Marvelwonderwitch - MarvelWonderWitch

The spy chasing me throws a tracking device at my car. The throw is perfectly timed and the small, round device hits the bumper perfectly flush. However, since the tracker is magnetic and my shitty car is plastic, it bounces off

Unique job and power combinations

A search and rescuer with the power of flight who can fly to reach stranded victims or get an aerial view of a scene.

A civillain who can regenerate limbs and certain organs like kidneys regularily donates them for transplants.

Reporter who can hear and eavesdrop through walls and great distances.

A Baker who never burns their goods because they can control heat.

A sewer worker who can purify water or control toxic fumes.

A builder with the power of telekenisis. Who needs a crane?

A vet who can talk to animals.

A doctor who can see broken bones with x-ray vision.

A welder who welds not with a torch but their own laser vision.

A detective with empath-like powers to feel others emotions, like guilt.

A spy who can mentally tap in to as well as scramble radio frequencies.

Someone who is renowned for cleaning up accidents like car crashes or explosions that involve toxic materials because of their immunity to it.

A villain who can't lie.

A DJ who can control sound waves, and dosent even require equipment.

A lifeguard who can breath under water.

A plumber who can control water can minimize water damage, stop leaking, easily detect where in a pipe a blockage is and more.

A pilot who can control wind can fly in almost any weather, prevent planes from crashing, and can do aerial maneuvers other pilots can only dream of.

A lawyer or news reporter who cannot lie. They struggle to get a job.

A miner or cave explorer/rescuer with echo location. They can easily traverse twisting caves, never getting lost, even without a light source.

An international spy who can shapeshift into different animals like a stray cat, a pidgeon or rat to eavesdrop.

A scientist with iron skin, who can't suffer chemical or heat burns should experiments go wrong.

A programmer who can run code through their own mind and manipulate it.

A first responder who can control electricity requires no defibrillator, and has a much higher sucsess rate then one anyway.

A gardener who can control plants can easily farm otherwise hard to farm plants like truffle.

A jeweler who can control metal that can easily fix broken jewelry, instantly detect fakes, and can alter ring sizes without machinery.

De Aged Fic Part 8

Part 7

About two months ago, Deckard had gotten a call from Madam M, telling him Owen had been up to something. He had finally succeeded in getting one of M's girls to join his crew and M wasn't happy about it at all

She had already hated Owen's guts before this, so it didn't shock Deckard that the only reason Owen was even alive at the moment was because M didn't want Deckard killing her

However, he took her warning and was trying to keep at least close to where Owen was. Just in case the little bastard's plan did go tits up

Now, lounging in one of his mother's luxury suites, Deckard received another phone call. He had been expecting it to be someone telling him Owen was either hurt, or Owen himself crowing about a job well done

But, instead, it was a voice he hadn't heard in years

"Deck?"

He had gone stiff as a board, fingers almost losing the grip on his phone. It had taken him only a moment to recover, but to him it felt like an eternity

"Hatts?" Deckard choked out. But before she could respond, new panic swept through him. "What's wrong? Are you hurt? Are you in trouble?"

He knew he shouldn't be asking her, especially after how clear she had made it that she didn't want any contact from him

"I'm fine." She said softly. "But it's Owen..."

His worse fears seemed to be coming true as Hattie sighed deeply

"He's... well, he's not like he is normally."

"What do you mean?" Deckard was perplexed

"I'm not sure how to describe it. I think it'd be better if you talked to him."

"All right."

After a few moments, Deckard could hear two voices faintly before:

"Deck!"

Flinching away from his phone, Deckard hadn't been expecting a young child's voice to practically scream in his ear

"Deck, are you big too? Hatts is really, really tall! Am I going to be tall? That's what she said, but I don't believe her, she lied about my toy yesterday, after all. Where are you? Can you come make me something to eat?"

Blinking rapidly, Deckard didn't know how to respond. If he wasn't mistaken, that sounded just like Owen when he was little. But that couldn't be possible

"Oh, give me the phone." Hattie's voice was faint

"No! I wanna talk to Deck! You got your turn!"

"Owen! Give me the bloody phone!"

"No!"

"Oh," Deckard called out softly. "Let me talk to Hatts, ok? We need to talk so I can come see you?"

"Fine." Owen mumbled, and Deckard could only imagine the pout on the boy's face

"Little brat!" Hattie hissed into the phone. "I don't remember him being this horrible!"

"Mostly because you weren't the one dealing with it." Deckard said lightly

"I wasn't that bad, was I?"

"No," Deckard smiled. "You were worse sometimes."

"I was not!"

"If you say so." He chuckled, but quickly sobered. "So, this is really happening?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "I don't know how, but it is. He called me earlier and I found him at home. Says he was picked up by some people, most likely cops, but got away."

Deckard nodded and thought for a second

"Why did you call me?" He asked gently

"Because I've already had to deal with him for a few hours, and I'm sick of him." She huffed

"And I dealt with him for all of his life. Your point?" He drawled

"I can't take care of a kid, Deck. Let alone Owen."

"Are you sure you want me there?"

The question hung between them for a minute, and Deckard could feel the tension building inside him. He desperately wanted to see him little brother and sister

"If you can help me figure out how to change him back."

Ignoring the relief flooding through him, Deckard started to plan

"I can be there in about an hour. Does he need anything? Clothes, food, entertainment?"

"Sleeping pills."

"We're not drugging our brother, Hatts."

"Fine. You get him to sleep then."

With that, Hattie hung up. Good thing Deckard knew where she lived

In the past I've shared other people's musings about the different interpretations of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Namely, why Orpheus looks back at Eurydice, even though he knows it means he'll lose her forever. So many people seem to think they've found the one true explanation of the myth. But to me, the beauty of myths is that they have many possible meanings.

So I thought I would share a list of every interpretation I know, from every serious adaptation of the story and every analysis I've ever heard or read, of why Orpheus looks back.

One interpretation – advocated by Monteverdi's opera, for example – is that the backward glance represents excessive passion and a fatal lack of self-control. Orpheus loves Eurydice to such excess that he tries to defy the laws of nature by bringing her back from the dead, yet that very same passion dooms his quest fo fail, because he can't resist the temptation to look back at her.

He can also be seen as succumbing to that classic "tragic flaw" of hubris, excessive pride. Because his music and his love conquer the Underworld, it might be that he makes the mistake of thinking he's entirely above divine law, and fatally allows himself to break the one rule that Hades and Persephone set for him.

Then there are the versions where his flaw is his lack of faith, because he looks back out of doubt that Eurydice is really there. I think there are three possible interpretations of this scenario, which can each work alone or else co-exist with each other. From what I've read about Hadestown, it sounds as if it combines all three.

In one interpretation, he doubts Hades and Persephone's promise. Will they really give Eurydice back to him, or is it all a cruel trick? In this case, the message seems to be a warning to trust in the gods; if you doubt their blessings, you might lose them.

Another perspective is that he doubts Eurydice. Does she love him enough to follow him? In this case, the warning is that romantic love can't survive unless the lovers trust each other. I'm thinking of Moulin Rouge!, which is ostensibly based on the Orpheus myth, and which uses Christian's jealousy as its equivalent of Orpheus's fatal doubt and explicitly states "Where there is no trust, there is no love."

The third variation is that he doubts himself. Could his music really have the power to sway the Underworld? The message in this version would be that self-doubt can sabotage all our best efforts.

But all of the above interpretations revolve around the concept that Orpheus looks back because of a tragic flaw, which wasn't necessarily the view of Virgil, the earliest known recorder of the myth. Virgil wrote that Orpheus's backward glance was "A pardonable offense, if the spirits knew how to pardon."

In some versions, when the upper world comes into Orpheus's view, he thinks his journey is over. In this moment, he's so ecstatic and so eager to finally see Eurydice that he unthinkingly turns around an instant too soon, either just before he reaches the threshold or when he's already crossed it but Eurydice is still a few steps behind him. In this scenario, it isn't a personal flaw that makes him look back, but just a moment of passion-fueled carelessness, and the fact that it costs him Eurydice shows the pitilessness of the Underworld.

In other versions, concern for Eurydice makes him look back. Sometimes he looks back because the upward path is steep and rocky, and Eurydice is still limping from her snakebite, so he knows she must be struggling, in some versions he even hears her stumble, and he finally can't resist turning around to help her. Or more cruelly, in other versions – for example, in Gluck's opera – Eurydice doesn't know that Orpheus is forbidden to look back at her, and Orpheus is also forbidden to tell her. So she's distraught that her husband seems to be coldly ignoring her and begs him to look at her until he can't bear her anguish anymore.

These versions highlight the harshness of the Underworld's law, and Orpheus's failure to comply with it seems natural and even inevitable. The message here seems to be that death is pitiless and irreversible: a demigod hero might come close to conquering it, but through little or no fault of his own, he's bound to fail in the end.

Another interpretation I've read is that Orpheus's backward glance represents the nature of grief. We can't help but look back on our memories of our dead loved ones, even though it means feeling the pain of loss all over again.

Then there's the interpretation that Orpheus chooses his memory of Eurydice, represented by the backward glance, rather than a future with a living Eurydice. "The poet's choice," as Portrait of a Lady on Fire puts it. In this reading, Orpheus looks back because he realizes he would rather preserve his memory of their youthful, blissful love, just as it was when she died, than face a future of growing older, the difficulties of married life, and the possibility that their love will fade. That's the slightly more sympathetic version. In the version that makes Orpheus more egotistical, he prefers the idealized memory to the real woman because the memory is entirely his possession, in a way that a living wife with her own will could never be, and will never distract him from his music, but can only inspire it.

Then there are the modern feminist interpretations, also alluded to in Portrait of a Lady on Fire but seen in several female-authored adaptations of the myth too, where Eurydice provokes Orpheus into looking back because she wants to stay in the Underworld. The viewpoint kinder to Orpheus is that Eurydice also wants to preserve their love just as it was, youthful, passionate, and blissful, rather than subject it to the ravages of time and the hardships of life. The variation less sympathetic to Orpheus is that Euyridice was at peace in death, in some versions she drank from the river Lethe and doesn't even remember Orpheus, his attempt to take her back is selfish, and she prefers to be her own free woman than be bound to him forever and literally only live for his sake.

With that interpretation in mind, I'm surprised I've never read yet another variation. I can imagine a version where, as Orpheus walks up the path toward the living world, he realizes he's being selfish: Eurydice was happy and at peace in the Elysian Fields, she doesn't even remember him because she drank from Lethe, and she's only following him now because Hades and Persephone have forced her to do so. So he finally looks back out of selfless love, to let her go. Maybe I should write this retelling myself.

Are any of these interpretations – or any others – the "true" or "definitive" reason why Orpheus looks back? I don't think so at all. The fact that they all exist and can all ring true says something valuable about the nature of mythology.

I got a haircut!!!

Ahhh this is so cute!!!! Thank you Pogue!!!!

Familia

Thanks for the Picrews @marvelwonderwitch @possiblypogue @omnivorousshipper @anonymousestealyuhcheeze @my-dandelion-darling

mary h.how many bsd novels are there i thought it was just the agency aku one and the dazai one but theres more apparently?? how many different bsd spin offs are there i am so confused

OHHHH BOYS. BESTIE YOU ARE NOT READY. THERE ARE SO MANY. and i know this because i own every single novel that has an english release (i'm linking all the ones that do):

Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam - this is the one with the Azure Messenger, infamously adapted into the present day in the middle of season 1 when it's actually set 2 years in the past as Dazai's entrance exam into the ADA.

The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency - what the title says, currently being adapted in the beginning of season 4. The novel also includes a short story set the day before Atsushi's entrance exam about the ADA planning what his exam should be.

Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era - this is one of the Dazai ones, about his time in the mafia with Ango and Oda, adapted in the beginning of season 2.

Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen - another Dazai one, the one (poorly) adapted at the beginning of season 3, about how Chuuya joined the mafia. Has a currently ongoing manga adaptation.

Storm Bringer - sequel to Fifteen, longest of all the novels by far, set when Dazai and Chuuya are 16 and we find out more about Chuuya's origin story. And so much more, it really is a thicc novel.

55 Minutes - the second longest novel after Storm Bringer yet the least talked about (despite how much it elaborates on skill singularities and the nature of abilities). It's a self-contained story of the ADA going to solve a case on an artificial island off the coast of Yokohama, featuring two new ability users H. G. Wells and Jules Verne (hence a relatively sci-fi heavy novel and i wrote a 2k+ word essay analysing all the science behind it lmao)

Dead Apple - novelisation of the movie with some extra scenes and more elaboration on some details in the movie. Also has an ongoing manga adaptation with official english release.

BEAST - this is the Akutagawa in the ADA and Atsushi in the PM one, with a completed manga adaptation (also released in english) as well as a live-action movie that came out last year.

Gaiden (Another Story): Ayatsuji Yukito vs. Kyogoku Natsuhiko - the novel has no english release yet, but it's a spin-off about different ability users and i think Ango is the only recurring character from the main series there. There is an ongoing manga adaptation which does have an official english release.

The Day I Picked Up Dazai - i don't think this one is formally released yet as it was a bonus novel given out at the screening of the BEAST movie. It's divided into Side A and Side B and i haven't read this one yet but i believe it's about how Dazai and Oda first met, where each side follows the other's perspective. There's a completed fan-translation of both sides by @popopretty.

Kunikida and Katai's Magnificent Days - this is a really sweet short story about Kunikida and Katai's friendship and i have no idea where the official version is from but there is a fan-translation of it you can read here.

In addition to BEAST and Gaiden there is also Wan! which is the super cute casual chibi spin-off manga with no stakes and no angst and only vibes, it is still ongoing and has an official english release. Some of the chapters were adapted into the Wan! anime series with 12 episodes (they are shorter episodes of 10 min each) and it is literally free therapy and will give you a year's worth of serotonin!!

There is also the bsd anthology series, which are side stories written and illustrated by different mangakas, there is no official english release that i know of but you can find fan-translations of some of the side stories here and there online.

We also have bsd mayoi or Tales of the Lost, the mobile gacha game which also includes a high school AU storyline (bsd gakuen)!

Other than these, there are also several stage plays, although it's harder to find content on these in english since they are only performed in Japan.

Bsd fans are truly the most well-fed fans of all time sometimes i forget how much content we have and still we keep getting more, it's unreal

Okay let me add my five cents to the Zaunite au, where Viktor didn’t make it to the academy and remained in Zaun.

He was trying to invent on his own, but he desperately needed money for his research. And that’s when Silco appeared…

Omg this is so effin' cuteeee!

Damian: It would make my grandfather happy that we're trying to figure out his recipe. I bet he's looking up at us and smiling right now.

Duke: Looking up?