#And they did have some basic intuition like having been in a place before or knowing a place

[driftingballoons]

Despite losing their memories, I always imagined Hero had some instinctual feelings regarding the world. Namely, that somehow something simple like a sunrise was a rare treasure that they never got to experience before

[hogwartslegacyreactions2]

Hey, glad to see you're back! Are you up for some professor reactions (plus the usual students) to MC getting themselves in a dangerous situation to protect them?

HLC REACT TO MC PROTECTING THEM FROM DANGER

A/N: ENDEAVOURRRRRRRRR I missed you 😭 This was a BEEFY ask so it's under the cut

WARNING: some violence, implied death

MC was enjoying a well earned day off in Hogsmeade. They were in conversation with a friend when the whispers of ancient magic interrupted them mid sentence. It was a powerful intuition granted to them by their unique gift. Something was coming. Something fast. Something powerful. They needed to act, now!

MC grabbed their friend and dove to the side. A bright green beam of light missed them both by inches, breaking the cobbled street on impact. MC was on their feet quickly, wand in hand. They spot a lone masked wizard peeking over one of the rooftops. The masked wizard's eyes widen in realization that's he's been spotted, and he tried to scurry away. It was already too late.

Wordlessly MC commands their magic to grab the wizard and pull him from the roof. The wizard helplessly tumbles to the ground. He fumbles his wand and as he tries to crawl to it, MC holds it in place with their boot. The wizard helplessly looks up at MC, defeated. MC keeps their wand trained on the masked wizard until the aurors come to take him away.

~~~

SEBASTIAN SALLOW: His travels with MC and adept dueling skills has him up on his feet as fast as MC. Too bad MC's ancient magic is faster than his confringo. Then again, perhaps an exploding fireball wouldn't be the best spell to use in a populated area. He digresses.

Instead he takes the time to admire MC's powerful stance over the dark wizard that is so pathetically laying at their feet. You'd swear they were the hero out of some storybook. (Lovers or not, MC fascinates him)

OMINIS GAUNT: Perhaps half a second before MC threw him to the ground, he heard it. Death. The fast approaching silence. He's heard it enough in his own lifetime to know it's haunting aura anywhere. He's shaken but stands with MC as the aurors drag the offender away. "Thank you." He says quietly. He needs to be taken back to Hogwarts. He's looking a bit paler than normal.

ANNE SALLOW: Dark wizards are people she wants nothing to do with after being cured. She has her wand out but half hides behind MC until the dark wizard is out of sight. "Wish I had reflexes like yours. Would have saved myself a lot of trouble. How about a butterbeer? My treat."

IMELDA REYES: "What the bloody h-!?" She's up quickly but the attacker was on the ground before she could even finish her sentence. She storms up and kicks the wizard in the face, breaking his nose. MC has to drag her away from him. "That's for ruining my afternoon, you bloody git!" She shrugs MC off. "And you. Next time you want to push me to the ground, at least buy me dinner first."

NATSAI ONAI: She's quick enough to get a basic cast off as MC yanks the wizard off the roof. She pats MC on the shoulder at the wizard is taken away. "Very impressive timing. Even knowing what you're capable of, you still manage to surprise me. I'd say you've earned a drink after that excitement."

GARRETH WEASLEY: When he sees MC has the situation handled, he concerns himself with the pouch of delicate flower buds that were crushed by him landing on them. 100 galleons down the drain. He silently curses and shoves the pouch in his pocket. He's grumpy for the rest of the day.

LEANDER PREWETT: With his luck, MC didn't just push him aside to the ground. No, they were standing next to the square fountain when the attacker shot at them. He clamors out cold and drenched. He was not looking forward to the walk back to Hogwarts in his waterlogged shoes. "Thanks for saving my life." He says as he rings out his robe. "But did you HAVE push me in the direction of the fountain?"

AMIT THAKKAR: He gets up next to MC and casts protego around them both in case the wizard tries to do anything else. Even without a wand, they could still be dangerous. He only lowers it after the rogue wizard is taken away. "That was incredibly quick timing on your part. You weren't even looking in his direction. Are you sure you're not at least part legilimence?"

EVERETT CLOPTON: He's in shock. Someone just tried to KILL them! He doesn't even think to stand up until MC turns to him and asks if he's okay. He swallows hard and shakily stands. "Yeah...yeah, I'm alright. How in Merlin's name did you do that? How did you know?" He asks questions to distract from the panic.

POPPY SWEETING: She doesn't wait for the aurors. She takes a small round white object from her pocket and rolls it towards the surrended wizard. He looks down at it, confused. She smiles. "Do you know what queen acromantualas do if they find you're in possession of one of their eggs?" The wizard's eyes widen and he gets up to flee, only to run right into the aurors. He pleads for his life, trying to get as far away from the object as he can. She calmly picks up the harmless stone she had collected as a pretty little paperweight and puts it back in her bag. "Well, I'm starved. Care for a meal at the Three Broomsticks?"

ELEAZAR FIG: He was going to feel that trip to ground in the morning, he was getting too old for this. "Well done, MC. You'd think with Harlow gone, these goons would take the hint that you're not to be trifled with. Let me buy you a butterbeer."

MATILDA WEASLEY: She's concerned for the overall safety of the citizens of Hogsmeade, as well as the safety of students visiting. There are safeguards in place to prevent things like this from happening, how did he get around them? She briefly thanks MC but goes with the aurors. She wants to know if there's something more going on.

AESOP SHARP: His wand is out and he fires from the ground as the wizard is yanked from the roof. When the wizard surrenders, he accios the dark wizard's wand and snaps it. If anyone asks, it broke in the fall. He doesn't say much after the incident. There's a darkness to his eyes. Seeing a dark wizard face-to-face like that brought up memories he thought long suppressed.

DINAH HECAT: Her body may be artificially aged, but her muscles still have memory. She tucks and rolls from the dive and fires a spell as MC pulls the wizard from the roof. Their teamwork looks so well choreographed, you'd swear these situation was staged. When she and MC get butterbeer afterwards, she slips a bit of whiskey into her own drink.

MIRABEL GARLICK: She's quick on her feet and is checking MC for injuries. She fusses over them even after the threat is long gone. She's also glad no one questioned the chomping cabbage that mysteriously appeared and clamped down on the wizard's ass.

ABRAHAM RONEN: "You know, if you decide to pursue a career in becoming an auror, I will personally write a letter of recommendation." He's not kidding.

CUTHBERT BINNS: He's a ghost. He really doesn't know what MC thought they would accomplish by attempting to push him. Good job dealing with that vagabond, though.

BAI HOWIN: "A dark wizard? In Hogsmeade?" She's upset this could happen in the first place. She walks with aurors to tell them off. They need to do better. Letting a thug in like that is unacceptable, ESPECIALLY after Harlow.

CHIYO KOGAWA: She never hits the ground. MC lunges at her and she jumps back. When the death curse hits the ground, she has her wand out and fires back, "Glacius!" The wizard freezes solid before smashing into the ground. She winces. She hadn't expected MC to pull them off the roof at the same time. "...let's not discuss this incident with the Headmaster. That's paperwork I'd rather not deal with."

MUDIWA ONAI: "Now I understand why Natty never stops talking about you. That was an impressive display of warrior cunning. You should consider studying abroad. The Masters at Uagadou would be fascinated by your abilities."

SATYAVATI SHAH: She's a little disheveled but fixes her appearance promptly. She looks down at the dark wizard with utter distain. "Such filth wandering the streets of Hogsmeade. I'm going to have a long talk with the barrier keeper about this. I suggest you get back to Hogwarts, MC. And thank you... Your quick action saved my life. Your deed will not be soon forgotten."

PHINEAS NIGELLUS BLACK: He didn't even notice the attacker. He's entirely outraged over MC suddenly shoving him to the ground and ruining his perfectly good suit. He doesn't know why this random man is being arrested, nor does he really care. "This was an Armoony Original!! Ten points from your house!"

[max1461]

Here's my other problem with tumblr discourse: even when I make the context/intended interpretation of a post really explicit, people ignore this context and respond to it in like... for lack of a more charitable term, a discoursebrained way.

So a while ago I made a post about some ethical intuition I had, and at the top I put a huge disclaimer which said something to the effect of "this is just an expression of my feelings, it's not meant to be a philosophically airtight position, please don't take it as such", followed by a readmore and then the actual post. Why did I do that? Because I figured that if I didn't, people would nitpick it in various technical ways that missed the basic point. Lo and behold several people still did that, and when I replied basically restating the disclaimer, one of them said "oh I didn't even see that. Well I think if you post a half-baked thought online I retain the right to nitpick it".

I guess that's true. My blog is public. But the point is that I want to use my blog for certain things and not others, right, that's what I'm attempting to do. And people seem actively resistant to my attempts to guide the discussion on my blog in certain directions, which makes blogging less enjoyable. Of course some people will always do that, that fact doesn't bother me, but it feels like the irrelevant/point-missing discourse so often overshadows the meaningful discourse that I start to feel less of a desire to put in the effort.

Like, the point of issuing that disclaimer was to say, as explicitly as I could manage, "I am trying to have a discussion about feelings and intuitions here, I am aware there might be ways these intuitions are not fully consistent, but that is not the discussion I'm trying to have". But even so explicit an attempt to specify a conversation topic does not work; the discourse machine demands a certain kind of engagement and that is the engagement every post will get no matter what.

I don't want to put the person who missed my disclaimer on blast: it's honestly an error that anyone could make and on its own it's no big deal. If said person is reading this: you didn't do anything wrong and I am not mad at you, to be 100% clear.

It's not a one-off mistake that bothers me, it's the fact that this is how discussions on here so often go that putting in the effort to discuss things productively often feels wasted.

Another example of this that... if you go through my #society tag, you will see a lot of uncertainly in my phrasing. You will see me say a lot of "it seems like we should..." and "we should find some mechanism to..." and so on and so forth. Why? Because, as I've mentioned before, I've gotten a lot out of political discourse on here. When it's good, I actually find it quite good. But it's good when it has a constructive or collaborative tone, when I am bouncing ideas or thoughts back and forth with someone. Generally I am trying to invite this kind of discourse.

Sometimes, again, I say it really explicitly. I don't have them off the top of my head, but I know there are quite a lot of #society posts where I've said something quite straightforwardly to the effect of "here are some niche social/political issues I've been contemplating, does anyone have any ideas for how to respond to them". Obviously there's a spectrum in how explicit I am about this, but even when I'm really clear, most of the responses I get are still "discoursebrained", in the sense that they seem antagonistic and generally more interested in saying "X guys are cool and Y guys are lame" than in productively engaging with a set of ideas.

Even if you disagree with my claims or my premises, there is a way to state that which adds to a conversation instead of shutting down a line of inquiry. I am always trying to invite this type of mutually-productive discussion, and I so rarely achieve it.

Over the years my methods have changed. I come from a background of like, forums for specific nerd interests. Those places are plenty contentious, full of plenty of drama and disagreement. But ultimately, I always still felt that productive discussion was valued above destructive discussion; that because we were all united in a common goal of [doing our nerdy hobby], a comment where you build on someone's idea to say something useful to others or to introduce a new insight was generally valued above one where you just said "you're wrong for such and such reasons, hah!" or even "you're right for such and such reasons".

Coming from this background, I assumed this would also be the case on tumblr, and that I would not have to put in any extra effort to invite this sort of discourse. Alas, this was not true; even long and thought-out replies from respected discoursers often just amount to "here are the guys I agree with and here are the guys I disagree with, for such and such reasons". This is lame and boring and not appealing to me.

So over the years I've tried to be more and more explicit about what types of discussion I am trying to have, I've tried to tee up the sort of interactions I want as much as possible, but it hasn't really worked.

The problem is not strictly the quality or measuredness of the responses or their tone or anything like that. These are the things most people focus on when they critique the discourse, but I think they miss the point. The problem is that most responses don't seem to be intended to advance a mutually-productive discussion, they don't build on the base of what they are responding to, they just make various assertions and statements of allegiance in the vicinity of the material they are responding to and call it a day.

Maybe this is too harsh. I'm sure I do this too. And it's not always bad. Sometimes I use someone else's post openly as a jumping off point to elaborate my own ideas (although I try to be careful about this, and also make it somewhat clear that I am doing it), and this can be productive. I do actually want to hear people's ideas. It's not any single instance of these things I'm complaining about, it's just that discoursey responses seem to drown out all other types of discussion, even when you are really clear about what type of discussion you are trying to have.

So that's my complaint.

[general-sleepy]

Just plain babbling about shorthand

Since reading Dracula might be the first time or one of the first times that people have heard about shorthand, I thought I'd take this thin excuse to infodump. Because I find it fascinating and want to share. (Warning ahead of time, watch out for how many darn times I say "for example" in this post).

For some background, shorthand systems of writing have existed for millennia, but in the English-speaking world, the two most common and well-established systems of shorthand are Pitman and Gregg. Odds are that the Harkers are writing in Pitman. It's the older system (created in 1837) and is to this day more common in England and the Commonwealth. Gregg is more common in America and was introduced in 1888, either only a few years after or a few years before Dracula takes place. There were also numerous other less popular systems floating around at the time.

Pitman and Gregg and most other shorthand systems are phonetic. (Teeline is a more modern shorthand system based on a simplified alphabet, which is also quite popular). Simply put, each sound is reduced to one stroke of the pen. In Gregg, for example, the sound "k" (which includes the letter "c) is a medium-sized forward arch, "a" is a large circle, and "ch" is a short, downward diagonal line. So, instead of writing "catch" you just combine the symbols for "k-a-ch." Instead of "become" you just write "b-k-m." (These "words" are known as outlines).

Some shapes represent multiple sounds. For example, a small circle stands for the vowels in "bit," "bet," and "beet." A large circle stands for the vowels in "cap" and "cape." This might sound like it would be confusing rather than simplifying, but it's generally clear from the context.

There are a bunch of other means which allow you to write more quickly. Common words are further shorted into "brief forms." For example, "the" is represented by "th," "after" by "a-f," and "were" by "e-r." Some common endings or beginnings are also abbreviated, so that "sh" at the end of a word can stand in for "-tion" and "f" can mean "for-" or "fore-" at the beginning of a word. Thus, "Permission" is "p-r-m-sh" and "forgive" is "f-g-v." Common phrases can be combined into a single outlines. For example, for "to be" you can write "t-b" instead of "t-u[space]b." "I have not been able" can be "a-v-n-b-a." (The large circle "a" is the brief form for the word "I" in one of the rare quirks of Gregg that isn't basically intuitive).

Pitman Shorthand is very similar to Gregg (or, more accurately, Gregg is similar to Pitman). Other than using different symbols (for example, in Pitman "k" is a short forward line) Pitman differs from Gregg mostly by its use of the thickness of strokes to differentiate sounds. For example, "g" is also a short forward line, with the only difference being that the line for "g" is drawn thicker than "k."

I learned shorthand absolutely because of Dracula, though for convenience I learned Gregg. As of right now, I'm pretty out-of-practice, and honestly I was never particularly fast. (At my best, I probably was on average as fast writing shorthand as cursive longhand; I think faster than printing, though).

If you're at all interested, I really recommend learning some form of shorthand. It's useful in note-taking or when you don't want people to be able to read your writing (if, you know, you're kidnapped by a vampire or trying to write fanfic at work). It's also just a fun hobby and a nifty skill to be able to say you have.

In my opinion, if you want to learn shorthand, Gregg Simplified is a solid option, because the materials are accessible and the system is a good middle-ground between easiness to learn and quickness to write. I taught myself just following along with the Gregg Shorthand Manual Simplified. The book is broken up into 67 short "lessons." I did one or two lessons a week, maybe a few hours of work, and I was "fluent" in less than a year. I also bought a Gregg Simplified Dictionary, but all you need is the Manual.

(Note that the manual is written both assuming you're probably some kind a secretary and in the fifties. So, you'll learn brief forms for super-useful phrases like "dear sir" or "remit." For practice, they have you read and copy these sample letters in shorthand, and it's almost hilarious how almost all the letters to men are about business matters and the letters to women are advertising sales. There is one spectacular letter that's a man writing to a newspaper to cancel his subscription, because he's moved into a house in the suburbs with another man who gets the same paper. I'm legit tempted to go through the manual again just to find that letter.)

Fun fact! The fastest shorthand stenographer ever recorded wrote faster than the fastest typist.

Also fun fact! It's not uncommon for individual people to invent their own brief forms based on words that they use commonly. So, Jonathan might have been writing "c-a-r-p" (or the Pitman equivalent) for "Carpathian" or Mina writing "t-b" for "Whitby" or both of them writing "v-a-m" for vampire. And I'll bet credits to navy beans they had specific brief forms for their favorite trains.

[knightofhylia]

Basic Spirit Contact Etiquette

We’ve all seen some sort of ghost-hunting show in our lives, whether you were an avid Ghost Adventures fan or looking for scary things to watch on Halloween.

Here I’m whipping up a guide based on my 10+ years working with spirits on how to approach spirits respectfully and conduct yourself during contact whether in your own home or another location. This is focused on the types of spirits you may encounter while on a ghost investigation.

Before Contact

Consider who you are bringing with you.  Take into account the location you are going to. If you are in the south investigating a plantation with a crew of all white men it might get a little tense and spirits will probably not like to respond, or respond harshly. Most of the time when shows actually think about this is if they are going to a prison or something and they bring girls to attract ghosts. Think about the spiritual background of the people attending. People of different backgrounds will react to and attract different types of entities. 

Bring an offering. No one wants to do anything for free, so, give a little ‘thanks’ for the spirit's time and energy by bringing a gift. This can be almost anything! Do your research if you are investigating a specific location. Time periods, regions, specific people, and general areas can give you a clue on what to give.  If you really don’t have much info, there are some good (generally) universal offerings. 

Energy

Spirits need energy to manifest like I need energy to manifest myself out of bed sometimes. There are a couple of different ways to do this. 

Candles are a great, cheap, easy way to offer a little energy to the spirits. PLEASE USE CAREFULLY. Make sure it has a stable support such as a holder if its a tapered candle or bowl if it is a pillar candle. Place a plate underneath to catch any wax runoff. I’m not going to go deep into candle colours, but the ones I personally use are purple for psychic boost, white for general and cleansing, black for protection, or blue for insight. 

Crystals and rocks are a very common offering as well. This doesn’t have to be fancy, honestly a little quartz goes a long way sometimes. I personally have a pouch that has my stones for spirit contact specifically that I take with me to help me connect. I’m not going to go super extensive into the meanings of the crystals, you can find that other places, but these are my go to:

Labradorite: good for intuition and heightening senses

Spirit Bomb Quartz: I’m gonna be honest, I bought this mainly because it looked like a kidney stone I had, and it's one of Yusuke Urameshi's powers. But! It’s quartz so it’s always good to have around.

Azurite: good for mentality clarity and receiving messages. 

Lapis Lazuli: My favourite stone <3. Good for connecting with inner guidance and intuition. 

Music is great for bringing in spirits. Music is this incredible source of energy that carries over despite language, time period, or place. We all love music! Music can change a room in a minute. With music you are transported to a different time and place. This is great especially for spirits from older periods as it brings out a lot of nostalgia and emotion. Music also helps you get into the right headspace for communication as well.

Special objects are used all the time in ghost shows. Personal belongings such as jewelry, books, or clothes work well. Toys and crayons for children have been known to get them to come out and play. Things from the person’s time period or hobbies they did can help draw them in as well.

Food

Food is what gives us energy, and that doesn’t change much in the spirit realm either. Some good basic foods to bring are things like bread, fruit, baked goods, tea, or alcohol. I've found unless there is specific trauma around it, most spirits accept alcohol/cigarettes. Consider the time period or region of your location. 

If you are investigating an old house or mansion, what food was popular at the time? What food was popular in the region? Try and give something that is familiar or would be a treat for them. Crack open a cold one for the spirits in your haunted bar, maybe offer up some peanuts or chips to bring the people in. Invite the lady of the mansion some nice tea or cakes and a chat. 

If investigating a hospital/mental ward/prison, consider bringing something from the outside world. From my personal experience there is nothing someone wants more after a long stint in the hospital than a big burger. These people died eating the blandest shit imaginable (if they weren’t starved) so try something they wouldn’t have been able to have before. You don’t have to cook a wagyu beef steak, but cookies or sweets could go a long way in winning the favour of more shy or angry spirits. Bring milk and cookies to the children’s ward for a treat! Give the kids the sugar they couldn’t have in this realm!

What do spirits do with food?

Think about all the energy you put into cooking! All the stirring, kneading, heating, cooling, oils, herbs, meats, water, all has energy that gets combined and condensed when food is made. In my mortal opinion, spirits can feed off of this energy like we eat food. This is why I think some food offerings shrivel quicker. The energy from the cow used to produce the milk is carried down through the milking, pasteurization, packaging, distribution and receiving of one single bottle, gaining more energy each step of the way. Machinery used to make food feeds into that energy as well as the people who make it. You ever buy food and can taste the energy of the overworked underpaid worker who made it? Homemade items are usually the best, but store bought works just the same. 

I also believe that the spirit can manifest to physically eat the food. This could either be an apparition or manifesting in the form of an animal. 

If the food is store bought I might suggest cleansing it spiritually before offering it. 

What to do with the food?

There are a couple options here. The easiest one is just leave it and let nature take its course. Liquids are usually poured on the ground or drain. If you are not on your own property I would suggest other methods such as burying(if it won't harm the wildlife) or (SAFELY) burning. I would use a big fireproof bowl such as a glass or metal mixing bowl (probably best if it’s not the one you use in the kitchen). If you are able to leave it overnight and come back to it, take note of any changes to the food! I like to keep my offerings out overnight but if it is going to spoil or stink then whenever you are done/they are done is fine.

Incense

Fire is an amazing element! Prometheus ain’t getting his liver eaten eternally for nothing! Fire can turn herbs and resins into magic in a flash. There’s a reason incense has been used for centuries in ritual practices all over the world. This can be done with sticks, cones, resins, bundles or loose. If you are going to burn incense PLEASE do this carefully as well.

Herbs and plants I usually burn are mugwort, wormwood, damiana, sandalwood, lavender, and cedar. This can be done either as a blend or individually. These are usually burned on a charcoal disk or as a stick if I can find one. 

Resins are also common for rituals and spirit contact. There’s a reason Christians love to hotbox themselves with frankincense and myrrh. Shit works! These take a little more work so I suggest planning ahead if you are going to use these.

If you’re a cop you have to tell us!!! Ok now that the cops are gone this might sound wack, but in my experience, ghosts love drugs. I have yet to encounter a spirit who did not like weed. I have been told specifically to smoke weed with my spirits to help charge and cleanse them. Taking a rip from a bong invokes all four elements and helps center yourself. I wouldn’t suggest toking up in a haunted mansion, but a sprinkle of flower or kief on a charcoal disk can work as well. Use tobacco wisely as it is sacred to many Native cultures. Use Native grown tobacco and treat the herb with the respect it deserves. White supremacy and capitalism have tainted tobacco to be what it is now. If offering cigarettes, I suggest using the more organic ones. That being said, if you know a specific brand the spirit likes, opt for that one. I would suggest burying this offering as burning it may cause health issues, set off fire alarms, or leave a harsh smell. 

Consider the type of haunting or spirit you are going to interact with. What do previous reports say the activity is?  What type of location is it? What was this land before something was built here? I will briefly cover different types of hauntings and spirits that are common for ghost investigations. This is by no means all-encompassing but I’ve gathered this much from observations.

Active haunting. Classic ghost haunting. This type of spirit is aware of their surroundings to a degree. Usually conscious of the fact they are dead but not always. Common characteristics are:

Footsteps

Lights flickering

Feelings of being watched

Temperature drops

Hearing voices

Apparitions (full body, partial, shadow beings)

Mild physical activity (touching, doors closing/opening on their own, minor movement of objects)

Residual haunting. More common for places of tragedy, this type of spirit is usually not aware of their surroundings and instead are repeating moments of their life. Most characteristics apply from active hauntings to residual as well.  The main difference is activity is done in a pattern. Common characteristics are:

Activity that comes in cycles or patterns i.e. specific times of day/year, specific places

Footsteps

Movement of specific objects

Voices or audio that does is not in response to the living word

Apparitions seen around same place/time

Poltergeist. This is the more active type of haunting. Most horror movies are based on this type. This type of haunting usually happens when a spirit is very powerful, usually angered or annoyed. The spirit is very aware of its surroundings. Common characteristics are:

Apparitions of all kinds

Footsteps

Doors slamming

Wall banging

Intense physical activity (things being thrown, moved, broken, or disappearing)

Physical presence (cold rooms, being able to push or grab people)

Behaviour change  in people (more aggressive, sad, or just strange behaviour in general)

There is a lot of bleedover in regards to the categories, but it is usually determined by intensity and frequency of objects. 

During Contact

Ugh, nothing pisses me off more than people back-talking ghosts when they are trying to make contact. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar folks. Here’s quick do’s and don'ts of making contact with spirits.

Do:

Bring an offering

Announce your presence when you come in and state your business. Be polite and introduce yourself. Spirits are more likely to warm up to you if they know what your doing.

Explain your equipment as you set it up or use it. Show them where to talk on recorders, I can almost guarantee someone from the 1800s probably doesn’t know about REM pods, EMF detectors, and video cameras. Explain using simple language but remember you are not talking to a child (unless you are). Demonstrations of equipment can help you test out your gear and get the spirits used to it. Evidence doesn’t start when you turn off the lights, record as you set up in case curious ghosts have things to say

Thank the spirit when it responds! If you ask for a sign and they bang the wall, thank them! Even if it’s scary stuff like slamming doors it’s still good to thank them.

Don’t:

Provoking the spirits by taunting isn’t going to do shit but get you cursed. Y’all know what I’m talking about. Early seasons Zak Bagans shit. ‘I’m not scared of you! Come out and face me! Show yourself coward! Attack me!’ Okay dude good luck with that attachment!

You are a mere mortal in the presence of something you don’t understand, don’t be an asshole about it. Talk to them like they are people because they probably were once! Talk in a respectful tone and be humble.

Don’t get mad if they don’t respond. Be mindful of where you are and what you’re talking about. If you are asking a spirit about a horrific event, accept that they may not want to talk about it. The type of haunting may not be fit for the type of investigation you’re doing. 

NOT EVERY GHOST IS A DEMON OR EVIL. I’m so tired of every time someone has a negative interaction with a ghost it’s a demon. Maybe they’re just pissed off you’re in their space? Don’t throw around random labels just because you’re uncomfortable. 

Debunking is always good to try but disregarding unexplainable things discourages spirits from trying. Or they may try harder and you might not like what they do!

Ending Investigation

Show your gratitude. Dispose of your offerings properly and thank the spirits for their time and energy. Clean up any mess you may have left.

Cleanse the space.  Everyone likes to cleanse differently so I won’t go into it too deeply. Personally, I like to burn incense and use sound. I find ‘cleansing tones’ on Spotify and turn my bluetooth speaker upside down so the speaker is directly touching the surface. I believe this helps dispel negative energy. Other ways are using a bell, using cleansing water, visualization etc. Take only pictures, leave only footprints type of deal. This is especially important for places of violence or negative energies. 

I advise walking out of the space backwards so nothing can follow you and cleansing yourself when you are done. Too often people go into these spaces, rip the bandaid off the spiritual wounds and then leave. It’s cruel to keep these spirits bound to these places for our entertainment.

Only YOU can prevent spiritual fuckery!

Note: the source leads to an outside blog that is co-run by me. Some of the words may have been changed in this edition, but this is not plagiarism, i wrote both! The URL is randomly generated for now but it is still a legit website. Feel free to check out the other posts!

[eatmangoesnekkid]

In my hot yoga class, my teacher asked why each student (around 14 people or so) came to class today. We could only answer with one or two sentences. Of course one of my sentences was thick, long, over-run, and full-throttled. HA! After I spoke, some of the class sighed in a good way and 5-6 did a kind of slow clap afterwards. I was first to speak, and their gestures were like 'her answer is a hard pill to follow.' HA! Because I'm working on my projects, I am often somewhere inside the sensation of making love, so super- sensitive right now, in this period of my life, even more sensitive than usual so my answer was this (more or less): "I feel grateful to be here with you all today and how I get to practice loving on my body, as it is, as it is showing up in this moment, and discover ways I can use my breath to feel into my body and make love to it more deeply in a collaborative space with other people who also live in these world systems that constantly push us into cycles of self-hate, production, and consumerism. Instead, we are here." Here are my top 5 yoga tips: Yoga is a time to slow down and feel. Feeling is an important practice of being human because if we could all feel deeply, we would not be working so hard for other people's dreams. We would rest more. Make love more. Stretch open more. Write more sensual poems and hand-written letters on special stationary and take time to mail them. Deep breathe more. Love on other people more. We would find a way, decree a way, inside and light-years beyond capitalism. Yoga is a sacred time to slow it all the way down and be in the real practice of feeling deeply and thereby re-sensitizing your body with your love or great acceptance for however you are feeling in the moment. If it's comfortable, close your eyes during your practice. I always close my eyes during my practice unless I have to do postures that require them to be open like "camel pose." I like to be in my body FOR REAL and not in my head comparing and contrasting so I rarely look at what other people are doing during class. If I need direction, then I soft gaze over at the teacher. If my teacher is walking around, then I will soft gaze over at another student and close my eyes again when I'm clear. Yoga is a personal intimate journey. We waste good clean chi when we focus on someone else’s progress and unconsciously use it to judge our own. Arrive at least 10-15 minutes before class begins to settle your body down. I like to get to class early, but I have absolutely been the one running into class late or just-in-the-knick-of-time and give myself deep grace. It rarely happens though because my aim is to get there early. I like to intuit and feel out where to place my mat and pick a spot that feels right. Also being there early allows me to ground and relax my body and do a few basic very slow stretches where needed. Then we the teacher opens the class with "hello" or "namaste," I am already present, softened, and ready to float. Use your breath. Yoga is a really good time to use your breath as a tool to love on your body. Pay close attention to your breathing and slow-breathe rhythmically, breathing out longer on the exhale. Don't be so serious. Some people do yoga like they are getting a colonic, donating blood, or something else. Keep your face relaxed which relaxes your pelvic floor. At certain points, let yourself even be a bit more playful with your practice or quietly sensuous like when bringing your pelvis down and transitioning into "upward facing dog." Can you spark joy in any discomfort or in your least favorite postures? --India Ame'ye, Author

[woodsnweaves]

Weave & Wood Chapter Two: Another Day, Another Goblin

Gale/Tav | Slow Burn | Read on AO3 | Chapter One

Summary:

Gale rediscovers his love of classical music in the middle of a swarm of angry goblins.

"He couldn’t take his eyes off her. The way she moved during battle was hypnotizing, almost like watching one of his beloved operas at the Lightsinger Theater in Waterdeep. Every arrow singing as it sailed through the air toward its mark, the cries of the enemy an orchestra, the clank of steel the applause. She, the conductor. "

He couldn’t take his eyes off her. The way she moved during battle was hypnotizing, almost like watching one of his beloved operas at the Lightsinger Theater in Waterdeep. Every arrow singing as it sailed through the air toward its mark, the cries of the enemy an orchestra, the clank of steel the applause. She, the conductor. 

“IGNIS!” he bellowed, his voice taking on an echo as he fired off a basic spell at the goblin a few feet behind her, taking him down easily. She looked behind her shoulder, then at him and tipped her head in thanks before firing off another arrow into the courtyard. 

It felt like they’d been in this godsforsaken goblin camp for an infinite amount of time. How could so many goblins be in this one location? He had never seen so many in one place at one time at home, and never so many absolutely filthy ones - True Souls apparently didn’t require their followers to bathe. The only benefit to having a literal camp full of goblins, hobgoblins, drow, and ogres all intent on turning you into minced meat is that it allowed their group to become more cohesive in their fighting, like they’d been together on purpose and not solely thrust into each other’s lives. They weren’t quite a well-oiled machine, but they were getting there. Trust was forming. Especially for him. He’d taken the first step toward trusting Auroria after they left the grove on their mission to rescue the druid Halsin. After she stepped in to save a tiefling child from a power hungry, misguided druid intent on shutting out the world rather than protecting its most vulnerable. After he decided he was in enough peril to realize that he was vulnerable. 

That the group was vulnerable.

******

The group was taking a break in the shade on a rather warm afternoon as they embarked on their journey toward the blighted village between the grove and the goblin camp. He had been feeling the weight of his secret for some time since the crash landing of the nautiloid, and it was becoming unbearable - both the pain and the anxiety of his newfound group abandoning him. His intuition told him that the ranger would not judge him, so he found himself tapping on her shoulder as she took a drink of water from the barrel they had found in yet another busted cart on the road (Who was leaving all these supplies unattended in barrels and crates? He thought).

“I was wondering if I may have a word with you about something rather pressing…maybe a bit away from the group” He asked quietly, noticing a look of concern flash across Auroria’s face as the mask of his easy confidence and good humor showed a small crack. 

“Of course, Gale, what is it?” Auroria said, leading them a little further off the trail, so they could speak behind a tree. It did not pass by his awareness that she always seemed to seek out the comfort of the woods. The sun, dappling across her face as it made its way through the leaves, illuminated her features. The copper highlights in her hair, always twisted out of her face into a low tail at the nape of her neck, the golden flecks in those green eyes, the dotted tattoos on the high points of her face, the long scar down one cheek - the entire picture almost distracted him, catching himself staring. Perhaps one day she will trust him enough to share her past. 

Nerves he hadn’t felt in ages hit his stomach like five thousand butterflies. Vulnerability was not associated with as powerful a wizard as he was. This damned tadpole made him feel like his abilities were that of his 10 year-old self again, both magically and personally. Breathe.

“Right…well, you see, I have a…predicament..that has become rather urgent right now. The thing is, I need a magical artefact to consume,” he grimaced as a lance of pain went through his body,  “and I need one now.” He almost pleaded, hunching over and clutching his chest, beginning to pant as sweat beaded on his brow above his tightly closed eyes. He heard rustling, panic starting to worm its way into his chest.

Is she leaving? Please don’t leave.

He continued, “I know…it’s strange….but I — ” 

Silence.

I knew it. It was too much. It was too soon.

He opened his eyes, terrified to see nothing but empty space. A gold locket was in front of him, Auroria holding out the gift Arabella’s parents had given her for saving their daughter from the druid’s interrogation. 

“Will this work?” She asked. 

He nodded and took the necklace from her, gently as if it were a priceless gift. Indeed it was to him, a physical manifestation of gratitude and loss - the gratitude involved in both the tieflings and Auroria giving the locket away, the loss of its magical value, the implicit trust shown by not asking further questions, instantly looking for it in her pack - he would treasure this moment for the rest of his days, however many he had left.  As he held the locket up to his chest, the purple orb that was just barely visible above the lining of his robs starting to glow intensely. The locket started to shine, black tendrils of magic swirling around it, tighter and tighter until suddenly, they were gone and the locket was left dulled without it’s magical energy. He was able to breathe again, the sharp pain eased to a dull and manageable presence. The artefact worked. He felt her hand lightly touch his shoulder, and looked at her face, which was making that jokingly mocking expression that came so easily to her - mostly at his expense, he noted. 

“I don’t know what that was and while I hope you’ll share with me when you’re ready, I believe that’s now…” she held up two fingers on her free hand, “two favors you owe me now, right? You're really racking them up!” She laughed quietly, then took on a serious tone. “Take the time you need, though we should leave shortly. I hope this helps you feel better. If you need help again, please come to me. A magical item is not so irreplaceable as Gale of Waterdeep” she smiled and turned around, going back to the group, no questions asked. No prying. Just concern about him. The person, not the powers. 

An invisible weight lifted off his shoulders, one that he didn’t even realize he had placed there on his own accord during his year of solitude, his year of pushing everyone who may have wanted to help him away. 

He stood up straighter than he had in days and returned to the group.

******

Another arrow sang as it flew by, this time aimed toward a group of hostile goblins who were standing close together in a puddle of grease thanks to Astarion. The arrow turned into a volley of thorns, exploding, setting the grease on fire to deal additional damage. An aria of her own design, her personal cadenza - she could have chosen to simply cast Ignis to light up the grease, but a hail of thorns? That sends a message. A confident message. He could see her satisfied smirk as the shouts of surprise and anger joined her symphony for a brief while, then died out. Already she was moving on to the next target, the next movement - a rather large ogre Karlach was slowly whittling down. Gale followed, aiming his magic missiles at the heart of the ogre, adding to the coloratura of arrows, axes, swords, and curses (magical and vocal).

Gale of Waterdeep had lived in a world muted by his own doing for over a year. Now, he was beginning to hear music again. 

It was beautiful. 

Heavens help them all. 

[doodlegirl1998]

Here I'm beating the corpse of a horse, but I do find ODD how no one in MHA is even interested in understanding their own quirk bar the basic of basic.

Granted some powers are so simplist that you dont need to waste too much time. Like, Mirko's power doesnt need to be heavily analyzed in the story. She has super strenght and it is ok.

But others? No. I want some explanation, especially and Shig's case. Decay is so powerful (and I do have a thought about afo sabotaging shig in a way. "If he cant know how to use his quirk, better for me" but is a sentiment Hori never dwell well enough bc you know, my abuser academy) but no one has any plan or idea of this quirk.

We have tecnhology to make a clothe to Mirio(not for Toohru of course) why not developed smth it cant be decayed?

Hori:😍my abuser academy

(Then again the bullets are useless and afo is deaging bc........evil plan?)

And now it makes me back to Izu. Our poor mc. He has a powerful quirk and 0 thought about this. Like he was quirkless and now has the power of a god(ignoring the bone crushing thing) and we get 0 introspection. And Izu never analysed his quirk.

I mean, maybe he did as he handles well...but to me it was more of a gamble than anything. No one helped him, Izu doesnt comments about his own quirk ...

And the users doesnt even offer some help...(not bashing them, maybe the second but bc he is BK 3.0)

Hori loves to kill any potential in his story. Its quiete fascinating, its like seeing a captain purposely sinking his own ship for no reason.

Hi @mikeellee 👋,

I think I've mentioned before how odd I find this that not more people are like early story Izuku - eagerly analysing their own and others abilities to explore what they can secretly do.

Even powers that seem simple for example Miriko's rabbit that you mentioned - I've looked this up recently for a fic I'm planning on writing and she doesn't just have super strength* and speed* she has:

Enhanced flexibility*

Enhanced hearing

High pain tolerance*

Animalistically high intuition*

All of these things would be awesome to explore more. Particularly as with her broad array of abilities (the ones I've placed a * by actually are similar to some of the abilities given to Izuku by OFA or high pain tolerance which he had built up through excessive exposure to an explosively abusive BKG growing up) she could have been an excellent mentor to Izuku. She also could have helped Izuku gain confidence by Hori wastes all this potential by turning her into... A stick for his gore porn fetish it seems...

As for the technology to do with quirks and how unequal it seems that could have also been explored narratively. With Shig it's easy to see that as AFO not wanting him to know too much about what he can do and keep him under control.

But why can't Momo and Hagakure have a costume that works with them if Mirio can? It would be interesting if that was sexism, HPSC corruption, the over sexualisation and celebrity nature of heroes but Hori... gave us all this set up then nothing.

To conclude, Izuku over time has been whittled away at - things like his analysis - which I actually enjoyed, vanished. Part of me thinks this is due to Hori's laziness and lack of being bothered to think through every quirk of the people he puts later into the story like Nejire (what happens if she overuses her quirk? Can she die from it?)

But Izuku's lack of analysis into OFA, is that Hori literally can't be bothered so is just shoving out content at this point, seems in universe like he doesn't feel like he deserves to, this doesn't feel like his quirk, it feels like All Mights and Izuku could feel unworthy of analysing it.

[broodwolf221]

Happy friday!!! For Calpernia/Solas, "monachopsis [ the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place ]" from the eerie loneliness prompts?

oooooh thank you! this is such a good prompt for them <3 @dadrunkwriting 1129 words cws: none notes: no spoilers for her arc/the templar route

She didn't fit here. A loose piece of the puzzle, her edges incongruous with the rest, a frustration. A discordant note. A distraction.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to ally herself with the Inquisition after all had been made clear—not that she regretted switching sides, but she worried that her presence here weakened the organization.

The Tevinter altus, Dorian, he treated her well enough, but in his gaze lay a pity that she struggled to tolerate. She supposed that she should be pleased that any highly ranked Tevene mage would look at an ex-slave in such a way, but it rankled more than it soothed and she tried to avoid him whenever possible.

The others were less welcoming—with one notable exception. She did not know why the elven apostate seemed so at ease around her, but his company alone left her feeling seen in a way that no one else did. Over time she found herself in the base of the rotunda more frequently than not. Eventually she read there, seated against the wall—an unpainted portion—until one day he offered his couch. A few days later he was seated there reading when she came in and without meeting her eyes he just patted the seat beside him.

So it was that they developed a habit of reading together in peace. On occasion they would discuss what they were reading, and over time those discussions spiraled to become debates—never heated ones, for he was a calm conversationalist who seemed to invite different perspectives rather than spurn them. But they were intense. Sometimes she felt woefully out of her depth, being introduced to so many concepts she had never considered before—but there were a few times that she had surprised him, too. Moments where his mouth opened to respond before he closed it and considered her words. She loved those moments, watching him puzzle over some small twist of logic she'd presented him with, or a wholly unfamiliar perspective.

During one such conversation she had let slip a note of frustration in how limited her magical education had been, how cursory, only enough to keep her from becoming a risk to her magister and what she had learned on her own through dedication, observation, and experimentation. He had met her eyes then, seemingly considering something before he nodded to himself and stood. He gestured for her to follow him and she did, curious. He led her down to the courtyard and then further, pausing only long enough to grab two basic mage staves from the armory.

He then led her across the drawbridge and out of Skyhold, and she shivered at the cutting wind—and stared at his barefoot ease with the weather, the sight making her feel the cold all the more intensely. He turned to face her, studying the way she had tightly crossed her arms over her chest, the staff held at an angle as she attempted to contain her quickly dissipating body heat. She regretted not having questioned him, but he looked entirely unrepentant. “Hold your staff like so,” he told her after a moment, positioning his own in front of him. She narrowed her eyes before doing as she was bid, hoping to finish whatever he wanted from her in short order and retreat to Skyhold’s comforting hearths. “Good. Do you know how to create a barrier?”

“Of course,” she said sharply. Barriers were one of the easiest spells, the most intuitive. A simple protection. He said nothing, apparently waiting, and she sighed before casting a barrier across herself. He examined it for a moment before nodding a little.

“Good. It is strong. But you can see that it is already fading.” So it was, but that was their nature. Was it not? “Try it again, but don't put it around yourself and don't make it so strong. Imagine it like water running down your body. An even, thin coating.” She frowned before closing her eyes, trying to find her way to what he was describing. The cold was making it hard to think, her arms and face stinging, and she could barely feel her hands. She'd have to leave soon, for her own safety– “Concentrate,” he interrupted her musings sternly. She thought about opening her eyes to glare at him, but her curiosity got the better of her.

So she concentrated. Like water running down her skin… an even, thin coating… “You're getting there,” he told her approvingly. “Bring it in a little tighter– yes, just so.” Her eyes snapped open as the cold vanished and she stared at him, at his little smile, with wide eyes. Did he look smug, or proud? “You can maintain this one for much longer. Eventually, it will become second-nature to cast and maintain.”

“How did you learn this?” She didn't mind the awe in her voice, not just now. Especially not when it brought just a hint of color to his cheeks.

“Ah… it is an ancient Elvhen technique. I came across it while exploring the depths of the Fade.”

“It's so… comfortable.” He nodded approvingly at her observation, a warmth in his eyes that she found herself surprisingly moved by. 

“A second skin to maintain one's temperature. It works in hot climes as well—although you should not expect it to protect you from sunburn,” he noted wryly and she smirked, suspecting he spoke from experience.

She was curious about something, but was uncertain about whether or not to test it. She did not wish to destroy this delicate comfort that had grown between them, but nor did she think the way he looked at her was without desire. Feeling a deep hesitance that she did her utmost to not display, she approached him—he arched a brow but did not otherwise react. And when she reached out to touch his face he frowned, puzzled, but did not withdraw. “Calpernia,” he said after a moment, the weight he gave her chosen name thrilling, “what are you doing?”

“I was curious whether it blocked sensation,” she explained simply, staring at his lips. He was a bit taller than her… most unusual, for an elf. But she found it as intriguing as everything else about him. She met his eyes for a long moment before she pressed herself against him, their staves held to the side. She felt his sharp inhale as much as she heard it, his chest pressed tighter against her own for a moment, but he did not step away as she had feared.

“We should not…” he said softly, but she shook her head.

“Have I misinterpreted your interest, Solas?” She asked him quietly, making a point of using his name now. He glanced away for a moment before sighing, meeting her eyes once more before shaking his head.

“You have not,” he confirmed. “But it does not make this wise.”

“Then let us be foolish,” she insisted, watching the struggle play out across his face before he sighed again.

He bent down.

She angled up.

Kissing him for the first time was a profound relief. She let her staff fall to the snowy ground in order to wrap her arms around him, pulling him even closer—a moment later he followed her lead, staff dropped and his hands at the small of her back and her neck.

[unmak1ngs]

( victoria pedretti. cis woman. she + her )  ✧ entering through oldham’s shore, we’ve spotted livia hawthorne, as usual carrying their heart shaped silver locket, which carries a picture of her family. the tides let us know they’re a twenty8 year old phoenix with their sun in gemini, and their day mostly occupied by their job as a doctor at oldham's general hospital. the spring breeze whispered they quite enjoy her favorite smell, that of freshly wet grass, damp after a storm, and she also enjoys the sound of thunder ; curling up on the couch, a steaming cup of coffee and an interesting book in her hands ; sleeping until the late morning during the weekend, something she didn't quite get to do all those years she was looking after her brothers or studying at university, which might or might not be responsible for their intuitive, intelligent, protective, controlling, nurturing, anxious nature. liv isn't an oldham local, yet the ocean’s waves brought us tales about them regardless, about how she became a pathologist in columbia before deciding to come back home to her family, but something drove her to oldham instead ; she and one of her brothers were in a plane accident when she was in high school, and while she made it out alive, he did not ( a fact she feels infinitely guilty about ) ; she was raised in california, but she left her family for new york after she was done with school although we can never know for sure when it comes to oldham, in the end, it could be only rumors, right?

BASICS

FULL NAME:  livia hawthorne

NAME MEANING: livia is of latin origin, and it means blue, envious

NICKNAME(S): liv, livvy ( only by her brothers )

AGE + DOB:   twenty8 + june 16th, 1995

PLACE OF BIRTH: san francisco, california

GENDER + PRONOUNS:   cis  woman  +  she  /  her

ORIENTATION:   heterosexual, heteroromantic

OCCUPATION: doctor @ oldham's general hospital + professor @ oldham university

SPECIES: phoenix

RELATIONSHIPS

FATHER:   león hawthorne (†)

MOTHER:   josephine hawthorne (†)

SIBLING(S):   nathaniel hawthorne (†), dante hawthorne

SIGNIFICANT OTHER(S):   none

PHYSIQUE

FACECLAIM: victoria pedretti

HAIR:   light brown with caramel highlights

EYE COLOR:   blueish - green

HEIGHT:   1,60 cm / 5'2''

NOTABLE FEATURES:   a very soft gaze, nonjudgmental, but that carries a deep rooted sadness ; genuine laughter that sounds like bells ringing on a beautiful spring afternoon, fingers often lifting to cover her mouth in an attempt to stiffle rare giggles ; medium length hair, usually in a half updo when she's working, and let down immediately after her shift ends ; chewed on nails, a disgusting habit she picked up when she was eleven, and one she's never been able to get rid of

OTHER

ALIGNMENT:   neutral good

TEMPERAMENT:   sanguine - melancholic

ABILITIES: besides her phoenix abilities, liv is a pretty intelligent person, both book + street smart, she excels at her job as a doctor, and she's also got a beautiful singing voice

TRAITS:   intuitive, protective, controlling, intelligent, nurturing, anxious

I FEEL LIKE A CONSTELLATION OF WOUNDS, HELD TOGETHER WITH STRING AND STUBBORNESS. ( tw for death, violence, plane accident )

you are born in san francisco,  to loving parents who are delighted to finally welcome a little girl into their family after years of trying.  they shower you with love and affection,  marking your childhood as the happiest one you could have,  your memories of that time some of the most cherished within your mind.   their attempts to bring you a sibling or two are unsuccessful,  and their troubles to conceive ultimately lead them to the decision to adopt a baby.   you go through the process with them,  and when you’ve just turned four,  dante and nathaniel hawthorne are finally welcomed into your family,  and you're ecstatic,  beyond joyful.   you help your mom and dad as much as your can,  swearing that you’ll protect your brothers whatever it takes,  forever.

that promise becomes a little too real when your mother passes away,  soon after your twelfth birthday.  a strange illness,  the doctors say,  that rips her away from your side all too early,  faster than the blink of an eye.   her death is the first scar you receive,  the first tear at the tapestry of your otherwise perfect life.   she’s gone,  no matter how much you pray or beg,  so you return home feeling desolate,  but the task of looking after your brothers distracts you.   your father has to take up a second job to make ends meet,  which leaves you,  in your almost teenage years,  in the role of caretaker,  forcing you to grow up   —   fast.   

your family,  mangled and bruised yet standing,  finds its rhythm.   though this kind of responsibility isn’t fair to you  ( in fact,  your father hates having to put this world on your shoulders ),  you assimilate,  loving your siblings fiercely,  making sure they have everything they need.   you even start working as soon as you turn sixteen,  to help pay the bills.   when you’re eighteen and practically done with school,  dante and nate decide to join a sports competition in a different state,  and your dad says he’s got enough money for all of you to go,  a family trip that you’ve never before been able to enjoy.

fate,  luck,  destiny   —   whatever it may be,  it makes sure only you and nate board that plane.   dante wakes up sick on the morning of the trip,  and your father doesn’t want to leave him,  but you don’t want your other sibling to miss out.   you decide to take him yourself.   here,  you receive your second scar:   the flight crashes in the wilderness,  with many passengers dying upon impact.   both you and nate survive without a single scratch,  which gives you stupid,  stupid hope,  that perhaps this means you’ll be able to hold on until you're rescued,  though the rescue takes too long to come.   

alongside the few survivors,  you try your best to make it,  shielding your brother from the worst of it.   it’s rough,  but you make it for days,  days that turn into weeks.   you’re deeply scared that you’ll never get rescued,  that you’ll die out there,  never seeing the rest of your family again.   still,  a sliver of faith resides within your chest,  keeping you warm,  and you refuse to speak of your dread to nate.   on a rather unforgiving night,  exactly a week before help arrives,  you’re supposed to be keeping watch.   the cold seeps into your weary bones,  exhaustion and weakness constant companions.   you’re supposed to be keeping watch,  but you don’t:   instead,  you accidentally fall asleep.   you’re awakened by screams,  nate’s screams,  and you can barely call out to him before the wolves descend,  quite literally.   both of you are dead in a matter of minutes.   the quiet that follows is peaceful,  filled with the tranquillity you’ve desperately wished for this past month,  and then   —   it’s ripped away from you.   you are reborn in fire and blood,   scared out of your mind,  the only survivor of this tragedy that was your own doing.   your warm hands grasp onto your brother for dear life,  sobbing,  trying to understand what is happening,  why you're here and he isn't.   that’s how they find you,  seven days later,  naked and alone and afraid.

home welcomes you with open arms,  but it’s not the same.   you can’t bear to look your father and dante in the eye,  not when the guilt eats you alive,  and your thoughts are plagued with nightmares and regret.   you already have enough credits to graduate,  so you apply to a school far,  far away from california,  leaving your family without a word.   you attend columbia,  a fog - like confusion making the first months hard to navigate.   the more time you spend away from san francisco,  the more it clears,  and you fall into a predictable routine,  focusing on your studies hard,  too hard.   you barely speak to your father and brother,  ignoring calls whenever you can get away with it.   you graduate from medical school with honours,  something that means little to you,  who struggles to let the past go.

one day, you think that enough is enough.   you come to the firm decision to go back home,  as much as it terrifies you.   it takes you three weeks to muster up the courage and call your father,  letting him know you’ll be driving there  ( a plane would be faster,  but the memories are too heavy,   too consuming )  soon.   you set out with your destiny in mind:   instead,  something drags you to oldham.   before you know what’s happening,  you find yourself in this town,  where other people like you live,  and your spirits are lifted,  if only a little.   maybe,  you’ll be able to find the answers you have been desperately seeking for so long.

[chireikiden]

What are the things in lore you would say ZUN 100% retconned/later ignored in regards to his own material?

This was a pretty broad question to answer at the drop of a hat, so I let it sit in my inbox for a while and wrote down a couple things that came to mind in the meantime.

As we all know, yadda yadda, Touhou is very good at simply not bringing things up again, and thus you can very rarely argue that some individual thing has been outright retconned based simply on its absence in later works. Add unreliable narrators on top, and that only really leaves the very clear contradictions.

Early Windows stuff: You can surely find more if you crawl more carefully than I felt like doing, but here’s some that I remember. The EoSD prologue tells us that Gensokyo is just a seldom visited region in the mountains with a few random humans living amongst monsters, implicitly no Human Village, and no barrier around it. Reimu is worried that the red mist would basically flow out of Gensokyo and into what we'd now consider "the Outside World", which may or may not be aware of Gensokyo and just ignoring it. It's not hard at all to slot into the current setting by moving around a couple things, but read on its own without anachronistic assumptions it's clearly different. Basically, it's a good example of how the essentials of Gensokyo as a setting really weren't fully formed until at least a couple games later.

As an extension of that, I think a lot of things associated with EoSD - like the preceding Vampire Incident, the spell card rules, or even the SDM being newcomers to Gensokyo - weren’t even a twinkle in ZUN’s eye at the time he made EoSD, and were only retconned into existence starting roughly with PMiSS. (Them being newcomers is arguable based on stuff like Reimu not knowing the mansion was there, but that’s also easily explained by Reimu being Reimu.)

PCB starts fleshing things out a bit more and has fewer outright contradictions, but still for example claims/implies that humans sealed up Gensokyo in order to lock the youkai inside. Not irreconcilable, especially if you assume an unreliable narrator yadda yadda, but I think it’s fair to consider it retconned.

By the time of IN, the main pieces are more or less in place and there’s a lot less stuff that would need to be retconned later on, but you can still find some messiness especially related to the Moon if you want to read it that way.

Reimu’s luck: While it’s come up on rare occasion, typically in the form of her “intuition” but also in LE where she uses it for gambling, I don’t think it’s ever again been anywhere near as extreme as that time in EaLND where she walked over a river by happening to step on random fish. If anything, she usually seems pretty unlucky at everything that isn’t specifically gambling or solving incidents, but that might be its own hair to split.

Just for bonus points: Since it’s been on my mind. The literal meaning of retcon is “retroactive continuity”. I think the manga, games etc. typically work on a Schrödinger’s Timeline that simply doesn’t exist until it is directly referenced somehow, and even then it’s only loosely defined. For example, CDS and Lotus Eaters started around the same time (in real life), which was also when the first Gouyoku Ibun demo came out. Lotus Eaters could be making long time skips for all we know, but the events of CDS have probably spanned only a couple weeks at most.

And now we have Lotus Eaters' latest chapters taking place shortly after the events of Gouyoku. In that case, when Yukari summons Flan into the Underground to act as her ballistic missile in CDS, is she doing it before or after Okina did literally the same thing in Gouyoku? When does CDS take place in relation to Gouyoku, or any given LE chapter? Or does it, and every Touhou story, merely take place “now”, even if it started in 2019 and it’s now 2023?

Since Touhou stories tend to only reference each other when they feel like it and are otherwise perfectly comfortable just not bringing it up in any way, there’s a good chance we’ll never know. Or they could simply say something in the next chapter just because. But usually not.

[writerkimmieahyoungieyurawr]

Ch9: Revelations

Credits to @v1ntrix  for helping with the editing The scenery was beautiful. Walking down a dirt path you are flanked on either side by grass that stretched as far as the eye could see. Scattered were what appeared to be trees and bushes. As you continued to look around, you noticed what appeared to be some basic monsters around though the diversity surprised you. There were some cows and slimes scattered around, a sight not so out of place in a video game, though you were shocked at the presence of white drones flying around. Who would've thought that such a rare mix of monsters would coexist together?

You drew one of your swords to your right hand and waved it around. As described in your research, it was intuitive and easy to use. You turned your gaze towards the nearest cow and charged towards it. Your blade glided through the middle of the cow in one swift motion, and as you turned around, you saw the two halves of the cow on the ground. Irene looks at you in surprise and walks over to you. “Oppa raise your hand and collect it. “ You did as Irene instructed, and suddenly the cow disappeared, appearing in your inventory. You looked at it and saw you had meat in your inventory now.

You looked at your stats again to see how much more experience you needed then glanced back at your party to get used to things when you noticed something that caught your attention. You looked around at the people walking and turned to Jennie. “Jen, I just realised something, why aren’t there many humans around?”

“Ah well because being Human in this world does not give any sort of special abilities or traits, hence why most people choose a race that provides them with some benefit. Like I am a Tiefling so I have fire resistance and all of my kin become partial Tieflings and gain the same ability.”

You nod and opened up the party settings to look at Irene’s race and noticed she was a spirit. “Irene, Jen, let’s head back to my house for now. I need to check on something. “ They look confused but nod in agreement. This time you paid more attention to your surroundings as you walked back. It seemed that there were as many NPCs around as regular people, along with all forms of stores, from weapon and armour shops to strip clubs and maid cafes.

After a few minutes, you were continuing to walk but was stopped by Jennie in front of a white mansion with red highlights and surrounded by a flower garden that consisted of roses of various shades. “Oppa, I guess you weren’t paying too much attention to your own home when we left. Cause we’re here.” She lets out a soft giggle before opening the door. You entered your house and Wendy closed the door behind you, you turned to Irene. “Irene, you said that Jennie wasn’t fond of you before, was there any particular reason why that was the case?” Irene looks down as if still slightly uncomfortable when Jennie speaks up. “It was because of how much you paid for Irene master. From the other me’s memory, I think you paid three times the average cost of a secretary.”

You sat down at your dining table and opened up Nabi. Assuming that the other you from this world isn’t a moron, he had to have done things for a reason, and you felt like you saw something relating to it. Jennie and Irene went off to make drinks while the others opted to sit around and rest. They looked at you with confusion at your frantic researching, but you were too deep in your research to notice it. He could have just let you log in for the first time after you were transferred over and just made use of a trusted advisor but he made these choices beforehand. This made you certain that there must be a reason why the other you had made all these choices for your race and class.

After about an hour, you finally found it. It was a section on unique skills. It explained that unique skills are very powerful skills that only one person can obtain. It also showed that most of the skills had already been claimed except for two which caught your eye. One was Succubus Queen, which hasn’t been claimed because there weren't many people who opted for the class, much less fulfilled its main condition which was to build a good relationship with at least three attendants, which the current Jennie should be able to fulfil as you look at the girls mingling happily.

However, the one you were most interested in was the unique skill Living Forge. It showed that the requirements were to be human and be a blacksmith class. But what seemed like the hard part was to have a spirit secretary class ally, one who had been promoted to the second class of Weapon spirit. The first part was already accomplished since you already had Irene. This seemed to all have been arranged by the other you. The tough part was that for a spirit secretary to be promoted to a weapon spirit, the person must fall in love with the person they are loyal to.

This was a problem because although this Irene might fall in love with you, you know that the other Irene had nothing but animosity towards you. You sighed as you looked at Irene fondly. You didn’t want to lose this Irene, but as you stared at Irene, a sudden revelation hit you. Irene had been acting differently since this morning. She’s been calling you oppa instead of Ray or sir. She was acting so jealous of Joy and Jennie this morning, while she was nothing but timid yesterday. Lastly, why did Jennie have to cover up the reason why she didn’t like Irene when she could adequately explain it herself. What if this was the Irene from your world, and she had feelings for you all this time. This was just too unbelievable, but you had to be sure before you could make your next move.

“Irene, can you teach Joy how to make me a cup of coffee the way I like it?” Irene smiles and nods as she walks to Joy before they both head to the kitchen and ten minutes later, they both come back, and Joy places the coffee before you as Irene waits for your comments.

“So Irene, when were you going to tell me?” You said in a serious tone, one that made the room quiet. “What do you mean oppa? Tell you what?”

You sighed. “You can stop acting Irene. I never called Sooyoung Joy before. So the only way you would know I was referring to Sooyoung is if you were the leader of Red Velvet Irene.” Before she could reply, you stood up and gave a ninety-degree bow. “I’m sorry I didn't mean to drag you into all this. You can hit me if it makes you feel any better. I’ll take full responsibility for this situation.”

You were prepared to get hit, yelled at, or anything, but you didn't expect the softness of her lips against your own. “You are still so dense, be it in our world or this one. “ You looked up at her, confused as she hugged you. “If we can be true to ourselves in this world then I don't have to hold back anymore. Oppa, I’ve always loved you but you always had your harem and I had the bad reputation of being against guys like you. So it was so hard for me to confess everything to you. “

You looked at her confused as she just giggled. “If I didn’t love you I wouldn't have been able to be teleported here in the first place. It seems like the minimum condition for us to be merged is that the love for the one from this world is the same as the one from our world. The Irene of this world isn’t gone just like how the Jennie of this world also isn't. We just became one person.”

You were still stunned. This answered one question but brought forth a multitude of new ones.

[brightgnosis]

Shadow Work Is Not What You Think It Is

This new pushback against shadow work that I’ve been seeing within the last 5 to 10 years is honestly such an absolutely strange thing to me. Especially since people seem to have no genuine concept of what Shadow Work actually is anymore. And it's genuinely baffling to me at this point, as someone whose been practicing for 20+ years now.

🠶 It used to be that psychology was taught as integral to both Witchcraft and Religion within Pagan spaces; where we actually understood things such as the Snowball Effect, and Frequency Bias- and some exasperated old Hag didn’t have to explain it to us after seeing the 5th post from us in the Tumblr tags, panicking because the number of Crows picked up in our neighborhood this week. These were common knowledge among practitioners, taught as standard.

🠶 It used to be that psychology was seen not only as an important part of the Discernment process as a whole ... But that it was especially integral to the process of learning to recognize and understand one’s own intuition, and to the process of Spirit communication and discerning between one’s inner voice and “their voice”, etc- but also important to then Verifying these things instead of going off half cocked like a banshee and getting one’s self hurt.

🠶 There was also point in time where the understanding of the inner self, the true desire, and the true drive were the first steps a budding practitioner took on the road to finding where they fit within Paganism in the first place- because not all paths are meant for everyone. And once more paths started emerging, it became integral to the process of discerning one’s correct path.

🠶 Once upon a time leading students through basic Shadow Work techniques went part and parcel with all of this- as did handing them a Psychology 101 text book.

But now Shadow Work's actual meaning has been completely lost- or warped and twisted in the most ridiculous ways. So now you have the rise of this absolute nonsense like “Jung Created Shadow Work” (he absolutely did not); and “Shadow Work isn’t Witchcraft, it’s just psychology” (despite the fact that it’s all of the above and more; it was explicitly designed as the merger between Spirituality, Witchcraft, and Psychology); and "Shadow Work is just self-directed psychotherapy" (despite the fact it's not, and that's an entirely modern conceptualization of it in the last 5 to 10 years).

You get authors who act as if Jung was always this sort of super serious psychologist who never did anything even remotely magical in his life (and was definitely not the absolutely batshit insane Occult Dude-Bro he actually was, going around and proudly giving lectures on the Paranormal); all these puddle deep feel good uwu "articles” promising people they’re still “valid witches” if they never do an ounce of shadow work in their entire lives; or the much weirder: “You can’t do Shadow Work alone, it’s too dangewous and scawy to handle your own twama!”.

But it’s honestly all bullshit. Every ounce of it.

While Jung certainly was an Occult dude-Bro who had his hands deep in many pies ... Jung didn’t actually create Shadow Work as it is known and practiced among Pagans, Occultists, and Witches ... Hell, Jung didn’t even create the concept of the Shadow at all, in the first place. He just popularized a specific model of it.

Freud and several others throughout history had already invented their own psychological concepts of the Shadow well before Jung ever did. Jung's just became the most popular for a variety of reasons. Namely because of his actual theories (which the Shadow was only a very minute part of) were the concepts of the Collective Unconscious and Collective Archetypalism- which were very popular with Occult practitioners at the time. And likely because Jung was also, again, a seasoned Occultist in his own right- giving his theories more frequent space and weight within the various Occult spaces that were burgeoning at the time.

(We can argue which one came first- Jung's theory of the Collective Unconscious and therefore shared Collective Archetypalism, or Occults obsession with Mythopoeticism and Archetypes as vehicles for Ritual and Mystery ... But it's honestly a moot argument that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme).

It was, honestly, more of a "perfect storm for the solidification of an extant idea already swimming around" kind of situation that Jung was just lucky enough to happen to be at the head of at the time, rather than the "one dude had such a damned brilliant idea everyone stole it from him (and now we're all pretending it's Witchcraft when it isn't)" kind of thing everyone seems to be tying to make it out to be these days.

Anyways: The actual Craft (as in Witchcraft) of Shadow Work was a later development based on many elements of Jung’s work in relation to Collective Archetypalism. But while Jung's psychology may have formed the foundation of it, the Craft of Shadow Work was ultimately developed as a pathworking tool by Pagan Elders that explicitly combined this psychological theory with witchcraft and ritual for spiritual and religious purposes; it was explicitly a magico-spiritual and religious Craft focused on The Self, utilizing Jung's theories as a base root from which to work.

Jung’s major contribution is really just the concept of Collective Archetypalism- but specifically how he conceptualized of "The Self" within that Archetypal system; in his theory, the Ego, a force called Anima / Animus, and the Shadow all existed alongside one another within an individual in order to create The (whole) Self.

Jung's own process of actually confronting this Shadow was called Individuation. And Integration or Assimilation of the Shadow during that process of Individuation was only occasionally considered a possibility- but not always. More importantly, Integration or Assimilation during Individuation wasn't even really the point of his process overall. It was just ... Something that might sometimes happen; you weren't supposed to necessarily Integrate or Assimilate it. You were just supposed to acknowledge it in order to better understand The Self.

In other words: Original Shadow Work, as it was developed in those spaces, when correctly practiced, is the complete process of ritually / magically manifesting, confronting, and embracing your Shadow (though not necessarily integrating or assimilating it. However, that did sometimes come to play an important part as Shadow Work continued to develop). And it was explicitly concerned with uncovering the inner self and finding one’s true will- particularly in regards to one's religious and spiritual development, and specifically as part of the overall process of self actualization as a magical practitioner.

It was not conceptualized as purely psychology, nor as a psychological tool in and of itself (indeed, it was often said you should see an actual Psychologist on the side in addition to Shadow Work, as they were considered "complimentary to the same goal" but distinct enough to not be the same). Uncovering and working through your trauma or other psychological issues was, and has never really been (until incredibly recently), the point of Shadow Work in Pagan, Witchcraft, and Occult spaces. And this is in keeping in line with Jung's original intent of Individualization, and the lack of Integration or Assimilation of the Shadow as a necessity of its acknowledgement and confrontation, even.

You will also recognize the actual intent and reasoning behind true Shadow Work as being much more in line with the teachings, beliefs, and work of people like Crowley during the time for a reason. Because while the foundation of the work may come from Jungian psychological theory? The reasoning and methodology is largely influenced by things like Crowley's concept of True Will- which itself was highly influential to most Witchcraft of the Revival.

The reason Shadow Work- or this blend of spiritual, religious, magical, and psychological methods in order to uncover one’s true inner voice and will- was so important to our Elders, and to the budding revival, was multifold. And most of it's already been mentioned.

🠶 First, its practice helped Seekers and Postulants determine which spiritual path was right for them in the first place; even today, not all paths are right for everyone. One of the main tenants of belief was the ability for everyone to chose their own path (as opposed to being “born to it” or “forced into it” as many had been with Christianity). And the ability to properly discern, evaluate, and describe one’s true beliefs is absolutely integral to determining which path is right (or, if none are right at all)- thus determining if a Seeker becomes a Postulant to them, or to some other Coven, or to no one.

🠶 Secondly, once a path is established, it becomes integral to helping one connect to their inner intuition- which is considered an integral guiding force within many of the paths that were developing during the Revival (and is still considered an integral guiding force among many paths today, religious or not). It was also integral in further aiding one in discerning what was one’s own voice and intuition, vs what is genuine Spiritual communication from the Others.

In the process of teaching that, people naturally learned about things such as The Snowball Effect, Frequency Bias, and other things which may effect our personal (and natural) penchant for overblowing things or seeing signs that aren’t actually there; they were explicitly taught to critically evaluate their own experiences, and the process of Discernment, Verification, and Validation; this was a common process, and a required one that everyone was expected to participate in.

🠶 Third, one’s True Will- knowing exactly what you want to achieve, and (through the proper study of the system you have chosen) precisely how to achieve it- is integral to the concept of Intent, and the very act of performing magic itself; someone who does not have strong a strong will does not have strong intent, and therefore does not have strong magic. Strengthening one’s will and ability to solidify their intent, then, becomes and active part of learning magic in the first place, and improving one’s self as a practitioner.

🠶 And finally, they are also susceptible to danger if not … Not in the way that “like attracts like” and other completely modern corruptions of the idea. But because confidence in one’s work and abilities actively makes one less likely to make mistakes, more able to navigate the realm of magic and Spirits safely- though there is a lot to be said about overconfidence. By contrast, someone who is second guessing themselves and their work constantly, and their true will and intent, is more prone to making mistakes and leaving holes or loose ends in their work.

There are many other reasons, of course. This is just a simplistic list of the main ones. But that is ultimately what it's supposed to be about ... And so you are guided through "Shadow Work": The magico-spiritual process of deeply centering within yourself in order to find and uncover your True Self and True Will beneath all that which society and previous systems have placed on you (made manifest as your "Shadow" in a way that you can "tangibly" interact with via ritual)- and of gaining the active confidence to embrace it, and then apply it to both the world and especially your magic.

More importantly? While some elements of proper Shadow Work should reasonably be done with a guide- such as a spiritual teacher or therapist, or at the very least some kind of text materials so that you’re not flying blind as a bat and actually have some kind of idea of what you’re doing and where the end posts are? It’s frankly not “dangerous” for the vast majority of people who attempt it. Because confronting any kind of mental heath issues or trauma isn’t even a part of properly practiced shadow work 99.99% of the time to begin with; the point is to find your True Will and True Desire. Sometimes that necessitates confronting trauma. But most times, and for most people, however, it does not- or, at least, most people do not have significantly dangerous trauma that would make it disasterous to do such work alone and unguided.

Anyways: I’m not here to say “you’re not a valid witch if you don’t do psychology / shadowork”. That’s nonsense; the only maker of the ‘validity’ of a Witch is in whether or not they’re actually doing Witchcraft as defined by whatever Tradition you're a part of. If you’re doing Witchcraft according to the definition of whatever established practice or tradition you belong to, then congratulations, you’re a Witch. There’s no question of validity there- and anyone who says otherwise can piss up a pole.

But I am here to say- even as someone who loathes Jung and Freud both with every fiber of its being ... That Shadow Work was never any of ... That ... Originally; what is being practiced now isn't Shadow Work. It's not even Jungian based at all at this point. It's all modern Pop Psychology now- focused largely on using Therapeutic Journaling and other methods, done under the false guise of "Inner Exploration" and "Healing Your Trauma". And I think that's where a lot of this misunderstanding is coming from. But honestly, I don’t know where this new pushback against it is coming from.

As someone who's been practicing Witchcraft and Shadow Work for over 20 years now, though? This has not been a thing until recently. And it's absolutely an uneducated and completely ahistorical take on Shadow Work’s traditional usage within the community (there is a reason that Shadow Work was seen as so integral to Witchcraft by our Elders). It is entirely a modern bit of nonsense that has only recently cropped up. It's brand new. And I need y'all to understand that: This is not normal.

Honestly ... A lot of this ignorance about things in general now, I genuinely think, honestly just comes down to how little we value our education anymore; there’s a lot of Pagan history that has been outright erased in the push for “Anti-Wiccanization” of Witchcraft in the last decade, and the push for its “Secularization”. And I've noticed over the last decade that it's literally all come at the cost of understanding the history of Modern Witchcraft, and why we do what we do (and how to do it correctly). But a lot of the ignorant things I see could legitimately be easily rectified by just reading a book that was written more than 5 years ago by another Silver Ravenwolf knockoff.

Maybe before completely abandoning an idea or practice (and encouraging others to abandon it, too)- especially based on a false ideology and premise about it; and writing puddle deep Tumblr think pieces about your perception of its supposed lack of necessity these days ... Just maybe ... You should actually stop erasing its actual development and history within our community. Learn about that proper history within Paganism and Witchcraft and the Occult, and why it was used, how it was used, and how they understood it.

You can really only do that by actually picking up and reading books that were written by our Elders and listening to them, though. Not because they are always "good" and always "unproblematic" (they are usually neither, frankly, and that is something you must learn to make peace with)... But because they contextualize our faith and practices in the modern era and help us understand why things are the way they are to begin with. And that is so incredibly important.

This is an opinion post based in 20+ years of experience and research. If you found this helpful or interesting, please consider Tipping or Leaving a Ko-Fi (being Disabled, even $1 helps); you can see my other "Original Content" here

This account is run by a Dual Faith «(Converting) Masorti Jew + Traditional NeoWiccan» & «Ancestral Folk Magic Practitioner» with 20+ years of experience as a practicing Pagan and Witch. If that bothers you, don't interact.

[oddmawd]

Hey Mawd, is it okay to ask about "The Wife" from The Hunt in these OC asks or not? Just curious! Nway, sending 🎂,💯 and ☕️ for Rei!

hmmmm, The Wife...that should be fine! i left her somewhat abstract for the reader-insert lovers but she has a distinct personality i could use for this DETAILS ABOUT OCs ASK MEME...(also i did base her closely on Rei LMAO so i can kind of default to Rei's characterization for the ask game too!)

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK I LOVE ANSWERING THESE AND YOU MADE MY ENTIRE FUCKIN WEEK, ILY TY!!!!!!

🎂 BIRTHDAY CAKE — when is your oc's birthday? how old are they? what are their sun, moon, & rising signs (if known)? what about their tarot card, ruling planet, & ruling number (if known)? do they fit the typical traits of these sun, moon, & rising signs?

You put me through my paces with this one because I hadn't actually done any birth chart stuff for Rei, and I'm not very good at astrology stuff! I'm basically just picking stuff that fits the personality I gave her. Her birthday is April Fools Day! This makes her an Aries, and I like to think she was born only a few minutes after midnight, putting her on the cusp of being a March and April Aries. As for her signs... She is an Aries Sun, Virgo Moon, Scorpio Rising. This gives her Aries' ambition and drive but Virgo's desire for order while pursuing her goals, and Scorpio's strong intuition and ability to read emotions. Does she fit these signs? Sometimes, but her past has cooled some of Aries' famous temper, and her Sun and Rising signs further quell some of the impulsivity Aries are known for. She looks before she leaps, unlike the typical Aries, and she's not a selfish person as some people believe of Scorpio. She IS, however, very much a Virgo in how critical she is of herself (especially her appearance). I don't know enough about Tarot or numerology to answer the other questions, but I hope the above is enough. <3

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

Fun Fact #1: Rei's favorite emoji, coincidentally, is the 💯 emoji. Followed closely by the ✨ emoji. You'd THINK it would be the winking emoji, but nope. She saves winks for in-person shenanigans. Fun Fact #2: She owns no fewer than 50 wigs. Yes, that's a lot of wigs, but not all of them are top-grade, human hair, hand-tied, or even natural-looking wigs. In fact, the majority of them aren't. Human-hair, hand-tied wigs are extremely expensive, and she only owns a handful (collected over the course of many years) for special occasions. She breaks down her wig collection into four distinct categories: The Queens (her best wigs), the Classy Ladies (high-end synthetic wigs), the Party Girls (mid-tier synthetic wigs), and the Hot Mess Ma'ams (the cheapo costume wigs she happily beats to hell and back). Every category has its time and place. The purple wig she wore to the club in The Sight Unseen was a Hot Mess Ma'am she got on Amazon for like $15. (Bonus Wig Fact: She prefers NOT to glue down her wigs, though she used to do so for ballroom competitions and burlesque routines. Her skin is sensitive and easily irritated, and she enjoys changing up her look on an almost daily basis.) Fun Fact #3: Rei loves reading, and she loves reading nonfiction especially. She volunteers are her local library to read books to kids. She typically dresses up in a costume or fancy outfit that fits the theme of the day's book. Rei is QUITE GOOD at acting out children's literature, and kids love her because she's willing to meet them on their level and never talks down to them. She's very good with kids in general. (That may have been more than one fun fact for this last entry...)

☕️ HOT BEVERAGE — does your oc prefer coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milk, water, or some other drink? how do they like to take this drink (ex. coffee with milk, hot chocolate with whipped cream, a specific kind of tea, etc)?

Today, Rei is a double espresso kind of person. She drinks it for utility in the early mornings and to power late-night study sessions. A quick slam of caffeine is just what she needs to power through the day. BUT when she wants something she can savor and isn't in dire need of instant waking up, she goes for a London fog with a pump of lavender syrup. That's her cozy drink on Sunday mornings, curled up in bed with a good book in her favorite bathrobe. Please note that in her club-scene-visiting and dance-competition-dominating and burlesque-performing youth, however, she would down sugar-free Red Bulls by the case. Those were darks times characterized by youthful idiocy joie de vivre and complete disregard for the health of her kidneys.

I LOVED ANSWERING THESE OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH PLZ SEND MORE IF YOU WANNA!

[xjulixred45x]

CrackShip idea: Megumi Fushiguro x Yui Komori, Nobara Kusigaki x Yui Komori

As I said, I like to think that Yui's possible partner is free to interpretation, although my favorite Ship is Itadori x Yui, I also like to think about the other Sorcerers, including the trio.

With Megumi I have the impression that before Yui comes to the Academy, Gojo would talk to him about it, which makes him somewhat curious and he decides to investigate a little on his own about this new classmate, mainly because he finds it hard to believe that someone who doesn't even have a basic knowledge of cursed energy has been able to survive 12 vampires for this long (no offense), though he only comes to the conclusion that Yui is either very lucky or very cunning.

So when he meets this beautiful creature, Girl, he's quite surprised, not in a bad way, he just didn't expect her to be so friendly and sweet after all the shit that happened to her. Similar to Itadori, this encourages him to want to protect her until she learns to defend herself, maybe even give her some corrections on how to improve and thus spend more time together. I think that in a certain way it reminds her a lot of Tsukimi, Yui just wants to live in peace, get over what happened to her and eventually forgive, but not forgive the Diaboys, but ask for forgiveness from God, which would confuse Megumi A LOT (although it may be more for his little understanding of religions in general).

All of Yui's love interests have a great disgust towards vampires because of what they did to Yui, but I think what Megumi feels for them would be more of an absolute aberration, curses make you make cruel decisions, but these guys.. .? Needless to say, if he could (just like everyone else) he would want to see them die the SLOWEST AND PAINFUL death possible. Even if he tries to keep his composure for Yui, he can't deny that he has wished the boys dead more than once. SPECIALLY after see all the consecuences of the trauma that they cause in Yui.

Megumi ends up wanting to understand Yui's point of view, why this specific forgiveness from God is so much for her, which would lead to both of them opening up more about why they think what they think, it would be a relationship where both try to understand each other. another as far as possible and move on to something more tender, more serious.

Also with the typical cute moments that one can have with someone like Yui, things like her making food for him as a thank you for the help he gives (being pseudo persecuted by Itadori and Nobara has never been so worthwhile), encouraging him, being close to him and talk about their day, just the two of them being normal teenagers for a while.

Additional headcanon, I think Yui would have little moments of panic when she encounters some trigger of her trauma, so sometimes Megumi summons the dogs and allows her to pet them either during an attack or after an attack, the love for the dogs unites it even more.

With Nobara something strange happens in my head, with the other love interests I always imagine a lot of drama or something more similar to the above with Megumi, but with Kusigaki.....no.

As if she was intuitive enough not to want to mess with Yui's traumas and at the same time wanted to protect her for no apparent reason, something improper in a way but she would try to justify it poorly with Yui's blood (even if she makes it clear between the lines which is not so).

Nobara from the beginning would treat Yui as a normal girl, she would try to talk about more standard things and in general she cares that she feels comfortable with the group, she doesn't want her to feel out of place, it's like "what happened to you doesn't It makes you less human or less of a girl, we're young and you have the right to have friends and be an immature, let go" type of relationship at first.

Similar to Megumi, Yui's seemingly endless goodness confuses her not in a bad way, but she doesn't know how someone who's been through so much, who lives in a dark world, and who would have quite valid reasons to be against the world. ...manages to be so happy and kind. Rather than seeing it as something negative, it makes her somewhat sad that Yui has to live in an environment where her kindness is not always reciprocated, so she will try to teach Yui how to identify those cases of what she calls "ungrateful who don't deserve waste your time."

Their relationship is quite comical, Nobara's crazier personality makes Yui put herself in everyday situations that she had never experienced from her upbringing, for example, buying girly magazines, going shopping, having pajamas, watching trashy shows on TV, etc. . I can even see Nobara mad at Seiji(Yui's adoptive father) for the fact that he NEVER let her watch a damn magazine or have a TV🤣

Dating👏of👏shopping👏

Seiji probably gives Yui an allowance (because it is implied that she bought her own phone) and adding to the money the school gives her, we have the best chaotic duo of shopping lesbians, I can imagine Nobara wanting Yui He would try things well on Kawai and ✨Aesthetic✨, giving her lots of compliments and cute comments and returning both with various bags and giant smiles on their faces (unless Nobara tries to force Yuuji to carry his groceries again, Yui would try to help him or save him from Nobara's wrath if he accidentally drops something).

Additional headcanon, I honestly think Nobara doesn't cook shit, so when Yui cooks she's practically already drooling, especially if it's some elaborate dessert like cakes or something like that, the only thing she can help is decorating these desserts 🤣

How is it that with Nobara there is not so much drama but it makes up for it with a lot of domestic Fluff and with a Yui acting her age as she should be 😤

I hope You like it!

[sabrinatvband]

A Simple and Incomplete History of Comic Rough Layouts Before Computers

I made a previous post here [Warning: NSFW] that briefly discussed doing rough layouts for comics. I mentioned that doing rough layouts has become increasingly common over time, and that it wasn't very common in the past.

[This picture has nothing to do with layouts; I just needed something before the page break.]

[Note: Apparently Ed Piskor is a massive creep. This was not public knowledge when I wrote this post, and so apologies for all the references to Cartoonist Kayfabe.]

I also included a link to a great Cartoonist Kayfabe video [embed below] on layouts which included a few examples. I believe the oldest example in the video was some roughs done by Harvey Kurtzman in the 50s.

Anyways, this introduction is getting a little gnarly and inelegant . . . but I'm basically going to repeat myself again, for everyone who isn't looking at the old post, but with a lot more detail and elaboration.

In the past, it was less common than it is today for artists to do rough versions of a page before making their final version. Most artists did everything "on the board" as they went along for a variety of reasons, the biggest one being a lack of time.

Back when residuals and sales bonuses didn't exist in the comics field [up until some point in the 80s], most professional artists were drawing at least two 20~ page comics a month. Prolific artists like Jack Kirby did even more than that, and most artists who worked for Marvel or DC couldn't make a living doing only one book.

Guys working at DC, and most other comic places, worked using "full scripts". Which is to say, basically a screenplay, but for making comics. Since most DC books used conventional and strict grids, and all of the pacing had already been worked out by the writer, there wasn't much reason for a confident journeyman to do any layouts.

The guys at Marvel, who worked using the "Marvel Method", basically had to plot the stories themselves off of a simple, often verbal synopsis of what the plot would be. [If it sounds like the comic artists also basically wrote the comics themselves, you'd be correct.]

Some comic artists were natural intuitive storytellers, like Jack Kirby. Others, like Gene Colan, had trouble pacing their work. The stories would flow just fine initially, and would then conclude with a few 12~ panel pages as the issue started to reach an end. Even Jack Kirby, when ending his Madbomb Captain America opus, had a few awkward overstuffed final pages to wrap things up.

[From Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. Image source. Upscaled for readability by me.]

These Marvel artists probably wished that they could do rough layouts in advance, but the aforementioned time restrictions usually prevented that. John Romita Sr. produced the thumbnails above for Savage Tales #1, published in 1971. Romita Sr. was an artist with a notably clean look to his work; he eventually became the art director of Marvel. Just for fun, I've included a side-by-side layout/finished page comparison below.

Going into the 80s, some smaller independent publishers like Eclipse and Pacific started to emerge that let comic artists own all of their work, get the bulk of profits on their books, and receive residuals. In response, Marvel and DC started to give residuals to artists [but obviously not ownership over any new characters they created].

I believe it was at this point that it became a lot more common for comic artists to devote more time to roughs, because this is also when it became more common for an artist to only do one book a month. This is simple and reductive math, but basically, 30~ days to draw 20~ pages.

I mentioned Harvey Kurtzman as a guy who was doing layouts in the 50s, and it's not a coincidence he seems to have been a particularly early guy to do them. Kurtzman was very valued by EC Comics, and subsequently Playboy Magazine, and so he was paid a lot to write comics in layout form, mostly for other artists to do the final artwork on. Here are two examples of his layouts:

Scott McCloud was doing intense layouts back in the 80s with Zot!. He describes his layout process as being excessive, but it honestly doesn't look too far removed from what a lot of artists do these days.

[From Tips From Top Cartoonists by Eclipse Books. Photo credit TotalEclipse. Upscaled for readability by me.]

In the illustration below [from Understanding Comics, an essential text] we can see that Scott McCloud kept a two-page layout above his drafting table on a clipboard. I've seen other comic artists do this in a handful of old photographs; I imagine that somebody at the Marvel or DC offices came up with this and it spread throughout the industry, much like Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work.

The 22 Panels were a tool that, for a time, was taped to an upper corner of every comic artist's drafting table in America. This allowed artists to draw by the seat of their pants with a little more style. The 22 Panels aren't super relevant here, but Wally Wood was doing layouts in the 60s for Daredevil. It's possible he started doing layouts because he worked from Kurtzman layouts back in his Entertaining Comics days. It's also possible that he hated doing revisions, and made these layouts to get an all-clear from Stan Lee before starting his work [Wood inked and pencilled].

[Image source]

I particularly like this rough / final comparison because there are some notable differences between them. Wood realized that having the final panel part of a three column row didn't give it enough space, and so he shifted around the preceding four compositions, one of which was discarded and replaced entirely.

May as well earn the "Mature: Sexual Themes" rating I've given this post. Here's a later rough / final comparison Wood did for a porno comic.

[Image source]

Don Simpson was doing layouts as far back as the early 90s, and presumably much earlier. As noted in the image below, the initial sketches were done on 8.5" x 11" sheets and enlarged to bristol board size [more on this momentarily.]

Don Simpson has a lot of great information about his working methods on King Kong on his blog; here are two especially relevant posts [warning: some NSFW stuff] Link 1 Link 2

Artists were able to enlarge their work back in the day using a photocopier, something that I had assumed wasn't possible to do with consumer equipment before computers existed.

[image source]

I assume that the percentage needed to enlarge a full 8.5" x 11" page to bristol board size was always the same, but for enlarging random isolated sketches for implementation in a comic a proportional scale could be used.. From what I've gathered, it was very common for comic artists to draw complex perspective stuff at a smaller size and then basically trace an enlarged version for the final comic. [For the unaware, it takes a lot of space to draw 2 or 3 point perspective stuff that doesn't look noticably distorted.]

As I've been watching Cartoonist Kayfabe and their "artist edition" videos lately, I've been discovering that artists had ways of working around the limitations of drawing without layers back in the day.

The relevant stuff in this video is the amount of alterations he did to his art as he went along [there were many creative differences with inker Klaus Janson], stuff he seems to have lightboxed or photocopied off of drawings done on scraps of paper, etc.

Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns had a creative process about as labor intensive and fastidious as you'd expect, considering the 4x4 grids used throughout the book. Miller claims that he illustrated about 100 pages of rough material for every 48 pages of TDKR, and that he cut out individual panels and presumably pasted them onto a page of "master rough bristol board", which he then possibly lightboxed or merely referred to while drawing [possibly using a setup similar to the one Scott McCloud had above his own drafting table].

[Text from Comics Interview #31. Image source, upscaled for readability as usual.]

The trade I own of TDKR says that the first two issues were full-scripted, and Miller did the last two issues using detailed synopses he wrote. When this is considered in conjunction with Miller's comments above, some questions are raised [he was in the middle of issue three when doing the interview above.]

It's possible that the full script included further refinements that weren't in the rough layouts, acting as a penultimate draft. It's also possible that the full script was created mostly for dialogue-related additions.

Below is the first page of a "Marvel Method" style text breakdown Miller used in some capacity for the last issue of TDKR. Unlike the Stan Lee Marvel method approach, which usually consisted of a brief verbal prompt or a few sentences of text, Miller provided himself with a very comprehensive document [I often wonder what guys like Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway gave their writers]. I do wonder if this was meant for editors moreso than Miller himself, and I wonder when he made this document during the creative process; he includes some sketches of Batman that look nothing like the Batman that would appear in the final book. [Certain elements of this document notably deviate from the finished story.]

You're probably wondering why I have such a fascination with this stuff. A big part of it is that I'm a comic artist myself, and so any kind of process stuff is very interesting to me. It's inspiring and frequently educational, because the solutions that old masters used often still have some relevance today. Any modern comic artist who doesn't know what creators did back in the day attempting to do everything "on the board" directly is going to have some trouble.

The other reason is that I think the iterative creative approach a lot of newer comics use is what makes them more enjoyable to read than a lot of manga, but that's a discussion for another time.

Anyways, to hopefully end things on an interesting note, here's a rough from an old comic I never finished. Every panel was drawn seperately on sketchbook paper, photographed, and the final layout was assembled in software.