#Physics/Space/Nature/Humans/History

[dark-corner-cunning]

Honoring the Spirits of Home: Creating Sacred Spaces for the Unseen

Welcome back, Seekers! Within my local coven, we are journeying through the mysteries of Spirit until Winter Solstice. Today, I introduced the art of crafting Spirit Houses, and I thought it would be fitting to share a bit of that here. I like to keep these crafty posts simple and open-ended, leaving space for the practitioner to add their own touch. The best magick often arises from just diving in and letting your intuition guide the way. May this inspire you to connect, create, and explore! 🌙✨

As witches, we work with spirits every day, whether we realize it or not. Our homes, like ourselves, are steeped in the spirit world, alive with layers of unseen inhabitants that have their own roles, wisdom, and stories to tell. For many of us, it’s a quiet understanding that a witch’s home should be haunted—not in the fearful sense, but filled with life that pulses in harmony with our craft. From ancestral guides and house spirits, to the land’s ancient beings, these entities weave themselves into the very fabric of our spaces, enriching them with energy and presence.

Regardless of whether a home is newly built or weathered by decades, each dwelling becomes imbued with spirit. There’s an existing ecosystem of energies that connect to the land itself, the history of the area, and the layers of life that once lived or passed through. These spirits, sometimes subtle, sometimes profound, thrive within the space we call home, coexisting with us and enhancing our magick. But it is up to us to nurture a balanced and harmonious relationship with them.

Why Connect with the Spirits of Your Home?

Developing a deep, reciprocal relationship with the spirits of your home doesn’t just benefit your craft; it offers blessings for everyone under your roof. When these spirits feel acknowledged and respected, they offer protection, lend strength to your magickal workings, and create an atmosphere of peace and nourishment. A home can truly feel like a sanctuary when the spirits that dwell within it are in harmony with those who reside there in the flesh. This connection turns your space into an anchor—a place of personal power, healing, and resilience.

Building Friendships with Spirit

Nurturing relationships with spirits requires time, care, and a commitment to reciprocity. Just as with human friendships, there is a cycle of giving and receiving. Spirits respond to sincere attention and intention, as well as the gifts and gestures we offer them. One meaningful way to foster this connection is by creating a spirit house or a dedicated space where spirits can feel welcomed and honored.

A spirit house is both a physical symbol and a spiritual anchor. It becomes a place where offerings can be left, and it serves as a gateway for interaction with the spirit world in a respectful and clear manner. It’s a way of saying, “You are welcome here, I honor your presence, and I seek your guidance and protection.”

Creating Your Spirit House

Designing a spirit house is a creative, personal process. It need not be elaborate; sometimes, the simplest gestures carry the deepest respect. You may choose a small altar, a shelf, or even a discreet box placed in a peaceful corner of your home. Consider using natural materials—wood, clay, or stone—as they tend to resonate well with spirits of place. Personalize it with items like stones from your land, soil, dried herbs, or even water from a local stream. Each addition builds a bridge between your energy and the spirits you invite into your home.

When crafting your spirit house, remember that offerings and gifts can strengthen this relationship over time. Spirits, like friends, appreciate time, energy, love, and tokens of appreciation. Remember, spirits are aware of intention as much as they are of the physical offering, so approach this creative expression with reverence and sincerity.

For my spirit house, I’ve chosen to weave in unsea, or “old man’s beard,” gathered lovingly from my mother tree, a sacred link to the ancient and wise energies of the land. I've placed birds within the space, their forms standing as messengers and symbols of spirit, guiding and connecting with the unseen. Mushrooms, too, find their place here, embodying my bond with the natural world—grounded yet reaching into hidden realms. They carry the magick of spiritual growth, reminding me of the mystery and connection to realms beyond. Each piece breathes life into the space, deepening my relationship with the spirits I honor… and I placed a bell at the entrance, placed with the hope of hearing it softly chime as the spirits pass through.

[fire-of-the-sun]

NOCTIS' TRANSFORMATION ANALYSIS

"We carefully considered the path of Noct's life and sought a design that would convey his humanity with with the passage of time. I asked Naora-san to look at him as a real person and to depict his aging with realism rather than symbolism." - Hajime Tabata

The decision to age Noctis up from a 20 to 30-year-old not only enhances Final Fantasy XV's coming-of-age story of a young, unprepared prince transforming into a fully matured king, but also offers a unique insight into the choices made behind the external, physical changes intended to reflect said internal development. I've seen a lot of conversation about his altered appearance ranging from approval to confusion to downright rejection. So, as someone who enjoys analyzing faces and character design, I'd like to explore this change in depth. How did Noctis go from the stereotypical clean-shaven, spiky haired anime pretty boy to a rugged, masculine man? Were the changes too bold? Does he even still look like the same person? And what does his evolution say about other men in the Final Fantasy franchise?

FACE SHAPE

Noctis' face is symmetrical and well balanced with nearly equal thirds, the lower third of which increases slightly in length at 30. I drew over his jawlines as best I could manage as his hair is in the way on both and older Noctis' face is angled slightly downward, making these guidelines less accurate to compare but, even at a glance, it's not hard to see that his face and chin do widen at 30 to accommodate a squarer jawline.

It's normal for many men's jawlines to develop a little as they age but it typically emerges during puberty. At 20 years old, Noctis should probably already have the jawline he has at 30 or close to it. Of course, a jawline can be strengthened through various means but, unless Noctis was mewing in that Crystal for a decade, this change doesn't make a lot of sense to me, which makes it more of a stylistic choice to emphasize his older age and to add a notable dose of masculinity which naturally takes a step away from the younger, more 'feminine' appearing traditional Final Fantasy face type. Compare young Noctis or Cloud's face to someone like Lightning: the overall shape isn't too different and certainly a staple of the franchise regardless of gender.

EYES

(For the sake of better comparison, I've edited 30-year-old Noctis to have his natural blue eyes)

I've seen complaints that the change in Noctis' eyes makes him look less Asian. He is biracial, of course, and his features aren't and shouldn't be considered fully Asian, but I believe the reason behind this criticism is that, in the effort to contract and narrow his eyes to be more realistic at 30, his epicanthic fold is less visually obvious as his lacrimal caruncle are enlarged, which inadvertently makes his eyes look comparatively less Asian. This change serves to shrink his eyeball while taking up the same margins on his face with the length and even eye slant all remaining identical as far as I can tell, as is the overall shape and space between the eyes.

Noctis does maintain the same basic eye shape from childhood to adulthood, it just narrows as he ages which is completely normal. Despite the particular tastes of the Final Fantasy franchise, having larger eyes to depict youth is very common in animation of any kind with children bearing especially large eyes that shrink as they age. This was no doubt the intention here as well to depict Noctis' relative adolescence at 20 and continue to embrace their stylistic history of other Final Fantasy games.

I also want to note that his eyelashes are less thick and prominent at 30, which acts as yet another change for realism and a step towards a more masculine appearance.

NOSE

(Consult the previous images)

For many faces, the edge of the nose typically lines up with the inner corner of the eye which they finally do for Noctis at 30. As I've already stated, the margins of his eyes did not change, which means the alteration in nose size to be accurate to realistic proportions where it wasn't before contradicts the stylistic choice to purposefully give him a smaller, slimmer nose at 20. Also, though I don't have a comparison shot of his profile at both ages, his nose obviously not only increases in width but also length at 30 to match his altered proportions.

EYEBROWS

Where some changes are more subtle and feel like logical extensions of what came before, one of the more striking differences between 20 and 30 is Noctis' eyebrows as he loses the thin, manicured brows of youth and gains, well, more natural looking male eyebrows. I will point out that they appear lower on his face at 30 because he's tilted slightly downward and bears a more intense expression than the neutral pose at 20 which makes the exact angle a little harder to compare here but, that being said, I do believe they sit slightly lower on his face at 30 in general. Though they sit at essentially the same angle, the overall shape has changed a bit. Not only do they become thicker, they also frame the eyes more along the browbone which is very different than the sharp, nearly straight line of the brows in his youth.

Choosing to change his eyebrows so significantly is an interesting choice and perhaps one made not only to be more realistic and less like Final Fantasy characters of the past, but also to look more like his father as was part of their intention with his older appearance.

It doesn't necessarily feel like a choice borne purely from age either as Prompto and Ignis maintain their previous, thin eyebrows even in their 30s (as well as most of their other features). Instead, this alteration (among others) feels more in line with Gladio who, as the most traditionally masculine member of the group, similarly boasts thicker brows, a squarer jaw and facial hair, further proving that this is the direction they wanted to take Noctis as well.

LIPS

There's not much to say about his lips as they remain the same shape and are only lengthened a little. Typically, the outer corners of our lips correspond to near the center of the eye but, as his eye margins have not changed, the slight lengthening of his lips is yet another adherence to realism to better fit his adjusted features and widened face.

EARS

(Consult previous images)

Ears typically line up with the top of the eyebrow and the bottom of the nose and, though his photo at 30 is tilted more downward and this naturally changes the angle of his ears and makes them appear higher on his face, they seem to be proportional at both ages. That being said, based on these images alone, they do seem to change shape to me with the outer helix appearing to stick out farther at the top and taper in slightly towards his lobe at 30 whereas his younger ears appear narrower at the top, rounder overall and widest towards the middle. Our ears can change shape and size as we age, of course, I'm just not sure there would be a noticeable difference after only a decade, and they could have potentially been left unchanged in my opinion.

HAIR

"From their [characters] hairstyles and clothing as children to the expressions and posture they develop as adults, their individual traits and the way they change over the years all inform the looks we created." - Yusuke Naora

I think it's important to note that Noctis maintains the same basic hairstyle for the majority of his life from a child into his teens and early adulthood, which feels indicative to me of how it's meant to convey that he hasn't truly grown up yet. The abandonment of this style for the first time in his life at 30 reflects great inward change: letting go of the boy he used to be and becoming a new man.

Though his two hair styles seem vastly different at first glance, I love that the foundation of the first is easily identifiable in the second. The boyish bangs and choppiness at 20 help to emphasize his youth - an element that is largely abandoned at 30 in an effort to help him appear more mature as he adopts a rugged, unmanicured style that enhances his newfound regality. The formerly long and well-maintained face frame has been shortened slightly with loose strands left to fall randomly rather than sustaining a clean sweep over his cheeks. Where the bangs have gone, a few errant strands remain to fall across the left side of his face - a vestige of what once dominated the area (and a similar feature to Ardyn as well). The vertical, gravity-defying spikes at the top of his head have been abandoned entirely and left to join the cascade of hair falling down his neck at greater length and the spikes at the sides of his head have also been left to curl softly over his ears. The results feel inevitable for a man who has left his hair mostly untouched for a decade (with some tidying up) and a natural extension of what came before.

While we're discussing hair, I also want to address Noctis' beard. Love it or hate it, it certainly aids in helping him appear much older and kinglier (a direct reference to his father) and also acts as further evidence of his Asian ancestry as the texture and lay of the beard hair is noticeably different than that of his father's, Gladio's and the other White men around him.

SKIN

Barring the fact that older Noctis in this image (and throughout most of that chapter of the game) is usually very dirty with a face marred by sweat and grime, his skin tone is also noticeably warmer. I'm not sure why this change was implemented and allowed him to go from a paler skinned youth to a warmer skinned man (especially not having been touched by sunlight in a decade), but perhaps it's a result of his new power and another step toward realism as there may be a tendency to have Final Fantasy protagonists be paler skinned in general as a stylistic choice?

It also goes without saying that Noctis was given a few small moles at various places on his face to give him more realistic skin and not a flawless, porcelain doll look.

AGING

"We didn't just add typical aging details, but also referenced images of war veterans and actors to find the 'sublime' characteristics, from single wrinkles to hair tips that could express the magnitude of Noct's fate and life experiences. Also, in keeping with the father and son theme, we made it so you can see Regis in Noct's face, with features such as the beard bearing his essence." - Yusuke Noara

I believe the main narratively validated reason Noctis' appearance receives such a drastic change over the course of 10 years while his companions were barely altered, is no doubt attributed to his unique aging from the power he now possesses due to his time in the Crystal. We know that simply wearing the Ring of the Lucii has a physical cost even for those meant to wield it as it can scar and age prematurely. This led to Regis aging rapidly due to his overextension of power upholding the wall, looking arguably older than he should at just 50 years of age. It's also a marked leap from how he looked just 12 years prior. His black hair had been bleached to grey and his body composition clearly waned given his difficulty with mobility.

Having been imbued with such immense power for so long, it's no surprise that Noctis has also aged at an abnormal rate, perhaps biologically looking closer to 40 rather than 30, I dare say, just as his father appeared older than his actual age. This aging, of course, led to all the altered features discussed above as well as more visible fine lines under his eyes and slightly greyer hair, the latter of which is harder to notice in the main game, but a clear distinction made in the hyper-stylized Pocket Edition.

BODY

I've seen some comments lamenting that Noctis' older face makes his head look a little too large for his body. Though I'm not entirely convinced his head was actually enlarged overall, it could appear that way given his widened jaw and possibly neck that inadvertently produced a sense of disparity as his body remains the same as it did at 20 - the only thing that didn't change about him over the time skip.

We know Noctis was essentially frozen in suspended animation inside the Crystal for 10 years and was ostensibly sustained without food or water due to its power. However, time still clearly passed for him as Noctis' mind has matured just as his face, but his 20-year-old body is left untouched. It obviously doesn't make sense for him to have gained any muscle without exercising all those years, but I'd argue that altering his body by increasing his muscle mass even just slightly could have avoided the complaint regarding his head size as it'd allow his new face to match better as well as continue to support him feeling older and at peak strength given the Crystal's immense power now surging through him. A mild change here could have made a big difference, but this is just what I would have done.

CLOTHING

Let's quickly address Noctis' evolution via clothing as what a character wears is just as important in reflecting their identity as their physical appearance. Dismissing the optional outfits you can choose to put him in, I'll be focusing mainly on his default 20 and 30-year-old clothes as these are what the creators intended to best suit him in their respective sections of the game. This leap in style is as seemingly vast as his physical changes and helps to emphasize his growth just as much as his face, albeit with some base elements that are maintained such as the continued adherence to all black clothing (of course) as well as the use of a jacket and collar.

Young Noctis' appearance from hair style to clothing is obviously very youthful and not overtly regal - at least not to the degree you'd expect from royalty. Noctis clothes feel modern and edgy adorned with skull motifs, resulting in a style that feels a bit rebellious and incongruent with his father's pristine, kingly wardrobe and even that of the immaculately clothed Luna, both of whom are characters he's meant to emulate to fulfill his destiny. In this section of the game, Noctis isn't particularly ready for the role, as his clothing helps to emphasize.

As a 30-year-old, Noctis abandons the clothes of his youth and adopts a simple but dignified suit, granting him a more regal, mature and capable appearance which helps to enhance those newfound qualities. Where his wardrobe stood out before, his suit now feels in line with what one would expect of someone in his position, albeit not entirely distinct as Lucian royalty beyond the color - that is perhaps best represented in the kingly raiment he wears towards the end that acts as a direct reflection of his father and further showcases his tremendous growth and acceptance of his title.

THE PROGRESSION OF FINAL FANTASY MEN

I'm no expert on all the titles in the Final Fantasy franchise so forgive me if I'm off about any of this, but, as far as I've noticed, male Final Fantasy protagonists tend to share a similar appearance: young, clean-shaven, stylized features, spiky/over-styled hair with thin, and rather effeminate brows. Think of Cloud as the poster boy of this look. 20-year-old Noctis fits squarely into this category, making his leap outside of it due to a significant time skip (and design choices) an interesting one to examine as this has never been done with a mainline male Final Fantasy protagonist before.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the latest protagonist, Clive (a character who also aged significantly in his game and ends up at 33), who stands out as a unique addition to this roster with his more obvious masculinity as depicted by his larger build and facial hair. Though still stylized to a degree in its own way, Clive and the direction of Final Fantasy 16 as a whole trend more realistic for the most part, avoiding the more typical stylization choices of previous titles and striking a new direction into more Western appealing territory as was the intention, but though he embodies these qualities to a more notable degree, he certainly wasn't the first attempt.

With a foot in both worlds, Noctis bridges the spectrum with his younger self being more in line with past characters like Cloud, and his older self acting as a prototype to pave the way for a protagonist like Clive. Time will tell if this series continues to lean into this new style choice and feature older, more traditionally masculine men or if we'll return to the classic, more overtly stylized, 'pretty boy' formula for its male protagonists. Regardless, Noctis' bold leap in age and appearance will always stand as a notable choice that helped pave the way into new territory for the Final Fantasy franchise.

CONCLUSION

As we've explored, Noctis' appearance changes drastically after the 10-year time skip. From his eyes, brows, nose, ears, hair and even skin tone, every feature on his head has been altered to some degree with the exception of his untouched body. Did he need to change that much, though? Honestly, probably not. As I surmised, most but not all of these changes felt entirely necessary or even logical based on the foundation of what came before but, rather, felt like choices borne of a new adherence to realism over past stylization in the case of his eyes, nose and lips specifically and a desire to masculinize him as evidenced by his rugged new beard, strong jawline and thick brows - all elements of which result in turning him into one of the most realistic looking protagonists in the entire franchise, in my opinion, even if the journey to get there arguably pushes the boundaries of normal age progression at times.

This departure from what came before was certainly a bold choice and not one that worked for everyone as I've seen some lament that such a dramatic change coupled with a sudden timeskip made him no longer feel like the same character, but I'd argue that change is also the point. By the end of the game, Noctis has grown and transformed in all the ways he needed and that's the purpose of the entire story and therefore a necessary choice in telling it. The creative decisions behind the changes are, of course, debatable. I for one really love the alterations and think the creators were successful in aging Noctis in a mostly realistic way that visually embraced his inner king by outwardly reflecting his father and also offering audiences a taste of something revolutionary for the brand.

These are just my thoughts. What do you think about Noctis' change in appearance and which age do you prefer?

Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed this, please reblog and/or like and check out my #ffmeta and #ffedit tag for more!

[theladybrownstarot]

ᴀʏᴜʀᴠᴇᴅᴀ - ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀꜱɪᴄꜱ

"Harmony in body, mind & spirit"

Namaste people! Brown here again , you must be wondering why am I making post on ayurevda- the science of life or the oldest healing methods ? Well perhaps to add more knowledge which is pratical , simple, helpful and best . As a healer myself I emphasis on self-healing through energy but alas many people don't know the deeper aspects and meaning of energy that flows within them hence allow me to connect with your innate human biological features or functions and give you the ways to build life long happiness and holistic well-being.

NOTE : This is for educational purpose only , I'm no professional in this field.

समदोषः समाग्निश्च समधातु मलक्रियाः | प्रसन्नात्मेन्द्रियमनः स्वस्थ इत्यभिधीयते|

When the doshas are balanced, the digestive fire is equal, the tissues are in equilibrium, and the excretory functions are regular; when the mind, senses, and self are happy, that is called health.

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆۶ৎ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆୨ৎ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

LEARNING - OBJECTIVES : Introduction to ayurevda, the three elements (dosh) of the body - their importance in our holistic well-being & relation with psychology - know which category you fall in personality wise .

WHAT IS AYURVEDA ?

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian system of medicine with a history spanning over 5,000 years. It's a holistic approach to health and well-being, focusing on balancing the body, mind, and spirit to prevent and treat diseases. The term "Ayurveda" means "knowledge of life" or "the science of life". It considers the individual as a whole, taking into account their physical, mental, and spiritual aspects. The diet and lifestyle is very intrisinc to it. The "father of Ayurveda" is widely regarded as Charak - who wrote charak-samhita . It came in first millennium BCE , this knowledge was transmitted from gods to sages than to the human physicians which came to be printed in sushruta-samhita - frame work of bharatiya or Hindu diety of Ayurveda ; Dhanvantri , who recarinated as king divodas to give this knowledge .

⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

WHAT ARE TRI-DOSH ?

In a human body, there are three dosh or the three elements (vatt , pitah, kapha) which are the combination of (space , air, water and earth)

Here is the detailed explanation and importance of each dosh :

ᯓ VATTA :

▪︎ It associated with your cognition and movement composed of space and air which governs your blinking, muscle and tissue movements , pulsation of heart , movements in cytoplasm and cell-membrane . It is responsible or the indicator of life in your body . It's made of space and air.

▪︎ when it is is balanced It promotes to flexibility and creativity , makes a person confident and sharp-minded .

▪︎ it's disbalance leads to nervousness, anxiety, panic, excessive thinking, disturbed sleep, dry or chapped skin, constipation, gas, bloating, hard stools, low body weight, and sensitivity to cold and wind.

ᯓ PITTAH

▪︎ It is associated with your metabolism, body temperature, assimilation , nutrition and digestion. It is made of fire and water .

▪︎ When it is balanced It promotes understanding, intelligence, balanced nature in a person which allows one to connect with other properly or we say socialising.

▪︎ when it's in disbalance it would lead to indigestion , poor assimilation, aggression , jealously and poor disbalance of nature in a person .

ᯓ KAPAH

▪︎ It's associated with your body structure, bones , muscles and tendons keeping them together by providing a glue to it. It's made of earth and water .

▪︎ A good moisturized skin is the result of good amount of kapah in body. The kapah gives water to other parts of the body keeping them alive and in a well state . It's balance leads a person to have good emotional intelligence - understanding else , love and having compassion , calmness and forgiveness .

▪︎ It's disbalance leads to materialism , greed and envy . The one feel unsatisfied and unfulfilled with themselves and their life.

The following information has been taken from various references with mix of my own explanation which will further share later .

[katakaluptastrophy]

The ships … the ships were still full of people. I reached our hand out into space. I extended. I struggled. He said, I bit through the sun first. It’s human nature. That started things going.

Imagine being on those ships (and remember, not everyone in those ships was a nefarious trillionaire) zooming away from earth.

Maybe you've watched mushroom clouds blossoming across the face of the earth as you pulled away, the lines of communication fizzing out and going dead.

Watched...something...happen to the earth. Watched the sun flare and then flicker out.

I sliced through Venus, Mercury, Mars … by that point a couple of the tugs had already launched through the Kuiper. I had to kill Jupiter and Saturn in a fucking hurry. I reached … they blinked away from me … all I could do was hope that they’d watched what I was doing and all died from fucking terror. You and I went full fucking Hungry Caterpillar. We took Uranus … Neptune … crunched down Pluto … found every satellite and craft, reached in, crunched up all the humans, moved on.

You try to make contact with the installations as you pass - the small city on Mars, the helium-3 capture facility at Jupiter, the mines on Saturn's moons, the skeleton crew constructing the shell on Uranus, the Kuiper platform. Maybe the comms are eerily quiet. Or perhaps, you make contact for just a moment, enough time to witness what happens when god doesn't kill people "clean".

As you speed away, the rings of the gas giants burst asunder and the planets seem to desaturate, the readings go haywire as their magnetic fields suddenly destabilise. And something, oh god, something seems to slip away from each one, some absolute acid trip of horror, like some kind of writhing, fleeing ghost.

The moment I found the fleet spinning up to enter FTL, it was too late … I could only grab one of them … and you and I held it in the palm of our hand. I was in there with them. All those frightened people. All those runaway rats.

And then something physically stops one of the ships. Alarms are going off, sparks are flying, lights are flickering, and there's a horrifying sense of presence (if John feeling Alecto's presence was unremitting screaming inside his head, what does the presence of the newly combined John and Alecto feel like? Because I don't think that invovles less eldritch psychic screaming, somehow).

And then you break free, and spin off into some kind of warp of time and space, with the knowledge that you are the last humans left alive in the universe and that something truly terrible lurks on the husk of the earth.

Imagine 5000 years of that tale being passed down through humanity (that's equivalent to the time that passed between the stone age and the present day), as civilisations rose and fell across planets and systems.

And then imagine, one day, being the ship that encountered something they'd never seen before. A ship, of an entirely unfamiliar design, bearing an unfamiliar symbol: a skull. The whole ship is covered in bones. Sleek, designed, inlaid bones. Human bones.

When they hail you, you see humans, but not like you've seen before. They're dressed in strange outfits: military uniforms and robes that look like something from a textbook of the most ancient history. They're carrying swords. Swords! Many of them seem starved and sickly, as if their bodies are consuming themselves. They speak of their empire and their god in strange, archaic words - an impossibly ancient language from the earth that was - of the resurrection of the dead, of the Lord over the River, of necromancy.

And you realise that however horrifying the tales of the earth's death in fire, there are things worse than death.

[melyndadwest-blog]

Guardian Deity Spirit Danny

"In the spiritual realm, there are specific steps a being can take to ascend to the status of a god, with certain restrictions defining what a god truly is. Typically, a deity emerges as a result of being worshipped by a group of people, their worship infusing them with divine energy and granting them godhood.

They can be born from an unconscious belief or concept, such as the worship of the moon or nature. Over time, this belief gains sentience and power through the devotion of their followers.

They possess spiritual powers and establish a cult, amassing considerable influence and strength.

They are born from another god.

They achieve godhood by defeating and absorbing the essence of a pre-existing god, embodying their concept.

This means that even if a being is incredibly powerful, like Clockwork, they must be worshipped by someone to attain godhood. So...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In the Infinite Realms, time operates differently than in the outside world. I believe that since the Realms exist beyond space and existence, serving as the cosmic glue holding the multiverse together, they remain separate from the flow of time.

So, my idea is this: Danny is already immensely powerful, as he embodies the balance between life and death. Because of his connection to Clockwork, this being occasionally sends him on time-traveling missions, perhaps for preparations related to kingship. As a result, he appears in various places throughout history, safeguarding people and cultures. Over the centuries and millennia, people begin to worship him, seeking blessings and offering sacrifices.

Usually, this would lead the Justice League to believe that he's simply a very old being. However, what if he truly is ancient?

As I mentioned earlier, a god's powers are derived from belief, and this belief gradually transforms the deity. Here's my take:

Batman might insist, "I know you're Danny Fenton," until a summons or a crisis causes Danny's godly side to surface. This aspect of him is truly ancient, as time doesn't flow conventionally in the Infinite Realms. Consequently, Danny could be three years old in terms of his death, yet also an ancient entity. Nonetheless, he remains physically too young to fully comprehend his true power and existence, resulting in considerable confusion.

Ultimately, there are two interpretations:

The Justice League ends up believing that Danny is either a) a vessel for a god, b) a sort of priest, or c) the physical incarnation of a bored god curious about experiencing humanity.

Ghosts do not treat him like a typical ghost child because, due to the nonlinear nature of time in the Zone, his core possesses the essence of an ancient being. The ghosts perceive him as the rebirth of balance, incarnated as a human to restore equilibrium.

Feel free to use this concept for any story or interpretation you find compelling."

[elbiotipo]

There is also a thing to be said about how oceans are not empty things, they're not impassable geographical barriers. Oceans are full of life, and not only wildlife, people work and live there (if you're a sailor, so much of your time is spent in the ocean that it becomes your home). Trade travels through the ocean. Natural resources are managed and mismanaged in the oceans. They have historical and cultural value. Like any other natural environment, the seas have been shaped and managed by human activity

When we talk about the Malvinas, we talk about islands, but we are also talking about a British (military, colonial) presence in the seas of Argentina and wider South America. They use it to project their power, their claims over Antarctica, their extraction and use of resources, just mere kilometres from the Argentine coast. It might as well be a British base in the middle of La Pampa or Río Negro (and there are actually some of them, compounds owned by British billionaries who don't let anyone in). Those islands are the most physical projection of British power over a continent they have long tried to subdue to their interests.

It's the same tactic the British use in their colonial possessions in the Indian Ocean (look up the history of the Chagos islanders), or the French and US in the Pacific (ever wondered where the word Bikini came from? Look it up.) People think islands are... Isolated. That they're just a tiny piece of land that cannot be connected to other things. Owning an island means owning the sea around it, and owning the sea never is a neutral thing, the fact that there are no cities on them does not mean it's empty space.

Think about this next time someone tries to tell you "it's just a couple islands with sheep, who cares"

[ugly-anarchist]

While yes intersex people can use intersex as their gender identity, that isn't what intersex is. Intersex is a natural biological variation that cannot be transitioned into or out of. It is a description of the natural state of our bodies. It is the same as me being autistic, white, and short. These are descriptions of things about me that I cannot change but are still important facets of my life as a human being. (Obviously some are more important than others)

(While the body can be changed, there are separate words for someone who willingly changes the natural state of their body, like altersex. Intersex people can also be altersex.)

On the other hand, gender identity and transness are personal identifiers that can be chosen. (And by chosen I mean that while you can't choose your gender you can choose the label you use for it) And it is also fluid and can change over time. Gender looks different for everyone and isn't based on any material thing that can be observed in the physical world. Gender is based more-so in what makes you happiest, and the most satisfied with your life. Gender is just as real as everything else I've mentioned, but it's just not a physical thing.

This is why transness is self determined and intersexuality is not.

Trans and cis are adjectives that describe a person's experience with their gender. A trans man/woman is just a man/woman who has a different experience with their gender than cis people do.

But if a person exists who is rejected by both cis and trans people, then what are they? What are they supposed to do? How are they supposed to identify? Cis and trans as labels were not designed with intersex people in mind and often do not fit our experiences, but we're forced to use this binary because perisex trans people insist that you must be one if you're not the other.

But, trans people also insist that being intersex is inherently trans. Any deviation from the sex binary is seen as trans. Intersex history is seen as trans history, intersex animals are called biologically trans, and intersex experiences and terms are often taken by trans people and applied to themselves.

We're inherently trans but the trans experience is inherently a perisex one. Our experiences are identical to trans experiences but only trans people are allowed to say that. Our bodies are deemed the ideal trans bodies but the natural state of our bodies is used as proof that we don't fit in with trans people. Trans people wish they could gain access to the violence done to our bodies. Our bodies are held up as proof that gender and sex is a spectrum but if we talk about our complicated experiences with sex and gender then we're called terf psyops and cis invaders.

Where exactly are intersex people supposed to fit into the trans/cis binary? Our experiences cannot be defined in the same way that perisex trans people define themselves.

When an intersex person identifies as transfem when they were afab or as transmasc while they were amab or calls themselves cistrans or transmascfem or transfemmasc, this isn't an attempt to invade spaces we don't belong or destroy the trans community. We're trying to describe our very complicated experiences with gender with the limited tools that we have, the tools that have been forced on us but simultaneously denied to us.

Can we just let intersex trans people have their weird gender labels in peace? This isn't about you, it's not an attack on you or your community, it's just us trying to exist comfortably.

[whereserpentswalk]

Every alien civilization has defining traits. All across known space you see species being referred to as having certain traits as part of their civilization. Warrior species, merchent species, scientific species. But almost none of those stereotypes predated their invention of hyperspace gates, almost every time a species gains such traits after its exposed to the rest of the galaxy and has to define itself based on how other species interact with it. Early in their development species have a balance of most traits, and usually end up only gaining a niche once they're part of the galactic economy.

For example, the Reneyth, the archtypical proud warrior species, weren't thought of as war like early in their history. Any physical adaptations people thought was originally evolved for war had much different purposes on their homeworld. But still, they are strong, and powerful. And because of that when they joined the galaxy's economy as a new race with few natrual recourses and little knowledge of the broader situation beyond their homeworld, they could only find work as mercenaries. It's all anyone wanted to hire them for. Some resisted at first but by now the business interests of the galactic megacorporations have made it so that mercenary work was the only real economy they could export to the rest of the galaxy. Now their culture surrounds war entirely, to the point where even their children are raised knowing that they will one day fight and likely meet a brutal end, and to the galaxy this is profitable.

Or take the Nimuryians. They're thought of as a race of peaceful clerics but it's really just because of how they made first contact. They were invaded, and though they weren't conquered most of their species died in that conflict. After finally being able to have peaceful contact with the rest of the galaxy the destruction to their economy left them in a state of constant poverty, unable to export themselves to do anything profitable. So they turned to their religion, and took an extremely conservative shift, killing off most of their planet's marginalized groups and letting their preists basically run their government. They now make what money they can selling their culture to tourists. And people just assume both their poverty and their conservativism is part of their blood, and that it would be wrong to try to change it.

Even the relatively well off Rexxins weren't originally a industrial race. They just happened to be on a planet with a lot of unique recourses, a large population, and a good place on hyperspace routes. Their planet becoming filled with factories and industry, with its many poor working in their constant industrial sites, and their many rich prospering well off of such things, is all due to the megacorporations being able to profit off of a society that was once no more industrial then any other planet of its scale. They never asked for their sky to be so rich with smog that no soul on their homeworld will ever see the star that they orbit. But it's better to have too much work then too little.

Even humans, as monstrous as they are, weren't always such an abnormal race. They might be an ancient race but we know what they are. Before they were nomadic cyborgs, raiding some, trading with others, and almost never touching down on planets, they were just a normal species. They were tricked into selling their homeworld to a startup upon first contact, in those ancient days. And they were forced to leave their homeworld very soon after. They only live exclusively in spaceships because they have no land of their own. They only modified their bodies in such horrifying ways, and turned to artificial reproduction, because that's what they had to do to survive. This may sound odd to some, because it happened so very long ago, but there were once humans who were born and died surrounded by nature, once lived alongside animals related to them, now only remembered in their art and mythology. There were once human lovers, who kissed under a golden sun. There was nothing about their species that made them what they are today before they lost their homeworld. But such is fate.

[elyasugar]

Pale and Innocent✨

The idea was a long time ago, and the theory was written in January, so I give my valentine to all of you and a little reflection on Pale and Innocence🎶🪩🎶❤️

In order to begin my theory about the Innocence , it is necessary to recall the structure of the  Pale and how it works, because the  Innocence and the Pale are one and the same - the generation of humanity's activity in the world of Elysium. 

 Pale is a mist that has no clear external forms. It is achromatic, having no colour, taste, smell or sound (questionable because of the Pale transducer, a similar device Ruby had). The  Pale represents all of humanity's time and the space in which it was, is and will be (all of each person's memories and events). 

The area of transition between the world and the Pale is called the ‘edge collapse’: a Pale mist with a cold vapour that is known to harbour a unique form of fungal microorganisms. The  Pale is difficult to describe and measure, as it is something whose fundamental property is to affect all organisms: their physical properties, and their mental ones. The further into the  Pale, the more it affects all living things. It is capable of distorting and altering non-living matter as well, down to numbers and figures.  For clarity I will describe what will happen when falling into the  Pale, many people staying in it risk going mad: first they forget everyday trifles, and later their own name, memories of who they were and what they lived. Further, when the human brain is trapped in this trap of existence, it begins to deteriorate. The spinal cord and the whole nervous system is destroyed after it. After that, the rest of the body ‘crumbles’, making it impossible to find corpses in the Pale. 

From the information in the game we know that there are already created ships with the help of which you can travel between isolas, as well as special radio stations in the Pale to send signals and coordinates of various transports (in addition to ships it can be motocarets, helicopters, etc.). Also at this point in Elysium, it is possible to travel through the Pale, but no more than six days per year (the long stay effect I described above). 

According to my theory, because of the frequent travelling between Isols, people get hit by the radiation of the  Pale on a regular basis. And even after such people find themselves far away from its effects, they are still connected to it.  This is supported by examples of characters from the game (the same trucker or Izzy from ‘Flavour’, as well as Joyce's story about Volta do Mar).

The nature of the Pale is largely unknown to the humanity of Elysium. However, according to the ending of the book - the Pale appeared because of sins: stupidity and greed of all mankind. However, as we know, any coin has two sides, and if one side has all human sins, the other side has all human virtues, and in this case it is the Innocence. 

Innocence is the physical embodiment of virtue. People who become Innocence are the major historical figures in the world, literally deities. Innocence traditionally assumes supreme rule over the world at large. The Innocence is elected by the Founder's Party; this has only happened six times in world history. 

According to the Party, everything the Innocence do and say is law.  They deserve this respect because of their influence over time and space, (whereas in the  Pale we can only look at memories and live our past, the Innocence are able to create the future). It is said that it is an honour and glory to live when one is in power. Innocence does not usually use its power through military might. It is considered unnecessary. Innocence wins because it simply cannot lose.

The legal system of the Real Belt is built from the ground up to adapt to the rule of the Innocents. The decisions of the Innocence apply equally in all countries.

There are only six Innocents in the history of the world:

Pericarnassus, the first Innocence. Little is known about her.

Franconegro, 500 years before Our Age. Considered a militaristic Innocence and the strongest among them.

Dolores Dei, 300 BC. She created many modern institutions, organised successful expeditions, even voiced criticism of the innocence system. Her beauty and inhumanity are also widely recognised. Dolores Dei is considered the greatest Innocence in the current century.

Sola, crowned in the last century. Considered the Anti-Innocence due to her unwillingness to impose her will on the world.

 Each of the six Innocence has movements of followers. For example, those who share the beliefs of Dolores Dei are called Doloreans. Their churches are places of worship for the life and ideals of Dolores. People believe that the Innocences can work miracles.

Besides the true Innocence, there have also been a few False Innocence in history - those who believed they possessed the qualities of Innocence. Sometimes they had the support of a faction within the church organisation. The most famous and important of these was Erno Pasternak. He became famous in history for his torture, despotism, and desire to conquer the world. He was eventually destroyed by Stepan the Despicable of Cedra, for all the nobility of his deed he never became an Innocence.  

Why? 

They just don't get elected on the politicians' side (as a tool). Because of this, there are no Innocents in ‘53: the Coalition is simply not profitable, because altruistic motives are less reliable than money or the Coalition itself. It follows that an ordinary person can't become  an Innocence through their deeds alone - you have to get recognition from the people or the Party to do so. 

There are hints in the game about the non-human nature of the Innocences. For example, when Harry is talking to the Encyclopaedia, the reason for Dolores' murder is described.

There have also been theories that Harry is the new Innocence, just because of the case of amnesia and the ability to talk to his emotions, organs, and the city itself, but unfortunately this is not the case. The Innocence can't forget who they are, unlike Harry. They were also notable for some larger actions: discovering other isolas, uniting nations, etc.

These abilities are more akin to the Pales, and perhaps the voices in his head are just thoughts of his dead alter ego in the past, which makes sense. The female voice, which is Dora's voice, talks about everything that will happen in the future, possibly to guide Harry. (We won't wait for the second part of the game, though, so maybe not to guide...)

This led me to a hypothesis, the idea being that people who have been exposed to the  Pale can control it. When playing the game, this is confirmed by the periodic tests that Harry must pass. He can pass them by improving one or more parts of his personality.  (See the picture below). Another person who has encountered the Pale is a trucker whose ability is to move into the bodies of people who have lived in the past, present or will live in the future.

What if there is a person who can control the bodies of people who are possessed by the Pale?  

If there was Sola, who said to rely on ourselves and not on the Innocence, then I think there are people in the world of Elysium who can master the Pale enough to control not only certain memories of people, but also their bodies. Maybe there is such a ‘sanitiser’ in the world of Elysium, who can introduce souls and lost memories into the bodies of people who have lost them.

To summarise my peculiar research, we can say that in the near future there will be no Innocence in the world of Elysium.  Most likely the world will be improved by those people who were able to rediscover themselves, and even surpass them. As Kim Kitsuragi said....death is life again, beyond the world is pale, beyond the pale is the world again.

[olderthannetfic]

There is something confusing to me about older queer people (which is to say, older than I am, at a relatively young 24 years old) who get mad at original fiction whose worldbuilding involves neopronouns. I'm hoping maybe, ONTF, since you've been in queer spaces a lot longer than I have, you can explain why people have such a negative reaction to the idea.

Basically, I'm working on a novel based that takes white-throated sparrow biology and uses it for building blocks in the same way A/B/O takes (now debunked) wolf science and used it for building blocks. This means there are essentially four genders, the two viewed as more intelligent (brown-haired men and women) and the two viewed as more physical (white-haired men and women). Those two groups then get further divided along the lines of 'women are better at making smart decisions under pressure' and 'men are better at staying home and defending the children, as God intended'.

So it seemed natural to me that this worldwide quaternary system would result in at least some languages having pronoun sets for each of the four options. Some languages in real life have more complicated pronoun systems than that, particularly ones where there's a bunch of formal and informal pronouns. It'd also help the reader keep track of who was a part of what group without my having to turn around and state people's coloration constantly. Yes, these people are human, just as humans in A/B/O are, but society is fundamentally very different. I'm not throwing this in to just complicate things or sound smart or something. It's here because my minoring in Anthropology and majoring in Linguistics taught me language usage reflects the needs and values of a people.

The writing group I'm a part of IRL is mostly queer, mostly 40+, with some cishet women who are also present and active writers. The writing group I'm a part of on DW is mostly DWRPers, in their 30's and up, though no older than 50, and entirely queer. I did not expect these to be groups that were uncomfortable with the idea of "different world, different pronouns".

Instead the reception has ranged from suggestions it's pretentious or overthinking things to requests I reconsider doing it. I've been informed this could be seen as mocking the real life queer people who go by pronouns other than she, he, or they. One person asked if this was went to be me "artificially justifying" nonbinary pronouns and implying I didn't find them valid in the real world. That was an awkward conversation, to say the least.

In reality I wasn't really thinking about real life people who use nonbinary pronouns when I was writing. I was just asking, "Logically, wouldn't it make sense for things to work very differently under a quarternary than it does under a modern European binary?" and following my brain along to its' conclusions as it processed that.

I have gotten zero negative feedback from my queer friends my age regarding this. So obviously, generation and the experiences informing a generational context are key, here. I'm just... still lost on how anyone finds this objectionable.

Help?

--

Ahaha. Oh god.

Well, as a reader of sff in the 90s, the first reaction I have to such things is "IS THERE A CONLANG AND A MAP?" Because, man, the conlang people were some of the most tedious motherfuckers I ever had to deal with in sff spaces.

But broadly... I think the reasons queer people get annoyed about this stuff boil down to a couple of big factors:

Disrespectful children who don't know history

Idiot old people harrumphing about "history" they clearly failed to pay attention to while it was going on in the first place

I personally hate being asked to use new words most of the time. A few bits of fandom slang I'll pick up at once, but I'm usually like "Why would I call it 'spirk'? We already have 'K/S'!" *shakes cane*

If you're American, they're your "roommate", not your "flatmate". No, I don't care how much more precise this foreign term is, you pretentious wanker. (But then I'll use 'wanker' because fandom adopted that years ago...)

So my reaction to being asked to say aloud any pronoun not in very frequent circulation in my offline life is "Urrrgh. Do I have to?"

However, the reality is that people have been messing around with pronouns in English since forever. Do you see 'heo' in Modern English? No, you do not! (Not that it was gender neutral, but the point is that even words as ancient as pronouns have changed quite a bit.) The early internet was full of pronoun stuff in MUDs and the like. You had a choice of a lot more than just three in a bunch of these. People besides men and women have always been in queer communities.

So some people like to cry about neopronouns being actually neo, and they're just wrong.

As for the why do you care part...

There is a nasty habit in contemporary queer spaces to act like gay rights issues are solved. Bisexuality? Passe! etc. Gays and lesbians finally got a little mainstream acceptance only to suddenly be treated like the worst of the establishment by the queer youth. How dare?!?! It's even more egregious with bisexuality where the focus of a bunch of queer activism finally swung that way in the 90s... only to be sharply cut off in the 00s.

There's a real "You already got yours. Where's mine?" vibe to some queer discourse today, and it's directed at people who never got theirs. It shows up in demands for mentorship by people who've barely had a chance to escape a rocky start and figure out who they are themselves. It shows up in yowling about this or that bit of queer media we finally got not being progressive because it's the wrong letter of the acronym.

None of which has a damn thing to do with what pronouns you use in your novel, obviously, but I think some unresolved embattled feelings are why some older queer people are very weird about pronouns.

Some of them are also doing the old person version of throwing the weirdos under the bus to placate the normies. Respectability politics became a term long before the behavior was rife on tumblr.

--

If someone really does find it pretentious, though, and not just as a cover for crying about nonbinary identities being fake, I suspect they just remember how 1970s SFF was full of privileged anthropology students misunderstanding kinship systems from elsewhere in the world and then trying to tell everyone how ~deep~ their extremely contrived novels based on them were.

I'm not saying your writing is like this or that every one of these old sff novels was either, but when I hear "anthropology student", I groan internally. It's an instinctive reaction. It's less about the real fields and more about the bevvy of dilettantes I've run into over the years who'll say they study those things but really want to talk my ear off about Joseph fucking Campbell or the strong form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or something.

--

Those birds are a really cool source of inspiration. Like with A/B/O, the first thing I wonder is how queerness works in that context and how much people like to defy their designated roles.

Omegaverse started on porn logic, so "The one I say tops always tops!" makes sense. When it gets expanded to try to make it make logical sense as a whole world, I often enjoy it, but it can break down quickly if treated as biology is law. I don't know how often the birds veer off of their set patterns, but humans certainly would.

One place where I get a strong "Oh god, this again" feeling from people's plotbunnies is when they're trying to make up a sff society that strikes me as too rigid in a way that real humans aren't. I'll see people using fake wolf biology (not just for horny reasons) but never looking at what's going on with gender in contemporary Thailand or whatever. Like... Le Guin may have made sedoretus feel plausible, but nobody I've ever seen stanning the concept as something fandom should play with has. That's probably because Le Guin was using over-complicated social norms as a thing that breaks down and causes trouble, and "This should be the next A/B/O!" posts are treating it as something that actually works and is a good way to get the pair you don't ship separated while shipping poly.

"It'd also help the reader keep track of who was a part of what group without my having to turn around and state people's coloration constantly."

This, in particular, gives me that cold shudder of recognition from when Homestuck fandom was everywhere and everyone wanted to over-explain those stupid playing card suits and why I should care.

Your concept sounds neat, and I think a set of four pronouns could easily make sense there...

But I also think that if people need the pronouns to keep track of coloration, you haven't set up a system that feels organic enough or haven't given enough cues about how characters are treating each other or why. Use the pronouns too, but just keep that in mind. It's like the "m/m is hard because the pronouns don't tell me whose hand is where" problem. It's almost never actually a pronoun problem.

--

Anyone else have thoughts here?

[shuggymaniac]

I want to do a magic school AU where they have to summon a familiar.

It would like a demonic monster from the netherworld that wizards/witches from centuries ago managed to make it fall to their submission and use whatever abilities they had to enhance to magic of any future magic user, and even submit them to eternal servitude.

Not forever maybe until the magic user they are serving dies and when that happens the demonic being would be sent back to the netherworld where they would either die from the nature of their realm or wait until they are summoned again to serve a new master.

It was annual thing.

When a young wizard nears adulthood they would there a ceremony where they have to preform a ritual that would match them with the best servant depending on their abilities and what they exceed at.

Some summoned creatures that kind of resembled animals like lions, dogs even rats and squirrels.

Others summoned ugly creatures that were hard to look at.

Few were able to summon creatures that had terrifying appearance but were able to hide it through human form so that they looked less terrifying to be around and took less space.

Shanks was understandably nervous, his adoptive family came from a long line of magic users and whatever creature they summoned was remembered in the history books even recognized because previous great wizards and witches also summoned those creatures.

Even though his father Roger and his close friends assured him that he whatever creature he summoned would be a great one……

So why was he looking back at a small creature that looked like a clown plushie.

shanks would have believed that it was a cruel prank, to place a toy in the middle of the circle before the smoke cleared but then the said “Toy” started moving.

It looked around is if confused at where it was then looked down at its hands and body and then it panicked, Shanks expected to hear tiny voice exclaiming or something. But no words came out instead….

“Honk! Honk honk honk!! HOOOOONNNNKKK!!!”

The puppet tried running away but the force field of the circle kept it at pay, as if sensing they hostility the circle levitated slightly before it wrapped around the puppet’s neck and then another circle wraps around Shanks’s wrist bounding them as master and slave.

Everyone would laugh at Shanks except for his friends and the people who cared for him.

He would run away but because of the new bound the once invisible chains would reappear and forced the clown puppet to be dragged and flunked around by the movement of Shanks’s arm.

It would take a while but Shanks would get over the embarrassment and just accept his familiar, and his familiar was pretty funny.

They had explosive nature, they always seemed to disagree with Shanks and even go as far as attack him with kicks and punches but due to the puppets physical body it never harmed Shanks or else the spell around the puppet’s neck would have activated and harmed them to force them into submission.

But his familiar didn’t no matter how hard they tried, and shanks would tease them for it which causes more angry “Honking” sounds.

Which leads to another thing, everyone including Shanks would heard the little puppet let out “Honk” every time it tried to talk but unlike everyone else Shanks understands what they were saying, not word by word necessary. But they would understand if the familiar wanted to eat or cursed or even commented on something.

“Hey guys, check out my new robe! Pretty good huh?”

“Honk!”

“It’s not.”

“What?”

“Not me, him!”

“Honk!”

“He says the colors are…fancy?”

“HONK!!”

“Oh! Flashy!”

“Honk! Honk!”

“But it doesn’t suite you at all”

“Honk!”

“You should focus more on summer colors because it matches your skin tone and wearing those colors right now makes you look like a wannabe peacock.”

“He said all that with one Honk?”

“Nah, it was mostly me.”

Followed by a chance scene where Shanks would run away from his friends and their familiars. And his clown puppet seemed to enjoy those pranks.

Yes his familiar was a mischievous prankster, kind of like Shanks but he was more devious. Him and Shanks would spend all night just planning pranks on their friends and teachers, his familiar’s ideas would lead to great harm and maybe death but Shanks always makes sure to water it down where it was acceptable enough, to the great displeasure of his familiar.

Now, one of the steps to fulfill the ritual is to name your familiar, but his teacher Rayleigh advices him against it. Maybe teachers dismissed the clown puppet saying that it was just Shanks’s bad luck, that they shouldn’t have expected much of him since he was adopted and they never knew who his true family was, so maybe he was descendant of some weak magic users.

But Rayleigh had other suspicions.

Those creature took many forms but never the form of an object like a puppet so he decided to do a research bit adviced Shanks to never name his familiar because if this puppet was some kind of no good demon he can find a way to break their bond and then allow Shanks to do the ritual again in hopes of finding better familiar.

At first, Shanks was hopeful with that idea, that he just wanted to rid himself of that embarrassment and find a powerful familiar like his father. But with time he found himself getting attached to his familiar, it wasn’t a familiar anymore it was his friend.

So when Rayleigh came to him one day telling him how he didn’t find out what kind of creature was his familiar but he is close to finding a way to not only break the bound but also make sure that the clown puppet won’t be summoned again when he tries to do the ritual again.

Such thoughts made Shanks anxious.

He didn’t want to separate from his clown, they were closer than ever, he didn’t care that people still laughed behind his back him and his familiar had great connections even if the clown threw tantrums sometimes they were still very good friends.

So when night, Shanks decided to make his familiar….his Buggy.

The moment the name left his mouth with the intentions of naming the creature a beam of light the revealed the invisible chains hardened and gave a “clank” sound as if confirming the bound between them. A wave of energy covered shanks’s body from inside out, it felt so ….powerful? And when he looked at his confused familiar who stared at his body confused he understood that he too felt it.

“Buggy?”

“Yeah, it’s after a mischievous jester from the stories my dad used to tell me late night. I feel it fits him, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know, sounds unserious.”

“Nah, he likes it, right Buggy?”

“HONK!! HONK HONK HOONNKK!!” Buggy was pulling Shanks’s hair and hitting his head.

“Ouch!! hey that hurts!!”

“He doesn’t seem to like it, Hahah!”

What Shanks and everyone else didn’t know was that he didn’t come from a weak family line, far from it. Shanks came from a long line of powerful magic users that history used as examples to be taught and researched. It was just that for some reason we got separated from them and Roger found him and raised him as his own.

Something else that no one knows, but will be found out later, was that Buggy wasn’t a weakling.

Not at all.

He was a great demon of chaos and greed, able to break anything and everyone around him including himself like a jigsaw puzzle, and move them around. Their cries and pleads were music to his ears. He was greedy, he loves treasures, golds and gems, especially if they were like an accessory that he could wear. And he didn’t look like a puppet, he had the figure of a grown man, fabulous long hair, and equally flashy clothes that he could change at well.

But because of the Ritual, that forced him out of his realm, he was reformed to look like a small puppet, form that was weaker than his master so that his submission would be easier. When he realized what had happened he tried to run but he got trapped with a slave crest.

And so he was now the servant of a wannabe wizard who couldn’t even form the simplest of tricks and preferred physical fight than that of magic. And it was Buggy’s dilemma, because his development was connected to his new “master’s” so he needed to find a way to motivate the idiot so he can get stronger with him.

Which was his new plan, make the idiot strong, get stronger with him, regain his chaos energy and then use it to break the bond and kill everyone around him and gain control and power.

But for now he need to protect himself, because he can see familiar faces around him, the faces of demons and creatures he has tormented, creatures that looked at him with anger and amusement some even gave silence promises of pain and death, so for now, use the red haired idiot as a human shield and plan the Greta escape.

I mean use he enjoyed the pranks they had, the small discussion they’d had about magic whenever he was able to understand him, and dare he say he felt connected to the boy in some way, he too didn’t know where he came from and was looked down on for it before he was able to get stronger. Even the puppet form was still his form it was just from the time when he was small and weak from back then, it brought back memories.

So what will happen when the truth comes out?

Shanks’s origin?

Buggy’s truth?

The realization that the familiars weren’t simple energy beings but real creature that think and feel?

And what kind of trouble that they will face?

The idea inspired by the cute art of “rottenbuggy”

LOOK HOW CUTE HE LOOKS!!! They have many great arts please check them out!

[hrrtshape]

You said that in your vampire dr, he knowledge that they have about the mind, body and universe is beyond what we know. I wonder what they thought about life, afterlife, love, meaning of the universe...

were there some scholars who debated the potentiality of shifting or some other type of altering the consciousness?

Can you share some of their theories/knowledge? if it is not considered sacred in that reality ofc!

so, babylonian philosophy was not like greek philosophy where people sat around arguing for fun. it was deeply tied to religion, astrology, and the gods. but they did have theories about life, the afterlife, love, and the nature of the universe that are way beyond what we assume they knew.

life & meaning of the universe

babylonians saw life as something dictated by the gods but not entirely without human agency. they believed in divine laws/principles that governed existence and that everything, from the motion of the stars to the outcome of a harvest, was written into the fabric of reality. scholars debated fate vs. free will. like, yes, the gods set things in motion, but could a person, through knowledge or ritual, alter their path? the answer was... kind of. there were omens, prayers, offerings that could shift the divine's favour.

afterlife

not glamorous. the afterlife was called the underworld (kur or irkalla), and it was bleak. you did not get rewarded or punished based on morality. you just kind of... existed there, a shadowy version of your former self. the only thing that made your afterlife better was if your descendants made offerings for you. no offerings, you faded. it was less about personal judgment and more about being remembered by the living. but some esoteric sects believed in reincarnation, especially among scholars who studied celestial cycles. they thought some souls could return, though not always in human form.

love

love was not just emotional. it was cosmic. there were texts linking venus (ishtar) to all forms of love, from lust to deep, soul-woven devotion. they had love spells, binding rituals, ways to influence attraction. but they also saw love as unpredictable, dangerous. because ishtar was both the goddess of love and war. desire was divine, but it could destroy you if handled poorly.

consciousness, shifting, altering reality

yes. yes. there were scholars, especially in temple circles, who explored states of consciousness beyond waking reality. they used dream interpretation (oneiromancy) as a legitimate science. dreams were seen as a space between worlds, where divine messages were received and where the soul could travel.

some scholars believed in multiple layers of existence. not quite parallel realities as we understand them, but different levels of perception. through rituals, fasting, or sacred plants (yes, they had psychedelics), they could induce states where they claimed to access hidden knowledge or commune with otherworldly beings. some texts hinted at the idea that reality itself was flexible, that under the right conditions, a person could step outside the script written for them by the gods.

there were also concepts of "double selves." that a person had a physical body and an etemmu (spiritual double) that could detach and travel. this was mostly explored in temple schools, and some accounts suggested that highly trained individuals could intentionally send their etemmu to different places, even different times. shifting, not in the tiktok sense, but something eerily close.

forbidden knowledge......

some things were considered too sacred or dangerous to discuss outside of priestly circles. one thing i learned was that certain astronomical calculations were not just for predicting eclipses. they used them to track cycles of human events, almost like a primitive version of the simulation theory. they believed time was not entirely linear, and that history repeated in patterns dictated by the stars.

[winksasleeplesseye]

SUMMARY: Leon is falling deeper and deeper into perceived bliss, but something else is at play. Is he really with you or is something else more complex going on?

PAIRING: Leon Kennedy x F!Reader

WORD COUNT: 2.8k (just about)

WARNINGS: slight smut, noncon voyeurism

[PREVIOUS][MASTERLIST]

"She's an intriguing figure, isn't she?" Thompson's voice cut through the sterile hum of the machinery, clinical yet there was an underlying tone of fascination. But he couldn't control the set of his jaw, perhaps a…hesitation? The observation room was so quiet, a pin could drop and every person present would hear it.

Most all the scientists watched as Leon turned again in his bed, fingers twitching against the sheets, reaching for someone who wasn't there. Brows furrowed, a soft murmur of your name falling from his lips.

"He's predictable. His attachment patterns, but one can see why he is so…enthralled by her," Dr. Morales noted, running a hand in a through line of his vitals as they pulsed with longing. "Let's see how far he's willing to go. Increase the sensory fidelity."

Thompson's eyes lingered on the photo of you, caught in a candid moment as you entered a government building. The tilt of your head as you wore a more reserved smile, less like the figure in their dream reality. Your physical attributes certainly left an impression on anyone you encountered so he could understand this….fixation? Not to mention, your shared history with Leon.

Raccoon City. That's where you had met, shared a connection of some sort. The pictures didn't lie.

The motel you had escaped to, another girl and a child, and Leon. Both of you to one room, them to the others. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put the pieces together.

He gripped tighter to the clipboard, "This tampering of this nature….it's…."

"Necessary," Morales interrupted, not tearing his eyes away from the screen. Data poured in every minute, every part of it valuable. "Don't you know that when you know your enemy, what drives them…that trumps ethicality? Would you concur?"

Thompson couldn't respond, he shifted his gaze back over to Leon. A twitch, another smile. Breaking through tension that lived on his face in his waking world. Raw, real human emotion displayed in front of them, yet none of the scientists moved from their positions. Eyes laser sharp focused on the data.

A knot formed in Thompson's chest but in the end, he was in no position to question this.

Leon threw on his jacket, one not too dissimilar to the brown one he'd lost in Spain. He figured you'd have liked to steal it from him. "You wear that like a badge of honor," he heard you again, voice laced with playfulness. The sound of your voice cut through the silence of his apartment, his hand lingered on the zipper.

He can't keep doing this.

He audibly groaned, "Give me a break."

It wasn't that he was frustrated by you, just frustrated how he'd come to enjoy the intrusion of the version of you he knew didn't exist. If he were to tell anyone about this….especially Chris, they'd throw him in the psych ward, and Leon and a straitjacket should never be in the same sentence.

Shaking his head, he grabbed his keys and stepped out for the day.

The office was no different than it was the day before, same beige walls and same dull sunlight filtered through the window. Leon's office streamed in some of that light but somehow it didn't compare to how it was with you. While in the midst of his daydreams and repeated routine of paperwork and reports, a knock at his open door caught his attention. He never really liked keeping his office door closed, something in regard to cramped spaces unsettled him.

His eyes turned toward the door to find—oh, for goodness sake. Chris.

Chris was dressed more casual than usual, not wearing his standard tactical gear that Leon had seen so often. Leon fought the urge to roll his eyes at his presence. Did Hunnigan snitch on him?

He wore an awkward smile, "Sorry to interrupt, you got a minute?"

If there's one thing Leon knows about Chris, it's that he doesn't let up so if he didn't indulge him now, the guy would not leave him alone for the foreseeable future. Just the thought of not hearing the end of his lectures was enough to get Leon up. He's definitely letting Claire know that maybe she shouldn't have introduced them.

"What do you want?" Leon questioned, pushing himself away from the desk. He tried not to sound too frustrated but it was seeping through.

Chris' face screwed up momentarily, "What's got you so tense?"

An image came to him uncontrolled, one he'd felt, seen, heard just earlier as he showered. You stood behind him as the water streamed over both of you, your arms wrapped around his bare torso. You rested your cheek against his back, your touch a balm against the weight he'd carried.

"You're always so tense," you had murmured, your voice soft, your hands trailing over his shoulders. He had turned in your arms and kissed you then, slow and unhurried, allowing the world to melt away. The memory still clung to his skin. God, he really needed to get a grip.

"Nothing's got me tense," Leon responded, voice becoming more defensive than he'd like. Way to rouse more suspicion, Kennedy.

"Sure. And I'm retiring next week," Chris wore a half-smile as he stepped further into the room. "I know you probably don't want to hear this, but you look like hell. Have you been sleeping?"

The itch of Chris' gaze on him was like a weight he couldn't shake. The shift in the air was subtle but not subtle enough for Leon not to notice.

Leon fidgeted with his pen, running it between his fingers. "Plenty. I took a great nap during my morning existential crisis."

Chris crossed his arms, sitting in the chair accross from Leon. "Ha, ha. Hilarious. You're not fooling me, Kennedy. I've seen guys walk this line before, it doesn't end well. If something is going on, talking about it can't hurt—"

"There's nothing going on," Leon cut him off, sharper than he intended.

Deep down, Leon is aware he's being a bit of a dick but right now all reason and logic wasn't computing in his head.

Chris sighed, his more relaxed demeanor giving way to something more serious. He leaned forward, as if trying to bridge the gap between them. "I'm not here to lecture. You've got people who'd go through hell for you that you're pushing away. Don't forget that. But just know…I'm here too."

"Thanks, Doc. Should I lie down on my couch now, or later?"

Chris raised a brow. "Your choice, but I'm not writing a prescription for more whiskey."

Leon didn't look up as Chris left. His words sat like a weight in his chest long after the sound of his footsteps retreated further and further away.

Damn it. That was a lost cause.

Chris couldn't shake the feeling in his gut that something was off with Leon. More so than usual.

He hadn't been answering the phone and Leon would at least call him back once to assure him he hadn't done something stupid. It's why he came to the office, better that way so he can't avoid him.

But even a blind man could see how tense Leon had become. Jumpy, even. Leon was never one to be jumpy. He certainly was more of a dick than he usually is, too.

Chris could only walk away from Leon, letting him stew in whatever he had going on. That didn't mean he had no other options. He walked with purpose to the only other person who'd give him something. Hunnigan. The polished, poised woman sat at her desk, fingers flying across the keyboard and screens lit up with reports that reflected off her glasses.

Chris actually hated to disturb her work flow but he had to talk to someone.

"Hunnigan, hey," Chris greeted, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Got a moment?"

She glanced up from her screen, eyebrows raised in surprise but maintained her composure. "Sure, Chris. What's up?"

Chris hesitated. "You…talk to Leon much lately?"

Hunnigan could only scoff, "When don't I talk to Leon? Is everything okay?"

"That's the thing, I'd have thought you knew something. He seems off."

"What's your definition of off? This is Leon Kennedy we're talking about, he thrives on bad decisions and enough caffeine to stay awake for 20 years."

Chris wanted to laugh but decided against it. "Have you noticed anything? He seemed distracted. Denied anything was wrong, but I know him."

Hunnigan paused for a brief moment, a flicker of concern crossing her face.

"Now that I think about it…he did seem a little spaced out a week or so ago. Nothing too crazy. Just looked like he was in another world at the coffee maker. I don't usually tend to point out his appearance but his eyebags had eyebags."

"You think he's not sleeping?"

"That or he's having some late nights. But if you're concerned then so am I." Hunnigan's face softened only momentarily before reverting back to a strong resolve.

"I think we're in agreement." Chris spoke, a more serious tone to his voice. "Can you get me anything you can on his last mission?"

Hunnigan nodded, expression set in determination. "I'm on it."

If there was a point of no return, Leon is sure he'd made it there. The evening began like any other, lulling himself into the dream he never wanted to end.

He'd be lying to himself if he pretended he didn't want all that was offered to him in this dream space, the more he dreamed of you, the domestic life you'd shared with him…he wanted you in his life like this. It was undeniable. He craved it more than anything he had ever craved.

His decisions held no dire consequences in this place. No longer did he hold the fate of the world between his fingertips, they could slip through without so much of a grasp to pick up the pieces.

Tonight, somehow, things seemed more vivid, more alive. And certainly more passionate than all the other times he'd stumbled into moments with you. Your nails scratched down his chest in a way that sent chills down Leon's spine, an almost overwhelming tingle. Your warm breath fanning against his neck—it felt so real, too real. Your front molded against him in a way that made his heart pound. Could you feel how hard it was hitting against his rib cage?

A knot of guilt twisted in his chest, but he pushed it aside, letting your kiss consume him as though it could anchor him here forever.

"Look at that," Dr. Morales said, a grin tugging at his lips. Their connection was becoming more real than they anticipated. Data continuously streamed in as they watched the scene from the monitor. "It's like he's getting more than emotional satisfaction in this…it's almost physical. Like he thinks Y/N is really there in the room."

Dr. Erickson snorted, uncharacteristically. "If you think about it, Mr. Kennedy is getting action…even if it's just in his head."

Dr. Morales head shook as the scene on the monitor continued, juxtaposed with Leon as he laid in his bed. There was no hiding it what was going on. Leon's body responses aligned with the dream. Leon's hands splayed all over your bare skin as he held onto you desperately. This wasn't their intended goal, Leon getting the dream girl and living a dream life. The dreams were meant to test parameters for psychological breakdown. The data was baffling, to say the least.

His heartbeat spiked, body temperature rising the more and more he lost himself in the taste of you. Your fingers tangled in his hair. Jesus, did you know how much that drove him crazy? Without another word, you pushed him down onto the mattress, the springs creaking underneath his weight. Every sound seemed louder in the space of the room. The rustle of fabric as you slowly undressed, the clink of his belt as you pulled it from his body, the hasty breaths between them as he kissed you once again.

He tried not to stare too long as you straddled him but he had to take in all that you were, "You're gorgeous."

Your smile is brief as you brace your hands on his chest, "And you're sweet, but enough talking."

Once ready, Leon guided himself to line up with your wet folds. With one last glance between them, your eyes screwed shut, the breathy sigh that left your lips sent an indescribable feeling through him. Leon wanted this to last but the way you squeezed around his length—shit, this couldn't be a dream.

But even still, his mind nagged him. Was it possible this is all orchestrated? That someone—or something—-was controlling it all?

He tried not to—

"Fuck…" He couldn't think clearly, why did he want to when you were making him feel like this?

On the monitor, not a single detail was hidden, every body part, every sound, every movement—it was all there. Some of the scientists at the monitors turned away, others scooted closer in a sick curiosity.

The sensations he was receiving translated to Leon's sleeping form. Cameras zoomed in as he gripped at the sheets, knuckles turning white as clung for dear life to the fabric. His face, stoic in waking life, was now etched in pleasure—eyebrows furrowed, lips parted, his expression a mixture of longing and ecstasy.

The camera feed zoomed in slightly, Dr. Erickson could see the subtle rise and fall of Mr. Kennedy' s chest as he breathed harder. All the telltale signs of physical arousal. His muscles tensed in response to sensations that weren't really there. His free hand running down your back, judging from the movement in the air where you certainly were not. Dr. Erickson noted a slight tremor in his fingers, as if he really believed you were there, that he was touching you. He could even see Leon's mouth moving, quiet murmurs that the audio didn't fully catch.

Dr. Erickson felt a prickle of discomfort at how intense it had become. Even the auditory data peaked through—your voice, crystal clear as you did not hide your pleasure at all, even simulated. Both of their voices, faces etched in a rapture. Your mouth parted as pleasure overtook you, breaths ragged.

"He's deep in it," Thompson muttered, observing the infrared screen as Leon's body temperature continued to rise. A typical human body displayed in colors in green, yellows, and blues but Leon had red spread across body from his torso to his feet. "His brain waves are almost off the charts. The sensory stimulation is overwhelming—this isn't just a dream to him. His body cannot tell the difference between this and reality. Should we stop this?"

"We interrupt now and we risk damage, let this play out." Dr Erickson instructed, he turned towards his colleagues, some actually taking his spot at the screens for a closer look.

Dr. Morales placed a hand on Thompson's shoulder, an almost wicked smile on his face. "Increase the duration next time, let's see what it takes to fracture his grasp on everything." Thompson could only watch as his boss walked away, he tried to ignore the lurch in his stomach at what everything meant.

The heat surged between both of you, Leon's grip tightening as he pounded into you. Stars burst behind his eyes, letting himself soak in every sensation. He gasped your name as if it might tether him, as if clinging to your hips could keep the world from slipping away.

His movements stilled, a final shudder coursing through him as he spilled into you, a guttural groan passed from his lips.

And like a splash of cold water, Leon jolted from his bed. An ache in his muscles, a warmth in his bones, your breath fanning against him that shouldn't exist. His hands rubbed at his face, trying to rub the remnants of the experience from his mind, running a hand through his sweat-filled hair. His heart hit harder than a drum against his chest, rhythm unsteady.

He lifted the covers off himself. A telltale spot on his sweatpants. His lower half still pulsed from what he had just…felt.

A wet dream? What was he, a 16 year old? He huffed at such an immature act, considering 16 is the last time he had a wet dream.

Something wasn't right. Despite the fire that burned his skin from where his fingers had traced the outline of your back, how the heat flooded his body from the deep, soul-deep release—it had felt so whole, so real…it still didn't feel right. The way his body responded to yours, yours to his. Like they were both there, together, in the same place, in the same moment.

"Just a dream," Leon spoke out loud, as if a mantra. But that didn't explain the feelings in his body that said otherwise. The lingering desire. The heat. The ache. A heavy ache.

Just a dream, that's all it is.

Just a very vivid dream. That makes the most sense.

But, if this was only a dream, why did it feel like someone else was pulling the strings?

[frickityfrackityfuckingshit]

Listen I LOVE the humans are space orcs thing, but imagine.

Humans are space crabs.

Like sure, there’s some really different looking aliens out there, with different ways of communicating and reproducing and stuff. But like. Being a human is just generally a good way to become the intelligent species on a planet. There are just human-like things everywhere.

“Our ship has 3 humans and 5 kraleex” Hendt reminded the human, Jane.

“What? No the ship has 2 humans, 2 splaids, 3 kraleex, and a loktad.”

“Agh, you all seem to tell each other apart but you look the same to me.”

“Kristopher is literally ORANGE AND 7 FEET TALL.”

“You’re beige. And Lance is uhhh.” He paused as he rooted around for the human sweet in his head. “Caramel. That’s practically orange.”

“Seriously humanity had some fucked up shit going on, you’ll probably offend Kristopher if you call him a human to his face.”

“Didn’t you convergently evolve?”

Jane sighed.

“Yeah but like- humans are pretty naturally aggressive. Loktads are quite peaceful, that’s why they took so much less time than us to advance. He’ll see it as an insult.”

Handt shifted uncomfortably.

“Humans are very useful in difficult situations. Despite your size and lacking in physical strength many of you have great problem solving skills. Your roots are nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Yeah because compared to other pentadactyly we were very distrustful of our own species and formed smaller groups. We had to be stronger as individuals.” Jane was starting to get a bit frustrated about giving this history lesson. Handt should have been given a briefing on human-like species, but the Strokt were know for their ability to pick up on skills, not knowledge.

Thankfully, they nodded slowly.

“I will refrain from calling Kristopher a human. I can see how this may hurt him.”

Jane let out a breathe of relief when he retreated. She couldn’t even remember the original argument. But at least Handt would now be less likely to offend one of their crew mates.

[astra-ravana]

The Dimensional Layers

The universe is believed to consist of multiple spiritual dimensions, each vibrating at different frequencies. These realms house various beings, from divine entities to restless spirits. While interpretations differ among mystics, shamans, and occultists, here’s an overview of commonly recognized dimensions and their inhabitants.

The Physical Realm

What It Is: The material world where humans, animals, and nature exist. This is the realm of tangible matter and linear time.

Beings Here: Humans, animals, plants, minerals.

The Ethereal Layer

What It Is: The subtle energy field that surrounds all physical beings, often associated with auras and chi. It’s where elemental consciousness begins to take shape.

Beings Here:

• Elementals – Nature spirits like fae, gnomes, and sylphs.

• Thought-Forms – Manifestations of collective consciousness.

The Astral Plane (Lower & Higher Astral)

What It Is: The dimension where thoughts, emotions, and spiritual energies take shape. Often visited in dreams, astral projection, and deep meditative states.

Beings Here:

• Ghosts & Spirits of the Dead – Earthbound spirits or those visiting the living.

• Lower Astral Entities – Shadow beings, trickster spirits, or negative thought-forms.

• Guides & Light Beings – Benevolent spirits that help seekers.

The Realm of Time & Thought

What It Is: A fluid, transitional space where time is nonlinear, and consciousness expands. Many spirit portals lead here.

Beings Here:

• Interdimensional Travelers – Spirits, ancestors, or astral projectors.

• Djinn & Trickster Spirits – Beings that influence reality and perception.

The Realm of Higher Consciousness

What It Is: The plane of enlightenment, where beings operate outside of material duality. It is associated with divine wisdom and unity consciousness.

Beings Here:

• Ascended Masters – Souls that have evolved beyond physical reincarnation

• Celestial Beings – Divine forces or deities

The Divine Blueprint (Akashic Realm)

What It Is: The plane of cosmic records and divine architecture. Here, reality is designed before manifesting in lower realms.

Beings Here:

• Keepers of the Akashic Records – Beings who maintain the history of all souls.

• Gods & Archetypal Forces – Higher aspects of deities and universal energies.

The Realm of Pure Light

What It Is: The domain of unity and divine love, where individuality dissolves into collective consciousness. This is often seen as the bridge between form and formlessness.

Beings Here:

• Seraphim & Divine Guardians – Pure light entities.

• High Cosmic Beings – Creators of universal structures.

The Unknowable Realms

What It Is: Dimensions that transcend human comprehension, where the universe’s fundamental forces originate.

Beings Here:

• The Source – The ultimate divine consciousness.

• Abstract Energy Beings – Forces that shape galaxies, reality, and existence itself.

Each dimension serves a different function in the grand design of existence. While some beings interact with the physical world, others remain in higher realms, guiding, protecting, or shaping reality. Mystics, witches, and spiritual seekers often attempt to access these dimensions through meditation, astral travel, or deep trance work. Understanding these realms can help in spiritual evolution, magick, and personal transformation.

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

Either Murkrow or Honchkrow? Do you think either bird would be a good friend? I know they're dark type but still, they could be friends!

Ok, ok. Full disclosure: I really, really like crows. If I had the chance to adopt a crow as a pet, I totally would. I dream of befriending the murder that lives in my neighborhood (they’re pretty skittish). So there is, when it comes to a pokémon species that so closely resembles them, a bit of bias on my end. Trying my very best to put aside said bias, I have still come to the conclusion that a murkrow would, in fact, make a pretty good pet for any night-owl owners out there.

With a small statue and the light weight that we can assume comes from hollow bones, murkrows are the perfect size to be a house pet. As Flying-Type pokémon, it can’t hurt to have some space for them to stretch their wings and fly around. I will point out, though that you should always keep an eye on your murkrow when they’re spending time outside. These pokémon tend to get into trouble with meowths (Crystal) and gabites (Ultra Sun), and you wouldn’t want them to get hurt in a fight. You’ll also want to keep an eye on them so that they don’t get bullied into being a honchkrow’s cronie, forced to come to cater to their every whim. So long as you’re aware of any wild honchkrow populations in your area, and always keep an eye on your murkrow while they’re playing outside, you shouldn’t have any problems.

As I alluded to earlier, these pokémon are quite nocturnal (Sun), so they would be most at home with someone who doesn’t mind staying up late. Naturally, this means that a murkrow wouldn’t make a great pet for some owners, but it far from disqualifies them as a house pet in general.

Now, these pokémon have a long, storied history as symbols of bad luck. In cultures all over the world, seeing a murkrow is thought to be a bad omen: just seeing one at night is said to bring you misfortune (Gold, Ruby/Sapphire, LeafGreen, Diamond, Y, Moon, Scarlet). A careful reading of the pokédex, however, makes it clear that this is likely no more than superstition. There isn’t any evidence that this is true, and it may even mean that murkrow are in more need of a caring owner than other bird-like pokémon. A murkrow may be less likely to be adopted due to this reputation, and wild ones may be more likely to be mistreated. There have also been stories of murkrow purposely leading humans to be lost in the wild, but the pokédex makes it clear that this behavior occurs when the murkrow feels threatened, like when being chased (Silver). Thus, there isn’t any indication that this is a particularly malicious or antisocial species.

That isn’t to say, however, that they can’t be mischievous, at times. Murkrows are known to be huge fans of anything that sparkles, often stealing whatever shiny things they can find from humans or other pokémon to store in a secret location (Crystal, Ruby/Sapphire). Now, this could certainly be a nuisance, especially if they steal important things like keys, but this behavior could be used to your advantage. Murkrows have been known to happily trade shiny things with trainers they like, making shiny things the perfect treat to use in training to reinforce good behaviors (Moon). Plus, you never know what interesting things your murkrow may offer you in return!

Finally, and this is a huge plus, murkrows are hardly dangerous to humans. Their pool of moves is limited, restricted almost entirely to physical moves that may hurt, sure, but would be far from dangerous considering the pokémon’s small size. In the wild, these pokémon find strength in numbers, as they’re not a serious threat on their own. As far as I can tell, there isn’t any serious safety concerns here.

All in all, so long as you like to stay up late and don’t mind buying some shiny things to use as treats, a murkrow may indeed make a good pet for you! Just watch out for wild honchkrows!