#have some snippets of Genesis lore ^-^

[true-blue-sonic]

HI HI BLUE!!!

Reviving the topic of Silver taking health care for the first time but towards Gold: How do you think she would react to vaccines, injections and, specially, liquid and chewable medicine?

I figure Onyx City has rediscovered and reinvented a few of the vaccines Sonic's world had, but I pretty doubt they have even ¼ of what used to exist, plus maybe some illness got erradicated due how isolated the city is, but yet I guess she could be a little familiarized with needing a shot and be less resistant to such?

Meanwhile I pretty doubt Onyx City has any non-tasteless-pill medicine, so this girl would probably have a bad time with these.

Hello! ^-^

I cannot speak for the comics, but in the world of Genesis, Onyx City has massively advanced its healthcare and excelled in both curing people and preventing them from falling ill. Not only did the city get destroyed a full century after Sonic's era's time, giving it a hundred years of scientific advancements before the whole world went to hell, it's also got decent enough databases on past illnesses and ways to cure them. Furthermore, with such a strong focus on science and inventing on top throughout the city's lifespan so far, I think healthcare would have been quite a popular topic of choice for many scientists! Not only does the city have literal millions of people crammed on one island that only a select few can leave, it is highly dependent on having a massive chunk of that population either working in the factories or keeping the city infrastructure running. Even the Council knows that their city's wellbeing ("wellbeing") is going to crumble the moment too many Teal Class members or low-ranked scientists are incapacitated! So, perhaps ironically, Onyx City does have a decent enough healthcare system. They've taken the road of preventing people from falling ill in the first place and curing them as quickly as possible if they do anyway, in order to limit drops in productivity and absences in the workspace. To the point that I can even see them inflict punishments on people who are caught shirking on going to the doctor, to ensure the city's overall health is not threatened!

On top of that, Gold has as benefit that she is basically the fifth-highest ranked member of the city (or supposed to be, at least. She certainly doesn't get respected that way😅). The Council's got themselves the best doctor in the whole city to care for the five of them privately. So I think Gold is quite used to receiving vaccines and medicines to prevent her from falling ill, to the point she might have become quite desensitized to it. And even if the medicine was quite yucky and the vaccines left her feeling ill, she knew better than to complain to the Council, who strangely enough never really seemed to suffer any negative consequences themselves... So a decade of that has made her quite pliant and meek about needing to be treated by a doctor, basically. She's not fazed much by the concept, even if needles and pain and what-not do make her freak out on the inside. And she'll be baffled when Silver hovers over her all protectively and tells her it's okay to be scared and he'll be sure she's alright and she can hold his hand if she wants. It quickly makes her realise Silver's strong dislike for needing to go to a doctor, but she is grateful for his helpfulness all the same <3

[umbralstars]

Im like standing sadly outside your window in the rain wishing I could talk wilds lore with you but since I still can't yet, how about this, do you think Genesis would go crazy over the Tale of the Five trying to figure out which actual species each of the five dragons are supposed to be? Because I do

Oh absolutely!! So like hear me out: Handler Genesis who's premier line of study at the Academy is ancient mythology and botany where he became Obsessed with the full Tale of Five after only hearing tint snippets of it his whole life.

He Needs to know the entire truth of poem like the words are laced with the Frenzy virus. Trying to compare and contrasts versions of the myth across cultures and time with the Guild and Academy's massive archive of knowledgeable. Researching various kinds of Elder Dragons or other dragons only described in fairy tales or restricted sections of the Guild's reporting and archives. Him trying to trace back the lineages of the people who may have received the scales. Pondering if the Youth could have been Human or Wyverian...or even if they too could have been a dragon like some wild theories suggest. The reason behind the Youth vanishing.

He's constantly putting out papers and having debates with other scholars studying the poem or potentially clashing with religious leaders who consider it a sacred creation myth. Yet, he's very good at his handling job when it comes to his hunter Angeal (and eventually Sephiroth after he had trouble keeping a Handler) so the Guild lets him stay along with all the other eccentric types they collect.

You can bet money that when the Research Commission starts putting together another fleet to head to the New World he'd be chomping at the bit to get on that thing

(I will scream with you abt Wilds as soon as you know everything trust me. I am still bouncing off the walls)

[rev-wrath]

Dropping by your inbox to ramble about my OCs (cause, the tag function lets me somewhat keep track of what I've written about them when I rb this from you) bc they're my blorbos that not many people know about.

So, as I've said before, it's a story mainly revolving around a god (Ares), a human (Genesis), and an angel (Samzaya). Basically, Gen moves to live her life as a lighthouse keeper (even though the job is mostly done by machines in modern times. but divine intervention pulled her there) and on her first night, a terrible storm brings Ares and Samzaya into her 'new' home. Somehow, neither of them can leave.

Originally, I imagined Ares to show his face from the very beginning, but looking at lore/myths, I figured it would be better if his face was hidden. By a motorbike helmet or a veil of a kind (to shove in the fact that he's not human). Samzaya's an angel who has watched humanity from afar, but never interacted or was close to them. They're a type of angel called a Watcher and those types of angels were the first to fall in love with humans and produce nephilims. They don't know shit about humans, and Gen + Ares (the most human god, as I like to call him) have to teach them how to act around humans ('don't go in all divine light ablaze, don't talk in that staticky way, etc')

Gen is... She's human. But she's also kind of not? Her mother was a Korean shaman and her father Catholic priest but before he officially became one. But she's also blessed by Diwonuso (which really shouldn't happen, and it's related to the apocalypse)

As said, the first half of the story line I have for the trio is them developing a relationship with each other, and the other half is around the mish mash of pantheons forcing hunters/exorcists/deities from different beliefs banding together to stop the angels and demons from making their own pantheon the sole one in the world.

Oh yeah, the three of them also drop into Tartarus at one point, and this results in trauma for everyone!

Have some snippets (+ some random footnotes and comments) of a WIP I was working on like three months ago.

“Not really.” Her voice sounded off to her own ears. Maybe she was dissociating a little bit. “My family’s religion is Buddhism.” “Thou dost not feel of the essence of Buddha.” She flinched at the trilling, high pitched sound coming from the incomprehensible entity’s general area as well as the sensation of their words being slammed into her mind instead of her ears. “For the love of Hades- put on a form that wouldn’t hurt the mortal’s fragile body-” the man said a word that she didn’t quite understand. But she could tell that it was an insult from the way the man’s lips curled and the way he all but spat out the last word. The incomprehensible entity seemed to turn their gaze directly to where the man was sitting. “Watch thy tongue, pagan god, lest I deem it fit to rip it from thine mouth-”

The Fates were bullshit, and Ares[1] could not care less about the children of Nyx. He hated the fact that he was all but thrown into the middle of his uncle Poseidon’s domain. He hated that he was all but fished out of the ocean by the mortal and the angel. And he hated that out of all his fellow Olympians, he was the most intimately intertwined with the mortals. Not Aphrodite. Not Hestia. Not his mother or his father. Him. Maybe Dionysus[SK1] . But his half-brother was of mortal origin, so he didn’t really count. He was Ares, God of War. He had died a thousand deaths with the soldiers on the field. He will die a thousand more. Unlike Athena, who strategized and commanded, only fighting with mortals when she deemed it needed, he had always been there. Had felt spears and arrows and bullets pierce and end the lives of soldiers. Out of all the Olympians, his ichor was the most mingled with red. The moment the angel unleashed their warning, he was shrugging off the towel- it was in Athena’s colour- and he was lunging for the mortal who had been surprisingly unperturbed in the presence of a god and a servant of ‘the Lord’. He covered the mortal’s ears with his hands, and he couldn’t help but pause momentarily when he felt how soft she was. He had forgotten how soft mortals were. Had forgotten how fragile their body and soul was. [1]Epithet to note; Ares Gynaecothoenas, the god feasted by women. The women of Tegea in Arcadia defeated the invading Spartans to defend their city, capturing the Spartan king whilst they were at it. Whilst the depiction didn’t show Ares’ involvement and seems to focus on the ability that Marpessa showed to take initiative. The women later partook in a feast that only women were invited + to honour Ares. And babe, he was literally the patron god of the Amazons.  [SK1]Do I want him to be Zagreus too? He’s also Diwonuso… A god that was once mortal is such a tasty idea, no matter how many times I’ve seen it done. Maybe Gen could mimic it to a degree? She could be the immortal cursed with mortality… Cursed to reincarnate over and over and over again?

Have I told you lately you’re cool? Because you are. I love this so much. Absolute patchwork relationship with three different beings from three different backgrounds. The absolute care Ares has for Gen? Oh, I love it. Samzaya’s a “I am so far removed from humanity, I know much and so little at the same time” which is fantastic. I love them already and look forward to hearing what the fuck their apocalypse is all about.

[f0linasahl0]

Thank you @blissfulbluee for tagging me!

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title/emoji that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

---

i have an excessive amount of WIPs bc i get too many ideas. i'll do the titles of the ones i've been working on or have opened in the past week. my fic titles are songs or lyrics usually bc i don't know what else to title them. there's so many bc i start but i don't know or don't remember how to end

-dragon eyes

-shades of cool

-fable

-half return

-cages and cases of starving birds and dead things

-not a lot just forever

-intertwined sewn together

-luvidity

-lividity (changed)

-don't let them see you like this

-family line

-what doesn't kill me makes me wish i was dead

-bad things happen to the people you love

-something buried right below the skin

-safe and sound

-my angel

-flowers of flesh and blood

-heavy focus

-glowing eyes

-this town will never change

-jobless monday

-two slow dancers

-my body is made of crushed little stars

-fleurs captives

-sahlo folina

-idle town

-treehouse

-villain and violent, infant and innocent (baby both arms cradle you now)

-departure

-pretty when you cry

-baby teeth

-leave the city

-x-scenes

-x-possible scenes

-essay for top lore

-blood moon

-sober to death

-brand new city (scenes)

-fire (alternate)

-fire(scenes)

-bag of bones

-coercion(planning)

-no matter how this ends i'll never be alone

-i want you to know i'm awake/i hope you're asleep

-the smell of the cold wet dirt reminds me of home

-come back

-pretend

-little league(scenes)

-sandy

-we never change

-genesis

-ashes

-rises the moon

-richter

-twenty one pilots

-brand new city

-a different age

-feel better

-the other side

- xX

-x

-misery meat

-rises the moon

collab fic with @blissfulbluee :

-one taste of your heart and i own your soul

-heart and soul call

-inho pov soju fic

i might be missing some but these are the ones i could find. a lot of them are OCs (not really [character] x OC for some of them but some of them are) there's so many bc i start them but never know how to finish them. it's so hard. do ask about any one of them if you're interested and for the collab fic i will answer questions about the inho pov writing and the heart and soul call (we called abt the idea)!

i don't really know who to tag so really anyone who wants to do this can! no pressure though

[altocat]

”A Monster’s Threads” QnA please!!! (I know I’m late lol sorryyy)

Were there any films, songs, or other fics that particularly inspired you when developing the story?

If you added more chapters, where would they go and what would they cover?

Did you plan out the whole story or did you come up with it as you went?

Who was the easiest character to write? Who was the hardest?

Did you ever get emotional or cry when writing certain scenes?

Did you pull any punches with the heavier content? Where? When?

What was your fav scene to write in the whole fic?

How did your perspective grow/shift on certain characters after writing them?

If you could choose one scene to be fully illustrated, which one would it be?

Hhhhh yesss thank you! AMT is my first fic, though I was not nearly in the know as I am now. So let's see...

In terms of inspirations, it's weird. I remember reading a pretty accurate novelization of the Nibelheim Incident and feeling inspired to write my own version. There've also been plenty of Seph backstory fics out there as well and while I initially took inspiration from a few, I very quickly branched out from there. Novel inspirations included Gregory Maguire's Wicked, though only in design and not in practice or flow. I also listened to a LOT of Glass Animals for the Sephgen chapters.

My biggest regret is not having more Gast-Seph chapters. I'm still beating myself up over it. I maybe would have liked to have fleshed out a few more chapters with Seph in Wutai, and possibly integrating his scenes from Before Crisis as well, especially his encounter with Elfe. Her asking him why he fights I feel is an often overlooked but pivotal character moment for him. I also probably would have rewritten a lot of the Aerith chapters as well, with more of a focus on Ifalna.

AMT was originally going to be "snippets", hence the shortage of Gast chapters. It was going to jump through huge chunks of time with a focus on important canon moments. By chapter 7ish I started to get more ambitious.

Easiest character to write is Hojo. Or Jenova. Not that Jenova is an actual "character", but writing more animalistic horror characters is a lot easier than characters who go through an arc. Hojo is easy because he's a dick, and already knows the whole score. He knows exactly what he wants and what he expects. Less guessing work.

In terms of emotion, there were a few instances. Seph, Gen, and Angeal sharing pasta together. Angeal's farewell. And especially the ending. I'd been waiting for the ending for a long, long time.

There was lots of stuff that was eventually cut or shortened. Sephiroth was originally going to wear a shock collar most of his childhood. Angeal's body was going to take a bad tumble off the gurney and/or coffin while Seph and Zack had an argument over it. Hojo was going to be a lot creepier with some...unsettling implications. It was all too much. So I didn't go there.

Favorite scene was the penultimate confrontation between Sephiroth and Zack in Nibelheim. I just wanted to write Seph going apeshit insane. I was practically losing my mind during the buildup. It was the easiest chapter to write because I was blazing through on pure malicious glee.

I put some Sephzack in there, or at least hints of it. Probably wouldn't have leaned into that as much since I'm more staunchly into Sephgen. I know a lot more about certain points of lore now than I did at the time of writing it, though I did a lot of research. There's some things that are kind of screwy timeline-wise. I think I now view certain characters with a bit more sympathy now. Genesis, for example, while I liked him at the time of writing it, occasionally comes off as a genuine asshole. I might have softened him up a bit, though I did try to be really fair to him in the fic. At least, I hope I did.

HHHH illustrations. The waterfall scene was illustrated thanks to a lovely commission by @manalovebot. And that was one of the big ones for me. So if I really had to think about it...perhaps the end of part 2 with Seph on the roof. Or Lucrecia seeing baby Seph at the beginning of part 3. Or maybe even Sephiroth fighting Zack in Nibelheim. I'm really not kidding when I say that if I had any artistic abilities, I'd have every chapter illustrated.

[crusherthedoctor]

5, 23, 26, and 30 for the fic ask meme, please?

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

You can guess the obvious ones: killing characters off (bonus points if it's unnecessarily gory and/or extremely obvious that they're being killed off because the author doesn't like them), turning Eggman into a harmless villain or non-villain, turning certain heroes into OoC assholes/sociopaths/yanderes, flanderizations (Sonic, Amy and Rouge probably get it the worst, though Knuckles and Shadow aren't far behind), Mary Sues and Gary Stus that can do everything better than the entire official cast, with the smug personality to match...

Outside of that...

- I tend to roll my eyes at high school fics, especially given how oddly common they are.

- Alternate universe fics aren't usually my thing either, although part of that is because I'm not into AU stories in general, because I find a lot of them boring at best, and obnoxious at worst (since they tend to use it as an excuse for turning characters inside out to the point of being said characters In Name Only, rather than smartly playing around with them.)

- Archie-tier soap operas? No thank you.

- Villain teams up where they specifically make a point about not including Eggman because he's too pathetic. Doubly hilarious when some of the members needed to rely on Eggman and/or his resources in the past, like Eggman Nega, Lyric, the Deadly Six, etc.

- If Sonic and Eggman are forced to team up, no matter how briefly, I’m closing that shit. Because goddamn am I sick of THAT happening in the series as it is.

- I tend to immediately check out if Sonic says "Ames" or Amy says "Sonikku". Because I'm extremely petty, apparently.

23. What's your absolute favourite trope to write?

Too many to name, so here's a list of some of them:

- Build up. Whether it involves character development, the characters' interactions and fee-fees with each other, the background lore, establishing the villain's threat and personality, setting things up near the beginning or middle that may or may not be noticed by the reader the first time around, only to have a big payoff later on that gives earlier chapters a whole new context...

- Creating memorable locations and giving them their own details. Already talked about this in the previous ask, so I won't repeat myself here. Although, to add onto it...

- Creating a primary setting for the story as a whole. While there are exceptions, I've found that a lot of my favourite games tend to focus on one place in their world rather than going all over the place. (South/Westside/Angel Island in the Genesis trilogy, Dragon Realms/Avalar/Forgotten Worlds in the Spyro trilogy, DK Island/Crocodile Isle/Northern Kremisphere in the DKC trilogy, Beanbean Kingdom/Rogueport/other examples in some Mario games...) I think this might be because there ends up being a lot more passion put into their environments and overall character, rather than treating them as a footnote.

- Giving the villain a group of henchmen that have their own different quirks, yet are no less dangerous than their master. (Eggman has the Hard-Boiled Heavies of course, while Razor has "The Gifted".)

- Pushing the hero to their physical and/or mental limit, only for them to triumph through their determination/super power of teamwork/etc.

- Showcasing the friendship and loyalty shared between the heroes.

- In the case of new characters, making them stand out and be memorable without falling into Sue territory. With Trudy, it's fun to give the readers a feel of her personality, and (hopefully) endear herself to them without being annoying or overpowered.

- Letting shy or mellow characters come out of their shell. (Yep, Trudy again.)

- A final battle where everything around you is constantly changing.

- The heroes have triumphed, the nightmare is at an end, and peace has finally returned... but at a great cost, to cement how much of an impact the villain had even despite their ultimate downfall.

- Tastefully-handled aesops that either aren't as common, or are done in a more unconventional way. For example: "you may have your limits due to reasons beyond your control (like having a condition), but that doesn't mean you should limit your quality of life, and it doesn't mean you can't see the world".

26. What's your biggest distraction from writing?

It's a tie between constantly second guessing myself and worrying if my writing is good enough, and being discouraged by how it's a lot harder to get your fanfic noticed when compared to fanart...

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words.

(It's over 300 words, but screw it lol.)

"You... you..."

"What? No one-liners? No petulant nicknames? Or did you jump into all this with the expectation that I was in over my head, with forces beyond my control, being the ~mere mortal~ that I am?"

"But how...? How could you... do this...?"

"You were so pumped up and ready to lecture me, weren't you? So certain that this was another Chaos. Another A.R.K. Another Gaia. Another opportunity to point and laugh at the man who simply wanted a worthy empire."

"This isn't about your stupid empire," Sonic muttered breathlessly. Rage and confusion plagued his mind in equal quantities. "It's about-"

"Well you thought wrong." The doctor playfully wagged a finger, mocking the hedgehog's own tendency. "I took my time with this one, you see. I can do that, you know, despite what you may believe. Everything was set up perfectly, not that YOUR room temperature intellect would be able to appreciate the beauty of it. No one else on the planet could achieve this, not even dear old grandad, tried as he did... but I did! And this sad fossil right here...?"

His glance turned towards the motionless figure slumping between them. Then gave the body a kick for good measure, followed by a smug chuckle.

"Never stood a chance."

"You... you have to stop this," Sonic's fists were trembling uncontrollably. "This is wrong! WRONG! Even for YOU! Look around you, Eggman! Look at all this insanity! It doesn't have to be this way!"

"You're right. It didn't have to be this way."

He walked closer to him. Slowly. His grin carefully rearranged itself into a bitter scowl. Sonic could swear there were daggers pointing at him from behind those glasses.

"But you pushed me, Sonic. You pushed me. You pushed... and pushed... and pushed." His tone was quiet. Too quiet. As if he genuinely felt betrayed by not getting what he believed was entitled to him. "I have waited so long for my respect in this world, and it's all because of you. You and your insipid army of squeaky-voiced sheep. You've gotten in my way every time... every single time... and I'm sick of it. Sick of it. Sick of you not knowing your place like the rodent you are..."

Sonic's intense glare remained frozen. He never denied that the doctor was a villain. Never questioned that he was a menace. But with all their history together, there was a side of him - perhaps a selfish side of him - that wanted to believe he wasn't like the rest of them. He wanted to believe the doctor was a step above all those other monsters he faced through the passage of time, no matter all the things he did.

But...

He couldn't really do that anymore, could he...?

"You were fun in your time, hedgehog. I can't deny that there was some entertainment to be had between us, and had things been different... I may have remembered you as a worthy adversary. But like all toys that were brand new once upon a time, you became worn out just like the rest of them. And now?"

He pulled out another switch.

Sonic's heart almost stopped.

"I don't want to play with you anymore."

[taco-night-frenzy]

June Journal

It’s time for me to just RAMBLE away again! Good luck!

Gender Time

I had some trans cake today that I found from the grocery store. It was with rainbow cake and they’re labeled “carnival cake” and not pride I guess, which is kind of annoying, but I KNOW the area I live in has a lot of pockets of old white republican people, so I’m SURE they would have complained.

Speaking of, been feeling off and on about being a trans girl. Today’s a bit of an off day. I want to be a girl but I don’t want to do any of the work to ‘pass’ really. I think I’m not too bad at least, but again, I’ve been seeing these republican/trump people around where I live and just... it makes me uncomfortable. 

I don’t even want to post a picture of it, but today we had a truck parked in front of our home covered in all the most stupid bumper stickers like “I’m TRYIN’ to drive this way to PISS you off” and like Fox News stickers and all that typical stuff you see from those people, and I just thought like... These are the type of people that might hassle me. I can’t deal with that. I don’t want these kinds of people here, where I have to worry about what I look like in my own home.

Speaking of my area... here’s a couple of the kind of masks my gf @likes-words-and-shrimp and I like to wear

Masks are coming off

California got rid of our mask mandate everywhere here a little less than a week ago, and EVERYONE is taking them off everywhere and SO quickly. It’s really frustrating. I really like wearing a mask outside. They make me feel comfortable, they hide the hair on my face, some masculine parts of my face, etc. I’m already starting to feel like the odd-one out for wearing a mask and like... they just make me feel comfortable in my gender. I hope I’ll be able to keep wearing them without feeling judged.

Oh yeah it was my birthday

Some stuff I got from girlfriend again. I might have showed it earlier but who cares??

I had Fish Grill which is like my favorite. I just eat Alaskan Salmon and rice and beans and I feel like I could eat it for my whole life.

I’m 31 now and it doesn’t feel like much is different except my back hurts more often...

Had to call my family for it of course, which was stressful. I didn’t call them till like a week later even though they called me on the day. I just didn’t want to talk to them. They don’t know I’m trans and I don’t know if I’ll ever tell them or want to deal with it. When I finally did call, it was... all right. Nothing too bad. They misgender me which sucks, but I’ve never told them, so its not exactly their fault (yet)

my mom complained about people my age as per usual at some point. Like millennials have any money or power to do anything. After the call was over, I felt just off and weird and judged throughout the day and it reminded me why I don’t like calling my family.

PILLS here!

Right, last time I talked about anti-depressants. I got new ones recently and they make me feel a decent bit better. I’ve been taking half a dosage which was OK’d by my psychiatrist if I didn’t like how full made me feel. I think a full dosage actually DOES make me feel emotionally better and less stressed all around!

BUT! I think it also makes my back hurt? Just constant back pain?? I don’t know if this is true or not, it feels like I’m making this up, but when I go back to taking just half a pill again, it seems like my back doesn’t hurt as much?? And half a pill still has good effects on me overall and makes me a lot less anxious I think.

CREATIVE time??

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this a million times, but I’m STILL working on Hotel Wario (the big sequel to my Detective Luigi series) and I’ve only VERY recently starting finally writing it again. I’ll give you a little snippet, AND! I will show you a little surprise I got for it. A preview of a commission I got from @artpghero​

The commission IS done and I look at it almost every day and feel energized into writing more of it! But I don’t want to show the full thing until this longfic is DONE.

Anyways, we’re still sitting at about 74k words here. I’m expecting the finished product to be around 90k, maybe even 100k? Probably not that long, but who knows. I’m really happy with how my creative works are going.

VIDEO GAAAAAAAAMES!

I have been playing video games as you all well know because those are what keep me going. I have a LOT I’ve played and I have feelings for them.

I played and beat Rabi Ribi and I really really liked it! This was a metroidvania that’s MUCH more open for exploring than actual Metroid or Castlevania and its got a cast of EXCLUSIVELY girls. The entire WORLD is cute/sexy anime girls and they are all CANONICALLY gay with each other, so you can be sure this will be one of my favorite games I played this year.

Played a game called Genesis Noir on Game Pass. Pretty neat artsy little point and click. Almost no dialogue. Over in a few hours. Was a cool experience where you just go through trippy and pretty art and try to understand WTF is going on. (The picture is probably gonna look terrible on tumblr, idc)

In the middle of playing Ghost of a Tale on Game Pass right now, and this game has been a GEM for me. I did not know anything about it or what I was getting into, but I really like it. You basically just play as a lil mouse friend and you go exploring this really interesting fantasy world and learning about the lore and characters. It feels like a fantasy book that you get to just sort of meander around in. Not much gameplay to speak of, a bit tedious but I just love the writing and feel of the world and that’s clearly what’s most important in this game. We’ll see how much I keep liking it as time goes on!

OTHER media??

I’m still reading Gideon the Ninth. It’s still cool! I like it. I can’t say anything new about it other than its still gay, its still necromancery, and its still got really cool environments and is still fairly funny. 

As for anime, I’m mostly just watching Slayers now, and I ADORE Slayers. We’re on Slayers Try now, and I just... I love everyone. It’s a good show, it’s good nostalgia, it is just good.

AND UH....

I think that’s good enough for now. I probably talked overly much here, but that’s about the gist of things. Yeah, my life is kind of just going to the grocery store and playing video games and hoping I will write. But it’s been okay. The day itself today has been pretty meh, but like 90% of my days are good and I’m content, and I know for a fact I’ll be feeling better very soon so I’m not too bothered. Thank you pills. Let’s hope they keep working and I keep gettin em.

BYEEEEEEEEEE

[samwisethewitch]

Book Review: The Kabbalah & Magic of Angels by Migene González-Wippler

“Using the powerful insights of the Kabbalah, we can bridge the unfathomable distances between our material world and the divine realms where angels dwell. In The Kabbalah & Magic of Angels, celebrated author Migene González-Wippler presents an in-depth look at angels in the context of the Kabbalah, the comprehensive system underlying Western religion and spirituality. Providing a complete introduction to Kabbalistic concepts, Migene shows how to apply them to our relationships with numerous angels. You’ll discover how to see angels operating in your life and how to visualize them. Numerous angels are named and fully described so readers will know exactly which angel to work with for any purpose or desire. Ideal for students of Kabbalah and lovers of angels.” – Amazon.com

Recently, it feels like angels have been popping up everywhere I look. And I don’t mean that in the synchronicity way — I mean I’ve just been seeing angels all over the place lately, especially in the media I’ve been taking in. And it made me realize that, despite growing up Catholic and considering Raphael the Archangel my patron saint for several years in my teens, I don’t actually know that much about angels. I knew that Judaism has a rich tradition surrounding angels, so I decided to start there.

The word “Kabbalah” in this book’s title and description lead me to believe that this would be a book about Jewish angel lore (as Kabbalah is a school of Jewish mysticism). It’s not. This is a book about New Age angelology and angel magic. Which is fine, it’s just not what was advertised or what I was looking for. But I do incorporate New Age elements into my spiritual practice, and I’d already paid for the ebook, so I figured I may as well finish it.

The early part of the book does have some good information about the origin of belief in angels, the role angels have traditionally played in Judaism (and later Christianity and Islam), and the ways that Kabbalistic texts elaborate on these traditions. None of the information was out of line with what I already knew about Judaism, Christianity, or Kabbalah, nothing seemed super “out there,” and the early chapters of the book read like a solid academic work. González-Wippler even drew comparisons between the creation story of Genesis and Big Bang theory, which I found both interesting and compelling.

… And then it gets weird.

About 30% of the way through the book, the tone starts to shift from an academic exploration to a spellbook. (For the record, I have no issue with magic or those who practice it, but again, not what I paid for.) González-Wippler starts talking a lot about astrology and elemental energies — there were some chapters where I definitely felt like the angels had been pushed to a back burner. I also couldn’t help but notice that at this point she starts citing sources a lot less often. Some of the claims she makes here are pretty unorthodox, and I would have liked to know where she was getting her information. I believe that personal gnosis is a completely valid form of inspiration when it comes to spirituality, but if your source for a belief is personal revelation you need to make that clear to your readers. Or that it’s an oral tradition, or that it’s from such-and-such anonymous alchemical text from the 1300s, or whatever. Don’t leave me wondering whether you just made something up.

My other issue with this book is similar to the one I had with The Norse Shaman by Evelyn C. Rysdyk: the “beginner” rituals laid out here, rather than being accessible starting places for new practitioners, are needlessly complicated and extremely specific. For example, here’s a snippet from a ritual for contacting the archangel Gabriel that González-Wippler lays out in Chapter 16:

“The ritual is conducted on a Monday at 1 a.m. The altar should be covered with a violet or silver cloth and should face east. Upon the altar are placed a crystal goblet filled with sweet white wine, a small bread roll, and a small bell. A piece of white, unlined paper with Gabriel’s sigil should be placed in the middle of the altar. The paper should be cut with nine sides, as nine is Gabriel’s kabbalistic number. The sigil should be traced in violet ink. Several of Gabriels attributes should be placed around the sigil… Among these attributes should be an orchid, eucalyptus, mint leaves, a melon or plum, a moonstone or a white quartz, and a piece of silver… A censer should be ready, filled with several burning charcoals and a mixture of camphor and myrrh… Nine violet candles on their holders should be placed in a circle around the room…”

In case you weren’t counting, that’s seventeen items (that is, if we count the nine candles as a single item) that González-Wippler claims you must have in order for the ritual to work. These items include an altar, an incense burner, and well over $100 in supplies. All for a single ritual. And she does not offer any alternatives for people who, say, don’t have a personal altar, or can’t burn incense due to respiratory problems, or can’t afford to buy flowers, fresh fruit, and semi-precious stones for a ritual. If I was coming into this book as someone who wanted to start practicing angel magic but had no previous experience with magic or ritual, the message I would come away with was that I wouldn’t be able to perform these rituals because I didn’t have the tools and offerings required. For a book that is marketed as an introduction to working with angels, that’s a major flaw.

Although this book had a promising start, I found myself skimming over all the rituals in the final chapters (which are all variations of the ritual I described above but with different names and correspondences) just so I could be done with it. Not only was The Kabbalah & Magic of Angels not what I was looking for, it also just wasn’t very satisfying. I tried to enjoy it, but I was ultimately just left frustrated by it.

My Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Do I Recommend This Book? No, not really. If you want to read a book about Judeo-Christian angel lore, this isn’t the book for you. And if you want to start getting into angel magic, there are probably other books on the subject that are more helpful and accessible. My advice would be to skip this one.

[omoghouls]

1) omg no you didn't bore me at all and in fact I was kind of sad I didn't get MORE to read because this is really fascinating and cool????? A band????? With a whole fictional and acted out story???? Along with good music????? And good characters????? Wtf WTF WT- 2) wowza after a few moments into that I was already READY to listen to this band 3) the BOIS,,,,, they're,,,,,, gööd -💖 anon

aaaaaAAAAA oh my gosh ;0; imma straight up cry nonny oh my goodness 😭💖💖 there was one ghoul I left out bug he's pretty darn neat! His name is Special Ghoul, he was the ghoul that use to do all (or 90%) of the interviews for the band ;u;

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3lxuEokUhvb5ynqbgtK-yVypFdmMS-fH There is a playlist with some of the nameless ghoul interviews; I lowkey have only watched like a handful but these interviews reay help give insight into the band and just how playful the ghouls are and gives lil snippets of lore and stuff (the interviews he does where kids interview him are a d o r a b l e ) and are just fun to watch because it's just a masked ghoul talking so politely and being cute ❤❤

But aaaa omg so glad you like the music! It's like, got so many different styles in each song, so there is almost always a song for someone♡♡ 

There are four albums currently; Opus Eponymous(their very first album), Infestissumam, Meliora and their newest ,Prequelle (which, you can buy on 8-track?? This band is kinda quirky in that way😂)  

Each album has a tie in story! Opus is the beginning of the impending doom and darkness, the last song on Opus, "Genesis" ties into the next album, Infestissumam, which is the birth of the anti-christ and how everyone is dealing with that. Meliora story/theme is about the absence of God, how there is absolutely no higher power there to help or save you, but there will be something dark, something diabolical there to 'help', it takes place in a metropolis- post dystopic-era future, which had been all caused by the birth of the anti-christ in the first album♡

Prequelle is a bit different though to the rest, it goes back in time and is more so about the survival of treacherous events, death and doom that surrounds the black death(or the Plauge), showing you how to survive the days and to be mindful of all that are around you☆

Also, all their songs are on YouTube 👈🏻😎👈🏻 Even their cover songs (they have covered ABBA because well, swedish band, how could they not??)

But Y E S all good bois, good LADS just doing their best and rocking the heck out (and also huge kudos to the ghoulettes/Lasses, those three are q u e e n s) 10/10 all own my heart now and would fite for them😭❤❤❤❤