― Jamie Anderson

how differently would the show have gone is supergirl and lena luthor just decided to fuck nasty shortly after they met

Literally if Lena had just ridden Kara to completion on that couch in her office in season 2 National City would have been healed, I know it

“I don’t regret us but I wouldn’t do it again.”

— Unknown

BEATRICE + loose strands of hair

KRISTINA TONTERI-YOUNG as SISTER BEATRICE  WARRIOR NUN | season two

one word prompt: falling

‘hey, bea?’

ava talks at night. you learned this fact while sharing a bed with her, night after night, tucked up in a bed that had been exaggeratedly labelled a double. wrist to wrist, shoulder to shoulder (ashes to ashes). on some nights, when ava was feeling lonely or mean, she would hook her ankle around yours too. or wriggle, making frustrated breathy noises, onto her side like a fish on the sand, and throw an arm across your waist and her face right into the curve of your neck. and then she would talk.

(you can feel her lips against your neck when you concentrate. you have been filling your mind with other, better, safer things instead. like how many hours it’s been since you left switzerland. like miguel being michael being doctor salvius’s son. like how many hours it has been since you prayed, since you emptied out the vessel of your heart and mind, entrusting it’s contents to God. it has been twenty-three days, four hours since my last confession, you think, and stop precisely there.)

‘bea?’

‘i’m here.’

‘how’s your leg?’

you hum. flex the muscles carefully working up from ankle—twinge—calf, knee, thigh. your thigh hurts in a dull way you recognise. it was the strike that staggered you, numbed your leg to the point where it couldn’t bear weight. it would be bruised for a long time but shouldn’t cause you any trouble.

‘much better. and yours?’

in the dark, you can’t see the way she kicks out with both legs but you feel it, the way the bed shakes and the sheets pull and give way, messily. she kicks again and the cool air from the air-conditioning floods beneath the sheets, now fully untucked. her heels thud back down to the mattress. the sheets settle more slowly, falling around your limbs.

‘ava!’

‘gotta test them. all good again.’

‘you’re worried,’ you say, because that was another thing you learned in switzerland. anything you say to each other in the dark can be forgiven. anything you say in the dark is only as real as you want it to be come morning. ‘about the halo. about being paralyzed again.’

‘yeah. and a lot more than that.’

it’s not a perfect darkness. when you turn your head, her profile is outlined by the glow of the balcony lights. anything you say in the dark is forgotten, forgiven. what about what you might do? you reach out. touch two fingers to her forehead. she gasps. doesn’t move as you follow the light, the path laid out in front of you. you chart her forehead, dip at the bridge of her nose. such a light touch. she doesn’t move. when you reach the tip of her nose, she scrunches it just to make you smile. you’re still smiling as your fingers drop to her lips.

ava breathes out. hot air against your fingers. you trip over her top lip, lightly graze the bottom, and when you make it to her chin you’re breathing like you ran a marathon.

‘bea,’

‘i would stay,’ you tell her. ‘if it went out. if you wanted me to. maybe,’ you say, because you can be mean too, ‘even if you didn’t want me to.’

and i oop- 👀

the turning gyre. the whirling log. the cross, standing, inverted, sideways. all spinning, until they're not. every six hours a pulse. the alignment of frequencies like dialing in to a specific station. like a train station, or an airport terminal with its constant incoming and outgoing arrivals and departures. a continuous pathway, always in motion. a revolving door

"no spinning? (ava spins in place and laughs)"

the arq is a threshold to other dimensions. sometimes it is active and sometimes its not. it takes much preparation for adriel to attune it to reya's realm, to her narthex, the chamber and throughway that connects the thresholds between worlds and allows communion between those who enter from the outside. like a funnel it tapers to a door of an inner realm like the tapering of a black slab. parishes have them

adriel used his machine to open the way to reya's realm and force her into this one. he did this without the power of the halo, but would still require it to complete his plan. it's one thing to usher beasts into an open trap. it's quite another to have the ability to close the trap behind them. this is why he needed the power of the halo in addition to everything else. he had his transmuter and amplifiers to send out energy waves to track reya's location like underwater sonar in deep water, or echolocation in the dark. it required picking up her frequency, and using the arq to search for a ping in the interdimensional whirlpool

just as an object in motion stays in motion, the motion on the other side of the arc never stops turning. the gyre is the revolving door that leads to other dimensions. the cross is the compass that tells us which door leads where when the gyre is stopped, frozen in time. and the halo, connected to all things and a map of the cosmos, is one means to switch the railways to redirect your journey and select your stop. it's a dial of the universe, to choose what frequency you use to travel to the other side

with enough energy, the right combination of transmuter and amplifiers, and the halo acting as a valve to close the door off, the arq can also be used to halt travel between realms. to turn one realm into a trap, the only open entrance from the revolving door, and no exit back out. newton, too, was an alchemist. friction is what the frozen cross represents in adriel's plan. he tried halting the turning gyre and creating a dam, forcing earth to be where the tide flows to, where it would wash the world away in chaos from a daintily contained divine war. but such a broad operation requires the energy to power the transmuter and amplify the signal to locate gods, to summon and bait them as well. this is why adriel required "prayers" and why the arq in the depths of his cathedral took the form of the "squared circle," a legendary coveted transmutation apparatus of the alchemists

speaking of amplified frequencies and the halted motion of the whirlpool, have you ever seen what happens when you skip a rock on water? the echoes it creates as it goes. have you ever heard the sound of a rock skipped on ice? it sounds like a cacophony of otherworldly birds chirping. it sounds like the pulse of the halo

just as adriel pulled reya into this realm, he planned to pull other impossibly powerful figures in as well. all "gods" enter, no "god" leaves. turning our world into an arena of the gods. it's worth noting that "sand" and "arena" share the same symbol in alchemy. strange at first, until you realize that pulling a warring god from a whirlpool and trapping them there means beaching them on land. ava would love that pun if she knew. in adriel's plan, our world would serve as a beach to stage the destruction that constitutes war and its weapons, like what happens to countless places that the powerful and sadistic colonize and use for their own means. to those from the other side, the earth is an outpost for interdimensional travelers who see it as a "plaything." but as any good general knows, outposts make for tactical far-off points to stage battle in order to protect the main stronghold. adriel wanted to turn earth into a roach motel for the great devourer and all other comers so that they could arrive, destroy everything and remain trapped here forever

what it all means now on the other side for the valve, the map, the world soul, the halo, and for ava who still bears it, could be anything. maybe reya decides that it's safer for the linchpin of a cosmic trap for the gods to remain in a small outpost, some primitive dimension where no one will look or care to utilize it. but the other side of the coin (and there's always another side in warrior nun), is that those other powerful beings know exactly where earth is thanks to adriel's failed plan. tarasques and wraiths seeking the halo are one thing. but even our isolated world has imagined enough horror (and been home to those very horror imaginers who would inflict it on others) to know to be wary of some creatures who can be awoken by loud noises and come slouching onto the beach sand from deep, unknowable waters

"you see, ava, if i am to become god, i first must imprison god"

what are your fave warrior nun fics?

Oh, anon. You don't even know the can of worms you've just opened. Here are a few (a few!) of my favorites.

Firstly, teach me to love, as you have loved me by @birgittesilverbae. It's in the POV of Beatrice as she grows up in the OCS, putting Shannon, Mary and Lilith in the limelight as well, and the most recent chapter (12k!) has gone through essentially all of canon. It's about grief and family and warmth and loss and it's so fucking good. Cannot recommend this more.

Next I have sunday people (sunday shines for you) by @piratekane. Sundays are for the girls, by the way. if you even care. This is peak pining behavior, miscommunication that isn't just there for the dramatics, and Ava being The Best Girl Ever (and the most jealous girl ever). Fantastic fic.

Then there's show me something of a reckoning by @thirteenyasmin, which is a given, of course. Switzerland canon-divergent fic where, as the tags say, fake-dating becomes real-dating. As they deserve. Has some lines that will tear your soul to pieces in the best way.

Next is Nice jugs, a climbing AU by @cowboycatd. Do you know anything about climbing? No? Me, neither. But this series of fics describes it--alongside exceptionally-written flirting--masterfully. You should read Climbing AU.

Then I have falling (for you) like snow on christmas by @justawhitewall. Hallmark movie AU! They're much better when they're Avatrice, by the way. I read it during the posting and have reread it at least once a month ever since. Incredible.

Spellbound by @omomoification. Witch (kinda) AU! Will sweep you away into the world that's created and you won't even notice as the 15k goes by in a flash. Fucking gorgeous piece of art. Made me insane, made some people break the character limit while commenting.

the imprint of your soul on mine (feels nothing short of divine) by @the-penguinspy. Read this if you're feeling down, because you won't be when you're done. The softest thing you could ever read, and I read a lot of soft things. Fic that gives you a hug and a gentle kiss on the top of your head.

And last but certainly not least, A Bit of Earth by @whatwordsmiss. Full fic isn't posted yet but it is written, and this story is just... wonderful. It's about grief, it's about growing up, it's about falling in love and healing together and healing apart and being kind and, sometimes, in particular moments, it's about a Garden. A must-read.

PSA Regarding Hateful Anons

Tumblr recently made it a requirement for you to be logged in to send asks anonymously. If you receive a hateful ask, don’t publish it - report it to Tumblr. It can be traced back to the user that sent it and with enough reports that person’s account will be suspended.

Share to raise awareness but also to make the clowns who think this behaviour is acceptable think twice before acting brave behind the guise of invisibility.

What would Warrior Nun characters reply to “would you still love me if I were a worm?”

Ava Silva:

Sister Beatrice:

Sister Camila:

Sister Lilith:

Shotgun Mary:

Mother Superion:

Jillian Salvius: