#he's so ascetic <3

[bumblingbabooshka]

Archery Science Professor at the Vulcan Institute of Defensive Arts [Patreon | Commissions]

[kebiday]

of course ppl have no obligation to care about characters they don't like... & fandom is about doing what you want and having fun... & it's inevitable for fanon to simplify the cast into little cardboard cutouts...

but i Do wish that ppl who pour a lot of love & effort into analyzing + developing the relationships of + having empathy for the circumstances of the main characters would extend more than a fraction of that to other characters. like my favorite girl kevin day 🐈‍⬛

[nrdmssgs]

Little things, they do 2 (Price, Ghost, Gaz) (headcannons)

Masterlist

Part 1 (Alex, Soap, König) here

Little things, they do, that get you every time. Silly, warm, heart-melting, wholesome things.

Captain John Price

Knuckle kisses. That's it.

Praises you not only when you succeed, but also when you fail. “I know, you tried so hard, love. This doesn't make you lesser. You don't have to prove anything to me. I'm proud of you. You're enough.”

Compliments you at the most random times. You've just woken up with an absolute mess on your head, or you walk around the house in old faded sweatpants and a dirty T-shirt because the rest of the clothes are being washed? John takes your hand, brings it to his lips and whispers "You are incredibly beautiful." or “How did an old git like me ended up with the most gorgeous, hottest  human being out there?”

He has this habit of going behind your back and leaning close to your very ear while telling you something. Maybe he just likes to feel you close and uses it as an excuse, maybe he wants to “envelop” you in a way, hide you from the whole world, sharing his knowledge, feeling, how interested you are in a topic.

One of those people to actually use paper and envelopes, that some hotel still provide their rooms with. You get these long 3-5 page letters from different corners of earth every now and then. They can be absolutely platonic - he can literally describe, what he's seen or overheard on the streets lately or rant about how he wants to hear seabirds voices, but they are interrupted by the unceasing roar of engines and roadworks here… But you see it: every line screams “I love you. I freaking love you so much, it's almost 4 am here, and I'm still wide awake, because I need to write to you, to communicate in any way that will be safe for you.” 

Simon Ghost Riley

He is no stranger to triggered stress or panic. So if you have any phobia, and he finds out about it - he starts protecting you from its triggers. Let's say, you're scared of spiders and scorpions. Even a picture of one can absolutely freak you out. Simon goes above and beyond to shield you from any type of appearance of these creatures in your life. In summer, he'll escort and even tiniest spider out of your apartment, before you see it.

He even shares a googledoc with trigger warning time codes for every piece of media, you wanted to see. Even if it's a long series - he just checks every episode of it on a fast rewind and writes you, if it's fully safe to watch or not. 

Ghost has a wealth of experience in dealing with insomnia and is willing to help you, if you come across this issue. Just don't hesitate to ask - he is ready to spend all the night helping you out. Will definitely start with pressing your back to his chest and guiding you through a breathing exercise.

If you had a bad day and dropped him a message - he`d surely call you as soon as he can to talk you through everything that happened and soothe you. 

“I`m always there for you, you know?” “I know, Simon…” “No, thats not the way, we do that.” “...” “Come on. Say it.” “I remember, ok?” “Say. it. I need you say it out loud.” “You are always there for me, no matter what.” “And?” “... and I can call or text you any time and you'll reach back asap.” “Good job. I'll call you again before you go to sleep.”

Despite his ascetic way of life, he likes nice things and gradually accustoms you to the same preferences. 

It all starts with tea. One day, you go grocery shopping together. You walk between the rows of shelves while Simon stays by your cart. Returning to the cart, you find him skeptically examining the box of tea you dropped into the cart earlier. "What is this?" "It's tea, Simon, stop pretending you can't read." Ghosts gaze eloquently demonstrates his attitude towards this product. "It's trash." He pulls out a simple but elegant box from the top shelf. "This is tea." You try to convince him that with the money spent on that "good" box, you could drink tea all year, but he is relentless. Simon ends up buying the tea himself and brewing it at your place. When you first try it and roll your eyes in pleasure - he smiles contentedly. “Told you.”

Kyle Gaz Garrick

“Babe this is delicious, wanna try it?” - say yes and firstly he will kiss you. You absolutely need to try that ice cream, his tongue is just a nice bonus. Ofc shares his food with you afterward.

One of the most supportive human beings out there. Encourages every your hobby, hella proud of you and not shy to demonstrate it. “Have you heard her singing? RNs got a voice of a songbird!” “Kyle, please, I just went to a few vocal lessons and learned like… 2 songs.” “Those are my favorite ones from now on, love.”

If you work from home, he'll walk into your room randomly (but only when he is 100% sure, you're not on the call), sit beside you and just stare silently at you. Ask him, what's up, and he'll give you a quick kiss on the forehead and walk away grinning. 

Slow dances with you on streets, when you two pass by street musicians. Doesn't care if everybody looking, even if someone pulls out a phone and starts filming this wholesome scene. It's only you in Kyles hands, that matter right now to him. 

If you have a pet - he definitely becomes its new dad. When Kyle is around - your four-legged friend absolutely forgets about your existence, because Gaz is an expert in best scratches!

By the way, your pets birthday is now Kyles official holiday!

[ceilidho]

no worries if you're not feeling this! I know you said your wrist is giving you trouble so I would so much rather you prioritize yourself and your health over any writing!!

that said, I am so digging this knight ghost situation. after reading the last prompt about it, I'm seeing some potential for a battle of wills situation. ghost waiting for the princess to ask (beg) for what she wants but she's too prim and proper to say it and she's confused as well, all like why has this dude who I'm married to not made a move on me?? and ghost has so much patience, he'll just wait and wait until she absolutely can't take it any more and then idk, you're the master!!!

again again, I hope you're feeling well soon and if this is not your vibe it's all good in the hood. btw I love all of your writing and I wish I could grind it up and make a delicious shake out of it❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for being so kind!!! Wrist is feeling a lot better today because I did some exercises with it yesterday <3

Ghost's patience is endless, of course. He endures month and sometimes year long campaigns with little creature comforts. Even when he comes home, he doesn't really indulge in any of the comforts of home because he knows that it's temporary. He'll be called upon again by his king the next time there's a need for his service.

So at home with his princess, it's easy to deny her. It's almost a game, whether she'll break first (anticipated) or whether he finally will (not likely, but the odds never quite hit zero).

She's the first thing that ever really made him question his ascetic code; if anything was going to tempt him to indulge, it would be his pretty new wife wrapped in her winter furs and badgering him about repairs to the stables (he loves listening to her complain; she's so tight lipped around her family and doesn't really speak her mind, but after months as his wife, she's gotten comfortable expressing herself with Ghost).

And it's so so cute watching her struggle to bring up the subject of their marriage bed with him. She hints at it and talks circles around it, about how it's not proper for her to have her own chambers and how her parents expect her to be with child by the spring, but she doesn't just come out and say it. She's always on the verge of a temper tantrum, like she might stomp her foot about it because her warrior husband won't take her to bed even though she worried for days before their wedding that she'd have to endure his appetites.

Ghost knows he's going to give in eventually, but they'll never be able to wait like this again so he enjoys it while it's happening :)))

[malaierba]

I think that Kabru and Shuro being friends makes no sense negl

Well... They are.

I'm gonna guess you want me to sell their dynamic to you?

I'm feeling so so sick I'll keep it short though. Nothing I say will be better than rereading the manga paying attention to their interactions.

1. Their stories parallel each other in several places. Raised by a surrogate mother, trained to be skilled warriors from a young age, both are disconnected with something about themselves as a result of their upbringing, both are politically minded, both capable of approaching any social interaction trying to determine what their interlocutor REALLY wants out of it... They are both also very ascetic and aren't very in touch with their desires. I feel like they both look outwards more than inwards.

I actually just saw this post which i find so apt. Kabru is better at taking care of his foils than himself. Toshiro, in a way, is also better at performing when it's for other people rather than for himself. Maizuru said it herself, asking for help saving Falin was his one selfish request and it wasn't even for himself. Parallel that with Kabru being so willing to sacrifice himself in order to prevent a tragedy like that happened in Utaya. Sacrifice is high on both of them.

I'm not saying all of these parallels are like, direct equivalents, just that they're similar enough that Kabru and Toshiro could look at each other and be like. Hmm. I feel like I get you.

2. 1. Toshiro literally has Rinsha Fana energy

Using these because it's the screenshots I have most at hand lol but. While maybe not her temper, something about their general approach to a group dynamic and general disposition is very similar to me.

2.2. Kabru has the type of social skills that would make it easy for Toshiro to communicate with him. It's not a perfect comparison but to me it's like if you took a bit of Falyn and a bit of Namari, yeah? Extroversion but also awareness of how to put someone like Toshiro at ease.

3. Idk their general interactions man, they just manage to communicate well with each other! Again no mangacaps bcs my head is killing me but, Kabru being able to talk some sense into Toshiro during his meltdown when he's about to kill Laios? When Kabru opens up about his trauma to Toshiro and Namari even though the way I read it, the action wasn't going to get them on his side anymore than they already were? (Aka true moment of seeking connection and showing vulnerability? You don't do that with just any stranger!)

Look at how they're hanging out during the feast. Isn't that so friendship.

TL;DR: they're both: 1. Similar in a lot of important dimensions central to their characters, 2. Already have friends that share traits or with whom they have a dynamic they enjoy, 3. They fr have chemistry man look at the manga.

[enlitment]

Some Julius Caesar x The Danton Case Parallels to Celebrate the Ides of March, Frev Style 🔪🥳

Firstly, both Przybyszewska’s Danton Case and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar are obviously (excellent!) tragedies that are set in a dying republic on the brink of collapse.

Here are some other interesting parallels I was able to trace:

1. Brutus and Robespierre:

Both of them are driven to execute an important figure even though they initially do not want to do it. They are both conflicted but feel like they have no other choice and have to commit the violent act for the good of the republic.

They are also arguably quite alike in terms of character: you have the „noble Brutus“ and then Robespierre, who is consistently referred to as „the Incorruptible“. Both are seen by others as selfless and committed to the good of the state (the people in the crowd very much emphasise this fact in both of the plays, I do have the receipts)

There is even the scene in which Brutus chastises Cassius for taking bribes, which plays into the idea of him as being (literally) “incorruptible” as well. And vice versa, traces of Brutus’ famed stoicism can then certainly be found in Maximilien.

2. Cassius and Saint-Just:

Both are characters who convince the protagonists (Brutus/Robespierre) to go along the violent act while not necessarily being portrayed as antagonists (at least Saint-Just definitely can't be seen as one in Przybyszewska’s play).

There are also parallels in the close relationship between Brutus and Cassius and Robespierre and Saint-Just, where they are very much portrayed as each other’s closest confidants. Of course, this idea can easily be pushed even further if one wishes to read between the lines. (There is no Camille Desmoulins in Shakespeare though)

3. Manipulating the Crowd:

I'm perhaps the most fascinated by how both Brutus and Mark Antony as well as Robespierre and Danton have the necessary rhetorical skills to manipulate the crowd of commoners (Robespierre being able to “play the crowd like an organ” very much came to my mind when I was reading Act 3 Scene 2 of the Shakespeare’s play).

Both Shakespeare and Przybyszewska portray “the court of public opinion” and how it can easily be manipulated - how opinions can be changed in the matter of minutes - in a way that is genuinely fascinating.

Specifically, the similarity between A3S2 in which people first listen to Brutus only to be immediately swayed by Mark Antony’s speech shortly after and the scene in the court in which Danton manipulates the crowd were in fact so similar in some respects that it was borderline uncanny.

The problem arises when looking for a mirror to Danton’s character in Shakespeare’s play.

4. The Case for Danton x Caesar:

It is Caesar who gets killed for being perceived as a danger to the republic

Both Caesar and Danton are portrayed as being very much beloved by the common people

Also, the idea of Danton being immortal is expressed at the end of Przybyszewka’s play, and while he does not come back literally as a ghost like Ceasar does, Robespierre nonetheless explains to Saint-Just that Danton’s spirit never truly dies.

5. The Case for Danton x Mark Antony:

If we see Danton and Robespierre as foils, Mark Antony makes more sense as a parallel to Danton (even though he does not die), since both Robespierre and Brutus as the classic ascetic/stoic archetype while Danton and Mark Antony’s are well-known for their appetite for drinking, women (or, you know, people, in the case of Mark Antony) , and the pleasures of life overall.

Both are also severely underestimated by their enemies at first, yet they prove to be quite cunning and are able to use their words skilfully to win over the public

Overall, reading both of the plays – especially the parts about manipulating the Roman public and the citizens of Paris just with the power of words – really makes me wonder if Przybyszewska read Shakespeare’s play and used it as a source of inspiration. It would make sense, especially given how the parallel between the French Republic and the Roman Republic was well-established long before her time (even, somewhat tragically, by the revolutionaries themselves).

I promise I think about Przybyszewska's and Shakespeare’s play and the Roman Republic along with the French Revolution a totally normal amount of time & that it definitely does not consume my every waking thought that should be very much going towards the exam preparation.

[disciplesofthelamb]

"Greetings, fellow loyal cultists, as many of you already know, our great leader, The Lamb, has been very busy. But do not fret, I, Silas, have been left in charge as their loyal disciple-"

"Correction, WE were left in charge."

"Have some manners Briar, I am speaking."

"No, because you always do this! Why are you acting like you're better than us?!"

"AHEM, anyway... Like our dear friend Silas was saying, we were left in charge in the case of our leader being unavailable, so we will be happy to answer any queries you may have!"

"Thank you all for your attention, have a blessed day. Remember to praise The Lamb!"

WARNINGS

✮ This blog may depict sensitive topics, viewer discretion is advised.

✮ This blog is a work in progress, things are subject to change.

[About the characters under the cut!]

ABOUT THE CHARACTERS

[Silas, Briar and Dotty are my own cult of the lamb ocs! Here are a few things about them:

✭ Briar (She/Her) : A rescue from Anura, she was found by the lamb along with Dotty in the ruins of their old village. She became a disciple becase she complimented the lamb when they were having a bad day and just happened to be level X.

Likes: Painting, Anything pumpkin-flavored, Rain, Napping, Woodcarving, Watching the sunrise, Stuffed animals, Jewelry, Dotty.

Misc info: Tries to avoid conflict, but she always feels the need to have the last word. Prefers to stay indoors. She just wants some peace and quiet frfr. Veryy argumentative, if highschool was a thing in cotl she'd be in the debate club. Short temper, she won't yell at you but she gets irritated fast and will ignore you for the rest of the day.

Follower traits: Zealous, Ascetic

Pinterest board:

✭ Dotty (Any pronouns) : A rescue from Anura, she was found by the lamb along with Briar in the ruins of their old village. She became a disciple because she refused to work without Briar.

Likes: Walks in the forest, Bugs, Berries, Arts and crafts, Foraging, Sewing, Strawberry jam, Diced apples, Stuffed animals, Briar.

Misc info: She has like a billion hobbies and she loves all of them. Can't sit still for more than 5 minutes. Collects rocks. She will make you a friendship bracelet a day after meeting you. Silas thinks that he's the favorite disciple but it's actually Dotty. Addresses people by pet names when she can't remember their name.

Follower traits: Unrepentant, Strong Constitution

Pinterest board:

✭ Silas (He/him) : A rescue from Darkwood, he was found as he was about to be sacrificed, after his rescue he swore to devote himself to the lamb for the rest of his days, yet he was the first to dissent when faith got too low. He became a disciple because the lamb "Thought he was cute."

Likes: Formal clothing, Journaling, "Research" (reading YA romance novels), Tea, Writing, Scented candles, Silver jewelry, Fountain pens.

Misc info: Professional mansplainer. Chronically jealous. Calls himself a "hopeless romantic" but his standards are too high to actually date someone. He'll tell you that he likes old literature but if you ask for recommendations he won't have any. Thinks he's hot shit because he's a disciple but in reality he's just a glorified errand boy. Brags about being the lamb's favorite because they said it once. Thinks that writing shitty love poems is peak romance. Knows how to play chess, but he sucks at it. Cares a lot about his appearance, he will spend 3 hours to get ready before going out. Even though he's supposed to make deliveries for the lamb, he only does it whenever it's convenient for him.

Follower traits: Germaphobe, Materialistic, Poet

Pinterest board:

✮ Additional info: Briar is a weasel, Silas is a striped hyena, and Dotty is a raccon.

Silas is the oldest of the group, he joined the cult before the other two.

Briar and Dotty are dating, they have been since before The Lamb indoctrinated them.]

ROLEPLAY INFO

"Briar speaks like this."

"Dotty speaks like this."

"Silas speaks like this."

Actions look like this.

[Moderator speaks like this.]

OTHER BLOGS

@askacultleader (My other blog!) and @no-less-than-a-lambgod As our glorious leader

@ask-theredcrown As our Lord, The One Who Waits

@ask-thegreencrown and @he-ofhavoc As Leshy

@askthe-yellowcrown As Heket

@ask-thebluecrown As Kallamar

@ask-thepurplecrown As Shamura

@ask-thepurplecrownbearer As The Goat

Mortals/Miscellaneous entities

@askthe-littlepoet As... Who's this one again?

@the-sleepydragon As Imora

@tomb-the-god As Tomb

@keni-the-moth As Keni & Candy

@the-followers-of-them As other cultists!

@helob-the-spider As Helob

@terrorofthetarots As Clauneck

@ask-kudaai-the-weaponsmith As Kudaai

@ask-thefox As The Fox

@follower-of-the-old-faith As Ratau

[Hello everyoneeeee it's me Zip again, I made another blog :3

This is purely to indulge myself because these guys have been infecting my brain for a while now.

If I forgot to add you in my pinned post or if you would like to be removed please tell me!!]

[rzyraffek]

Haiii! If ur requests are still open would you do the Sinclair brothers reacting to having a goth so?Like also ftm cause me too and I’m totally not projecting. Like all the characters in house of wax dress pretty normal and as someone who dresses out of that ordinary I’d love to see how they would react the them. Thanks for reading my ask! Have a nice day <3 I uh love your writings sm

Ello yes I am still open for request (for 2years now! How fast time flew by!) And hello fellow ftm! I love goths🥰 anyways I had few ideas so here you go! and you too have nice day anon!!

He/him, sfw, Request open

Slashers with goth ftm s/o

Vincent Sinclair

Dude is stealing his clothes lol

Like litteraly, that nice black shirt you bought? You thought you lost it? Nah he has it

Man does s/o make up (the cool goth one) and vice versa

Painting each others nails and shit talking Bo>>

About s/o being ftm. Man doesn't care, he loves him and that's the most important!

Also when he first met s/o he felt a bit shy cuz he looks so epic and menacing. Vince wants to look like it too

Bo Sinclair

Dude often gets jumpscared by s/o. Like imagine him in whole black gothic outfit just eating stuff from fridge at 3am and the only light is coming from fridge. Bo was sure he just witnessed ghost stealing from his fridge

Thinks s/o looks dope asf

Called s/o 'emo boy' once :(

S/o has to explain to him the all difrences between subcultures

Lester Sinclair

Dude ain't complaining, but boi? U will struggle in Forest in those shoes

He is starstruck! You look so stunning man!

He gonna be a bit worried for your outfits cuz they look dope and here you can get easly dirty especially if you want to travel to forest or just go into Bo (or lester) car, its a mess inside

Micheal Myers

👍

He ain't caring

U trans? Cool

U goth? Alright

Dude doesnt care what gender s/o is anyways

But tbh I think that Micheal likes and is more attracted to people who stand out of crowd. The less 'normal looking' he is the better

Man loves his goth bf

Once he was in goofy mood and gave s/o pair of bright pink socks (they are new dont worry). They totally match his ascetic

Billy Lenz

🧍

Sooo

...

Can he borrow those cool shoes?

Can s/o do his make up?

If s/o answers 'no' to any of those questions he gonna have a tantrum and hide under bed untill he calms down

Ate his black lipstick/eyeshadow/idk what goth make-up looks like, you make something up idc

Hacked his Spotify account to lisen to judge s/o music taste

Waaah sorry for few day wait, I died 3times and bought Gta5 so yeah I been busy

[wendelsae]

De Divino Trifunctionalismo Indo-Europæorum

I. Introduction

By the divine trifunctionalism I mean a set of three(+) core gods whom the Indo-Europeans kept & cherished even as they sundered & settled all over Eurasia. This set of gods can be recognized in every branch of the Indo-European religion that we have good knowledge of, except for that of the Hittites (who were overwhelmed with the cults they learned from their well-urbanized neighbors), and of the British & Irish (though I don’t despair of finding them there).

The pattern was, of course, first recognized by Georges Dumézil, but he was an atheist, and considered the gods not as individual persons, but as personifications of a set of three social classes, which, while likely a poetic trope, it is unclear that the Proto-Indo-Europeans actually founded their laws in. This belief led him to misstate his case, trying to match the gods in vain to these classes, and so flailingly trying to cut off parts of the gods’ characters. In fact all the trifunctional gods are kings, all work in war, and all are linked to the fruits of the land.

And indeed the trifunctional classes, or elements, of sacrificant, warrior, & farmer were considered to be all needed in the character of a lordly man, as seen in Romulus, Odysseus, Cincinnatus, Egill, and many other ideal lords.

II. Triads

Attestations of trifunctional triads include—I list them mainly in the order they occur in the texts but with numerals to match with Dumézil’s traditional 1st/2nd/3rd function assignments—

Theodiscan:

2. Thunder – 1. Woden – 3. “Fricco” (= O.N. *Frakka = Ing-Free): Temple of Uppsala according to Adam of Bremen.

2. Thunder – 1. Woden – 3. Sexneat: Old Saxon Baptismal Oath.

3. Ing-Free, Easter-Free, Nearth – 1. Woden – 3. Thunder: one of Hallfreð’s Óttarsson’s poems bitterly renouncing the gods for Christ.

Possibly also the set can be seen in the worldending duels sung at the end of the Völuspá viz. 1. Woden vs. Fennerswolf, 3. Ing-Free vs. Surt, 2. Thunder vs. Midyardsworm—here Wider intervenes after Woden’s fall, though the stanza may be illplaced—and perhaps in the “1. Mercurius, 2. Herculés, & 3. Márs” reported by Tacitus. (I’ll take this moment to remind that his Ísis Suébórum is Easter-Free, under the name *Idisiz, a synonym of *Frawjǭ.)

Italic:

1. Juppiter – 2. Márs – 3. Quirínus: Roman Major Flaminate.

1. Juppiter – 2. Márs – 3. Vofonius: Iguvine Grabovian gods.

Hellenic:

1. Héré – 2. Athéné – 3. Aphrodíté: Judgment of Paris.

This is the only version where the set is all feminine. The masculine complement would be 1. Zeus – 2. Héraclés – 3. Dioscouroi

Irano-Armenian:

1. Aramazd – 3. Anahit – 2. Vahagn: Edict of Tiridates against the Christians.

Aryan:

2. Indra – 1. Sauru (= San. Sarvá?) – 3. Naunghaithya (= San. Násatyá): daevas denounced in the Zorastrian Vendidad.

1. Mitrá-Varuná – 2. Indrá – 3. Násatyá: Rig Veda 10.125 as well as the treaty between Sattiwaza of Mitanni and Suppiluliuma of Hatti. Similar lists in other parts of the Rig Veda.

Interestingly, many of these listings are found in contexts where the Indo-Europeans were confronted with a monotheistic religion—Christianity or Zoroastrianism—and proclaimed the three as an epitome of their faith, and, when they fell, were demanded to renounce those same gods. The Mitanni attestation also suggests that, in a less mortal context, the question of “who are your gods?” was asked and the same standard answer was given.

III. Gods

1. First Function

The Wizard-King

The creator of the world, dividing Heaven & Earth. Third in a dynasty of three father-kings, third among three brother-kings. Alternately chaste & lustful to maintain the world. Dwells upon the Mountain, looking down at all the world. The god of Heaven, and husband of Earth. Father of gods & wers. A shape-shifting seducer. A serpent arising from the earth. Punishes the wicked. Goes among men as a wanderer, an ascetic. Prophecies with witches and mad women. Shoots men dead from afar. Unreliable, often malicious. The terror-god. Schemes for wars to be fought that heroes may be martyred into the Walhall; gives their bodies to the dogs & birds.

In the Mediterranean religions, *Dyḗws (Ph₂tḗr), viz. Heavenly Father is the main name; the same name is found in Sanskrit though in a far more marginal context and never quite clearly linked to Varuná or Rudrá.

Theodiscan: Woden (O.N. Óðinn)

Italic: Juppiter-Védiovis

Hellenic: Zeus, Hermés (avatar upon the earth)

Trojan: Apollón(?)

Irano-Armenian: Aramazd

Aryan: Varuná, Rudrá-Shivá

Sister & twin of the Wizard-King. Threefold like he. Like him a far-shooting slaughterer & a witch. A terror-gyden of death. Unwed & vicious.

The Witch-Queen

Theodiscan: Yeven (O.N. Gefjon)

Italic: Díána(?)

Hellenic & Trojan: Artemis-Hecaté

Aryan: Kálí, Chámundá...

The Queen of Heaven

The Heavenly Mother. The bride of the Heavenly Father, perhaps distinct from the Earthly Mother. Frequently quarrels with her groom. Attempts to thwart ascents to heaven by men. Presides over marriage, and her blissful union with the Father is the joy of the poets (Woden as he who dwells in Frie’s arms, the end of the first book of the Iliad, the lingam-yoni…)

Theodiscan: Frie-Scathe (O.N. Frigg-Skaði)

Italic: Júnó

Hellenic: Héré, Themis

Aryan: Párvatí

An eschatological god (perhaps not really belonging to the First Function) known only from two branches, noticed by Dumézil. The heir of the Heavenly Father. Shall destroy the ettins of the Windeld and renew the world. His central deed is his ride (on the horse the Wizard-King gave him), and his stride—Wider trampling down the jaw of the Fennerswolf, Vishnú’s three strides against Balí.

The Strider

Theodiscan: Wider (O.N. Víðarr)

Aryan: Vishnú

I do wonder if he might be found in Hellas somewhere, perhaps among the heroes.

2. Second Function

The Champion of the Gods

The son of Heaven & Earth, Thunder sent by the Father. Bringer of water. The only god strong enough to slay great ettins & worms. Rides in his chariot, red-bearded, casts forth the meteoric stone. Quarrels with the Father or Mother atimes. The friend of mankind, heavy-feasting & drinking. The holy keeper of the world.

Theodiscan: Thunder (O.N. Þórr)

Italic: Márs

Hellenic: Héraclés, Arés(?)

Irano-Armenian: Vahagn

Aryan: Indrá, Ganeshá(?)

Márs seems a bit strange here, I do wonder if he might be different war-god belonging to the second function (perhaps equal to the unidentifiable Thedish Tue). Nevertheless he is linked with Herculés as both are founder-gods of Rome (see book VIII of the Æneid).

As for Héraclés, one must remember that he was always worshipped as a god and understood as such, even while said to be a hero. Perhaps the tales of one of his avataric births took over his mythology? Moreover though, the Dioscouroi (see below) were also deemed both heroes and gods, but we know from other branches that they are gods.

The female god in this position is Athéné, whom indeed is often seen assisting Héraclés, alongside other heroes such as Achilleus, Odysseus, Diomédés &c. I cannot find her elsewhere save of course as Minerva in Italy, though I have seen Vác proposed as her Indian form.

3. Third Function

This function has what seem to be two different masculine gods, one worshipped by branches in the west, others by branches in the east.

The Captain of the People

The founding king, the defending king. Osirian. Dead & in the earth. Virile. Lord of golden fruitfulness, god of lust, seizing women. He seems to be have reenshrined & renamed at every thede’s burg, often with a name showing his nature as captain of the people, a name from their weaponish ethnonym. Seaxnéat from the seax of the Seaxan. Quirínus from the quirís of the Curés/Quirítés.

Theodiscan: Ing-Free, Sexneat (O.N. Yngvi-Freyr)

Italic: Quirínus, Vofonius

The Sons of Heaven

The twin sons of Heaven. Horsemen, sailors. Both dead, both everliving, one lives while the other dies. The saviors of mankind. Challenge the heavenly gods to win their cult.

Hellenic: Dioscouroi

Aryan: Násatyá/Ashviná

And then there are Founding Twins, who have the characteristics of both the above Third Function masculine gods together, but are rarely deemed gods. Among the Romans Romulus & Remus, Amphión & Zéthos among the Thebans. But these are especially common among the Theodiscans—Hengst & Horsa of the Anglo-Saxons, the Alcis of the Nahanarvali, Ybor & Agio of the Langobards, Alrekr & Eiríkr of the Yngling Swedes (called Freys afspring which I need not gloss)—I almost certainly forget some more. I am not completely sure where to place them, but they certainly deserve mention here.

Easter, the Lady Dawn

The Lady Dawn, and from this her Proto-Indo-European name can said with surety—H₂éwsōs. Born of Heaven & Sea. The golden, bejeweled princess of the east. The sister of the Sun & Moon, the Daughter of Heaven, and sister of the Sons of Heaven. Desired by the ettins for their victory along her siblings, denied to them by Heaven’s Thunder. The gyden of lust & delight. And no less the walkyrie as houri, helping the Father bring wars to wers and to harvest them up to the Folkwang, the fields of Paradise.

Among the Hellenes she appears as three overlapping characters—Éós as her cosmic character, Aphrodíté as her main cultic form, and Helené as her Spartan worship and the sister of the Dioscouroi. Nevertheless these all share like tripled roles in the Trojan War mythology, and share like origin myths (Aphrodíté born from Ouranos & the sea, Helené born from Zeus & Oceanos...)

Theodiscan: Easter-Free (O.E. Éastre, O.N. Freyja)

Italic: Auróra, Mater Mátúta

Hellenic & Trojan: Éós-Aphrodíté-Helené

Irano-Armenian: Anahit

Aryan: Ushás

Finis. Laus deis deabusque.

[asksythe]

MXTX Interview with Risa Wataya for Subaru Magazine P.3

Risa Wataya: So that’s how it is. Although Lan WangJi is very quiet, he always uses practical actions to protect Wei WuXian's feelings. He’s a character that makes people feel sincere and earnest. I also really liked the scene where he couldn't beat the alcohol and drank until he lost self-control.

Mo Xiang: Lan Wangji is a cute person! Although he is stubborn and cold and not easy for strangers to approach on the outside, but when he loves someone, he is innocent (*) and sensitive, like a teenage girl. He will cry. He will be shy, jealous, and hesitant. He will worry and fret by himself... I like gong like this! The weakness to wine is to show this cute side of Lan Wangji. I think childish gongs are very cute.

(*: the word used here is chun de 纯的. It means ‘pure’ in the mental and emotional sense. As in his love and his feelings are pure and have no other motives or agendas. It’s not pure/innocent as in... well... we all know Lan Wangji’s sexual awakening involves a dream about him r***-ing Wei Wuxian so... It’s not that kind of innocent.)

Risa Wataya: On his forehead, he wears a forehead band, like a headband in Japan. The fact that the forehead band symbolizes self-restraint is also very interesting.

Mo Xiang: In reality, the forehead band also frequently appears on the costumes of classical Chinese literature. So I think it is a kind of ancient Chinese aristocratic jewelry, to emphasize Gusu Lan Shi's nobility (*) but without giving too much meaning at that time… However, later upon investigation, I found that in ancient China, there was a "ceremonial stoicism" (**) of ethics and etiquette, which is also reflected in clothing and jewelry. For example, "hairpin", which means "proper/virtuous posture"... When walking, if the hairpin makes a sound, you need to adjust your posture. Although the exposure of the forehead does not seem to have special meaning, "binding" is reminiscent of "self-restraint.” After considering the behavioral ethics of the ancient Chinese, I developed this “restraint oneself” setting.

(*: the wording here does not actually mean nobility as in a ranking or social class of the time, but in the feelings evoked by Gusu Lan Shi, in the way they conduct themselves, restrain themselves, deny themselves extreme power, in the goals and standards they set for themselves, in the ways they treat other common people in a time where China had an extremely rigid nine-ranked caste system and extensive slave class and slavery system. A sense of beyond the petty squabbles of common mortals. In other words, nobility from the bones)

(**: 礼服克己 Lifu Keji: an ancient manifested philosophy and a type of Asian ascetism where a practitioner must conduct his life, from the smallest, most insignificant details, with extreme restraint and control.) 

Risa Wataya: Ah, so that’s how it is. The plot related to the forehead band is quite interesting. Although looking at the full text, there are a lot of sorrowful, tragic parts, but after adding such interesting details, the mood becomes much lighter.

Mo Xiang: If it's all torture (*), my readers will run away. By the way, the “Aside from the destined person, other people cannot touch the forehead band” detail is something I suddenly thought of during the writing process. I often read classical Chinese martial arts novels (wuxia). The female characters often appear on screen and say: "You have seen my face. You must marry me." "Or "You touch my hand, you're responsible!" (**) But I thought, "Why do women always have to say this?"

(*: modern Chinese slang. It literally means ‘reverse/mistreat.’ It denotes ‘sad, sorrowful’ tones in stories that will make you cry buckets and run away screaming or require times in therapy (Ask the folks reading Erha. They will tell you all about it). Chinese stories are often marked with either ‘mistreat’ or ‘sweet’ to tell readers the tone of the stories. Alternative slangs are ‘glass shards’ and ‘candies.’ It’s a very popular modern Chinese writing technique to mix glass shards and candies, and it’s generally believed there are no great stories without ‘glass shards’ in them. The readers need to cry to remember the stories you are telling. So the vast majority of modern Chinese literature is of the ‘glass shards mixed in candies’ variety. Have fun!)  

(**: Common trope in Wuxia and Xianxia genre. This stems from the strict sexual segregation of ancient China and the rigid customs imposed on women. For thousands of years in China, up until the last one hundred years, it was very normal for daughters of wealthy families to never step foot outside their house, or even their personal wing inside their house, until the day of their wedding. And after their wedding, this process is repeated in their husband’s house.

The traditional saying is that there are only three places for women in this world: the ancestral hall, the kitchen, and the bedroom. This saying is even repeated by Jiang Cheng when talking about Jiang Yanli in the novel.

There’s a lot of emphasis on women maintaining extreme unstained virtue. So there used to be ridiculous things like if you see an unwed woman’s face, then you must take responsibility for her, and so forth. In particular dynasties, it also wasn’t strange for blood feuds or even all-out war to occur because some random dudes saw some particularly protected woman’s face… or touch her hair or that sort of thing.)

"So I wanted to try the same setup on the male character Lan Wangji, adding meaning to the forehead band. That moment when one’s ethics and ceremonial morality codes are broken. This feeling of hysterical panic and discombobulation applied to a male character might be very interesting indeed!” (*)

(*: tone / word choice is especially gleeful at seeing Lan Wangji metaphorically having his chastity slip being stolen by Wei Wuxian)    

Translator note: Hmm, this part the vocabulary is a bit more complex and needing extra explanations than the previous two. I worry that a lot of lingual concepts don’t match up to the English words, or that the same concepts don’t exist at all. Ergo, the abundance of notes. I hope it’s not too disruptive.

That said, after this part 3, I will have to stop for a few days. The reason is because... I have to wait (and beg) for the scan of the next page in the interview. You might not know this, but this interview with MXTX was rumored by Japanese fans for a long time. The result is when it was confirmed, the May-June edition of Subaru magazine was sold out in minutes! People queued up for hours and could not buy it. The magazine originally retails for about 10 USD. But now there are people reselling it for 70 USD and there are plenty of people queuing up to buy those too! So of course... even had I tried... I still would not be able to get even a finger nail on this edition. 

Luckily! I am in this Vietnamese MXTX fan group. A “rich sister” in there was able to acquire a copy and shared a scanned page with the rest of us. The magazine is something of a collector item now, much clout, very envy!! That kind! So the rest of us peons have to wait for the next scanned pages. 

To Be Continued (Pray for me...) 

[cuddly-dean-baby]

The Lawyers

Pairing: Matt Murdock x GN!Reader

Words: 667

PART 2 // PART 3 // PART 4

A/N: this can be read as either male or female or whatever, so that’s why i have the male reader tag

A/N 2: it's Jennifer that Matt cheats on you with

You knew where he was.

You knew he wasn’t out doing his crime fighting.

You knew he was with her.

He said he can have a game of pool and a drink with you, Foggy and Karen. After that, he went off, having you think he’s doing his ‘other job’.

When you left the bar after 2am, you stumbled a little down the street and into Matt’s apartment. You noticed that he hasn’t come home yet, so you stayed on the couch and had a small nap.

It was rather early in the morning; 7:36am to be exact. You were seated on the couch after being up for an hour or two. Your body shivered a bit as warmth came from the mug of tea that’s sandwiched between your hands.

With the time you’ve been up, you have come to realize that Matt wasn’t doing his ‘other job’. He was with her; so you had packed your things into the bags and boxes you found, messaged Foggy and Karen half an hour ago, and waited for your soon-to-be ex-boyfriend to come back.

Getting up from the couch and to the kitchen, you drank the rest of your tea before quickly washing it and putting it in the rack.

Once it released from your hand, you felt arms wrap around your waist and a head resting against your back, snuggling into your warmth.

Matt smiled, loving how your body is against his. His smile grows big as he feels your hands interlace with his, but his smile fades slowly as he feels you peel him away from you.

He stands where he is as you wiggle away from his body and the counter. “Are you okay?” His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Honestly, I would if you came home with cuts, bruises and blood covering you.”

Tilting his head more in confusion, you had to remind him of what happened the previous night. “We all went to Josie’s after work, you left after a game and drink to do your night job. In case you forgot, you usually come home with some sort of wound.”

Sighing, he tries to reach out to you, but he hears your feet move you back. 

“You were with her.”

“I-”

“I know you were with her.”

“I- I had to help her with some paperwork.”

Chuckling softly, tears blurred your eyesight. You look away from him as if you didn’t want him to see. “Foggy and Karen are gonna be here in a few minutes to get my things. I’ve already packed.”

“Baby-”

“Nope, no baby. I’m done. I’m out. You can have her here since you most likely fucked her in the bed and every other surface in the apartment.”

He hears you walk away to the coffee table and the jingle of your keys. A minute or so passes to have you come closer to him. 

Guiding his hand up, he feels the cold metal of your apartment key. “I love you, Matt.” Now it’s his turn to have tears in his eyes. “I’ll never stop loving you, but I know you’ll go back to her.”

As soon as you gently bump your forehead against his, tears and small sobs escape from him. He feels the small pressure of your lips against his. He tries to pour all his love into it as his hands grip the sides of your hoodie, but the kiss breaks too soon.

“Bye, Matt.”

He notices his hands are now free as he tried to grab more of you, but you weren't there anymore.

He tried to blur out any other noise as he tried to find your heartbeat, but it was gone. He didn’t care that tears were streaming down his face as he falls to the ground and sobs were escaping from his body.

Amongst that, he managed to hear a heartbeat, but he recognises it wasn’t yours. It was the woman who he spent his night with and ruined his relationship with.

TAGS:

@lilian-maximoff - @spnfanboy777 - @blurredx18 - @wolf-knights​ - @emmaandkodak17 - @ascetic-angel - @buckletsfuck

[nicklloydnow]

Illustration by @steve_fagiano_art

“Chigurh stands up to God with an unflinching, uncompromising belief in predetermination—no free will or human choice, no mercy or sentiment, no giving in or letting go or giving up. Principled in the purity of his work, he defies sentiment and falsehood and betrayal. A pure born-again agent of death, anti-Christ Calvinist Chigurh is a man of his deadly word, a relentless avenger, an implacable killer defying God, no less than the diabolic Judge in Blood Meridian. "How to prevail over that which you refuse to acknowledge the existence of" lago was never so clear-minded, Ahab no more manically fixated, Kurtz no less obsessed with his mission to exterminate losers. "The horror! The horror!" What more can a man say of pure evil?” - Kenneth Lincoln, ‘Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles’ (2010) [p. 144, 145]

“Chigurh again adopts the Socratic method in his final encounter with his fellow hitman Carson Wells. Although Wells isn't given the privilege of a coin toss, Chigurh nevertheless engages in an incisive dialogue with his victim. While holding Wells at gunpoint, Chigurh asks, "If the rule you followed led you to this of what use was the rule?" When Wells replies, "I don't know what you're talking about," Chigurh elaborates: "I'm talking about your life. In which now everything can be seen at once." Knowing that the moment of death has arrived, Chigurh wants Wells to examine the path that led him here, claiming that the present situation "calls past events into question" (175). Even though Chigurh admits that he and Wells are in the "same line of work," he finds it necessary to distance himself from the other hit-man: "You think I'm like you. That it's just greed. But I'm not like you. I live a simple life" (177). This distinction between the two hired assassins suggests that Chigurh transcends mere criminality. The "simple life" he leads imbues him with the ascetic austerity of a monk pledged to evil, a satanic reversal of traditional, spiritual roles hinted at by other descriptions of Chigurh as a "faith healer" and a "prophet of destruction" (7, 3). In his study of the portrayal of evil in literature and cinema, Paul Oppenheimer points out that evil often "begins in criminality" but then "surpasses criminality, and finally, by comparison with criminality, overwhelms and belittles it, causing it to seem oddly cumbersome and even childish" (21). Chigurh lives by a different "rule," not motivated by the usual spectrum of human desires and thus remaining largely inscrutable.

It is significant that Wells is given a premonition of his own death exactly three days before it takes place. While examining the damage caused by a shootout between Chigurh and Moss at the Eagle Pass motel, Wells notices "two bulletholes in the windowglass" of a "second floor level" apartment across the street. After knocking on the door and receiving no answer, Wells lets himself in and finds the corpse of an old woman: "She'd been shot through the forehead and had tilted forward leaving part of the back of her skull and a good bit of dried brainmatter stuck to the slat of the rocker behind her. . . . A second shot had marked a date on a calendar on the wall behind her that was three days hence" (147). The path of the stray bullet converges with the path of the unsuspecting woman, much as Chigurh's coin converges with the equally unsuspecting gas station owner earlier in the novel. The woman's death reminds Wells of the inexorable machinations of fate: "Not what you had in mind at all, was it darling?" he asks (148). Wells correctly interprets the mark on the calendar as a portent of the day of his own impending death.

During the final encounter, he tells Chigurh, "By the old woman's calendar I've got three more minutes. Well the hell with it. I think I saw all this coming a long time ago. Almost like a dream. Déja vu." Well's words reveal that he had a vision of his own death long before he saw the calendar. Nevertheless, the question posed by Chigurh, namely, "How did you let yourself get in this situation?" suggest that it was still within Wells's power to make different choices, live by a different "rule," and thereby change his fate. Chigurh encourages Wells to engage in a final moment of self-reflection: "I thought you might want to explain yourself. . . . Not to me. To yourself" (178). Chigurh's questions seem to be directing Wells toward something akin to the existentialist concept of authentic existence, which, though "not clearly defined by the existentialists . . . implies an attitude of sincerity and honesty and the absence of self-deception" (de Silva 1). Furthermore, it is a mode of existence based on "a realization that one is what one makes oneself by one's acts" (Manser 20). It is worth mentioning that Sheriff Bell strives for the same realization: "It's a life's work to see yourself for what you really are and even then you might be wrong. And that is somethin I dont want to be wrong about" (295). Despite the fact that Bell and Chigurh are diametrically opposed in a Manichean battle between good and evil, respectively, both men insist on the importance of authentic existence arrived at through knowledge of the self.

Existentialist themes are also apparent in Chigurh's attempts to make his victims come to terms with the inevitability of death. He accuses Wells of believing that he can keep death at bay: "You think that as long as you keep looking at me you can put it off." Wells denies thinking such a thing, but Chigurh insists, "Yes you do. You should admit your situation. There would be more dignity in it. I'm trying to help you" (176). Behind the "existential preoccupation with the theme of death" is the belief that "living authentically is living constantly in its presence, for then alone can we attain 'freedom in the face of death" (Dutt 80). When Wells accuses Chigurh of thinking that he is "outside of everything" and reminds him that he is "not outside of death," Chigurh replies, "It doesnt mean to me what it does to you" (177). The reply can be read in two ways, the surface reading being that Chigurh has adopted an existentialist approach to death. More subtly, however, the words hint at the idea that Chigurh is no ordinary mortal and may perhaps be Death itself, albeit a modern version that carries a pneumatic stun-bolt gun instead of the traditional scythe.

Wells grows weary of the conversation, announcing, "I'm not interested in your opinions. . . . Just do it. You goddamned psychopath. Do it and goddamn you to hell." Despite the verbal command, Wells's body language suggests that he is not quite ready: "He closed his eyes and he turned his head and he raised one hand to fend away what could not be fended away. Chigurh shot him in the face" (177). Although there is some discrepancy between Wells's words and his reaction to the shot, the fact that Wells commands it enables him to reclaim a certain degree of control over his fate, however insignificant it may appear. Furthermore, McCarthy makes a point of informing the reader that the "new day was still a minute away" (178), thereby emphasizing the fact that the old woman's calendar was not entirely accurate. The fact that, by asking Chigurh to shoot him a minute early, Wells refuses to die on the prophesied day suggests that even within a universe ruled by seemingly inexorable forces of fate, minute degrees of free will and personal agency remain.” - Petra Mundik, ‘A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy’ (2016) [p. 268 - 270]

“The Coen brothers built a story of war between two teams: one team represent the human mind wish to understand the world and the second team represent the universe as a chaos. During the first half of the movie the war looks good for the human mind team but then the human mind team lose – a beatiful metaphor for absurdism.

(…)

Result of the war:

Anton kills Carson, Llewelyn is killed by Mexicans, and the sheriff is retired loosing hope in the world.

The Coen brothers message in this film is that they do not think humans mind will ever be able to understand the world and we are doom to internal ignorance. Depressing.”

[goqmir]

hey magic the gatheringers, ive been rebuilding my favorite edh decks and hyperfixating on them lately so i just wanted to make a pretty lil post about them offering them to anyone who wants to play em :) these are my favorite decks right now and ive just run through and adjusted the decklists of all of them in the last couple days so they're fresh and ready to perform <3

the first deck is Rocco Cast From Exile!

the third rework of this decklist with the new cards from CLU really cemented that this is my favorite deck i've ever made. Rocco, Street Chef plays kingpin to a unique Naya value pile built around playing cards from exile!

this deck is similar to Prosper, who is unfortunately the face of Cast From Exile-- but unlike Prosper, this commander and the other options for CFE payoffs you get in Naya are super interesting and cool :) you get [[Feldorn]], [[Pia Nalaar]], [[Quintorius Kand]], as well as fun cheapening effects like [[Liara Portyr]] and [[Tlincalli Hunter]] on top of the delightful cascade effects green gets!

you also get to play around with +1/+1 counters (Rocco might be the best commander of all time at like... putting +1/+1s on specific individual creatures honestly??) and the magic that is food tokens (which are getting stronger and stronger each passing set). furthermore, Rocco impulse draws for your opponents, which means you get to encourage them to make tough decisions! do they play their combo piece from exile, feeding your deck? (Rocco is so efficient that they will soon learn that the answer to that question is almost always no... but you can always pretend that you're playing group hug and giving them free cards until they figure that out!)

this deck gets a lot of mana and builds up a monstrous board state very quickly. as far as individual value pieces go, be on the lookout for [[Jaheria, Friend of the Forest]], [[Inspiring Statuary]], and [[Night of the Sweets' Revenge]] for ways to make an unreal amount of mana. [[Herd Baloth]] and [[Faldorn]] will get you tokens for every card played from exile, and i would say are the main things giving you a monstrous board. don't sleep on the cascaders and thieves either-- every extra card obtained from things like [[Bloodbraid Elf]] or the Etalis net you another Cast From Exile trigger!

Naya Cast From Exile is weird and awesome and I highly recommend playing and building in this design space :) there's a lot of Naya CFE cards that work but I cut from the deck, and they give us more cards and commanders for the archetype all the time. this is definitely my favorite deck i've ever made <3

the second deck i'd like to show off is my Oloro Control decklist!

i've always been the interaction player at the table. you might find that these decklists are a bit heavy on the interaction for you actually-- i truly believe disruption is like. so important. especially when you're playing for value rather than combos like i do ^_^

so here is my dedicated Esper Control decklist! Oloro is there to keep you topped off and to draw you cards-- by playing this deck it really does net you anywhere from 10-40 extra life in a given game in my experience just by playing him. and the card draw on Oloro is pretty insane, enabling you to find the necessary ramp and bombs to end the game after you've disrupted every combo at the table :) personally i don't like Oloro the character very much at all-- don't know why, but he's a little difficult for me to look at. i personally have a custom proxy that replaces Oloro with Grusha :3

this Control deck is all about gaining slow and steady value while ensuring the bad things aren't sent your way. there are some stax pieces here, but not very strict ones-- your goal is to remain innocuous while you get the mana and cards to play your bombs and your opponents hopefully go at each other. the bombs in question are things like [[Debt to the Deathless]], [[Expropriate]], [[Torment of Hailfire]], planeswalkers like [[Sorin Markov]], and creatures that amass you value quickly like [[Drogskol Reaver]] and [[Sunscorch Regent]]. you gain life, shut down your opponents, and force unwinnable situations or knock out opponents with big bombs. it's fun!

the third deck is Vadrok Inevitable Betrayal Combo!

Vadrok here is the final fruit of my obsession with the 0 cmc suspend cards I went through a few months back. after toying with pretty much ever one in turn, Vadrok is the one that stuck around because he plays so interestingly and truly warps your table's metagame if you bring him out enough times.

let's get into the weeds: the combo here is a pretty simple one-- Vadrok is one of (and the only legendary) engine that allows you to play cards from your graveyard without exiling them after, done by mutating. [[Inevitable Betrayal]] is a 0 mana cost blue spell that takes a creature from an opponent's deck and puts it onto the battlefield under your control. The combo, then, is a gradual one: use a spell to discard Inevitable Betrayal, and mutate onto Vadrok. each mutate plays Inevitable Betrayal for free, allowing you to cheat out an opponent's creature each time. this is strong.

the deck features a suite of tutors, a variety of ways to discard cards, and every mutate card in Jeskai (except the one whose mutate cost is six mana :P). the combo is surprisingly low to the ground and quick, allowing for turn one/two discards and turn three Vadrok mutates at times. however, it's often worth waiting to mutate Vadrok onto a creature with Hexproof to ensure little interruption as you swarm the board with your opponents' best hits.

this deck, of course, relies heavily on your opponents' decks then. which is why this deck is so metagame-warping-- even at more casual tables, you'll probably see your friends take their funny eldrazi and craterhoofs out of their decks because you're so prone to winning with them. personally, i find that delightful! i tend to cycle deck usage anyway, so it's cute to steal a bunch of things for a couple weeks, have my opponents edit their decklists to remove my hits, lose interest in the deck, and come back a couple months later and steal the good hits in their new decks, repeat :) its fun having a deck that warps metagames with its presence alone.

the final deck id like to talk about is my Silvar and Trynn Humans decklist!

mardu is delightful and for the longest time i couldn't find a mardu commander i ever wanted to build! finally though, i stumbled across these two :) the art on them is so gorgeous! i love ikoria.

this deck is very fun! the only typal deck on the list, humans is a very fun type to build around and you get access to so many bangers in mardu. this deck is all about building a board of as many humans as you possibly can, then sacking them all to put 17 +1/+1 counters on Silvar and start swinging for commander lethal. how that is done is different every game, with so many fun human pieces and interaction pieces that each game feels very distinctly different from the last more so than any of the other decks discussed on this post. furthermore, mardu offers my favorite interaction suite of all time, so it's always a pleasure to play with.

teehee anyway thats my decks ive been hyperfixating on! feel free to give em a try :) sqrrk!!

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

HI! I've been reading through some old posts and i was wondering if you could explain how Arjun did raas with lord krishna? <3

Hello!

So the bit you're referring to is not actually from the Mahabharat. It's from the Padma Purana's pātāla-khanda.

This tiny story is a part of the dialogue that occurs between two people in the future as is the typical narrative style of these tales. It goes something like:

Arjun is curious to know all sorts of details about the raas-leela- where does it happen, how many gopis are there, who are they etc etc. Krishna is cryptic, as usual, and tells him that a man simply cannot perceive it even if the said man is more precious to him than life itself to him. Therefore, it's no use asking. Arjun is Disappointed™. Krishna is soft for him so he tells him it's fine and that he shouldn't worry about it because he'll see for himself. Then he instructs him to go to a goddess(Tripāsundari, to be exact) who will help him.

Arjun goes to her, prays to her and calls to her. She appears, pleased by his devotion and adoration. She also asks him a rhetorical question, that I personally find funny, which basically is along the lines of "What makes you so special that Krishna is letting you have this one thing that no other mortal, deity or ascetic can have?" She doesn't wait for an answer, because I think she already knew and then proceeds to give Arjun a list of prayer related tasks to worship her properly. After he follows her instructions, she and her friend show him Radha's house and vrindavan. Then she tells him to take dip in an auspicious lake and he does and emerges as a beautiful woman.

(At this point, I will be using she/her pronouns for Arjun/Arjuni because that's what the story says.)

Arjuni rises from the lake, having forgotten everything about her male self. There's a lot of poetic waxing about how alluring and attractive her voice, physicality and personality are. She happens upon a bunch of women(the gopis, obviously) who are equally as beautiful and charming as her. All the gopis are very lovely, actually and ask her who she is and how she happened to end up there and kind of soothe Arjuni's anxiety and then all of them introduce themselves. They say that they used to sages in their past life and are now gopis who participate in raas leela with Krishna.

They take her to lake, play with her, bathe her etc etc. It's all VERY sapphic, trust me. There's also a lot of praying involved. After the initiation is over, Arjuni meets Radha. More praying and devotion.

Pleased by all this devotion, Krishna asks Radha to bring Arjuni to him who promptly breaks out into sweaty excitement upon seeing him.

(Okay, now, I guess I'm obligated to inform you that what follows is very...sexual in nature. BUT a lot of Indian spiritual texts consider the sexual and the spiritual to be interconnected. Take from this what you will, I guess.)

The text goes on to describe Krishna's body in HEAVY detail (including equating his thighs to tree trunks?) that makes me genuinely worried that whoever wrote this was incredibly horny. He takes her hand and they um... participate in the leela.

When it's over, Arjuni is Exhausted from all the activity and Krishna tells her to go take a dip in the lake again. She does.

(Back to he/him pronouns people, keep up.)

Arjun surfaces and is dejected from the loss of something so wonderful. Krishna consoles him by saying that they are Dear Friends, as the historians say, and that only he knows something that no one else in three loka does. And if Arjun tells anyone what he has experienced he will curse Krishna. Again, hilarious because if you remember I said that this story is being told to us in a dialogue of TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE. Which means other people already know. Clownery of the highest order, really.

And then they go home. The end?

I hope this helps. I paraphrased a lot but I couldn't just paste the entire thing here. I've given you all the tools to go search for orginal text and translation yourself.

TL: DR Arjun gets instant lake-HRT for one night, participates in the raas-leela, and then goes home.

-Mod S

[lullabyes22-blog]

I know you've given us headcanons on Silco's peen, but can we have more details on them rest of him 😳😳😳

Pretty please?

My apologies for leaving this in the askbox for months. There's a big pile to sift through and never enough time.

Peen post is here.

Sundry Silco headcanons: Here, here and here.

Let us continue our proud tradition of objectifying the old man.

>D

So: you've crossed the stage of maiden intimacies and been granted the privilege of disrobing the monster.

Lucky you (?)

First off, it's his habit to undress by himself. He's got blades and a garotte concealed somewhere on his person at all times. Also an incendiary or two. He'd rather not give away the hiding places - or give you a nasty shock.

Best to unveil our secrets piecemeal, hm?

Speaking of unveiling - he's a playful bastard. He also likes to talk while getting carnally acquainted. Expect idle banter during the striptease.

Let's start by taking the boots off, shall we? Nothing more ridiculous than a naked man in footwear. He wears ankle garters - typically with a two-inch blade hidden on the right. The socks might startle you - there are colorful acid green patterns of fishies on them.

A gift from Jinx. They're thermal too<3

His bare feet are curiously elegant: long and pale, nearly flipperlike, with interesting bumps in places from calluses and scars. You can tell this is someone who used to run around barefoot in muck as a kid, and spent the rest of his adulthood taking scrupulous care never to repeat the stupidity.

Next: off with the vest. And let's dispatch the bracers. He never tosses anything willy-nilly. It's all carefully folded and put away. In a rare mood - if he trusts you - he might let you fold the clothes.

And if you're a klutz, you'll get patient instruction.

"Not that way, dove. Hold it vertically and then tuck it in half lengthwise. Else the fabric will be wrinkled."

This is already proving an educational experience.

You can thank him later.

Next, off with the cravat. It's like watching a man twist out of a snow-white noose. How he breathes with the knot so tight is beyond you. Or maybe it's a reminder to never take each breath for granted?

If you're eagle-eyed, you'll notice that the edges of the cravat are a little stiff. That's where the garotte is concealed. It also doubles as a jimmy for picking locks or slipping past window latches.

Live and learn, eh?

Shirt next - and he'll make a show of it on request. A quick snap-snap to undo suspenders. A skittering dance of long fingers down the buttons. A lazy shrug so the material drops off one shoulder, than the other.

Waist-up, it's a shipwrecked swimmer's physique more than a sedentary ascetic's. Narrow boned and lanky, with a meshwork of distinct sinews under a thin stretch of scarred skin. The shoulderblades are sharply pronounced, the collarbones nearly sculpture-esque. They are also asymmetrical - the right one chipped after getting clubbed by an Enforcer's baton.

His arms are cordlike, and neatly muscled along the forearm and bicep. Trickledown veins on the wrists and the backs of the hands. Like his feet, they call to mind flippers on a deepsea creature.

No abs, but if he stretches the muscle groups will present themselves: a cobra's hood of latissimus muscle, a tummy that's still drumlike under a layer of softness, a jutting V of hipbones, and a snatched little waist.

What's your secret Silco?

"Not eating like a Council pig at trough."

Fair enough.

He doesn't have a lot of body hair: a sparse dusting on his arms, a fine thatch on the chest, and a happy trail that meanders south.

He's also got the tiniest outie belly-button. It's almost endearing.

"No. You may not poke it."

Spoilsport.

Well, time's a-wasting - and our man's pants are saluting. Let's doff those and show him the proper respect, shall we?

It's quite a feat of efficiency. One would think, between all the clasps and tight-fitting fabric, it would take decades to unshuck him. In fact, the broadfall - the buttoned front flap of his trousers - comes off with a few flicks of the wrist. No belt, just suspender loops, and a coordinated twist of movement gets his pants down, before he peels them off the rest of the way.

Were you expecting fishie underpants to match his socks?

Sadly, no.

It's not generic Fruit of the Loom boxer-briefs, either. He likes well-stitched fabrics, and undergarments are no exception. His favorite material is a type of cotton called ice silk: light, soft, breathable and easy to wash.

Also—

Whoosh.

Mind your head. A throwing blade just whizzed past your ear to embed itself with a thwock on the wall behind you.

He's got false pockets stitched inside his trousers. Just in case.

Once you've caught your breath, take a moment to admire The View.

The snake has shed his skin. Or at least peeled away the superficial layer.

All for you.

In clothes, he'd be easy to mistake for a bundle of sticks jointed together. Out of clothes, your only mistake would be underestimating how much damage he can do - and how fast.

His entire torso is crosshatched with scars. There are silvery razor wounds on his arms, and chemical burn scars mottling one shoulder blade, and a starburst-shaped cicatrix on his left shank.

His legs are probably his best feature - and his best kept secret. They're where he packs a majority of his muscle: the thighs all smooth sinew and the calves tight-packed from a lifetime of climbing unstable vertical spaces. He doesn't pack a lot of bulk in the upper-body. But his kicks are absolutely vicious.

Can - and has - stomped men's skulls in.

Like the rest of his body, his legs are riven with scars. Most distinctive is a divot gouged into the right shinbone from a mining accident. If you run your finger over it, you'll actually feel the hardness of shinbone beneath the scar-tissue.

Creepy.

Do our man got a booty? He do...ish. It's no cake, but it's not a pancake either. Maybe a bran muffin? He's the type who has sacral dimples - that smooth dip thing on the sides of the buttocks. Another set of dimples above them.

Vander used to call them Thumb Grips.

As with his legs, his arse has a few scars too. Most notable is a jagged slash from the lower back down to the left cheek. His own fault for turning his back on a man during a knife fight.

Altogether, the scars are nowhere near as bad as the devastation on his face - for which small mercy, much thanks to Janna. He wears none of them a Croix de Guerre. 

Simply a byproduct of survival. 

"War stories? Perhaps later. Else we'll be here all night." A lazy crook of the finger. "And I've better uses for our time."

Well?

What're you waiting for?

[libbee]

Dangers of the Abyss

Intro = Does this image stir something in you? Some emotion, thought, memory? Perhaps fear. What we cannot express in words, we express in symbols and images. Images are not mere pixels but they are emotionally charged and they exist in our minds too. After all, our eyes are like cameras, mind is like camera film, memory is like storage space. The unconscious world can be accessed via your mental images, fantasies, visions, dreams, thoughts, emotions, memory. Some of the tools we use to explore the unconscious are writing, art, active imagination, tarot cards and alchemy. Some of the ways we know unconscious exists is synchronicities, projection and spiritual awakenings.

World of the unconscious = Few things are as tempting as exploring the 4th, 8th and 12th houses in astrology. Especially when you find yourself at the outskirts of healing, you are sucked into these areas of life and may lose touch with the material world. When the native is so engrossed in spiritual work or shadow work that they are obsessed with it and do it compulsively everyday, that is when you know that they have crossed the limits of what is healthy for them. Astrology, spirituality, occult, esoteric and mysticism (for eastern audience), new age tools (for western audience) can be very tempting in times of turbulence. This is why when life is out of control (eg, divorce or break up, disease or accident, money or career problems) we run to astrologers/psychics/healers, even if we were atheist or anti-theist otherwise. What is unseen, intangible and unknown resides in the unconscious and these 3 houses in astrology are the mining holes for the unconscious. They represent the collective unconscious, personal unconscious (or the subconcious mind) and bringing them to the light of the day is called awareness/enlightenment.

3. Curious case of Friedrich Nietzsche = Though history does not report why Nietzsche went insane, many report (including Carl Jung) that Nietzsche went so far into self exploration that he could not come back to the material life. That he went so deep into the unconscious that he could not pull himself out of it and completely submerged with the unconscious. Do you see how dangerous it is to do shadow work? Though whether Nietzsche could be reborn or not is not something we can decide, for it was his life path and his destiny. Though he lost himself in the darkness, at least he wrote some great books, at least he excavated some pearls from the ocean for the rest of us. It is to be noted that Nietzsche had ketu/south node in the 7th house which can signify his unsuccessful love life, solitude/loneliness and also had sun in the 12th house.

"...Nietzsche would be just about as grateful to his rescuers as somebody who has jumped into the water to drown himself and has been pulled out by some fool of a coastguard. I have seen Nietzsche in states in which he seemed – horrible to say – as though he were only pretending to be mad, as though he were glad to have ended this way!” Peter Gast, The Madness of Nietzsche by Erich Podach

4. We the regulars = But we the regular, the common, the laymen people who cannot afford to be lost in the unconscious world, who have school/college/job, family/relations/marriage, money/food/shelter to take care - we need a foundation to navigate the material life alongside the spiritual life. Unless you are an ascetic sitting in a cave, browsing tumblr in your lunch break before the 10 hour meditation session, we know that you have a full life with many dimensions to take care of. And it is for those of us to learn to balance the material and spiritual life

5. Doing it alone = Whether a therapist or a family member or a friend or a loved one, anyone who can keep you grounded in the real world, bring you back to the daily life, keep you rational when you are losing touch with reality and guide you when you are losing track can be helpful. Though shadow work is a solitary process, we still need somebody else to give us objective judgment, tell whether we are biased in our judgment and guide us with their own wisdom and experience. This is why 4th/8th houses also deal with generations, ancestors, inheritance, history because it is only by standing upon the shoulder of the giants that you can make progress in your life. We may think we know it all intuitively/alone, but the more we learn the more we discover how little we know. "Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't live long enough to make them all yourself." - Chanakya, Indian polymath

6. Psychic content is reality = I am very fond of this interview of Carl Jung. What Jung meant to say here is that the events of psyche are as real as the material life. For instance, if you celebrate your birthday on a certain date with your friends, you call it reality. But if you think about celebrating your birthday with your friends, you call it daydream and not reality. This is where Jung says that even the world in your mind is as real and valid as the world outside. So whether you celebrate your birthday in physical world or mental world, both are equally valid and real. So, when the mental world is as encompassing, satisfying and real as the physical world, it is very easy and tempting to spend your whole life in the mind. In the modern world, the addiction to social media, internet, video games and T.V. is similar to living in your mind (unless you are using technology to do your job and make money).

7. Being clueless and inexperienced = The baby witches often ask minute questions on spells, tools and energy. Do you work in coven or are you a solitary witch? Are you a family astrologer or the first in your family? Do you visit a psychologist or do your own therapy in your journal? If the answer to all these questions is the latter of the two, then you may have begun from a place where you were clueless, inexperienced and confused. Perhaps you learned from trial and error, perhaps you did hours of research, perhaps you felt like you were not meant for it, but what we do know is that being clueless and inexperienced in the world of the unconscious can have serious drawbacks and dangers. The most dangerous is the mental and emotional impact of practices that do not make your life better rather pull you in a rut.

8. Solutions = Solutions are very simple, so simple that we may dismiss it, but learning to keep a balance between material life (school/college/self care/job/ family/responsibilities) and the spiritual life (shadow work/alchemy/exploring the unconscious/self actualization) is crucial. Next solution is to be able to identify the psychic contents with mindfulness and living in the present moment - this comes with practice, perhaps months or years of practice before one can calm down the restlessness to stay mindful. Next solution is to really understand your mental process. Mind is a beautiful thing, do not deal with it lightly. Just like you would arrange, clean, organize, beautify your physical space, you also have to arrange, organize and keep your mental space neat and clean. Next solution is to what I mentioned earlier in a post to keep marking mistakes and correct decisions for yourself, to use reasoning, logic, common sense, decision making, routine (rather than be emotional thinker, magical thinker, impulsive and reckless). In short, think BEFORE you act and not the vice versa. The exploration of the unconscious is systematic and organized, it is not careless and impulsive.

9. Conclusion = So, if you are a first generation astrologer or witch or healer or trauma cycle breaker, be very vigilant of your limits and structure. I have written about psychosis before which can induce when the native is not mentally prepared for the psychological adventure of healing and actualization. Psychoanalysis, spiritual practices and occult practices are parallels to each other and if you feel like you are called into any of these interests, please make sure you have your physical life in order, lest you want to reach rock bottom again and again. I am speaking from experience that being first time clueless healer, psychoanalysis made my life even more complicated instead of magically improving it. I thought I had hit rock bottom in physical life but I did not know yet that even rock bottom has a basement that I hit with clueless psychoanalysis and spiritual practices. It was like this diagram for me:

It felt like I was making great progress with shadow work and psychoanalysis, it felt like I hit the jackpot and all my problems would be explained/solved but it took me a lot of time to realize that it takes immense responsibility to tackle the world of the unconscious and it is not mere for fun and games, rather it can really disturb your life and make you dysfunctional in the material world.