#in the absence of other indicators to the contrary

[aeide-thea]

unfortunate that i have such a strong rsd* response to terse replies even when objectively their semantic content is positive and contextually there's evidence to suggest the person generally likes me/enjoys talking to me 😔

⸻ * note that as ever, what i really mean by this is 'repeated social disapproval' culminating in a learned trauma response, which you could probably file under c-ptsd if you liked that language—i don't really buy that it's an ~innate characteristic of adhd~ the way i understand the tiktok+ crowd tends to argue, since i'm pretty sure i didn't experience it as a preschooler

[earthtooz]

x : AVOIDANCE :*+ﾟ

in which: falling for blade was not on your agenda, so naturally you decide to distance yourself. however, the last thing you'd predicted was blade being upset with the sudden space.

warnings: 2.3k wc, FLUFF, ooc!blade probably bc i'm still trying to figure it out, kafka meddles with the two of you, gn!stellaron hunter!reader who has a past lol, NOT PROOFREAD, idiots in love bc i love that trope, bad writing

a/n: thank you to the anon who gave me this idea :D much appreciated, i had a lot of fun with this one when my angstier fics were draining me af. i hope you enjoy, apologies if it's a little low quality, but it's my child <3

when you first joined the team of stellaron hunters, you didn’t expect to get much out of it, especially since the team looked so cold, calculating, mischievous, and unforgiving, greeting you with vicious smiles and muddy eyes. preemptively, you assumed the most you would receive is acquaintanceship.

however, time has proven you wrong, because on the contrary, you have found comfort, friendship, and stability in the form of this mismatched group.

you never expected to find love either.

but you did, and it might be the worst decision your heart has ever made.

“y/n, there you are. kafka and i are thinking about going out to lunch. want to join?” silver wolf’s voice interrupts your train of thought, disrupting your peace in your private spot amongst the gardens.

“oh, hi silver wolf,” you murmur, shutting your book after shoving in a bookmark. “who else is going?”

“kafka asked blade and he agreed.”

the genius hacker doesn’t notice the way you tense upon hearing a certain swordman’s name. instead, you play it cool by opening up your book again, scanning the pages in hopes of ignoring the racing of your heart.

“i think i’ll pass on this one. thank you though,” you mutter.

“really?” the silver-haired asks, popping her gum before shrugging. “whatever you say. i’m off!”

“bye!”

hearing her footsteps fade, you slump in your seat, your memories with blade hauntingly eminent in your mind. you don’t recall when you fell for him, or why exactly, all you have in your recollection is a series of moments that you look back fondly upon with a full heart, love slowly seeping in to you and causing your affections to grow to the size that they reside at now.

when you had realised, the love had already grown too big to deflate, and dejection struck moments after; a big bang of butterflies in your stomach that all disintegrated straight after.

how brutal- perhaps this was an indication that blade was rubbing off on you too much, and you need to cleanse yourself of his influence.

love, although fickle, was not something that you avidly rejected. despite having lived like a hunted deer, your experiences have been fleeting, building your delicate heart for a life of meeting, falling, then leaving when you least wanted to, needing to run before an arrow pierced you- and certainly not cupid’s one. 

but with blade, everything is different. there is no arrow to run from, not in the life that elio has foreseen for you. for the first time in your life, you can stop running away and try fall into the arms of love with little remorse.

it's just ironic that you fall into the arms of a man who should not be touched.

“y/n’s not coming with us today,” silver wolf reports after meeting up with the other two stellaron hunters.

“oh?” kafka hums, “usually y/n’s always willing to hangout, why’s that?”

“busy or something, i don’t know, i didn’t care to ask.”

the slight scrunch of displeasure in blade’s expression passes by the keen eyes of both kafka and silver wolf. if either of them had noticed then perhaps it would have been a topic of interest, but for the time being, the pair move on (faster than the third member), your unusual absence dismissed in favour of where to get food.

as the days turn into nights and elio issues more missions and mumbles more futures, blade feels as though he sees you less and less.

it’s not intuition more than it is you purposefully ignoring and evading blade in your everyday, though.

“good morning,” kafka’s voice greets when she walks in to the cafeteria, where you were eating breakfast alone. setting down your phone, you regard her with a mouth full of bread. “gross. at least swallow first.”

“screw off,” you murmur. “how did you sleep?”

“fine fine, i woke up in the wrong position though and my neck is killing me, but what about you? seems like you’ve been up a while.”

“i’ve been up since asscrack of dawn.” 

the purple-haired regards you with amusement. “why’s that?”

“body clock or whatever,” you lie, staring down at your glass of water.

“i see,” kafka hums half-heartedly, as if seeing right through you. “well, i’m going to get some coffee, i’ll be right back.”

“mk.”

you’re left on your own for only a few minutes, waiting patiently in silence for kafka to return. the morning is cool and pleasant, and the smell of rain is still heavy in the air as the morning dew lightens the atmosphere. the weather will surely get hotter as the day matures, but for now, you enjoy the gentle caress of sunlight on your back.

or rather- you were enjoying the gentle caress of the sun, but the methodicalness of it all is ruined when you spot a certain figure with dark, long hair beside kafka.

suddenly the last thing you know is peace and calm, and the abrupt, painful scraping of your chair against the floor symbolises that.

“going somewhere?” kafka asks.

picking up your scraps, you avoid blade’s gaze. “yeah! i- uh, realised that i have some documents to drop off for elio by twelve or whatever.”

“won't you stay to keep us company for breakfast,” the purple-haired tempts, “it feels like it’s been so long since we’ve spent some proper time together.”

“has it?” you laugh nervously and kafka easily picks up the pitchiness of your tone. “i’ll make it up soon, i promise, i’ve just been overflowed with things to do.”

“alright. you be off then. don’t work too hard.”

“i won’t. my head is remaining tight on my shoulders, don’t you worry!” you reassure before scrambling away, feeling like your legs could not be any slower as you retreat away from blade’s scrutinising gaze. when you round the corner, you sigh a breath of relief. 

it’s laughable and simultaneously admirable how dedicated you are about dodging every interaction possible, but for the record, you think you’re doing quite well. not that space was doing many favours for your heart, but persistence is key. 

whoever believed that distance makes the heart grow fonder just clearly didn’t try enough, because yours feels like it’s about to hammer out of your chest with how fast it is racing, and the sensation is equivalent to something like pain rather than fondness.

“i’m worried,” blade mutters, gaze lingering on where you’d just disappeared. “and why does y/n talk like i’m not right here?”

“aww, are you upset?” coos kafka, taking a seat. the swordsman mimics her.

“why wouldn’t i be? it feels like y/n has been ignoring me as of late.”

kafka hums thoughtfully, swirling her coffee cup around.

“do you know anything about that?”

“nup. nothing at all,” she answers, feigning ignorance to the many suspicions that are bubbling around in her mind. the last thing kafka is, is blind, your unusual behaviour has not bypassed her perceptive eye at all, but she believes she has uncovered the reasoning as to why; said reasoning being a certain swordsman.

the revelation is definitely interesting, and she might just be able to give the push you both need.

“y’know what, bladie? if it concerns you that much, i’d say you go check up on y/n later,” kafka suggests.

“why not you?”

“i’ll be busy, but i think some support in dire times is just what y/n needs.”

“okay. fine.”

when blade gathers the courage to check up on you, like kafka recommended, the time is nearing 5pm. the sun is beginning to cool, the animals are retreating into their nests, and the big, bad, intimidating stellaron hunter is roaming around the archives, where you’re situated to work, hoping to locate you.

it takes a few laps around to finally find your placement because you’re fast asleep, only identifiable to blade by the jacket you hung on the back of your chair.

the sight of you hunched over your desk over a multitude of forms and papers causes a wave of concern (however much he can feel) to wash over blade, and suddenly, he does something completely foreign to him: dote over someone.

gently lifting your jacket to cover your shoulders, he stills when you shift a little, your eyebrows furrowing in your sleep. deciding to leave you alone, all blade spares is one lasting look at your vulnerability before leaving. 

he wonders what it is that could be making you so frustrated. 

(if only he knew). 

a few days later, kafka confronts you about the suspicions that’s been creeping to the forefront of her mind.

“did you do something to piss a certain bladie off?” 

kafka’s saccharine voice is laced with mischief as she leans towards you, chin resting on the palm of her hand. she certainly does not miss the way you tense up at the mention of the swordsman’s name and her smirk widens when you shuffle away, subconsciously turning away, as if avoiding the subject.

“i can’t think of why i would have,” you murmur, crossing your arms. “why?”

“oh, nothing, he’s just been complaining and crying a lot recently.”

“he does that all the time.”

“so he does,” your fellow stellaron hunter hums. “except he’s mentioning your name a lot more nowadays.” 

you freeze. “what?”

“hm? did i say something peculiar?”

inhaling a deep breath, you steady yourself. you know what kafka wants out of you and you’re not going to give it to her despite how innocent and pretty she spins the web to look. after all these years together, you hope to have learnt a thing or two about how to avoid her snare.

“what is blade saying about me?” you quiz. 

she blinks at you. “why so curious if you haven’t done anything?” 

“can i not ask about something that involves my name? besides, he’s my friend, i want to know what he’s saying,” you lean against the back of the couch, trying to calm the involuntary shake in your legs. you despise that the slightest mention of blade can cause a bottomless pit to form in your stomach and it’s not because of how intimidating or threatening he is. 

no, it’s because you’ve fallen for him, hook, line, and centre.

and blade would have to die before you ever tell him.

“mostly just grumbles about wondering where you are,” kafka expands, waving her hands about to match her words. “he asked silver wolf and i if you’ve been talking to us and when we said ‘yes’, he looked pissed! when i asked why he was being a sourpuss, he just stormed off.”

“so temperamental, that man,” she sighs. then, she looks back at you with those half-lidded eyes that have always gotten her what she wants, and in this case, they’re answers. “so tell me, y/n, what did you do to our bladie to have him all riled up like this?”

“nothing. absolutely nothing.”

“are you sure?”

“positive.”

“positive?”

you avoid her curious gaze. “positive.”

“maybe i phrased the question wrong. has bladie done something to you instead?”

panic settles within you. “no,” you lie through your teeth. “he hasn’t.”

“so if i asked you why you left breakfast so abruptly that day, you wouldn’t say that it’s because of him?”

“i had work to do, kafka, you know how busy my job gets.”

“i know, i know,” she persists, “then why weren’t you in a hurry before blade arrived that morning?”

you don’t know how to refute that, letting silence speak volumes instead.

“and why did you skip out on lunch with silver wolf and i? was it because we also invited a certain someone?”

“okay! fine, you’ve got me. what do you want to know?” you explode, tossing your phone on the couch in frustration. 

“so it is about blade?” questions your coworker.

“yeah. it is.”

“what about him? did he do something to hurt you? you know he’s accidentally mean sometimes-”

“it’s not that, he’s nothing but a sweetheart.”

“so what’s the problem?”

“that is the problem! he’s just… he’s him.”

“is that bad?”

“for my heart, yes.”

“oh my- so you like him?”

you exhale exasperatedly, “don’t act like you haven’t already figured that out, kafka.”

the cheshire smile she then flashes sends shivers down your spine. for whatever reason, an oppressive feeling grows in your gut, resembling something like a warning.

“you’re right, i knew,” she flaunts. then, her gaze cuts to look behind you. “but i don’t think blade did.”

your heart lurches out of your chest with enough force to pull you off the couch and you stumble around to see that, lo and behold, blade was indeed standing in the hallway. the expression he wears tells you enough; he heard you, he knows.

kafka somehow sneaks her way out of the room, leaving you alone to deal with the face of rejection. it’s daunting being in the same space as him after so long, you almost forgot about the intimidating pressure that blade naturally exudes and projects in every space he enters.

“hi,” you start, looking away. 

he stalks over to you, footsteps soundless before stopping a feet in front of you. instead of saying something, the swordsman merely gazes down at you whilst you keep your eyes glued to the side.

“can you reject me already? the silence is kinda killing me,” you snap after a few seconds, crossing your arms protectively. 

instead of obeying to your request, blade does something completely unexpected; he very gently lifts your chin with his hand, and red eyes bore right into yours. is it odd to feel seen in your demise? because blade is looking- no, surveying you with such immense focus and clarity that your heart stills, frozen in position because it wants him to see the most picturesque part of you. 

(he sees it, but he wants to know more of you. the pretty, the ugly, the likeable, and the unwanted.)

“would you like to go on a date?” he asks.

© EARTHTOOZ 2023, do not steal, translate, repost my fics and do not recommend my fics onto any other site.

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Would any dromaeosaurs have likely had bald heads like turkey vultures?

It's certainly possible, and I'd go so far as to say quite likely!

We do have some fossil evidence for dromaeosaurs with feathered heads:

Image sources: Tianyuraptor, Sinornithosaurus, Daurlong, Microraptor.

As for the rest though, we don't have a clear fossil of a bald-headed dromaeosaur! To be certain, we'd probably need to find specific impressions of naked skin around the head, which to my knowledge has not been found yet.

The feathered fossils above belong to either small (right side) or medium-sized (left side) dromaeosaurs, so it indicates that any dromaeosaurs up to a Velociraptor-type size certainly could have had feathered heads.

That being said, the level of head feathering is very variable in modern birds even within the same group. Some vultures have bald heads which may help with cleaning their faces and heat regulation, but there's much wider variation than you might expect! Even just within the clade Aegypiinae, we've got:

Image sources: hooded, griffon, red-headed, lappet-faced, white-headed, cinereous.

There's a whole range from nearly full plumage to fully naked skin folds to Justin Timberlake Ramen Hair, and I'd say there's no reason to think that dromaeosaurs and other feathered dinosaurs couldn't have had the same level of variation between species!

It's the kinda situation where in the absence of direct evidence, I'd consider varying levels of head baldness in dromaeosaurs as pretty reasonable speculation! So here's a Deinonychus decked out with a variety of different styles that are within the realms of possibility:

And that's not even taking into account that in a lot of bald-headed birds that skin space is prime real estate for all sorts of flippy flappy dangly bits and colours and lumps and bumps.

So basically, it's not like we can point at any particular dromaeosaurs and be like "that one probably had a bald head", but unless there's contrary evidence I feel it's very likely there was a lot of variation in how feathery the head was!

[hamliet]

Hazbin Hotel Has Better Theology Than Most Modern "Christian" Stories

As a Christian who was raised in a fundie cult and escaped to now have a far healthier and vital faith, I genuinely really like this show. The songs are bops. The characters are well crafted and interesting, and likable too. The art design is bizarre but appealing.

And, as a theology nerd who studied theology as part leaving said cult and also has since gotten papers published in theology, I'm actually fairly impressed by the show's handling of theology.

No, I'm not expecting the story to preach or even like, be explicitly Christian in a lot of ways. But it's taking a lot of the really beautiful aspects of Christian theology and re-contextualizing them in a way designed to provoke thought: by juxtaposing them with the antithesis of what you would think, by making demons heroes. In my opinion, this makes the beauty shine brighter.

Yeah, yeah, it's designed to be offensive and obscene in a lot of ways. Yet, it's never (thus far) mean-spirited. On the contrary, it seems to have a big, beating heart at its core that is perhaps best embodied by Charlie Morningstar, its protagonist and the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith.

Critique of the Church, with Caveats

The story works best with an interpretation that heaven isn't actually heaven or God (who has been conspicuously absent), but instead as a critique of the church. Specifically, the evangelical American church, and specifically, white evangelicals. (Same as She-Ra's premise, actually).

God's absence therefore makes sense, because while Christians do believe God is present as a living reality among us, we also can't like, see him physically now. So, God being not even mentioned in HH makes it seem more like a mortal reality rather than an immortal one. Honestly I kinda hope God doesn't appear in the story, not only because I think it could cross some lines (which is admittedly personal), but also because I don't see that the story really needs it.

Adam in particular reminds me of every "theobro" on Twitter (I'm not calling it what you want me to, El*n). Basically a dudebro coopting his supposed salvation to flex in an often misogynistic way, who doesn't realize that he has absolutely no love in him and therefore is actually a worse human being than everyone he condemns on the regular.

(Which is kind of why I'm expecting Adam to wake up in hell next season...)

Think red hats. And Mark Driscoll. And, I have a list of pastors. Sigh. They advocate for how "simple" Christianity is, except they themselves make it ridiculously complicated and don't even examine what they suppose is "simple" if it requires them to take the planks out of their own eyes. "Shallow" is a better description of what they actually preach.

But what sends people to hell or heaven anyways?

Eschatology and Atonement Theory

Hazbin Hotel combines a lot of theories, throwing not only the idea of a physical hell (albeit mixed with Dante's idea of what hell is the Inferno, but to be fair a lot of the church has adopted that idea too) but the idea of annihilation, which HH calls "extermination."

See, in Christianity, there's a lot of debate about hell. Like, since 2000 years ago. The reason is because a lot of Bible verses seem to indicate hell, but others indicate the eventual redemption and salvation of absolutely everything in the universe, so you have Christian universalism tracing itself back just as long. But, setting aside universalism, people who do believe in hell tend to fall into one of two camps:

Physical hell, aka suffering for eternity, or annihilation: the idea that souls that aren't saved end up annihilated, or snuffed from existence. HH combines both of them, wherein everyone lives in hell but then every so often heaven "exterminates" a certain number of sinners.

And then you also have Catholic purgatory, which is also adapted in HH in that... for most Christians, physical hell doesn't offer the ability to redeem yourself. Chance over, you're dead. But, Catholic Christianity, which draws on ideas of praying for the dead, has the idea that people can improve themselves or be prayed out of it and into heaven. This seems to be somewhat similar to the idea of Charlie's hotel, in that sinners can improve, redeem themselves, and rise to heaven.

And, I mean, it's already kinda worked. Sir Pentious acted out Jesus' words: Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

But anyways, the branch of theology that deals with the afterlife is eschatology. And Hazbin Hotel takes on a related form of theology as well, a type of theology I've only seen covered in stories once before (The House in Fata Morgana): atonement theory.

Atonement theory is something I remember well from my theology 101 class, as in I remember sitting with a friend and her turning to me and being like, "okay, so we know Jesus' death and resurrection give us eternal life, but we have no idea how or why?" To which the answer was "basically, yeah."

Most of the white, American evangelical church is very "penal substitutionary atonement," but the reality is that this theory has only been popular for the past few hundred years. It's also, imo, somewhat scripturally unsound. But there are a lot of other theories, and sometimes the theories overlap. Here's a fairly decent summary. (I'm in general a believer in Christus Victor.)

So how does atonement theory tie into Hazbin Hotel? Well, essentially the scene where Charlie and Vaggie are debating with Emily, Sera, Adam, Lute, and others in heaven is them going over various atonement theories and realizing that they actually know nothing at all. How does one get to heaven? How is one saved? They don't know.

Sera criticizing Emily for asking questions was also very relatable, and I feel for Sera. She's genuinely scared but the truth will set you free, Sera. John 8:32. Anyways, the point is like... the angels are an organized religion, an evangelical church, that preaches about simplicity but mistakes shallowness for simplicity and discourages depth and discovery.

Anyways, the whole crux of theological study and atonement theories is that they should promote humility. We don't know for certain on this side of the curtain. That's okay. So what do we have to guide us?

Love. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8).

Charlie is Jesus

"Why would you endanger your immortal life for these sinners?" 

Adam, the absolute worst, says the above to Charlie in the finale.

I mean... look. That's literally the premise of Christianity. That the immortal son of God comes down to earth, lives with sinners, loves us, and dies to save us. However that happens. Charlie even responds:

"They're my family!"

In other words, she loves them. Yeah, sure, they're destined for extermination, but they are going to be exterminated over her dead body.

In a lot of branches of Christianity, and even in some creeds--though I'm going to give into my pet peeves here and state that it is NOT Scriptural and relies on the faulty assumption that God is bound by time, when I think God exists outside of it--state that Jesus descended into hell after his death and took all the souls of people who were saved prior to his coming to earth to heaven. Again, I think that's small-minded at best. But, the idea that Charlie is working among them to bring them to heaven is pretty reminiscent of this idea. And I don't hate it lol.

Charlie sees worth inherent in everyone, and no matter what they've done, thinks there's a future for them. Honestly we need people like her on this earth.

Angel Dust

Angel Dust is clearly my favorite character. Bite back your shock, I know (I have a type). But his name is also a fascinating multi-layered pun.

Angel is clearly foreshadowing his endgame. Let's be real, we all know Angel is ending up as an angel. And "angeldust" is of course a name for PCP, and considering Angel's drug habits, yeah.

But, dust also has another meaning to it. See, when Adam was created in Genesis 2:7, the words in Hebrew are "apar min ha'adamah," which is translated literally as "dust of the ground." So the dust is what creates Adam, literally "ground."

In other words, I very much expect Angel Dust to end up being foiled with Adam even more so. Adam might be the first man, but Angel is the first sinner working towards redemption. And let's be real, for all Angel's flaws, he's already a better person than Adam. And if there's any hope for Adam (not that I particularly care if there is but) it'd be through realizing that he and Angel aren't actually different after all. Conversely (and not necessarily mutually exclusively), Angel might serve as a more symbolic "adam" in that he becomes the person all sinners look to for hope. Which, y'know, since "the last Adam" is also a Scriptural term for Jesus...

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45).

I fully expect Angel's arc, alongside Charlie's, to bring life and redemption for everyone around them. Maybe, maybe even the dramatic "all" of Colossians 1:20 (which means, literally, all, everything, everywhere, in the entire universe).

Closing Thoughts

But honestly, regardless of how the story ends--besides that it will presumably end happily because HH is at its core feel-good despite being profane--season one at least has got good theology. Why? Because it's digging into the questions that theology is concerned with. It's digging into the ideas of human nature, of what it means to be a good person, of what it means to redeem oneself, of affirming how precious each individual human soul is.

It doesn't offer cheap answers, and it specifically calls out the white American evangelical church for how it purports to be simple but actually just confuses people and punishes them for things they can't help, that creates more stumbling blocks than it does shine a light. And it does it in a way that is scandalous. Offensive to many religious people.

But, y'know, Jesus was pretty scandalous too.

So I really love the story so far because it emphasizes what I find so beautiful about my religion, and criticizes the parts that have also hurt me. I don't think it's remotely aiming to be a Christian allegory or anything like that, and I don't at all think anyone has to be religious to enjoy it or gain the core message of it, but I do think that it's doing a hell of a lot more good in the world message-wise than most evangelical movies of the past 30 years.

[ghost-1-y]

Nightmare

Incubus!Gojo x AFAB!Reader

Content Warnings: MDNI, dark content, dubcon, stalking, yandere themes, infidelity/cheating, manipulation, possessiveness, sexual content, penetrative sex, oral sex (f! receiving), aphrodisiac, blood sucking, using horns as handles, symptoms of sleep paralysis, feelings of insecurity (reader), mentions of voyeurism (gojo), dacryphilia, degradation, corruption k!nk, gojo feeds off of reader's life force, mentions of potential exhibitionism (reader’s husband might hear them going at it), breeding k!nk, mentions of impregnation, creamp!e, no aftercare, reader's husband is nanami-coded, please let me know if I missed anything!!

Summary: It’s been weeks since your husband had touched you in the way that you wished, and you’ve started to grow tired of his constant flirting with other women at work. Completely fed up with both him and the never-ending dry spell you’ve been going through, you retire to the guest room’s bed to fall asleep without your husband, unaware of a shadow that’s been lurking in your home each night, waiting for the right moment to prey on its new victim.

Word Count: ~3.6k

Divider Credit: @/benkeibear

A/N: Sorry this is an hour late!! I had a super busy week and didn't get to edit/revise at all until today, but I hope it's worth the wait!

Y/N’s POV

You were tired.

Not in the normal sense – you didn’t feel a need to sleep. On the contrary, you found it quite challenging to do so recently due to the never-ending thoughts of your unhappy marriage, as you wondered how exactly it reached this point in the first place. At first, your marriage was beautiful – you were in love, and everything in life was tinted in rose. Your husband treated you as his one and only, his everything, his soulmate.

When are you having kids?

You two look so cute together. 

I wish my marriage was as happy as yours!

Your friends and family would always compliment you and ask you for the latest details of what you and your husband were up to. You were soaring, so happy that you found someone to share your life with. 

But then, he started working overtime at his job, started taking on more shifts, and you’d go to sleep on an empty bed and wake up to his side being cold the next morning – nothing indicating that he was there other than the disheveled sheets that he didn’t bother to fix before heading out again. Your mornings were lonely, and your nights were quiet. You started making dinner for one, rather than wasting food on a meal that wouldn’t be eaten. You tried to be understanding of your husband’s absence, knowing that his job required a lot of him, so you never told him how much it bothered you, thinking it would only add more to his never-ending pile of worries.

It truly felt as though a ghost lived in your home, only ever seeing remnants of life from the half-empty coffee mug or the folded-up newspaper that was left discarded on the dining table. The fridge would be left ajar and the front door unlocked as though he was in such a rush to get to work that he couldn’t be bothered about simple things – relegating those tasks to you, his good little housewife.

Sometimes, whenever a door closed on its own, or you thought you saw something out of the corner of your eye, you’d jokingly call out to your husband in the emptiness of your house. Of course, you’d get no response, and you’d almost laugh at your antics if it weren’t for how your life was slowly turning gray – the rose tint slowly fading the longer you were alone.

However, one night, in your darkened bedroom, you heard a car drive up to your house. You slowly got out of bed, clinging to your sleep robes as you walked towards the window, and you saw your husband get out of the car. Warmth filled your veins as you gazed down at your husband for what seemed to be the first time in weeks, happy that you’d be able to welcome him back home. However, that warming comfort quickly dissipated as the driver also exited the car – a woman, presumably a coworker you hadn’t met – and walked over to him. As you peeked through the blinds, you saw your husband meet the woman halfway, the headlights of the car illuminating the two figures, and his hands sought her face as he kissed her.

Surprisingly, you didn’t feel your heart shatter as one might think – you had your suspicions already that he was seeing someone else, and this only confirmed your thoughts as you closed the blinds and left your shared bedroom, deciding to retire to the one meant for guests who stayed over.

Maybe that’s all I am at this point, you thought as the front door opened, only wishing to sink into the mattress and cover yourself in its sheets as you closed the guest room door behind you and removed your robe. The mattress was stiff and unused, and you stared up at the ceiling as you heard your husband’s heavy footsteps padding their way up to his room, as you became more and more of a stranger in your own home.

You tossed and turned as you walked the line between sleep and wakefulness, your thoughts racing just a bit too much to allow you to seek the comfort of dreams that you knew would never come true, or to notice the slightest creak coming from your bedroom door.

What seemed to be a hand ghosted over your hip, fingers dragging along your sides as you slowly became aware of the strange feeling grazing over your body. You squirmed, thinking it was some strange breeze that came in from the window – before you noticed the heavy weight that was pressing into your chest, rendering you nearly immobile.

“Such a waste to not take care of a pretty thing like you…” a voice drawled, and you opened your eyes – fearing that someone had trespassed into your home, only to find nothing out of the ordinary inside your little guest room. You sighed, thinking that you must’ve been hallucinating – sleep paralysis was a possible explanation, after all.

The voice, however, returned, chuckling in response to your eyes frantically searching for the source. “Oh, sweetie, your eyes can’t see me!” it exclaimed, as though it were obvious, “but I can see you, pretty, I’ve seen all of you.”

Gojo’s POV

You were sweet.

Like candy – if he were able to taste it, anyway. You had an aura about you that lit up any room you were in, one that he’d gaze upon from afar in the shadowy corners of your house, something he couldn’t touch, lest he burn from the light that was your smile. 

He loved watching you – seeing you get dressed (he loved the curves of your body), how you’d cook and clean and make everything look so pretty for a husband who didn’t appreciate it…

He especially loved watching you from one of the shadows of your bedroom as your husband fucked you – his cock throbbing as he watched you being used like the cute little cumdumpster you are, always wondering how tight your cunt would feel wrapped around his cock instead.

He would observe each and every single action because it was you who performed them.

And you looked delicious.

But he couldn’t feast upon you – not yet, at least. Your light was still too radiant, it shined upon everyone and everything and was nearly all-consuming.

So he left – just for a little while, of course. He’d be back for you, you just needed to give him some time.

He interrupted the dreams of one of your husband’s coworkers, filling her mind with lewd images and thoughts of railing your husband to the point where she just couldn’t bear it. So, eventually, she approached him at work – and he initially denied her advances, acting like the good husband he should be – but that just wouldn’t do for the plan Satoru had in mind. 

So he did the same with your husband, and provided him with dreams of fucking that same coworker, how wet and tight and good it would feel to have his filthy cock inside someone else’s pussy. Satoru knew it would hurt you, but it wasn’t completely his fault – you see, it was your husband’s choice to act on his desires, and his coworker’s choice to reciprocate despite knowing he was a married man.

And so your husband started coming home late, but not from work like you’d thought, no. He was arriving home after laying in the bed of another, engaging in an illicit affair that he excused as simply working overtime at the office. You initially believed your husband, but eventually, you developed your suspicions, and your light dulled – which pleased Satoru – because he could get closer to you. He would sometimes even try to alert you to his presence, but that never went according to plan – you’d always call out your husband’s name in response. You were loyal, and that annoyed him to no end because he already decided that you were his. 

He just had to be patient.

Until tonight – he had been watching you from the corner of your room. You couldn’t see him, of course, he was nothing more than a shadow to you. But that fated car had shown up, and as you peeked out the window, the last bits of your light finally blinked out like a dying star, and Satoru damn near rejoiced.

He soon followed you to the guest room, smirking to himself as he opened the door to see you tossing and turning, restless and alone – just how he wanted you.

Because you were his – to claim, to ruin, to feast upon.

“Such a waste to not take care of a pretty thing like you…”

Y/N’s POV

“Who are you?” you asked the darkness, eyes still darting about as you covered your top half with blankets as though that’d protect you from whoever– whatever this was.

“Hmm? Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me! Although I guess I can’t blame you – our bond isn’t quite strong enough for you to see the real me…” he considered, “you’ve called out to me many times before though, sweetie, even if it was by the wrong name – which was annoying, to say the least.” 

If you could see this…thing, you would’ve been able to discern the very obvious pout on its features. But, as its words sunk into you, a chill ran up your spine and every artery, vein, and capillary became doused in fear – realizing that this entire time you’d been joking to yourself about a ghost living in your home, it had been true. 

“My name is Satoru Gojo, sweets, so next time you call out – please use that name instead of the one owned by that disgraceful husband of yours,” the voice insisted, tracing its fingers along your side – a movement nearly invisible if it weren’t for the fabric that moved ever so slightly in response to his hand. 

“How– how do you know about my husband?” you asked, and he laughed.

“Oh, sweetie, you should realize that I know everything about you by now! I know how you take your coffee, how you perform chores around the house,” his voice dropped to a whisper, breathing directly into your ear, “how that husband of yours is unable to fuck you the way you want.”

You shuddered, unable to deny the slightest spark of arousal that nestled deep within your gut, but it did little to quell your fears of this…thing. You didn’t want to admit that he was right about your husband – not even to yourself – but the way he held that woman…

“Oh c’mon, relax. I can smell your fear, y’know – but I’m not gonna kill you!” Not yet. “I want to help.” The lies dripped like honey off of his tongue, sickly sweet as you drank them in. “Close your eyes for me, will ya? I promise I won’t bite,” he smirked.

Hesitantly, you obeyed and closed your eyes, and you felt the softest, sinful touch of his lips against yours – it was dizzying how they caressed you before he slowly entered his tongue into your mouth, causing a burning feeling to slip down your throat – as sharp as alcohol and as saccharine as sugar. Your mind relaxed, with the blood in your veins heating up before that warmth sunk down into your stomach and then lower. Your fear had been eradicated by lust, and as you finally opened your eyes, the being in front of you was one you’d never seen before – a tall, white-haired male, with eyes that deceivingly matched the heavens, who was adorned with wings and horns colored in a dark charcoal. 

“Now you see me, don’t ya, pretty?” he smirked, “I’m gonna take such good care of you – you’ll let me, won’t ya?”

You nodded without hesitation, only desiring more of the euphoric feeling that he seemed so keen on providing you with. 

“Need your words, baby, or else I can’t do anything,” he growled softly, and you squirmed underneath his weight as you forced your mouth open.

“Please,” you begged.

“Please what?”

“Please– please fuck me!”

You felt a sudden rush of cold as the bedsheets flew off of your body, leaving you stark naked on the mattress below you. Still, the cold was quickly replaced by the scorching hot yet featherlight touches of his hands tracing along your body – moving along your sides and then up towards your breasts, which he fondled before kissing you again with those syrupy lips, allowing more of that warmth to spread down your throat and into your skin. The weight on your chest was unrelenting yet pleasant as his tongue slipped into your mouth once again.

His hands toyed with your nipples, pinching and rolling them in between his fingers, pulling a gasp from you as he parted from your mouth in favor of sucking on your neck, licking a long stripe up toward your jaw before biting down just enough to draw blood with his fangs – he needed to feed off your life force somehow – you moaned as a heat spread from where he bit you all throughout your neck and shoulder, a pleasurable feeling which allowed him to drink in more of you before moving on to your tits, sinking his teeth into your nipples as well as he drinks freely from you, lapping up the blood with the flat of his tongue. You cradled his head as he sucked at your breast, encouraging him to keep going as a breathy moan escaped you – because it never felt this good before when your husband would do it. 

“Mmh, yeah? You like it when I play with your tits like this, baby?” he asked, voice muffled against your soft skin. You whined, eyes closed as you arched your back, the euphoric flow of pleasure coursing through you. He could tell you were slowly becoming obsessed with the way he was treating you – he just needed to wait a little bit longer.

“Fuck, so good– never…never felt this good before,” you moaned, and Satoru smirked as he sucked just a little bit more on your tits before traveling down towards your needy cunt.

“That so? Your husband doesn’t know how to fuck you, does he?”

You shook your head, unable to voice an answer as his breath fanned across your sopping pussy. 

“It’s okay, pretty, don’t worry – I’m here now.” 

He delved a single finger into your glistening cunt, gathering up your slick and bringing it up to his mouth to taste you. He groaned as he gathered more of it, forcing his fingers into your mouth, and your tongue immediately lapped at them like a puppy with its owner.

“You taste so good, pretty. So fuckin’ wet for me – such a good slut,” he smirked. He removed his fingers from your mouth before going back down and licking a fat stripe up your cunt, causing your legs to jolt at the touch. He snickered, “bet your husband didn’t know how to please you, bet he never even went down on you, the sick bastard.” You whined in response, causing him to chuckle. 

“Thought so.”

He buried his face into your messy cunt, his nose nudging against your swollen clit as he delved his tongue inside of your hole, licking up all of your juices into his awaiting mouth. You moaned, bucking your hips up into his face before he pinned them down, eating you out like you’re his favorite meal and he’s a man starved. It’s messy as he groaned into your heat, working his jaw as he savored your sweetness. He moved his mouth slightly up to your clit, pursing his lips around it and sucking hard as he probed two fingers into your needy hole, curling them inside of your sloppy heat. Your hands clasped around his horns and you arched your back, trying to push him deeper between your legs, obsessed with the way his fingers and tongue felt while pleasing you.

He pulled moan after moan out of your pretty little mouth, and he laughed to himself as his plan was going oh so well – to make you drunk on the pleasure he gave you until you became fully addicted and obsessed with him, becoming his little cock slut that he can breed and fill with his cum whenever he wanted.

Eventually, the tension building up in your lower abdomen snapped, and a sense of euphoria rushed through you, causing your legs to shake and clench around his head. He groaned, drinking up all of the juices that flowed out of you. Satoru looked up at you as he fed upon your cunt, and grinned as he watched your soul slowly but surely fade through his eyes. 

“I was right to choose you,” he groaned before slurping up the rest of your juices, overstimulating you as your grip on his horns tightened, pleading with him to let up on his ministrations. 

“Feeding me so well, pretty.” He nipped at your inner thigh once before sitting up and grabbing his cock, giving it a few strokes before lining it up with your sopping hole. He rubbed the bulbous head along your pussy, “tell me, how much do you want this cock, baby? You wanna get fucked by a demon like me?” 

You nodded, and if you were any less delirious you might have questioned what he meant by ‘demon’, but you were too far gone to care, simply nodding and begging “please” over and over again.

He slowly pushed his cock into you, grunting with how tight you were wrapping around him. “Shit, pretty–” he sighed, sinking into you until his balls were flush against your ass. He grabbed your legs and pulled them up so your ankles reached over his shoulders before slowly pulling out and plunging back in. His grip tightened on the flesh of your thighs as he started moving faster, his balls slapping against your ass with the force of his thrusts. Your mouth parted and tears fell down your cheeks, only being able to take what he gave you as his dick filled you up to the brim while pounding into your sopping cunt.

“You cryin’, baby?” he chuckled, and you could only whine in response.

“Good.”

He soon flipped you over and got you on all fours, slamming his cock back into you. You wailed as he kept forcing his fat cock into your greedy little cunt – the intensity only building upon itself as you felt your orgasm approaching once more. 

“‘M close…’m close,” you babbled, encouraging him to fuck you harder. Satoru reached around to rub your clit, and you gasped as you fell apart once more, gushing around his cock. Your legs trembled and you fell forward, unable to hold up your weight any longer as pleasure coursed through your veins. Satoru took this opportunity to trap you under him, with his torso flush against your back as he continued fucking into your tight pussy, not caring for how overstimulated you were becoming. 

“Fuck pretty, you love this dick, huh? Cumming all over me like that,” he grinned, his dick throbbing as he continued pounding into you. You nodded in response, but that wasn’t enough for him, so he gripped your chin and forced you to look up at him. “Uh-uh, tell me how much you love this cock, baby.” 

“Uh– fuck! Love– love it! Hah– need…need more–!” you babbled, tears flowing down your cheeks. He placed his hand around your mouth, and your moans became muffled as he dragged his cock inside your messy cunt.

“Shh, pretty, don’t want your husband to hear you getting fucked, right?” he grinned devilishly, “though, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already heard us – he’s probably stroking his dick to your sweet sounds, the cuck.”

You whined, oddly enjoying the idea that your shitty husband might be able to hear you – you took pride in the fact that he might know that you’re getting fucked better than he ever did with you. You started fucking yourself back onto Satoru’s cock, and he grinned widely – satisfied with how he’s turned you into his little cock slut. 

“Shit, baby– ‘m not gonna last much longer,” he admitted, his thrusts progressively getting sloppier and sloppier as he rutted his cock into you.

“Hah– you want me to cum inside you, baby? Want to get filled with my cum? I’ll fucking get you pregnant, breed you with my seed and turn you into my cumslut – you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Fuck– say it baby, say you want me to cum inside you” he groaned, his dick pulsing inside of you as he reached his end, and you nodded your head.

“Please, please Sa- Satoru–! Cum inside me! Wan’ to be your cumslut! Please!” you begged.

“Shit– ‘m gonna cum, pretty, fuck–” He pushed deep inside you, hips flush against yours as he released his hot seed into your womb, thick ropes of his cum filling you up until it started leaking out of your abused cunt. As he pulled out of you, causing you to whine at the feeling of emptiness that it created within you.

“It’s okay, baby, I’ll be back for you. I’ll visit you every night if you wish, just so you can get your fill of my cock,” and so I can get my fill of your delicious soul, he thought, grinning to himself.

Suddenly, the weight lifted off of your chest, and once you opened your eyes – he was gone, leaving you a mess with his cum leaking onto the bed sheets. You sat up and hobbled your way over to the shower to clean yourself off, trusting in his promise to come back each night.

You’d be waiting for him, not realizing that was his plan all along.

Taglist: @o-oreo , @k-a-t-h-r-i-n-a @wow-im-gay, @peanutpunchy, @love-me-satoru, @perfect-again, @dinosaur-crime-scene, @thisbicc, @gojoscumslut, @everyonesfinaldestination, @leehoonii-i, @kyojurismo, @crazycatlddy, @briefrebelfanalmond, @izuoyarmin, @ahashiraswife, @d1gitalbathh, @223princess (if your name is crossed out, it means tumblr didn't allow me to tag you - apologies for the inconvenience)

I hope you enjoyed!!

[aadamkempfitness]

HeroFX Review: A Comprehensive Look at the Alleged Forex Scam

In the vast and often volatile world of forex trading, the presence of unscrupulous brokers is a constant threat to both novice and seasoned traders. HeroFX, a broker that has recently come under scrutiny, is the subject of many discussions and concerns. This review delves into the various aspects of HeroFX to determine whether it is a legitimate broker or a potential scam.

Background and Overview

HeroFX claims to offer a comprehensive trading platform with a wide range of assets, including forex, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. Promising competitive spreads, high leverage, and a user-friendly interface, HeroFX aims to attract traders looking for a reliable trading experience.

Regulation and Licensing

One of the primary red flags for any forex broker is the lack of proper regulation and licensing. HeroFX is reportedly not registered with any reputable financial regulatory authority. This absence of regulation means that traders are not protected by any governing body, increasing the risk of fraudulent activities and loss of funds.

Trading Platform and Tools

HeroFX offers its own proprietary trading platform, which is marketed as intuitive and feature-rich. While the platform appears to be functional, there have been numerous complaints about its reliability and execution speed. Some users have reported significant delays in order execution, leading to potential losses.

The broker also provides various tools and resources for traders, such as educational materials, market analysis, and trading signals. However, the quality and accuracy of these resources are questionable, with many users alleging that the information provided is often outdated or misleading.

Customer Support

Effective customer support is crucial for any forex broker, especially when dealing with complex financial transactions. HeroFX has received mixed reviews in this area. While some traders have reported satisfactory interactions with the support team, many others have experienced long wait times, unhelpful responses, and unresolved issues. This inconsistency in customer service further undermines the broker's credibility.

Withdrawal and Deposit Issues

One of the most significant concerns surrounding HeroFX is the difficulty many traders face when trying to withdraw their funds. Numerous complaints highlight delayed withdrawals, with some users claiming they never received their money. This pattern of behavior is often indicative of a scam broker, as legitimate brokers prioritize transparent and efficient fund transfers.

Additionally, the deposit process has also raised suspicions. HeroFX allegedly encourages large initial deposits and offers enticing bonuses that come with restrictive terms and conditions, making it challenging for traders to access their funds.

User Reviews and Complaints

A cursory glance at various online forums and review sites reveals a plethora of negative feedback from traders who have used HeroFX. Common grievances include:

Unresponsive or hostile customer service.

Manipulated trading conditions leading to unexpected losses.

Inability to withdraw funds.

Suspiciously positive reviews that appear fabricated.

These recurring themes paint a concerning picture of HeroFX and suggest a pattern of unethical practices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while HeroFX presents itself as a reputable forex broker with attractive features, the overwhelming evidence points to the contrary. The lack of regulation, persistent withdrawal issues, and numerous negative user reviews all indicate that HeroFX may not be a trustworthy broker. Traders are advised to exercise extreme caution and conduct thorough research before engaging with this broker. In the unpredictable world of forex trading, it is always better to err on the side of caution and choose a broker with a proven track record of reliability and transparency.

For more check out this article: Herofx-review

[probablyasocialecologist]

The great lesson that archeology has taught us is that the ancient history of the Amazon is marked by the production of diversity. When the Europeans first arrived in South America, there was an empire in the Andes that stretched across an enormous geographical area, connected with long roads, based on the taxation of agricultural production, and run by a bureaucracy built on noble families and headed by a supreme leader, the Inca. The absence of any political structures similar to those of the Inca Empire in other parts of the continent, particularly in the tropical regions that make up Brazil today, led scientists to propose hypotheses that attributed this to scarcity; the absence of the State in these regions was ultimately ascribed to the notion that there was something missing from tropical environments: fertile soils, animal protein, mild climates. Such pessimism about Brazil’s ability to engender so-called civilized forms of life, given its tropical condition and attendant constraints, has for decades been an object of study by the country’s intellectuals, many of whom viewed with skepticism the idea that Brazil was fated to be a tropical, mixed-race nation. Apart from the racism this view embodies, it is based on a false premise that has been undone by archeology: it has now been established that the Indigenous and other forest peoples who have occupied our country for centuries contributed to the rich, complex, and diverse ecosystems we have inherited today. Perhaps the strongest indicator of this incredible diversity are Indigenous languages, roughly 170 of which are currently spoken in Brazil. But if we consider all Amazonian countries, there are some three hundred languages, divided into about fifty families or groups. The Amazon has also been an important center for the production of agrobiodiversity. Plants consumed across the planet, such as cassava and cocoa, were first grown in the Amazon rainforest. Starting 5,500 years ago, in what is now the state of Rondônia, local peoples began to produce the dark, fertile soils known as terra preta [Amazonian dark earth]. Then, 2,500 years ago, this soil spread to other regions and at present covers various parts of the Amazon basin, encompassing perhaps 2% of the biome. Amazonian dark earth is a fundamental legacy of the Indigenous peoples of the past because it is used in farming today, ensuring the survival of thousands of people. Likewise starting 2,500 years ago, structures such as embankments, roads, ditches, and mounds began to be built across the Amazon region, although earlier examples can be found along the coast of Pará state, the lower Amazon River, and the Guaporé River. Along with Amazonian dark earth, these structures signal the establishment of fixed populations, some of whom lived in large settlements we might call cities. These peoples produced wonderful ceramic and stone objects, such as those found on the island of Marajó and city of Santarém, housed in museums in Brazil and abroad. It is estimated that eight to ten million people lived in the Amazon basin at the time of the European invasion. Many perished in the early centuries of colonization as disease, war, and slavery spread. When the first scientists began traveling through the Amazon in the eighteenth century, they found the region empty, and its ancient settlements covered by forest. The absence of stone structures contributed to the false idea that took hold over time: the Amazon was empty.

[dwellordream]

Cats, the Black Death, and a Pope

“...Despite the popular perception of plague being a normal part of life throughout the Middle Ages, the era was actually marked by a centuries-long period where the disease was not seen at all.  After the major epidemic of (probably) bubonic plague in the sixth century there do not seem to have been any such plague epidemics until the visitation of the Black Death in the late 1340s.  As a result, few Europeans had any natural immunity.  The plague revisited Europe periodically from the 1340s onward – usually at generational intervals – and then the 1660s saw another major outbreak.  But increased levels of immunity meant that these re-visitations were not as devastating as the “Great Dying” of the 1340s. Obviously, no-one had any clear idea of what caused the disease and the Church certainly did attribute it to the wrath of God, the way natural disasters were then and often still are to this day.  This did not mean there was no attempt at natural explanations for the disease by churchmen and scholars, who accepted that while it may be a manifestation of divine displeasure, it was still a natural phenomenon.  In the absence of any understanding of germ theory, they fell back on the ancient Greek idea of “miasmas” or “bad air” as the cause.  While this was wrong, it resulted in the practices of quarantining victims and disposing of dead bodies quickly (even burning them en masse, despite religious taboos about cremation), which went some way toward containing the disease.  But, as with any such epidemic in the pre-modern world, there was little else anyone could do other than let the disease run its course.

…The group most often scapegoated were western Europe’s Jews, given that they were a separate, non-Christian community that was easily identified. Pogroms against Jews broke out mainly in the Rhineland, which had seen large scale murders of Jews in earlier manifestations of mass hysteria, such as the beginning of the First Crusade in the 1090s.  So hundreds of Jews were massacred or burned alive in Strasbourg in 1349, but there were similar pogroms elsewhere in Europe, including Toulon in France and Barcelona in Spain.   Of course, the meme above is keen to blame the Church for these massacres, but actually the Church spoke out strongly against them and instructed local authorities to suppress them.  Pope Clement VI issued two papal bulls – the first on July 6, 1348 and another on 26 September 1348 – condemning the pogroms and forbidding the persecution of Jews.  Modern Jewish accounts often claim that Jews were targeted because they had better hygiene than their Christian neighbours and so suffered much lower mortality in the epidemic, though this seems to be based largely on modern misconceptions about medieval hygiene.  

Contrary to popular belief, all medieval people washed their hands before meals, washed and bathed regularly if not daily and washed dead bodies before burial, so these practices were not unique to medieval Jews.  Clement VI’s first bull also counters any claims that Jews could have been responsible for the plague by noting that Jews were dying as rapidly as everyone else, which indicates that the Jews did not have some kind of lower mortality rate anyway. So the meme’s claim that certain people were targeted as scapegoats is correct, but the implication that this was due to encouragement by “the Church” is not. The group that is missing in the accounts of victims of these revenge attacks, however, is “witches”.

Again, contrary to popular belief, the idea that alleged witches were regularly victimised by the Church in the medieval period is largely incorrect.  The heyday of the Witch Craze came much later, with its peak in the sixteenth century.  The position of the Church for most of the Middle Ages was that “witches” did not exist and even that it was sinful to claim they did. This changed in the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, but this change seems to have been, at least in part, a reaction to the Black Death and only came much later in the fourteenth century.  Fear of supposed witches does not manifest itself in any substantial way until long after the plague of the 1340s and there is no official Church acceptance of the existence of witches until 1484. So while there is plenty of evidence for pogroms against Jews in the wake of the plague and clear evidence of revenge against other marginal groups, there is no evidence at all that I know of that “witches” were blamed.  Which brings us to the claim about massacres of cats.

...did Gregory IX declare all cats evil or order their destruction?  Actually, no.  The “1232” reference seems to be to Gregory’s papal bull Vox in Rama, issued in that year, which addressed an alleged outbreak of devil worship in Germany.  This bull gives a description of the ceremonies of this group of “Luciferians”, which includes many standard tropes found in lurid medieval ideas about heretical practices. This involved visions of a giant toad, initiates kissing an emaciated pale man and finally a statue of a black cat coming to life and speaking with the initiates.  Nowhere does the bull associate this diabolical cat with cats generally, condemn all cats or call for their slaughter.  Yet the claim that this bull somehow did cause massacres of cats continues to be made, usually with no reference to any supporting evidence at all.  

…not only do we have repeated references to cats being kept as pets – especially by nuns, showing that unmarried “cat ladies” have a long history – but, as the illuminations above show, cats were actually prized because they were good at controlling rodents.  Medieval bestiaries talk about how useful cats are for catching mice and rats.  Isidore of Seville thought the Latin name for the cat – cattus – came from the verb “to catch (mice)”.  Most households kept cats both as mousers or simply as pets and etiquette books on how formal meals and feats should be conducted talk about how “dogs and cats” should be driven out of the hall before food was served.  The thirteenth century Ancrene Wisse – a guide for female hermits – advises “[you] shall not possess any beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat”.  Far from being “virtually eliminated”, medieval people rather liked cats.

…So where did this idea of a medieval cat massacre come from?  Like many myths that are projected back onto “the Middle Ages” (witch burning, an aversion to bathing), it seems loosely based on some much later incidents of killing animals as a reaction to other outbreaks of epidemics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  And the targets of these examples seem to have been dogs more than cats, though they could include both.  One thing that was notable about the Black Death and later European manifestations of the plague is that it seems to have affected many animals and livestock as well as humans. This means it killed rats in large numbers (possibly causing their fleas to seek human hosts), but we also have descriptions of dogs, cats and cattle dying.  

As a result, the main mentions of cats and dogs in accounts has them as victims of the epidemic, not as its cause. Despite this, we do have some evidence that dogs and, sometimes, cats were killed in reaction to later outbreaks.  In Edinburgh in 1499 a city ordinance required stray dogs, cats and pigs be killed in reaction to an outbreak of disease, and this law was repeated in 1505 and 1585.  We find a similar reaction in Seville in 1581 and in London in 1563 and again in 1665, where the victims were again mainly stray dogs rather than cats.  The reason seems to have been the medical belief that stray animals spread the plague.”

- Tim O’Neill, History for Atheists 

[soaringwide]

Hey :p

Another post of the dive deeper series, where i try to explore techniques you can use to improve the way you read tarot cards.

The big issue when you start reading tarot, is that you're going to have a tendency to read each card separately, which makes the reading clunky and prevents you from gaining insights from the card's interactions.

And I really think that tarot, with its characters, symbols, colors and correspondences, is perfectly suited to this method.

Putting the meanings together is the tricky part, and I really like using my story-telling brain in order to solve the problem. It helps me take a step back from the pressure of getting the message right, and adds a bit of fun, which again makes me more relaxed and thus allows me to read more accurately. I read with my logic mostly, but my intuition does play some part, and I find that it needs space to roam, which is hard when my brain is overheating trying to decipher the imagery of the cards.

So here are some points I keep in mind when reading for myself or for others:

Personify the Cards

Think of each tarot card as characters. What are they experiencing? Are they thriving or struggling? What vibe do they give off? At ease of tense? Can you think of a situation you’ve lived that triggered that reaction and what did it make you think or feel?

It’s also useful to let the cards interact with each other by looking at their placement and at what direction they point or gaze. Two characters facing each other don't signify the same thing than if they are facing away. Just like in real life, people act in ways that convey meaning, even without words.

Read Symbols

Symbols are like condensed little pockets of meaning. Use the historical or traditional definitions, but don’t shy away from intuitively coming up with your own, and connect that with the context of the card. Symbols are tied to culture and time period and they change over time.

When you think about it, tarot was created at a time where technology was vastly different. So you're going to have to get creative with symbols to translate that to our modern life.

Spot Repetitions

Having multiple cards of the same suit (cups, swords, wands and pentacles), of a few cards talking about a similar theme is called a pattern and indicates the importance of that topic in your reading. Is your reading packed with Kings, or full of 3's? It can signify as focal point and can be useful to research that if you are not sure what that might mean, but you can, again, also use your own logic or intuition and get a little crazy.

The absence of something can also be very telling, for example, a lack of wands when it comes to looking for a job which might indicate a lack of actions or initiatives from the querent.

Scan your Emotions

Emotions are a powerful way your intuition can speaks to you. Scan your body and/or the way you feel and analyze it. Do you feel giddy, lighthearted, or on the contrary constricted or confused? This is a sign you’re tapping into the answer and you shouldn’t discard it.

It's quite hard for me to do because I have a more rational way to interpret the cards, but I'm slowly integrating that way of welcoming messages as well. For example, I might feel very sluggish during a reading when it talks about someone struggling to do something, or on the contrary really speedy when someone is eager to say something to someone.

This adds a color to the story your trying to tell.

Connect the dots

The hardest part is to connect the dots, but it’s also what will bring your reading together and stop you from reading cards separately. When I read the cards, there is always a corner of my mind that is daydreaming the querent's life, like a little movie.

It helps me generate messages that pops up in my mind in addition to what I see in the cards. Get creative and remember that there is no right or wrong way to do it, if you’re seeing something it’s probably meaningful, so learn to trust your judgement and know that it will get better over time with practice.

Ko-fi ★ book a reading ★ pinned post ★ instagram ★ website

[artgletic]

Dimentio lore recap + hot takes

Hi everyone. Im here to talk about my own takes on Dimentio lore. Most of it is analyzing ingame stuff from a narrative, thematic and metatextual way, but I’ve got my own baseless headcanons sprinkled in. I indicate when something is just headcanon and when something is based on lore below so there’s no confusion. I’m posting this because ive got art on the way related to this lore and these hcs specifically and want to have a masterpost to link back to LMAO.

Discussion under cut

For the uninitiated, Garson and Carson are two NPCs in flipside and flopside respectively that will give you lore in exchange for coins. Relevant to Dimentio is the fact that while Carson has a story/theories on every other minion, his information on Dimentio is notably slim. He only says that Dimentio befriended the count all on his own (contrary to the count approaching all other minions aside Nastasia, but she's a special case) and was initially turned away by him, only for the count to read about someone like him in the dark prognosticus. He describes this as ‘fishy’. I will come back to this at the very end of this section.

There is also lore on the creation of the pixls. The story goes that 3,000 years ago, there was a ‘master magician’ who transferred spirits into vessels created for specific purposes. He managed to make 12 pixls before he died (11 of which are in-game; the 12th’s absence is explained in a moment). These pixls were then passed onto his apprentices, and his method of creating pixls was utilized to make many more after his passing, leading to the success of the Ancients society.

2,000 years ago, a huge pixl calling herself the pixl queen appeared wielding the dark prognosticus. She was capable of commanding all other pixls and used her power and army to enslave the ancients. The inheritors of the 12 original pixls appeared to defeat her, and one by one were picked off until only one remained. The pixl queen used its “powers of illusion” to hide from the remaining inheritor, and unleashed horrific images upon them. However, this was ineffective as their pixl could “see the truth”, and together they defeated the pixl queen. However, this pixl was killed in the process, hence 11 remaining pixls.

It’s not clear if the wielders of the 12 original pixls are the same throughout history. 1000 years of time had passed since the first pixl’s creation to the pixl uprising which is quite a lot fo time for one person to live, but we are also operating under fantasy rules so it cannot be ruled out. The language (at least in the english translation) uses the words ‘inheritor’ and ‘apprentice’ interchangeably, describing the appearance of the wielders of the 12 original pixls as “the inheritors of the twelve original Pixl” and the last survivor who took the Dark Prognosticus as “the last surviving apprentice” [‘surviving’ in this context likely not indicative of having live for millennia but rather having not died to the pixl queen]. The use of the word ‘inheritor’ and its synonomy with ‘apprentice’ leads me to believe they are not the same individuals. There is also no textual evidence for ancients living as long as 1,000 years and all appear to have somewhat regular lifespans (even one of the most powerful of the ancients, Merlumina, appears to have died in her own time and only remains as a guardian spirit).

The end of the pixl uprising saga ends with the last surviving apprentice learning that the pixl queen was made by the master magician studying the dark prognosticus. There is also a separate Carson lore dump on the theory of the pixl queen’s origin, where the discussed theory is prefaced with: “In one book left behind by the master magician's apprentice [...]”. I note that this passage is told right after the end of the pixl uprising trilogy where the only apprentice we heard about was the last survivor, so the use of ‘the’ in this excerpt makes me think it’s referring to the same person as the one who vanquished the pixl queen. The theory itself describes the magician’s personal life, wherein he had a wife, a daughter and a son. His son and wife died in an accident, and his daughter died of an illness later on. It’s hypothesized that the master magician transferred her spirit into a pixl vessel, and that this was how all other pixls were made: using game-overed souls. None of this contradicts what the survivor realized in the pixl uprising saga, and in fact establishes a method of doing this. 

It’s also interesting that this apprentice, having lived 1,000 years after the master magician’s time, would have this specific information on his personal life that seems to be lost to time (why else would it be given the title of “theory”?). This excerpt also seemingly randomly ends with “Oh, and some say the son of the magician miraculously recovered from the accident. If so, the bloodline of the magician could endure... Did they find happiness? Or otherwise...“. Structurally, starting off with this apprentice who lived a thousand years after the master magician with seemingly lost-to-time information on his personal life appearing and confirming the death of the son, only to have that abruptly contradicted leads me to believe there’s at the very least a connection present here. Additionally, in that final dialogue about the magician’s son, Carson says: “Did they find happiness? Or otherwise…”. I think this is especially important. The phrase “find happiness” is most commonly associated with the dark prognosticus (“But no person, after obtaining this amazing book, ever found happiness.”), the exact thing the apprentice is said to have gone into hiding with. I also like this line from a foreshadowing perspective: Dimentio’s life becomes inextricably linked with the dark prognosticus, and Carson chooses to not end the thought asking if they found happiness but rather emphasize the negative alternative. It really leads your mind to think about what this person’s life became-- certainly not anything good from the sounds of it. And from what we see of Dimentio ingame, he never did achieve his ultimate goal, his exceptional longcon. I can’t say he did find happiness.

Additionally, if we take the son and the apprentice being one in the same, the not-the-same-apprentice-other-time theory makes sense: if they were the same, then that would mean Dimentio inherited a pixl directly from his father who believes him to be dead. Unless Dimentio was rendered unrecognizable somehow, this does not make sense. Considering SPM’s power-of-love theming, I just don’t think it makes any narrative sense to have a father not recognize his own son. Ergo, different generations of inheritors.

Something interesting is that this apprentice  later discredited the dead-daughter theory of the pixl queen. From a meta perspective, I’d have to ask why it’s even mentioned if it’s not actually true, especially considering this is the first and only time the master magicians family, particularly the son who is confirmed dead and revived in the same breath, is mentioned. So instead of assuming it’s just a random untrue lore tidbit, I view this retraction as the first evidence of Dimentio’s deception and (potentially) the beginnings of his scheme. 

I don’t think Dimentio wrote the dark prognosticus. It wouldn’t make sense given this timeline, considering his father was studying it. In fact, I don’t think anyone wrote it. I like the prognosticus being this eternal, haunting tome that ruins the lives of anyone who possesses it. Less a product of someone and more a force of nature. I do, however, think Dimentio was arrogant enough to modify it, adding his own passages and truths and such to try and set up the perfect sequence of events to let him become godking of the multiverse. He’s longconning the dark prognosticus in an attempt to set up the exact right conditions to be able to potentially usurp control from it. Publishing and then retracting the “theory” on his dead sister was either something he read in the prognosticus he knew needed to come true, or something he edited in and brought into fruition to further his goal.

[The next three paragraphs are entirely headcanon, but relevant to my take on Dimentio]

 I personally choose to believe the mask Dimentio wears is what remains of the pixl that died during the uprising. Its shape being so masklike invokes imagery of a ‘mask of truth’, in line with this pixl’s power of seeing through deception. I also like how him wearing this embodiment-of-truth mask adds to the irony of his character, considering all he does while wearing it is lie and manipulate people. It also adds an element of apathetic cruelty to him: He’s wearing around what remains of a fallen comrade-- perhaps he only ever saw the pixl’s as tools despite their clear sentience and the fact that his sister was literally one of them. However, I don’t think he started wearing it (and doing the jester schtick at all) until actually meeting the count, almost as a means of subliminally pitching himself to him. Jesters are made to work for nobles, counts included. It also would grant him a  bit of jester’s privilege, allowing him to make comments otherwise not tolerated by Bleck. This lets him jeer people into thinking and acting in ways that forward his goal in a way that people won’t question too much and instead brush off, but still be affected by. I also think he just likes the aesthetic. Surely in his millennia of being alive he dabbled in performance; his schtick is too solid to not have!

There’s also the ‘standard chocolate’ item which has always fascinated me ever since I was a kid. Why is it shaped like Dimentio's mask? Standard chocolate is made by combining a mild cocoa bean with either a poison shroom or a ghost shroom. When eaten, inflicts a prohibited status condition, basically making it so Mario, Peach, Luigi and Bowser can’t use their special move (ie. flipping, parasol, fire and high jump). My out-of-nowhere headcanon for this is that like how this 12th pixl negated the deceptive powers of the pixl queen (perhaps better phrased as inflicting prohibited status on her), this sluggish chocolate was shaped in its image as a result. It’s simply a residual cultural facet of the ancients honouring this pixl’s actions. 

I also have this out-of-pocket headcanon about Merloo. So all three of the other sages (Merlumina, Merlimbis and Merlight) have descendents or some kind of living relative (Old Man Watchitt, Merlee+Merluvlee and Merlon respectively), but Merloo does not. I’m not saying Dimentio is his son-- the timeline does not check out as Merloo was one of the authors of the light prognosticus which was written 1,500 years ago, not 3,000 as would be required. However, Merloo’s major power described by Tippi was being able to control dimensions. I like to think that as a part of Dimentio’s longcon, he became Merloo’s mentor and led him to writing the light prognosticus as a counter to the dark prognosticus. Why do this? Well, Dimentio wants to use the dark prognosticus’ prophecy of multiversal destruction as a means of creating his own worlds. But this prophecy is airtight. I imagine he thinks that light prognosticus could potentially open up a vulnerability in the prophecy, allowing him to stick his fingers through these cracks and rip his desire into being.

Getting back to canon information… Time passes, and we reach the point of the game where Count Bleck is recruiting minions. Dimentio pulls up, friendly and charming, and promptly gets rejected. Then Bleck reads the prognosticus and finds someone who suspiciously matches Dimentio's description, and he changes his mind allowing Dimentio into the team. I think Dimentio added that little passage in himself, hence it being fishy like Carson said!

TRIBE OF DARKNESS:

So what we know about the tribe of darkness is that they originally were a sect of the ancients who were more magically potent. They stole the dark prognosticus from them when breaking off from the ancients ~1,500 years ago, and went to live in a castle deep in the woods. The reason for stealing the book is unclear: Could it be they were guarding it? They wanted to use it to enhance their own powers? These are theories proposed by Carson, but considering the two people known to have had the book really made a splash with it (the pixl queen and Count Bleck), I think it’s safe to say the tribe of darkness didn’t intend anything nefarious with it. Additionally, they also forbade marriage outside of the tribe for fear of diluting their magic powers, hence the whole Blumiere-Timpani debacle. Considering Count Bleck is a direct descendent of the tribe of darkness, it is likely that they outlived the ancients.

After Count Bleck failed to find Timpani after his father banished her, he stole the dark prognosticus and used it to destroy his dimension and decided to do the same with all worlds. I personally choose to believe Castle Bleck is what remains of Count Bleck’s home dimension.

What IS unclear is how the ancients got possession of the dark prognosticus for it to be stolen in the first place. There’s no canon evidence pointing this way or that, but if Dimentio was the surviving apprentice of the pixl uprising and one who took the book and hid it, it’s reasonable to conclude that within that 500 year timespan between end-of-uprising and tribe of darkness breaking off that he simply returned it to the ancient’s possession for one reason or another.

Another out-of-pocket headcanon furthering Dimentio mentoring Merloo and the reason for the tribe of darkness splintering off in the first place: The tribe of darkness breaking off is about the time Dimentio was having Merloo write the light prognosticus. I think the tribe thought the project was asking for someone to read the dark prognosticus. Like someone would have to want to do harm with the dark prognosticus in the first place for the light prognosticus to be worth anything, and at that point it would be too late. Unless, of course, the light prognosticus was a part of some kind of scheme unrelated to simply countering the dark one. I think they took the dark prognosticus and hid it to prevent the light prognosticus, and by proxy the bad vibes surrounding its creation, from ever being necessary. They were arrogant enough to believe their own magical prowess could prevent the book from ever being used hence keeping their bloodline pure (Carson does say in his tribe of darkness tidbits that the reason for them wanting their magic so powerful was lost to time, so this is as good a reason as any). Ironically, this pride surrounding their own magic bloodline is what led to the dark prognosticus being used in the first place.

SHADOO AND THE PIXL QUEEN:

Shadoo, the mysterious boss of the flopside pit, claims to be created by the ancients, but emphasizes that they do not work for them. They then state they intend to use their shadow clones of Mario & co. alongside their pixls to defeat the ancients. Shadoo seems unaware of the fact the ancients are a peoples long past. I read the emphasis that Shadoo does not work for the ancients as a spiteful jab at their origins as a pixl, and their desire to overthrow the ancients via the pixls is in-line with the pixl queen’s MO. As well, this is a meta connection, but SPM’s lore is so thought through (even if not in the spotlight) that I refuse to believe the devs had no plan for Shadoo. There is no other real connection to be made with them than the pixl queen.

On Shadoo/the pixl queen, despite apparently having the motivation of being repulsed by how pixls are made, has no problems using them as tools, what with Shadoo wanting to kill and clone mario and co. to use their pixls and the pixl queen’s ability to “command” all pixls (not to be confused with her having convinced them to join the rebellion; this is stated as a power. She ordered them to rebel, and they did). I think it’s important to emphasize here that in her uprising Shadoo being “horrified by the deeds of her father... That she wanted no one to ever use Pixls again.” Does not mean saving the pixls that currently exist. Based on her actions, it means one of two things: exacting revenge on the ancients as a whole for taking her from her afterlife and stuffing her into an object (and depending on her selfishness, the other pixls as well), or destroying all ancients AND pixls, most likely out of revenge and mercy respectively. Regardless, she uses the other pixls as tools despite being one herself. There is much to think about in regards to how the ancients thought if this much dissonance can be built up, but that is all speculation. I just wanted to draw attention to it as I find it very interesting to think about.

In regards to powers: A connection between shadoo and Dimentio/her brother is in the pixl queen’s powers of illusion to hide from sight and the manifesting of horrible images. Dimentio has both of these powers, regularly disguising himself  to eavesdrop on Castle Bleck’s comings and goings. And while it is funny to joke about Mario & co. going to hell and dying, Jaydes does confirm that Mario and the gang are not actually dead, instead just having been warped there. The explosions were just Dimentio memeing on them (ie. manifesting horrible images). Additionally, the pixl queen also had the power to brainwash all pixls into following her orders. I’m sure we all remember who else is known for their brainwashing. Perhaps Dimentio took some familial inspiration?

Finally, despite the pixl queen being vanquished, a shadow of her still remained to be dealt with and was subsequently locked in the pit. This parallels the final act of SPM, wherein even after Super Dimentio’s defeat, "a shadow of his power" is left behind still controlling the chaos heart, leading to the ending wedding sequence.

FINAL TIMELINE:

For convenience, I will TLDR the timeline (including HCs) into a list of bullet points:

-3,000 years ago, a master magician had a family consisting of a wife, daughter and son. His wife and son die in an accident (the son being presumed dead), and his daughter dies of an illness soon after.

-master magician, studying the prognosticus, uses its power to take his daughter's spirit and place it into what would become the first pixl. He does this 12 more times before dying.

-His knowledge is used to create more pixls on top of these original 12, leaving to the golden age of the ancients

-for the past 1,000 years the son, Dimentio, has been doing unspecified activities, likely related to magic, maybe performing if he's gone full quirky-mode. In recent times he has gained enough status and honour to inherit one of his father’s original pixls, one capable of seeing the truth.

-2,000 years ago the master magician’s daughter emerges as the pixl queen and uses her powers to control pixls and enslaves the ancients

-Dimentio, alongside the 11 other original pixl inheritors fight tooth and nail to defeat the pixl queen. All of them die, including pixls, aside from Dimentio.

-The pixl queen only exists as a shadow of herself. (There is a slight complication lorewise here, with flipside being implied to be built 1,500 years ago. However, this is never directly stated, only implied as its designer, Merlight, is hung alongside murals of Merlumina (who states she was alive 1,500 years ago), Merloo (author of the light prognosticus and as such had to be alive 1,500 years ago) and Merlimbis (creator of the purity heart; had to be 1,500 years ago). However, I can find nothing on flipside being confirmed 1,500 years old. I CAN find that the pit of 100 trials was made to experiment with the power of the pure hearts, so we DO know they were constructed 1,500 years ago. Where was Shadoo in the meantime? I suppose it can remain up in the air; she did wait 1,000 years after her creation to start her uprising! Maybe she just likes existing fashionably late.)

-Dimentio publishes, then retracts the theory that the original pixl was his sister. It is unclear if he knew this from the start, or only realized this confronting her. I think it’s far darker if he knew from the start and simply didn’t care, and as such I like this one more.

-At some point Dimentio returns the dark prognosticus to the ancients

-1,500 years ago Dimentio mentors Merloo in dimensional magic and influences the light prognosticus to a certain extent. The pure hearts are created, tested, and distributed across dimensions.

-The tribe of darkness steals the dark prognosticus and splits off from the ancients due to skepticism regarding the light prognosticus project. They set up their new home in a castle in the woods

-Time passes.

-Blumiere and Timpani fall in love.

-Blumiere and Timpani are forced apart

-Blumiere scours dimensions looking for his lover, bumping into Nastasia who tags along (see Carson’s “Nastasia” and “of Bats and Men”for a recap; this ones pretty straightforward)

-Count Bleck steals the dark prognosticus from his people and destroys his home dimension

-Count Bleck recruits minions for his cause of destroying the world. He lies about reshaping it into a better world. 

-Count Bleck is approached by the master of dimensions, pleaser of crowds.

-game start.

KAY, SO WHAT ABOUT HIS MOTIVATION?

I don’t know! There’s not much to really go off of for Dimentio. We know he wants to remake the world as he sees fit, but what caused this desire and when it happened is left completely unexplored. Did it happen when the light prognosticus was being written? Or maybe during the pixl uprising? Was the revelation his sister was the pixl queen a surprise or did he know and use it to further his goals? When he was presumed dead alongside his mother? Maybe even before that; was he the one responsible for the accident that killed his mother? Was he responsible for his sisters’ illness so she would become the pixl queen so he could get his hands on the dark prognosticus? How much of his life was simple tragedy and how much of it was him manipulating the world to get his way? 

I personally don’t think it matters. Narratively, I’m quite charmed by this question existing unanswered in the first place. It’s the embodiment of the dark prognosticus: how much of its events are predetermined, and how much of it is just random, tragic chance?

"This prophetic book was a mysterious tome full of stories of future events. Of course, many people craved this book, wishing to glimpse their futures. But no person, after obtaining this amazing book, ever found happiness."

Dimentio’s motivations being unclear just cements the introduction to the game as a whole: perhaps glimpsing this knowledge we want so badly will not be worth it. Sometimes, knowledge just leads to misery. Like the book, it should “fade back into history.” And fade it did.

[weakhero-diaries]

Weak Hero Musings (9): On Jihoon's and Pilyoung's Human Decency

SPOILER ALERT

During Baekjin (Donald)'s funeral service episodes, several characters surprised me with their human decency. I already posted about Dongha, so now I'll talk about Jihoon and Pilyoung (Phillip).

Jihoon stayed with Seokhyeon (Kingsley) and Hakho (Jake). To wear that one-striped yellow armband means that he shared Seokhyeon and Hakho's physical and mental burden, as the deceased Baekjin's brother. Which was why he was seen exhausted outside of that charnel house. It wasn't just the gloomy atmosphere, he must've lived very roughly in preparing the funeral for days. But he didn't complain of it, and he stayed.

To be fair to Jihoon, I knew that there's something good in him because he genuinely cared about Jeongyeon (Jack) and sincerely trusted Goseon. Contrary to what strangers might think about him, he didn't care that much about money. But I thought that his own strength was the only thing that really mattered to him.

Or was it because of this mindset that he was willing to lend his strength to Hakho and Seokhyeon? "I'm strong enough to help you both a little bit?" Was that it? Isn't that still decent and kind, anyway?

***

Then there was Pilyoung (Phillip), the guy who started out as a showy opportunist. He'd come a long way, spending more and more time alone even though outside of the school he was still wearing that façade of the popular scary thug who had eased his way into building networks. Probably because, unbeknownst to himself, Pilyoung no longer cared for the privilege of things, just for things that mattered.

This gradual growth was what led him to coming alone to Baekjin's funeral. Pilyoung couldn't make it because of his emotional turmoil, but the fact that he was willing to go there in spite of past events, and without any rewards, is a testament that all that Pilyoung was missing about the Union was the feeling of camaraderie with Baekjin (and the others).

The fact that Pilyoung spent time personally grieving for Baekjin while also wondering about Sieun's absence is an indication of tremendous emotional growth to me. It's so satisfying to see that in a character and a human being.

[infinitesofnought]

Libidinal investment does not bear upon the régime of the social syntheses, but upon the degree of development of the forces or the energies on which these syntheses depend. It does not bear upon the selections, detachments, and remainders effected by these syntheses, but upon the nature of the codes and the flows that condition them. It does not bear upon the social means and ends, but upon the full body as socius, the formation of sovereignty, or the form of power for itself, devoid of meaning and purpose, since the meanings and the purposes derive from it, and not the contrary. It is doubtless true that interests predispose us to a given libidinal investment, but they are not identical with this investment. Moreover, the unconscious libidinal investment is what causes us to look for our interest in one place rather than another, to fix our aims on a given path, convinced that this is where our chances lie—since love drives us on. The manifest syntheses are merely the preconscious indicators of a degree of development; the apparent interests and aims are merely the preconscious exponents of a social full body. As Klossowski says in his profound commentary on Nietzsche, a form of power is identical with the violence it exerts by its very absurdity, but it can exert this violence only by assigning itself aims and meanings in which even the most enslaved elements participate: "The sovereign formations will have no other purpose than that of masking the absence of a purpose or a meaning of their sovereignty by means of the organic purpose of their creation," and the purpose of thereby converting the absurdity into spirituality. That is why it is so futile to attempt to distinguish what is rational and what is irrational in a society. To be sure, the role, the place, and the part one has in a society, and from which one inherits in terms of the laws of social reproduction, impel the libido to invest a given socius as a full body—a given absurd power in which we participate, or have the chance to participate, under the cover of aims and interests. The fact remains that there exists a disinterested love of the social machine, or the form of power, and of the degree of development in and for themselves. Even in the person who has an interest—and loves them besides with a form of love other than that of his interest. This is also the case for the person who has no interest, and who substitutes the force of a strange love for this counterinvestment. Flows that run on the porous full body of a socius—these are the object of desire, higher than all the aims. It will never flow too much, it will never break or code enough—and in that very way! Oh how beautiful the machine is! The officer of "In the Penal Colony" demonstrates what an intense libidinal investment of a machine can be, a machine that is not only technical but social, and through which desire desires its own repression.

– Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

[dmvcannabisdeliverysblog]

Do Weed Edibles Make You Dehydrated? (What Experts Say)

Do you ever experience dry skin, mouth, or other dehydration symptoms while consuming Cannabis? Does that ever concern you? If so, you are not alone. Many people have certain concerns while trying new stuff, especially when it is drug-related, whether it is for pleasure or pain management. But is it really the truth or a myth? Do weed edibles dehydrate you? We will explore it in this article.

What is Dehydration?

It is the absence of enough fluids or water in the body. Dehydration occurs when your body loses more fluids than it takes in. Your body won’t work properly if the lost fluids aren’t replaced as soon as possible.

Usually, thirst is our body’s way of telling us we need to drink water. It has been shown, nevertheless, that thirst alone isn’t necessarily a good sign of hydration. Many people don’t feel thirsty until they’ve already lost a lot of fluid, which is especially typical in older people. In general, it’s a good idea to increase water consumption whether you’re sick, it’s hot outside, or you’re exercising.

Dehydration signs are obvious, such as darker urine and a considerable reduction in urination. Dehydration can also be indicated by less obvious symptoms like fatigue or lightheadedness, which can occasionally resemble the consequences of using Cannabis. It can also appear as a dry scalp or skin.

Dehydration results from regular biological functions that cause us to lose water, such as breathing, sweating, peeing, and producing saliva. Dehydration results from not drinking enough water to replenish these losses.

Dehydration can occasionally happen accidentally. Lack of thirst, being preoccupied with other things, not feeling thirsty, or even being under the influence of Cannabis can all cause dehydration.

Read More: How Long Do Weed Edibles Stay in Your System?

Why Does Cannabis Dry Mouth?

Cannabis users frequently suffer from “cotton mouth,” a drying sensation in the mouth that is also associated with dehydration. The dryness that follows smoking, meanwhile, doesn’t always indicate dehydration.

Cannabis use does not automatically dehydrate you, but dehydration symptoms like dry mouth, lightheadedness, and dizziness, which are typical of a “weed hangover,” might be mistaken for these symptoms.

Contrary to claims of dehydration, Cannabis itself doesn’t significantly disturb the natural balance of water. However, actions like consuming alcohol and Cannabis together might cause dehydration and other problems.

Although Cannabis does not normally result in dehydration, a small percentage of long-term users may have a disease known as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). CHS develops in phases, resulting in vomiting, dehydration, weight loss, and nausea. The only CHS therapy that works and results in complete recovery is ceasing to consume Cannabis.

But Is Cannabis Dehydrating Your Body?

Does Cannabis dehydrate? Yes, it does. Cannabis has dehydrating properties because of its diuretic properties, which encourage urine production and, therefore, increase water excretion.

Fundamentally, increased renal function can cause the body to feel dry when using Cannabis without maintaining enough water consumption. This effect is especially prominent in the case of edibles since the prolonged period of increased urine lasts for several hours due to their slow digestion.

Read More: Do Weed Edibles Smell? The Truth Revealed

What Can Be Done to Avoid Dehydration?

You can use the below-mentioned tips in order to avoid dehydration after consuming the weed edibles.

1. Maintain Hydration

Staying hydrated is essential, especially while using Cannabis. This means drinking enough water before, during, and after using Cannabis. You may prevent the possible dehydration effects of Cannabis by intentionally ingesting enough water. The body’s natural systems are supported by enough hydration, which also helps counteract water loss from cannabis’ diuretic effects.

2. Choose a Balance Diet

Diuretic intake must be balanced; therefore, paying attention to what you’re eating is important. The drying effects of Cannabis can be exacerbated by meals high in salt and beverages like coffee and alcohol. These drugs promote increased urination, which amplifies water loss. Maintaining optimum water levels can be greatly helped by monitoring and controlling your consumption of certain diuretic substances.

3. Exploring Cannabis-Infused Drinks

If you like edibles, choosing cannabis-infused drinks might be a smart move. These drinks give a hydration benefit in addition to the desirable cannabis benefits. Contrary to certain conventional ways of ingestion, cannabis-infused beverages increase your fluid intake and help you stay hydrated as you experience the effects of the drug.

4. Quickly Responding to Dehydration Symptoms

It’s crucial to spot early indications of dehydration. A few examples are a dry mouth, increased thirst, darker urine, or a feeling of exhaustion. The dehydration effects of Cannabis can be fought off by increasing water intake as soon as these symptoms appear. You may avoid the pain and potential health problems related to dehydration by practicing proactive hydration.

5. Factors Affecting Dehydration Caused by Cannabis

The degree of dehydration brought on by Cannabis varies depending on a number of variables. These variables include the amount and kind of Cannabis used, as well as one’s metabolism, body composition, and general health. An overall feeling of dehydration can also result from other cannabis side effects, such as an elevated heart rate or dry lips.

Should You Get Advice from a Medical Professional?

It’s important to recognize that the relationship between Cannabis and a person’s physiology can be complicated. It is advisable to see a medical expert before making any big adjustments to your cannabis use, especially if you are worried about how THC may affect your body’s processes. Based on your health history, medical specialists can offer individualized guidance to make sure your cannabis use is in line with your general well-being.

Maintaining proper hydration while using Cannabis entails a proactive approach to water intake, mindful use of diuretics, consideration of alternative consumption methods like beverages infused with Cannabis, prompt response to dehydration signals, and consulting medical professionals to make educated decisions about your cannabis use.

Read More: How to Make Weed Edible Rice Krispie Treats?

Conclusion

Drinking a lot of water is essential while using Cannabis; however, there should be a healthy balance to everything. When the body stores an abnormally large amount of water, water intoxication can arise from excessive ingestion. Drinking a substantial volume of water in a short period of time can give birth to this issue. For instance, consuming 100 ounces of water in only a few hours might result in a number of risks, even lethal ones. Make careful to spread out your regular water consumption equally throughout the day to protect your health.

There are a number of sensible methods for keeping hydrated when using Cannabis. The cornerstone of preserving good health is moderation, along with a balanced lifestyle and nutrition. Since thirst may not always correspond to our real hydration needs, including hydrating drinks and plain water in your diet can help. In addition, maintaining sufficient hydration is a tried-and-true way to reduce the effects of a “weed hangover” the next day.

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[yr-obedt-cicero]

I was reading some of Allan McLane's work, for those that don't know, he was a grandson of Alexander Hamilton, being the second son of Philip Hamilton II and Rebecca McLane. I noticed something intriguing about one of his books. In the second volume of A System of legal medicine, by McLane and Lawrence Godkin published in 1894, there is an article titled; ‘Sexual Crimes’. The section is written by one of the many collaborates, Charles Gilbert Chaddock. Chaddock was a Professor of Diseases of the Nervous System, and neurologist to Rebekah Hospital. An additional fun fact, the first known use of the term homosexual was in Chaddock's 1892 translation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis, a study of sexual practices.

Chaddock discusses a lot of sexual topics but one is “sexual inversion”, which was a theory of homosexuality popular primarily in the late 19th and early 20th century. Sexual inversion was believed to be an inborn reversal of gender traits: male inverts were, to a greater or lesser degree, inclined to traditionally female pursuits and dress and vice versa.

The most common sexological theory of same-sex desire was that it was the result of physical, emotional, or psychological “inversion.” In other words, the gender of persons who desired their own sex was somehow reversed. When a man desired a man, it was actually a woman—presumably existing within the man's body—who was desiring a man. When a woman desired a woman, it was actually a male essence within the woman's body who felt that desire. This metaphysical explanation, accepted as scientific (at this point of the emergence of psychology as a science), had a substantial effect on the public imagination for the next fifty years. It became how many people understood the phenomenon of same-sex desire. Theories of Inversing were published widely, and sexologists were understood by the average person to be the experts on a “new science.” The idea of the “invert,” or “third sex,” also quickly and profoundly informed two popular and lasting stereotypes: the mannish lesbian and the effeminate homosexual man. (Although there were preexisting stereotypes of the effeminate male, sexological taxonomy invented him as a homosexual man.)

Source — A Queer History of the United States, by Michael Bronski · 2011

Chaddock wrote that;

Since in any case sexual inversion is but a phenomenon arising from a neuropsychopathic condition, as previously indicated, it is seldom an isolated manifestation, but is most frequently observed in combination with other sexual perversions. In accordance with this, the medico-legal questions arising in sexual inversion may be identical with those raised in the sexual perversions previously considered. The further possibilities of a criminal character are related to the crimes of pederasty. The individual affected with contrary sexuality satisfies himself with men by means of passive or mutual onanism, or by coitus-like acts (coitus inter femora); if active pederasty is performed, it is only as a result of intense sexual desire, or out of wish to please another. Passive pederasty may be performed by contrary sexual individuals to please the active party, or out of lust where they feel themselves entirely in the feminine role. To distinguish such cases from pederasty not dependent upon a pathological condition, it is but necessary to exclude the existence of psychosexual inversion, and to remember that where this crime is performed apart from perversion it is as a means of sexual indulgence in the absence of opportunity for natural satisfaction, and as a new means. of sexual gratification where natural methods of sexual pleasure have been exhausted by excess. Non-pathological passive pederasty is practiced only for gain.

Source — A System of legal medicine, Volume 2, by Allan McLane Hamilton · 1900

[richmond-rex]

I think it's interesting that people love mentioning the unevidenced assumption that EoY and Margaret Beaufort didn't get along, or that Margaret dominated her, despite all evidence suggesting mutual cooperation ... but very rarely discuss how Cecily Neville's actions (or deliberate inaction) seemed to have caused genuine damage to her own daughter-in-law's wellbeing? I don't say this to condemn Cecily (I mean, she's a centuries old historical figure and not my friend/enemy), but it does seem pretty damning, imo? During Elizabeth Woodville's two great crises, where she had to flee to sanctuary and was utterly dependent on the mercy and generosity of others (and heavily pregnant during one of them) Cecily does not appear to have done anything to help her. In the first instance, i remember reading in J.L Laynesmith's book that if was Anne Neville duchess of Buckingham who loaned Elizabeth 100 marks after Edward fled to Burgundy, and it was only after Edward had returned did Elizabeth and her children lodge with Cecily. There's no indication of any aid of support before that. And in the second instance, she appears to have have to have supported/accepted/played an active role in the ascension of Richard III, while Elizabeth and her children, Cecily's own grandchildren, were utterly stranded, humiliated and in the Princes' cases, ripped away from their mother. Nor was there any specifically recorded instance of cordial relations and cooperation between the two during Elizabeth's queenship, unlike her communication with Anne Neville, or Elizabeth of York and Margaret Beaufort's coordination. Considering Elizabeth Woodville seems to have been on decent terms with most of the other women from Edward's family, it's doubtful that this lack of rapport came from her end. She doesn't seem to have been thrilled with E4 and Elizabeth's marriage, either.

Of course, the situations were probably different. Margaret played a vital role at court, while Cecily seems to have been more of a visitor, certainly after Edward's marriage. She clearly possessed lots of influence in the early years of his reign and was clearly close to him on a personal level, but there's no instance of her playing an important political role like Margaret did. It may have been her choice, or a result of friction, or a prioritization of Elizabeth Woodville as queen, but either way, it didn't result in dual influence like Elizabeth of York and Margaret Beaufort. And any negative effect she may have had on Elizabeth Woodville occurred in the absence/after the death of Edward IV rather than Margaret's wrongly presumed effect during her son's reign.

I'm not saying this to demonize any historical women or do start a "who was the worst mother in law" discourse or anything like that lmao. I just find it strange that it's MARGARET of all women who is targeted for her alleged behavior with her daughter-in-law despite all evidence pointing to the contrary when Cecily's actions/inactions which did legitimately cause immense harm to hers are pretty glossed over.

Hello, anon! Honestly, I don't have much to contribute to the discussion because I haven't read much on Cecily Neville (have kept an eye on Laynesmith's biography but haven't got a chance ££ to acquire it). There's certainly a distinct lack of evidence of cooperation/goodwill between Cecily and her daughter-in-law. I wonder if it's simply the case that letters/records/expressions of goodwill were lost? Thanks to surviving letters we know that Cecily tried to maintain cordial relations even with Margaret of Anjou before everything went down between her husband and Henry VI.

Besides the occasions you pointed out where Cecily remained distinctly unhelpful to Elizabeth (it comes to mind Elizabeth of York seeking refuge with Margaret Beaufort before they went together to the Tower during the Cornish rebellion of 1497), it seems like Cecily didn't attend Elizabeth Woodville's coronation, and again, Margaret Beaufort attended Elizabeth of York's. It is intriguing to me, though I wonder if it was some kind of protocol that dictated that past queens couldn't attend a new queen's coronation in the same vein that kings didn't attend a new king's coronation (though in theory, they would be dead etc); Cecily wasn't a queen although she did call herself the wife of the rightful heir of the crown: still, even if she considered herself (and was treated as) a queen, she had not been anointed and it's hard to pinpoint why protocol would forbid her attendance.

It's not the only royal ceremony where her absence is evident. She's not mentioned in the reburial procedures of her husband that gave him a quasi-kingly funeral, and presumably, that had nothing to do with Elizabeth Woodville, though Elizabeth was present and was one of the few women who made an offer during the funeral. I wonder if she disliked the spotlight? Though before Edward IV's marriage, Italian ambassadors reported she commanded much in the kingdom, and then it seems she pulled back from being closely associated with her son's regime. To be honest, those rumours Mancini repeated, saying Cecily was so offended at Edward's marriage she was ready to denounce him as a bastard, I wonder if they have some kernel of truth — not that she proclaimed herself as an adulteress, I don't believe her sense of integrity would allow her to debase herself like that, but I wonder if she publicly showed herself to be so resentful it gave way to rumours.

It's hard for me to pinpoint the extent of Cecily's support to her son Richard so it's hard for me to say if Cecily directly caused harm to her daughter-in-law but she certainly seems to have done... nothing to help her. So yeah, it's frustrating that Margaret Beaufort gets the bad mother-in-law reputation when not only do we have several instances where she and Elizabeth of York cooperated, we have evidence of Margaret caring for her daughter-in-law's wellbeing, from her letter wishing Elizabeth a speedy recovery to the rewards she gave Elizabeth's midwives after what had been anticipated as a particularly difficult labour.

[baldudiable]

the link between Mercury and the Magician

before writing this post, I was planning on speaking about how Mercury is linked to the Magician card because our thoughts (a Mercurial principle) create (a Magician principle) our reality. the universe is ruled by a number of laws, and one of them is the law of attraction. this law is the belief that our thoughts have an indirect incidence on our reality. pur thoughts push us to act a certain way, to meet certain people, and to find ourselves in particular situations. We accept our fate, because we believe that what we're encountering is what we deserve. we accept our fate, until we believe that we can have more. then, we change our thinking. We start acting differently, and our trajectory changes.

this post was meant to be solely about that. but as I was researching information on the subject, more ideas came to me. I now see more similarities between Mercury (both the divinity and the planet) and the Magician Arcana.

let's get into it.

first off, the myth of Mercury

fruit of the union of Jupiter and Maia, Mercury is born in a cave of the Mount Cyllene. he runs away shortly after his birth, while his family sleeps, only to steal the cattle of his brother's herd. these beasts are then given as an offering to the Gods of Olympus. once the deed is done, he goes back to his bed, his absence unnoticed. Apollo, who has been alerted of his brother's actions, accuses the young one. Maia will then defend her son, justifying his innocence by showing him soundly asleep in his bed. Mercury will still be asked to defend himself by his father, though. he manages to do so without effort, thanks to his charm and way with words.

Mercury was indeed the God of speech and information. For that, he knew how to flatter and manipulate people in order to get their approval.

he was not only gifted with wit, but also with great creativity. it is to him that we owe the invention of the lyre, which he allegedly created with a turtle shell. he invented the flute, which he gave to Apollo in exchange of the caduceus, an object that eventually became his symbol.

Jupiter, proud of his son's innovative spirit, eventually names him Messenger of the Gods. wearing winged helmet and sandals, Mercury flies between the earth and the sky, playing the role of intermediary between Man and God. he is also given the task of bringing the dead's souls to Hell. as a matter of fact, he is one of the few people allowed to enter Hell, and to come out of it.

Mercury in astrology

Mercury is the fastest moving planet in the solar system. Like the God to which it is associated, it rules speech, transmission of information, and mental faculties. it is a cerebral and rational celestial body that influences our way of speaking, thinking, and learning. its placement in our chart gives us an hint of where our passions lie, what pieces of knowledge we should pursue in order to feel mentally fulfilled, and also, how to best utilize that knowledge.

as I said in the introduction, our thoughts generate a particular vibration that attract specific experiences to our reality.

take fire Mercury for example. It's a placement that is direct, impulsive, and gives the native strong opinions. this energy is bound to attract opposition, which the native gladly accepts since they usually like a challenge. this placement can give them the possibility, or the desire, to be a spokesperson that fights for others, and allows them to stand in the spotlight. success is meant to happen for the native, as the fire element makes them believe in themselves and their abilities.

another example would be mutable Mercury. tt indicates a flexible, changeable nature. it makes someone more open to change and opinions that differ from theirs. contrary to the Fixed modality, it welcomes novelty and the experiences it brings with joy. it makes one less inclined to be conflictual, since they want to learn from others, and not limit themselves to their way of thinking. this modality can lead one to surround themselves with people who are different so that they can grow and evolve. it can put someone in the position of a guide, or mentor, who will teach and challenge the minds of the people they are in contact with.

last but not least, the Magician

the Magician is a highly spiritual figure.

upon looking at the Arcana, we can see this character pointing at both the sky and the ground, as he stands between the two. like Mercury, he plays the role of messenger between Heaven and Earth. the Magician has great dreams. he was gifted with the faith and the will necessary to accomplish them. whatever he ends up creating will not only benefit him, but also everyone who encounters it.

like the God, he is highly versatile and creative. the tools laid on the tables are a Wand, a Cup, a Sword, and a Pentacle. these objects respectively symbolize spiritual, emotional, mental or relational, and material ressources that are at his disposal to make his vision come true.

as it is the first Arcana of Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, the Magician is like a guide that shows us the way. the message it brings is that if we believe in ourselves and our gifts, we will achieve whatever dreams we have.