#Generals: zero hour

[hooverthehoover]

Behold, the worst thing I have ever created (please forgive me)

[hooverthehoover]

Is that the fucking

"Rocket Buggy on the attack!"

[gghero]

kurashiki siblings...... starts sobbing

[serpentface]

Do psychotropic drugs and/or ritual play a role in any of the blightseed cultures? A pretty broad question, lol

Yeah that’s a very broad question, the answer is about as much as it tends to play roles in real history. Alcohol is pretty ubiquitous (outside of cultures that abstain from intoxicants) and used for a variety of purposes, opioids are commonly used in some parts for pain relief or recreational purposes, stimulants (usually in mild, natural forms) are used to provide extra energy, and hallucinogens are most commonly used as part of a larger religious framework (rather than for recreational purposes). Any more elaborate answer kinda has to be case by case in a certain culture or part of the setting.

I'll just take this as an opportunity to talk about the one established sect that pretty much REVOLVES around psychoactive use. This is the Scholarly Order of the Root, which is a sort of mystery religion + elite community of scholars who currently occupy the Ur-Tree and its forest in the far southern Lowlands (southeast of Imperial Wardin, on the same land mass).

The Ur-Tree is the obligatory Huge Fucking Fantasy Tree (and its surrounding forest). It’s a mass of vegetation about a mile tall and almost as old as Plant Life Itself, its upper branches are primeval plants, which become more modern the nearer they get to the ground (and each 'level' holds tiny ecosystems, some containing descendants of LONG-extinct arthropods/other small animals). Its lowest branches and the surrounding forest are contemporary plant life, and all is connected and protected by an incomparably MASSIVE fungal mycelium network (which is itself a living god).

A lot of the Scholars' more secretive practices revolve around experimentation with substance use with the goal of expanding the Mind and transcending the body to fully connect to the Dreamlands, and they have a supply chain of traders and mercenaries called Rootrunners who traffic substances into the Lowlands. Most of their psychoactive use is in a very intentional capacity and not just like, for fun, but a LOT of them are just straight up addicted to cocaine (in the form of alchemically refined bruljenum, which is used for practical purposes of its stimulant effect during long hours of work).

All known psychoactives are desirable for experimentation (particularly hallucinogens), with each having properties that either allow expansion of the Mind, transcendence of the body, or outright divine communion. Their effects are logged in great detail and interpreted to form the basis of the Scholars' understanding of the natural world and reality itself.

The most important substance is Ur-Root, which is root matter from subterranean levels of the Ur-Tree that have both their own intrinsic psychoactive substances and a very, very high concentration of living god mycelium. The tree root contains DMT and the mycelium has its own wholly unique effects (being an actual living god). They alchemically refine it into a purer, more potent form, and use it to expand beyond the body and directly commune with the Giants, a group of entities they have identified as the only true gods.

An Ur-Root trip starts off with minor visual distortion, which turns into shifting fractals that slowly obscure the vision. Eventually the senses are entirely taken over by a 'tunnel' of rapidly shifting fractals and geometries. In a complete trip, the experiencer gets a sense that they have been pushed through a membrane and entered another realm, finding themselves in a distinct experiential Space.

At this point they may encounter entities which communicate to them in a language impossible to describe but wholly understood. These beings are understood to be the Giants, or at least aspects of the Giants that mortals are capable of comprehending (they often take familiar tutelary forms of the Mantis or the Snake, or appear resembling the same type of sophont that the experiencer is, all composed of ever-shifting geometries). The experiencer often feels a sense of unconditional and endless love from these beings, though the Giants may be more hostile and may appear in the form of the Trickster (usually a cultural figure regarded as malicious, be it an animal or otherwise) in a bad trip.

(^Up until this point, this has mostly just been a DMT 'breakthrough' experience ft. 'machine elves' and the like).

They are then removed from this space and returned to something that feels like the real world, but is nearly unrecognizable. They have a sense of rapidly moving through time, and will usually see 'the spires' towards the beginning, which just so happen to look like this:

(source + some context via Implication- the spires are exactly what this art is depicting)

The experiencer continues to move across an unfathomable amount of time, occasionally 'seeing' other such flashes of unfamiliar landscapes and creatures, and yet also being devoid of all their senses, the 'seeing' is pure, unfiltered experience. There is a sense of interconnectedness with all life, and that one has become the forest (or even Life) itself. The sense of time is wildly distorted, the trip lasts only about 5 minutes but feels like an eternity and is understood as literal hundreds of millions of years.

The experiencer has usually lost any remaining sense of Self and individual consciousness during this phase (in which case this time distortion is usually a neutral or even peaceful experience), but some retain a fraction of their identity, and find themselves trapped and conscious while experiencing what feels like eternity (which can be LIFE-CHANGINGLY distressing, even after the fact).

(^This latter part of the trip is the effects of the Ur-Tree fungus).

The trip ends with a sense of rushing through the ground and back up into one's body, at which point they will abruptly return to their senses and consciousness. The details are then immediately retrieved via interview and recorded in immense detail. The whole experience is understood as having been full comprehension of the Dreamlands, communion with the Giants, and then a tour through the act of creation.

This is done as part of the initiatory practice into the inner mystery-religion of the scholars, and as needed for study by high scholar-priests. It is not taken lightly, both as it is absolute communion with the gods and reality, and in that it can be a very, very difficult experience. People who have gone through this often walk away with a permanently shifted perspective, often in a positive and/or comforting way- a sense of interconnectedness with all life, a peace with the concept of death, seeing less of a point in individual ego and the concept of Self, and comfort in the sense of divine love they (may have) experienced. This heavily influences the philosophy of the Scholars and has had effects by proxy in the religious worldviews of the region.

Details of this experience are closely guarded, and initiates are given absolutely no prior knowledge and expectations for their trip. This is seen as a necessity- their naivety will allow for a true, unfiltered experience, and can be used to gauge whether they should or should not be accepted. Those that have a distinctly bad trip upon initiation may be assumed to have been 'rejected' by the giants and thus denied full priesthood, though this largely depends on How they interpret their distressing trip- those who identify this as a test and harsh lesson in a journey to enlightenment may be accepted (as this is how fully initiated scholar-priests interpret and handle their bad trips).

This inner priesthood is only a small fraction of the Scholarly Order, and its greater function is as a hub of education and repository of knowledge, and Scholar-trained doctors can provide some of the best medical care available in the setting ('best medical care in this setting' only means so much but it's pretty solid, relatively speaking). Only a chosen few Scholars ever get to commune with the Ur-Root, and most of the divine secrets revealed in the process are kept hidden (though they indirectly influence the politics and worldview of the entire order).

[yeetushaitus]

been feeling kinda constrained by my normal art recently so i did a silly color palette thing and just tried to have fun w it would do another one but its 4 in the morning lmao

[brigitoshaughnessy]

Stargate SG-1 || Zero Hour

Jack O’Neill: USAFs silliest General

[rileys-battlecats]

was trying to figure out why I feel so Wrong rn and I think it's because I didn't follow my usual daily routine like At All and now my brain is freaking out. woke up at a vastly different time, had entirely different tasks throughout the day, took a nap at a weird time (to make up for the fact I had about 3 hours of sleep last night), zero human contact for the past 15 hours, and ate different food from usual (various leftovers from social events/thanksgiving, instead of cooking for myself like normal). and before I really realized that these were all things that were Bad For My Brain I was just wandering around my house like "why do I feel like garbage?? I've literally been outside so much today my brain should be happy"

ANYWAY here's to me not remembering I have issues with unstructured living because my days have been so similar for the past 4ish years that I straight up Forgot that things being too different too fast makes me crazy ✌️

[simonsezsewart]

Just some OC brainrot bullshit <3

Also hi everyone. I think I’m back… am I back? I think so. Welcome back me 🤡👍

(It’s been so long I lowkey forget how to tag stuff anymore whoops)

[imaginedmelody]

Listen, we all know from 2016 that I fell hard and fast for the beloved tumblr obsession that is the Foxhole Court books. But the author surprised-announced not long ago (late last year I think?) that there was a new book coming out in the series when she never gave any hint that this was a possibility, and it released yesterday night, and well...

I'm right back on my bullshit y'all. 15% in and I can feel myself being re-consumed by this fandom as completely as the meteor that killed the fucking dinosaurs.

[rabbit-ina-trenchcoat]

autism acceptance month is respect the impact of rain man month. To me

[hizznbyte]

I don’t even play boy whoever is in charge of this new testing standard deserves to be shot to death ashamed of themselves

Edit: I like going on TikTok and seeing everybody mad at the state for how bad the exams were because it’s making me realize even more how stupid the entire set up was. NOTHING WE LEARNED IN THE ENTIRE CLASS WAS ON THE EXAM. THEY PULLED SHIT OUT THEIR ASS AND EXPECTED US TO UNDERSTAND. EVERYONE IN THE DISTRICT DEFINITELY FAILED.

[pride-of-storm]

emo has been p intense as of late but i have successfully filled my taxes so i'm at least managing to get some of the stuff i need to do done

[bowling-with-ham]

me approximately 3 days ago, deep in my goes wrong era, listening to the mischief makers pod and getting to ep 5: who the FUCK is harry kershaw

me today one full season of MMNI later: alright mischief makers pod tell me everything about my new best friend harry kershaw

[flying-cat]

Is Zenless Zone Zero stingy with the gacha currency or am I just playing it wrong. Or maybe I'm just too early in the game idk

[nonhumanhottie]

Rebels season 3 rewatch

Zero Hour

Oh here we go bby

ooh the tension is already so high

Kanan loves!!! Ezra!!

I'm so glad this show stresses that Kanan also taught Ezra how to be a good person, rather than just how to be a good jedi

and ahh!! General Dodonna's fleet!!

The girlies are fighting!!

#hotkallus

Kanan doesn't want to leave his girl!

I like how Kallus is there just so Thrawn can talk shit at him and show off

Kanan rightfully calling out Bendu for being in the middle just because he's an unknowable being (and then pissing off that unknowable being on purpose

I know star wars has made a cliche of ship commanders sacrificing themselves but Sato's is done well and it gets me every time

Rex and Sabine fully being like 'but Sabine is smarter than us'

I love Kallus being like nah these rebels are gonna fuck you up

I'm sorry but AT-ATs are lowkey impractical as hell lmao

Only Kanan's 'help' would be a god he pissed off

The way these bitches don't even help AP run lmao

We so rarely hear Thrawn yell and it's so good

I genuinely get such relief when they all make it away safely

Zeb really said we ain't leabing my bestie behind

Bendu's description of Thrawn's future is such good foreshadowing it's so clever

Kanan and Kallus's little moment really shows how the Rebels don't waste energy on grudges

[supercantaloupe]

most of my day was pretty crap but i did get to go to the library science holiday party for an hour before my concert call and i not only got free dinner out of it but i also somehow managed to win two (2) raffle items. the first was a university sweatshirt and the second was a branded tote bag w more stuff inside. i ended up letting them re-draw the raffle for the sweatshirt bc i don't really need it and i felt weird claiming two raffle items, the tote bag was what i was really interested in anyway. not only is it a nice tote with a zipper and an inside pocket and everything it also came with a t shirt, a button, a mug, an Insulated mug, a travel umbrella, and a water bottle. thought that last bit is especially funny to me given the fact that they handed out door prizes to everyone just for showing up. which were. Different (less nice) branded tote bags with a note pad and water bottle in them. so now i just have two identical LIS water bottles