#boning method

[thebeesforeleg]

I love that McCoy always acts annoyed when Spock calls something fascinating, but then in episodes like The Squire of Gothos, McCoy asks Spock if he finds the situation fascinating. So that he can roll his eyes when Spock says yes.

That man is always itching for an argument and I love it. And so does Spock.

[katakaluptastrophy]

"But he wore a crown of office that you had not seen before: a wreath of ribbon and pearlescent leaves in his dark hair, rustling prismatically in the windless docking bay. Each leaf was intertwined with a match-sized infant fingerbone... The foetal fingerbones and leaves crowning his hair kept swaying in some nonexistent breeze." - Harrow the Ninth, chapter 6

I finished my interpretation of John's very chill and unconcerning hair accessory!

The leaves are actually large sequins, and the bones are sculpted from Fimo clay after a rather disconcerting time on PubMed looking at papers on the biometry of phalangeal growth in utero... (each leaf is 24mm, and the bones vary from 10-15mm)

[crickets-everywhere]

Just got reminded of the "When they find your bones they'll say your female" comment

and how it won't work on me bc I intend on being cremated <3

[eggcompany]

Jayvik is so the kinda relationship where they both break up with each other every other week.

Jayce kicks Viktor out because he tripped over his cane one too many times, you know he’s got shitty old ones that he uses around the house easier and they’re always on the floor. Jayce gets a bloody nose and puts Viktor out. Viktor makes it up to him but getting him a new book.

Viktor breaks up with Jayce in the middle of a restaurant during lunch because he held his own food above Viktor’s head and wouldn’t share. (Viktor had his own food but he wanted some of Jayce’s) and he hobbles back to their apartment while Jayce follows behind him leisurely. Jayce makes it up to him in a far more inappropriate manner.

When it’s actually bad Jayce is like a kicked dog. He’s on his knees, crying, begging Viktor for forgiveness. Viktor’s more quiet, he’s reaching out after days of being out of the house, he’s taking Jayce’s hand and speaking so quietly, the words carefully thought out.

They would never actually leave each other, and they both know it.

Plus the makeup sex is always spectacular.

[theantarwitch]

Casting Cloth Template

Lately I been trying to improve my Rune/Charm/Bone casting by using some kind of cloth with quadrants but the ones I saw online were just… not my thing, they are usually too simple and is like they always need a little something. So, since I’m a “make your own shit but make it cheap” kind of witch, I made a template that’s a bit more complex. And of course, I share with everyone, in case someone find it useful.

Disclaimer: Complex. I will explain EVERYTHING, so this will not be a small post. Yet I will not explain super basic things like “what represent the moon”. That’s your job!

So, here is the idea:

Is made in a A4 very thick rough paper, which allow the runes and charms (I use both at the same time) to slide to their designated parties and don’t bounce back like can happen with cloths. This template is made in a way that you can interpret the different questions in different ways without need an entire new design.

Sections:

The Pentacle is affected by 3 circles. The inner one is the inner self, the desires, the very much core of the person/problem (I will say “topic” from now on), the main issue, the very most important thing. The one that pass between the tips of the pentacle are the closely related things that affect directly the topic. The outside circle is the context, these external things that maybe affect indirectly. Out of it, whatever that barely affect the topic, the societal and cultural aspect sort to speak, the rumors.

The page is divided by 4 pointed vertically and horizontally lines in the middle, making the Left and Right, the Up and Down sides. The Left is affected by the Moon and all what implies, specially as the “not evident stuffs affecting the topic”, as the Right is affected by the Sun and its characteristics as the “at plain sight issues”. That’s why the two suns and moons on the corners.

The Up and Down sides are to represent what’s “closer” to the person who made the question or cast the Runes (It depend on what you prefer). The down part is usually closer to me because I’m seeing that page as how this looks. It also can be used to yes/no questions, being the “special item” tossed and answering depending if is up or down the line, or if is closer to you.

The four sides of the paper represent the 4 Elements and their corresponding Cardinal Point, separated by these sword-like lines between the moon/sun and the pentacle. My Elements are related to geological cardinal points by my particular location, so let’s say that North is Fire in my case, so, they look like this (yours should and can look different by the layout of your elements/cardinal points):

So anything that falls into each one of these quadrants, will be affected by the correspondent element. So a Rune on Water, will be more linked to emotions; and an economic charm on Earth will be a great sign of good cash! The center can be affected by these or it can represent the spirit aspect, as you prefer. Each quadrant will be touching 2 other quadrants. So in my case, Fire can be touching Earth and Water, so anything that stand right in the line between them, is a conjunction of both.

Now, as you can see, each element is also separated on 3. Past, Present and Future to each Element. A charm or item that represent a Block, for example, in Past Water, can hint about emotional issues that still affect the topic now, like traumas. And an item that represent luck on Future Air, can represent an exam with a good grade.

These conjunctions can be interpreted as 4 “time mix”. In this case, you have 4 Past/Future (Which Element will affect which other should change accordingly the position of your elements). This “time mix” are exactly the line that separate each element, and can indicate effects or direct consequences. For example, in a self-cast I made, a stone (that represent blocks) and a shell (water symbol of hidden things and slow progress) fall together like a pair on the Past Water – Future Fire. This is easy to read: The consequences of your mental health and past emotions will affect directly your future passion and actions (Plot twist, I have chronic depression and my future plans are non-existing).

Disclaimer: This last text and image was fixed because I made a mistake yesterday, was 1:40 am, brain can't brain XD

For the rest, you can add or take whatever you need. Like, you can choose if the elements also affect inside the circles of the pentacle itself, or not.

If you want, you can also use the template as a tarot spread, using the Past/Present/Future Elements, the Up/Down, the Right/Left and the Pentacle like answers of a question.

Decorate it as much as you want! Mine is ultra simple or my ADHD head will get distracted with the drawings. I can suggest you make it on a perfectly squared paper/cloth, but if you make it in a A4 paper like me, if you use a ruler and pick the exact center, then the 4 quadrants will be quite the same (they look different because they are elongated in different ways, but the content is pretty much the same).

Anyway, I hope this can be useful to someone, and remember, don’t be afraid to experiment! ♥

[starberry-cupcake]

spock and bones both went like 'jim is stressed out, let's ground him by annoying him' and honestly, it worked out

[aleksanderscult]

“I think sometimes people want to be told who is good and who is bad. They want it to be very clear, with some definitive line. I believe that the people who are the most dangerous are not the people who enter your life wearing a sign saying “I’m a bad guy”, and they’re not the people who are missing a nose like Voldemort. They’re the people who are charming and manipulative and also probably carrying their own wounds, their own baggage. They can be brooding and beautiful and be monstrous. That’s what I was setting out to show with the Darkling.”

- Leigh Bardugo

Generally, she's not wrong here. In real life that's how the bad guys mostly are and there are even real life examples (like Josef Mengele) who used charm and lies to fulfill their own cruel purposes.

But with the Darkling it fails because he has a selfless goal and was never a self-centred character. She presented a character that has lived for hundreds of years, witnessed first hand a genocide that was still ongoing by the start of the trilogy and is one of the victims of this persecution.

It's very easy to judge with your finger while sitting at the comfort of your house but when you are being hunted for powers that you are born with, when they cut you to pieces like a guinea pig, when they burn you alive to pyres and when there is no safe place on Earth to stay, rest easy and live then the terms "good deeds" and "bad deeds" feel unimportant in the face of survival.

And the Darkling felt responsible to try and save thousands of them. He felt that with his near immortality and power he could do something to shift things on a large scale.

And how can things like that change?

With big decisions.

But, alas, these same decisions needed to be cruel and therefore condemned him to be seen as evil and a monster.

So even though her view is not wrong, she tried to present it with the wrong character whose goal was sympathetic and incredibly difficult to fulfill since he was surrounded by people that didn't want him and hated his guts.

[glitter-stained]

A lesser known implication of Jason Todd having long-term/chronic/belated onset Pit Madness is Ra's al Ghul's bones being extremely breakable

[lucabyte]

transfem loop + siffrin... you agree

i does agree.... i does in fact ... write a 7k word essay on the subject..... if you would like to perhaps click that link and read it if you were not already aware...... kisses u on the forehead......... sorry its that long but i had to cover all of my bases you know how it is with textual analysis when you're trying to draw a distinction between "headcanon" and "reading of the text" because those are different things.... to meeeeeeee.......

[templeofvengeance]

[These quizzes are so fkin hard to do for Khonshu]

[lillith-shifts]

I spent 4 hours on character ai last night talking to a Lance Sweets ai. I was kicking my feet, blushing, squealing. It was crazy man. This is going to be a fun addiction.

[neurodivergentshiftingcultureis]

neurodivergent shifting culture is either doing a method to a T or not doing that method

Neurodivergent Shifting Culture is…

[bubbleteasing]

I drew a quick sketch for a new story I have in the works 😩

Mc is a radio host and Sans is a physiotherapist. They meet after she has a car accident on her way to work 👉👈

[rileyisanerd]

pppppppprrrrrrrrrrrr pppr prrr

[wardensantoineandevka]

I do love thinking about how Beatrix, Jean, and Nathaniel are likely still out there in Newfaire during all this Tide & Bone stuff. Twelve years older, definitely retired from the field but probably still talking shit and having opinions about Candela's bureaucracy and fraught approach with its circles.

[bonespired]

When to unbury a carcass? (If it was buried in the fall?) /The Fox Project/

My first fresh, whole body rot down carcass experience is now collected.

At the beginning of this fall, I received a call from a friend who said he had run into a fresh fox carcass while dog walking in the forest. I wanted an adult fox for a long while now - I have a juvenile one, but not an adult. And from an artistic standpoint foxes are very interesting, because on the outside they look like they have a wolf-like skull, but nothing is farther from the truth, so this fox would be a very prized member of my reference collection.

The only problem was that we were right at the beginning of fall- that means everything that helps the rotting process was just about to halt. I couldn't leave her out in the open, so I had to relocate her, but did I want to take the head and clean it in the fast way or clean in the slow way?

Let's talk a bit about the fast and slow ways!

With the fast way, I could just chop off the head right at the atlas, bag it, take it home, skin it, deflesh it, and either way macerate it - I do have a heater for it - or even boil it. Yes, I know boiling is easy to fuck up and ruin bones, but sometimes I do use boil. I boiled a small rat skull, because burying left me with a fall-apart tiny rat skull (that I glued together, but oh God, I don't want to re-live the experience). But defleshing a skull by hand won't give me a 100% clean end result, because there are places that I simply cannot reach. Macerating is not my favourite method, because of very smelly reasons - but sometimes I have no other choice.

The slow method, however, is simple - just bury the fox, mark the place, try to secure it the best you can and wait.

The first method is fast and secures the skull, sure as hell I won't loose the skull or teeth. The second is cleaner, but I can lose the whole carcass anytime, and the question is when to unbury it without giving myself nightmares is also on.

At the end the species of the carcass made the decision: this is a fox. And even if rabies is rare where I live, we still have it and sure as hell I won't skin a wild animal without knowing the COD for sure - my best bet is she was killed by a human, foxes with rabies tend to hide before dying. She was found very close to a farm with chickens, so I think the farm owner either shot her or poisoned her - she died next to the creek, probably got caught drinking or went to drink bc of rat poison. But I couldn't know for sure. So, gloves on, bagged her and went to bury her.

But for how long?

After burying her, I went out on the internet to collect some data about how long it takes for a medium-sized, fully intact, non-skinned animal to rot down underground, starting with the cold months. Found Jake's blog and he happened to have a very similar project to mine - a whole, intact fox he buried right at the beginning of the fall - if I recall correctly - without skinning. He let his fox rot down for a whole year and at the end, he pulled out a whole, clean skeleton: no fur, no skin.

Well, Jake is living in Scotland. Scotland is slightly colder and definitely wetter than my country, but overall we have very similar weather. If his fox took a whole year to decompose fully, mine probably takes the same amount of time. But if I am paranoid - and I often am, lost some great finds in nature before - I can give my fox a visit in 6 months maybe. I only wanted the head, but Jake wanted the whole skelly for his project.

Fast forward 6 months, things went well, the fox remained undisturbed, and I felt like maybe the skull is in a collectible state, so yesterday evening nagged the husband into checking on the fox.

This will be easy, I thought. We know where she is, I thought. Just digging a bit and pulling out clean bones, I thought.

Yeah, I was an idiot.

The place was there, still undisturbed, everything went fine, moving the logs away, we put on her, to make things harder for fellow foxes to dig her out. And I started to dig. And dig. And dig. And when I didn't find any trace of her, I started to get worried.

What I did find was tons of bugs - the forest soil is extremely rich and living. Perfect choice to let a girl with a bug phobia dig - I literally scream-jumped every five minutes, whenever something slimy moved as I uncovered it. But this is my hobby, and the hobby has dark moments as well.

But after that hour, I really started to turn blue. I really wanted this fox, and I knew bones can change places when you bury them, but they are literally disappearing??? I totally thought I lost a whole freaking fox in the forest. Plus, I also wanted to go an hour before sunset, because this will be an easy job, and won't take long. So we were out there, in the forest, digging and occasionally screaming in the cold and dark like idiots, while I developed a small emotional breakdown over losing a skull. This was the point when the husband decided we won't go home without finding the bones, and he found her literally within 5 minutes. I should let him dig right from the start.

How I imagined finding her was we find some fur, because creatine is the last to go (not counting the bones) and with luck that's it, no horror, just bones. What we got however was the fur, the bones and the freaking skin still clinging to life. Skin is always the thoughtest part of the body, it just refuses to step into oblivion. But considering we buried this lady, all intact at the beginning of the cold months, spent 6 months underground, with a relatively mild winter, it was enough for all the soft tissues, organs, flesh, everything to be fairly gone. Except the skin.

All in all, we found the skull, collected the skull, sadly lost 3 small teeth - had no chance to find them - and a canine, but I found the canine. Brought home, washed, hopefully did not lose any more teeth - double checked, so I have to have them all - and now she is degreasing. Which will be several weeks probably - I could see on the teeth they still have stuff inside them, but somehow hoped the skull was finished with the marrow. As it looks like, that's not the case, tons of grease are releasing from the skull and degreasing always takes ages without heavy chemicals.

Conclusion

If you buried something medium-sized, fresh, and intact at the beginning of the cold months, and are wondering when you can unbury it:

Depends on the weather, but if you have a winter where the average temperature is below the freezing point, but not above 10 Celsius, the rotting will still take place relatively speedy - enough for all the organs and flesh to go. This means 6 months. So all fall and winter. You can give a try to unbury the carcass, if you are ready to deal with the degrease that's coming and the sight of the still rotting skin. Teeth will be loose, watch out for them!

Degreasing. 6 cold months apparently is not enough to get rid of the marrow totally. This means you still have to do a full degreasing round. Depending on what you use, this can mean months. If you don't want to deal with that much grease, I'd leave the carcass underground for a whole year. (But if I recall, Jake also spent long weeks with degreasing after a year of rotting down his fox.)

If you have colder weather than this - freezing, snowing, minus degrees - I would definitely wait until next fall to unbury, just to be sure, so a whole year spent underground.

Mark the spot! And not just the area where you buried - the spot where you put the carcass! Take photos of the carcass in what position you put it on the ground, where the head is, etc! It caused some real pain to find her, where she is exactly, and then which end is which. Bones move over time, but not under this short amount of time - probably everything will be where you left it.

DO NOT go out to unbury the carcass right before sunset. You don't know how much you have to look for the carcass. If you are worried about being spotted, pick a period of the day when people is not around - dawn or morning.

Gloves (spare pairs too!), bag, and hand sanitizer are a MUST! Rabies is not a problem with tissue gone, but you can still get an infection from the juices.

That's it for now, the project goes on. I will probably degrease the bones for weeks now. As for disinfection, sadly I don't have liquid peroxide, only cream. Still looking for the liquid one, but ever since I cannot make sure the cream will cover every inch of the skull, I prepare to boil the skull a tiny bit. I am extremely cautious with boiling though - I am not cooking, just disinfecting. Plan to give her a 10-minute long simmer bath (max) depending on the bones. I boiled my juvenile longer - as my first skull, I had no idea how long I should do it - and the skull is still perfectly fine, not damaged, so 10 mins won't kill my adult fox either.

Will come back with updates though!