#(based simply on whether they speak clearly and coherently)

[sonakshisrivastava]

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[foibles-fables]

Would have been able to stomach Talanah’s messed up quest if she had at least joined Aloy’s crew at the end? Because I suffered through it all, thinking ‘I’ll finish her quest and then she’ll help me with the Zeniths, just like old times in HZD’ and then she just… goes back to Meridian. No questions about the base and what the others are doing and can she help her Thrush, nothing. That’s the worst part for me. She doesn’t even get to stay and join the team.

That's a resounding YES from me, anon.

I mean--I can think (and have thought) of SO many reasons for Talanah to have been in the West, all of them very much aside from Exclusively Amadis. However, I've come to begrudging terms with the concept of what we were shown--but heavens NOT its writing or execution--and I'm set to move forward with what canon presented.

(This is where I could start delving into that unhinged Here's How The Birdies Can Still Win essay I'm brewing...but I'm still trying to make sure my thoughts are half-coherent and that I organize all the points I wanna hit. SOON, I promise. I know there are a few asks related to this sitting in my inbox--I promise I'm not ignoring ya! Just have shit for brains lately. A bad case of [Ragurt voice] the rot.)

Back on track!!! Yes. If her quests in HFW had culminated in her staying and joining the team and becoming part of the Base and like, having an actual ROLE to play, I certainly would've been able to stomach it a lot better.

The fact that she doesn't do/isn't granted these things is a testament to the writing and execution issues I've driven home again and again, in my Burning Blooms/Need to Know post and plenty of elsewheres. Whether her half-baked, comics-rehash, goddamn-stilted ridiculous quest line was a production problem (as I can't help but suspect) or otherwise--post-Amadis weirdness aside, this specific part (her not actually reacting to the Base, her not asking Aloy even once what's up, her not offering to stay in aid) speaks to an absolutely bonkers amount of infidelity to established character. Like, come on, y'all. That's not the Talanah we met and grew to love in Zero Dawn. I don't think I need to hammer that point home again.

If the Amadis plot line had ended up with Talanah being like "well THAT was a weird time, I'm kinda embarrassed and have a lot to think about, but I can clearly see that there's something bigger going on here and it's my duty as your friend to stand by you"--and if that had further developed and led to growth while interacting with her at the Base--I would've been a lot cooler with it. Maybe even very unambiguously happy with it. (More on that later.) But that's not what we got, and it's still utterly baffling to me.

don't get me STARTED on the fact that Talanah is the only one Aloy explicitly says she wishes would've stayed, when she spends the whole game pushing her old friends away, I'll simply just DIE

(also I think I just said the same thing differently in four paragraphs, lmao, good job being succinct and frugal with ya words, foibs)

[reynesofcastamere]

Pressure Points[β]

(A/N: The prompt I got for this was ‘Maul giving Ahsoka some NSFW stress relief.’ And. Uh...Well, I’m not sure if this is what you wanted, anon. But it’s what you’re getting. ORZ. So yeah, this gets fairly dark. Readmore is going under my notes again. Warnings for: blindfolding, non-negotiated bondage, dubious consent/morals, possessiveness, mentions of past self-abuse(reckless sexual behaviour/masochism) and sensory deprivation. I’m...not certain whether some of Maul’s lines fall under gaslighting or any other form of verbal/emotional abuse, but keep an eye out for those too. Potentially triggering sections have been marked off with ‘****’. This takes place about 2-3 years after ROTS and events are closer to canon (ie Maul is a crime boss but Death Watch and the Nightbrothers aren’t allied with him). Unbeta’d.)

There is tension in her frame as she waits, the strip of black cloth about her eyes her only adornment. Marks cover her, old and new, dappling the sunset colour of her skin with sharp points of red and pools of purple, blue, and yellow. They are not his work, nor do they belong to a single individual. Such a curious creature. Ahsoka Tano is knelt on a large cushion in front of a chair, the very image of powerlessness and debauchery. And yet... “Are these meant to provoke me?” Maul questions, fingertips trailing from the centre of her back and over one shoulder as he circles around her to take his seat. “Or have you come to request my aid in killing those responsible?” The latter seems unlikely, given her limiting morals and considerable skill, though the prospect does intrigue him.  “Neither.” She murmurs, voice slightly roughened from strain as he cups her jaw in one hand, slowly tilting it upwards. The blindfold only prevents him from reading her eyes, but there is a wealth of information waiting in the tempo of her breath and heartbeat, the subconscious tells of movement and expression. “Don’t pretend you’re concerned for anything other than your own ego.” The bitter tone to her voice is hardly subtle, though. “If you wished to avoid interrogation, you should have been more patient.” He coaxes her upwards with guided touches until she sits bestride his thighs. “Instead you summon me here, covered in these tokens-” A single fringertip traces a line from her lower abdomen all the way up to the edge of the blindfold. “-and this insulting barrier.” She jerks her head away when he toys with the edge of it, clearly not willing to relinquish whatever ‘safety’ it afforded her. “What am I to do with you, my Lady?” “Don’t. I’m not yours. Not-” Ahsoka trembles as he discards his gloves to touch her properly. His hands stroke her outer thighs, over her backside and up her spine to curve around and palm her breasts. He indulges himself for a few moments, tasting the vulnerable skin that rests above the pulse beating in her neck as the callused pads of his thumbs rub and circle her stiffening peaks. “Reluctance does not become you.” Maul whispers as her hips twitch, hands blindly seeking out the armrests and gripping them tightly, as if to anchor herself. Or perhaps, to  have something else to touch besides him. “Evil.” Her reply comes, followed by a sharp cry when he roughly tugs and worries at her nipples with his fingers. He is familiar with this kind of deprivation: How taking away one or all of the senses can increase the body’s reaction to pain. Such knowledge had never been meant for the purposes of pleasure; of making another being pant and writhe, seeking more. The first -and only- time he’d had the satisfaction of seeing her in this state was a far more...rushed affair. Punctuated with savage cacophony, nails and teeth tearing at each other as they were swept into a frenzy of unrestrained lust. There simply hadn’t been the time or inclination to truly explore her. But now... He laughs, soft and brief and cruel. “And you know for a certainty that none of your paramours were thieves, murderers, or worse?” One hand trails downwards, stopping just above her sex. The edge of his thumb just barely teases her engorged nub, drawing out a shaken exhale. “Or am I to believe that you screened every one of their backgrounds personally.” A statement of dry scorn as he observes her internal struggle, seemingly repulsed by and drawn towards him all at once. “It’s not the same. They weren’t-I don’t even have a word for what you are.” Ahsoka retorts, low and tinged with sanctimonious fury. She hisses when he slips a single digit inside her, a frission of genuine discomfort travelling up her spine and into her shoulders. Hm. She is certainly wet enough, so the soreness in her channel cannot be his doing. He will need to prepare her gradually if he wants to achieve much more than this. “Oh, but you do. Say it.” “...Monster.”

“Yes.”

“You’re not even going to try and deny it?” “A waste of my time and an affront to your intelligence.” He hasn’t stopped touching her this whole time, lips ghosting along her throat as his fingers carress her, inside and out. Her hips are rolling in minute increments, her grip on the chair practically white-knuckled at this point. Maul pauses for a few moments to remove his upper garments, pry her hands loose, and place them on his back. Specifically, on the furrows she’d left in his skin over the course of their heated entanglement.  ****

“I can’t do this.” She breathes, fingers clenching as the heel of his right palm drags over the bundle of nerves at the apex of her slit. “Mmmn...-haaahh- It’s...it’s wrong.” Her back arches as he re-inserts one digit, then another, still providing the friction that’s causing her to start losing coherency. “An interesting choice of words.” They imply a certain degree of...latitude in her thinking. That it is some form of obstacle preventing her from giving in, rather than a total resistance to what is happening.  “What’s that supposed t-ahhhhn-to mean?” Ahsoka demands, before their lips meet. It does not take long for her to melt, moaning as his tongue teases her lower lip, then lightly draws it between his teeth. When he pulls back, it is purely to admire the image of desirous ruin she inspires, flushed and breathing raggedly as she trembles. “Do you not realize how close you are to oblivion?” He curls the digits inside her for emphasis, feeling her jolt at the sensation. She has been attempting to shield herself from him in the Force, but Maul is both relentless and patient, and the conflict in her is simmering so very near to the surface.  “If you are so diminished by wanting this from me, leave.” His free hand digs into a set of bruises on her right hip, her hands clenching against his back as her core quivers. “Run back to your masters, secure in your nobility and virtue, but know that the monster you marked will never touch you again. Not unless you beg, Ahsoka Tano.”  It is a clear choice. She cannot accuse him of being obscure or unreasonable in his logic or wording. Yet she does not move away or speak. In fact, her jaw is clenched so tightly that one might worry for the state of her teeth. With how...outspoken she usually is, this development is quite odd. He lightly scrapes his teeth over her pulse point as he puzzles it out, circling the fingers still buried inside her. She is visibly struggling now, caught between body and mind as she clings to the last vestiges of self-control. “Ah...” Maul breathes in sudden epiphany. “There it is. You cannot bring yourself to ask for these...perversions.” The stiffening of her posture and the turn of her head is all the answer he needs. “So be it.” He tears a strip of cloth from his shirt, using one hand and some assistance from the Dark Side to tie her wrists behind her back. “I will ignore your sorrow, your guilt, your shame, and you will have the comforting illusion that this is not your choice.” He bites down on her throat as she comes apart, voice and Force signature finally released from their self-imposed restraints. The chaos in her is so exquisite that he cannot resist being overtaken, keening and snarling into his own climax.  

****

There are long moments spent between regaining breath and sense of self, but she does not object when he changes their positions and spends a full hour pleasuring her with a clever mouth and dextrous hands; her releases bestowed as gentle gifts. Nor does she protest once he bears her down onto the floor and claims her again and again, their mutual cries filling the enclosed space with each brutal thrust. Maul is merciless as Ahsoka pleads for him to slow down, that he’s splitting her apart, and she can’t possibly come again. He simply folds her in half, legs placed over his shoulders as he proves her wrong. The final climax is wrought in shrieking agony for them both. It is almost...cleansing, in a way. He pulls out cautiously, readjusting her legs to a more comfortable position before untying her wrists. Ahsoka is limp and pliant, chest heaving with gulps of air. When he removes the blindfold, it is easy to see why. Her eyes are reddened and watery with unshed tears, haunted exhaustion making the blue of her irises lifeless and hollow. His lips press tenderly against her forehead as she closes them. “Shh. Sleep now, ja’ti mirtis {my death}.” He rumbles, just enough of the Dark Side layered into his voice to compel her obedience. A feat that would not be possible without her...current state. Perhaps it would be best to keep her with him for at least a few days, if not longer. His current base of operation is not far, and in this way he can be assured that she is only scratched, not shattered. The Rebellion will whine at him for absconding with their precious former Jedi, no doubt. Let them. He has had larger headaches than their petty grievances and slights. The only outrage that will matter is Ahsoka’s, once she regains herself and takes her freedom. Until then, she is his, and he will tend to her as he sees fit. (A/N: MAUL, ABDUCTING PEOPLE IS NOT HOW YOU SHOW PROPER AFFECTION OR AFTERCARE, FFS. -_-*** So yeah. I might do a single follow-up to this later from Ahsoka’s POV, depending on a number of things. This...might be the first smut drabble I’ve written purely from Maul’s perspective, come to think of it. The line in Sith language is repurposed from captainmazzic, and a couple of others from TLJ. The important thing to remember is that Maul is both Very Persuasive and convinced that he is Always Right. And he is, kind of,  but only from a very selective point of view. Ahsoka has every reason to question the morality of what it means for her to not only want sex from him, but also that she likes having some degree of physical pain involved with sex in general. (Some people aren’t fully comfortable with masochism/painplay in their BDSM, especially when first starting out.) I wanted to explore a version of her that wasn’t as put-together or as sure of herself, because everyone has a point where they either get run down or break entirely; and it doesn’t make her any less for doing so. Anyway, I’ve rambled on a fair bit again. Cheers, everyone!)

[elyvorg]

Misc. Luigi rambles (1 of ?): mostly LM1 edition

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a great game that I thoroughly enjoyed, in large part thanks to the character animation on Luigi doing a fantastic job of getting across how scared he is all the time. That’s the main draw of a Luigi’s Mansion game, after all, right? (…No? Just me? I hope it’s not just me.)

Playing the game rekindled some of my Luigi Feelings from back in 2013, to the point that I decided to get some of those thoughts down in words now that I have a tumblr that exists for rambles like this. Said thoughts are actually mostly about Luigi’s Mansion 1 and are things I kept thinking about while eagerly waiting for the second game to come out. There’s also just some overthinking of Mario canon in general.

The deep backstory

So Mario is your typical perfect invincible hero who’s always eager for adventure and knows he can save the day, while Luigi is easily scared and lacks confidence and is rather emotionally dependent on Mario. They’re twins, but Mario is emphatically the “big brother” and Luigi the “little brother”, despite the fact that Luigi is physically taller, and also that he’s physically stronger than Mario in a lot of regards. He can jump higher, to name one example, and yet Mario’s always the one who’s famed for his jumping, as seen in the kinds of games where characters talk about this sort of thing, with nobody ever mentioning that actually Luigi’s an even better jumper than Mario, not even Luigi himself if he’s there.

This general gist of the bros’ contrasting personalities in spite of their relative physical ability actually happens to be perfectly set up by their backstory in Yoshi’s Island. In that game, they’re newborn babies (or as “newborn” as you can get when it happens via stork), but they’re evidently already self-aware to some degree based on the stuff Baby Mario is capable of, which I guess is just how babies work in this universe. And the game features Baby Mario going on an epic adventure with Yoshis to rescue his brother, while Baby Luigi is kidnapped and helpless to save himself, yet apparently has some kind of twin telepathy that lets him know his brother is coming to save him. So it’s only natural that Mario then grows up to be the heroic adventurous brother and Luigi the scared dependent brother, regardless of which of them is physically more capable. It makes an amazing amount of coherent character-writing sense as a backstory considering that this is, you know, Mario games.

(Plus, there’s also a Yoshi’s Island sequel on the DS, which, as far as I’m aware, features other babies the Yoshis can carry along with Baby Mario such as Baby Peach and Baby Wario… but Baby Luigi is still the damsel in distress who needs saving. It’s like the developers of that game knew they needed to keep Baby Luigi kidnapped and helpless because if he’d also got to have adventures with Yoshis as a baby then he would have gained confidence in himself after all, and clearly they couldn’t risk compromising the entire Mario canon like that.)

As far as I know, Luigi having an irrational fear of ghosts in particular doesn’t seem to be set up anywhere, alas. That’s probably just down to what I’ve noticed seems to be something of a Japanese writing trope to just give a character a deathly fear of ghosts, even though it usually doesn’t make any rational kind of sense to be so afraid of ghosts in particular (nor in Luigi’s case when there’s plenty of other types of dangerous beings in his world), simply as a shorthand to show that they’re a wuss. Which generally tends in the more complex cases to be rather disappointing lazy writing, but I don’t mind in this case because, A, it’s the Mario canon, it was never going to be that thought-out, and B, it means we get to have the Luigi’s Mansion games in which Luigi is constantly terrified throughout, and that’s obviously a good thing.

Humming

My favourite thing about the first Luigi’s Mansion game, something that it has going for it over the others even though the later two games are far better both in terms of gameplay and character animation on Luigi, is Luigi’s humming. Whenever Luigi is in a dark room that might have ghosts in and is not actively using his vacuum, he is constantly humming the same tune over and over. The best part of this is the three different humming tracks that the game uses depending on Luigi’s health, which get increasingly more desperate and terrified-sounding the more hurt he is. (Turns out Charles Martinet isn’t just here to do goofy Italian voices – he’s actually a really fantastic voice actor.) The lower-health ones especially really give the sense that Luigi isn’t humming this tune just because he feels like it, but rather because he’s desperately trying to keep himself going despite every instinct telling him to run away and never come here again. He does not stop humming, even though at lowest health he sounds so exhausted that he can barely manage to hum at all – yet he Just. Keeps. Forcing himself to hum that next note anyway no matter how brokenly off-key it is. It’s like he’s clinging to that as something to focus on and distract himself with, because without it he knows he’ll just fall apart. And he cannot afford to fall apart no matter what, not when he’s the only one who can save his big bro.

I say this is the one thing in the first game I like more than the second or third, but I’m not complaining that the second or third games don’t have this, because that kind of desperate constant survival-mantra humming wouldn’t make narrative sense in them. (Luigi does sometimes nervously hum the BGM in LM2, but only occasionally and only for short bursts, without different versions of it for different levels of health, so it doesn’t have nearly the same effect.) See, in the second and third games, Luigi’s done this before. He’s still scared, but beneath that, he knows that he’s capable of doing it again. As such, he doesn’t need such a desperate coping mechanism to keep himself going out of a fear that without it he’ll never make it to the end.

The tune that Luigi hums throughout the game is what I consider to simply be the Mansion’s theme (though I don’t know whether it’s officially called that or not). The mansion theme happens to be quite similar to E. Gadd’s theme, sharing a decent chunk of melody with it, to the point that I’ve seen multiple people not even realise they’re two different pieces and mistake one for the other. My headcanon for the similarity is this: E. Gadd’s theme was playing in-universe in some form the first time Luigi talked to him in his lab, to the point that it was stuck in Luigi’s head when he went back into the mansion. (This is very plausible, because E. Gadd’s theme explicitly does exist in-universe in the form of the GameBoy Horror ringtone.) So Luigi started humming it to himself to try and take his mind off his fear… except he only remembered some of how it went and filled in the blanks with his imagination. And because he was so scared, his imagination made the bits he filled in sound a lot more ominous and creepy in tone than the original tune was. If you listen to the differences between E. Gadd’s theme and the mansion theme, the parts which are unique to the mansion theme are the creepiest-sounding parts of the tune. In fact, as Luigi hums the mansion theme with the game’s instrumental backing, the only parts of the melody that the BGM actually plays are the parts that are unique to the mansion theme.

(You can also hear the ghosts faintly cackling along with the entire mansion theme in some places, but we can imagine that they started doing that after Luigi had created the rest of the melody and been humming it for a while, to try and unnerve him even more and make the humming less comforting for him.)

“M-M-Marioooo?”

Another fun thing which has increasingly desperate and terrified voice clips depending on Luigi’s health is him calling out Mario’s name. But something notable about this is that, even after the cutscene in which Luigi sees where Mario’s being held captive, the button which makes him call Mario’s name… still makes him call Mario’s name, even though Luigi now knows exactly where Mario is and that he won’t be getting a response.

Which, sure, is probably just because the game developers couldn’t be bothered to program it to change halfway through the game, but shush, it can make sense in-story too if you think about it. For the first half, Luigi was calling out for Mario because all he knew was that Mario was somewhere in the mansion, so there was always a chance he’d get a response. It was always possible that Mario could be just behind that next door, and then Luigi’d just have to do one more room before it’s over and they can leave and he’ll never have to go near another ghost again. But after having seen where Mario really is – held captive in some fancy underground altar room guarded by King Boo – Luigi would be getting the sinking realisation that he’s probably going to have to go through every other room in the mansion before he can get in there, isn’t he. Him continuing to call Mario’s name anyway after that point isn’t because he has the memory of a goldfish, but because he’s trying to trick himself back into the mindset he was in before he learned where Mario is, when his task didn’t seem quite as incredibly daunting because there was always the chance Mario was just behind the next door. He just has to do one more room, and then Mario’ll be there, right? Just one more room. Just one more note of the tune. Don’t think about the big picture and how impossibly terrifying it seems. Just keep going, one step at a time, no matter what. Luigi’s implicit coping mechanisms during this whole ordeal are delightful.

“What’s the holdup?”

Speaking of the point at which Luigi sees Mario through the bottom of the well, while you’re in the back garden where that well is, you can sometimes faintly hear Mario’s voice echoing out of the well, saying, “Hey, Luigi! What’s the holdup?”. Which seems on the surface like an absolute dick move, berating him for taking so long like the reason why isn’t obvious, making light of the struggle Luigi would be having here. But I refuse to believe that Mario would ever be a dick to his brother, especially not at a time like this where Luigi is his only hope of rescue and Mario has to know that his little bro’s got to be terrified and yet doing his best anyway.

It’s possible, especially at this point in the totally-strictly-defined Mario timeline in which he hasn’t really had any starring roles of his own yet, that Luigi has something of a complex about this kind of thing: always being considered the forgettable one of the pair, the backup option who’s really just dragging his superstar brother down. This is not, mind you, in a sense that makes Luigi resentful of his big bro for hogging the spotlight – Luigi is too pure and idolises Mario too much to ever feel that way, even deep down, and if anyone thinks otherwise they need to go and see the Dream’s Deep section of Mario and Luigi Dream Team. But perhaps Luigi gets kind of tired of people acting like he’s basically useless just because he’s not quite as super-amazing as his big bro definitely is.

So maybe hearing Mario apparently having that same opinion sparks the same feeling in Luigi that he always feels when he overhears those sorts of comments about himself, one of anger and indignation, that no, he’s more capable than that, he’ll show them. Why is Mario of all people saying this to him, now of all times? He’s doing his best, and he’s only taking so long because this is really hard! Holdup? What holdup? He’ll get through this, just you watch! …Which would be a mindset that might manage to distract Luigi from his fear, at least a little bit, and motivate him with something other than the terror of losing Mario if he fails.

One possibility for why Mario said this, then, is that he knows Luigi well enough to know that he’d have this reaction, and he said this with the deliberate intent of giving Luigi something to push him forward and take his mind off his fear.

…That was my headcanon about this line for the longest time, since sometime before 2013, even, and so I’m mentioning it here for posterity. But it only just now occurred to me that actually there’s a much simpler explanation. “What’s the holdup?” doesn’t actually have to be meant in a derogatory way; it could also just be meant as straightforward encouragement.

Getting to see a little of Mario’s behaviour towards Luigi in situations like these at the end of Luigi’s Mansion 3 made me realise that Mario’s just kind of like this in general. His way of helping Luigi through his fears isn’t to acknowledge the fear and reassure him, but to just jump on ahead while calling for Luigi to follow him, leading by example to inspire Luigi to try and be like him and keep pushing forward despite his fear. Mario acts like there’s nothing to be afraid of in the hope that it’ll help Luigi realise that there really is nothing to be afraid of, because they’re both superstar heroes who can save the day. After all, Mario has to know that Luigi’s really even stronger and more capable than him, and the only thing holding him back is his fear.

“What’s the holdup?” is the same kind of principle, even though Mario’s not able to lead by example in that situation. He’s making light of Luigi’s struggles only in the sense that he’s trying to help Luigi see as well that they’re not as big as he thinks they are. “What’s the holdup? There’s no need to be afraid, ‘cause you got-a this, bro! I believe in-a you!”

Anyway Mario and Luigi are adorable brothers and Luigi is the bravest of heroes.

[introvert-celeste]

on the topic of pinks fighting prowess, I suppose it makes sense how she had bismuth forge her a weapon rather than summoning one. Do you think all of the diamonds have non attacking summons from their gems, as it isn't their job to fight, or roses shield is just a metaphor for pink wanting to defend the earth from the colonisation?

Sorry it took so long to respond. This ask was very interesting and I wanted to answer it fully.

To answer your question, I would argue that Pink’s situation is actually a combination of both, to a degree. If my assumptions are correct, than the shield is less a manifestation of her rebellion and more a reflection of her inherent desire to protect, however she does appear to possess energy powers that function similarly to her fellow Diamonds. There are a few layers to this response and I will try to present them as coherently as possible.

The Diamonds’ Energy Based Powers

Before discussing Pink’s powers, I feel it’s important to discuss the common thread between the other Diamonds’ go-to attacks. Physically, they’re too big and too overpowered to have any use for a weapon against the average non-fusion gem. Therefore, as leaders who are not meant “to be anywhere near the fight. [They’re] too important!” their powers are best suited for immediately incapacitating their enemies and eliminating the need to fight:

Yellow’s electricity immediately destroys a gem’s physical form and causes them to take longer to reform. Her power is the most impersonal and immediately removes a gem as a threat by forcing them into their gemstone.

Blue’s wave overwhelms all the gems around her with grief, making it nearly impossible to act. While it leaves her emotionally vulnerable, as well, her attack is the most easily widespread ability. She can affect all the gems in her vicinity at once.

White’s light allows her to take full control of a gem’s mind and body, turning them to puppets that she can see and speak through. She claims that this power is “uninhibited,” meaning that she can hypothetically maintain control over however many gems she pleases, for however long she needs to.

Yellow’s power affects a gem’s body, Blue’s power affects a gem’s emotional state, and White’s power affects a gem’s mind (taking away all agency and consciousness and, in extension, taking away control of the gem’s mind and emotional state). So, where does Pink’s power fit into this dynamic?

Pink’s Power

We know very little about Pink’s abilities, but I will take the time to analyze what we do know about her personality, and what we have learned through Steven.

First and foremost, “Steven’s powers are maternal. Control of his gem is based on emotional clarity. His shield only comes out when he’s feeling extreme emotions of-” and the rest of the explanation is conveniently cut off. (Yes, I’m quoting Say Uncle. No, I’m not sorry.) In extension, that means that Pink/Rose’s powers are also maternal, and while it isn’t fully explained here, “maternal” often implies a desire to protect those who one cares about. In the rare moments that Steven summoned his shield in season 1, it was either out of love for the CGs (Gem Glow) or an attempt to protect them (Ocean Gem, The Return).

Another aspect that has been demonstrated throughout the show is that, as Padparadscha explained, “the shield is reflective!” or rather it prevents light/energy to pass through. While it doesn’t appear to be any stronger than any other gem weapon in the show against physical attacks, it has never been destroyed by lasers or light, from blocking the laser from Peridot’s hand ship and the gem-shattering robonoids, to Rose blocking the combined attack from the Diamonds.

Finally, a key element that has not been touched on in the series but once: the shield can cancel out a single, average gem’s energy based attack, namely Lapis’ water clones. As soon as he summoned the shield, an energy radiated from it that immediately caused the water clones to turn to puddles.

SO, I believe that Pink’s purpose is not to incapacitate gems, but to PROTECT her fellow Diamonds. She has a naturally MATERNAL nature, which compels her to keep the ones she LOVES safe. To answer your question, I believe that the shield IS a part of this power, even though the other Diamonds presumably do not have physical weapons. This shield REFLECTS and BLOCKS light energy, as well as CANCELS OUT energy attacks from weaker gems. This power is complimented by her ability to heal cracked gems.

I don’t, however, believe that Pink met the full potential of her powers in her time in the Diamond Authority.

The Significance of the Shield

There are several parts to this section that I would like to address as coherently as possible, so bear with me.

To begin, I don’t think that the shield that we have seen Steven and Rose use is PINK’S shield, that she would have summoned had she learned how. Quite simply, I believe that the shield we are most familiar with is something that Rose learned to summon in her time on Earth, among the Amethysts. I know this is all speculation with very little evidence, but if we look at her relationship with the Diamonds–who didn’t take her seriously and constantly babied her–it’s reasonable to assume that she was never trained to summon it. Besides, the Diamonds have no use for weapons, anyway, so it’s possible that they never even knew the nature of her power and assumed that it would develop much like their own.

Now this is where it really gets complicated. Pink Steven is, essentially, Pink Diamond’s new physical form, however there’s one key difference that separates him from the average gem: he is seemingly unbound by emotions, personality, or personal morality, all of which belong to his human half. His one defining element is power, enough to knock White Diamond off her feet. In this lack of personal feelings that is entirely unique among gems, I believe that Pink Steven is not just Pink Diamond’s new form, but the actualization of the gem’s powers, even ones that neither Steven nor Pink have explored.

In short, I believe that the shield that Pink Steven summoned in Change Your Mind is actually the shield that Pink would have summon, had she been properly trained by the other Diamonds. As I mentioned previously, it’s possible that the other Diamonds didn’t even realize that this was an aspect of her power, however White’s response to seeing this shield suggests that she isn’t entirely surprised to see it, rather she’s shocked to see it raised against her. I’d say this sentiment fits in rather well with my previous theory on Pink’s inherent purpose in the Authority, which White would understand better than anyone, as the protector of the group.

As for whether Rose’s shield is meant to be a metaphor, I’m positive it took on symbolic importance among the Crystal Gems, seeing as their banner bears a pattern that strongly resembles it, with the pink field, thorny vines, and a stylized rose at its center. For Pink, however, I seriously doubt she originally summoned it to make any sort of statement, outside of enjoying the sheer freedom she had in her assumed identity. It’s something she chose to do.

The Sword

As I mentioned previously, this shield is a perfectly acceptable weapon. It can block attacks, as intended, but it can also be used as a blunt object at close range and a distance weapon when thrown, sharp enough to slice through things. It’s primary use is for defense, but it’s still plenty useful for an offensive attack. The only benefit from having the sword is that it’s primary use is offensive with defensive capabilities, rather than the other way around for the shield.

Bismuth clearly idolized Rose as someone who introduced the concept of rebellion to her and changed her life.Rose was against shattering gems, but she didn’t seem to have a problem with fighting and poofing them in The Answer, and while Bismuth strongly disagrees with her no-shattering-the-enemy sentiments, she still respects Rose’s feelings with this sword. I don’t think that Rose would have requested an offensive weapon like this. Rather, I believe Bismuth made this sword as a gift to Rose out of concern for her well-being–having it makes it even easier for her to defend herself–and a desire to show her appreciation for everything Rose has done for her, while still taking her feelings into account.

Tldr (still kind of long for a recap lol):

“on the topic of pinks fighting prowess, I suppose it makes sense how she had bismuth forge her a weapon rather than summoning one.” I’m of the opinion that Rose’s shield is a weapon and Bismuth forged that sword not at Rose’s request, but as a gift for her.

“Do you think all of the diamonds have non attacking summons from their gems, as it isn’t their job to fight” Yes, to a degree. Looking back at this part of your ask, I now suspect that you’re referring to summons like Rose’s shield, but my stance remains the same. I believe that the other Diamonds have energy attacks as their primary “weapons,” meant to immediately incapacitate their enemies rather than fighting with them, however Pink’s power appears to involve a weapon, as seen with Pink Steven. Rose’s shield, however, is different from the one that she would have summoned, and I don’t believe that she ever taught to summon a weapon as a Diamond.

“or roses shield is just a metaphor for pink wanting to defend the earth from the colonisation?” Again, I have to say yes, to a degree. I don’t think that Pink originally intended for it to be a metaphor, rather she just learned to summon her weapon while (presumably) training in Prime (that’s how I suspect Rose learned how to fight). I do, however, believe that the shield became symbolic for the Crystal Gems, seeing as it reflects Rose’s personality and her philosophy during the war. Her whole reason for rebellion from the very beginning was to protect the Earth, and later the gems she came to care about. It isn’t any different from what I believe is her purpose among the Diamonds, to protect those she loves from harm.

[hollowandeceptivephilosophy]

Scattered Thoughts on Desire

One can desire the same thing under many different descriptions, and this is quite relevant for moral analysis generally and for certain specific problems in Christology. 

While most of the discussions on this point understandably focus on sex, a less-fraught topic seems worth discussing first. 

P1: I see a peach and an expensive bottle of Japanese Whiskey; knowing what they both are, I want to eat the peach and drink a class of the whiskey. 

Now, there might be various facts that would make acting on that desire wrong (they might be the property of someone else, and mere desire for an experience is not enough to overcome property rights), or I might know from past experience that I am incapable of consuming alcohol in moderation or so on. But the desire itself is not a problem. Both peaches and (good) whiskey are good in themselves [whiskey qua whiskey might not be good in itself, since cheaper liquors largely exist to exploit alcoholics], and wanting them is fine.  

P2: I see a peach and an expensive bottle of Whiskey; I know that an enemy of mine at the party wants both, I want to eat the peach and drink the whiskey to deprive them of the pleasure. 

In this case, I want the thing in question for the purposes of harming my enemy, this kind of desire is evil in itself, to the extent that one wants the peach and the whiskey for the purpose of harming another. (incidentally, a similar analysis applies if I want the peach or the whiskey for purposes of harming myself, as certain kinds of self-conscious alcohol abuse tend to be). However, I still want them under a description of them as a good thing, and thus the desire here is still grounded in the goodness of the things in question.  

P3: I see a Peach and an Expensive bottle of Whiskey, I want to use them as weapons to attack my enemy. 

In this case, I don’t even want the Peach or the Bottle qua peach or bottle, but want them for other properties. (I think they would make good projectiles). Now those other properties have their own goodness, but my desire is not even engaging with the same good as that I am oriented towards when I want to eat a peach. 

P1 desires are perfectly good in themselves, they may be inconvenient or impossible to act on, but they are signs of health broadly speaking. Disciplining them may be necessary, but only insofar as they cause inconvenience or distress.

P2 desires are signs of something having gone wrong, perhaps due to no fault of my own, but I am wanting something good for an inherently improper reason. (Such a desire is “intrinsically disordered”; one of the central problems of Catholic moral theology is that they conflated all queer desire as “intrinsically disordered” when plenty of queer desire is P1, the individual is just being desired as co-subject of communion, but the emphasis is on the goodness of communion with person. Even if no queer desire could be justly satisfied, that would only render the objectifying aspects of queer desire intrinsically disordered, to the extent that the desire was non-objectifying it would still be P1). 

In contrast, P3 desires are not desires for the same kind of thing at all, but are desires aimed at a different kind of good, using the thing in question as a pure means unrelated to the aspects of goodness usually considered in dealing with the thing. Often the traditional discourse endeavored to collapse *all* non-procreative sexual activity [including non-procreative sex between men and women] as being P3 desire: orthogonal to proper sexual desire. Without diving into that complicated issue, I will simply note that if one believes that to properly desire sex as sex, one must desire accompanying chance of reproduction this is perfectly coherent. (Since if one just wants pleasure or companionship on this picture, one doesn’t want sex-per-se, one just wants the side-benefits of sex not the thing itself.) However, if you do not think desire for sex necessarily properly includes desire for reproduction (in the same way that to desire a peach requires desiring it for the attributes of being a peach, and not the attributes of being a projectile), then the traditional answer naturally will have little weight in your decision-making. 

Addendum: Jesus as a human would run into P1 temptations without any hint of sin in him, since desire is based upon a response to the object, and the evil in those cases is external to the desire. 

Jesus would not have P2 temptations in his nature (though they might have been presented to him through experience of the world or through the appeals of the devil) because such desires are intrinsically mis-aimed, and the lack of intrinsic mis-aiming is presumably part of what it means to be free from original sin. (incidentally, if the Catholic position is correct, Mary also would lack this kind of misaiming) 

Similarly, P3 desires could not arise “internal” to Christ. 

(as a practical matter, I am not sure what difference it makes for Christ’ internal life whether the temptations arose “internal” to who he was or whether they were imposed by the world and the devil; human experience does not clearly delineate those thoughts imposed from the outside and those which arise from our own nature [indeed, the Private Language Argument implies that the strong form of this distinction is not tenable with regards to anything we would regard as ethical action]. The relevance of the metaphysical conviction about the purity of Christ’s human nature is entirely for our sake. When we look at Christ, we can see what humanity truly is. The purity of his nature probably protected him from little in the way of temptation, the world and the Devil provide more than enough relative to the resources of our individual human peculiarities. However, being confident that Christ reveals true humanity calls our attention that the path of true life has already been made real in the world of sin, and thus we do not need to wonder “being human” looks like in some kind of quasi-gnostic sense. We know what being human looks like, it looks like Jesus Christ and all those Saints who have received true humanity through his Death and Resurrection. 

Basically, the purity of Christ’s human nature probably did little to relieve his struggle within this veil of suffering. However, the purity of his nature did serve to reveal to his disciples how they, to, could live in light of the offer of adoption for all humanity into God through Christ Jesus. When I see the disputes online, and even within academia, the focus tends to be reversed. 

We emphasize the pedagogical value of Christ’s struggles, but talk about a psychological purity (at least among the orthodox). But reflection on the actual mechanics of temptation (how often does temptation arise within one’s own soul, as opposed to flowing through the culture as a whole), should make us realize that even a perfectly pure human nature would not be tempted much less than anyone else in our world. On the flip-side, we do not need Christ to teach us what it is like to be tempted, we know that. We need him to show us what true humanity looks like, even under conditions of deprivation. 

[dustedmagazine]

The Staple Singers – For What It’s Worth: The Complete Epic Recordings 1964-68 (Cherry Red)

The Staple Singers’ story fits that of many of their peers, of gospel-based church singing turning into a mainstream soul act. None of the stories, of course, are that simple. In the case of the Staple Singers, their turn toward social justice starts earlier than might be thought and is integrated with their Christian recordings (as on 1963’s This Land). In 1964, the group signed with Epic and put out six albums by 1968, during which time both sides of their work are clearly visible, marking, arguably, the standard version of the shift in focus. A new box set, For What It’s Worth: The Complete Epic Recordings 1964-68 presents all this music (some of it on CD for the first time), but what becomes apparent is that the Staple Singers’ faith and social interests were never two separate values that intersected, but were always just manifestations of the singular vision guiding the musical act.

Disc One begins with the Staple Singers in full gospel mode. The first half of the disc features their first album for Epic, Amen. The album title tells the story: the group, both musically and lyrically, is fully in church-music mode. The vocals, obviously, are stellar, with Pops Staples still the primary singer. The other half of the disc covers, oddly, the group’s third album for Epic, Pray On. The album has a social awareness, but much of it (“How Great Thou Art,” “The Lord’s Prayer”) sticks to the gospel. Notably, the album closes with Bob Dylan’s anti-war song “John Brown,” which indicates the change underway in the group, not just in its secular movement but through the influence of folk music and protest songs on the Staple Singers.

Disc Two, featuring the albums Freedom Highway and Why, highlights the noticeable shift for the group (a connection that may explain why the music has been collected out of original release order). The music starts to turn more toward a pop R&B as the lyrics, just occasionally, move from a gospel focus toward a social justice one. “Freedom Highway” stomps and claps its way into a Civil Rights Movement anthem, a very different groove from “We Shall Overcome” (also included here), but sharing a similar focus of persistence in resistance. The songs stand alongside churchier numbers like “Take My Hand Precious Lord” or preaching ones like “Tell Heaven.”

The catch, of course, is that neither the two forms of music (gospel and secular R&B) nor the two trains of thought (traditional Christian or social justice) were ever innately separated. All those elements speak to a fullness of experience, of faith being brought into its fullness, whether in permeating life or by working its inherent job of addressing injustice. The Staple Singers simply made this move more smoothly than some artists; their transition reveals less a jump from the church to Stax than a slow unveiling of heavenly singing understanding the worldly side of its purpose.

By the third disc of this box, highlighting the albums For What It’s Worth and What the World Needs Now Is Love, the transition could be called complete, as long as we accept that the it’s more a movement within a paradigm rather than a changing of worldviews. “Wade in the Water” stands next to straightforward protest songs because of course it does. By this point, the artists are prepared to speak out with songs like “For What It’s Worth” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” They find the perfect outlet for their faith-driven social consciousness in Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” a significant song from the Civil Rights Movement that looks forward eschatologically without ignoring present injustice. The Staple Singers’ broad concerns give them a consistently encouraging view, whether speaking truth to power or meditating on faith with their Mavis-led version of “Crying in the Chapel,” a song that, in its various incarnations, reaches across cultural, stylistic, and racial divisions.

Soon after these recordings, the Staple Singers would head to Stax and take on that thicker R&B sound and a more ostensibly secular focus (though the heavenly minded “I’ll Take You There” would be their biggest hit). Looking at a band in transition, this box set reveals less of a change and more of the completeness of view that the Staple Singers had as they moved (in theory) from a Sunday morning group to Saturday night show. Their work was always connected both to their faith and to their concern for the world around them (an idea inherent in that faith, if one sometimes ignored or avoided in our contemporary moment). As their sound and content expanded, the group lost none of its spiritual potency yet gained reach. The Epic albums do show a group, in a sense, in the act of becoming, but it also shows a coherent whole in its proper realization.

Justin Cober-Lake

[rusocialpod]

CEFR levels: what are they? And do they matter? In the language-learning community, we often hear other learners throw around certain terms when they’re talking about their level in a language. “I speak German at a B1 level” or “I’m an A2 in Russian.” But what do B1 and A2 mean? These descriptors are skill levels in the CEFR system and they’re used by language learners to measure their ability in a language. What are the Different CEFR Levels? The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, often referred to as CEFR or CEFRL, is an international standard for working out your ability within a language. It was established by the Council of Europe and aims to validate language ability. The six levels within the CEFR are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. With these levels, you can easily work out your ability in around 40 different languages. The levels are often used casually by language learners to explain their ability at speaking, reading, writing and understanding a language. But there are also exams and certificates available to those who want to make their level official. Let’s first take a look at what the different levels are and what’s possible for you at each level. The “A” Levels: Basic User A1 | Beginner At the A1 CEFR level, a language learner can: Understand and use very basic expressions to satisfy concrete needs. Introduce themselves and ask others questions about personal details. Interact simply as long as the other person speaks slowly and clearly. A2 | Elementary At the A2 CEFR level, a language learner can: Understand frequently used expressions in most intermediate areas such as shopping, family, employment, etc. Complete tasks that are routine and involve a direct exchange of information. Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms. The “B” Levels: Independent User B1 | Intermediate At the B1 CEFR level, a language learner can: Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics. Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken. Create simple texts on topics of personal interest. Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief. B2 | Upper Intermediate At the B2 CEFR level, a language learner can: Understand the main ideas of a complex text such as a technical piece related to their field. Spontaneously interact without too much strain for either the learner or the native speaker. Produce a detailed text on a wide range of subjects. The “C” Levels: Proficient User C1 | Advanced At the C1 CEFR level, a language learner can: Understand a wide range of longer and more demanding texts or conversations. Express ideas without too much searching. Effectively use the language for social, academic or professional situations. Create well-structured and detailed texts on complex topics. C2 | Proficiency At the C2 CEFR level, a language learner can: Understand almost everything read or heard with ease. Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation. Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios. When do the Different CEFR Levels Matter? The CEFR is often used by employers and in academic settings. You may need a CEFR certificate for: School admissions University course requirements Employment A CEFR certificate is very handy for your CV or résumé, and they often don’t expire. That said, many language learners use CEFR levels for self-assessment so that they can more clearly define what they need to work on, and work out what they would like to achieve in their target language. Aiming for higher CEFR levels are also a great way to make the transition from an intermediate learner to an advanced learner, and Fluent in 3 Months founder Benny Lewis has used exams in the past to force himself to improve and refine his language skills. If you’re looking for an extra push or for a way to break through a plateau, a language exam could be an effective way to do it. Motivation in language learning always matters. When do CEFR Levels not Matter? Outside of the professional or academic realm, CEFR levels are not as important. They’re really only necessary if you want to define where you’re at with your target language. In a more casual language-learning environment, or when you’re just learning languages because you enjoy them, then CEFR levels are just another tool to help with your language learning. [caption id="attachment_20741" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Sitting an exam requires a lot of study.[/caption] Sitting an exam requires a lot of study. If your goal is speaking a language, that time you spend reading, listening and writing to meet the exam requirements will be time you could have used to improve your speaking skills. In the past I’ve done exams for German, French and Italian as well as the HSK exam for Mandarin Chinese. In preparation for all these exams, I had to study materials that were completely unrelated to my end goals for the languages. So, if your language-learning goals do not align with the CEFR scale, and you don’t need a professional qualification, then you can safely ignore it. How do You Work Out Your CEFR Level? There are a few ways you can work out your CEFR level. Many learners opt for self-assessment, using the descriptions I shared above to gauge where they’re at. [caption id="attachment_20742" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] A CEFR self-assessment.[/caption] For those looking for something a little more formal, you have the option of taking an official examination or a free online examination. It’s worth noting that CEFR levels cover a variety of skills. A full CEFR exam typically measures skills in listening, reading abilities, speaking, writing, translating and interpreting. That’s why some learners segment their abilities, for example stating that their listening in a language is at a B2 level but their speaking is only at a B1 level. Others just average out their abilities and say that they’re at a B1 level overall. CEFR Assessments and Tests Available Some of your options for official examinations (or for courses with certification) include: Alliance Française for French. Goethe Institut for German. Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge for Irish. Instituto de Cervantes for Spanish. CELI for Italian. European Consortium for the Certificate of Attainment in Modern Languages for Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, and Spanish. TELC for English, German, Turkish, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, and Arabic. ??st?p???s? ??????µ??e?a? for Modern Greek. Language Testing International for multiple languages. Lingoda for Spanish, French, German, and English. ALTE for many other languages. Online exams include: Exam English for English. Deutsche Welle for German. Cambridge English Language Assessment for English. Cambridge Institute for English, Spanish, German, and French. Language Level for English Spanish, French, and German. Macmillan Practice Online (paid) for English. European Center for Modern Languages for self-assessment in a variety of languages. Regardless of the exam you sit, language exams demand intensive study and are a great way to push your ability in a language to that next level. What About You? Did you ever sit an official exam whether it was based on the Common European Framework or not? How did you do? How do you feel about using the CEFR scale to define your level in a language? We’d love to hear from you in the comments! The post CEFR Levels: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Test Yourself appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

[fusionterm]

What It Is Like To Remove Hair By Laser Process

TYPICAL LASER HAIR REMOVAL TREATMENT

When the laser epilation treatment has been done, you're going to be prepared to receive dressed and talk article treatment maintenance. You will encounter some temporary negative effects like swelling and redness, which often disappear in just a time or 2.

A lot of men and women express the laser seems just like a rubber band being snapped onto the skin. Other individuals explain it more intense than this. If you're feeling pain or distress, you are going to be provided a topical anesthetic or cooling system options.

The region to be handled will probably undoubtedly be cleaned to wash it off almost any creams, makeup, perfumes or deodorants. It is then going to be garnished using alcoholic beverages. Based upon the process, the spot can, or mightn't be directly shaved. Your skin layer could possibly be chilled just before the treatment method to reduce any unwanted effects from transpiring. You and everyone in the space will probably receive safety abilities to utilize throughout the task.

A physician, or tech, who's accomplishing the laser epilation method will wreak a patch evaluation. This can provide him an opportunity to judge your tolerance of this procedure and select the right fluence degrees. It's also going to provide you with the possibility to have the method by which a laser feels hopefully relieve some of one's own anxiety. An individual heartbeat is going to be transmitted into the evaluation place, that can be next to the spot to be medicated. It'll soon be analyzed for just about any kind of harm into the skin like separation or firming.

When there's actually a wait around the moment you reach the workplace, attempt to continue to keep in head busy therefore that you are not going to be concerned regarding the upcoming method. Perchance a pal will go with you for the appointment, or, even if you're lonely, go through a magazine or book. Possessing your cost all set can even give you the capacity to unwind because it's going to soon be one thing that you want to be worried about.

As soon as your evening requires one to possess your very first laser epilation therapy, it's common to truly feel apprehensive and a bit apprehensive. That really is since it's something which you haven't ever achieved earlier and you also aren't certain what things to anticipate. Attempt to unwind and assume with the trip as every different doctor see.

As soon as you've undergone your very first laser depilatory remedy you are going to be far more stimulating in the event that you're looking for other remedies.

As soon as a physician is about to begin the task, he'll target the laser in the follicles of the region to be medicated. As the hair roots possess an itching that is dark they may take in the power out of the laser gentle. Enough period needed for your task will count on the sum of hair to be taken out and also the location dimensions of this ray, and also the scanning routine of this palm bit which a physician is really using. Laser baldness treatments might just take anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes, based upon the field is taken care of.

If it's the turn to go into the procedure space, you're going to be educated to eliminate all essential clothing as well as also a dress that is going to be given. When photos of the region to be medicated together with laser baldness proved perhaps not accepted throughout the consultation, then the nurse or helper can simply take them today.

ALL ABOUT LASER HAIR REMOVAL

Have you been tired of always shaving and coping with unwanted hair on the human physique? If this is the case, laser depilation simply might be the item for you personally! Clearly, there may be a better alternative for you. Several of the options might be shaving, bleaching, tweezing or waxing. Each of these has its own ups and downs but may possibly be better for you.

Laser hair removals operate by the beams of light that they produce. They apply the laser apparatus to your own skin inducing it to get hot. This heat hurts the follicle and keeps it from climbing later on.

One of those requirements for laser depilation is your hair is darker than your skin. Laser hair removal is additionally perhaps not encouraged for naturally black people mainly because an excessive amount of laser energy is absorbed into their own skin. In the event, your tan it also advocated you don't have laser hair removal achieved. You can wait before your tan is gone and then proceed.

If you've got light skin you can expect a simpler laser depilatory procedure in addition to much fewer treatments together with quicker results. If you are darker peeled it might simply take longer to get results on reveal and also you may have more treatment options. Each man is different after being medicated for something only the very same as being treated for laser hair removal.

Many areas of your body are able to be handled with laser hair removal. The most Well-known regions:

• Rear

• Chest

• Bikini Line

• Confront

• Underarms

• Upper-lip

• Abdomen

For those who are in possession of a particular place you would like done, then speak with your local laser depilatory pro. If you are really contemplating laser hair removal that you don't need to tan ahead to presenting this all done. The treatment won't be as effective in this manner.

Laser baldness is really for females and men of all ages. Kiddies can do it since they have been old enough to collaborate. Laser hair removal is getting very popular among men now. They have their chests and backs accomplished as well as their abdomen and sometimes face.

Whilst laser hair removal is proven to be fairly safe and sound, there are still some cons to having the procedure. The principal concern is that is giving you the treatment. Whether this individual isn't entirely capable to execute this procedure, then they can hurt your skin. Be sure you understand your own professional doing so.

The cost of laser depilation might be costly. however, it certainly is dependent on your location. Every clinic is different therefore that you would like to contact a local practice. Find out what their premiums are and perhaps even match with a consultant to determine if laser hair removal is correct for you. You may possibly think so merely because you're tired of shaving. This may well not be legitimate though so it's preferable to consult a professional.

Just like any important procedure you might have done, do all your analysis on laser hair removing before making a last decision. In the event you don't receive all the important points before committing to it, then you may be unhappy in the end. You might not be eligible for laser depilation.

BASIC LASER HAIR REMOVAL TERMINOLOGY

It's crucial to realize the fundamental terminology employed in laser epilation methods. This provides you a better comprehension of the task involves. It is also helping you to put a lot of people relaxed to wholly know what utilized from this procedure.

Absorption could be your uptake of a single compound into the following.

Lively moderate could be the region of the laser which stores and absorbs power.

American cm wax, which has been a normal bikini wax from that hair can be taken off both sides of the panty line near the summit of the thigh.

Anagen could be your growth period from the baldness in that brand new baldness thinning is straightened.

Brazilian bikini wax, which is still a cherry wax from which everyone the hair has been removed from the darkened area, for example, hair in the buttocks and also labia.

Catagen can be a triangular phase of the hair's development cycle, also transpiring between your resting and growth levels.

Chromophore can be really a set of molecules within a molecule which creates color through particular mild absorption.

Coherent lighting really is mild waves which traveling in parallel, and also at an identical route.

Dermal scattering maybe your shift which does occur between your laser location size in the top layer of skin and also the location dimensions heavier into the cartilage.

Dermis could be your inherent or interior coating of their epidermis.

Electrons are secure, adversely charged basic particles that orbit the nucleus of a molecule.

Power origin could be your apparatus from the laser which provides energy into this busy moderate.

The epidermis may be your lean outer most level of their epidermis.

Fired up says could be that the terms of the physiological approach in the vitality amount are much greater compared to the smallest possible amount.

The fissure can be really a crack or dip from the epidermis.

French swimsuit wax, which has been a cherry wax from which everyone the hair is taken off your pubic place aside from a stripe of baldness over the pubis.

The hair follicle is your bulbous bottom of the hair follicle which houses that the dermal papilla.

Melanin is grains of blossoms that offer skin and hair its own color.

Mono-chromatic lighting is composed of one-ply, and for that reason looks like just one coloration.

Nanometers are every 1 billionth of a tube.

An optical cavity can be part of the laser which has the active moderate.

Polychromatic light includes the lighting of numerous wavelengths, showing in various colors.

Pulse period may be that the length of someone's heartbeat of laser lighting, which is normally quantified in milliseconds.

Selective photothermolysis could be your discerning targeting of a region working with a certain wavelength to consume lighting inside that concentrate on area adequate to hurt the tissues of their object whilst letting the neighboring location to stay comparatively unaffected.

Spontaneous emission could be the procedure or a fervent quadrant, soon after carrying excess energy to get a portion of one moment, releases its own electricity as the following photon subsequently drops right back into its own relaxed state.

The position dimension would be the diameter of the metal.

Root hair is baldness entirely on your entire scalp arms Alexa put in darkened places.

Vellus hair is usually nice, non-pigmented hair entirely on the surface often referred to as peach-fuzz.

Wavelength is the length between two successive peaks or troughs at a tide.

AREAS THAT CAN BE TREATED WITH LASER HAIR REMOVAL

Pretty much any region of your human anatomy that's included in hair loss, possibly body or facial, could be dealt with laser epilation. These regions incorporate the chin, face, upper lip, arms, neck, underarms, chest, torso, stomach, shoulders, thighs and pubic region, along with buttocks. Laser hair removal can be a powerful treatment method for men and women.

Cosmetic hair in females is still among the absolute most often encountered areas treated with laser epilation. Both areas which can be medicated often would be the top chin and lip. This really is due to the fact that the majority of ladies find facial-hair to become somewhat unattractive and bothersome. Ladies who opt for laser hair removal for facial hair thinning just like the simplicity and rate of treatment method, in addition to, and also the long-term outcomes. Hair-removal in these types of areas often requires anywhere from 1 to ten minutes.

If women's hair on your face proceeds to increase warmer whilst the lady develops old. The full encounter is coated with small hairs referred to as vellus hairs, that can be nearly imperceptible. As skin ages, the several thicker final hairs rise to the lady's facial skin area. This really is really the exact same task that occurs to men's ears. Laser facial treatment for this kind of hair often happens between fifteen and ten minutes.

Quite a few ladies choose laser baldness for eyebrow shaping. This cure can be a superior means to eliminate unwanted and stray hairs, notably between your eyebrows. Eye-brow treatment often takes approximately twenty minutes plus could produce a small aggravation of your skin across the fragile forehead. This aggravation generally vanishes in just a couple of times and it is incredibly like some mild bloating.

Frequently adult men with quite bushy environments opt to possess laser epilation therapies. Lots of are selfconscious about this hair while visiting the gymnasium or shore. The complete straight back treatment could get anywhere from 30 mins to an hour based upon the extensiveness of their entire hair because of the region.

A lot of ladies select laser epilation therapies for your own pubic skin or bikini spot. They truly are frequently concerned about shaving lumps, a rash, or perhaps a stray pubic hair revealing whenever they utilize their swimwear. It commonly takes four to four eight minutes to accomplish laser epilation inside this field. The quantity of hair that's removed is based upon your customer's requirements. Many individuals select the whole Brazilian bikini treatment, that's the elimination of most hair from the pubic location.

Laser hair elimination in the darkened location generally normally takes approximately 30minutes and normally ends in long term epilation.

Some ladies spend up to one hour every week eliminating their leg by shaving. This way isn't just time-consuming, but however, frequently contributes to bleeding, bleeding legs. Most frequently razor Hats might be understood within several days whilst the hair regrows. Laser hair removal for thighs may contain the whole legal leg. It typically happens between 45 and 60 seconds to legs to be given the complete leg therapy.

Laser baldness remedies are secure and efficient means for eliminating unwanted hair on any portion of one's entire body. Though several remedies could possibly be required, many people who pick this procedure are quite happy with the outcome.

[dailynewswebsite]

GPT-3: new AI can write like a human but don’t mistake that for thinking – neuroscientist

Bas Nastassia/Shutterstock

Because it was unveiled earlier this 12 months, the brand new AI-based language producing software program GPT-Three has attracted a lot consideration for its capability to provide passages of writing which can be convincingly human-like. Some have even advised that this system, created by Elon Musk’s OpenAI, could also be thought-about or seems to exhibit, one thing like synthetic basic intelligence (AGI), the power to grasp or carry out any process a human can. This breathless protection reveals a pure but aberrant collusion in individuals’s minds between the looks of language and the capability to assume.

Language and thought, although clearly not the identical, are strongly and intimately associated. And a few individuals are likely to assume that language is the last word signal of thought. However language will be simply generated and not using a residing soul. All it takes is the digestion of a database of human-produced language by a pc program, AI-based or not.

Based mostly on the comparatively few samples of textual content obtainable for examination, GPT-Three is able to producing glorious syntax. It boasts a variety of vocabulary, owing to an unprecedentedly massive information base from which it may well generate thematically related, extremely coherent new statements. But, it’s profoundly unable to purpose or present any signal of “considering”.

As an example, one passage written by GPT-Three predicts you can all of a sudden die after consuming cranberry juice with a teaspoon of grape juice in it. That is regardless of the system gaining access to info on the net that grape juice is edible.

One other passage means that to convey a desk via a doorway that’s too small you need to lower the door in half. A system that might perceive what it was writing or had any sense of what the world was like wouldn’t generate such aberrant “options” to an issue.

If the objective is to create a system that may chat, truthful sufficient. GPT-Three reveals AI will definitely result in higher experiences than what has been obtainable till now. And it definitely permits for an excellent chuckle.

But when the objective is to get some considering into the system, then we’re nowhere close to. That’s as a result of AI akin to GPT-Three works by “digesting” colossal databases of language content material to provide, “new”, synthesised language content material.

The supply is language; the product is language. Within the center stands a mysterious black field a thousand occasions smaller than the human mind in capability and nothing prefer it in the best way it really works.

Reconstructing the considering that’s on the origin of the language content material we observe is an inconceivable process, except you research the considering itself. As thinker John Searle put it, solely “machines with inner causal powers equal to these of brains” might assume.

And for all our advances in cognitive neuroscience, we all know deceptively little about human considering. So how might we hope to program it right into a machine?

What mesmerises me is that folks go to the difficulty of suggesting what sort of reasoning that AI like GTP-Three ought to have the ability to interact with. That is actually unusual, and in some methods amusing – if not worrying.

Why would a pc program, based mostly on AI or not, and designed to digest a whole bunch of gigabytes of textual content on many various subjects, know something about biology or social reasoning? It has no precise expertise of the world. It can not have any human-like inner illustration.

It seems that many people fall sufferer of a mind-language causation fallacy. Supposedly there is no such thing as a smoke with out hearth, no language with out thoughts. However GPT-Three is a language smoke machine, completely hole of any precise human trait or psyche. It’s simply an algorithm, and there’s no purpose to count on that it might ever ship any sort of reasoning. As a result of it can not.

Filling within the gaps

A part of the issue is the robust phantasm of coherence we get from studying a passage produced by AI akin to GPT-Three due to our personal talents. Our brains had been created by a whole bunch of 1000’s of years of evolution and tens of 1000’s of hours of organic improvement to extract which means from the world and assemble a coherent account of any scenario.

After we learn a GPT-Three output, our mind is doing a lot of the work. We make sense that was by no means meant, just because the language appears to be like and feels coherent and thematically sound, and so we join the dots. We’re so used to doing this, in each second of our lives, that we don’t even realise it’s occurring.

We relate the factors made to at least one one other and we could even be tempted to assume {that a} phrase is cleverly worded just because the type could also be somewhat odd or stunning. And if the language is especially clear, direct and properly constructed (which is what AI mills are optimised to ship), we’re strongly tempted to deduce sentience, the place there is no such thing as a such factor.

When GPT-3’s predecessor GPT-2 wrote, “I’m focused on understanding the origins of language,” who was doing the speaking? The AI simply spat out an ultra-shrunk abstract of our final quest as people, picked up from an ocean of saved human language productions – our infinite attempting to grasp what’s language and the place we come from. However there is no such thing as a ghost within the shell, whether or not we “converse” with GPT-2, GPT-3, or GPT-9000.

Guillaume Thierry has obtained funding from the European Analysis Council, the British Academy, the Organic and Biotechnological Sciences Analysis Council, the Financial and Social Analysis Council, the Arts and Humanities Analysis Council, and the Arts Council of Wales.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/gpt-3-new-ai-can-write-like-a-human-but-dont-mistake-that-for-thinking-neuroscientist/ via https://growthnews.in

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How To Write A Research Paper

How To Write A Research Paper Begin along with your rephrased thesis statement to remind your reader of the point of your paper. I am questioning if there are any copyright points after we post our revealed papers on ResearchGate? Is there any rule we must always follow or we will merely addContent the papers and hope that we don't actually break the publisher's copyrights. I will be more than pleased to know extra about this. Writing a analysis paper is an ideal way to organize thoughts, craft narratives or make arguments based mostly on analysis, and share your newfound knowledge with the world. Keeping the above paper example in thoughts, most term papers will observe the identical fundamental define. The theme of the module is public understanding of science and the reporting of biochemical analysis utilizing completely different methods and for different audiences. Practical exercises will include presenting of a given topic in numerous forms, which may be a chat, a short article, a poster, a press release or a analysis proposal. A literature report shall be written in addition to a popularized presentation of it. In addition the course is linked to the module Ruotsin kieli . A student with archaeology as their major should begin the Bachelor’s seminar and the drafting of their own Bachelor’s thesis through the autumn time period of their third yr of studies. If you're writing a research paper, you must admit where you have carried out your experimental work. If you have outsourced, give the name of the agency in acknowledgements. If you could have entry to any lab the place you did work as a collaboration, mention it in the acknowledgements part. You will incorporate supply materials into your paper and discuss each supply thoughtfully in relation to your thesis or purpose assertion. When your analysis is full, you will arrange your findings and determine which sources to quote in your paper. You may even have a chance to evaluate the proof you've collected and determine whether or not it helps your thesis, or the focus of your paper. You could decide to adjust your thesis or conduct additional research to ensure that your thesis is properly supported. Knowing how to write an excellent analysis paper is a priceless talent that may serve you well throughout your profession. In the final step of the research writing course of, you'll revise and polish your paper. You would possibly reorganize your paper’s structure or revise for unity and cohesion, guaranteeing that each component in your paper flows into the next logically and naturally. You may even make sure that your paper uses an acceptable and consistent tone. Now you are ready to mix your research findings together with your important analysis of the results in a tough draft. You may even must create a written report of your findings. And because efficient communication is important to any company, employers search to rent individuals who can write clearly and professionally. So I ask how a paper takes very long time like that for the evaluate course of and normally the editors when they invite a reviewer, they ask him to finish the review process inside three weeks. What the easiest way to resolve a problem like that, withdraw the paper or simply submit to a different journal?. The editors in meetings always talk about unethical habits of authors and never speak about their unethical conduct on authors and through the publication process. I want to indicate that also I know authors that submit papers without affiliation when the analysis carried out just isn't supported by any particular project of their current establishment. By the best way, I understand the affiliation is principally an tackle to contact and the important thing level are the projects acknowledged on the acknowledgment section. If it's a review, then their is not any want of giving the main points as you'll be able to entry the literature anyplace. You can simply give your corresponding address and e-mail for individuals to contact you. If there may be not indication there then it should be understood that no particular project is supporting the analysis even whether it is submitted inside the umbrella of an establishment. Yes, you can even submit your analysis along with your private house tackle involved details. If you might be interested in the potential for life on Mars, for instance, you would possibly select to analysis the topic. What will you do, although, when your analysis is complete? You will need a way to put your thoughts together in a logical, coherent manner. You may wish to use the facts you could have realized to create a narrative or to support an argument. And you may need to show the outcomes of your analysis to your friends, your teachers, and even the editors of magazines and journals.

[dstrachan]

DREAM WIFE 'SO WHEN YOU GONNA …. '

Dream Wife = Alice Go, Bella Podpadec and Rakel Mjöll, are back with their second album and as the title suggests, it is a record brimming with adrenaline and playful excitement.  Now I could go on and copy and paste the rest of their press release here but that would be extremely lazy, despite the fact that I fully agree with it. 

I haven't posted many album reviews recently because I felt that I was getting into a rather deep rut: right from the start I made a decision not to write negative reviews – artists and production teams for albums had clearly invested many hours along with copious amounts of blood sweat and tears to produce something that they believed in so what right had I to express my feelings simply because I hadn't liked the result?  My reasons for writing reviews was never about promoting my personal profile – only about seeking to help to highlight great musical talent in the hope of increasing their positive exposure, so I reckoned that if I hadn't been moved to write something positive it would be best to say nothing at all.  After all, I'm one of those who first heard Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' whilst working in the Edinburgh branch of Bruce's Record Shop in Rose Street, and along with other staff, wondered what the hell they were playing at – who on earth was going to want to listen to the ramblings of somebody having a bad trip?  Well we all what happened next back then in 1975!

So, with that principle established I began to realise that my reviews were becoming really quite formulaic and could pretty much be summed up as follows; “I really like this music – because I have listened to such a wide range of great music over the last half century some parts of some of the tracks evoke memories of other, previous musical gems; I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this album and would like to wish the artists all the best for the future and invite you to give them a fair hearing to find out whether or not you agree with my enthusiasm”.  Consequently I came to realise that any further reviews would be quite repetitive and I pretty much took a step back from reviewing, with any reviews essentially being restricted to reporting on gigs that I had enjoyed.  Given the devastating effect of the coronavirus on the live gig scene since March this year, opportunities for attending live gigs have disappeared.  Many excellent live stream performances have been available and I have enjoyed a number of these but haven't got round to trying to review these as yet, perhaps that is because logging on to watch a live stream doesn't come with the same additional experience - driving many miles, parking, perhaps having a meal before the gig, getting into the venue and then driving home doesn't really stack up against remaining at home, sitting by my laptop and clicking a link.  But many thanks to all who have impressed me during these live streams, including Nervous Twitch, Not Now Norman and especially Reely Jiggered whose weekly 'live on the drive' performances outside their house have been exceptionally inspiring given Fiona and Alison McNeil's wonderfully infectious enthusiasm.

So, after that preamble, back to Dream Wife and their second album 'So When You Gonna?'; well I write this on 1st August 2020 shortly after receiving my neon pink vinyl copy of the album, the day that I announced my August 'track of the month' selection as being the opening track 'Sports!'.  I have always been extremely impressed by these three exceptional humans and had intended to begin this post by referring back to my review of their debut album – but it turns out that any such review is entirely in my head as I can find no record of it!  So instead of a brief reference to a TFL P4 bus journey from Lewisham to Brixton, believing that to have already been detailed in my apparently non-existent review of their first album, I will have to explain more fully.

It was Saturday 15th September 2018 and my daughter and I were traveling from Lewisham to Brixton on a route P4 bus when somewhere en-route (possibly the Nunhead area, but my knowledge of London really isn't that good) two striking young women got on and sat beside each other, directly in front of us.  Although they didn't speak to each other I sensed a bit of mutual chemistry and they seemed to be very pre-occupied.  I did actually wonder if they might also be heading to the O2 Academy for the Garbage gig that we were heading for but thought no more of it, especially when they got off a few stops before us.  We then went for a truly enjoyable ramen meal in 'Nanban', Coldharbour Lane.  Later, in the venue I watched with amazement as the support band (until then we had known nothing about them) came on stage – the guitarist and bass player looked very familiar – they were the two who I remembered from the bus!  Bella and Alice were then joined by Rakel and we were subsequently enthralled by a truly exciting, energetic and inspired performance as we wallowed in our first experience of Dream Wife (the Garbage set was excellent and entralling too, but that's really not the focus of this review).  Later, in the wee small hours of the following Sunday morning, as I lay on the sofa bed in my daughter's flat, unable to get to sleep as I recalled the gig, I got on-line and ordered a copy of Dream Wife's album on blood spattered vinyl.  For my review of that amazing album please refer back to my intro regarding the repetitiveness of my reviews!

Dream Wife have always been outspoken about holding up other women and non-binary people in the creative industries, but these aren’t just words or sentiments.  With a gender divide in music production currently estimated at around ninety-five percent male to five percent female, the band are proud to have worked with an all-female recording team for 'So When You Gonna...', including producer and mixer Marta Salogni (Björk, Holly Herndon, FKA Twigs) engineer Grace Banks (David Wrench, Marika Hackman) and mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Princess Nokia, Alex G, Beach House).

“It was a way of us practicing what we preach,” says Alice, “It felt like an honour to be able to deliver this baby with these three amazing midwives.” “Put your money where your mouth is!” adds Rakel, quoting the lyrics of “Sports!”

In the first week following its release, 'So When You Gonna...' was the only one in the UK top 20 chart that was not backed by a major label, in addition they were the only one band with an album entirely produced by a womxn.

As the band posted, “the ONLY band/musician in the top 20 that is not backed by a major label. The ONLY band/musician on that list who’s album was entirely produced by a womxn. Let alone had a whole team of womxn behind it.

Which is messed up... it’s 2020 ppl?”

In addition 'So When You Gonna...' was the album of the day at BBC Radio 6 Music for 7th July, and it was Rough Trade ‘s album of the month.

Around that time the band offered people a chance to win 'Bender', the loving member of their tour family; a customized silver Burns marquee which had played probably 300+ shows with the band and was a big part of the writing and recording of both their albums.  In the end Elina Lin was announced as the winner and she decided to gift the guitar to Girls Rock London – much respect to Elina :-)

So, after all that, what about the actual album that I'm supposed to me reviewing?  Well, it's truly a breath of fresh air.  The selection of eleven tracks is absolutely inspired, and pleasingly varied in content and style whilst simultaneously maintaining a coherent sound and identity.  I refer to my earlier comments about my overall approach to publishing album reviews, but will add that having seen the band's videos does help to add to my enjoyment of this album. Rakel's voice readily evokes images of her cheeky,  infectious smile, especially when during 'Sports!' she asks, “do you even play this sport”?  I was also extremely taken by the reerence to Kylie in 'Hold On Me', some more pretentious bands might have viewed such a reference as a step too far, but given the make up of my show playlists, I have absolutely no problem at all with this and applaud them for their honesty.  In addition the use of archive footage of much young band members for the 'Hasta La Vista' video is really quite inspired.

There are some tremendously high energy of tracks such as my 'track of the month' selection 'Sports!', the title track 'So When You Gonna …' and 'Hasta La Vista', and these are masterfully counterpointed with such intensely emotive ones such as 'Temporary', about miscarriage and 'After The Rain' with it's hauntingly intense vocals about abortion.   This album covers all bases and I genuinely believe that it deserves to be given a fair hearing.

In summary I truly feel that any future reviews should probably be more along the lines of. “if you like most of the music that I play in my radio shows, then please believe me when I say that you really should check out ….......”

One other spur for writing this and is that I have selected the album’s opening track, ‘Sports!’ as my ‘track of the month’ for August and am just about to give it its first play.  Perhaps in future I should aim to focus mainly on covering my 'track of the month selections which I am very pleased to play around half way through the second hour of every one of my shows.

Track listing:

1/ Sports!

2/ Hasta La Vista

3/ Homesick

4/ Validation

5/ Temporary

6/ U Do U

7/ RH RN

8/ Old Flame

9/ So When You Gonna

10/ Hold On Me

11/ After The Rain

[hawkofflight]

Fawn

Aight so I wrote a lil thing?? I’ll probably regret it, lol. But here it is, people asked me to make it prompt a story, here we go. If you like it maybe I’ll add more? Tell me!! It’s loosely based on @flyingrottenhannistag by @camilleflyingrotten 💓but only Will is a stag. @he-s-dead-jim @hannebalism @hannigram-hell @can ~~~

The day Will fell was like any other. Cool, crisp, misty. It was a lovely morning, his feet softly padding under crushed leaves, branches rustling out of his den. There was fog, sprouts, and it wasn’t too late in the morning to miss the last glimpse of sunrise. Will always woke at this time, whether he’d make it out of his den, soft nest, was another story. He’d never really grown out of that fawn like phase of daytime naps and sleeping in. Unknown to Will, it was deer season. No one else was truly like him, no one could warn him of the dangers. He’d known several other fawns in his childhood who he’d play with, his parents disappearing from his life over ten years ago. What would that make him? Twenty years old maybe? He rarely thought about it, much too lost in his own head to truly process anymore or become lonely- especially with the friends he had now. Birds, foxes. No one else like himself though. No one with antlers sprouting from hair like his curls, no one with soft doe ears and a completely bipedal body. No one with hands like his that could do delicately trace, grab, hold and create. No creature in the forest who had such powerful thighs, calves and feet. He was fine with this, learned to live, to thrive. It seemed everlasting. Like a dream, that was quiet until this morning when another door opened. Quite loudly. It was an honest mistake on Hannibal Lecter’s part, a rustle in the bushes and a flash of antlers, you shoot. He wanted fresh venison anyway- the local mailman had shown himself to be quite polite. He shot, waited as per usual. His ears rang, and his head snapped around when he heard a sudden, pained, fearful shriek, and he knew it was in some sort of horrific pain. He’d heard it more times than he would ever confess. It was like a wounded animal, but also quite human like- only human vocal chords could cry out in such a pitch. Hannibal knew that if it indeed was a person, he’d be in- for lack of a better term- deep shit. The gun was put on safety and clattered to the ground in seconds, hearing soft gasps and whimpers, louder and louder. Guilt pooled deep in Hannibal’s stomach, (which quite frankly didn’t often happen) stumbling towards the noise faster and faster. Will wasn’t sure what had happened. There had been smoke, he had smelled it, he was simply trying to find the source when there was a sharp clap, then not even a second later, he was screaming in surprise at first, then agony, falling to the forest floor. Something hurt him, something had hurt him badly and he felt it blast through him, it felt as if his flesh and muscle through his thigh was slowly being set to fire from the inside out. Huge eyes frantically darted to search for any place to find shelter, crimson matting the patch of fur by his groin sand inner thigh, the bullet had struck right below his hip. There was nothing he could do, the poor stag could hardly stand let alone run. Something was behind him, leaves rustling. Footsteps.

Whimpers involuntarily escaped his lips, his body stumbling, and that’s when Hannibal caught sight of Will. Never before in his life had he seen such a strange, fascinating animal…animal? It was more human than deer, but had explicit stag like features, from the rack of antlers to the lamb like ears hanging in place of ears like Hannibal’s own. He wasn’t clothed, futility attempting to walk along. Hannibal was approaching rapidly, and Will was accepting his fate. It was true, the myths he was told when he was small. There were people who would come and take little fawns away, but he… he wasn’t a little fawn. As best as he could without falling over, the stag man looked behind him, and that was one wrong move. With sticky blood pouring down his thigh and hip, his foot hit a rock and Will fell with a heavy force. The collision with the ground was rough and definitely made contact with his thigh, evoking a shrill, pained squeal and near sob like sound. Hannibal was absolutely perplexed. Will couldn’t do anything but cry out when firm hands grabbed his back, pulling him. Will didn’t even bother looking back before feebly kicking his good leg and thrashing to escape the grip, but it wasn’t any use. He was caught. Hannibal noted this…thing…was shaking, clearly in fear. Lifting this deer creature wasn’t difficult though it was a dead weight, all Hannibal cared about at this point was getting it back to the cabin. Soft curls tucked under Hannibal’s chin, and the spilling of blood covered his hands and parka. It was as if Will had already accepted his fate, longing for it to be over. There was no doubt he was in agony, nearly numbed. Every second felt like years to Will, and part of his antler was most definitely broken off from the fall, sending a dull throb through the area it used to be. Hannibal eventually looked down when they reached the cabin, still believing his eyes must be tricking him, though here he was. Will was barely coherent or conscious, sniffling every so often or sucking in short breaths softly. Heat suddenly hit him and he realized he was inside- inside one of those buildings that he was never supposed to go near- holy shit though, it felt so much nicer than the air outside for his injured body. The next thing he knew he was on a plush surface, a deep, steady accented voice speaking to him, and another sharp jab of pain startled him back into reality. Will twisted his body, trying to kick, of course again failing. Pressure over the wound, burning aching pressure. Something about “disinfectant”, whatever that meant, he knew vaguely this language. It had been spoken to him when he was a child. Thickly accented “no” and “don’t kick.”, as well as “I’m trying to help you.” Could be understood by Will, who eventually calmed down just enough for Hannibal to wrap his leg, the bullet having left his body, clearly, as there was an exit wound. Will was panting, and he was obviously growing tired, so Hannibal waited.

He waited and studied him as his- oh Jesus, he was already becoming possessive- deer drifted off. Whether he slept or passed out, the doctor didn’t know, but he definitely was out like a light. It did give Hannibal time to study his features, absolutely fascinating. Plush lips, all human except for key features like that of a stag. Antlers, fur slightly around his chest and groin, floppy doe ears, but the human like qualities that no doubt wooed Hannibal a little. He could already tell that the boy had huge eyes, and his lips slightly parted. His build was a human average, a bit shorter than Hannibal himself, slightly stockier but that wasn’t saying much. Hannibal did have a rather lean body. Shivering soon set into Will’s body, and the other couldn’t bring himself to just leave him alone like this, so the cabin’s living room was the best choice. Hannibal had completely forgotten about the antler lamp and deer hide rug. Will was laid gently on the couch, a fleece draped over him, also to sort of protect his modesty. The doctor wasn’t going to lie to himself. This thing was a very attractive being, but was the intellect nearly the same? Will slept all night, Hannibal eventually retiring to bed around eleven, though he did want to keep a close eye on this deer boy. He needed his own rest and to recover from such a long day. The morning- or well… vaguely morning, at wee hours Hannibal woke to soft cries coming from downstairs the loft, obviously trying to be stifled. The entire previous day came rushing back, and he was trying to be convinced that it was all a dream. Carefully he pulled on his robe, the navy blue falling over his shoulders and tied shut. Will only noticed him when a weight shifted beside him, heavy and nearly comforting in his dazed and confused state. He was cold, terrified of the hides and antlers he saw. Why couldn’t this human just kill him already? Overcome with a sudden desire to protect, which surprised him, he untied his robe slowly, carefully draping it over Will. He looked up, big doe eyes meeting Hannibal’s. “What is your name?” Hannibal spoke slowly and watched the other pull the robe closer like a blanket. That shaky voice whispered “Will.” Deep, smooth, soft and fluid. So he could at least vaguely understand. “Alright Will, I’m not going to hurt you, do you understand?” Hannibal again spoke slowly, gently and hesitantly moving a tad bit closer, hand coming to touch Will’s shoulder. To Hannibal’s surprise, he didn’t flinch, just sort of leaned in to any comfort he could get. The human couldn’t deny how his heart melt in that moment. That lovely, ethereal being accepting the comfort. What then shocked him was the nuzzle he received, will careful not to hit the pretty human with his antlers. “Thank… thank-” he couldn’t finish. “Shh….” Hannibal hushed, letting Will cling to his arm, reassuring him, “Everything is going to be okay.”

[dfroza]

to be made new.

for the heart to be clothed in grace, carrying a promise of a new body as well. this is a pure treasure that is only found in Love.

and it begins in friendship, just as seen in this line from Today’s reading of the Scriptures:

God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 5:19 (The Message)

and to conserve an ancient Letter that illuminates this is of significance, which is the reading we see clearly Today for the first of march now in 2020 in the Letter of 2nd Corinthians:

We know that if our earthly house—a mere tent that can easily be taken down—is destroyed, we will then live in an eternal home in the heavens, a building crafted by divine—not human—hands. Currently, in this tent of a house, we continue to groan and ache with a deep desire to be sheltered in our permanent home because then we will be truly clothed and comfortable, protected by a covering for our current nakedness. The fact is that in this tent we anxiously moan, fearing the naked truth of our reality. What we crave above all is to be clothed so that what is temporary and mortal can be wrapped completely in life. The One who has worked and tailored us for this is God Himself, who has gifted His Spirit to us as a pledge toward our permanent home.

In light of this, we live with a daring passion and know that our time spent in this body is also time we are not present with the Lord. The path we walk is charted by faith, not by what we see with our eyes. There is no doubt that we live with a daring passion, but in the end we prefer to be gone from this body so that we can be at home with the Lord. Ultimately it does not matter whether we are here or gone; our purpose stays fixed, and that is to please Him. In time we will all stand in judgment before the throne of the Anointed, the Liberating King, to receive what is just for our conduct (whether it be good or bad) while we lived in this temporary body.

So because we stand in awe of the one true Lord, we make it our aim to convince all people of the truth of the gospel; God sees who we really are, and I hope in some way that you’ll look deeply into your consciences to see us as well. But we hope you understand that we are not trying to prove ourselves to you or pull together a résumé that will impress you. We are simply hoping that you will find a sense of joy in connecting with us. And when you are approached by others (who may value appearances more than the heart) asking questions about us, you will be able to offer an answer for them. If we seem out of control or act like fanatics, it is for God. But if we act in a coherent and reasonable way, it is for you. You see, the controlling force in our lives is the love of the Anointed One. And our confession is this: One died for all; therefore, all have died. He died for us so that we will all live, not for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose from the dead. Because of all that God has done, we now have a new perspective. We used to show regard for people based on worldly standards and interests. No longer. We used to think of the Anointed the same way. No longer. Therefore, if anyone is united with the Anointed One, that person is a new creation. The old life is gone—and see—a new life has begun! All of this is a gift from our Creator God, who has pursued us and brought us into a restored and healthy relationship with Him through the Anointed. And He has given us the same mission, the ministry of reconciliation, to bring others back to Him. It is central to our good news that God was in the Anointed making things right between Himself and the world. This means He does not hold their sins against them. But it also means He charges us to proclaim the message that heals and restores our broken relationships with God and each other.

So we are now representatives of the Anointed One, the Liberating King; God has given us a charge to carry through our lives—urging all people on behalf of the Anointed to become reconciled to the Creator God. He orchestrated this: the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 5 (The Voice)

and this line that points to the eternal hope we hold mirrored in The Passion Translation:

And this is no empty hope, for God himself is the one who has prepared us for this wonderful destiny. And to confirm this promise, he has given us the Holy Spirit, like an engagement ring, as a guarantee.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 5:5 (The Passion Translation)

and the paired chapter of Genesis 34 records a tragic event when a woman named Dinah was raped and then the man who did it sought to marry her, to make amends with her family for the crime. which he did make amends with Jacob her father, although her brothers took revenge into their own hands.

so much crime has been committed upon beautiful earth in its tragic History. so much pain and heartache. and Love promises to make things right, to cleanse it all in A grand end of time.

(Anew, genesis)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Sunday, march 1 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs