#It should be about discovering and connecting with the people who came before you

[sorrowandpride]

I never understood Europeans bitching about (North) Americans and their obsession with ancestry until I read the comments on an archaeological article on Facebook 🥴 People will shove their ancestry DNA results down your throat when the conversation has absolutely nothing to do with it 😭

[uyuforu]

Astro Observations: Solar Return Synastry I

@ This theory was discovered by @estrella1111

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽ What is a Solar Return Chart? ☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ A SRC is a chart that is yearly, it's a chart that tells how your year will go. It is literally where your sun goes back into its natal sign (so your sun sign).

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ As you may have understood, because it comes back every birthday of yours, it usually come back the day before or the day of your birthday. And it goes until next birthday.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ A year for SRC: Your birthday of this year until the day before your birthday next year.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ It will tell you about the year to come, big events, changements, etc. How you evolve with time.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽ What is Solar Return Synastry? ☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ Synastry is a method to use to see how two people feel about each other. It's a good tool to understand how you feel about a certain person and also to understand your dynamic.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ So when using synastry, you usually add two charts next to each other to check where placements of person A goes on person B's chart.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ For Solar Return Synastry Chart, you take two solar return charts (of person A and person B) and put them together like you would do for a basic synastry.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ What dates should I take? Take the day, month and hour written on your Solar Return of the year you want to see the synastry for both partners and of course with the date of the year you want to see. The year must be the same for both charts. Add those dates as if you were going to do a normal synastry. You have a solar return synastry!

જ⁀➴ how to make a solar return synastry

‧₊˚✩彡 The year I apparently met my FS, I had a stellium 7H that year in my SRC. I did a solar return synastry to check. My DC and all of the stellium inside were in his 9H, and we met on social medias while being "in long distance". His DC conjuncted my 3H, meaning we talked, but mostly can mean on social medias.

‧₊˚✩彡 Moreover, his Union, Juno and Briede conjuncted MY Union, Juno and Briede Asteroid IN Sagittarius. Literally about foreign lands.

‧₊˚✩彡 That year, he also had his North Node in 7H, and it conjuncted my North Node.

‧₊˚✩彡 My moon was in his 8H, and he was stalking me on social medias LMAO.

‧₊˚✩彡 That year, he had a stellium in my 1H, and his sun was there, and he told me later he had love at first sight for me even if it was on social medias.

‧₊˚✩彡 Because his mercury was in my 1H, he was the one who came to talk to me right away, but it conjuncted my saturn, and it fell in his 3H, I put limits between us and asked to not talk because I knew he was interested in me.

‧₊˚✩彡 The year we met in person, my DC was in Sagittarius (we met abroad, in his home country), and his DC was in Leo, conjuncting my Sun.

‧₊˚✩彡 That year, our Groom asteroids conjuncted veryyy closely. Also, my Venus and his Moon conjuncted exactly, and it was very easy and fast to fall in love for us.

‧₊˚✩彡 That year again, his Venus fell in my 8H, and I couldn't stop thinking about him from the very first moment we met. He was on my mind all the time, and I thought I was obsessed.

‧₊˚✩彡 My Sun and Briede conjuncted his Union asteroid, once again being totally in love with the first time he met me. And our North Node conjuncted once again.

‧₊˚✩彡 But why didn't it work out at that time? Our Pluto exactly conjuncted each other. Moreover, my Pluto also conjuncted his Mercury, Venus and Mars, but also his Union. I didn't trust him because I had fuckboy vibe from him the first time we met in real life. We also had since the beginning true hardships communicating.

‧₊˚✩彡 My Juno also exactly conjuncted his Neptune, and I felt like he was lying when he expressed his love to me, while it was just an illusion of mine.

‧₊˚✩彡 His Uranus was in my 12H also, explaining our bond and also why I dreamed a lot about him. My dreams felt very 5D connection than just random dreams.

‧₊˚✩彡 His moon that year fell in my 3H, and we could understand each other without talking. It was a true telepathic moment between us.

‧₊˚✩彡 My Vertex was in his 8H, I constantly felt worried about his actions towards me, and I always doubt his sincerity. But we both felt insane sexual attraction to each other.

‧₊˚✩彡 His Vertex fell in my 4H, now being someone introvert and not the type to share his feelings easily, he was often sharing random stuff with me, and we found each other sleeping next to each other very naturally and peacefully. We were very comfortable with each other. Being together just seemed very natural.

‧₊˚✩彡 For the current SRC, his moon falls in my 4H, and anytime I was with him I just felt so much at home.

‧₊˚✩彡 And with his Sun falling in my 7H, no wonder I realized I was in love with him that year.

‧₊˚✩彡 His Vertex falls in my 3H, and it means he had communication from me he never expected, kinda out of nowhere. And it's that year I sent him love letters out of the blue.

‧₊˚✩彡 My Vertex is once again in his 8H, meaning I still doubt lol. But the sexual attraction is still there god..

‧₊˚✩彡 Also no wonder I wrote him love letters that year, my Sun and Venus fall in his 3H, meaning I was literally chasing him with my words. I was the one between the two of us who talked the most.

‧₊˚✩彡 His Neptune and Venus conjunct my Neptune in 8H, meaning a lot of illusions and misunderstandings considering his feelings for me. There were a lot of hiding our true feelings to each other. I also found myself being stuck in a loop about our moments together.

‧₊˚✩彡 His Saturn conjuncts mine in my 7H, we both put limits in our connection to each other. There are many obstacles between us. And since it also conjuncts his Venus and Neptune, it's mostly related to misunderstanding and not sharing our true feelings to each other.

‧₊˚✩彡 We didn't see each other much that year, which is not surprised because we almost have nothing in each other's 1H.

‧₊˚✩彡 Our Pluto conjunct each other exactly meaning we push each other towards transformation. Both of our presence push the other to change and realize what needs to be done.

‧₊˚✩彡 My Uranus and Jupiter fall in his 12H, meaning we will make each other live a spiritual transformation at some point.

Part 2 out soon ^^

Thank you for reading!

back to index ; ask ; request ; rules

[reysdriver]

Behind The Venue | J.P.

(part 1 to this fic) you discover rockstar!james is cheating on you through a fan's social media post — modern!rockstar!james x fem!reader angst

warnings: james being a cheater

words: 1k

warnings: umm just to let y'all know, a lot of my writing is gonna be angst for the time being cus i'm going through a breakup lol and also let me know if you want me to write a part 2 to this cus i can defo see it already

James was currently on tour with the boys; last night was Berlin, tonight was Vienna. Although you both wished you could join them as they visited almost every European capital, you couldn’t leave everything for two months. 

Well, you could. James had made it clear you didn’t need to work, that he would buy you anything you ever needed or wanted, but you didn’t want to be completely dependent on him. So while he travelled all around the continent, you stayed home to wait tables and keep your flat warm. 

But it wasn’t like you were completely away from your boyfriend for the whole time; you called each other every night—even the ones where the boys got blackout drunk in foreign hotels, and you constantly stayed updated on everything regarding the band. 

The little bits of connection were how you found yourself on Austrian social media scouring the hashtags related to The Marauders. You scrolled through selfies of fans in front of the empty stage, waiting for the boys to start. Some people brought posters and gifts for them, which always made you smile. Some of the fans even mentioned you in their posts and you commented on a few of them, wishing them a fun time at the concert. 

Then, you sent James a good luck text and went to make yourself dinner. You’ve learned that the best concert pictures and videos get posted a day or two after they’re taken, so you know you don’t need to stay online all night. Instead, you take your food to the couch and put on a movie while the concert hall in Vienna was electric with excitement. 

Near the end of the second movie of the night, you almost fell asleep in your living room, but your heavy eyelids shot up at the feeling of your phone buzzing shamelessly against your thigh. 

It had been going off periodically before, but the notifications increased exponentially in the last few minutes. 

Although you were half-asleep, you couldn’t just let your phone explode with activity. Scary thoughts that something happened to James at the concert overtook your mind and you quickly reached for your phone while attempting to hope for the best. 

It was about James, just not what you were expecting. Someone had caught a video of your boyfriend making out with Lily Evans, the lead singer of their opening band, outside behind the venue. 

The clip was short but inarguable. That was obviously James and Lily, and there was no debate on what they were doing. 

It showed them quickly, then the teenage girl who took the video flipped the camera to herself and said something in German. The only thing you could understand was your own name, and you weren’t sure you wanted to know what the rest meant. 

The video was just posted, but it was already spreading. There were so many comments and reposts; everyone seemed to have something to say on the matter. 

It ranged from ‘you should take this down, imagine how humiliating it is for (y/n)’ to ‘I mean, we’ve known this was coming lol look at their constant flirting’, and you weren’t sure what hurt more. 

And even though every single take felt like a slap in the face, you kept scrolling through them all. You were careful not to interact with any of them so as to not encourage drama, but it seemed like the fans were doing fine on their own when it came to stirring the pot. Eventually, it just became all too much. You took a screenshot of one post and sent it to James. 

But despite that, you weren’t staying up any longer. You shut off your phone, plugged it in across the room, and started getting ready for bed. You didn’t care if the only other thing to do was cry yourself to sleep, you weren’t spending any more time watching your boyfriend kiss his coworker. 

✦✧✦✧✦

The night barely consisted of sleep. There were periods where you calmed down enough to sleep, but you woke up several times in a pool of emotions. You managed to stay asleep for long enough that you’d be adequately rested, and that was good enough for you. 

When you opened your phone in the morning, you were sure that any limits to messages and mentions must have been hit. So not in the mood to hear anyone else’s opinions on your relationship, you didn’t even bother opening social media. 

You saw that James had sent a string of texts and tried calling you several times, and your heart ached. He was the only person who you would listen to about this, but you didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. What could he say over the phone to fix this? 

Then, as if on cue, your phone vibrated with an incoming call from him. 

You were torn on what you should do. Answer and listen to him begging for forgiveness, decline and ignore everyone? If you answered and he asked for mercy, would you forgive him? You even thought about airing out all his secrets online in a petty act of revenge. But none of those really seemed like something you would want. In this fragile state, you wondered if anything could help. 

Then your attention snapped back to the picture of him on your screen, letting you know he wanted to talk. 

Compromising between all the ideas that had just been running through your head, you declined the call and opened your messages. ‘come back home and we’ll talk.’ was all you sent James before tossing your phone aside.

[apieceofmi]

STRANGERS… or not

Noah Sebastian x Reader

Summary: a stranger in a train that captive her heart, never seen him again… but his face was familiar, maybe that was more than just a connection, maybe she already saw him somewhere. A lot of research and… oh, yeah, she really sees his face before, her and millions of people… it's just sad that he seems so untouchable. Right?

Author’s note: Okay, so part 2 was unexpected, but It's here!! And now I have a few more ideas for this same couple and context… I think there are more coming. Anyway, hope you like it! xx

Part One (You don't have to necessarily read the first part to understand this one, it's up to you)

__________________________________________________________

Just when I thought that my chances are over, I found him. The stranger I’ve met in a train coming back from my hometown months ago, talked for hours and I left without knowing his name.

I took the same train and visit my parents more times than is good for my mental health, I sat there and wait for him, but got nothing. Then I searched in social media, everywhere I could think of, but it is so difficult to search for something - someone in this case - that you know nothing about. I have an image in my mind, the sound of a laugh, and nothing more. We shared so much that day, but as the days passed it seemed like nothing. Then, when I gave up and convinced myself that I was making it bigger than it should have been, when I accepted that it had become just a great memory, exactly how I wanted it, I found him.

Screaming in my phone, I'm not the only one that think he's a cool guy. I feel kind of stupid when I realize that he's not just an ordinary person, and that's probably why I thought I already knew him that day on the train.

Not a surprise, just me romanticizing my life again.

And maybe that is the reason why I'm doing it again, because I swear that I feel something more around this - him. In my delusion mind, you don't meet someone by chance. You don't screw up the chance you have to really know someone when you feel a special connection with them. Not like I did. Maybe that's the reason that I feel the necessity to just see him again. I don't know what I expect of this, and maybe I should just let it go, but I have friends that are delusional like me, and they support me with this crazy feeling… So, yeah, I listened to all of his band's albums and came to a show - just because it was in my city. It's not like I fight for tickets when I found out that they would be here. Not at all. 

Everything was good, and I was already feeling that coming to the show was the closure that I need to this history when my friend Anna, that came with me, grab my hand while we're exiting the venue.

“Let's wait outside. I know some fans do it, sometimes they stop to take pictures and talk to them.”

I get nervous immediately. I've already seen him, discovered who he is and for me that's enough, I don't have the courage to be in front of him again. I don't want him to think that I'm stalking him and make this role thing uncomfortable. It was supposed to be something nice, just it. Actually, it was just supposed to be a memory. Everything that happened after I left that day shouldn't have happened, I didn't say my name because I didn't want anything to happen. I'm going further than I should, I'm exceeding the limit I drew for myself. It's more than enough.

“No! We can't wait for them!” I protest, thinking in an excuse when Anna looks at me, her eyes narrow, knowing me well enough. “I have to work in the morning.”

“You can miss one rehearsal.”

“I have class tomorrow. I can't miss it, I'm the teacher.” I say, but Anna doesn't take me serious, she knows that I'm having a meltdown right now. “What if they don't even came out? We’re just going to lose time waiting here.”

Squeezing my hand, she smiles at me.

“Then at least you tried.”

So we wait, talk with some people that are waiting there too and it's cool. It's nice. But I can't stop feeling that I'm doing something wrong being here. I don't know, betraying the universe, maybe? I made my choice that day and just because I regret it now, can I just switch sides? 

Uh, no, I don't think so. 

Maybe it's supposed to be just like it was, some nice exchange in the train between strangers. Maybe it supposed for me not saying my name.

I'm almost given up and going home when I see them coming in our direction. Anna has a big smile in her face, her eyes shinning, and I almost can hear her saying - he's here! He's here! - but I just look at her and then at him approaching the others, and I freeze, taking a step back. 

There's another member of the band with him - with I know now that his name is Nicholas - and they start to talking with the little crowed waiting for them. I stay in the corner with Anna, without a clue to how to start this interaction without being a weirdo.

I'm still considering running out of here when his eyes catch me one time. Two times. A little frowning in his face in the third time. What if he doesn't remember me? 

“I know you” he says, his eyes studying mine, coming closer.

“We met at…” But I don't need to finish when his faces changes. He recognizes me. 

“Yes, I remember” he smiles. “You found me.”

I let out a small nervous breath, forcing it into a weak smile.

“It took long enough, but yes. I did found you.”

There’s a grin that won't leave his lips, and I cannot stop staring at it. 

“What's your name?” Yeah, here's the million dollars question.

I finally tell him my name, answering the question I should have answered months ago when I had the opportunity, then had to beg the universe for another chance.

“Well, I’m Noah” he says next.

“Nice to meet you.” I chuckled nervously.

I already know his name, but him saying it to me feels more legit. I think I can finally stop referring to this man in my mind as him or the stranger.

He finally has a name.

“You liked the show?” Noah asks.

“Yes! It was so great!” I rejoiced. “You guys are so talented! I was shocked when I was listening the albums, I'm just… I became a fan.”

The smile in Noah’s lips grows and the shy look in his eyes makes strange things happen in my stomach. I really hope that's not butterflies. It's like something frozen at the moment, at the same time suddenly I'm well aware of the people still around us, hoping for a little more time with the members of the band they came to see. 

Noah gives me a little embrace, catching me off guard when I hear his voice so close.

“You found me, now it's my time” he whispers in my ear.

“I follow you” I replied, the words coming out my mouth like it's an urgency. 

“Great.” he says, stepping back and giving attention to the person next to us.

I look around for Anna, who I didn't even see leaving, she's back at my side in a second.

“How it was?” she asks as we leave. 

“He said he's going to find me” I chuckle. “ I think on social media? I don't know.”

“It would be suspicious if he asked for your number in front of everyone.” She considers. “Or even invite you for, I don't know… their bus” Anna makes a funny face, giving me a side look. “I wouldn’t let you leave with him like that anyway, he’s cute and talented, but he’s still a man.”

I laugh, loving her a little more for taking care of me.

“I wouldn’t abandon you like that.” I say. “Thank you for coming with me.”

"Of course. As if I would miss the chance to help my best friend meet her train crush, who happened to be a fucking rock star." She rolls her eyes, getting into the car.

“It don't even make sense.” I let out a disbelief laugh. “Did you see how many people were there today? This is like impossible, he's famous, a celebrity, I'm not the kind of person…”

“Stop it right now.” She interrupts me. “He's a person just like you are. Yes, he's talented and is in a band that obviously is getting bigger every second, but it doesn't mean anything. He's human. You're human. It's all we need.”

“You're right, I'm thinking too much again.” I say, starting the car. “At least I tried.”

I'm already home getting ready to sleep when a notification came on my phone. A message on Instagram from an account with a peculiar profile pic. I don't make a ceremony and open it right away.

“I can't believe that I spend two hours talking with you that day and don't ask your name first thing!” 

“I swear, I'm not like this in normal situations”

“You got me nervous”

I bite my bottom lip, trying to stop myself from smiling.

“I'm sorry for not saying my name when you asked. I regret it every day since I left.” 

“Two fools”

“How did you found me? I tried to look for you but get nothing”

“Well, I'm not as popular as you”

“A video of the band randomly appeared on my timeline, I think I talked about the guy on the train so much to my friends that the algorithm took pity on me and threw it in my face.”

“For once social media did something right”

“So… You're going to stay in town or…?”

“No. We already left”

“I didn't want to expose you out there earlier, but if you get me your number, I can let you know when I'm around?”

“I'll understand if you don't want to, my life can be a little crazy sometimes.”

There's no hesitation in my answer.

“I really want to know better the guy that I met on the train three months ago and can't stop wondering about, so… Yes, If that's okay for you.”

“Great. I've searched for you in every city that we go to since that day, can't wait to properly get to know you too, stranger.”

So I sent my number.

And God, I should have known I was in trouble the moment I got that first message from him. As the days went by, I realized that I was crazy to think that Noah was untouchable just because of what he does for a living, he has become the funniest and sweetest person I know.

We're definitely not strangers anymore.

Not when we talk every day now.

Not when I learned all his favorites.

Not when I’m counting days to see Noah in person again.

[arcane-abomination]

Be aware that this blog may touch on sensitive topics regarding death so read on at your own discretion.

Death Energy

Death energy is just energy that comes from death and death symbolism, but as simple of an answer as that seems to be, don’t be fooled by the much deeper complexities that this topic harbors. When we really dig into it we discover some darker truths about our existence and the hereafter. Truths that many people are more comfortable ignoring because they force us to face the inevitable.

Death energy is about stillness, endings, and about the deconstructing and reconstructing processes. It’s about using what’s passed to fertilize what’s new and grow something that has purpose in the next step of your life. It’s about the acceptance of inevitability and what we can’t change to bring about what we can. All in all it’s a very unique energy that can open many new doors for any witch willing to try.

• What Does Death Energy Feel Like? •

Everyone feels energy differently in the basic of ways but even still, it should go without saying that death energy has a different pull to it entirely then life energy. Sometimes those who aren’t used to connecting with it can have a hard time. It’s been described as heavy, or even smothering by some. Others have said it feels cold or chilling in a way. The funny thing here is that these definitely describe what naturally comes with death. Our bodies get stiff and much heavier. We lose our heat and grow cold, and while this definitely sounds unpleasant and shocking to those who aren’t used to spending time with it we must also recognize that it’s a part of a continued cycle. As our bodies further decay the weight becomes less and the shock of the cold against the once warm skin becomes just another room temperature feeling. Another words, things come to feel more natural especially when you understand the process and spend time with it.

All new energy can feel overwhelming to anyone who hasn’t experienced it before. It can bring up a whole plethora of unease, nervousness, even anxiety if you’re not ready for it. Especially death energy. As stated above, it can force us to face certain things. Things that can be heavy and hard to accept. For this reason working death energy may not be for everyone and that’s okay. It deals with subject matter that makes some people uncomfortable and as such if you’re not ready to incorporate it you have every right not to.

• What Can Death Energy Be Used For? •

Death energy is the primary force in death witchcraft and death magick. And as a result each witch is gonna use it in their own unique way. There are so many interesting books and articles published that describe plethora of interesting ways to work with the energy of death. Many of which put their own unique understanding and spin on how it came to be, how it works, and how you can use it. But in my opinion you can use death energy for everything you can use life energy for and then some. It just pulls the magick from a different place and in a different way. Remember each one of us processes things in a different way, especially death energy. Do what makes you feel comfortable and never let anyone push you to cross any lines you’re not ready for. Comfort in magick is very important.

Lastly I want to take this time to emphasize what death energy is not used for. It is not and never will be an excuse to just take human life. Murdering someone is never okay. Nor is it an excuse to unnecessarily torture animals. Now I understand that using animals in general can be a debatable subject, especially when they are killed by the individual. However it should be understood that many believe this is okay during appropriate times and only when you utilize the animal and not waste it. So as an example hunting during deer season or catching a fish. The animal in question can be used for magick but will also ultimately be eaten and many witches see this as an appropriate practice. As long as everything operates within the confines of the law and everything is treated with respect and dignity.

Cemetery Work

For a lot of death witches, doing work in a cemetery or graveyard is a must, although there are those that don’t, a great deal more either do or will do when they get the chance. Lots goes into this type of work though and a thorough study on the subject should be done before pursuing this type of magick. However, some key points to remember are to always be respectful, obey the laws and rules of your land regarding the resting places, and listen to what the dead tell you.

It’s very important to recognize that there are always going to be practitioners that have their own unique rules on this subject, but the best way to know if the dead favor something or not is to ask them. What rules you inevitably believe should revolve around what the dead are comfortable with. That said, some of these rules are shared amongst practitioners. I have compiled a list below with some of them. Remember, this is very basic and what a practitioner adds or changes is up to them.

💀 Always bring an offering for the gatekeeper.

Typically these are the oldest spirits in the cemetery and are in charge of maintaining order. Most offerings include things like coins, drink, bread, or apples.

💀 State exactly what you’ll be doing and ask permission from the gatekeeper.

It’s important to let the spirits know what your intentions are. Will you be doing magick at the crossroads, magick at a grave, or foraging? The gatekeeper should let you know through energy what is acceptable. Remember each Cemetery is different and has different rules over all.

💀 Never take things directly from a grave.

Gifts on a grave belong to the spirit dwelling there. It’s okay to pick up things like trash, or moldy flowers in still water but, rocks, dried or fresh flowers, feathers, etc should be left alone.

💀 Be respectful of the graves and spirits.

Try not to walk near the headstone of a grave (you’re walking on their body. Try to stay near the feet and always say excuse me politely if you have to step on it), always ask for a spirits help never demand it, and always bring them an offering as a thank you.

💀 When foraging never take what a spirit tells you not to.

If you’re gathering dirt, sticks, or plants from a cemetery, even if it’s not on a grave, and you get a feeling like you shouldn’t touch it, then don’t. Spirits will always let you know what they want to keep. Obey that or it’s theft.

💀Always give thanks for hospitality before you leave.

Being polite and thanking your hosts is always a must in general and can bring good energies between you and the dead. Especially if you intend on going back to work at that Cemetery.

Necromancy

Another common staple amongst death workers and arguably one of the most misunderstood practices. Simply put, this practice is divination with the dead. It’s all about connecting to and asking the dead for answers from the beyond. Lots of that used to be done in the cemetery and as a result many wild and fantastic rumors about zombie creation were formed, but that’s far from the truth. There were indeed many radical understandings within the practices history however, but as science matured so did the knowledge on what this practice actually was.

While necromancy is still done in cemeteries even today, it’s not a must. Calling fourth a spirit can be done a number of ways and will definitely alter and change based on the witch. Some working maybe more cultural than others, and some may be more complex. The uniqueness of these practices can number well into the double digits and is always interesting to learn. Some of the most common spirit summoning techniques (aside from going directly to someone’s grave) are the spirit board, a mirror, and the pendulum. As for how these spirits are called, that too can differ from witch to witch. Most often though, it can involve candles or crystals as an energy source, a personal item or favored item like food, and/or the spirits name. It can be as simple as physically calling out to the abyss, beckoning the spirit forward or as elaborate a ritual as calling in the four directional guardians or a guide to lead them to you.

Regardless of how it’s done, it’s always a good rule of thumb to be respectful to them. Don’t demand from them, ask instead, and offer gratitude and an offering when you end the session.

Deity & Spirit Guides

Lots of death workers may worship deity just like any other practitioner. However the deity they are generally more drawn to are often either associated with the underworld, or a psychopomp, like Osiris, Hades, Anubis, or Hecate. However they may also be a deity tied in some way to the personification of death, much like Thanatos, or the grim reaper.

Even if the witch chooses not to utilize deity they can still conjure up spiritual guides of some sort. These guides can be something as common as ancestral spirits or even animal spirits. Most common animal guides often have some death association and symbolism to them. So animals like Black cats, bats, vultures, owls, crows and ravens are quite popular.

Bones & Body Parts

Its not uncommon to see bones on the altars of death witches. Many beliefs around these tools and what they represent circulate within the community. For some specific animal bones it’s believed you can use that animal spirit and energy. Other beliefs revolve not around the animal itself but rather the type of bone, as each one has its own unique symbolism attached to it, such as a jaw being connected to communication. The possibilities are near limitless and for most death practitioners they are a very necessary tool within the craft. Some practitioners even collect additional things like insect exoskeletons, animal skins, and preserved body parts like a rabbits foot.

DISCLAIMER! People should be made aware that it’s always encouraged for all materials to be ethnically sourced. Any form of unlawful collection or cruelty is frowned upon and not condoned within the community.

Conclusion

As started above, these are just some of the basics of death work within the pagan community and serves as a starting point to bounce off of. It’s very important to do your own research and come to your own conclusions regarding this craft and always remember to obey your local laws. Death work can be very fulfilling but not when it’s done under illegal circumstances.

For some additional reading look to this list below:

• What is Necromancy?

• Working with Bones & Skulls in Witchcraft

• Gods & Goddesses of Death & the Underworld

• Graveyard Magick: A Witches Guide

• Death Witchcraft

[onlycosmere]

Knights of Wind and Truth preview

Brandon Sanderson: Jasnah found it difficult to sleep. A part of her wanted to blame this stupid bed. Wit adored plushness; he wanted a mattress that would swallow a person, and he had found her previous one to be unsuitable. So now she swam in stuffing, lying on her side, listening to his breathing.

Wit didn’t snore when he slept, but he did occasionally whistle. She turned to her other side–which, since they both tended to sink toward the center of this awful mattress, should have jostled him. He just laid there on his back, whistling softly as he exhaled. Was he even actually asleep? Things he’d said to her indicated that perhaps he went to other places at night around the Cosmere, visiting other worlds, engaging in political machinations at which, even still, she could only guess.

“You lie to me sometimes,” she whispered to him. “You realized that means it can’t be a true relationship. I can trust someone with secrets—but someone who lies?” If he was aware, despite his sleep, he didn’t say anything.

She’d caught him so far only in the most mundane of ways. He’d engage with wordplay with her, or toy with puns, and she’d ask him to stop. He’d promise, and seem to have done what he said. But then she’d notice that the games hadn’t stopped; they’d only grown more inscrutable. Wit, twisting the wordplays to a deeper level, another layer of esoteric, more difficult to spot. He seemed to think it would engage her, push her. Instead, it signaled something disturbing. Wit would do what he thought was best for people, not what they wanted from him.

Despite her efforts, she knew she wasn’t connecting to him physically as much as he’d like. That made him feel anxious, as if he were doing something wrong. He thought if he listened better, tried harder, he’d do something mind-blowing and change the way she felt.

In turn, though, she wasn’t connecting to him on an emotional level. Something she did want—if only he’d be up front with her. If only he’d tell her.

She turned back on the other side; a stiff pillow did little to counteract the strange stuffing. The feathers of baby chickens; or perhaps the smallest feathers of adult chickens? She hadn’t been able to parse the way he’d said, but either way, she didn’t like it. A good lavis-husk mattress was far superior, shredded to not have awkward lumps.

Storms. And this is why it was best to avoid relationships. Nine days until Dalinar confronted Odium, and she was worrying about a relationship? Perhaps this was a way to distract herself; because despite all of her training, all of her learning, all of her preparation, it came down to someone else. She would have no part in the final confrontation; Dalinar had decided he would use no champion.

She did not dispute that choice. He was a Bondmsith. He had built the Knights Radiant. He’d had dealings with Odium and understood the creature better than, perhaps, any mortal. Jasnah had written out her reasons that he was the best choice, and she still agreed with them.

Yet… could it have been her? If, instead of hiding what she was, she’d gone out in the open? Told people what she was, what she could do, what she feared? Her life and Dalinar’s life seemed to be very different things. He’d burned a city in the open, and people forgave him. Yet when Jasnah had been honest about what she feared, what she believed, what she discovered… well, condemnation and judgement had chased her like twin headsmen, each looking to get a whipping in before the final execution. She’d barely stayed ahead of them. Because when Jasnah Kholin spoke her mind, people hated her. Perhaps she had learned the wrong lessons from that. But could she be blamed?

She curled up at that thought, listening to the quiet sounds of Urithiru. Water in the pipes, moving of its own accord. Air whispering as it was pumped through vents. Voices echoing far outside, despite the late hour. Trembling there, she realized, finally, why she hated this mattress so much. It reminded her of the soft restraints they’d given her when she’d been young. When those who loved her had taken away her own freedom for her own good. Those terrible months that basically everyone had forgotten about as an anomaly. Except by Jasnah, who would never forget.

Wit suddenly sat up in bed. “Oh, hell,” he whispered.

Jasnah became alert. It wasn’t difficult, considering how far from sleep she’d been. She formed Ivory as a blade—short, stout, basically just a dagger—and called for her armorspren to be ready. She reached for the cover of the bowl of spheres beside the bed, but did not remove the black shroud, lest she ruin her night vision. In a second, she could have Stormlight, but she hesitated on this, too, as the light rising from her skin would highlight her in the darkness.

Wit sat there, barely visible by moonlight, wearing his silken nightclothes. His hair was immaculate, despite having slept on it. How?

“What?” she finally hissed at him.

“Oh, bollocks!” he whispered, leaping from the bed. “The darkest, hairiest, greasiest bollocks on the most unkept nethers of the most wanton demon of the most obscure religion’s damnable hellscape!”

“Wit?” Jasnah said as he rushed to the counter, searching frantically among his things. “Wit!”

He looked at her, wild-eyed, then he pulled the shroud off some spheres and washed the room in light.

She blinked, dismissing her blade. If Wit wasn’t worried about blinding them, then this wasn’t a physical danger. It might just be another of his strange <range of> oddities. Except… the way he looked at her. Eyes like glowing spheres. Lips drawn without even a hint of a smile. Jaw taut, hands clenched, breathing quick. Genuine panic. She felt like summoning her blade again, if only to have something to hold as a chill went through her. “Wit, she said, “please. What’s wrong?”

“G-give me a moment,” he mumbled, turning back to his things. “I need… I need a moment.” He pulled out a notebook and began writing.

She rose and, though the air was warm—her mother’s transformations to Urithiru heating the air to unnatural levels for this elevation—she felt cold in only her nightgown. She threw on a robe and leaned over Wit’s shoulder. She couldn’t read what he wrote. The symbols were unfamiliar, one of the many languages he could speak from worlds beyond theirs. It looked like a table, though, not paragraphs. And those notations to the left of each line? The dots and lines? Numbers, perhaps? They repeated far more often than the other symbols did.

He wrote, increasingly furious, his handwriting growing sloppy. She didn’t miss that he’d gotten out some of the strange, color-changing sand he used sometimes when experimenting with various uses of Stormlight or other, more arcane abilities. And as he did, he seemed to grow more intense.

The doors began to shake. Jasnah had a sword in hand a second later, but then realized it was him. Nobody was on the other side; it was exerting some kind of strange pressure that made the doors vibrate. The rings in her jewelry box, also on the counter, pushed back and began to spill onto the floor. The shoes by her head scooted across the floor, pulled by their latches. Every bit of metal in the room, save for her sword, reacted to him in some way.

Then, the sand burst into light with a mother-of-pearl luminescence and hovered above the table. The filmy clothing on Wit’s back began to writhe and contort as if alive. His motions increasingly frantic, in a flash, it seemed like smoke expelled from his body, blown away by some invisible wind. He was another person. Similar, but different. Shorter, with stark white hair and subtly different features making him seem foreign. This is the real him, she realized. A man not from their world; a man who masqueraded as Wit.

That man turned to her, pencil snapping in his fingers as he grabbed it and broke it across a knuckle. “I’ve been tricked,” he said.

“How,” she asked.

The light of the sand went out, and it sprayed back down on the counter. Wit was back as his familiar self in a blink of an eye, and the odd effects stopped with an abrupt immediacy, as if on an order from him. He stood, again taller than she was, and held up what he’d written. “I’m missing,” he said, “three minute and twenty-seven seconds.”

“I’m not following, Wit,” she said.

“I’m sorry. I’m trying to parse this, but… Storms, what’s happening? Sorry, I’m sorry,” he said, slumping back onto the seat beside the stone counter, a natural feature of the room that jutted from the wall, as was common in these rooms of Urithiru. “I’ve lived a long time, Jasnah. A long, long time. Longer than any mortal’s memories can track, so I must use other means to maintain myself. I store memories in something called Breath: an easily accessible, if costly, form of Investiture that a person can adopt and, with training, use to expand one’s soul and memory. That part isn’t specifically important; I periodically review memories, deciding on what is vital to keep and what can be jettisoned. It is one of the only ways to remain sane after such a long existence as mine. And in that review just earlier, Jasnah, I found something. Something unexpected. Something terrifying.”

“Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds?” she whispered, looking again at the notes on his page. As if by force of will, she could decipher them. “Missing. When?”

“One day ago,” he said.

“And what were you doing at the time?”

He let out a long breath, then met her eyes. “I was having a chat with Odium.”

“A chat?” she said flatly. “With the most ancient enemy of all humankind? The being that seeks to destroy us, to crush my family, to dominate—perhaps weaponize—all of Roshar for his own ends? A chat?”

“We have a history,” Wit explained. “As I believe I’ve told you.”

Jasnah pulled a chair over and sank down, feeling a spike of pain. A kind of final spike of pain. “I asked you, Wit,” she whispered. “I asked you to involve me in any dealings you had with him.”

“I’m telling you now, dear,” he said. “That is technically involving you.”

She held his eyes and knew. Perhaps he did, too. He will continue to be himself, a man so full of secrets he needed some kind of strange magic to keep them all inside his head. And one, it appeared, had been excised. There would never be a place for her inside of his deepest self, would there? She’d always just be another thing on the outside, maintained as part of his collection. Enjoyed, perhaps even loved, but never confided in.

In that moment, she knew she’d have to withdraw, for herself. She tucked away feelings of betrayal. She had known what she was getting into with him. One did not court a god lightly.

“Why?” she asked him. “What were you saying to him?”

“I…” he shrugged. “I had to gloat a little. It was requisite, Jasnah, considering our history.” His eyes became distant. “I remember feeling odd about the encounter… a sense of repetition? Something happened that day in the lost minutes. He got the better of me and excised the memory from my mind, letting me instead think I had won the exchange. I can find the remnants, now that I look, as it was awkwardly done, as if by one unfamiliar.”

“This is wrong, isn’t it?” she said.

“Very wrong. Rayse is a megalomaniac, Jasnah. For all his craftiness, it would hurt him to let me walk away thinking I’d bested him. In this case, he encouraged it.” Wit leaned forward and took her hand. “He’s grown. After ten thousand years, Rayse has actually learned something. That terrifies me. Because I can’t anticipate what he will do.”

“Then what?”

“We need to reread the contract between him and Dalinar,” Wit said. “Now.”

Jasnah had a copy nearby, but before she’d opened her ledger, a pounding on a <nearish> door, real this time, drew her attention. She passed out of the bedroom, through the sitting room, and eased open the outer door to reveal <Hemnid> of the Cobalt Guard. A man with discretion to match his general poise, she trusted him as much as she trusted any, so she wasn’t bothered as he glanced at Wit as he approached. “What?” she said to him, light spilling from the guardroom into her quarters.

“Radiant Shallan and Highprince Adolin have something to report,” he whispered. [Brandon: I’m gonna cut that out so you have some anticipation for what’s coming.] “Your uncle has called for a meeting immediately, despite the hour.”

“Tell him I’ll be there shortly,” she said, then closed the door, looking back into the darkened sitting room towards Wit. [Brandon skips another section.]

“It should be,” Wit said. “I need to study that contract. There might be loopholes.”

“And if you didn’t see them?” She said. “You didn’t before.”

“You’re right,” he said. He took a deep breath. “You’re… you’re right. We need an expert, beyond even my considerable knowledge in the area.”

“Do you know any?”

“From your world?” he asked. “Only one, but she and I aren’t on speaking terms. I will, instead, see if I can contract an old friend.”

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Danny always wondered what the strings on his finger meant. He had asked Jazz about it when he was younger and she had no idea what he was talking about. She couldn't even see the strings even though he could see them plain as day.

He made the mistake of asking his mother exactly once and never made that mistake again. Jazz eventually found something about it online, stating that there was a legend about the red string of fate connecting the pinky fingers of destined loves. Danny wondered what it meant if he had three.

Being Phantom changed things. For one, the stings would react oddly whenever he had gone ghost. He could feel what he could only guess were the emotions of the people on the other end of the string. They seemed to be reacting to his "death(s)" every time he changed forms and presumably had similar reactions when he "revived".

One seemed to be very worried about him, another frantic in a search for answers and the third was just deeply intrigued and almost...eager? Huh.

/////

Nightwing hated dealing with Klarion, a sentiment the rest of the JL and YJ teams agreed on.

It was even worse since they were in Gotham and the bats were working together to fight him off. No one was sure what he wanted but he seemed to be having a little too much fun battling them.

It was only after they entered the basement this old dilapidated church that he took note of the chanting. -he blamed the concussion for his lack of awareness- As it turns out, Klarion was attracted to Gotham by this one cult preforming ancient magics from this weirdly glowing spellbook they had found. No idea why he was so interested in it but It couldn't be for anything good.

Red Robin came bursting into the room -late to the party but forgiven considering the circumstances- followed closely behind by a shock of blond hair, and for a moment he thought it was Steph, -stupid concussion- but quickly realized it was Bernard, one of Tim's soulmates and the only one he had found so far. His still very CIVILIAN soulmate. "Ugh. Can today get any worse?" Appearently he should have kept quiet because Klarion turned to him wearing a grin like razorwire and said, "I'm glad you asked!" Before sending a burst of red magic from his hand down to where the cultists were fearfully chanting. The explosion was deafening and where the people once stood was now a green and red portal...

/////////

By the time he turned sixteen Danny had gotten pretty good at this ghost thing. Making allies out of some of his old Rouges, making pacts with ghost countries and negotiating treaties between others, many have declared him the new Ghost Prince, regardless of what he had to say on the matter.

Of course the moment he starts to have any self confidence his faith is shaken by some odd supernatural occurrence coming completely out of left field. In this case it was an odd red and green portal opening up right in front of him. He knows he shouldn't, but the strings were leading right into it and he just couldn't resist.

He popped though.

Danny knew he had made some kind of mistake when he saw what he swore was an actual devil, complete with suit, tie and horns. And one of his strings lead directly to him. "You know, being put in a casket is actually looking pretty good right about now."

Devil guy seemed delighted and actually laughed at his humor instead of giving a sarcastic "ha-ha" or concerned sideways glances. Maybe this guy was alright after all.

/////////

Tim was freaking out. One of his soulmates was freaking Klarion! Klarion! Oh God, why??? And who, or with his current luck- what was that glowy guy supposed to be??? Oh no he was also his soulmate??? Wtf?!

Bernard was of no help whatsoever as he introduced himself to both of them using his real name. GFDI Bernard! One of us has to have survival instincts, he was sure of it.

Aka: Au where Tim Drake, Bernard Dowd, Klarion Bleak and Daniel Fenton all meet on the battlefield and discover they're soulmates. Klarion then kidnaps everyone, leaving Nightwing alone and injured with backup on the way.

[gunilslaugh]

Can I request?:

It's 10 seconds till 2024. But you don't have a New Year's kiss!? What!? We can't have that! Don't worry, Ode/Seungmin will save you from embassment! As the ball finally drops, he swoops in, giving you the best New Year's kiss you've ever experienced.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy New Year everyone! :)

Oh Seungmin

Summary: Seungmin makes himself your New Year’s Eve kiss.

WC:690

Warning:none

photo not mine credits to owner.

The music of the New Year’s Eve party you were at was too loud. Not to mention that you didn’t even want to be there in the first place. You would have much rather been in the comfort of your own home, but alas your friend had to drag you out to a party to celebrate the coming of the new year. 

Now you stood alone in a corner. It was about five minutes till midnight. Your friend had abandoned you to go be lovey dovey with her boyfriend. You wonder why you didn’t leave when she left you. You should have. You regret not leaving. Although you suppose it’s still not too late to leave. The door is right there and you don’t really care if you’re on your way home when the new year comes. You stand up from the wall you were leaning against and begin to make your bee line for the door. Squeezing by multiple couples who are ready to bring in the new year together. 

You were almost to the door when, “Y/n you’re here?” someone called you. You turn towards the voice to discover that it came from Seungmin. 

“Yeah, my friend dragged me here,” you say. Seungmin looked around, seemingly looking for your friend. 

“Did they ditch you?” he asked. You nodded. 

“She went off with her boyfriend.” You rocked back and forth on your feet, arms folded over your chest, feeling slightly awkward. 

“You looked like you were on your way out,” Seungmin noted. 

“I was,” you confirmed. “I don’t really care where I am when the clock strikes twelve. I just want to go home and sleep.” Being surrounded by couples, feeling like you are the only one who didn’t have someone to share the new year with. It was suffocating. If your friend had stayed with you it would have been different. You wouldn’t have felt lonely in a room swarming with people. You wouldn’t have wanted to roll your eyes at every couple. 

“I could walk you then,” Seungmin offered.

“You don’t want to stay?” you questioned him. Seungmin smiles, shaking his head. 

“I don’t care where I am when the clock strikes twelve,” he uttered the same words you did moments ago. His words were a bit of a lie. He did somewhat care where he was when the clock struck twelve. He wanted to be with you. He truly didn’t care where though as long as he was with you.

“That sounds nice then,” you smiled. The two of you walked out the door of the party with three minutes to go till midnight. The two of you weren’t walking in a hurry. A leisurely pace was set. “Are you sure you want to be walking with me when the new year comes?” you checked. Seungmin chuckles, finding you cute. 

“I’m sure.” He laces his hand with yours. Effectively making your heart race. Two minutes till midnight. You’ve both made it to the end corner of the street, pausing before crossing to the other side of the street. One minute till midnight. Your steps freeze with Seugmin’s when he stops walking and checks his phone.

“Something wrong?” you asked. Seungmin shakes his head, but he takes his hand away from yours. 

“You can punch me afterwards if you want to,” he tells you. 

“Huh?” You quickly grow confused. Seungmin’s hand that left yours is now reaching to cup your face. His other hand makes its way to your waist and guides you closer to him. Then he leans down, connecting your lips together. Your eyes widen before you close them, melting into Seungmin. You hear fireworks go off along with the ones in your stomach. Your hands lightly grasp at his sides. Your action causes Seungmin to break out into a smile against your lips. 

“Happy New Year,” he tells you, resting his forehead against yours. 

“Happy New Year,” you tell him back smiling. Seungmin pulls away from you briefly only to quickly pull you back against his frame in a hug. Looks like you had someone to share the new year with after all. 

[abbythewritor]

'Fairness." One Piece x Saitama reader. 0

"Just a Normal girl looking for an everyday life. At least, if you call sailing across the seas with idiots with useless dreams a simple task, then you might wanna see a doctor. Seriously."

Warnings: Blood, gore, mentions of Luekimia, and heaps amount of blood and strength. It might be a little cursing, but not bad, and maybe some flirting in there, but it's mostly clean.

Other things:

-You didn't get bald due to your powers; you got bald to an extreme illness.

-You part of the straw hat crew, but others are interested in you and your power.

-Everyone that is a male is taller than you.

-Monsters from the OPM world will appear in One Piece, and I'll make some new monsters you will fight.

-I hope you enjoy my book and enjoy the prologue. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The world is crazy....and boring.

Every human on this earth has advanced opportunities to grow, become successful, and be someone or something better.

Humans can go to college, date, be an actor, actresses, heck, even garbage men.

Some people, in many most eyes, are viewed as heroes, police officers, firefighters, heck, even people who are just doing a small amount of good.

When we look at the earth thoroughly and see the truth about life, anything and anyone has to start simple before they can become something more significant.

Heck, when life proceeds, and as human lives grow, excitement rolls up, the feeling of achieving something or living off of adventure.

That's what I wanted as a kid, to become firm, to have a life full of excitement, adrenaline, heck, even adventure.

But that all blew over one day when I discovered I had leukemia.

My family was devastated, as my excitement and dreams were gone in one instant.

You see, I grew up in a world where people can have incredible powers, who all fight all kinds of monsters, creatures, and even aliens that invade our earth. I was so inspired by them during my Kemo treatment that I acted like I was one of them, living in excitement and adventure; I wanted to grow and become something better.

But, at that time, I was getting worse; my hair was all gone, my bones were brittle, and the doc said I had little time to live.

Until one day, a man visited me...a tall, bald man, his suit a bright yellow color, his cap blowing like a guardian angel.

He protected me and my room from a monster, a monster giant his size.

His eyes were filled with boredom, anger as his eyes met mine, noticing I was just like him. He also noticed the stupid wires connected to me, especially a breathing tube, which caused his heart to grow weak.

The way the man looked back at the monster, killing it with a single punch, I felt surprised and scared?

His hand was near mine as he dropped some type of metal circle, which fell to the floor where his eyes met.

I sensed that something was bothering him, knowing he may have lost someone he cared about.

Without hesitation, I grasped the man's hand, which made him look at me.

He could sense my worry as my tiny feet stood on the bed, heading closer to him as he kneeled. "Mister, I'm sorry," I said as he kneeled down to me blankly. "Why are you sorry? I should be sorry for wrecking your room." My head shook. "It's just a room; you lost someone, didn't you?" His head tilted. "What do you mean-Oh." He realized what you were discussing as his hands picked up a metal ball. "He seemed important...did that monster kill him?" His eyes looked to you again, not knowing what to say as he hated to tell little ones lousy news. But, again, a hero doesn't lie, as this kind of stuff strikes the man in the heart."You're a smart one, Kid, and yes...his name was Genos; you pretty brave when that monster came; what's your name?" "Y/n. Y/n L/n, what's your name, Mister?" He smiled slightly. "Saitama, you have a nice name; we have unique styles; your hair is fabulous today, Y/n." He patted your head as you giggled with the feeling of his rubber gloves. "I don't have hair, neither do you, Mister Saitama; how did you lose your hair?" "Hmm.." He looked up to his head, then back to you, "A monster ate it." Your eyes widened. "No way, really? Was the monster you just beat up the one that ate your hair?!" Saitama chuckled slightly as his head shook. "No, let's just say the monster was friendly. Did the same thing happen to you-" He paused when your face turned sad as you looked at your hands. "Have you heard of the disease called leukemia?" His heart broke while nodding. "Yeah, it's a type of cancer...is that...how you lost your hair?" Looking up at Saitama, tears glossed over your orbs as you nodded. "It happened a year ago, just before my parents passed away. We're so poor we didn't know how my treatment would go, but after the monsters killed them, I was handed to an orphanage, and they took me here to get treated. Funny huh? Seeing a little girl going through the worse sickness in the world, alone, without family? I just wanted to be an ordinary girl with a life full of excitement and adventure. Instead, I'm hooked up to these stupid wires. Ugly, huh?" "No." You looked at him as he sat on the end of your bed. "I understand the feeling of wanting excitement and adventure, but having those in life doesn't make you a better person; excitement is what comes through you. Those wires, you being in here, still alive, excite me, and you're so brave. I mean, you just experienced something exciting; I kicked a monster's ass-" He paused what he just said as he slapped a hand over his mouth, as you giggled at his words. "Bad word, Saitama! No cursing allowed!" His hands went up with defense. "I did not say anything; you heard things Y/n. "That's a lie! You just sinned again!" "Oh no, what so ever will I do? Will though lord of this earth send me to damnation?" Standing on the bed, you smirk. "I, an Angel of God, she'll give you a chance to repent, and you will be sent to heaven like Genos is right now!" Getting up, Saitama kneeled and bowed his head.

"Oh gorgeous angel of heaven, please forgive my stupid, bald-headed self and accept my hands as I repent of the sins I committed." Heart warm and eyes sparkling, you grasped his hands easily as he looked up to your beautiful, bright smile. "You are forgiven, Hero!" Smiling, he stood up. "I'm glad; I didn't want to lose my best friend." Your eyes widened while your head tilted. "Best friend?! But, Mister, we just met-" "So? Let's call it an Instant connection-" *Boom!* An explosion was shown in the distance of your knocked-over wall, the floor rumbling from the impact as he looked at you quickly but calmly. "Duty calls, say, if I defeat this monster, ice cream is on me, okay?" His heart warmed from your excited face. "Really?!" "Of course, but in case I don't come back, here." Taking off his cape, he dropped it over your shoulders, which made your eyebrows furrow. "But, you need this-" His hand went up as destruction was still heard in the distance. "It's just a piece of clothing in my eyes; you seem to need it more than I do because what I see...." Walking closer to you, he gave one last head rub as he gave you a soft yet warm smile. "Is a hero...."

"A hero that deserves fairness in the world."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[loquaciousquark]

Game Masters of Exandria: Round Table

Good evening, good evening, good evening! Welcome to a special CR episode with our fabulous DMs of the CR Expanded Universe: Matt Mercer, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Aabria Iyengar. Matt opens us up! Don’t forget that the Tal’Dorei campaign guide is out now. He’s so excited for more people to play in this world and expand it at their own tables.

Session Zero: very important, even with people you gel with and know well. It’s important to make lines and veils explicit. Aabria likes to have a tone check-in so everyone has a chance to give input. “It’s an amuse-bouche before you start the story.” Brennan sidebars all of us by just being so excited Matt opened up this sandbox for all of us to play with. Matt, cheerfully: “It was all an accident. It just kept growing like The Blob.” Brennan likens this to James Lipton meeting God at the pearly gates and discovering God has no idea what’s going on. Back on topic, Brennan quotes Voltaire: “I apologize for not having time to write you a short letter so I wrote you a long one.” Prepping for a confined campaign is very different than prepping for an open-world game.

Brennan tangents into a discussion of railroading vs. player agency; when you have a short campaign like this where a story has to hit certain beats, the railroading shouldn’t ever come from the DM. Instead, it should come from the players knowing their characters really, really well, which is all established in session zero. If you can establish really strong player backgrounds and motivations before the campaign begins, the plot can be wholly driven by them/their choices and still achieve the beats needed without ever taking away from player agency. “The rails are gonna be who you tell me you are.” The rails for short campaigns should be designed by the player, not the DM.

Aabria praises Brennan’s character creation style; she went into creation with him with half a thought and came out knowing everything about Llaerryn, and also knowing Brennan completely understood her too.

Brennan has a 13-year-old home game that had no session zero; he talks about how that had no creation session because he knew that game had time to expand and grow with the characters & the players would be okay.

Matt likes having everyone create characters together, or at least a session zero shortly after: this is how relationships started with Vex and Vax, Caleb and Nott, etc. Brennan thinks it’s critical to allow unfilmed sessions as well so the players can find their voices. Matt also likes to make sure people will be comfortable with their characters in the long run, not just the short run. He hates the idea that anyone is ever “locked in” to something they don’t want to play.

Sometimes, like for oneshots/charity games, you can’t have the session zero; in this case Matt likes to email the players just some brief back-and-forths to nail down one or two elements. “Who else in the party owes you a favor and why? What’s one regret from your childhood?”

Brennan tells us the GM is like a one-person Greek chorus. “When you are baking, you find out what you forgot to put in in the oven.” Backstory is meant to give you a trajectory; it’s not where you come from, it’s where you’re going. Backstory has to be a connection to the world; if you just show up with gear and no desires, no goals, “that’s just enlightenment, buddy, I don’t know what to tell you!”

Matt likes one-two page backstories; the more complicated it gets, the harder it is to incorporate things, but he’s also had a player whose whole character was a monk wandering in search of power, and he made that work too.

Backstory should be an invitation, NOT an expectation. Players should anticipate that not all backstory elements may come into play, but the GM should also communicate if they realize they may not be able to use the backstory at all. Players don’t want to wait for three years only to never get into their backstory, but also do have a responsibility to make sure it can be integrated into the world. Communication is key in both directions!

Brennan loves backstory in order to incorporate plot hooks he knows they’ll say “yes” to. If he has a party with no clerics, he knows he doesn’t have to work so much on the pantheon. I identify with this laziness.

Matt made his own settings at first because he was too scared to ruin or incorrectly run an established setting. Brennan enjoys making up canon in established settings, which makes Matt hilariously nervous. Matt: “For most of you, this won’t be livestreamed, so you can fuck it up as much as you want!” Brennan: “Dani Carr, in the corner, with a blowgun.” Aabria advocates taking a break and looking something up for something super critical that you can’t improv. Players always go off the rails; give yourself leeway when DMing for that. Matt also suggests telling players familiar with a setting ahead of time that “this is YOUR version of the world; some things might be the same, different, or conflict with canon, and that’s intended.”

Niirdal-Poc was super fun for Aabria to create. Creating something new in an established world, especially for someone not in love with high fantasy, gave her an amazing chance to pick out the themes she valued. This city was her love letter to the potential of power, whether it’s nature, divine, or wizardly. She ugly-cried when she saw the first map including it.

Brennan was incredibly relieved to get the Age of Arcanum over Aabria’s Kymal, because he was able to use the full weight of the established canon to build the world in retrospect. He especially loved the Aeor arc from C2, so this tied in beautifully with that.

“Fantasy is bad with time!” In Middle Earth, the best sword ever made was made 10,000 years ago; so are blacksmiths today emotionally distraught that they can’t get better? He much prefers Matt’s insistence on a calendar and growth and holidays and such to make it more grounded.

Brennan, on Aeor: “Yes, we have this lapsarian, Edenic thing necessary for the fantasy of populating a world with tons of dungeons and magical items because you need an ancient history for them to have come from,” but Calamity allows a grounding of that history’s existence without undermining the deeply tragic fall of the Age of Arcanum. He loved leaning into the differences between the ancient & modern worlds: Avalir had more technological advancements, Byzantine bureaucracies, etc., and he loved exploring the evolutionary paths of how to feed that into the modern world & Aeor's ruins. It let him fuck shit up without ruining the canon.

(Lapsarian: one who believes mankind has fallen from a higher state)

(Edenic: in the manner of Eden)

(Brennan also talks SO FAST y’all, criminy, and so many of his sentences are abandoned half-thoughts)

Aabria loves that he explained the Shattered Teeth. Matt jumps in here talking about how much he absolutely loves worldbuilding and collaborating on these pieces because it’s so much more freeing than coming up all of it in his brain by himself in his room.

He and Brennan spent an hour once discussing the cosmology and pantheon of Exandria while Marisha was at the vet with Omar (their corgi), including how gods relate to mortality. “I don’t get to have that conversation with just anyone!”

Brennan panicked when Sam & Luis went after Purvan in the show. He meant it to just be a cameo, but they expanded it past his plans. “Don’t make me explain this! This is a part I can really fuck up!”

Both Aabria & Brennan were so worried about breaking canon, but Matt loves that their choices instead clarified and enhanced canon, giving him things to build off of in future: “That’s much cooler than I was anticipating!” They expanded his world rather than breaking it.

“If you’re doing this at home, you can do whatever the fuck you want. Stop the Calamity!” Aabria: “If you see a tree and you don’t know what it’s doing, maybe just leave it alone.”

Aabria: “Every wizard is a yuppie. They wear their shoes to bed.”

What are Aabria & Brennan most proud of contributing to the world? Aabria: being light and irreverent about tragedies like the Chroma Conclave (Chroma spa cave), showing that nature heals and the past is not sacred. Matt loves having Taste of Tal’Dorei as Exandria’s own Casa Bonita. Matt loves finding humor in the darkness of humanity. Brennan: Humorlessness does not occur in nature. “Death is not a punchline, but it is a perfect setup.” He and his wife Izzy loved Everything Everywhere All at Once for the same reason (amazing movie!).

Brennan is most proud of how easily the Calamity crew handled the massive lore dumps he threw at them. Aabria had to learn 40 spell engines as part of her background. Brennan laughs about having texted Matt, “My job today is I’ve come up with 30 fake wizards.” Aabria felt really bad about how Llaerryn treated Madara, ha!

Brennan liked establishing that Vespin wasn’t a nihilist, he was hubristic. Vespin didn’t set out to release the Betrayers, he set out to achieve ambitions, which tied into the pattern of hubris evident in the Ring of Brass. Brennan loved painting the entire Age with this brush, showing that it wasn’t a coincidence, it was a trend over the entire age.

Matt loved how vibrantly Aabria brought Byroden to life--it’s better than he would have done himself. It completely changed his perspective on the city. Aabria shouts out Aimee regarding their conversations about Laredo, TX, and talks about how they wanted to find common threads that would reflect Vex & Vax as well as contrasting against Syngorn, which we saw more clearly in C1.

Brennan asks Matt about the misty history of Exandria. “It’s a little bit of the Matryoshka doll of the genesis” since C1 started in medias res. Aabria: “Who were you when you built this?” Matt: “Younger.”

It started as a city, Stilben only, for a home game for his VA friends. It was a oneshot without a country/continent name intended to be played for six hours on a weekend. Session two he built Westruun; when they got to session 3, he began building Tal’Dorei in Photoshop. He still has the old files of the early country.

He developed the name of the continent Exandria as the players expanded into neighboring countries. It was laying down the tracks right in front of the train, just developing things as needed. He notes that a lot of modern high fantasy is beautifully developed in aesthetic, but breaks down as soon as you try to dive into it. Brennan points out long-lived races with 150-year generations could theoretically date descendants without realizing.

The Calamity came out of Matt’s realization that there needed to be a recent historical event to reset the world. The Divergence was his attempt to rationalize the existence of all-powerful, all-knowing gods walking the planes and guiding the threads of fate, but then leaving great world-shaking danger to a handful of PCs. He wanted to come up with a reason the gods were removed from the world so that the players had to solve the problems themselves.

Brennan loves the idea of visiting the oldest part of a homebrewed world. If he were in Exandria, he’d want to go to Stilben. Oh my gosh, me too.

The Kryn dynasty was partly born out of a book Matt read about the idea of past lives.

There has never been a moment where Matt felt Exandria to be whole/finished. The pressure of having wikis listing out every contradiction he’s ever said does mean there’s a running list of things he needs to correct/address in future, which is its own kind of stress.

Brennan HILARIOUSLY calls out Matt for saying Tal’Dorei isn’t finished while the campaign guide is sitting right on the table in front of them. “This is not done? I’m just gonna go home. Not DONE? I got three months between seasons, okay. Welcome to Biggityburg, here we go. New city, new season. You wackity-schmackity doo, 10 episodes. Help me!”

Brennan points out that a ton of worldbuilding comes from improv in the moment passed off as fact. The players love it when they get the sense that you would pass out before running out of things to tell them about the world.

Brennan made his villains hot because Aabria made a hot spider queen. Matt laughingly says that he doesn’t make hot villains, he makes villains and the internet decides they’re hot.

Matt loves playing with new players and very experienced players; there’s a cycle. “When you first begin, you don’t know a lot of the boundaries. When you’re new to it, you make wider swings, bigger choices, you’re a kid learning how to walk for the first time and bumping into the furniture. Then you start coloring inside the lines because you’ve learned the rules, and then as you get more experienced you cycle back again” to breaking the rules with youthful abandon.

Brennan loves that the game MASTER is actually in a position of service. You’re making dinner for everybody. He praises Aabria for reading her players extremely well and giving them what they want.

Aabria asks about encounter map development. Matt prefers theater of the mind for smaller groups unless they prefer minis. However, with more players, the minis/maps help out a lot. He has been collecting minis for many years.

Brennan extols the virtues of Rick Perry, the production designer for Dimension 20, his D&D show. D20 has a lot of culture mashups (Candy Land Game of Thrones, high school for heroes, etc.), but those beautiful set pieces are often only used once. In his home games he uses lots of dry erase boards, Blu-Tack, and Othello pieces, which can be flipped over and written on the bottom of to track HP directly on the piece. He does prefer maps because he likes tactical play. For theater of the mind, he recommends checking in with the players a lot, because certain classes can get short shrift without clear/tangible tactical advantage (rogues, AoE spells, etc.). Maps with created elements also can lead to grist for player creativity--Reyka in the Bloodkeep series on Dropout was inspired by decorative chains that she used to tactically balloon her way out of a tight spot.

Matt also likes grids and hex maps for simple alignment without requiring a ton of prep. He recommends considering the terrain, enemy advantages and disadvantages, and a few interesting elements (like the chains) just to see what the players can do. He cites Orym’s messing with the augur machine which he’d intended to just be part of the scenery and using it to trap the Shape Mother.

Brennan: if you’re doing theater of the mind, don’t just breeze past environment or mood because that can open doors for the players. In the reverse, Matt points out that going hard into maps/minis can artificially limit what the players may think is useful unless they are experienced enough to ask questions about things in the room that might not be represented by the minis/maps.

Aabria’s prep time is roughly equivalent to the run time of the game she’s planning, just so she feels comfortable improvising. Brennan laughs that one time Izzy found him in the kitchen in the dark holding a container of half-and-half because he was so deep in thought about D&D. Matt will often start thinking about an NPC and embodying the physicality/voice in practice, and Marisha will call him out for talking to himself.

Brennan: “If you’re a dungeon master and you need some voices time, just don’t do it in the bathroom because other people in the apartment need sometimes to get in there, and if you’re in there doing voices time, they might remind you that that’s not the best place for that, and they might be brusque even though it’s kinda quiet and meditative in there.”

Matt has dozens of voice memos on his phone with various NPC voices he’s experimenting with.

Matt obsessively closes every tab in his office every time Marisha comes in in order to hoard his secrets.

Brennan: a home game should never have rails. D&D shows, however, have tentpoles; Rick Perry has to have guidelines for sets to create, so that’s different. He has to have character designs eight weeks before the first episode airs.

Brennan on rails, again: A player is looking for full immersion. Players aren’t generally trying to be storytellers themselves; they’re trying to inhabit a character who doesn’t know they’re in a story and is just trying to achieve a goal. However, the PLAYER wants the arc, so the player and character are at artistic odds. Characters are like water: they are running downhill seeking the path of least resistance. The players, however, don’t want the straight line. The DM’s job is to be the irrigator shaping the river running downhill; at the end of the story, the character ran in the straightest line possible to it, but the DM shaped the channel into something aesthetically pleasing in the process. The DM’s job is to recognize that the player’s & character’s goals may be disparate, and shaping the story to please both.

Matt adds that character story beat prep should be modular so that you can implement pieces that are important when it’s the best time for the story. Don’t lock critical information behind die rolls; don’t tie one piece of critical information behind one single NPC that they might never encounter. There should be many ways to achieve goals. Aabria likes the three-act structure because most people are familiar with that for movies, and good players who are also storytellers are great about lining up their shot in order to serve the plot. Having players recognizing the structure of the form is like having flowers turning towards the sun.

Brennan doesn’t remember a PC doing something that made a weight lift off his back in 24 years of DMing more than Llaerryn blighting the tree. It was such a perfect moment of a player serving the greater story. Aabria also using the bow as the last piece of her machine was a perfect way for Brennan to implement endgame steps, and he credits her for knowing how to help resolve the notes of the story. She was generously giving him the tools she knew he needed in service of the story.

Brennan talks about the first time Aabria DMed for him and mentioned, “And here’s what you don’t see,” and describes his own head popping off in the realization that you can do that?? He stole that immediately and has used it in his games ever since.

Matt talks about being very limited in his own style because prior to CR, so much of DMing was learned in a vacuum or in a limited friend group. He loves watching other live plays and seeing what other people are doing in completely different worlds. That excites him more than anything.

Favorite GM snacks? Brennan immediately addresses the camera in a classic Brennan rant. I’m so happy. “Let me be clear. This was put into this fucking questionnaire to come for me. If you’re at home and you’re afraid to tell your gaming group that you’re a snacker, I’ve got your back, okay? Because it’s okay to fucking snack. Some of us sweat from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. Some of our bodies are betraying us constantly. Would I have chosen this paper-white, fur-covered, constantly sweating body? No! I wouldn’t have! Does it require constant almonds? Yes! Almonds all the time, okay? And I’m not going to apologize to these two elevated beings, these two hovering pre-Skeksis pre-mystic light beings from The Dark Crystal--some of us are pod people, okay? I’m a little podling, and I need to snack. If I could have another mouth in my back--the biggest obstacle in my GMing, okay, is that the same place I talk from is where food needs to go! And I’m not sorry! I like to snack! And to answer your question, almonds.”

Aabria says Calamity was the least she’d seen him snack, which is how she knew he was nervous.

Brennan laughs that he hit the five-hour mark and his body immediately demanded a caffeine shot. As scary as the villains were, nothing scared Aabria more than Brennan saying, “We’re off keto.”

Aabria lusted after Brennan’s Funyuns, but couldn’t stand the idea of trying to have a romantic moment with Quay with onion breath.

Matt saw an internet comment about his eating early in the stream and stopped eating on stream after. :( However, he does find himself strongly in the moment DMing and loses his appetite anyway.

Brennan tells a hilarious story of getting in a car accident with some friends and eating a pizza and a half by himself out of anxiety afterwards. I have never identified with him more than in this moment.

And that’s it! What an awesome, meaty episode. Is it Thursday yet?

[writing-of-an-angel]

“Y/N, can I talk to you for a second?”

You looked at the youngest Winchester who was walking into the kitchen with a book in hand.

“Sure Sam, what’s up?”

He pushed his hair out of his eyes as he turned around and walked to the library motioning for you to come with.

He pushed his hair out of his face three or four times during the short walk through the bunker as if he couldn’t figure out what to do with his hands.

“Is everything okay Sam? What did you want to talk about?”

Sam didn’t answer your question but he opened the book he’d been holding and put it on the library table in front of you.

“This book was discovered by the Men of Letters sometime back in the 40’s”

He stopped there and motioned for you to look in the book.

“I don’t get it, why are you showing me a page in a book with the names John and Mary?”

He pushed his hair out of his face again and moved in next to you to take a closer look at the leather-bound book.

“Look at the last names in small print beneath them. John Winchester and Mary Campbell.”

You had met the Winchesters a few years ago and connected romantically with Dean pretty fast, so he’d told you stories about his parents.

Mary came from a family of hunters whereas John grew up with a mechanic for a dad and only picked up hunting after Mary was killed.

“Wait, those are your parent’s names. Why are they written in this book from 80 years ago?”

Sam flipped past a couple of other pages that looked similar with pairs of names on them as well.

“The Men of Letters labeled this as a Book of Soulmates. Its supposed to list every single couple that’s supposed to end up together”

Sam continued to move past pages of people that you hadn’t heard of, but you assumed ended up together

“Why are you showing me this Sam?”

His hazel eyes darted across the pages as they swept past under his fingers until he finally stopped on one of them.

He couldn’t meet your eyes so you let yours drift to the page he was on instead.

Y/N Y/L/N and Sam Winchester

“Y/N, there’s a page with our names on it”

You let your finger drag between the two names on the aging yellow paper

“Yes I can see that, but I don’t understand. I’m in love with Dean,” you struggled to find the words to express how you were feeling

“This book is just wrong Sam”

You backed away from the book trying to figure out why your name would be next to Sam’s and not his brothers.

“Y/N, I checked all of the pages before ours and each of the couples have ended up together over the years”

Sam closed the book and tried to take a step toward you before realizing he should probably give you some space to breathe.

“I can’t do this right now Sam, I’m sorry”

You tried to walk out of the room, but before you could Sam had grabbed your arm and was turning you back towards him

“Y/N, the front page of this book says these pairings have been foretold since the beginning of time”

You were face to face with him now and he hadn’t let go of your arm.

“The book also says that the angels of heaven are responsible for making these matches happen if they don’t occur naturally”

You tried to look anywhere else besides his eyes, but it was no use. His nose was inches from yours and you could feel the warmth of his breath as he was breathing heavy trying to think about what to do or say.

“Sam, I love your brother. Dean and I have been -“

He cut you off before you could continue

“Dean’s name is not the one on that page Y/N and if we don’t make that page the truth, the angels could intervene themselves. Is that what you want?”

The last thing you wanted was winged dirtbags trying to hurt Dean

“No, but I.. I don’t know what to do Sam”

He finally let go of your arm as you both took a deep breath and walked back over to the book that was taking up most of the small wooden table

“I don’t know either, but we’re going to figure this out.”

[katyspersonal]

Ayyyy 3 years of Bloodborneing! I am old now xD 🎉

I checked my @katyahina main, that existed many months before this blog, and.. damn, I really HAVE been into Bloodborne for 3 years! Not just that, but I've kept missing the proper day because I misremembering joining in Spring and not Winter. But.. yeah!

^ This meme was how my Bloodborne fan era technically started. It was the first thing I've posted on it, after about a month of passionate discussions with my friends who played it.. and then fishbowlcarnage, a super based Soulsborne blog that unfortunately deactivated year later, liked it and followed me instantly. I've just started to take first steps towards being "properly" online in social media after a seriously horrible and long period in my life, and having that sense of 'a cool person' giving me attention again, after all that time? Yeah, I felt like I could not pull the 'it was just a joke, I do not intend to post more Bloodborne!!' after something so significant. Look, I was very sad, and in shards from after leaving abusive relationship that were a huge part of my "isolation" from sane people. Still, I think it is funny that I might not even have stayed around in this fandom, had it not been a single person giving me a hand at the most important time. She never knew how meaningful it was for me, and never will now (genuinely hope she is fine, wherever she is..)

But afterwards I started drawing and loredigging more! This aesthetic and this type of storytelling was absolutely nothing like what I was used to, so it was very hard to whip my art into a more "serious" shape after years of round, cute and cartooney stuff. And even harder to connect so many vague hints and scattered lore scraps! I thought I was losing my mind upon discovering my first theories. Heck, I swear I learned what growing eyes on the inside felt like XD @val-of-the-north was there for me on every step on the way, he remembers me screaming at how bad it hurt my brain and how I was losing sanity dsfhjdfs In the end, my brain did get completely rewired in terms of media analysis and how I create things. I think I will never be the same. Admittedly, I am so, so, SO thankful to my former self for discovering all theories on my own, instead of instantly socialising and taking hot takes, theories and designs in the fandom as a reference. Talking with other fans significantly improved my interpretations and theories, but the best way to go is to first have your own version, so it can be refined upon interactions. Rather than just letting what's already there decide for you, you feel?

Granted, it's been painful 3 years for at least 5 significant reasons, and time flew really fast. Sometimes I regret having joined the fandom instead of being the 'unreachable' fan (the one that just posts theories and fanart without ever actually interacting with other fans). Watching the best, the most level-headed and interesting fandom in my life rot into a clown mess of 'cool kids' cliques, hierarchies and division, discourse, passive aggression, toxicity, gospel headcanons, snobbish treatment of any fan that didn't grab a beer with an "influencer" at the Discord and resentment towards fans who are actually passionate was PAIN. I hoped this kind of rot that kills every other small fandom could never touch US, but alas.

On the other hand, accepting that all good things should rot one day is important part of any engagement. Resisting what's natural end only makes things worse. ...that sounded like a very Soulsborne-moment. Besides, all pain (personal one or 'on behalf of my community' one) was worth the knowledge and insights on nature of people I've gotten! I understand so much more, it is only fair that the price was so heavy. ....and that also sounded like a very Soulsborne-moment. And at the same time, while I was raving like a grumpy old man about "better simpler times", even older fans came towards me to admit that actually this is not a novelty but just a more annoying form of it, and the community knew at least two previous 'cycles' of rising and then rotting like this. So in the end it doesn't matter, and some day things will improve again, only to get ruined again. ..... *sighs* and is not it a fucking Soulsborne-moment yet AGAIN.

I am still glad that I was able to find the interest in these awesome stories, and that I've found such good friends. I think in the end, the biggest reason why these games have such unreal grip on me is that they understand me like no other piece of media did. With all previous things I've been into, I was the one trying to understand them, but here, ironically considering my lore essays, it is understanding me. The despair, the endless existential crisis, the traumas, the doubts, the struggle to remember what's the reason to even live and hope is, observations on society I've had on instinctive level despite intellectual disabilities but could never articulate... the nightmares, too. But this is even better that I've found people who can understand me through how I understand it. I can't go back to how I used to socialise before the nightmare everything has been spiralling as for several years, the trust issues run far too deep and control me far too much, but I feel as alive as someone in my position could be here. And this matters.

[justkending]

Found Memories. Chapter 1.

Finding Memories Sequel: (I advise you to read the 1st series for context).

Series Summary: Following the aftermath of Finding Memories, Bucky tries to complete goals he feels she would have discovered for herself as a way to let her memory live on. However, he never expected to find someone very close to who he believed she would have been if given the chance of normalcy. A journey of mourning someone he lost, turned into a journey of discovering someone new, happens upon the soldier. Maybe this whole normal thing isn’t as bad as he had pictured it in his mind. Maybe he had a better shot at it than he ever tried to imagine.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader insert

Chapter Word Count: 4000+

A/N (PLEASE READ): So I may or may not have gone back on my deal to not post until I finished writing it all, but I'm 15 chapters in, and though I have a ton more to write, I wanted to drop the first chapter for my Finding Memories people to have some closure, and also to see where Bucky's story plans to lead.

This series is told through 1st person unlike a lot of my others, but I realize I like this style a lot more. So all this is from Bucky's perspective in this chapter. I also understand this may seem a little confusing with this being a reader insert for both these stories, so using Y/N will make it harder to tell the difference between the characters. I’ll be calling our previous Y/N from the Finding Memories series, Sloan, just to avoid confusion. But please don’t let that take away from any of the personal aspects of the story. This is just a continued story of Bucky finding happiness after the ending of Finding Memories. (Just think of it as him falling for you 2x ;) There is a note at the bottom after reading so please read that when you finish!

Last note! For each chapter, I am connecting a song from the playlist our last reader left and Bucky took on his own. The song will play off the vibes of each chapter. You don't have to listen if you don't want to, but it is here as a little piece of Bucky's theme (sometimes thought processes and feelings) in each chapter. Enjoy!

Playlist song: At Last by: Etta James

Chapter 1: 

4 years and 364 days had gone by since her passing.

Almost 5 years, 2 weeks, and 4 days since I had rescued her.

I think the reason it stuck with me was that this was one of those missions that carrying on like normal afterwards, wasn’t really an option.

When you lose someone on the field, whether you know them or not, a piece of you is saddened that someone lost their life. Normal. Human. Emotions. 

However, you feel depressed and emotionally stuck when it’s someone you had become familiar with and plan to continue to grow familiar with. 

It hurt even more when it was someone who deserved to go far in life and learn so many things about themselves in a healthy and safe environment. It was a stab to the heart to know she never saw that for herself and had made a decision no one should be put in the position to make. 

But it happened. In the very likely chance someone was to find her and use her for her powers again, she erased all possibilities of it getting into the wrong hands. And with it erased all chances to experience the good in the world as well.

After she died, Bruce and Tony tested her blood to find what the other mutation was even if I knew for the most part. 

We didn’t have much time to understand it, or for her to really explain all the pieces that came with her enhancements that she seemed to remember the day before her ultimate fate. But from what she had passed onto me in the last moments of her life, I feel like I had some kind of grasp of it. 

Her hand over my heart seconds before her powers consumed her was more than just a sentimental goodbye. She shared within that touch her fears, her intentions, her understandings, and the peace she found in her decision. 

It was something I could never explain in words to someone else, but it was a feeling that made me understand why it all had to come to the end that it did. 

She had told me the night before, that her powers were created from the cosmos, and it was a power that could bring an end to society and the world we try so hard to keep afloat in what feels like constant choppy waters. 

She didn’t have to go into too much depth about what all that meant, but it would soon be proven within hours of explaining to me that we would not get the end we hoped for. 

I can’t lie and say I never expected things to take the turns they did. I live the life I have constantly considering the worst-case scenarios, and her death was always one of those scenarios as soon as we saved her in that hidden terrorist facility.

Bruce and Tony confirmed that her gifts were something that could be world-ending and quickly incinerated her blood so that no one could get ahold of that kind of power down the line. 

The wishes she made on her deathbed were met and I was trying to meet all the other ones she had made and never got the chance to do herself. 

It took me a while to go into her room and start to clean out the few personal items she had slowly gathered in the short time she was there, but really there wasn’t much to clean. 

She had a few plants. I took one and Wanda took the other. Her clothes were either taken by Wanda or Nat and the rest were donated. 

She had some books that had been gifted to her about random things she had found interest in while trying to find herself. A cookbook, a book on herbs and plants she used to read to put a name to the plants on the compound during her walks, and some history books Parker was kind enough to loan her so she could catch up with the world around her. 

The only other thing of significance I found, and didn’t realize was something she kept, was a journal. It was in the nightstand drawer, but it had been hidden under all the other books she had collected. 

Inside, it was a list of notes she made about those she had become close with. 

1. Wanda is from Sokovia and she had a brother named Pietro whom she misses dearly.  2. Nat had a sister that’s on missions across seas and sees her every other month, but they keep in contact when able.  3. Bruce has 7 PhDs but has test anxiety.  4. Tony blast rock music that can be heard 3 levels above. (check songs to see if they spark anything…) 5. Bucky acts like Sam annoys him, but I secretly think they’re just as good of friends as he and Steve are. 6. Steve and Bucky grew up together and from what Nat said, “One looks for trouble the other follows cause he still sees Steve as a 90lb Brooklyn kid.” 7. Sam is from Louisanna and mentioned making a shrimp boil… (Still need to look that up...) 8. Bucky likes to prank Sam and Steve in small ways that they never figure out and it drives them slightly insane. 9. Spiderboy is incredibly smart but is also somehow very naive to the teasing he gets from everyone else.  10. Movie nights are something that everyone gets excited about and they all have very different tastes in movies to show me. So far, I've enjoyed the comedies the most. (Peter picked the movie Grown-ups and some of the things they do make no sense and are extremely goofy, but I think that's why I liked it...)

The list went on for about five pages of random things she discovered and felt were important to know about the team and sometimes even herself. 

But in the back, only found if you looked through each page of the small journal, was a list of things she wanted to try once she felt ready and was given the chance to. 

It didn’t feel right ripping the pages out for myself, or taking the journal and ruining it with my scribbles, so I copied the list in a notebook of my own and added some things I think she would have enjoyed if I was given the chance to show her. 

She only got about 24 things written that she wanted to experience in the real world. Most of which were simple things most take for granted having the choice to do any day. 

Right now I was looking at number seven;

7. Go to a coffee shop and try different drinks with cinnamon in them. Find a favorite, so I can eventually say, “I’ll have the usual,” like they do in the movies. 

It was hard to know what her favorite would have been, but I did the best I could. Eventually, I had a usual at the coffee shop I started the adventure on. 

“He’s back.” The barista whose head was in the pastry display shot up and smiled toward me. “It’s been a minute since we’ve seen you. Life or work in the way this time?” 

“What’s the difference?” I responded though it came across a little more melancholy than I meant. 

Luckily, Trudy, the shop owner, had become familiar with me enough to know it’s just how I talk. 

“Get him the usual, dear,” she said to the worker at the front as she wrapped a muffin and handed it to a customer waiting on the side. 

When the worker just looked at her wide-eyed and freaked out, Trudy laughed to herself and pointed her to another task. 

“Forgot she’s only been here for 2 days,” Trudy’s New York accent was strong as she typed in my regular order. “So. Any big bad guys in the world I should be worryin’ about or do you have it handled?” 

“Nothing for you to worry about, Trud,” I smiled as she grabbed a cup and wrote one of her new names for me on it. She was clever with what she could come up with depending on the day. “Sorry, I haven’t been in. I was sent overseas for a bit the last few weeks.”

“You haven’t come in a month,” she said with a raised motherly eyebrow. 

“Hate to break it to ya, but there are bad guys I have to take care of over here too. They keep me just as busy sometimes,” I chuckled, moving out of the way in case someone else needed to order. 

“Yeah, yeah,” she groaned, grabbing a pastry and wrapping it up for me. “I made a new recipe from my Italian side of the family. Give it a try,” she stuck a sticker on it to seal the bag and came around the counter to give it to me. “Tell me how you like it.” 

“How much?” I went on to grab cash knowing she likely wouldn’t let me pay anyway. 

“Cost ya a review on Yelp,” she pushed it on me more. “I had someone come in the other day and try and cheat the system to get free stuff, and when I wouldn’t budge she lowered my rating on the damn website.”

“I don’t think one bad rating will hurt ya, Trud,” I sighed, taking it and putting the cash in the tip jar instead.

“Eh, I like to counter it with a good one where I can. Plus, I’m running out of fake emails to do it myself. Help a gal out.” 

I laughed knowing she may have been a small hole-in-the-wall business, but she got enough foot traffic to keep her afloat even if she joked about going under if I didn’t give her reviews and tell my friends about it. 

Before I could give her peace of mind knowing I’d help in any way she asked me, the bell rang as another customer came in. 

I looked back absentmindedly and saw a woman with her head down while she talked on the phone, but was kind enough to go to the side and finish her conversation before walking to the register. 

“That drink ready?” Trudy shouted to the back and just in time a barista walked out with the cup of my “usual” drink and handed it off. “I’ll be seeing ya sometime soon, right?” She withheld the coffee until I confirmed. 

“Tomorrow,” I promised knowing I had one thing planned and I knew it wouldn’t be interrupted. 

“Good. Have a good one, Boomer,” she winked and I looked to see the name matched on the cup. 

“What does that mean?” I raised an eyebrow. 

“Something the kids are calling old people like you and me,” she shrugged. “Figured if I was going to be called it, you should too.” 

I rolled my eyes playfully before giving a final goodbye and heading toward the doors. The woman that had come in was hanging up the phone and happened to look up at the same time I passed. 

She had soft eyes and smiled up at me in a polite way before sidestepping and moving to the counter. 

I couldn’t help but stop with my hand on the door handle as I looked at her trying to grasp who she reminded me of. 

She had kind features and her light smile was what made me do a double take. I may have imagined it, but something about her beamed at me in a way that I couldn't shake.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when someone else tried to come in and I quickly opened the door for them and moved out of the way. But I looked in the shop one more time seeing Trudy smiling back at the woman and sharing a similar banter she had with me. 

I honed in my hearing some and caught the middle of the conversation. 

“I would ask if you want your normal order, but it’s been so long I’m not sure if it’s the same,” Trudy teased. 

“The move has been great. Thanks for asking Trudy,” the woman remarked with a laugh. 

It would become creepy pretty quickly with me just staring and eavesdropping in the doorway, so I moved on even if I was intrigued to hear the rest of this conversation. 

I took my time walking to my car since the woman’s face was sticking in my mind. Something seemed oddly familiar of her, but I couldn’t put a finger on what it was. 

________________________

“Hey, I was looking for you!” Sam’s voice sounded as soon as I walked into the kitchen. 

“I’d rather you weren’t,” I said back, going to the trash to throw my cardboard cup away and grab a snack from the fridge. 

“Hardy, har, har,” Sam responded. “But really. I need help with a file I can’t access.” 

“Maybe you can’t access it for a reason,” I gave a smug smile to him as I shut the fridge and took a bite out of the apple I stole from it. 

“You're really channeling that clown energy as Parker would say today, aren't you?” he gave me a straight face before pulling papers I hadn’t noticed beforehand and passed them to me. “It’s just some notes on a mission we did last week, but I need to tweak some things. For some reason, the file isn’t giving me access so I was going to ask if I can go through your account.”

“Have Tony look at your account. Maybe the clearance level got mixed up. He had a new protection server put in the other week and a few accounts were tweaked.” 

“Well, he's not in his lab.”

“Ok,” I dragged out. “Sounds like a personal problem.” 

“Barnes, just let me on your account for two seconds to fix it and then I’ll go and find him. It won’t take me longer than five minutes,” Sam groaned. 

I could continue to give him a hard time, but I needed to get some things ready for tomorrow and wasn’t in the mood to keep up my normal antics. 

“Fine. Where’s your computer?” I huffed, biting into the apple again and waiting for him to bring it to me. 

He smiled like he won, even though I could still say no if I wanted, and grabbed the laptop on the counter and handed it off to me. 

I logged in like normal and went to the file, but was stopped when I came to the same problem he had. 

“What the hell?” I glared at the screen and tried a few more tricks but this new protective program Tony had installed was foreign to me. 

“Damn it,” Sam crossed his arms and sighed. “You’re the third person now. Why won’t it let me see this damn file?” 

I looked at him waiting for him to explain. 

“I asked Nat and Wanda too. No luck,” he shrugged. 

That was strange. It was a file from the mission we had done last week. A thief that had been stealing intel from some division in the SHEILD operations over some classified information, but we had captured and incarcerated the hacker. 

“Friday,” I asked into the void and her voice followed. 

“How can I help, Sargent Barnes?” 

“Why aren’t we able to get into these files?” 

There was a pause as she tried to find the answer. 

“It seems to be in a classification you don’t have access to. Clearance levels are not high enough. Would you like me to call Mr. Stark?”

Sam and I shared a look that showed we were on the same page. There were very few things we didn't have access to, so the system was screwed or not modified after the update. At least that was to hoping it was something that simple.

“No. Where’s Tony at?” I asked instead. 

“He’s headed to the lobby. He has an appointment with Ms. Clark.” 

The name didn’t sound familiar, though there were a lot of people Stark talked to that I never cared to learn about. He was the face of the team anyway, so luckily he handled a majority of the social aspects of our job. 

“Thanks, Friday,” I nodded my head to the exit. 

Sam nodded in agreement and we made our way to the lobby to find him. 

It wasn’t a portion of the compound we were usually in, so seeing people in business suits coming and going always reminded me of the mass amount of workers who never did fieldwork that came and went. 

“Stark,” I shouted once I spotted him at one of the reception desks talking with the secretary that was handing him papers she had just printed. 

He turned at his name and looked at us both confused as to why we would be there. 

“Got a question for ya,” Sam started out. 

“Can it wait? I have a meeting with someone I actually like,” he said sarcastically. 

Before I had the chance to spit something back at him and give him a taste of his own medicine, Sam took over. 

“I need access to a file of the mission report we just came back from, but it’s not allowing me to get to it,” he summed up. 

“Strange,” Tony hummed, looking at the papers he was previously handed as if our issue was nothing for him to worry about. 

“It won’t let me through either,” I said and he eventually looked up rolling his eyes before putting the papers on the counter and giving us his attention finally. 

“Can this wait like 20 minutes?” he asked. 

“It might be because of your new and overly complicated-” I started and once again, Sam saved me from saying something that would probably have Tony ignoring us the rest of the week if I wasn't careful. 

“We’ll wait,” Sam nodded. “We’ll be over there.” 

He pointed to a few chairs off to the side and nodded his head for me to follow. Though I was against the motion, I obliged to not make matters more annoying. I’d give him 20 minutes, but I was just as intrigued by this issue as Sam was now. 

Tony went back to the secretary and grabbed the papers looking through them before grabbing a pen and sloppily marking random things out before handing it back. 

Just as he turned back, he seemed to have spotted who he was looking for to begin with and I followed his eyeline. 

Walking in and looking around marveling at the size of the place before seeing Tony and smiling at him, was the same woman who I had seen at the coffee shop. The same one who was talking to Trudy about a move. 

I must have been staring while she and Tony met in the middle and started casually conversing. She reached into the tote she was carrying and handed Tony what looked like a sweater and a folder, but he only took the piece of clothing leaving her with just the folder still in hand.

My stare must have been unmoving cause Sam nudged me with his shoulder and gave me a weird look when I broke out of my trance. 

“What are you gawking at?” he asked, looking where I was and raising his eyebrows. “Oh, I see.” 

I furrowed my eyebrows and gave him a disapproving look to show his mind wasn’t in the right place. 

“Shut up,” I grunted, slouching some in my spot, but only to show disinterest in an attempt to push him off my case. 

“No, I get it. She’s a pretty lady,” Sam chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning back in his own seat. “Just didn’t see you looking for something like that anytime soon-”

“Don’t get any ideas,” I cut him off. “I saw her at a coffee shop earlier today and she just looked familiar. That’s it.” 

He looked from me back at the girl and turned his head as he analyzed her. 

She was smiling at something Stark was saying and shaking her head about whatever it was he was grinning about. I wasn’t sure what the conversation could even be about, and with the loud echoing space, I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was being shared. 

“I have an idea,” Sam spoke up after a second and stood up without any hesitance, and walked towards the two. 

“Sam, wait! Stop! What are you doing?” I whisper shouted sitting up and looking around as if someone else was in on this idea with him. 

When he didn’t turn back or let up in his steps, I was quickly on my feet trying to get ahead of him to stop him, but he was walking faster causing us to interrupt the two abruptly and throw them both off. 

“Hi,” Sam smiled kindly at her then back at Stark. 

“I told you I would help you after I talked with-,” Tony started, but Sam patted his shoulder and made him pause. 

“Sam Wilson,” he went on to introduce himself while putting his other hand out for her.  

The woman seemed surprised by the introduction, but she was kind nonetheless and extended her own hand before introducing herself. 

“Y/N Clark,” she smiled. “Nice to meet you.” 

Sam turned to me and she followed his look. I wasn’t prepared to talk to her, but I wasn’t going to be rude and just sit there silently and stare at her. 

I extended my hand as well and she smiled at the motion. 

“James Barnes,” I gave a tight smile, but it wasn’t because of her, it was because I was seconds from punching Sam right in the chest for putting me in this position. 

“Mr. Barnes. Nice to meet you,” she nodded, returning the handshake and it was surprisingly firm. 

I would have paid mind to the detail, but now being in close proximity to the woman, I was seeing features that I hadn’t taken in before. 

She had Y/H/C hair, Y/E/C eyes, and her smile was one I had seen before. She was wearing a bright red checkered winter coat that sat on top of a tan sweater tucked into a nice pair of brown slacks. It seemed fitting for her even if I hadn’t known anything about her. But something in her persona showed she was kind and had a welcoming nature. 

Tony rolled his eyes once again and decided to go ahead and introduce us. 

“Cyborge and Birdman, this is Ms. Clark. She’s Morgan’s teacher. Ms. Clark, these are two of my most impatient coworkers,” Tony motioned to us. “Who I asked to give me a second before I talked with them…” The glare he was giving us pulled me away from staring at her longer than what would have been socially acceptable. 

“Thank this one for the interruption,” I shouldered Sam harshly which he became slightly unbalanced from and gave me another glare. 

“Just seemed rude to not introduce your colleagues,” Sam gritted through his teeth, talking to me when the comment was directed to Tony. 

“It’s fine,” Ms. Clark spoke up, breaking the growing tension between us three, and I immediately turned my attention back to her. “I was here to just drop off these two things anyway.” 

“Yeah, well, I had a few things I wanted to discuss without,” Tony continued, only taking a second in between to send us yet another death stare, “this interruption.” 

“I appreciate what you’re offering, but I’ve already told you I have a job set with another district after this year,” she smiled professionally, and I couldn’t help but smile myself at seeing someone say no to Tony. 

“Yeah, but… Money.” His eat-shit grin worked on the weak-minded, but clearly, she was not that. 

“Money is great and all, but it's not what this is about, Mr. Stark,” she chuckled, readjusting her tote on her shoulder. "Maybe after winter break and I get some paperwork back from the new school I'll be at, we will better understand what I'll have on my plate."

“That sounds like a well-worded way to put this conversation off,” Tony smirked. 

She returned it which proved he was right, but she wasn’t falling for his schemes still. 

“It’s Christmas break, Mr. Stark. Have a great vacation with your family and happy holidays,” she nodded, turning to walk out, but not completely turned away. “You two as well. I hope the world is kind enough to give you all a break as you deserve during this time.” 

“If I know anything about teaching, I know you’ll be needing a break just as much,” Sam shouted in her direction with a smile. 

She laughed at that and it was a sound that made it hard not to smile as a reaction to it. 

“Happy Holidays,” she said one final time, waving kindly and moving to the exit. 

“Well, she seems nice,” Sam grinned in a teasing manner and turned to face us both by taking her place. 

“This is why I haven’t brought her around here,” Tony sighed heavily and ran a hand through his beard. “Now, what do you two want?” 

Sam followed quickly after Tony, who was already walking back to the lab, but I couldn’t seem to pull my eyes from the red checkered jacket that was out the doors now and walking down the steps. 

It was another feeling that I couldn’t quite put into words…

I unfortunately don't have a release date for the next chapter as I am going to stick to my promise of finishing the series before I post any further. This is just to give an idea of what's to come! As always, any likes or reblogs, and comments (even if just a heart or a gif) makes my blood, sweat, and tears for this series feel validated :') ANYWHO!! I'm excited to share with you all the stories to come with this series and these characters because in writing them, I've fallen in love with them myself.

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[thevalleyisjolly]

A lot of fan depictions of Elrond often depict him as primarily culturally Noldorin, which is understandable.  He was an important figure in Gil-Galad’s court, to the extent that he was appointed his vice regent if you go by Unfinished Tales, and he was one of the bearers of three Elven rings.  Periodically there will be some meta or fic which dives into his connection to the Mortal side of his heritage, but most depictions frame him as culturally one of the Noldor.

What I’ve never really seen (although I’ve admittedly been on hiatus for a few years) is much talk about the implications of Elrond being regularly depicted as culturally Noldorin, which is often attributed to the influence of Maglor and Maedhros.  I think that’s a pretty logical assumption to make, but it’s also quite a horrifying and sad one if you deconstruct it.

Because Elrond and Elros are sons of Elwing, and a significant portion of their heritage is from Doriath.  Not only that, but they and their mother were the last survivors of their entire family by the end of the First Age, something that was almost entirely the fault of the Fëanorians.  And then the Fëanorians came and slaughtered their people again, kidnapped them, and Maglor at least raised them for a while.

So the implications of saying that Elrond culturally identifies with the Noldor because of Maglor’s upbringing becomes that much more horrific because it also (unintentionally) says, “his family and entire people (the Sindar of Doriath) were attacked and murdered en masse twice, and the murderers kidnapped him and his brother as young children and raised them in their (the murderers’) own culture such that as adults, at least one of them continued to identify with that culture before any of the other lineages and history that should also have been his by family, by upbringing, and by right.”

And it’s not that you can’t enjoy Noldor!Elrond, but it’s just odd that you seldom see any approaches to Noldor!Elrond which acknowledge the inherent fucked-up-ness of why he would be culturally Noldorin.  There are so many avenues you could take it down too.  Maybe Elrond reclaiming Noldorin culture for himself in a positive way, discovering the non-Fëanorian experiences and histories and choosing them for himself, or even coming to terms with Fëanorian expressions of Noldor culture.  Maybe Elrond having a difficult time processing his relationship with his heritage, caught between the culture he was raised in and the other cultures that he never got a chance to grow up with.  Maybe Elrond working through various conflicting feelings at different stages in his life, because there are no such things as easy answers or “right” ways to feel when you grow up forcibly disconnected from your family and culture.

I personally like and headcanon an Elrond who identifies a great deal with his Sindarin heritage and who makes an effort to reconnect to that part of his family history.  I think there’s some textual support for it, such as in FOTR in “The Council of Elrond” when he briefly summarizes his genealogy and he puts a great deal more emphasis on his descent from Lúthien through his mother Elwing than he does on his patrilineal descent through Eärendil.  But that’s also a personal preference - as always in fandom, you do you. 

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with seeing Elrond as culturally Noldorin.  It’s a very common perception of the character and even if it didn’t have textual basis, everyone’s still entitled to enjoy their own readings of the character.  I just think there’s often a missing dimension when we talk about Elrond’s relationship to culture (whichever one you believe he identifies with most), which has its foundations in and cannot be extricated from the trauma of the Third Kinslaying, no matter what love grew afterwards. 

[pretty-idol-hell]

Interesting update to Idol Land today, 4/17/2024. There were some things I expected, and some things I did not expect.

Gaaruru has been added to Idol Land as promised. You can also currently play an open promise with her and Amari doing Go Go! PriPara Live.

Prism Stone Shop has been updated as well...

A lot of old MRs are back! Some Gaaruru stuff! Some Shuka stuff for some reason! Some coords that were only in the premium shop before!

But nothing new?

You could argue that they are re-releasing old coords because the game has a lot of new players recently, from people who discovered the anime to people who turned to Idol Land after the arcade game shut down. I mean, you could argue that. But.

But I just think they are out of coords.

I also find it very strange that they did not re-release Gaaruru's SCR even though they released it before? Did they forget? Or is it coming next week? (Well, that's 3,200 yen I don't have to spend I guess...)

Pop over to the Gatcha to find that...

Gaaruru actually has a birthday gatcha!? I already made another post about this, but the PPR is actually her newest witch team PPR despite not being advertised and her actual birthday coord is an SR. Bizarre.

But also...

The original Evergold gatcha is back too?

Now. You could argue that these revival gatchas make more money than when they first came out because people regret missing out on them and feel more confident spending money now that we can recover our accounts. You could argue that.

But I just think they are out of coords.

Gaaruru gets a birthday promise too! She's the only character to get both a gatcha and a promise! But the promise just has the Gaaruru school coord everyone already has. Why they previewed that and not her actual birthday coord, I do not know...

But, I've saved the most exciting updates for last...

Double Pasharing was added! With two poses: Double heart, and violation ticket... I will make a separate post about this I think! But the new poses are selectable when you host a photo promise.

I believe this feature was teased from the very beginning so I'm confused as to why they waited so long to add it.

Perhaps it was the only thing they had partially developed laying around that they could add.

Also, at long last...

Like many other games, you can now connect Idol Land to your Apple, Google, or LINE account to recover it! So, no more creating a password every 30 days! (Although I probably still will just to be extra safe!)

I will update and reblog my pinned post about this!

And, finally...

When starting up Idol Land today, I noticed it asked me for the first time if I wanted to receive notifications. So, after all this time, the Idol Land app will finally send notifications.

These two features above are very basic and should have been available Day 1.

To think they did not consider if people are reminded about the app and able to recover their accounts, they might want to play more.

*sigh*

[santacoppelia]

Heaven and Hell strike! (a "crack" meta?)

I was reviewing my notes to write some things I like about Shax (they are organized by themes) but I came across this idea first and it tickled my brain (probably because I just watched Neil's speech at the WGA Strike picket line). (BTW, great message, go watch it!!)

We know some interesting things about the awful work circumstances at Hell. We can "ignore" them (it is Hell, after all), but what if we check out what is happening with Hell's workforce?

The place is dreadful. We know, it is Hell, that's how it is supposed to be.

There is a whole lot of bureaucracy. I would say that it is specifically because bureaucracy IS Hell, but this is also me being me.

Everyone is overworked. Again, maybe it is just the thing with Hell, but...

They are understaffed. Furfur let's us know that as soon as Shax asks him for a legion. This would be obvious for Admissions during WW II, but when the bookshop siege happens, they barely manage to get 70 demons. Why?????

Beelzebub talks a lot about Hell not "appreciating talents". They say it when they talk about Crowley, then again while they lament with the other demon, and that's one of the things that connects them to Gabriel.

This was also one of the points made by Furfur when he talked about trying to "climb the ladder". He lashed to Crowley about this (as if getting a better job was Crowley's fault), but... (put a pin on this)

Shax possible new Dukedom and Beelzebub offering Crowley the possibility of becoming a "new Duke of Hell" talks to me about some sort of power vacuum (it goes without mention that promotions are given at personal discretion, not through real merit).

However, Heaven doesn't seem like they are in great shape, also...

They are trying to hide their "institutional problems" (at least, two defectors, but we should also count the renegade-now-Supreme-Archangel as part of the problem)

The corporate climate in the higher levels of Heaven is HIDEOUS. They are mostly petty, envious, create rumors and love power struggles...

Michael (my personal hate character) is at the same time so power hungry and so clueless about anything, that they are incapable of taking action (thanks, someone)

After not even knowing if Gabriel really had a desk, Michael gets a desk, while being "Duty Officer" and making everyone roll their eyes with their orders. They got that desk out of pure pettiness!

We know that "lesser angels" are mostly ignored. If you are an angel like Muriel, nobody ever acknowledges your existence. We have already seen how happy they are just by participating!! (they don't even notice being called "dim", poor baby)

Gabriel bonds with Beelz around not being recognized for what they do, and Beelz win their (cold, little) heart WITH A FLY because nobody has given him anything before… Not even a little pat in the head?

We have already seen TWO cases where an angel and a demon discover, through familiarity and shared worries/complaints, that they have so much in common that they are better together. We are crackshipping a third one.

The pin about Furfur (which I had forgotten) is that the problem is not Crowley, and the problem are not the people inside the system who learn how to play it: THE PROBLEM IS THE SYSTEM ITSELF.

Now, the point:

Something something about unappreciated people coming together as soon as they learn there’s better to be had. Can you imagine that much fun???!!!??? Bring Pandemonium!!