#dark confluence

[ostrichmonkey-games]

I'm deep in the writing Dark Confluence mines, so as a treat for me and you, roll d66 (two d6, but treat the results as separate integers, i.e. rolling a 1 and a 5 is 15), and tell me if you want to know your Fragment's Fate or if you want a Curse.

[ennaih]

Not Every Film I Watch In 2024

33. Orion And The Dark (2024)

[4whimsicalwanderweekendblog]

[flock-of-cassowaries]

[reasonsforhope]

"Evening is approaching at the confluence of two rivers in the Bay of Bengal — the Payra and Bishkhali. Still, the fishermen at the pier in Gazimahmud village are busy preparing for the next day’s work — every boat here is now illuminated by small solar-powered devices.

“Solar power is now not only in homes, it is also at our work. Now, there is no rush to return home when it is evening,” says fisherman Altaf Hossain, who is arranging fishing nets in his boat so that he’s ready for tomorrow.

Hossain is now able to work longer hours and boost his income, and he doesn’t have to worry about his wife and kids at home at night. The children sit under a solar-powered light to study, while Hossain’s wife, Roksana Begum, does various chores.

“The sun gives us light both during the day and at night,” Begum says. “It has made our lives much easier and has changed our livelihoods.”

Gazimahmud village is about 30 kilometres away from Barguna Sadar, the southernmost district of Bangladesh. A winding road leads to this village, where the sea and two rivers meet. The people of this remote community still remember the devastation caused by the powerful Cyclone Sidr in 2007, when 30 locals died. When the storm hit, it was difficult for many to reach safety as the entire area was dark. Now, thanks to most of the houses in the village having solar power, the community feels better prepared for future disasters.

“We have more faith in solar power, because, when a storm comes, the electricity connection may be disconnected or the power may be turned off, but solar power helps us to find a safe shelter by showing us the way,” says resident Monir Hossain.

Unprecedented success

Bangladesh has implemented the world’s largest off-grid solar power programme, with 20 million people across the country benefiting, according to the World Bank.

What began as a pilot project in 2003, involving 50,000 households, ultimately reached 14% of the population within 15 years, while some 200,000 rural businesses and religious facilities benefited from the Solar Home Systems (SHS) initiative as well.

The programme, which officially ran until 2018, was implemented in partnership with the private sector. Among other measures, the state provided generous incentives, such as tax breaks, for rooftop solar installers, and also focused on ensuring financing mechanisms were in place.

Together with 56 partner organisations, the government installed 4.1 million solar systems in remote areas by 2018.

According to the World Bank, the initiative has improved health and living conditions — including by reducing the use of kerosene lamps and thereby tackling indoor air pollution — and boosted school attendance. It also led to household solar becoming “a credible electricity source”.

“The Solar Home Systems programme has shown that millions of dollars raised internationally can be efficiently leveraged to provide loans of as little as $100 in remote corners of the country, enabling a rural household to purchase a solar home system,” according to Amit Jain, a senior energy specialist at the World Bank...

To clean up its power grid and contribute to the fight against climate change, Bangladesh plans to install 4.1GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, up from around 1.2GW today."

-via The Progress Playbook, March 10, 2025

[manessha545]

Meeting of Waters, Amazon, Brazil: Confluence between Negro and Solimões.. This is Brazil’s Amazon, and the unique Meeting of the Waters, where the Rio Negro and Solimoes Rivers meet but don’t mix for miles until turn onto the mighty Amazon River... The Meeting of Waters is the confluence between the dark (blackwater) Rio Negro and the pale sandy-colored (whitewater) Amazon River, referred to as the Solimões River in Brazil upriver of this confluence. For 6 km the waters of the two rivers run side by side without mixing. This phenomenon is one of the main tourist attractions of Manaus. The river then flows another 60 km before mixing fully, but the phenomenon persists incompletely for another 30 km. Wikipedia

[astrstqr]

MAGIC 2͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏─── ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏禅 ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏͏ ͏[ ͏ ͏ ͏͏ FANTASY DR ͏ ͏͏ ͏]

yoncé speaks: for the lovely anon who asked for more spells

SPELLS ! ✩

✶ Reality Warp: Alter the battlefield to your advantage by manipulating the environment. Create or destroy terrain, summon barriers, or change the properties of the area to hinder enemies and aid allies.

✶ Genesis Wave: A powerful creation spell that can generate new structures, landscapes, or even life forms. Use it to build fortifications, create allies, or reshape the battlefield to your liking.

✶ Eden's Garden: Create a lush, vibrant garden that heals allies, entangles enemies, and produces magical fruits that grant temporary power boosts.

✶ Quantum Shift: Alter the properties of objects and terrain, turning solid ground into liquid, walls into doorways, and weapons into harmless objects.

✶ Arcane Arsenal: Conjures an array of magical weapons that float around the caster, ready to strike at nearby enemies. The weapons can be of various types, dealing different kinds of damage.

✶ Prismatic Elemental Storm: Combine all elemental magics into a devastating storm of fire, water, earth, air, and lightning. This spell can target multiple enemies, creating chaos on the battlefield.

✶ Aurora Veil: A defensive spell that creates a shimmering barrier of light and ice around allies, reflecting and absorbing incoming attacks while slowly healing those within its radius.

✶ Elemental Confluence: Combines the power of the four classical elements—earth, air, fire, and water—into a devastating attack that deals massive damage and affects a large area.

✶ Verdant Surge: Causes a rapid growth of plants and vines in the area, which can entangle enemies, create cover, or provide a boost to nature-based magic.

✶ Glacial Prison: Encases a target in a block of ice, immobilizing them and dealing cold damage over time. Can also be used defensively to shield allies.

✶ Volcanic Eruption: Causes a violent burst of magma to erupt from the ground, dealing fire and earth damage over a wide area and creating hazardous terrain.

✶ Abyssal Tsunami: Control the ocean to create a massive wave imbued with dark energy, capable of engulfing and draining the life force of enemies.

✶ Thunderstorm Armament: Envelop yourself in a storm of lightning, increasing your speed and reflexes while discharging electricity with each attack.

✶ Gale Force Prison: Trap enemies in a swirling vortex of wind that immobilizes them and slices through their defenses with razor-sharp gusts.

✶ Frostbite Field: Create a vast area of extreme cold that freezes everything in its path, slowing down enemies and making the terrain hazardous.

✶ Quicksand Trap: Manipulate the earth to form quicksand beneath your enemies, pulling them down and immobilizing them.

✶ Meteor Shower: Call down a barrage of meteors from the sky, causing widespread devastation and igniting the battlefield.

✶ Fireball Volley: Launch a rapid series of fireballs at multiple targets, causing explosive damage.

✶ Ice Spear: Create a sharp spear of ice that can pierce through armor and freeze the target on impact.

✶ Lightning Bolt: Summon a concentrated bolt of lightning that strikes with pinpoint accuracy, stunning and electrocuting the target.

✶ Rock Barrier: Erect a sturdy wall of rock that provides cover and can be used to block enemy attacks.

✶ Water Whip: Control a stream of water to lash out at enemies, binding and restraining them with powerful currents.

✶ Wind Blade: Form a blade of compressed air that slices through enemies with the speed and sharpness of a razor.

✶ Flame Cloak: Envelop yourself in a cloak of fire, enhancing your physical attacks and burning anyone who comes into contact with you.

✶ Tidal Wave: Summon a large wave of water to sweep away enemies and create a barrier or path.

✶ Earthquake: Shake the ground violently, causing enemies to lose balance and fall while creating fissures that can trap or hinder movement.

✶ Blizzard: Create a powerful snowstorm that reduces visibility, slows down enemies, and inflicts frost damage over time.

✶ Thunder Clap: Generate a deafening shockwave of sound and lightning that stuns and disorients enemies.

✶ Magma Burst: Cause molten rock to erupt from the ground, creating hazardous terrain and dealing continuous fire damage.

yoncé speaks: hope you like :D

[ostrichmonkey-games]

I have had some Intriguing ideas about how I want to reboot Dark Confluence.

Most of what's there is going to end up staying (yay!), but mechanically, I want to combine elements of a hex/pointcrawl procedure with the "collect clues and collectively piece together your own mystery" procedures of Apocalypse Keys/Brindlewood Bay.

The "clues" being the ambiguous "lore snippets" that are attached to everything in the game (backgrounds, skills, items, magic, npcs, etc etc). Basically, just like a souls game, you collect all these pieces of information and try to draw your own connections and conclusions about the narrative.

I think this is what a "lore crawl" might look like.

[cece693]

Hannibal x male reader who is seemingly not that bright been getting away with murder for a LONG time (primary targets r pedos) and 1 night when Hannibal is disposing a body he sees reader doing the same by making it seem like the most recent victim simply died in a cave system?

Thanks for the ask! I changed your request slightly since I thought of ideas for a 'himbo' reader. In this fic, the reader is smart but acts dumb to stray people from looking into his murders. Kinda like Hannibal, but the reader knows if he acts clueless, people would overlook him. It isn't what you asked for, but I think it came out alright. Hope you enjoy!

The Unlikely Confluence

pairing: hannibal lecter x male reader tags: you're a murderer, duh, dinner invitations, I changed your ask to have the reader be bright but act like a dummy in the presence of others, I want to write for himbo readers separately, I actually have a lot of ideas and would like to flesh them out in another post :)

You hum softly to yourself, the quiet of the night pressing around you like a heavy blanket. The noises that do manage to break into your concentration—a cricket’s chirp, the low hoot of an owl—seem distant, as though you’ve chosen to exist in a dimension occupied solely by you and your current task. The flashlight between your teeth flickers, illuminating the dripping limestone walls. You pause and delicately shift it in your mouth to bite down on a less chewed groove. It’s easy to lose track of the right angle when you’re elbow-deep in mud and rock, but you can’t afford to drop your only source of light down here.

You’ve never been one to study complicated subjects or chase lofty degrees. People say you’re not that bright, and, in some ways, you agree. Patience has never been your strong suit either; you prefer the direct route in life. You don’t need fancy words to let you know how the world works. If anything, your unassuming nature has become a perfect cloak, allowing you to slip under the radar. And that small oversight on people’s part has kept you alive—and, more importantly, uncaught—for years.

Tonight, you’re making it look like yet another unseemly accident. There’s a labyrinthine network of caves beyond city limits—poorly marked and rarely frequented except by adventurous spelunkers who think they can handle nature’s darkest corners. It’s the ideal place to ensure a body won’t be found, at least not until time and moisture have had their way with it. The person you’re disposing of isn’t exactly a pillar of the community—like most of your targets, he wouldn’t have garnered pity if the world discovered his predilections. You’ve done the world a favor, or at least that’s how you justify it.

You straighten, wiping your brow, and set the flashlight on a jagged rock shelf so you can wrestle the limp body deeper into the shadows. The entire place smells like damp earth and stale air, with the faint metallic bite of blood that you’ve tried hard to rinse away. Suddenly, the small hairs on the back of your neck prickle.

You still.

It’s that primal warning that tells you something is there—someone is there—watching. Standing absolutely still, you pull in a breath, then slowly edge one hand into your jacket pocket. The blade there is a last resort; you’re not used to being caught off-guard. So you wait, quietly, mentally cursing yourself for letting your guard down.

A voice curls through the darkness like a silky cat: “I do hope I’m not interrupting.”

You would know that cultured lilt anywhere—on the news, from that one time you met him in person and swore you’d never get close again. Hannibal Lecter steps forward with the elegance of a well-groomed feline, eyes bright with a curiosity that you can’t fully parse. He carries a bundle wrapped in dark cloth—about the size of a human torso.

His eyes roam the scene, taking in the soaked cuffs of your pants, the wet stains on your jacket, the fresh scuff marks in the mud. You feel suddenly self-conscious, though you can’t quite place why. You’re covered in dirt, blood spatter, and your hair is plastered flat on your forehead. He, by contrast, remains immaculate even in this dank space, as though filth simply doesn’t dare cling to him.

“And who, might I ask, is your unfortunate friend?”

You let out a laugh that comes out more as a short bark. “Somebody who deserved it. I…I only go after certain sorts.” You’re not sure why you choose to disclose that, but something about him invites honesty. Maybe it’s the way he stares like he can peel your mind open on a cutting board.

“Do you?” he prompts, voice curiously gentle.

You nod, a tension flooding out of your shoulders. “Pedophiles,” you say, near-spitting the word. “World won’t miss him.”

There's a flicker in his gaze, surprise and something else—approval, maybe. “I see.”

It strikes you that you might not be the only one in the world who carefully selects their victims. And you can’t help but wonder what draws his lines, what cause Hannibal Lecter finds worthy of a final punishment.

“So, what now?” you ask, looking him in the eye, though you can’t hold that intense gaze for long. “We pretend we didn't see each other and go our merry way or...?"

He seems slightly amused by your directness. “It would be prudent for us both to complete our business and leave no trace.” His gaze shifts to the body behind you, then to the corpse-shaped object wrapped at his feet. “I won’t stand in your way, and I ask for the same courtesy. Mutual benefit.”

You look him over. His posture is relaxed, but you sense the tension in the lines of his shoulders—he’s coiled, ready to spring if he has to. You’re not naive enough to think you have any upper hand. Although some might say you’re a bit slow on the uptake, you’ve got an instinct for trouble. And Hannibal Lecter practically vibrates with it. Yet, he hasn't pounced. There's something else: curiosity in his eyes, a calm, amused interest that doesn't read as immediate hostility. For a man with his intellect, maybe you spark some sense of fascination, an aberration from the norm.

“Guess there's enough space for the two of us.”

An understanding passes between you in the stale, humid air. Neither of you voices the obvious: if one betrays the other, you risk your own exposure. Returning to your tasks, you awkwardly step aside to let him pass. He does so, a soft swirl of expensive fabric brushing past your jacket. Together—but not quite side by side—you maneuver deeper into the winding tunnels. The hush of dripping water and your own carefully measured footsteps become a strange rhythm, punctuated only by Hannibal’s occasional murmur of observation:

“Mind the uneven rock there.” “You seem well-practiced in this.” “Let’s ensure we depart long before dawn.”

He never says your name; you never give it. For the next hour, you’re simply two men working in tandem—clearing away mud, setting remains in places that will be submerged by the rising water, carefully packing out anything that could link either of you to the scene. “Thanks,” you said quietly, hardly believing your own luck. “Never worked with someone before.”

“Nor I. Typically I work in solitude.” He stepped aside, letting you get your footing. The both of you stared at the bodies—yours tucked cleverly against a rocky pool, his still in the tarpaulin. With the ground mostly rid of footprints, Hannibal jerked his chin toward the cave’s deeper passages. “I’ll finish up in another chamber,” he said. “And you…?”

You stuffed your hands in your pockets, trying to feign a clueless shrug, but you felt a twitch of excitement. This man—this gentleman in fine suits, who carried bodies around like an art piece—was oddly magnetic. “Think I’ll head home,” you said. “Probably break up the night with a snack.”

Hannibal stepped closer, just enough that you caught the scent of his cologne—something subtle, refined. “A snack,” he echoed. “That reminds me: might I invite you to my home for dinner sometime?”

You blinked, processing the abrupt invitation. “Dinner?”

His lips curved. “Yes. Given that we share such distinctive interests, I’d like to hear your stories. You have an unexpectedly clever mind, and I have quite the appetite for intriguing conversation.”

You considered it, but were uncertain. “I’m not exactly the fancy type.”

His voice went low, confident. “I can assure you, I welcome many sorts at my table. Even those who might appear less worldly than they truly are.”

Before your mind could protest, you found yourself giving him a slow nod. The quiet quake of adrenaline that had thrummed through your body for the past half hour melted away into a cautious, enthralled acceptance. “Sure,” you muttered at last. “I…That’d be nice.”

Hannibal’s smile deepened by a fraction, as though you’d passed some unspoken test. “I’ll find a way to contact you,” he said, sounding reassuringly certain. Then he inclined his head. “Best not to dally. We both have details to complete before the sun’s up.”

With that, he turned, footsteps echoing into the far recesses of the cavern, dragging the tarpaulin-wrapped body behind him with a grace that belonged nowhere near such a macabre chore. You stood motionless, watching until the darkness swallowed him whole. A shaky exhale left your lungs. You felt like you’d just survived a near-death encounter, yet emerged with an odd sense of possibility. You didn’t know whether Hannibal Lecter was a man to be feared or revered—maybe both. Whatever lay ahead, dinner with Dr. Hannibal Lecter would be anything but ordinary.

[uwmspeccoll]

Winter Solstice 2024

It is cold and it is dark, but the Winter Solstice brings the promise of light's return and the warming of our world. To celebrate this most important day, we feature a naturally-dyed wool weaving entitled Náhookǫsji Hai (Winter in the North) / Biboon Giiwedinong (It is Winter in the North) held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) and produced by Navajo artist D. Y. Begay in 2018. This image, which is only a portion of the slightly larger work, is from our copy of the exhibition catalog Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists edited by Jill Ahlberg Yohe and Teri Greeves (Kiowa) and published by the MIA in association with the University of Washington Press in 2019.

D.Y. Begay (b. 1953), a Navajo born to the Totsohni’ (Big Water) Clan and born for the Tachinii’ (Red Running into Earth) Clan, is a fourth-generation weaver. Begay’s tapestries encompass her interpretation of the natural beauty and descriptive colors of the Navajo reservation, reflecting on her Navajo identity and her family’s weaving tradition. This spiritual connection to the plants yields the natural colors that are transformed into evocative land formations on her loom. Of the weaving shown here, Jennifer McLerran, curator at the Museum of Northern Arizona and a retired assistant professor of art history at Northern Arizona University, writes:

Most of D. Y. Begay's textiles respond to the Southwest landscape in which she was raised and resides today. For this work, a textile produced with all-natural dyes and handspun wool, Begay traveled to Minnesota in the depths of winter to observe the land surrounding the Grand Portage Indian Reservation of the Ojibwe people. Over an extended period she observed changing light conditions as the sun and clouds moved across the sky, altering the hues of snow and water.

D. Y. Begay with her weaving Confluence of Lavender by Arizona videographer Kelso Meyer, 2016. From the University of Virginia Mellon Indigenous Arts Program.

We wish you a most serene Winter Solstice.

View posts from Winter Solstices past.

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

[whencyclopedia]

Gods & Goddesses of Ancient Egypt - A Brief History

The land of ancient Egypt was alive with the spirit of the gods. The sun god Ra broke from the darkness every morning in his great boat, bringing the light, and many of the gods watched over the people by night as the stars. Osiris caused the Nile River to flood its banks and fertilize the land while Khnum directed its flow. Isis and her sister Nephthys walked with the people of the land in life and protected them after death, as did many of the other gods, and Bastet guarded the lives of women and watched over the home. Tenenet was the goddess of beer and brewing and also present at childbirth, while Hathor, who had many roles, was one's close companion at any party or festival as the Lady of Drunkenness.

The gods and goddesses were not distant deities to be feared but close friends who lived among the people in the temple-homes built for them, in the trees, lakes, streams, swamps, and out in the desert beyond the Nile River Valley. When the hot winds blew in from the arid wastes it was not just a confluence of air but the god Set stirring up some trouble. When the rain fell it was a gift of the goddess Tefnut, "She of Moisture", who also was associated with dryness and was asked to hold back the rain on festival days. Human beings were born from the tears of Atum (also known as Ra) when he wept for joy at the return of his children Shu and Tefnut in the beginning of time when the world was created from the waters of chaos. In all aspects of life, the deities of Egypt were present and continued to care for their people after death.

Origins of the Deities

Belief in supernatural entities is attested to as early as the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000-3150 BCE) but the practice is no doubt much older. As historian Margaret Bunson writes:

The Egyptians lived with forces that they did not understand. Storms, earthquakes, floods, and dry periods all seemed inexplicable, yet the people realized acutely that natural forces had an impact on human affairs. The spirits of nature were thus deemed powerful in view of the damage they could inflict on humans (98).

The early belief in the gods took the forms of animism, the belief that inanimate objects, plants, animals, the earth have souls and are imbued with the divine spark; fetishism, the belief that an object had consciousness and supernatural powers; and totemism, the belief that individuals or clans have a spiritual relationship with a certain plant, animal, or symbol. In the Predynastic Period animism was the primary understanding of the universe, as it was with early people in any culture. Bunson writes, "Through animism humankind sought to explain natural forces and the place of human beings in the pattern of life on earth" (98). Animism not only concerned higher cosmic forces and earth energy but the souls of those who had died. Bunson explains:

The Egyptians believed firmly that death was just a doorway to another form of existence, so they acknowledged the possibility that those who had died were more powerful in their resurrected state. Thus politically, spiritually, or magically powerful members of each community took on special significance in death or in the realm beyond the grave. Special care was taken to provide such souls with all due honors, offerings, and reverence. Dead persons were thought to be able to involve themselves in the affairs of the living, for good or ill, and thus had to be placated with daily sacrifices (98).

The belief in a life after death gave rise to an understanding of supernatural beings who presided over this other realm which connected them to the earthly plane seamlessly. The early evolution of religious belief can perhaps best be summed up by the line from Emily Dickinson's poem number 96 (best known as My Life Closed Twice Before its Close): "Parting is all we know of heaven" or from Larkin's Aubade where religion is "created to pretend we never die." The experience of death required some explanation and meaning which was provided by a belief in higher powers.

Animism branched off into fetishism and totemism. Fetishism is exemplified in the symbol of the djed, representing earthly and cosmic stability. The djed symbol is thought to have originally been a fertility sign, which came to be associated with Osiris so closely that inscriptions such as "the Djed is laid on its side" meant Osiris had died while the raising of the djed symbolized his resurrection. Totemism evolved out of local association with a certain plant or animal. Every nome (province) of ancient Egypt had its own totem, whether a plant, animal, or symbol, which signified the people's spiritual connection to that locale. Every Egyptian army marched into battle divided into nomes, and each nome carried its own staff flying its totem. Individuals each had their own totem, their own spirit guide who watched over them especially. The king of Egypt, in any period, was watched over by a hawk who represented the god Horus.

In time, these spirits understood through animism became anthropomorphized (attributing human characteristics to non-human things). The invisible spirits which inhabited the universe were given form, shape, and names and these became the deities of ancient Egypt.

Continue reading...

[serpentface]

The earth wheel.

This is a Wardi symbolic motif that represents God and the world in totality, and embodies the philosophy of life at large being sustained by perpetual cycles of death and birth, from human and animal life, to the world's seasons, to the sun and moons.

The wheel can be simplified into a basic design of a circle with a cross through it, though this more elaborate form has emerged and become prominent as a confluence of different symbols, and depicts a near-complete cosmological worldview. The full wheel has an outer and inner circle, four suns along the spokes, a lotus at the center, and two connected serpents surrounding it.

The earth wheel is most succinctly a model of the cycles of human life and the seasons, which are reckoned as following the same basic patterns. To this end, it is partially an abstract representation of the solar calendar, which is divided up into two great seasons and subdivided into four suns (months are divided separately as twelve 30-day months and one 5-day intercalary month, and not represented in this symbol).

The season Anaemache starts after the winter solstice on the solar calendar. It is divided into two suns, Inyaweno (the newborn sun after the winter solstice) and Anijinya (the ripening sun after the spring equinox), and Roughly contains the winter and spring seasons. It is the time in which most crops are planted and most rain falls, when most livestock and wild animals give birth, when the earth sees renewal and peak growth, the sun is reborn and the days grow long. On the wheel, it is represented by the dark half of the outer circle, with the color black being partly associated with purity of water, fertile potential, good soil, and feminine qualities.

This season is considered analogous to gestation, birth, childhood, and the cusp of adulthood in the human lifecycle, when the body is young and strong and reaching its prime.

The season Inyamache starts after the summer solstice on the solar calendar. It is divided into two suns, Inyare (the mature, waning sun after the summer solstice) and Tlinya (the dying sun after the autumn equinox), and Roughly contains the summer and autumn seasons. It is the time where most crops are harvested, when most livestock and wild animals breed, little rain falls and plants begin to wither, the days grow shorter and the sun finally dies. On the wheel, it is represented by the light half, with the color white being associated with purity of light, transformation, sunlight, and masculine qualities.

This season is considered analogous to adulthood, procreation, aging, and death in the human life cycle, when a person's purpose shifts to tending the next generation and their body passes out of its prime and nears its end.

This solar calendar-based wheel does not intend to measure the material conditions of the seasons with great accuracy (Inyamache conditions take up more of the year than Anaemache, for one thing), but rather to represent and unify the changes of the sun, earth, and human life under the same philosophical model.

The internal structure of the wheel symbolizes the earth itself and life within. The darkened half in this portion is representative of death and night, the lightened half is birth and day. A lotus motif fills the center, indicative of life itself being perpetually sustained by these cycles, and a representation of God's dead physical body being renewed into a living earth. Lotuses are very central symbols of birth, fertility, and seasonal renewal, and most variants of the creation story describe both God and the first people either emerging Like or As lotuses (the mythical first man Hounyari's name is a compounded 'first of the lotuses').

The spokes represent four great transitional periods of human life, being one's birth, coming of age, procreation, and death. All of these transitions support the movement of the greater wheel and are necessary for the perpetuation of life and of one's people. The spokes also represent the solstices and equinoxes, which can be symbolically compared to these transitional periods (most straightforwardly with the winter solstice and death + the summer solstice + adulthood). They are additionally sometimes framed as representing the cardinal directions, particularly with east and west having birth/death associations respectively due to the daily movements of the sun and the remnants of old beliefs that the afterlife (or its entrance) was located past the western horizon where the sun sets.

The center typically either includes one of the logograms representing God (itself partially consisting of the same earth wheel motif), or just a smaller, simplified wheel. From the wheel-as-God angle, this hub is the deity's soul, the inner circle is Its body/earth, and the outer circle, serpents, or both can represent Its flowing living spirit and perpetual motions. The eating and being eaten form of these vipers can be seen as an angle on the human-God relationship, representing the connectivity between the living spirits of people and God, and the duty of mutual sacrifice to sustain a greater cycle. If the pathway of their interacting bodies is broken, the whole wheel falls apart.

The serpents can alternatively be interpreted as representations of the primordial sea and sky (with God having emerged from their interplay), or more commonly as God in Its pre-creation primordial form As sea and sky in interaction. From the astronomical model standpoint, the two-as-one serpents can also be seen as God as Kusomache (almost always depicted as conjoined or two headed serpents), which governs the movements of the heavens, forms the pathway to the afterlife, and carries human souls into the bodies of infants at birth.

Serpents themselves fall under the category of 'symbols of rebirth', recognized in their ability to shed their skin. The snakes depicted on the earth wheel are usually vipers (most specifically abstractions of the tahamit viper, the most dangerous but also most culturally valued). These are among the animals considered sacred (though on the feared side) in the Wardi worldview, epitomizing death and rebirth via their skin shedding, their ability to give live birth, and the death-dealing qualities of their venom.

[starfallforest]

SINGULARITY » 1.9k words tags: NSFW, reader is gender neutral, xavier bottoms a/n: I do not kid you when I say we're jumping right in it babes with that nsfw tag! things might get a little weird. I even did research for this lil guy. a super thank you to my friends (especially @ourlittleuluru and @leaderincrows) for being supportive of my first fic in awhile 💙 ao3: 🔗​link summary: When Xavier orgasms, your combined Evol disrupts the cosmos.

When Xavier cums, it’s a flash in the night—a lighthouse beacon in the storm of you. When he cums, his entire body alights, and with his skin translucent under your wavering gaze, you can count every vein beneath his surface. He shudders violently against you, wet and wanting, as the bones of his fingers bite into your arms like the jaws of a snare.

He didn’t warn you it would be like this. He didn’t warn you he would be like this.

Moments ago, he watched you through heavy lids as you pumped your hips to him. The back of his hand was pressed to his mouth—a self-soothing habit he never quite shook. You listened to his muffled panting, studied the way his knuckles tapped against his lips with each stir of your body. His eyes were black and starless, his mind a void you couldn’t reach. But you were trying. Gods, were you trying.

You bent over him, ran your fingers over the crag of muscle tensed along his neck. 

“Relax, Xavier,” you exhaled over him, as if you could breathe life into the command. Then you paused. 

“Do… you want to stop?”

“N-no—”

It comes out as a quiver, an apology ripe on his tongue. It’d been there all night: a forbidden fruit dangling over the both of you. A sorry, never uttered, in every lingering touch. Overripe. Rotting. 

He seemed to notice your hesitation then, barking out a laugh that was dark and desperate. 

“Trying—” he ground out, voice strained. “This is—” 

The rest of the words were lost when your fingertips reached the line of his jaw.

It happened all at once: the hitch of his breath, the grip of his fingers at your wrist. For just a moment he gaped at you—marveling—eyes glinting wide in the low light. A sigh left the back of his throat as he flicked his gaze downward, turning his head towards the warmth of your hand in a single exhale of uninhibited indulgence. That’s when you saw it.

Your other hand had settled lightly over the confluence of your bodies, fingers pressing into the smooth bumps of flesh there, and like a switch you caught his eyes illuminating with a white, white light. It was gone the next instant with a clench of his eyelids, swallowed down with the veracity of a cornered animal to its prey.

He was holding himself back, you realized. He was afraid.

It made sense when you thought about it. Time was never kind to Xavier. Rather, it acted as a harbinger that took everything he ever loved and, in the cruelest ways, spared himself. How could he trust that this moment wouldn’t also bring him ruin? As if in response to your thoughts, the hand around your wrist squeezed.

You reached out once more with your free hand to drag your fingers through his hair as the realization settled like iron in the knell of your heart. This time, you wouldn’t let him go anywhere without you.

“It’s okay,” you told him, and your throat constricted at the unfamiliar promise. You bent to kiss the corner of each of his eyes, then pressed your forehead to his. For a beat you held him there inside you, breathing the scent of sweat in the space between. His grip on you relaxed.

“Alright,” he finally said, filling the quiet in earnest, filling his lungs with air. “I trust you.” 

When he looked at you, his eyes were brighter than you’d ever seen.

It was reassurance to yourself as well: It’s okay. The two words were a metronome as you dragged your body over his, quicker now. 

He moved his hands to your arms to better anchor himself to your rhythm. You pressed deeper into him, tracing your fingers along the bones of his ribcage and the skin of his neck.  

The air around you pulsed once, twice—a warning. You felt a wind pick up, warm and without origin as it ripped through your hair. Xavier’s movements quickened under you erratically. Long lashes fluttered as his eyes rolled wildly behind closed lids. You could see the light spill out from beneath them, like daybreak through your curtains. Little light particles lit up beneath you like stars.

He was close. 

With furrowed brows, he parted his lips as if he wanted to say something more, but before another word tumbled from his throat you pressed your palm against the hard ridge of his chest. His eyes shot open in an awful mix of fear and wonder and you felt all the breath leave his body at once.

“It’s okay, Xavier,” you said again, a little more firmly this time. Then you pulled your Evol from the deepest parts of you and pushed it into your fingertips.

—

Type la supernovae. Before a star erupts, it pulls the matter from the atmosphere of a nearby companion star until the pressure becomes too much and it explodes. You think he told you this once, some sleepless night on your porch stargazing together. You think you get it now, as Xavier comes apart beneath you. 

And once Xavier unravels, he’s a supernova. All at once, you feel his heat inside of you. All at once, the light of his body envelops you. 

It’s you who was his ruin, after all. It was always you. 

—

There’s nothing but white, at first, and a terrible, discordant roaring of the blood in your ears. Then the pressure in the air shifts, pitching up into an inaudible whine.

The light Xavier emits bends around you before warping out and into a thin line that stretches and settles over the both of you. Time stops. Darkness surrounds your peripheral of white.

Xavier is still beneath you, but something is wrong. His body floats, limbs splayed frozen as if suspended in liquid. Tiny solar flares slough off his skin in waves, rivulets of gold light thread the tips of his fingers and spin reflections in his unmoving eyes. Although unfocused, they remain fixed to your face as if looking through you.

“Xavier?”

At your call, his eyes snap into focus. He reaches a hand out and caresses your cheek, but at his touch, his form convulses. The edges in your vision shift wildly, kaleidoscopically. It’s mystifying, the way he flickers in and out of existence. Each time you blink, he looks different: a new hairstyle, a change of clothes. Yet his face remains the same, unchanging for eons. For reasons unknown to you, you recognize every version of him.

You take the hand at your cheek and wrap your fingers in his, clutching tightly as if he might slip away. You move your hips slightly and realize your bodies are still connected, somehow, as if you were back at home in your bed. 

“I’ve got you,” You’re not sure if he can hear you, but you’re compelled to say it nonetheless. “Don’t go… don’t go off without me again.”

In response, he leans up and kisses you, long and lingering, and the light about him swells—it blinds you, washing over the shadows where flesh meets flesh until they’ve all dissipated and the lines that separate your body from his become indistinguishable. 

You taste his ecstasy in the back of your throat. You feel the blue of his eyes burned onto your skin, your hair. The shape of your name vibrates beneath your tongue like electricity and you know, somehow, that it’s how it feels when he calls to you.

Then your body becomes heavier, unfathomable. When you look down all you see is white, white, white. There’s a coil in your belly, a tightness that drives into the core of you like an anchor. When it releases, you feel a rush of pleasure and shutter the air from your lungs. But you feel alone.

“Xavier?” you snap to attention with a start, crying out to him in the shrill of the silence. 

“I’m here,” comes his response, calm and familiar.

“Where? I don’t see you.”

An echo: “...here. I’m here.” 

Upon his response, you notice your lips are moving. Your entire face flushes hot when you realize this, the back of your hand pressing up against your mouth out of habit. Your breath wavers over the callused skin of your knuckles and your chest heaves with a weight that isn’t yours.

“I’m sorry,” your mouth forms around the words that aren’t yours—are yours. The apology takes shape in front of you. It’s an ugly little shadow amongst the white of the light in your peripheral and it reeks like rotting fruit. 

He’s sorry for not telling you this might happen. He’s sorry for going off without you. He’s sorry for taking from you, even now. Even now, he’s sorry, sorry, sorry.

Stop. 

His wall of his regret crashes against the sharpness of your will and you strike it down. In a rush of determination, you pluck the sentiment out of the air and crush it in your jaws. Lightning arcs off your teeth with a crack. You roll the regret on your tongue, tasting its bittersweet release. After a thousand deaths, after a thousand years alone, it doesn’t matter anymore. You love him—you’ve always loved him—and you will love him until he accepts that he is worthy of it.

Suddenly the relief of forgiveness seizes your body and contorts it. Your stomach drops from under you in a ripple of anticipation. An icy lightheadedness tingles all the way down your spine and as it leaves you, you can feel the sheets of the bed materialize beneath you.

Xavier is propped on his elbows over you, caging you with his forearms. Your bodies are pressed together under a layer of sweat and stardust. Xavier’s neck flashes with a beeping and a warning light. You curl your fingers into the bedsheets now fully formed beneath your palms.

“What just happened?”

Xavier blushes to the tips of his ears. “I don’t know,” he quickly admits. He silences the device at his collarbone and pulls back from you, embarrassed.

 “That’s… never happened to me before. Any of this.”

Still reeling, you sit up and tug Xavier back to you, clumsily throwing your arms over his neck. You don’t even realize your breath coming in shallow, frightened gasps. Xavier’s eyes soften and he takes your face into his large hands. 

“Are you okay?” he asks. Before you answer, he’s already pulling you in, nudging his nose along your cheek soothingly.

“I don’t know,” you answer honestly. You can feel the heat still radiating from him.

“What about you?”

He hums in thought. You feel his eyelashes flutter along your cheek.

“Something feels… different.”

He sighs into your shoulder, his warm breath summoning goosebumps along your skin. He ghosts his lips over your neck, kissing the soft tissue behind your ear.

There’re so many words unsaid between you, but as usual, Xavier relishes in the silence that hangs heavy in the empty air.

“Thank you,” is all he says. You place your hand over his at your cheek, running the other along the hair at the nape of his neck. You kiss him once, twice. When you pull away to look at him, you realize the ends of his hair are glowing golden, backlit by his own luminescence. You chuckle at the sincerity that literally emanates from him. Xavier is unreadable—and yet, somehow, he’s as evident as words on a page.

He catches on quickly to your musing. “I can’t help it,” he relents, “I feel…” He pauses deliberately and leans in to peck the corner of your mouth. 

“I feel… lighter.” His eyes wane to crescents while he gauges your reaction, pressing his mouth to you a few more times for good measure.

”My elusive star-boy,” you mumble back against his lips, smiling, “I’ll follow you to the ends of the universe.”

He laughs.

Thank you for reading! 🌝

[ryutarotakedown]

Prosecutor Kazuma Asogi – From a narrative perspective, Kazuma represents the theme of confluence and contrast between East and West. As such, this prosecutor’s outfit is based on Western clothing with Eastern flourishes. Another major task for me was how to change his appearance whilst keeping to the core elements of his design and overall form. For example, the swapping of Kazuma’s university uniform for a military-style dress uniform. Other examples include the replacement of his Eastern hachimaki headband for a Western ascot tie and his Japanese katana for a European sabre, and his eventual use of both swords at the same time. His main colours take inspiration from the Japanese flag and white snakes, which hold spiritual significance in Japanese folklore. His family crest, which is based on real janome snake eye crests, and mask are both snake-themed too. He’s also predominantly white to stand in contrast with Ryunosuke’s black uniform. I was completely sure this was the way to go when I envisioned how his dramatic return would play out when he regained his memories — a bright form emerging from under a dark cloak like a beam of light chasing the haze and darkness away (and also as though he were shedding the dark varsity jacket of his past like a layer of old skin).

what if we all died

thinking about the portrayal of race and culture in dgs again because it hurts every time. no im not talking about barok im talking about everyone else but mostly kazuma

one of the things you have to understand about kazuma asougi is that he is japanese. and despite all the criticisms he has of the empire he lives in (in 1-1 he calls japan weak-willed for bowing to the demands of britain), he's still really proud of being japanese. karuma represents his soul and his family but also his japanese heritage in general. look what he says in 1-2:

A Japanese man's sword is his soul, Ryunosuke. I can't be parted from my katana. Karuma guides me. I truly believe that.

you know what else happens in 1-2? he gets parted from his katana. and he wakes up without any of his memories except british law and the fact that he has to get to britain no matter what. and he does that by speaking english

and when he gets to london, vortex gives him a mask so no one can see his features. orders him not to speak if possible. surrounds him by white britons who only use english. gives him a saber instead of a katana, which he would know kazuma would be less instinctively familiar with. "a prosecutor reborn" uses much more western instrumentation than "samurai with a mission" and the other japanese characters' themes.

and yet when we first meet the masked apprentice we see him sitting in a seiza pose

[comets-chaos-celestial-crashing]

"I hope you're happy now I've merged dark and light."

long ago there was a cosmic enity known as Harmonia who brought Chaos through the universe for centuries until one day the powerful celestial power hours finally had it with Harmonia's reign of terror and all came together combining their powers to strip him of his harmful powers and banish him to planet known as Timeloop Pandora.

Harmonia.. Comet now that he was poweless crashed down into the planet. But before he fell to the ground he knew the impact of him hitting it wouldn't end well. So he split himself into three fragments of himself, but unfortunately it didn't go exactly as planned for Comet. The three that the once powerful enity was landed as young children.. they had no clue or memory of anything that had happened before they landed here.

The three grew up on the planet and They all became very close with each other.. it wasn't until the youngest of them turned 15 did the timeloop began changing everything on how they three saw each other.. now they must find harmony in how they feel about each other to ever be free.

More info below

Welcome to my CCCC AU!!!

I am shall be the one hosting this blog! You may call me Mod Starry. I use Any&All or ask/they/it/kye/star pronouns! I am very excited to start this blog!! I have been trying to come up with a CCCC au for about a month now and I'm very proud of how everything is looking rn!!! even though it's just the intro-

This blog was slightly inspired by @/bluestarlett's Chonny's Charming Cosmic Confluence au!

Please note that I am currently recovering from surgery and have a lot of other blogs so this blog might not be as active as much unfortunately 💔

I am a minor and aroace and the three are also Canonically minors so please do not make any suggestive/nsfw asks!!!

JMS Are all siblings in this au so please no trying to ship them!!! And Comet won't be directly interacting with anyone ^_^

With that all being said... CHARACTERS INFO TIME!!

THE MAIN ONES:

Comet/Harmonia 《""Whole""》. Uses He/it/one pronouns but mainly prefers he/him. Cis man, Celestiversic. Uses 《when speaking》

Stellan/Vega {""Soul""} Uses He/starz/kyr/any. Stargender, Demigender, boyflux. Uses {when speaking} Oldest out of the three. Being between 16 & 17 when the loop started.

Mercury/Halios [""Mind"" ] Uses It/he. Agender, Robotgender, Sungender Uses [When Speaking] Second oldest out of the Three. Age 16 when the loop started.

Juniper/June (""Heart"") Uses He/they/it/ce/her. Transmasc, Pangender/Genderfluid. Uses (when speaking) Youngest of the three. Age 15 when the timeloop began.

Characters designs & info about other characters like the celestial power hours will come eventually... hopefully.

TAG SYSTEM!!:

#Starry's devine intervention ⋆⁺₊⋆💫 – Ooc posts or questions for the mod!

#Questioning of the celestial nature ⋆⭒˚.⋆✮🌌 – Asks

#Stuck there singing songs that someone's already told ⋆˖⁺‧₊🌌 – In character posts

#Stellans spiraling condemns ₊⊹.⋆ ᯓ✮ – Asks/posts for Stellan!

#Mercury's dead leaden thoughts ⋆₊˚⭒.☀︎ – Asks/posts for Mercury!

#Juniper speaks of virtue ☪︎⁺₊🛸 – Asks/posts for Juniper!

[atamascolily]

Having examined the first half of Homura's transformation sequence (the external), I thought I'd continue with the second half (the internal). This is a very dense scene full of symbolism I don't fully understand, but I'll give it my best shot.

First up, the spool of pink thread falling through the void. This has appeared several times earlier in the film, in keeping with the whole "threads of fate" imagery, not to mention Homulilly's sewing theme and Homura's own issues with karmic destiny in general (which is inherently linked to Madoka, hence the color).

To me, the background looks like an eye, but admittedly, it's a little abstract and there could be other stuff going on here.

The thread falls past Homura as she is floating in a field of red and yellow "oil drops"

I didn't notice it until the Rebellion Production Note pointed it out but Homura literally has stars in her eyes in this shot. Cosmic!

The thread keeps spinning, but I can't tell if it's winding or unwinding at all because it moves so fast.

Note that the same circles in the background appear elsewhere in the film, most notably in the curtains of Homura's umbrella in the finale.

Homura's pose here also mirrors that of Madoka when she becomes a concept, although notably there is only one Homura here vs. a whole host of Madokas:

Homura then bites down on her soul gem and it cracks... and there's a blink and you'll miss it shot of her intact original soul gem inside!

The circles then move about and form a line, which the thread hits and transforms into the Dark Orb:

The Rebellion Production Note has this to say about the Dark Orb in this scene:

If I'm reading this right, the first caption says, "It's like a perfume bottle", (香水ビン) and the second caption reads, "Contains pink light (Madoka)" [ピンク光まどか) with an arrow pointing to the glowing circle at the center.

So, uh, yeah, in answer to my earlier question, it sure looks like Homura does have access to the Law of Cycles (Madoka) in some capacity, because it's at the core of her reformed Soul Gem--and given the confluence between inside and outside, this is also a model for Homura's universe, as the two are no longer separate from each other.

(I mean, this could be a metaphor for how Homura's love powers the universe and not actually Madoka's powers as the Law of Cycles, but the show has always made its metaphors literal in the past, I don't know why they'd stop now.)

The wings wrapped around the orb didn't make it into the final cut, but after some deliberation, they ended up attached to the salamander that represents Homura instead, because it is a fusion between them.

If you've ever wondered why this sigil was only visible in this shot, it's because it's actually on the bottom of the orb, according to the Production Note, which is why the surface is flat and not curved.

Silverstorm79 pointed out to me that the "dark" part is a cage around the "orb" and I had to go sit down for a while because the symbolism was a little too much even for me. There was also some discussion about whether this makes them literal soulmates now, and I just.... can't even.... Everything in the Rebellion Production Book has to be taken with a grain of salt because a lot of its contents never made it into the final film, but damn if Inu Curry wasn't thinking about it here.

Madoka is also the "heart" of the universe/soul gem--all of which literally exists/was created for her sake. I wonder if this has the side effect of giving her even more karmic destiny/potential than she previously had... and if, so, what would she do with it.

There's a lot in this scene that is still opaque to me (once again I wish SHAFT had been a little less esoteric with their symbolism!!!), but Dark Orb is more complex than I had initially assumed, not to mention representative of both Homura and her new universe. This suggests that changing the universe will require personal transformation on her part; one cannot be accomplished without the other. Going to have to go back and look at the other sections on the Dark Orb in light of these new revelations and see what else I can find about it.