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gojology · 4 years ago

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Job Benefits (Part Three)

broken routines - chapter three.

you can find part two here :

part two : undesirable pairing : ceo! gojo x female reader warnings : cursing wordcount : 1442 a/n : im highly disappointed with this but im very hyped abt writing part 4 and uh i need to change my writing style sooner or later wtf is this mess LOL

If there’s one thing Gojo knows more then his own body, it’s routines. It’s what he grew up around, coming from such a bustling family. Since he learned how to walk, he had attended many interviews, gone to parties, all in one day. Of course, it was commonplace in his already hectic life. He saw routine in everything. Imagine his shock when you came into the office in an outfit that differed so greatly from your regular one that his jaw might unhinge and fall off. He can’t wrap his head around why, but he’s utterly confused as to why you changed this up. Was it permanent, and why the change? He had many questions going through his head. This is one of the many negative traits Gojo Satoru has; he thinks his input is important, even though the majority of time it is... Maybe it was somewhat justified. But he doesn’t realize how unnecessary it comes out to be when no one asked. No one had ever told him no, of course they hadn’t, he was ranked nationally as an important kid due to his wit and charismatic personality, essential for entering the business industry. When he opened his mouth to speak, even at 8 years old at his parent’s conferences, the old professionals would all look at him, keenly waiting for his orders, or perhaps his opinion. This was what he grew up having; so naturally he didn’t know any boundaries, nor did he know when to close his mouth. But that’s besides the point, he thoroughly enjoyed the look on you. He takes his normal trip down the hallway into your office, humming a tune, a messy stack of papers in one hand, a custom ceramic mug in the other; made personally just for him. He expects to see you in your regular outfit, a pencil skirt, white t-shirt, the short clicky heels, and the black blazer. It certainly made for an excellent example of casual, formal attire. Unexpectedly, you’re not. You’re calling someone, phone perched delicately on your shoulder almost as if it’s supposed to slip out, your hair framing your face. Lips parting as you start responding to whatever is on the opposite side, and he notices an evident gloss, your lips are a different color too. You glance up at him and gesture to your phone, and his hands are shoved deep into his pockets, taking this extra time to examine you up and down. White turtleneck, layered alongside a slightly unbuttoned dress shirt with a crisp warm toned brown trench coat. Not too long, not too short. Simple gold jewelry adorned your neck, and his eyes caught onto the gold bracelet that jingled on your arm as you swayed it around; he kinda found it cute how even when the person you were talking to wasn’t in front of you, you were still so animated. Gojo can’t see your pants nor your shoes, but he’s about to enter cardiac arrest because truthfully he didn’t expect that you knew how to dress. “What?” you say, words dripping with venom and menace, putting the phone back down. He’s taken aback, what’s with the tone? “What do you mean, what, (Y/N)?” giving you a shit eating grin, he takes a step closer to your table. “Answer my question, I asked first.” you shot back, now crossing your legs, you hope you look bored just to add more insult to injury. The guy deserved it for thinking the world revolved around him. He doesn’t answer, instead staring at you, setting his cup of coffee onto the already crowded tabletop, slightly hunched over. You feel your heart drop. Fuck, maybe seeking some sort of symbolic revenge against your boss wasn’t the best of ideas. Actually, none of your ideas were the best last night. Naturally you’d only think up disasters when you were under distress. “What’s with the new outfit? Buy a new fashion sense on Amazon?” he finally inquires, a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, brushing your... Rude words aside. You shrug, pulling out your planner from the drawer and mumbling, biting your pen before writing inside, they’re mindless words. You hope your acting is good, because you want to cry again even at the slight sound of those words. “I don’t know, I felt like I would try something different.” Fuck, were was the sass? Why did you answer nervously? Why did you feel so scared? There was obviously something that you wanted to do rather then chit chat with him, and Gojo’s now unoccupied hand rubs his neck, this was suddenly so awkward, even for someone as lively as him. “Hm. Right. Anyways, these were in the printer.” he slaps the freshly printed lukewarm pages onto your desk. “Figured these were yours, still had your name on them.” “Ah. Thanks.” you say before yawning, covering your mouth before sliding the papers back into the drawer behind you- as if you had no care for them. Actually, you didn’t. This was apart of your master plan that you had crafted at 1 AM last night, too exhilarated to rest. You would print papers out in Gojo’s printer, which you had used once in a while prior so it wouldn’t be too suspicious, and since Gojo never left the dang office he’d hear the sounds and return them to you. Both of you were silent again, and he’s debating between hitting you up with a topic of conversation, perhaps a joke, but you seem so uninterested he’s not sure if it’s the right moment. “Just to let you know- your lunch break is in 10 minutes.” he adds, whistling to try to appear careless, but he could feel his heart sinking. You were acting unusually cold, no dramatic tantrums from you that he usually loved. In fact, that was the whole reason why he liked coming to your office. That, and the cute stationary. “Ah! Really?” you make sure to act like you just got a ticket to heaven, just as a petty way of saying, “Hey. You’re boring. I want to get out.” and Gojo’s pretty sure that all the contents of his heart was shattered now. Hmph. Whatever, if you continued this behavior he’d swear he’d fire you, but even he knows that’s not true. He had grown fond about you over the small amount of time that you had worked as his secretary, besides, what was a good work life if you didn’t have a good relationship with your very own secretary? He’s sure his banter doesn’t affect you. “Yeah.” he says, now quiet. He turns his back on you, pausing for a quick moment before walking out, not before he bangs the top of his forehead against the door frame, which earned a slight groan out of him, and just like that he left. You still hear the faint clicking against the tile floor from his shoes. You exhaled a sigh you didn’t know you were holding, twirling your office chair to look at the large window pane behind your desk. This was something you admired about the architecture of the building you worked out. Every single office had a large window facing Tokyo, so late working hours would always involve beautiful city lights and the bustling of night life. The sun and sky was bright and cheery, and it comforted your frazzled body. Today wasn’t as bad as yesterday, but it still felt strange from not having your daily ridiculous conversation with Gojo- and strangely you missed it. Instilled with energy and motivation, you stand up, pulling your bento out of your bag, determined to go through with the rest of your plan. You knew Gojo had a good friend that worked here, Keto Sugareu or something like that. You’d have lunch with him, work your feminine charms, and that was that. It wasn’t like you wanted to, but a part of you so desperately wanted to prove to Gojo that you could be smart, witty, yet sexy at the same time. You weren’t a prude- just someone not as exposed to these lifestyles. But you didn’t really eat your lunch in the break room, rather, you were almost always in your very own office. If you weren’t found in there, it’d either be the bathroom or conspiring to steal Gojo’s luxury coffee machine at your house. Infact, you’re not even quite sure if you remember how it looks like. “Whatever.” you mumble to yourself, before scooping up your utensils and napkins and heading out for the break room. You shouldn’t have ever stepped foot into that cursed hellish room that day.

nice to see u down here, u want chapt 4? too bad. just kidding! here, have at it. chapter four : conspiring

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tlbodine · 5 years ago

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Hi! Im writing a story that has to mix fantasy and reality, Ive always been interested in folklore, cultures, and beliefs of other people. All of these things are involved in my story, I wanted to add in a character that is Native American (Her name is Rosalie), I'm on the fence because I don't want to touch something that I shouldn't. How should I go about this? Should I change her ethnicity, Should I in someway make it my own? Or how should I write it or should I write about something else.

This is tricky. And the answer is going to be really long. Sorry.

I want to make it clear that I am not myself in any way a representative of Native people or claiming to be one. I’m just a white lady who grew up near the reservation and have had maybe more interactions with Native American cultures than a lot of people. But at the end of the day, I’d defer judgment to people closer to the people being specifically affected.

So, with that disclaimer out of the way. Here’s the thing. I’m not here to tell anybody what they should or should not write about. But I can hopefully give you some stuff to think about that will help you decide.

Thing One: “Native American” is not a monoculture. There are 574 tribes federally recognized by the U.S. government. They are all culturally distinct. They each have their own histories, mythology, religion, food, lifestyle, and so forth. So before you go creating any Native OC, you’re gonna want to narrow that down to a tribal affiliation.

You can do this one of two ways. You can choose a geographic location and then look for a tribe who lives in that area, or you can choose a tribe and then root them in that geographic location. Of course, a Lakota Sioux could live in New York, but she wouldn’t be from New York, you feel me?

Writing about “Native Americans” without understanding their tribal affiliation and history is like writing about “Europeans” as if Italians and Russians and Greeks and Germans were all the same.

Thing Two: If you’re going to be talking about mythology/folklore, you need to do your research while also recognizing that a lot of the most accurate and authentic information is not going to be accessible to you.

A lot of Native cultures are “closed” cultures in the sense that they’re not going to teach sacred knowledge and rituals to outsiders. They’re just not. It’s none of your business. They’re not hiding this information from you because they want to be greedy, they’re hiding it because until 1978 it was illegal for them to practice their religion in public in a lot of the country. A lot of things from Native cultures have been erased forever or diluted by outside influences.

So this means that if you’re writing a character whose life includes or is influenced by traditional culture, there are some things you won’t be able to portray accurately. And I personally think it would be disrespectful to just make something up, especially if you don’t make it extremely clear that you’re making it up.

For an example of how this could work: The film Dance Me Outside is a really great mystery-thriller set on a reservation, and I heartily recommend it. But there’s one scene where one of the characters has married a white guy. She brings him home to her family and, for plot reasons, needs him to be out of her hair for a bit. So she sends him out with some of her male relatives to keep him occupied. They decide it would be hilarious to do a “naming ceremony” to give him an “Indian Name.” It’s very clear in the narrative that they’re making this up as they go along -- they are creating what they think he thinks a naming ceremony would look like, and he’s gullible enough to go along with it because he’s eager to please (and at this point very drunk). The scene is very funny and advances the plot and develops some characterization without ever actually revealing any secret/sacred knowledge.

But in general? If something is sacred to a tribe? You don’t get to fuck around with it. You don’t get to put your own fresh spin on it or just make up stuff that “sounds” authentic. Because...

Thing Three: You will encounter a TON of fake or inaccurate information out there. Just, a ton. Because here’s the thing. White folks didn’t just commit genocide against Native people. It wasn’t enough to destroy their people and their culture. White folks have a really long history with appropriating their culture.

So the situation is that you get a group of people whose ancestors were actively hunted like animals (there were bounties for scalps!), sent to forced re-education camps where they were frequently abused and scrubbed of their culture and language, and who were not allowed to practice their religion under threat of law. And at the same time, aspects of those religions and cultures -- that the people who made them cannot practice! -- are taken and absorbed into pop culture.

Yeah. It’s shitty.

So when you’re researching, you need to be absolutely certain that your sources are coming from actual Native Americans from the tribe you want to write about and not from white folks who think some aspect of their culture is neat. Because, personally, I feel like cultural appropriation -- in the context of Native Americans -- is continuing to perpetuate genocide, and that feels icky.

Thing Four: Modern Natives =/= Historical Natives.

There is this....weird, colonialist tendency to imagine Native Americans as...living fossils, or quaint backwards people who live in old-fashioned ways, or as a thing that used to exist but not anymore. I get the impression talking to a lot of people that they think Native Americans stopped existing in the Wild West days. Like “Indian” is a category in their head alongside “Cowboy” and “Samurai” and “Pirate” or whatever.

But that’s not, like....the case. Modern Native American people exist, and they have varied and complex relationships with their culture and history just like everybody else. Some people live on reservations and practice traditional religious and cultural practices. Some people live in small towns or cities and practice a mixture of modern and more traditional lifestyles. A lot of them are Christian. Some blend cultural aspects of their tribe with Christian aspects of religion. And so on and so forth. It will 100% depend on the individual!

There are also aspects of cultures that get blended across tribal affiliations! This is especially true among the sort of “powwow culture” groups who dance competitively or trade crafts at powwows and fairs.

Anyway the whole thing is VERY COMPLICATED and honestly not something you’re going to learn from reading a book. It’s the kind of nuance that’s only going to make sense to you if you’re hanging out with Native people and understand their individual lives.

Thing Five: There are a ton of harmful stereotypes and things you maybe don’t even think about or realize are stereotypes because there is so much misinformation out there. I feel like almost every representation of Native Americans in media is bad because most of the stories are written by folks who just don’t know what it’s like to be Native, and they’re writing for a White audience.

PHEW. Okay. That was a lot. If you’re still reading, THANK YOU.

So what’s my answer to your question?

I think it really depends. Why do YOU want to write a Native OC? Are you willing to put in some time and effort to research them? What kind of story are they going to feature in? I think by and large, people outside of a culture shouldn’t try to write stories about being that culture. As in, like, I don’t think a white person has any business writing a story to “illuminate the struggles” of Native people or anything like that.

But if you want one of the characters in your horror novel to be Native because the story takes place in an area with a lot of Native people, sure. That makes sense. And if that person’s frame of reference is flavored by their culture, sure, go for it.

But I certainly would not recommend writing a story that, for example, re-casts a sacred/mythological Native American figure as a monster (cough, Wendigo, cough), or one that creatively reimagines the mythology unless it is exceptionally clear that the mythology is being reimagined and is not meant to be accurate at all (because otherwise it runs the risk of further polluting an already almost-extinct culture).

So...that’s my opinion. I hope this was helpful!

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solaneceae · 6 years ago

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MY HUMAN!EGOS AU

i got a surge of inspiration and started creating my own versions of the egos! its still a work in progress but i love them to bits and im really excited to share them

JACKIE

grew up in an abusive household, emotional and sometimes physical abuse

parents screamed at each other all the fucking time, father was an alcoholic

Left home as soon as he was able to live by himself (16)

he’s 22 now

poor

trans boi, on T, wears a binder cuz he can’t afford top surgery

lives in an apartment with two roommates: Max, a philipino sound designer and independent musician (they/them) and their girlfriend Nilanjana (Nana), a buff training coach from indian descent

Jackie is in a queerplatonic relationship with them: they cuddle and kiss on the forehead during movie nights and all that cute shit

he has a part-time day job to pay the rent and bills: he gives self-defense lessons

he drinks his respect women juice

vigilante at night. gets hurt a lot. his roommates think he fights in an illegal fight club for extra cash and are worried about him

wants to save people and spread positivity wherever he goes

but he has the wrong way to go about it

basically he does the PMA thing wrong and thinks any kind of negativity is bad and tries to force himself to be happy all the time.

not healthy, someone help this poor boi

anger issues, undiagnosed ptsd and ADHD

antsy boi! stimmy boi! He’s always bouncing on his feet or humming a tune or fiddling with his hair

aromantic asexual

pure of heart, dumb of ass. seriously, he’s such a dumb, but he does have street smarts

vitiligo!!

light blue eyes, dyes his brown hair lime green

extrovert, loves people

the kind of guy to record himself doing parkour and post it on tiktok

team hot cocoa

for the love of god please don’t give him coffee, he’s enough of a jitterbug already

wants a dog. prolly needs an emotional support one.

plays the drums. Fished a beat-up set somewhere, would like a proper one

fights with his fists and a wooden staff

no special powers, just self-taught fighting skills, natural flexibility and talent at acrobatics and rigorous training

MARVIN

he was born with green cat eyes, the physical representation of his extremely potent magic. parents were freaked out, and basically hid him away

had no control over his powers as a baby, would wreak havoc around him. think Mob from Mob Psycho 100

the upper side of his face was badly burned when he lost control of his powers as a toddler, so he wears masks to hide the scars. the cat one is just the one he wears most often

“hey, nice mask!” “it’s a prosthetic.” “...oh.” (it’s not that bad really, he’s just really self-conscious about it)

he was homeschooled his whole life and generally wasn’t allowed to go out much, so his social life/skills are nonexistent

his parents are famous fashion designers

they’re super rich and travel the world and send him a ridiculous amount of money every month

they say it’s for work but the real reason is that they couldn’t deal with having a “freak” as a son but couldn’t abandon him without getting bad PR

so instead they just took their distance and left him to live in a big-ass mansion by himself as soon as he was old enough (10 years old)

they dont really care what he does. last time they called him was when he was 13

last time they sent him a birthday card was when he was 18

now he’s 24

(and at this point he makes me think of bruce wayne lmao. he needs an alfred)

since he has money and home, he doesn’t need a job, so he just stays cooped up in the property and almost never leaves, he orders his food and groceries to be delivered to him

he’s basically a hermit at this point. and a huge nerd

he tries to use his natural magic as little as possible, (hello trauma my old friend) so he still has flimsy control over it

instead he dabbles into wicca and the occult to do stuff

A bookworm, quite serious, dresses like a hipster art school student. he wears SAROUEL PANTS.

glasses!! Big round rimless glasses!! soft!!!!

long brown hair, messy bun, dyes the tips dark green and purple

disaster gay

“sleep? what’s that? i only know coffee”

has three cats he rescued himself: Spades, Jasper and Poppy

has a huge greenhouse linked to the main building. he likes gardening a lot, whether it’s for his craft, for cooking or just because he likes seeing plants flourish

HOW THEY BOTH MET / IDEAS AND SHIT

Jackie tried to take on a whole ass drug ring and bit more than he could chew at the time so he got beat up pretty bad. He managed to escape with his trusty grappling hook and swung around a bit before crashing through the glass ceiling of the greenhouse while Marv was tending to his plants, in the early morning.

Long story short Marv is in a panic because a complete stranger (also the only human being he’s interacted with in months) just flopped in front of him and is probably dying and he wants to call an ambulance.

jackie: *beaten black and blue and coughing up blood* jackie: oh hey how’s it goin’ marv: *distressed nerd noises* marv: oh my god who the fuck are you but also are you dying in my house im calling an ambulance- jackie: uh yeah no please dont im kinda doing illegal stuff also i cant afford it marv: marv: wh-

also what if marv calls the family’s doctor since jackie won’t go to a hospital, and it’s fucking Schneep henrik: what the fuck did you do this time marv: it wasn’t me! jackie: your family doctor scares me marv: that’s why they hired him

maybe after that jackie keeps coming to see marv and marv is like “ugh you again-” and he always come to marv whenever he gets hurt, to get patched up by schneep. he broke the ceiling two more times basically they become “hey ron hey billy” vine, its just a habit at this point.

Marv is a rich boi that doesn’t know anything about life. at this point i realize he’s like a mix of Elsa and Rapunzel, and Jackie is kinda Flynn xD Jackie just… aggressively becomes Marv’s friend despite the magic man’s reluctance, and shows him the world. love me some smart grumpy nerd/dumb happy jock friendship

jackie: im your friend now marv: wh- jackie: *drags him outside* LETS GO CLIMB A BUILDING TOGETHER-

Marvin but he’s never been in a grocery store in his entire life because he just orders super expensive pre-made meals to his house or cooks his own veggies, and he’s just amazed at the first one they go to

like “wHAT, IT’S A ROW OF FREEZERS! Remind me to install one of these at my place!”

and Jackie, who just came here for bread and milk, looks at him fondly but also is very concerned. Also he doesnt question marv’s masks, he just thinks they look cool

@tabbynerdicat it’s my bois! @lilakennedy because i know you like those two, and your love for them motivated me to develop them first

#caori's stuff #jacksepticeye #jse #jse egos #jacksepticeye egos #jackieboy man #jbm #marvin the magnificent #jse au #human!egos AU

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mittensmorgul · 6 years ago

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We’re Working on the Power of Love

(AN: There are several linked posts in this essay, and normally I’d just say “for further reading,” or “if you’re interested,” but honestly I linked them here because they provide the foundation of understanding the scope of these parallels, and I consider them Required Reading. Mostly they saved me the trouble of turning this essay into a 10k word dissertation, because all the connections essentially make themselves by comparing the posts, most especially this one and this one. Go read both of those now. I’ll wait.)

There have been many posts already discussing the parallels in 14.10 to other episodes-- 4.01, 2.20, 13.06, 10.23, and a number of others. But there’s one particular theme I want to explore in more depth, because it’s tied directly to Dean and Michael both. In 5.18, Dean came dangerously close to saying yes to Michael and engaging the Apocalypse script, but everything leading up to his rejection of that script by the end of the episode has now been turned on its head by Michael himself in 14.10.

At the beginning of 5.18, Dean has made his peace with his fate and is going about preparing to give himself over to Michael-- packing up everything that’s important to him in a box for Bobby. He’s at the end of his rope and thinks this is the only way, sacrificing himself to save everyone else. He intends to bargain for their safety in exchange for his own compliance.

This is, essentially, what Cain once did for Abel, as we learned eventually in 9.11, so this loop has repeated itself more than once now, on different levels of the narrative.

I think required reading for understanding the parallels I’m about to make is this post I made on April 20, 2017 during my s12 meta rewatch. It discusses Dean’s painful rejection of each member of his family in a similar fashion to the statements Michael makes to each member of TFW in 14.10. Not to mention the fact it touches on Dean’s thoughts on a White Picket Fence ending for himself, his own guilt and internal darkness, Fate vs Free Will, Dean’s internal strength of will, and the ghost of John Winchester and his long shadow still governing Dean’s choices and opinion of himself.

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/159793521320/517-and-518-or-how-does-any-of-this-make-any (this was the first linked post from the author’s note above)

I read a couple of other posts while searching for the one linked above that also give some insight into the themes that we’re seeing again in s14 regarding all of the above-referenced themes that might prove useful reading, while we’re here:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/177899727345/hot-take-13x23-is-5x18-point-of-no-return-but

And

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/165312952745/im-new-to-spn-and-a-friend-turned-me-onto-your

(more dealing with the Winchester Family Dynamics, the Ghost of John Winchester, and fate vs free will, but still incredibly relevant to the overarching themes of s14)

But what I’d like to specifically focus on are the things Michael weaponized against each of TFW 2.0, because those barbs were crafted much the same way that Dean’s barbs toward his family were crafted in 5.18.

I detailed all of them in this post from the other night:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/182126697455/one-thing-that-stuck-out-to-me-about-last-nights (this was the second linked post from the author’s note above)

I only touched on Michael’s first conversation with Castiel in the War Room briefly in that post, focusing more on his “stalling tactics” inside Rocky’s Bar, and I barely skimmed over Jack’s chat with Michael. But they are thematically paired to the hurtful comments Dean flung at his family in 5.18. Only now, Dean can see all of these statements as the deceptions they are.

In 14.10:

Jack: Sam and Dean -- they're gonna beat you. Michael: Oh, please. Sam's in so far over his head, he's drowning. And Dean? Well, I've got Dean under control. Jack: No. Dean -- he's strong. Michael: He's a gnat. I'm a god. Who would you bet on? You don't know anything about Dean. I'm in his head literally. I know everything. Like, I know how sad he was when you died on the outside. On the inside, well, it's not that he was happy -- he just didn't care. 'Cause you're not Sam. You're not Cas. You're a new burden that he was handed. You're a weak, helpless thing. You think that they care about you, love you? You're a job, a job none of them wanted. And you --

In 5.18, this wasn’t Dean’s comment, but directly subverting who Adam was to who Jack is now:

BOBBY: You’re still John’s boy. ADAM: No, John Winchester was some guy who took me to a baseball game once a year. I don’t have a dad. So we may be blood, but we are not family. My mom is my family. And if I do my job, I get to see her again. So no offense, but she’s the one I give a rat’s ass about, not you.

Adam staked his ground, separated himself from the Winchesters (to his detriment in the end), but Jack has come full circle and understands his place in the Winchester family.

The barbs Dean lobs at Sam in 5.18 resonate directly to the ones Michael hurls in 14.10:

5.18:

SAM: No? So Michael’s not about to make you his Muppet? What the hell, man? This is how it ends? You just…walk out? DEAN: Yeah, I guess. SAM: How could you do that? DEAN: How could I? All you’ve ever done is run away. SAM: And I was wrong. Every single time I did.

And

DEAN: I just…I—I don’t believe. SAM: In what? DEAN: In you. I mean, I don’t. I don’t know whether it’s gonna be demon blood or some other demon chick or what, but…I do know they’re gonna find a way to turn you. SAM: So you’re saying I’m not strong enough. DEAN: You’re angry, you’re self-righteous. Lucifer’s gonna wear you to the prom, man. It’s just a matter of time. SAM: Don’t say that to me. Not you…of all people. DEAN: I don’t want to. But it’s the truth. And when Satan takes you over, there’s got to be somebody there to fight him, and it ain’t gonna be that kid. So, it’s got to be me.

And 14.10:

- And, Sam – oh, Sam You know, Dean was his happiest when you quit hunting, leaving him with your dad, just the two of them. See, deep down, he knows that you will always abandon him, again and again.

This is playing on the exact same fear, attempting to use this as a manipulation, when everything that’s happened in their lives between 5.18 and now has served to undercut this directly.

Let’s compare what he says to Cas, who in 5.18 had intervened to yell his own pain, the truth of what he’d sacrificed in support of Dean, and eventually the fracture of his own faith in Dean and everything he’d always thought Dean stood for:

CASTIEL: Maybe they’re desperate. Maybe they wrongly assumed Dean would be brave enough to withstand them. DEAN: Alright, you know what? Blow me, Cas.

And

CASTIEL: I rebelled for this?! So that you could surrender to them? DEAN: Cas! Please! CASTIEL: I gave everything for you. And this is what you give to me.

And

CASTIEL: Maybe it is. But then I won’t have to watch you fail. I’m sorry, Dean. I don’t have the same faith in you that Sam does.

Yet in 14.10, Cas is absolutely convinced that Dean is “more than strong.” His only fear is that Michael could be stronger still. And it’s Cas who sees through the deception, providing the light in the darkness to uncover and understand the truth, to see through the fear and the pain and find Dean, as well as to see through Michael’s lies for what they really are:

- You only tolerate the angel because you think you owe him, because he “gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition.” Or whatever. But since then, what has he done? Only made mistakes, one after the other.

Because over the years since 5.18 they have struggled through the depths of broken trust and forgiven each other everything. They’ve come to an understanding that everything they do, they’ve done out of love. They’re not a couple of dumbasses. They know they do the wrong things for the right reasons, and they understand their own failures and guilt. And most importantly, they know that all of this has been done out of love.

Finally, there’s what Michael says about Dean himself:

- You don’t need them. You don’t even like them. They’re not your family – they’re your responsibilities. They’re a weight around your neck. And deep down, you wanted – you were desperate to get away from them. And that is why you said yes

I compared this statement to what Demon Dean tried to hurt Sam with in 10.03, just before he was cured, but this also goes directly to 5.18, and Dean’s state of mind at that time:

DEAN: Just…let me say this. I don’t know if it’s being a big brother or what, but to me, you’ve always been this snot-nosed kid that I’ve had to keep on the straight and narrow. I think we both know that that’s not you anymore. I mean, hell, if you’re grown-up enough to find faith in me…the least I can do is return the favor. So screw destiny, right in the face. I say we take the fight to them, and do it our way.

We both know that’s not you anymore.

Because there it is, even by the end of 5.18, Dean has acknowledged this relationship with Sam is not just his burden. Like the angels in s5 who desperately needed to divide Sam and Dean, to set them up as adversaries willing to capitulate to fate, that’s exactly what Michael was doing in Rocky’s Bar. He needed to break the Winchesters’ trust and faith in one another, because Team Free Will united is an unstoppable force. The theme the show has been hammering home forever is that they’re better together, stronger together. It’s the power of Love, on every level.

#spn s14 spoilers #spn 14.10 #spn 5.18 #winchester family dynamics #here have my belated thoughts on the whole love... and love #dinkle #oh DEAN #lies and damn lies #subversion and inversion #it's spirals all the way down #that's what free will is #need vs want #spn duality

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fabula-novo-mundo · 6 years ago

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Theonymy: On the Names of fal’Cie

The gods of Fabula Nova Crystallis (FNC) are, as the title of the mythology would suggest, multifaceted. This post will be the first in a series that attempts to analyse them from a polytheistic, specifically, a fictional or otherworld reconstructionist perspective.

Names are essential to storytelling. In the Final Fantasy series of games especially, names are drawn from many different cultures and languages, even within the same title: Nomura Tetsuya, the series’ lead character designer for the last 22 years, and one of the creative leads behind the original Fabula Nova Crystallis project, drew from Okinawan (“Yuna”, night; “Tidus”, sun), Ainu (“Wakka”, water), and Arabic (“Lulu”, pearl) while creating the characters of the Final Fantasy X series. These names often subtly allude to the positions of the characters or their future arcs in the context of the story or its themes, and understanding their etymology can frequently be illuminating.

This doesn’t hold a candle, however, to the significance of the names of gods, which describe their relationship with the world itself, and have their origins in epithets used to describe them by their worshippers. For example, the chthonic jötunn Hel, whose name derives from the Proto-germanic *haljō, from the Proto-Indo-european *kol-, “to cover/hide”, as one covers a corpse in the soil of a grave; or the Irish psychopomp an Morrígan, whose name either translates to “Great Queen” or “Phantom Queen”, as befits a goddess who manifests to doomed warriors; or Nebt-het, the netjert of death, whose name translates to “Lady of the Temple Enclosure”, describing her role in ritual.

fal’Cie

Firstly, the term “god” itself should be addressed. Often applied in english-language literature across religious traditions to describe a wide array of entities, it often fails to capture the nuance that culturally specific terms have for these entities. For example, in norse tradition, the word “god” is typically applied to the Æsir and Vanir, but not their enemies (such as the Jötnar) despite the latter often being of equal power and cosmic significance to the former two; additionally, the word often fails to describe the nuance of the word “kami” in Shinto tradition.

This word, kami, in fact is the term often used to describe the higher deities in the original japanese scripts of the Fabula Nova Crystallis franchise (this term became “god” in the english, of course), particularly concerning the most supreme living being in the mythos: Bhunivelze, the Shining God (Kagayakeru Kami), for whom the terms for lesser spirits in the mythology were considered inadequate or degrading by his historical worshippers.

However, being apathetic (at best) to the Shining One myself, i will use this term for him anyway: fal’Cie, the name for a living, material god in the various worlds of the setting[1]. In the rest of this post, and in subsequent writing, i will use the collective and singular term “fal’Cie” to refer to inorganic spirits in Fabula Nova Crystallis that are themselves descended from inorganic spirits.

The term “fal’Cie” itself deserves analysis. In the original japanese scripts, the kana for this term is ファルシ, “faruShi”, which is very nearly a correct transliteration of the english-language word “fallacy” — whose definition is of course “a mistaken belief or error in reasoning.” This will become incredibly important later when i discuss the nature of mythology and cult within the setting, but for now let it simply be noted that it is important that the term used for spirits in this world is nearly synonymous with the concept of “misconception.”

The related term “l’Cie” provides another avenue for analysis of the theonym. l’Cie, written ルシ, ruShi, are (formerly) human servants or slaves of fal’Cie. The term, especially in the original scripts, is pronounced almost exactly the same as the italian “luci”, or “light”, and when romanised, is quite clearly just the french word “ciel“ or “sky” with the last consonant shifted forward. Both of these concepts allude to the origin and master of all living fal’Cie and, indeed, all souls and Matter in the FNC, in the most exalted Lord of Light, Bhunivelze.

The fa- prefix that forms the word fal’Cie is then theorised by FNC fans to have its origins in the Latin famulus “servant,” in line with the origin of the “fa” note in solfège (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti) from the Latin hymn Ut queant laxis. This would, fittingly, give us an etymology for the term fal’Cie that comes to something along the lines of “Servant of Light/Heaven.” Personally, i’m not sure how much merit this association actually has, convenient though it is, so i’d like to propose an alternate theory.

There is only one obvious association that the fal- prefix could have in west european languages. It has already been covered, indirectly, but bears discussing again: the word “fallacy” derives ultimately from the Latin fallere, “to deceive,” and the fal- stem in descendant romance languages still retains this association with falseness (french and italian, used in the “l’Cie” part of the word, are, of course, romance languages, which makes an italic etymology for fa(l)- the most likely). This would give “fal’Cie” the etymology “Heavenly Deception” or “Deceiving Light,” both of which could help elucidate the beings’ true natures.

It should be further noted that words in japanese containing the syllable シ (shi), which is a homonym for 死 “death,” often become associated with death by association: for example, the japanese numeral 四 “four,” also pronounced shi, is historically considered inauspicious.

[1] i am aware that in the brand change from Final Fantasy Versus XIII to Final Fantasy XV, the term “fal’Cie” was replaced with “Astral” as a term specific to the world of Eos, but insofar as these entities still exist as the crystalline descendants of the Fell Trickster Lindzei and the Hallowed Tyrant Pulse, the theonym “fal’Cie” is still correct, and i will use it when describing these entities in the context of the wider setting. The word “Astral” itself shares connotations with the celestial etymology of the original term, which hints at the Astrals’ true nature, even after the rebranding.

Pulse

Stout fashioned earth, that future might take root. — Analect I, “The Vanished Gods”

The first theonym i would like to address is the most simple. Pulse, the Terrestrial Potentate, is a male fal’Cie who is credited with shaping the physical world. Concretely, this means he is the entity responsible for the creation of, well, nearly everything that can be seen, touched, or otherwise mundanely sensed in the mortal realm.

His symbol is ten bidirectional prongs or arrows emanating from a central eye, five upwards, five downwards. In Final Fantasy XIII we find its analogue in the many-pronged double-headed spears of the Gran Pulsian l’Cie Oerba Yun-Fang, which makes it doubly clear that this symbol is supposed to be phallic, and possibly a symbol of fertility or rulership, an association strengthened by the fact that the Etro-venerators of the Kingdom of Lucis and the otherworldly leisure house Serendipity depict Hallowed Pulse as the King on their playing card sets, and give him the title “the Mighty Potentate.”

The origin of the english word “pulse” is Latin pulsus, both words to describe a beat, throb, flow or stroke. This highlights the deep connection that the Hallowed Pulse has to the mortal world and all parts of nature that lie within, as the source of and indicator for the terrestrial realm’s strength and vitality.

The etymology of pulsus can reveal more, however: pellere, to push, drive, affect, compel, expel, propel, repel, dispel, impel, strike, banish, or conquer. This helps us see the significance of the ten arrows as a symbol of force, power, domination, and divine kingship, and solidifies the Divine Pulse’s associations with violent rulership or tyranny. Pulse is very much the archetypal patriarch, and the domineering attitude of his descendant fal’Cie towards the mortals they live alongside reinforces this.

Lindzei

Sage turned mind's eye inward, seeking truth profound. — ibid.

The third and youngest offspring of Light, the etymology of “Lindzei” is much less transparent than her elder sibling’s, but by examining the Heavenly Ruler’s iconography and associations, it is possible to determine some likely candidates.

Analect II, titled “Lindzei’s Nest,” from Final Fantasy XIII, gives us the following from the perspective of a Gran Pulsian demagogue:

And lo, the viper Lindzei bore fangs into the pristine soil of our Gran Pulse; despoiled the land and from it crafted a cocoon both ghastly and unclean.

Lies spilled forth from the serpent's tongue: 'Within this shell lies paradise.' Men heard these lies and were seduced and led away.

O cursed are the fools who trust a snake and turn their backs upon the bounty of Pulse's hallowed land! For those who dwell in that cocoon are not Men, but slaves of the demon Lindzei.

Ye who honor Pulse: rise unto the heavens, and cast down the viper's nest!

The serpent imagery here would seem oddly out of place if it weren’t for the universal symbol of Lindzei used by his descendant fal’Cie and the mortal societies she patronises. Lindzei’s symbol is that of a statuesque feminine figure with exaggerated hips, arms, and a headdress, whose stylised silhouette strongly resembles a uterus and ovaries. However, seen from another angle, this extremely stylised shape also resembles the hood of a cobra. It is fitting that a fal’Cie who is so associated with duplicity and tricks would be represented by such a multifaceted symbol.

This gives us a clue to the origin of the first part of Lindzei’s name. The germanic stem lind-, seen in the english word “lindworm” (dragon) and in many other germanic words for “snake”, has its origin in the Old norse linnormr, ultimately deriving from Proto-germanic *linþaz “flexible.” This is by far and away the likeliest candidate for the etymology of the Fell Lindzei, and strengthens the already existing trickster archetype or Satanic associations the gender-ambiguous (yet highly feminised) fal’Cie possesses.

The other associations of the word *linþaz are also worth discussing. The english word “lithe” descends from *linþaz, and the concept of flexibility or bendsomeness is itself highly relevant to the nature of this uranic fal’Cie. Lindzei is, above anything else, noted for his “dark cunning,” her skill with words, and, in the history of the Etroites, is effectively considered the midwife of the mortal races, who cultivated the very first human civilisations after their Goddess’ death. Given that societies patronised by Lindzei’s offspring (e.g. Cocoon, Milites) tend towards being extremely technologically and politically advanced, as well as lacking in superstition or fear towards the natural world, this idea has significant merit.

Which brings me to the Linden tree. Originating again from *linþaz, the Linden in germanic cultures has associations with femininity, divine protection and fertility, as well as truth-seeking, jurisprudence and political deliberation in general. All these associations are relevant to Lindzei, who above all his siblings is associated with the political life of humanity, and to whose followers is the true salvator and protector of the mortal peoples from nature or Pulse’s violent tyranny.

This leaves only the suffix -zei, pronounced “zeɪ” as in “say”. In fact, the word “say” — being of ancient germanic origin in *sagjaną, whose descendants are frequently pronounced as “z” (e.g. german sagen, dutch zeggen (past singular zei)) — is my personal best guess as to the actual etymology. Lindzei being so strongly associated with language and society, it seemed natural to me that this would be alluded to in her name.

Overall, this would give an etymology for the theonym that comes to something along the lines of “Speaking Serpent,” very fitting for a Lucifer-esque trickster figure.

In Analect VIII of Final Fantasy XIII, Lindzei is given an additional epithet “the Succubus,” which strengthens the Trickster/Satanic archetype associations, and yet further feminises the fal’Cie who is so demonised by devotees of Hallowed Pulse.

In Serendipity and on Eos, playing cards depict Lindzei as the Jack, with a caption describing him as “the Solemn Ruler,” who is “commanding from his throne on high.” This solidifies the uranic and political associations that the fal’Cie has.

Etro

Fool desired naught, and soon was made one with it. — Analect I, “The Vanished Gods”

For the Infernal Goddess, who is barely acknowledged by most mortal cultures in the setting, the problem of naming is particularly pertinent. To most peoples, She is simply Death, the embodiment of their mortality — but to those of Her children (for all mortals are born from Her broken corpse) who venerate Her, She is also known as “Her Providence”. This epithet is in fact the only name by which She is known specifically in the version of Eos depicted in the rebranded Final Fantasy XV, where the remnants of Her crystalline soul provided the Lucis Caelum[2] dynasty with its magic.

The epithet “Providence” of course alludes to Her gift (or curse) of prophecy, and associations with probability/entropy — misfortune, and prudent preparation to stave it off in particular.

Given that the Crystal of Lucis is referred to as the soul of the planet Eos itself, and yet is also termed the “Light of Providence” by the Astrals, it is possible that “Eos” is in fact itself another epithet for Her Providence Etro. Eos, originally greek ἠώς, means “Dawn” and is also the name used for the hellenic thea of the Dawn herself. This word ultimately derives from the Proto-Indo-european *h₂éwsōs of the same meaning.

It may seem counterintuitive for a Goddess of the Underworld to be referred to as the Dawn personified, but it is worth noting that She is also associated with entropy and disaster and yet is still called Her Providence. As the Lady of Chaos, She may bring the dawn if She so chooses by drawing the darkness back into the Unseen Realm, and in fact this is the role She plays as the Queen of Valhalla and by protecting the people of Eos from the Starscourge (which is a manifestation of the Unseen Chaos).

Like many death deities in our world, it is possible that Her true name is so rarely uttered because of this fal’Cie’s deathly nature, and how tied She is to destruction, chaos and entropy in general — it is not uncommon for such terrible spirits to often be referred to with euphemisms to avoid invoking either their wrath or their destructive natures. Surprisingly, one thing both Pulsian and Lindzeian cultures agree on is their fear of or even hatred for this entity.

Unlike Her sibling fal’Cie, She is entirely absent from the mortal realm and Her influence can only be felt through the chthonic Unseen Realm which awaits Her children between death and rebirth. Also unlike Fell Lindzei and Hallowed Pulse, Her Providence bore no fal’Cie of Her own, as She was granted no divine gifts in life.

The concept of the Unseen Realm will be revisited later in this series, but for now let it simply be noted that She is depicted as the Queen on playing cards created by Her devotees, and referred to on the writing below the illustration as “the Veiled Goddess.” Personally, i believe this epithet refers to mourning veils, as well as the veil between the Visible and Unseen Realms which is Death — i.e., “Veiled Goddess” is a euphemistic manner of describing Her nature as the Dead and Death Goddess.

The actual name of this fal’Cie (if indeed She can be considered a fal’Cie alongside Her kin) is not even alluded to until the very, very, very end of the post-game in Final Fantasy XIII, and outside its two direct sequels Her name is even then seldom referenced except euphemistically. There are many possible reasons for this, but that’s a topic for another post.

Children of Hallowed Pulse scour earth, searching substance for the Door. Those of Fell Lindzei harvest souls, combing ether for the same. So have I seen.

The Door, once shut, was locked away, with despair its secret key; sacrifice, the one hope of seeing it unsealed.

When the twilight of the gods at last descends upon this world, what emerges from the unseeable expanse beyond that Door will be but music, and that devoid of words: the lamentations of the Goddess Etro, as She sobs Her song of grief.

— Analect XIII, “Fabula Nova Crystallis”

Etro, written エトロ (Etoro) in kana, has an extremely ambiguous etymology, as is noted by several fans of the setting. i will list what i consider to be the likeliest possibilities here, and describe the reasoning behind each as best i can.

Firstly is the french être ”to be,” triply relevant due to the presence of french and other italic languages in the FNC’s theonymy already; the nature of the Veiled Goddess Etro as mother to all human-kind, midwife of all re-born human souls, and as She who endows mortals with the formless heart that delineates us from our fal’Cie cousins; and, lastly, due to a possible connection with the etymology of Her cosmic antithesis, the Shining God Bhunivelze, which will be covered in the next section.

Second is the italian tetro “gloomy”/”grim,” which has obvious connections to Veiled Etro’s chthonic nature as She resides in the perpetual twilight of the Unseen Realm of Death.

Third, the Breton etre “betwixt,” whose etymology is entirely distinct yet is geographically proximate to the previous french. Veiled Etro, powerless in the world of Her birth, was granted a power beyond any living fal’Cie in the Immortal Realm of Chaos, and used this power to grant this primordial force to Her mortal children in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth, between one world and the other. Thus, the concept is relevant to Her nature.

Fourthly is the Proto-Indo-european *kʷetwóres “four,” an association that might be clearer when examining the numeral’s descendants, but which i am fond of as a potential etymology for Her Providence due to the association that the number has with death in japan, as discussed previously. The reconstructed *kʷetwóres becomes Latin quattuor, italian quattro, greek τετρα- (tetra-), Proto-balto-slavic *ketur-, and many others whose stems all resemble the name “Etro.”

Fifthly is the italian etra “heaven,” ultimately derived (via italian etere) from greek αἰθήρ (aether, transliterated into japanese kana as エーテル, “ēteru,” which is remarkably close to “Etoro”) which is a good way of describing the formless fluid nature of the Chaotic realm over which Her Providence Etro presides.

Last, but certainly not least, is the option that i personally find the likeliest: the Latin ceterus, or greek ἕτερος (heteros), both of which mean “other one,” both descended from the Proto-Indo-european suffix *-(e)teros — a suffix which means “one that is especially more than [prefix],” making fundamentally important word stems such as *ḱe- (here) or *sem- (one), into a general term for “that which is distinct from this.” This is incredibly important to understanding the Veiled Lady, who has largely been defined by being set apart from every other fal’Cie in Her lack of godliness, Her dominion over Chaos, Her cosmic opposition to the source of all living fal’Cie, and most notably, Her total absence in human culture or the majority of historical accounts concerning the world’s fal’Cie. Etro is the Great Other who is set apart from wider society, ostracised, scapegoated, and painted as a childish Fool or terrifying monster, regardless of cultural context or era.

Etro’s symbol is quite mysterious, as befits the Veiled Goddess. Similar to the etymology of Her name, there are many possible interpretations of Her sign.

The most obvious might be the image of a sprouting seed, which fits Her rebirth function and also matches the possible french etymology être.

The second is that of an eyeball cut in half longways, pointing downwards, which matches Her associations with prophecies and visions, as well as the world below. Etro’s Gate, the other of Her prominent symbols, which is the Door of Souls through which the dead and newly-reborn must pass to enter or exit the Unseen Realm, is also, notably, in the shape of an eye as seen from the front.

The silhouette also somewhat resembles an avian head viewed from the front, with the eyes near the base of the image, and this has immense importance to Her avian associations (the presence of (white — possibly swan) feathers is Her single most important omen/symbol after the Door of Souls). The softly-thinning curved prongs arguably resemble feathers themselves, or perhaps multiple sets of wings stretched upwards to the sky.

The fourth thing to note is the sphere of something fluid at the heart of whatever the image is depicting, which represents an organic flow of some kind, most likely the primordial Chaos that the Unseen Realm and the hearts of Her children are composed of. Within this dark fluid seems to be concealed some sort of staff or spike, which might represent a concealed blade or other weapon of some sort. Either way, this strengthens the already existing associations Her Providence has with concealment.

It might also possibly speak to the twin martial and spiritual functions, or, in DnD-esque Final Fantasy terms, physical and magical power — two things that are extremely relevant to Her Providence, who is so delighted by contests of violence. The fact that this dark fluid and the weapon concealed within are surrounded by the husk or wings/feathers of the symbol could either be an allusion to the Chaos that lies at the heart of every mortal (and Etro Herself), and the Unseen Chaos that Etro is charged with keeping at bay to preserve the Visible World.

[2] Note the connection to italian luci and french ciel here in the Latin Lucis Caelum, which are both referenced in the theonym “fal’Cie.”

Bhunivelze

Luminous lamented, for creation spiraled unto doom. — Analect I, “The Vanished Gods”

This supreme fal’Cie of light, “the god who rules all things,” and “holds the world in his palm” is in fact primarily referred to not by name, but simply as “God,” singular, monotheistic and absolute. He is also given many epithets related to light and the sun, such as “the Shining God,” or simply “Luminous.” All fal’Cie depicted in the setting, and thus, all Matter itself — everything that doesn’t stem from Chaos, to be clear — stem from this being’s great, near-absolute power as the self-made centre of all existence.

But his etymology is much less transparent than his realm. There are only a few narrow possibilities i have been able to find, and they are even then only tentative, so of the five entities discussed here i am most likely to revisit the Shining One at a later date.

“Bhuni-” may have an origin in the Latin bonus “good”/”right”, whose romance-language descendants often mutated the word into bun- stem words, all associated with correct morality. This has a credible link to Shining Bhunivelze’s associations with purification and correct action.

The second option i find more credible, myself: Proto-Indo-european *bʰuH- “to become”[3], which becomes Proto-germanic *beuną “to become” (from whence the english “be”/”been”), Kurdish bûn “to be,” Sanskrit भूमन् (bhū́man) “world,” भू (bhū́) “earth”/”matter”/”world,” and particularly भूमि (bhū́mi) “limit”/”extent”/”foundation”/”earth.” As Bhunivelze is the foundation of everything that can be seen in the material realm, and possesses absolute control over all visible Matter, his name being to do with the world itself, or the concept of limits/extents, or even matter/substance itself, would be extremely fitting.

The concept of Bhūmi is particularly relevant. The word represents the earth element in Hinduism, and is embodied in the devi of the same name who is analogous to “Mother Earth” and is also known as Prithvi; however, the term Bhūmi is used differently in Mahayana Buddhism. Within Mahayana-thought, the bhūmis are the ten[4] stages of attainment that must be passed in order to reach bodhi, or enlightenment. This concept is most certainly relevant to the self-declared most enlightened being in all creation.

“-velze” requires some more work. In katakana, his name is written ブーニベル (Būniberuze), which could help with finding more candidates.

Firstly, the dutch/Middle german vels(e) (plural velzen) “rock” — it is arguably a stretch, but i think it bears mentioning due to the fact that the Lord Bhunivelze does in fact have associations with stone/mineral — not just in that he is the god of all solid Matter (something that i will discuss later in the series), but that he is associated with crystalline structures in particular. In Final Fantasy XIII-2, we are given the following Oracle of Etro, which is the first time the Shining One is actually referred to by name:

In the physical world, it contains within its form endless chaos. By the will of the deities, it gives birth to all living things. I speak of crystal.

The eternal dream world of the crystal lies within the Unseen World. Even the gods long to find their way to that place. In all crystal, the heart that shines most brightly is called Bhunivelze.

— “Bhunivelze’s Sleep,” Yeul’s Confessions

With Proto-germanic *beuną this would give Bhunivelze an approximate etymology of “Stone Coming Into Being,” “Stone Appearing,” or “Growing Stone.”

Second is the Hindi वली (valī) “lord”/”saint”, which is even more of a stretch than vels to be honest, but is worth mentioning. This would give him an etymology akin to “Lord of the Universe.”

The last guess i have for this etymology is the english “verse,” from Latin versus, based instead on the original japanese pronunciation. The reason i think this is plausible is due to the Shining One’s connections to the Biblical God, whose words speak creation into being. This would, with Latin bonus or Proto-Indo-european *bʰuH-, give the Shining One an etymology something along the lines of “Good Verse” or “Verse Coming Into Being,” both of which are quite fitting.

We can go one step further from “verse,” however: If we take Proto-Indo-european *bʰuH-, and the original japanese pronunciation, we can form Bhu-niverse, which is to say, the english word “universe” (ultimately derived from Latin ūniversus, “turned into one”) — a lot more plausible given the numerous Sanskrit bhū́- stem words listed above meaning “entire world.” This is the likeliest etymology for Shining Bhunivelze, in my opinion, and gives us a final meaning of “the World Coming Into Being.” This concept is incredibly relevant to the nature of Bhunivelze and Matter in general in Fabula Nova Crystallis, and will be discussed at length later on.

[3] Here the possible connection to the speculated french etymology être for Etro, also “to be,” which would highlight their shared cosmic significance as the ultimate light and dark principles.

[4] The number ten is incredibly important to the Shining One, who bears ten wings in his full manifestation and whose Latin-alphabet name (not coincidentally, the Latin alphabet is sacred to him) is composed of ten characters.

Mwynn

Maker forged fal'Cie, from fragments Maker's own. — Analect I, “The Vanished Gods”

Barely referred to except by the hints of hints even in the most hidden parts of the Fabula Nova Crystallis video-games, the majority of our knowledge about this most ancient of deities comes from the 2011 Square Enix video describing the central mythology of the entire setting.

Mwyn is a Welsh word with a dual meaning, the more common of which is neglected by FNC fans, so i will cover the less common first.

Mwyn is an adjective meaning mild, tender or gentle, which alludes to the Deepest Mwynn’s role as Mother to all creation, and particularly in raising Her offspring Shining Bhunivelze (in the Mortal Realm) and Veiled Etro (in the Unseen Realm) and instructing them on their respective cosmic positions as the wellspring of all Matter and the shepherd of all Chaos. Unfortunately, the etymology of this word is unclear, but it might possibly originate from Proto-Indo-european *men- “to think.”

Mwyn also means “ore” or “mineral.” Similar to the hypothetical bhū́mi and vels etymology for the Shining One Bhunivelze, this is relevant to our Deepest Mother Mwynn as the ancestral crystal of every soul and heart and speck of Matter that exists, as far as can be known. The etymology for this word is not much better-attested, though likely ultimately descends from Proto-Celtic *mēnis, meaning the same thing, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-european *(s)mēy(H)- “to cut”/”to hew.” The concept of cutting/hewing crystal is central to the almost parthenogenesis-like method by which fal’Cie (and, indeed, the ancestral mortals born from the Veiled Goddess Etro’s blood) are created, so i ultimately find both definitions of mwyn to be relevant here.

Unfortunately, there is only one depiction of the Deepest Mother available for analysis, but unlike Her chthonic daughter, who is frequently depicted badly wounded, sleeping/comatose or dying, She is depicted with Her body and all Her limbs intact; and within a great tapering double helix, a great disc — likely the universe — lies beneath the soles of her feet. This symbol is ultimately the logo used for the Fabula Nova Crystallis setting as a whole, and it warms my heart to know this long-forgotten Goddess receives some recognition in this form.

In time the gods departed, leaving all by their hands wrought.

Fal'Cie were as Man forsaken, orphans of Maker absconded.

— Analect I, “The Vanished Gods”

i dedicate this etymological analysis to The Dead Goddesses: to my Veiled Infernal Queen, Etro, and to my Deepest Ancestral Mother, Mwynn. We stand guard over your legacies still.

#alterpagan #pop culture paganism #fabula nova crystallis #final fantasy paganism #final fantasy kin #ff paganism #ffxiii #ffxv #fft0 #Lindzei #Etro #Bhunivelze #Mwynn #ffxiii kin #ffxv kin #fft0 kin #final fantasy xiii kin #final fantasy xv kin #final fantasy type 0 kin

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solarianradiance · 7 years ago

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Jellyatinous Rose

Calliope: Welcome lovelies, to oUr little get together for an adventure throUgh the Use of a Role-Playing Game system called DUngeons & Dragons! Tonight we have a new player joining in oUr dUngeon delving, oUr lovely friend, Roxy.

Roxy: hey erebody, its ur gurl roxy!

Dave: hey rox

Rose: Welcome to the game Roxy, nice to see you came tonight~

Kanaya: Pleasure To Have You Dear Roxy!

Jade: nice to see you again!

John: glad you could make it tonight!

Roxy: tnx 4 the warm welcum gaiz, makes me feel good bout this venture here

Roxy: so, when do we start playin?

Calliope: Shortlym bUtt first, we shall introdUce oUr varioUs party members for the road ahead, so that we may give oUr newest addition a chance to Understand her new chUms? Jade, why dont we start with yoU?

Jade: ok!

Jade: im a level 5 chaotic good gnoll ranger called groche’a, and i was ousted from my tribe for not wanting to plunder tombs for bones because i was scared of waking the dead and having them get revenge on us... which they did! im the only survivor!

Roxy: wats a goll? Roxy: *gnoll

Jade: a gnoll is a dog person

Jade: like this!

Roxy: oh so ur a hyna furry basically then?

Jade: well no, im more like a malamute husky, i actually based my character off of bec and what jake told me about my scratched other self

Roxy: yeah, ur gilf self was pretty smokin for an old lady, so i can c y u chose her

Jade: ...what?

Calliope: Lets keep this train of introdUctions going, Dave YoU’re Up love!

Dave: im dave, and im a barbarian. im a level 4 chaotic good guy i guess, gettin my rage on with my magic shit talking sword and doin all kinds of awesome shit!

Roxy: u men like connan the barbarian?

Dave: no, not liek conan Dave: *like Dave: fuck

Roxy: wats ur backstory?

Dave: im a kickass barbarian, i showed up one day and started kicking ass, what more backstory do you need?

Roxy: that sunds lame

Dave: youre lame

Calliope: Moving on, John, how aboUt we introdUce yoUr character?

John: im Salamon of the Hearthlands, a level 4 neutral good halfling jester!

Roxy: wats a halflin?

John: they’re pretty much just hobbits but a bit more... “earthly” i think would be a good word to describe them? they’re sort more vice than virtue and do things like eat a lot of food, take whats not theirs and breed like rabbits.

Roxy: le gasp, ur a bunny boy! that sounds adorable!

John: heh, no, im not a bunny, but i guess i am bunny-like in that sense

Jade: you know, that would actually be a good fursona for you

John: eh, nah, its not really my thing, besides im more like a tiger

Jade: hahahaha! no you’re not!

John: in fact i think would be more like tigra from thundercats

Jade: i said no. you’re fucking. not.

John: uuuuh!!!

Roxy: calli!

Calliope: Yes Roxy, what is it?

Roxy: can u make jon into a bunny boy?

Calliope: I... can, bUt I need a good reason like a magical invocation or something like that, I cannot simply do as I wish with the players whenever I wish.

Calliope: Besides, the game has not started. Rose, why dont yoU go next?

Rose: 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝒶 𝒩𝑒𝓊𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓁 𝐸𝓋𝒾𝓁 𝒟𝓇𝑜𝓌 𝒩𝑒𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓇, 𝒞𝓎𝒶𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝐻𝑜𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒢𝓊𝓁’𝒢𝒶𝓃. 𝑀𝓎 𝑀𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇, 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝒶 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝓁𝓉𝒽, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈, 𝐼 𝓈𝓁𝒶𝓎𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝓎 𝒩𝑒𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓊𝓇𝓇𝑒𝒸𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓈 𝓂𝓎 𝓅𝓊𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓉, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝒶𝓈, 𝓂𝓎 𝓅𝓁𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝓇𝑜𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎 𝐻𝑜𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝐼 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒 𝒶 𝓂𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝓎 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓇𝑜𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝓆𝓊𝒾𝒸𝓀𝓁𝓎, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝓃𝓈𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝑒𝓍𝒾𝓁𝑒 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀 𝐸𝓁𝒻 𝒞𝒾𝓉𝓎, 𝑀𝑒𝓃𝓏𝑜𝒷𝑒𝓇𝓇𝒶𝓃𝓏𝒶𝓃, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓅𝓁𝑜𝓉 𝓂𝓎 𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓋𝒾𝓉𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝒸𝓁𝒶𝒾𝓂 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓂𝑒 𝓇𝓊𝓁𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎 𝐻𝑜𝓊𝓈𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓈𝒾𝒷𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝒟𝓇𝑜𝓌𝒹𝑜𝓂~

Roxy: ur kinda given me the willies theres rosie

Rose: Hah! Thank you! I try to accentuate the nature of the Dark Elves as much as possible~ I am a Level 5 Necromancer by the way, just so we are clear.

Calliope: That was a nice sUrprise, always good to see dear ole Rose to give Us a performance and bring a little life throUgh characterization. Now, for oUr last member, Kanaya!

Kanaya: Salutations, I Am Mildred Of Baldurs Gate! A Neutral Good Human Cleric Of Lathander. I Am Level Three And I Am Looking Forward To Keeping You Out Of Trouble, As I Am The Primary Healer Of The Group. Though I Can Take A Swing With My Shredder Axe If I Wish, I Can Be More Than Helpful In Most Situations!

Roxy: i dunno boit that but i think ill be hpy 2 have u round when the magical shit hits the fan! Roxy: *about

Calliope: Well, now that we have oUr standing party’s introdUctions oUt of the way, how aboUt we have Roxy introdUce Us to oUr newest member?!

Roxy: what bout u calli, whats ur character?

Calliope: I am the DUngeon Master, I recant the tale to the party based on the actions and decisions they make. Technically, I am all of the characters that are not part of the party! BUt I do have a rather sUltry lass that i have been meaning to play for a while. When my tenUre as DUngeon Master is Up, I shall pass the responsibility of rUnning the game onto others and break her oUt!

Roxy: rly? what is she? tell me!

Calliope: She isn’t finalized, but shes a YUan-Ti Magician, specifically an assistant. Haven’t qUite figUred oUt if shes a fUll-blood or a half-blood.

Roxy: a yankee?

Calliope: A YUan-Ti is more or less a snake person, mUch like myself I sUppose. I’ll admit shes a bit of a self-insert, bUt I made her for immersion for flarping. John helped me in crafting her!

Roxy: oh... he did now, did he?

John: yeah! it was actually pretty fun! learning about the lore of the snake people was kinda neat!

Calliope: Indeed! And in retUrn, helped John create another character to pair alongside with her! He is also a Magician, and she acts as his assistant!

Roxy: assistant huh? does that mean you can make his magic wand

Roxy: disappear?!~♥

John: whoa! roxy!

Calliope: Making a Magicians Magic Wand disappear is childs play.

John: uh calli, thats not what she mea-

Calliope: BUt making his wand spit magical glowing seed, now thats the magic~

Calliope: Mwah!~♥

Dave: whoa-ho, damn!

Rose: Ooo, how racey~

Kanaya: I Must Admit, That Got Quite Raunchy Awfully Quickly!

Jade: you can do that?!

John: ok! moving on! time for your introduction rox, before this turns into a smut campaign.

Roxy: how do u know that it wont turn into 1 when i do get my intro on? ;)

John: rox!

Roxy: relax! im jus teasin y Roxy: *u

Roxy: ok, my character is xerox gundalf the pink! shes a level 1 chotic good gun wizard!

John: gun wizard?! that actually sounds cool!

Jade: that actually sound cool, maybe ill roll one next campaign!

Dave: gotta admit, that does sound pretty bitchin rp as

Rose: Um, Roxy, as creative as that is, “Gun Wizard” isnt a valid class within the ruleset of DnD.

Roxy: wat? naaah, its fine! got xeroxs character shit filled out and everything! even drew her!

Roxy: c? kickass sex witch! put a spell on u make u her enchanted slav! put a magic bullet in ur butt and set her enemies on fire! abraka-sexbang!!

Rose: But we already have a Wizardess! Why don’t you be another class, a legal one such as a Rogue or a Thief?

Roxy: those dont sound legal 2 me sister, sides im a rogue in real life! i dont wanna play a rogue i wanna b a badass gun wizard! calli help me out here

Calliope: Mmmmm, well, while technically “GUn Wizards” are not what they are called, “GUn Mages” are in fact an actUal class! So I sUppose thats no significant issUe

Roxy: gasp YAYS!

Rose: Wait, “Gun Mage” is an actual class?

Calliope: Why yes, it is! QUite the interesting one too, might even roll a character to play as one myself at some point!

Rose: Well, anyways, as I said, we already have a Wizardess, which is myself. So how about you roll Up a Rogue? John can moonlight as one, but he isnt able to specialize as one. Here, lemme just get you started and roll you a character right now!

Roxy: uh, no, imma play a wizard!

Rose: We’ll make her Neutral Good, for maximum opportunity while still being approachable. Some good Dexterity for all of that lockpicking you’ll be doing.

Roxy: rose, water u doin?

Rose: Dump all the skill points into stealth, traps, and lockpicking!

Roxy: ross! Roxy:*rose

John: you know i could just spec into those skills myself, i was planning on doing it anyways!

Rose: We can make her pink, with some blue trimmings~

Roxy: stahp!

*Roxy latches onto Rose’s pen hand, preventing her from drawing further. The two devolve into a bit of a struggle*

Rose: Stop... getting... in the... way, Roxy!

Jade: you do know you can multi-class in this game, right? as in you both can have both.

Roxy: well i don.. wann play... fuckin rogue, i wan be... a wizard of bullets!

Rose: We need a Rogue to-*is bitten*-FUCK! ROXY!

Kanaya: What Is Happening?

*Roxy and Rose devolve to a mother/daughter/sister squabble between petty bitches who both want the same thing, but are unwilling to share, complete with hair pulling, bites, scratches, clothes ripping and an assortment of name calling.*

*Its a good ole fashioned cat fight yy’all!*

Jade: shouldnt someone stop this? like kanaya, isnt this your thing?

Kanaya: ...I... Want To, But I Think I Am Enjoying The Sight Of This Conflict? Should I Do So Anyways?

Dave: with them? nah man itll sort itself out eventually. just let em get tuckered out.

John: ... roll for initiative?

Calliope: Haa! Hahahaha!

#homestuck #jade harley #kanaya maryam #rose lalonde #roxy lalonde #john egbert #dave strider #the barbarian #calliope #long post

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douxreviews · 6 years ago

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American Gods - ��Git Gone’ Review

"That was vulgar. I’m a vulgar woman. Anger and grief have… have really just made me vulgar."

American Gods gives us the Gospel According to Laura, and answers a few questions to boot.

OK, it's cheating just a little bit to end two episodes in a row with the exact same cliffhanger, but wow, what a trip it was getting there the second time around.

So, at the end of the previous episode, Shadow enters his motel room to find his recently deceased wife, Laura, sitting on his bed waiting for him. Expectations, then, were that we'd pick up at that same point and get to see their inevitable confrontation over the whole 'died while orally servicing his best friend' situation. But 'Git Gone' takes a different path, and instead goes back to before the show even began and tells the whole thing again, but this time from Laura's perspective.

This is by no means the first show to do an episode dedicated to re-staging things we've already seen, but from the perspective of one of the other characters, but there's a reason that shows like to do it, and it's not just the cost savings of re-using existing sets. The primary virtue of this setup is that it allows you to fill in a lot of character information, while revealing information about events you've already seen that we didn't know at the time. Case in point, we've already heard the phone conversation between Shadow and Laura in 'The Bone Orchard'. but now we know that she literally had his best friend naked on their bed while she was talking to him. That changes how we feel about Laura during that conversation a lot.

So, let's talk about Laura.

For the first three episodes, Laura has essentially been a woman in the refrigerator. It's an insidious trope, which can be boiled down to the idea that stories tend to treat female characters as someone to kill so that the important character, i.e. the man, can be properly motivated to do whatever the story needs him to do. It's a pleasant relief then to find out that, no, Laura has been having a fairly eventful story of her own, and her untimely death was only the middle part of it.

The thing that 'Git Gone' makes clear about Laura is that she is fundamentally self-destructive. The very first decision we see her make is to attempt suicide in her covered hot tub by breathing in the titular bug spray, and that appears to have been brought on by nothing more than the casino she's working at telling her that she can't shuffle the cards by hand anymore, but she likes shuffling cards so she's super sad about it. She's clearly smart and perceptive; it takes her all of three seconds to understand the con that Shadow is trying to pull at her blackjack table. She's also basically kind, since her response to his con is to point out the casino's security measures and what they'll do to him when he's caught, then takes his bet and tells him to finish his drink and go home while he can. But when Shadow approaches her afterward and tries to ask her out in a reasonably polite fashion she's not interested. She only becomes interested in him once he starts getting stalker-ishly creepy. The same is true of their sex scene. She's bored out of her mind when he's being a courteous lover, and slaps him full in the face for no other reason than to see what he'll do. That's just not a safe thing to do to a guy you just picked up after he attempted to rob your casino, and whom you know absolutely nothing about. Which is why she does it.

The sequence of scenes where we see Shadow grow happier and happier while she grows sadder and sadder tell us everything we need to know about Laura. She likes Shadow, but he's nice. And when Laura has something nice in her life, Laura is immediately compelled to destroy that thing. That's why she suggests the casino heist that gets Shadow sent to prison. That's why she starts sleeping with Robbie while Shadow's away. Note the way that Laura only slept with Robbie the second time because he had accepted her statement that they shouldn't. Note also how she was clearly just as bored during her sex with Robbie as she had been that first night with Shadow. It was never about the sex, it was about inviting things into her life that would cause as much damage as possible. When Audrey mentions that she wishes Robbie looked at her the way Shadow looks at Laura, you can feel how little Laura values it. How much she needs to destroy it, in order to prove to herself that she doesn't deserve it. Honestly, season one doesn't give us much in terms of Laura's early background information, and the book gives even less, but note that Laura's mother appears to be at their wedding and her father isn't. I suspect there's a lot of interesting backstory there, and I hope we get more of it in the future. People this self destructive don't just happen for no reason.

And hey, we mentioned Audrey a moment ago. Audrey, and I'll make no bones about this whatsoever, is my absolute favorite character in the show, despite only being in two episodes of the first season. The scene between Audrey and Laura in Audrey's bathroom is absolutely the centerpiece of this episode. That scene works on every conceivable level. It's simultaneously hysterically funny, heartbreakingly sad, and the weirdest thing you're likely to see on television. And it all comes down to the fact that both Betty Gilpin as Audrey and Emily Browning as Laura play the absolute emotional truth of the moment, despite the fact that the moment is a zombie with diarrhea on the toilet in front of the woman whose husband she died while blowing. Oh, and she stopped by to borrow craft supplies. The whole thing is basically, what if The Walking Dead was a production of the Hallmark Channel, and those two actresses make it work. Audrey is confronted with the woman she thought was her best friend but was sleeping with her husband. Who died while betraying her. When Audrey speaks the line 'I found out my husband was cheating on me and dead in the same sentence' you absolutely feel how much pain she's in, and it feels real. Despite the zombie diarrhea and the craft supplies, it feels like genuine emotional damage that she has no idea how to work through. It's amazing.

Then Audrey gets her craft supplies, sews her friend's arm back on for her, and drives her where she needs to go. Because she has no idea how else to respond to the situation. And if anyone is capable of getting through the following exchange without falling in love a little with Audrey, then that person has no soul. As Audrey is sewing her dead friend's arm back on and discussing the way that friend slept with her husband:

Laura: "I feel terrible about it." Audrey: "Oh, F*ck your feelings."

Quotes:

Laura: "Is this your first time trying to rob a casino?" Shadow: "A casino? Yeah." Laura: "Well, you’re really not very good at it."

Shadow: "All l know is there’s more than I know."

Laura: "There’s no farm upstate for old dogs."

Laura: "I have a perfect plan. You will never get caught." Cut to Jail Laura: "How did you get caught?"

Laura: "I lived my life. Good and bad. Definitely not light as a feather."

Audrey: "…Laura?" Laura: "Hey Audrey." Audrey:

Laura: "Audrey. Audrey. Don’t call the police." Audrey: "Get out of my house, you zombie whore!"

Ibis: "Don’t move. You’re still tacky."

Bits and Pieces:

-- Nice fake-out at the beginning with the Egyptian theme casino. The casino's name was 'The 26th Dynasty' Apparently that was the last Egyptian dynasty before they were invaded by the Persians. I don't know if that's at all important, but information is always nice.

-- Mrs. Fadil's post-death scene with Anubis last week served the important function of letting us understand what was happening to Laura this week. It's a little weird that Laura would be the province of an Egyptian death god though. They hand waved it last week with Mrs. Fadil remembering the old stories, but all we get here is that Laura is Anubis' concern because of the manner of her passing. That seems like a curiously specific thing for an Egyptian god to care about. Maybe she had to sign a release when she started working at the casino or something.

-- The hot tub is a visual metaphor for nothingness and oblivion. Watch the episode with that in mind and it opens up a world of interesting interpretations.

-- Do people leave their TVs on for the cats while they're out? It made total sense that it was the death of Dummy the cat, who Laura claimed to not even like, that drove her completely off the rails and into the affair with Robbie.

-- I'm not sure why, but the Egyptian eyes on Laura's work uniform bow tie really freaked me out. Like, to an irrational degree.

-- Laura's dialogue, 'When you die, you rot,' is shown over the images of her and Shadow's wedding. That was a nice directorial touch.

-- I liked the visual cue of Shadow leaving his wedding ring on the statue of the Eifel Tower when he went to the gym. That's a real thing, I take off mine myself to work out.

-- Three episodes later, we find out that it was Laura who killed all of Technical Boy's henchmen and saved Shadow from the lynching. Wow, zombie Laura is apparently quite strong. And can kick you in the balls so hard your entire spinal column flies out the top of your head, which was a funny sight gag.

-- Mr. Jacquel, a.k.a. Anubis, told Laura that after this was all over he would complete his task and send her to oblivion. So now Laura has a matching doom over her head to go with Shadow's promise to let Czernobog smash his head in when it's all over.

-- I'd have liked to have known what happened to Audrey after she and Laura encountered Jacquel and Ibis. I assume she just dropped Laura off and went back home, but it would have been nice to see it.

-- Absent entirely this week - Wednesday, Mad Sweeney, Bilquis, Media, Technical Boy, Czernobog, The Zorya sisters, and Mr. World.

A great episode that gave us a lot of character work and some intriguing answers, but at the expense of paying off the previous episode's cliffhanger.

Three and a half out of four hot tubs.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#American Gods #Shadow Moon #Laura Moon #Neil Gaiman #American Gods Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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themoneybuff-blog · 7 years ago

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Questions About Crowdlending, Prayer, Christmas Trees, Chess, Beans, and More!

Whats inside? Here are the questions answered in todays reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Investing for childs future 2. Crowdlending investments 3. Shorter workweek thoughts? 4. Struggling to improve at work 5. Last minute holiday gifts 6. Praying for financial help? 7. Child care suggestions 8. Christmas tree suggestions 9. Learning chess for cheap 10. Keeping beans fresh 11. 401(k) help 12. I never want to retire I get two or three requests a week from a reader asking to reprint an article Ive written for some purpose. So, heres my policy on that. If you wish to reprint an article of mine for a print publication or an email newsletter, not a website, you have permission to do so provided that you attribute the article to Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar and include the URL of the site, http://www.thesimpledollar.com/. If you are interested in a reprint on a website, ask me first. Make sure that the article was actually written by Trent first, however, by visiting that article on the website and verifying that Trent was the writer of that specific article. Some portion of articles that appear on the site were written by other writers and youll need to ask them individually for permission. On with the questions. Q1: Investing for childs future I have a young kid (6 years old) and Id like to invest a little bit for him in a set and forget fashion. I realize Im pretty lucky to be living in an expensive place (Seattle, WA) while being able to max out my 401k, my Roth IRA and my wifes IRA. We dont have any loans, pay off out credit card monthly and just have a home mortgage with low interest. I am still able to put a little bit of money regularly on a brokerage account and a 529 for my son (although I dont want to put too much for a few of reasons: I dont know if hell go to college here (expensive) or in France where Im from (cheap), I value community college highly and dont necessarily aim for him to go to ivy league schools and finally I dont believe in taking at my charge all his higher education expense. My only downfall here is that I feel a bit behind on retirement because I moved to the US AT 26 for a temp job that became permanent at 32 and only understood 401k since I was 34. Im been maxing out ever since. I definitely have the saving mentality that we find Europeans! In essence, we live on about 40% off a single about 110k/year (my wife works for a non profit and brings an income that pretty much only pays for her laptop, cell phone, car gas and child care once in a while for us to go on a date). With that in mind, what could be our next smart moves (I feel that is not often addressed for people that are able to to reach all the conventional goals we see out there but dont fit in the high income category where advance money placement and tax schemes can be beneficial). So my questions are two folds: what is the next smart move for us (just keep investing in the Vanguard Total Market Index Fund?) what can I do to invest long term for my son? I was hoping for an IRA but he is not earning income. Is the anything else? Bob First of all, a 529 might still be useful for you even if your child goes to school in France, provided that hes attending a college or university thats eligible for Title IV student aid. There are hundreds of overseas universities and colleges that are, so youll have to research the ones hes considering. If youre not strictly saving for education for your son, however, your best bet is probably what youve already stumbled on gifting your child a certain amount each year below the gift tax exclusion limit ($14,000 a year) and then investing that money in a taxable account in your childs name while again gifting your child enough to pay any taxes on dividend income. This is of course assuming that your child is not earning an income of some kind via modeling or acting or something akin to that. For us, our savings for our childrens future is strictly in the 529 plans. Once they move out and go to school, their 529 plans are our financial support for their education. We hope to have enough in each account to cover in-state tuition for a few years at a state university (like Iowa State U or University of Iowa), though they can make other choices in terms of where to go to school should they wish too. Q2: Crowdlending investments What do you think about crowdlending investments? Carly Crowdlending refers to any program in which individuals can lend money to other individuals or businesses, supplying the capital for the loan and earning a return on that money in the form of the borrowers interest paid on that loan. Typically, many people provide small amounts to make up the capital for that loan for example, someone might want to borrow $10,000 and that loan is made up of 100 people lending $100 each. A number of businesses exist to help facilitate this, such as Lending Club and Prosper. It really comes down to the riskiness of the borrower. Someone with a high rating as a borrower represents pretty little risk and youll almost always get your money back and more. A high risk loan might net you a very nice return, but you have a real risk of losing your balance. In general, I would not invest money I needed going forward in a crowdlending investment. Its a good place to put money that you dont need if youre seeking a nice short term return on it and youre willing to pay a lot of attention and take on some significant risk. Remember, if someone defaults on a crowdlending loan, that means youve probably lost most (if not all) of what youve invested. Q3: Shorter workweek thoughts? What do you think about this article that argues that people 40 and over work better if their workweek is shorter? It matches my own experience. This one? Jenna I frankly agree with it. Speaking from my own experience, I find that the vast majority of my work gets done during three days a week. I tend to have about three days each week when I can really slip into a writing zone, and my work on other days is often just busywork. I think this is honestly true of most information and creative jobs. For every day of really great mental performance, I think people of all ages need at least a day of rest to recharge fully. If you demand mental performance day after day, that performance is going to degrade fairly rapidly and eventually result in burnout. The trick for me is in properly preparing for a three day week and getting it reliably without interruption due to personal or family illness or some other interruption. Part of why I write for a living is the flexibility of it, which means I cant just sit down and lock down three specific days of writing each week. Often, I have to break it up more than that. Q4: Struggling to improve at work I currently work as a bank teller. Went in for a performance review in October and read your advice about asking what I need to do to get a raise or promotion. Boss was great and gave me a list of things to work on. Thing is Im always busy and rarely have the chance to work on a lot of those things. I feel like Im not making progress on any of those things and cant find time for them. Not sure what to do. Bailey The best thing you can do is find opportunities to work on those skills in the course of your regular tasks. Without knowing your regular casts and the things that your boss suggested that you work on, I cant offer specific advice on that. However, there are probably at least some of the elements on that list that you can work on while doing other tasks. If theres new material to learn, do your best to learn it when youre not at work. If there are topics youre supposed to know about, spend time when youre not working learning those things. You should also try to get into a routine of having regular scheduled one-on-ones with your supervisor just to talk over how things are going and build a stronger relationship. If youve not really communicated in any way with your boss in two months, you might want to strengthen that relationship a little. Just ask for a regularly scheduled meeting once every two weeks or once a month and go over the things on that list. This gives you a deadline to push toward a little more effort on those things, and it shows your boss youre consistently trying to work for the brass ring. Q5: Last minute holiday gifts So my mom got sick and asked if I could host family Christmas and I said okay. In the past we did a name drawing for gifts but she also got everyone something small and shes not doing that this year but I want to do it so I am looking for good ideas for last minute small holiday gifts under $5. Amy What kinds of things did she give out? At that price point, Id probably go for consumable items. Get people nice bars of chocolate or a bottle of craft beer or something like that. Youre not going to go fancy at $5, but you can find something the recipient would enjoy. Just make a list of everybody whos attending and try to identify one food or drink item each one of them would like. Theres your shopping list, and thats exactly what I would do in your shoes. Q6: Praying for financial help? I pray and pray for financial help and it never seems to come. We never make ends meet. I try to follow your advice and things always turn out badly. Jaime A simple suggestion: rather than praying for financial help, pray to have the strength and wisdom and focus to make the difficult choices needed to put you and your family on a better financial path. Dont pray for money to be dropped on your lap. Instead, pray that youll have the foresight and wisdom to not spend money on foolish things. Pray that youll feel lower stress and that youll be able to lower the stress of those around you. Pray for the creativity to make your meal budget stretch a little further. Most of us already have the financial answers we need already in our life. We just need someone (or something) to take the scales away from our eyes so that we can see those answers. That change often comes from within, not from money from outside sources. Money drops into our lap more often than we think it does what matters is how we use it. Q7: Child care suggestions Moved to new city and starting school in January. Have a three year old. Thought there would be child care support through school but all slots are full. Program will subsidize child care but everything within subsidy is kind of scary. Suggestions? Danielle I have helped Danielle many times over the last few years. For some background, she was engaged to be married but her soon-to-be husband ghosted her and she cant find him for child support. She moved in with her parents for a brief while, then found an apartment on her own. She applied for a bunch of scholarships to go back to school and then I hadnt heard from her in a while until this question popped up. She has been using many different programs to help give her kid a great life and working her tail off, so I do have some real sympathy for Danielles situation. Danielle, you absolutely need to check and see whether your state has some sort of child care assistance offered through their Department of Human Services. Given your situation, its very likely that youre eligible for some help through such a program, which is available in a lot of states. Another approach you might want to consider is whether or not you have a close friend or relative you trust who could move in with you and provide child care in exchange for free rent. Do you have a sibling or close friend who might be interested in such a situation that youd trust? Those are the two best options I have in mind, other than making sure youre on the waiting list for child care options through your school. This will get somewhat easier when your child reaches school age, as youll both be able to go to school! Q8: Christmas tree suggestions Is a real Christmas tree worth it? We usually only decorate for a few days before Christmas and the twelve days after taking things down on January 6. Used a tiny artificial tree for the last few years and were considering a real one this year. Arne It depends on how you define worth it. Real trees are messier and take more work (because you have to water them) and need to be disposed of after the holidays; artificial trees have none of that. Plus, real trees have to be replaced every year. From a purely financial standpoint, real trees arent worth it. However, real trees have an enormous aesthetic advantage. They smell wonderful. When properly cleaned up, they look better than artificial trees (in my opinion, assuming you dont buy one thats half dead). Is the work and the (eventual) extra cost worth it to you? For some people, it is. For some, it isnt. We had a real tree for a few years when I was growing up and while I appreciated it in my teen years, it wasnt life changing for me. As an adult, I probably would not have a large real tree unless my children were genuinely excited about the concept and brought it up frequently. Q9: Learning chess for cheap My five year old was taught chess by his cousin at Thanksgiving and now he wants to play chess all the time. I can fumble through the moves but he is finding stuff on his tablet about openings and stuff that I have no idea about. I want to get better at chess and also help him find things to help him get better at chess. What tools are cheap/free? Andy It really depends on your goals with this. If youre just wanting to get a bit better and assume that this is a fad thats going to burn out, Id just get an inexpensive chess app for his tablet and for your phone and just play lots of games. Most games have a feature where they suggest good moves and point out bad ones and over a lot of games, you can gradually learn from that. If you really want to start learning openings and stuff, theres almost nothing better you can do than visiting your local library that has a selection of chess books, picking out a few, and then going through them at home. My local library has a couple dozen chess books on the shelves and can reserve hundreds more via interlibrary loan. Take them home and then just try an opening during a game with your kid. Pick one that looks like fun, memorize the first three or four moves of it, and bust it out with your son. Tell him what the opening is and then see whether or not it looks like youre in good shape. I have an eight year old that loves to play chess constantly but really has zero interest in actually learning the game. If your son is into openings, play into that and use it as an opportunity to learn together. Q10: Keeping beans fresh You mentioned cooking beans early in the week and keeping them in the fridge all week to use for meals. How do you keep them fresh and not just turn to mush? Every time I do it they get mushy. Blair First of all, dont cook them quite all the way to completion. I try to aim for beans that are not quite all the way cooked, just done enough so that they wouldnt be annoying in the dish but clearly could use just a bit more cooking. Theyre really firm at this point but definitely edible. I drain them and let them slowly cool down to room temperature. This usually cooks them just a bit more so theyre pretty close to exactly what I want. I drain them and rinse them again so that theyre close to dry, then I put them in a sealed container in the fridge. I aim to use them within four or five days. Most of the time, I add these beans late to something else Im cooking, like a soup. If Im using them in a salad or something, I might cook them just a bit more in some simple fashion, like with a bit of water in the microwave, but Ill usually just toss the beans right into the salad. This works for all kinds of beans. My personal favorite is black beans, which Ill use for pretty much anything I can get away with. Q11: 401(k) help I just signed up for my company 401(k) and there are only a few options available and none of them match up with anything you have ever mentioned. They have names like aggressive growth and moderate and safe. Alex Likely, the options you see are ones that whoever runs your 401(k) have pre-chosen for you and given friendly names that actually make it harder to figure out what they actually include. The first retirement plan I signed up for was very similar in that regard. You can ask the HR representative that deals with the plans whether or not you can pick your own funds, but its likely that you dont have such control, so you probably just have to choose one of these options. The honest truth? In a situation like this, its really hard to pick the best option for you because you dont really know whats going on underneath the options. In your shoes, if I was more than ten years from retirement, Id choose the most aggressive option available. If I was less than ten years, Id choose a moderate option. That is, assuming I couldnt see anything more about the plans than such vague descriptors. Q12: I never want to retire I dont like reading about retirement talk because I never want to retire. I love what I do (nursing) and I want to keep doing it in whatever aspect I can for as long as I can until Im shoved out the door and straight into a retirement home (or a casket). Why should I worry about retirement? Dinah Never retiring is a marvelous idea in theory, but it often doesnt quite pan out that way. Many career paths nudge people out the door when they get to a certain age, regardless of whether those people want to keep working or not, and sometimes health conditions pop up that continue to allow a mostly full life but cut off certain career paths. Another reason to save for retirement is that it opens up the possibility of a second career or a different kind of job later on. You may end up taking on a position that uses your nursing skills in a very positive way but it doesnt pay nearly as much as your current job; a retirement savings plan can help offset that loss in income. You really should save for retirement no matter what career youre in and no matter how much you love it. Its cover all your bases money, because you simply cant predict what the future holds. Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. Ill attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours. https://www.thesimpledollar.com/questions-about-crowdlending-prayer-christmas-trees-chess-beans-and-more/

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smokefromthetent · 8 years ago

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1. What is your full name? Rather not say although it isn’t hard to figure out.

2. How old are you? 22

3. When is your birthday? July 1994

4. What is your zodiac sign? Cancer

5. What is your favorite color? Idk maybe pink, yellow, orange..

6. What’s your lucky number? 123,456,789 7. Do you have any pets? Not really me specifically

8. Where are you from? US

9. How tall are you? 5′3

10. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Maybe 5-8

11. What did you last have for breakfast? ausage egg n cheese

12. What was your last dream about? I recently quit my job and I keep having dreams about working there :( which sucks bc I really do miss it. 13. What is the best thing about you? my sense of humor if you’re into that sort of thing

14. Put shuffle on your iPod, what were the first 5 songs? I shuffled my roommates spotofy instead

1. Wilky Way Stomp - Supervision

2. Whyd Ya Only Call Me When Youre High - Arctic Monkeys

3. Snap Out of It - Arctic Monkeys

4. Homewrecker - Marina and the Diamonds

5. Temporary Residence - Eliot Lipp

15. Favorite song? currently Packed Powder by Blind Pilot

16. Favorite TV show? Orange is the New Black

17. Favorite movie? rn it’s Butterfly Effect

18. Do you miss anyone right now? My bf but Im annoyed with him at the same time.. complicated lol

19. Do you want children? no

20. Do you want a church wedding? no

21. Are you religious? No

22. Have you ever been to the hospital? once for a panic attack

23. Have you ever met any celebrities? I met Bastille

24. Baths or showers? baths

25. What color socks are you wearing? red

26. Have you ever been famous? No

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? Sure

28. What type of music do you like? Anything - I like what I like I can’t really sum it up.

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? many times

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? just one

31. What position do you usually sleep in? on my stomach

32. How big is your house? teeny

33. What do you typically have for breakfast? coffee and a donut

34. Have you ever fired a gun? Only air rifles and bb guns

35. Have you ever tried archery? Yes, compact and longbow

36. Who is your celebrity crush? Jake Gyllenhaal but he is so fucking gross in Bubble Boy dont even go there lmao

37. Who do you look up to? My parents for different reasons, suffragists, Malala, Margaret Hamilton, women in history type people

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? Probably a solid 48 hours but I was a mess

39. Do you have any scars? A few small ones, nothing significant

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? Probably

41. Are you a good liar? Very

42. Are you a good judge of character? Very

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? Not particularly well

44. Do you have a strong accent? Not particularly

45. What is your favorite accent? European-Russian

46. Name all the countries you’ve been to? US obviously, Mexico, Russia

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? A 500 dollar dress

48. Can you curl your tongue? Yes

49. Are you an innie or an outie? hehe innie

50. Left or right handed? right

51. Are you scared of spiders? no

52. Favorite food? pasta

53. Favorite foreign food? still pasta

54. Are you a clean or messy person? I can be both

55. Most used phrase? idk

56. Most used word? I don’t know

57. How long does it take for you to get ready? 30 min, but I usua;;y only give myself 10

58. Do you have much of an ego? sometimes too much sometimes not enough.

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? bite

60. Do you talk to yourself? Yeah.

61. Do you sing to yourself? Yeah.

62. Are you a good singer? Yup

63. Biggest Fear? Losing someone I love

64. Are you a gossip? Sure

65. Favorite character in anything? I like Nightcrawler in X-Men, Link in Zelda, Gohan in DBZ

66. Do you like long or short hair? Indifferent

67. Can you name all 50 states of America? hprobably not lmao

68. Favorite school subject? music, history

69. Extrovert or Introvert? Bit of both

70. Favorite hobbies? the outdoors, camping, watching tv, reading, crafts, dancing, shopping, writing,

71. What makes you nervous? anxiety and feeling like everyone can notice when it’s particularly bad

72. Are you scared of the dark? No.

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? Hmm yeah - I tend to play devil’s advocate a lot

74. Are you ticklish? Yeah

75. Have you ever started a rumor? No but Ive probably spread some. There was a rumor a while ago that I was a lesbian.

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? A few times: babysitting, training employees, leading a group, etc

77. Have you ever drank underage? Yeah

78. Have you ever done drugs? I dabbled with a few things back in the day, not really me though

79. Who was your first real crush? Link from zelda lmao

80. How many piercings do you have? Two per ear

81. Can you roll your Rs? Yes

82. How fast can you type? Fairly fast.

83. How fast can you run? Fairly slow

84. What color is your hair ? naturally blonde, but currently light brown

85. What color are your eyes? Green/Blue

86. What are you allergic to? cats, dogs, dust, trees,

87. Do you keep a journal? yes, like a whole bunch lol

88. What do your parents do? police officer and nurse

89. Do you like your age? I try to

90. What makes you angry? When people belittle me or put me down. When people are put-off by my friendliness or awkwardness (which makes sense, I know, but it still pisses me off). Also when people take advantage of me. When people treat my loved ones poorly. Drinking and driving.

91. Do you like your own name? I do

92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? Not really, I like old-fashioned names like Everett, Jack, Anna, Scarlett,

93. Do you want a boy or a girl for a child? If I had to choose a girl

94. If you had to have someone narrate the story of your life to you when you died, who would it be? the british dude who does planet earth!! Or beethoven via a symphony :D

95. What’s the best thing you’ve ever won? a 5k dollar video camera set only too bad I won it for my job that I just left..

96. How did you get your name? my dad really wanted an emily

97. Out of the original 151 which is your favorite Pokémon? jigglypuff

98. What browser do you use? Google

99. Color of your bedspread? black

100. Color of your room? I dont have a room

survey

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