captianthundercunt

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AUSTIN BUTLER as FEYD-RAUTHA HARKONNEN in Dune: Part Two (2024)

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Everyone else says, "There you are!" like it's a pleasant surprise to see him, but Percy always says, "Found you!" like he's been looking. Like every moment Nico is out of sight is a search to bring him back.

"Found you," he says softly as he pushes the door closed behind him and crawls into Nico's bed. He's a mess of dirt and sleepless nights, but Percy just cleans him off as he doses in and out until the world stops moving and his head hits the pillow again.

"Found you," he says loudly, wrapping lean arms around Nico's center. Chatter burns across the other tables, but eyes still flicker curiously over in their direction.

"Found you," he says, when the monsters are gone and water floods the ground. It ignores Nico's own feet. He is bloody but otherwise dry. Percy's own shoulders relax as he jogs over. Riptide glistens at his side.

"What, were you looking?" Nico mutters. He kicks a monster arm out of his path.

Percy bares his teeth in a predatory smile that doesn't scare Nico. Just sings something hot and sweet in his veins. He tucks a curl behind Nico's ear. Pulls blood and exploded monster flesh off his skin.

"I'm always looking," he says, like it's a fact. A well-known secret. Not something that freezes the air in Nico's lungs, like he was pushed headfirst underwater. If he inhales, he'll drown in the beat of his pounding heart.

"Oh." He doesn't know what else to say.

Percy's fingers are gentle. Comb through his hair. The river water is cold on his feet. Warm on his head. It dampens and dries. The sky blusters dark. Beautiful stars glisten and disappear as shadows curve across Nico's skin. Percy grits his teeth and holds tight.

He doesn't let go, even when pavement hits their feet. When the sky comes back into view. When the stars glitter. When people pass them second views as they meander down the street of the cul-de-sac.

"Nice place," Percy says. He touches pictures on the walls and releases Nico's hand. "Whose it?"

"My brother's," Nico says, pulling off his shoes and socks and filthy pants. "He has a lot of homes. In a lot of places."

Life is everywhere and so is Zagreus. People welcome him with open arms. They don't think for a second that he is made from dirt and darkness. But he is. It's obvious in the plants growing from skulls and the shadows that breathes even in well lit spots.

Nico wanders into the kitchen. Opens the fridge. Examines the contents inside. Percy is still in the living room as Nico cooks a quick dinner. He plates it all, leaves it on the counter, and dips to the bathroom, calling out to Percy to eat.

His hands are washed clean. He opens the door and Percy exhales.

"Found you," he says.

Nico blinks. "Wasn't missing."

Percy shrugs and pulls him along, wrist in hand. "Don't like when you're gone."

"Oh." He doesn't know what else to say.

Food is food. Percy is Percy. They eat. They sit in quiet company. Nico details his latest job. Recovering a stolen artifact from between pantheons. He'll deliver it tomorrow. Percy wrinkles his nose and laughs when Nico says he can come.

He won't. Gods, even ones that aren't his own, stress him out. Crawl into his skin and refuse to leave. Has to yank out a knife and cut them out. Has to pound his lungs with water, so they'll drown and he can breathe.

Nico's the opposite. Finds them attached to his body like pretty jewelry instead of biting bugs. He can peel each piece off and set it aside for later. They are not unwanted presences.

Zagreus has three bedrooms in this house. Percy follows Nico into one and sets up camp on the floor with spare pillows and blankets from the closet. Nico lays down on a plush mattress and living bedframe.

He doesn't sleep easy, never has, not when the dark makes him feel alive in a way the sun never could, so hours pass and Percy's breaths are soft before he stops trying. He slips up and out. Sits in tall grass in a fenced in yard. A chicken coop is tucked up into the corner on the porch. Inside a dozen fluttering souls.

He picks himself up and settles on the swings.

The cold air brushes his skin. The earth rises with every skim of his feet against the ground. It curves up the flat of his soles, over toes, and around his ankles. It tugs him down gentle.

Don't fly, it says. You'll fall.

Both neighbours are still awake. Light flickers in and out of windows as people pass from room to room. Voices filter softly on cool winds. Nico wonders what they're saying. Wishes Jason was swinging here to tell him.

But it's not Jason who settles on the swing next to him. It's Percy who breathes out October frost as he bumps into Nico's side.

"Found you," he murmurs.

Nico tilts his head back to the sky. Stars twinkle and whisper secrets he can't hear. "Wasn't missing."

Percy loops an arm around his waist. The earth scuffs Nico's feet, keeping him grounded. Centered. They swing in tandem. Warm breath cools against his cheek.

"I know," Percy says. "But I'm always gonna look for you anyway."

[captianthundercunt]

Bitches on twitter are trying to say that “ bitch “ is a misogynistic slur which is making my head spin. All because a gay man ( misandry ) said “ bitch “. In response the harpies are screaming a real slur “ f@g “.

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With Every Heartbeat (2011) dir Alexandra-Therese Keining

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Interview with the Vampire - Concept art by Pixoloid Studios

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Art by MZ

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Coastal Landscape in the Moonlight

— by Wartan Mohakian

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Jason does reach out to people it’s just that the reaching out often involves dramatic theatrical violence. The final confrontation in under the red hood was Jason’s version of reaching out to Bruce. It’s not like Bruce was ever going to be the one to be like “hey let’s sit and talk about your death and why you’re mad at me”. Yes it did involve kidnapping and possible murder suicide plans but hey at least he started the dialogue agshshshs

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yEaH “wHaT iF”

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Do You Love the Color of the Sun?

Get dazzled by the true spectrum of solar beauty. From fiery reds to cool blues, explore the vibrant hues of the Sun in a mesmerizing color order. The images used to make this gradient come from our Solar Dynamics Observatory. Taken in a variety of wavelengths, they give scientists a wealth of data about the Sun. Don't miss the total solar eclipse crossing North America on April 8, 2024. (It's the last one for 20 years!) Set a reminder to watch with us.

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Christian Dior spring/summer 2017

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Seekers by Eugen Papen

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Song of Four Seasons by alice haun

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Magic and Genetics: Magical Beings

So, I mentioned in my other post about magic and genetics that the fact magical creatures and wizards can reproduce is significant. This is because generally, hybrids with parents of different species are sterile (at least with animals, plants are different). As Fleur can be a quarter-veela, it's clear the hybrids we see in the magical world are not sterile.

As sterility is attributed to the difference in the number of chromosomes between the two species, this suggests that goblins, wizards, muggles, veela, and giants all have the same number of chromosomes and are part of the same genus. And this has some interesting implications when it comes to world-building...

Disclaimer: As with my past post on the subject, this is from online reading, I haven't studied any of this in a professional capacity.

When it comes to interspecies hybrids among animals, they tend to be from the same genus, otherwise they can't even reproduce without some human interference. So, I feel pretty safe in the assumption that if wizards and veela can have fertile offspring, they fall under the same genus

A genus is a biological classification above species and below family. While there is some leeway in what falls under the same genus the general gist of what defines a genus is:

They all descend from the same group of organisms.

A genus shouldn't be expanded needlessly.

All species in a genus should show distinctive traits and similarities.

Now, the legal definitions in the Wizarding World somewhat support this. All the following creatures are defined as "beings" by the Ministry of Magic:

Humans (muggles, wizards and squibs)

Giants

Goblins (and the related Pukwudgies)

Vampires

Hags

House-elves

Veela

Any hybrid of the aforementioned species.

(Werewolves are technically human, Lycanthropy is treated in the books like an illness and not a separate species, hence why I didn't list them here)

I should note Merpeople and Centaurs were also offered the description of "being", but refused.

And we see practically all of the species listed as "beings" can have fertile offsprings with each other: Hagrid is a half-giant, Fleur is a quarter-veela, Flitwick is a half-goblin, the mobile games, and Pottermore reference part-vampires, and the Fantastic Beasts movies include a half-elf (I don't really consider these movies canon as a whole, but the existence of half-elves makes sense).

This means that the definition of "being" is for all species in this humanoid genus. The reason I'm bringing this up with association with genetics is that, if we go back to the definition of genus, all these species (and potentially centaurs and merpeople too) are descended from the same ancient race. Which, in turn, says something interesting about the evolution of magic in genetics.

Since most of these races are magical, well, all of them except muggles are. Muggles are incredibly similar to wizards and squibs, more similar than the other species are to each other. This suggests that the evolution in the Harry Potter universe started with an ancient humanoid magical species that got split into the different magical species we know of (goblins, wizards, giants, elves, etc...) first since there are more differences between them. Then, some thousands of years later muggles and wizards split.

I don't know how or why or what this ancient humanoid magical race could be, but the fact muggles and wizards are probably both descendants from some proto-wizard race that existed thousands of years ago gives another possibility into how muggleborns can be born. If all muggles descended from wizards, it could explain how muggleborns would occasionally be born. I still believe almost all muggleborns are descendants of more recent squib lines though. I don't think regular muggles have a high chance of giving birth to a muggleborn, but because of this evolution theory, it still could happen.

The other interesting note about this is that muggles are likely to be able to have children with goblins, veela, vampires, and giants just like wizards can. But these half-breeds, unlike the ones we see in the books aren't partial wizards, so could they cast magic like wizards?

I'd say yes.

The fact all non-human creatures are legally forbidden from holding wands means they all can produce magic with a wand. Winkey the elf got blamed at the beginning of GoF for casting the Dark Mark with a wand, which means that even though house-elves and goblins are capable of their own magic, they could use the same spells wizards do with wands if they had them. Goblins can use wands as well, Griphock says wands would expand their magical powers. If I had to guess I'd say the same is true for vampires, veela, and hags — that if they had wands they could cast magic like wizards. Their being from the same genus kinda explains it, they all have the genes for casting magic, and yes, their magic is different, but not that different. I'd say their magic is probably more similar than wizards are willing to confess.

Giants are different in that they don't really have an innate magic, and aren't shown to be capable of any magic beyond their sturdy skin. I'd say giants had a similar evolution to muggles in that they lost the capacity to cast magic at some point in the split. I'd guess it happened differently with each species though.

Back to the earlier subject of a muggle and goblin child, for example. I believe this half-goblin would have magic similar to a half-goblin wizard like Flitwick, potentially, a half-goblin half-muggle would be registered as a wizard by the book and quill that accepts students into Hogwarts. Potentially you could have a muggle-being hybrid who is treated like a half-blood wizard even though neither of their parents are wizards. I mean, goblins can use wands, and so can half-blood wizards with one wizard parent and one muggle parent... Basically, I think there could genetically be a half-blood wizard that has no wizard parent, or even grandparent for that matter.

(All this is potentially true for merpeople and centaurs too since they were offered the "being" status)

I just find these implications about the relations between wizards, muggles, and the other magical races really interesting.

[captianthundercunt]

a theory about muggles and magic

the thing is, Grindelwald is right. wizards are more powerful and as human as the muggles are. why on earth are they hiding? this is not how society is naturally arranged, especially if wizards and muggles coexisted together in the beginning. the path of least resistance would have obviously been, optimistically, a world like Avatar, wherein benders and non-benders coexist in peace, or more realistically, it being a built-in structure of society that muggles are less than.

whatever muggles have, wizards can make up for through magic or by learning the sciences themselves. muggles have no tactical advantage; there is no reason and no way that they could have 'scared' the wizards into hiding.

so, a theory. a long time ago, it was a pillar of wizarding society that they were the protectors of muggles.

it's the only thing that makes sense! (and tbh it's so obvious now that i think of it; this probably already is an accepted fact somewhere in the Harry Potter fan world, but I hadn't seen it explained o me this way.) that's why they put muggles, who by nature should have been the most marginalized, at the center. that's why magical society had structured around the mundane one. and that's why wizards ultimately went underground; because while they could easily deflect muggles' superstitions and their horrible consequences, other muggles could not, and the true horror of the Salem witch trials (and other such atrocities) was for the wizarding world to see the ones they protected turn against each other. So they erased the memory of magic and remained hidden.

only, since this particular history - which is less of a history and more of an ethos of history - wasn't told or expressed, younger generations started to not understand it. they didn't get that they meant to be protectors. they started to think along the lines of the path of least resistance: superiority, might makes right. of course wizards are better, and purebloods better still. Grindelwald and Voldemort are just expressions of political turmoil centuries in the making.

this is probably unlikely, but man, i wish this was a theme in the harry potter universe. it'd also take off one of my irritations about the fact that the good guys always seem to be defending the status quo, even if it's pretty clear that society wasn't very great to begin with. to return the wizarding world to the ethos it may have once actually been built around - not that might makes right, but that we must center around the least of us - would've been a worthy goal for any harry potter hero.