: Agender doesn't exist. Non binary isn't actually viewed as a gender what I am saying is Non-binary is not technically considered a gender Non-binary (also spelled nonbinary) or genderqueer is a spectrum of gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine‍—‌identities that are outside the gender binary and there is no “opposite” to genderbend a non-binary person there is no "inverse" to genderbend a non-paired individual. In the event that somebody endeavored to "genderbend" a non-binary individual to a male or female, individuals would get vexed regardless of what they wanted. There is indeed, nothing amiss with male and female genderbends. YOU (conversing with operation and the individuals who concur) continue expecting that they're cis, which is more transphobic than what you guarantee is transphobic. You can't "genderbend" a non-binary nor intersex character, or it would be designated "transphobic" or "eradicating their personality" to which it's definitely not. You could ensure that something contrary to non-parallel is intersex (since individuals who are intersex are hermaphrodites, brought into the world with both genetalia logically) however that would likewise recieve more disdain. It doesn't infer anything, and without fail, you expect that a character is cis. For all you know, they could be stealth trans, or openly trans but you never looked at their wiki; or they could not have their gender specified on the wiki or in canon. Agender does exist what I am saying is the gender your trying to portray or the norms when you look it up Some people's gender changes over time. People whose gender is not male or female use many different terms to describe themselves, with non-binary being one of the most common. Other terms include genderqueer, agender, bigender, and more this is. That is what I am saying in that area that people don’t identify as any gender as he/she or some are fluid. yes you could do “opposite” to genderbend a non-binary person. But if someone attempted to “genderbend” a non-binary person to a male or female, people would get upset despite it being what they wanted. But that would be transphobic and defeating the purpose of there identity as a whole. Sorry some of my Japanese was switched out and there are some words do not exist in English I apologize if anyone got offended. Yes you can genderbending a cis male/female to a non-binary individual but that wouldn’t be called genderbending would it?

7. “‘Genderbending’ ignores that it is impossible to make a character ‘the opposite gender’, because there is no such thing as an ‘opposite gender’. Gender is a spectrum, not a binary, but you wouldn’t know that from the way fandom spaces treat it.”

Gender is binary, however binary doesn't mean two. Gender is chosen in the brain. It IS difficult to make a character that is non-binary or intersex the contrary sex on the grounds that there is no opposite gender of non-binarynor intersex, at any rate in the event that you would prefer not to be called transphobic or more. You can make a cis individual a non-binary person but that wouldn’t be called genderbending?? The frigidity of genderbending is when a character's gender is changed. Usually in fanfictions or fanart. The name should be changed since it is heavily confusing since genderbending also means in other definitions gender bending is sometimes a form of social activism undertaken to destroy rigid gender roles and defy sex-role stereotypes, notably in cases where the gender-nonconforming person finds these roles oppressive.

8. “Of course, there are some reasons for ‘genderbending’ cis male characters into cis females that will always get brought up in discussions on the politics of ‘genderbending.’ The most frequent is that cis girls, who only see themselves as one-dimensional characters in media, want to have characters like them who are just as multifaceted and developed as the male characters that we are given, so they make their male faves female to give themselves the representation they desire. This is a decent reason for ‘genderbending’, but it does not excuse the fact that the way in which ‘genderbending’ is done is inherently transphobic, and it gives fans yet another excuse to ignore female characters in favor of focusing on their male faves.” This whole spot I shouldn’t even have to explain. This is once again being read into way too much, there is no ‘politics’ of genderbending. There is just genderbending, plain and simple. Cis girls can want to see stuff in genderbending, as can cis guys when they genderbend a female character male to see how they’d react and such. Genderbending has no politics, besides that it’s “transphobic” to some.

9. “Another reason for ‘genderbending’ that I’ve heard is ‘it’s for the sake of character exploration - like, what if this character had been born as male/female instead?’ This excuse is cissexist and transphobic from first blush. The idea behind it is that someone ‘born as female’, aka with breasts/vagina will automatically be a cis female, allowing fans to explore what that character’s life would have been like if they were female. Why not explore the possibility of a character being designated female at birth, but still identifying as male? Why do you need a character to be cis for you to find their personality and life interesting to explore? Why do you automatically reject the notion of your fave being trans? If you want to explore what it would have been like for your male fave to have struggled with sexism, consider them being a trans woman, or a closeted afab trans person.”

Yes, character exploration. It’s not cissexist nor transphobic. Whether the character was genderbent cis or trans, it’s not about their genetalia to ‘explore’ the character, but that’s just what you thought it was. Character exploration in this case as in “How will people treat them differently due to possible sexist/misogynist laws and/or character behavior that’s normally in males inside a female, or vice versa? How would people and the law treat this female character who’s shy, if she was a male? How would people and the law treat this male character who’s obnoxious and loud and determined, if he was a female?” Not “How different will this character’s life be because they have a penis or v/g?” You reducing character exploration down to genitalia is blatantly transphobic more so than you think, as well as just downright rude.

10. ‘Genderbending’ does harm trans people. It perpetuates dangerous cissexist notions and the idea of a gender binary being a valid construct, erases nonbinary and intersex people, and others trans people. These are what we call microaggressions - they are not as dangerous as outright harassment and assault, but they enforce and support a system and ideology in which we are other, and we are worthy of hate and violence because we do not fit in.

Genderbending does not harm all trans people inherently i am talking to a group of people which is moderately huge but I am not speaking for all of the community whatsoever, considering trans people also like to genderbend characters. It plays into stereotypes and you thinking gender is a spectrum is more harmful that getting upset that someone thinking “How would people treat this character if he/she was the opposite gender?”. It does not erase non-binary nor intersex people, because you could throw them in if you really wanted to, but you’d also be the person who would call that act transphobic or ‘erasing their identity’. This is not a microaggression whatsoever, but rather a personal grudge based on assumptions you think are true, and treating your opinion as fact. That is all.

I don’t see or think why genderbending as a whole is transphobic the name should be changed though but genderbending as a whole is not bad sure they’re are issues but It is not transphobic.

#obey me shall we date #obey me #fuck gender norms

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar

https://ift.tt/3jvPBwC

The latest take on Toho’s iconic, building-crushing lizard comes in the form of Godzilla Singular Point, an anime series now available in dubbed form on Netflix. Taking place in the not-too-distant future, this reimagining of the King of Monsters involves a group of human characters becoming aware – through rather bizarre ways – of a coming apocalyptic event. Now the only thing that can save them is a behemoth out to punch monsters and look out for the little guy.

No, not Godzilla. He’s actually the apocalyptic event. No, our hero is none other than Jet Jaguar.

Yes, it’s finally time for Jet Jaguar to get his due.

A concept nearly 50 years old at this point, Jet Jaguar is one of those characters who was initially doomed to fail, but lives on due to nostalgia and the golden notion of, “I realize most people hated that thing from my childhood, but I bet I could make it good!” At best, he was a rad addition to the Godzilla mythos. At worst, he was a dumb idea from a dumb movie. For the most part, he’s remembered as something goofy that gets laughed at, despite having some genuine earnestness.

Jet Jaguar was created from both a fan contest and a corporate game of telephone. Back in 1972, to jump on the bandwagon of tokusatsu giant superhero/robot shows, Toho asked fans to design their own superhero design. The winner was a half-man/half-bird robot with a lengthy neck resembling a stack of rings named Red Alone. The concept was turned into a full-on rubber costume, but they changed the color scheme, which upset the young winner. They later decided to just scrap the whole thing, keep the color scheme, and make their own new design. And so, Jet Jaguar was born.

The superhero made an entire one movie appearance in 1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon. As the urban legend goes, this was initially intended to be a standalone Jet Jaguar movie that the studio just didn’t have faith in towards the end and they hastily threw in Godzilla and recurring Godzilla villain Gigan. While the claim is dubious and unproven, it certainly is easy to understand where the allegations come from.

Everything about the movie feels rushed. As the last-minute replacement for another Godzilla film that didn’t pan out, filming took several weeks and production was a mere six months. Even the Godzilla costume was whipped up in record time. As for the story, outside of the intro, the preexisting elements (Godzilla and Gigan) aren’t thrown in until about 2/3 into the movie. Up until that point, it feels like a Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon movie with the production team hitting the panic button.

The plot of Godzilla vs. Megalon is that a scientist Goro Ibuki is working on a robot called Jet Jaguar, along with his little brother Rokuro and his best friend Hiroshi. They get wrapped up in a plot involving a group of beings from Atlantis-But-Not-Really, who are annoyed at all the nuclear bomb tests going on in their neck of the woods. They steal Jet Jaguar and use him to guide their insect god Megalon to different cities for the sake of smashing them up and punishing humanity.

Goro and friends get their hands on Jet Jaguar’s controls and use him to lead Godzilla to where Megalon is. Then the Seatopians call some alien friends for a solid and have them send in Gigan. Jet Jaguar is able to break away from all control and becomes fully sentient, as well as revealing the ability to turn into a giant. It becomes a big tag team battle, mostly remembered for Godzilla doing the silliest dropkick you’ve ever seen, followed by a second one for good measure.

The villains escape, Jet Jaguar and Godzilla shake hands, they go their separate ways, and Jet Jaguar reunites with the humans heroes after shrinking back down. He gets his own snazzy theme song to close things out.

In Japan, the movie wasn’t all that successful. As the thirteenth title in the Godzilla series, it brought in the worst returns yet. Between public burnout and the movie’s lack of quality, it just wasn’t grabbing people. That said, it came out at just the right time in the United States. Released in 1976, it came out months before the anticipated King Kong remake. The American movie poster for the movie even bit on the King Kong poster by featuring Godzilla and Megalon duking it out while each standing on a different Twin Tower, even though the movie at no point took place in the States.

A year later, the movie would be cut down into 48 minutes so they could broadcast it on NBC in prime time, across an hour with commercials. The only reason I mention this at all is because it was hosted by John Belushi wearing a Godzilla costume, which is sadly somewhere in the abyss of golden lost media.

Getting back to Jet Jaguar – the topic of this article – I feel the need to bring up Germany’s handling of the movie’s translation. Rather than call him “Jet Jaguar,” they referred to him as “King Kong.” I mean…sure, why not. Even weirder, when the next two movies introduced fellow giant robot MechaGodzilla, Germany once again referred to the robot as “King Kong.” Guys, I know what you’re going for here, but it doesn’t work that way.

Anyway, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla and Terror of MechaGodzilla followed Godzilla vs. Megalon and closed off the classic Showa Era of Godzilla movies. Not only did Japan need to rest Godzilla as a concept for nearly a decade, but this also meant that whenever Godzilla would come back, it was going to be some kind of reboot or new “only the first movie counts” installment. Jet Jaguar was never high on the list to be brought back, especially since MechaGodzilla completely overshadowed him.

He would at least get a little more exposure in 1991 when Godzilla vs. Megalon was featured in the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. While much of the episode is spent making fun of one of the Seatopians for looking like Oscar Wilde, they toss plenty of jokes at Jet Jaguar. Most memorably, they “translate” Jet Jaguar’s ending theme, which notes that his mother never loved him and he looks a lot like Jack Nicholson.

Due to rights issues, Godzilla vs. Megalon is one of the few MST3K episodes that is no longer legally available for viewing. This does make the original MST3K Collection Volume 10 box set (which included Godzilla vs. Megalon as one of the four movies) a collector’s item, as it was later discontinued and rereleased with The Giant Gila Monster taking its spot.

A stranger use of Jet Jaguar comes in the form of Certain Distant Suns’ music video for “Bitter” in 1995. While there’s not much of a narrative outside of the band playing, footage of Godzilla vs. Megalon being shown, and a few shots of guys walking around in Megalon and Jet Jaguar costumes, I really insist you give the video a look due to the ending. It certainly goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting.

In 1997, Jet Jaguar made his next official appearance in another frankly bizarre spectacle. In Japan, a series called Godzilla Island appeared on TV in three-minute increments. While it only lasted a year, there were a whopping 256 episodes, meaning almost 13 hours of footage. If you’ve never heard of Godzilla Island, you might be thinking, “Wow, almost 13 hours of Godzilla stuff? Why isn’t this more well known?”

Well, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that instead of using guys in rubber suits, the kaiju action was done with action figures. Yikes.

Not only did Jet Jaguar show up during these adventures, but they gave him the 90s superhero action figure treatment. Much like how they released as many figures of Batman as possible for different crime-fighting scenarios, Godzilla Island gave us Silver Jet Jaguar, Medical Jet Jaguar, and even Fireman Jet Jaguar. Collect them all!

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Writer Talks About Spending 8 Years in the MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Director and Writer Talk Future of The MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

In the early 2000s, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee was released for the GameCube and Xbox under the Atari brand. It was a fighting game featuring various characters from Godzilla lore and though Atari wanted to include Jet Jaguar, Toho refused. Still, at least Megalon was included in the game. There would be two sequels in the form of Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed. FINALLY, Jet Jaguar was playable, because if there’s anything you can count on, it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel when you’re working on multiple installments of a nostalgic who’s who project.

He’d also return in 2014’s Godzilla game for PlayStation 3 and 4. The producer of the game didn’t even plan on putting him in there, but he saw that the programmers already were working on him and just shrugged it off. There was a special trick to summoning Jet Jaguar as a boss character. By ending up in three different Godzilla vs. Jet Jaguar scenarios and winning all three times, you would then unlock a special cutscene of the two shaking hands while a confused military woman would wonder about their history.

Around the mid-2010s, IDW Publishing was all about releasing a bunch of comics with the Godzilla license. Their mainline series was Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth, which went on for 25 issues. Early on, Jet Jaguar appeared out of nowhere during a fight between Godzilla and the team of Gigan and Orga. In human size, Jet Jaguar flew into Orga’s mouth, then expanded into giant size, causing the beast to explode. Especially awesome was that it came with the cliffhanger text, “Next: PUNCH! PUNCH! PUNCH!” a reference to Jet Jaguar’s theme song from the movie.

Jet Jaguar showed up regularly in the series, coming off as Godzilla’s designated driver friend and handler. What I mean is that he seemed to be out to protect Godzilla, but that meant having to keep his violent ally on task (ie. pointing out that Gigan was nearby to stop Godzilla from attacking Jet Jaguar) and throwing punches when the situation absolutely called for it.

This continuity played up Jet Jaguar as more enigmatic than anything, as although he was mechanical, the only human character who knew his origins was killed off before it could be explained. Even one of the invading alien villains saw him on a screen and basically went, “Oh crap. It’s THIS guy!” Regardless, he still came off as a total badass, winning fights against Godzilla, Gigan (the chainsaw-hand version), and Destroyah.

Then again, at one point he needed to be saved by the 1998 American Godzilla, which at least proved as a reminder to the robot hero that there are Toho characters far more hated than him.

Toho started using Jet Jaguar again, albeit in sillier ways. In 2019, as an April Fool’s Day prank, they put up a teaser on YouTube for a Jet Jaguar movie. They also had him appear a few times on Godziban, a Godzilla web series for kids that, once again, used dolls and action figures to tell its stories.

Now Jet Jaguar is a major part of Godzilla Singular Point. To get into specifics on the plot would be like explaining advanced calculus, but to keep on-topic, Jet Jaguar is the creation of Goro Otaki as both a way to ward off monstrous threats and as a company mascot. Considering King Kong’s role in King Kong vs. Godzilla was “kidnapped to be a company mascot,” maybe the Germans were onto something with the rename.

Anyway, this version of Jet Jaguar is more mechanical in appearance instead of having to rely on making him look like a human in a costume. Jet Jaguar is there to protect the heroes from the endless supply of monsters, usually taking some extensive damage. Still, the robot gets rebuilt stronger and stronger and becomes advanced enough to become self-aware and speak in…well, the voice of a teenage girl.

I don’t know, I guess I just figured he’d sound like Astro Guy from King of the Monsters.

There’s a big hard-to-explain twist, but the main thing to know is that Jet Jaguar becomes a full-on badass by the end of the series, turns out to be a huge key to the plot, and has a completely kickass showdown with Godzilla. In a way, Jet Jaguar’s journey in Singular Point is a lot like in real life, going from a lame idea that appealed to kids and gradually being understood as a respected part of the Godzilla mythos. Something initially representative of the worst of the franchise, proven to be something genuinely cool in the right hands.

Now it’s time for America to return the favor. Once again, timing is on Jet Jaguar’s side. The Monsterverse was on its way to the graveyard after the box office intake of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but Godzilla vs. Kong came out at just the right time in the tail end of the pandemic to be a big success and keep the series going a little bit longer. There aren’t too many names in the toybox left to pull out, but at this point, Gigan and Jet Jaguar have to be high on the list.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Make it happen, Hollywood!

Godzilla Singular Point is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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the-busy-ghost · 4 years

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@ardenrosegarden in reply to your query: “ I'd love to hear your thoughts on Malcolm IV, most of the older sources I've seen compare him to William the Lion so I don't know a lot about him”

Thanks for this and I should apologise in advance because I feel like I ranted in a rather incoherent fashion but I wasn’t sure exactly what you’d want to know, so I sort of loosely covered everything. To be honest nobody really knows a whole lot about him (at least, not like the info we have for later mediaeval monarchs) and he died quite young (aged about 24) so it’s difficult to know what his reign would have been like if he’d been an adult for most of it instead of a child. It’s also so easy to compare the brothers- they had quite different characters and sometimes seemed like polar opposites, though they did share a lot too, especially in their aims.

One thing that really annoys me is when people use the fact that he was nicknamed ‘the Maiden’ as if that meant he was effeminate (and indeed as if being effeminate was a bad thing). This isn’t just an issue I have for Malcolm, but really applies to any situation where a word like ‘maiden’ has been misconstrued in a modern context. Maiden is *specifically* a translation of “virgo”, which nowadays we might translate as virgin instead- i.e. he is not widely believed to have done the deed (and certainly never married). Not that surprising really since, as I say, he was 24 when he died and might have suffered from chronic illness in his early twenties, and was also reputedly more pious than certain other kings, but of course 20th and 21st century writers look at the word ‘maiden’ (or even, indeed, ‘virgin’) and suddenly start sniggering, or assume that the nickname was originally meant to be pejorative- whereas it looks like it was at best a compliment and at worst a mere statement of fact.

Speaking of nicknames though, one thing I find very Interesting is the possibility that he was the original Malcolm “Canmore” (Ceann Mór) and not his great-grandfather Máel Coluim III. When noting his death, the Annals of Ulster describe Malcolm IV as “Malcolm Cendmor, Henry’s son”, whereas Malcolm III is not known to have been called that in contemporary sources- though of course the Irish annalist could just have been confused, and I (among many others) still tend to mean Máel Coluim III when I say Malcolm Canmore, since it would cause confusion otherwise (and it does kind of suit him). So firstly that raises the old problem of what we should call the dynasty those two kings belonged to (nobody knows- I tend to go with Canmore dynasty since Margaretsons and MacMalcolm dynasty looks a bit wrong to me but it’s a whole Mess and I don’t think anyone can claim to be right. The only surname which any one of the ‘Canmore’ kings seems to have used at any point was de Warenne- which is inappropriate for the whole dynasty for obvious reasons). But it also raises queries about the nickname’s meaning. Ceann Mór translates directly as ‘big head’, though one could also loosely interpret it as meaning something like ‘great chief’- and Máel Coluim III certainly suited the latter meaning at least (and maybe also the former). On the other hand, although I would argue that Malcolm IV was not obviously a ‘weak’ king, it’s difficult to see him being given an honorific for his power rather than something more obviously central to his character, like his piety.

On the basis of the Annals of Ulster (and William of Newburgh) some people have interpreted this nickname to mean that his head was literally bigger than usual, and so this has led to some theories about the nature of the illnesses which plagued him in the last years of his life. Some have theorised that he suffered from Paget’s disease. Whatever the case Malcolm is known to have been seriously ill on at least two occasions, in 1163 when he was at Doncaster and then before his death in 1165. Although these could have been isolated incidents, the evidence suggests that these illnesses had lingering effects on his strength and that Malcolm may well have been aware that he was unlikely to live long. Which, for all that we know very little about him and he was still a mediaeval monarch (with all the flaws that entailed) I do find genuinely sad. He didn’t need to worry for the succession- he had two healthy younger brothers, who, although nobody could have known in 1165, would both live to a good old age (for the time period). He also doesn’t seem to have been completely side-lined from government like some other kings either, though he may have had to take it easy in the last couple of years. But being aware that you’re not likely to last very long and that you have to pass on the kingdom in a good enough shape to a younger brother who, though loyal, had a very different and more impulsive personality, might have been quite worrying.

And then, as I say, along with his illnesses he was also quite young when he succeeded to the throne. That might not seem surprising given the later history of Scotland (of the 17 monarchs from Malcolm IV to James VI, including the Maid of Norway, 12 succeeded to the throne aged sixteen or younger), but in light of what had gone before that was quite surprising, since previously adult males seem to have been favoured as candidates for the kingship and it could be a dangerous business even for them. Even more interesting is the fact that he succeeded his grandfather without a huge amount of civil strife (though there was certainly some). For years Malcolm’s father Prince Henry had been the heir presumptive to his father David I, and had built important networks in his lands in the north of England and in Scotland. He was an adult of much experience and influence, he was well-equipped to succeed to the throne, and he seems to have been popular enough, from what little we know about him. But when Henry predeceased his father in 1152, suddenly everything was thrown into doubt. David I quickly arranged for the eleven year old Malcolm to be taken around the kingdom by the Earl of Fife, as his designated successor, but there was really no way to be sure that acts like this would absolutely secure Malcolm’s succession. There are some indications of trouble following David’s death the next year, such as Somerled’s rebellion in 1153 and the alleged treachery of a knight named Arthur in 1154, but on the whole the wider political community seems to have supported Malcolm’s right to rule and he remained on the throne (and reconciliations with men like Malcolm MacHeth and Somerled followed in later years, even if Somerled did have another go in 1164). As well as the clergy and greater nobility who had supported his grandfather, Malcolm also had his mother Ada and other family connections for support. Nonetheless the careful networks that David I and Henry had built up in the north of England seem to have collapsed upon the succession of a boy-king to Scotland and his younger brother William to the title Earl of Northumbria.

This stake in the north of England has been the cause of some controversy- historians tend either to imply that Malcolm IV was at fault for humbly surrendering the northern English lands in 1157 (when some sources would indicate he could easily have pressed his rights if Henry II had promised his grandfather not to challenge Scottish claims there, as certain English chroniclers claimed); or that his brother William was rash and petty not to accept that they were permanently lost to him (those who see Scottish history primarily as a series of failed invasions of England tend to see this as a nice moral tale). I think that both points of view vastly underestimate the complexities of twelfth-century politics, of what nobles and kings perceived their ‘rights’ to be, and indeed the complexities of dealing with Henry II of England in particular. On the one hand I could point out that Malcolm was sixteen and was not in the same position of strength re: England as his grandfather had been, so peacefully agreeing to surrender certain territories but secure acknowledgement of his rights to other areas could be seen as quite a sensible move, and on the other hand I could point out that William was sort of right to be a bit miffed about having his inheritance granted away, especially since Henry might have broken his promise. But overall it was a complex and probably difficult situation and since we definitely do not have all or even most of the facts (in contrast to later other disputes over the sovereignty of Scotland and Scottish claims) I’m not sure it should really define our views of Malcolm’s reign, even if it does tell us quite a bit about his brother’s personality.

For all that he was reputed to be pious, young, and possibly chronically ill though, Malcolm does not seem to have been an obviously ‘weak’ king either, nor did he show a complete lack of interest in war and government as some other ‘saintly’ kings are reputed to have done. We find him leading military expeditions in the years 1159-60, and he does seem to have thought of knighthood as a desirable object. Admittedly on two of those military expeditions in 1159-60 may have been in response to the dissatisfaction of his own subjects re: his support of Henry II at Toulouse (or perhaps they were just unhappy that he had left the kingdom for an extended period). He also had to deal with discontent from other key nobles- a reminder that the reports of English and Norman chroniclers regarding 12th century Scotland and its supposedly ‘saintly’ and ‘civilised’ kings may only reflect one particular view of what constituted ‘civilisation’ and successful kingship. That being said, like his grandfather David, we cannot really show that Malcolm was actively opposed to Gaelic culture and the native nobility of his kingdom, even if he might have been inclined to view the feudal ways of the Normans as the ideal way to govern. And overall, despite his illnesses and his youth, contemporary reports of his reign appear are actually largely positive and even complimentary. Perhaps this was helped out by the fact that he died young, and, again, that many of these reports come from English and French-speaking cultures (to them, Malcolm was the perfect successor to his grandfather David, and indeed in one of Kelso Abbey’s early charters they are portrayed together in a manner which echoes the biblical king David and Solomon). Although he faced rebellion from some of his chief subjects, especially those from Gaelic-speaking areas, there were also many native magnates who were supportive of him and his grandfather and it seems unlikely that they would have been seen as such successful kings otherwise (indeed, since the majority of the traditional kingdom of Scotland outwith Lothian was still Gaelic-speaking at this point, that has to count for something). Overall, I can see no reason why we shouldn’t consider Malcolm to have been a competent ruler, even if I wouldn’t necessarily describe him as successful like grandfather or some of Scotland’s later monarchs.

I do apologise for this screed of vaguely incoherent info- I am genuinely interested in Malcolm IV but haven’t had to think about his reign in any depth for a while. Lack of evidence and his early death prevent us from making any deeper assessment of his character and reputation, but I’ll round off with some quotes from contemporary and later sources about him that might give a much better idea of how Malcolm IV was viewed than any of my ranting can. Although obviously the full versions of some of these chronicles are online too (and are worth checking), I’ve quoted mostly from A.O. Anderson’s collections ‘Early Sources of Scottish History’ and ‘Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers’, since these sourcebooks are also really good starting points if you’re curious about any further aspects of Malcolm and William’s careers (you can always ask me, but obviously my view is always subjective). William of Newburgh is a major source for Malcolm’s reputation imo though and the Chronicle of Melrose covers some of the Scottish aspect- and there’s always the anecdote of Ada de Warenne allegedly trying to sneak a girl into Malcolm’s bed which is... dodgy to say the least, but probably meant to show how ‘saintly’ he was and was perhaps also a callback to figures like his distant kinsman Edward the Confessor. Overall though, if Anglo-Norman chroniclers wanted to wax lyrical about the ‘saintliness’ of Scottish royals, and David I and St Margaret weren’t available, Malcolm seems to have been the next best thing.

“Malcolm Cendmor, Henry’s son, the sovereign of Scotland, died: with regard to charity, and hospitality, and piety, the best Christian of the Gaels to the east of the sea.” - The Annals of Ulster

“To the king of Scots also, who possessed as his proper right the northern districts of England, namely Northumbria, Cumberland, Westmoreland, formerly acquired by David, king of Scots, in the name of Matilda, called the empress, and her heir, [king Henry II] took care to announce that the king of England ought not to be defrauded of so great a part of his kingdom, nor could he patiently be deprived of it: it was just that that should be restored which had been acquired in his name.

And [Malcolm] prudently considering that in this matter the king of England was superior to the merits of the case by the authority of might, although he could have adduced the oath which [Henry] was said to have given to David his grandfather (...) restored to him the aforenamed territories in their entirety, and received from him in return the earldom of Huntingdon, which belonged to him by ancient right.”- William of Newburgh

“These are the ones who survive from that holy generation. From the Empress Matilda you came, most illustrious man, whom we now hail as Duke of the Normans and of the Aquitainians, Count of the Angevins, and truly heir to England. Your brothers are Geoffrey and William, of whom we hope for good things, to whom we wish the best. From Queen Matilda and the devout King Stephen came William, count of Warenne and Boulogne. From Henry came Malcolm, William, and David, heir to his grandfather’s name. May God have mercy on their childhood and may you too be merciful, whom divine-loving kindness has established as the most noble head of your whole people. May your holy gaze, your loving heart, and your effective action be upon them in all their necessities. They are orphans, left to you by their grandfather, who loved you above all people; you will be a helper to these your wards, for you are in age more mature, in hands stronger, and in feeling more experienced than they.” - Ailred of Rievaulx’s appeal to the young Henry II in his ‘Genealogy of the Kings of the English’- naturally there is quite a bit of hyperbole in this and I do have to suppress the urge to react to it with “Lol” every time I read it. This quote is not taken from one of Anderson’s books.

“About this time the most Christian king of the Scots, Malcolm, of whom we have made mention, as was fitting, in the preceding book, upon Christ’s summons put off the man, to be associated with angels; and lost not his kingship, but changed it. A man of angelic sincerity among men, and as it were an earthly angel, of whom the world was not worthy, the heavenly angels snatched him from the world. A man of wonderful gravity in tender years, of astonishing and unexampled purity upon the summit and in the delights of the kingdom, he was taken from a virgin body to the Lamb, the Virgin’s son, to follow him where he should go.

Clearly he was taken away by an early death lest the wickedness of the times should change his marvellous innocence and purity since so many opportunities and incentives drive astray a young man on the throne.

But because among the tokens of virtue were not wanting in his admirable soul some small stains resultant from royal delights which nevertheless he rather endured than enjoyed, a visitation let fall, not sent down, from heaven chastisted him with paternal lash, and refined him to purity. For before his death he so languished for several years, and besides other sufferings endured severest pains in his extremities, that is his head and feet, that any repentant sinner would seem capable of being cleansed to pellucidity by so great flagellations.

(...)

His brother William succeeded him; a brother, indeed, as it appeared, readier for the uses of the world, but not to be more fortunate than he in administration of the kingdom.

The world which his brother wished to use simply, and for that cause piously and laudably, [William] purposed not only to use but to enjoy; and striving much to exceed his brother’s measure in temporal excellence, he yet could never equal his glory even in temporal felicity.” - William of Newburgh again, who seems to have been a bit of a fan.

I’d personally like to find out more about what any surviving Gaelic sources might have thought but that will have to wait. On the whole though, while I’m not convinced that Malcolm was the perfect angel some sources make him out to be, I can at least say with absolute certainty that he doesn’t give me the Fear like Alexander II has somehow managed to do from beyond the grave.

(David I and Malcolm IV, portrayed in 1159 in a charter from Kelso Abbey. The initial they are sitting in is ‘M’ and is the start of Malcolm’s name)

#twelfth century #William the Lion #Malcolm IV #history #@ardenrosegarden #replies #ask

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dickshardblog · 4 years

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For Russia With Love: The Tara Reade Story?

There are three women I know of now whose name is pronounced Tar-uh Reed. Tara Reid is an actress who starred in the Sharknado franchise. Tara Reed is an artist and designer. She designed my favorite coffee mug. And now I've learned that there is a Tara Reade, who used to work for Joe Biden.

When I heard about the allegation that Tara Reade made against Joe Biden, I was deeply disturbed. Were Biden's hands on shoulders, close-ear talking, hair petting, and hugs something more than just an overly-affectionate guy with boundary issues and a lack of understanding of personal space? It had always looked uncomfortable, but innocent, to me. And, if it's innocent, I find it strangely endearing, despite the fact that I don't personally like to be touched by strangers.

He's not just overly familiar with females. For every picture of Joe Biden petting a little girl's hair, there's another of him with his arms around a man, gazing into his eyes, or practically kissing his ear. I could do a Google image search and come up with some pretty compelling visual evidence that Joe Biden is in love with several men. He's not. At least, I don't believe so. Some people are huggers. And Joe Biden is a hugger extraordinaire.

I think the world no longer tolerates that, but I also think it is both innocent and changeable behavior. Unlike Trump, Biden does have some sense of self-awareness, can listen to criticism, and make changes.

I'll be honest: I really don't want the allegations to be true. I do have that bias, and I will freely admit it. I always have that bias. No matter who it is. Like any regular person, I don't want sexual assault to happen. I would hope we all have that bias. I hope that none of us would wish a woman had been sexually assaulted so we could have some ammunition against a political opponent. But I know better. There are plenty of people who really hope Biden did exactly what Reade says he did. And we all know it does happen, of course.

Tara Reade's story, when I first heard it, sounded credible. In a public, yet deserted hallway, Biden pinned her to a wall, groped her, kissed on her, and asked if she wanted to go somewhere else. When she reacted negatively, he said, "Come on, Man, I heard you liked me." Shit. That sounds like Joe Biden, I can hear him saying that. So, it sounds bad. I agree that we should listen to women. We should take them seriously. We should look into their allegations and dig until we find the truth. I let other people do the investigative journalism. I found their articles, checked their sources and compiled a pretty decent collection of truths that form a pretty cohesive picture.

Here's the truth that I have found:

In 2009, Reade wrote an article commending Biden's work on the Violence Against Women act. The same year, she wrote another article claiming that she'd left DC because her husband had received a job offer to manage a Congressman's campaign in the Midwest, and she'd moved with him.

From late 2016 to early 2017, she had a Twitter account using her newly married name, Tara McCabe. She used this platform to praise Biden on multiple occasions. She retweeted him saying, "My old boss speaks truth. Listen." This Twitter account also featured a lot of anti-Russia, anti-Putin sentiment.

Then, in 2018, she writes in an Op Ed for Medium which praises Russia and Putin, that she left Washington because she "saw the reckless imperialism of America and the pain it caused through out the world," and because she loved Russia with all her heart. In this article she describes Putin as a "compassionate, caring, visionary leader."

She wrote several pro-Russia, pro-Putin articles during this time, gushing over him, saying, "President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity. It is evident that he loves his country, his people and his job … President Putin’s obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women … And like most women across the world, I like President Putin… a lot, his shirt on or shirt off.”

Then in 2019, she's all in for Bernie Sanders. She wrote another article, with yet a different reason for leaving, this one with the harassment allegation attached. "Then, I went to Senate personnel for help. No one helped me. I resigned or I would say, I was forced to resign." The report she says she filed doesn't seem to exist.

When she started attacking Biden publicly, she also resumed denouncing Putin. Putin was bad again. When the media dug up her old articles praising Putin, she deleted them. Too late, of course. They can no longer be found where they were originally published, but copies were made. She now claims they were part of a novel she was writing that was set in Russia. They were clearly op-eds, not notes for a novel. No novelist I know of publishes their novel notes as op-eds while they're working on the book.

There are a whole lot of other inconsistencies, people she says she told about the incident denying any knowledge, her brother pointedly changing his story, an old neighbor of hers coming forward to say she wouldn't trust a word Reade says, and countless other glowing red flags. But this blog is already so very long, and I haven't even gotten to the meat of what I want to talk about yet. This has all just been background, the evidence I followed to form my theory of what is going on with this. And I want to get it down before I read it somewhere else.

I've got a theory! It could be Russia!

Okay, hear me out. Here's what I think might have happened:

Sometime in late 2017 or early 2018, Reade somehow becomes involved in communications with Russia, a political operative, maybe even someone in the government. Hell, perhaps even Putin himself, a highly unlikely prospect, of course. But not outside the realm of possibility. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Putin maintains a stash of burner phones and carries on flirtatiously with American Women in his spare time. It's the stuff of spy novels, sure. Yeah, it's far-fetched, but allow me my fantastic imaginings. I am a fiction writer, after all.

But a Russian political operative of some kind becomes romantically involved long-distance with Reade. Of course it's not a real relationship, not on the Russian side. They are just using American citizens as sleeper agents they can prompt to stir up shit when it would cause the most damage.

Reade is manipulated to turn against Joe Biden and encouraged to back Bernie Sanders. Now, an aside at this point. I like Bernie. I would vote for Bernie, I'd love to see him as President. I don't believe that Bernie Sanders or his campaign are involved in any collusion with the Russian government in any way, and both he and his campaign openly discourage Russian meddling. None-the-less, there still exists evidence that Russia has interfered in ways favorable to Sanders and his campaign. Russia doesn't want Bernie Sanders as President, but some of Sanders more rabid supporters are very easily influenced by carefully placed fake news stories and are extremely useful at stirring up political infighting on the left. Alright, back to my theory.

At this time, she's also advised to stop praising Russia, so as not to raise any suspicion. And, finally, to drop that allegation bomb on Joe Biden right when it would do the most damage. Hopefully to allow Bernie Sanders to overtake Biden for the nomination, but, failing that, at least send Joe limping into the General.

Yes. In a nutshell, I think the Tara Reade allegation is simply more Russian meddling of the same sort that has been going on all along. I think, in some form or another, she is a Russian agent. Maybe there is no spy novel romance going on. Perhaps she's just being paid. But this whole thing stinks of Russia, and Russia's fingerprints are all over it.

But, hey, what do I know? I'm just a fiction author with a good imagination

#tara reade #joe biden #allegation #metoo #putin #bernie sanders #Russia #russian meddling

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hedwigstalons · 4 years

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High Expectations - Ch10

Two brothers for the price of one tonight. It turns out it was almost harder to get a decent photo of my sketchbook that it was to do the sketches themselves and I still needed the help of @willow-salix to do something with the lighting. She has many talents and I am abusing them all.

Earlier parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine

AO3 chapter link

Chapter Ten

Jeff dialled his son’s number for a third time that day and yet again received nothing but a voicemail message. It looked like Gordon was once more going to be the cause of a tension headache for him. He tossed his phone down and dropped his head into his hand, rubbing his temples in an attempt to stave it off. When he did finally get through to Gordon he would have to have severe words about the importance of staying in contact. Yesterday he had been prepared to overlook the lack of a phone call to check in at the end of his journey, one of the few courtesies he expected when his sons, but to still be out of reach a day later was not acceptable. None of the others would have shown such a lack of respect for the rules but Gordon seemed determined to push the boundaries.

He glanced at the papers on his desk, reading through the details once again. It really was a very generous offer and rather more than he felt Gordon deserved, truth be told, given the boy’s current lack of enthusiasm for anything other than swimming. Wilbur Dandridge had thrown Jeff a lifeline that would give Gordon a solid start in a prestigious internship at his company, Gazelle Automations. The offer meant Gordon would need to move to New York but Jeff was more than willing to finance an apartment, just as he had for the others for their college studies.

Ever since college Jeff and Wilbur Dandridge had been firm friends, making a point of checking in every few months and keeping up to date with each others lives. Jeff hadn't meant to burden his friend with his family woes but he supposed it had been inevitable, Wilbur had always been the observant type and an empathetic listener. Wilbur seemed to have this innate ability to sense the needs of others, something that helped him in his work and allowed him to design products that people sometimes hadn’t even realised they needed. On this occasion he had come up with the offer of an internship for Gordon. The only problem was Wilbur needed a decision imminently and for that Jeff needed to get an answer from Gordon.

After three failed calls it was obvious he wasn’t going to have any luck getting hold of Gordon directly, he would have to take a different approach to track down the cause of his frustrations. He picked up his phone again and hit speed dial 2. This time the phone connected almost immediately, Virgil answering before the third ring had finished.

“Hi Dad, how are you?”

“Fine, fine” he said impatiently. “I just need to speak to Gordon, can you put him on.”

“Gordon?” There was a slight pause. “He’s not here.”

“Well when he gets back from wherever he's hiding, tell him to call me immediately. And get him to charge his damn phone.”

"Why would he be here? He’s grounded, isn’t he? He told me he wasn’t allowed to come.”

This time it was Jeff’s turn to pause as his son’s words sank in. Just the day before he had watched Gordon leave for the airport, bag in hand, ostensibly heading off for a few days in Denver. Now it would appear that same son had never arrived. He hadn’t grounded him. He'd watched him leave for the airport where the driver had reported that he'd dropped Gordon off outside, only leaving once Gordon was inside the terminal building as per normal. He was supposed to be in Denver, but it appeared that his son had never arrived.

“When did he tell you this?”

“Yesterday morning. Dad, what’s going on? Isn’t Gordon there with you?”

“No, and I don’t know where he is. Look, if he gets in touch with you just let me know.”

“Of course. And Dad, if you find him first please tell me. This isn’t like him” the worry in Virgil’s voice was clearly evident.

“Of course I will. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.”

Jeff hung up, his stomach churning. In the space of a few minutes he had gone from angry to worried sick.

Of all his sons he had always found Gordon the most challenging but he would never have predicted the teen would run away. There was no denying that relations had become increasingly strained but he hadn’t realised it had gotten that bad.

He looked at the clock; his son had been missing for just over twenty-four hours but with no evidence of foul play the police probably wouldn't be interested, Gordon was nearly an adult after all. Well, just because the official authorities wouldn’t do anything yet didn’t mean he had to sit passively by. For all the frustrations he caused, all the arguments and heartache, Gordon was still his son. To the outside world he was a hard headed business man, distinguished astronaut and accomplished military leader. Few people got to see the other side to him, the paternal side, it was part of the reason why he kept his children out of the media. He wasn’t prepared to just wait for yet more time to pass, he would have to do some investigating himself.

Jeff logged in to his Air Terrainean account. He knew Gordon had made it to the airport but he had to have gone somewhere. By checking to see if his ticket had been used he would know if they needed to search Denver or there in Los Angeles. When the travel history screen finally loaded the word on the screen left him reeling.

Marineville.

It might be the home of a different force to that in which he had served in but Marineville was famous as the largest WASP base on the western seaboard. it was a military town with nothing else for miles around; if Gordon had boarded a flight for Marineville then there could only be one intended destination. It was time to make some more phone calls.

xoxoxox

Commander Shore looked up from his screen in surprise as the phone on the corner of his desk rang, the sharp trill cutting through his concentration. Calls themselves were not unusual but most of them came through the internal switchboard system, even his own daughter was unable to reach him directly but the distinctive ring indicated an outside line. Only a handful of people in the world had this number and he wasn’t expecting a call from any of them.

“This is Commander Shore” he greeted the caller.

“Colonel Jeff Tracy, Commander. I believe you have my son.”

Shore wracked his brains. Colonel wasn’t a designation within the World Navy and he could see no reason why anyone from the World Army Air Force or the domestic armed forces would be calling him; especially about their son.

“I’m sorry Colonel, but I don’t quite follow you.”

“My son, Commander. Gordon Tracy. He is at Marineville.”

Commander Shore waved over his assistant and hurriedly scribbled down the name on a piece of paper. He still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on but he hadn’t been given command of Marineville by being phased by the unexpected. Within moments the assistant had checked the Marineville logs and found a match for the name.

“Ah yes, Colonel. I can see that Mr Tracy is currently a participant on one of our selection courses”

“Well he shouldn’t be.”

“Excuse me, Colonel?”

“My son is seventeen, a minor. He does not have my authorization to be there and I want him home.”

Commander Shore was feeling decidedly on the back foot, dealing with irate parents was not normally part of his job description.

The assistant returned a second time and slid a piece of paper in front of him. The sheet bore the public resume of Jeff Tracy. No wonder Shore had been feeling the nagging prickles of recognition at the name; the man on the other end of the line was one of the richest and most influential in the country and had the ability to make life very difficult if he so chose.

“I have a copy of his permission form in front of me. I can assure you WASP takes these allegations very seriously…”

“This is not an allegation, it is hard fact. Your shoddy systems have allowed a child to waltz onto your base unchallenged. I will be sending someone to collect Gordon this afternoon. Just consider yourself lucky I’m not inclined to get my lawyers involved in this blatant disregard of protocol and maladministration.”

The line went dead.

Commander Shore leant back heavily in his chair. Technically everything that happened at Marineville fell under his jurisdiction but he wasn’t normally involved with the recruits. Heck, if his assistant hadn’t been so quick off the mark he wouldn’t have even known there was a selection course running, let alone who was on it or if any of them were under age.

Gordon wasn't the first person to try and join WASP against their family’s wishes and probably wouldn’t be the last but evidently this time the family was not going to just sit back and let it happen. Jeff Tracy was a formidable man and if he decided to make waves Shore wasn’t too sure how much support he would receive from his superiors. The very fact that Colonel Tracy had somehow accessed his direct line showed that the man had friends in high places.

Commander Shore passed the unenviable challenge of locating the missing Tracy son to his assistant. Marineville had a population of tens of thousands and covered several square miles; the selection course could be taking place anywhere. He just hoped they could find the boy before whoever Colonel Tracy had tasked to collect him arrived.

xoxoxox

Scott pulled into the visitors’ parking lot outside the Marineville security gate that stood guard over the base and screeched to a halt, slamming the door closed behind him. Of all the ways he had envisaged spending his day off this had not been part of his plans. A long run had been a possibility, maybe catch up on the stack of unwatched movies he had built up before heading into town to watch a band with a couple of the guys from his unit and, if he was lucky, pick up a girl. Instead the only thing he would be picking up today was a little brother.

His own Air Force base was about an hour east of Marineville and as the nearest family member he had been sent on a trek across the state to find Gordon and ship him back home on the next available flight. Instead of calming down on the journey his frustrations had built up further. The phone call from his father had ruined his day. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about his brothers, it just rankled that he was expected to drop everything to sort out the mess. Jeff didn’t ask, he demanded. There was a clear expectation that he would do as he was told and Jeff left no room for argument. He wasn’t sure who he was more mad at; Gordon for engineering this whole situation or his father for still managing to dictate his life even from afar.

First Lieutenant Tracy on a good day was formidable but on a bad day he could be terrifying. Despite technically being off duty he had opted for his dress uniform and he cut an imposing figure in the dark blue, standing out starkly amongst the grey of the WASP. The man that strode across to the guard house had the aura of one who was used to being obeyed despite his relatively junior status and it was no surprise he was climbing the ranks so quickly.

“Can I help you, Sir?” the guard on duty acknowledged his approach.

“Scott Tracy.” He flashed his identification card. “I’m here to collect Gordon Tracy, I believe you are expecting me.”

“Very good, Sir” the guard said, after examining the waved credentials. “If you could just wait here a moment, your transport will be along soon.”

The memo, issued by none other than Commander Shore himself, had already come down regarding the Tracys and the instructions were clear, do everything to keep them sweet. Even after the briefest of interactions the guard was quite thankful he would not be involved beyond greeting the visitor. He certainly didn’t envy the Tracy who was the cause of all the trouble, the man in front of him looked stormy to say the least.

One phone call and five short minutes later and a jeep was approaching the guard house. Without waiting for an invitation, Scott climbed in and he and the driver were soon crossing the sprawling expanse that was Marineville. Before many more minutes had passed the jeep was rolling to a stop at their destination; a massive obstacle course that stretched away into the distance, the many elements looking like they would pose a stiff challenge to anyone tackling the beast.

“He’s not here” stated Scott bluntly, surveying the crowd of hopefuls waiting their turn.

“Sir, the timetable states that your brother is part of this group.”

Scott’s frown clearly showed his opinion on the record keeping abilities of WASP however he had little option but to follow his driver over to the officers in charge of the group. The two assessors acknowledged their approach, looking curiously at the out of place Air Force officer, but continued their job; one observing a cluster of participants out on the course through binoculars while the other jotted down the notes.

“Can I help you?”

Scott was saved from answering by his chaperone. “We have been alerted that there is an unauthorized minor in your cohort. First Lieutenant Tracy is here to escort his brother home.”

“Yes, but I can’t see him” Scott’s frown deepened as he took a closer look at the waiting group. “It looks like your information may be flawed.”

“He might be out on the course.”

“Might? Surely you know who you have out there.”

“WASP uses anonymous observation. Participant details are held by Central Control, we only know them as numbers to avoid bias” the assessor indicated the numbered armbands worn by each participant. “If your brother is listed as part of this group and is not with those waiting he must be one of the four currently on test. This is a group task so you will have to wait until they finish. It won’t take them long, they are making good progress now they have realised they they have to work together.”

The officers turned their attention back to the course and with nothing else to do Scott found himself also watching the progress of the group, not that he could see much. The course was massive and the participants were just four indistinct figures in distance. All he wanted to do was get Gordon, get out of there then head back to his own base; each passing minute was eating into his time off and he could feel the resentment building.

“So how are they doing?” the assessor making notes asked the observer with the binoculars; they still had a job to do and participants that needed grading.

“6 is looking strong and 3 is also putting in a solid performance. 10 is a borderline fail though unless they buck their ideas up.”

“What about 14?”

“Still leading the way and carrying the rest of the group; that lot wouldn’t be doing nearly so well without him.”

“He’s the one that figured out they had to work together?”

“Looked like it; they certainly all seem to be deferring to him now. He’s wasted in junior ranks. If he keeps up this level of performance I’ll be recommending him for the officer stream at the end of the course.”

“I know what you mean. Him and 5 have been the leading the way in all the tests and are both natural leaders although 14 put in a much stronger performance in the pool. I’ll be interested to see how 5 gets on out there when it’s his turn.”

“Well concentrate on these four for now. 10 is still lagging, I don’t think he would have made it over that last gap without 6’s help. 6 has certainly got the strength but is happy to let 14 lead.”

“And 3?”

“Keeping up and doing what he is told by the look of it; good balance and strength but a follower rather than a leader. You would think 14 had been doing this for years though, not faced with it for the first time. He is a quick thinker and the others are respecting his decisions. Definitely officer material.”

Scott listened to the conversation with vague interest. Participant 10 sounded like they were in trouble and might not make the cut but 14 must have made an impression going by the judgements being made. He valued those that could use their own initiative and wished he had few more like that in his own Air Force unit. Of course the military needed its followers too otherwise the whole structure would disintegrate but good leaders were hard to come by; he was tempted to try and have a quiet word with number 14 and see if he could sway him towards a life in the skies.

He wondered how his brother was faring; remembering his own military selection course and the desperate desire to make the grade. The distant figures were too far away for him to even work out if one was Gordon let alone make out their numbers, perhaps the family swimmer was the solid number 3, the good strength and balance sounded fitting. Not that it mattered though, their father had made it clear that Gordon was to be returned home immediately.

The four battling for their place within WASP had now reached the far end of the course. They disappeared for a moment as they dropped off the top of the final wall then came back into view as they ran back the length of the course to the start.

The rapidly approaching figures began to resolve themselves into identifiable shapes and Scott was able to pick out the distinctive sandy blonde hair and muscular silhouette of his sibling. It looked like he had been brought to the right place after all. His gaze hardened as the object of his mission drew nearer.

The change in atmosphere was noticeable to the WASP officers as Scott stiffened and they watched with some trepidation as the four figures raced for the finish line. Evidently the errant Tracy had been sighted and was not in for a happy reunion.

The quartet made it to the finish. One collapsed to the floor in heap while two more ended up bent double, hands braced against knees for support as they gasped in ragged lungfuls of air. The fourth, however, stayed upright although it was clear to see that this was taking effort. His breathing was strained as he fought to keep his body under control after his exertions on the course but there was an iron determination not to show weakness.

The two brothers faced off and the tension in the air became electric. The WASP officers stood back and gave them space, this was a family moment and any attempt to intervene would likely see them ending up as collateral damage.

Scott looked down on his younger brother but if he was expecting Gordon to be cowed into submission he was sorely mistaken. Even after the recent abuse it had endured, Gordon was keeping his body under tight control, back straight and shoulders broad. The toffee eyes that stared up at him blazed with a fury he hadn’t encountered before and Scott found himself drawing on every inch of his superior height to exert dominance. Blue and brown locked in an unspoken argument that was ferocious in it’s silence. Both men stood rigid, neither breaking the deadlock.

“Gordon, you’re going home.”

The instruction was measured and more deadly than any shout but Scott wasn’t entirely sure Gordon was going to comply. This was no longer the little brother he frequently had to pack off to bed or send to his room to complete homework. The man in front of him bristled with a hatred that radiated off him.

Gordon stared up into the crystal blue eyes, forcing his body to obey him and stay upright. The surge of rage that had swept in was helping in taking the place of the adrenalin that had ebbed after reaching the end of the course. He refused to bow down and give the submissive apology that was clearly expected. He also knew though that he was beaten. The very fact that Scott was there showed that he held the trump card and his falsified permission form had been exposed.

This was the end of the line for WASP but there was no point in giving Scott the satisfaction of winning; he would do this on his own terms. With eyes still locked on his brother he carefully slid the elastic cuff from his arm then turned and handed it out to the assessors.

“I voluntarily withdraw. Thank you for the opportunity.” With head held high, he stepped around Scott to the waiting jeep.

It was as though a spell had been broken. Released from that burning gaze Scott was suddenly aware that all eyes were on him. He took a steadying breath to regain his composure then also turned to the WASP officers.

“I’m sorry for the trouble my brother has caused.”

The officers just looked at him, speechless, still unsure as to what they had just witnessed. Their strongest candidate exposed as a child who had no right to be there. As Scott turned to leave he couldn’t help but see the number on the armband, still held in the officer’s outstretched hand.

Number 14.

#thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #high expectations #my art #WASP #angry brothers #Gordon Tracy #Scott Tracy #Jeff Tracy

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