#it fully formed the basis of my understanding of the field and is why i read endless forms most beautiful

[songofwizardry]

obligatory appreciation post for acapella science—every couple months i go back down a rabbit hole and am reminded how brilliant those songs and videos are!

[diavolosthots]

Felt like crying, so I came to you, my friend! Mc and Mammon went out shopping, specifically to buy gifts for his brothers, as an apology. When they get back home they are met with hostility. They berate Mammon until Mc screams at them to shut up, then rips into each of them for their treatment of Mammon. Then finishes with "Don't expect Mammon to stay here when he can live with me in the humanworld. I'm done with you. Mammon, lets go, you deserve better, love" and leaves w/ Mammon. Thank you!

You came to me because you felt like crying and that gives me two (2) things to think about. 1.) I'm apparently someone who people see as a tissue? 2.) My angst is just THAT good. Also! Apparently today is rain on Mammon day and I'm here for it not me avoiding my exam to write these things

Warning: uh.... Angst?

Soul-Searching (MAMMON X GN!READER ft. THE BROTHERS)

“You know, I’m proud of you for suggesting this.” Truly, you were. Mammon was your favorite and you felt for him, but you also completely understood where his brothers came from. At first, it honestly annoyed you as well; the constant stealing, the lying… You tried blaming it on his avatar, but even then it doesn’t explain the lying that comes with it. However, you do realize that it’s a habit and it’s a habit that is hard to fix, so instead of constantly getting onto him like the rest, you tried to understand him a bit more and give him some life advice. So far, you have managed to get Mammon to give back all the things he has recently taken from his brothers, and some of them even got an apology. You’ll be working on how to properly apologize, though, because oof, that was a mess. 

And now? Now you managed to take a small trip with him downtown to at least attempt to make things better. Mammon is now, or at least today, using his own money to buy some things that his brothers would be fond of: a new vinyl player for Lucifer (non-cursed), a new Ruri-chan t-shirt for Leviathan, a neck pillow for Satan because lord knows he has some cramps back there with the way he leans over and down to read his books. Then some perfume for Asmodeus that he had been swooning about, a gift card to Beel’s favorite restaurant for the glutton, and a heated blanket for Belphie. You were proud, truly, that Mammon wanted to do this. As a matter of fact, he was the one who suggested it. “Maybe… uh.. I could… ya know… buy somethin’ they like” is what he said. You were just excited and agreed to help. 

Now you were going back to the house with a few shopping bags and ice cream almost fully eaten. You paid for the ice cream, as a way to reward Mammon, and you’re sure he’s secretly thanking you for that because some of these items truly did burn a hole into his credit card, which is partially his fault. “Lucifer deserves more than some random vinyl player.” his words, not yours. Also “satan needs one of them neck pillows that massage it, too!” again, his words. So yeah, some money was definitely spent on these items, but… once again, you were proud. “I think they’ll love everything, Mam. They’d be fools if they didn’t.” Hearing you say that made Mammon feel a lot better, honestly, and a small rush of confidence came to the surface “Ya betcha they will! Nothin’ but the best from the Great Mammon!” You just laughed. 

However, upon arrival, it was a different sight. As a matter of fact, you barely made it through the door before Beel was grumbling something about Mammon eating his custard, which is true, but it’s just a custard? “MAAMMMOONNN!!” and then there was Lucifer who appeared so fast you wondered if he was even real. He went on a whole rant about how irresponsible Mammon is and how another bill came in the mail that talks about Mammon’s debt. Satan and Belphegor teamed up to show empty hands, which left both you and Mammon confused, but then “do you see anything here? No? That’s because you sold our belongings, Mammon!” Mammon can be lucky that Leviathan was still holed up in his room because he just remembered that he also, at some point in the past, sold one of Levi’s figures. Asmodeus came last and honestly he wasn’t mad, he was just annoyed. “I saw you go through my things, Mammon. Nothing was taken, but it was still so incredibly rude!” 

Next followed a screaming match which was basically just Mammon trying to defend himself, trying to show the bags and apologize, but none of them would have it. It irritated you. Yes, they had every right to be mad because personal belongings should stay with their owner(s), but at the same time, they didn’t even give Mammon a chance to explain, especially after he’s been holding the bags up and attempting to apologize. “You’re so stupid, Mammon” “StupidMammon” “so irresponsible. You know better than that. Do you need another time out session, Mammon?” “I can’t believe you’d go through my stuff again!” by now your eyes were twitching and the voices echoing off the walls surely didn’t help your case. One more word and you’d snap, surely, especially since Mammon’s hand is now shaking and you grabbing it did nothing at all. “We would be better off without you.”

Ah yes, there it is. The final straw. The amount of anger boiling inside you right now isn’t even manageable anymore and you’re surprised that Satan, as the Avatar of Wrath, has yet to notice it. “Shut up! Shut up, Shut up, Shut up! All of you!” You yanked Mammon behind you, almost protectively and Belphegor found the need to laugh at it. “Really? You’re going to protect him?” Oh, there. That’s your first victim. “Are you really that dense, Belphegor, or is sleep still clouding your brain cells? That is your brother you’re currently making fun of and I don’t know about you, but I was taught that family sticks together, blood related or by choice. So how about you get your head out of dreamland, take this stupid heated blanket that he bought for you, as an apology, and wake up for a second.” yes, you did throw the bag at him and then you pointed your finger at Beel. You’d regret later on that you’re tearing into him as well because Beel means well at the end of the day, but still, he was also part of this. 

“You’re my least worry, Beel. Honestly you’re too caught up in your burgers and brawns to care for a second that your brother tries very hard to be liked by all of you. Sad, really.” you threw the card at him too. As a matter of fact, you threw all of the bags right in front of them. “And then Asmo.. oh my God, first of all, the world doesn’t revolve around you. Shocker, I know. If you were half as empathetic toward your family as you are obsessed with yourself, maybe you wouldn’t feel the need to always go party and drink your life away. Oh, I’m sorry, did that hit just a little too hard? Can’t be harder than the hangovers you wake up with on a regular basis.” You glared at him before turning your attention to Satan. “Honestly, if you weren’t such a baby inside I may actually be scared of you. You always complain about how stupid he is, how he needs to just learn, but you? What do you do all day? You hole yourself up in your room and read about worlds that you wish you could enter. News flash: you’d die before you had the chance to say hello. People don’t like self-proclaimed assholes. Mammon IS smart. He’s very talented, too, but you’re too far up in Shakespeare’s ass that you fail to realize that everyone has knowledge in different fields of life. Give me a break.” 

Satan was about to retort but you already moved on to Levi. “and you! Let’s be honest, if it weren’t for you wallowing in self-pity and fake depression, you would have absolutely no personality traits. What are you again? The Avatar of Envy? How about instead of being envious of others’ accomplishments, you actually start working on yourself. It’s truly pathetic that a couple millenia old demon’s only purpose in life is ramen and self inflicted emotional pain. Seriously, what are you? A pitiful loner? I can’t even begin to empathize with you in any way, shape, or form.” Your blood was boiling right now and maybe if they hadn’t attacked Mammon like they did, you would’ve felt bad about Levi’s sad face right now, but there was still one person left to deal with.”

“And you… beautiful, responsible, way-too-good-for-you older brother, Lucifer.” He’s been glaring at you this whole time, arms crossed over his chest but you stood your ground. You’re not quite sure how you managed, but you did. “You call yourself the best, the most responsible. You constantly say this family would fall apart without you, but that’s not it, is it? I think you’re just lonely. You force these six to be by you, to respect you and borderline worship you. Not because you deserve it…” you chuckled, shaking your head, “no. You’re just so sad that Daddy and Michael left you, mocked you, that you turned your sadness into anger and took it out on these six, but especially Mammon. Why? Because you see yourself in him. You call him your favorite brother, but it’s not because he actually is… he just reminds you of everything you used to be: fun, reckless, and feeling. Now you’re just cold, mean, and bitter. Don’t bother calling yourself the mighty first because without him you would be neither. Maybe if you pulled that stick out of your arse and actually tried to get to know your brothers, maybe you wouldn’t be so lonely all the time. Family, right? That’s what you want. How about you start acting like one.” 

You shook your head after that, grabbing Mammon’s hand and kicking the bags in front of you before dragging Mammon back out the door. “Those are for you, by the way. Not that you deserve them, but they’re Mammon’s way of apologizing for all the things you accused him of the minute he set foot into the house. Have fun. We’re going to the castle and, if we’re lucky, to a real home.” 

[thosewickedlovelies]

An Ode To Marcus Moreno’s Arms

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x GN!Reader

Rating: Mature

Summary: You’re a training specialist in swordsmanship at Heroics Headquarters, so you see a lot of Marcus Moreno.

Tags: Reader has a vivid (sexual) imagination, but there’s only a few brief sections.

Word Count: 2,272

A/N: This started out as an ode to his arms, but his arms are connected to the rest of him, so. Alternative title: In Appreciation of Marcus Moreno

My assumption/headcanon of his powers are telekinesis, plus general exceptional physical prowess and weapons skills? Idk, we weren’t given much, but those feel like solid abilities for someone implied to be the super among super heroes. Idk what this is but I regret nothing.

More content/worldbuilding set in this universe 💗

--

Marcus Moreno’s arms were capable of many things.

You knew this because you saw them on an almost-daily basis. You were one of the training specialists at Heroics Headquarters, one of a large, ever-expanding staff of instructors who were experts in their respective fields of combat or weapons. Your job, essentially, was to be a superhero minus the powers- and use your abilities to keep the Heroics in top form.

Your expertise was swordsmanship, which meant you spent more time with Marcus than any of the other heroes. All of the physical trainers and specialists sparred with the Heroics in mock villain showdowns, but you also helped them hone specific skills. You were here because your skillset and abilities matched Marcus’s.

So you’ve had plenty of opportunity to behold his arms at work.

One would think that they’d be most enticing mid-action, but it was a cosmically ironic fact that there was never really a wrong moment to ogle. How that man could make merely unsheathing his swords so erotic was beyond you.

But by now you’d seen it from every angle. You were as familiar with Marcus’s technique as you were with your own, and knew well the cycle of muscle contractions which rippled up his whole body. It started with his legs: setting his stance, primed and poised on the balls of his feet. Then every muscle in his torso, his clinging t-shirts sliding over taut flesh as they rode up with the lifting of his arms- his arms. Biceps suddenly incredibly present and visibly straining past barely-existent sleeves, tendons flexing rigid and obvious, a tangle of pathways you wanted to map with your tongue.

This show was best when he had started his day with tactical theory sessions, because then his expressive face got involved. Oh yes, it wasn’t enough for him just to be built the way he was, his face had to go and be attractive as well.

Tedious strategy debates with Miracle Guy during these sessions never failed to get under his skin- you could always tell how much steam Marcus had to let off based on the clench of his jaw. Or the way he’d drag his bottom lip over his teeth, nostrils flaring in an almost-snarl. When that happened you knew he gripped the hilts of his swords a little tighter, because you’d see the ridges in his wrist dip and pull like piano strings perpendicular to the line of his gloves. The blades would sing little sharper on those days, his arms freeing them in a jerk rather than their usual smooth, deliberate slide.

It was amazing you ever made it beyond unsheathing your weapons.

But oh, were you glad you did, because watching Marcus Moreno fight was truly a treat. The control he had over his body was remarkable; even when his limbs flung and stretched, they were to ready to contract again at a second’s notice. “Fight” was really too limited of a term for it- Marcus manipulated his body in an incredible harmony of mind and muscle, using his weapons- including his telekinesis- as extensions of himself.

You wondered sometimes how fine his control over his telekinesis was- if he could use it on himself. If he did use it somehow to give his blows that devastating extra speed and strength.

It was easy to understand, after witnessing him, why battle is often described as a dance.

On particularly ruthless training days, his tan skin would gleam with sweat. It would bead and trickle along the pulsing veins in his arms, drawing your attention even more, and salacious scenes would flash behind your eyelids: those same glistening forearms visible in your peripherals as they box you against a wall, that same intent glitter in his dark eyes as they come closer and closer, breathless, his chest heaving into yours-

You never let on to any of this though. You were a master of the blade, and had trained too thoroughly to let the appearance of an opponent get to you. Besides that fact, you would never do anything to risk your place with the Heroics. Although you were an authority figure, they were still superheroes, and thus unlike anyone else you’d worked with- it made for a challenging, stimulating dynamic in which you were constantly both instructor and student.

Even outside of the training arena, Marcus’s arms were a sight.

Holding data pads or writing utensils as he led the Heroics in discussions of group tactics, deftly manipulating characters onscreen or scribbling things on a whiteboard. Sometimes he would go to these sessions straight from physical training, and the cooling sweat on his skin would raise goosebumps all along the smooth flesh.

You observed how gently his arms could move in yet other circumstances.

Training specialists often joined in when the Heroics were given new gadgets to play with. And although these days tended to be slower, they still made you sweat. Watching the caution with which Marcus handled the gear at first, the slow care he reserved for things with which he was still becoming familiar. The precision and that control he always kept- even when his frustration slipped out in the form of snarky remarks, he was always conscious of his movements. As he gained confidence, the surety would return to his motions, his shoulders squaring in quiet triumph- his broad, broad shoulders, which you had imagined far too many times propping up your thighs while his hands and mouth were otherwise engaged between them.

You wondered if Marcus would treat your body like something new he had to master. If his hands would probe and caress with the same thoroughness. If the same wicked delight would steal over his features as he learned how best to coax you toward his desired goals; if his fascinated smirk would change after the thousandth time he had taken you apart.

It didn’t help that these sessions highlighted that he was a kind, competent teacher. His teammates exasperated him sometimes, but Marcus was the first to step in when one of them was struggling. A light touch to rearrange their stance, an encouraging word or smile. If you hadn’t personally felt the power thrumming under his skin, you would have never guessed that such a soft man was capable of his immense abilities.

Occasionally you had to remind yourself not to get all dopey-eyed when he was instructing the kids. If you thought he was patient with the adult Heroics, it was nothing compared to how he interacted with their younger counterparts. Equally firm and joking in turn, he taught them every trick he knew while desperately hoping they would never have to use the knowledge.

Some days were easier for him than others- the times they practiced with weapons could have unexpectedly diverting consequences. Marcus let Guppy hold his katanas, once- she was fully capable with her shark strength, but the vision of the diminutive girl brandishing swords that were taller than she was, her face aglow with a ferocious grin, had all the others in fits.

You swore he was suppressing laughter himself as he carefully took them away from her. His hands, already distracting enough, looked comically vast compared to hers as he delicately maneuvered them to pluck the swords from her grasp. Something about the sight of his thick fingers, resettling themselves around the hilts with reflexive ease, made your mouth dry.

His fingers squeezed other things, too, and it made flames leap low in your belly every time.

Lime wedges, on the rare occasions he indulged in drinks stronger than wine at the Headquarters bar. His friends’s shoulders, in affection and farewell, after relaxing with them at said bar following hard days. You longed to be one of those who Marcus slung an arm around in jest, a laugh shaking his shoulders and sparkling in his eyes. Would his skin be as warm as it was while swinging a weapon? What would his body feel like softened in mirth, instead of vibrating with focus?

You didn’t blame him for his more formal attitude during work hours. His days were busy, and you rarely saw him off the training mats. You had shared a few evenings with him on nights when the bar was quieter, though. He was perfectly friendly, treating you just like anyone else he was getting to know.

Tonight was one of those quieter nights, but you didn’t do more than cast a quick glance at the small group sitting in the corner before slumping to the bar. You were worn out today, and just wanted something strong and solitary before going home.

You sighed into the numbing wash of your drink, your eyes drifting shut. Nobody would bother you this evening; it wasn’t that kind of atmosphere.

Except- the barstool next to yours scraped against the floor.

You inhaled deeply, preparing to politely rip into whatever idiot was assuming you needed company- only to have the words struck off your lips by the apprehensive brown eyes of Marcus Moreno.

“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’m sorry to bother you. You can tell me to march right back to my table if you like, but uh, I just wanted to see if you were all right. After today.”

You could see that he genuinely meant it- he was perched only partially on the barstool, ready to take off again if you said the word. But his gaze was curious, concerned.

You brow furrowed. “After today?” you echoed, too caught off-guard to think of anything else. What could he mean? Nothing special had happened today. He’d disarmed you, sure, but it wasn’t the first time that had occurred in the eight months you’d been working with him.

Marcus shifted uncertainly. “You just seemed...tired. Reflexes slower than usual,” he noted wryly. “And, well. We have matching bags.” He pointed to his face, where dark shadows were visible beneath his eyes. He offered a self-deprecating, tentative smile, conscious that he was treading in new territory.

It takes you a minute to process. In all the time you’ve spent observing his fighting techniques to perfection, you’d never considered that he could have been using those same opportunities to observe you. It provokes a funny feeling in your chest, twisting your breath up in your lungs like tangled ribbon.

“Oh,” you murmur, surprised but unoffended by his mention of the bags under your eyes. “Well...I am tired today, I guess.” You took a sip of your drink, gauging his interest, hesitating before continuing. “My sister broke her hip, so she just moved in with me for while she heals. It’s been...a stressful transition,” you admitted.

He angles himself toward you, attention fully committed and eyes widening in sympathy. “Oh gosh, that’s terrible. Do you need some time off? I can clear it with the boss for you, work with Santino for however long you need.” He seemed to straighten up, as if ready to spring away and take care of it the moment you answered.

“No, please,” you chuckled in appreciation of his earnestness. “I might need a few shorter days, but neither of us need me fussing over her 24/7.” Both you and your sister were strongly independent. It meant that you had often been at odds when you were younger, but you were all each other had now, and had made efforts to improve your relationship.

Marcus nodded in understanding, settling again. He seemed at a loss for if he should leave or say something else, so you made the choice for him.

“Tired of getting your ass kicked in my lessons, Moreno? You know Santino doesn’t work you as hard.” Your fellow swordsmanship instructor was slightly younger, a newer hire who was still a little bit in awe of the Heroics.

You didn’t usually speak so flippantly to him, but his eyebrows arced high at the challenge, a smile tugging on his lips. “Sounds like somebody needs a reminder of who kicked whose ass today, ma’am.” Rolling right along with your apparent newfound playfulness.

You pinpointed, suddenly, what was different about him tonight, why this interaction felt different compared to your others. There’d always been an air of deference about him before, as if even outside of the arena he considered you a superior. But tonight he was just treating you like a peer, a regular person. Maybe it had taken your excessively dragging day for him to come to terms with the fact that you were a regular person, but the ice finally felt like it had broken between you and you just...talked, after that. For longer than both of you probably intended.

“Shoot, I have to go get Missy,” Marcus realized, catching sight of his watch. “But you- you’ll be here again? I mean, I see you here a lot.” He stumbled over his words.

Did he? It was true that you were often at the bar at the same time, but for him to acknowledge that meant that he actually noticed you. Remembered your presence.

“Yeah, I’m here pretty regularly,” you confirmed, cautiously hopeful.

“Good. I mean, I’ll see you, then- next time.” His voice rasped low, but there was a nervousness in his expression. He twisted his jacket between his large hands.

He wanted to see you again. “Yes.” You smiled at him, surprise and pleasure shining through. “I’ll see you next time,” you said with conviction.

His eyes crinkled in answer, and your breath caught. Your ordered yourself not to watch him leave the room.

You drove home with a quiet grin on your face.

[scriptstructure]

part 1 I have multiple alien planets, but the things is I want to to be similiar in earth as in 200 countries, 5000 ethnic groups, 6500 languages, varied climate/terrain/politics. Part of the story is still on earth and obviously as a whole, 99.9999% of stuff on earth isn't even getting used, but we know there is more and sometimes there are little hints. That is stuff we know from real life and generally doesn't need explanation. Example, a character says "We borrowed this from the Russians."

Part 2 Regardless of what is really important, what we know and doesn't need explanation is a lot because we figure readers generally understand--or they can google. Hell, there could even be lots of subtle culture references as well. Anyway, depending on the reader's knowledge, it can enhance the reader's understanding in various and subtle ways. But when I do things similiar in alien planets, it makes no sense and requires extra explanation to fill the details. So, basically useless.

Part 3 Thus it seems I'm unable to fully give the type of experience as when using earth as pretty much everything needs to be important to the story. Unless there's another way to do this so I can make my alien planets seem so much more than what's actually focused on without the needless exposition? It feels like at best I could try to mention a few things but it could never feel as vast as earth does. Perhaps maybe I just need numbers?

Reminder that if your question doesn’t fit in a single ask box, you should use /SUBMIT instead.

I have had a few questions in the past which are very similar to this one, [HERE] is about how to introduce invented elements of secondary worlds (stuff that doesn't exist in the real world but has been made up for the story), [HERE] is about how and why we might include extra details about the places that a character is visiting, [HERE] deals with establishing what a 'normal' day in an invented setting is like, and [HERE] is about ways of thinking about worldbuilding, and how much you need to know vs how much the characters know.

So it is a fairly common shortcut, in scifi writing, and scifi film writing in particular, to portray alien planets as kind of 'one thing' settings. Here is the desert planet, and there is the dessert planet, and over there is the Evil planet, and there's the cute jungle teddy bear planet moon. This can be useful if you're making a film or story where you just want the different worlds to work as shorthand for certain ideas 'shitty home world', 'the seat of democracy', 'the swamp where Yoda lives' etc.

But it is very simplistic, and obviously looking at Earth, as you've said, there's a vast array of different climates, cultures, people, languages etc. We do tend to simplify the way that we portray Earth in film and stories, as well--think about, say, Australia being largely signified by the Opera House/ Harbour Bridge, and the Outback™, or the UK being Big Ben and the houses of parliament, or the USA being a vast stretch of corn fields between New York and Hollywood.

So how do we effectively give the sense of a world being bigger than the particular spot that we happen to find ourselves in?

First off, you need to have background information about the world that you're building. If you know what the major cities are, what the main continents are, if your alien world has countries, or if it has a singular centralised system of government--or is it divided into city states? or is it divided into time zones? or is it divided into... etc

Think about how your characters conceptualise their world, and their place in it. Do they think about the world, with all its variety, as a single vibrant whole? Or do they think of 'us on this continent, and them over on that continent'?

How does trade work on this world? Do they have extensive trade networks among the various cities/ countries/ regions? Or do they rely on off-world suppliers for various things?

What kind of cultural exchange is common among these different areas, and what are the cultural touchstones that your characters might be familiar with, or interact with on a daily basis?

As with the examples I gave in the first linked post above, it is less about providing the readers with an exact view of how the politics and interactions of the various places function, and more about demonstrating what that means in practice for the characters.

Say there's a certain kind of fruit that is PROTAGONIST's mother's favourite, and she spends all day searching the hypermarket for one to surprise her mother with for her birthday, but turns out there's none of that fruit available because it's all from OTHER REGION, and there's a war on, or a volcano has erupted and interrupted trade, or the shuttle crews are on strike and so the fruit can no longer be transported down from the moon.

If your protag's favourite pop group is from a polar region and only produces music six months out of the year, because the other six months they have to work with their community to produce supplies for the long dark winter, that tells us something about the way that polar community is organised, and how it interacts with the rest of the world.

What else can we think about when constructing alien planets/ secondary worlds?

It can be difficult to think 'outside the box' of the culture that we're immersed in. It's very easy to slip into thinking that we're doing things the 'correct' way, and if someone else somewhere else does stuff different, that's weird, wrong, or sinister. Often it can be just a different way of doing things that gives the solution that the person is after.

I think it can be very helpful to read books about ancient history, especially stuff about societies that no longer exist, because a lot of the assumptions that we make about the way the world currently works are less useful when we look at ancient history. There are some extremely varied ways of approaching society and culture and a whole lot of stuff which isn't immediately obvious, but which we can understand by looking at the vast differences between ancient societies.

Well written history books can really help you get the sense of how societies form, and how culture develops, and some of the forces involved in cross cultural relations. Also, there are some great examples from the ancient world, of, for example, the various different Ancient Greek societies, and how each of them thought of themselves as 'doing culture the best', of their neighbouring hellenistic states of 'doing culture not quite as well' and of everyone who didn't speak greek properly as barbaric outsiders.

At the moment I'm reading Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors by Adrian Goldsworthy, and I think one of the things that has struck me as super interesting is the difference between how the Greeks vs the Persians organised their societies, and the way that they thought about and approached warfare.

So what are the basic questions we're working with?

-What is the protagonist/ focalising character's relationship to the world? Were they born on-world? Are they adult settlers? Are they traders passing through? Has the character travelled to other places on the world, or have they mostly stayed in their home city/ area?

-How do the protag/ focalising characters think of the other places in the world that they are not currently visiting? (ie, I am in Sydney, Australia, what do I think of Boston, USA, or Paris, France? Big cities with a Reputation, I probably know something about. Small towns or cities I may or may not be familiar with, depending on my life experience or interests)

-How do the material goods which are needed for daily life pass around the world? Are certain goods only available from certain areas? Are there Events happening which may disrupt supply routes? Are there cultural elements which may cause friction in trade?

-What kinds of cultural export or exchange happen on this world? Is there a particular city which is well known for its entertainment production? (Hollywood, California--movies, New York City--the print publishing industry) Does this mean that portrayals of the rest of the world are skewed by the perspectives of that place? (Remember, Australia is just a bridge, an opera house, and red dirt!)

There's always going to be a gap between what your characters know, or are aware of, and what is 'actually' happening in the world of your story, but as long as you have the information decided, and can write the world consistently and with sensory and suggestive details, the reader can and will pick up the puzzle pieces and fit them together.

It's a complex problem, but it's one that can produce interesting complex settings.

I hope this helps!

[nimsajlove]

As a Team (III)

Brothers-AU  Ao3

Part I/II, Part IV

"I like it when the reg's are angry.", Wrecker grinned and left his place as copilot. Ahsoka raised an eyebrow and ground her teeth, the sound earning a slight twitch from Hunter from the corner of her eye. So realized what Jesse had meant hours ago. The attitude that those few words already conveyed pissed her off. "Reg? Good to know.”, she muttered and went back to her pockets. Sighing, she went down on her knees and opened the backpack, it was crammed to the brim with everything she could get from a medic. Burnes must have taken his job seriously, very well. She pushed her way down past the bandages and plasters. Warming blankets, which she had already got to know years ago, were stuck next to some hypnos. She took one out and scanned the label. Some pain relievers and medication in case of shock. Not that she could take any of this! As soon as she had thought through the thought to the end, she spotted a bundle of a few tablets and colored Hypnos tied together at the bottom. Damn it, she owed her medics something now! “Don't take it personally. We don't work with regular clones on a daily basis.", Hunter said next to her and watched as the Jedi put the medical equipment back properly. Then she turned to the other, smaller, bag. “It doesn't matter. I'm afraid of my brothers when they're angry, maybe you should be too?”, she tried to chat lightly, that everyone in the ship was watching her and also had the nerve to want to judge her brothers, pressed her on the mood. There was a big knot in her stomach and she didn't like the way it contracted every now and then.

In the second pocket she found a clean robe, a few rations, and water bottles. She could kiss the boys! If it continued like this, she would soon not have to think about anything at all. But when she pulled the robe out to throw it on, something fell from the folded fabric to the floor. Before she fully understood what it was, Wrecker had already reached for it curiously and Crosshair let out a breath that was reminiscent of a low whistle. Both looked at Ahsoka's old headdress and Wrecker turned it a little. "Wrecker...", Hunter warned and Asoka smiled, he sounded a bit like Rex when she had done something stupid again. Wrecker responded and handed the jewelry back to her, teeth clattering softly against each other. "Scared huh?", smiled Hunter and with a little roll of her eyes Ahsoka stuffed his teeth back into her pocket with the other things. The thought was very sweet and the trophy might earn her respect from Force 99, but she really liked her current clone jewelry. Whenever she saw her reflection in a helmet or mirror, it reminded her where she belonged. With her robe in hand she picked herself up again and threw on the thick, brown fabric. Immediately it enveloped her like a warm hug. "Now she looks like a Jedi!", commented Wrecker, drawing another smile and roll of her eyes from her. When it wasn't about other clones, these men had the potential to be fun people. "Thank you.", she replied, irony loud and clear in her voice. "Sorry, he just doesn't have a mental filter.", Tech announced from the front and this time she had to grin, the flight would be interesting.

Sighing, she made herself comfortable on the floor next to her bag and stretched out her legs. This would be the perfect flight to meditate a little. However, she had only enjoyed it to a limited extent before and did not believe that it would get rid of the uncomfortable tingling sensation under her skin now. Nevertheless, there was silence for a while and Ahsoka closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she noticed that this wasn't like any of the other flights at all. Nobody sat there and complained, nobody had bent over a datapad to write reports. Kriff, her reports from the past few days! She should have taken her datapad... Even if only to plan the next few hours! Maybe... With a little grunt she got up again, the irritated looks from Wrecker and Crosshair followed her on the way forward. Tech had put the ship on autopilot and seemed to be tinkering with something, she wasn't even going to try to understand what it was! Anakin had taught her a lot, but not that much either. Everything beyond doors, normal droids and small spaceships was out of her league. At least most of the time. "Tech, right?", she asked softly and leaned against the pilot's seat from behind, the clone nodded tightly and precisely. "Do you have a datapad for me?" Sighing, Tech laid his tangle of cables away and bent to one side, datapad in hand he reappeared. When he handed it to her, he eyed her curiously. "What are you going to do with it?", he asked a little suspiciously and Ahsoka had to smile. “I just want to play through my plans a little. Or is there something on it that I am not supposed to find?”, she teased and Wrecker gave a violent snort behind her. Tech continued to stare at her, then shrugged and turned back to his work. Well, then that was settled. With her slender fingers, she switched on the pad and decided, with the luck of her own, to search Tech's collection of data for her target. She found little, but it was better than nothing!

"You just didn't seem like someone who's planning long beforehand.", Hunter remarked as the Jedi sat back down on the floor. She shrugged her shoulders. “My brother had priority, I would go in there blind if I had to. And I think that getting in won't be the big problem...", she mumbled and looked at the few dates and plans in front of her. "But out will be?", Crosshair growled and Ahsoka looked up, he looked at her with a chilled look and when she got goose bumps on the back of her neck under her lekku, she gave him a challenging grin. "Scared?", she grinned broadly and showed her sharp fangs, Crosshair rolled his eyes and turned back to his weapon. Wrecker was still giggling to himself and even Hunter smiled next to her. “But so much effort for a reg? One soldier out of thousands, I just would like to point out.", Tech suddenly called from the front, he turned around a little in the chair and could watch how Ahsoka screwed up her eyes and suppressed a rumble deep in her chest.

Hell, she had a really bad grip on her emotions today! She swallowed the growl and took a deep breath, her heart beating hollow and loud in her chest. "Would you just leave one of those here?", she asked and pointed with a palm around, Tech shrugged his shoulders a little incomprehensibly and Wrecker cocked his head helplessly. However, Hunter's expression when she looked at him had tightened. He stood beside her, tense, leaning against the wall. “I don't know if I can follow completely. You are a Jedi, you have the whole Order behind you, right?", he said softly and Ahsoka almost escaped an amused snort. “My brothers never left my side, without them I wouldn't even have survived the first year. If I have a tiny chance of doing the same for Echo then I'll do it.”, she explained, and as she stared at Hunter, an unexpected lump formed in her throat. "I have to take care of them, all of them.", she pressed out and averted her gaze ashamed, tears tingling in her eyes. Damn it, she hadn't talked about Echo and his 'death' in a long time and she hadn't suspected how much it was still hurting her. The very idea that she might just have left for nothing came with such a headache that she stifled the idea in the bud. "I understand. You will get him back.”, Hunter suddenly mumbled and patted her shoulder hard and sure.

 The rest of the flight was quiet, Ahsoka didn't ask why Hunter didn't wrote any reports. She kept her thoughts to herself. Even then, when she almost had to wrestle with Wrecker over one of her rations. But the loud laugh of the massive clone made her grin too. Crosshair still didn't seem to like her much when they started to approach the planet. He stubbornly avoided her gaze. Hunter, on the other hand, seemed to be getting used to her presence, and since the conversation he had made suggestions about her plans from time to time and discussed possible enemies with her. Thanks to him, she now felt as prepared as she could be. Still, she was nervous and restless when she looked out the window and watched the storm outside. "Tech, can you get the signal from here-" A rum interrupted her and they held their breaths for two seconds, then a large head appeared in their field of vision. "What is that?", Wrecker grumbled. “A conspecific simple lizard. The locals worship these creatures because-” “Enough.”, Hunter interrupted Tech, drawing his gun. "Just get it off my ship." "Wait, maybe we should think first and then...", sighing, Ahsoka let the sentence end and ran after the clones into the open, it was no use anyway. Outside the sand pricked her eyes and her bared arms, damn it, she had left the robe inside! At least she was already wearing her backpack. She hastily drew out her lightsabers and got a quick overview. On the ship sat the, truly not pretty, lizard and growled at her with bared teeth. The clones had already opened fire when the back of her head began to tingle violently. Like Rex gave her a brotherly pat. She trusted that feeling. "Get down!", she barked and actually the others followed, just above them another flying reptile shot away and missed the Jedi by a hair's breadth. Ahsoka was immediately on her feet again, her gaze followed the attacker and his rider. If they didn't have to fight these locals, they'd be not stuck here! Maybe... "Wrecker, stand still!", she instructed harshly, the big clone looked at her with noticeable irritation. Right then her window opened. The attacker came down again, the claws already open. With one jump Ahsoka stood on Wrecker's shoulders, with another she landed on the flying reptile and snatched the reins from the rider.

 It was impressive how well the animal knew the way home. No sooner had Ahsoka relaxed the reins than it changed direction. Behind her she heard the ship start again and follow them, with a triumphant grin she glanced over her shoulder at the clones.

The flight did not last long, with short and powerful wingbeats the mount landed and Ahsoka swung down. With cries of surprise, the locals backed away from her and cocked their heads. With a grin, Ahsoka patted the reptile next to her briefly and then looked around, the clones were just about to land at the top of the basin in which the village was located. Sliding, they came down to her. "You could have warned us!" Hunter complained a few meters before he reached her and Ahsoka grinned at him. Then she turned to Tech, she wanted to get this done quickly. It wasn't sure if the Techno Union knew of their discovery and if they did, would they kill Echo? Dispose him? "You can translate, can't you?", she asked and Tech jerked his head. “What do you think I am? A protocol droid?", he muttered, but still seemed to get the right program on his glasses. “I want you to tell them about my brother. I will tell you everything you need to know and translate."

Ha, the line of pity had probably pulled! "They provide us with two scouts, they will show us the way to the city and then return home." Ahsoka nodded in agreement, that was a good deal. “Okay, that will do. The main thing is that we get to this damn city faster."

 The walk was shorter than expected. After about an hour of brisk walk, they stood on a small ledge and looked at the town in the distance. “Why do you build so high up here? There's nothing to see anyway.", Ahsoka mumbled and shook her head, somehow they would get in there. "I won’t wait for you this time, if you complain again.", Tech grumbled from behind her and astonished Ahsoka looked around at the others. "Wrecker is afraid of heights?", she asked and Wrecker shrugged his shoulders protectively. "No! I only have a problem with... gravity.", he grumbled and the hunched shoulders, the snapped apology, the hunched head. All of this reminded Ahsoka so much of all the younglings in the temple and the clones when they first realized that they were afraid. She couldn't help it, in her head Wrecker snapped like another piece of the puzzle into the picture of her family and a gentle smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "It's okay, I'll try to find an non-seethrough elevator.", she assured him jokingly and then got up. "We should go while the sandstorm can still cover us.", she urged the others to hurry and trotted ahead.

As soon as they had left the slipstream, Ahsoka had to pull the collar of her tunic up over her mouth and nose. The fine grains burned in her eyes, even when squeezed tightly together, it was hard to see anything. Sighing, she closed them. Back to her traditional training then. With a few deep breaths, she forced herself to calm down and let her mind explore the area in waves. Suddenly she realized how much life was hidden in this barren landscape. The little lights of the Techno Union were easy to see, they glowed cold and empty in front of her. But there was something else, it was practically magical. Even if it could hardly be described as alive, she knew that there was her goal. Half blind, she grabbed the wrist of the next clone behind her and dragged him behind her, the wrist too narrow to be Wreckers. Only when they were back in the shadow of the city and the wind eased a little did Ahsoka look up, open her eyes and look around. All the clones were hot on her heels, she had caught Tech and released his wrist from her grip. Then she looked around, there had to be an elevator somewhere! "Over there.", Tech nodded and was already trotting towards one of the pillars of the city, in fact it was adorned with a thickly armored door and a control panel. The group hurried after Tech with crouched heads and, grumbling, Ahsoka sought shelter from the wind behind the thick pillar. If the Techno Union thought they could keep a Jedi away with these weather conditions, then they had clearly underestimated the determination of such a person! She rubbed her bare arms with her rough fingers, the skin felt sore. As if they had been sandblasted. Terrible clothes for this planet, definitely. In addition, it was only half as warm as she had expected, the constant wind made her shiver. Had they flown in Echo and spared him that sand? What agony he had to suffer while she was moaning about such little things... "Are you done?", Hunter growled and Tech snorted, then the door slid open. "Take a look inside.", instructed Hunter Crosshair and the sniper disappeared into the dimly lit room with his weapon raised. A few seconds later his head reappeared. "Yes, thats a lift.", he commented dryly and Ahsoka grinned broadly, it actually earned her an amused shrug from the clone. Hey, he didn't hate her! Maybe this friendship wasn't lost yet? Still grinning, she pushed herself into the elevator, Wrecker hesitated. "Everything is fine Wrecker, I'll hold your hand too.", Hunter teased next to her and the massive clone snorted before squeezing into the narrow space and the doors closing.

As soon as the elevator began to move with a jerk, the grin disappeared from her face. Now the highest concentration was required, Echo's life perhaps depended on it! "Quick in and out, okay? We won't be able to hide our presence, but if we eliminate their droids quickly, they will take a while to regroup. ”Ahsoka explained to the small unit hastily and Wrecker thrust her on the shoulder enthusiastically. "I can do that!" Crosshair shook his head with a sigh, but still checked his weapon one last time. Then the doors suddenly opened and in a flash Ahsoka built herself up as a shield between the clones and droids. Wrecker didn't care, he ran past her with a loud roar and Ahsoka would lie if she said his strength hadn't impressed her a little. Hunter glided past her a little more elegantly and turned to the next opponent with less force but more precision. Tech and Crosshair rose behind her and fired over her shoulders. The shots so close to her ear hadn't frightened her for a long time now! The hangar they had arrived in was quickly emptied and when Ahsoka straightened up, Tech pulled out his datapad and switched it on. Crosshair, meanwhile, leaned forward a little and when he spoke, Ahsoka could hear his smile too. “You know, Jedi. I could get used to that.” “How nice that you like the sword and shield maneuver so much.”, she smiled back a little tense.

 At first Tech tried to catch the signal from Echo again. With every passing second, Ahsoka's impatience grew. "They seem to be interfering with my signal, seem to be well prepared.", the clone cursed and Ahsoka sighed deeply, it would take them forever to find Echo. "Leave it be Tech, I'll take care of it.", she hastily interrupted another wave of curses and Tech sighed deeply and painfully, as if Ahsoka had just stolen what he loved. Anyway, there was no time for such thoughts! Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tried to open up to her surroundings. She had learned from Anakin to pursue goals with the force, so she should be able to find an echo from Echo in the force. Slowly she felt her way forward, away from the hangar in which they were standing and deeper into the city. She did not dare to linger with the members of the Techno Union. They weren't Force Sensitive, but who knows... Maybe they'd notice something after all? Only a tiny light, a weak spark, made her pause. It wasn't a uniform glow like the others, more like the flickering of a small candle flame. "That way!"

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

The year 2020 has been pivotal in the field of gender medicine. Earlier this month, in a landmark decision, the UK High Court ruled that children under 16 are unlikely to be able to consent to the use of puberty blockers, which the Court deemed to be an experimental treatment. Rather than a “pause button,” the court recognized puberty blockers as the first step in a largely irreversible pathway of medical transition. After a thorough evaluation of expert evidence, the judges cautioned clinicians that even 17-year-olds may not be able to fully comprehend the lifelong consequences of these interventions. The implications of the UK High Court judgement are poised to reverberate worldwide, according to the article published by the Economist last week. […]

Several other recent developments were also instrumental in shifting the tone and tenor of the debate, with increasing acknowledgement of the weak evidence basis for the “affirmation” treatment model for young people:

Following a 2019 review by Professor Carl Heneghan, which concluded that there is no quality evidence base to support the use of hormonal and surgical interventions in young people, two systematic reviews (one from Finland and another from Sweden) came to similar conclusions. Consequently, Finland became the first country in 2020 to issue new guidelines for treatment of gender dysphoria for young people; the new guidelines prioritize psychological treatment over treatment with hormones or surgeries.  

In Sweden, broad coverage of the controversy, including the documentary The Trans Train produced by Sweden’s national public television broadcaster, appears to have decreased demand for gender reassignment among teens, which began to decline significantly in late 2019.

In the US, the issue of adolescent-onset gender dysphoria was brought to the attention of a general audience by Abigail Shirer’s “Irreversible Damage,” chosen by The Economist as one of its Books of the Year. [my note: Shirer is right-wing, this is half a win at best, I would not promote this book].

The UK NHS initiated a review of evidence, with the goal of reassessing treatment approaches for gender dysphoria in persons under age 18. The UK NHS also commissioned a wide-ranging independent review of gender identity healthcare for the under 18s, to include an exploration of why there has been a marked increase in the number of females seeking gender reassignment.

The analyses and conclusions of several widely quoted studies that misrepresented the success of “affirmative care” have been challenged and refuted. A major study that originally proclaimed to be the first to provide evidence of long-term mental health benefits of biomedical treatment for adults was critiqued and subsequently corrected, ultimately concluding that neither hormones nor surgery show any benefit in terms of long-term mental health or suicidality. Two other widely-quoted studies purporting benefits of puberty blockers and suggesting harms of psychological approaches to gender dysphoria were also found to have errors and misrepresentations that invalidated the papers’ conclusions.

One of the principal authors of the “Dutch Protocol,” the basis for the “affirmative” model of treating teens with hormones and surgeries, published a commentary in the journal Pediatrics, alerting clinicians that biomedical transition is currently being applied to young people for whom it was not designed and who might not benefit from it. The author emphasized the need to identify those people who need enhanced mental health support, rather than gender reassignment.

As the evidence for biomedical interventions underwent much-needed scrutiny, a number of small but promising case reviews of psychological approaches to gender dysphoria treatment in young people have been published. Much research is needed into the role of psychotherapy for young people with a novel, adolescent-onset variant of gender dysphoria, especially in light of the significant mental health and neurodevelopmental comorbidities found in this group. 

At the same time, 2020 was marked by increased politicization of healthcare for gender-dysphoric young people. In particular, there has been a wave of proposed legislation that misrepresents ethical psychotherapy for gender dysphoria as a form of conversion therapy. A recent Economist editorial concluded that such conflation “could criminalise counselling that raises the distinct possibility that a particular trans-identifying child or adolescent might one day desist. So such laws are a bad idea.” SEGM maintains that although well-meaning, the legislation that fetters the clinical freedom of ethical clinicians attempting to help young people understand factors that contribute to their gender distress and to resolve it non-invasively, ultimately hurts the individuals it aims to protect.

Since SEGM formed in early 2020, more than 120 clinicians and researchers have joined us in our mission to promote safe, compassionate, ethical and evidence-informed healthcare for children, adolescents, and young adults with gender dysphoria. We have established a thriving online collaboration space, with a number of researchers evaluating the current evidence basis, writing research papers, and engaging with medical societies.

Our work has already begun to impact the quality of scientific discourse regarding treatments for gender-dysphoric young people. For example, the work conducted by SEGM-affiliated clinicians led to the official correction of a key study that mistakenly claimed that “gender-affirmative” surgeries improve mental health outcomes. At SEGM’s request, Medscape withdrew its inaccurate coverage of the study, and is currently in the process of notifying over 6,000 clinicians who took its Continued Medical Education (CME) class that the original conclusions of the study were incorrect.

SEGM-affiliated clinicians also published a key publication, “One Size Does not Fit All: In Defense of Psychotherapy for Gender Dysphoria,” which, according to Almetric, is in the top 1% of all scientific publications, and has been downloaded more than 20,000 times. SEGM-affiliated experts also provided critical evidence in the Keira Bell case, highlighting the risks and uncertainties of the “affirmative” intervention model for gender-dysphoric young people.

[bnhabadass]

Would you Like to Dance ~

Pairing: Momo x Reader Warnings: N/A Rating: E for Everyone Word Count: 1263 A/N: This is my piece for the May BNHArem server collab. Everyone worked super hard on their pieces so you should definitely check them all out. You can find the master list to this collab here. I also want to thank @pixxiesdust​ for beta reading this piece.In any case, hope you enjoy!

The too bright lights illuminated throughout the ballroom. Soft classical music echoed from the walls. You sat at a table, surrounded by your friends all smiling and laughing. You forced out a few breathy chuckles at what they were saying, but as you expected from this night, you found yourself distracted.

The annual Hero Gala was in full swing. A buffet table set up with mini cheese cubes, assorted fruit platters and even a chocolate fountain you could dip them in was the center of your attention. Not so much the food assortment itself but the people crowded around the table.

On one side was Earphone Jack, one of your closest friends from UA who you seem to have drifted apart from over the years. Next to her was Charge Bolt, who was stuffing his face with cubes of cheese, trying to fit as many in as possible. You couldn’t help but chuckle as you noticed him beginning to cough. Bits of grossly chewed up cheese began flying out of his mouth, and the purple haired girl next to him rolled her eyes while lovingly rubbing his back.

On the other side of the table, wearing a dark red ball gown and sparkly gold wedge sandals was Momo Yaoyorozu, the everything hero, Creati. Her long black hair was partially pinned up at the top, the rest of it cascading down her shoulders. The tint of lip gloss over her smile seemed to brighten the flash of white teeth she showed as she chuckled at Charge Bolt’s mishap.

“(H/n)! What’s wrong?” You looked over at Pinky, who had a concerned look on her face as she watched you stare off to the buffet table in the distance.

You smiled. “It’s nothing. I just hate these events is all. Too many reporters and formalities.”

--

The picnic blanket was spread out across the grass. Heavy crystals and a candelabra which illuminated the gems were placed on all four corners, weighing the blanket down. Everything was perfect. The food was ready to eat. You had even brought a large thermos full of her favorite kind of tea.

“Okay, what is this?” Momo had shown up early, a shocked smile was gracing her face. When she got your text saying that you had a surprise for her at the park by her penthouse, this was the last thing she was expecting.

Your eyes couldn’t help but widen at the sight of her. It has been so long since you’ve seen her out of her hero costume. As much as you love the revealing costume she wears when on patrol, seeing her fully clothed in a blouse and skirt was completely different. It was something you hadn’t seen in a long time. It made everything feel so real.

You smiled. “We haven’t spoken face to face since Deku’s birthday party. And even then we barely got a chance to catch up.” You patted the space on the blanket next to you. “Let’s just hang out and eat food and talk for a bit.”

Momo smiled. “This is so lovely!” She sat down and you poured her a cup of tea. Between the two of you, in front of the picnic basket, sat a small vase full of viscaria. The bright pink of the flower was highlighted by the candles. As you talked and drank tea and ate the cake you had prepared, Momo’s eyes kept wandering between you and the flowers.

“They’re pretty aren’t they.”

Momo nodded. “They grew in the courtyard of my childhood home, although I never knew what they were called.”

“Viscaria,” you said, pulling one of the stems out from the vase. “Most flowers have a one word meaning like ‘truth’ or ‘faithfulness’ but the meaning of this flower is actually a question.”

Momo tilted her head to the side. “What’s the question?”

You tucked the flower under a lock of her hair behind her ear. Standing up, you extended a hand out to her. “Would you like to dance?”

She looked flushed. Her eyes widened and a sheen glossy layer of what appeared to be tears coated them. “I,” her hand trembled. “I’m sorry.”

You watched as she stood up and ran off. Her arms clung to her sides in an attempt to comfort herself, to disappear entirely.

You watched her run over the grassy field and evaporate behind a large tree that inhabited nosy squirrels and chipmunks, all watching her flee.

You waited another twenty minutes before realizing that she wasn’t coming back. You packed everything up and left.

--

“Whatever you say,” Pinky said. She turned back over to the conversation she was having with Red Riot and Ground Zero.

You turned back to where Momo was and thought about that night. You weren’t sure what went wrong. Everything was perfect. You made her favorite cake, bought her favorite tea. The night had gone so well at first that you were even planning on giving her a good night kiss.

But things don’t always go as planned. You decided there was no use in reminiscing on the past, and you drank your champagne in silence while everyone else laughed and danced.

“(H/n),” a sweet voice rang from beside you. You turned around and saw that Momo, looking awkward and gripping her arm for safety, was standing beside you.

“Creati.” A soft blush formed its way across your face. You felt lightheaded.

“It’s been a while.”

“It has.”

There was an awkward tension tethered between the two of you and you searched for the right tools to cut it.

“I want to apologize for the way I acted the last time we saw each other.” She looked sincere. “You planned such a lovely night. I’m not sure what came over me. I got scared and I left and that isn’t fair to you.”

“I know,” you said, growing angry and fed up. You’re not sure why, there was no reason for you to be fed up, but here you were wishing she would leave you to drink and watch as the rest of your fellow friends and heroes had a wonderful time. You sighed and stood up. “Thank you, but I don’t think you should waste your breath, Yaoyorozu.”

She was hurt and you felt bad. Not only did you not use her hero alias, which you were required to for this event and other hero business, but after years of being on a first name basis with one another you had completely disregarded your history.

You stood up to walk away, but a firm hand grabbed your arm, stopping you.

Momo was shaking. She looked down at her feet as she spoke. “I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to say, (Y/n).”

That’s when you noticed that her other hand, the one not grabbing you, was clenched shut. As she lifted her fist and it vigorously shook with nerves, you couldn’t help but gasp. In her sweaty palm was a single viscaria flower.

“I think I owe you this much.” A sad and desperate tone was laced in her words. She tucked the flower behind your ear. “So, would you like to dance?”

Momo Yaoyorozu, the everything hero, Creati did not hate you. She didn’t run away because of something you did or said. You could feel yourself choking up as you realized that she felt the same way you had for so many years.

You took her soft hand in yours and pressed it closely to your lips. Fluttering your eyes open, you smiled. “I would love to.”

[sol1056]

wuxia/xianxia: a loose and somewhat second-hand introduction to the genre, pt1

Sorry for the unconventional q, but i keep seeing Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation everywhere and I kinda want to get into it but a) don't know where to start (web series? live action adaptation?? wait how many are there!) and b) i don't really "get" wuxia / xianxia, that sorta stuff, i find it really hard to cross that cultural barrier and chinese mentality seems very alien. (it's not that i have no experience w different mentalities but chinese in particular is v hard to grasp w/o sources).

So if you have the time and patience, I'd love to hear a summary of it (like, a coherent summary bc all i get on the wikis is a shower of names and concepts that don't make sense to me) and perhaps some "intro for dummies" abt the relevant parts of chinese history and mentality tied to it? not just the cultivation / buddhist part but also re: familial relationships, philosophy and all that. (v brief and low effort of course) Thank you and sorry for bothering you!

("brief and low effort" referring to what I'm asking from you, not to what I need for me - as in i asked for it so i'm more than ready for a complicated essay, but you can write with as much detail as you like, I don't want to ask for some sort of comprehensive tome)

Okay first, you do realize that if you want “brief and low” for anything, you’re asking the wrong person? I was a philosophy major. brief got drilled out of me a long time ago. 

Second... well, explaining what makes The Untamed / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (mdzs for short, from the chinese title, Mo Dao Zu Shi) such a standout story does require understanding some of the wuxia conventions it subverts -- as well as some that it plays straight (so to speak) very, very well. 

I figure the best approach (again, sadly not brief) is to first get a handle on the genre of wuxia. Gonna break this post into two, so you’re not reading in a single three-hour stretch or something. I’ll do a follow-up about mdzs, to hopefully make it a bit more accessible for you. 

before I do that, let me first say: I didn’t grow up with this genre, so there’s going to be parts that I may miscast unintentionally. for an insider’s view, my go-to voices are @guzhuangheaven, @atthewaterside, @dramatic-gwynne, @the50-person and @drunkensword. if any of them are reading this and can point to more/other/better voices, please do.

I have three analogies -- like cultural doorways --  and like all analogies, they break down when you get into the finer details. In the broad strokes, though, they mostly work, and if nothing else, hopefully they’ll demonstrate that wuxia may be a chinese-specific version, but part of a storytelling tradition that’s nearly universal.

The three doorways are: the american wild west, the samurai era, and the british arthurian romances. And, in a tangential way, the regency period in the romance genre. 

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 

The term ‘wuxia’ can be translated several ways, but I prefer ‘martial chivalry’. Most wuxia takes place in the jianghu, a harder term to unpack. Generally, though, ‘the jianghu’ has connotations not all that different from what americans mean when they reference the wild west. 

More of a concept than a physical place, the jianghu (like the ‘wild’ west) exists beyond the reach of the law and/or civilization. It’s occupied by a diverse cast of farmers, merchants, beggars, and so on, but also by outlaws, gangs, hermits, pretty much all those who don’t like the suffocating nature of the civilized world, for whatever reason. It’s not a lawless place (except to outsiders); it does have laws, but those are only unto itself. 

So, jianghu is a world to itself, for the most part -- which also makes it kind of timeless. Tang dynasty, Song dynasty, Ming dynasty, it could be any of them and all of them and none of them. Just as the heyday of the cowboys and the cattle drives was barely a decade long, a culture’s romanticized history stretches into lifetimes that exist separate from any date you could pin down on a calendar. 

The average wuxia protagonist would fit in reasonably well as knight errants in an arthurian romance, with one important detail in difference: they’re rarely aristocrats. Wuxia protagonists are just as likely (if not more so) to be lower-born, whether the child of farmers, or servants, some common caste. 

This is where wuxia diverges from the british and japanese traditions, which have a bit more noblesse oblige going on (knights and samurai both being upper-class types). Even ‘aristocratic’ characters tend to be so only within the jianghu -- sort of like the way a territory’s elected leader in the wild west would’ve had no pull in Washington, given they weren’t from a fully-recognized state. 

Wuxia does often have politics, between competing sects (think schools of learning), but that political infighting is independent of the capital’s rules or wishes. A lot of stories -- in the rare cases the topic even comes up -- tends to speak of ‘the capital’ in disparaging terms. 

That’s not to say wuxia is all about the flat social systems (it’s definitely not), but most commonly a rank implies some level of competence/study. The title of sect leader isn’t granted, it's earned. Children inherit, but it’s also a common storyline to have an heir with no skills (who then goes through all the trials and tribulations to finally level up and earn that position in turn).

What makes wuxia hard to grasp is its vernacular: the conventions that form the backbone that make something recognizably ‘wuxia’ and not just ‘historical drama set on a frontier in a loosely-defined time period’. 

Frex: in a Wild West story, convention is two gunfighters at opposite ends of the street, and at least one of them is wearing a holster tied to his leg with string in a way that no real gunfighter wore, ever, but Hollywood came up with the idea and now it’s a permanent part of our imagination. In the arthurian romances,  convention is carrying the token of one’s lady love (a distant, untouchable figure who rarely appears on-page), or meeting the unnamed knight in black on the jousting field. Convention are the samurai who’ll die for their lord’s honor, always touchy and prickly at the first sign of disrespect. 

These are things granted the most remarkable gravity, that to an outsider might seem ridiculous. (Why is there always tumbleweed?) 

Now, wuxia is the latest evolution in a long-lived literary tradition (and by ‘long’ I mean like 2000+ years) -- but like any living tradition, each subsequent generation reinvents it for their time. Part of that reinvention comes from particularly influential writers, who put their own spin on things, and their interpretation becomes the next generation’s standard for the genre -- “of course wuxia must have X” or “a protagonist never does Y”. (Like how Tolkien almost single-handedly changed western concepts of elves, in fiction.)

And here’s where I explain what regency romance has to do with it. Another short-lived period, in real history, but along came Georgette Heyer, who took bits and pieces of actual research, blended them with her reactionary politics, exaggerating some things and ignoring other things completely. The result is a time-that-never-was, but she cast (and still casts) a shadow so vast that I’ve seen multiple romance writers complain that readers will see a footnoted-and-researched version as wrong, if it contradicts one of Heyer’s made-up conventions. 

Modern wuxia has its own Heyer-sized influencers -- like Jin Yong (the Condor trilogy, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils), Wen Rui'an (The Four), Gu Long (The Legend of Flying Daggers, The Proud Twins), to name a few of the biggest. If you have a chance or are inclined, the big names get remade on a pretty regular basis, and catching one will at least let you see some ur-tropes in action. 

But it also means that you can’t really extrapolate, in the sense of saying, “in wuxia, people do X, ergo, X is also a factor in Chinese culture.” It’s like... take any western made in the 50s, and the vernacular is simple. The bad guys wear black hats, the good guys wear white hats, the prostitutes wear bright-colored dresses with frills and the good women wear subdued colors buttoned up to their neck. It told an audience exactly what character filled what role, but that’d tell you zero about real people you might meet in Nebraska or Utah, let alone New York City. 

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 

Almost forgot: xianxia is basically wuxia but with ‘immortal heroes’ -- so there’s gods, divine influences, non-human beings as characters (main or NPC), etc. (Btw, by ‘immortal’ I mean exactly that, like this character is six hundred years old, that one’s a thousand years old, etc.) You can think of xianxia as wuxia, but amped way up on the mystical scale. 

Xianxia will sometimes take place on earth (jianghu) but sometimes in the celestial realm (heaven). Or a mix of both, like stories where a character falls (or is banished, or defects) from heaven and has to go through various trials and tribulations as a mortal human in order to regain a power, rise in rank, fall in love, or whatever their goal is. 

A number of wuxia stories are driven by some sort of mcguffin, but in xianxia, the mcguffin is more likely to be a powerful spiritual weapon. But I can also think of a number of wuxia in which the mcguffin would fit right in, in xianxia (some near-mystical thing with significant positive, or negative, power independent of the wielder, which often amplifies or boosts the wielder to an inhuman degree, etc). 

Thing is, the mcguffin being divine/infernal supernatural isn’t enough alone to make the story xianxia. I’m pretty sure you need non-human or super-human immortals and/or creatures to be considered in the xianxia genre. 

part two

[mostlycompetentwriter]

Precious (One-Shot)

M/F Pairing: Y/N x Choi San (Ateez)

Warnings: language, alcohol use, stripping? (lol is that a warning?)

Genre: Action AU; Spy AU

Word Count: 7K

Summary: Choi San is one of the best investigators in PD Kim Hongjoong’s agency, especially when it comes to the baddest mafia gangs. However, despite the inherent risk of his job, nothing could shock him more than the discovery that his wife might be cheating on him with another man!

A/N: This is actually based on a scene from the movie True Lies. Oh, and go hard San, like damn! 👇

San understood the inherent risk of chasing down mafia gangs who always tried their best to test his patience, especially when it involved saving their own ass. However, it made his job much easier when the ones he targeted would quickly betray their own men without any hesitation. For example, when San first brought the agency’s newest scumbag into the interrogation room, he sat him down underneath the low-hanging lamp with his hands tied behind the chair. And San fully expected to encounter another stubborn punk who insisted that he didn’t know anything about the drug cartel that San was investigating. Of course, that would be utter bullshit, but San was also pleasantly surprised to find a man who was balling his eyes out while begging San to spare his life.

“What if I don’t think you deserve to live?” San asked the man, toying with the knife that he held in his hand.

“Please!” the man cried. “I’ll tell you anything!”

“Yeah? Who do you work for?”

“Kim! From the downtown shipyard,” the man said, spilling his secrets as freely as the tears that were falling down his greasy mug.

“That so?” San asked, circling around the man who whimpered when he could no longer see him.

“I’m being cooperative, sir, just cut me some slack!”

San laughed. “What’s Kim doing these days?”

“I don’t know! He’s messing around with some gang downtown, but they aren’t expecting a new shipment until this weekend.”

“What kind of shipment?”

“Cocaine, marijuana, heroin...the usual shit!”

“Who’s he selling to?”

“It’s just a couple of local dealers. He wants them to buy strictly from his organization.”

“Really?” San asked, humming thoughtfully to himself. “What time?”

“Midnight on the East Dock! There’s a boat coming in with the product!”

San sighed because he was somewhat disappointed that the asshole was so compliant. It meant that he couldn’t play with him using his favorite set of knives. “I guess I’ll let the rest of my men deal with you.”

San immediately started for the door, smirking when he could hear the guy calling out to him: “What do you mean!? I told you everything!”

He closed the door quietly, turning to look at his partner Wooyoung who was waiting expectantly with a cheap cup of coffee in hand. “Well?”

“Check the tape,” San said. “He spilled everything.”

“Hell, yeah, dude,” Wooyoung cheered. “I can finally go home before fucking midnight.”

San’s shoulders dropped as he checked the time. “Damn, that means I’m late.”

“Late?”

“My wife was throwing me some kind of birthday party tonight,” San said, already dreading the idea of facing Y/N’s disappointment when he returned home.

“Hey, I’m sure Y/N will understand,” Wooyoung said. “This happens all the time, right?”

San glared at his friend because that comment certainly wasn’t helpful. “Because I have to stay at work all the time.”

“Dude, seriously? Everything’s fine,” Wooyoung continued. “Let’s go tell Hongjoong the good news and then you can go home and make love to your wife or whatever.”

San rolled his eyes, but quietly acquiesced, and he followed Wooyoung as he led them both into the main control room. He was already waiting for them by the time they arrived, and Kim Hongjoong, despite his smaller stature, was one of the most intimidating men that San had ever met. Not only was he in charge of their private detective agency, but he also regularly tracked down some of the most ruthless gang members with ruthless accuracy, leading investigations with a confidence that defined his character.

Hongjoong also spent most of his time at the agency when he wasn’t participating in field work, and San offered him a generous nod as Wooyoung collapsed into one of the leather chairs. “Well?” Hongjoong asked, looking at San with a stern expression.

“He told me everything,” San said, smirking at a video of Park Seonghwa who had just entered the interrogation room on the screen monitor. He could see their unfortunate suspect pleading with Seonghwa as he attempted to slide the chair into the farthest corner of the room.

“Good,” Hongjoong replied. “He didn’t seem very aggressive.”

“He cried like a little bitch,” Wooyoung said.

“Anyway,” San interrupted. “I’m going home, Hongjoong. My wife is waiting for me.”

“Ah, well give her my best,” Hongjoong said, but San couldn’t help but frown at the comment because it was Hongjoong’s fault that his wife thought he was an insurance agent since they were undercover. Of course, San was also responsible because he wanted to keep his wife safe from the mafia gangs that they dealt with on a regular basis.

In any case, San bowed respectfully, and left the two men behind as Wooyoung launched into another story about his most recent exploit involving a girl from a bar downtown.

The lights were off when San finally entered his house, humming to himself because he wasn’t sure if his wife had gone to sleep. After all, she had made the time for his dinner at 9:00 PM, and San was several hours overdue. He could only hope that she hadn’t put too much effort into preparations, but that sort of wishful thinking was quickly blown away when he walked into the kitchen.

“Hey, baby,” San said, hesitating because he noticed that his wife had her arms crossed over her chest, sitting at the table where the remnants of San’s surprise birthday party were waiting in the form of a delectable cake and several neatly wrapped presents. “I’m sorry.” He sighed, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “It was a long day.”

“That’s what you always say,” Y/N replied, and San knew that he was in trouble.

“I’ll make it up to you,” he said, but the words rang hollow in his own ears because San knew that there would be more nights like this in the future.

“I’m tired, San,” she replied, lowering her gaze to the floor. “We can talk about this later.”

San nodded, and his eyes followed his wife’s form as she trudged up the stairs with an absence of her usual exuberance. He groaned when he sat down at the table in her place, feeling his heart break at the beautiful decorations complimenting the natural elegance of their dining room. He knew that this couldn’t continue, and San needed to do something to convince Y/N that he still cared about her, even if that meant ignoring some of his work-related responsibilities.

Subsequently, the next morning San called the office and asked Wooyoung to handle his morning meetings. His friend protested at first, but San drove a hard bargain when he offered him free lunch for the remainder of the week. Wooyoung was suddenly much more accepting, and San was feeling excited about the suprise that he had planned for his wife. As such, he drove to Y/N’s office to surprise her for an impromptu date to the best restaurant in the city.

As he rode the elevator to the corresponding floor, San checked the time on his watch, smiling when he realized that he would catch Y/N right before she usually left for lunch. He also studied his appearance in the reflecting panels of the elevator, nodding once in reassurance when he stepped out into the hallway, enduring the endless maze of office cubicles to find Y/N’s desk. “Don’t blow this San,” he said to himself before walking in her direction.

He was almost there when he heard one of the assistants mention his wife’s name. “Y/N, your mystery man is on the line!”

San paused, faltering in his steps when he heard Y/N’s voice answer the phone call. “Hello? Mike?”

“Mike?” He whispered to himself, shuffling closer to overhear the remainder of the conversation.

“Today?” Y/N questioned. “Of course, I can meet you for lunch.” San swallowed hard, trying not to jump to conclusions. “I’d love that!” Y/N giggled. “I’ll see you then.”

San quickly darted into one of the empty cubicles, holding his breath when Y/N passed him on the way out of the office. His shoulders instantly deflated, and he could feel a bitter rage churning inside his stomach. “What the hell?” he cursed, reaching for his phone to call Wooyoung because he was nothing short of pissed off and nobody was safe from his wrath.

San watched from a distance as Wooyoung pulled up to the sidewalk, rolling down the window to greet San as he climbed into the passenger’s seat. “Hey, man,” Wooyoung said. “Welcome to the club. The same thing happened to me with wife number two, remember? She was a real piece of work.”

“But this is Y/N,” San argued, still shaken from the phone call. “She wouldn’t do this to me.”

“Hard to argue with the evidence,” Wooyoung said, shrugging like he wasn’t at all concerned. “Look, divorces are common these days. I’ll even let you crash on my couch.”

“It’s not going to happen,” San insisted. “There has to be something else.”

“What did you expect, San?” Wooyoung asked him. “You’re never there anymore.”

The brutal truth hit San like a freight train, and he fumbled with his seat-belt while holding out his cellphone. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not giving up on our marriage,” San said. “I’m fixing this before it gets any worse.”

Wooyoung’s eyes widened. “San, I don’t like that look on your face.”

“Relax,” San hissed, holding up the phone to his ear. He was pleased when one of the agency’s interns answered from the other end. “I’m coming back to the agency. I need someone to help me tap some phone lines.” 

“What!” Wooyoung screeched, but San ignored him as he shot off a series of orders to the poor intern who probably had no idea why San was so angry.

“Do it now!” San growled, assaulting the end phone call button before glaring out the windshield.

“San, are you fucking insane?” Wooyoung gasped. “This is a blatant misappropriation of funds! If Hongjoong finds out...”

“He won’t,” San interrupted. “Besides, I’m not doing anything that could hurt the agency.”

“But you’re talking about spying on your wife!”

“It’s not spying.”

“What the hell is your definition of spying, San?”

“Look, I’m just trying to keep this under control,” San retorted. “I would think that my friend might support me.”

“I do support you, San, but this is taking things too far!”

“Just drive back to the agency,” San growled. “I’m tired of arguing.”

San was pleased when several interns greeted him at the main office of their agency’s building. “Mr. Choi, we have the phone wires tapped at the work location and home address that you gave us.”

“Good,” San said, ignoring the way that Wooyoung was trying to get his attention while they entered the recording room.

“San!” Wooyoung pouted, hurrying to match his friend’s pace. “This is insane!”

“Get me some tracking equipment,” San added, throwing the command to the intern who nodded.

“Tracking!” Wooyoung exclaimed. “You’re gonna follow her?”

“Also, make sure that Hongjoong doesn’t find out,” San said, and Wooyoung waved his hands wildly through the air.

“Earth to San! Doesn’t it seem suspicious when you can’t tell Hongjoong about this?”

“He’ll make a big deal out of nothing,” San replied, checking the monitors that were supposed to record his wife’s future phone conversations.

“Nothing? Does this qualify as anything less than treason!”

San turned to look at his frazzled friend, holding his hands behind his back. “I’ve got everything under control, okay? And I need you to bring the van to my house tonight. I can sneak out Y/N’s purse and we can stitch in the GPS.”

Wooyoung sighed. “Anything else, your majesty?”

“Less attitude would be nice,” San told him cheekily, leaving Wooyoung to fume quietly to himself. In the meantime, San had one of the interns help him load some equipment into his car, ignoring the curious looks that he received from the other agents. Because whenever they attempted to inquire about the equipment, San would lie and tell them that he was doing some reconnaissance work from home.

Which wasn’t that far from the truth.

Later that night, San made sure that he was home early, surprising Y/N when he walked inside to offer her a gentle kiss in greeting. “San!” Y/N exclaimed. “You’re home?”

“Is that a problem?” San questioned.

“N-no,” Y/N stuttered. “But I wasn’t expecting you until later.”

“Hmmm...” San grinned. “I’ll be upstairs in the shower. Unless you want to join me?”

Y/N gasped, and her cheeks filled with an adorable blush. “Dinner...”

“It’s alright,” San said. “We can always mess around later.”

Y/N managed a nod which was nothing short of endearing, and San was even more convinced that he needed to keep a closer eye on his wife.

Thereafter, once he finished helping Y/N clean their dishes, they both returned to the bedroom upstairs. San immediately fell across the bed, enjoying the way that his mattress felt against his back after so many long hours at work. He also studied Y/N from the corner of his eye, formulating his next plan of action.

“I thought that we could have lunch tomorrow,” San said, and Y/N paused in front of the mirror.

“Oh,” she said. “I wish I had known sooner, babe, I’ve already made plans with some of my friends.”

“Really?” San asked, keeping a close eye on Y/N when he reached over onto the nightstand to grab her purse. “That sounds like fun.”

“It’s been a while,” she responded, covering her face with a delicate mask that gave San the perfect opportunity to quietly retreat into the bathroom. He immediately found the window above the sink, opening it just enough to toss out Y/N’s purse to an awaiting Wooyoung who was completely drenched from the rain.

“Yeah, thanks,” Wooyoung retorted, and San paused until he was around the corner of the house before returning to the bedroom.

“I’ll be right back,” San said, but Y/N was still distracted by the mess that she had made of her face mask. San chuckled to himself, hustling down the stairs to fling open the front door.

Thankfully, the agency’s van was parked in the driveway, and San waited by the door for Wooyoung who shakily offered him the purse. “You know, there’s still an opportunity for us to give up on this ridiculous plan.”

However, San’s silencing glare spoke louder than words. “What?”

“I mean, the GPS is at the bottom!” Wooyoung replied, flinching when San slammed the door in his face. 

In the meantime, San had re-entered the house with Y/N’s purse tucked under his coat, bringing it upstairs and returning it to its previous place on the nightstand. “Are you tried?” he asked Y/N, laying back down on the bed as he watched her.

“Yeah,” she said. “Do you have to be up early?”

“Not really,” San said, holding his breath as Y/N finally joined him on the bed. He carefully turned over on his side, dragging Y/N closer with one arm wrapped around her delicate waist. “You know,” he hesitated, “I feel really bad about coming home late.”

Y/N stiffened against his embrace. “Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s okay,” San said. “I should work on that. You deserve better.”

Y/N gave no acknowledgment of his comment. Instead, she muttered something about feeling exhausted because of work, and San simply nodded his head in response. “I love you, Y/N.”

However, Y/N didn’t offer anything in return, and San could feel his heart sinking low inside his chest.

When San arrived to work the next morning, he decided to finally address the mounting pile of paperwork on his desk. It was mostly just an excuse to remain in the office because one of the interns, who he had assigned to watch over the phone lines, might come to him with developing information concerning Y/N. Thus, San was certain that he needed to remain on standby since he might receive an update at any moment.

Eventually, the work was starting to become tedious, and he glared at the clock when lunchtime rolled around, wondering if his wife was going on some kind of lunch date with her “mystery” man. But to San, he wasn’t much of a mystery, just some bastard who thought that he could try and seduce his wife. Which, of course, made him San’s rival, and there was nothing that he wanted more than to confront this man and beat the shit out of him.

His violent thoughts made San feel restless inside his office, and he decided to visit the interrogation office where the interns had been stationed. However, during his brief walk down the hallway, he thought about Y/N and her dismissive attitude towards him from the previous evening. Was his wife really no longer interested in him? Would San have enough guts to give her a divorce if she asked for it?

He shivered at the scenario, but the unexpected sight of Wooyoung talking with his interns provided a good distraction. “What’s going on?” San demanded when he walked into the room, and Wooyoung immediately hid something behind his back. 

“San!” Wooyoung exclaimed, refusing to meet his gaze.

“You’re holding something,” San said.

“No...”

San rolled his eyes, cornering Wooyoung against the wall before reaching behind him to snatch away the transcript that his interns had likely created for him. Ignoring Wooyoung’s complaints, San started reading over the words, frowning when he realized that it was a conversation between his wife and Mike. “They’re meeting for lunch,” San said. “I know this restaurant.”

“Oh?”

San turned to address his interns. “Anything else?”

“No, sir,” one of them responded, and San reached behind him for the collar of Wooyoung’s well-pressed shirt.

“You’re coming with me,” San said.

“Where?” Wooyoung asked, and San held up the transcript that his friend immediately objected. “That’s really taking this too far, San!”

“Are you on my side or not?”

Wooyoung hesitated, appearing entirely conflicted, so San made his decision for him. He snatched Wooyoung’s familiar car keys from one of the desks, and Wooyoung only had a brief moment of realization before he was rushing to catch-up to San on the way out the front door. Unfortunately, San was beyond reason, ignoring Wooyoung’s attempts at rational conversation by opening the driver’s side door. “Take us there,” San requested, tossing his keys into the air before making himself comfortable on the opposite side.

Wooyoung was grumbling when he switched on the ignition. “This is really low, San.”

“You’re supposed to be my friend and partner.”

“I am!” Wooyoung said, slowly guiding them out into traffic. “Which is why I’m the most qualified to give you relationship advice, and I think that spying on your wife is a hard pass.”

“Says the same guy who’s already been divorced twice!”

“Yeah, and that means I know when you’re doing something wrong,” Wooyoung said. “And that we're doing right now? Wrong!”

“Just drive,” San insisted, and Wooyoung must’ve realized that his friend was stoically determined to follow through with his plan because he started quietly driving the rest of the way to the restaurant. “Pull in at the front,” San instructed him.

Wooyoung turned off the ignition, sighing as he leaned back in his seat. “There’s Y/N’s car.”

“Turn on the audio,” San said. “You put the microphone in her purse, right?”

“I stitched it myself,” Wooyung confirmed, reaching down to twist the knob on the machine attached to the radio.

There was mostly static until two distinct voices filled the rest of the car. “Hey, I’m so glad to see you,” a male voice said, and San assumed that it belonged to this Mike character.

“Of course,” Y/N responded timidly. “What did you need?”

“It’s important,” Mile said. “I think they’re coming for me tonight.”

“Tonight?” Y/N gasped, and San and Wooyoung exchanged a quick look.

“You’ll be there for me, right?” Mike asked, and San wrinkled his nose at the disgusting tone. “I have something to ask you.”

“Yes?”

“I can’t tell you until it’s safer,” Mike said. “Come home with me, tonight. We can talk in a place where they can’t follow us.”

“Damn, this guy moves fast!” Wooyoung laughed, but he immediately stopped when he noticed San’s fierce expression. “Oh, shit, I mean, that sleazy scumbag! Who does he think he is?”

“Just shut up,” San said, leaning in closer to the radio because Y/N was talking again.

“I have work until 5,” Y/N said.

“I’ll pick you up outside the office,” Mike replied, and there was a sound that reminded San suspiciously of the noise that he associated with Y/N’s delicate kisses.

“I’m beating the shit out of this bastard,” San declared, and Wooyoung shivered at his dangerous tone.

“Are we following them later?”

“Absolutely,” San agreed, reaching over to grab the GPS tracker. “I’m putting an end to this bullshit!”

Wooyoung simply nodded because he knew that San was past the point of talking him back from over the edge.

However, San was usually the type who could control his temper. In fact, he couldn’t remember a time when he had experienced what some might call “blind rage,” but he came pretty close when he watched his wife get in a stranger’s car without any hesitation. Consequently, San was forced to take several deep breaths to clear the red clouding his vision, waiting until he was mostly clear-headed again to open his eyes. Thankfully, Wooyoung was already following Y/N and Mike, maintaining a safe distance so that they wouldn’t suspect anything.

“Keep on that car until they stop,” San instructed his friend, gripping tightly to the dash while they continued to follow Y/N and Mike through the relatively empty streets.

After twenty minutes of tense driving, they finally pulled into a modest apartment complex where Mike pulled in the driveway of one of the units. “He lives there?” Wooyoung asked, driving past their car.

“Turn back around at the end of the road,” San said while pulling out his cellphone. “I’m calling for back-up.”

“Back-up?!” Wooyoung repeated, but it was too late to change San’s mind and he was already ordering most of Hongjoon’s agents off the street to arrive at the complex.

“This is insane!” Wooyoung loudly whispered, stopping his car at the sidewalk near Mike’s apartment just in time to see Y/N walking inside with the other man.

San reached behind him for the gun that he kept on the backseat. “You aren’t shooting him, are you?” Wooyoung asked, but San’s response was nothing but a crooked smirk as he re-loaded the weapon.

Much to Wooyoung’s horror, the other agents were also fast to arrive on the scene, and San greeted Yunho and Mingi who had been dealing with a drug bust downtown. “What do we got?” Mingi asked when he recognized San.

“Some kind of undercover exchange,” San lied. “Clear out the back of the van for me.”

“Do we have any details?”

“Two people,” San explained. “One man and a woman. The dude is complete trash and you can leave him to me, but the woman is innocent, so just try and get her out safely.”

“Yes, sir,” Yunho said, teasing San with the directive. 

“Get your agents ready,” San replied because he wasn’t in any mood to joke around.

Graciously, Yunho and Mingi immediately complied, shouting orders into their walkie-talkies while several agents emerged from around the house, completely dressed from head to tie in their uniforms. Actually, the entire complex was surrounded by Hongjoong’s agents with their sleek black cars, and various cases of equipment and weapons ready for their disposal. “Are you ready?” San asked Wooyoung, covering his face with a mask to disguise his identity.

Wooyoung did the same with a grunt. “I’m sure Y/N will never forget this night.”

San ignored him, checking the safety on his gun, before he stationed himself next to the front door of the apartment. He gave a signal to the agent across from him who nodded once, taking a step back to kick down the door with force, and chaos quickly unraveled as the small apartment was filled with dozens of armed men shouting and aiming their guns in the direction of the two people situated rather scandalously on the couch. 

San recognized Y/N’s screams, eyes widening when he noticed that Mike had somehow made himself rather comfortable in close proximity to his wife. San grabbed the sleazy bastard who was still between his wife’s thighs, jerking him back by the collar of his shirt. “You piece of shit,” San grunted, tossing the man onto the ground to cuff his hands.

“What’s happening!” Mike cried, struggling against San’s grip. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah, right, asshole,” San muttered, forcing Mike to stand on his own two feet again before searching for Wooyoung. “Get Y/N.”

Wooyoung nodded, approaching Y/N carefully because her eyes were filled with fear and she was looking around at all the action unfolding. “Let’s go, Ma’am,” Wooyoung said with a wince, trying his best to disguise his regular voice because Y/N might recognize him.

“Who are you?” Y/N demanded, but Wooyoung didn’t try to explain, reaching for her arm.

Y/N shrieked and fought against Wooyoung’s hold, even as Wooyoung maintained his grip. “Oh, come on, Y/N, don’t be like this.”

“You asshole!” Y/N screamed, turning around to knee Wooyoung between the legs and the younger man immediately collapsed to the ground.

“Holy shit,” Wooyoung cried. “That fucking hurt!”

His loud curse attracted San’s attention, and he brought Mike to another agent with strict directions to throw him in the back of the van. Meanwhile, he ran after Y/N who was flailing her arms while tripping in her high heels. “Damn,” San gasped, fighting for air when he finally caught up to Y/N. 

“Who are you people?!” Y/N shrieked, kicking out her legs when San wrapped an arm around her upper torso. He certainly hadn’t expected his wife to fight them so much, especially when she leaned down to bite him. However, he only groaned in complaint and fought against the pain while he managed to drag Y/N back to another agent’s car. 

“Take her to the agency,” San instructed one of the other men. “In the interrogation room.”

“Yes, sir,” the agent said, and San waited until he was driving off before he confronted Wooyoung who was still hunched over on his knees. 

“Come on,” San said, tapping his foot against him.

“You try getting kicked in the dick,” Wooyoung spat, using San’s suspenders to help himself back up. “God, you stupid prick,” Wooyung howled, still feeling the effects of Y/N’s kick while he flipped off Mingi and Yunho who were laughing at his expense.

“Job well done, gentlemen,” Yunho said, flashing San a quick thumbs-up as he settled himself behind the wheel of the van.

“Ignore him,” San told a still seething Wooyoung before they drove off in the direction of Hongjoong’s agency.

The interrogation room was incredibly high-tech with an indestructible Plexiglas wall separating the room itself from the attached studio which was filled with expensive equipment. Wooyoung and San sat together in the studio, watching Y/N as she stormed around the room, screaming and yelling while demanding to be heard. “She’s something else,” Wooyoung remarked.

“Do we still have the voice changing microphone?” San asked.

“Of course,” Wooyoung said, reaching behind him for the appropriate instrument. “Let me get it ready.”

San nodded, thoughtfully considering Y/N who had passionately refused to sit down even after facing stern directions from one of the interns. She had always been passionate, refusing to give in to others, and it was a big part of the reason why San had fallen in love with her in the first place. It was also impossible to describe Y/N’s beauty because, even after such a long and chaotic evening, she still managed to look good in nothing but casual jeans and a simple blouse.

“Good evening, Mrs. Choi,” Wooyoung spoke into the mic, and his voice echoed inside the interrogation room. “We’d like to ask you some questions. It’s in your best interest to cooperate.”

However, Y/N appeared less than compliant, and she furiously slammed her hands against the glass. “Who are you! What do you want from me?”

“Calm down, Mrs. Choi,” Wooyoung said, flinching when San abruptly took the microphone from him.

“We found you with an incredibly dangerous man, Mrs. Choi,” San said. “Can you tell us how the two of you met?”

“Dangerous?” Y/N repeated, looking nothing short of confused. “Mike?”

“How do you know him?”

“We met when I was having lunch alone one day,” Y/N said. “He came up to me with a briefcase and said that he was being followed by some suspicious agents.”

“Why?”

“He works undercover,” Y/N explained. “His work seemed really important.”

“So important that you decided to help him?” San asked.

“Well,” Y/N hesitated. “He said he needed me.”

“Needed you in what way, Mrs. Choi?” Wooyoung took over, much to San’s displeasure.

Y/N narrowed her eyes. “What the hell are you insinuating?”

“Is it because your husband isn’t pleasing you anymore, Mrs. Choi?” Wooyoung asked, whining when San grabbed the microphone from him.

“Let me handle this,” San said, before turning his attention back to Y/N. “Why did you keep meeting him, even though you barely knew who he was?”

“I don’t know,” Y/N said, throwing out her hands desperately. “I guess it’s stupid, but I kinda liked that he was involved with something top secret. It seemed really special for me to be a part of it.”

“Special enough for you to cheat on your husband?” San practically spat into the microphone.

“Wait a minute! How do you know that I’m married?”

“We know everything, Mrs. Choi,” San said, quickly trying to make-up for his slip. “Did you sleep with him?”

“I hardly see how that’s any of our business!”

“Answer the question,” San insisted. “Your compliance with us could help your case.”

“My case?”

“Of course,” San said. “You were found with a wanted man. That makes you an accomplice.”

Wooyoung cleared his throat. “Isn’t that a little too much?”

San shook his head, determined to get to the bottom of things. “No, I didn’t,” Y/N finally said. “Satisfied?”

“Were you attracted to him?”

“No!” Y/N cried. “What do these questions have to do with anything?”

“I just have one more thing for you, Mrs. Choi,” San said, taking a deep breath as he braced himself for the answer. “Do you still love your husband?”

Y/N sighed, looking around the steel-gray walls of the room. “Yes,” she said. “I still love him.”

“Terrific!” Wooyoung whispered. “She still loves you! Everything's fine.”

However, San still had one more thing in mind. “You want some adventure in your life, Mrs. Choi,” San said carefully. “That’s good because we might have a solution to our problem concerning your association with Mike. Otherwise, we’ll have to turn you into the authorities.”

“Well!” Y/N exclaimed. “I guess I don’t have a choice.”

Wooyoung covered the microphone, looking at San with suspicious eyes. “What the hell are you planning?”

San smirked at Wooyoung. “If she wants some excitement, then I’m going to give it to her.”

Wooyoung rolled his eyes, but remained silent. “Mrs. Choi,” San said. “How do you feel about doing some undercover work for us?”

After ensuring that one of the agency’s interns could safely return Y/N home, Wooyoung and San drove quietly to the edge of town to deal with Mike. They pulled the van off the road next to a large overpass, dragging him out screaming and crying from the back. But despite his attempts to break free, San held him perilously at the edge of an enormous dam. “Please,” Mike cried. “Don’t kill me.”

San rolled his eyes, even though Mike probably couldn’t tell from behind his mask. “Did you really think you could get away with it?”

“What are you talking about?” Mike questioned. “You’ve got the wrong guy!”

“It’s all over,” Wooyoung said. “Your career as a spy is well-documented.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No, seriously, I’m just a car salesman,” Mike cried. “I’ve never done anything wrong!”

“Why did we find you with that young woman?” San asked. “We overheard you telling her all about your secret as a spy!”

“It’s only because I have to lie to get laid,” Mike said. “I made the whole thing up because I was trying to impress her!”

“A married woman?” San asked.

“I’m sorry,” Mike said, and there were actual tears streaming down his face. “I’m the biggest coward in the world!”

“Get the fuck out of here,” San grunted, jerking Mike’s hands free from his shirt.

“As soon as I’m not looking I know that you’re gonna shoot me!” Mike declared, walking backwards as he looked back and forth between San and Wooyoung.

San pushed him out of the way, reaching for the driver’s side door of the van. Meanwhile, Wooyoung turned around to confront the frazzled man. He reached for his gun, firing off a few rounds into the air while Mile immediately covered his head. “Fuck off, dude.’”

One Week Later

The hotel made for the perfect cover, and an ideal situation to carry out San’s plan for his wife, even if Wooyoung was less than enthusiastic. He was currently helping San arrange the room to his liking, moving one of the chairs into the shadows of the curtains. His partner also handed San a tape recorder, and San smiled at him gratefully. “Look,” Wooyoung said. “I had one of the interns record some shit. Just play the phrases whenever you need to talk to her.”

It was a good way to disguise his voice, and sitting in the corner would help keep his identity protected. “Did you arrange everything with her?” San asked.

“We had an agent call the house earlier with instructions,” Wooyoung said. “We told her that she was meeting a man who’d be expecting an exotic dancer. She’s supposed to tell you that the regular girl is sick.”

“What did you ask her to do?”

“We dropped off an envelope by her office,” Wooyoung explained. “Her job is to plant the bug on the nightstand without you noticing.”

San chuckled. “And who does she think I am exactly?”

“A very wealthy man,” Wooyoung said, reaching for his phone when it started ringing. He answered in quietly, stepping off to the side of the room while San finished arranging a bouquet of roses next to the little side table where he would be sitting for most of the night. Despite the fact that this whole night had been his idea, he was still nervous about how his wife would handle everything, and there was inherent risk of exposing his identity that he was trying to ignore.

“She’s on her way up,” Wooyoung announced.

“Then, you should go,” San said, ushering Wooyoung towards the door, even while his partner flipped off the light switches as he passed them.

“I’ll be in the lobby in case something goes horribly wrong,” Wooyoung said. “Since it might considering how insane this entire plan is!”

“Relax,” San said, giving him a friendly pat on the ass. “I have everything under control.”

Wooyoung still appeared doubtful, but he gave his friend the benefit of the doubt, and San made sure that the door was closed and unlocked before he settled himself on the chair that he placed in the corner of the room. He sat down with a nervous exhale, wondering if he should cross his legs or not, and he held the tape recorder behind him. There was no turning back from the plan, and San anxiously anticipated Y/N’s arrival, finally deciding to leave his legs spread out in front of him.

It was only a few minutes later that he heard the sound of the front door opening, waiting with a pounding heart as Y/N entered the room. San swallowed hard when Y/N approached, wearing one of the sexiest dresses that he had ever seen in his entire life. His eyes trailed down the skin of her exposed legs, moving back up again to pause on the tight fit around her breasts. He cleared his throat and reached behind him for the tape recorder. “What’s your name?” 

San jumped when he noticed that the recording's voice was much deeper than his, and it was also slightly accented.

“Y/N,” she whispered, and her tone certainly didn’t match the intimidating outfit that she wore. “The regular girl was sick, but she thought you would like me.”

“Let me determine that for myself.”

Y/N nodded, reaching behind her for the zipper, but San quickly rewound the tape. “No, do it slowly for me.”

She was hesitant, but San sat up straighter when she turned around to undo the zipper on the back of the dress, allowing it to fall onto the floor. San cleared his throat, taking in the sight of Y/N wearing a black set of lingerie, and the panties barely covered her ass when she made a complete circle to look at San again for directions. “Dance for me,” the recording instructed. “I want to see how sexy you are.”

Y/N paused while San reached out to turn on the radio, adjusting the volume for the heavy bass song that began to play throughout the room. San waited, taking in a deep breath when her hips started to move, and it was awkward at first, until she finally found the beat, dragging her hands over her gorgeous body. San watched as her hands traveled over her breasts, moving them down sensuously to tease the waistband of her underwear.

At this point, San’s heart was practically leaping into his throat, and the music sounded unbelievably loud inside his ears. Y/N was clearly distracted by her own dancing, closing her eyes as she continued to hypnotize San with the tantalizing way that she undulated her hips. San groaned at the display because he was uncomfortably hard in his black trousers, reaching down to adjust himself as he watched Y/N grind herself against the bed post.

She dropped lower to the ground, pushing her ass out in San’s direction, and every bit of blood in his body had moved south to fill his cock. It took everything that he had not to launch himself at his wife who was using the post as support to sway her body from side to side. San closed his eyes, leaning over to turn down the radio so that Y/N could hear the tape recorder again.

“Lie on the bed and close your eyes.”

Y/N stumbled in her heels at the unexpected order, but she still obeyed, gently lowering herself vertically across the hotel’s king-sized bed. In the meantime, San took a flower from the vase next to him, walking over to Y/N to drag the velvety petals against her smooth skin. He was unable to help himself when he joined her on the edge of the bed, leaning down to claim Y/N’s irresistible red-glossed lips.  

He moaned against her mouth, resisting the urge to climb his fingers along her beautiful skin that was practically glowing from the light penetrating through the curtains. It had been a long time since he had kissed his wife so passionately, and he was determined to make her feel good tonight. Of course, distracted by the moment’s pleasures, San failed to realize that Y/N had grabbed the alarm clock from the corner of the nightstand until she was hitting him over the head with the offending object. “Pervert!” she shouted, immediately rising from the bed. San grunted as he collapsed to the floor, feeling the dizzying effects of the hit that he had just taken courtesy of his wife’s powerful aim.

However, he quickly came to realize that Y/N was trying to put on her dress while limping haphazardly for the exit. “Y/N,” San shouted, and his wife paused. “It’s me!” He removed the mask and held up his hands, watching Y/N’s eyes grow wide with shock.

“San?” she gasped, and her entire body was suddenly shaking.

“Yes, it’s me,” San whispered, hoping to calm her down.

“H-How?” she asked, clutching the dress tightly to her chest.

“I’m not an insurance agent,” San said, carefully approaching his wife like she might flee at any moment. “I work for a private detective’s office downtown, but I had to lie because I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“What?” Y/N questioned, pulling at the strands of her hair as if she couldn’t process anything that he was saying. “None of this makes sense!”

“It was me that night with Mike or whoever,” San revealed. “I interrogated you in that room, and I had some of the agents organize this night for us!”

“San, you sound insane right now!” Y/N said.

“I know,” San agreed, trying to reach out for Y/N, but she quickly took another step back. “I’m so sorry for everything, baby. I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt because of the stuff that I did at work, so I made up a cover to protect you!”

“You?” Y/N repeated, and San wasn’t sure if it was a question or just his wife’s attempt to make sense of everything. “Y-you're being honest? This was your idea?”

San nodded. “Look, I have a badge and everything,” he said, reaching into his pocket to extract his wallet, holding it out for Y/N who took it with narrowed eyes. “I’ve been working at the agency for years. That’s I’m always home so late because my cases sometimes are more difficult than others.”

Y/N had taken out his badge, studying it with an expression that he had never seen from his wife before. Finally, she dropped the wallet and badge onto the floor, inhaling once as she addressed him. “I can’t believe you’ve lied to me.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” San said, desperately trying to make amends. “I know it was wrong to keep this from you, but I thought it would help you.”

“Help me?” Y/N spat. “Really, San? Because I love thinking that my husband is an insurance agent who spends all night at his office, but it turns out that he’s secretly keeping another identity from me since he could actually die!”

“I’m hardly ever in danger,” San said, but he realized that Y/N wasn’t quite as accepting. 

“And what’s this dancing thing all about?” she asked. “You literally tricked me into coming here so you could watch me dry hump the bed?”

“That’s not it, Y/N,” San said. “I- I heard what you said in the interrogation room. You said that you wanted to do something special.”

“But not after my husband lied to me!” Y/N said, meeting San across the room to sharply push against his shoulders. “Is our marriage a cover too?”

“Of course not,” San said, shaking his head. “Y/N, I love you more than anything else in the world.”

“If you loved me, then we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Y/N said. “I feel humiliated!”

“I’m sorry,” San tried again. “This is all my fault, and you can hate me for the rest of your life, but I never wanted to hurt you. Because I’ve loved you long before I became an agent, and I just want you to know that I care about your happiness, even if sometimes seems like I’m the world’s biggest asshole.”

Y/N sniffled, studying San for several long moments. “I believe that you love me,” she finally said. “And I still love you too, but we’re gonna talk about this! Do you hear me?”

“Of course,” San agreed.

“Especially about this disaster,” she continued. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“Well,” San said, searching for the correct words. “You look really hot...”

“Shit! I’m still fucking mad at you!” Y/N said, but there was also a carnal energy in her eyes that had San hesitating. “I swear to God I’ll make you pay for this!”

“Is that a promise?” San asked, and Y/N didn’t hesitate to throw her weight against him in a furious kiss as they both landed on top of the luxury bed.

[vvolgarov]

The idea about the specific devilman species I’ve come around to invent came purely out of my own want to have a more ‘ original ‘ depiction with elements that are common or used. Rather treat the devils as some only hunters of ‘ villains / morally horrid people ‘ and rather focus on individual strengths and weaknesses of each devilman. Of course, this idea didn’t EXACTLY come around until I’ve actually decided to work on SEVEN + ONE devilman ( as I’ve hinted prior, Artemis has 7 children and two of them, at this day are available for writing ) when previously I brushed off the idea since I thought It was ‘ cheesy ‘. But aside from whether I considered such idea cheesy and eventually pursued it -- I did like the depiction of a DEVIL being a WOMAN. Sure, you can have a character be nonbinary or generally genderless, I could have done that myself as well because I love and do varied identities and presentations myself -- But I feel like, I just wanted to indulge myself more into a good representation of a female character that’s enjoyable and has a personality that cannot be brushed off. Technically Artemis herself is my FIRST female character in a multi-muse situation and It has been a big deal to give her a personality and appearance that I would be satisfied presenting.

I do like that with the development Artemis, came along the development regarding the devil species ( though Red was the FIRST devil; more development came because of Arti ) and what she does at her current position, what is her main purpose and how as a leader she holds such power and whether that impacts her character in any way. I LOVE the idea of a character not only being the higher hierarchy in the pyramid of societal ranking, but rather wanting to be known as the ideal image of EQUITY / EQUALITY. Her and her children behave as though they are citizens rather royalty ( this applies as well as to Dimitri; his personality may depict otherwise but he does not have ideals of a higher-power greedy person; ) and are accessible for contact with any individual in both their world, and in the human realm. This is why I love the dynamic between my characters Jay and Artemis -- Jay is a, more or less mortal vampiric hybrid who could have been killed on an instant.    Supposedly a SPECIMEN that would be gone at the blink of an eye considering how devilmen hardly DIE out considering their anatomy, but she chooses to befriend him as a great friend. Trusts him dearly, happily meets and befriends his friends and establish friendly dynamics with them as well. I just love presenting such IMMORTAL and POWERFUL species, a species capable of becoming deities when granted such power -- just find themselves equal as mortal people. Respect them in the exact level; understand their traditions and are happy to learn about humans / other species in general. With devilman species alone, I just simply love the idea of how all of them generally obtain powers. Deities are the ones who grant possible abilities in the devilmen when they are born, though the parent is the one behind the decision making on WHEN they can obtain such power. In Reds perspective and because of a tragic event that occurred relevant to him; he is now granted the position of a ‘ soul - ripper ‘ whos’ basis is to reap lost souls that are pestering, harming the citizens in the human realm. With each intense dread or hatred feeling within a hostile spirit, there’s a blue fire-ball item within them that reveals upon when slayed by a specially designed soul-ripping item -- an item that usually can be anything, but scythes are known to be more powerful and convenient at handling these horrid transparent wanderers. The fire - ball presenting item IS their soul now exposed and ‘ edible ‘ to the devilman, to which Red can consume and gradually reach the necessary milestone to obtain a specific power. This situation is what granted him the ability to dimension hop and fully take control of each dimension and Its’ portrayal, the general ability to see alternative worlds when encountering a person -- whether the universe is related with the two or the person alone, or whether It’s related with said person but with an another individual. Even the slightest contact with a stranger can open up an alternative universe. In the scenario of Dimitri, he was originally preoccupied with duties as the right hand man for his mother and more-so worked as a guard for her. At the same time he was dedicated to learn about shapeshifting and how to break through the limitations of the power -- how to obtain such professionalism at the skill without fear of weaknesses halting him from returning to his original form from a mere negative reaction. Whether the reaction means in the format of feelings, emotions or some event occurring for him to be affected. This is where his hangman situation comes to play -- Because his former position as a guard and administrator, he was granted the choice to slay those that come to harm to the Queen / president herself or those that pose genuine threat to citizens of Northern Hell or simply aim to instill potential war among four sides of their Hell. Because of this Dimitri was grown to be desensitized to the process ( though most devils are naturally adjusted to this; though his killing-ordeal was more common than the amount most devils commit) and his methods eventually have grown to be similar to a hangman. Hanging the punished, slaying them with an executioners sword or other, creative-yet-morally wrong methodics’ to punish a person fatally. Because of this, Artemis naturally granted him the position as a hangman to see where this would lead to. There was a possibility that her son would steer his newly granted position as a stomach filler for his sadistic / masochistic tendencies -- AND she was almost proven such fact, although Dimitri managed to genuinely change her assumptions.  You see, -- Even though there was some sexual depravity from his end when given the position as an executioners, he eventually did present that he was collecting the souls ( coming in different shapes and sizes; as they are souls of inhuman kinds living in Hell ) obtained through his field and consumed to empower his shapeshifting power. Using his shapeshifting power not only for when desired or to gain some satisfaction making a mockery of someone who was foolish enough to believe in his imitation skill -- but rather UTILIZE this powerful skill in dire situations such as wars, protests coming from other regions of Hell or obtain information / items when said items and information are taken away from the original owner. It helps the fact that he developed the ability to imitate voices ( voice mimic ) and to be fully convincing when genuinely invested in the role as not to be caught.  It’s a fascinating thing to consider how devilman empower themselves over the spirit / essence of a person once the soul itself cannot originally return to their form. “ What happens when the soul is consumed? “ Because the soul is essentially digested by the devilman, It naturally goes through the process of reincarnation and falls into the Chapel of Judgement ( originally lead by Artemis, though one of her sin-children have taken up the position instead ) where the devilman child-of-Artemis and a few count of deities can discuss about the situation with each arrived soul. -- What will be their purpose in their new life; what branches of important decisions will impact their life and how will they die in their next life.  There is a large count of subjects the members of the chapel discuss, I wouldn’t be able to put it into this post myself to explain the particular themes. But the idea is that, they have a good understanding of what happens to them in the near future as they provided links ( a good numbers of decisions that can impact a future decision; also named as ‘ branches ‘ ) and are aware what can those links lead to. Even when a reborn breaks the branch and forms a new one, THEY will know that. They have the power to observe what their reborn will do THIS time and eventually see the new-forming links and potential fate. Just a good number of subjects to look into about my species of devilman. I could honestly do this all day and still not entirely go through the entire story of such ‘ originally ‘ made species, but the least I could do is bring up some topics regarding them and go into further detail about each point I’ve brought up.

[gemeauxlogy]

10 things I wish I knew about astrology when I began studying

As we all know, astrology is a huge, beautiful, but complicated field of study. There are infinite traditions, techniques, and approaches that you could spend years and years studying just a couple of them at a time! Astrology is one of those subjects that never ceases to amaze you and you never fully finish learning about it or "master" all of it. It weirdly gets more confusing and complex the longer you study it!

The things we read and learn about astrology when we first start out studying are usually very different from what we learn as we continue studying longterm. You'll start to have sudden crises and realize "wait, this entire concept I learned a while back doesn't work at all how I originally thought it did," or "I just learned this new concept and it makes some things I learned a while ago make absolutely no sense, so now I have to change my entire view on astrology." Since there's so much information and so many different approaches to astrology, it takes time to really sort through everything to find what's helpful and useful to you, and what's not.

The things I'll be talking about here are tips that I really, really wish I had known earlier on in my studies to save me time and confusion. Not everyone will agree with me on all of these points, but these are some things I've learned, or realizations I've had that really changed the game for me.

1. Cookbook interpretations aren't totally accurate when studying or reading a chart.

When I say 'cookbook interpretation,' I'm referring to the interpretations where you simply look up "planet x in sign/house y" or "planet x aspecting planet y" and it gives you a bunch of generic possible meanings without being personalized to the specific chart you're looking it. They're sort of a one-size-fits-all summary that glazes over all of the nuance and context provided by the rest of the chart.

If you were to draw up another birth chart with the same placement you're interested in researching, but all the other components of the chart are different, you would get the exact same interpretation of that single placement regardless of how different the two charts are as a whole. Those types of interpretations can only go so far. They're great to start off with, don't get me wrong! It's impossible to look at a birth chart and be able to start putting all of the pieces together to form a personalized interpretation when you first start using astrology or learning about your own chart. Chances are, you don't even recognize the astrological glyphs yet! We can't suddenly come up with advanced interpretations right off the bat, we have to start somewhere.

Those cookbook interpretations are great to get a broad sense of what a placement does on its own, but in reality, no single placement functions as if it were immune to the influence of everything else in the chart. Every chart is unique. All of the different components factor into how each placement will manifest, which means a simple, generic description of a placement won't truly encapsulate the many facets that make your placements unique to you. If your goal is to study astrology seriously and practice it professionally or do readings for other people, I think it's incredibly important to eventually stop relying on those generic interpretations.

Don't worry about trying to memorize or make your interpretations perfectly match what websites say about them. They more than likely won't exactly fit an individual's chart since there's a lot more going on in a whole chart than a general summary will take into consideration.

If you want to learn how to provide impactful readings, break up with those short cut interpretations and practice gathering more individually accurate information from a chart.

2. Astrology is primarily centered around the planets, not the signs.

We're so used to seeing the signs being portrayed as the core component in astrology, that the majority of people don't even know astrology has more to it than that. Of course that's mainly because the average person hasn't really been exposed to astrology aside from seeing their horoscope in a magazine, but that focus on the signs even tends to carry over when we start studying horoscopic astrology (horoscopic astrology: the type of astrology that uses full charts that include your ascendant (rising), and the other planets/points that we know and love).

It's super easy and even fun to play with the idea of what the signs do and how we see those qualities reflected in people. But when you really look at it, the signs on their own are honestly very limited with what they can do and the influence they have in astrology overall. When we center our astrology around the signs (I've seen some astrologers call this "signology"), we're not too far off from doing exactly what people accuse horoscopes of doing: generalizing all people based on just 12 plain archetypes.

We know that there's a lot more to astrology than sorting people into 12 sets of characteristics, but we miss out on what astrology is fully capable of when we reduce it to the signs with a smaller mixture of planets, houses, and aspects on the side.

Aside from those considerations, let's look at the foundations of astrology. Looking back at the work of ancient astrologers, planets were the primary focus of astrology from the beginning. Astrology began with people observing the appearance and tracking the movements of the "wandering stars" in the sky, and taking those planets' qualities into consideration when determining what their jobs were. People used the planets to predict events long before systems of zodiac signs, houses, and aspects were formed. Hundreds of years before the zodiac signs that we know today were standardized, Babylonian astrologers used 17-18 constellations to track the motion of the planets. The zodiac "signs" back then weren't even the same as the ones we know now.

Later on when more systems, doctrines, and techniques were being developed, astrologers used the planetary rulership scheme to develop the meanings of the signs, NOT the other way around. Let me repeat that, because this is important. The signs did not pass their meanings on to the planets, the signs GOT their meanings FROM the planets they're ruled by.

Mercury doesn't represent communication because Gemini is associated with talkativeness, Gemini is associated with talkativeness because it is ruled by the planet Mercury. Capricorn didn't pass on some of its meaning on to Saturn, Capricorn got its meaning FROM its ruler, Saturn. The same goes for all of the other signs.

I'm being so thorough with this point because it makes it clear that even if you DO mainly use the signs, those signs' meanings are based on the planets, just like with the majority of other concepts in astrology.

Even breaking it down to one of the first things a lot of us learn in astrology, the signs simply tell you HOW the planets do what they do. The signs don't act on their own. The planets' positions and movements are ultimately what we pay attention to in astrology, whether it's in birth charts, horary charts, election charts, or even tracking transits' correlations to current events (mundane astrology).

If I have an empty house in my chart, what do I look for to find the meaning of that house? I look at where planetary ruler of that house is placed. If I want to know what changes my career will go through over the next year, what do I look for? The transits of the planetary ruler of my Midheaven or 10th house, or even looking at the different planets that will be moving past my Midheaven or through my 10th house.

The planets are key in astrology.

Understanding the how the planets work and making them your focus will improve what you do. Learn their strengths, their weaknesses, their temperaments, their cycles, etc, and it'll drastically change how you use astrology.

3. The signs are not equivalent to the houses.

I'll keep this one brief and direct because it seems to be a big topic of debate among astrologers.

To define them as best as I can, the signs are segments of the ecliptic (the annual path through space the Sun makes from the earth's POV) that the planets move through because of their rotation around the Sun (this planetary movement is called 'secondary motion'). The houses are segments of the earth's sky from a specific location that the planets seem to rotate through on a daily basis because of the earth's rotation on its axis (this daily movement is called 'primary motion').

Here are some pictures to try and help you visualize the difference between these two things.

The signs:

The Houses:

The houses (segments of the earth's sky) represent topics and areas of our lives. The signs (segments of the ecliptic) give the planets transiting through them different characteristics, and tell us which planets rule those transiting planets. They have two different purposes, which is why I firmly believe that we need to separate their meanings. Of course this is complicated a bit by what we call the '12 letter alphabet,' where we see Aries, Mars, and the 1st house all treated as being "naturally connected," then Taurus, Venus, and the 2nd house all are treated as being "naturally connected," and so on. The 12 letter alphabet is everywhere, unfortunately, so it takes most of us a while to come around to the fact that the houses and signs do not share purposes in astrology just because they're numbered the same (Aries = 1st house because it's the1st sign of the zodiac, etc).

To reiterate what I'm saying here, Aries (and Mars) does not "naturally rule" the 1st house. Taurus (and Venus) does not "naturally rule" the 2nd house. Gemini (and Mercury) does not "naturally rule" the 3rd house, and the same goes for the rest of the signs and houses.

Unless you're an Aries rising, this concept does not work. If you're a Capricorn rising, Saturn rules your 1st and 2nd houses, Jupiter rules your 3rd house, Mars rules your 4th house, Venus rules your 5th house, and so on. The ONLY people who have Aries + Mars associated with / ruling the 1st house are Aries risings. The ONLY people who have Capricorn + Saturn associated with / ruling the 10th house are Aries risings. I can't emphasize this enough.

If you really want to get into where the houses got their meanings, their position in the earth's sky, angularity (whether they're angular, succedent, or cadent), and planetary joys played a big part in that. I won't get into these right now, but if you want resources on these concepts, I recommend the lecture on the houses from The Astrology School.

Bottom line for this point: learn to distinguish the signs and houses. For a lot of us, the houses made almost no sense until we learned that they ARE NOT the same as the signs, and they shouldn't be treated as such.

4. The outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) are not usually very personally significant in a birth chart.

These three planets are called the 'generational planets' for a reason. They group together entire generations of people, which means their positions by sign are the same for people born within years and years of each other. They're so far from the Sun and they move so slowly that they are not as consistently active as the rest of the planets. Uranus takes around 8 years to move through ONE sign, which means everyone within 8 years of your age have the exact same Uranus sign as you. The same goes for Neptune and Pluto, but they're even slower, which means you share that sign placement with even more people.

So yes, I may have Pluto in Sagittarius and it supposedly makes me so adventurous and ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* free spirit *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧, but everyone born from 1996 to 2009 have Pluto in Sagittarius as well. Think about how many people were born in that 13 year long time span! And that's relatively quick for Pluto considering the fact that it can spend up to 31 YEARS in one sign.

A side note (and this is a personal belief, but I do know others who think this as well): I believe that Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto function differently from the other 7 planets. Part of what determines what the planets do is their visibility in the sky, their brightness, their color, and their speed. Fast planets are more active or faster to manifest than the slower moving ones. The brighter planets (Jupiter and Venus) are benefic, the dimmer, more muddy colored planets (Saturn and Mars) are malefic. Things like these are how ancient astrologers made note of what the planets represent. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are newer planets (discovered within the last 200 years), so those same astrologers obviously weren't around to use those same guidelines to decide what they represent and how they work. But if you take those same things into consideration, the outer planets wouldn't be as significant in general, and some consider them to be malefics because 1) they're not visible to the naked eye, and 2) they're SO slow.

I still do take the outer planets into consideration in certain cases (which I'll go over later), but overall, I believe that they work differently because of their qualities. Unlike the 7 visible planets which rule over signs, and represent topics, people, etc, I believe that the invisible outer planets act more as influencers. I don't believe that Uranus rules technology itself (technology is very Mercurial), but I do think it has to do with the progression of humanity, and therefore the progression of technology. I don't believe that Neptune rules the subconscious, but I do believe that Neptune tends to hide things or confuse and muddy things up. I believe they have specific qualities that they tend to throw into everything else going on in a chart, but don't rule over the common, everyday things we deal with.

In a lecture I once listened to, Robert Schmidt said something like "If the outer planets are transcendental, why do we reduce them to common topics and objects?" That really confirmed my view on those planets. (I don't remember the exact quote, so don't hold me to that.)

The only time I'll really consider an outer planet to be influential in a chart is if A) it's in an angular house, or B) they're very tightly aspecting other inner planets.

5. Your birth chart is not limited to only being about your personality.

This one is pretty simple. Modern astrology for the most part poses your entire chart as being ALL YOU. As if every piece of your chart is simply a different part of your personality. That's not completely the case. Of course your chart can tell you about your personality, but it also can tell you about your life as a whole, which includes people and things that are not you. You can see different people, places, topics, objects, and more in your chart!

Want to know about your romantic partners? Look at your 5th house, 7th house, their rulers, or Venus. Want to know about your friends? Look at your 3rd house, 11th house, their rulers, or Jupiter. Want to know about your neighbors? Look at your 3rd house and its ruler. Want to know about your debts and inheritances? Look at your 8th house and its ruler. The list goes on.

Just about anything that is in your life in any way can be seen somewhere in your chart. Don't go on studying thinking that your chart can only tell you about how you behave!

6. It's normal to feel like certain placements and aspects in your chart don't fully resonate with you at all times!

This is another one I learned through traditional astrology that modern astrology didn't teach me. Not all of your chart is active at all times throughout your entire life! Your chart tells you the story that is your life, and throughout that story, different planets will become a major character, take charge and become more evident in your life than they may have been before or may be later.

This is something that timing techniques such as profections, zodiacal releasing, solar return charts, and more, can tell you. I won't go into how to do use those techniques in this post, but it's something to keep in mind and research!

7. Indicators specific to your birth chart are just as important, if not more important than general indicators.

When I talk about indicators in this case, I'm talking about planets that represent (indicate) certain things in your chart. An example of something that a planet generally indicates is Venus representing relationships. This can apply to everyone, which is why it's a general indicator. Let's say Venus in your birth chart rules the 3rd house and 10th house. In that case, Venus would also represent (be an indicator for) your environment (3rd house) and your career (10th house). These indications of Venus unique to your birth chart. Another example would be the ruler of your 7th house representing relationships. That ruler isn't always Venus, it's based on your own birth chart and it's unique to you. The reason I think this is something important to pay talk about now is because it's something I don't see talked about with beginners all that often, and I really wish I had learned that sooner.

This goes for all other topics and people! Pay attention to all of it, not only the general indicators just because they apply to everyone and are used more commonly.

8. Retrogrades aren't that big of a deal!

We've all seen the hype surrounding retrograde phases. Of course they do have significance and meaning, but they're not anything to be afraid of. They're completely normal, you've gone through so many in your life already, and you'll go through many more. Retrogrades happen because of the planets' rotations around the Sun from our point of view. Since the planets are constantly rotating around the Sun, retrogrades are just part of their cycle and they occur regularly. It's nothing to psyche yourself out or get nervous about! Even when 8 planets are retrograde all within one year, it's still normal, because this happens about every 2 or 3 years! Mercury is retrograde three separate times every single year, and some planets, like Saturn for example, are retrograde for about 5 months out of every single year.

Even though retrogrades do happen regularly, not all of them are significant for you personally. This goes back to what I said before about timing techniques. If a planet is activated for you and it's retrograde, or if a house is activated and a retrograde planet is transiting through it, it's more likely to be significant for you. If a planet or the house that a retrograde planet is moving through is not activated, it's probably not going to be as impactful on you directly.

Either way, retrogrades aren't all big and bad and scary, so try not to let the hype around them get to you! Don't let those "there are 6 retrogrades this year, karma is gonna kick all our asses!!" posts scare you. Save your energy!

9. Your draconic chart is not your "soul's journey."

I'm not even completely sure where this idea came from, it's just something that circulated on Twitter for a while and we all ate it up without question. First of all, ??? Second of all, it's been confirmed that the concept of how draconic charts are drawn up was just a mistranslation, and so it's not even a very reliable concept. I've read something similar about sidereal astrology too and I kind of question that concept of "ego vs soul's journey" as well, although sidereal IS a valid system to use if you choose. That's a whole other topic that's too big for this post, so I won't get into it. This is a super short point, but I wasted time looking at my draconic chart a couple years ago, so I figured I'd share that to save others the trouble.

10. Contrary to popular belief, traditional astrology isn't irrelevant just because it's old.

There's this common argument that modern astrology dominates over traditional astrology because it has taken all the best parts of the tradition and grown from it. This is not true!

Due to political and religious changes throughout history that resulted in astrologers being exiled, astrology texts being outlawed, burned, and/or lost, a good majority of thousands of years of astrological work was missing for hundreds of years. This means that when newer astrology began to come around, a lot of the knowledge and progress that had been made throughout history wasn't taken into consideration. If they didn't even know about all of this lost knowledge, how could they build upon it to make the practice better?

Modern astrology wasn't exactly created because traditional astrology was deemed unfit and outdated. There was just a lack of awareness of the traditions for the most part because of lost texts and the fading off of astrology. Astrology wasn't always popular or legal, and the internet hasn't always been around, so it wasn't easy to find astrologers to learn from or get consultations from, books to read or anything like what we have today. It was only in the past 30 or so years that astrologers began rediscovering and translating ancient texts, which brought back some very useful and advanced techniques that had been lost for hundreds of years. 30 years is VERY recent, and work is still being done to recover those lost texts and techniques, so these concepts still haven't fully been reincorporated into modern astrology yet.

We live in a time where astrology resources are more accessible than ever, astrologers are everywhere, and astrology itself is pretty popular. Take advantage of all of the knowledge we have available to learn from! Don't dismiss tradition just because it's incorrectly assumed to be irrelevant to what we do in modern times. This is the perfect time to learn from all sorts of traditions and figure out how they can work with the newly developed concepts we have today.

Thank you for reading this long post! I have other things I want to address, but some topics are too big to cram multiple into one post, so we'll talk about those later on.

[imaginebeatles]

Hello, I'm a homo-romantic ace whose been having a lot of weird conversations lately about who belongs in the LGBT umbrella. I think anyone who is ace has the space if they want it because it is a little understood sexual orientation that experiences a lot of corrective reactions. But lately people have been arguing to me that only aces with non-hetero rom orientations and/or folk who are non cisgender have access to the space. I was wondering the following things:

2/2 what’s your take on asexuality belonging to the LGBT term, the LGBT community and the LGBT complex (cuz I think it’s gotten more complex as a functioning being)? Does asexuality belong in a tertiary space like BDSM which crosses over with queer (and shares similarities) but is not fully within it? Thanks for sharing about your thesis, every time it pops up on my dash I feel very excited. It’s been awhile since I engaged in queer theory and I am loving your work! No pressure to answer tho!

Okay, so…. this is a very contentious topic, but I have a lot of thoughts on this, especially since I’ve started doing research for my thesis. I’ve read some articles on asexuality and the queer community so… here we go. I’ve put it under the cut, so people can easily scroll past it if they’re not interested. 

(I would also like to first say that I will be use the word “queer” here. I know some people are uncomfortable with that because its past use as a slur, however, because it is an actual academic term that is used by everyone writing about these issues, and especially within queer theory, I will be using that word too. I use the word to talk about all non-normative identities/practices related to gender and sexuality, which includes the LGBTQ+ community, but is more extensive than that, including any letters not part of that acronym. Queer is also a (political and academic) practice, not just an identity. This already possibly shows where my answer to your question is going…) 

Firstly, I want to say that I understand why some people within the LGBTQ+ community might be uncomfortable about letting asexual people into that community. There is a difficult relationship between asexuality and queer identities. Some people in the field of asexuality studies have begun to write on this (I’ll list them down one or two down below). Within queer politics, historically but also now, there is a heavy focus on sex. Because queer people have struggled against oppression based on their sexual habits, not having sex is generally viewed as conservative or as a form of assimilation. For wlw this is further true because for a long time healthy sexual behaviour (aka having sex at all) was seen as impossible between two women, because both women would be sexually passive. Not having sex is not radical. This is why hetero-romantic aces are often dismissed as being “straight anyway”. Non-normative sexual practices (like cruising) are an important part of the queer community (academic work within queer studies in especially the 1990s and 2000s shows this too, wherein theoretical and political potential is mined from non-normative sex acts, including bare-backing because of its relation to the HIV crisis in the 80s).

It therefore makes sense that queer people (especially gay men and women, but also others) are uncomfortable with asexuality’s focus on not having sex, and as such asexuality is often seen as being “sex negative” instead of “sex positive” and thus bad. At least, politically. 

I, however, and other academics, do think asexuality is queer, if you define queer as being non-normative in relation to hetero-normativity). Asexuality is seen as non-normative in our current hyper-sexual society and sex is seen as a vital part of heterosexuality too (you have to reproduce and women are meant to be sexually available to men at all times). Asexual people are discriminated against because they refuse sex, which society sees as natural. While the struggles of asexual people are different from those of gay people, bi and trans people (and other identities) also have their own struggles against which they fight. This does not diminish their struggles. 

Acephobia is based on ableist ideas: if you don’t want sex, there must be something wrong with you either mentally or physically, because sex is naturally and everyone should want it and have it (often). Asexuality is often dismissed and not seen as “real”. There must be something that inhibits you from having sex, whether that is physiological, hormonal, or having to do with trauma, or maybe just because you are not “hot enough to get a boyfriend”, which reminds me of how for a long time lesbians were seen as being men-hating ugly women (and feminists). This view leads to asexuality being pathologized (as homosexuality used to be). There have been numerous ways in which low sexual desire or a lack of sexual fantasies has been sees as a disorder in the psychoanalytic tradition. Attempts to “fix” asexual people are made through things like therapy or hormone treatment (or stuff like viagra or other such things), but also through corrective rape, either in a medical contexts under the idea that sexuality needs to be “awakened” within the patient, or in the private sphere at the end of a partner or friend. Research has also shown that people see asexual people as less human, more machine-like. They admit feeling uncomfortable with asexual people, and that they may discriminate against them, such as refusing them rent. 

Asexual people have their own political issues to work through, just as any other identity within the LGBTQ+ community. However, each of these issues and more are related to the fight against hetero-normativity. Another example is that asexual people, especially those who are also aromantic, can help critique the way society privileges heterosexual romantic couplehood, especially married heterosexual couples. Asexual and aromantic people often privilege non-romantic and non-sexual relationship, such as friendships or family, allowing us to re-evaluate these other relationships and open up new forms of queer relating, which will also be appealing to other queer people, who often form their own social group or families and whose relationship and friendships are often in some way “queer”. 

On top of that, it is important to realise that there is a lot of overlap between asexual people and other queer identities. However, queer asexual people constantly remark on how they do not feel safe or represented by the queer or LGBTQ+ community, even those who “welcome” queer aces, but not hetero-romantic aces. The queer and LGBTQ+ community are heavily sexualized spaced, which makes aces feel unwelcome, but also leaves many non-asexual queer people to complain about the lack of safe spaces for queer people that aren’t about clubbing, such as the lack of queer cafes or library. The queer community (and LGBTQ+ community) is itself deeply entrenched in compulsory sexuality, just like hetero-normative society, making aces feel like they don’t belong to either community. 

If an asexual person if gay, or bi, or non-binary, or trans, or queer, or whatever, it is the LGBTQ+ and queer communities that should provide them a safe space and fight for them. Their asexuality informs their experience as homo-romantic or trans or anything else, and cannot be separated from that part of their identity. These are not separate issues. If we want to protect trans kids or gay kids or any other member of the queer/LGBTQ+ community, these communities need to be inclusive of asexuality and provide spaces where these kids are safe and can talk freely about their experiences and the challenges they face. These will undoubtedly also be informed by their asexual identity. 

We are stronger politically when we fight together. We fight the same cause. Asexual people do not ask other LGBTQ+ or queer people to not be sexual. They only ask that they are included and that their own issues are being taken seriously. 

On top of that, asexuality intersects with a lot of other queer issues. For trans folks, for example, the focus on sex in society and romantic relationships may leave them uncomfortable because of their body dysphoria and may thus run into similar issues as sex-repulsed aces. Stone butch women may find common ground with asexuality too, because of the focus on penetrative sex in society. The hypersexualisation of gay men may find that they experience similar issues as asexual people who feel they are being (hyper)sexualised despite not being sexual. There is a lot of overlap, and these issues need to be addressed. We can help each other and offer new perspectives that will help us fight for the same rights. 

On top of that, on a more abstract level, can also be valuable for queer politics in the way that it undermines our current understanding of sexual identity. The way we now think about sexuality was constructed by straight people with the aim of pathologizing and thus actively discriminate against and eliminate perverted sexuality. This started with homosexuality with Freud, and quickly began to expand. If you want to know more about this, Foucault’s History of Sexuality is a good place to start. This allowed for sexual object choice to be used to group specific people together and make them into a specific type or “species”, as Foucault calls it. Our conception of sexuality, then, was constructed to uphold heterosexuality as the norm, making heterosexuality (that is the opposite sex as the sexual object choice) out to be the natural and normal and healthy form of sexuality. 

Asexuality undermines this construction. Asexuality not only shows that there are different forms of attraction, which do not need to be connected to each other in a one-on-one relation, but also shows that sexual attraction is not the only or even the most important basis for attraction. Asexuality is not explainable in our current system and forces people to consider their sexual preferences. What do I like in sex? What kind of sex? What kind of sensuality? And with whom? If I like having sex with men, but only being sensual with women, what does that mean? Asexuality asks us what we prefer, putting the focus on preference  rather than something biological or innate that makes us feel desire towards one gender and not the other. 

This is not to say that asexuality makes sexual identity into an arbitrary choice. Rather, it shows that you cannot divide people into identity categories based on sexual object choice shows that attempting to do so is just as silly as doing so based on if you like tea or coffee. Or ketchup or mustard. On top of that, it allows for sexuality to be seen as fluid, not that it changes, but that it is not fixed. Maybe you like ketchup for a long time, and then no anymore. Or maybe you are briefly in the mood only for this specific type of mustard but not the others. Focusing on preference allows us to undermine the whole construct on which hetero-normativity is predicated. Making identities such as heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual or pansexual almost meaningless or nonsensical. If we want to do away with hetero-normativity completely, this is a crucial step to take. It allows us to focus on sexuality as a social construct, rather than something that must be biologically explained. 

TL;DR: I understand why some LGBTQ+ people are uncomfortable with the idea of bringing asexual into the community. However, I think ultimately we are fightening the same cause despite our own specific issues that we face. We have a similar stake in queer politics and queer academia. Asexuality can offer the queer or LGBTQ+ community a lot, and being inclusive to asexuality is crucial if we want to protect queer kids. As such there is a lot that both communities can offer each other. 

This goes for both queer aces and hetero-romantic aces. Hetero-romantic aces also benefit and often have a stake in dismantling hetero-normativity because they are asexual. Hetero-romantic aces also face discrimination under hetero-normativity. Because of this, asexuality at large ought to be included. Excluding hetero-romantic aces from the queer community or LGBTQ+ community shows a misunderstanding of asexuality and its political issues and seems not so much inclusive of asexual issues, but rather inclusive of those issues that relate ONLY to the other part of their identity. For queer aces, however, these two are not separate issues. If you want to be inclusive to queer aces, you have to be inclusive towards asexuality in general. 

Asexuality, then, should be fully within the queer community, not be treated as a separate but overlapping thing like BDSM. Asexuality, when taken seriously, will affect all spaces of the queer community for the better, while still allowing for sex-positive politics. 

Reading suggestions: 

Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality.

Megan Milks, “Stunted Growth: Asexual Politics and the Rhetoric of Sexual Liberation.” In Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, edited by Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks. 

Erica Chu, “Radical Identity Politics: Asexuality and Contemporary Articulations of Identity.” In Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, edited by Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks. 

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 19: MJ is NOT a super hero

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

Mary Jane is an incredibly gifted woman who you don’t want to mess with. But do those gifts really make her a hero, one who could take on Mysterio?

I was initially planning on looking at Mary Jane’s combat record in this post. However, before doing that there needs to be a dash more context to really put things into perspective.

I could simply cite Sen v2 #32 to prove my point. In this issue the Parker family are on the run since Peter unmasked and opposed the Super Human Registration Act. At her wits end MJ contacted Sue Richards for guidance.

During their conversation MJ opens up about how stressed she is. She even refers to Sue and other heroes as ‘you people’, clearly demarking a difference between them and herself.

Sue basically tells MJ to toughen up, referencing herself, Jessica Jones and Storm, the (then) wives of Reed Richards, Luke Cage and Black Panther respectively.

However, at the end of the conversation MJ points out the difference between herself those women was that she didn’t have powers to fall back on.

There you are. MJ herself acknowledging she has no powers and is not a super hero.

End of discussion.

Well no, because we can dive much deeper.

Let me start with this irrefutable statement: Mary Jane is a bad ass.

She truly is.

Mentally, emotionally, physically, she’s pulled off some truly impressive things.

But the thing is those things she’s pulled off…they wouldn’t be that impressive (if at all) if say, Wonder Woman did them. Or She Hulk. Or Mockingbird. Or Batgirl/Barbra Gordon. Or you know…Spider-Man himself.

So why do fans gravitate towards these things, these feats of heroism, self-defence and protection of others?

Because they are impressive considering Mary Jane is NOT a super hero.

You see it’s all a matter of scale.

The Chameleon is a trained and experienced mercenary but doesn’t possess any super human powers beyond the ability to change how he looks. In what has become one of her most iconic moments, Mary Jane defeated him with a mere baseball bat. This occurred when she knew what to expect, when Chameleon was underestimating her and when he was unarmed. That is  impressive no doubt.

But were the situation the same but Batgirl was substituted for Mary Jane it wouldn’t nearly be as impressive because Batgirl, even with just a baseball bat, is at worst on a similar power level as the Chameleon. But in all seriousness is almost certainly his superior in terms of combat proficiency. She’s thoroughly trained in various forms of hand-to-hand combat, strategy, thinking on the back foot and highly experienced.

And experienced against people who’re actually much more physically dangerous than the Chameleon, such as Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy or the Joker. When you remove Chameleon’s stealth and weapons you are left with someone who is highly violent and could kill the average civilian if given the chance…but ultimately not someone as dangerous as most of the famous super villains from Marvel or DC.

If anything arming Batgirl with a baseball bat would be needlessly excessive, she could defeat Chameleon with just some punches or kicks.

Now apply that same scenario but substitute in Mockingbird, who can dent steel with her bare hands and has an accelerated healing factor and arguably superior fighting skills to Batgirl. Or how about She-Hulk, someone with vastly more strength, an even better healing factor and immensely more durability. And as Wonder Woman…she is literally a millennia old demi-goddess with divinely empowered durability, strength and speed, fast enough in fact to easily deflect bullets. *

If you were told any of these  women defeated the Chameleon with ‘just a baseball bat’ would you  be impressed? Would you feel that’s a huge accomplishment for any of them?

Of course not.

Because on even an incredibly rudimentary power scale common sense would clearly define for you that Chameleon wouldn’t be a physical threat to any of them.

Because they are actual super heroes wit either physically enhanced physiologies or advanced equipment or highly practiced expert level combat training.

The reason MJ dispatching the Chameleon has been celebrated for over 20 years is because none of that applies to her.

Let’s unpack exactly  what MJ does and doesn’t have in her arsenal.

Mary Jane lacks any bona fide super human abilities or advanced combat training.

She has experienced being targeted directly by criminals or being caught up in criminal encounters. But these are intermittent experiences resulting from either her association with people the criminals have a grudge against (typically Spider-Man) or plain bad luck. She does not regularly  in her day-to-day life deal with such things nor does she even deal with them on a weekly basis in her life. If she does they are likely the result of simply living in Marvel’s version of New York city, which thereby means most of her experiences are the same as the average resident of the city.

Apart from these intermittent experiences (and exempting her seeking help from others) the traits she possesses that might (in one capacity or another) be applicable in a dangerous situation are as follows:

She is a physically fit woman approximately aged between 24 and her mid-30s. But nowhere close to being Olympic athlete levels of fitness. 

Excerpt from ‘The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2004’

In terms of conventional/stereotypical beauty standards she is generally considered to be stunningly attractive. She is 5’8” and weighs in at 120 lbs. Her outward appearance then could potentially be used to make her would-be assailants underestimate her or even be dazzled by her beauty as a distraction

Mary Jane is not blind to the harsher realities of life and has developed proficient street smarts. But it’s not like she knows where to find stool pigeons and how to go about shaking them down for information, nor the inner workings of the criminal underworld.

She is a skilled actress particular practiced at adopting the façade of a seemingly carefree and simple party girl

She is at worst rather experienced when it comes to flirtation. Arguably we could extrapolate this into her being decent at general seduction but that’s debatable

She has good at improvising

She is exceptionally skilled in social interactions

She has a pretty decent ability to read people’s personalities, but is not a fully trained psychologist or any similar field that’d make her an expert at reading people very quickly and taking advantage of them as a result

She has certain basic self-defence skills gleamed from classes most people can attend

She has had at exactly one basic training session with Captain America, where the focus was more upon mental discipline and focus. The session never implied he taught her any practical self-defence moves and the session was geared more to instructing Peter  not Mary Jane.

She has demonstrated/developed certain basic and unrefined (albeit often proficient) self-defence skill. These primarily consist of using melee weapons (typically objects not actually designed for such a purpose, like baseball bats) and to a lesser extent firearms, and to an even lesser extent hand-to-hand attacks. Mary Jane for instance has never been shown to practice using a handgun, although she does know how. She can slug someone in the jaw, but she’s never been shown to have trained how to do that, you see what I am getting at.

Technically speaking she possesses a pair of bracelets that are modified web-shooters, along with a set of regular web-shooters. 

The former have a limited amount of web-fluid and are designed to stall a target, with the aim being for Mary Jane to surprise her assailant and buy time to escape, not engage in an outright fight. She has been shown to rarely carry either of these on her person though and there is no implication she has them in Amazing Mary Jane #1. Additionally since she is on set it would be unlikely that she’d be allowed to wear them as they wouldn’t be part of her on outfit for the movie.

Along with most of New York she has possessed identical powers to Spider-Man (in addition to organic based web-shooters) for less than 24 hours, during which time she displayed a proficiency in using them (due to bad writing, literally no one struggled to adjust to the use of Spider-Man’s powers). She has never possessed these powers again since, and this includes in AMJ.

On a handful of occasions she has piloted various different advanced armoured suits designed by Tony Stark. These have chiefly included his rudimentary MKII armour and the Iron Spider armour originally designed for Peter’s use. 

In both she demonstrated proficient defence skills. It is not clear how easy the armours are to use so whether MJ’s proficiency was due to a natural skill or due to the armour’s design is debatable. Regardless there is no indication she regularly has access to this technology and certainly not in AMJ.

MJ possesses incredibly strong willpower and understands the need for self-sacrifice, demonstrating in her time a willingness to give something of her self for the good of others. This could be important in regards to protecting other people.

As you can see MJ’s skillset is impressive for a civilian.

But some instances (like the Stark armours she’s donned) make the depths of her skills unclear. The most advanced equipment she has access to are her web-shooters but she is shown to only use or even carry them on occasion. In both cases she is not shown to have access to either in AMJ. Her other skills are things anyone in real life could hypothetically possess and in fact several other civilians in the Marvel universe either do possess or could possess.

What I'm saying is Mary Jane is, by any metric, a civilian.

A civilian who knows how to use a gun, has had cause to defend her self dozens of times and is very good at thinking on her feet. But a civilian nevertheless.

She has the spirit to cut it as a superhero but not without powers, training or access to advanced equipment like Iron Man’s armour. None of which she currently possesses or has access to in AMJ.

When you get right down to it the reason we fans celebrate whenever Mary Jane triumphs or survives or even just pulls off some good moves against a criminal or super villain is because we understand she is ultimately the underdog.

We grasp that it’s innately more impressive for someone in the featherweight division to even hold their own for a little while against someone in the heavyweight division because normally they wouldn’t stand a chance and we are naturally inclined to be sympathetic towards them.**

This isn’t exclusive to Mary Jane by any means, underdog stories date back to the Bible itself with the classic tale of David and Goliath.

To use an example closer to home though, in ASM #229-230 Spider-Man had to stop the Juggernaut, a villain whose strength and durability had given him a reputation as unstoppable. He regularly tangled with the Hulk and was over all far beyond Spider-Man’s weight class. The story is widely regarded as one of the all time best in Spider-Man history, primarily because  it is such a shining example of an underdog story.

Such stories are fairly common in super hero comic books, but so too is the popularity of civilian supporting characters that contend with outright super villains and criminals.

Alfred Pennyworth is utterly beloved within the Batman fandom with his attempts and successes at dealing with Batman’s infamous rogues celebrated. The same goes for Edwin Jarvis, sometimes celebrated as the bravest of all the Avengers. Jarvis’ popularity is such he was in fact the main character of the milestone 400th issue of the Avengers. And to use a closer equivalent to MJ, Lois Lane’s moments of skill, toughness and bravery in the face of danger are celebrated within Superman circles.

NONE of these characters are super heroes. Even Alfred, who (in most modern incarnations) has some military history, is still a more elderly gentleman thereby accentuating his vulnerability and making his victories all the larger.

With that out of the way, we now have the appropriate context to start examining some instances of MJ defending herself.

* And what about Spider-Man himself? Has he not tangled with Chameleon often? Is it not usually impressive whenever he defeats him? Indeed it is…but rarely whenever Spider-Man physically  over powers him. 

Because we readers are very aware that Spider-Man is physically stronger and faster than the Chameleon and his other powers give him yet more physical advantage over him. 

In fact a poignant Chameleon storyline entailed Chameleon (in disguise) tricking Spider-Man into removing  his powers and thereby rendering him vulnerable.

Even then, the Chameleon opted to hire muscle (mainly muscle with super powers) to take on Spider-Man rather than fight him personally.

Chameleon’s awareness of Spidey’s superior might is arguably the reason he recruited physically powerful Kraven the Hunter in ASM v1 #15 (Kraven’s debut and Chammy’s second outing). 

Spidey’s victories over Chameleon are impressive or cathartic not because Peter overpowers him physically, but does so mentally. This is in fact showcased in the very same storyline that Mary Jane famously took a bat to Chammy’s cranium; specifically Spec #243.

In this story, Chameleon (in the guise of Doctor Kafka) uses drugs and makeup to trick Spider-Man into believing he is someone else. However, drawing upon his will power and affection for his loved ones Peter breaks free of Chameleon’s trap.

**And I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that a part of that for at least some fans is the fact that Mary Jane is a woman doing such things, and a female love interest to boot.

Stereotypically women aren’t superheroes or action heroes, and stereotypically love interests are the ones in need of saving, not the ones saving themselves or others.

For some fans this appreciation of stereotypes being subverted can come from a bad place. “Mary Jane just beat a super villain even though she’s a chick!”

For others the appreciation can be viewed as empowering. To perhaps reveal a stereotypical view of my own, I imagine female readers would constitute the majority of this category, although in theory anyone who feels like an underdog or perhaps vulnerable could resonant with MJ’s victories.

Finally there are definitely some readers who appreciate these examples because they are just plain refreshing.

And of course some people might just like Mary Jane in general so seeing her shine in some capacity could do it for them.

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

[wisdomrays]

WUDUU: A PRESCRIPTION FOR GOOD HEALTH

O believers, when you stand for prayer, wash your faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and wash your feet up to the ankles. If you are unclean, bathe and purify your bodies fully. But if you are ill or in the middle of travelling or … you cannot find water, then take wholesome dust and wipe your faces and hands with that. For Allah does not wish to burden you, rather He desires to purify you and to complete His blessing and favour upon you so that, perhaps, you may he grateful. [5:6]

Here is a grand prescription from among the many marvels of the Qur’an. The day will come when even non-Muslims will imitate the Muslim wudu or washing before prayer, a privilege and favour Muslims have enjoyed for more than fourteen hundred years. And they have done so, more or less, unawares, as it is only through the discoveries of biologists in the last twenty years that we have come to understand fully the wonderful effects of wudu. The three principal benefits that human health derives from washing are related to the circulatory system, the immune system, and the electrostatic balance of the body.

a) The circulatory system

The circulatory system is twofold. First, the heart pumps blood out to the tissue cells in every part of the body. Second, it collects back the biologically used blood. If this reverse circulation in particular is disturbed, diastolic blood pressure increases and ageing, even the onset of death, may be precipitated.

The healthful condition and functioning of the blood vessels is essential to this twofold circulatory system. Blood vessels resemble flexible tubing, dividing into thinner branches as the distance from the heart increases. If the thinner tubes in particular become hardened and lose their elasticity, pressure and workload upon the heart are increased. This is known in medical jargon as arteriosclerosis.

Various aspects of our lives cause the blood vessels to harden and become constricted. This problem, considered to be the basis of ageing and bodily deterioration, is now a distinct field of medicine on its own. Improper nutrition and nervous reactions can have a serious effect on the condition of the blood vessels. If sclerotic development is observed in a blood vessel, what practical measure can be taken against it?

The hardening and narrowing of blood vessels does not happen all at once, but over a long period. The vessels furthest from the heart, such as those in the brain, feet and hands, are more vulnerable to the process which begins slowly in these locations and goes on continuously with the passage of time. However, there is an application in our daily routine which, in a sense exercises blood vessels by alternately contracting and dilating them. Its agent is water, which gives rise to temperature gradients. Water ensures flexibility and visor of vessels distant from the heart by dilating them when hot and contracting them when cold. It also forces nutrients, deposited in tissues as a result of sluggish circulation, back into the bloodstream by virtue of the temperature difference.

In view of these facts, is it possible to understand the verse commanding Muslims to wash the hands, feet and face in the wudu rite as anything short of a marvel, particularly in the light of the conclusion of the verse: He desires to.... complete His blessing and favour upon you. Circulation of the blood is a favour to us from the Creator. The command to do wudu completes that favour by maintaining the blood vessels and the circulatory system generally in a healthy state. This is the first of the many blessings of wudu. It is impossible to deny the fact that washing protects against senility which is the way the hardening of blood vessels reflects on the circulation in the brain of a person who has been doing wudu regularly since childhood.

b) The immune system (lymphatic circulation)

In addition to the circulation of red blood cells in the body, there is also the circulation of white blood cells or leucocytes. The vessels of this system are ten times thinner than those which conduct red blood cells. We sometimes see its colourless fluid oozing from the skin walls in some abrasions or wounds. It is this lymphatic circulation which keeps all points of the body within the protection of the immune system. Any bacterium, alien object, or cancer cell (the cause of which is not known), which may have invaded the body is destroyed by the warrior cells or leucocytes in the lymphatic circulation. The appearance of an infectious disease or cancer in the body is always contingent on the malfunctioning of the immune system.

Exactly how this system of vessels expands and contracts has not yet been fully clarified. It is known, however, that heat and cold influence the system. Catching an infectious disease such as a common cold is ascribed to the inability, due to contraction of these vessels, to dispatch leucocytes in sufficient numbers to the afflicted area. Now the proper functioning of this system and its thin vessels, like that of the circulatory system in general, is closely linked with the invigorating effect of washing. The structure of the immune system, which provides resistance against all diseases, is reinforced through the wudu, and the divine favour mentioned in the verse is realized.

Now someone might claim that, while the lymphatic system is indeed invigorated by washing, it is just a coincidental and unintended side effect. However, the precise form of the command to do wudu disposes of this incorrect claim. I would argue, on the contrary, that the way in which the wudu is commanded to be done specifically aims at the lymphatic system as well. The reasons are as follows:

1. For the lymphatic system to function properly, even a single point in the body must not he neglected, which is assured by the full ablution or ghusl.

2. The most important centre for stimulating the lymphatic system is the nasopharyngeal region behind the nose and tonsils, and washing these spots is especially enjoined.

3. Stimulation of both sides of the neck has great influence on the lymphatic system, and this is also present in the wudu.

The most formidable warrior cells of the body, the lymphocytes, are transported to the farthest reaches of the body and, after passing through intensive biological training, patrol each point in the body many times a day. If they meet a bacterium or a cancer cell, they destroy it. Is this not a divine blessing of the first quality? If a circulatory disorder occurs once in a while and you are able to avert or mitigate its effect by means of regular wudu, is it not proper to regard the command as the promised fulfilment of divine favour for which mankind are required to give thanks?

c) Static electricity

The body normally has a balance of static electricity, and the physiology of a healthy body is closely related to this electrostatic balance.

Atmospheric conditions, as well as plastic clothing and products common in our time can adversely affect this balance. Painful illnesses, irritability and facial wrinkles are the best-known results. Most of us have become aware of this electricity when climbing out of a car or after sitting in a plastic chair. Stormy weather has a comparable effect. Healing by acupuncture and, in certain respects, physiotherapy, can redress this imbalance of static electricity; but we can avoid the effect entirely, simply by doing the wudu several times a day.

There are many psychosomatic illnesses arising from electrostatic imbalance. I shall not dwell on these here. I shall address only the question of skin care, which has become such a fashionable subject now.

The worst influence of static electricity is exerted continually on the small subcutaneous muscles (under the skin), finally rendering them inoperative, which is why wrinkles set in, starting with the face, though the skin is affected over the whole body. At this point, many of my readers will have divined at least one of the reasons for the radiant appearance of those who have done wudu all their lives. Whoever maintains the habit of regular washing inevitably has the more healthy, and therefore the more beautiful, skin. How remarkable it is that in our time, when millions are spent on cosmetics, a tenfold increase in expenditure would still not properly substitute for simple washing.

Doubtless, the sceptic will ask, but does wudu really have anything to do with static electricity?

Of course it does. The part of the verse pertaining to tayyamum when water is not available for wudu, underlines the fact. For this substitute for wudu also disposes of static electricity to a significant extent. Indeed, the importance of it has hitherto gone unrecognized, and no-one has tried to explain why, tayyamum can take the place of wudu when the necessity arises.

As the verse clearly states, the sanitary aspect of wudu is a great blessing which we can now partially explain in medical terms. A person might well say: But I already wash my face and hands anyway. Let us recall, however, that as a widespread public habit, this practice has a very short history (barely seventy years or so) even amongst nations who have a tendency to claim to be the most civilized in the world. More important, cleanliness based on a sort of general good advice can never be sustained with the steadiness of discipline which, in Islam, it has by virtue of its association with worship.

To be sure, the worth and significance of wudu does not end with these medical observations the sense of well-being and dignity derived from wudu also contribute to the general health of the practising Muslim but here my aim has been to make widely known precisely those additional medical benefits.

[memahamimateripelajaran]

I Am Able to Learn Quickly and Easily

Mark Twain famously said once that "If we learned walking and talking the way we learned to read and write, most of us would have had an unique limp and a typical stutter". This would have become a signature style of our personality. Fortunately we learn to walk and talk at an age when we are innocent and curious - a combo package with which we are born. Then our 'well-wishers' beginning with our parents slowly teach us what is right, wrong, good, bad, smart, dumb that we form a black and white picture (digital signal) of the world.

2 of the most difficult skills in our life we learn - walking and talking when our brains are still developing. In fact these 2 skills once developed are a part of the motor muscle memory and helps in further cognitive development. If we can see the enormity of the learning to be done at an age when we are least equipped, it is amazing to realise that 'we' actually 'learnt' to do both when we did not know what walk and talk meant. We were obviously not even aware of its utility and most importantly we were 'blissfully ignorant' of the 'price' we had to pay to learn these skills. It is no surprise that we learnt them perfectly, simply because we were kids. No wonder when an adult tell his friend that he is going to learn something, the normal response is 'Hey!! Are your kidding?' Yes seriously speaking we must awaken the kid within us to learn. The enormity of this realisation gets even larger when you realise that people learning beyond walking to other forms of exercise and motion do it with such a non-standard level of expertise. We all walk (which is a permanent state of imbalance needing to be obviated by this forward motion) in a standard form related to our height and bio rhythm. There is no racial or biological difference when we first became bipeds in our childhoods. As we grow into adolescence and finally adults we develop unique styles of walking and unique habits about and attitudes towards walking. Some enjoy while some detest walking. Some do it as a routine while some curse it while doing it as an exercise. These attitudes towards the skill of walking and its purpose and utility in our lives have also been learned. But unfortunately we learned this all during our adult lives.

The story with skill of talking is very much similar. All children pick up the sounds and the childhood vocabulary and enjoy finding out the relationship between a sound and the object/person it is ascribed to. It is a crazy and scary thing for an adult to even attempt to learn in such a manner but it is effective precisely for the same reason. A toddler has a vocabulary of upto 50 words which he can correlate. He babbles in his baby talk unassumingly but with absolute joy, and which typically only mothers can grasp. Imagine us trying to linkup 50 sounds to 50 objects/person without any pattern emerging and also without an evident purpose and that too doing it with joy. But that is the real secret. The further learning in the field of language from talking to learning alphabets, grammar, etc. are normally not so fun filled and fraught with all evils of adult learning. It is a well-documented finding that public speaking is one of the greatest fears most adults suffer from. Of course there are adults who enjoy the field and take it up to a level of a hobby or a full time profession. read this article memahami materi pelajaran

That brings us to the point that adults unlike Kids only learns about those things what he really enjoys. Alternatively the benefits of the learnings being evident and translates into some worldly advantages either in career or personal life can be an equally strong motivator. However and this is the one big 'if'. If the learning is painful and fraught with lot of effort, it can temper down the motivation. We still find adults who are ready to work hard and put in the effort. Most of them except a few then met a great leveller called Failure. Most adults just do not like this word and refuse to get associated with it. The refusal to fail prevents us from putting in the effort to learn even when we know it is doable and in fact useful. The joy of the outcome does not enable enduring the pain of the learning. The trade-off OR the 'price' is too big to pay. We have a brilliant skill of rationalising (also learned from our role models in life) which helps us explain away such decisions so that the recalled memories of such decisions is self-effacing. That is precisely why many of the soft skills and even updated knowledge on your fields of specialisation can be very challenging to learn. This is akin to a baby who prefers to be on his fours and refusing to stand up and walk. We have lost that innocence, the curiosity, the joy of learning at that altar called Ego, my self-image which is anything but fully true. The affirmations, children (unwittingly and innocently) and good learners (developed consciously) of all ages use are as follows

1. I am able to learn quickly and easily

2. As my view of the world evolves, I am better able to navigate my way through it successfully

3. I find new ways to learn and to improve my abilities even further.

As an adult these affirmations replace that innocent curiousity of a kid which is unconditional and is persistent till the curiosity is satiated. As adults we also know that our brain also keeps regenerating and like any muscle this 'mental muscle' needs exercises and nothing better than learning can do this. Well many adults believe that we are forced to learn to survive in this bitter and competitive world. However any learning which is not associated with that positive empowering emotion is never a learning. It becomes learning the hard way which in most cases leaves the knowledge gained only used when there is no choice. It can never replace an habit which makes you happy about yourself every time you use it.

Another blinder we adults have is that learning has to be about something tangible and something knowledge driven. It has to be a recipe, or a book, or something associated with getting a certificate. Sadly these are about 'one in a million opportunity'. I am using this term to say that there are million more things to 'learn'. Learn how people work, what makes them work, why they do what they do, why they do things the way they do. Hold on... learn means not judging but just trying to understand without any biases. You need not agree with your learning! Enjoy the findings without any value judgement. This is what happens when we pursue a hobby, learn to consume drink, have cigarettes and hence we do a 'good job' at it. There are here too awful examples of people pursuing hobbies and pastimes not to learn or enjoy but to demonstrate their social status. So learning is all encompassing and an eternal need and capability which we can develop and practise.

A obedient child does not grow into a responsible parent and age into a gracious grandparent just like that. We would love it to be that way or may even believe it to be so, but at each stage there is learning involved. Whether you enjoyed learning it or was forced to learn or avoided learning it leaves you with varying degree of satisfaction and self-worth. Good SME (subject matter experts) and great leaders have this in common. An healthy curiousity, uninhibited confession of ignorance, reflects on outcome with objectivity and an appetite for experimenting and taking risks. Truly good learners would straddle this propensity across both professional and personal domains. The simple definition of learning is whenever you get that 'aha' moment after doing something - an unconditional happiness and joy without apparent reason but unmistakably true and clearly perceived. It is the way our body tells us that we picked up something new and we enjoyed learning it because we saw the benefit of doing that and it was a satisfying experience.

How often do you get this? I get it every day without fail. I get it because I know I am learning every day. I have realised that the learning was always happening. It was simple that I did not value it since I did not 'think' it was something great, though my body 'felt' good. Keep celebrating every time you get that aha moment; congratulate your Body. Just say loudly Good Job done. Pat yourself on the back. Give yourself a large smile in the mirror. The kid inside you like this. Still it is no 'child's play' to do these affirmations. When you do not do them for weeks and months on end our body signals of that 'aha moment' gets weakened till we no longer pick it up. Once I started to acknowledge my aha moment successes every day I could see more of it daily. The degree of learning varies, the overall impact it has on my life varies, but the extent of 'Aha' feeling is identical day after day. So widen your meaning of the word 'learn' and Enjoy Learning on a daily basis.

[dracox-serdriel]

It’s time we stopped saying people take “the easy way out” in medicine

I’d really like to stop hearing people say “people don’t want to make diet and other lifestyle changes, they just want pills” as if people wanting (or not wanting) things occurs in a vaccuum.

There seems to be an understanding that capitalism has made life exceptionally difficult, even for people and families in the so-called middle class. In the USA, even someone who is financial secure -- has savings, a retirement fund, “good” health insurance -- can be set back financially for years for injuries sustained in a car accident.

It seems to me that most people in the USA know that they’re not that far off from financial ruin. All it would take is a serious enough injury - or, worse, a fight to surive something like cancer. Suddenly, you go from being financially secure to screwed, and the system is set up so that you receive no aid until after you’ve depleted your carefully saved funds (and, in some cases, anything considered an “asset”, too).

All that hard work to do “the responsible thing” suddenly means nothing.

So when I hear someone say that “people don’t want to make life style changes -- they just want to pop a pill and fix it,” I have to wonder if this person is just generally unaware of the lurking financial crisis hanging over all our heads, or has -- for reasons unknown -- decided to persist in this ridiculous assumption that other human beings aren’t actually invested in the health of their own bodies.

After a patient hears that they are either fully prediabetic or are close to developing Type 2 Diabetes, do people really think that they don’t care that they’re about to develop a serious illness that will put them at risk for countless other maladies -- including a shortened lifespan?

Do people honestly believe that these individuals persist in their old eating habbits because they can’t be bothered by eating healthier? Isn’t it entirely possible that they have made “poor choices in diet” to due circumstances beyond their control? More specifically, isn’t it possible that those same circumstances are still beyond their control, even after they find out they need to “make a change”?

Isn’t it possible that these individuals “have a lunch break” that rare actually happens because of the “lean and mean” scheduling tactic their employer uses to save money? (Which results in them “grazing” rather than eating a single meal - a notoriously bad thing to do if you’re at risk for Type 2 Diabetes.)

Or maybe that’s not it. Maybe the issue is that when they go to the grocery store, their weekly grocery budget isn’t enough to cover purchasing “healthy” options -- not if they want to eat for the entire week, anyway.

Or maybe it’s not even that. Maybe they have enough money to buy “healthy” foods, but by the time they get home, they’re exhausted and hungry, and don’t have energy to cook -- or simply don’t want to spend over an hour preparing the “healthy” meal they’re supposed to eat that night when they’re hungry right now. (Or, worse, maybe they’re responsible for feeding other family members who are also hungry right now.)

The same goes for exercise. Do people honestly thing that other people don’t exercise because they’re lazy? Because “all people want to do is watch TV”? Really? Surely everyone must know that the vast majority of people like at least one activity that qualifies as exercise. (And if you disagree, think about it for a moment. Is there anyone you know who doesn’t like a single activity where they are moving? Anything. Anything where you are moving is excercise.)

But -- if that’s the case -- why don’t people in the USA exercise enough? If we have the desire, why aren’t we doing it?

It’s the same issue as eating “healthy” -- you need to have the time/money/opportunity to do the actiivty you like that counts as exercise. If you like gardening, you need to own (or have access to) a garden to do it. If you like running, you either need access to indoor equipment or an area where it’s safe to run outside. If you like exercises classes - like spin class or other workouts - you need the money to pay for those classes.

Yes, you can cheaply purchase some lifting weights to “exercise” at home. Hell, you might even be able to come up with an exercise routine that costs you no money at all -- but, there’s no such thing as an exercise routine that doesn’t cost you time -- which is often something people just don’t have, especially if they have to work more than one job, or if they have children/family members they’re responsible for taking care of. Surely, people must know that some people honestly don’t have an “extra” hour - or even an “extra” thirty minutes - for anything.

I’m also sick and tired of hearing stuff like, “Well, their priorities are wrong. They need to put their health first.”

What?

Tell me, isn’t it “healthy” to have adequate shelter and clothing, so as to avoid sunstroke, hypothermia, and other forms of illness and death by exposure? Oh, it is? Then I guess paying rent (and paying for clothing and clothing management) is part of “putting health first.”

Tell me, isn’t it “healthy” to have adequate calorie intake - even if it isn’t rich in nutrients - so that you don’t starve to death and lose your teeth? Oh, it is? Then I guess paying for groceries - even if they’re not all “healthy” foods - is part of “putting health first.”

This idea that people “aren’t putting their health first” because they stick with a crappy job to afford housing and other basic needs -- despite the negative impact on their health -- is ridiculous because leaving a crappy job (without haivng another one lined up) puts their health at even more risk then it is now.

It’s not that people don’t want lifestyle changes -- they don’t “want” a pill to make it better. The ugly truth is, the way things are now, they need a pill to make it better -- they need the fix to be something that won’t risk their livelihood because if they lose their job, they’re at risk for losing everything.

I have a disorder that’s technically systemic (meaning, it affects all systems in the body), though it’s classified as a neurological or a neuroendocrine disorder, since effects the neurological systems and the endocrine/hormone systems of the body directly.

When I first sought treatment, I was given medicine and some basic guidance on things to avoid whenever possible. Doctors explained to me that I needed to make behavioral (aka “lifestyle”) changes, too, but seemed resigned to the idea that I wouldn’t really bother doing more than the bare minimum (that way, I can say I’m following my doctor’s advice, but still be “lazy” or whatever).

For some reason, a lot of medical professionals seem invested in the idea that patient’s don’t make “good lifestyle choices” because we’re lazy - despite the fact that this makes no sense. There’s no logical basis for this assumption. Yet I see this idea everywhere. As if someone was really, really trying to convince us that other people have poor health because of “poor lifestyle choices” that they could change but simply choose not to. They have to work really hard at it, though, because most of us are making “poor lifestyle choices” not because we’re lazy idiots, but because capitalism has created a system where we’re forced to make “poor lifestyle choices” in order to meet our basic needs.

I was able to switch careers so I could have better pay and better health insurance. And once I had enough income, I was also able to make lifestyle changes. I was able to afford membership in a dojo so I could do martial arts training (which has been the most effective treament for my symptoms, most of which didn’t respond to any medications). I was also able to afford ridiculously high copays for trying so-called “orphan” drugs that had no generic version available yet. I was also able to afford dozens of specialists appointmnets each year to manage my disorder.

As a person who mananges most of her disorder’s worst symptoms by so-called “lifestyle changes,” I’m constantly told how impressed people are with “my approach” to handling my situation. Yes, people have told me they’re impressed with the fact that I am so willing to make lifestyle choices to benenfit my health. It’s very clear to me that these people don’t understand that most people in the USA aren’t being held back by will at all. They’re willing to make lifestyle changes, but they’re not able to implement them.

As someone who has done “lifestyle choices” -- as someone whose life was literally transformed by “lifestyle choices” -- I know how incredibly difficult it was to do. And you know what? I don’t know a single person in my life who wouldn’t do the same thing.

Notice in my story that I mentioned switching careers. I was able to do that because I graduated with a dual degree. I had the opportunity to change not just jobs, but my entire career path, in order to enter a field that has decent pay and health insurance. I only was able to make “better lifestyle choices” to treat my disorder because I made enough money - and had good enough benefits - to make those changes to begin with.

No matter how difficult it was to implement these changes in my life, I assure you, choosing to do it was easy as soon as I had the opportunity to actually choose to begin with. My life is definitely better because of it. But that being said, I am also keanly aware that money was a prerequisite to these changes. Like I said, I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t make the same choices I did, but I know plenty of people who don’t have those choices at all.

It’s shocking to me how people act as if “good lifestyle choices” are made free of charge. Nobody wants “the easy way out” when it comes to medicine. Nobody wants to put the one body that’s their own at risk just because they’re “too lazy” to do anything else. That’s 100% capitalist propaganda.